Podcasts about Wahaca

In this episode of the Tech on Toast podcast, we sit down with Gemma Glasson, Managing Director at Wahaca, to uncover how one of the UK's most iconic restaurant groups balances bold flavour, cultural authenticity, and cutting-edge technology to create a hospitality experience that customers don't just enjoy — they come back for.

As the Managing Director at Pizza Pilgrims, Gavin Smith has built an impressive career in operations, working for previous brands such as Wahaca, Browns Restaurants and Mitchells & Butlers.In this episode, Gavin shares his expertise on negotiation tactics, maintaining food quality, and the critical role of customer feedback. We'll also discuss how COVID-19 has accelerated the importance of delivery, the impact of delivery on traditional restaurant operations, and innovative strategies to meet consumer demands. Links MentionedGavin Smith on LinkedInPizza PilgrimsLike the show? We'd be hugely grateful if you could help us spread the word by taking 1 minute to leave us a rating and review on your podcast platform of choice. Full instructions at https://www.thedelivery.world/ratingsandreviews

In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl talks about the organic coffee business she has started with her partner. Transcript: 00:01:24JackKind of a a sky blue or or light blue color with a a really cool logo and everything on there and so I was just wondering like what's going on with that?00:01:36XochitlWell, that I started selling organic coffee. My partner is a coffee farmer in the Sierra Juarez, which is an area mountainous area of Wahaca where I live.00:01:50XochitlYeah. And he he's a farmer, so he does things like, uh, he plants beans, corn, coffee, pineapples, mangoes, avocados. But the big one of the big.00:02:07XochitlSources of income for coffee farmers are for farmers here in Osaka is coffee, is coffee used to be quite well paid, but unfortunately the the price of coffee has really gone down a lot. I'm not sure what's going on, but the market.00:02:22XochitlIt's not that there's more supply than demand. It's just I think, how.00:02:29XochitlSome things have been happening with exports to the United States and prices and the dollar and the peso and how they're moving up and down. It's caused a lot of issues and.00:02:41XochitlWell, I was talking to him and he was he was telling me that.00:02:45XochitlThey can only sell their coffee in parchment at 41 pesos, which is about like 2 bucks a kilo. A kilo is 2 point.00:02:53JackDollars a kilogram for. Oh my God.00:02:56XochitlYes, it's parchment coffee, so it's not like roasted or anything. It's just it that has to go through a whole process before it's ready to drink, but it's.00:03:05JackMMM.00:03:07XochitlIt's still far to cheap price for organic coffee, and they're not making any money off of it anymore. And also.00:03:16JackSomeone's making money though. It's like the middleman, you know, they're.00:03:19XochitlYeah, it's the middleman is making money because the the price of coffee, especially organic coffee and local coffee, has gone up on the market, but they're not paying coffee funds.00:03:21JackYeah.00:03:28JackRight. But the farmers are getting screwed on the on the the back end, yeah.00:03:33XochitlYes, it's exactly what's happening. So it's it's really been a disaster for a lot of people. And yeah, I was talking to him and I just had the idea to sell his coffee here in the city because I live here.00:03:35JackYeah.00:03:45XochitlCity.00:03:46JackHmm.00:03:47XochitlAnd you know, we talked about it and we made some plans and we kind of it just got, I just kind of posted it on an expat wahaka group saying hey, guys like would you be interested in organic coffee?00:04:01XochitlAnd a bunch of people were like, oh, yeah, you know, we didn't know how to price it. Like, we didn't know.00:04:05XochitlAnything about it?00:04:06XochitlBecause he's gonna coffee farmer and his family has done coffee farming for generations. But like he's never really been on the on this like market end of.00:04:14XochitlThings.00:04:15XochitlBecause what they usually do is they they belong to an organization coffee organization called Niche.00:04:21XochitlYeah. Which is like organic coffee organization and.00:04:25XochitlThey they give them like.00:04:28XochitlCourses and stuff on how to grow organic coffee and different varieties that are worth more money and all these kind of.00:04:34XochitlThings.00:04:35XochitlBut because of how the market's going and I don't know what's happening, they're only able to buy 200 kilos on average from each coffee farmer.00:04:45JackOh, it's nothing. 200 kilos.00:04:45XochitlAnd.00:04:47XochitlYeah, the the usual production is at least five. You usually at least have 500 kilos leftover after that, you know, even for a small farmer. So uh.00:05:01XochitlYeah. So it got to the point, you know, they have they have like at least 300 kilos or leftovers. So I talked to him and we went through the whole process of deciding to sell it and we got a lot of attention on that's that's.00:05:14XochitlWhat I could do?00:05:15XochitlAnd so we kind of had hit the ground running because I posted this just out of curiosity and I got I got, like business out the wazoo and.00:05:25JackYeah.00:05:25XochitlI was like.00:05:27XochitlTons of people inquiring and and a lot to keep up with. And so at that point we had to go ahead and we hit the ground running.00:05:34XochitlSo is he.00:05:36XochitlWe we decided to go with an artisanal process because that's pretty much how he knows how to make the coffee. So what you have to do is you have to take a like mortar and pestle, which for those of our listeners who aren't familiar, a mortar is like kind of like a a stone or wooden bowl or something and a pestle.00:05:42JackMHM.00:05:56XochitlLike a giant one, though.00:05:58XochitlAnd a puzzle is like the thing that you use to pound it. So people used to do this to like grind flour and stuff. In the olden days.00:06:05JackRight now you see a lot of people using mortar and pestle for like medicine and stuff like that.00:06:10XochitlYeah. Medicine are like herbs. A lot of people use it for, like, finely grinding herbs and teas, but he has to use a giant one to like, take all the the kind of peel the shell off of our coffee.00:06:22JackRight.00:06:23JackOK.00:06:23XochitlSo he does that all by hand, so that's crazy. It's a lot of work and hard labor.00:06:28JackWow, he must be in great shape then because.00:06:31XochitlHe hasn't. Really. Yeah, he's a really good team. But yeah, he's very strong and honestly, I don't think I would probably last two minutes trying.00:06:33JackStrong.00:06:39XochitlTo do that.00:06:40XochitlSo yeah, he he definitely he dishes the coffee that way and then we pay a local woman to hand roast the coffee.00:06:41JackYeah, me neither.00:06:51XochitlWhich is artisanal traditional method to do it?00:06:54JackWow.00:06:56JackThat's awesome. So like if people start drinking your coffee, they're they're going to be used to her roast. Basically, she kind of determines the flavor in a way like part of it comes from the the, you know, of course the bean. But then part of it also flavor of the coffee comes from how it's roasted. Right.00:06:57XochitlAnd right.00:07:08Xochitl1.00:07:16XochitlYeah. So she so depends on how you raise the coffee and there's different roasts like you can do a light roast, dark roast and medium roast, and they all have different flavor profiles. And she does kind of a medium dark roast, which works really well because they they they're hand roasted, they have like, a different. They have color variations and the beans, but once you.00:07:30JackYeah.00:07:37XochitlGrind them in your coffee grinder or whatever. It's an even color. It's a uniform color and uh, it's smells delicious because there's the sugars and the coffee beans are like caramelized because they're roasted by hand, so they're not burnt like in our machine. But that would be if you did it by machine process.00:07:51JackYeah.00:07:54XochitlAnd.00:07:56XochitlIt just comes out really great. It has really. It has like a bold uh flavor and it still has body for those who like dark roasts, but it's not like a bitter dark roast that has, like, acidic notes and floral notes.00:08:10XochitlAnd uh, it's very it has a very sweet aroma, a really pleasant like caramel like aroma and almost like some chocolate you.00:08:19XochitlKnow it's really.00:08:20XochitlBe good. I'm. I'm not a huge coffee drinker myself, but I definitely started because I had to describe it to the clients.00:08:20JackYeah.00:08:25JackYou sound like a coffee drinker, though. Jeez, you. You're describing all the notes. I mean, I just like. I just wanna. When I saw the the post, I just wanted to grab one of those bags. And just, like, open it and just stick my nose in there and.00:08:29XochitlYeah.00:08:39JackJust smell it.00:08:39XochitlYeah, was.00:08:40JackI love that smell of fresh. Oh my gosh. I bet it just it is.00:08:44JackOnly.00:08:45XochitlYes, it smells amazing and.00:08:49XochitlThere's been a lot of things to learn. We price to way too low. So now we're figuring that out because we we didn't really know about the market. And there's a single origin coffee, which means it's coffee all from the same community and the same pic of that year. And so it's like it's worth more. And then it's also organic. So it's worth more and it has expensive.00:08:55발표자Hmm.00:09:10XochitlVarieties inside the ensemble like there's different beams that we use, so we use like geisha, which is pretty expensive. Kafa Deepika, which is one of the original ones.00:09:21XochitlHas been.00:09:24XochitlPlanted for hundreds of years here and yeah, so a lot of those things that, you know, quality and expense. And then the other things we went with an artisanal process which requires a lot of Labor, manual labor.00:09:25JackYeah.00:09:37JackYeah.00:09:38XochitlSo we kind of replaced it way to that we personally 10 bucks a kilo.00:09:44Jack10 bucks a kilo. Wow. You get through like you're giving it away for free there.00:09:45XochitlYes, yes.00:09:49XochitlWe basically did. It's 200 pesos or two hundred 200 pesos kilo, which is 10, about 10 bucks.00:09:57JackSo is are you still making profit though, like at that price point?00:09:58XochitlAnd.00:10:02XochitlUh, we're barely not. If we count our hours of Labor, we're not. We're in red numbers. But if we don't count the hours of Labor that.00:10:08XochitlWe.00:10:08XochitlPut into it, then, yeah, we're making, like a tiny profit, a very tiny profit, so.00:10:15JackSo you guys have to you guys have to reprice that then eventually this first round, maybe you can you can sell it cheaply, but you know after that you're going.00:10:24JackTo have to.00:10:26JackYou know, put put it up a little bit.00:10:28JackYou know.00:10:28XochitlYeah, I don't know what to do. I I I I'm not sure how to reprice it because I like, it's scared of losing customers or something.00:10:40JackNo, that's just you that you guys just have imposter syndrome. You know, you, you just, you just you just don't have the confidence right now because you're just starting out. But I I think you should be very confident in your product. It sounds like a great product. I mean it looks amazing. So I think you guys could ask, you know.00:10:41XochitlSo we basically have 349.00:10:47XochitlBest year yet?00:10:56XochitlYeah.00:11:00JackDouble that much and people will still pay. You know, if they love it, they'll they'll pay, you know? Yeah.00:11:04XochitlUh, yeah.00:11:06XochitlYeah, that's kind.00:11:06XochitlOf where right now, and I think it's going pretty well, a lot of people ask us, you know, do you have half kilo bags, do you have white roast? Do you have decaf? It's like we don't have any of these things yet because I think we have people don't don't like know the whole process like being a coffee farmer and working on doing all this like it's kind of amazing that we've gotten as far as we had in the last month.00:11:28XochitlWe've only been doing this a month. We really hit the ground running but.00:11:31JackMHM.00:11:32XochitlBut yeah, we we can't diversify our products yet, so that that is one hurdle that we've been dealing with. But one thing I'm happy about is the packaging. I'm going to pick that. And I also designed a little logo and I think it came out really well.00:11:47JackYeah, that's the fun part. I I I enjoy that sort of stuff. The, the, the smashing, the the beans. Not. Not exactly my cup of tea right there but or.00:11:48XochitlAnd and.00:11:59XochitlNo. Yeah, that's that's his job. So he does all he's like, but he's out of quality and production or whatever he's had of production.00:12:06XochitlSo he's quality.00:12:06XochitlPeople and smashing beans up and going to different like sea farmers within his community to see, you know, if we can buy their crop for the next year. But he's he has a very.00:12:18XochitlThat they're organic and that they're certified organic.00:12:22XochitlAnd so he's doing that whole process himself.00:12:25XochitlAnd then my end is really customer service and communicating with the client.00:12:32XochitlAnd sending them, you know, information about this and that and whatever and.00:12:40XochitlMaking sales and whatnot, that's basically my whole and designing the Flyers, designing the coffee bags, designing the different products that we're going to introduce into the market, all that is.00:12:52XochitlKind of what I'm up to.00:12:54JackRight, you're you're marketing and these operations, I guess or something like that and yeah.00:12:58XochitlYes, that's really what it is. I'm marketing these operations and I'm also customer service I'm trying.00:13:05JackRight.00:13:06XochitlEven the customer service on things, but it's like he's kind of shy, so it it doesn't work as well for him I think. But you know I'll get him, I'll get him. I'll work him up and I told you that you should be confident because it's your, it's your product and your you made this. So a lot of people.00:13:11JackYeah.00:13:26XochitlAre interested in talking to you about your project and you know.00:13:30JackRight.00:13:31XochitlDon't be shy.00:13:32XochitlOK.00:13:33XochitlSo.00:13:33JackYeah, be proud of it. Be proud. I mean that. He should be very proud. That's amazing. What what he's doing? So what you guys are doing together? It's really cool.00:13:40XochitlYeah, that's really cool. I think in the future we're trying to do something like talks where we kind of have these like I'm going to do raffle tickets. So we're selling each raffle ticket for like 12 bucks, but they get to come to a.00:13:56XochitlTalk.00:13:57XochitlAbout about the coffee and how he produces it and everything, and they get free coffee and snacks and then they also get a chance to win like a coffee experience. So we're we're planning on doing a business in the future where people can like de shell and hand roast their own coffee so they can like, you know.00:14:17XochitlHave the experience of seeing what it's like.00:14:19JackYeah, and that's a good for tourists. I think they would really enjoy that, that would.00:14:23JackBe really, yeah.00:14:23XochitlYeah, I have a friend who does it with chocolate with cacao and I think it would be really awesome with.00:14:30XochitlCoffee.00:14:31JackYeah, I think that would be a great experience and you can get the tourists to deshell those coffee beans for free. So get them on the pestle and mortar.00:14:39XochitlYeah, yeah, we can use painting to do labor for us. So, yeah, I think it'll be exciting.00:14:44JackPictures.00:14:51JackAll right, well, good for you. Yeah, congratulations to you and your partner for that. That venture, it's it's really cool.00:14:58발표자Thanks Jack.00:14:59XochitlAll right, listen, there's well, let us know if you have any more questions. Are you coffee drinkers? I'm curious. I myself, I, I grew up drinking coffee, but I stopped drinking around 18 and and then I just started again. So yeah, I'm curious. Are you guys big coffee drinkers? We know Jack is leave us a comment down below and let us know, do you like coffee?00:15:19XochitlDo you enjoy it? Do you have any recommendations for our business? We'd love to hear them leave a comment down below it. It is englishpodcast.com. Shoot us an e-mail at it is englishpodcast@gmail.com. And don't forget to join the Channel one group so you can join Jack and I on the conversation.00:15:34XochitlOne and Jack and I started an English corner, which is another business venture that I have on my hands now.00:15:40XochitlBut it's been really.00:15:40XochitlExciting and really fun, and we do it Monday through Friday for an.00:15:44XochitlHour a day.00:15:45XochitlAnd it's just $10 USD a month, so you get it for $0.50, a class or whatever. And we have a lot of really strong English speakers and we've made some adjustments. So you guys get a lot.00:15:56XochitlOf.00:15:56XochitlSpeaking time and yeah, we're really excited about this project, so if you're interested, make sure to send us a direct message.00:16:03XochitlAnd ask about it and I will be happy to get back to you.00:16:06XochitlSee you guys next time. Bye bye.00:16:07JackGo back.Podcast Website:Social Media:WeChat: atozenglishpodcastFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/671098974684413/Tik Tok: @atozenglish1Instagram: @atozenglish22Twitter: @atozenglish22A to Z Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/theatozenglishpodcastCheck out our You Tube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCds7JR-5dbarBfas4Ve4h8ABecome a member of Podchaser and leave a positive review!https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-a-to-z-english-podcast-4779670Join our Whatsapp group: https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7Intro/Outro Music: Debora by Jangwahttps://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dilating_Times/single/debora/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

From the hustle of finance to the heat of the kitchen, Mark Selby, co-founder of Wahaca, sits down with me to serve up a story that's as flavourful as it is insightful. With a dash of serendipity, Mark recounts the pivotal moments that took him from the world of finance into the arms of the restaurant industry, alongside Thomasina Miers. Together, they've stirred up more than just tantalising dishes, giving birth to Wahaca in the vibrant heart of Covent Garden. Their tale is one of blending a passion for Mexican culture with a stringent ethos of sustainability, setting their restaurant group apart in the UK's competitive dining scene.As we peel back the layers of Wahaca's journey, Mark doesn't shy away from the raw, often chaotic beginnings of restaurant life. Picture this: an opening night flooded with a flooded kitchen forcing it to close its doors for the day! Mark and Tommi's perseverance through staffing challenges and operational hurdles has seasoned Wahaca with resilience, transforming early struggles into the sweet taste of success and a coveted spot in the UK's sustainable dining sphere. Their story is a testament to the fact that the road to greatness is often paved with trials, and sometimes, the best spice in life is a little bit of chaos.We wrap up our chat by toasting to innovation and the relentless drive for sustainability that marks the modern business landscape. Mark shares how curiosity and a pinch of competitiveness have led Wahaca to pioneer eco-conscious milestones, like introducing the UK's first carbon-negative beer on tap. It's a narrative that's as much about the spirit of entrepreneurship as it is about the steadfast commitment to pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a sustainable, culture-rich dining experience. Pull up a chair and savor the rich, unfolding story of a restaurant that's as committed to the environment as it is to your taste buds.Support the show

Are you aware of the tests you've had to endure throughout your life? As we move through life, leveling up and growing, we all experience various tests designed to help us expand and meet the new challenges the future brings, even if we're not aware of it.  In this episode of The Greatness Machine, Darius is recording from Wahaca, Mexico to discuss the tests we all have to pass in order to level up in our lives.  Join Darius as he discusses the tests we all must face as we level up to a new form of greatness! Enjoy! Topics include: Why the most successful people are always focused on the next goal, and the next target Some of the tests Darius has had to endure to grow and expand in his life Why recognizing these tests and persevering through them is a key component of success Connect with Darius: Website: https://therealdarius.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusmirshahzadeh/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whoompdarius/ YouTube: https://therealdarius.com/youtube Book: The Core Value Equation https://www.amazon.com/Core-Value-Equation-Framework-Limitless/dp/1544506708 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you were going to do just one thing to transform your health, what would it be? With the sheer amount of information we consume daily about diet, fitness and wellbeing, this can be an increasingly difficult question to answer. But Dr Michael Mosley, No.1 international best-selling author of the 5:2 diet books, is here to help. We are delighted to welcome him to 5x15's virtual stage for an energizing conversation about small changes that make all the difference, with cook, writer and presenter Thomasina Miers. Based on the popular BBC podcast, Just One Thing, Dr Mosley's new book unearths a range of impactul, intriguing and surprising transformations. Having reversed his own Type 2 diabetes in 2021 with the 5:2 fast diet, Dr Mosley now brings us groundbreaking research about everyday methods for improving our health. From the benefits of eating chocolate for heart health, to the natural 'high' of singing and the effects of house plants on mood and productivity, he has chatted to experts and road tested tips you'll be desperate to try out. Join us in September to hear all about them. Dr Michael Mosley trained as a doctor before becoming a journalist and television presenter. He is the bestselling author of The Fast Diet, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet, The Clever Guts Diet, The Fast 800 and The Fast 800 Keto. He is married with four children. Thomasina Miers, cook, writer, presenter, and winner of MasterChef, co-founded Wahaca in 2007, winner of numerous awards for its food and sustainability credentials. In 2016 the whole restaurant group went carbon neutral and half of its menu is vegetarian. Tommi's passion lies in food and its power to positively impact people, health (both mental and physical) and the environment. She was a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association in 2009, helped set up Chefs in Schools in 2017, for which she is a trustee and was awarded an OBE in 2019 for her services to the food industry. With thanks for your support for 5x15 online! Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Our guest in this episode is Shea Cunningham. I met Shea on LinkedIn way back in July 2022. We recorded our time together in early February 2023 and both commiserated about the cold Southern California weather. She is an extremely busy, productive, and visionary woman. Currently, among other jobs, she is the director of Sustainability at ASGN. She will tell us all about ASGN and other organizations with which she works and has worked. Shea studied and majored in International Relations and minored in Latin American Studies at San Francisco State University. Through an internship, she received the opportunity to work in Thailand for two years working on a number of international-related issues. As she says, that wasn't a part of her plan for herself, but “it was a wonderful opportunity”. After Thailand, she went to UCLA's School of Public Policy where she obtained her master's degree in urban planning with an emphasis on Sustainability. Shea will tell us a lot about the subject of “Sustainability” and why it is so important. She uses her life story to discuss how she got so involved in addressing sustainability issues and will show you why it can be an important subject for all of us to ponder and address. About the Guest: Shea Cunningham (she/her) is the Director of Sustainability of ASGN Incorporated. She is a sustainability planning and ESG strategy expert with over twenty years of consulting experience across multiple industry sectors, from the community to international levels. Ms. Cunningham established several sustainability-focused organizations including the Balanced Approach, Focus on the Global South (Bangkok, Thailand), the Culver City Sustainable Business Certification Program, and the US Department of Education Green Ribbon Award-wining sustainability program for the Culver City Unified School District. Ms. Cunningham was also an analyst for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (Paris, France), and a consultant for Sony Pictures, Athens Services and the Malibu Foundation, amongst numerous other businesses, municipalities, and academic institutions. She is the lead author of “Our Climate Crisis: A Guide for SoCal Communities in the Wildland Urban Interface,” and co-author of many other articles, reports and books. In 2021, Shea was awarded the Women in Business Leadership Visionary Award from the Culver City Chamber of Commerce. She holds an MA in Urban and Regional Planning from the UCLA School of Public Policy and is a LEED Green Associate. Shea's recommended links on climate change: The Nature Conservancy's Chief Scientist (and evangelical Christian) Katharine Hayhoe's Ted Talk Katharine Hayhoe's article How to Talk About Climate Change across the Political Divide in the New Yorker A Washington Post article on the US Army's Climate Strategy Methodist Church's Resolution on a Response to Climate Change 1% for the Planet's 10 Viable solutions to climate change Article from NASA on Scientific Consensus on Climate Change http://www.newclimatevoices.org/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:20 Well, hi, and yes, we are here once again for another episode of unstoppable mindset. Shea Cunningham is a sustainability expert with over 20 years of experience, and we're going to talk about that she works for a company now. For the company she works for is ASGN. She's the director of sustainability and we're going to have to talk about that and see what all that means. But first, che thanks for being here. And welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Shea Cunningham  01:52 Thank you so much, Michael. I'm really happy to be here with you.   Michael Hingson  01:56 Well, we're we're excited now, where are you located?   Shea Cunningham  02:00 I am in Culver City, which is basically, yeah, it's LA County, West LA adjacent to Santa Monica. That sort of area.   Michael Hingson  02:10 So from up here in Victorville. I could just kind of Chuck a rock down the past and maybe it would find you and pound on your window.   Shea Cunningham  02:18 Yeah, we're not too far apart. That's right.   Michael Hingson  02:20 And we have reasonably decent weather.   Shea Cunningham  02:24 Yeah, today is gorgeous. I actually just took a bike ride i just i That's one of my passions is bike riding road road biking. So it was a lovely, lovely day this morning.   Michael Hingson  02:36 Much better place to do within going and trying to do it in Oh, Buffalo, New York.   Shea Cunningham  02:42 That is true. Yes. I have some friends in Chicago right now. There. Yeah, it's like four degrees. So yeah, I'm very grateful.   Michael Hingson  02:50 Yeah, not quite this pleasant is here. It was 31 degrees this morning when I got up in Victorville. And like yesterday, I think it was or Wednesday, it was down to 22. So but we're a little bit up in the mountains, we're in the high desert. So we get a little bit more of the cold weather, but not nearly as much as the precipitation. As you all saw down there. The the water doesn't tend to drop in Victorville very much. We're in a valley. So clouds have to go up over mountains and other things. So by the time it gets here, it loses a lot of its moisture.   Shea Cunningham  03:24 So you didn't get to experience the atmospheric rivers that we were having around my area, then.   Michael Hingson  03:30 Not so much. I think we maybe got three quarters of an inch of rain, but that was about all.   Shea Cunningham  03:35 Yes, that's good. Because yeah, there was quite destructive not in my community, but around around the larger region.   Michael Hingson  03:44 So yeah, well, I I know, right now, they're saying we have in the Sierras, what about 250% of the normal snowfall for this time here? And it's just going to be a question of how soon it melts. And hopefully it won't too quickly.   Shea Cunningham  03:59 Correct. Yeah. And yeah, it's been hasn't rained this much and produce this much snowpack for over a decade. So it's it's definitely welcomed. But I know, we're also not capturing as much as we need to. And then because our infrastructure is still inadequate. So I'm hoping I'm optimistically hopeful, then that there will be our cautiously optimistic that that there's going to be progress in that regard.   Michael Hingson  04:27 Oh, I hope so. Well, I want to get to a lot of the things that you do and so on, but I'd like to start by you telling us kind of your your roots where you came from going to school and all that and what you what you studied and learned and anything else like that that you want to tell us about the earlier che   Shea Cunningham  04:45 Okay, sure. Well, I I got well, actually, before I went to graduate school, I was at San Francisco State University where I studied international relations and I minored in Latin American Studies, and I had the great fortune too, to actually be my my internship and end my undergrad program basically turned into a real job, I was the research assistant to the executive director. And I got the opportunity opportunity to actually live and work in Bangkok, Thailand for a couple of years, which is not obviously not Latin America was not really on my, my, the planned path that I had. But it was a fantastic experience, I helped to build a sort of a think tank at Chulalongkorn University focused on looking at the impacts of Trade and Development on communities, economies, and the environment. So I basically started working in the sustainability world, before the buzzword sustainability kind of came into the picture. And I was working at the Institute for Food and development policy in San Francisco as well. And then I went to graduate school, at UCLA in the School of Public Policy and got my master's degree in urban and regional planning with a focus on sustainability. And, and I have always been sort of a nature lover at heart, like as a young girl, I was already like, I would be upsetting to see trash on the ground. And, you know, I just I very much have always loved to camp and hike and be in the ocean, that sort of thing. So I'm sort of naturally, you know, became a sustainability. Professional   Michael Hingson  06:36 Chulalongkorn University, is that an outgrowth of the king? And I?   Shea Cunningham  06:41 Well, it is actually the oldest university in, in Bangkok, the very first university ever built right in the center of the city. And it is it is basically named after the king. Yes.   Michael Hingson  06:56 Cool. Well, that I've heard of it before never had a chance to ask the question. But it, it is certainly something that comes to mind. So that's pretty cool. But you spend time there. Well, you you in undergraduate work, you did Latin American Studies and so on. Growing up what got you interested in that, that you decided to go to college and study that?   Shea Cunningham  07:19 That's a good question. Well, I definitely had always, we I had gone with my parents a few times to Mexico for holidays, and, you know, sort of summer vacations. And, and I really was always very curious about learning Spanish, because I wanted to be able to understand what people were saying. And I also had friends who were actually farmworker families in grade school. And so I was just always fascinated with learning Spanish, because that was the second language that I heard in my, in my young life. So and I also just started to really pay attention to the disparities in wealth between my family and the other families, that farmworker families as well as obviously, in Mexico, in some of the places that we stay, we know we'd stay in a resort, and then we'd go into town and was very obvious that there was a lot of poverty. And that was upsetting to me. So that's something that I wanted to sort of learn more about, and see how I could be somehow, you know, improve the situation to, you know, in my own way. So that's kind of where I came into this is because as I mentioned, sustainability is not just about the environment, it's also about the social aspects, social well being as well as, as the economics.   Michael Hingson  08:43 And I would assume that at least to a degree, your parents encouraged the concept and the the idea of those kinds of studies.   Shea Cunningham  08:51 You know, I was kind of like a free range kid, quite frankly. My dad, I live in my parents, sadly divorced at a young age and my I ended up living with my dad and my brother, and you know, so he was kind of like, Mr. Mom. And, and so, you know, he was kind of hands off and my mom as well. So I just sort of just kind of created my own path. And they've always been supportive. Both of them have always been supportive with everything I've chosen to do.   Michael Hingson  09:23 It is so good to have parents who are supportive, no matter what the circumstances like that. It's great that they were what did they do for work?   Shea Cunningham  09:32 Well, I am actually the first person in my family to get a master's degree. And so my mom, she is she actually is an amazing interior designer. She doesn't she's never really done it for money. But she's like, jaw dropping capabilities in that, in that regard. She also got a real estate license and she was As a realtor for quite some time, and my father, he did go and got he got his a degree and then ended up, you know, back in the day when it was not that unusual for people in their early 20s To get married and have babies. That's what they did back in the day. And so he did not enough finished college. And but he did. I'm very proud of him. He started in the mailroom at IBM, and worked his way up to regional manager over the years.   Michael Hingson  10:28 Wow. And that's a pretty good feat. It company like IBM to do that.   Shea Cunningham  10:34 I think so, too. He did. Yeah. He's a smart guy.   Michael Hingson  10:38 He's still doing that. Nope. He retired. He retired.   Shea Cunningham  10:41 Yeah, he was kind of forced into retirement. Actually, he was given the, the sort of the Golden Handshake. When they're, I think when you know, when 2008 When things were falling apart, the wheels were coming off the economy.   Michael Hingson  10:56 Yeah. happens all too often. So did he? Did he find something else to do? Or is he just enjoying retired life after now? What 15 years almost?   Shea Cunningham  11:07 Yeah, he's he's enjoying retirement. And he did a little bit of, of, sort of what was it was like, delivery of legal documents, in a kind of in his car driving around town. He kind of had fun doing that for a couple of years. And then he realized he didn't really need to do that. So he's just just enjoying his life.   Michael Hingson  11:28 Well, that's cool. Well, so you went off to do things in Bangkok, and so on, got a degree and started to deal with public policy? And then what did you do? So what did you do out of college when she got your master's degree?   Shea Cunningham  11:43 Yes, I actually I first Well, first, I did a little exploring in South America. I did you. Thank you. I did I actually lived in, in my, in my undergraduate I didn't mention this. And when I was in my undergraduate program, in my senior year, I did live in Mexico for for like, not not quite a full year in Wahaca, which was amazing. So if you ever get a chance to go to a haka, Mexico, I think it's one of the most special places on earth. So, after graduate school, I did take a little bit of time to do some exploring, and South America, which was an amazing, amazing trip. Being in the Andes, for instance, was just incredible. And just the different cultures, the different cities, I'm especially enamored with Buenos Aires in Argentina. But I, so I kind of brushed up on my Spanish and whatnot. And then I, I was very fortunate, I had the chair of my thesis committee started teaching at last or bone and in Paris, and wait, see, see ASBO I think actually, it's which is an another, like a science based university in Paris. And, and so I got the opportunity to be introduced to the OECD, which is the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris is sort of a I liken it to a mini think tank or not, it's really not that many sort of a smaller version of the United Nations. But it's, it's really a think tank between between the Western world countries. So it's like a, it's like, membership. You know, there's member countries basically, so, and it's headquartered in Paris. And I was offered a position there. So I ended up working there for about a year and living in Paris, which is a magnificent opportunity, as well. And I was focused on looking at social innovations across the, across the European region, specifically looking at sort of community community based projects that focused on improvement of both, again in sustainability, looking at the environment impacts on the environment of certain sorts of projects, and impacts on the community. And just also spotlighting just innovations, innovative community projects.   Michael Hingson  14:10 When you were you said in your senior year, you spent most of the year and Wahaca. How did how did that work from a studying standpoint? Was that just part of the university assignment? And did you sort of work remotely? Or how did that work?   Shea Cunningham  14:22 It was really wonderful. It was through the School of International Training. So it was a it was an abroad program that that we didn't have coursework. And we did have field work as well. And so my, so we did have classes, we had a lot of guest lectures, everything from culture to politics to history. And then I had I did a we had to do like a focus project. And so I selected looking at the sea turtles of Wahaca Nick problem, it's actually called Laguna state chicawa, which is where two different types of sea turtles come to lay their eggs. And the and as you probably know, the sea turtles got on the endangered species list. And so that had to stop. And so this was a project run by marine biologists. And so I basically live with them for about six weeks and experienced their project. And I helped it was it was magical I, I was able to help you know, bring the little little, the well the, the eggs that were being laid, and then we would transfer them into a safe area. And then in the evenings, we would liberate them into the sea and watch them watch a little babies crawled down to the sea was incredible. And at night, we would watch the, the moms coming up, the female turtles coming up onto the shore, and then making their nest and laying their eggs. And the reason why that project was happening was because the community there was reliant upon the sea turtle sea turtles for you know, making lotions and, and using their shells to create combs and all sorts of things like that. So then, there was also a project focused on helping to create a new economy, you know, new economic options for the community,   Michael Hingson  16:22 to not so much doing the turtles.   Shea Cunningham  16:25 Exactly. So it became a more sustainable, you know, operation for the community. And obviously, for the turtles.   Michael Hingson  16:33 How big were the adult turtles? Or are they How big are the adult turtles?   Shea Cunningham  16:38 I don't remember exactly in terms of measurement, but I would say, I mean, they're huge. The the green turtles are they get to be like, at least four feet long. Okay. Yeah, yeah, they're pretty big.   Michael Hingson  16:53 So they're big, like some of the Galapagos turtles and so on. Well, not   Shea Cunningham  16:56 as large as those because those the Galapagos are the largest turtle, I believe on Earth, but, but there, there are some moral big ones that kind of take your breath away.   Michael Hingson  17:05 I'm more used to desert tortoises and we don't see them nearly as much now I grew up in Palmdale, we had a pet tortoises growing up. And then later, after I was married, my mother in law went out of her house in Mission Viejo one day, and there was a tortoise just walking up the driveway. And clearly it had been someone's pet. But no one could ever claim it or find it. So we ended up deciding that we would take him and putting him in our yard. And later we got another another tortoise. So it was kind of fun. So we had a male and a female, very sweet bar, like desert tortoises were fun, and we could pet them. And we would give them rose petals and lead us and things like that. And they would also just stick their necks out if you're going to scratch under their necks. They would love it. Oh, yeah. So we made good friends. And actually, it got to the point where they decided that one day they wanted to come into the house. And our screen door or screen door was closed but not locked. And they just popped it open and came in to the consternation of our cat at the time, but everyone got along.   Shea Cunningham  18:19 That's really cute. I love it. I love any kind of turtle.   Michael Hingson  18:25 Yeah, I like turtles and tortoises. I saw one Galapagos turtle, but I was pretty young, only seven or eight at the San Diego Zoo. Oh, wow. But yeah, I like turtles and tortoises in there. They're kind of fun. Well, you so you eventually went off and went to graduate school. And then what did you do after graduate school?   Shea Cunningham  18:46 Well, then, I mean, after working at the the the OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, I ended up coming back to Los Angeles area. And I started to do some consulting actually for the Thai Community Development Center. And another the Community Development Center, which my goodness, I'm forgetting the name of it, but there are I basically started to consult as a sustainability planner for some different organizations. And I also was invited back to UCLA. I was a graduate student researcher at the North American Integration and development center. So I continue to take on some research projects there. I also worked as, as the research director for the Service Employees International Union, focused on the the public sector and actually worked with one of the projects that was especially rewarding and interesting was with people with developmental disabilities. So it was working with people there called people first I'm not sure if you're familiar with that organization, little David I think they're based in Sacramento. So that was that was an interesting project and you know, working also with the with the, with the helpers that you know that the in home care workers and then I, you know, so I bopped around a bit i i also had a full day and I still I still practice it yoga, I started teaching yoga I was I had two children. So my first one, I was really into yoga, and I ended up ended up being asked, well, I just found this really interesting and cost efficient program. And I ended up becoming a teacher through it. And I really just wanted to do that, because I was interested in learning more about the roots of yoga, and you know, just not not just the actual poses and postures. And, and, and then I started teaching and I as a young as a mom with young kids, that was that was a nice sort of side path. And then it took, and then after, after my kids got a little bit older, and I started going to, to elementary school and in my first kid and in elementary school in kindergarten, that's when I noticed that there was not any even recycling happening at the school. And so I kind of kicked it into high gear and said, Okay, we need to, we need to change things here at the school district. And I connected with some like minded parents, and some like minded teachers and the principal. And we, we sort of piloted a waste reduction and recycling program at the elementary school. And then from there, we raised some money through CalRecycle. And then we, I was asked to be a part of a new sort of committee for sustainability for the school district. And then I ended up leading that, and I really went all in with it. So we we raised a couple of large grants and created composting recycling bins across the entire 10 School 10 site school district. And then we worked with we started with that, but then we we really got into building our sort of co curricular awareness program and worked with the with the the janitorial staff and brought in green cleaning supplies so that they're moving. So it's basically healthier for them as well as the teachers and then students, we brought in solar to offset the you know, the fossil fuel burning, and to reduce the carbon emissions and to provide Sun shading for the parking lots and and playground areas. And we also worked on water reduction or water conservation. We we worked in brought in some new landscaping. So it was like for about five or six years, I was really I was very focused on that while doing other sort of consulting projects on the side. I also worked for help Sony Studios, which is also in Culver City, become a become a zero waste studio, because it's really neat. They they, they being the studio, they have friendly competitions with other studios across the region. And so they're they're really into becoming more green and more sustainable. And so I was brought in to help them create a zero waste studio at the headquarters, which was fun. And I mean, I could go on I have a few other projects that I actually because of the work I was doing at the schools, I gave a speech at a green schools Conference, which is an annual conference that happens in Pasadena. And from there I was invited to work. There's a proposition 39 That was created kind of a loophole that there was found for funding, energy efficiency and renewables in public schools. That money is sunsetted. This is bad for about six years, there was a really good amount of money for different schools for LED lighting retrofits and solar panels. And so I basically helped with that program. And and then I and then my sort of biggest, longest term project that I have that's continuing. And I think I haven't mentioned yet that I developed my own business called balanced approach. And it is a certified woman owned business. It's a sustainability doing sort of a micro sustainability planning firm. And I collaborated with a colleague of mine who who is the co director of sustainable works. And we pitched a Culver City sustainable business certification program to the city council took a couple of years to get it going. But now we're in the sixth year of the program. And we have certified over 70 businesses now as sustainable and kind of on the same model of what we did for the or what I did for the school district with my my other colleagues, which is, you know, from working on green cleaning, you know, taking out toxics working on energy efficiency, working on bringing it bringing in renewables, water conservation, and awareness building. And also transportation. That's another aspect because that's a big transportation is a large factor in terms of carbon emissions.   Michael Hingson  25:58 When How long ago was it that you discovered that the school needed to deal with recycling and so on your kid your child was in kindergarten, how long ago was at   Shea Cunningham  26:08 dating myself? Now? My, my son is 18. Now, okay, yeah, that was like 13 years ago.   Michael Hingson  26:17 It is sort of surprising. And that's This is why I was asking the question that that late in the game, well, maybe not. But it's sort of surprising that they hadn't gotten very conscious about doing recycling and so on. So 13 years ago, would have made it about 2010, you would have thought that they would have done more to address the issue, but then you're getting you're dealing with the innocence the government.   Shea Cunningham  26:45 Yes, I would like that's why I was like, Okay, with this is not okay, we need to teach our kids how to be environmental stewards. And it's not it as we know, recycling is not you know, what's, well, there's like the you've heard of the three R's, right? Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Right? And it really isn't that priority, like first we got to focus on reducing our waste and reducing our our plastics and our disposables, and then it's reusing whatever we can, and then, you know, recycle what we can't, you know, reduce and reuse. But yes, too, as to your question, or, yeah, I, I agree with you, it was really surprising that they didn't have that in place, you would think that that would be something that that is everywhere, universally, but it still isn't, I mean, it just still isn't. So we still have a long road to the hall that Culver City Unified now. Thankfully, there, it's become part of the culture. And we actually received a state level and federal level Green Ribbon Award for the work that we did in Culver City. So I'm pretty proud of that.   Michael Hingson  27:50 And you talked about solar and creating shade for parking lots, and so on. So you put the solar panels above the parking lots and so on. So that created shade, but it also generated power through the solar energy process.   Shea Cunningham  28:04 Exactly. Yeah. And then we also in one of the elementary schools, we have also shading the playground. And as you know, we have how, you know, we're having more heat waves, and it's gonna continue, unfortunately, until we, you know, really slow the ship down on terms of our fossil fuel burning. But, yeah, so that's really been helpful, because we've had a lot of hot days out on the playground, so it's nice to have that additional shade.   Michael Hingson  28:28 Oh, is all of that surviving in the winter with the heavy winds and all?   Shea Cunningham  28:33 Ah, so far, so good. It's pretty solid. Thankfully, yes.   Michael Hingson  28:38 Which is cool. And I suppose you could say, in a sense that maybe helps a little bit in sheltering from some of the winds because they're up there, but they're, they're sort of flat. So I'm not sure that it shelters all that much, but it must help a little, yeah, helps   Shea Cunningham  28:51 a little, and it helps reduce also the bills, the costs. Energy,   Michael Hingson  28:58 where does the where does the solar power go to the school? Or how does that work?   Shea Cunningham  29:03 It goes back to the grid, you know, so it goes to the grid, but then, you know, what happens is the because it is a, at least as of when I was, you know, really in the weeds on the program, it was over 50% of the energy needs were met by by the solar panels. So yeah, but yeah, so that's yeah, because it is on the grid, it's not an off grid system, but that is you know, that's something that resilience, climate resilience is is really would be the next step is to have like a battery backup system. So when the when the blackouts happen as we know, they do happen, especially in heat waves and whatnot, then the school will be able to stay and keep the lights on basically. So I was gonna   Michael Hingson  29:55 actually ask you about batteries. I know that the technology hasn't probably progressed as nearly as much as we would like, but has battery backup technology advanced to the point where it makes economic sense to to get batteries. So for example, in our home here, my home, we have solar, we sell back to the grid, and we don't have battery backups. And when we bought solar and set it up six years ago, when the house was built, the person who did it said, batteries are still not worth it. They don't get warranted long enough. And they're very expensive for what you actually get. What do you think?   Shea Cunningham  30:34 Well, I mean, I'm not a full on expert and up on up on that. But I would say this, in general, it's the technology just keeps improving rapidly, the costs keep coming down. And when I was I actually also worked for a couple of years in the city of Malibu and, and battery backups, were going in very rapidly across the, you know, the residents. And I know that's a little bit more affluent. community, but but there are more and more certainly, sort of government agencies and buildings that are that recognize the importance of the battery backup for for sort of public safety. So you might want to weigh it out. I mean, I would just keep I would keep looking out. And also, the other thing I meant to say, is they also have a lot of rebates and what not, because they're, you know, there is government programs that are encouraging people to do this. So I would just say Keep it keep an eye out.   Michael Hingson  31:38 What do you think about the new rules in California, the Public Utility Commission just adopted some new rules that I guess are gonna make a significant change in how much people get back from solar and so on. Are you familiar with those?   Shea Cunningham  31:51 You know, I'm not super up to date on it. But I know that there's stuff going on. And and I think some of it is not in a good direction. Yeah. So yeah. So I think that, yeah, there's that is something to stay abreast of. But I think in the end, you know, it's got to get move in the right direction, because we I can just, I mean, in terms of emission reduction targets, yes, tonsa municipalities have made them, certainly the state has made them a lot of cities have made them, you know, going net zero by 20 2040, I believe is Los Angeles, by 2050, for the state of California. And also, if I'm not mistaking, I think that's also the case for the federal government has made that commitment as well. And then corporations are publicly traded corporations are actually going to be mandated to do so beginning January 1 2024. Because the SEC, the Security and Exchange Commission is going to be there any day. Now, q1, when this this first quarter here in this this year, 2023. They're supposed to be publishing their new regulations, which will be effective January 1 2024. And that's going to that's going to include greenhouse gas inventories, they need to be third party certified, there needs to be target emission reduction targets made and there needs to be progress made upon those targets on an annual basis through reporting. So things are definitely moving in that direction.   Michael Hingson  33:35 Well, we said at the beginning that you were a sustainability expert. And so I'd love to get into some of that what it really is sustainability.   Shea Cunningham  33:45 Sustainability, the the UN, I believe the United Nations calls, defines it as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs a future generations. So that's it in a nutshell. But it's also seen there. There's also a term called the three P's, which is people planet and profit. So it's definitely not just about the environment. It is also equally about the impacts on the community, you know, community well being social well being, as well as the finances of it, like is it? Is it financially sustainable? There's another sort of visual of the three legged stool. So you need each pillar because they won't stand up if it if, if if you have a pillar that's missing. So it's the environment, it's the social aspect, and it's the, like I said, the economy or the financial aspect of it.   Michael Hingson  34:46 So, the the idea, though, is that we do need to look not only for now, but we do need to look for the future. And it just seems to me that when I hear a lot of the debates, and I hear are a lot of the discussions coming out of Washington and other places. There's a cadre of people who just tend to not seem to be thinking much about the future at all. How do we change that? How do we get people to really look more toward the fact that we are all responsible, and we have to take an active effort and all this   Shea Cunningham  35:22 very good point, you really hit it on the head, but it is, it is perplexing to me that there are so many people that are not not really taking the responsibility and not really accepting the fact that that we all need to work together to sort of do our part, because the signs are all out there. I mean, we are we are living in the reality of climate change at a much more rapid pace than the scientists predicted. By but at the end of the day, it Yeah, it's not political. And I think that it's become politicized, sadly. And I think we got to, I think it to really answer your question, I think everybody, everybody wants to live in a clean world, everybody wants, doesn't want to see, you know, a garbage and pollution. Nobody likes that stuff. I think everybody is, is shares that, that desire. And I think that, you know, we, I think that's part of the message that we need to get across is like, you know, we're not, this is not a blame game, we just, you know, we just need to work together on this. And it's not about I mean, the earth is going to be fine. I mean, quite frankly, if humans humans go, the earth is going to repair itself, because we know Mother Nature is amazing. So it's really more about like saving ourselves, quite frankly, and saving our, you know, our, our grandchildren, our children, our grandchildren. So and it's, again, it's not something I want to emphasize, it's not something that's in the future, we're already living in this situation, as you know, the extreme weather events, like very massive storms, elongated storms, larger fires than ever long, long term droughts. We're in a 20 year drought. Now, even though we already have this. Tons of precipitation happening now, that's probably not going to continue. That's, so we have, you know, it's kind of like Global Weirding. I'm not sure if you heard of that term, but I think I really feel like that encapsulates it, there's just crazy weather patterns going on. It's very destructive. And, and that's why businesses are really waking up. In fact, the US military has woken up to this, you know, a couple decades ago, they've been building climate resilient systems because of that. So and then corporations, larger corporations are really, they're out in front of the SEC regulations already, because they're seeing that their supply chains are starting to go wonky, because when you have flooding happening, when you have fires happening, you know, it destabilizes the supply chain, it, you know, obviously cuts into productivity cuts into the cost the revenues. And, and it makes things much more in, you know, it's it's, it's not a shirt, you know, and I'm saying it's, it's, it makes it much more challenging, basically. So they're waking up. And they're, it's, and I think they really, especially with the United Nations, and the Global Compact, which is the sort of corporate member corporate kind of club for engaging in the United Nations and their sustainable development goals and whatnot. They're working together with corporations to, to achieve, you know, to work on progressing and to work on getting more renewables out there. So we have the options to start really bringing down the carbon.   Michael Hingson  38:53 Yeah. And you said that this isn't really a political issue, or shouldn't at least be a political issue. And that makes perfect sense. But unfortunately, it's become so much of a political issue, let's say, at least in this country, you've got people who say, Well, this isn't really set, there's no such thing as climate change, because it's really just nature. And it's the way it's always been, it's the way it's always going to be, how do we get people to recognize that there really is a difference?   Shea Cunningham  39:23 Well, I think it's really there's so much evidence, you know, so I think it's, it's really boils down to education. I think we need to have more kind of roundtable discussions. I think we need to, you know, meet people where they are and and sort of focus in on what what's impacting them personally, and what might be impacting their family personally, but also the coming back to it's really the sciences there. The evidence is there, I think and I'd be happy I don't know if we if this is a possibility, but I'd be happy to, to to I'm give you some links that you can share on your in your program, please do. Okay, so I'll do that. But I think at the end of the day, it's really the education piece.   Michael Hingson  40:12 And people need to be open to be educated, before it gets too late, because this is it's not a new concept that there are things happening. I mean, you can go back to the Silent Spring with Rachel Carson years ago. That's right. So we're not dealing with anything magical here. And the more some people protest, and the more things happen, it's pretty clear that there really is an issue that we have to deal with.   Shea Cunningham  40:41 Absolutely. And so So for you,   Michael Hingson  40:43 you, you did a lot of work and public policy and so on, but what really then drew you to get so incredibly involved in sustainability and so on, was it what happened in kindergarten? Or is it just that you always notice those things are what?   Shea Cunningham  41:01 Yeah, you know, it's, I think it's just in my DNA, Michael, I just, it just really was a no brainer for me that this is what I wanted to do with my, you know, professionally with my life. So I very much, you know, I feel very fortunate actually, to be in this to be in this field. Because it's, it's, for me, it's just deeply meaningful. And I sort of live and breathe it, like I try to be as sustainable as I can in my own life. And, you know, so I make sure that I am, you know, I tried to reduce my own carbon footprint. So I'm, I'm also walking the talk, but it just was a natural fit for me. And, again, as I mentioned, like, I've, I'm a big nature lover, I've always felt better when I'm outside and, you know, taking a walk in the forest, or, or, you know, watching the sunset on the beach. And I mentioned, I loved them or ride my bike, and, you know, go through in being different, explore different routes, you know, and, and I just feel very compelled to do my part to help preserve and conserve and repair and restore our, our environment.   Michael Hingson  42:18 Well, it's, it really is, I think, relevant and important to step out and look at things that are different from what we're used to. I love, for example, going to, when we were in Northern California, places like near woods, and forests, and so on, I love forest, just because the sounds are so different, or in the environment is so different. It was so much fun to be able to be in there and experience a different environment like that. And I've kind of always thought to myself, I can live here. But it's so important that we understand different places then we're specifically used to and as a public speaker, who has been traveling for now, the last 21 and a half years, I've always been so interested and excited to explore new places and just experience different environments, caves and other things like that as well.   Shea Cunningham  43:19 Yeah, I'm with Yeah, I definitely feel the same way. And it's just, it's, you know, it's, it's a way for us to repair ourselves when we when we're out in nature.   Michael Hingson  43:31 You haven't lived until you've been in the middle of New York City just after a blizzard, and you're walking down Madison Avenue, when there are no cars around, and it's so quiet. And nothing is going on. Because there's just way too much snow it was it was so much fun to get to do that once.   Shea Cunningham  43:49 Right on. It's awesome. And there's also nature, you know, I think it's so important to bring nature to the cities to, you know, in terms of like, you know, there's urban forests, for instance. I mean, when we have a lot of trees in the city, it just makes everybody feel better.   Michael Hingson  44:10 Yeah, absolutely. It's, it really is important to, to, if you can't bring people to it, then bring it to people, at least as much as you can.   Shea Cunningham  44:21 Absolutely.   Michael Hingson  44:22 So you talked earlier about what you did when your son was in kindergarten and really noticing the whole issue about recycling and so on. Overall, I guess two thoughts. One, how is it effective and why is it effective to explore and bring sustainability into elementary schools?   Shea Cunningham  44:49 Very good question. I think it is imperative to do that. To bring it to young really young kids, because they are like sponges, you know, so they're are, they're able to pick up these new habits and make them just habits that they don't have to think about in terms of, you know, being good at and reducing their waste, for instance, not bringing, you know, reuse are like water, plastic water bottles, for instance, in plastic bags. And like, in saying, No, I'm going to bring reusable as I have a reusable water bottle, and you know, that's better for the environment, it's better for me. And, and, and being careful about recycling and that sort of thing. It when, when you teach the young kids they are like, like I mentioned, they're little sponges, and so it just becomes habit for them. And then it's not something that they really have to learn and, and whatnot. So that's really, you know, when you get to like, high school, as we all know, something happens to the teenage brain. And, and they are, you know, sometimes it's, they're a little defiant, and, you know, they don't necessarily want to do with what the adults are saying and whatnot, so. So it's harder, it's harder. And as we all know, it's also it's always hard, hard to change, especially for adults. You know, not everybody, it's usually change is hard. I mean, you've heard that term before. But that's one only one thing you can ever, ever really be sure of in life is change, because everything changes. And so we might as well go with the flow, and learn how to be skillful at riding the waves of change. Right. So that Yeah, I mean, I just think that the younger, the better. And if we all did that, if it was universal, you know, within a within a half a generation we'd be we'd be, you know, doing great.   Michael Hingson  46:45 What's ironic, of course, is that, however it happens, we're taught to fear change. Yep. You know, we all say yeah, change is all around us. Change happens. But when it really comes down to it, we're afraid of it.   Shea Cunningham  46:59 Yes, chain. Well, that yeah, they talked about change being hard. And yeah, we kind of go into that reptilian brain of like, oh, yeah, no fear. We gotta watch out for this. And I think it's, I think that makes it the biggest challenge, you know, and it's, and I do think that he is a politician and Al Gore. And if you remember his Inconvenient Truth, Inconvenient Truth. Yeah. I think that's a brilliant phrase, because that's really what it is. Yeah, it's not it's not, you know, we we have built especially in in this country, as you mentioned, it's it's more political in this country than anywhere else in terms of climate action, and, you know, and the awareness of climate change or lack of awareness, but it is it is something that you know, we what am I trying to say, Where am I going with my thoughts? I'm having a moment   Michael Hingson  47:53 well, we continue to fear change, it's yes. And it's it it shouldn't be an inconvenient truth the change happens but you have it on the hand. He's right. I was a while before I actually saw it. I was actually flying to Japan after my first book thunder dog was published and that's where when I actually watched the movie, it was on the on the airplane, but it was so enjoy I watched it twice. But I I really appreciated what he had to say and he is absolutely right. Yeah. And it's it shouldn't be An Inconvenient Truth but we make it something that's inconvenient we just don't like to deal with all of that   Shea Cunningham  48:36 good point and that's what I the the word convenient is what I was get trying to get back to that we have created this culture and in America I think it really started in the 1950s of convenience creating a culture of convenience Yeah, so you know like Oh, TV dinners and fast food and disposable water bottles and you know does everything is to go coffee to go with with a disposable you know, cup and lid and we've we we are we are literally swimming and like we're you know way over our heads and waste now we have a serious waste problem, which of course is also carbon emission problem as well. And we have so much waste in this country and it's and it's all because of like oh you know creating this sort of like it's a mirage really of like, oh we're better off because we have all this stuff that we can collect and we can you know just enjoy once and throw away and you know and so that's the kind of stuff that it is hard but we got to change that that we can't keep living like that. Are there   Michael Hingson  49:42 any water bottles so they throw away water bottles that actually are recycle and Will are biodegradable and so on? Have we done any of that?   Shea Cunningham  49:51 There are there are bio plastics, but that's actually a whole nother problem. Because our infrastructure, our recycling info structures inadequate, and to handle those bio plastics, they have to be basically heated up to a really high degree. And very, very few municipalities have that capacity at this point in time. But, you know, there is something about like being up, you know, in terms of the source is better, because it's not fossil fuel driven, or, you know, it's not made by fossil fuels are made from fossil fuels. But, but, you know, standard plastic bottles can be recycled, but at the end of the day, you know, only about I mean, it's really, it's really kind of like, oh, like, only about like, 10% of total recycling stream really gets recycled. And it's because they're, you know, so I know, there is some hope in California, there is a bill that finally got passed. It's been like up for passage for many, many, many years. But all I forget exactly the year, I think it's not till 2025, maybe 2030, which is too far into the future, from my perspective, but that all packaging has to be actually recycled or composted by that date in in, in California. And you know, when California when something as big as the California economy makes a change like that, then it will, it will have reverberate reverberations across other states as well. So I'm somewhat hopeful that we're moving in a in a good but very slow direction, in the right direction. But, you know, besides just like the disposable, sort of packaging and whatnot, it's, it's just, you know, like a fast fashion, I'm sure you've heard of that term of like, you know, Textiles and Apparel, that sort of thing, and, you know, purchasing of stuff, we don't really need, that. That's the kind of stuff that I think we just need to be more reflective and mindful in our in our society.   Michael Hingson  51:57 Yeah, we, we need to recognize that we need to be the solution and not the problem are not part of the problem. And we're just not collectively doing nearly as much of that as we should. And another example of some of that we hear about a lot is greenhouse gases, where where do they come from? And where do greenhouse gases fit into the whole equation of what we're talking about? Right.   Shea Cunningham  52:23 Good question. So greenhouse gases, I have been mentioning emissions, and I was referring to greenhouse gas emissions. So that is basically what is what happens when fossil fuels are burned. So fossil fuels are, you know, mined or are extracted from the earth. very, they're very, very polluting. And they, they're basically through the through the energy industry. That's one of the major sources of fossil fuel burning and greenhouse gas emissions in our country, and actually, mostly around the entire world. Industry. And transportation is another another source of the greenhouse gas emissions, it's up to depends on you know, it's kind of any, there's different ways to slice and dice the pie of in terms of where the emissions come from. But I've read many, many different sources that say about 40% of our emissions come from fossil fuel burning of in cars, and trucks. So that's one of the reasons why it's so important to move away from fossil fuel burning cars and move into electric cars. I know that there is gap greenhouse gases that are emitted in the making of the cars, but in terms of in terms of driving the electric vehicle vehicles, especially if you are charging, you know, in a house or a home that is that is has solar energy, right? Yes, then you really are making a big impact and big positive impact.   Michael Hingson  54:06 Yeah, and that, that makes a big difference. And I know we're going to get there. I do hope it happens sooner than later. I I'm absolutely, totally supportive of the whole concept of electric vehicles. Although I do think that we need to be responsible. And there have been laws passed about this. But too many electric vehicles still Don't make a noise. So those of us who don't see those cars coming are put in danger. And it's now been 13 or 12 years. And since the law was passed the pedestrian enhancement Safety Act that said the cars need to make noise, and they're still playing with standards and trying to deal with it and the reality is that the best ironically, from at least my perspective, maybe scientifically, someone will come up with something different but I happen to hurt it. At the best way for me to deal with a vehicle and making noise is the sound of an internal combustion engine. And they ought to be able to emulate that sound in cars because I can tell the difference between a bus and a car and a truck. And I can tell more about whether the car is speeding up or slowing down because of all the different nuances of an internal combustion engine sound. So one tone isn't going to do it. But they haven't done that yet, really. And at some point, once again, it's going to have to be addressed because even NITSA has said that when cars are quiet, for the total population, there's 1.5 times as likely hood of an accident happening and the pedestrian doesn't just blind people anymore. Right? You know, that that's what got the law passed in the first place?   Shea Cunningham  55:59 How interesting. Thank you for telling me that, because that's something I never thought about that's really opens my mind to that?   Michael Hingson  56:05 Well, it is it is something that needs to be dealt with. And but I love the concept of electric vehicles. And you know, I have I've actually driven a Tesla down i 15. And the driver was the the normal owner and driver was in the car and said you want to drive it? I said, Sure. So I drove about 15 miles and appreciate what it can do. And I realized that we've really are on the cusp of the whole concept of autonomous vehicles. What we have now is not anything like what we're going to have in 20 years, and the viability and the the foolproof nature of what they can do is going to come. But we have to start somewhere.   Shea Cunningham  56:49 Absolutely. Yeah, that's, that's gonna be fair. I mean, I'm a little nervous about it. But you know, again, change is hard.   Michael Hingson  56:57 Well, I think there's reason to be nervous. Because we can't move too quickly or otherwise, we're going to push the cars beyond the limits of what they can do today. But we're seeing constant improvements in the whole concept of autonomous vehicles. And the time is going to come when they really will be as safe and as foolproof as we would like them to be. Or as we read about in science fiction books, that's coming.   Shea Cunningham  57:25 Pretty wild.   Michael Hingson  57:26 I know, isn't it? Well, how about carbon, a measurable carbon emissions and so on measuring them. And dealing with all the reporting and studying of such such things? That's obviously important. And I would assume that one of the values of that is it really helps us get to a better understanding of whether we are we're not having an effect on the environment in a positive way.   Shea Cunningham  57:53 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So that's the greenhouse gas inventory that we you can do, you know, on a personal residential level? And of course, you know, municipalities do it. And businesses do it. And a lot of businesses are not doing it yet. But as I mentioned, many corporations are doing it and are demanding that their suppliers do it. And and the Security Exchange Commission will be mandating it. So that is, you know, in a nutshell, it's basically, you know, for for business, it's looking at the different sources of greenhouse gases, which I'm not sure if I mentioned, it's really the major cause to global warming, which is like, which I think is it's more aptly called Global Weirding. Because there's, there's extreme cold, that's snaps that happen, as well as extreme heat. And as you know, glaciers are melting ice, and sea levels are rising the whole business. But But so, in terms of the greenhouse gas inventory, and we look at the different sources, which of course, buildings are a major source, you know, using the energy in the buildings, and then we calculate, you know, what, what is that in greenhouse gases, in terms of energy, and we look at the transportation, we look at business travel, we look at, you know, so airplanes, as we know, our jet fuel is very polluting, thankfully, we're seeing the aviation industry start to starting to move toward making commitments at least to have electric planes, at least starting to phase them in by 2030. Because 2030, by the way, is sort of the year that the United Nations has focused on and to like, we need to have really measurable reductions and like half of our emissions need to be reduced by 2030 globally. And then, in terms of going back to like the business travel, you know, there's more hotels as well that are just starting to make commitments as well to be net zero hotels by a certain date. So, you know, and it's really the the proof is gonna be in the pudding like, we need to see the progress. We can't just say, Okay, we're gonna do that and then share best practices and 2030 No, every year, we need to win, you know, we need to redo the inventory, we need to put programs into place to incentivize people to, to take alternative transportation to work, including public transportation, carpooling, you know, if you're going to buy a new car, go, Evie. You know, if you can ride your bike to work, if you're not that far away, choose to do that do active transportation, that sort of thing. So we need to get those sorts of things in place and incentivize people tend to make it fun, because Because change is hard, you gotta kind of gotta be smart about it, and be creative about it, and make it something that is going to be engaging, and is going to, you know, people are going to open their minds to it. So and So basically, we take all the different sources of the data, where the greenhouse gases are coming from, and then we crunch the numbers. And then we like we, you know, we have our, our carbon emissions, sort of portfolio, so to speak. And then we know where, okay, this is where we are this year, this is where we need to get next year. So we have to do short term, medium term and longer term planning for year after year for, you know, reducing the carbon and in terms of the corporations as well, there's, at least in terms of like office based work, I think it's very important that we maintain, and it's looking like it's feasible to maintain sort of hybrid work schedules and flexible work schedules. So we are not, you know, needlessly driving back and forth to the office every single day,   Michael Hingson  1:01:43 I think we're starting to grow to realize that there's value in so many ways to allow people at least to have a hybrid schedule and do some work at home, helps family helps mindset, it helps everyone to sometimes be able to do a little bit more on your own schedule, rather than, Oh, there's just one process to do it. Right. And so you are the director of sustainability for ASTN   Shea Cunningham  1:02:12 ASGN incorporated in and what is ASGN. ASGN is a is a company that is it's a publicly traded firm in the Fortune 600. And there and they are an IT consulting and staffing firm. And as Jan's main clients are really the top sort of 25 of the Fortune 500 Club. And so Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, IBM, and others are the main clients. And so that's where the and especially Microsoft have to give a shout out to Microsoft, they're the ones who are really the most sort of at the at the forefront of of making target reductions, and also requiring suppliers to follow their lead.   Michael Hingson  1:03:01 All well, it's going to be exciting to see how things evolve over time. I really appreciate what you're doing. And I hope the people who are out here listening will learn from it. And definitely please send me links and maybe links to things you have written and so on. And we will ensure that those are in the show notes so that people will have access to all of   Shea Cunningham  1:03:25 that. We'll do we'll do thank you so much, Michael. Well, this   Michael Hingson  1:03:28 has been really fun. Well, I definitely want to thank you Shea for being here. How can people reach out to you or get in contact?   Shea Cunningham  1:03:36 Well, you can either go on LinkedIn and look me up Shea Cunningham, S H E A Cunningham. And also, as I mentioned, I still have my certified woman owned business balanced approach. And my email is just Shea S H E A  at balanced approach.net.   Michael Hingson  1:03:53 There you go. Direct contact all the way. Well, absolutely. This has been fun. I hope you've enjoyed listening to us today in this conversation. I'd love to hear your comments, feel free to email me at Michaelhi at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. And while you're thinking about access to be go to the website and do a free audit of your own website and see how accessible it is, which is another whole story. But you can also go to Michael hingson.com/podcast hingson is h i n g s o n and we hope that you'll give us a rating wherever you're hearing the podcast and that you go back and listen to some of the other podcasts. We really appreciate it. But a five star rating and your comments are absolutely invaluable and we hope that you'll give us any thoughts that you have. Shea for you and anyone listening. If you have any thoughts of other people we should have on his guests on unstoppable mindset. Please let us know please email me. Let us know about guests. Give us introductions. We'll bring them on.   Shea Cunningham  1:04:57 Well do.   Michael Hingson  1:04:58 I appreciate that? Well again, Shea, thanks very much for being here with us and doing this today.   Shea Cunningham  1:05:04 Thank you so much, Michael. Take care. You too.   Michael Hingson  1:05:12 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

It was an absolute pleasure to host Thomasina Miers on the podcast today. Entrepreneur, cook, TV personality, activist, writer and so much more. There isn't much that this incredible person can't do.Like many of us, she learnt to cook at her mothers side and after attempting to forge a career in advertising, journalism, digital consultancy, she followed her heart and went to cookery school.Fast forward a few years, after travelling the world, she went on to win Masterchef and create Wahaca inspired by the food markets of Mexico during her trips.Tommi cares deeply about where our food comes from, how it is grown, supports the soil, biodiversity and the planet and believes everyone should have access to good ingredients.I learnt so much more about Tommi and we chat about:The importance of soilHow the Chefs in Schools charity is changing what our children eatHow Groove Armada sold his record rights and started an organic farmWhy the ancient Mayan civilisation disappearedRemember you can check out Tommi's incredible book “Meat Free Mexican” which has some glorious dishes and her regular column in the Guardian.All the links to our discussion topics can be found on www.thedoctorskitchen.com/podcasts

Today I'm thrilled to be joined by a huge role model of mine, Thomasina Miers. Thomasina is a cook, who many might know for winning Masterchef, a writer, restauranteur and the co-founder of the successful Mexican street food restaurant, Wahaca. Thomasina has openly spoken about her own struggles with her mental health, particularly during her 20s. Her family has a history of both depression and alcoholism and her grandmother very sadly committed suicide when Thomasina was just 21. Thomasina also had a difficult relationship with food growing up and she admits that her childhood played a pivotal role in her getting caught up in a diet and binge cycle. However, it was ironically when she finally discovered food as a career that her life changed and it ultimately became her medicine. Find Thomasina: Website: https://www.thomasinamiers.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thomasinamiers/?hl=enFollow Hurt to Healing on Instagram: @hurttohealingpod--A big thank you our wonderful charity partner Shout. Shout is the UK's first 24/7 mental health text support service so if you're struggling or in need of someone to talk to, please remember to text Shout to 85258. Thank you to our corporate supporter, Brown Advisory, a global investment management firm which is passionate about raising awareness of mental health challenges in order to help people thrive in an ever-changing world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, guest presenter, food writer, chef, founder of Wahaca restaurants, and trustee of Chefs in Schools, Thomasina Miers asks what opportunities the current fruit and veg shortages could offer to build resilience into our broken food system in the UK. The Food Foundation has recently published a series of briefings in collaboration with a team of researchers from the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) consortium. They explore the opportunities of growing and eating more fruit and veg in the UK and its impact on our health, the environment and our food security.We hear from Ali Capper, chair of British Apples and Pears, Guy Singh-Watson of Riverford Organics. Martin Emmett, chair of the National Farmer's Union's Horticultural and Potatoes Board, James Woodward from Sustain and Anna Taylor, the Food Foundation's executive director.For more information on the work The Food Foundation does with SHEFS, click hereFor The Food Foundation's snap analysis Quick Bites series on YouTube, click here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all need to do our bit to create a better future than the **** show we've got right now. Let's make a commitment to be that bit more conscious, think about how we live, buy, who we bank with, work and vote for. Even the smallest changes knit together to create a greater whole. In this episode of Beautiful Misfits, I'm talking to the wonderful Thomasina Miers. After winning Masterchef, Tommi co-founded Wahaca – the chain of Mexican restaurants that had sustainability baked in from the beginning. They've been carbon neutral since 2016 and are forging a new path on how food can be good for planet – and people. In addition to all that, Tommi is a passionate campaigner around all things food. From working to get chefs into schools to create truly nutritious food for children, to campaigning to fix our broken food system – she's passionate about it all – because bad food is literally killing us and the planet.  She's tireless, inspiring and I loved talking to her. Let's take Tommi's ideas for a better world and run. TW: This episode contains references to mental illness and suicide. Follow Mary Portas on: Instagram: @maryportasofficial Facebook: Mary Portas And to get in touch with team Portas, email us at: beautifulmisfits@portasagency.com and you can subscribe to the Portas POV Newsletter for musings, provocation insights and inspiration.

There's a growing anxiety around avocados. With more awareness of their impact on the countries where they are grown, some chefs have been reducing their presence on menus. Are worries about their sustainability well-founded? Why do we focus so much on avocados and could we replace this contentious fruit with something else? Leyla Kazim meets chef Adriana Cavita at her new Mexican restaurant to talk about growing up with Avocados and how she has tackled the issue of their sustainability. Leyla talks to food systems expert and the writer of a forthcoming book on avocados Honor Eldridge about the issues in the production of avocados in the Global South. She also gets a mini tour of avocado trees growing in London from garden designer and tropical plant fan Rob Stacewicz. Political commentator Ash Sarkar talks to Leyla about avocado's status as a meme in our public discourse. Wahaca owner and chef Thomasina Miers makes an alternative for Leyla to try. Presented by Leyla Kazim and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sam Grist

Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Sarah Langford was a barrister, living and working in the city. But then she found herself moving to the countryside, back to an agricultural life she thought she had left behind. There she saw farmers dealing with problems very different from those faced by her grandfather, who had helped to feed a starving nation after the war. Beleaguered with the challenges of climate change, Brexit and falling incomes, these farmers faced accusations of ecological mismanagement from a hostile media and public. But, as Langford looked to them to teach her about the land, she also found a new generation of farmers on a path of regenerative change. That journey is now the topic of Langford's recent book, Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution. Joining her in conversation to discuss it is Thomasina Miers, the cook, writer, broadcaster and co-founder of the restaurant group Wahaca.  … We are incredibly grateful for your support. To become an Intelligence Squared Premium subscriber, follow the link: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/  Here's a reminder of the benefits you'll receive as a subscriber: Ad-free listening, because we know some of you would prefer to listen without interruption  One early episode per week Two bonus episodes per month A 25% discount on IQ2+, our exciting streaming service, where you can watch and take part in events live at home and enjoy watching past events on demand and without ads  A 15% discount and priority access to live, in-person events in London, so you won't miss out on tickets Our premium monthly newsletter  Intelligence Squared Merch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's Big Green Money Show, Dragons' Den's Deborah Meaden and 5 Live's Felicity Hannah find out about the scale of food waste in our homes, restaurants and businesses.It's sparked by a question from listener Wade in Shropshire, answered by Helen White from the environmental organisation WRAP, who helps Deborah & Fliss find out all about food waste in our homes.They then hear from the co-founder and CEO of Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca, Mark Selby, about the challenges around reducing food waste in restaurants.Finally, they meet Alex Vlassopulos, co-founder of Kitche, a home food waste reduction app that can help us keep track of what's in our fridges and cupboards.Tell us what you think, tell us what you do to try and cut down on food waste and talk about some of the issues raised by using the hashtag #GreenMoneyShow on Twitter. Or email the team at GreenMoney@bbc.co.uk.Links: lovefoodhatewaste.com wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink kitche.coWith Deborah Meaden and Felicity Hannah.Production team: Lexy O'Connor, Luke Wilson, Gareth Jones, Justin Bones, Natasha Johansson.

We're kicking off our 4th season of What the Focaccia with an uplifting and inspiring chat with Thomasina Miers, chef and co-founder of Wahaca restaurants. We discuss how Wahaca became carbon neutral, the importance of soil heath, her involvement in the incredible charity Chefs in Schools, and much more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Are you aware of the tests you've had to endure throughout your life? As we move through life, levelling up and growing, we all experience various tests designed to help us expand and meet the new challenges the future brings, even if we're not aware of it.  In this episode of https://therealdarius.com/the-greatness-machine-series/ (The Greatness Machine,) Darius is recording from Wahaca, Mexico to discuss the tests we all have to pass in order to level up in our lives.  In this episode you'll discover: - Why the most successful people are always focused on the next goal, and the next target. - Some of the tests Darius has had to endure to grow and expand in his life. - Why recognizing these tests and persevering through them is a key component of success. Join Darius as he discusses the tests we all must face as we level up to a new form of greatness! Enjoy! What You'll Learn in this Show: Why do successful people always have one eye on the future? Some backstory on Darius' life and the tests he has undergone. Why meeting every test and pushing through is a key component of success. And so much more... Resources: https://therealdarius.com/the-greatness-machine-series/ (Community) https://www.dariusclass.com/training-video (ScaleMAP video) https://therealdarius.com/book-order/ (TCVE Book) https://therealdarius.com (The Real Darius) https://www.facebook.com/therealdariusm/ (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/whoompdarius/ (Instagram) https://therealdarius.com/YT (YouTube) https://twitter.com/kingdarius (Twitter) https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusmirshahzadeh/ (LinkedIn) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you so bored of cooking that you'd quite happily throw all the utensils out of the window? Have you abandoned any attempt at culinary imagination? Are you worried about how to feed everybody, let alone with any kind of flair, without going insane and bankrupting yourself? Well, we are delighted to welcome the delicious Thomasina Miers to the podcast. She won Masterchef (FFS!) before founding Wahaca and her latest book, Meat-Free Mexican is an absolute goldmine. We talk about anxiety, cooking as meditation and how to spice up your lunch…cheaply.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we are joined by pillar of the UK food scene, Thomasina Miers. MasterChef winner and graduate from Ballymaloe cookery school, Thomasina co-founded restaurant group Wahaca after falling in love with the flavours of Mexico after her travels there. In this episode we discuss sustainability in the kitchen, biodiverse ingredients and what it takes to build a successful restaurant. For further information please visit www.waverton.co.uk or www.thomasinamiers.com LinkedIn:Doug Barnett – https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-barnett-a475b820/ This podcast is issued by Waverton Investment Management Limited, 16 Babmaes Street, London, SW1Y 6AH. Registered in England No. 2042285. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The information provided in this podcast is for information purposes only and Waverton Investment Management Limited does not accept liability for any loss or damage which may arise directly or indirectly out of use or reliance by the client, or anyone else, on the information contained in this recording. This podcast should be used as a guide only is based on our current views of markets and is subject to change.The information provided does not constitute investment advice and it should not be relied on as such. It should not be considered a solicitation to buy or an offer to sell a security. It does not take into account any investor's particular investment objectives, strategies, tax status or investment horizon.Where Waverton's advice is given it is restricted to discretionary investment management services. We do not provide advice on the use of tax or financial planning products (even if the service which we are managing is held within such a product) or non-discretionary investment.All materials have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed. There is no representation or warranty as to the current accuracy of, nor liability for, decisions based on such information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

-Mid-season update from Graz, Austria and Cardiff, Wales -Team bus trips & nights out that bring teams together -Different teams and different cultures but everyone loves Dease getting naked -Chippy Lane, Doner's, Wahaca, Vapiano's, steaks, curries, Donair sauce vs Tzaziki and what gets the fellas going -Jersey raffle at www.aleshockeytales.com - Graz 99ers (Team Signed), Stephen Dixon (Game worn Cardiff Devils) & Wally's (last game worn Cardiff Devils)

In this week's podcast, Patrick Holden is joined by Thomasina Miers, co-founder of restaurant chain Wahaca, which has won numerous awards for its food and sustainability credentials. Thomasina's passion lies in food and the environment, co-founding the Pig Idea in 2015 in an effort to tackle food waste, she is a trustee of Chefs in Schools and is an ambassador for the Soil Association. In 2019 she was awarded an OBE for services to the food industry, and continues to be a pioneer of sustainability in the world of hospitality and beyond.

00:00.56 mikebledsoe That's how you already canceled you're bulletproof. 00:01.76 Max Shank It's okay I already canceled myself so well, it's like I found I was putting so much of my identity into this illusion that I had masterfully crafted. On the internet I was like the dark night of fitness I was professional I was like once in a while a little bit funny I used all the big fancy words and I only showed people the exact slice of my life I wanted them to see and I was really good at it too and then I was like man this is a. Probably probably not good long term like this whole this whole reality that we've created where people think oh, that's just that's just max all the time I'm just out there. You know going on vacations and lifting huge things all the time and it's not really.. It's not really very honest. So of course I think we all do to fit in I think that's kind of normal and the best friends you have are the ones you don't have to fake around and truthfully. 00:57.30 mikebledsoe Or you are censoring yourself. It sounds like. 01:15.83 Max Shank I don't really hang out with too many people that I have to um, fake it around which is why I say some horrible things that are also really funny like if you've ever played the game would you rather? that's a really, that's a really good 1 Are you played would you rather. 01:20.66 mikebledsoe Four. 01:30.62 mikebledsoe No. 01:34.00 Max Shank So here's it's a hypothetical game. So for example, would you rather have sex with a goat and have no 1 know about it or have a video of you having sex with a goat that's totally fake, but everyone thinks you did. 01:47.44 mikebledsoe Oh that's a good 1 Yeah ah I'm gonna censor myself on that 1 actually I'm I'm having a hard time because yeah I think I might be on the same page as you on that 1 Ah. 01:56.14 Max Shank I would have sex with the goat. 02:04.99 Max Shank Is because there's still such a social stigma against bestiality right now we're not really enlightened about that. 02:07.50 mikebledsoe Yeah, it's and. 02:13.34 mikebledsoe Ah, well, it's interesting. What you're discussing is self-censorship is ah I hear people say they want to be more Authentic. You know I talk to a lot of people who want to express themselves on the internet and because I think people witnessed me do it and then they're like how do you do it I Want to do it too. And and and I'm definitely somebody Who's who's got a history of censoring myself less So these days than and earlier. But I think people deep down they desire not needing a sensor sensor themselves. They they want to. They want to be widely accepted by everybody but they think that the only way that can happen and it's probably true. The only way you can be popular with everybody is to censor yourself depending on the audience you're talking to and the person you're talking to. 03:03.58 Max Shank It is the most important thing to fit in with the group that you're a part of to fit in with the tribe I mean little kids go Rob seven eleven s and murder people so they can be part of a gang people say things that they don't mean people lie I mean I was a kid once I used to lie. 03:16.69 mikebledsoe Yep. 03:22.26 mikebledsoe Oh yeah. 03:22.93 Max Shank Did you ever lie I was great at it I had like think I had like 50 grandparents die as far as teachers knew growing up. Oh I decided I didn't do my homework a grandparents diet or something like that you know like when your're kid and you find out that lying is a. 03:29.54 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, yeah. 03:42.50 Max Shank Like a ten second uncomfortable experience that can save you like weeks of trouble. Potentially it's it's natural that you would do it and if you're talking about how to like fit in better. Oh my god of course we all do that. 03:49.94 mikebledsoe Yeah. 03:57.67 mikebledsoe Yeah, but would you say that everyone on of about everyone. But I think that everyone gets to a point at some point in their life where they don't want to have to censor themselves anymore and I think that they. When they are at that point the language they use to describe what they desire is they want to be free I Want to be free to express myself and ah and what ends up happening is when someone starts exploring how much they want to express themselves. Find out that they're the only ones that are censoring themselves based on wanting to be accepted by the tribe and the likeability and so I've witnessed a lot of people including myself go through this process where a slowly saying fuck it I don't give a fuck What people think. I'm going to be more honest and then watching watching the polarization happen where some people get become more distant from me the more honest I am and other people getting a lot closer because of how honest I am and it's a it's a filter and it's and it's. 04:57.20 Max Shank And. 05:02.56 Max Shank Well, it's just filter. It's a good thing. It's like panning for gold. 05:09.20 mikebledsoe And it's really served me in a way where I experience my experience of my life is ah very enhanced. It's it's unreal at times. Um, and my sister she came to my birthday party a few weeks ago. And she got to witness my community and she was blown away. She didn't realize that people could be like that. But it really is a result of censoring myself less and attracting those people who and then giving permission to other people. Censor themselves less because I think you and I both say things that in. Probably me more publicly but say things that people turn their heads at and go well that's a crazy thing to say I've never heard anyone say that before or put it that way. Um, and I think I think it gives people permission to go oh if he can do it I can do it too. 05:58.42 Max Shank Totally and. Well and there's something to be said about a frictionless experience like if you're in a situation where I guess what I'm saying is it's easy to put other people at ease with the way that you communicate. Like you don't have to draw attention to things that are like if you see someone who's really overweight. You don't have to draw attention to their fatness. You don't have to just speak whatever you instinctually think so we're always choosing what to say as if. 06:32.71 mikebledsoe Um, yeah, it doesn't mean doesn't mean that. 06:40.10 Max Shank It's important or not important. 06:40.61 mikebledsoe Well I would say it's um, yeah, censorship is a form of filter but it's not the only version of Filter. There's There's the the filter of of ah of response you're being responsible with your words and how people receive them. And so it wouldn't behoove me to go out there and tell everybody exactly what I think and the way that I want to say it now. What I do is I say things say what I believe and what I think in a way in which I know it can be received because there's no point and if I'm just saying. You know if I'm just dropping the truth. Ah the way that I want to be heard and understood I'm just going to sound like a crazy person. 07:27.50 Max Shank Well, you just touched on something that I was thinking which is a good communicator doesn't just communicate the information as simply as possible. He considers who the audience is so it will resonate with them the best. So. 07:40.68 mikebledsoe A. 07:46.26 Max Shank The examples that you use or the language you use I mean you and I both understand the the power of communication and getting a resonant message if you and I were writing an exercise program. For 20 year old men or 50 year old women. The program itself might actually look the same but the way that we present that offer would be monumentally different or at least it should be monumentally different. So it's not just about. 08:18.78 mikebledsoe A. 08:23.98 Max Shank Oh I'm like speaking my truth. It's like well why are you talking at all unless you care about the message being received. 08:30.28 mikebledsoe Yeah, well that but that makes me think of like like ah it it it requiring you to have good communication to get your point across in a way that they can receive it is that is ah a good sense. That's good. Ah. Leadership. That's good communication to have good leadership. You have to have good communication and what I think we're witnessing in our society right now is um, it's laziness I see that that censorship when when censorship is being heavily used. It's ah it's a form of laziness. And it's also um, on that note, what we were just saying too is you have to fit it to your audience. So what ends up happening is the larger the audience the harder it is to be good at communicating with that audience. So we we take the United states of America and there's 3 hundred and fifty million people. You now have to create ah get to communicate the narrative in a way that that impacts all 3 hundred million people is that even lowest common and nomin and is that possible and so. 09:35.80 Max Shank Lowest common denominator. 09:42.63 mikebledsoe And then that's why I mean lowest common denominator is the exact reason why any time the average per we look at what's happening with Mainstream I go they're going right? What's left. They're going left. What's right? Okay, what's going on here because when there's being to the low and lower. Low is coming denominator if you want to be average. That's the that's the perfect advice to take that's the perfect information to consume and to believe if you want to be above average. You have to go the other way and that that can be very uncomfortable but to me I look at the difference between good leadership and and. And poor leadership is that ability to communicate effectively and I just see a lot of laziness and when people say do this because I said so is like okay, you just lost it. 10:29.41 Max Shank Well and the other side of that is that you could say it's not laziness. It's just efficiency because you have to trust like. For example, if I get a plumber over at my house. And I don't know anything about plumbing I have to trust that he's going to do a good job and there is an incentive for him to do good job and maybe there's a contract that says if the pipe explodes he's on the hook for it. So I don't blame people for seeking answers outside themselves because it is way more efficient. However, while it is more efficient. It is also so I think about it in terms of concentration of Power. So if you concentrate power into a single point you can get more penetration which means you can do things much faster like a dictatorship but the trick with concentration. Is. You also give leave yourself open to the fast track for concentration Camps. So it's It's ah it's just exactly so. 11:29.88 mikebledsoe Yeah,, but there's also single single points of Failure. So if you if you concentrate your supply chain and everything's going through 1 2 3 ports or something like that. It only takes 1 person to do something Dumb. And the entire population suffers. 11:51.40 Max Shank Investing is a good example too. You know you have your investment portfolio say you have a million dollars or something like that. Do you put equal amounts into 10 companies equal amounts into 1 hundred companies or do you put it all into 1 company and. If you put it all into 1 company and that 1 just happens to do the best you have made the most that you can possibly make. But if it goes to zero. You've also lost everything so it's a real. It's it's tricky with with concentration of power and I think that's really what this all comes back to. Thomas soul I always go back to because he said what we do is not important. It's who decides what we do who decides? what information should be censored and what information should not be censored and that's that's a worthwhile conversation to have um. I think when it comes to the overarching idea of what is the role of government I like the phrase. The role is not to protect people. It is to protect freedom from coercion. Essentially so we're trying to keep people free. To pursue happiness right? Life liberty and pursuit of happiness that doesn't mean you buy food for everybody. It means that you prevent stealing and coercion and fraud and things like that. 13:18.38 mikebledsoe I think I think it's referred to as negative rights is that the the government and ah you know most people in the world and and Americans are included in this unfortunately the assumption is that they have no rights and all rights are granted by the government and. 13:23.60 Max Shank Ah. 13:36.86 Max Shank It's just the opposite. 13:38.60 mikebledsoe And a place if you're looking at from perspective. What's called well I didn't even hear this term until recently and they go oh yeah, negative rights I go okay that actually makes sense and that is you have the right? you have the right to do anything you want as long as you don't impede on someone else's rights and. Ah, the government's there just to ensure that we don't trample over each other's shit and that means not inhibiting. Someone's pursuit of life liberty happiness upholding um ah property rights essentially so the government is it. It was it was there to protect you know in the very beginning. 14:11.97 Max Shank It's really all it's for. 14:16.80 mikebledsoe Started off with people that knew how to fight and had weapons would protect farmers and they made deals with the farmers so they wouldn't get robbed by these thieves and then they demanded you know a five percent of their rations and then of course that's now if you're an american that's up to 30 something percent. Um, are your rations for to pay for your protection. Um, so it's ah that the benefit that the government gets from from censorship but I see is it's ah just a maintenance of power. So if you're if your job. If you're that person that comes in and says I'm going to protect you and ah and then there becomes there's potential competition for protection then ah you know they've got to do whatever they can do to squash that because they don't they don't want competition for being able to. Ah, protect your property and your life. 15:11.39 Max Shank Right? So kind of tying it back into censorship which is the core discussion today. What are the advantages ofor censorship. How is it good for everybody. 15:23.52 mikebledsoe Yeah, so I went online and I did a search and so I found I found 8 that's right fucking? Well you know that's why I use. Ah, that's why I use a duck duck go. 15:30.23 Max Shank And and somebody chose what results that you were able to see from that search. 15:42.12 mikebledsoe With a vpn so I actually so I take steps personally to reduce how much censorship I'm experiencing from Google That's true. That's true. Yeah. 15:49.21 Max Shank Sometimes the results aren't as good though. That's the problem right now. Sometimes they aren't as good and I I try it with both because I do the same thing. 16:00.83 mikebledsoe Yeah I agree. Ah yeah, so these these are I'll go through the list. Ah 1 is hate speech censorship allows us to reduce hate speech number 2 is protect children which is the ah to me is the number 1 excuse for censorship that. Anytime censorships gets questioned. It's like the last stand you know when you used to? yeah we mean privacy. Oh yeah, yeah, but I think that people want privacy from the government. So. It's kind of like if they're the ones censoring that's people are more likely to. 16:21.90 Max Shank Or privacy. Yeah. 16:35.20 mikebledsoe Give their information to Facebook and they are to government. 16:35.28 Max Shank Oh but what I'm saying is if you convince everybody that it's for the sake of protecting kids from getting raped that they have to look through your phone every day then some people will be okay with that is pretty high level persuasion. It's always kids. 16:45.50 mikebledsoe Yeah, yeah, so yeah. 16:53.69 Max Shank Always you know, take away the guns cause of the children take away your privacy because of the children take away free speech because of the children won't somebody think of the children. There's a there's a sign in my neighborhood quick tangent that says drive like your kids live here. 17:01.42 mikebledsoe Right? I Wonder how the kids. 17:12.51 mikebledsoe Um, yeah. 17:12.68 Max Shank You know there is There's a road to speed limit sign. But there's this extra sign that someone has put out that says drive like your kids here and what I want to do is put up my own sign that says teach your kids. What a road is oh. 17:30.14 mikebledsoe Ah I. 17:30.83 Max Shank Like what like oh my god that's just ridiculous I understand the concept some helicopter Mom is like worry that their kid will run out in the street. But really if her little kid runs out in the street and it's it's too young to know the difference then she's a bad mom. And if it's old enough to know the difference but she doesn't communicate that then she's also a bad mom. So. Either way, it's that parent's fault just like if you see a fat kid. That's not the kid's faultest. Parent's fault 17:53.83 mikebledsoe Yeah, well. Yeah I want to get in I want to get in the who's who's responsible because I think responsibility is is a good way to ah segue this and into some some actionables by end of this show but I want to hit this the rest of this list so hate speech protect children. Reduce conflict in society which I'm not sure that's actually working ah security to a country's government. Actually what was what was on the internet was security. What was it. Ah. 18:41.54 mikebledsoe Ah, yeah to a country's profile censorship can provide another level of security to a country's profile. Um, which to me again, it's they're not trying to censor and that's basically censoring sensitive. Government documents from being exposed like a wikileaks type of conversation. So Um I I like to point out that a lot of people confuse. Ah your country with your government and these 2 things are separate um and it's interesting to run into a blog where they. And make that collapse distinction ipe. Oh yeah, what was it. 19:18.00 Max Shank Mark Twain had a quote about that a man should be loyal to his country all the time and loyal to his government when they deserve it. 19:28.79 mikebledsoe Yeah, beautiful Mark twain 1 of my favorite authors. Um I p I p for artists and inventors so intellectual property copyright so you can't rip off someone else's work. Ah. 19:32.53 Max Shank No, it's funny guy. 19:40.96 Max Shank And then. 19:45.53 mikebledsoe By the way I think I p the idea of I p is not that old I think it's about 1 hundred years old or something like that. Well at least the modern day I p um because we can copy shit now whereas before it wasn't an issue. Um. 19:50.38 Max Shank Are. 20:04.20 mikebledsoe Stop false content. That's 1 that's probably the most popular 1 that's out right now fake news ah improve quality of information. Basically they said improve ah their exact words for like. 20:07.30 Max Shank Fake news. 20:23.40 mikebledsoe Improve a person's knowledge that 1 kind of made me chuckle. Um and and reduce identity Theft. So All these things sound good at face value Hate speech. Protect children reduce conflict in society security to a country's government I P for artists inventors stop False Content. You want just break each 1 of these down. 20:46.80 Max Shank Sure we could I mean Hate Speech is funny because who who decides where's the line. 20:52.36 mikebledsoe Why I think when you jump right to the end max I think I think that um I mean all this all this comes down to who decides on all these topics is and just so you were saying about Thomas so so soul 21:01.16 Max Shank That's what I do. Um, yeah. Soul Oh My God He's the man you should watch ah the out never mind I'll tell you later it's He's good though. 21:11.96 mikebledsoe Haven't read a ship before I have to check it out. Ah so. 21:20.27 mikebledsoe Cool. Ah yeah, it's like who who decides and I think that ah people tend to treat people who are in office as some type of superior being that knows better than them. And I get talking to people about this and the way they talk about it I'm going Wow You really believe that there are people who I I understand there are these people who are experts but ah the people that you've decided to trust are just people who happen to be in office or were appointed by people who were in office. And're not necessarily. They're the best policy makers. They're the best at creating policy which is making rules for other people to follow, but they're not the best that really anything else. They're really good at control. Oh yeah. 22:06.66 Max Shank I Disagree I Disagree I think they I think you can either do good or you can do well and I think the people who can do well who can play the game who can be charismatic sociopaths who are hungry for more power and willing to distribute it. Are the ones who are in Charge. Definitely not the people who are best at making policies that are effective in improving. Oh well I mean yeah, that's. 22:31.36 mikebledsoe Well I'm not saying good policies I'm just saying ah the creation of policies is about control. 22:41.25 Max Shank True and what I'm saying is the people who hold those positions of power aren't even necessarily the ones who are writing those policies. It's just the ones who are the most power hungry who then hire like lawyers and there's lobbying and stuff like that. So when we ask. Who decides? That's 1 of the big problems mean lobbying is a crazy bad problem right? and we don't have time. We don't have time if I mean if you look at how that works you would. It's almost enough to blow your brains out and be like this is game over like how did this happen. 23:06.95 mikebledsoe Insane. 23:16.84 mikebledsoe Oh. 23:19.32 Max Shank But ah now as far as who decides it's always the people who are the most power hungryngry because by definition they're going to have the biggest incentive to get that power because if you're in that situation. It's painful to not have. That level of power and everything comes back from pain being the primary motivator hunger desire pain all Synonyms. So. It's no surprise that the biggest incentive actually is to maintain that authority and the other. Authority is basically just you must trust me Blindly and it goes back to our 2 common rhetorical fallacies or logical fallacies which are appeal to authority and ad homism attack and they're the 2 arguments. Totally disregard the argument and instead focus on the arguer and this is this is where we get into why it's efficient to just trust somebody else like hey doctor science you you make my health decisions for me. 24:19.55 mikebledsoe Yeah. 24:33.62 Max Shank Is load off my mind so much easier I can understand the desire to do that and it's also so much faster to just write somebody off Oh that guy that guy max he's fucking Crazy. Don't listen to him don't even listen to anything he says he's just a. Crazy Conspiracy Theorist Nut Job Jerk I don't know you get it. 24:57.35 mikebledsoe Yeah, amazing thing about ah I've also got a list of which I want to hit I started a list of basically overt and covert censorship and the the labeling of things is. 25:07.40 Max Shank Ah. 25:15.47 Max Shank Um, how about essential how about essential. 25:16.61 mikebledsoe Ah, very interesting right? Yeah yeah, it's yeah I'd say I'm putting down labeling as censorship I Hate speech. 25:34.25 Max Shank What about it? Ah no, it's not nice, but I don't know people basically will dig their own grave by being hateful. 25:35.72 mikebledsoe Is there anything wrong with it. 25:50.63 mikebledsoe Yeah, that's a very wise place to sit from what about for the fools out there. 25:58.30 Max Shank But for well I don't hate the fools I like fools. Um, once again I don't think there's a problem with ignorance. Nothing wrong with that I'm ignorant about most things arrogance which is like I know what's best for you. 26:00.49 mikebledsoe Um. 26:17.34 Max Shank Instead of I know what's best for me. That's rather problematic and yeah I don't understand the the need or even the definition of hate Speech like could I could I call you a homo but not a fag Just for example. 26:29.38 mikebledsoe Um, well, um, yeah. 26:36.69 Max Shank I like homos frankly I think they're a really exuberant bunch. It seems like they almost ah get a. It seems like they crack the code. You know what? I mean like they get like the mail. 26:50.90 mikebledsoe Oh yeah. 26:55.29 Max Shank Sexual energy. But they also get the feminine like exuberance and they seem a little bit more liberated like it seems like pretty fun Actually I'm not sexually attracted to dudes. But if I were I would have had it would be so easy. 27:03.58 mikebledsoe Yeah. 27:09.79 mikebledsoe You be so good at it. Yeah, so it's um, well I'm reading this book right now the cuddling of the american mind and 1 of the things they talk about is ah they talk about this view that that. 27:13.70 Max Shank And be such a good homo. 27:29.43 mikebledsoe Words are violence and that you know if you so yeah, yeah, well this is this is what's going on in up and they're looking specifically at colleges and academics in academic settings where people are being. 27:32.11 Max Shank Sounds like a collapse distinction. 27:46.61 mikebledsoe Are invited to come speak and then people basically come out and say that this person is causing violence because they're saying something that causes an emotional trigger inside of them so there is this. Ah, there's this thing where people believe that. Ah, how. 27:55.47 Max Shank Ah. 28:06.15 mikebledsoe How they interpret your intention is your intention you're doing this to hurt me. It's like well I'm just speaking words and and so people have have confused ah emotional pain with physical injury. 28:23.11 Max Shank I Think people should be forced to wrestle and do a little boxing growing up so they can understand the distinction between physical violence and I don't actually think that but there's definitely a common nominator in people I've met at least. 28:23.12 mikebledsoe These these are 2 different things. 28:42.00 Max Shank Those who have some experience with martial arts boxing Jujitsu Judo something like that seem to have a much more realistic perception of the world. They seem to have less of this. Fear based lashing out for things that other people just say there's a big difference. Well and don't didn't we like blame Grand Theft Auto for for violence or something like that. 29:04.90 mikebledsoe Yeah, cause they're they're more in touch with cause and effect. 29:18.68 mikebledsoe Oh yeah. 29:20.81 Max Shank Haven't heard about like the hooker murder epidemic that resulted from that probably still way more people die as a result of alcohol but we try to we try to Cherry pick these things and I don't know we're always like fighting each other for a new reason you know the whole. 29:28.49 mikebledsoe Yeah. 29:38.98 Max Shank Idea of hate speech is where do you draw the line like let people say what they want let people um self- select their friend group. You know if if you say ah you know anyone with red hair should be ah shunned from Society. That's that's your opinion. Probably you won't be really popular with red-haired people. But it's like who cares. 30:01.57 mikebledsoe yeah yeah I had this conversation. Um I've had this conversation with my girlfriend a couple times which is like you know she I I ah I'm a fan of freedom so much that sometimes hurt like she's like having to catch up with me. 30:18.33 Max Shank Her her. 30:18.79 mikebledsoe And understanding how how it works and you know and she goes Well, what do you think about like people being able to discriminate on you know who's allowed in their store or not or or ah should someone be able to get fired just because of you know their race and I'm like yeah. I mean people are suing companies for getting fired so but they don't really actually want to work there but you want to work for somebody who's racist but like I think these policies that put people together that would normally not get along. 30:45.10 Max Shank But I. 30:56.15 mikebledsoe Doesn't cause them to actually get along. It's basically forcing people to interact who would who would normally voluntary in voluntarily not interact which could be an argument for reduction in total violence if people just go look you guys are gonna stay over there because I have this worldview and I'm going to stay over here because I have this worldview. 30:56.47 Max Shank The. 31:15.89 mikebledsoe Then Ah, we'd have a lot more peace but I think that. 31:19.40 Max Shank It's like the chess club and the bat the baseball club don't really hang out. 31:21.27 mikebledsoe Right? And so like this this idea that like because that government caused segregation and then all of a sudden ah government becomes the cause for integration and it's in both cases it causes violence. And so I think if you just let people if the government was responsible for segregation which it was and then they just said you know what we're not going to cut no more rules around Segregation Society would a piece of peacefully integrated I believe a lot more quickly and peacefully. Then what we witnessed. Ah, it was extremely violent because it went it just swung from 1 side of the pendulum to another inside of this idea that the government is in ultimate control over who we interact with. 32:11.84 Max Shank Well, and ultimately you can't have a conditional statement for every eventuality back to the whole computer science thing of if this then this if this than this you would just have an even bigger. Book of rules and really the only thing we should be concerned with is coercion right? like it doesn't matter if um, you are a racist like think how hard it is to be a racist you got to carry that hate with you every day. Or or even worse just imagine if you were a pedophile that would be probably like the worst luck of the draw ever and as long as that person doesn't act on that. That's probably just like okay you know what I mean like even. In India for example and I'm just using this example because it's the 1 that is the most inflammatory but in India you have arranged marriage between 30 year old dudes and 12 year old girls all the time that's common practice. But this idea that. We should um basically like minority report people for what they say is problematic like if someone feels a certain way. That's not a crime if someone coerces another person then it is a crime and I think. Extending the jurisdiction. Beyond coercion is a real mistake and that's where you get this more like hive mind Mentality. You get an over concentration of power and no question. There are advantages. To a concentration of power but they're also extreme disadvantages just the same if you are going to put all your eggs in 1 Basket. You know I just remember this video of Mussolini giving a speech and he just raised his fists in the air and goes 1 country 1 decision and everyone's like. Yeah they're so excited that they don't have to make any decisions anymore because he's gonna do all that hard work for him and that is a natural sentiment. We. We want to get we want to get more for less. We don't want to do anything. It's very natural. So. 34:32.56 mikebledsoe Well I think I. 34:41.50 Max Shank We want to be as efficient as possible, but there's a huge cost to that you are putting yourself at risk of total loss rather than diversifying that power along all the people. That's why it's so important to vote with your dollars. 34:57.84 mikebledsoe Yeah, did you listen to that you listen to that rogan I don't listen to a lot of rogan but every once in a while something comes on my radar that that North korean woman. Did you listen that whole episode. Yeah, ah 1 of the things that really struck me with that was. 35:00.85 Max Shank It's an it's a self-correting. 35:08.69 Max Shank Um, yeah I did. 35:17.63 mikebledsoe And think we even talked about this now that I'm thinking about it is she said that when she was exposed to freedom. She had a hard time she if she there was too many choices. There are so many choices to make that within five minutes she had become physically fatigued and mentally for. 35:29.81 Max Shank Yeah. 35:37.53 mikebledsoe Fatigue from being exposed to choice because she didn't have any because Kim jong un was making all the decisions for her. Ah her entire life. So as a 13 year old is just oh what do you want to eat well how many options do I have oh a dozen. 35:45.14 Max Shank Right. 35:55.76 Max Shank What What do you want to watch on Tv tonight you can pick from any of these four hundred thousand view options. Yes to it's too many choices. So that's kind of that's the positive side of distributing those choices. 35:55.97 mikebledsoe Okay, this is this really got difficult. 36:01.89 mikebledsoe Oh my God I can't watch Tv because of that. 36:15.90 Max Shank Like part of the reason family units have often worked so well in the past is because you have what's called comparative advantage. You know the lady um will just alienate all the ladies now too. You know back in the day. The lady would take care of the house and. As a homeowner myself I think that's a super important job taking care of a house is is its own job. Especially if you have kids around women are naturally better at nesting and nurturing the guy goes out. He just focuses on 1 thing which is going. And bringing home the bacon whether he's a farmer or a hunter or ah, a businessman of some kind so divvying up the responsibilities based on ability is super beneficial. So it's natural that you would want to. Get the people who are best at what they do to do the job for you. 37:16.58 mikebledsoe Agreeing. Ah, one last note I want to make on the hate speech is 1 of the things that I've noticed is well yeah, um I think if you say something racist is is the number 1 thing. 37:21.91 Max Shank I Still don't even know what that means was it mean naughty words. 37:33.30 Max Shank Shut up Pinky Shut up pinky. 37:33.28 mikebledsoe Or homophobic or something like that. What's that? yeah so that what? um, well yeah, but well my ah my buddy danny who's from Wahaca he's mexican and they. 37:40.87 Max Shank Um, we're hardly white. Definitely definitely Pink. There. 37:53.17 mikebledsoe He's like I don't know why we're called colored people and you're white you guys change colors all the time you get red you get white. You get like you like you're always changing colors like I'm the same color all the time you're the colored people. Ah but the the thing that's made me. Ah, anytime. 38:01.53 Max Shank Like moon. Yeah. 38:12.60 mikebledsoe Somebody in the last couple of years you know racism has been such ah a prominent conversation in the last couple years is people go oh that person's racist and I go well why? and then ah ah, a lot. Ah a lot of times. There's not a specific instance. They just. 38:24.32 Max Shank It's an ad hom attack. So easy. 38:29.98 mikebledsoe It's become the common narrative that that person's racist and then they'll take words out of context for instance like Trump people say Trump's racist. 38:31.37 Max Shank Um, but the. Or how about any of the many things that I've said on this podcast. There are enough 5 to ten second clips on here that could have me pilloried. Ah. 38:43.51 mikebledsoe And so it's people will go Oh there's there's there's like plot for Trump For instance I'm not a Trump fan didn't vote for him. So ah, that makes me good. Well this is There's my caveat to the this my argument here. 38:53.72 Max Shank That makes you good to to most of the listeners. 39:02.65 mikebledsoe Which is I Also don't think he's racist I don't think he's so many of the things that the media made him out to be and ah and because he did a lot of things that if you look at it policy wise he did a lot of things for the black community if you look at it ah at black and white. On paper. He did more than Barack Obama did for the black community and yet he got painted a racist because who the fuck really knows why that that he was. He's unpopular amongst the elites. That's that's what makes me curious about that guy. Again I'm not a big fan I'm not a Q Andon Person. Ah and it has been interesting to watch people go really pro Trump as much as you know is when they I just feel like there's a big opportunity that was missed and that people are they just shift. Who they think should be the Authority instead of realizing that it's that the authority is ah is a artificial construct. But ah. 40:05.98 Max Shank It's. 40:11.45 Max Shank It's all a means of disqualifying the argument of the individual or hyperqualify hey you know trust Doctor science ah fuck this racist pedophile guy I mean if I ever. 40:17.11 mikebledsoe Oop. 40:22.54 mikebledsoe Um, yeah. 40:26.32 Max Shank Started if I was ever in a race for office I would never discuss the policy of my opponent I Would only say I can't believe that I have to run against such a racist pedophile with a dog fighting ring in his basement I Don't think the American people. Want to have a racist pedophile dog abuser in office am I right? people I would never I would never I would never talk about policy people don't care I would only attack the worst things this guy could do ever. 40:56.98 mikebledsoe Well I mean that this is what happened the narrative in the last election was the Democrats are pedophiles and the republicans are a racist. It's pretty much like that it was just if you really take a step back. You go? Oh yeah, that was. 41:07.92 Max Shank Um, it's just name. It's just name calling. Yeah. 41:16.80 mikebledsoe That was except the only thing was was it was alternative media that was pumping up the pedophilia conversation. It was mainstream media that was pumping up the racist conversation up. Yeah Abc Nbc cnn. 41:24.10 Max Shank Well, what's mainstream just the big the big names. What's funny if you look at the amount of actual viewers now and the amount of traffic people like Joe Rogan actually have way more. Ah. 41:39.25 mikebledsoe Joe Rogan has more gets more downloads than I think all the major news agencies have combined. 41:46.95 Max Shank Well I was talking to a good friend of mine and even he agrees because very mainstream guy you know watching all the different news stations and he's like you know Joe Rogan We agreed has just built up so much credibility because he has done so many hours and so many hours where. 42:06.62 mikebledsoe Um, no yeah I wouldn't want to fight the man. 42:06.69 Max Shank He's not arrogant and I mean maybe about fighting sometimes but he does know a lot about fighting too. No no, no, no, no, no, definitely not I Just mean about like knowing about styles of fighting like he knows so much and sometimes you're like oh really? okay. 42:20.21 mikebledsoe Right? right. 42:26.70 Max Shank But he doesn't Lie. He doesn't try to hide Anything. He's very open about everything so he's actually built up this crazy credibility and that's something super powerful and I'm sure he has some awareness. The clout that he has developed but that's got to be such a ah scary thing at the same time knowing Yeah, it's amazing I Hope he wins. Yeah yeah I Hope he wins. 42:44.50 mikebledsoe Oh I'm sure. Well you hear he's ah he's suing Cnn Yeah I Hope he gets a lot of money out of them. Yeah, but of course Cnn just has a budget for that kind of shit. So. 43:02.20 Max Shank Um, well it's probably being funded by our taxpayer dollars and money that is printed out of thin air I mean you look at the way that well you look at the way that. 43:09.48 mikebledsoe Well pharmaceutical companies I mean yeah, the money the money's going the money's going from them printing it off to the pharmaceutical companies to the news media. That's that's the line of information. That's how the information is flowing right now. And you can tell because Pfizer is fucking advertising like crazy I I can find a super clip where someone put together that super clip which is basically how much Pfizer is advertising on the news where people are going to get information about. 43:32.50 Max Shank I saw. 43:45.94 mikebledsoe How they're going to live their life basically ah and make decisions and what they believe and then everything is advertised. Do you think that if you were 1 a top Journalist for cnn is there any benefit to you ah talking negatively about vaccinations. That's right. 44:01.19 Max Shank Only if I want to lose my job mike. 44:05.87 mikebledsoe So it's sponsors in a way can be a form of censorship. So if say we say we took on a sponsor and this yeah. 44:14.60 Max Shank Of course flaming hot Cheetos get at us. 44:22.45 mikebledsoe We're never going to talk shit about Cheetos if that happens we're only going to talk about how many cheetahs we had over the weekend. How tasty they were. Oh yeah yeah. yeah 44:26.67 Max Shank We might even invent a fat loss diet based on flaming hot cheetos which would be easy to do I think you could eat a diet of like forty percent of your calories. From flaming hot cheetos and still lose weight as long as everything else was dialed in. 44:40.98 mikebledsoe But ah, something something just jumped into my my awareness here that the conversation we've had so far has actually been very dense even though you know you and I are just having fun but I can imagine somebody says hey you need to listen to this show. Check out this show on censorship that mike and Max did and when they're listening. They might if this is the first time they're exposed to this type of conversation could be getting overwhelmed and going oh shit I don't believe anything and I say that because I've I've been in conversations where before where I can. Watch people physically start to contort their body because they realize how much they don't know they they begin to yeah, they begin to realize and what ends up happening is like you can't unknow what you know ah at ah. 45:23.29 Max Shank Well, it's very uncomfortable. 45:33.67 Max Shank If you drink enough booze you can. 45:35.36 mikebledsoe For certain things. Yeah, it's true. But ah you you can't unknow this shit and people get uncomfortable because it it you begin to realize that 1 hundred percent of the responsibility is on your shoulders when you thought that it was on someone else's Shoulders. And that that responsibility is scary and when you take on the responsibility of developing your own Wisdom. It's a lot of work and going back to your efficiency thing. You know people are become very accustomed to a high amount of. Efficiency and um I mean some could blame capitalism for that and because there's this this level of comfort and not having to think and then all of a sudden we lay something out there. So I I bring that up because I want to acknowledge it for anyone who's listening and just say. You know it's okay, it's okay, you go fuck I don't know what to believe anymore. All the information is false. Um, yeah I mean just and I think that way you got to get to that point is understanding that most of what you think is a lie and yeah. 46:47.75 Max Shank I'll simplify it down if you if you don't mind. Yeah, it's I like to take things to the extremes I don't know if you've noticed that about me. But. 46:50.98 mikebledsoe Please. 46:56.53 mikebledsoe Yeah, I'm not accustomed to that type of lifestyle. 47:01.94 Max Shank You're you're more of a middle ground type of guy. Ah, okay, if you had to choose between believing everything you read and see and believing nothing you believe and see then it would be safer to believe nothing so it's safer to believe nothing. And you can be sure that there's always an intent behind every message that you see to persuasion just to get you to buy to try to cry to laugh. Whatever and my my personal it goes back to once again, computer science which is. So heavily logic based I so I still know like almost nothing about it but the concept of trust but verify and that verify is your responsibility.. It's always your responsibility to verify for yourself and you. 47:58.19 mikebledsoe Yeah, well well, there's there's been Ah, there's been a trick played on the common person and that ah ah, the fact, the fact, the fact checkers. The fact checkers. 48:10.15 Max Shank You can't possibly know. 48:16.16 mikebledsoe Are playing the role of verify people think they're verifying by doing a Google search and seeing fact check in the title and then go. 48:21.97 Max Shank No, no, it's your responsibility to verify. You're right though that is a trap. 48:26.72 mikebledsoe But people people think they are verifying when they do that because people will Google and they go well fact check I'm like really yeah. 48:32.20 Max Shank But that's just that's just trusting another guy like so whenever you're thinking about these things. It's best to try to reduce the number of parties involved. So for example, if there are 3 of us you me and some other guy. And some other guy says hey mike if you give me a hundred bucks now I'll give you a thousand next week and then you're like hu and let me verify that and you ask me and I'm like yeah you can trust him that's like basically the same thing it doesn't change anything right. So you have to keep it always does come back to that responsibility is upon the individual and if you take the responsibility which is your ability to respond also away from the individual then you are opening the door for totalitarianism which. There are advantages and disadvantages. You can move much further much faster I think china has gotten a lot more people out of poverty in the last twenty years than before under a form of totalitarianism. But. 49:46.29 mikebledsoe Ah, totalitarianism combined with capitalism. 49:48.28 Max Shank With that concentration right? That's very good point So we have capitalism combined with we have Crony capitalism. 49:57.96 mikebledsoe A. 49:59.32 Max Shank Unfortunately, which is where you're allowed to lobby and make rules that are not the same for everybody and all these backwards incentives. But my point is there are advantages to concentrating power and there are also huge disadvantages and if you blindly follow something you are opening the door. For a very small minority to call the shots for everybody and that's basically what slavery looks like and you might be a happy little slave but you're still not free or responsible for Yourself. You got to follow the money with all this stuff. That's the best. That's the best. 50:28.64 mikebledsoe Um, yeah, yeah. 50:37.20 Max Shank Paper trail or trail crumbs to find out. What's really going on is how's that money changing hands. And yeah, you know what? I've I've gone through a similar thing just back to what you're saying. It's it's super uncomfortable to realize that. Most of what you taught you were taught was a waste of time and most of the information that's been passed off as news has been flagrant lies with only the intention of making you more dependent and ah obedient. You know by Bye bye trust trust trust. 51:14.63 mikebledsoe But ah, 1 of the things you're talking about you've been talking about you know? Ah, it's trusting someone else creates efficiency but also leaves door open for abuse and 1 of the things that I tell people. 51:15.96 Max Shank Right? It's uncomfortable. But. 51:33.50 mikebledsoe When we start talking about where are you getting your information talking about the verify piece where are you getting your information while I'm getting it from this person. My great and you know say they're talking about something like a virus. It's like yeah I'm not a virologist you know I am not going to know a lot about that I would say that I know a lot about health. 51:35.31 Max Shank My. 51:52.30 Max Shank I would say so I'll verify that you know a lot about health fact I fact checked you? Yeah check mark. 51:52.90 mikebledsoe Which I think is really all you gotta know? Ah, yeah, thank you thank you listen to Max folks. He's smart guy. Yeah fact, check complete. So um, my my thing is when I start talking to people about who I listen to so. Yeah I I don't pretend like I've gone out and obtained all the knowledge and wisdom in the world. But what I do is I listen to wise people and ah and I qualify those people is what's the advice they've given over time which I think people have all our time. Even running that filter people don't really remember their their attention spans pretty fucking short. So what is their track record. That's my first thing when it comes to verifying is is what's their track record. Not not what pieces of paper. They've got not what credentials not what are not what are the letters behind their name. My question is. 52:33.20 Max Shank Everybody man 1 52:42.36 Max Shank Community not. 52:49.12 mikebledsoe What's their track record how sort of I'm listening to somebody about Health I Go What's their health like this is why I listen to Paul Check people go you know? Ah, ah you Know'm I'm gonna listen to this person or this person because they have these credentials and I go yeah but Paul check is is a. Great example of this. Not only has he mastered his own health The dude 60 years old and I'm pretty sure he can outlift me ah and he he ah he moves Well he has you know. 53:16.54 Max Shank Ah, well you you don't really prioritize lifting. But that's true. He could. 53:26.98 mikebledsoe Is sex life is vibrant from what I can tell the way he talks about it anyway. Ah the guy. Ah but all the Paul Trek fans are gonna laugh there. Ah but there. 53:30.98 Max Shank Um, I thought I thought you had participated never mind. 53:45.28 mikebledsoe I think we share a lot of the same audience. Um, but but he's got ah, he's got a track record of helping other people and he's mastered in himself and like who else am I who else has done that at 60 53:46.82 Max Shank I Think it's right What you're saying is right? It's about track record. 53:58.13 Max Shank So he walks the walk. He has a track record that you have seen develop over time and also the other thing that I would add to that is the incentive. 53:59.90 mikebledsoe You know Andy's older and he's got. He's got the wisdom on its side that time. 54:14.37 mikebledsoe A. 54:15.31 Max Shank What's the incentive. So when you're trying to um, decipher a new bit of information and part of it is just reducing the total bits. Otherwise you're going to be bombarded with a fire hose but who is to gain from what you're hearing that that is the number 1 question. So take everything else off the table who who gains from this message that you're hearing that is the number 1 thing is incentive and then because that's just about the argument and then the second part is consider the source. So that's where you start seeing. Okay well this person has led me led me the right way for a long time meanwhile the laundry list of lies and misinformation about health from these allegedly trusted entities. Is a mile long I mean how about eggs and it doesn't matter if the intentions are good even intentions. Good bad doesn't matter. It's more about what is the result of those things. So if if you're afraid of fruit because it's got too much sugar. 55:23.79 mikebledsoe What's the outcome does it this kind of goes in and I hate Speech this goes in the hate speech thing because like what people say what they do are different but this where outcome outcome is ah very important here. 55:29.84 Max Shank Yeah, of course like why would we? Well you know for Healthcare like why would we let the people making the decisions about Healthcare have a different plan than they agreed On. That's insanity. That's crazy. They so the people who create policy for Health. Don't use that same plan. Yeah, that's insane. That's insane like where is the Incentive. So. 55:50.00 mikebledsoe That can you repeat that. So the people Oh oh you talk about the medical care. Yeah. 56:06.42 Max Shank Incentive is the number 1 thing considering the source is probably the number 2 thing and then maybe the third thing is just an overall reduction in the amount of bits that you take in and this is tough because Dopamine is all about an external thing. You take in. You're like oh something something from out there to add in to my my self here and it takes you away from potentially creating really valuable projects and the the thing is you don't need to be. Plugged in all the time you don't need to be absorbing every new bit of misinformation out there. In fact, all it does mostly is distract you from what's really important in your life which is nurturing the relationships that you care about or nurturing the projects that you care about. And creating and expressing yourself in different ways and I I really like the simple idea of if you don't express you will feel depressed simple as that and it doesn't matter if you paint or play music or. 57:16.54 mikebledsoe If. 57:23.70 Max Shank Chat with a friend for a few hours or an hour. There are lots of ways to express yourself? Um, but if you're constantly seeking that the feed from outside you're going to become like mentally obese and it's going to be full of toxic bullshit. 57:42.60 mikebledsoe A a. 57:43.54 Max Shank Right? So just to recap its incentive source and then probably reduction would be like the third if I had to pick 3 57:52.27 mikebledsoe I like it. It's a good that's a good ah order to go in you'll you'll ah I think by just applying the first 2 you'll reduce the amount of people you're even looking at or piece information you're you're paying attention to. 58:04.66 Max Shank Oh yeah, people would say that I'm crazy for how little I trust anything I read or see but not nuds. It's true because. 58:12.44 mikebledsoe Um, well I I think that if you've ever gone through the process of questioning what you believe and what you think I think if you've never done that which most people have never sat there and analyzed their own thinking and gone is what I believe actually true. Once you believe once you have had the experience of realizing that most of your thoughts are complete bullshit then you should then understand that everyone else's thoughts are just they probably have the same amount of bullshit running around and most people are just expressing. They're bullshit all the time and the majority of what's flying around is just bullshit. There's very little truth very little truth in there. Totally unintentional. 58:53.92 Max Shank And it's not ah and and it's often not intentional. You know for a long time I I was told the knees should not cross the toes during a squat if you're bending over your back should not bend. 59:10.31 mikebledsoe Yeah, right? yeah. 59:12.36 Max Shank In fact, basically your back should never bend under load is this thing I believed and some people still believe that some people believe the exact opposite of that and and that's okay too. But oh yeah, oh yeah I mean. 59:21.88 mikebledsoe Have you seen this knees over toes guy on Instagram his shit is good and his whole his whole his whole the name of his Instagram is controversial and he's blowing up. It's good. 59:31.36 Max Shank I. Right? It's it's brilliant as brilliant marketing I think it looks mostly sound. Obviously it's not the way that I would approach overall health and fitness. But I think the message is overall good. Which is you're not fragile and it's good to bravely explore these ranges of motion. Um I got did I tell you about the third round monkeys third round monkey rule is perfect for this episode. 59:59.80 mikebledsoe Yeah. 01:00:07.35 mikebledsoe No. 01:00:12.70 Max Shank Its really short. It's not that short, but it's short enough. Yeah, sure. 01:00:13.14 mikebledsoe Do you want to you want to take this show an hour and a half by the typical hour because I I think we have might I've covered like half of what's in my fucking Notebook right now. 01:00:23.80 Max Shank Well, let's let's let it ride but here's an important thing to realize and it's about Mythology. So Third round I have all these that I try to organize stuff. So it's simpler to remember so I have this 1 called Third round monkeys which is about a scientific study. They did. With monkeys in a room with a ladder and a bowl of fruit at the top and so they had like 6 monkeys in there and 1 starts to go up for the fruit and the researchers immediately hose off all the Monkeys. With a fire hose all of them. Not just the 1 who climbed up for it and so then they all stop doing that so they're all just sitting around not going near the ladder because they know they'll get the hose and then they take out half the monkeys and replace them. With new monkeys. So now you have a combined group a and group b 1 of the new monkeys starts climbing up the ladder and 1 of the older ones are the all the older ones start beating it up because they know that if he does that they're all going to get the hose. So then once again, you have this group of like 6 monkeys or so doing nothing then they take away the first monkeys and they add in the third round monkeys same thing. 1 of the new monkeys. Sees a bowl of bananas or fruit or something up there starts going up the ladder and the second round monkeys beat him up mercilessly and so now you have like 6 monkeys not going near the fruit and none of them have seen the fire hose. They don't know why they don't know why they're beating. They're beating these new Monkeys. They just know that if you go up the ladder you get beaten and that's how a lot of information gets transmitted. It's just I was talking with ah my friend victoria. 01:02:31.56 mikebledsoe Bunch of hearsay. 01:02:34.98 Max Shank The other day and we were playing this game called ah fuck that last guy high five that last guy because so many things from the past are amazing. It's incredible and some things. We're just like oh fuck that guy that guy sucks like he really ruined it for everybody else and that's sort of how we have gotten to this point some things you blindly believe but we don't We don't really know why. 01:02:52.94 mikebledsoe E. 01:03:08.53 mikebledsoe Probably most things so lot lot has just been passed down. 01:03:15.45 Max Shank I'm kind of I'm becoming more and more and of of ah, an objectivist but there's a caveat to that because objectivism is like just believing what you can experience firsthand but I also believe there's obvious be way more than that. 01:03:25.25 mikebledsoe Yeah, but also. 01:03:32.18 Max Shank That is beyond my sensory perception. 01:03:33.54 mikebledsoe Well I think I think that the I would say this the way I'm very objective is the way I operate is is I I Really do my best to believe only what I can verify with my own senses and ah everything else. 01:03:52.70 Max Shank Yeah, that's tricky. 01:03:52.13 mikebledsoe Just take with a grain of salt which like maybe maybe and then also you know the way that I think you and I both live our lives is we have done enough reflection to create our ah philosophy and principles in which we live our lives and which means that. I don't have to know that much information you don't have to know that information to make good choices. Ah, and so for instance, the idea of what we see what we witness in nature is what happens anytime we isolate something. We isolate a cell from being able to talk to other cells in the human Body. What happens the cell starts to replicate in a way that causes cancer right? when it can't communicate with the other cells. Yeah it it dies but and and it's. 01:04:40.15 Max Shank Or it dies right? I mean depends on the environment. 01:04:46.35 mikebledsoe And it's attempt to live on it will replicate unhealth in an unhealthy way. Yeah, it'll die or it'll replicate in a cancer way right? has no direction right? It's not getting the right inputs. Um, what's a. 01:04:50.49 Max Shank Um, in in an in a way that is that has no direction. Basically it's like growth without direction bingo. 01:05:05.40 mikebledsoe But guy who described this. He's a really he used to work in cancer and now he he's ah he's 1 these really great docs to listen to. Ah, he's is my name maybe his name will pop into my head here in a minute but ah, ah, but when things are integrated when you integrate something like. A lot of what happens with health is how well things are integrated with each other and in systems support each other and everything is whether the cell or an organ or your joints if you so if you've studied health and you really recognize? oh. And you witness what are the results of isolation and what are this the results of of integration and then you watch that happen socially to what are the results of isolation and what are the results of integration and. Not force integration but just allowing things to integrate naturally. 01:05:58.30 Max Shank No system works in isolation is a phrase for health. 01:06:02.30 mikebledsoe Yeah, and so I don't need to understand all the details of how these people theoretically think this virus works by the way. It's all theory. The basis in which. The virologists are making decisions. It's based on a theory which is called Germ Theory ah that was the 1 Yeah. 01:06:21.75 Max Shank Ah, crap we're gonna get censored now fuck that was it that was the that was the 1 thing you're not allowed to talk about I said fag earlier we were probably gonna be okay with that. It's because those guys can take a joke. 01:06:33.90 mikebledsoe Ah, we definitelin? Yeah, so but ah, you know people people. It's 1 of those things I get in conversation with people I'm like why are you operating from germ theory or are you more familiar with terrain theory. And then people go I don't know what you're talking about I go oh well, do you believe that you know just being exposed to a germ is going to make you sick and like well yeah, that's that's what's happening they go. Okay, then then you're a germ theory person. You don't even know it and yet that's the postulate in which. All these arguments are being made from the idea of isolating yourself. Don't go outside wear a mask stay 6 feet apart. These are all isolated. This isolation makes sense inside of germ theory. But even the person who founded germ theory. Ah, with his name Louis pasture was 1 of the the people who really put germ theory on the map at the end of his life of saying I made a fucking mistake. You know he was the 1 that was in charge of pasteurizing milk. Best of intentions but seti made a mistake so you got this guy that everyone praises for for inventing pasteurization. 01:07:40.77 Max Shank With the best of intentions. 01:07:50.14 Max Shank Ah. 01:07:50.77 mikebledsoe We passed here and yet at the end of his life. He says don't do what I said earlier stay away from it and yet no 1 listens to that. so so um everybody governments medical boards. All these things bought into germ theory and ah. 01:07:56.64 Max Shank What how tricky. 01:08:09.80 mikebledsoe I go back to? Well, what's the result of our medical system operating from ah germ theory. Well what are we produced. We hav

Lily Simpson, Founder & CEO of The Detox Kitchen is an expert when it comes to creating high quality, healthy meals which are 80% plant based and using 100% wholefoods. Every dish is wheat free, dairy free, refined sugar free and chemical free. Described by The Telegraph as ‘the best diet delivery service for food lovers’ their company delivers a whopping 1 million meals each year in the form of fridge fills (their nationwide delivery service) or meal plans (within Greater London) and have had a 300% increase on uptake since lockdown. She has two Central London deli’s and her meals are stocked in Selfridges and Planet Organic. Clients include A Listers, and their most recent collaboration is with the BBC Masterchef Winner, Founder of Wahaca, Thomasina Miers, who incidentally inspired me to apply to compete on the show as a contestant. And alongside building the business our guest has also written two cookbooks – ‘Detox Kitchen’ as co-author with nutritionist Rob Hobson and sole-author of Detox Kitchen Vegetables.I could have chatted with Lily for hours and hours. Lily is upfront, honest and so insightful. We chat about how and why she got started, the challenges of being a mum of 3 littles alongside growing the business, the upside of the pandemic, what has tested her and what she learnt, the real driver behind it all (you need to listen to the end to find out ... just saying ;)), how she fits in staying fit and healthy and loads more.I guarantee you will harvest rich insights from this episode.My book recommendation: 'Aromatherapy an A-Z' ~ Patricia DavisLily's book recommendation: 'The Cost of Living' Deborah LevyChocolate: Lindt Orange IntenseQuote: 'I learned that when life pulls you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface, and breathe again.' ~ Sheryl Sandberg.www.thedetoxtkitchen.co.uk insta: @thedetoxkitchenSUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER WITH A CHANCE TO WIN OUR H&P CHOCOLATE BAR.Don’t forgot to hit follow to catch the latest episode and if you are feeling super generous I would treasure a rate and review (Apple). Do share away with any mates, neighbours, colleagues, family if you think they may gain a nugget or two of inspiration or insight.To keep up to speed with me and life with Hope & Patience join us on Insta/twitter @amelia_rope, Facebook @hopeandpatience Clubhouse: @ameliapodWorry less. Smile more. Until the next time … keep your sparkle. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jimmy Carpenter chats to Thomasina Miers OBE, a cook, writer and the co-founder of the Wahaca (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahaca) chain of Mexican street food restaurants. She is also the first ever winner of Masterchef! After trying to find a career in advertising, VAT consultancy, journalism and digital consultancy, "Tommi" finally met Clarissa Dickson Wright who told her to follow her passion. Following trips overseas to Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland and to Mexico, she came back to the UK and ended up winning Masterchef before setting up her restaurants. However, it's not all been plain sailing, in 2016 people fell ill following an outbreak of norovirus, losing the company millions of pounds. Thomasina and her business partner Mark, have turned things around, giving them resilience for tackling the current global pandemic in 2020/21. In this episode, you'll learn how the dots of your life join up, how to overcome failure, find your passion and about taking measured risks. Find out more about Thomasina, here https://www.thomasinamiers.com/ Find out more about the podcast series, here https://www.veryimpressivepeople.co.uk/ Message Jimmy on Twitter: @JCarpenter82

Time to crack open the tequila, because ‘Masterchef’ winner and Wahaca co-founder Thomasina Miers is this week’s guest, in another pre-Covid recorded episode.Find out more about Thomasina Miers at www.thomasinamiers.comFollow Thomasina on Twitter and Instagram @thomasinamiersBuy Thomasina’s cook books on her websiteRecorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive Productions.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design) and Amy Browne (illustrations).Follow Off Menu on Twitter and Instagram: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Watch Ed and James's YouTube series 'Just Puddings'. Watch here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When I started this podcast, one of my objectives was to keep things light and humorous, especially in the face of the seriousness of the lives we are all being asked to lead at the moment. But every now and again, Someone's story comes along where light and humorous just doesn't feel appropriate. In today's episode we have one such story.   It's powerful, gripping, hopeful, moving and incredibly important. It's a story that transcends Hospitality and I think needs to be heard by as many people as possible. So today, I'm stripping things right back, no music intro, no comedy moments just me, chatting to someone with a phenomenal story of transcendence. I'm delighted to introduce to you, Mohamed Ali who currently works at those legends over at https://www.wahaca.co.uk (Wahaca). Mohamed has quite literally been saved by the industry of hospitality and shows what kindness really can achieve.   Mohamed's strength is in how he is looking forward I'd urge you to listen to every single word of our chat and when you're done, share it to as many places as you can, even beyond our incredible industry. It's a story that needs to be heard and could save an awful lot of people. A huge thank you to Mohamed for being so open. Until then sit back, take a deep breath, and I hope you enjoy Mohamed's story as much as I did Please Follow Mohamed's inspiring message of positivity in the following places:- Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGFWTvZLPb-vImhUnmvLGwg (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGFWTvZLPb-vImhUnmvLGwg) Instagram - @MI_Horizon Twitter - @Mo_Humaneskill Follow The Clink at:- Website - https://theclinkcharity.org (https://theclinkcharity.org) Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOE41Y7hY6XcPHHxU7C9fEw (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOE41Y7hY6XcPHHxU7C9fEw) Twitter - @theclinkcharity Instagram - @theclinkrestaurant Show Transcription SUMMARY KEYWORDS people, life, Clink, hospitality, feel, Mohamed, thinking, prison, easy, situation, realise, gun, support, guess, hear, father, Somalia, choice, story, London SPEAKERS Phil Street, Mohamed Ali Phil Street 00:00 Hey, everyone. So here's the thing. When I started this podcast, one of my objectives was to keep things light and humorous, especially in the face of the seriousness of the lives we're all being asked to lead at the moment. But every now and again, someone's story comes along where light and humorous just doesn't feel appropriate. In today's episode, we've got one such story. It's powerful, gripping, hopeful, moving, and incredibly important. It's a story that transcends hospitality, and I think needs to be heard by as many people as possible. So today, I'm stripping things right back, no music intro, no comedy moments, just me chatting to someone with a phenomenal story of transcendence. I'm delighted to introduce Mohamed Ali, who currently works at those legends over at Wahaca. Mohamed has quite literally been saved by the industry of hospitality, and shows what kindness really can achieve. But his real strength is in how he's looking forward, I'd urge you to listen to every single word of our chat. And when you're done, share it to as many places as you can. Even beyond our incredible industry. It's a story that needs to be heard, and could save an awful lot of people. A huge thank you to Mohamed for being so open. Stay tuned to the end For information on where you can follow this inspirational guy. I'll also put the links in the show notes on our website, hospitalitymeets.captivate.fm, where you can also sign up to our weekly newsletter. Until then, sit back, take a deep breath. And I hope you enjoy Mohamed's story as much as I did. Hello, and welcome to the next edition of hospitality meets with me, Phil Street. Today, I've got an absolute humdinger of a guest. As you all know by now, one of the objectives of the show was to tell as wide a variety of stories as possible from entry... Support this podcast

New coronavirus restrictions in England are expected to be announced later today. One of the industries that will be paying close attention to the update is the hospitality sector, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. (Image: diners in Wahaca restaurant on the South Bank, central London. Credit: Press Association)

This week’s guests are three women who are passionate campaigners for change in their sectors. They are a true testament to the power we all have to lead change and make the world that little bit better in our own way. Whether it be championing sustainability in our food chain, to empower our young to believe their dyslexia is infact a superpower.   SME: SOS is a topical podcast to support small businesses through this turbulent time. Offering advice from experts and founders, this episode is designed to empower and support you through practical tips, advice and real life experiences.   This SME: SOS podcast episode is brought to you with thanks to Dell Technologies. Follow Holly and #SMESOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollytucker/?hl=en

Celebrity WhatsApp statuses this week, in a brand new game we accidentally stumble upon. Plus, some terrible news about Wahaca for us both, and someone's had his balls off (not Cornelius). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Celebrity WhatsApp statuses this week, in a brand new game we accidentally stumble upon. Plus, some terrible news about Wahaca for us both, and someone's had his balls off (not Cornelius). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week I talk about what you need to consider before starting your own business. I discuss the right questions to ask before choosing a qualified dog walker and I talk you through everything I bought for my flat this week that may mean I now have shares in BnQ and Facebook Marketplace. Can you guess this weeks conundrum?

Hannah MacInnes joins Thomasina Miers, Co-Founder of Wahaca, on The Klosters Forum Feed & Flourish Podcast series, to discuss the topic of biodiversity and ways in which we can transform our food systems in order to positively preserve our planet. Thomasina also co-founded the Pig Idea in 2015 with Tristram Stuart to tackle food waste, helped set up Chefs in Schools in 2017 for which she is a trustee, is an ambassador for the Soil Association and was awarded an OBE in 2019 for her services to the food industry. 

MARK MCC (MARK MICK-SEE), SUPERSONIC INCI'm a rocket booster for your food, drink or hotel business. I will make a visible and commercial difference to your business across brand, marketing, digital, social and employee engagement.I have worked in Brand, Marketing, Digital, Social and Employee Engagement for over 20 years with companies such as lastminute.com, Barclaycard, YO! Sushi and Pret A Manger.I offer Strategy, Speaking, Workshops, Facilitation and Non Executive Director advice mainly for fast casual restaurants, fine dining restaurants, takeaway shops, coffee shops, delivery businesses, food and drink manufacturers, retail businesses, pubs, bars and hotels.Find out how I can help your brand BOOM at: https://supersonic-inc.squarespace.com/Follow me: Twitter: https://twitter.com/supersonic_incInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/supersonic_inc/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmcculloch/ Brought to you by Engage Interactive Engage are a results-driven, digital agency working with large and mid-size businesses who share their ambition for growth.They provide a deep expertise across a breadth of markets and are experts in the food, drink and hospitality sector.They blend creative, technical and performance marketing to drive long-term customer value from cost-effective, low-risk solutions while increasing sales and market share.They strive to continually deliver quality, passion and considered challenge through long-term, strategic partnerships, and call this Attention to Digital™.For them, they do this because for their business, for their customers, and for everyone they §work with, the alignment of values, ambition and results are critical for success.Find out more: https://engageinteractive.co.uk/Supported by BDOBDO have been long term supporters of the hospitality sector, passionate about supporting innovative entrepreneurs (on their journeys) & helping their clients succeed.“That's why they were keen to support Mark with this podcast..” BDO provides tailored advice to the sector across corporate finance, due diligence, tax and accounting matters. Giving clients the advice they need, when they need it. For Ideas | People | Trust, go to bdo.co.uk

What's it like becoming a celebrity overnight? Bake Off Winner David Atherton talks fame, food and post-GBBO freak outs with presenter Leyla Kazim and shares stories and gets some advice from Masterchef winner and Wahaca co-founder Thomasina Miers.

Thomasina Miers, fundadora de la cadena de restaurantes Wahaca y columnista culinaria de Guardian, habla con Shelby Stanger sobre sus viajes a México que le han cambiado la vida. Se enamoró de la comida mexicana y se sorprendió al descubrir que esta simplemente no existía en la Gran Bretaña de los años 90; así que se formó como chef y abrió un restaurante mexicano ella misma. En la primera serie de podcasts de Lufthansa, los invitados cuentan sus inspiradoras historias de vida y dan consejos de viaje sobre sus lugares favoritos. Thomasina revela sus dificultades para encontrar la carrera de sus sueños y cómo finalmente encontró un mentor que la animó a perseguir su pasión por la comida. Escucha el podcast para descubrir más cosas sobre su viaje, aprender una gran receta de guacamole y recibir los consejos personales de Thomasina sobre qué ver, hacer y comer en México. ¡No olvides suscribirte a nuestro podcast hoy mismo para que no te pierdas ningún episodio, y haznos una reseña dondequiera que estés escuchando!

Thomasina Miers, założycielka sieci restauracji Wahaca i publicystka kulinarna dziennika Guardian, rozmawia z gospodarzem Shelbym Stangerem o swoich zmieniających życie podróżach przez Meksyk. Zakochała się w meksykańskim jedzeniu i była zszokowana, gdy dowiedziała się, że najzwyczajniej nie było go w Wielkiej Brytanii w latach 90. XX wieku. Postanowiła więc sama zostać szefem kuchni i otworzyła meksykańską restaurację. W pierwszej serii podcastów Lufthansy goście opowiadają swoje inspirujące historie życiowe i udzielają poufnych wskazówek dotyczących podróży w swoje ulubione miejsca. Thomasina zdradza, jak wyglądała jej droga do kariery marzeń, aż w końcu znalazła mentora, który zachęcił ją do podążania za pasją do jedzenia. Posłuchaj, aby dowiedzieć się więcej o jej podróży, uzyskać świetny przepis na guacamole i wskazówki od samej Thomasiny dotyczące tego, co warto zobaczyć, robić i zjeść w Meksyku. Nie zapomnij zasubskrybować dziś naszego podcastu, aby nie przegapić odcinka, i podziel się opinią, gdziekolwiek tego słuchasz!

Thomasina Miers, fondatrice della catena di ristoranti Wahaca ed editorialista gastronomica del Guardian, racconta alla conduttrice Shelby Stanger dei viaggi in Messico che le cambiarono la vita. Si innamorò del cibo messicano e rimase scioccata nel constatare che nella Gran Bretagna degli anni ‘90 non esisteva, così studiò per diventare chef e aprì lei stessa un ristorante messicano. Nella primissima serie di podcast Lufthansa, gli ospiti raccontano storie stimolanti sulla loro vita e danno consigli di viaggio sui loro luoghi preferiti. Thomasina rivela quanto fosse difficile trovare il lavoro dei suoi sogni, ma alla fine trovò una mentore che la incoraggiò a seguire la sua passione per il cibo. Ascoltateci per sapere di più sul suo viaggio, una grandiosa ricetta per il guacamole e le dritte personali di Thomasina su cosa vedere, fare e mangiare in Messico. Non dimenticate di iscrivervi al nostro podcast oggi stesso così non perderete neanche un episodio, e lasciateci una recensione dove preferite!

Medicine, literature, academic writing, submitting to literary journals: we wander all over the map with guest Danielle Ofri. Funny thing—writers for popular pubs tend to see literary magazines as an unsurmountable challenge (I know I do) and vice versa. Danielle Ofri, though, straddles both worlds as the Editor-in-Chief of the Bellevue Literary Review and a regular contributor to the New York Times and Slate as well as journals like The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine, making her the perfect person to talk to about that crossover, as well as the crossover between a career with confidentiality at its core, and one where telling the whole truth is key. Episode links and a transcript follow—but first, a preview of the weekly Top 5 for Writers that will be dropping into #AmWriting paid subscriber inboxes on Monday, August 26, 2019: Top 5 Questions for Your Novel's Main Character. Not joined that club yet? You’ll want to get on that!Got a friend who needs more #AmWriting? As always, this episode (and every episode) will appear for all subscribers in your usual podcast listening places, totally free as the #AmWriting Podcast has always been. Find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Outcast, Spotify and everywhere else. This show notes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend.To support the podcast and help it stay free, subscribe to our weekly Top 5 email.LINKS FROM THE PODCAST#AmReading (Watching, Listening)Danielle: Ragtime E.L. Doctorow and Little King, Salmon Rushdie's short story excerpt in the New Yorker from his book, Quichotte.KJ: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport#FaveIndieBookstoreThe Strand again! We don't mind repeating a good one.Our guest for this episode is Danielle Ofri, the author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear; Singular Intimacies ; Incidental Findings;  Medicine in Translation; Intensive Care; What Doctors Feel;Best of the Bellevue Literary Reviewand the forthcoming When We Do Harm, a Doctor Confronts Medical Error.She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Bellevue Literary Review, a journal that explores issues of health and humanity. fiction and non-fiction and poetry. Find their submission guidelines here. Find out more about at Danielle at DanielleOfri.com, and Listen to her TEDMed Talk: Deconstructing Perfection, here. You can listen to her TEDMed talk Fear: A Necessary Emotion here.This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwritingfor details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s Inside-Outline template.Find more about Jess here, and about KJ here.If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.TRANSCRIPT (We use an AI service for transcription, and while we do clean it up a bit, some errors are the price of admission here. We hope it’s still helpful.)       KJ:                                I'm KJ Dell'Antonia Jess: and I'm Jess Lahey. KJ: And this is #AmWriting Jess: with Jess and KJ. KJ: #AmWriting is the every week the podcast about writing all the things that you might be writing, fiction, nonfiction, short pieces, long pieces, essays, pitches, humor, proposals. And most of all, this is the podcast about sitting down and getting the work done.Jess:                             01:52                I'm Jess Lahey and I'm the author of the Gift of Failure and a forthcoming book on preventing childhood substance abuse. And I had to think about it for a second. What am I writing? And you can find my work. Let's see. Pretty soon in air mail, but I generally am in the New York Times, Washington Post, places like that.KJ:                                02:11                It must be August. I am KJ Dell'Antonia. I am the author of How To Be a Happier Parent. I'm the former editor of the Motherlode blog at the New York Times where I still contribute occasionally. I'm also the author of a novel that will be coming out next year and you can find my work most often at the New York Times. But just incidentally, just by the way, pretty soon you'll also be able to find a little something by me and Wendy Aarons at the New Yorker.Jess:                             02:42                I mean I did not know if you were going to announce this today, but I am like burst rocketing bursting. This is a bucket list thing. This is huge and big bucket. Oh yeah. We'll be talking about that more because there's, it's cool and there's a lot to talk about there, but we have a guest, our guest today I'm so excited to talk about because my husband came home from work and he said, Oh my gosh, there's this woman you must talk to. I heard her speak. She's incredible. Her name is Danielle Ofri. She is a physician. She's at Bellevue hospital and is a writer of lots of different things. She writes for sort of traditional publishing about she has a forthcoming book on medical error.Jess:                             03:31                She has a book that I have been enjoying very much called What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear. And she also writes for the New York Times and Slate and a bunch of other places. But she's the co-founder and editor and chief of the Bellevue Literary Review, which coincidentally was the present you gave Tim last year, KJ. You gave Tim a subscription to the Bellevue Literary Review just last year, which was so cool. And this sound really fancy, but the truth is that I wrote for Danielle at the Bellevue, right. And they gave me a couple of subscriptions. All right, well I passed one on to Tim as someone I thought would deeply enjoy it. And that was, that's how that came about. So, so often we have guests who have at some point been edited by me. I have been edited by Danielle, a little little flip around. It's so cool. And actually speaking of bucket list, check this out. Her essays had been selected by Stephen Jay Gould, Oliver Sacks, Susan Orlean for best American essays, twice, best American science writing. And she, yeah, she got, she's just all over the place with all these buckets, things that we would be honored to have on our resume and our CV. So Danielle, welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining us today.Danielle:                       04:49                Thank you guys. It's really fun to be here.Jess:                             04:52                We get so many questions about academic writing and obviously at some point we want to spend some time talking about that. But really what I'd love to do is start with you and how you got started as a writer. Did the doctor part come first or did the writing part come first?Danielle:                       05:09                Well, I, you know, as a little kid, I love to write books, but that got pushed by the wayside and I was a doctor first. I did a sort of a long route. I did an MD PhD program or did research that I ended up in a lab did a residency at Bellevue fell in love with internal medicine, but I trained in the 90s during the height of the AIDS epidemic. And if you remember that time, it was a fairly brutal time, a lot of death and destruction and very exhausting. And so when I finished my decade of training there, I took a year and a half off and I just needed to get away. So I, and I must say my, all my supervisors said, that's a terrible idea. You'll forget all your medicine. You'll never get back into academic medicine. You'll lose all your connections. But someone else said, you know, I think they might be jealous. You know what, maybe so. So, off I took to just support myself. I worked for, for eight weeks in various clinics around the country. There's a whole system for temporary doctors to fill in. And I did that. And then I would go to South America, traveled to the money, ran out, and then call, collect from Wahaca, say, what do you got next? And then ended up in New Hampshire. And so during that year and a half when I learned nothing to do in these small towns, I began to write down the stories of my medical training with no intention to, you know, write a book. I just needed to write them down because at the time I remember thinking this is singular. I will never be so up-close to such a monumental moment. I think every month I should be writing this down. But of course who has time then you're so busy. You know, a patient would die in the bed or be filled in five minutes. But I think it was also too close to the emotional bone at the time. So I needed to really be physically away and I wrote them down, not as a way to process them or do therapy, but I just needed to give them their due cause they had to go somewhere. And so I spent a year and a half writing. I eventually came back to Bellevue, which is where I always wanted to be. At the time there was an economic crisis and a hiring freeze. And when a spot finally opened up, there was only a part time position available, 60% time, which I'd never imagined. But you know, I had student loans so I took it. And so one of my days off I picked up a writing book off the street and one of those yellow you know, Gotham writer's workshop boxes on second Avenue degrading class. And that is how it started. And so I began working on these stories with different writing teachers and sending them out to a little, you know, literary journals was some, you know, subscriber base was smaller than my medical school class were ashore. And then eventually one running, he just said, you know she, she missed her subway. Stop reading a story to that, that needs time to get an agent. So I got an agent pulled together my first collection of essays called singular intimacies becoming a doctor a, Bellevue, which all my friends thought was about French lingerie, but it was about these relationships that doctors and patients have and that's kind of how the writing began.Jess:                             08:02                Well, so let me stop you for a second. So these are the nitty gritty is this is really what our listeners adore. So how did you go about getting your agent?Danielle:                       08:11                So I looked in a book on how to find an agent and they said, look at other books that like yours. So I went to the acknowledgement section. I also got a book on agents I think was by Jeff Herman maybe, and we'll do their personal interests and those interested in medicine. I send out sample chapters and I finally got an agent, although I will say I did not close my book, deal with the agent. My agent sent my collection out and I got turned down by 13 of New York city's finest publishing houses. And then one day I had a piece of peer, I think in Tikun magazine and the director of Beacon Press called me and said I read your piece. And do you have any interest in writing a book. I say, Oh, do you have one? Have I got, have a book right here. And I confess, I committed my one act of theft and I borrowed, I'll say in quotes, eight prepaid, FedEx labels from my chairman's office because I didn't have time to get the FedEx. I'm working all the time and sent my manuscript to Beacon Press, which they took. And so I get rid of my agent and I've published, now we'll going on my sixth book with Beacon Press without an agent.Jess:                             09:16                Okay. So that, that's really interesting. So how did that go down with your agent? I've never heard of that specific situation where an agent has submitted everywhere and had no success and then you go ahead without your agent. So did you just mutually part ways with your agent at that point?Danielle:                       09:32                I told her, you know, I have been approached and through that she hadn't gotten it sold. And so it, you know, it was a little awkward, but I think she understood and we, you know, parted amicably and I've had agents approached me since then saying, well, and I say, I don't really need an agent because I have a publisher. Oh, but we can negotiate you a better deal. But I don't want that. I really, Beacon Press is an incredible press to work with it and it fits in that little niche. It's not a big house, but it's not a small indie houses having a medium size press and that feels like kind of three bears just right. So I'm fortunate that my, my editor is the director, so I feel like I have the ear of the director as well as my editor. And in my five books, I've have no turnover of my editor, the publicity person or the marketing person.Jess:                             10:20                Oh wow. That is so unusual.Danielle:                       10:23                I know, because I'll tell you, we plan first book, we sold the paperback rights to one of the big houses, which I was really excited about. And every six months I did a letter saying, hi, my name is Jane, I'm your editor. Hi, my name is Joe, I'm an editor and I had no idea every six months it was a new person. And so the difference is so palpable and every book, my husband's, Oh, you should really try for a bigger publishing house. And I don't think I want to because I, I've had friends with, with very mixed experiences. You know, you have one big as great and you're the prince for the, you know, six months, then your next book fails. And yet no one answers your calls.Danielle:                       10:57                And I have no trouble with that. My team always answers my calls. We talk on the phone for an hour. I really feel like they're interested in my career. And I remember what my editor said on the first day before I signed it. She said, we never let our books go out of print. So we only publish books that we want to keep on even in small print runs. And this was sort of pre, you know, E readers, what really mattered. And that kind of commitment meant a lot to me. And I'd much rather have a smaller print run, you know, smaller finances that if the exchanges that you know, stays in print and treated respectfully because I'll tell you that big house, let my book go out of print the paper back and never told me. And so I had the humiliating experience of going into a, an appearance. He said, we want to get you a book, which book? I told a bunch book and they said, Oh, we called the publisher, it's not in print. And boy with that, that was awful.Jess:                             11:50                That would be a really embarrassing...Danielle:                       11:51                Beacon Press took the rights back and we publish their own paper back. But that was the case. They didn't even give me the courtesy of letting me know they're dropping it. So that's a difference I think between working with a medium sized press versus a big house and listen to the big houses are wonderful and they lots of great stuff. But for me I couldn't, I think stomach is ups and downs that a big house offers.KJ:                                12:12                So I want to come back to the question of how your professional colleagues received the idea of you as a nonacademic writer, because that feels in so many settings, and medicine is definitely one of them. It feels like that could be very fraud.Danielle:                       12:32                Well, I would say my immediate colleagues who are largely clinical and their academic in that they're all teaching, but most aren't doing research and research papers.KJ:                                12:41                Right. And I also want to note that this sort of predates the era of, you know, doctors write for the New Yorker and that makes, you know, and that's what they do and we love them. This was, you know, you were one of the early ones.Danielle:                       12:55                Yeah. So I would say my clinical colleagues actually find a lot of recognition in the writing and largely, you know are supportive because they see their own experiences reflected, which often don't get airtime any place else. I mean, academically I see where that plays a role is, you know, do I get promotion based on that? And that's definitely been a little bit fraud, your tenure, that kind of thing. Because that kind of running doesn't really count.KJ:                                13:21                No. Cause people read it. I mean, why would that, yeah. Right.Danielle:                       13:28                And it doesn't bring in grants and grant money. And so although lip service is paid to, you know, international recognition, yada, yada, yada. If it's not bringing in grant money and it's not the traditional publishing. No, I've published a lot in academic journals, but essays, so New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet, all these big medical journals, but in their sort of essay perspectives in fact, the first time the New England Journal ever did it perspective, they refuse to do that sort of, you know, namby pamby you know, type of writing for the longest time. I was actually the first one they published, so it really took quite a risk with them. And so for the readership who would never seen that in those pages, that was a completely new piece I type of writing. And now that section is probably their most popular section. So I think it's been received well clinically, academically, probably not gonna get me tenure or promoted, but that's okay.Jess:                             14:22                One of the things I would love to know is where, how the Bellevue Literary Review got started and how you got involved in that, how you decided to start that and how it came about.Danielle:                       14:32                Well after I got back from my, you know, year and a half of traveling and started to write when I started back in the clinic, I really wanted to bring some of that writing in. Now what we do is as academics as, as teachers is we the students, medical students hand in their writeups about the patients, the history and physical. It's very, very jargony. And you know, once you've read 10 or 20 or 50 or a hundred, they all kind of start to sound the same. So I find, send them, listen guys, you're killing me from one of your write-ups in this semester. Just tell me the patient's story. Ask the patient, what's it like that emphysema, what was it like when the doctor first told you that diabetes? And I started getting these really fascinating essays that people would turn in. Really interesting and they were sort of stacking up on a file cabinet at the same time we did a new chair of medicine come in Marty blazer and he was having the students on the hospital awards write a 1000 word essay on anything. Philosophy, pathophysiology, economics along as inspired by patient, just kind of heretical for medical students writing an essay. Oh my goodness. You know, he started having his little stack of essays and the student colleagues that you guys ought to meet. He just come on. I just started working there. So we met and we had a respect of stack of essays and we thought, you know, we should make a journal. We thought about, you know, an in-house mimeograph student journal. But as we talked more, it became apparent that issues of medicine and health are really universal. And then you listen, you can get by in life and never need a plumber or an accountant or a lawyer if you're lucky, but you're never going to get by without interfacing with the medical system. And even if you are perfectly healthy, you care for a child, an elderly parent, you have a job visible, you will never get by without it. And I think that that also in genders a real existential fear in people that their body or their mind might betray them, you know? And they can't control that. And when you're in the medical system, you are, you're powerless. Many times you don't know often what's going on. You can't speak the language, you're freezing cold in a gown, you don't know what's going to cost and you're in pain or worried about your family members. So it's very hard to sort of hold onto yourself. And so we thought maybe it makes sense to have a journal that allows you to creative way to address this because you know, the top 10 tips or that bending osteoporosis doesn't really, I think address that kind of things. So we put out a two line call for submissions for poetry fiction, nonfiction on health and healing. And we've got a thousand submissions right off the bat.Jess:                             17:02                Wow.Danielle:                       17:03                We knew we tapped a nerve and they were not from medical people, from ordinary writers and now we get 4,000 submissions a year, all walks of life all over the world. And as our publisher likes to say, it's hard to be published in the BLR now than in the New England Journal of Medicine because we only can print, you know, a few of them. So I think there really isn't. And I think creativity and vulnerability really overlap and that great Venn diagram of how we write. And so it's not surprising that brushes with mortality and death and fear and worry help ignite some kind of passion, creativity and that comes out and poetry and fiction and creative nonfiction.Jess:                             17:40                I have a question that's actually related to what KJ used to do, which is you're dealing with these really grave, you know, many moments of mortality, these moments that are huge events in people's lives. And when you write about them, it can become incredibly precious to you. It can become so important to you that when, when/if you get rejected, it's not just a blow to your writing, it's a blow to like this experience you had in your life. And KJ used to get, you know, submissions about, you know, the death of a child or you know, these incredibly moving experiences. But for some reason or another, they're just not a great fit. How do you balance, you know, how do you go about communicating with your writers about the importance of an event and the way you write about it and creating sort of pieces that are not just people's therapy but that are really great works of writing.Danielle:                       18:41                It's a very interesting thing in particular that comes up in the realm of nonfiction because people are ready about their real experience and it is painful to reject a piece about their mother's Alzheimer's disease. And you know, when I, when I talk about this on panels, there's a difference between a moving experience and a moving piece of writing. They're not the same thing. And also it has to be more than just the particularities of here. I went to the doctor. This is what happened. It has to be transcendent. It has to rise above what actually happened to something that can connect to others. And so I do suggest that people, you know, read other things we've published or other, you know people who have written about enlist in a way that brings it beyond just the nuts and bolts of what happened. I also stressed that using the techniques of fiction is very helpful in terms of, not in terms of making things up because nonfiction is truth. But in terms of developing character and voice and setting and in drama and and pacing, you know, so often in nonfiction people are very, they applaud right along the way things go, but they don't have to be that way. It's still truthful if we cut back and forth in time and we have flash powers and flashbacks and we stretch moments and compressed moments because that's makes for more dramatic writing. In the actual rejections, I tried to be very gentle and we try when we can to offer feedback. Of course at that volume we can for everyone. So if you do get a fun letter, please forgive us. We're all volunteers, but we do try, we do have some that we think could be helpful. We'll include that in the rejection letter.Jess:                             20:11                That's incredibly generous of you given the volume, but also as you well know, incredibly helpful for a writer. I mean we, we cling to these pieces of, you know, even if it's just a one line piece of you know, this is promising, but you might want to whatever, those are pieces of that's feedback that we hold onto with great hope.Danielle:                       20:34                Yeah,I stress that a lot of it's subjective. And I have my own story. I had a piece that was ended up in the Missouri Review and went on to being the best American essays. Which was a huge honor. And so I got a letter from a professor of English in the Midwest and he's complimented in essence that he uses it in his teaching. And I was very honored and I look at the bottom of his email and his, you know, so-and-so pH D department, English editor of their, you know, literary journal. So I went back to my nice, huge rejection folders. I kept every rejection and in fact I submitted the very same piece to that journal. No, he wasn't then. He wasn't the editor then, but, and it stood out because that came back with post-it stuck on the thing. This is so dull, boring. You know. Again, it wasn't him, but it came back when someone left on those really negative projections and it was the same piece. So you know what, don't worry, it's not, it's like dating. You just gotta visit the numbers and someone's going gonna connect. And so it may not be, the is not good. It didn't fit in for me on this day. But try other places, you know, play the numbers game. Hold on. I just have to back up for a second. You got a rejection with actual post it notes from the person who read it and rejected it with the actual notes of what they said. I don't know if that was intentional, but there were, ah, and then the, the current editor stains are allowed to compliment me on this piece and how he uses it in his teaching. That's all a little satisfying. Oh, that's amazing. It didn't work at that moment. Just keep submitting.KJ:                                22:10                Now you're an editor yourself. So you know, you,Danielle:                       22:13                You got my other thing I do mention is you please do read the submission guidelines. If it says max 5,000 words, don't send a piece of 8,000 words. Yeah. Because it will be rejected. If it says we don't take PSI Phi, don't submit PSI Phi, you would be amazed. You know, we now have to charge a small reading. No, I wouldn't know. We wouldn't have to charge it a $5 meeting fee by our higher ups. We don't have to do, but we have to. Okay, so now you're paying $5 a submitted. Don't submit a piece that we rejected out of hand, you know. But it is all, all in is so common. Maximum three polling people send 10 poems and so I feel terrible. But you know, you do have to, with the submission guidelines, that's your end of the bargain as a writer.KJ:                                22:57                I know that our listeners are now going to be sort of madly Googling Bellevue Literary Review so talk to us about what you guys do publish, what your mission is, and how that has evolved.Danielle:                       23:15                Yeah. So we're looking for, to explore, you know, the issues of underlying health and illness and failty of the body and mind. We call it the journal of humanity, human experience and we interpret that loosely. So topic wise weren't fairly wide ranging, but the writing has to be excellent. That's our first thing. So fiction wise, we are fairly traditional. We do not do genre fiction, romance. We don't, we rarely do flash fiction. We stay away from gimicky writing things that have lots of, you know, 20 different kinds of headings and numbers. You know, I feel like the writing should stand on its own. It has to read like a great short story and it has to be character driven. I've got to feel a need to want to follow this character. So our, our that's our fiction or nonfiction has to be more than just what I did when I went to the doctor.Danielle:                       24:10                It has to rise above that and somehow and, and be applicable to other people or it has to have the same beauty of writing a fiction does it. And it's not academic. We don't take things with footnotes or extensive quotes from 20 different sources and we want your thoughts and your exploration of an issue. And for poetry, we prize accessibility. So again, we do not do, while the experimental stuff, you know, as a unusual literary journal, for many people, we're the only literal journal they've ever read because a lot of our readers are not English lit people. They don't subscribe to 20 literary journals, but they have an interest in medicine and that's how they come to us. So for this audience, we weren't poems they can read and not be intimidated by it. So we tend to stick again a little more traditionally on the poetry that someone who's not an English lit major can read and say, Oh, that, that connects to me.Jess:                             24:59                What I would love to know is how you balance you obviously do your own writing, your working as a physician and so how do you balance these two things and what is your daily or weekly routine look like?KJ:                                25:13                And she's reading all these submissionsJess:                             25:15                and reading all this review.Danielle:                       25:17                That's exactly right. And I will say we also have reviewers who help us weed through the initial slush pile because we can't read all 4,000 ourselves.KJ:                                25:26                That's almost worse because then you're left with you know, 40 things that are all good enough to be in there and the process of figuring out which eight to put together. .Danielle:                       25:36                Exactly. But so anyway, so back when I started, as I mentioned, I ended up on a part time track because that's all that was available. So the full time slot eventually opened up and I said that actually get married and I thought long and hard about going full time, my salary would double because part timers are prorated on the shabbier side of things as you probably know. But I've thought about what would I do if I had twice as much money tomorrow? Well I still couldn't afford an apartment in New York city. You know, I couldn't buy anything. I don't need a car. I have clothes such as they are. And I recognize that the one thing I'd want is that one thing money really can't buy and that's time. So I feel like I kind of bought time by turning down the full time offer and to this day or made 60% off, not happenstance on day one.Danielle:                       26:21                If they sit here and go sign up for the full time as everyone else does, this wouldn't have happened. So I'm 60% of my time in the hospital the equivalent of of six half days, you know, strangely abortion. And then my other time is writing legal. Of course I had three kids in there. So, you know, taking them to the dock, doing everything else in life ends up in that time. So often, you know, your writing time gets eaten away cause you don't leave work to do these things. You take it out of your own time. But I try to, if I can get one or two snippets of writing for an hour or so a week, I'm happy that that's success. And then, you know, the BLR and, and everything else. I took up cello lessons about 13 years ago and that's my will.Danielle:                       27:06                The one thing that I pursue outside of all of this, you know, because I just, I can't, I'm too embarrassed show up to my teacher without having practice. So I'm the goody two shoes, medical student and I practice every night, but I'll go to the gym. I don't see anything else. And I don't watch, I haven't watched a TV show since ER you know, all of that. So I leave pop culture, I leave up to my kids, but so that's, that's kind of how I do it. And then, you know I get rid of everything else. Like my goal in life is to never set foot in a store unless voluntarily. So I ordered it line. I don't want to spend any time shopping unless I want to. So I don't spend my weekends ever going to, you know, stores. I don't really care about my clothes are 20 years old. That's fine, you know, unless I feel like doing it, but not for for necessities.KJ:                                27:56                But you're writing what feel like these densely researched they're interview intense books where you really both telling your own story and telling a thoughtful story about what's happening in the medical profession and wrapping that within the, you know, the story often of a particular case or a particular doctor, one to two hours a week. My mind is boggling, does that include the research?Danielle:                       28:28                Yeah. Everything that, it also depends. I mean I do a lot of traveling, so airplane time is writing time, airport time. You know, often I'll get more writing time in there. But my goal was to have like at least choose two to three sessions where I gets a, you know, a little time of writing. And hopefully more than that, it can be two or three hours, but sometimes it's not. I also did two years that I took off from work. So I took off a year, let's see, my daughter, youngest is 13, so 13 years ago we went to Costa Rica for a year. I quit my job. We took our two kids at the time. I actually had my baby there and we've done a novel, which then turned into a book instead of a novel. And then six years ago we took a year and went to Israel and I worked on what doctors feel and that was really wonderful. I'm gonna talk about a luxury of having, you know, be able to write five days in a row and keep a train of thought. That was, I would love to do it again, but I think I would lose my job.Jess:                             29:28                That's actually what I was gonna mention when KJ said the thing about two hours for me. If I don't have more time than that, I find it very difficult for them to pick up where I left off to continue a train of thought to, you know, continue forward knowing where I'm headed next. So huge respect for being able to pull this stuff together cause your writing is so lovely and your narrative is so seamless. It doesn't, it feels like you're fully immersed in your writing. So I don't know. I'm so impressed.Danielle:                       29:56                Thank you. It's short pieces for that very reason. You know, to write the larger thing takes a chunk of time. Sometimes I will try to block out, you know, for the next month, try to schedule nothing on my writing time so I can write for four hours, you know, several times a week.KJ:                                30:11                Well that's what I was going to ask you. Do you schedule the writing time? Like do you know when your next sessions are going to be? Do you sit down at the beginning of the week or the end of the week and figure out when that's going to fit in?Danielle:                       30:21                No, I mean I know when I'm not in the hospital so that's my starting point. But then things, you know, things fill in. But I try to, each of my time, not in the hospital, at least have some time toward writing. But of course writing also involved, you know, social media and publicity that you have to do a lot on your own and a lot of that, you know, work these days is on, on the writer. So there's that part as well.KJ:                                30:43                Well, and you have a, I mean, you have a new book coming out this spring that you did not get to take a break to write. And I'll just, we'll, we'll put it on our website of course, and talk about it more, but it's called When We Do No Harm, a Doctor Confronts Medical Error. And I'm just taking, you know, a wild swing at the idea that that was not easy to research or write, it's not something people want to talk about.Danielle:                       31:06                Yeah. That is true. That, that it's been several sorts, taken several years to, to write. But people were also remarkably generous, you know, once you find someone who likes to talk and just get on those interviews, you know, am I a non-hospital afternoons or mornings or days? Yeah. and then I try not to do it on weekends, but really when I do a lot of travel, I catch up a lot on writing it, you know, even five hours on a plane, I couldn't ask for anything more. Now some people hate it. I think it's the most ideal luxury.KJ:                                31:39                Yeah, that's, that's the way it works for me too. I have to agree. I just spent intentionally seven hours on a train on Monday and Tuesday for exactly that reason. I mean, I was going somewhere that I wanted to go, but I wouldn't have gone if it wasn't also for that seven hours.Danielle:                       31:54                I've gone there and back to California in two days and I don't give, it isn't all, I'm like, I don't mind that all, man. I have two days in a row to have all this time, you know, with no one bothering you. It's wonderful. So I would fly back and forth across the country if someone would would fund me on that.KJ:                                32:07                There's a story in Deep Work about someone who took a flight to Japan, drank a cup of coffee, got back on the flight and then flew back because he had like, you know, a massive deadline to complete an entire book. And I felt such sympathy. I was like, yeah, yeah, I could do that. That would be a good way to do it.Danielle:                       32:35                Yeah, I do really, I would say Amtrak up and down the East coast. Yes.KJ:                                32:40                I want that Amtrak residency. There you go. That's exactly, yeah. That's exactly where I was for my seven and a half hours. DSLR Boston, New York, New York to Boston.Jess:                             32:52                Alright. You're all helping me reorient my thinking about all the travel and how I'm going to get all the work done. So now, now that it's clear that my,KJ:                                32:59                Well, you're getting ready for what you do when you get there, it is different.Jess:                             33:03                At the same time, I do tend to think of airplane time as, Ooh, I get to listen to an audio book for two whole hours, but now I'm going to reorient and think of it as two hours that I can be spending writing.Danielle:                       33:15                I don't have as much time to read novels. I mean that, that I do have to say between writing manuscripts and writing and listening to audio books, I have to, you know, shelve a few things and unfortunate that often gets shelved. Yeah.Jess:                             33:29                Yeah. Well actually speaking of which we love to spend some time at the end of each podcast talking about what we've been reading. Do you have something you've been enjoying recently?Danielle:                       33:38                So we did have a weekend away and I was in a thrift store and I saw for $1 an EL doctor's book, Ragtime, which I had never read it. You know, I should really read that and I paid my dollar and read it cover to cover in a weekend and just loved it. What am I, I know he's a master, but to sort of be in the clutches of someone who just puts you through that story, no holds barred, it's an amazing experienceJess:                             34:02                That's going to have to go on my list because I have to admit I haven't read that one either. It's one of those books that sort of sits around on the periphery of my consciousness and I've never picked it up so I will have to read that one too.Danielle:                       34:13                Yeah, it goes by very quickly.Jess:                             34:14                KJ, what have you been reading?KJ:                                34:17                I also haven't had, I've been doing pretty intense writing so I haven't had a lot of reading time and I have spent what I have rereading Deep Work by Cal Newport, not Rivkin, although I'm sure he's written something maybe. And you know, it's just, it's one of those books that keeps it, you know 10 minutes in there keeps me focused when I'm you know, when I put the book aside. So I've been rereading it, we've recommended it a zillion times and here I am shouting it out again.Jess:                             34:51                I talked about Deep Work on a podcast with someone else yesterday. It, it comes up all the time for me. I love that book. I am reading, I'm reading two very interesting things. I I was, did an interview in which I punted a question back to the host who asked it of me because I was not up on all of the research on marijuana use and mental illness. And there is now a new book. It just came out by Alex Berenson who writes for the New York Times and various other outlets and it is a book called Tell Your Children the Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence. And I'm sure there is going to be a lot to argue about with this book, but it's a really interesting perspective on Alex Berenson had a conversation with his spouse about the, of marijuana use and said, you know, sort of led him down the rabbit hole as it so often does and he decided to write an entire book about it. So now I at least don't have to punt that question. Next time I get asked about marijuana use and mental illness on a podcast because I've now read an entire book about it and it's really interesting and in the same vein, I'm just starting and it's great. Ben Westhoff's new book, Fentanyl, Inc and that one I believe is just about to come out. It should be out by the time this podcast airs. And it's for those people who don't know what fentanyl is, it's the drug that's causing so many drug overdoses because it's sneaking in to so many other drugs, usually heroin. And it's the story of how fentanyl ended up in the drug supply. And it's a fascinating story. I highly recommend it.Danielle:                       36:28                Yeah, just add, I read the recent a New Yorker story by Salman Rushdie calls Little King and he has a new book coming out. This is an excerpt, but fentanyl and the opioid crisis are woven into his story in a remote essay. And so I can't wait for that book to come out.Jess:                             36:45                Oh, I'll have to check that out. Absolutely. do you have an independent bookstore that you love and would love to give a shout out to?Danielle:                       36:53                Oh, I just love The Strand.Jess:                             36:55                You and me and KJ, all of us, we love The Strand. What do you love about it?Danielle:                       37:00                Well, as a student I would pass by there my bike on the way to medical school all the time and pick up those $1 books, you know, all the time. So I just love being able to afford the books. But then I as an author experience the effect of independent bookstore when for what doctors feel my book once death, never put it out as a staff pit and left it out for a year. And we sold copies in that one bookstore than any bookstore in the entire country. It was more than a thousand copies in one store because one staff member put it out there. And I so appreciated that personal touch was all it took. And so I did the opening of my next book at strand. Because I was so happy to be part of that kind of community.Jess:                             37:45                It makes such a huge difference. Our local bookstore did the same thing for the Gift of Failure. It was on a book, you know, it was sort of on the, it wasn't like, Oh, here, here's a little charity for our local author. It was like, we love this book. Here it is. You should read it. And that makes such a huge difference in book sales because the, you know, independent booksellers really have power to move books. It's amazing.Danielle:                       38:06                Oh yeah, absolutely. And so in a BLR, we try to also give shout outs to our authors who have published books. So anyone who's been in the BLR, and that includes you, KJ, if you have, you know, new book coming out, let us know. We will not run on social media and send it around, including on newsletter because we, we know how much those little, you know, boosts help and every little bit helps in today's publishing world.Jess:                             38:28                That's incredibly generous of you. And it means so much to writers to get a shout ou like that. All right. If people would like to find your work. And I do have to mention, you have a wonderful Ted med talk on sort of deconstructing our perceptions of perfection that I think could also be really helpful for writers. I really enjoyed it from the perspective as a writer and thinking about perfection. But if people want to find out about your books, about your Ted, talk about the articles you write, where can they find you?Danielle:                       38:59                My website is just Danielleofri.com. I keep all my writings there on my Ted talks and various things. I also send out a newsletter once a month with new articles. I have a new piece coming out in a week or so, kind of writing about the experience of doctors and nurses in the hospital and, and their perception of their own profession and how it may have not upheld its ideals. So I send that out to non-commercial. And I also talk a little about the Bellevue Literary Review. So if you want to hear that, you know, give me a shout.Jess:                             39:28                Well, and that was what I was going to ask next. If someone wants to find the Bellevue Literary Review either to read or subscribe or to submit, where would, where would we send people for that?Danielle:                       39:38                The blreview.org. Although in the past, a new website coming. So if you get on there now, you might your old one, but the new one is coming soon. So but if you're on my newsletter, you'll hear, you'll hear about it also.Jess:                             39:52                Fantastic. All right, well thank you. This has been incredibly enlightening. This is also been a big hole in our knowledge of the whole, you know, academic and I'm just so grateful to you for all of your knowledge and for the writing that you do, so thank you.Danielle:                       40:06                Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure.Jess:                             40:08                All right, all of our listeners, until next week, keep your button, the chair and your head in the game.KJ:                                40:21                This episode of #AmWriting with Jess and KJ was produced by Andrew Perella. Our music aptly titled Unemployed Monday was written and performed by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their services because everyone, even creatives, should be paid for their work. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

This week we celebrate reaching our 20th episode by answering the questions you've been sending in over the past couple of weeks. From our favourite podcasts to the highs and lows of our twenties, we share our thoughts and also some of our favourite things from the past couple of week.Get In Touch @20sarehard@helenabradbury@charlotte.phoebe20s Are Hard Facebook PageEverything We MentionedAlways Be My MaybeThe Foodie Market Houmous Crisps Pause Box from MindSWEAT App The sweetcorn dish has been removed from the Wahaca menu on the website! Friends With BenefitsCourtroom JunkieSword & ScaleCasefilesThey Walk Among UsMy Dad Wrote A Porno Happy PlaceHappy mum, Happy Baby The Doctors KitchenFeel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chaterjee

Boris Johnson skips TV debate, Wahaca's 'dine and dash' policy causes a stir, and ASOS launches a virtual catwalk.

You asked for an episode about how I structure my week as a ‘full time content’ creator and HERE IT IS.   First I’m going to discuss how I PLAN my week out and them I’m going to tell you how my last 3 weeks PANNED out. With a whole load of reflection about what that teaches us about ‘flexible working’.   So if you’re ready to step inside my world, keep listening!     Early on this year I decided that batch working would be the way for me to go. I made a fancy planner on Canva and told everyone around me how I’d be structuring my week for the best.   And I actually managed to stick to it for a few weeks - I was definitely way more productive, switched off a lot more easily and felt totally on top of life.   But in this job, as much as I’d love to stick to a routine and structure, some times obstacles, opportunities and life plans tend to come through and upset it all!   When I have a week that pans out exactly as I have planned - I feel happy, settled and content with how things are moving and shaking. When they go arse over tit - sometimes for a good reason - I can feel discombobulated and out of sorts.   I also want to say, that as much as I plan weekly, I’ve also started planning around my menstrual cycle.   This is something I recommend for ANYONE who menstruates.   I’ve tracked my period for the last few months through apps and written journals. In doing this I’ve learned that the first 5 days after my period I am the most confident and energetic. Then I take a dip and around ovulation I have zeeeerrrrooo motivation or drive. I then get a bit of energy back but during my period I’m basically a right off.   So in knowing this, I take more on during my ultra productive days and virtually block myself out whilst I’m bleeding out. Sos but it’s periods - get over it.   ANWAY on a weekly basis, the dream week goes like this…   MONDAY   Wake up when Ben goes to work, have a slow morning of reading, drinking water, going to the gym and listening to podcasts.   Then head to the cafe to do all emails, planning for the week and write a blog post. I normally have an energy dip at 2-5pm so I head home and chill out between then. If I get a burst of energy I’ll turn my laptop back on and see what’s crackalacking before Ben comes home and we cook/chill together.   TUESDAY   Same as Monday basically but a bit free-ish incase I have a meeting, event or an important Wahaca lunch with my buddy Laurzrah booked in.   WEDNESDAY   This is the day when I TRYYYYY and plan/record podcasts. Although my VA Dani will attest to how much that ACTUALLY happens. The thought is there OK! I also leave this one a bit Flexi incase I need to move other days around.   THURSDAY   Is my coaching day. I’m still coaching 11 lovely bloggers so I block out today so they can book in their coaching calls or Facetimes. I am winding down the coaching and not taking on new clients when my current ones graduate, so I can leave more time for Grow & Glow but it’s such a nice day to wake up knowing I’ll be having virtual coffees with all my faves.   FRIDAY   Is my day off. Again it might be a day where I need to catch up with shit OR it’s the day where I have some self-care and actually switch off and make time for myself.   But like I said, lately these days have been a bit different, so I’m going to run through what I remember from the last three weeks to give you a bit of a flavour of how different my weeks can be.   I’ll also preface this by saying, that my anxiety has been quite bad lately and one of the side effects I get is extreme memory loss. So some of you avid Story watchers might have a different recollection than me - but I’m going by my diary, k!!!   Alright so 3 weeks ago what did I do…   MONDAY   It was the 29th April and I *think* it was the day I went to meet Debs from Bang On Style for a bit of coaching in central London. I was early so whizzed through all my emails - which I’m ALWAYS on top of because of my system. Do you want an episode on that? Let me know! We went to a Costa and ended up chatting/coaching/planning for about 3 hours.   By the time we were done, I came home and flopped on the sofa.   TUESDAY   On Tuesday it was Laurzrah’s bday lunch so I met her in Soho and took her for a Wahaca (although we probs went halves) and gave her her pressies before we had a mooch around town. I came back home around 4pm and started Jane the Virgin and watched it until Ben came back. I also started making some resources for the Grow & Glow hub and started getting really excited for launch!   WEDNESDAY   I had therapy first thing and it was a TOUGH session that completely knackered me out. I think I just went home and got into bed! Possibly titted about on Canva making downloads and resources for G&G but really took it easy.   THURSDAY   Was a coaching day so I had back to back appointments - some ran over so I had to reschedule and then I met my old school pals for a Nandos and a catch up. Our lives are so different now but I love hearing about school so much.   FRIDAY   On Friday I have nothing in the diary but I probably went to the cafe all day and caught up on emails, content creation,  content planning and Grow & Glow planning. I also had a coaching call from what I’d rescheduled previously.   That seems like a very unproductive week? Or is it because we believe working 9-5 solidly = productive? I feel like I got loads done though and everything was up to date? But looking at it like that, maybe not! Would love to know your thoughts!   The next week I spent Monday to Thursday at Alice Benham’s Gather & Grow retreat. I did so much working ON Grow & Glow whilst there - strategising, team planning, ideas flowing as well as loads of work on self confidence. I missed Ben loads but it was the best week ever. Ooh whilst I was away I also read Vox back to back - has anyone else read it?   On the Friday I had therapy and got to work on all of my new, exciting ideas.   Last week on MONDAY   I had a meeting with Oliver Bonas and then got to Supermarket Sweep in Store before meeting Laura for a lunch and then headed home to shoot different outfits and content for Oliver Bonas.   That was such a good meeting - they’re fully on board with Grow & Glow’s future and I have lots of goodness planned with them.   Nothing is in the diary for Tuesday and I forget what I did, if anything! Probably the cafe with laptop from 10-2ish, unless anyone else can remember!   I’m USELESS without my diary at the moment. I remember NOTHING unless someone reminds me. Even then I’ll often look at my diary and forget what’s in it 5 minutes later. Anxiety is fun, right!   On Wednesday I had therapy and then was supposed to drop into a press day before heading to St Pancras to meet Nati for coaching but the therapy took it out of me again so I just headed straight to meet Nati. We had a wonderful meeting and she even got a positive responses to something I helped her pitch for during our meeting!   I could’ve stopped by the press day afterwards but I was zonked. Plus I try and go to less press days nowadays unless they’re for brands I already have a relationship with or have the chance of working with. Otherwise it’s too much time out of my day!   On Thursday I had the worst mental health day I’d had in such a long time. I think it was the come down from the amazing week I had at the retreat and the pressure I put on myself to get Grow & Glow to be the best thing ever.   I was supposed to go to a press day, do a few coaching calls and then speak on a panel for LOL Mental Health week but I had to let them down the last minute because I couldn’t get out of bed. I decided to give myself a break - listen to my menstrual cycle, and just generally take care of myself. It helped a lot!   On Friday I was a bit more up and at em because I knew I was having a meeting in London with Lori and Beth - the two newest Grow & Glow members. We had a great time planning, strategising and dreaming about where we can take it and I left exhausted but excited for what’s to come!   Ben was on his stag do last weekend so I spent a lot of time at my sister’s and caught up with Grow & Glow work whilst at hers and then whilst was hannnnnnging post stag do!   This week has been slightly cray as I’ve had 7 sponsored posts come in for Instagram and the blog (whereas in April I had nada) so I’ve been darting here there and every where trying to shoot, create, edit and send for approval ON TOP of getting G&G ready for launch AND psyching myself up for the Blogosphere awards tomorrow (as I’m recording this).   So what can we learn about the week in the life of a full time content creator?   The biggest takeaway is really that no day and no week is the same. Sometimes you’ll have less brand work on so you can have more time concentrating on other areas of your business - so for me, developing Grow & Glow and other times it’ll be so cray that nothing feels like it gets completed.   Equally some days I’ll work for 2 hours and another day will be 10 hours on and off.   I also have so much appreciation for the flexibility in what I do so that when my awful mental health days or PMD days raise their heads, I can just give myself the time and space to recover. The flexibility has also allowed me to regularly go to therapy and take some time to reflect on what I’m learning afterwards.   Sometimes the lack of routine does bother me especially when I’m craving a bit of stability but it’s always the grass is greener isn’t it?   ALSO you might be thinking, ‘ok Vix but when do you sit down to schedule your pins or edit your podcasts though?’ And I have to say that the FIRST thing I did, as soon as I could afford it, when I went full time, was to hire a VA. Dani helps me with all of the admin side of things so I can really focus on working ON stuff as opposed to IN it? IYKWIM? Which makes me think I should totally do an episode on the difference between the two.   Anyway, I want to hear about your weeks and how you structure them! So jump into the Facebook group or message me on Instagram so we can chat! Until next time… BYEEEE

This week's episode was recorded in front of a live audience of 300 people in central London for the first ever Conversations of Inspiration Live event. Thomasina Miers OBE is best known as co-founder of restaurant chain Wahaca and winner of Masterchef. Thomasina’s journey has not been easy, with a ten-year spell of depression, it was a chance meeting that set her on her path to happiness, founding a business doing exactly what she loves.  It was whilst traveling around Mexico, her love affair with food really took shape and she discovered a cuisine she’d never tasted back home in the UK and it was at that moment she decides to bring authentic Mexican cuisine to London. So ensued a steep learning curve with a continued passion and vision to put sustainability and affordability at the very heart of her business.  Seven cookbooks later, a columnist and a 25 strong chain of restaurants, Thomasina shares her words of wisdom and incredibly honest account of her journey with our live audience. Conversations of Inspiration is brought to you with support from NatWest: visit natwestbusinesshub.com for information, tips and insights to help business owners meet their goals.   Follow Holly on Instagram: instagram.com/hollytucker/?hl=en

Piers Linney meets Mark Selby, the cofounder of Mexican-inspired restaurant chain Wahaca. They discuss the company’s growth from a Soho basement to a thriving chain of over 25 locations – innovating with authentic flavours, clever marketing and a clear focus on people. Plus, Mark shares wisdom from harder times, explaining how Wahaca dealt with the backlash of a norovirus outbreak in 2016, that forced the restaurant to temporarily close its doors. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thomasina Miers, proprietária da cadeia de restaurantes Wahaca e colunista gastronômica no jornal Guardian, conversa com a apresentadora Shelby Stanger sobre as viagens por todo o México que mudaram sua vida. Ela se apaixonou pela comida mexicana e ficou surpresa ao descobrir que não existiam opções de gastronomia mexicana na Grã-Bretanha em plenos anos 1990 – então se qualificou como chefe de cozinha e abriu um restaurante mexicano. Na primeira série de podcasts da Lufthansa sobre LifeChangingPlaces, convidados contam suas histórias inspiradoras e dão conselhos valiosos sobre seus lugares preferidos. Thomasina revela como lutou para encontrar a profissão de seus sonhos e acabou encontrando uma pessoa que a encorajou a seguir sua paixão pela gastronomia. Ouça para saber mais sobre a jornada dela, descubra uma receita fantástica de guacamole,além de dicas pessoais da Thomasina sobre o que ver, o que fazer e o que comer no México. Não se esqueça de assinar nosso podcast agora mesmo para não perder nenhum episódio e escreva uma mensagempara nós, de onde quer que você esteja ouvindo!

British chef and entrepreneur Thomasina Miers talks to host Shelby Stanger about her life-changing travels through Mexico. She fell in love with Mexican food and was shocked to find that it simply didn’t exist in Britain back then – so she trained as a chef and opened up a Mexican restaurant herself. Today she ist he owner of the Wahaca restaurant chain and publishes a weekly food column in the Guardian newspaper. In Lufthansa’s travel podcast series, guests tell their inspiring life-stories and give personal travel advice. Thomasina reveals how difficult it was to pursue her dream career but how she succeeded in the end. Listen to discover more about her journey, learn a great recipe for guacamole and listen to Thomasina’s personal tips for what to see and do and eat in Mexico.

Fun Makes Good is how you may also know Eleanor. She produces an amazing range of work from products to upholstery and textiles full interior designs. Strong geometric shape and bright colours feature heavily in Eleanors work and is a style she has become known for. This aesthetic seems to have always been in her work and has been refined over time. We discuss how “Being brazen” is a really important quality for a designer and maker to possess. Especially if you make product based work that you need to go out and sell. It’s really important that you make genuine connections with people and when they’re looking for something you’re capable of, then you’re top of their list. During the podcast we go into various different projects that Eleanor has worked on. It’s clear to see over time that there’s a confidence and ambition that has grown within her work. You only need to walk past Wahaca in Edinburgh to see her gigantic curtains created in her home studio. It’s the development and desire to learn new skills that have opened up different areas of work and alternative revenue streams. I think it’s really important as a designer to do this to keep things interesting but also to support yourself in multiple ways. Website - https://www.funmakesgood.co.uk/ Instagram - http://instagram.com/funmakesgood Bigg Design - www.biggdesign.co.uk Artfelt - https://www.tchc.org.uk/what-we-do/artfelt.html The Boring Talks - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05t3gr2/episodes/downloads

Thomasina Miers, founder of the Wahaca restaurant chain and Guardian food columnist, talks to host Shelby Stanger about her life-changing travels through Mexico. She fell in love with Mexican food and was shocked to find that it simply didn’t exist in 1990s’ Britain – so she trained as a chef and opened up a Mexican restaurant herself. In Lufthansa’s first ever podcast series, guests tell their inspiring life-stories and give insider travel advice on their favorite places. Thomasina reveals how she struggled to find her dream career but eventually found a mentor who encouraged her to follow her passion for food. Listen to learn more about her journey, get a great recipe for guacamole and Thomasina’s personal tips for what to see and do and eat in Mexico.

We’re joined by chef, presenter and food writer Thomasina Miers, who co-founded Britain's best-loved Mexican chain, Wahaca, after being crowned a MasterChef winner...It was her first visit to Mexico aged 18 that ignited Miers' passion for the country and its cuisine, and today her street food-inspired restaurant group has been credited with making Mexican food more accessible than ever before in Britain.We find out what it's really like to be a MasterChef contestant, and how winning changed Miers' life forever; discover how she grew Wahaca from a teenage dream to a 25-branch business; and hear all about her struggles, successes and vision for the future.Visit Wahaca | https://www.wahaca.co.uk/Follow Wahaca | https://www.instagram.com/wahaca/Follow Thomasina | https://www.instagram.com/thomasinamiers/Get SheerLuxe straight to your inbox, daily: http://sheerluxe.com/signupFollow SheerLuxe on Instagram: http://instagram.com/sheerluxeSheerLuxe VIP: https://sheerluxevip.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Gilly Smith talks to Thomasina Miers, founder of the Wahaca chain and Laura Harper-Hinton of the Caravan group of restaurants ahead of the third of their Fork to Fork festivals on June 16 . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of this new series for 2018 Nikki Bedi meets Thomasina Miers, founder of Mexican food chain Wahaca, and Andrew Hunt, founder of African-inspired superfood company Aduna. Together they discuss how they’ve built ‘profit with purpose’ into their business journeys – from scaling sustainability within the restaurant world, to kickstarting a new industry for rural African producers. And with the VOOM competition in full swing, we hear from one of the judges of this year’s Virgin Unite Impact Award, Cemal Ezel (of Change Please) whose own company is fighting homelessness with coffee. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

My guest today is Thomasina Miers In 2005 Thomasina was the first winner of the revamped masterchef. She is now a Chef and food writer. She is also the owner of Wahaca, the seriously successful chain of Mexican restaurants. She has written 7 books to date, has a regular column in The Guardian, has opened another restaurant called DF MEXICO. In total she employs around 1500 people, she has three young children and is basically super -woman! Desert Island Dish Dauphinoise potatoes with steak, the café de paris butter from the restaurant 6 portland road and a bitter leaf with vinaigrette Pudding: loads of cheese and biscuits and chocolate Luxury item: olive oil Thank you for listening! Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Thank you! Margie @madebymargie

Ho ho ho! It's time to welcome back two of our most available friends, good old Nurse Jessie and Steve "bah humbug" Hill! In this Christmas special we reveal our highlights of 2017, including our favourite events, songs, food, and sex. Helen has a brand new game for us to play, and of course we enjoy the traditional Ham Review. Then it's time to round off with some festive Scummy Mummy Confessions. As discussed in this episode, we're supporting the #freeperiods campaign to make menstruation products free for girls already on school meals. The demo kicks off on Wednesday 20 December at 4pm - meet at Parliament Square. Other gubbins we talk about in the podcast, if you're interested, include Nomad by Alan Partridge, The Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer, I Believe in You by Dolly Parton, and Wahaca, which just opened a new branch in Shoreditch. Our book, Scummy Mummies, is out now. We hope you like it, and if you do, we'd love an Amazon review! Look out for Steve's book, The Card, in spring 2018, when you'll also be able to catch Ellie in the new series of Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit on Dave. **SEE US LIVE** Come to our live comedy show! Over the next few months we're visiting Cambridge, Norwich, Cardiff, Belfast, Masham, and more... To buy tickets, and for more dates, visit Scummymummies.com. We're on Twitter (@scummymummies), Instagram, and Facebook. Please send your confessions to scummymummiespodcast@gmail.com and visit us at ScummyMummies.com. If you like the podcast, please rate, review and subscribe! Thank you for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Gilly Smith talks to Thomasina Miers, food writer and founder of Mexican restaurant chain, Wahaca about The Day of the Dead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you eat well on a budget? Why are diets so rubbish? What is wrong with people who think it's acceptable to put pineapple on a pizza? Answering these questions is the amazing Thomasina Miers! The Masterchef winner and best-selling author shares her fabulous foodie knowledge and top time-saving tips. We discuss everything from getting kids to eat their greens to the best recipe for guacamole. There's some chat about eating sustainably, the importance of teaching cookery in schools, and how you know when there's enough butter on your Marmite toast. Thomasina's latest book, Home Cook, is out now. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @thomasinamiers. And you can find us down one of her fabulous Wahaca restaurants on a regular basis. Pork pibil and margheritas ftw. The Scummy Mummies book is OUT NOW! We hope you like it, and if you do, we'd love an Amazon review! **SEE US LIVE** Come and see us in Bromsgrove on 16 September, Sutton Coldfield on 7 October, and at various other venues right through to next year. To buy tickets, and for more dates, visit ScummyMummies.com. We're on Twitter (@scummymummies), Instagram, and Facebook. Please send your confessions to scummymummiespodcast@gmail.com and visit us at ScummyMummies.com. If you like the podcast, please tell your friends! Thank you for listening! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The food writer and owner of the Wahaca and DF / Mexico restaurant chains talks to Danielle Radojcin and Claire Ptak about her new book, how she juggles being a mum with her professional life, her glamorous background, her thoughts on eating healthily, eating disorders, tips on feeding children and thoughts on sustainability.

In one of our best episodes yet, this week we're going mad for tacos with MasterChef winner and founder of Wahaca restaurant group Tommi Miers. Chef Calum Franklin, of the Holborn Dining Rooms, shares his secrets on pastry and pies for Pie Week. Plus, the team talk about their favourite bar snacks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mark is the co-founder of Wahaca, the sutainable restaurant group that introduced traditional Mexican food to the masses of the UK. It serves up fresh and honest food inspired by the markets of Mexico. Alongside his co-founder – MasterChef winner Thomasina Myers – Mark has grown Wahaca from a single restuarant in Covent Gardern in 2007 into a chain of 22 restaurants scattered throughout London, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff, and Liverpool. Prior to Wahaca Mark was at Capricorn Ventures, where he served as the right hand to the partners. He worked in a variety financial, operational, and strategic roles; which included projects for Nando’s, Gondola Holdings, and Baker & Spice. Before Capricorn Mark worked directly with Stelios Haji-Ioannou (founder of easyJet) as the Business Development Director for various “easy” Businesses and, prior to that worked in corporate finance for Merrill Lynch. His talk at London Business School is part of the 2015-2016 Tell Series talks and it was recorded on 16 March 2016 at London Business School. Learn more about entrepreneurial opportunities at the School: http://bit.ly/LBS-entrepreneur Learn more about Tell Series: http://tellseries.com/ Learn more about DIIE: http://www.london.edu/diie

Thomasina Miers - Jazz Shapers with Mishcon de Reya. Jazz Shapers in association with Mishcon de Reya broadcasts every Saturday at 9am, with a repeat on Monday at 5am, just before the Business Breakfast. Presented by broadcaster and Mishcon de Reya's Director of Business Development Elliot Moss, Jazz Shapers shares music from the risk takers, leaders and influencers of jazz, soul and blues, alongside interviews with their equivalent in the business world: entrepreneurs who have defined and shaped business categories and ways of operating, defying convention and have gone on to achieve great success. With more than 900 people, Mishcon de Reya is an independent London-based law firm that serves an international community of clients. In their words: "We appreciate the privilege of sitting alongside our clients as a trusted advisor. Building strong personal connections to our clients and their businesses is important to us. It is for these reasons we say ‘It's business. But it's personal.'