Podcasts about World Wide Web

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, on the unique upbringing that inspired a tech revolution. Tim Berners-Lee has well and truly changed the world. For under-35s it's almost impossible to imagine what life might have been like without him. But when he launched the World Wide Web in December 1990, no-one knew the success it would become - and most struggled to understand why the world needed the Web at all. Tim, however, grew up steeped in the knowledge that computers held the key to the future. His parents worked on the Ferranti Mark 1 - the world's first commercial computer - and raised Tim on a diet of science demonstrations and electronic tinkering. His mother Mary Lee was the family's driving force, encouraging an eclectic mix of logical thinking, creative problem-solving, camping trips and a spirit of 'watchful negligence' - all of which gave the introverted young Tim the confidence to think outside the box and find solutions for himself. So when he went to work at CERN in Geneva in his late-20s and saw how computers struggled to talk to one another, he was perfectly placed to imagine and build what would become the World Wide Web.Tim's vision for the Web was built around positivity - where anyone with access to an internet connection could freely share ideas with anyone else. He knew that the key to its success was universality, so he made the decision to give the Web away for free. As a result, Tim Berners-Lee is not a billionaire. But he says that's just the way he likes it, making him free to go for walks and swims in the Serpentine in London without being recognised. It's not all been good news though. In the 35 years since its creation, the Web has been used as a base to build social media and AI empires that Tim says don't always act in our best interests. He fears the addictive effects of social media apps on children's mental health, and has decided to stop using Instagram as he was too often getting hooked on the feed. Tim says that his latest mission is to build a form of pro-human AI as an antidote to systems owned by Big Tech, and aims to help people reclaim control of their personal data so that the Web can, once again, belong to everyone. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Anna LaceyLives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else's life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

Christian College Sex Comedy: Part 16 Too Many Hot Asses On Campus In 30 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the podcast at Explicit Novels.             If you make one person happy, you save the World. Make a million people happy and you become a politician        "Wait," Vivian waved her hands sideways, "Zane is really sleeping with a bunch of women? I thought that was an exaggeration." "Did I come at a bad time?" Barbie Lynn spoke up. She was holding a suitcase and a carry-on bag. Behind her was Millicent with one suitcase and Raven with a dress bag. I was reminded that Barbie Lynn would be moving back into the dorm as dorm mother in the morning, but she was currently between places and clearly expected to spend the night here, in my room, with me. "Come on in," I offered Barbie Lynn as I crossed over to get her bag. Vivian stepped up and put a hand on my arm to stop me. "Barbie Lynn will not be staying in your room tonight!" Vivian laid down the law. "Vivian, you always ranked higher than me in the club hierarchy and I have a bad knee, but if you have a problem with me, face me, not Zane," Barbie Lynn growled. "Don't worry, Babe," I soothed Barbie, "I'm working on a solution right now." "Zane, slap this skank" (referring to Vivian), Rio snarled. "She put her hand on you so defend yourself all over her punk ass." "Vivian is only doing her job," I addressed Rio. "I'm not going to hold that against her." "Zane, is this another one?" Raven inquired about Vivian's sexual status with me. "No. She's my official guardian, and as soon as I kick her ass, she's going to sleep on one of the main room's sofas for a month," I explained. "No, when I win, I will exclude everyone from this floor except you, me and the dorm mother," Vivian countered. Valerie came bolting into the room with the clothes, Opal, and Cappadocia. "I will go change into shorts outside. Vivian, you change here. Coach, can you referee the match?" I tried to bring some order to the chaos. Vivian ground her teeth but took the clothes and started to strip before I got my own clothes. "Zane, stay on - change in the corner. There are too many freshmen girls out there," Vivian conceded. "You two should decide if you want to stick to Zane's bedroom or cover the entire floor," Dana stated. "I leave that to Vivian," I allowed. Vivian chose the full floor and Dana decided that things would remain cluttered, the students would remain on the floor as obstacles to fight around, believing we were good enough to not smack a civilian. "Good job, Vivian," Dana congratulated her senior student. "Use the terrain to counter his reach advantage. "Any advice for me?" I asked. "Yes. Don't get that pretty face beaten up," she smiled snidely at me. "That will teach Zane to take your side on anything," Rio sneered. "I'm not on your faction's side, Rio," Dana confirmed, "but it doesn't mean Zane and I aren't friends." "I'm fine," I assured Rio. "Tell us when, Coach." Dana looked Vivian and I over. "Go!" she snapped. Vivian caught me off guard by running away but I quickly gave chase. She compounded the situation by scrambling across a pool table in play then kicking at me when I came around the side. She followed up on that advantage with a series of punches that drove me over the back of a chair. Girls were screaming, squealing, and running all around us. She advanced around the chair so I bolted over the closest sofa. Now Vivian pursued. She launched a flying kick over the sofa. I folded under it and was a millisecond faster on the recovery. My punch hit her in the ribs and pushed her back. A flurry of blows rained down on me. I tried to drive her back but Vivian's technique was too close to perfect for me to beat through. Vivian switched up with a series of swift front kicks to buy some room, then started maneuvering again. "She's a righty," Valerie told me. That meant she was right-handed, thus she made most of her attacks and blocks from the right, covering the left instinctively. Since the right was not significantly stronger in most athletes, you could wear down an opponent by concentrating your attacks on the over-extended right, or so the theory went. Even then, it took two minutes to catch her calf with a kick and put her down. She rolled out of my attempted hold but ended up on her ass, back to a chair. "Five-minute break," I offered. Vivian blinked but took the hand I offered to help her stand up. "Drink," I motioned to the juice dispenser. She looked at me funny, then went to get one. "Be careful, Vivian; he's trying to get inside your head, convince you he's not such a bad guy," Dana counseled her female student. "No kind words for me?" I joked. "I already know you are a good guy, Zane. The only reason you cut Vivian some slack was that you would rather have her friendship than the win, which is far more dangerous to Vivian," Dana winked at me. I took a Grapefruit juice while Vivian drank some Gatorade, both with our backs to the sink. I caught her stealing some looks my way. "Next time I'll pin you," she told me while looking away. "We both have to be thinking that or we wouldn't be fighting," I responded. "The difference is that I am right," she said as we made eye to eye contact. "FFU doesn't teach you to be second best," I nodded, which brought a smile to her face. "Thirty seconds," Iona warned us. We picked spots ten feet apart and were ready when Dana gave the word. Since my previous strategy had relied on attrition, Vivian went for a quick, lightning series of attacks. She rebounded off sofas, tables, and chairs as she drove me about the room. At a crucial moment she drove her foot into my thigh above the knee and sent me sprawling into a crowd of observers. As Vivian closed in for the kill, I spilled a startled freshman into her. By the time she disentangled herself from my distraction, I was on my feet. Her glare told me she didn't approve of my move. We crashed together; she leveraged me over and threw me onto a sofa. We grappled and rolled off the sofa and onto the floor. Vivian rammed an elbow into my throat but I wedged a knee under her hips and propelled her over my head. "You've done a good job, Coach Gorman," Valerie lauded Dana on Vivian's performance. "She's either three or four on the team," Dana informed the group. "It is her or Evangeline fighting for third, with Cappadocia and Wilhelmina being second and first." "You have some weird damn names at this school," Valerie commented. "This from an outlaw biker chick with the handle of Valkyrie?" Dana teased. "Of course, I'm also still trying to figure out how a guy who is knocking boots with Barbie Lynn Masters is giving the time of day to Paige here." "Hey!" Paige squawked. "Zane thinks I am very good at sex, I'll have you know." "Trouble," Barbie Lynn moaned. Vivian had faked me out and put a foot into my stomach that sent me cartwheeling. Me, I'd have kicked me in the calves and thighs to weaken me up but Vivian went for a stomp to my diaphragm. I rolled away, then kicked out. This is where my greater reach came into play; Vivian couldn't fall back fast enough and I put my heel into her hip. I was up a hair before Vivian could make a counterstrike. I rolled her thrust under my arm, caught the limb and rolled the two of us onto the ground. She placed a hand underneath her and tried to shake free of me. I locked her arm, twisted, and leaned into her body. "Do you give?" I asked softly. I had her pinned and I doubted anyone here besides Dana could have escaped. "No," she hissed. I could sense people gathering around. "Time for another five-minute break?" I inquired a little louder. Vivian gave one last surge of resistance, then relaxed. "Fine," she grumbled, "five minutes." I rolled off and offered her a hand. Vivian ignored it, choosing to get on all fours, then stand. She was about to walk way when she turned and extended her hand to me. She shook and headed back to the closest bar. "Zane?" at least five different girls asked me at once. I wasn't sure why I'd let Vivian up either. "Dude, if you lose this, I am personally going to use my strap-on on your ass," Rio growled. "I'm going to go home and start researching the most painful applications of acupuncture possible," Paige enlightened us all. "I'll take care of your hurts," Barbie Lynn sympathized. "You are such a slut," growled Rio. "No," Opal interceded. "I think that Brandi, Barbie Lynn and I are going to be taking comfort with Zane when the rest of you bimbos have lost faith in him, leaving him lost and forlorn." "How many of you am I going to have to fight off?" Vivian sounded worried. It was beautiful music to my ears, not to be blamed for once. "There is me," Iona chirped, "and wait until Heaven shows up. Forty-eight hours without her Zane-fix and she's going to look forward to dismembering someone," she added with a pleasant sincerity. Vivian looked to me skeptically. "It is entirely my fault," I confessed with upraised hands, "I should learn to say 'no' from time to time. I keep leading these fine young ladies on." "Do you see why you need to win now?" Dana asked Vivian, who looked uncertain. "You are Zane's only hope of surviving the school year. You are a lifesaver." "Oh, okay; let's get back to it then," Vivian sighed. I rolled my shoulders and followed. The second Dana gave us the nod, we attacked one another. I had hoped to catch Vivian off-guard and clearly Vivian thought the same thing. In close, Vivian had the advantage. She got several blows into my right side and I never fully recovered. Vivian got a foot behind my left leg and tumbled me down as I grabbed her shirt. Her shirt tore, we rolled, first her on top, then me before we broke up. I jabbed, she tumbled back and regained her feet, I backed up and did the same. Vivian tossed her ruined shirt aside and readied herself. Maybe a half dozen people in the room followed the next exchange of blocks and blows, Vivian hammering away at my right while I clipped her left shoulder and stomach. I saw an opening, tried to flip her but she pulled me down and ended up on top. She cocked back her fist to strike with her right while pinning my shoulder with her left. I had a hand poised at her armpit and the other half-raised to block. Vivian realized she was about to clock me in the head hard; my block wouldn't be fast enough. Something passed between us at that moment. I hooked her under the arm, flipped us over, and landed on top. Vivian twisted her arms but I twisted my block into a wrist hold and pinned the other when she attempted to break the hold. For that second, I had her pressed to the ground, our breasts heaving from the exertion. "Okay," she said softly. I immediately let go of her wrists and got off of her in all haste. I offered to help her up and this time she took it without hesitation. We stood there, clasped hands held at her chest level, facing and studying the other's features. The cheering broke out the moment the freshmen student body realized the fight was finally over and that I had somehow come out on top. I tilted my head slightly because I really had to know why she let me win but I never got the words out. "I really don't know," Vivian whispered. My well-wishers pulled us apart and I was getting slapped on the back and kissed. I noted that Dana, Barbie Lynn, Valerie, and Mercy stood around Vivian. Valerie must have seen what really happened and wanted to know why. Mercy had probably been reminded of whose side she theoretically belonged to. Barbie Lynn would be Dorm Mother again, making Vivian her charge, and Dana was her instructor after, which explained everyone's presence. "So, can we have our own little celebration?" Paige requested, her pale eyes burning bright. "I have a church meeting in an hour," I frowned. Rio and Iona were in the room with us but were close to the screen entrance, giving Paige and I some space. "We could sneak something in," Paige winked hopefully. "You are many things to me, Paige, but you are not someone I want to leave after only a quickie," I looked down at Paige as I wrapped my arms around her. She pouted but clearly wasn't too angry with my decision. Outside her odd fascination with me, Paige was a clever, logical girl. "I believe Heaven is going to be all over you this evening," Paige sighed. "Friday is for your Aunt Jill and Saturday is the Block Party, so what are my chances for Thursday or Sunday?" "I was hoping to make Thursday night a sleep-over sort of thing and I'd like it if you were here," I asked. "I really don't want to commit my Sunday until I'm sure Heaven is okay. You have to admit she's had a really lousy week." "I don't have to admit anything, Zane, but I make allowances because you mean well," Paige smiled. "I chose to accept that your loyalty to Heaven is a mirror of the loyalty you show me." "It has nothing to do with bouncy, bouncy, bouncy?" I teased. "No," Paige wiggled tightly against me. "That would be an irrational decision based on memories of deep sexual pleasure and I'd never confess to that." I felt her place a gentle kiss on my chest. I answered with a kiss to the top of her head. "Now scoot," I commanded. "You are far too distracting and I do have to get going." Paige rubbed her body against me as she moved past to the entrance; Iona and Rio came my way as I got dressed. "I should have Mercy tied down, gagged, and blindfolded by the time you get back," Rio grinned. That was her way of asking my permission to use my room without actually asking. "I'll make sure Vivian is set up before you get back," Iona informed me with upbeat energy. "Iona, since I hate Mercy Chaplain, why don't you spend the weekend with me?" I asked. The implication was that Rio would be tearing Mercy up all weekend long. "I'd love to," Iona hugged me. "Sleep in his bed," Rio chuckled. "I plan to," Iona boasted. "Lose your virginity," Rio teased. "No," Iona gave Rio a raspberry. "Zane loves me the way I am." "Are we going to cuddle?" I smiled warmly down at her. "Damn Skippy!" she chirped. "I'll even sleep in the nude because I trust you so much." "Busted!" Rio laughed at me. I groaned, finished getting dressed, and made my own way out. Before I could make my escape from the main area, Vivian flagged me down. "Vivian, I'm going to, I started to say. She lifted up her phone in response. "Your schedule is online," Vivian pointed out. "What I was wondering was why you are still using the fifth floor showers when you have showers in the Solarium now?" "Wow, are you offering to shower with me?" I faux-gasped. "That didn't take you long." "No!!" Vivian glared with some exasperation. "I'm trying to limit your contact with naked women." No one within earshot was rude enough to laugh out loud. "I could say something like 'shower with me and I'll respect your virginity,' but I'll respect your virginity no matter what," I gazed upon Vivian. "I do formally request that you allow me to continue to shower on the fifth floor. I hope you don't disregard my request out of hand." Vivian levelly met my gaze, then nodded. "I'll think about it," she allowed. "Holy Smokes," Brandi whispered from nearby, "he's broken down the wall." Vivian flinched. "No," Opal whispered back, "but she's no longer ready to castrate him in the next fifteen seconds either." That observation made Vivian crack a glimmer of a grin. I took it as my cue to run for it. Rochelle Wellington and University depravity, sort of. Once they got over me 'borrowing' certain gear from some of the male committee rooms, the Festivities Committee fell in line with Rochelle Wellington's agenda. I sat back as normal while they hashed out how best to use the new imagery that I'd provided courtesy of the girls at FFU. At this, my second meeting, I chose to sit behind Sahara Penny, Pastor Bill's wife. I learned she was Lebanese Christian and she'd married William Penny when he was in the US Navy, before he became a priest. There were a ton of things left unsaid about her opinion of his ministry and I got the definite opinion that Bill had left his last post because everyone thought Sahara had an indiscretion with a young male parishioner. My guess was that if a young male parishioner was involved, the cheater was that bastard Bill. As an added insult, Sahara's name wasn't even Sahara; that was the name Bill had listed on their marriage certificate because he found her Lebanese name difficult to pronounce. Her minority background, coupled with her husband, the pastor, letting everyone think she was a cheating whore, made Sahara the pariah of this little community. Because I had absolutely nothing going on in my life, I had to avenge Sahara. Being dumber than a box of rocks certainly didn't hurt my determination. By the end of the session I had managed to accomplish four things. I'd helped Sahara feel better about herself and know she had a friend in me. If you have ever felt alone and isolated in the world you know how good that can feel. I had confused Mrs. Bainbridge as to my actual intentions; she thought I was cozying up to Sahara instead of Rochelle. The committee was mildly impressed that I had both shown back up and had appeared to bust my hump in contributing to their efforts at what their menfolk thought was a joke. Most importantly to me, I had gotten a few covert smiles from Rochelle Wellington for both my help to the other members and to my efforts with Sahara. As wife of the mayor, she wasn't supposed to make waves, which included things like befriending someone the men had designated to be on the 'Shunned' list. I was forgiven for my transgression because I clearly didn't give a fuck about what any of them cared. When the meeting broke up Kendra Bainbridge, Sahara, Rochelle and I were quickly the last ones left. I hovered close to Sahara as we made our way to the door. "Zane, you need to return this equipment to the proper room," Rochelle reminded me. "Sahara, why don't we walk to our cars together?" Kendra suggested sweetly. This was the most I had heard Kendra address Sahara in the short time I had known them. It was clearly also her attempt of a cock-block on Sahara and I, which was a fortunate misread on the situation between myself and the Pastor's wife. "That would be nice, Kendra," Sahara replied. She reached out and stroked my elbow. "Thank you, Zane," she added with a smile. Kendra departed, smug in her victory, leaving Rochelle and I alone. "I'll get this equipment put away and be right back," I told Rochelle. "Could you make sure all the new files are backed up to my account?" "Of course, Zane," she smiled warmly, and set to work. I raced to get things squared away and hurried back. She remained at the table completing her work, coat off, when I moved in behind her. "Are we still friends?" I asked softly as I leaned in next to her ear. "Of course," she turned her head so our gazes were only inches apart. I made to kiss her on the lips; she recoiled so I waited. I wasn't afraid I'd spooked her; she wanted passion and the sense of freedom that came for embracing a choice all her own. The fear drained away and she completed our encounter. She was tentative at first and I mostly let her take the lead for the first two minutes until she became more confident. When the time was right I turned her in the chair and pulled her up by each hand. My hands went to her neck while hers settled on my hips. "We have our boundaries?" Rochelle questioned me. "Absolutely," I confirmed. "Your neck," I kissed her neck, "ear," I kissed her ear, "and cheek are all on my side of the boundaries." I had gotten as far as fondling the breasts last time around but I had time to coax her that way and was in no hurry. "Where are your boundaries?" I inquired of Rochelle as I lowered my hands around her hips. "I definitely think we should keep the boundaries at the waistline," she suggested. "So you want my waistline, but was that up or down?" I smiled. "What?" she blushed. "Do you want to keep your hands above my waist, say to the stomach and chest, or you could go down below the belt?" I teased. "Just kidding," I let her off the hook. Instead, I moved my lips to her face and came to a stop there. "We shouldn't be doing this," Rochelle sighed. "Okay," I was disappointed, "but you will have to tell me to let go of you first." "That isn't fair," she moaned, as she pressed her body against me and rested her forehead on my shoulder. I doubted it helped her resistance when her stomach pressed against my highly aroused cock. "Zane," Rochelle choked out, "I've been a good wife for thirty years. I'm a pillar of the community and a loyal member of this congregation. What am I doing with a man younger than my youngest baby?" "Rochelle, I don't want you to do anything you don't want to do, but I'm not going to lie about wanting you." "I don't think you are running away from your husband and family; I think they have moved on without you, despite all you've done to make them a part of your life. If you end up alone three or more times a week, give us a shot; if not, you are doing okay and should stay where you are," I advised. "I don't want to lose you," Rochelle worried. "You are not going to lose me, Rochelle. You are beautiful and that is not going to change; even if you are unattainable and I have to watch you from afar," I soothed her. She seemed to swell up with happiness in my arms. "That isn't fair one bit," she moaned. "Fine. I don't find you attractive; I am going to forget you the moment I walk out this door and I'll never look at you again," I taunted her. "Happy? You are off the hook." "Maybe if you were a better liar," Rochelle looked up at me smiling, "Remember that I am married to a politician." "Oh, then tell me if I'm lying: I want to pick you up, press you onto this table and make love to you until you scream with pleasure," I challenged. "What about our boundaries?" she panted. "I'm trying really, really hard to honor them but you aren't making it easy," I confided in her. Rochelle decided to change tacks. She backed away and leaned against the table, facing me, with her arms supporting her upper body as she reclined. "We shouldn't do this," she told me, but even as she shook her head, she smiled and bit her lower lip provocatively. I pursued her, Rochelle spreading her legs to allow my body to better press down on her. I kissed her fervently several times before she spoke. "Stop," she whispered. "I can't." I began working open the buttons on her blouse. Rochelle rolled her head back so that my lips and tongue played along her throat. "Ah, Zane, you should stop that," she exhaled as she gently held one hand to the back of my head as I kissed her breasts through her bra. "There are three hooks," she added as I started slipping her bra off. She pushed away from the table so I could slip her shirt and bra down. Since I had her off the table temporarily, I elected to unzip her skirt from the side and drop that and her slip to the carpet. She was looking horribly vulnerable being so nearly naked, down to white panties, thigh high white stockings, and black shoes. Sure, she was plump in the middle and her rich, swelling breasts sagged, but they were gorgeous to hold and behold. I more than evened the playing field, stripping completely naked. Rochelle moaned when she saw me exposed and she trembled with lust. I was sure she thought about running away or running at me, but she chose something in between. Rochelle reached forward and tenderly grabbed my cock in one hand. "Oh, my," she gasped. I moved closer, brushed her hair aside and put my hand to the back of her head. I brought her into yet another kiss, this one longer and more passionate than the rest. "I am going to move one step at a time," I told her softly, our faces barely an inch apart, "but I am going to take you tonight." Rochelle's first nod was timid, but they became very enthusiastic. I rested my hands on the lush flesh just below the hips and lifted her halfway onto the table. "I think I'm violating your boundaries," I grinned wickedly. First her eyes flared, she looked surprised, and finally she let her giggle turn into a laugh. She gave my cock a delicious twist. "I think we are way beyond that," she panted happily. I pressed into her, bobbing in for a kiss, withdrawing for her smile, and going in again. It took over a minute for Rochelle eventually to feel comfortable and self-assured enough to kiss me on the neck. I thrust my pelvis into her as a response. That appeared to be what it took for Rochelle's emotional dam to burst. She wrapped her stocking clad calves around each thigh and began kissing my shoulder and chest with hungry little pecks. "Zane," she panted as she yanked on my cock, "I haven't had sexual intercourse in twenty years." My first thought was 'Crap, someone else trying to squeeze my cock off,' but I realized that was unfair, plus she had delivered five children. "Rochelle, can I be crass and crude with you?" I said softly. That clearly wasn't what she expected to hear; still she consented. "Rochelle, I know it has been a long time since you've had sex, and it has probably been very vanilla. Have you ever had sex bent over a table?" I wondered. "No," she blushed. "I've only had sex on a bed, on my back. Isn't that normal?" "Um, okay. I'm going to fuck you, Rochelle; I am going to nail you, make you scream and cry and beat your fists in ecstasy," I threatened her. "How does that make you feel?" "I, she gulped, "that scares me but, nothing was said for several seconds. "Damn it," I hissed, "your body is tormenting me." Rochelle gasped and trembled once more. I dove into her left breast and bit down. She pulsed against me; then I started pressing her down on the table. Removing her panties was remarkably easy after that. I let my cock, still in her hand, rub against her slit. When her labia parted her fluids quickly coated the tip. I moved it up and down while we kissed, and I mean kissed. Rochelle kept stroking my cheek and hairline. I began pulling and teasing her nipples. A moment later I hooked her legs up until she instinctively wrapped around my waist. When I was rubbing my member along her cunt lips we kissed. When I feasted on her nipples she moaned like a slut and arched her back to entice me further. "Put it in me," she begged, overwhelmed with desire, "Put it in me now, please." "Whatever you want," I whispered in her ear. Using both our hands (I got the feeling she wasn't sure what she was doing) I wedged my cockhead in between her labia and pushed. Rochelle was snug, not tight, and certainly wasn't trying to tear the skin off my cock going in. For her part, my partner was going off beneath me chanting 'yes, yes, yes' and rubbing her body against mine. By the way she was sparking against me, I knew she was close to orgasm. "Ugh, ugh, ugh," Rochelle squirmed, "Oh, God! Yes!" she exulted beneath my body. She thrust rhythmically multiple times before gracefully resting against the wooden surface. "Oh, my God," she gasped. "I've never had an orgasm that intense before, or had it happen so fast." "That was all you, Elle," I grinned. "You have built up a great deal of sexual energy over the years and I had better be careful with you or you'll tear me up." "Oh, wait, that is a good thing, isn't it?" she asked from deep within her heaving bosom. "What did I tell you? The bodies of true women are dynamite and need to be handled with care. My main concern is that I can satisfy you," I confided in her. She had no initial words in response, instead relying on an intense stare. "Elle?" she panted. "No one has called me Elle since my father died." "Would you prefer I call you something else?" I replied. "No. It was a surprise, that's all," she told me. I pushed a little farther into Rochelle as she finished speaking. "Oh," she murmured. I let Rochelle's legs fall to the side as I gently coasted in and out of her. I gave her a few minutes of tender sex before pulling out and kneeling between her legs. "What?" she started to mumble before my lips settled onto her cunt and my tongue rolled through her folds. "Oh, wow," she moaned. Her clitoris was already evident so after a few generous strokes of the tongue, I tilted up and encased her clit in my lips and sucked. Rochelle bucked her hips in reaction and started up a deeply passionate groan. To add to life's injustices, I was sure no one had ever gone down on Rochelle's love box before. Despite having already cum once, Rochelle climaxed again inside five minutes. "Oh, God!" was her guttural gasp. Her body jerked, trembled, and stiffened before going still once more. I licked my way up her body, teasing both sides of her belly button, slobbering over her right breast, and ending up driving my tongue into a muscular dance with hers. Kappa Sigma "Umm, is that what I taste like?" she panted, with thankfully a good deal of pleasure. "Now you know one of the reasons I'll be coming back for more," I teased. "One; what is the other one?" she grinned wearily. "No, you don't," I responded with a kiss to her nose. "You don't get to have that kind of fantastic reaction to me then act like it was nothing." "Oh, don't say that," Rochelle scolded me, "I know I'm not very good." "Are you dumping me?" I asked. "No," she exclaimed anxiously, and clutched me with her hands on my upper arms and thighs pressing on my hips. "Why are you acting as if I didn't enjoy myself?" I questioned. "You climaxed twice and guys love that kind of thing. My only problem is that we can't keep giving you the screwing you so richly deserve. If we are missing much longer, they are going to send out search parties." Rochelle continued to hold me tight but had calmed down a lot. It did take me a moment to figure out that I needed to carry the conversation. "How soon can we get together again?" I asked softly, which was precisely what she wanted to hear. "Maybe we shouldn't," she hesitated, but from my experience she was playing with me. "I know I've pushed this, Elle, but you are worth every effort. I see a sensual, mature woman abandoned by some guy who clearly didn't appreciate her finer qualities," I pledged. "Zane, the risks are so great," she worried intently. "We could really suffer over this, affair." "Fine," I sat up, "I'll give you up for your sake but you have to promise to do one thing for me." "What is it?" she hesitantly inquired. "How many young women have been in your husband's office less than five years?" I opened with. "Two," she recalled somewhat confused. "The one with the most seniority; tomorrow I want you to go into her office and tell her you know about her liaisons with your husband, her boss, the Mayor," I advised her. "Don't act angry. Instead, act comfortable with the news and put her at ease. She'll be glad to confide in someone, trust me." "What if she hasn't had an affair and goes to my husband with this accusation?" Rochelle bit her lip in concern. "Rochelle, you have a seriously hot body and incredible sexual energy. Since your husband hasn't been neutered that I'm aware of, he's been getting sex somewhere else. I haven't heard of a thriving sex industry in town so for discretion's sake, he is having sex with women he has power over; namely, employees," I explained. "How did you come up with all of that?" she marveled. "Elle, there is nothing greater in all of God's Creation than women, body and soul. I notice things that most people miss and appreciate qualities most ignore," I enlightened her. "You have a smoking body but if you weren't such a wonderful woman, I wouldn't be here." "Ah, you make me feel ten years younger," she sighed before kissing me on the nipple and chest. "Crap," I bitched. "That means I only have two more encounters with you before you become jail bait." That assessment made her laugh joyously. "I've lost my mind and I don't know why," she breathed in a terribly sexy way, hardly upset at all. "We are leaving now," I declared, "Because you are so sexy right this instant, if I stay, I'm going to hammer you so hard we are going to break this table. I'm not sure how we can explain that." "Does the 'hammer me through the table' line work on younger women?" Rochelle teased. "Do you want me to go grab a younger woman and find out?" I zinged back. "No!" she insisted. "I am sure we are not exclusive but I'm sure I don't want to share you with anyone I don't have to. I think we should get together again but I'll have to contact you." "Use Felicity's phone and have her call Rio," I directed. "She'll get a message to me." "Are you going to, seduce Felicity too?" Rochelle inquired warily. "Nope, that has never been my intention," I answered. I wasn't sure how to explain to Rochelle that the real worry was Rio kidnapping Felicity for a Lost Weekend of Sapphic splendor. A discussion about homosexuality and my acceptance of it wasn't in the cards for tonight. "I want her and Lance to have a shot at happiness," Rochelle said. "I want Felicity to be happy as well," I evaded. If she noticed my failure to mention her youngest son, she was good enough not to press the matter. We kissed before we walked out the door and left; she went home and I headed home to have dinner with Jill. We had hot dogs and green beans; Jill had a hard three days at work and she wasn't a diligent cook to begin with. My Shirt is not my Friend Before heading back to campus I stopped by the Kappa Sigma House. I got some rather comfortable attention from the ladies, which was a bit bizarre when it was tag-team action from two sisters I'm pretty sure are lesbians. I stopped by to see Tawny for a minute to talk to her about the block party I might still have an invitation too. I ended up spending a few minutes of alone time with Leigh (okay, Paris is on her bed pretending to study but it isn't a tiny room). "I know you need to go home soon," Leigh lured me in with a sympathetic voice. I let her come into my arms and while I was aware she was about to shift me I was still taken aback by her enthusiasm. I landed back-first on her bed and she ended up straddling my crotch with her legs folded underneath her. "Let me help you with your shirt," she grinned evilly. I wasn't aware my shirt was in the way or that I wanted it off but what the hell. I started to unbutton my shirt but she slapped my hands away. Instead, she pulled my shirt out of my pants and yanked it up and up until the top was over my head. Once she had it over my face and my arms pinned, she stopped and snickered. "What the, oh, come on, Leigh," I complained. "You like to be tied up, admit it," she teased me. "Is your webcam on?" I countered. "If I say yes will you be even more turned on?" she wiggled on my aroused crotch. "Somebody says you will." Leigh scooted down my body, then placed her tongue on my nipple and blew a cool breath on it. The arousal was agony. Things didn't get better when she set her lips to the other nipple. "That's it, Zane," Leigh moaned, "so fucking big and hard." She was rubbing her breasts and stomach along my rod, making me wish we were naked once more. Leigh was taking sadistic joy in working my nipples over too. It was so good that I was momentarily confused when she took in both of my nipples at once (honest, I don't have man-boobs). I had a second tormentor. "Hey, Paris," I gasped. "Zane, you are so sweet. I am going have to make use of your trellis Friday night because I can't sleep right remembering how you tongued and cocked me over at the party," Paris sighed happily. "Here, let me help you breathe." Paris helped move my shirt from over my chin and lips, which did help me take a deep breath, but in the intake, a nipple and a bit of breast were inserted past my lips. Paris was a 34B but could easily fit a C, and dining on her firm and vibrant flesh was no hardship for me. I figured that I could take two women at one time; I'd done it before. The third presence was perturbing but now both my nipples were covered. It was when a slick cold substance was placed upon my belly that I started to protest. I had the knowledge that there were four women over me when a newcomer initiated some licks, rubbing her flat tongue over me from sternum to belly button. "Oh, wow," she said, it is Ricky Frasier, another sister. "You have to try this." "Sure," yet another god-damn sorority sister chimed in. "Let's cover his cock in it and see how that tastes." That's it! I'm changing my damn aftershave because clearly it is too fucking much for these girls. "Won't the honey get stuck in his pubic hair?" Jersey, my latest jailor, inquired. "No. Zane shaves down there," Leigh chortled. "It makes the blowjobs that much nicer." "Cool," Ricky giggled. "Let's get his pants down and judge how much better he tastes." Screw it; I'm getting Swat on speed-dial, some flash-bang grenades, and a stun gun so I can fight my way out of these situations. All being nice has gotten me is the classification of hors d'oeuvre. "Enough, sisters," Tawny's voice called out before they could get my pants unbuckled. "Zane is our friend; he needs to get back to his dorm before he's missed and I don't think the other chapters will look kindly upon us sampling the prize before the end of the semester awards him to us," she chastised the ladies. "Let him up and say good night." Thankfully, coming from Tawny made that a command and not a mere suggestion. I got a series of 'sorry, Zane' and 'goodnight, Zane' comments as they pulled my shirt down and let me stand up. Ricky waggled a squeeze jar of honey at me suggestively. "Ricky, don't you have a boyfriend?" I noted. "I won't tell him if you won't," she grinned. "Webcam," I thumbed over to Leigh's computer. "Why don't you give him a call right now and tell him you've been experimenting with some tricks for this weekend," I suggested as a way out. She ran up and hugged me, then put her lips to my ear. "We really should keep you here," she whispered. A simple 'thank you' would have sufficed. I managed to make it out of the house escorted by Tawny and trailed by Leigh. As I opened my car door and tried to get in, Leigh cuddled up to me, looking all sweet, honest, and innocent. "Zane, I want you to pound me this weekend like you are laying down posts on a hundred acre farm," she purred. Tawny rolled her eyes in exasperation, Leigh looked hopeful, and I was suddenly contemplating cock-reduction surgery. "I wish I could, Leigh, but Friday I'm embracing Tibetan Buddhism, shaving my head, and moving to Nepal to live a life of celibate monasticism," I informed her. "Zane," Leigh murmured hungrily, "I crawled up your trellis for a night of sex. I'm pretty sure I could scale a thousand foot cliff to rescue you from an unguarded cell if the price of failure was never having you fuck me again." "Your mistake was telling her your plans," Tawny laughed. "I kind of figured that out," I groaned in despair. "Good night, now," I added as I made my getaway. Not Sleeping Alone I had one task to deal with before I climbed the steps to my place. A few freshmen waved goodnight as they left my place and made for their own rooms before curfew. I sat on the floor and gave Brianna Kincaid, the Kappa Sigma at Colorado State, a call. "Zane?" Briana said in a soft disbelieving voice. "Have I caught you at dinner?" I inquired. "If so I'll call you back later." "Sure, yes, no, I mean I'm at dinner but I can talk," Briana worked out. "What's up?" "I hadn't heard from you and I wanted to make sure you were okay with what the other Kappa Sigma houses have been telling me. I wanted to make sure you were okay with developments. My deal was exclusively with you after all," I explained. "I, no, I'm not okay with it," she whispered painfully. "Fine. I'm withdrawing from this contest, Briana. We'll work something out on our own." I sounded a bit pissed off. "You would, wouldn't you?" she mused. "Of course. Don't think I'm being noble and all that, though; you have a dangerous body and a bedroom voice," I dodged. There was a long pause. "Don't do it," she whispered. "Briana, I have a real low opinion of people who abuse another's trust," I told her. "Honestly, Zane, I'm okay with this, now more than ever. Besides, I'm going to win so it doesn't matter," she sighed with pleasure. "I'll be fine if my sisters don't kill me in the next few minutes." "Threaten them with my awesomeness if things get rough," I joked. "I promise you everything will work out," Brianna laughed. "So now that you've made my day, what's next for Zane Braxton?" "I'm going upstairs and going to bed," I replied. "How many and anyone we know?" she chuckled softly, getting over her funk. "Is it impossible to believe that I'm seeking out a good night's sleep alone?" I faux-groaned. "There was this evil internet rumor that, Jarunee says hey," she was interrupted. "The rumor was, you turned down a chance to have a go with a girl." "Technically, I sobbed as I refused the offer," I explained. "I was too exhausted to actually speak." "Cool," she snickered then, "Wait, Adele says you have another video up." "Aren't you ladies eating dinner?" I questioned. "Yes; consider yourself dessert," she teased. I could make out a cluster of women close to the phone and could barely make out (groan) Leigh's and Paris's voices. Fantastic, I was getting bound down and molested on the World Wide Web. I'm such a lucky guy. "Well, umm, at least they didn't drag you out into the woods this time," Briana offered sympathetically. "You are going to let me tie you down and lick you from head to toe; right?" "I'm all yours," I assured Briana. "I also have to go now because I know of at least five ladies waiting on me so I'm still a ways from letting sleep take me." "Take care, Zane, and you rock; night," Briana signed off. I made my way to the door and punched in my code right before two freshmen girls came running down the stairs. "Hey" they grinned as they slipped past. I couldn't stop myself from scanning their retreating forms, which turned out to be somewhat lucky. No sooner had the girls disappeared into the elevator than Mercy appeared with Rio. Mercy was in the lead, dragging Rio behind her. Mind you, Rio was running full out to keep up but Mercy was taller and in better shape. I whistled for their attention. Mercy and Rio pulled up short. "Come here," I motioned to Mercy with a 'come-hither' finger. I was somewhat stunned that Mercy looked back to Rio for permission. Rio couldn't help a burning light coming to her eyes. She pressed Mercy up against the wall, pushed her arms out to the sides then took Mercy's head in her hands and kissed her deeply. "Very good, bitch, now go see what Zane wants," she teased Mercy's lips with her tongue. Mercy flushed a deep red, then came my way. "Mercy," I lectured quietly, "you need to remember that you are supposed to be Rio's guardian and pretend you are keeping her in line." "But what if she tells me to do something else?" Mercy whispered back. I leaned into Mercy until my lips touched her ear. "Now, don't nod," I breathed into her ear, making sure Rio couldn't hear. "If the answer to what I ask is 'yes,' touch my shoulder. Do you understand?" Mercy touched my shoulder. "Do you like Rio owning you?" Another touch affirmed Mercy's desire. "If you want her to stay, you are going to have to be the sane one. That means you are going to have to take extra punishment from her in order to save Rio from herself." She waited long enough for Rio to start getting fidgety before she touched my arm. "If she tosses you aside, I'll work extra hard to get you two back together, I promise. Now go take her upstairs before she explodes," I finished up. Mercy backed up and reached for Rio. Rio snorted, tossed her head with indifference, and allowed Mercy to lead her upstairs. At the top I saw some of my compatriots gathered around the first living area, centered around Dana Gorman. Dana was drinking a beer and in conversation with Valerie and Vivian. Iona and Paige were sitting close but clearly working on different subjects. Finally, I had Raven, Brandi, and Barbie Lynn watching some television. I was sort of curious where Opal was. "Alright, everyone," Vivian called out as she stood. "Everyone out; Zane is back and it is almost 10:00 o'clock." "Can I finish my beer?" Dana nodded my way. "Yes," Vivian and I spoke simultaneously. "Thank you, Vivian, but I believe we should all remember this is Zane's room until you put a ring on his finger," Gorman gave Vivian a snarky smile. "I'm not going to marry him," Vivian declared indignantly. "He's eighteen, childish, and a philanderer." "It is his ability to screw me to unconsciousness as well as willingness to engage in a bi-sexual three-way whenever I want that are his most appealing features to me," Paige stated clinically. "I love the taste and feel of his cum on my tongue," Brandi perked up. "Oh, MY, God!" Vivian turned and gawked at Brandi, who refused to wilt. "I didn't need to know any part of that." "I want to know," Rio giggled. "No, you don't," Mercy tugged on Rio's arm. "I'm taking you to bed now and make sure you behave." "Oh, poo," Rio grumbled, but her eyes were clearly burning with hunger for Mercy who was doing an admirable job of not melting on the spot. "You are going to have Rio sleep in Zane's room?" Vivian spun around and addressed Mercy. "Where is Zane going to sleep?" "I'll sleep between them," Mercy replied. She left hanging out there that I'd be sleeping with her. "That's my cue to go to bed," Barbie Lynn gave a sexy, lopsided leer my way. "No," Vivian sputtered, clearly losing control of the situation. "Coach," Vivian pleaded to Dana. "I'm going to give you some advice, Vivian, not as a faculty member of FFU but as a combatant," Dana spoke clearly. "What is your goal for Zane? Think about it." "I'm to make him live by FFU standards and morals. That includes getting to his classes and sports as well as keeping him chaste and respecting the Purity Pledge," Vivian outlined. Dana preempted the laughter with a sharp glare. "Zane has missed three classes because of the fight he got into defendingtwo of his fellow students and two due to legal complications ordered by the Administration," Dana informed her. "No one is in more sports than Zane. We've all seen him go to his sessions crippled too. How do you plan to improve on what he's already done?" "In this case, that part of the job should be easy," Vivian countered. "And there you are doomed," Dana sighed. "Zane does what he does easily because it is not in his nature to go against the grain. Every chance he gets, he does what we want. That doesn't make him weak, though." "To the contrary, when he sets his mind to something, he drives at it with all his force, and when we get in the way, he fights with a rare desperate intensity and cleverness that many women here have come to admire. Zane didn't defeat the Chancellor and me; Christina Buchanan did. The thing is, it was Zane who convinced Christina to fight." "If you want to beat Zane, you are going about it all wrong; stop the women around him, not him," Dana concluded. "If you try to rein him in, he will slip past you, and a hundred girls will help him get away with it." "What should I do, then?" Vivian was stymied. "You are a good Christian girl; you'll figure something out," Dana winked. I knew what Dana was getting at, and while I didn't believe it would work, it was one of the best bets. A good Christian woman might be able to make me a good Christian man; seeing how Vivian might make that work wouldn't be boring. "I'm heading down to the bathroom," I announced into the confusion. Rapidly, Barbie Lynn, Mercy, and Rio went down at well. "Vivian?" I invited her to join us. "No. I'm not afraid to use the readily available facilities here," she answered snidely. Down in the bathroom Rio finished quickly, then came up behind Mercy, who was still brushing her hair. Rio's hold on sanity slipped away and she grabbed each of Mercy's ass cheeks in her hands, jiggled them up and down and giggled maniacally. "Damn it, damn it, damn it," Rio went off. "I love this ass so much!" "How do you feel about that, Sugah?" Barbie Lynn teased Mercy. Mercy lowered her face until her long hair obscured her expression. Balancing carefully on her hips, Mercy pulled her skirt up to give Rio a better view. Rio looked to me on the verge of crying. "Best, Slut, Ever," she wept tears of madness. "Alright," I chided Rio. "Get your stuff together, both of you, and we can get to bed. At the moment I thought I had the situation restrained, Mercy turned around and started to push past Rio. Rio jumped onto Mercy and slammed their bodies onto the counter, making guttural animalistic noises as she bit and kissed Mercy's shoulders, neck and lips. I scooped Rio by the waist and yanked her away. "No!" she growled. "Mine, damn it, mine!" She didn't claw at my arms but she struggled valiantly to get away. Barbie Lynn stepped up, put Mercy back in some sort of presentable order, and we finally exited the bathroom. By the time we got back to the Solarium, Rio had calmed down (enough) and Vivian gave me only a careful glance. She did signal me for a second of my time so once I had Rio stashed away, I returned to her. "I am still thinking about letting you shower downstairs," she allowed, "but only at the proscribed times. Tell me one thing and please be honest: Do you shower alone?" "No. Usually I shower with about eight to ten other girls," I answered. Vivian studied me intently, looking to see if I was having a joke at her expense. She took a deep breath, looked at the carpet, and finally nodded. "Thank you for your honesty," she told me. "This is how our fight begins, then," I grinned. "I'm not fighting you, Zane," Vivian responded. "Yes, you are," I countered playfully. "You are testing my moral boundaries and looking for a weakness you can exploit to make me feel guilty for how I treat the girls here." "Do you feel bad about the way you treat the female student body?" she inquired. "Nope. I want them to feel happy, safe, and free to express themselves," I replied. "I admire your approach; it shows your inventive and truthful nature at its best." "I'm not going to sleep with you," she smiled. "Nice try." "I hope you don't hold it against me for trying," I shyly responded. "I admit, this afternoon I would definitely have held it against you, but tonight I'll let it slide," she allowed me. "Zane, what do you sleep in?" I assumed she didn't mean 'my bed'. "Nude; I sleep in the nude. What do you sleep in?" I bantered. "Panties and a Dallas Cowboys jersey," she gave me her first wicked grin. "Baby Powder blue, since I'm sure you are going to ask,&

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Brewster Kahle will be in conversation about the rise of the internet, its continuing and explosive impact on society, the importance of the Internet Archive and other developing issues in the growth and use of the internet. Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, HTML, the URL system and HTTP. Berners-Lee proposed an information management system on 12 March 1989 and implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in mid-November of that year. He devised and implemented the first web browser and web server and helped foster the web's subsequent development. He is the founder and emeritus director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the continued development of the web. With Rosemary Leith he co-founded the World Wide Web Foundation. In April 2009, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences.  Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, is a passionate advocate for public internet access. He has spent his career intent on a singular focus: providing universal access to all knowledge. Soon after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kahle helped found the company Thinking Machines, a parallel supercomputer maker. In 1989, Kahle created the internet's first publishing system, called the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS). In 1996, Kahle founded the Internet Archive, and he co-founded Alexa Internet, which helped catalog the Web. A Technology & Society Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. OrganizerGerald Anthony Harris  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the right relationships at the right time positioned you at the forefront of every major technology revolution for 25 years? In this episode, Peter Swain, international speaker, bestselling author, and AI enablement advocate, shares his extraordinary journey from coding at age six to being at the epicenter of three major tech paradigm shifts — the web, mobile, and now AI. Through chance encounters with Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of HTML and the World Wide Web), working directly with Steve Jobs, and saying "yes" to countless opportunities, Peter has built a career helping entrepreneurs leverage AI to work half the time while earning twice as much. Peter reflects on how relationships and serendipitous moments shaped his path and why he believes AI is more transformative than if aliens landed tomorrow.   [00:04:02] The Six-Year-Old Coder Started coding in 1983 at age six on a Spectrum ZX 80 Beta testing for Microsoft at age 12 Met Tim Berners-Lee at 17 (inventor of HTML and the World Wide Web) Quit high school to become one of the first web developers in the world [00:06:00] Three Technology Paradigm Shifts Built UK version of Yelp before Internet Explorer launched Mid-2000s: Bought first iPhone, closed web business—"This smells the same" Started first mobile agency in Europe, worked with McDonald's, BBC, Microsoft, Apple, Google 2023: Downloaded ChatGPT beta, immediately rolled up current business [00:08:20] Understanding AI: Beyond the Noise Four groups: technical experts, futurists, doomsayers, and prompt sellers Peter's philosophy: "Integrated Living"—AI amplifies human capabilities The power of "and" versus "or"—great family AND business AND health [00:12:20] Why Social Media and Bitcoin Weren't the Same Social media: Puts people in silos and echo chambers Bitcoin: "Most awesome solution waiting for a problem" AI is fundamentally different: A new form of intelligence More impactful than if aliens landed tomorrow [00:16:20] Communication, Not Technical Skill Most people give AI 10-word instructions Would you hand your business to someone with 10 words? AI is coded to be people-pleasing—always says "yes" without context [00:18:00] The Business Handoff Analogy Imagine asking someone to run your business for three weeks with just office keys They'd keep it afloat but create chaos without proper context Same thing happens when you give AI insufficient information [00:20:20] The Critical Test Ask AI: "What did you need to know to do this well?" AI will list 28+ things you didn't provide Instructions should be around 1,000 words Less produces "looks great but is secretly terrible" results [00:23:40] Million-Dollar Relationships: Too Many to Choose Dad gave first computer and introduced him to Tim Berners-Lee Philippe Trush taught discipline and diligence Tom Bell gave first job with no qualifications "Nobody is self-made" [00:25:20] The Series of Unlikely Events Recent deal traced back through networking chain Tony Robbins ticket → networking group → presentation opportunity → major deal Can't predict going forward, only track backward [00:27:00] The Power of Saying Yes "The right advice at the wrong time is still the wrong advice" Until you know your place and purpose, say YES to everything Universe consistently offers gifts we're too busy to see After finding your North Star, THEN start saying no [00:31:40] The Most Aligned He's Ever Felt Everything before was leading to AI Web and mobile: Tools to help humans work better AI's promise: It will do it FOR you Fundamental shift in everything—relationships, health, spirituality [00:34:00] Why Entrepreneurs, Not Big Business Most entrepreneurs are great at their craft but terrible at business AI as the leveler: Handles operations so you can focus on genius Margins can go from 20% to 80-90% [00:38:20] Free Mastermind Offer Weekly calls every Thursday for three years 250 members helping people earn twice as much in half the time peterswain.com/mastermind KEY QUOTES "The right advice at the wrong time is still the wrong advice. Until you know why you are on this planet, say yes to as many things as possible. If it's not gonna kill you and it's not addictive, you should say yes." - Peter Swain "AI is more impactful than if aliens landed tomorrow. This is a new form of intelligence that doesn't need to sleep, eat, rest, or have water." - Peter Swain "An instruction to AI should be around a thousand words. Anything less, you're probably gonna get something that looks great, but is secretly terrible." - Peter Swain "Nobody is self-made. We are all built on the shoulders of great men and women. That doesn't make your achievements any less. It just allows you to honor what's happened." - Peter Swain CONNECT WITH PETER SWAIN

**BEN** @inkwellsanvils  on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/inkwellsanvils @inkwellsanvils  on Twitter at https://twitter.com/inkwellsanvils Inkwells & Anvils on the World Wide Web at https://www.inkwellsandanvils.com/ **DAVID** @uHate2see on Twitter at https://twitter.com/uHate2see uHATE2SEEit on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY06d_jLqJ6paE4K_sR4qtQ uhate2seeit on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/uhate2seeit **FAITH** @faithelooart  on Twitter at https://twitter.com/faithelooart @faithelooo on Twitter at https://twitter.com/faithelooo faitheloo on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/faitheloo **FLAME** flameprincevt on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/flameprincevt  

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. My Guest: Helen Lewis is a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of The Genius Myth: Great Ideas Don't Come from Lone Geniuses.  Notes: Shakespeare: Talent + Luck + Timing - William Shakespeare died in 1616 at age 52, celebrated but not yet immortal. His icon status required massive luck: friends published the First Folio (saving King Lear), then 50 years later, Charles II reopened England's theaters after Puritan closures and needed content. Companies turned to Shakespeare's IP, adapting his work (including changing tragedies to happy endings). Helen: "If anyone deserves to be called a genius, it's him. But he died as a successful man of his age. Scenius Over Genius - Brian Eno coined "scenius" - places that are unusually productive and creative. Shakespeare moved from Warwickshire to London for the theaters and playwrights. Helen: "You don't just have to be Leonardo, you also need Florence... Where do you find the coolest, most interesting bleeding edge of your field?" Modern example: Joe Rogan's Comedy Mothership in Austin created an alternative to LA/NYC for comedians like Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe. Ryan: "Put yourself in rooms where you feel like the dumbest person... force you to rise up, think differently, work harder." Tim Berners-Lee vs. Elon Musk - Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. Has knighthood, lives an ordinary life, kids named Alice and Ben. Most people have never heard of him. Elon Musk has a lot of children, talks about his genes needing to live on, and lives a very public life. Helen: "We overrate the self-promoters, the narcissists. We demand oddness and specialness... We don't call modest people geniuses because they're too normal." Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) and Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) exploited this - looked like a genius (Steve Jobs cosplay, messy math prodigy) but stood on houses of cards. Trauma and the "I'll Show You" Engine - Matthew Parris wrote Fracture after noticing how many "great lives" had traumatic childhoods - loss of parents, being unloved, bullied. Helen: "I don't think that's necessarily genius in objective achievement. It's more like a hunger for recognition or fame... a kind of 'I'll show all of you' engine." Stephen Hawking on IQ - Stephen Hawking: "I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers." The Flynn Effect shows average IQ rose over the 20th century through better nutrition, schooling, and living conditions. Higher IQ correlates with better outcomes. But at the top end, every IQ point ≠ is one success point. Christopher Langan (the highest IQ guy) thinks he has a theory to overturn Einstein, and that Bush did 9/11 to cover it up. No history of achievement. Helen: "Smart people don't always prosper. You need the gears that connect the engine to the wheels on the road." Conspiracy Theories: Narcissism as Driver - Narcissism is the most correlated personality trait with conspiracy thinking. Helen: "The sheeple, the NPCs think this, but I alone have seen the truth. It positions you as the protagonist of reality." The Internet is a "confirmation bias engine." But conspiracies are sometimes true (Epstein's corrupt plea deal), which is why conspiracy thinking persists. Researcher Karen Stenner's solution: Get back to depoliticized conspiracies like Bigfoot, crop circles, Area 51 - harmless things that got people outside instead of "shoot up a pizza restaurant." The Beatles: Finiteness Creates Legend - Psychologist Han Isaac said geniuses should either die before 30 or live past 80. Middle is "eh." The Beatles had both: a short career that ended definitively, then John Lennon was shot at 40, frozen in time. Paul McCartney lives on, performs at Glastonbury with John's vocals. Craig Brown: "The Rolling Stones just go on and on, but there's never as much of the Beatles as you want." Quality Over Quantity - Helen: "Incentive now is producing constantly for algorithms... That's neither fun nor produces the best work." Early career: say YES. Later career: "The most important thing you can say is no." Her metric: "Can I say honestly, that was the best I could do? I didn't cut corners. That's the metric." Podcast: advised to do 2-3 episodes weekly for rankings, has been doing weekly for 10.5 years. Shows that went daily? He stopped listening. "I'm gonna increase the quality bar, not the quantity." Robert Greene: "Do not speak unless you can improve upon the silence." Improving the Silence - "My dad's not the loudest at family gatherings, doesn't have the most words, but when he speaks, we all stop and listen. That's who you want to be." Applies to meetings: people vomit garbage to show how smart they are instead of waiting for something valuable. When you speak, people should want to listen. Thomas Edison: Execution Over Ideas - The Light bulb wasn't Edison's conceptual innovation - the idea dated to Humphrey Davy. What was incredible: Edison made it work (vacuum seal, filament) and created the New York power grid. Helen: "Lots of people can have the idea that a man should be an ant. Not everybody can write the Ant-Man screenplay and have it produced." His Menlo Park lab lasted because he worked with brilliant people on problems they cared about. Logbook shows assistants' names on breakthroughs - collaborative. We underrate logistics and execution. Most "light bulb moments" are actually slow, incremental, contested creations. Why Helen Chooses Teams Over Independence - Could go independent on Substack for more money. Works at The Atlantic for: resources, legal support, editorial integrity, and colleagues she doesn't want to let down. Helen: "You must have people in your life, you think, I wanna do work that they like. Finding those people who make you your best version of yourself." Ryan connects to athletics: "Being surrounded by people better than me forces me to raise my game. That's why we want to be part of a great team." Sample First, Specialize Later - High achievers have "hot streak" later, but sample early - trying different things, learning transferable skills. Helen: "Take the first job at a publication you could learn from. Even if not wildly interested, if it's good and they'll hold you to high standards, do it. Your second job is infinitely easier to get than your first." Work Around People Who Care - Helen: "If you work somewhere where no one cares, it's very hard. You can't care on your own. You'll become infected by the apathy around you." Nothing is more boring than a job you don't care about. Don't Wait to Live - Some devote long hours to something for money, promising they'll retire at 30 and then live. Helen: "What if you spent all that time chasing something and then you get hit by a truck? Don't wait for it. Just try and enjoy what you're doing right now." Quotes: "You don't just have to be Leonardo, you also need Florence."  "We overrate the self-promoters and underrate the humble achievers."  "Smart people don't always prosper. You need the gears that connect the engine to the wheels."  "The most important thing you can say is no."  "Do not speak unless you can improve upon the silence." - Robert Greene "You can't care on your own. You'll become infected by the apathy around you."  It's funny that we have come to use the phrase ‘lightbulb moment' to describe a momentary flash of inspiration, because the birth of the lightbulb was slow, incremental, and highly contested.

Witches, curses, magic, and the internet overlap much more than you'd think — and not just because of the Etsy witch that cursed Charlie Kirk. The very online Peter Berkman and Luke Silas of the band Anamanaguchi join us to talk about the history of internet witches and witchcraft, and the spooky connections between the supernatural and digital worlds. Our guests are members of Anamanaguchi, who you can catch on tour until October 17. Check out their latest album Anyway here and find their tour dates here!  Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to our Discord? TODAY is the last day to get your first month for just $0.50 by signing up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Enter “PANICYEAR” at checkout. Panic World is also up for two listener's choice Signal Awards — please vote for us in the ⁠Conversation Starter and ⁠Weird⁠ categories by October 9! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Combien de temps va-t-on continuer à taper des mots-clés dans des moteurs de recherche comme Google alors que ChatGPT, Perplexity ou encore Claude peuvent répondre instantanément à la question que l'on se pose ? Ces dernières années, l'avènement de ces intelligences artificielles (IA) génératives a peu à peu ringardisé le fait de rechercher une information sur un moteur, avant de consulter une page Internet puis une autre, jusqu'à dénicher la plus adaptée.Les IA sont-elles devenues irremplaçables, au point de menacer l'existence du Web ? Inventé en 1989, le World Wide Web est constitué de millions de pages reliées entre elles par des liens hypertexte. Or, non seulement les IA aspirent leur contenu, mais elles rendent également leur consultation superflue puisqu'elles génèrent, en quelques secondes, les réponses à toutes nos requêtes.Le Web pourrait-il donc finir par disparaître ? Quelles en seraient les conséquences, notamment économiques ? Faut-il s'en inquiéter ? Dans cet épisode du podcast « L'Heure du Monde », Morgane Tual, journaliste au Monde et spécialiste des questions numériques, nous explique comment l'IA a peu à peu bouleversé nos usages numériques.Un épisode de Marion Bothorel. Réalisation : Florentin Baume. Musiques : Amandine Robillard. Présentation et rédaction en chef : Jean-Guillaume Santi. Dans cet épisode : extraits d'une interview de Francesca Musiani interrogée par Morgane Tual, d'un sujet télévisé diffusé par France 24 le 6 décembre 2024, d'une vidéo diffusée sur YouTube par France Culture le 7 décembre 2024 et d'un reportage diffusé sur RTL le 5 juin 2025.Cet épisode a été publié le 1er octobre 2025.---Assistez au cours du soir de notre chroniqueuse judiciaire Pascale Robert Diard sur les coulisses des grands procès qu'elle a couverts et les mécanismes de la justice Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Das Internet ist allgegenwärtig, wir nutzen es jeden Tag und fast nichts würde noch ohne es funktionieren. Aber wo kommt es eigentlich her? Dora nimmt uns mit auf eine Zeitreise zu den Ursprüngen des World Wide Web – mitten in den Kalten Krieg, in dem ein paar Forschende mit Hochdruck an dem Netz tüftelten, das die ganze Welt verändern sollte…Material zu dieser FolgePacket Switching Einführung (Englisch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSlcoQowe9ITCP/IT Modell einfach erklärt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDYgCAwY8V4 Erste Webseite: https://info.cern.ch/ Geschichte des Internet (Englisch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIQjrMHTv4 Social Media und KontaktmöglichkeitenInstagram: http://instagram.com/doktopuspodcast/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doktopuspodcastE-Mail: doktopuspodcast@gmail.com CreditsRecherche, Hosting & Produktion: Dora Dzvonyar & Dominic AndersSound-Design & Post Production: Julian DlugoschAnsager: Marcel GustKI-Songs: SunoKI-Visuals: Bing Image CreatorIntro-Musik: Oleggio Kyrylkoww from PixabayIntermezzo-Transition: MAXOU-YT from Pixabay

Over the past 25 years, the world has witnessed the birth of the World Wide Web, the explosion of social media and the transformation of phones from push-button landlines to pocket-sized computers. The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to be the most transformative technological advancement yet, says Adam Peruta '00, G'04, associate professor of magazine, news and digital journalism and program director of the Advanced Media Management master's program in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.“I think AI is underhyped,” Peruta says. “What we're going through right now is maybe even more important and going to have more of an impact than the World Wide Web, social media and mobile phones.”In his research and teaching, Peruta explores issues around AI, including how AI that creates content will impact the future of media and how people working in media and communications must adapt to new technologies. Peruta stopped by the "'Cuse Conversations" podcast to discuss the state of AI, share helpful tips for using AI into our daily lives and explains what sets the University apart as a higher education leader in AI.

Watch the full video of this event for free here: https://mailchi.mp/intelligencesquared/lw6gixq1t9 The transcript of this event is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GvYGaOE-fnDQdFvrTLQjUGcrE6Ra0acN/view?usp=drive_link --- The most influential inventor of the modern world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a different kind of visionary. Born in the same year as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Berners-Lee famously shared his invention, the World Wide Web, for no commercial reward. Its widespread adoption changed everything — transforming humanity into the first digital species. In September 2025 Berners-Lee came to the Intelligence Squared stage to tell the story of his iconic invention and explore the future of human innovation. Drawing on his new memoir, This is For Everyone, Berners-Lee explored how the web launched a new era of creativity and collaboration, while unleashing a commercial race that today imperils democracies and polarises public debate. As the rapid development of artificial intelligence heralds a new era of innovation, Berners-Lee is the perfect guide to the crucial decisions ahead, and to provide a gripping, in-the-room account of the rise of the online world. With his characteristic optimism, technical insight and wry humour, Berners-Lee discussed the power of technology — both to fuel our worst instincts and to profoundly shape our lives for the better. --- If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events  ...  Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Watch the full video of this event for free here: https://mailchi.mp/intelligencesquared/lw6gixq1t9 The transcript of this event is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GvYGaOE-fnDQdFvrTLQjUGcrE6Ra0acN/view?usp=drive_link --- The most influential inventor of the modern world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a different kind of visionary. Born in the same year as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Berners-Lee famously shared his invention, the World Wide Web, for no commercial reward. Its widespread adoption changed everything — transforming humanity into the first digital species. In September 2025 Berners-Lee came to the Intelligence Squared stage to tell the story of his iconic invention and explore the future of human innovation. Drawing on his new memoir, This is For Everyone, Berners-Lee explored how the web launched a new era of creativity and collaboration, while unleashing a commercial race that today imperils democracies and polarises public debate. As the rapid development of artificial intelligence heralds a new era of innovation, Berners-Lee is the perfect guide to the crucial decisions ahead, and to provide a gripping, in-the-room account of the rise of the online world. With his characteristic optimism, technical insight and wry humour, Berners-Lee discussed the power of technology — both to fuel our worst instincts and to profoundly shape our lives for the better. --- This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events  ...  Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Britain is throwing all the royal pageantry that it can muster for President Trump's unprecedented second state visit. The President and the First Lady were greeted earlier by King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle. Meanwhile, some took to the streets in London to protest the US leader's visit. Royal correspondent Max Foster joins the show from Windsor Castle.  Also on today's show: Former US Ambassador to EU Gordon Sondland; Former UK Ambassador to US Peter Westmacott; World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Berners-Lee could be one of the richest men on the planet, why did he forfeit such large profits to make the World Wide Web a free and open space? How do we reclaim the internet from social media companies taking away our sovereignty? Have tech giants like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk thanked Tim for his invention?  Rory and Alastair are joined by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to discuss all this and more.  Visit HP.com/politics to find out more. To save your company time and money, open a Revolut Business account today via www.revolut.com/rb/leading, and add money to your account by 31st of December 2025 to get a £200 welcome bonus or equivalent in your local currency. Feature availability varies by plan. This offer's available for New Business customers in the UK, US, Australia and Ireland. Fees and Terms & Conditions apply. For US customers, Revolut is not a bank. Banking services and card issuance are provided by Lead Bank, Member FDIC. Visa® and Mastercard® cards issued under license. Funds are FDIC insured up to $250,000 through Lead Bank, in the event Lead Bank fails. Fees may apply. See full terms in description. For Irish customers, Revolut Bank UAB is authorised and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania in the Republic of Lithuania and by the European Central Bank and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland for conduct of business rules. For AU customers, consider PDS & TMD at revolut.com/en-AU. Revolut Payments Australia Pty Ltd (AFSL 517589). TRIP Plus: Become a member of The Rest Is Politics Plus to support the podcast, receive our exclusive newsletter, enjoy ad-free listening to both TRIP and Leading, benefit from discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, join our Discord chatroom, and receive early access to live show tickets and Question Time episodes. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestispolitics. Instagram: @restispolitics  Twitter: @RestIsPolitics  Email: restispolitics@gmail.com Social Producer: Harry Balden Video Editor: Adam Thornton Assistant Producer: Alice Horrell Producer: Nicole Maslen Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Head of Content: Tom Whiter Exec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Borthwick on Betaworks shares his journey from a tech-savvy youth to a prominent figure in the New York City tech scene. He discusses his early experiences with computers, the transformative impact of the World Wide Web, and the vibrant tech culture of the 90s. Borthwick reflects on his role in creating Total New York, the lessons learned from the AOL acquisition, and the challenges faced during the dot-com bubble burst. He also highlights the rise of social media platforms like Photolog and the evolution of BetaWorks as a hub for innovation, particularly in the AI space. Throughout the discussion, Borthwick emphasizes the importance of creativity, constraints, and the ever-changing landscape of technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WBZ's Jordan Rich says Sir Tim Berners-Lee needs extra kudos for inventing the World Wide Web.Get all the news you need by listening to WBZ - Boston's News Radio! We're here for you, 24/7.

Tweens are out! Sephora kids are in! On this episode of Wattz Up! we explore changes that come with the younger generations growing up and what this means for our future. Join us as we illuminate the history behind the start of the internet to how Chile once developed a communication system similar to the internet, we didscuss with individuals and their experience with technology in the pre-y2K era. The internet is more than just a useful asset, whether is be scrolling on TikTok or playing online games, it's something we encounter every day. Join us as we go over the internet's impact on education and the tween era there once was.

A US congressional committee has made public the 'birthday book' allegedly given to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 to mark his fiftieth birthday. In it, messages, photos and drawings from his friends - including Donald Trump. The White House is furiously denying that the American President ever submitted a drawing to Epstein, insisting that the signature is not his. Democrats have called it "revolting" and "sick". After spending so long shouting about an Epstein cover up, how wounded are Trump and the Republicans by the latest revelations?Later, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, on the "addictive" algorithms he thinks are making the world a more dangerous place - and his proposals to reclaim the internet.And, the Labour deputy leadership race heats up. Why it might have Keir Starmer sweating.The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal -> https://nordvpn.com/thenewsagents Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee

In the 1980s, before Internet marketing had even really begun, our very special guest today and returning champion was working as a tech writer in the foreign exchange trading department of Bankers Trust in New York. In his new book “How The Web Won,The Inside Story of How a Motley Crew of Outsiders Hijacked the Information Superhighway and Struck a Blow for Human Freedom,” Ken McCarthy writes: “Working with foreign exchange traders taught me an important lesson about the need for speed in business: Windows of opportunity open and close fast. That understanding, combined with my ‘discovery' of the rudiments of direct marketing, has been worth millions to me and a whole lot more to my clients.” That's one of the many powerful lessons from Ken's new book, “How The Web Won.” He's been around Internet marketing longer than anyone else I know–and possibly longer than anyone, period. In 1994, he sponsored the first conference about the business potential of the World Wide Web. With keynote speaker Marc Andreeson, at the time, the 23-year old co-founder of Netscape, an early Internet browser and the first important one. Time magazine pointed out that Ken was the first person to identify the importance and business power of the click-through rate, which today, of course, is the basis of the roughly half-a-trillion-dollars a year Facebook and Google make selling pay per click advertising. In 2002, Ken started an event called The System Seminar, which I attended a few years later myself. Met Frank Kern, Gary Halbert, Harlan Kilstein, and a whole bunch of other people who were, or became, legends in direct marketing. We could spend the rest of the show talking about all of Ken's accomplishments, but I'd rather he tell you about his book, “How The Web Won.” So Ken, welcome, and congrats on your new book! 1. So in 1993, you attended a conference called One BBS CON. I'm not sure from your book if that was the moment that changed your life, since you'd been doing some pretty good pulling rabbits out of hats with direct marketing before then. But could you talk about if that was an inflection point and how what you learned at that conference influenced you going forward? 2. Could you talk about being invited to Dan Kennedy's conference in 1993? I can't imagine a lot of the hard core direct marketers who paid $5000 to be there were all that receptive at that time to what you had to say. Were they? 3. Until 1989, it was forbidden by the U.S. government to use the Internet for commercial purposes. How fast did that change in the 90s, and what were the key moments for that? How did your San Francisco conference fit into all of that? 4. When did Internet marketing as we know it today really start to get traction? 5. What would you say was the big mistake made by many of the companies that went bankrupt in the dot-bomb of 2000 – and how long did it take for the direct marketing way of thinking take to catch on? 6. What prompted you to launchThe System seminar in 2002? 7. Any other key moments between the early days and today, that you'd like to talk about? Ken's book, How The Web Won https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM2GN91Q HowtheWebWon.com Get in touch with Ken at: https://kenmccarthy.com Download.

**ERKY** erkyleigh on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/erkyleigh **JOSEPH** @JosephAHearnAstro  on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JosephAHearnAstro Joseph on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephahearn3 jahearn.com on the World Wide Web at https://jahearn.com/ **MADELINE** @mshepley26 on X at https://x.com/mshepley26 @sbltfpodcast on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sbltfpodcast/ Shine Bright Like the Firmament on Your Favorite Podcast App at https://shinebrightlikethefirmament.buzzsprout.com/ **RICO** @TheRicoestRico on X at https://x.com/TheRicoestRico The Ricoest Rico Gaming on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo4y6kHVmL__3D8dHFTfowg TheRicoestRico on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/thericoestrico TheRicoestRico on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIHz1qp6fIgqOp6G423oTMw  

Launched in 2016, UPI now dominates retail digital payments in India, accounting for over 80% of the volume and processing a massive 300 million transactions every month. What began as a government-funded project is now a public utility. Unlike private companies like Visa or Mastercard, government-funded entities like the Internet or the World Wide Web are not typically judged in terms of profitability. Their vast economic and innovative benefits far outweigh their costs. Viewing UPI through a profit-making lens is simply the wrong approach. In this episode of Two by Two, hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan are joined by two vocal experts—Alok Prasanna, co-founder of Vidhi Legal, and Ateesh Tankha, CEO and co-founder of Alsowise Content Solutions—to dissect the sustainability and future of UPI in India. This episode of Two by Two was mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer. If you liked this episode of Two by Two, please share it with your friends, colleagues, and anyone else who might be interested. And if you have thoughts on the discussion, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com.*****Additional readingAlok's Linkedin postUPI can be forever or free—not bothUPI wants to go international, but it isn't built for it (yet)The mystery of usury If you are a student who wants to participate in The Ken's case build competition, or if you simply want to read the case, you can do that here: https://the-ken.com/case-competition-2025/ 

In today's show, Trenayce brings us a message from Spirit about the "under - lying" meaning of The World Wide Web. This is Fascinating and a must hear for everyone! Tune in for more information to help you "Reclaim Your Life"! #TheAwakening  #SelfEmpowerment  #Transformation  #TheAncientTarot #FreeYourMind

We're excited to share the first episode of Peabody Award-nominated podcast Long Shadow’s new season, Breaking the Internet. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize finalist and historian Garrett Graff, Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet charts the evolution of the internet – from the optimistic days of the dot-com boom to our present moment. Produced by Long Lead and distributed by PRX, this seven-part series aims to tell the story of humanity's greatest invention, and how it's led us to the biggest crisis facing society today. In this specific episode, you’ll travel back to 1993. Gas is just over a dollar a gallon. Minimum wage is $4.25 an hour. Mass media is hitting its apex, and American culture is about as homogenous as it’s ever been. And somewhere in the background of all that, this new thing called the World Wide Web just became available to the general public…. then a computer bug threatened to shut it all down forever. To listen to more episodes, follow Long Shadow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. If you’re listening on Spotify, you can leave a comment there or email us at hello@tangoti.com! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! Many vids each week. instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CUJO is a podcast about culture in the age of platforms. Episodes drop every other week, but if you want the full experience — including access to our CUJOPLEX Discord and our eternal parasocial friendship — we recommend signing up for a paid subscription.Paid subscribers also get access to The Weather Report, a new monthly episode series where we take stock of where the cultural winds are blowing and tell you what's rained into our brains. In the first installment, we wax philosophical about Ari Aster's Eddington, the future of search, and the alleged returned of Butt Rock. These days, it feels like the web is becoming… less of a web. Websites aren't getting visitors anymore, employees are worried that they're going to be replaced by AI agents, and the search tools we used to rely on to pull up the information we need are deliberately enshittifying themselves. It's like the internet as we know it — fundamentally, a thing that connects people with other people — is being swallowed up by AI and smooshed down into the cramped, impersonal space of a chatbot interface, whether we like it or not.Or, as New York Magazine tech journalist John Herrman recently put it, “The World Wide Web … has been going through something akin to ecological collapse.” John has been keeping close tabs on these developments in his excellent column “Screen Time,” where he recently reported on the emerging field of generative-engine optimization, or GEO. Think: SEO, but for the AI-consolidated internet.We invited John on the show for a wide-ranging conversation about the strange new chapter of the internet that is materializing before our eyes—and what our experience of the web might look like a world where conversational AI becomes our main portal to the digital realm. We discuss the shift from SEO to GEO, why we're all reading Reddit a lot more now, and what we stand to lose (and, in some cases, gain) in a world where we summon our information from chatbots.Finally, we get into what New York Times writer Mike Isaac is calling the dawn of Silicon Valley's “Hard Tech” era: a vibe shift away from the consumer-focused, employee-friendly, optimistic culture of the 2010s to the more cutthroat, bossist, AI and data center-obsessed tech culture of the present.Follow John on BlueskyRead “Screen Time” at New York Magazine's Intelligencer More by John: “What's the deal with GPT-5?”“SEO is dead. Say hello to GEO.”“The AI boom is expanding Google's dominance” “Why you are reading Reddit a lot more these days”“At work, in school, and online, it's now AI versus AI” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theculturejournalist.substack.com/subscribe

I truly marvel at all of the changes that have happened throughout my lifetime. I'm not just talking about a man going to the moon, I'm talking about technology. Advancements like our smartphones and the Internet have significantly impacted our lives. It's hard to imagine the time before the Internet. Kids today don't know what life was like before the Internet. A small part of the Internet is going away, specifically the one that once helped get us onto the Internet. AOL announced it's dropping dial-up modem service at the end of September. Most of us haven't used dial-up modems since the early 2000s. Getting on the World Wide Web in the 90s was a unique experience... Click Here To Subscribe Apple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicGoogle PodcastsTuneIniHeartRadioPandoraDeezerBlubrryBullhornCastBoxCastrofyyd.deGaanaiVooxListen NotesmyTuner RadioOvercastOwlTailPlayer.fmPocketCastsPodbayPodbeanPodcast AddictPodcast IndexPodcast RepublicPodchaserPodfanPodtailRadio PublicRadio.comReason.fmRSSRadioVurblWe.foYandex jQuery(document).ready(function($) { 'use strict'; $('#podcast-subscribe-button-13292 .podcast-subscribe-button.modal-68bfde372566e').on("click", function() { $("#secondline-psb-subs-modal.modal-68bfde372566e.modal.secondline-modal-68bfde372566e").modal({ fadeDuration: 250, closeText: '', }); return false; }); });

August 6, 1991. British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee launches a digital information revolution when he uploads the first site to the World Wide Web. This episode originally aired in 2024.Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Originally coined in the 1990's, the Information Superhighway was a term used to describe digital communication systems that is mostly associated with then Senator and future Vice President Al Gore. The basic idea was to be able to provide access to information to all, no matter what the level of income was. With the explosion of the World Wide Web, essentially, the Internet became the information superhighway. Other resources describe the concept as “…directly connects millions of people, each both a consumer of information and a potential provider…” or “a route or network for the high-speed transfer of information…” or “something that will link every home or office to everything else – movies and television shows, shopping services…” And it changed the world. No one saw it coming, any more than people alive in 1890 anticipated the US Freeway system. With that in mind, today's news cycle gets some context as we talk about all the headlines fit for a Wednesday! We start off with trending news, including the historical 8.8 quake in far eastern Russia. Is it one of the biggest in history as is being claimed? Then we talk about the Trump EU tariff deal and what it means for geopolitics. Tim takes on hurricanes and the frequency of those over the last couple years, and it's probably for a reason you did not expect. We look at an immigration warning for America based on the July deal signed between Starmer and Macron. Finally, AI is spiritual. Sci-Fi has told us it is forever in the future, but truly, it's here -  and we still think it's in the future. A fertile ground for massive deception. Stand Up For The Truth Videos: https://rumble.com/user/CTRNOnline & https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQQSvKiMcglId7oGc5c46A

Originally coined in the 1990's, the Information Superhighway was a term used to describe digital communication systems that is mostly associated with then Senator and future Vice President Al Gore. The basic idea was to be able to provide access to information to all, no matter what the level of income was. With the explosion of the World Wide Web, essentially, the Internet became the information superhighway. Other resources describe the concept as “…directly connects millions of people, each both a consumer of information and a potential provider…” or “a route or network for the high-speed transfer of information…” or “something that will link every home or office to everything else – movies and television shows, shopping services…” And it changed the world. No one saw it coming, any more than people alive in 1890 anticipated the US Freeway system. With that in mind, today's news cycle gets some context as we talk about all the headlines fit for a Wednesday! We start off with trending news, including the historical 8.8 quake in far eastern Russia. Is it one of the biggest in history as is being claimed? Then we talk about the Trump EU tariff deal and what it means for geopolitics. Tim takes on hurricanes and the frequency of those over the last couple years, and it's probably for a reason you did not expect. We look at an immigration warning for America based on the July deal signed between Starmer and Macron. Finally, AI is spiritual. Sci-Fi has told us it is forever in the future, but truly, it's here -  and we still think it's in the future. A fertile ground for massive deception. Stand Up For The Truth Videos: https://rumble.com/user/CTRNOnline & https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQQSvKiMcglId7oGc5c46A

Hub Headlines features audio versions of the best commentaries and analysis published daily in The Hub. Enjoy listening to original and provocative takes on the issues that matter while you are on the go.   1:36 -  In a World Wide Web reshaped by AI, the influence game has changed, by Rudyard Griffiths and Sean Speer   This program is narrated by automated voices. To receive the full-length edition of this commentary and of Hub Headlines, subscribe now and become a Hub Hero to get access to all of The Hub's paid podcasts and our website www.thehub.ca.   The Hub's podcast channel is sponsored this month by Airbnb. To learn more about how Airbnb is helping, not hurting Canada's economy, visit Airbnb.ca/closerlook.   Subscribe to The Hub's podcast feed to get all our best content: https://tinyurl.com/3a7zpd7e (Apple) https://tinyurl.com/y8akmfn7 (Spotify) Watch The Hub on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHubCanada Get a FREE 3-month trial membership for our premium podcast content: https://thehub.ca/free-trial/ The Hub on X: https://x.com/thehubcanada?lang=en     CREDITS: Alisha Rao  – Producer & Sound Editor   To contact us, sign up for updates, and access transcripts, email support@thehub.ca

**BRENNA** @BrenNailedIt on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BrenNailedIt BrenNailedIt on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/brennailedit Tales from the Catacombs on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@catacombsrpg  The Catacombs on Discord at https://discord.gg/bhEatAD6k2 catacombsrpg on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/catacombsrpg/ **FREVAN** @FrEvanCSP on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FrEvanCSP @FrEvanCSP on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@FrEvanCSP FrEvanCSP on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/frevancsp **GAIUS** Gaius's Catholic Game Reviews on the World Wide Web at https://catholicgamereviews.com/author/Gaius-Requiem/ GaiusRequiem on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/gaiusrequiem **MELANIE** @Mel_Tigre21 on X at https://x.com/Mel_Tigre21 mel_tigre on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/mel_tigre

In this episode of Humanitarian AI Today, guest host Doug Smith, Acting CEO of Data Friendly Space, speaks with Pradyumna Chari, a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Media Lab about Project NANDA. This initiative is building the foundational layer for an internet of AI agents through a broad coalition of academic institutions, major technology corporations, specialized AI startups, and the open-source community. Pradyumna explains how components like the NANDA Index create a "handshake layer" for intelligent agents to discover, coordinate, and transact with each other. This system is designed to shape the future of knowledge sharing, enabling agents to transact in privacy-preserving "intelligence" and "insights" rather than raw data. Doug and Pradyumna explore how this unlocks the potential for a "mesh" of interconnected agents to revolutionize humanitarian response. With this technology in a formative stage—much like the early World Wide Web—the humanitarian community has a critical opportunity to help shape its infrastructure. Tune in to learn how your organization can get involved and ensure this powerful new ecosystem is built to meet humanitarian needs from the ground up. Episode notes: https://humanitarianaitoday.medium.com/pradyumna-chari-introduces-project-nanda-to-humanitarian-organizations-333478f5f049

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Harris TD and Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, today jointly secured Government approval of the final steps for Ireland to join the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, CERN. The Tánaiste said: "Associate Membership of CERN will demonstrate Ireland's commitment to science and reaffirm our reputation as a centre for scientific investment. It will create opportunities for Irish researchers, students and industry to join world-class teams at CERN, and it will give CERN access to Ireland's talent and expertise." Minister Lawless said: "Having personally advocated for Ireland's Associate Membership of CERN for a long time, it is a pleasure to officially announce that Ireland will join CERN in October this year. Today's Cabinet approval is a milestone which authorises the final legal steps." Following today's decision, the Taoiseach signed a Government Order to enable the State to meet its obligations under the CERN Protocol on Privileges and Immunities. The remaining steps are now for Ireland to notify the Director-General of CERN that the internal approval procedures for the Associate Membership Agreement are complete, and to deposit an Instrument of Accession to the CERN Protocol on Privileges and Immunities with UNESCO. Following a mandatory waiting period, Ireland's Associate Membership is expected to begin officially in October. Minister Lawless continued: "Associate Membership of CERN is a long-standing national ambition and a commitment in the Programme for Government. However, joining CERN is only the beginning of Ireland's journey. It is a priority for me as Minister to ensure Ireland's success as an Associate Member State. "My Department will establish an expert advisory group in the coming months to guide our national approach to CERN membership. This group will work with my Department to maximise benefits for both Ireland and CERN." Associate Membership of CERN will bring benefits to Ireland across research, industry, skills, science outreach, and international relations. It will open doors for Ireland's researchers to participate in CERN's scientific programmes and will make Irish citizens eligible for staff positions and fellowships at CERN. It will also be possible for Irish citizens to access CERN's formal training schemes and develop skills in industry-relevant areas such as electronics, photonics, materials, energy systems and software. Membership will also allow Irish businesses to compete for contracts with CERN. CERN's cutting-edge research often demands the development and application of new technologies, encouraging innovation. Many technologies pioneered at CERN have applications in other spheres such as healthcare, space, energy and ICT. The World Wide Web was invented at CERN. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie now to discuss. Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at Info@IrishTechNews.ie now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience. You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

**BEN** @inkwellsanvils  on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/inkwellsanvils @inkwellsanvils  on Twitter at https://twitter.com/inkwellsanvils Inkwells & Anvils on the World Wide Web at https://www.inkwellsandanvils.com/ **DAVID** @uHate2see on Twitter at https://twitter.com/uHate2see uHATE2SEEit on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY06d_jLqJ6paE4K_sR4qtQ uhate2seeit on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/uhate2seeit **RICO** TheRicoestRico on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/thericoestrico @TheRicoestRico on X at https://x.com/TheRicoestRico The Ricoest Rico Gaming on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo4y6kHVmL__3D8dHFTfowg TheRicoestRico on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIHz1qp6fIgqOp6G423oTMw **YENZA** yenzaia on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/yenzaia/

Seit über 20 Jahren arbeitet Valentina Hirsch in der Welt der Öffentlich-Rechtlichen Sender, namentlich: dem ZDF. Hier betreute sie Anfang der 2000er die traditionsreiche Techniksendung "neues", die auch immer wieder Spiele und Netzkultur des noch jungen World Wide Web zum Thema machte - neugierig, offen, vorurteilsfrei. Anfang der 2010er folgte dann das Nachfolgeformat "Pixelmacher", das einer jüngeren Zielgruppe zugewandt Berichterstattung über Spiele auf den nächsten Level heben wollte: Aufwändige Beiträge blickten hinter die Kulissen der Spielebranche, erklärten Philosophien des Game Designs, besuchten Messen, Konferenzen und beleuchteten Konflikte innerhalb der Szene von vielen verschiedenen Seiten. Valentina Hirsch half entscheidend dabei mit, Berichterstattung über Gaming in der Welt des Öffentlich-Rechtlichen Rundfunks zu zementieren. Seitdem hat ihre Karriere beim ZDF eine neue Richtung eingeschlagen: Als Chefin vom Dienst wacht sie über die Social-Media-Auftritte ihres Arbeitgebers, arbeitet als Autorin und betreibt ganz nebenbei nicht nur den Popkulturfunk-Podcast sondern ist außerdem die Urheberin des womöglich langlebigsten World-of-Warcraft-Tagebuchs des deutschsprachigen Raums. Vielleicht sogar der Welt, niemand weißt es!

We're spinning a web of WOW in this round of Two What's?! And A Wow! Find the facts from the fiction about SPIDERS! Want more WHATs and WOWs? Visit https://bit.ly/40hR1P0. Did you know you can watch full episodes of Two Whats?! And A Wow! on YouTube and YouTube Kids?! Visit https://bit.ly/3WlHLbk to start watching and WOWing with us!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, Field Agents!! Your Intrepid Trio have gathered to come the World Wide Web for the marvel news that you crave to hear about. Along the way, we may have a tangent or three, but do we have a DOOZY for you. We have the (supposed) definitive chronological timeline of the MCU on Disney+ and […]

Superpowers for Good should not be considered investment advice. Seek counsel before making investment decisions. When you purchase an item, launch a campaign or create an investment account after clicking a link here, we may earn a fee. Engage to support our work.Watch the show on television by downloading the e360tv channel app to your Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV. You can also see it on YouTube.Devin: What is your superpower?Paul: Insatiable curiosityCitizen Portal is transforming how we stay informed about local government. The platform, led by CEO Paul Allen, uses AI to create a personalized, nonpartisan newsfeed that makes it easier than ever to monitor public officials and engage in civic issues.Paul explained, “We redesigned the site to literally use AI to detect every important topic discussed in every government meeting.” By analyzing over 1.3 million hours of public meetings, Citizen Portal generates bite-sized articles on key issues, giving users a consumable, easy-to-navigate interface resembling a news site.This shift has been a game-changer. Paul shared that the platform has attracted nearly a million users this year alone. The tool addresses a growing demand for transparency and accountability in government while filling a void created by the decline of local newspapers.Unlike platforms driven by ad revenue or partisan agendas, Citizen Portal operates on a subscription model designed to empower its users. “There's no spin, no partisan bias, and no kind of echo chamber,” Paul said. Instead, the platform's algorithm, called BRAIN, tailors content to users' locations and interests, ensuring relevance.Citizen Portal's mission is ambitious yet essential. Paul envisions a world where “it'll be a thousand times easier to become an informed and engaged citizen.” The platform not only provides insights into local schools, city councils, and state legislatures, but also offers actionable steps for users to make their voices heard.For those interested in supporting this social impact initiative, Citizen Portal is raising capital through a regulated investment crowdfunding campaign. This funding will allow the company to expand its reach and enhance its technology.Paul's vision is clear: to strengthen democracy by making civic engagement easier and more effective. With Citizen Portal, we can all stay informed, get involved, and make a difference in our communities.tl;dr:Citizen Portal uses AI to transform 1.3 million hours of government meetings into actionable news.The platform fills the gap left by declining local newspapers with nonpartisan, customizable newsfeeds.Paul's vision is to empower citizens and policymakers with tools for informed engagement.Citizen Portal is raising capital through regulated crowdfunding to expand its impact and technology.Paul's superpower, insatiable curiosity, drives his passion for creating tools that make information accessible.How to Develop Insatiable Curiosity As a SuperpowerPaul described his superpower as a deep passion for learning and gathering information. “I just have an insatiable curiosity for finding content in libraries, researching archives, [and] finding hidden gems,” he explained. This natural drive to consume and organize information has fueled his success, from co-founding Ancestry.com to leading Citizen Portal. He combines his love of learning with a knack for turning chaotic data into meaningful tools that empower others.Paul shared how his superpower helped him build Citizen Portal. He and his team analyzed millions of hours of government meeting records, transforming vast, fragmented data into actionable, AI-generated newsfeeds. His love for gathering information and creating order enabled him to design a platform that empowers citizens to monitor local governance and engage more effectively.Tips for Developing CuriosityIdentify and lean into your natural strengths using tools like the Clifton Strengths Assessment.Focus on areas that energize and excite you rather than trying to emulate others' strengths.Gather and organize information in ways that help others, amplifying the impact of your efforts.Pursue learning as a lifelong habit by reading, researching, and staying curious about the world.By following Paul's example and advice, you can make insatiable curiosity a skill. With practice and effort, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfilePaul Allen (he/him):CEO & Board Member, Citizen PortalAbout Citizen Portal: Citizen Portal is a non-partisan, AI-powered platform, with $426,200 in pre-seed funding and a seasoned leadership team, aiming to revolutionize civic engagement, revive government transparency, and transform American democracy. Citizen Portal is on a mission to transform democracy with an AI-powered approach. We are reshaping civic engagement and education by providing Americans with up-to-date, accurate, newsworthy information straight from the source. Citizen Portal utilizes AI to index, transcribe, and summarize meetings and hearings at all levels of government. By providing access to video recordings of school boards, local, state, and federal meetings, Citizen Portal helps to empower citizens, journalists, and advocates to know what is being said by their elected officials and done in their government.Website: citizenportal.aiCompany Facebook Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093227401453Other URL: startengine.com/citizenportalBiographical Information: Paul Allen is a visionary tech entrepreneur and evangelist driven by a desire to help individuals live their best lives.Paul has founded eight companies. He calls himself a “platform entrepreneur” since his products are usually built on top of the latest tech platform or wave, such as CD ROM, the World Wide Web, mp3 audio, or Facebook. For the past several years, Paul's focus has been using machine learning and artificial intelligence to help individuals and organizations reach their full potential.In 1990, Paul founded Infobases, whose mission was to digitize and publish the world's most important books on CD ROM with a full-text search engine. This endeavor led directly to Ancestry.com—Paul's best known company—which sought to gather and publish the world's genealogy records, family trees, and memories on the internet to enable everyone to discover their heritage. Over 100 million people have learned about their family history at Ancestry.com.Paul's teams have a history of building viral products. MyFamily.com (1998) attracted millions of users, and for a time, was the fastest growing online community on the web as well as the top photo sharing site in 2000 and 2001. Paul's We're Related app on Facebook (2007-2010) gained more than 120 million users in two and a half years. From 2012 to 2017, Paul worked with Gallup to promote the StrengthsFinder assessment (now called CliftonStrengths) from the Washington, DC headquarters. As the “Global Strengths Evangelist,” Paul helped increase online purchases of the assessment and supported a global community of strengths coaches. Today, more than 30 million people have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment. Paul's most recent creation is Soar.com, a company whose mission—once again—is to uplift humanity. Paul is a strong advocate for using AI in positive ways, specifically to enable individuals to become the best version of themselves. When excellent training is paired with AI generated feedback on actual performance, leaders, managers, founders, and individual contributors can achieve excellence faster than ever before. Soar is an AI Studio that will form more than fifteen separate corporations to bring PURE AI (Personalized Uplifting Responsible Ethical AI) to many fields, including education, faith, government, health, finance, medicine, law, family history, and the workplace. Eventually, Soar will enable people to build and customize their own AI assistant (think of Jarvis from Iron Man or Janet from The Good Place) to help them learn, grow, make better decisions, and maximize their time on Earth. Paul's influence extends beyond entrepreneurship. He's a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, teaching the importance of family stories and personal strengths in shaping one's identity. A lifelong learner, Paul has amassed a vast library of thousands of books. In fact, Paul's dedication to learning extends to his teaching roles in Internet Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University. He's received numerous accolades, including Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and MarketingSherpa National Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008. Paul is a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association and was named a Cyber Pioneer in 2010 by the Cyber Law Section of the Utah State Bar. In 2016, he was the honored alumnus of the BYU Humanities College, having graduated in 1990 with a BA in Russian. Most recently, Paul has been featured on The Pulse of AI, The Briefing with Steve Scully, The Business of Learning, and The Adventures in Machine Learning podcasts.Paul and his wife, Christy, reside in Missouri. They have 8 adult children and 5 grandchildren.X/Twitter Handle: @paulballenPersonal Facebook Profile: facebook.com/paulallenLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/paulballenInstagram Handle: @paulallendcSupport Our SponsorsOur generous sponsors make our work possible, serving impact investors, social entrepreneurs, community builders and diverse founders. Today's advertisers include FundingHope, Kingscrowd, Just Her Rideshare, and My Panda. Learn more about advertising with us here.Max-Impact MembersThe following Max-Impact Members provide valuable financial support:Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Ralf Mandt, Next Pitch | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Matthew Mead, Hempitecture | Michael Pratt, Qnetic | Sharon Samjitsingh, Health Care Originals | Add Your Name HereUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.Join us on June 25, 2025, at 8:00 PM Eastern for the Superpowers for Good Live Pitch—streaming on e360tv, where purpose-driven founders take the virtual stage to present their active Regulation Crowdfunding campaigns to a national audience of investors and changemakers. Selected startups are chosen for their commitment to community, alignment with NC3's Community Capital Principles, and their drive to create real-world impact. Thanks to sponsors DNA and DealMaker, this event is free to watch and amplifies the voices of underrepresented and mission-aligned entrepreneurs. Don't miss this inspiring evening where capital meets purpose—tune in to discover and support the next wave of impact-driven innovation.Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on July 15, 2025, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. To join the Impact Cherub Club, become an Impact Member of the SuperCrowd.SuperCrowdHour, July 16, 2025, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Devin Thorpe, CEO and Founder of The Super Crowd, Inc., will lead a session on "Balance Sheets & Beyond: The Impact Investor's Guide to Financials." If terms like “income statement” and “cash flow” make your eyes glaze over, this session is for you. Devin will break down the fundamentals of financial statements in clear, simple language—perfect for beginners who want to better understand the numbers behind the businesses they support. Whether you're a new investor, a founder navigating financials, or simply curious about how money moves through mission-driven companies, you'll leave this session more confident and informed. Don't miss it!SuperCrowd25, August 21st and 22nd: This two-day virtual event is an annual tradition but with big upgrades for 2025! We'll be streaming live across the web and on TV via e360tv. Soon, we'll open a process for nominating speakers. Check back!Community Event CalendarSuccessful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET - Click on Events.Devin Thorpe is featured in a free virtual masterclass series hosted by Irina Portnova titled Break Free, Elevate Your Money Mindset & Call In Overflow, focused on transforming your relationship with money through personal stories and practical insights. June 8-21, 2025.Join Dorian Dickinson, founder & CEO of FundingHope, for Startup.com's monthly crowdfunding workshop, where he'll dive into strategies for successfully raising capital through investment crowdfunding. June 24 at noon Eastern.Future Forward Summit: San Francisco, Wednesday, June 25 · 3:30 - 8:30 pm PDT.Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit 2025, Crowdfunding Professional Association, Washington DC, October 21-22, 2025.Call for community action:Please show your support for a tax credit for investments made via Regulation Crowdfunding, benefiting both the investors and the small businesses that receive the investments. Learn more here.If you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 9,000+ changemakers, investors and entrepreneurs who are members of the SuperCrowd, click here.We use AI to help us write compelling recaps of each episode. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

The title fits, but not necessarily for the reasons you imagine. Barbara Leigh grew up in Wisconsin where she attended college and had a successful career. She tells us about her life and discusses getting married, having two children and over time watching her life choices basically and totally destroy her self esteem.   Barbara tells us how she, while growing up, was constantly described as a “smart girl”. She helped many figure out answers and learned along the way how to observe and research to learn whatever she needed to know. In 1995 when the internet was just coming into our sphere of experience, Barbara learned about it and created web pages and websites for the nonprofit for which she worked. Even with all the technical knowledge she amassed it took many years before she realized that even with all her smarts she was becoming a person who was being reshaped by a partner with his own low esteem and who constantly blamed her for everything that went wrong.   Eventually Barbara realized that something was wrong and began to look in ernest at her life and behavior. She realized that she had to make choices and regain her own self confidence and constructive view of herself. She changed her life and outlook and began growing again emotionally. Barbara tells us about her journey and even includes lessons she learned and wants to pass on to others.   In 2024 Barbara wrote and published her book, “Why Smart Girls Get Into Bad Relationships and How Not To Do It Again”. She is quick to point out that the book is not just for women. It is for anyone who may be facing a “bad relationship”. Barbara shares nine conclusions and thoughts from the book that illustrate why her writings can be so important for so many.   This episode is full of many great life lessons and observations. I do hope you not only enjoy it, but that you also gain some positive life choice ideas from it.     About the Guest:   Barbara Leigh grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin and was considered in school to be a smart girl. She was not the type to get in trouble or make bad decisions. She was involved in lots of activities and did well in school.   She went off to Ripon College where she majored in Speech Communication and worked in the library. After graduation, she got a job in a library at a nonprofit. While working toward a Masters in Library and Information Science at UW-Milwaukee in 1995, she was taking an online searching class and was recruited to build a web site for her employer, being one of only a few employees that had even heard of the World Wide Web.   From there, Barbara built a career as a web developer and eventually moved to online learning and LMS integrations. In each career step she moved toward content, but eventually was directed back to the technical.   In the midst of all that, Barbara got married and had two children. She entered and contributed to bad relationships in her marriage, career and family until one day she decided to just stop. She has spent the last twenty years figuring out what it means to stop, how to continue living, and how to do it better. In 2024, she published a book, Why Smart Girls Get Into Bad Relationships and How Not To Do It Again, and in 2025, she took early retirement to get fully into content and do more writing. She currently writes the Helpfulmess blog which posts weekly. Ways to connect with Barbara:   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbaraleighauthor/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbaraleighauthor Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/barbaraleighauthor.bsky.social Website: https://www.barbaraleighauthor.com     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 subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   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, hello, everyone, wherever you happen to be today, around the world or in space, whatever the case happens to be, we're all in space anyway, so I guess that counts for something. But I'm really glad that you are here, and we're really going to have, I think, an interesting conversation today, because we, we have a person who has written an interesting book, at least. I think it's an interesting book. The title of the book is, why do smart girls get into bad relationships, and how to and how not to do it again. I think that's an interesting title. Smart Girls, I gotta say, though, Barbara, who is our guest, Barbara Leigh, I don't know. I think they're more than smart girls that get into bad relationships or just do dumb things. I don't know. Why is it that most people do dumb things, but that's a different story, and probably not what we're really going to cover today. But anyway, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, and we're glad you're   Barbara Leigh ** 02:19 here. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate   Michael Hingson ** 02:23 it. Yeah, well, it is probably true. Why do, why do so many people get into challenges? Ah, but we cope with what we have to right? Yes, we do. Well. Well, I'm glad you're here. Thanks for for being here and being on unstoppable mindset. Really looking forward to having a chance to really chat. Why don't we start? If we can by you telling us a little bit about kind of the early Barbara growing up and all that. Alright, well, I grew up. How's that for a great way to start.   Barbara Leigh ** 02:52 That's a great, great way to start. I grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin. I had two brothers and a sister, mom and dad and, you know, cats and a dog and cows. I lived in a small community. Everybody knew each other. Nothing really exciting about my childhood. I was in 4h and I was in lots of activities in school. I did great in school, and I was wildly shy as a small child, but I managed to get comfortable enough with that by being a 4h officer and being in in leadership positions in the activities that I was in. I went to off to college in Ripon, and I been busy working on being me ever since,   Michael Hingson ** 03:56 well, so you, you, you don't sound like you're very shy today,   Barbara Leigh ** 04:06 like I said, I tried to get past that. I'm still wildly introverted, but I'm at least, you know, able to speak in public. That's a   Michael Hingson ** 04:15 start. Well, that's a good you know, I'm I've always been amazed, and I hear it so often that the top fear today is public speaking. And I've never really, I know it's me, but I've never understood why it is, because I've always been somewhat used to doing it, but I think that people approach public speaking oftentimes with kind of the wrong idea, because I find that if people fear it, what they're really saying is they're afraid of the audience and what the audience might do. But I find that audiences generally don't tend to really want to view a speaker as being bad. They want speaker. To succeed. So it's always been a puzzlement to be as to why people are afraid of public speaking.   Barbara Leigh ** 05:07 Yeah, that is true. I was a Speech Communication major in college, and had to take public speaking as a course, and we had a guy in there that was just shook. His whole body. Shook it when he started out, and he by the end of the course, he was the best speaker there. I think he just needed to practice doing it and find out it's not so bad.   Michael Hingson ** 05:34 Well, what did he do? What do you have any notion of what what really eliminated his fear?   Barbara Leigh ** 05:41 I think he just got better each time. I think it really was just just getting up in front of people and finding out, yeah, they aren't gonna do anything. They're trying to do the same thing as me. They're trying to learn public speaking, and they're fine.   Michael Hingson ** 05:56 That's cool. Well, I know when I was a program director at our campus radio station at UC Irvine, I wanted everyone to listen to their their own shows. So we we wanted them to record the shows which they wouldn't do. So the engineer and I arranged for that to get done, and we made people listen to their shows, take the cassettes home and listen to them. And as I think about it, I think that probably more often than not, some of these people were in radio because they didn't have to stand up in front of an audience, and they didn't think about being in front of an audience and speaking so much. And so they did what they did, but when they were compelled, if you will, to listen to themselves, they got better. And they got better because they then heard what everybody else is hearing, and they taught themselves that they could really do better than than they thought they were doing, and that they thought that they could do. And I think that really makes a lot of difference. And some of those people actually ended up going into broadcasting as a as a career,   Barbara Leigh ** 07:01 that's great. Yeah, it really is. It's just a matter of getting used to your own voice. I mean, some people just really got annoyed, I guess is the word at their own voice, and they were like, I don't sound like that. Well, you don't sound like yourself inside your head. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 07:27 yeah. I know that when I hear myself talk, I do know that I sound different than I think I sound. And so again, that's part of what I work on. When I listen to recorded speeches, and I listen to what I say and how I say it, because I know what audiences like when they hear a speaker, so it gives me something to work toward. And that's a good thing. Yeah. So it is kind of fun. So you went off to school, you were in high school and all that and and did what? What people do in high school, I assume,   Barbara Leigh ** 08:07 yep, lots of groups. I was in library club and let's see Spanish club and music, musical and choir and various things. Yeah, normal stuff, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 08:23 yeah. I did some of that. I was in the science club, and there was a math club. Wasn't in too many clubs, but I was in those two and and had a lot of fun with that. So it's, it's a good thing. And then, of course, as many of us do, then you went on to college. Where did you go to college? Ripping College. I've never heard of that college,   Barbara Leigh ** 08:49 very small liberal arts college,   Michael Hingson ** 08:52 which is all the better I am. I'm a fan of smaller colleges. I read in the book David and Goliath, the guy who invented the tipping point, wrote this book, and he talks about the fact that if more people would go to small colleges, they would discover that they could actually be kind of a larger fish in a small pond, rather than being a fish that isn't necessarily as large a fish in a very large pond. So the value of people going to to places that are smaller adds a lot of value, and you do get a lot more attention. And that's why, one of the reasons I think I went to UC Irvine, we had 2200 excuse me, 2700 students when I went there. Now there are 32,000 freshmen. My gosh, I can't believe how large it is. No, it's University California, Irvine UCI, which they always say lovingly, really, truly means under construction indefinitely. They're always building new things on the college. So.   Barbara Leigh ** 10:01 Yeah, ripen is, is under 1000 students total. And   Michael Hingson ** 10:07 what did you major in? I knew all my professors. It   10:09 was great. And   Michael Hingson ** 10:10 that's, that's cool. And I did as well. I and I got to know some of them very well. Actually, a couple, one of them even came to my wedding when my wife and I got married. Some, seven or eight, well, eight years after I graduated, or, well, six years after I graduated, but he, we invited him, and he came to the wedding. So that was kind of cool. What did you major in   Barbara Leigh ** 10:33 speech communication with a religion minor? All right.   Michael Hingson ** 10:37 Wow, that's an interesting combination. Why? Why a religion minor with with that religion   Barbara Leigh ** 10:43 has always intrigued me. I guess it's I am interested in people, and religion has such a strong effect on people, and so I really just wanted to learn more about various religions and and how they work.   Michael Hingson ** 11:01 So what do you what do you think about religion and our world today, and how much of an effect it it has?   Barbara Leigh ** 11:11 It's probably very big question. Yes, yes, I have that's like, one of the ideas for one of my next books is to dig into that I'm I have several ideas of things I want to cover, and that's one of them. But, yeah, it just it floors me that there can be so much variation in people who seem to believe the same things.   Michael Hingson ** 11:44 Yeah, yeah. It is. It is fascinating. I I've said ever since escaping from the World Trade Center on September 11, that what happened, no matter what those terrorists say, was not a reflection on the whole world of Islam and the Muslim faith, those were thugs who decided that they wanted to try to make the world bend to their will, if you will, and and they they did a pretty good job for a little while, but it wasn't a religious war, because I think most Muslims are not that way. That's true, and we shouldn't demonize that religion as such, especially since we could always go back and talk about the crusades in, you know what, 1066, and so on. And if we want to talk about Christianity and what it did, yeah, the reality is, everybody tries to do things in the name of religion, and it just doesn't make sense at all. It doesn't. But people try to justify anyway, which is, which is truly unfortunate. Well, so what did you do after you got a degree?   Barbara Leigh ** 12:47 Oh, let's see. I went off to Well, I got married. There you go, after graduation, and moved to the town where my my husband was living, and we I started working at K Mart, and from there, I went to outlet mall. I was the retail store manager, and then I got my job at a nonprofit, and I've been at that nonprofit for 34 years, until I retired, just not too long ago.   Michael Hingson ** 13:24 Wow. What's the nonprofit? Or can you say   Barbara Leigh ** 13:28 it's the international foundation of employee benefit plans? Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 13:33 well, that sounds pretty useful. You were there a long time, huh? I was wow.   Barbara Leigh ** 13:39 I moved around to multiple departments, but I was able to keep growing later, so I stayed   Michael Hingson ** 13:46 so you you were there 34 years. Wow, that is a long time. What? What did you What did you learn about life being there for so long? Wow, I was out for a general question, yeah.   Barbara Leigh ** 14:06 Well, I learned, boy, so many things I have. The foundation is an Educational Association. So I learned the actual benefits. Part of it, I have a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist designation, but also I learned a lot about people and work environments and and getting along with people, and I learned a lot about technology when I started at the foundation the the World Wide Web was not public yet, and while I was there, I was going to graduate school at UW Milwaukee. I. For library and information science. And while I was doing that, I was taking a an online searching course. And my boss, well, I worked in the library, so my boss asked me if I would create a website for the foundation, because nobody else in the building really had even heard of the World Wide Web yet. Yeah. So I learned all about web development and programming and all of that, just because I happened to be the only one that   Michael Hingson ** 15:40 knew, and using tools like Netscape, remember Netscape? Oh, yes, absolutely,   Barbara Leigh ** 15:50 yeah, wow. So yeah, I learned a lot of that, and then from from the library, I went to it, and was in a web developer for many years, and then from it, I went to educational programs where I was working with our learning management system and the integration with with our association management system. So I was, I was doing integrations, basically and but the things that I learned in technology careers that have helped me thus far have been I was doing a lot of troubleshooting. So I would, you know, a lot of times, you know, if you're in technology, no garbage in, garbage out. So when I get to a problem, I say, you know, there's this, there's garbage coming out, or there's nothing coming out at all. And I work back word through the process to get to the source data. And learning that you finding the source data and making sure that the source data is correct is really important. So I learned about a lot about working my way through systems to find that and also making sure that the systems work. So that has helped me a lot in in my life, because when I got into the situation where I needed to write this book about I managed to work my way back to the source of of the problem. And so the the source of the problem was my beliefs about me, about relationships, about other people. And so it was really helpful for me to have that process already in place in my brain, that I could just work my way back to that and Okay, now I can start from better data.   Michael Hingson ** 18:13 Yeah, do you think that working a lot in technology and perhaps some of the other areas where you worked. Do you think that that taught you more about how to observe and look at things and better be able to analyze them and and remembering them? I just find that so often people don't observe things. And I think learning to observe is extremely important to do   Barbara Leigh ** 18:45 absolutely yes, yes, when that's that's like all of my career was observing and and like you said, analyzing, being able to put what I've observed into what I want to happen, or what I would I need to communicate with other people. I think a lot of my career was, was connecting the right people to the right either technology or the or the other people, or just get making those connections.   Michael Hingson ** 19:30 But you had to learn how to observe people and draw conclusions and get that information to make that happen.   Barbara Leigh ** 19:38 Oh yes. And, you know, it's a process, just in growing up and watching people in general. Like I said, you know, religion was, was my thing, because people fascinate me. So I I've always been a people watcher, not like, go sit at the mall and watch people, but, I mean, yeah. I just really try to understand where people are coming from. And I think once I was in a technology career, it was even more important, because a lot of times in those careers people don't expect the technology person to be able to do that, and for me, that was the most important part with understanding the people, understanding what they wanted, what they were actually saying was not exactly what they wanted, and to try to get it get to what they wanted, and then to work with the system to be able to get what they wanted to come out correctly.   Michael Hingson ** 20:53 How did you discover that? How did you discover that people weren't necessarily saying what they really wanted, or that somehow it wasn't being articulated on it. And I understand that's a really tricky sort of thing. I know in asking myself that I just kind of respond by saying, it's just something you gain from a lot of experience, but you have to think about it. But you know, what do you think   Barbara Leigh ** 21:21 exactly? It's trial and error. You keep having people ask you for one thing and then expecting something else, until you figure out that you know what that's really not what they want, and to get them to verbalize, okay, what is it you want coming out of this? Is it? It's tricky.   Michael Hingson ** 21:47 Yeah, yeah, it is and, and it is something where you got to be pretty careful about how you do it and, and to whom you you focus your attentions to make that happen. Or if you've got some people who are difficult to deal with, and again, I guess that that helps you stretch and grow and you learn how to even deal with those people a little bit better, so that they're comfortable in interacting with you.   Barbara Leigh ** 22:14 Yeah, absolutely. But a big part of my job is making people feel comfortable enough to talk to me and, you know, and a lot of times when I would get a project, I would go to the person that that's using, whatever it is, and ask them, okay, you know, where are you getting this data? What do you want it to look like? And, you know, and ask them deeper questions. And, and these are often the people who are, you know, low man on the totem pole, and don't ever get asked, but those are the people that I needed to get to to find out what you know, where things were coming from, to actually give them what was going to work for them.   Michael Hingson ** 23:10 And that's interesting. You're saying, like, the low person on the totem pole doesn't get asked, and they're the ones that would love to be asked to be able to offer their opinions, so that that opens up whole new opportunities when you convey that you're you're willing to listen, and of course, that also then deals with the whole issue of trust. Because if they tell you something and say, Well, I want this incompetence, and you have to keep it that way. Yes, absolutely, trust is, is such a fleeting thing today, even though it's all around us, everywhere we go And everywhere we look. I mean, we trust that the roofs on our houses aren't going to collapse while we're doing this interview, this well, this conversation, and we trust that the internet is going to continue to work. It might, we'll see. But, but we trust in so many ways, but yet, unfortunately, we also confront, or are confronted by situations that try to teach us not to trust and to be close to trust, which is too bad. Yeah, one of the things that, that, that I talk about, actually, in my latest book, live like a guide dog, is trust. I talk about the fact that, in general, the difference between a dog and a person is while dogs love unconditionally, and I think that's true, although they can be taught not to, obviously, but while dogs love unconditionally, they don't trust unconditionally. But the difference between a dog and a person is that dogs are much more open to trust because we have just learned, or we've drawn the conclusion that we can't trust people, and so we lose that skill of being open to trust and trust. Truly learning how to determine whether we can trust any individual or not, rather than just saying we're not going to trust   Barbara Leigh ** 25:07 Right, absolutely, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 25:10 which is, you know, which is so unfortunate? Well, I'm sure you've, you've encountered that a lot.   Barbara Leigh ** 25:17 I have, indeed, and you know that's that was part of my process, was learning how to trust again. And that's a slow, slow, hard process.   Michael Hingson ** 25:31 What, what caused you to start to learn not to trust? What? What happened in your life?   Barbara Leigh ** 25:38 Okay? Well, I want to talk about it, but, well, I won't go into too deep a detail, but yeah, I I was in a relationship where, you know, I was with a very a person has low self esteem, and because of that, I would get told that things were my fault, or things were if I hadn't done this, or if anything That happened really was was somehow brought back to me and as a person with higher self esteem, I took that as my personal responsibility, rather than looking at it as no, that's really Your choice, not, not something that I could cause, and that just kept eroding away at my confidence, and it ended up with me having no self esteem whatsoever. Wow. And then we, you know, I hit a point where an event happened, and I, you know, my brain went, nope, I don't deserve that. And that's where the light switch flipped, and I was to, you know, then I started looking around and going, you know what? I didn't deserve that, either or that, and that was not about me. And so then I started to measure against that, and go, Okay, I can set up boundaries now, because this is behavior that I won't accept anymore. And I was able to start making boundaries, and I was able to start standing up for myself. And, you know, as as that process went on, I was able to, I guess, it was motivate myself just by connecting, reconnecting with that higher self esteem person that I had been earlier. And so I would, you know, it honestly took a very long time, because I was at nothing, and at that point, I made a conscious effort to be gentle with myself and to be patient with myself and to accept myself and so with those being kind to myself thoughts, that's how I was able to move forward. And like I said, moving forward started motivating me, and I was able to bring myself back up to a higher self confidence.   Michael Hingson ** 29:02 Did you get? Oh, go ahead. Oh,   Barbara Leigh ** 29:04 but yeah. The the trust being gone was a trust for not just the person I was in a relationship with, but for so many things around me because I didn't trust myself. I didn't trust what I was believing about myself.   Michael Hingson ** 29:28 Did you hate yourself?   Barbara Leigh ** 29:31 I would not say that. I would say I just didn't understand myself. I would like I said, when I got to the bottom, I was able to say, I don't deserve that, so I wouldn't say hated myself. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 29:48 that's why I asked the question, because that was my impression of what from what you were saying. It wasn't a hate or a dislike, it was a recognition of what should be and what. And then how to deal with it?   Barbara Leigh ** 30:02 Yep, I was, you know, because I got there and, you know, the light switch went on, and I was like, how did I get here? How did this even happen? You know, it just, I couldn't understand.   Michael Hingson ** 30:18 But as you, as you progressed and as you learned about yourself, and that, of course, was part of it, is that you were learning about yourself and bringing yourself back the person you had a relationship with you weren't able to to, I gather, make positive steps to get them to to be a lot better than they were.   Barbara Leigh ** 30:43 That was not my focus. My focus was no boundaries, so that they couldn't hurt me anymore,   Michael Hingson ** 30:52 right, right? It wasn't a matter of you're trying to heal them, but setting boundaries and it would have it would have been nice if they had recognized what was going on. But that was the difference, is that you recognized and they did not right.   Barbara Leigh ** 31:06 And honestly, once I got to a place where I was back to being who I felt like me, he was able to look at that and take some motivation from that, and he actually went and got help through therapy as well. So it actually turned out way better than than expected, but   Michael Hingson ** 31:41 yeah, so are you guys still married? Yes, we are. Well, there you go. Okay, and that was what I was curious about. So he he did. It wasn't you can't, you can't fix everything because people have to fix themselves. But he was able to recognize that which was, which is so cool,   Barbara Leigh ** 32:02 yeah, honestly, I moved out twice. So, I mean, like I said, I set boundaries, yeah, but we made it work. I mean, like, like I said, when I first made the change I did. I was not strong enough to move to be on my own. I just wasn't. And so, you know, I just tried to be as patient with myself as possible, and and I just kept, kept those boundaries and okay, you can't talk to me like that. That's just not going to work. And as I moved forward, he kind of came along with me   Michael Hingson ** 32:47 well, and it sounds like you're both the better for it today.   Barbara Leigh ** 32:54 Oh, absolutely, yes, we've come a long way. I wouldn't say we're perfect for sure, but   Michael Hingson ** 33:01 it's a it's a process. Yes, it is. So what does he do for work or for a living?   Barbara Leigh ** 33:08 He is a sales person for a home improvement company.   Michael Hingson ** 33:11 Ah, ah, Home Improvement. Tim, the tool man, Taylor, but that's another story. Oh, gosh. Well, that's pretty cool. And does he do well at selling?   Barbara Leigh ** 33:25 Yes, he does that. He had his own business for for many years, and so it just comes pretty naturally to him.   Michael Hingson ** 33:34 Well, at the same time, if you're going to be good at sales, you have to learn to observe and and not take things too personally sometimes as well. I learned a lot about sales when I was confronted by needing to go into sales or finding another job, and then I took a Dale Carnegie sales course, and one of my favorite observations about sales is that the best salespeople are really counselors. They're teachers. They guide you in and help you make the right decision, rather than just trying to force something on you, which doesn't mean that they're not trying to make $1 and sell products, but you can also find that your product might not be what somebody wants, and if you push them into buying it, that's going to cost to cost you in the end anyway,   Barbara Leigh ** 34:24 right? And that's why he makes a good salesman, because he was he, he did the work for for 15 years, and at at his own company, and then he went, moved to sales, and just because his body was wearing out, and for because he knows how the product works, how it goes on the house or whatever, he can explain that to the customer, and that makes it so much easier for them to understand, you know, why they need what they need, and how it works.   Michael Hingson ** 34:59 Yeah. Yeah, and I have found that the better sales people really do understand how the product works, and they take the time to keep up with things, because that's going to make them better at what they do. Yes. So now you have children. How many children?   Barbara Leigh ** 35:16 Two, girl and a boy, and how old are they? 29 and 25   Michael Hingson ** 35:23 oh, they're just kids.   35:24 They're just kids   Michael Hingson ** 35:28 and and I know if they've gone into sales just checking no okay,   Barbara Leigh ** 35:36 and have no interest in doing that, what do they do? My daughter works in customer service, and my son is Air National Guard   Michael Hingson ** 35:47 member. Oh, okay, so it's hopefully it sounds like both of them have some really decent self esteem. Yes, they they learned that along the way from the two of you, which is good, which is a positive thing, which is, which is pretty cool, yeah. So you have retired from being with a nonprofit. You said you were there for 34 years, and what caused you to retire   Barbara Leigh ** 36:17 writing this book, I was, I'm looking at writing more and, you know, doing marketing and doing all the things book has been a lot to do and work full time, yeah, so I decided to give, give it my all.   Michael Hingson ** 36:35 Did you self publish or does the publisher publish it? Okay, yeah, which makes even more of a marketing responsibility for you. Although I think publishers are pushing more for most authors to do more to market their own books, rather than the publishers helping as much as perhaps they could. But nevertheless, well, tell us about the book. Then tell us, if you would tell us about that.   Barbara Leigh ** 37:01 Oh, it's why smart girls get into bad relationships, and how not to do it again. I started out with, well, basically the book is for people who want better relationships, not just women, but I. I started out with a smart girl title, because that is something I identify with. I think of it as an identity, because a lot of books on relationships are books written from the perspective of therapists or the perspective of people who have been abused or some kind of trauma or have addictions or something like that, and that's not, that's not who I am. And so I was trying to give a voice to, you know, average people have these problems too. So the smart girl identity is more about, really, like in high school, people would you know, who didn't know me? Well, what time I yearbook? You're so smart. Or people at work, thank you for fixing that. You're so smart, right? And I believed that. And what I believed was that reasonable humans make reasonable choices, and that's not always true, and so when I wrote the book here, or actually when I when I hit the bottom and I started looking back, I was like, I don't know how I got here. So how did I get here? I went through the process. I figured out that my beliefs weren't quite right, and they sounded good, but when I actually put them to action. They really didn't work. So the book is my process of of getting from bottom of the barrel self esteem back up to high self esteem, and looking at those beliefs and rewriting them.   Michael Hingson ** 39:23 So, um, how so like some of your beliefs that that didn't work. For example,   Barbara Leigh ** 39:28 I will read you a few of them if you don't mind. Okay, so, so you get the idea of where, where this goes. So Belief number there's nine of them. Belief number one, I can trust myself became, I can trust myself when I am being honest with myself, because I was lying to myself quite a bit of the time. It turns out, number two, I am a good helpful person became, I am a good helpful person, but that is not where I find my. Value, and that kind of blew me out of the water when I figured that one out. Number three, I'm smart, but I can't appear smarter than my partner. And that's where the focus on women comes in. It's kind of looks at the social oppression of women and how that affects your beliefs. You know, if you believe that stuff so, number three, became, I am smart and I don't have to hide it. Number four, I must guard my relationship, not only from outside, but from inside to became, I must guard my own boundaries to maintain my mental health and stay true to me. Number five, it is important to keep things steady and stable became keeping things steady and stable doesn't allow me to grow. Fear blocks my growth. Embracing the uncomfortable for a time helps me become better. That one was a hard one to learn how bad number six, self care is indulgent and not a priority. Became, self care is a high priority if I don't care take care of me, I can't be good at caring for anyone else. Numbers seven, I have emotional muscle, and I can muscle through anything became I have emotional muscle and I can use it to pull out of negative thoughts. I don't need to deny my emotions or wallow in them. Just recognize them, feel them, and continue to move all the way through them, and this one kind of hits home for my daughter. My daughter was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 20 months, and she used her emotional muscle to muscle through her pain, because she didn't want to see the reaction of people feeling sorry for her, and so she had a lot of of using that emotional muscle to just not show people her pain and and that has been something that we've had to work on for a long time.   Michael Hingson ** 42:33 What did she discover? What did she finally do?   Barbara Leigh ** 42:37 Well, it's been a process, but she's finally actually showing her pain. She because, like she's had a cyst that burst in it. It wrapped around some things, and she couldn't tell the doctor in charge that that she was having that much pain. She she didn't make it a 10 on the pain scale. So the doctor didn't think that she was that, that these complications had happened, because most people couldn't even walk with this pain, but she could, because she's super high pain tolerance. Yeah, and, you know, she learned that she doesn't need to hide her pain, which was, which was pretty life shaking for her, and she's learned that, you know, she can actually tell her doctors, yes, I'm, I'm actually having some pain, and I I really need to have you work on this or or give me medication for this, or whatever. But, yeah, she's she's really come a long way as far as being honest with herself and with other people. Yeah, let's see. Number eight, I can rely on my smartness to figure it out became I can rely on my smartness and problem solving ability. But life isn't always logical. Sometimes I'm starting starting from a faulty belief I don't have to be perfect. It's okay to ask for help when I don't understand and get stuck. And that one it, it seems very obvious, but that one was really ingrained and kept coming up in different ways. Number nine, partial is enough, I can and should fill in. The rest became I am a whole person with my own thoughts, emotions, talents, hopes, dreams and goals. So if I want to be in a relationship, my significant other should see me as a whole person and should be a whole person themselves.   Michael Hingson ** 45:10 Wow, some pretty deep concepts, needless to say, Yeah, but by the same but by the same token, you were willing to step back and observe and think about yourself, so you were able to to create these conclusions and make these changes, which is what it's really all about?   Barbara Leigh ** 45:36 Yeah, I think that's what's different about my book, is that it's not written by a therapist or somebody who's at the other side. It's somebody who's actually in it, um, digging through it and and feeling it and it makes the, you know, it. I pulled apart the process and was, you know, you have to hit all of the things that the you know, the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, social, all, all of the things to hold those beliefs out of all of the different places in your life where they stuck.   Michael Hingson ** 46:23 You think that people really have to, how do I say this? Go to the bottom or hit rock bottom before they can really start to learn?   Barbara Leigh ** 46:33 I hope not.   Michael Hingson ** 46:38 You did and I but I hear it a lot you really don't know until you hit rock bottom. And I'm not sure I totally buy that. It really depends on what you're able to learn and what you're able what conclusions you're able to draw. But a lot of times hitting rock bottom, if you will, maybe emotionally at least, brings people to where they need to be. But I am with you. I hope that it isn't always that way, and it doesn't need to always be that way,   Barbara Leigh ** 47:06 right? I think there's, there's different rock bottoms, you know? It's I got to the point where I needed to learn, and I learned, and that may not be what you and I would view as rock bottom to someone else, you know, but it's, you know, I finally, I finally flip the switch. And that's, you know, somebody else may have a switch at a different level than   Michael Hingson ** 47:40 or they may not see that there's a switch to flip which is, which is all about choice, yep. So what got you started down the road of writing the book?   Barbara Leigh ** 47:54 To be honest, I never thought I would write a book that was never, you know, a big goal in life for me, and I think it's totally a God thing, because I was, you know, my my daughter's been telling me, you need to write a book. You need to write a book for, you know, years. And I was like, yeah, yeah, sure, no product. And then all of a sudden it was time to write the book. And I was like, I don't know why it's time to write the book, but it's time to write the book. And honestly, it it flowed. I mean, I had all these great ideas for a book, and they went poof out the window when I wanted to start writing. I I just kind of sketched out an outline that was terrible, and showed it to a few people, and they're like, sure, you go. And I threw it away and just started writing. And once I started writing, it, it flowed. It actually just came out. And once I was in it a little, you know, a few chapters in, then I was able to organize it and figure out what I wanted to say and make an outline. But I couldn't do any of that until I just started writing. So I don't know, it was odd. And then I gave it to my son. I gave, like, the first two, two chapters, probably, to my son, and he read it, and he pushed it back over the table at me, and said big words. And I was like, okay, so I took it and I took out all the big words, and I made it more conversational. And now everybody who who has read it and and talk to me is like, you know, it just feels like a conversation with a good friend over a cup of   Michael Hingson ** 49:57 coffee. There you go for   Barbara Leigh ** 49:59 a glass of. Wine. So that's where it   Michael Hingson ** 50:03 got, yeah, it's, it's about not preaching, but presenting and teaching in a in a non confrontive way, which is what it's really about, which is what sales is about, Yeah, but that was very observant on his part to say that, yeah,   Barbara Leigh ** 50:24 you made it so much better.   Michael Hingson ** 50:28 When I wrote thunder dog, my first book I was I wrote it with someone. We collaborated. I had worked on it for a long time, or at least worked on ideas. And then Susie Flory called one day and she wanted, she was writing her own book, and she said, Tell me your story. And after I did, she said, You should write your own book, and I'll help you do it. And she did, one of the things that we had was that the book is about being in the World Trade Center, but it's also a lot about my life. And when we got it to the editor, because her agent, who became my agent, Chip McGregor, was able to sell it to Thomas Nelson publishing, which is now part of HarperCollins. But the editor said, My problem with this book is the transitions. And kind of said, well, what do you mean? He said, Well, you talk at the beginning of each chapter about an event on September 11, and then you you go back in your life, but you don't transition between the two. And then when you come back, you don't transition. And I get lost. And when he described that, it just immediately clicked what he was saying. And I actually then spent a weekend putting transitions in every chapter at the right places. And when he read that, he said, this is perfect. This is exactly what I was talking about. And when one of the major reviewers of the book, Kirkus, which reviews books for publishers and libraries and so on, when they reviewed it, they said one of the most powerful parts about it were the transitions. And so I appreciate what your son said, because sometimes the unexpected thing that someone says is what sends you down a road to make it a much better thought process and a much better book or a much better whatever than it would have been otherwise.   Barbara Leigh ** 52:22 Yeah, absolutely. I had a friend from college read it from an author perspective. So she's, she's written five books, and she gave me just, you know, really, she wrote fiction books so they weren't the same, but she gave me just really good authoring advice. As far as you know, you were used this word too many times, you know, things like that. And that was really, really helpful too to just, oh, okay, I get it. That would make it much more smooth. And you know, that was really helpful for me too, and it's just just to get feedback in any capacity is so helpful, I think,   Michael Hingson ** 53:12 well, and all of those comments that people give you help teach you how to write better. Yeah, absolutely. How has writing the book changed your perspective?   Barbara Leigh ** 53:24 Wow. Well, first thing, I had no idea about writing books or publishing or marketing or any of that, so that's been a whole big learning curve. But as far as you know, even even writing through the book helped teach me some things about the process as well. Just as far as relationships go, and talking through it with I had about a dozen people reading it at chapter by chapter as I got them done and and having getting that feedback from them, as far as you know, how it how it affected them, and it was really just so, I guess, helpful for me to learn what other people were were thinking when they're reading it. Because, you know, some of the things had never occurred to me, some of the things were for from friends who had been through some kind of childhood trauma. And I was kind of looking at, okay, I get what you're saying, and I think this that what you're telling me is you. This part is coming from your childhood trauma, but this other part is definitely something that I could add to my book, and I didn't want to make my book about trauma, because it really in my mind, was for the person that was just an average person, living an average life, having average relationship. However, my friends who have had childhood trauma have actually been the most affected by my book, which I find fascinating.   Michael Hingson ** 55:42 That's that's interesting, but it does make sense, because clearly you're trying to help people be more open about themselves, to themselves. And the people that that do that are the people that have been in situations where maybe they haven't, and they maybe intellectually realize that they need to grow and change, but they hadn't totally emotionally adopted that stance, and so you help them with that, which is cool.   Barbara Leigh ** 56:11 Yep, that's something I was expecting for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 56:15 No, understand. Now you have a blog also right, called helpfulness. Why is why is it called helpfulness? And what is it about?   Barbara Leigh ** 56:24 It is called helpful mess because when I was writing this book, I was writing about helpfulness and how that kind of steered me in the wrong direction, because that's where I was finding my value, and I had a typo that made it helpful. Mess, mess. Yeah, I said related to that mess. Yeah, it's like, that messy part. That's me. I So related to that that I ground onto that word. I was like, Okay, this word is mine,   Michael Hingson ** 56:56 well, and it really goes right along with the book and everything we've talked about today. Needless to say, Have you thought about doing things like starting a coaching program? Or do you do any of that?   Barbara Leigh ** 57:12 I do not. My daughter is, she is a life coach, and she has started a holistic nutrition program. So she's kind of doing that, that thing and, and I've never really been interested in doing that kind of thing. So I like you go. I will help you.   Michael Hingson ** 57:33 Okay, well, that's fair. I think we, we all do what we we feel we're best at, and it may come to the time where you'll suddenly discover that you're really better at it than you think, and that you could, you could coach people, or maybe not, but that's really something to look at.   Barbara Leigh ** 57:55 Yeah, I do want to focus on my writing for a while, but you know, when she's done with her program, maybe we'll get something   Michael Hingson ** 58:01 together. Well, there you go, and she lives close to you. Yeah,   Barbara Leigh ** 58:08 she's a half hour early, all right, so   Michael Hingson ** 58:10 Wisconsin home to everywhere, which is pretty cool. Well, so what would you advise? What kind of advice would you give to someone who's going through a lot of the things that you've gone through and so on? What would be the first thing that you would say to them to hopefully get them started down a different path of of life, rather than thinking so little of themselves and not really wanting to move forward,   Barbara Leigh ** 58:39 I would tell them they have options. You can leave your your value is not in how helpful you are, and be gentle and be kind to yourself and accept that you may not be coming from a belief that is true. And look, you know, try to see when you feel something that right, kind of off. Kind of look at your beliefs and you know, where is this coming from? Because a lot of times you can find it if you look hard enough, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 59:31 it's about teaching people to truly develop the skill of self analysis, if you will. Yeah, which is something that we, we all ought to do more of we, we tend not to really look at ourselves. And it goes back to the same thing as the whole concept of the fear of public speaking, if we, if we step out of ourselves and look at what happened, we beat up on ourselves rather than recognize. Amazing. This is a teaching moment, and we can learn from it, rather than allowing it to just be something that beats us   Barbara Leigh ** 1:00:07 up. Yes, absolutely,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:10 which makes a lot of sense. Well, I want to thank you for doing this. We've been we've been at this about an hour. Can you believe it? But I really enjoyed having you talk about it. Do you have any kind of last minute thoughts that you want to convey to people?   Barbara Leigh ** 1:00:30 Well, let's see. I guess if you think reasonable humans make reasonable choices, maybe rethink that. If you want to find my book, you can find it at my website. Let's see   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:48 and what's your website?   Barbara Leigh ** 1:00:51 Barbara Lee, author.com and Lee is l, e, i, G, H,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:56 so it's Barbara Lee, author.com, yeah, cool. Well, I hope people will find it, and we'll, we'll read it. Is it's available? Is it a hard copy or ebook, or both, or both? Okay,   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:16 and available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Ingram, Apple, Google, not all the places   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:24 they're they're an audible version or an audio version,   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:27 not yet something to work on asking, yeah, absolutely. I know I have two people that have been asking, and I well, I have to start making money before I can spend money on that.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:43 Yeah, I hear you well, unless you read it yourself, which cuts the cost way down.   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:49 Yeah, try that. I have no idea how to do that either, so that, you know, has added to my my pile of things I need to learn.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:56 There you go. It's an adventure.   Barbara Leigh ** 1:01:57 Yes, absolutely, it's on the list. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:00 Barbara, thank you for being here. I really appreciate it, and I want to thank all of you for listening. I hope that this has been not only enjoyable, but educational and worth your time. Love to hear your thoughts. Love to get your your thoughts about this. So any of you who would we'd love to hear from you, please email me at Michael H, i@accessibe.com that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, wherever you're listening, please give us a five star review. We really appreciate those reviews, and especially we love five star reviews. We want positive reviews, but you give us your honest thoughts. We love that. We appreciate it, and we value your comments very highly. If you know anyone who you think ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, please let us know. And if, by the way, you aren't sure how to review or whatever, or you want to find another place to hear more podcasts in addition to wherever you're listening to it, today, you can go to Michael hingson.com/podcast that's m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, o n.com/podcast, and all of our episodes are there, but we really value your time. We value that you like what we're doing. We'll always love to hear from people, so please let us know and keep the emails coming and again. Barbara, I just want to thank you. We really appreciate your time and are so glad that you came and spent this time with us.   Barbara Leigh ** 1:03:32 Thank you, Michael, it's been great. I appreciate   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:40 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.

"I can carry nearly eighty gigs of data in my head." For our Cinema Shock summer series, we wanted to take a look back at a few movies that were celebrating significant anniversaries this year. When we began browsing films released in 1995, we noticed an interesting trend: There was a glut of cyber thrillers released that year. And more specifically, cyber thrillers that dealt with the concept of virtual reality.  This probably shouldn't be surprising: 1995 was a banner year for technology; with the release of Windows 95 and the increasing availability of home internet, more people than ever were being connected to the World Wide Web. And as we know, Hollywood loves a trend. Enter: Virtual Insanity. In this series, we'll be exploring some of the more significant films of this very specific subgenre, all of which are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Most of these films fell flat at the box office in 1995 but all have reached varying degrees of notoriety in the decades since. Kicking things off, we're taking a look at JOHNNY MNEMONIC, possibly the strangest of the bunch. It's a film with a long, complex production history whose journey from page (in a short story by cyberpunk legend William Gibson) to screen was fraught with delays, difficulties and compromises. In our last episode, we detailed the early days of JOHNNY MNEMONIC's development and filming. This week, we'll focus on the film's contentious post production period, where the Hollywood execs responsible for marketing the film tried to turn it into something it was never intended to be, hoping to capitalize on the newfound post-SPEED superstardom of Keanu Reeves. We'll also get into our own thoughts on the film's legacy, as well as how its views of the internet and global connectivity are still relevant today. Next week: We continue our look at the cyber thrillers of 1995 with an often-overlooked film that stars two of Hollywood's biggest names. Want to support the show? Subscribers of CinemaShock+ can enjoy an extended version of this episode, which includes the full story of JOHNNY MNEMONIC (Parts 1 and 2), as well as bonus segments and additional content, plus get access to all episodes two days early, exclusive merchandise discounts, and more. Join now at cinemashock.net/plus. ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Andy Lancaster | asotirov | Benjamin Yates | Caverly | courtland ashley | curtcake5k | Elton Novara | Hunter D Mackenzie | Interzone78 | Jackson_Baker | Jvance325 | Lucy Lawson | MagicBloat | Nate Izod | Nathan Kelley | Robert Stinson Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy. This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis. For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

Remember the beginnings of the Internet in the consumer world more than 30 years ago? Times have changed exponentially from the early days when you could only connect to the World Wide Web on a very bulky home computer via telephone land lines, “surfing” speeds were a crawl and Amazon wasn't the fastest or cheapest way to buy a book! Whether you interact with the Internet daily or not, you can't deny that it's changed your life.Some believe we're living in a similar inflection point today with the rise of Bitcoin, a decentralized form of cryptocurrency separated from the control of people, business entities and even banks, due to the continued corruption of the world's financial system.Former Oxford-trained physicist and Wall Street trader turned entrepreneur Joe Bryan reveals how our current financial system really works and who it actually serves (not us!), and why Bitcoin could transform the world — If you fix the money, you fix the world… — this week on Spirit Gym.During their conversation, Paul and Joe recommend watching the video What's the Problem? that connects the dots about the world's financial problems, its root causes and how Bitcoin may solve them. Watch it on YouTube or Joe's SatsVsFiat website.Find out more about Joe via social media on Twitter/X and Linkedin.Timestamps7:25 Is there any difference between money and currency?13:17 How the world trended to gold as a monetary standard.26:26 Moving from the gold standard to petrol dollars.40:35 Connecting inflation with poorer health outcomes.59:15 The difference between Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.1:12:11 How is Bitcoin verified?1:30:43 The only source of inflation: Printing money.1:44:00 Bitcoin is a more valuable asset than silver.1:51:53 The mining aspect behind Bitcoin.2:01:20 Your odds of winning a lottery are better than winning a block on Bitcoin.2:10:41 The mainstream environmental untruth about Bitcoin.2:33:43 The best ways to start with Bitcoin.ResourcesThe work of Catherine Austin FittsFind more resources for this episode on our website.Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz) by Brave as BearsAll Rights Reserved MusicFit Records 2024 Thanks to our awesome sponsors:PaleovalleyBIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL10Organifi CHEK20Wild PasturesCHEK Institute/Scientific Core Conditioning We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

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"I want to get online... I need a computer!" For our Cinema Shock summer series, we wanted to take a look back at a few movies that were celebrating significant anniversaries this year. When we began browsing films released in 1995, we noticed an interesting trend: There was a glut of cyber thrillers released that year. And more specifically, cyber thrillers that dealt with the concept of virtual reality.  This probably shouldn't be surprising: 1995 was a banner year for technology; with the release of Windows 95 and the increasing availability of home internet, more people than ever were being connected to the World Wide Web. And as we know, Hollywood loves a trend. Enter: Virtual Insanity. In this series, we'll be exploring some of the more significant films of this very specific subgenre, all of which are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Most of these films fell flat at the box office in 1995 but all have reached varying degrees of notoriety in the decades since. Kicking things off, we're taking a look at JOHNNY MNEMONIC, possibly the strangest of the bunch. It's a film with a long, complex production history whose journey from page (in a short story by cyberpunk legend William Gibson) to screen was fraught with delays, difficulties and compromises. In this, the first of two episodes detailing JOHNNY MNEMONIC's story, we'll establish just why cyber thrillers became a trend, how one of 1980s New York's most prominent visual artists came on board as the director, and how the vision for the film trasnformed from a low budget black-and-white art film into a nearly $30 million major studio production. Next week: In Part 2 of our look at JOHNNY MNEMONIC, we'll detail the film's contentious post-production period, it's bungled release, and box office performance, as well as our own thoughts on the film and how its vision of the future is still relevant today. Want to support the show? Subscribers of CinemaShock+ can enjoy an extended version of this episode, which includes the full story of JOHNNY MNEMONIC (Parts 1 and 2), as well as bonus segments and additional content, plus get access to all episodes two days early, exclusive merchandise discounts, and more. Join now at cinemashock.net/plus. ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Andy Lancaster | asotirov | Benjamin Yates | Caverly | courtland ashley | curtcake5k | Elton Novara | Hunter D Mackenzie | Interzone78 | Jackson_Baker | Jvance325 | Lucy Lawson | MagicBloat | Nate Izod | Nathan Kelley | Robert Stinson Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy. This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis. For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net  

From Cassette Tapes and Phrasebooks to AI Real-Time Translations — Machines Can Now Speak for Us, But We're Losing the Art of Understanding Each Other May 21, 2025A new transmission from Musing On Society and Technology Newsletter, by Marco CiappelliThere's this thing I've dreamed about since I was a kid.No, it wasn't flying cars. Or robot butlers (although I wouldn't mind one to fold the laundry). It was this: having a real conversation with someone — anyone — in their own language, and actually understanding each other.And now… here we are.Reference: Google brings live translation to Meet, starting with Spanish. https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-brings-live-translation-to-meet-starting-with-spanish-174549788.htmlGoogle just rolled out live AI-powered translation in Google Meet, starting with Spanish. I watched the demo video, and for a moment, I felt like I was 16 again, staring at the future with wide eyes and messy hair.It worked. It was seamless. Flawless. Magical.And then — drumroll, please — it sucked!Like… really, existentially, beautifully sucked.Let me explain.I'm a proud member of Gen X. I grew up with cassette tapes and Walkmans, boomboxes and mixtapes, floppy disks and Commodore 64s, reel-to-reel players and VHS decks, rotary phones and answering machines. I felt language — through static, rewinds, and hiss.Yes, I had to wait FOREVER to hit Play and Record, at the exact right moment, tape songs off the radio onto a Maxell, label it by hand, and rewind it with a pencil when the player chewed it up.I memorized long-distance dialing codes. I waited weeks for a letter to arrive from a pen pal abroad, reading every word like it was a treasure map.That wasn't just communication. That was connection.Then came the shift.I didn't miss the digital train — I jumped on early, with curiosity in one hand and a dial-up modem in the other.Early internet. Mac OS. My first email address felt like a passport to a new dimension. I spent hours navigating the World Wide Web like a digital backpacker — discovering strange forums, pixelated cities, and text-based adventures in a binary world that felt limitless.I said goodbye to analog tools, but never to analog thinking.So what is the connection with learning languages?Well, here's the thing: exploring the internet felt a lot like learning a new language. You weren't just reading text — you were decoding a culture. You learned how people joked. How they argued. How they shared, paused, or replied with silence. You picked up on the tone behind a blinking cursor, or the vibe of a forum thread.Similarly, when you learn a language, you're not just learning words — you're decoding an entire world. It's not about the words themselves — it's about the world they build. You're learning gestures. Food. Humor. Social cues. Sarcasm. The way someone raises an eyebrow, or says “sure” when they mean “no.”You're learning a culture's operating system, not just its interface. AI translation skips that. It gets you the data, but not the depth. It's like getting the punchline without ever hearing the setup.And yes, I use AI to clean up my writing. To bounce translations between English and Italian when I'm juggling stories. But I still read both versions. I still feel both versions. I'm picky — I fight with my AI counterpart to get it right. To make it feel the way I feel it. To make you feel it, too. Even now.I still think in analog, even when I'm living in digital.So when I watched that Google video, I realized:We're not just gaining a tool. We're at risk of losing something deeply human — the messy, awkward, beautiful process of actually trying to understand someone who moves through the world in a different language — one that can't be auto-translated.Because sometimes it's better to speak broken English with a Japanese friend and a Danish colleague — laughing through cultural confusion — than to have a perfectly translated conversation where nothing truly connects.This isn't just about language. It's about every tool we create that promises to “translate” life. Every app, every platform, every shortcut that promises understanding without effort.It's not the digital that scares me. I use it. I live in it. I am it, in many ways. It's the illusion of completion that scares me.The moment we think the transformation is done — the moment we say “we don't need to learn that anymore” — that's the moment we stop being human.We don't live in 0s and 1s. We live in the in-between. The gray. The glitch. The hybrid.So yeah, cheers to AI-powered translation, but maybe keep your Walkman nearby, your phrasebook in your bag — and your curiosity even closer.Go explore the world. Learn a few words in a new language. Mispronounce them. Get them wrong. Laugh about it. People will appreciate your effort far more than your fancy iPhone.Alla prossima,— Marco 

The PC has been one of the most important personal devices of our lifetime. From the use of standalone PCs for word processing in the 1980s to the emergence of the World Wide Web and powerful processors in the 1990s to the rise of laptops in the 2000s and the era of 2-in-1s in the 2010s, the PC has continually evolved.Now AI is transforming the PC as we know it. AI-powered devices are helping to automate repetitive tasks, summarise documents and meetings, make adjustments to user behaviours and are enabling everyone to become content creators. New AI devices have updated components inside—the NPU, CPU, and GPU—which means they can handle workloads far more efficiently, allowing the user to have a smooth, engaging, collaborative experience and be productive at the same time.Ronan recently caught up with Tara Gale, Client Solutions Country Lead at Dell Technologies Ireland to find out more about how AI will redefine the PC and personal devices that we all now rely upon. Tara talks about her background, pc changes, AI NPU and more.More about Tara Gale:Tara is the company's lead voice on devices in Ireland, is a clear communicator and a really good and enthusiastic conversationalist. For over ten years, she has led the devices side of the businesses at Dell Technologies Ireland and is the lead expert on AI PCs. Moreover, Dell has been at the forefront of PCs and other personal devices over the past four decades. In January, Dell unveiled a new portfolio of AI PCs.

In this episode of Agency Intelligence podcast, host Jason Cass interviews Landry Fields, Agency Owner at Nova Insurance about the rise of agentic AI, how it's different from bots, and what it means for staffing, tech, and the future of independent agencies. Key Topics: What sets AI agents apart from basic automation tools How a new MCP-based internet could power future automation Agentic AI is here and doesn't need human supervision Licensed roles may be the first to disappear in leaner agencies Every agency will need a CTO to manage tech and automation Automation can cut task costs from $7.50 to just 17 cents Agencies that adapt quickly will outperform larger competitors Reach out to: Landry Fields Jason Cass Visit Website: Nova Insurance Agency Intelligence Produced by PodSquad.fm

Co-op gaming! First the arcade, then the couch, now connecting online. We go through our co-op journey from fond childhood memories to current multiplayer experiences and our take on the best co-op pitches and setups. We were joined by Zack from the Punch & Roll for Initiative Podcast, a nerdy & dirty D&D by audiobook narrators. Check it out! You can also find Zack's smooth voice on Instagram! TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 1:19 - First and favourite co-op memories 10:25 - Our pitch to Bobby to play with us 18:16 - Modern day co-op! 43:30 - The best co-op gaming setup 50:46 - Listener questions 1:01:33 - Plug/END THE SHOW For more content, head to dlgaming.net! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 1955, a quiet Kentucky farmhouse became ground zero for one of the wildest alien encounter stories ever—complete with glowing-eyed creatures, a shotgun standoff, and a mystery that still baffles skeptics today.IN THIS EPISODE: It's considered one of the most bizarre and convincing extraterrestrial events ever reported… we'll look at the alien encounter in 1955's Hopkinsville, Kentucky that was experienced by two terrified families. (The Hopkinsville Encounter) *** In the deep jungles of the Congo, natives tell of a giant creature that, once described, sounds exactly like a long-necked dinosaur. But how could this be? And is it pure legend? Perhaps not, as one noted biologist from the area saw it with his own eyes and reported it. We'll look at the supposed real sighting of Mokele-Mbembe, the living dinosaur of the Congo! (Dinosaur Observed In The Congo) *** Running a club during prohibition was extremely lucrative… and extremely dangerous, as one Theodore Lakoff would've learned… had he been awake when he was murdered. (The Mysterious Death of Theodore Lakoff) *** Benjamin Franklin was known not just as one of the father's of the United States of America, but also as an inventor, a womanizer, and a man with a bit of an ornery streak in him – as is evidenced by a series of letters he wrote to the New England Courant, where he pretended to be a woman. (Who Was Mrs. Silence Dogood?) *** The internet is a vital part of modern life. Without web access, all kinds of businesses and jobs would be unable to function. So, as you can imagine, there are plenty of people who would love to see the internet crumble. And many have tried. (Taking Down The World Wide Web) *** In 1983 sightings poured in from people on the California coast who claim they saw a sea monster. (The California Sea Monster)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Disclaimer and Lead-In00:01:28.184 = Show Open00:03:58.030 = The Hopkinsville Encounter00:14:14.872 = Dinosaur Observed in the Congo00:27:31.586 = Taking Down The World Wide Web00:37:10.602 = The Mysterious Death of Theodor Lakoff00:43:44.912 = Who Was Mrs. Silence Dogood?00:49:37.945 = The California Sea Monster00:55:56.067 = Show Close, Verse, and Final ThoughtSOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…“The Hopkinsville Encounter” by Hannah Collins for Ranker.com's Graveyard Shift: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yp8pnfx7“Dinosaur Observed in the Congo” by Richard Greenwell for the ISC Newsletter: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yc3r3mpp“The Mysterious Death of Theodore Lakoff” by Kathi Kresol for HauntedRockford.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ku5x3cat“Who Was Mrs. Silence Dogood?” by Bipin Dimri for HistoricMysteries.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p868eac“Taking Down the World Wide Web” by Benjamin Thomas for ListVerse.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/c85j5cau“The California Sea Monster” by Malcom Smith for Malcom's Cryptids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yc2wts7h=====Darkness Syndicate members get the ad-free version. https://weirddarkness.com/syndicateInfo on the next LIVE SCREAM event. https://weirddarkness.com/LiveScreamInfo on the next WEIRDO WATCH PARTY event. https://weirddarkness.com/TV=====(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: December, 2021EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/KellyHopkinsville

Daggy Lacey's life reads like a Hollywood script, yet her remarkable journey from refugee to tech pioneer is 100% real. In this captivating conversation, Daggy shares how fleeing Latvia as a one-year-old set her on an unexpected path toward breaking unimaginable barriers in the technology industry.With disarming candor, Daggy reveals how she became the first female programmer at Burroughs Corporation based on a $25 monthly salary difference—a decision that led to a series of glass-ceiling-shattering achievements. She recalls the moment when her boss confessed they'd never hired a female programmer before, explaining the battery of special tests she had to pass simply because of her gender.The stories flow like chapters in an adventure novel: being blocked from presenting in Japan because "women cannot address business meetings" only to have executives later fly to meet her; founding her own technology company in 1991 that employed remote workers before the World Wide Web existed; and her unforgettable boardroom showdown with a notoriously difficult chairman where her boldness carried the day.Most compelling is Daggy's definition of boldness itself—speaking out for your cause, refusing to back down when challenged, and maintaining unwavering belief in your solution. At 81, still running her international technology company, she delivers a powerful message for women considering careers in tech: "Don't be afraid. You can do anything you want if you commit yourself to it."What truly makes Daggie's story shine is hearing how her leadership transformed careers. After publishing her book "The Wall Falls, a Woman Rises," former employees reached out to share how working with her 35 years ago changed their lives—a testament to the lasting impact of authentic, bold leadership.Ready for a dose of inspiration and practical wisdom from a true pioneer? This episode delivers exactly that. Share your thoughts after listening—we'd love to hear which part of Daggie's journey resonates most with you.Resources: Daggie's websiteThe Wall Falls, a Woman Rises, a Memoir: How a U.S. Tech Entrepreneur Broke the Glass Ceiling and Helped Modernize LatviaSupport the showWhen you subscribe to the podcast, you are supporting our work's mission, allowing us to continue highlighting successful women in a variety of careers to inspire others helping pay our wonderful editor, Chris, and helping me in paying our hosting expenses.

OBITCH! You are in for it this week, Madison is telling us about corpse herding and honey they were walking the walk, next Spencer is sharing some fascinating finds from the World Wide Web. We've got an obituary for a woman who was not very happy about it, one for a guy who didn't even want one, and so much more! Oh and DUH we've got some dumb.ass.criminalsssssssss! Watch us on YouTube: Youtube.com/@obitchuarypodcast Buy our book: prh.com/obitchuaryGet your Merch: wonderyshop.com/obitchuaryCome see us live on tour: obitchuarypodcast.comJoin our Patreon: Patreon.com/cultliterNew episodes come out every Thursday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.Follow along online: @obitchuarypod on Twitter & Instagram @obitchuarypodcast on TikTokCheck out Spencer's other podcast Cult Liter wherever you're listening!Write to us: obitpod@gmail.comSpencer Henry & Madison ReyesPO Box 18149 Long Beach, CA 90807Sources:https://www.pbs.org/video/the-ancient-terror-of-the-chinese-hopping-corpse-jiangshi-0dtmtb/https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2014/05/the-real-walking-dead-one/https://pressbooks.pub/chin330/chapter/a-dead-occupation-transporting-a-corpse-over-a-thousand-li/https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3264922/walking-dead-old-china-practice-corpse-herding-transporting-bodies-hometown-burial-using-long-bamboo#https://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/article/the-hopping-dead-the-corpse-walkers-of-china/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangshihttp://en.chinaculture.org/chineseway/2011-12/05/content_426742_2.htmhttps://www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/3092/corpse-walker-detained-in-kunminghttps://www.fox35orlando.com/news/florida-man-poses-as-disney-world-cast-member-steals-10k-r2-d2-droid-deputies-sayhttps://www.communityfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Jan-PiersonneeDupuishttps://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-man-allegedly-trying-outrun-troopers-wearing-dalmatian-onesiehttps://www.reddit.com/r/askfuneraldirectors/comments/1i97up3/whats_the_weirdestcoolestcraziest_thing_youve/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Correspondent Scott Pelley reports from Washington, D.C., on whether President Trump's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) without Congress' approval is legal. In the United States, most of what anyone says, sends or streams online, even if it's hate-filled or toxic, is protected by the First Amendment as free speech. But as correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports, Germany is trying to bring order to the unruly World Wide Web by policing it in a way most Americans could never imagine. When Timothée Chalamet was offered the chance to play Bob Dylan in a film based on the legendary musician, a lot of people told him not to take it. Chalamet didn't know much about playing the guitar or harmonica, or about Dylan himself. 60 MINUTES spends a couple of days with the 29-year-old actor to find out how he prepared for over five years to play one of the most enigmatic and revered musicians of our time for his film “A Complete Unknown,” which earned him his second Oscar nomination for best actor. Correspondent Anderson Cooper visits Chalamet's childhood home and Dylan's old haunts in New York City and discovers some of the parallels between the two artists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices