Podcasts about Zhao

This is a research deep dive episode where host Matt Stickland goes into the weeds to explain how low property taxes make housing less affordable. Did Matt get anything wrong? Here are his sources: Oates (1969): the effects of property taxes and local public spending on property values Mieszkowski (1972): The property tax: an excise tax or a profits tax? Oats & Schwab (2009): The case for a land value tax Dye & England (2010) Assessing the theory and practice of land value taxation Bourassa (1990): The land value tax and housing development: A case study of Pittsburgh Tideman (1994): The Economics of Efficient taxes on land Palmon & Smith (1998): New evidence on property tax capitalization Lyu (2024): Revisiting property tax capitalization Hilber (2017): The economic implications of the house price capitalization: a synthesis Hull & Grodecka-Messi (2022): Measuring the impact of taxes and public services on property values: A double machine learning approach Charlot, Paty & Visalli (2013): Assessing the impact of local taxation on property prices: A spactia matching contribution Plassmann & Tideman (2000): A markov chain monte carlo analysis of the effect of two rate property taxes on construction Bruekner (1986): The structure of urban equilibria: A unified treatment of the Muth-Mills Model England & Zhao (2005): Assessing the distributive effects of a revenue-neutral shift from property tax to a land value tax Hartzok (1997): Pennsylvania's Success with local property tax reform: The Split-Rate Tax Banzhaf & Lavery (2010): Can the land value tax be used to rejuvenate our cities? Development charge studies Singell & Lillydahl (1990): An Empirical Examination of the Effect of Impact Fees on the Price of New Real Estate. Ihlanfeldt & Shaughnessy (2004): An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Impact Fees on Housing and Land Prices. Dachis (2018/2024): Gimme Shelter: How High Municipal Housing Charges and Taxes Decrease Housing Supply. Skidmore & Peddle (1998): Do Development Impact Fees Reduce the Rate of Residential Development? Burge & Ihlanfeldt (2006): Impact Fees and Single-Family Home Construction. CMHC (2025): Development Charges: Who Bears the Cost? Dresch & Sheffrin (1997): Who Pays, and When? An Assessment of Generational Equity in the Case of Development Fees. Evans-Cowley & Lawhon (2003): The Effects of Impact Fees on Land Values and Development. Been (2005): Impact Fees and Housing Affordability And the Not Just Bikes video https://youtu.be/r7-e_yhEzIw?si=QG7OBmInRzzqZFpB

Os olhares sobre a identidade chinesa, as narrativas em televisão, o bullying na escola, os valores da cultura chinesa, as cenas homossexuais enquanto atriz, as decisões dos pais imigrantes, os ensinamentos do budismo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode features "The Scent of Memory" written by Zhao Haihong and translated by S. Qiouyi Lu. Published in the May 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhao_05_26 Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/clarkesworld/membership

In this episode, Josh and Jade review the Oscar nominated film, Hamnet. The film is directed by Chloé Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell, based on the 2020 novel by O'Farrell. The film dramatises the family life of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes Hathaway as they cope with the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet.It stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as Agnes and William, alongside Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, and Jacobi Jupe in supporting roles.The film received numerous awards, including winning the Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Buckley at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, and eight nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Zhao, with Buckley winning the Academy Award for Best Actress.But the most pressing question that our hosts ask is: "why does it sound like everyone is mumbling in this movie?"Find out if this film is trash or treasure by smashing that play button.

Masterpiece Podcasts: Collection of Chinese Classic Novels

Masterpiece Podcasts: Collection of Chinese Classic Novels

Masterpiece Podcasts: Collection of Chinese Classic Novels

Five longevity beliefs that millions have followed for decades have just been overturned by the latest research. Some of these will surprise you.In this explainer, Robert Lufkin MD walks through five of the most widely believed longevity myths — and what the most recent science actually says about each one. From genetics and middle age to antioxidants, alcohol, and caloric restriction, the evidence has shifted dramatically.CHAPTERS:00:00 — Introduction00:32 — Myth 1: Your Genes Determine How Long You Live01:51 — Myth 2: It's Too Late to Change After Middle Age03:24 — Myth 3: Antioxidant Supplements Prevent Disease05:22 — Myth 4: Moderate Alcohol Is Good for You07:04 — Myth 5: Caloric Restriction Is King08:50 — The Real Framework: Quality Beats Quantity09:18 — Final TakeawayKEY TAKEAWAYS:• Genetics accounts for at most 25–50% of how long you live• Quitting smoking before 40 eliminates ~90% of excess mortality risk• Antioxidant supplements have no benefit and may increase mortality• The protective J-curve for moderate alcohol disappears once you correct for the "sick quitter" effect• Caloric restriction's primate magic was rescuing animals from a high-sugar control diet• Diet quality matters more than diet quantitySTUDIES & SOURCES MENTIONED:• Herskind et al., Human Genetics 1996 — 2,872 Danish twin pairs heritability of longevity• Jha et al., NEJM 2013 — 21st-century smoking cessation and life expectancy• Saint-Maurice et al., JAMA Network Open 2019 — Adult life-course physical activity and mortality• Bjelakovic et al., Cochrane 2012 — Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality• Zhao et al., JAMA Network Open 2023 — Daily alcohol intake and all-cause mortality meta-analysis• Mattison et al., Nature Communications 2017 — Caloric restriction in rhesus monkeys (NIA / Wisconsin reconciliation)⭐ Enjoying the show? Please leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts — it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the science of health and longevity. Thank you!New episodes every Tuesday & Thursday. Subscribe so you don't miss one.Continue this conversation on Substack: https://robertlufkinmd.substack.comLies I Taught In Medical School — Free sample chapter: https://www.robertlufkinmd.com/lies/Web: https://www.robertlufkinmd.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/robertlufkinmdX: https://x.com/robertlufkinmdInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertlufkinmd/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robertlufkinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertlufkinmd/

NBC News' Tom Brokaw traveled to Beijing to speak with Zhao Ziyang, premier of China and the acting head of the Chinese Communist Party, in the first interview Zhao had ever given to American television. Watch the full episode from the Meet the Press archive. The full episode on video is available on MeetThePress.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode we talk about the League of Legend's comic "Pilgrimage" | All CoR Links | www.podcastcor.com | Music By Slayur | www.linktr.ee/slayur | Story By | Laurie Goulding & Kudos Productions 00:00 Intro 04:00 Part 1 07:00 Part 2 14:00 Part 3 20:00 General Discussion

Entzündungen gelten oft als etwas Schlechtes – aber ganz so einfach ist es nicht. In dieser Folge sprechen wir darüber, was eine Entzündungsreaktion im Körper überhaupt ist. Außerdem schauen wir uns an, welche Rolle Ernährung dabei spielt: Welche Ernährungsmuster wirken eher antientzündlich?  Zum Schluss geht es um eine spannende Frage für Sportler:innen: Kann eine antientzündliche Ernährung die Regeneration verbessern – oder blockieren wir damit vielleicht sogar wichtige Trainingsanpassungen?  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dominiks Buch zur pflanzenbasierten Sporternährung im UTB-Verlag: https://www.utb.de/doi/book/10.36198/9783838560328 Dominiks Gesundheitscommunity: www.gsundes-hannover.de Dominiks Online-Knie-Kurs: https://gsundes-hannover.de/knieschmerzen/ Dominiks Online-Rücken-Kurs: https://copecart.com/products/34bd5abb/checkout Marcs veganes Online-Fitness-Coaching: https://vegainer-academy.com/ Marcs Online-Kurs: https://www.copecart.com/products/a50f88f2/checkout ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dieser Podcast wird unterstützt von der Firma Watson Nutrition. Die Firma bietet als einzige umfassend laborgeprüfte Nahrungsergänzungsmittel für eine optimierte Nährstoffversorgung. Zum Angebot zählen Multi-Supplemente, Mono-Supplemente, Sportsupplemente wie Kreatin oder auch Proteinriegel, Shakes und essenzielle Aminosäuren Mit dem Code veganperformance erhältst du 5 % Rabatt auf deine Bestellung.  Zur Firmenwebseite: Watson Nutrition ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quellen: Hier sind alle bisher genutzten Quellen im APA-Standard, ohne DOI und ohne Link: Bell, L., Gibbs, J., & Cappuccio, F. P. (2026). The effect of plant-based dietary patterns on C-reactive protein: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, L., & Sayers, S. P. (2006). Efficacy of a tart cherry juice blend in preventing the symptoms of muscle damage. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(8), 679–683. Dehghani, E., Beba, M., Danandeh, K., Memari, A., Ershadmanesh, M. J., Rasoulian, P., Danandeh, A., & Djafarian, K. (2025). The effect of tart cherry juice supplementation on exercise-induced muscle damage in an athletic population: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 87(2). Estruch, R., Sacanella, E., & Ros, E. (2010). Anti-inflammatory effects of the Mediterranean diet: The experience of the PREDIMED study. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 69(3), 333–340. European Food Safety Authority. (2012). EFSA assesses safety of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. European Food Safety Authority. Fernandes, J., Fialho, M., Santos, R., Peixoto-Plácido, C., Madeira, T., Sousa-Santos, N., Virgolino, A., Santos, O., & Vaz Carneiro, A. (2020). Is olive oil good for you? A systematic review and meta-analysis on anti-inflammatory benefits from regular dietary intake. Nutrition, 69, 110559. Hannoodee, S., & Nasuruddin, D. N. (2024). Acute inflammatory response. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. Hébert, J. R., Shivappa, N., Wirth, M. D., Hussey, J. R., & Hurley, T. G. (2019). Perspective: The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII)—Lessons learned, improvements made, and future directions. Advances in Nutrition, 10(2), 185–195. Kavyani, Z., Musazadeh, V., Fathi, S., Faghfouri, A. H., Dehghan, P., & Sarmadi, B. (2022). Efficacy of the omega-3 fatty acids supplementation on inflammatory biomarkers: An umbrella meta-analysis. International Immunopharmacology, 111, 109104. Khanna, D., Khanna, S., Khanna, P., Kahar, P., & Patel, B. M. (2022). Obesity: A chronic low-grade inflammation and its markers. Cureus, 14(2), e22711. Li, J., Lee, D. H., Hu, J., Tabung, F. K., Li, Y., Bhupathiraju, S. N., Rimm, E. B., Rexrode, K. M., Manson, J. E., Willett, W. C., Giovannucci, E. L., & Hu, F. B. (2020). Dietary inflammatory potential and risk of cardiovascular disease among men and women in the U.S. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 76(19), 2181–2193. Liu, F.-H., Liu, C., Gong, T.-T., Gao, S., Sun, H., Jiang, Y.-T., Zhang, J.-Y., Zhang, M., Gao, C., Li, X.-Y., Zhao, Y.-H., & Wu, Q.-J. (2021). Dietary inflammatory index and health outcomes: An umbrella review of systematic review and meta-analyses of observational studies. Frontiers in Nutrition, 8, 647122. Marx, W., Veronese, N., Kelly, J. T., Smith, L., Hockey, M., Collins, S., Trakman, G. L., Hoare, E., Teasdale, S. B., Wade, A., Lane, M., Aslam, H., Davis, J. A., O'Neil, A., Shivappa, N., Hébert, J. R., Blekkenhorst, L. C., Berk, M., Segasby, T., & Jacka, F. (2021). The Dietary Inflammatory Index and human health: An umbrella review of meta-analyses of observational studies. Advances in Nutrition, 12(5), 1681–1690. Menzel, J., Jabakhanji, A., Biemann, R., Mai, K., Abraham, K., & Weikert, C. (2020). Systematic review and meta-analysis of the associations of vegan and vegetarian diets with inflammatory biomarkers. Scientific Reports, 10, 21736. Morvaridzadeh, M., Fazelian, S., Agah, S., Khazdouz, M., Rahimlou, M., Agh, F., Potter, E., Heshmati, J., & Heshmati, S. (2020). Effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on inflammatory markers: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Cytokine, 135, 155224. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2021). Vitamin E: Fact sheet for health professionals. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2025). Omega-3 fatty acids: Fact sheet for health professionals. National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2025). Vitamin C: Fact sheet for health professionals. Ortega, D. R., López, A. M., Amaya, H. M., & Berral de la Rosa, F. J. (2021). Tart cherry and pomegranate supplementations enhance recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage: A systematic review. Biology of Sport, 38(1), 97–111. Pahwa, R., Goyal, A., & Jialal, I. (2023). Chronic inflammation. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. Paulsen, G., Cumming, K. T., Holden, G., Hallén, J., Rønnestad, B. R., Sveen, O., Skaug, A., Paur, I., Bastani, N. E., Østgaard, H. N., Buer, C., Midttun, M., Freuchen, F., Wiig, H., Ulseth, E. T., Garthe, I., Blomhoff, R., Benestad, H. B., & Raastad, T. (2014). Vitamin C and E supplementation hampers cellular adaptation to endurance training in humans: A double-blind, randomized, controlled trial. The Journal of Physiology, 592(8), 1887–1901. Paulsen, G., Hamarsland, H., Cumming, K. T., Johansen, R. E., Hulmi, J. J., Børsheim, E., Wiig, H., Garthe, I., & Raastad, T. (2014). Vitamin C and E supplementation alters protein signalling after a strength training session, but not muscle growth during 10 weeks of training. The Journal of Physiology, 592(24), 5391–5408. Pearson, A. G., Hind, K., & Macnaughton, L. S. (2023). The impact of dietary protein supplementation on recovery from resistance exercise-induced muscle damage: A systematic review with meta-analysis. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 77, 767–783. Ristow, M., Zarse, K., Oberbach, A., Klöting, N., Birringer, M., Kiehntopf, M., Stumvoll, M., Kahn, C. R., & Blüher, M. (2009). Antioxidants prevent health-promoting effects of physical exercise in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(21), 8665–8670. Rojano-Ortega, D., Peña Amaro, J., Berral-Aguilar, A. J., & Berral-de la Rosa, F. J. (2022). Effects of beetroot supplementation on recovery after exercise-induced muscle damage: A systematic review. Sports Health, 14(4), 556–565. Shivappa, N., Steck, S. E., Hurley, T. G., Hussey, J. R., & Hébert, J. R. (2014). Designing and developing a literature-derived, population-based dietary inflammatory index. Public Health Nutrition, 17(8), 1689–1696. Song, W., Wang, J., Wang, H., & Li, Y. (2023). Anthocyanin supplementation improves obesity-related inflammatory characteristics: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition Reviews, 82(1), 57–70. Tabrizi, R., Vakili, S., Lankarani, K. B., Akbari, M., Mirhosseini, N., Ghayour-Mobarhan, M., Ferns, G., Taghizadeh, M., Asemi, Z., & others. (2019). The effects of curcumin-containing supplements on biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Phytotherapy Research, 33(2), 253–262. Tabung, F. K., Steck, S. E., Zhang, J., Ma, Y., Liese, A. D., Agalliu, I., Hingle, M., Hou, L., Hurley, T. G., Jiao, L., Martin, L. W., Millen, A. E., Park, H. L., Rosal, M. C., Shikany, J. M., Shivappa, N., Ockene, J. K., & Hébert, J. R. (2015). Construct validation of the Dietary Inflammatory Index among postmenopausal women. Annals of Epidemiology, 25(6), 398–405. Tarazona-Díaz, M. P., Alacid, F., Carrasco, M., Martínez, I., & Aguayo, E. (2013). 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EECP Therapy and Stroke Recovery: Can a Cardiac Treatment Help Grow New Blood Vessels? When I first heard about EECP therapy in the context of stroke recovery, I was skeptical. It’s a cardiac device approved in Australia for stable angina and congestive heart failure. Stroke is not on the label. So why are we talking about it on a stroke recovery podcast? Because the mechanism is fascinating. And the research, while still emerging, is pointing somewhere worth paying attention to. In this episode, I sat down with Jack Clifford, a heart disease patient who discovered EECP therapy and began exploring its potential beyond its approved indications. What started as a cardiac conversation quickly became one of the most scientifically interesting discussions I’ve had on the show. What Is EECP Therapy? EECP stands for Enhanced External Counterpulsation. The treatment involves a set of pneumatic cuffs fitted around the calves, thighs, and buttocks. These cuffs inflate and deflate in precise synchrony with the heartbeat, inflating during the heart’s resting phase (diastole) to push blood back toward the heart, and deflating just before the heart contracts. The result is an increase in blood flow and a specific type of fluid shear stress on blood vessel walls. It’s that shear stress that makes things interesting. The Biology: Arteriogenesis and Angiogenesis To understand why EECP therapy might be relevant to stroke survivors, you need to understand two terms: angiogenesis and arteriogenesis. Angiogenesis is the sprouting of entirely new capillary vessels — the body builds small blood channels where none existed before. Arteriogenesis is different: it’s the remodelling of pre-existing, dormant collateral vessels into functional bypass channels. Think of it like upgrading a dirt track into a highway. The track was always there; the body just wasn’t using it. When blood flow is obstructed, whether by a blocked coronary artery or a stroke, the body can, under the right conditions, activate these collateral pathways. The shear stress produced by EECP therapy appears to be one of the triggers that stimulate arteriogenesis. By generating repeated waves of increased blood flow, the treatment creates the mechanical signal that tells blood vessel walls to grow and remodel. This is why cardiac researchers originally developed EECP for heart patients. But it raises a legitimate scientific question: could the same mechanism support blood flow recovery in the brain after stroke? What Does the Research Say? A 2026 meta-analysis published in the QJM: An International Journal of Medicine examined 15 randomized controlled trials involving 506 participants, looking specifically at EECP’s effects on functional outcomes in stroke patients. The results showed statistically significant improvements, with EECP outperforming control conditions on standard functional recovery measures. This is preliminary evidence, not a settled clinical consensus. The studies are relatively small, the methodology varies across trials, and EECP remains off-label for stroke in Australia. But for a therapy with a well-understood safety profile and an existing approval framework, 15 studies and 506 participants is not nothing. It’s enough to warrant serious discussion. What I Discussed with Jack Clifford Jack came to EECP as a patient, not a researcher. His experience with heart disease led him to explore the therapy, and he’s spent considerable time understanding the evidence base and connecting with practitioners. He’s not a clinician, and neither am I, but what we can do together is examine what the research actually says, what the mechanism actually is, and what questions remain unanswered. In our conversation, we discussed: How Jack first encountered EECP therapy and what led him to investigate it further The difference between approved and off-label use, and why that distinction matters What the shear stress mechanism actually looks like in practice The existing network of EECP practitioners and how stroke survivors might access the therapy The questions both of us still have about where the research needs to go Important Disclaimers   EECP therapy is approved in Australia by the TGA for stable angina pectoris and congestive heart failure (ARTG Entry 376470). Stroke is NOT an approved indication. This article and podcast episode are not medical advice. Speak with your treating physician before pursuing any treatment. This episode is not medical advice. It is a conversation about an area of emerging research that I find scientifically credible and worth understanding. The goal is to help you ask better questions, not to tell you what treatment to pursue. Where to Learn More ecplocator.com a directory of EECP therapy providers eecpbook.com is a dedicated resource on the treatment and its evidence base recoveryafterstroke.com for stroke survivors looking for a broader community Research cited: Zhao et al. (2026). Enhanced external counterpulsation for ischaemic stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis. QJM: An International Journal of Medicine. DOI: 10.1093/qjmed/hcag010. Therapy and Stroke Recovery: Can a Cardiac Treatment Help Grow New Blood Vessels? Bill Gasiamis sits down with Jack Clifford to explore EECP therapy, a TGA-approved cardiac treatment that may stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. Together, they examine the emerging research on angiogenesis, arteriogenesis, and whether this off-label approach holds promise for stroke survivors seeking to improve blood flow to the brain. Highlights: 00:00 Introduction – EECP Therapy06:06 Recognizing Health Issues and Seeking Help09:50 Hospital Experience and Heart Health12:12 Decisions Against Medical Advice16:28 Exploring Alternative Treatments18:06 Understanding Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP)21:58 The Mechanism of EECP27:03 Personal Transformation Through EECP30:29 Lifestyle Changes and Holistic Health34:35 The Impact of Stress on Health38:30 The Journey of Writing a Book43:29 The Role of EECP in Heart Health48:21 Raising Awareness for EECP Therapy56:05 Exploring the Future of EECP Therapy Transcript: Introduction – EECP Therapy Jack Clifford (00:00)Mine was really severe. 100 % blocked in my widow maker, the left anterior descending. I’m 95 in my left coronary artery and in my right main, I am 80%. And I’m still that way today, but I can run a sub seven mile. Bill Gasiamis (00:16)Welcome to the Recovery After Stroke podcast. I am your host, Bill Gassiamus. Before we get into today’s interview, I need to share something important. The topic we’re exploring today involves a medical device called an EACP, Enhanced External Counterpulsation Machine. In Australia, EACP is registered with the Therapeutic Goods Administration for the treatment of stable angina and congestive heart failure. It is not approved for stroke. What we are discussing today is emerging off-label research, not a treatment recommendation. Everything in this episode is for informational purposes only. This is not medical advice. Please speak with your treating physician before pursuing any treatment, therapy or intervention discussed here. With that said, let’s talk about something that genuinely fascinated me when I started reading the research. Your body has the capacity to grow new blood vessels, not just small capillaries, but to remodel dormant pre-existing channels into functional bypass routes. Scientists call this arteriogenesis. There’s also angiogenesis, the sprouting of entirely new Both processes matter deeply for stroke because stroke is fundamentally a blood flow problem. Now here’s where it gets interesting. A cardiac therapy developed for heart patients, not stroke patients, trigger exactly this kind of vascular remodeling. And in 2026, a meta-analysis published in the QJM across 15 randomized controlled trials and 506 participants found that EECP produced statistically significant improvements in functional outcomes for ischemic stroke patients. Now, that’s not proof. That’s not a green light to go and get an EECP, but it is worth a serious conversation. My guest today is Jack Clifford. Jack is a heart disease patient who discovered EECP therapy while managing his own cardiac condition and who has since spent considerable time investigating its potential. beyond cardiac care. I should tell you, I was skeptical going into this conversation, but I’ve learned that skepticism without curiosity isn’t really skepticism. It’s just closed mindedness. So I read the research and then I sat down with Jack. So if you find this episode valuable, I’d love for you to grab a copy of my book, The unexpected way that a stroke became the best thing that happened at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. And if you want to support the show, you can join Patreon at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. And I want to thank everyone who is supporting me on Patreon, especially the people that have been around for a long time and the people who have just recently signed up. I very much appreciate it. And now here’s my conversation with Jack Clifford. Bill Gasiamis (03:19)Welcome to the podcast. Jack Clifford (03:22)Thanks, Bill. Great to be here. Bill Gasiamis (03:24)Let’s give the listeners a bit of a background understanding of why you’re on the podcast. You’re not a stroke survivor, but we have something in common as ⁓ somebody who has been unwell before myself and you in the past. Tell me a little bit about your journey to the podcast So we just kind of give people an understanding as to how it is that somebody who’s not a stroke survivor. Jack Clifford (03:34)We do. Bill Gasiamis (03:51)how we ended up chatting together? Jack Clifford (03:54)Yeah, absolutely. So the quick version here is ⁓ I was on the brink five years ago of having ⁓ unsentable emergency triple bypass surgery. And ⁓ I chose a different path, which we’ll get to. ⁓ But you you have some level of placking if you have a stroke, typically, depends on the stroke, but that’s typically the case. And in my case, I had placking in my coronary arteries. So it resulted in heart disease. Mine was really severe. 100 % blocked in my widow maker, the left anterior descending. ⁓ I’m 95 in my ⁓ left coronary artery and in my right main, I am 80%. And I’m still that way today, but I can run a sub seven mile. I can do some things that a guy that’s as blocked up as that should not theoretically be able to do. ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (04:49)All right. Tell me about life before the injury. What kind of work did you do? How did you go about life? What was generally a day like for you? Jack Clifford (04:59)Yeah. So I’m retired military guy. Um, so, you know, been in the military most of my life, um, retired about 10 years ago, a little over that. And, um, so I’ve always been a pretty fit guy. It wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t a fitness issue per se. Um, and, uh, I, I, I had kind of lost some of my self care because my wife had been going through some real significant medical issues that really required my full attention for quite a while. And because of that, really stopped taking care of myself in the ways I had in the past for about 10 years. And when we had just moved to Florida, I started trying to take care of myself again. And that’s when I discovered all these problems. Bill Gasiamis (05:44)So what does not taking care of yourself look like though? Jack Clifford (05:47)Gotta be in a couch potato and being on my computer way too much research and for ⁓ trying to help my wife get better and hold down a job at the same time and raise a family and all these other things that took the priority off of me in that sense that one should be taking care of themselves, meaning exercising, meaning eating the right foods, so on and Recognizing Health Issues and Seeking Help Bill Gasiamis (06:09)You know, caregivers tend to die before the person they’re caring for much more often. And it’s cause of that reason, right? Because time is really taken up by especially full-time caregiving with somebody’s in the house and they need caregiving. need care. The caregiver tends to neglect themselves in every way, shape and form and tends to ⁓ make it about the other person. And then the other person. Jack Clifford (06:14)I’ve seen that and heard about it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (06:39)seems to be doing okay, but the caregiver is struggling and doesn’t ask for help and doesn’t go and doesn’t go and get looked after. And then things tend to catch up with them and they become the ⁓ sickest person in that relationship. Jack Clifford (06:55)It’s like that whole put your oxygen mask on first on the airplane type thing, right? Like, you know, we can’t we can’t give what we don’t have to give Bill Gasiamis (07:01)Uh-huh. Yeah. So you, did you notice, did you notice the steady decline in your health? Did you kind of go, I’m not feeling right. I’m a feel a bit sluggish like 10 years down the track, or did it just creep up on you? then you got to this point. Jack Clifford (07:15)It really crept, it really crept. I, you know, like I had initially exercise induced angina, but it wasn’t much exercise that induced the angina. And then it very quickly progressed to trying to walk and getting out of breath and, know, at very basic walking speeds, just moderately paced, you know, anything anybody would do out in your neighborhood. ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (07:39)Did you know that you had an angina? Jack Clifford (07:41)I did, yeah. I didn’t have a big heart attack episode like some people have. I’m 100 % blocked. There’s no heart attack to happen, right? Because the stuff is, I’m so blocked that it’s just a pure blood flow issue. A lot of people don’t understand that that 50 % blockage is a huge risk for a heart attack because you’re gonna burst a plaque and then go from 50 % to 100 % like that. But you know about collaterals. And if you have collaterals in place, the blood’s not getting flowing this way, you’re gonna recruit some lead oval collaterals to be able to just get by with your activities of day living. But if you don’t push yourself, you don’t know that you don’t have enough blood flow to do these other things. Bill Gasiamis (08:22)Okay, so you got to the point where you were so unwell as far as the blood vessels around your heart were so unwell, they were so blocked that angina led to another escalation or something happened that got you to the point where you realized, okay, things are not good. Now, tell me what angina is exactly and what it’s like to have it. How do you experience it? Jack Clifford (08:39)Yeah. yeah, yeah. I’d love to talk about that. Bill. at its most basic, it’s a supply demand mismatch. So, you know, the blood flow that’s supplying your heart ⁓ is adequate for X, Y, or Z activities of daily living. You know, walking around the house, doing the dishes, you might have enough blood flow for that, but you don’t have enough blood flow to go run a mile or even walk potentially, you know, or Hospital Experience and Heart Health but it’s all about supply demand mismatch. And that’s about just the size of the pipes, you know, if they’re clogged up, how clogged up are they? And, know, ⁓ that’s, really it. So, and what it feels like is it’s scary because it feels like a heart attack. all like, what does a heart attack feel like? Well, there’s a thousand different sort of, ⁓ descriptions of it. ⁓ you know, radiating down your arm or nausea or something in your back, but. you know, if it’s right over your heart, it’s unmistakable. And that’s at least my presentation of angina. And I think it was a pretty typical one is, you know, I have this weird kind of deep pain. initially, when I, when I started, you know, run, trying to run and got it, I thought, ⁓ you know, I just pulled a chest muscle weirdly over my heart. You know, I’ll stop and let’s see if it goes away. I come back, you know, no, same thing. Okay. Still not better. Let’s do it again. Another couple of days later, so on and so forth. I was just kidding myself, but I didn’t know anything about the horror at that point. hadn’t had to research all this stuff and do all the deep dive. Bill Gasiamis (10:16)That’s the same crazy logic that stroke survivors put to, I’m feeling weird. I’m dizzy. I’m going to go and lie down. I’m going to rest. It’ll be better later. ⁓ I’m too busy. I’ve got to go to work. ⁓ I’ve even had stroke survivors where somebody’s telling them you maybe you’re having a stroke, you know, just tongue in cheek and they’re like, yeah, no, probably not. ⁓ it’s the same crazy logic that we say about things that are unfamiliar to us that we cannot potentially. Jack Clifford (10:25)Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (10:46)link to something so serious because we have no knowledge, we’re ignorant, right? Jack Clifford (10:47)Yeah. Well, yeah, I think that’s really part of the key there is like most times with something as sudden as what you’re talking about or what I’m talking about in my instance, because it was pretty, pretty sudden, you know, weeks and months. ⁓ We went from being these, you know, healthy people that felt like we were on top of the world to all of a sudden not. you you didn’t have a frame for what not looked like. ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (11:14)Exactly. Yeah. That’s such an important comment. We don’t have the frame for what not healthy looks like and therefore you don’t know what you don’t know. So you don’t take any action. You just brush it off. Okay. I hear you. All right. We got to the bottom of the stupidity behind a lot of my decisions as well to avoid going to hospital for a week, et cetera, the first time. ⁓ So you end up Jack Clifford (11:24)Exactly. That’s it. Bill Gasiamis (11:43)being really unwell on this particular date. Kind of what is that day like? Explain us. Jack Clifford (11:46)Yeah. Yeah. Decisions Against Medical Advice So I got tight. I, I, I’ve been a biohacker for a while. So that’s probably the only reason I’m here talking to you because I went off the beaten path really far off the beaten path to get to the place where I know what I know and I have to share what I have to share. ⁓ because I’ve been trying to help my wife get better for some significant issues, including a really bad traumatic brain injury. And some other things and doctors didn’t have the answers for those so we had to we had to kind of biohack our way out of some things I was comfortable back. I’m saying that to say my wife got me a Chili pad for my bed because you know been trying to biohack sleep for a while and the colder environments to sleep are you know better to some degree at least in theory ⁓ and so Yeah, correct Bill Gasiamis (12:32)Chili meaning cold, not spicy. Jack Clifford (12:37)Yeah, correct. A chili pad as in the cold. So it’s a device that just, you know, cools your bed off. And so I crank that down to 55. She got it for me for Christmas. So Christmas day Eve, I’m like hopping into bed, like I’m going to sleep really well tonight, you know, and I woke up at four AM like, Oh, you know, I thought that was the big one because it felt that way. I a dead sleep woke me up with, with intense chest pain. And I knew something was going on, you but I was kidding myself. I hadn’t talked to family about it. You know, I hadn’t shared anything about what was going on with anybody. So at this point I’m like, oh my goodness, you know, and I could be dying and have not had, you know, just been an idiot the whole time. So I rushed to the hospital and I didn’t have a heart attack. I just made it so cold that I made my heart work and that supply demand mismatch was happening all night long in my sleep. Bill Gasiamis (13:15)Mm-hmm. Jack Clifford (13:31)And so it got to this, you know, a giant, creeps up, you know, it’s like, can feel it. And then if you push it, you’re like, can really feel it. Well, you know, I woke up out of a dead sleep going from not feeling it when I went to sleep to, to feeling it to the extreme when I woke up. Um, but that’s when they gave me the, uh, the, uh, nuclear stress test with a treadmill test, right in the hospital. And it was, it was really bad. They can’t quantify your blockages with that, but they can tell you that, you know, you’re You’re kind of screwed. And I was like really screwed. Like it was 47, but they said I was one of the worst I’d ever seen. ⁓ yeah. So I had all weekend to think about it, you know, cause I was a Friday, fortunately, and they could, they weren’t going to do the heart catheterization until Monday and the doc, you know, I was signing consent forms for them to do bypass surgery and it was pretty clear that the odds of it getting stented was not really good, but that’s what you hope for. Right. And most people are like, we’ll just get a step. once then in you’re fine. And ⁓ in my case, it wasn’t looking likely. And my mother had had bypass surgery five years before that. And I watched her cognition after the bypass surgery just declined to the point where she’s in memory care now. And she had gone from being this vibrant book author of multiple books and you know, she was a hypnotherapist and she’s helped a lot of people in her life, done a lot of amazing things, but ⁓ she never. she never really came out of the bypass surgery as her whole self and pretty quickly was just completely not herself at all. ⁓ So I wasn’t ready to come back. Now she’s 76. Bill Gasiamis (15:03)How old? How old’s your mom? Yeah. I know with people that are older, ⁓ heart surgery can lead to cognitive decline and there is a link there. There is a number of it’s well researched. It’s a risk. ⁓ not one that you’re probably aware of and that they talk about much, but it definitely is a thing. so, okay. You’re, you’re you go to the hospital. They realize, ⁓ the Jack Clifford (15:15)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (15:37)charts are not looking good. ⁓ They do the tests. They suggest that what they can offer you is bypass surgery. your, and you’ve got a weekend, think about it and you, and you go home, do they go, do you go home with medication and joining the medications to keep the blood flowing with anything? What do they do? Jack Clifford (15:51)Mm-hmm. Where’d you go? Yeah, such a blessing. No, no, because I was leaving against medical advice so they weren’t going to help me, right? And I actually said to the doc, said, you hey, I’m new here because I just moved a couple of months ago to Florida. And I said, can I come see you? And I didn’t have a cardiologist. I didn’t need one before this. And he says, if you live that long, just walks out. So I was on my own at that point. There was no resources of institutional medicine. I had to go find resources myself. Exploring Alternative Treatments Bill Gasiamis (16:28)Wow. Things are pretty wild in Florida. If you live that long and he walked out. Jack Clifford (16:30)Yeah. Yep. That’s exactly what we said. It’s a very sobering moment for me. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (16:35)And you walked out. Yeah, and you walked out. Far out, man. So what’s the thinking behind walking out of that? Because I understand ⁓ that there are very few things that, like my situation was different, right? But I’ll give you kind of my thinking behind the, I’m gonna walk out routine. It’s like, there is a part of me that sort of says, I don’t need to subscribe to all that medical stuff, all the nonsense. I wanna try and avoid the medications. I wanna do all of that. Jack Clifford (16:41)Yeah. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (17:07)That means I’ve got to do some work to get to that point, right? I’ve got to make sure that I’m eating well. I’m sleeping well. ⁓ I’m exercising. ⁓ I’m not overweight. I’m not smoking. I’m not drinking. Like there’s a responsibility that goes with, don’t want to take that medication. Right. And one of the other things is that, ⁓ if it wasn’t for the medical industry, I would not be here recording this, ⁓ podcast. Yeah. So there’s this big thing, which is. Jack Clifford (17:31)Yeah. Double-head sword, right? Yeah. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (17:37)They’re not fixed. My brain is not getting fixed unless they go in and take out the faulty blood vessel and potentially risk all the complications that, that I got the ones I got, but also the ones I didn’t get, which many people get, which is far worse deficits than what I visible on me. So, ⁓ I’m, you know, I’ve never met anyone in my time who hasn’t Understanding Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP) who has been through the medical ⁓ system, who hasn’t benefited from it in a way that’s sort of sustained their life, supported their life, lengthened their life. Like everyone that I’ve interviewed has always gone through the medical system and has saved them, supported them, helped them, right? And you’re going to, the first place to get help you’re going to is a hospital, right? You ring up and you go, I’ve got to go. Jack Clifford (18:22)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (18:31)to the hospital because I’m feeling like I’m having heart attack. You get there, they confirm it, and then the place that you go to for help is the place you walk out of. What’s the thinking? Yeah, yeah. You have the angina, the blockages. Yeah, you got all of that. Jack Clifford (18:41)Well, I didn’t have a heart attack. That’s a really important nuance point. you know, I’m sitting in the hospital all weekend. there was nothing at risk in an emergent moment for me. My heart wasn’t, you know, I wasn’t going to lose heart muscle if they didn’t do something. Like my mother’s instance was different. She had a heart attack. She probably needed the bypass surgery. It was really hard on her, obviously, like we talked about, but in my case, I had time, but they didn’t treat it like I had time, right? Bill Gasiamis (18:54)Okay. Okay. Jack Clifford (19:10)They treated it like, we’re gonna go in and take care of this thing for you rather than you have time to explore other options when I knew in fact I did. So it might be that getting bypass surgery is the right move for some folks, but it also might be the right move for you and me. We’ve already discussed that you take care of yourself so you never get in that situation. And yeah. Bill Gasiamis (19:32)Yeah. And this is not a interview about do as I say, this is not that interview, right? What this interview is like one person’s experience and what they did. That’s it. We’re not giving medical advice here. We’re not telling you what decisions to make. We’re not telling you any of that stuff. This has got nothing to do with advising anyone to do anything, but what it has got to do with is what either you discovered Jack Clifford (19:45)Yeah. Right. Bill Gasiamis (19:58)or you knew before and put into action or what you discovered after you left the hospital that weekend. So take us through the next sort of phase of I’m taking responsibility for this and I’m going to take advantage of something that is documented scientifically and proven. Jack Clifford (20:03)Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And you know, like, so I’ll go into that phase, but, but I just want to share this thing because, know, you, you pretty much already told me when you first heard EECP, you like EECP what? Right. And most doctors are EECP what? Basically every patient is EECP what? And it’s, it’s just, it’s really not going to lie. really bothers me because this, this, this therapy is, is so well-documented. It’s, it’s, it’s FDA approved. It’s not controversial. Bill Gasiamis (20:25)Mm-hmm. Jack Clifford (20:43)⁓ it just anyways, okay. So, so, so yeah, so I leave the hospital and the only reason I knew about a EECP was because when my mom had her heart attack, I listened to a podcast by Ben Greenfield. He’s a pretty, you know, pretty high-level guy, right? And that had been, that was like 2015. And I just heard mention of it. was like, it was maybe like two minutes of the, of a 60-minute podcast at most, but I was like noted. So I looked into it from my mom. The closest provider was two hours away and you got to go 35 times and my mom isn’t going to drive. 35 times, you four hours round trip. It wasn’t gonna happen, so we moved on, but I just sort of knew about it. And when I say knew about it, I didn’t know, Bill, like what it actually did or how it worked. I didn’t look into it at that level. just, you know, like assessed the situation. I was like, okay, there’s something out there. That’s it. Okay, yeah. It stands for enhanced external counter pulsation. And you want me to go into a little bit about how it works? Yeah, okay, so. Bill Gasiamis (21:27)Hmm. And what is a ⁓ CP stamp? What does it stand for? Yeah, yeah, let’s do that, yeah. Jack Clifford (21:42)So EECP involves lying on a bed. From the patient experience, you’re lying on a bed. You have ⁓ cuffs wrapped around your calves, your thighs, and your hips. And inside those cuffs, there are little air bladders. Bill Gasiamis (21:55)those cuffs, are they like blood pressure cuffs? The Mechanism of EECP Jack Clifford (21:58)Yeah, like big giant Velcro blood pressure cuffs. Yes. Bill Gasiamis (22:02)Okay, so like they’re much bigger than a regular cuff, which is just over the bicep. Okay. All right. Jack Clifford (22:04)Yes. Yes. Correct. yeah, just that’s the right way to think about it. you you cinch them up, you’re getting really snug in this thing, but it looks like a giant pantsuit, you know? ⁓ And you lie on the bed and then you get a three lead EKG on you. It’s here, here, in here. And then in between heartbeats, the machine… inflates compressed air into those bladders at 1.3 psi to start with, which feels like kind of a gentle massage. And then the pressure can be increased in increments of 0.1 psi all the way up to six, which feels like the exact opposite of a gentle massage. However, if you go slowly, your body accommodates to that pressure and that pressure feels different, both over one session and over multiple sessions, meaning you might not get to six your first session, that’s unlikely, but as you do repeated sessions, you’ll increasingly get closer to six earlier in the treatment and be cumulatively more hours at those higher pressures. And what’s happening is all the blood, not all the blood, a significant amount of blood from your lower body is being pushed up in between heartbeats and it’s causing this phenomenon called sheer stress in your vascular systemically. And wherever there’s pressure differentials in the body, it’s giving a stimulus to grow. It’s saying the pipes are not big enough, you gotta grow. We’re trying to put through more than is gonna fit. The body’s like, wait a second, it’s not big enough. But growing things in the body takes time. And so you need those repeated sessions. Like I mentioned, T.R., before we started recording, it works just like cardiovascular exercise, but at levels humans can’t do on their own. ⁓ And so, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (23:52)That’s important to talk about. so just for a moment, we’ll talk about that. Like it works like cardiovascular exercise. So the idea with cardiovascular exercise is that what, does cardiovascular exercise do that’s similar to EECP? Jack Clifford (24:04)Sure. If you’re out running, when you hit that stride on your feet, you’re doing that same thing, right? You’re ⁓ sending blood up, right? And then your circulation, your heart’s beating twice as fast maybe than it normally is, or substantially more than you’re just sitting here heartbeat is. And that’s because the heart is responding to the environment around it and saying, I gotta get… a lot more blood, a lot more places. So I gotta work a lot harder. you know, is maintenance. So collateral blood flow. have alternate routes that we can use that lie dormant throughout our body. And those collaterals, if they never get used, they honestly, they get weaker and they close off, but they also can be reopened, you know? And then you can grow more of them. And… Bill Gasiamis (24:38)And what’s the result of that? Uh-huh. Okay, so there’s blood vessels that get less ⁓ blood flow because people are sedentary or people aren’t doing the type of exercise that would activate those blood vessels, for example. And then what in theory, not in theory, and then what happens in cardiovascular exercise, the body goes, we need more blood flow, let’s open up. Jack Clifford (25:12)Exactly. Bill Gasiamis (25:26)other areas where normally blood flow wouldn’t be required or doesn’t go. And EECP kind of mimics that mechanism. Jack Clifford (25:27)Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, but not kind of, it’s really important just to note, cause I don’t want, I don’t want any of your listeners thinking, well I’m just going to go run more. Right? I mean, by all means do that safely. You know, the dose always makes the poison with everything, but, but don’t think that you can, you can just go do this. You can do it to a limited degree with exercise, but you’re not going to grow, you know. that I didn’t have that before. And I like it because it shows you like the world of the possibly or it might be a little unsightly, but it’s feeding my brain. EECP has changed my cognition in addition to my heart, you know, my pelvis and my kidneys and my liver. you know, like it’s, it’s optimized blood flow systemically. Um, yeah. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (26:19)Okay, so let’s go back to the cuff, the cuff that we put on and then what happens. Jack Clifford (26:24)Yeah. Yeah. So, so you just lie on the machine. Typically you do 35 hours on a machine for a course of treatment and one hour a day is a typical, you know, five days a week. That’s just typically you’re going to the doctor. There’s lots of other variations of that, but that’s the typical course. And that’s the most well-researched course. And, ⁓ you know, over time, usually about halfway through those 35 sessions, if you had angina, you’re going to notice a difference, but Personal Transformation Through EECP you know, they use this to treat dementia. It’s a well studied in dementia. There’s a recent study in the US that was profound, a year-long study, a hundred demented patients, roughly a hundred non-demented or a hundred treated patients. Everybody had dementia and a hundred CHAM patients, placebo. The demented patients that got an EECP, they all got better when we know dementia, people get worse in a year, right? They all got better, all of them. And yeah, so that’s like, you know, similar phenomenon erectile dysfunction, similar phenomenon kidney disease, similar phenomenon stroke recovery. So, you know, these are studies. I’m not making it up. It’s just literally like really well documented. It’s not. Bill Gasiamis (27:33)studies that we can get a hold of and put in the show notes, link to the show notes. Jack Clifford (27:36)Yeah, go to to EECPLocator.com and all these studies are there. ⁓ Yeah. So what I did is in the U.S., I, you know, it’s really hard to find. so I couldn’t find it. I had to, I had to call around and like, I could find a few doctors, none of them near me, but a few of them that would had machines, but they would only use them after everyone had failed stints and failed bypass and they had nothing else to offer them, which makes no sense. But that’s how the insurance reimbursements work. Bill Gasiamis (27:41)Okay. Jack Clifford (28:04)That’s the only time they’ll actually pay for it. So that’s what they say it’s good for, but that’s not what it’s good for. That’s just what they can get money for, I guess. but, so I had to drive three hours and take a chance on a doctor and stay in a hotel to get my treatments. And it was really difficult. I mean, I ended up buying one of these machines and got it at my house and I’ve just been using it for the last five years. So, you know, 35 hours was great, but I was pretty bad off. Now I got about 700 hours and, uh, you know, more hours is just greater stimulus to the body to grow vasculature, right? And I mean, I… Bill Gasiamis (28:38)how do you know that you’ve grown? I know there’s this ⁓ feeling or this change that happens in the person. ⁓ Like you said, dementia, ⁓ people who experienced dementia have a better outcome later or a change in the way that they’re brain working, et cetera. can you see the, is there a way to see the difference between the blood vessels and Jack Clifford (29:02)You can’t, you can’t image, could image on a, on a cardiac pet would be like the only imaging or I guess, you know, if I went back and did a stress test again, you would, you would be able to see, cause it’s not quantifying specific arteries. It’s, quantifying the total volume, but I tried that they were, actually wouldn’t let me, they said it’s not safe because you have it at a stent or a bypass. So I went back to the same place that I got it, you know, and I was like, literally they put me through the imaging machine. gave me the dye and then they got Lifestyle Changes and Holistic Health I went to go on the stress test and the same doctor was there and he refused to tell me to go. So I like, wanted to say, hey doc, let’s go for a run. Cause like, you’re not going to keep up with me, but you know, so I, I didn’t bother with that, but I’ve got my own, you know, I did my own little stress, stress test with a treadmill, right? I started, I was getting chest pain. I found out where I can induce angina and I try and say just below it, you know, so I know where it is, right? I was 2.2 miles an hour. That’s not a fast walk. And then after the first 19 sessions where I was staying in the hotel, I got up to 2.7. That’s a really big difference even if it doesn’t sound like a lot. And then I got my machine and I kept going. And then within a couple of months, I was starting to do a running stride. And I could keep that up, no angina. I know where angina would come in. I had time calculations and everything. And then eventually, now I can run. comfortably 6.5 mile an hour pace for quite a while, know, push it up to 14 miles an hour for 30 second sprints and you know, like all kinds of stuff. So, ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (30:38)How long before you break the two hour barrier for the marathon? Like was recently done. Maybe, maybe the more blood vessels, the more blood flow. Maybe you can get there. Jack Clifford (30:42)⁓ I got zero interest in that. Yeah. I think so though, I think those Kenyans should be ⁓ hopping on these EECP machines and they’re I mean, they’re already amazing but. Bill Gasiamis (30:58)Well, you want the Kenyans to just completely own marathon running for the rest of eternity. It’s unbelievable what they did. Right. Like I imagine that there is something else going on there, but I imagine blood flow, oxygenation, more blood vessels. Like it’s got to potentially be a thing. reckon if you do a check between the last guy, me, who’s going to like 50 hours before you get to the other side and those dudes, there would Jack Clifford (31:03)Yeah, yeah, it’ll just be a Kenyan Yeah. ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (31:27)definitely be a difference because they’re exercising all the time, right? Jack Clifford (31:31)Sure, yeah, they’re pushing the collaterals as wide open as, know, whatever, whatever a human can do on their own, they’re doing it to the max to, know, the same phenomenon that EECP is doing for folks lying down. You know, they’re doing it to whatever the max you can without the machine, I would say. Bill Gasiamis (31:48)So this is a bog standard human body task. Like it just does that all the time. I have heard the blood vessels can reroute in the brain when somebody experiences a blockage and then, and it’s not useful at the time of the blockage, obviously, and it causes potential cell death when somebody has a stroke. But then later on. Jack Clifford (32:11)If there’s too much blood, the revascularization, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (32:14)Yeah, so EECP can kind of occur naturally and then it can support as much of the surrounding tissue as possible so that it doesn’t all die off. ⁓ So what you’re talking about is just encouraging EECP ⁓ to happen more than it would normally happen by ⁓ inducing it through this device where people ⁓ get sort of strapped in and then Jack Clifford (32:23)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (32:43)the machine runs, what does it run like a program? Explain how that works. Jack Clifford (32:47)Literally, it’s just air pressure. got different pumps to pump the calves, the thighs and the hips up. And then it’s really just about the timing, right? It’s got to hit it at the right interval of your heartbeat. So it’s at the right place in diastole where your heart is at rest. that timing is very, crucial. And that’s really… Yeah, it’s not, it’s very old technology. The machine I have was built in 2009. You know, they have new machines that are portable now that I’m working with some of the manufacturers to actually, you know, make these available in the U S because there aren’t any in the U S but they do have portable machines that don’t require a bed. You could get treated on your couch. You could get treated, you know, on your own bed, uh, lying on the floor, I suppose. Um, so, you know, we’ve, we’ve really like technology hasn’t Bill Gasiamis (33:19)Wow. Jack Clifford (33:42)slowed down. just China’s like taking this thing and you know, have a basically every Chinese hospital has several of these machines and they treat patients in the, in the room with us. It’s, part of their standard of care for all kinds of different, different diseases that they’re treating. You know, and it’s adjunctive to just about everything. There’s nothing that you couldn’t do EECP with, right? ⁓ yeah. Bill Gasiamis (34:03)Okay, okay, so. How do you experience your body differently now? And actually, let’s go back actually, how long has it been since you came across this, decided to get the first treatment, implemented yourself ⁓ at home and then how do you feel different now? Jack Clifford (34:08)Oof. Yeah, it’s been five years and four months now. And every since like, this is this is a little hard part to quantify, because there’s been a lot of brain changes to from this, right? So so I don’t even like feel like my 47 year old self who was in the hospital, that feels really like somebody else to me. You know, it’s a version of me, I suppose, but I can’t really relate to that person. Because I like a small example. The Impact of Stress on Health I used to sleep eight to nine hours a night. That was my normal, my whole life. I was generally like the guy that would come in the latest. You could come to work. was the guy that came in the latest. You And now I get up at two 30 most mornings and I’m like, like rare to go with energy. I’m, you know, I’m working out doing resistance training. I’m reading, you know, I wrote a book, I’m writing another book. I’m writing a book on rectal dysfunction as it relates to this phenomenon, because that’s a whole other, you know, case study. and I work a full-time job and I just have an incredible amount of energy basically all the time. My mood is way better. My sense of touch is really different now. I give a lot more hugs because it feels really good. ⁓ My sense of smell and taste and… You know, hearing, you know, I used to like have to go to the bathroom at night sometimes, you know, wake me up to go to the bathroom. Long gone. Bill Gasiamis (35:47)So at the same time though, it sounds like also you might have changed other things as well though, right? So what else have you changed in the meantime? Jack Clifford (35:55)sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It hasn’t just been EECP. Absolutely. you know, really good supplement routine. ⁓ Pretty extensive, but, you know, managing my lipids, for example, I take a thousand milligrams of niacin twice a day. I’ve been able to bring my triglyceride to HDL ratio to kind of an optimal one-to-one, using fish oil and some other things. ⁓ And, you know, I… I really stay away from carbs for the most part. I like to eat keto, but I like it to be what I call clean keto. So I’m not like pounding keto ice cream or all these things that are, you know, they taste good and yeah, they’re keto, but they got all kinds of oils in them that aren’t really good for your body. ⁓ And, ⁓ you know, I’m big into moving and being active and, you know, having an engaged social life as much as possible as well. I mean, I think that’s a very underrated thing. That’s actually an area I struggle in because I’m working so much, but you even this helps just, you know, getting to know people even online. But, ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (37:04)It sounds like you haven’t re it doesn’t sound like you’ve reinvented the wheel. Like everything that you say is things that people take for granted that if they implemented would improve their life before EECP. We’re talking about EECP today, right? But just those things alone would make a massive difference to somebody’s experience. And that’s kind of the message that I’m trying to kind of get into the Jack Clifford (37:17)Totally agree. I thought it a good Sure. Bill Gasiamis (37:30)⁓ minds and hearts of the stroke survivors who I interview and who listened to the podcast. My book, I’m going to, we’re going to talk about your book in a sec, but I’m going to talk about my book. My book, when I wrote it, I thought I discovered all these things that people, should know about that no one knows about, but it’s not true in here is mindset. ⁓ there’s a chapter about emotional intelligence. There’s a chapter about nutrition. There’s a chapter about sleep. There’s a chapter about community. Jack Clifford (37:32)Yeah. Yeah. No, please. Bill Gasiamis (38:00)⁓ that’s just the five that I can just rattle off the top of my head right now. And you’ve already mentioned that in the last few minutes, that’s exactly the things that you mentioned. And people take it for granted how much that improves your overall health. Right. The Journey of Writing a Book Jack Clifford (38:13)That’s so true. And also what’s wrapped up in the wrapper of all of those things that are threaded together is stress, right? ⁓ If you do all of those things, right, you’re lowering stress. How did I get heart disease at 47 when it happened to my grandfather in his late 60s and my mom in her mid 60s and it happened to me at 47? And we know it didn’t happen at 47. It was years earlier and I realized it at 47. Stress, you know? Like I was the guy that took on a lot. Bill Gasiamis (38:38)Hiding earlier. Jack Clifford (38:44)and had some traumatic things happen in my life and whatever, and I don’t need to go into that. But I always felt like it was all rolling off my back. Like, you know, I’m fine. know, like I didn’t, and there are reasons why I felt that way. ⁓ However, at the end of the day, I know that I wasn’t processing. There was so much I did not process. And I didn’t learn how to like have really good boundaries and that, you know, begot more stress because of those lack of boundaries and, but stress, right? You know, like, but if you have good good social life and healthy people in your lives, that takes stress off. Eating the right food takes oxidative stress off your body. You could go on and on, but I think stress is gonna kill you before anything else. Bill Gasiamis (39:17)you Yeah. I love that you said that. I love what I love that. That was the answer that you gave when I said, what else did you do? Because it’s not just, you know, it’s like, I’m going to eat well, but smoke, you know, I’m going to eat well, but drink excessive amounts of alcohol. Like, no, it doesn’t work. You know, you can’t do that. Yeah. can’t do. Yeah. Small. Jack Clifford (39:42)No, you gotta do it all in concert. It’s the layers, right? Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (39:49)numbers, know, the percentages they add up, you know, 1 % here, 1 % there all adds up and you get a result at the end of it. Okay. So, so you’re you’ve gone, I’m going to see if I can grow new blood vessels to support my heart. And what you’re found between the time that you went to hospital around five years ago to now is that the angina has Jack Clifford (39:55)Yeah. Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (40:17)⁓ improved, they’ve gone away. The heart has improved, I beg your pardon, the blood flow. And have you had a medical examination since then to do other comparison? Jack Clifford (40:28)Yeah, I have. Yeah, I’ve got a cardiologist. I haven’t seen him and I’ve talked to him the other day because I talked about the book, but I haven’t gone to see him because he’s a plane flight away. But I’ve been worked up for the crowded intermediate thickness. You might be familiar with that as it relates to stroke. okay, well, they just measure your crowded arteries and look at the placking in your crowded arteries as a proxy for your systemic plaque burden. And flow mediated deletation, is they totally occlude the… the arm with a blood pressure cuff and then see how quickly you can refill it after, you know, like, it’s like five minutes of this, your hand is completely numb. And those all, you know, workups were good and that was after a couple of years of treatment. You know, I tried to have that stress test, like I mentioned, but you know, now I just see my primary care, you know, he’s a good guy and he runs on my lipid panels and, ⁓ you know, so I’m definitely monitored, but. What I haven’t done is gotten re-imaged because I don’t want to put extra dye in my system. Sure, somebody wants the images because they don’t believe me, but I’m not trying to sell anybody anything here. I’m just trying to spread the word on something. If somebody doubts my honesty, they can, it’s fine. Bill Gasiamis (41:38)I know what you mean, Jack. I know what you mean. I and I asked you because yeah, I would love to see that before and after. would love to see the blood flow. What’s happening, watch change. would be amazing. story to tell, but I also went out of my way if I could to avoid having more dyes and all that kind of stuff injected into my body. I totally get it. It’s okay. Yeah. ⁓ Jack Clifford (41:49)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (42:01)Okay. So you wrote a book about it. Like, what was the idea behind the book? What were you thinking? Show us the one that you got there with the old book cover. And then I’ll include the new book cover in this image as we chat. Jack Clifford (42:06)yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. So I started writing this book, in, know, ⁓ November timeframe, ⁓ after I mentioned to you, so my, my friend came down, ⁓ and stayed with me for 13 days and he had had some stroke damage five years before that was, you know, his whole right side, he just had like numbness and then pain. And then, you know, it this weird cascade of symptoms so bad, you know, sometimes he couldn’t sleep from it. And so All the time he took off work he could he came and he used the machine three times a day and then he left pain free and like nothing else had worked and then this worked and I didn’t per se expect that I but I was like, you I know it does stuff. It’s helpful. But anyways, when I saw that, you know, I really started digging even more because before that I was like, well, Jesus is amazing. But maybe it’s just me, you know, and and anyways, so, ⁓ so then I, you know, I just started writing the book one day and The Role of EECP in Heart Health You know, my mom was a book author and I always wanted to write a book. didn’t really have anything particular to write about and all of sudden I do. So I’m like, you know, let’s see what happens. And, uh, and you dig into the research more and more, and you’re just like, increasingly frustrated by how everyone has known about this. And yet, you know, they don’t promote it. They don’t talk about it because it’s inconvenient. You know, and I’m going to get a little, try not to get like soapboxy here, but Bill Gasiamis (43:36)Do it, do it, go for it man. Jack Clifford (43:37)Okay, okay, because, you know, cardiologists will say it, some of them, the ones that are honest, they’ll be like, like mine. He says, I was making obscene amounts of money, giving people bypass surgeries instance. And then I was given the same people bypass surgeries instance, a couple years later. And, you know, and then he stumbled upon some answers and EECP is one of them that helps his patients stay well. And, you know, he makes a lot less money. because of it, because he doesn’t go in and do these interventional approaches. And, you know, EECP, the most you could pay somebody is like $100 an hour, and you’re going to tie up a patient room for 35 hours with a tech, it doesn’t make any sense. I go pop a stint and you make 10 grand in two hours and never see you again. You know, like it just, I get it from, you know, I want to own a portion of Ferrari and have a lake house and a winter house, but You know, like, I don’t know how you live with yourself. You said go for it, man. I’m going to go for it. you know, and my son’s about to graduate. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. I’m good with it. Yeah. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (44:38)But come on, come on, Jack. Yeah, you go for it. I’m going to push back. I’m going to push back as well. You go for it. I’ll push back. There’s yeah. Which is cool. Right? That’s what I want. I want to have a conversation and I don’t want to control the narrative, but the guy that goes in needs a stint today has a blockage. Like that’s life saving. That does work. What I am afraid of that happens sometimes when people go in and they’ve got a blockage and then they get ⁓ even even a stroke blockage. Right. in carotid or a vertebral artery. What happens is sometimes people go in and they get told you need a stent. Fair enough. You’re about to have a heart attack. You’re about to have a major stroke. If we don’t put one in, you’ll have a, that’s necessary. The challenge is, that that person sometimes doesn’t learn the lesson of what got them into the situation where they need a stent. Jack Clifford (45:22)Good. Exactly. sure. Yeah, by all means. Like emergency medicine is great. And we’ll put that in the emergency medicine category of cardiology, right? Why aren’t they offering you, why aren’t they saying, Hey, you’re at risk for a whole lot of other things just by this happening. Why don’t you come 35 times to this EECP machine and you know, like, or why don’t we have centers Bill Gasiamis (45:36)Yeah. Yes, and then later… Jack Clifford (45:55)all over. I found exactly one place in Australia so far that I’m not focusing on Australia right now. I do plan to take EECP Locator International, but right now the access points in the US are abysmal. 70, 80 % of the people in the United States could not get to a center. There’s no access point that’s at all realistic for them to get to. And yet these machines are not that expensive. They’re the price of a Decent not that great car. ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (46:24)we’re starting to see them in, I don’t know, health spas or something like that, where people will go, they’ll get yoga, they’ll get this, they’ll get that, they’ll get infusions perhaps and all sorts of other things. And there’ll be a machine or there’ll be a suit that people can put on and they can go through one hour. Jack Clifford (46:29)Yeah, that’s good. That’s great. Yeah, although I do want to say that the Normatech, like the compression boots that they have and some of those things, when they don’t use the pressures that EECP uses up to 6 PSI and they’re not sinking it in between heartbeats, it’s helpful, but we’re not talking about things that can do the same thing in the body. It’s on the right path and I’m not digging it as being worthless because it’s not, but it’s just not the right thing. Bill Gasiamis (46:47)Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that’s kind of what we’re seeing. And to go back to your point is because the medical profession does medical profession stuff. this is not, it’s not that it’s not medically kind of aligned. It definitely is. But when you’re told that the way you solve a problem is through putting a stent in and then never talking to that patient again, to tell them how to avoid to get a stent in that’s Jack Clifford (47:31)Yeah, that’s your job. Bill Gasiamis (47:34)what they do, like they’ve been trained to do that forever. And that’s what they do. And that works and it saves the life. But what it doesn’t do, which I also have a challenge with this, it doesn’t teach the lesson. What it reinforces is that if I have something wrong with me and I go to a doctor, they’ll fix it. So next time it goes wrong, I’ll just go to the doctor and they’ll fix it again. And I didn’t have to change my life. Like this even bloody advertisements that do that. They Jack Clifford (47:51)just I’ll go and he’ll fix it. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Bill Gasiamis (48:03)They hijack that part of the person’s brain and they say, you know, have you got reflux, heartburn, that kind of stuff? Don’t let reflux and heartburn get in the way of eating the foods that you love. Just take a tablet. You know, that’s the same kind of thing, right? And that’s why the medical profession doesn’t do that because they’re not trained to do anything other than sell their thing. And their thing is what they went to work, to school for. Raising Awareness for EECP Therapy Jack Clifford (48:17)Yes. Bill Gasiamis (48:30)20 years to be able to administer. But every so often you come across an amazing doctor, surgeon, et cetera, who says, I can’t do anything more for you, but maybe somebody else can. Those guys are better than the doctor who says, we can’t do anything else for you and then send you off their way. That next sentence, but maybe somebody else can, I don’t know who they are. That is. Jack Clifford (48:43)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (48:57)I think a great thing to say this is where I think EACP kind of fits in that now that I’m here and things are not good. Jack Clifford (49:05)I totally agree. I totally agree. And yeah. And you, so you, you mentioned like the wellness spas and whatnot. And here’s the thing in 2015. So, you know, somewhat recently the FDA approved EECP for a brand new indication, general circulation, right? In healthy people. Like it’s right on the FDA indication. And also in one case in increase in VO2 max, but rough, that’s roughly saying the same thing. ⁓ yeah. Bill Gasiamis (49:32)for healthy people, was that part of it? Jack Clifford (49:35)Yeah, it said unhealthy patients and healthy people didn’t call patients. So, so, ⁓ but, but, know, the litmus test for that is, is your doctor say you’re healthy enough to undergo circulation enhancement? If the answer is yes, you know, it doesn’t matter if you got all that other stuff or not, you know, we’re just not treating you for it. We’re not saying ECPs is fix for this, your erectile dysfunction. It might help it. You know, what’s not saying it’s, it’s the fix for your stroke, but it might really help your stroke, recovery, but. Bill Gasiamis (49:47)which Jack Clifford (50:03)Anyhow, so like you can, you know, I don’t know about in Australia, but in the United States, you could get an EECP machine and create a viable business model off of helping people as soon as people actually know about it and what it does, right? I’m trying to solve the access issue in the United States by aggregating demand, right, as one of the solutions. So I have a website, eecplocator.com. And if people… ⁓ tell me that they like EECP to be available in their area, when I get like five to 10 patients in one area, we’re gonna find a way to get it to them. ⁓ The how is, you there’s a bunch of different possible ways we can get EECP to them, but at the end of the day, you know, like people need this treatment. They really, really do. Bill Gasiamis (50:50)Yeah. We’re not talking about anything ⁓ out there. Like this is not an out there thing. This is definitely common. Now I, I don’t know how I haven’t come across it. I’ve all these years after all these years now I’ve just because of our conversation right now, I just did a Google search and I typed in EECP machine Australia. And the first thing that came up was an Australian government department of health, disability and aging. Jack Clifford (50:57)No, it’s that. Bill Gasiamis (51:20)document from the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which talks about a mid-trade Australia EECP system model, external counter pulsation system stationary. So it seems like they have a… Jack Clifford (51:36)Like they’ve approved it, sounds like they have some approved devices. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (51:38)Something like they’re at least looking at it. Let me see what that says. The inclusion of the kind of device in the AI community is subject to compliance with conditions placed in post. Yeah, it sounds like it’s been through some regulated body in 2021. Jack Clifford (51:52)Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. There you go. Bill Gasiamis (51:57)This device is intended to provide external counter pulsation therapy and is indicated for use in the treatment of stable angina. Jack Clifford (52:06)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (52:08)pectoris and congestive heart failure. There you go, my friend. Jack Clifford (52:10)Yeah, it works great for people with art failure. It really does. Bill Gasiamis (52:14)Dude, father-in-law had heart failure. He passed away from heart failure just a few, about a year and a half ago. ⁓ Now, I don’t know, I’m not saying anything, but we’ve never heard of this before. Today’s my first time where I’m really going to deep dive about this thing with you. ⁓ So what are the challenges that you face? what are the, what is it? ⁓ The barriers that you face? Jack Clifford (52:20)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (52:44)when you’re speaking to people about this or how people finding out about it, how do you help people like Jack Clifford (52:50)It’s just an awareness piece. It’s an EECP what? And then, you you get in with some physicians and then you got to duke it out a little bit. Not with all of them. There’s plenty of physicians, you know, I’ve talked to the physicians that have machines and are doing the right thing for society and still making plenty of money. ⁓ They’ll just tell you, you know, I’ve talked to some cardiologists and just they kno

At 5 am on April 3, 22-year-old Zhao Rongyan set out with a group of students along a road leading to the Renshanhe Martyrs Cemetery.4月3日凌晨5点，22岁的赵荣彦与学生一起出发，沿着一条通往任山河烈士陵园的道路前行。Back in 2016, she had stood in a similar line as a middle school student, embarking on the same long journey to honor fallen heroes. A decade later, she returned — not as a participant, but as a teacher at Guyuan No 2 Middle School — this time guiding her own students along the familiar path.早在2016年，她还是一名中学生时，就曾站在类似的队伍中，踏上同样的漫长旅程向英烈致敬。十年后，她再次归来，不再是参与者，而是固原市第二中学的一名教师，这一次，她带领着自己的学生沿着这条熟悉的路前行。"I see this as a form of cultural inheritance, a way of passing on values," Zhao said."I've taken the baton once handed to me and now pass it on to my students."赵荣彦说：“我认为这是一种文化传承，一种价值观传递的方式。”“我接过了曾经递给我的接力棒，现在把它传递给我的学生。”Her experience reflects a long-standing tradition in Guyuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Since 1995, students from Guyuan No 2 Middle School and Hongwen Middle School have taken part in an annual trek ahead of Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, to pay tribute at the Renshanhe Martyrs Cemetery in neighboring Pengyang county.她的经历反映了宁夏回族自治区固原市一项长期以来的传统。自1995年起，固原市第二中学和弘文中学的学生每年清明节前夕都会参加一次徒步远行，前往邻近彭阳县的任山河烈士陵园祭奠英烈。The site is historically significant. In 1949, it was the battleground for the first campaign to liberate Ningxia, and today the cemetery is the final resting place of over 300 revolutionary martyrs.1949年，这里曾是解放宁夏第一次战役的战场。如今，这座陵园长眠着300多位革命烈士。This year, more than 3,000 people joined the commemorative march, including local students, young volunteers, and over 700 participants from all walks of life. Starting from downtown Guyuan, the group completed a 54-kilometer round trip over approximately 17 hours.今年，超过3000人参加了这次纪念性徒步活动，包括当地学生、青年志愿者以及来自各行各业的700多名参与者。队伍从固原市区出发，用大约17个小时完成了54公里的往返路程。As the group entered the most rugged mountain stretches, Zhao observed subtle yet meaningful changes among the teenagers. The boys moved to the outer edges, instinctively forming a protective circle around the girls, while those who were usually playful or restless readily offered help to classmates who lagged behind during the journey.当队伍进入最崎岖的山路路段时，赵荣彦观察到青少年之间微妙而有意义的变化。男生们主动走到外侧，本能地在女生周围形成了一个保护圈，而那些平时调皮或坐不住的同学也主动帮助途中掉队的同伴。"Character is shaped through challenges," Zhao said. "It is on a journey like this that you truly see it emerge."赵荣彦说：“品格是在挑战中塑造的。”“正是在这样的旅程中，你才能真正看到它显现出来。”Upon arriving at the cemetery, participants held white flowers and gently placed them before the tombstones. Zhao noticed many students with reddened eyes, some quietly wiping away tears.到达陵园后，参与者手持白花，轻轻摆放在墓碑前。赵荣彦注意到许多学生眼眶泛红，有的在悄悄擦眼泪。For many of them, the experience left a lasting impression.对许多人来说，这次经历留下了持久的印象。Luan Junguan from Hongwen Middle School had once assumed that determination alone would be enough to get him through 54 kilometers. Step by step, however, the challenge proved far greater than expected.弘文中学的栾峻关曾以为，单凭决心就足以让他走完54公里。然而，随着一步一步地迈进，挑战远比想象中更大。"Yet the moment we arrived, all the exhaustion turned into gratitude," he said."It's thanks to the courage and sacrifice of those heroes that we can live peaceful and happy lives today."他说：“然而，当我们到达的那一刻，所有的疲惫都化作了感恩。”“正是由于那些英雄的勇敢和牺牲，我们今天才能过上和平幸福的生活。”For Qiang Jianwei, also from Guyuan No 2 Middle School, the march carried personal significance. Having previously failed to complete the distance, he had long regarded it as an unresolved regret.同样来自固原市第二中学的强建伟认为，这次徒步对他个人意义重大。此前他曾未能走完全程，一直将其视为一个未了的心结。"This time, I told myself I had to finish it," he said — and he did. "It taught me how to keep going, even when things get tough."他说：“这一次，我告诉自己必须走完。”——他做到了。“它教会了我如何在困难时坚持下去。”The 54-kilometer undertaking is far from a last-minute effort. Preparation begins as early as March, when schools incorporate endurance training into morning exercises and physical education classes.这54公里的徒步远行绝非临时起意。准备工作早在三月份就开始了，学校将耐力训练纳入早操和体育课中。Wang Zihao, a student at Guyuan No 2 Middle School, said the school organized regular training walks with weighted packs, while he also set personal goals, such as completing 10 kilometers on weekends.固原市第二中学学生王梓豪说，学校组织了定期的负重徒步训练，他自己也设定了个人目标，比如周末完成10公里。"As a result, I didn't feel overly tired this time," he said.他说：“因此，这次我没有感到特别累。”"When we reached the cemetery and stood there holding white flowers before the martyrs, I felt a deep sense of respect."“当我们到达陵园，手持白花站在烈士面前时，我内心充满了深深的敬意。”For Wang Haoran, a student from Yinchuan No 9 Middle School, the journey began online.而对于银川市第九中学学生王浩然来说，这段旅程始于线上。He first learned about the event through social media and had long regretted missing the chance to participate. When his school was invited this year, he signed up without hesitation.他最初通过社交媒体了解到这一活动，并一直为错过参与机会而感到遗憾。今年他的学校受到邀请时，他毫不犹豫地报了名。"I was a bit nervous before we set off, worried I might not make it," he recalled. "But then I thought, if the martyrs could endure such hardship, I should at least give it my best."他回忆道：“出发前我有点紧张，担心自己走不下来。”“但后来我想，如果烈士们能够承受那样的艰苦，我至少应该全力以赴。”As night fell, the group slowly made their way back to Guyuan. Many pressed on with tired, unsteady steps, yet there was a quiet determination in their eyes — something that had not been there at the outset.夜幕降临时，队伍缓缓返回固原。许多人拖着疲惫而踉跄的步伐继续前行，但他们的眼中却有一种出发时所没有的沉静的坚定。"This journey is about more than physical endurance," Zhao said. "It teaches perseverance and, more importantly, helps young people understand the legacy of the martyrs — and carry it forward."赵荣彦说：“这段旅程不仅仅是体力的考验。”“它教会人们坚持不懈，更重要的是，帮助年轻人理解先烈们的精神遗产并将其传承下去。”martyr /ˈmɑːtə/烈士fallen heroes /ˈfɔːlən ˈhɪərəʊz/英烈cultural inheritance /ˈkʌltʃərəl ɪnˈherɪtəns/文化传承baton /ˈbætɒn/接力棒autonomous region /ɔːˈtɒnəməs ˈriːdʒən/自治区pay tribute /peɪ ˈtrɪbjuːt/致敬，祭奠all walks of life /ɔːl wɔːks əv laɪf/各行各业reddened /ˈredənd/泛红的

This episode we find a home in the Demacia region with Xin Zhao related lore. | All CoR Links | www.podcastcor.com | Music By Slayur | www.linktr.ee/slayur | Story By | Michael Luo 00:00 Intro 05:00 Part 1 08:00 Part 2 15:00 Part 3 19:00 General Discussion

Gunnar entspricht nicht dem stereotypen Männlichkeitsbild. Er setzt sich für Feminismus und Gleichberechtigung ein und hat Strategien gegen Frauenhass und sexualisierte Übergriffe. Doch wie können mehr Männer dafür sensibilisiert werden?**********Ihr hört: Gesprächspartner: Gunnar, versucht, ein möglichst guter Mann zu sein, erhält dafür medial viel Zuspruch Gesprächspartner: Christoph May, Männerforscher, hat mit Marie Louise May das Institut für Kritische Männerforschung gegründet Gesprächspartner: Fabian Ceska, Bildungsreferent und Co-Founder des Bildungsinstituts Detox Identity Autor und Host: Przemek Żuk Redaktion: Friederike Seeger, Stefan Krombach, Mo Lorenz Produktion: Oskar Kühl**********Quellen:Krivoshchekov, V., Gulevich, O., & Blagov, I. (2023). Traditional masculinity and male violence against women: A meta-analytic examination. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 24(4), 346–364.Evteeva, M. (2024). Internalized Misogyny: The Patriarchy inside our heads. Journal of Integrated Social Sciences, 14(1), 82-108.Moser, C. E., Siegel, J. A., & Wiley, S. (2024). Men in feminism: A self-determination perspective and goals for the future. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 25(4), 438–450.Waling, A. (2022). ‘Inoculate Boys Against Toxic Masculinity': Exploring Discourses of Men and Masculinity in #Metoo Commentaries. The Journal of Men's Studies, 31(1).Zhao, X., & Roberts, S. (2026). To hell with toxic masculinity?: a case for retaining a debated concept. Journal of Gender Studies, 35(2), 422–432.Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Mehr zum Thema bei Deutschlandfunk Nova:Feminismus: Was geht mich das als Mann an?Männer: Wie reden wir über Gefühle?Unter 25-Jährige: Wie Männer heute ticken**********Den Artikel zum Stück findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: TikTok und Instagram .**********Meldet euch!Ihr könnt das Team von Facts & Feelings über Whatsapp erreichen.Uns interessiert: Was beschäftigt euch? Habt ihr ein Thema, über das wir unbedingt in der Sendung und im Podcast sprechen sollen?Schickt uns eine Sprachnachricht oder schreibt uns per 0160-91360852 oder an factsundfeelings@deutschlandradio.de.Wichtig: Wenn ihr diese Nummer speichert und uns eine Nachricht schickt, akzeptiert ihr unsere Regeln zum Datenschutz und bei Whatsapp die Datenschutzrichtlinien von Whatsapp.

Welcome to “Better Than Fine,” the award-winning podcast hosted by wellbeing expert and wellness coach Darlene Marshall! In this inspiring episode, Darlene dives deep into NASA's Artemis II mission and unpacks the powerful human response known as the Overview Effect—the profound sense of awe experienced by astronauts when seeing Earth from space. Episode Highlights: ·      Journey of Artemis II: Relive the record-breaking 252,756-mile lunar orbit with Commander Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover Jr., Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. ·      What is the Overview Effect? Discover how this mind-bending phenomenon rewires our sense of self, connects us to humanity, and sparks a desire to protect our “lifeboat” Earth. ·      Science of Awe & Positive Psychology: Learn how awe changes our mental models, triggers self-transcendence, and enhances meaning, purpose, and connection. ·      Collective Awe—Why It Matters: Explore how sharing awe-inspiring experiences strengthens community, reduces loneliness, and fuels hope—especially in challenging times. ·      From Inspiration to Action: Uncover research-backed ways to channel awe into positive action, forward motion, and pragmatic optimism. ·      Listener Takeaways: Practical tips for bringing more awe and connection into your everyday life. Why Watch? ⭐️ Get Inspired: Feel the chills as real astronaut quotes reveal how space travel transforms our understanding of life and purpose. ⭐️ Level Up Your Mindset: Darlene shares powerful evidence-based tools to recalibrate your thinking and boost resilience. ⭐️ Strengthen Your Wellbeing: Find out how to harness the science of awe for greater happiness, deeper connection, and meaningful action. Show References: Keltner, D. & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 297–314. The foundational paper that defined awe scientifically — introducing the two core features of vastness and need for accommodation that underpin all subsequent awe research.https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930302297  Rudd, M., Vohs, K.D., & Aaker, J. (2012). Awe expands people's perception of time, alters decision making, and enhances well-being. Psychological Science, 23, 1130–1136. Demonstrated that awe — unlike happiness — makes people feel they have more time available, reduces impatience, and increases life satisfaction.https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612438731  Yaden, D.B., Iwry, J., Slack, K.J., Eichstaedt, J.C., Zhao, Y., Vaillant, G.E., & Newberg, A.B. (2016). The overview effect: Awe and self-transcendent experience in space flight. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 3(1), 1–11.The primary academic framework for the Overview Effect — identifying awe, self-transcendence, and schema changes as the three psychological mechanisms behind what astronauts experience viewing Earth from space.https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000086  Bai, Y., Maruskin, L.A., Chen, S., Gordon, A.M., Stellar, J.E., McNeil, G.D., Piff, P.K., & Keltner, D. (2017). Awe, the diminished self, and collective engagement: Universality and cultural variation in the small self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(2), 185–209.Found that awe reliably shrinks self-referential thinking across cultures — people literally drew themselves smaller after experiencing awe — and increases feelings of connection to something larger.https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000087  Piff, P.K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D.M., & Keltner, D. (2015). Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 883–899.Showed that awe reliably increases prosocial behavior — generosity, ethical decision-making, and concern for others — by reducing preoccupation with the individual self.https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000018  White, F. (2021). The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution (4th ed.). Multiverse Publishing.The original book that named and documented the Overview Effect through interviews with astronauts — still the definitive primary source on the phenomenon.https://www.amazon.com/Overview-Effect-Exploration-Human-Evolution/dp/1951480007 The content shared in this podcast is solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek out the guidance of your healthcare provider or other qualified professional. Any opinions expressed by guests and hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASM.  The most trusted name in fitness is now expanding into the wellness world. Become an NASM Certified Wellness Coach and you'll be able to guide and motivate clients to make lasting changes through mental and emotional well-being, recovery, and more. https://bit.ly/464tK4b

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the 49-year-old billionaire founder of Binance, has written a memoir. It arrives with the unmistakable timing of a man determined to tell the world his version of his meteoric crypto rise and fall, and foreshadow his comeback. The book, Freedom of Money: A Memoir of Protecting Users, Resilience, and the Founding of Binance, runs 364 pages, self-published in English and Chinese, and is available on Amazon Kindle for $9.99, where it's already ranked #4 among all Kindle books. The book traces Zhao's path from rural China to Canada, then through jobs in Tokyo, New York and Shanghai, and finally to building Binance, the crypto exchange that grew with extraordinary speed into the largest in the world. Zhao also recounts Binance's long battle with U.S. regulators, the company's record $4.3 billion settlement over anti-money-laundering and other charges, his four-month prison sentence in California, where he says he began writing the book, and his recent pardon by President Trump. He says the memoir is for readers who know him only from headlines, for those who have followed him for years, and for anyone curious how one founder could help shape an industry "and pay for it." Like most memoirs, this one is an exercise in selection and emphasis. The glowing and inspiring portrait Zhao assembles is of a man philosophically untouched by his success. Forbes estimates his fortune at roughly $110 billion, placing him ahead of Bill Gates. But wealth, he insists, was never the point. "I don't care about money," he writes. "I don't care about power. I don't care about fame. I don't even care about legacy." As evidence of his selflessness, Zhao cites charitable efforts such as Giggle Academy, his nonprofit education platform, and includes a foreword from Yi He, Binance's cofounder and the mother of his three children. She says even after Binance became a global juggernaut, Zhao still wore clothes ordered from Amazon, biked to meetings and drove an old Toyota minivan. Yet the book is equally intent on establishing Zhao firmly within the world's power circles. He writes of traveling the world and being received by political leaders and royalty, from Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to the king of Bhutan, who contributed praise for the book alongside Ray Dalio and Larry Fink.  The anecdotes that follow serve the same function. Binance invested $500 million in X in 2022 — "a finger in the air number," as Zhao puts it — after little financial analysis and a brief conversation with Elon Musk. Thanks to its corporate reshuffling, Zhao adds, Binance wound up with a small stake in SpaceX, which will soon IPO with an astronomical valuation as high as $2 trillion. When Bahrain's central bank governor complained that ChatGPT was blocked in his country, Zhao writes that he reached out to Sam Altman and had the matter resolved the following day. Forbes appears numerous times in his memoir—sometimes as a marker of validation, sometimes as a source of grievance. Zhao recalls a 2017 Hong Kong photo shoot that put him on the cover, Binance hoodie and all, prompting him to turn to a friend and ask, "Does this mean I'm rich?" He writes that he considered a $200 million investment in Forbes in 2022, a deal that never materialized. And then there is the 2020 "Tai Chi" article, Forbes' report on an alleged scheme by Binance to evade U.S. regulators. Zhao casts it as part of the machinery closing in on him, suggesting prosecutors may have tipped off the reporter and later used the piece to help open an investigation. Binance sued Forbes for defamation over the article, but then dropped its lawsuit three months later. The book is at its most interesting when details slip in sideways. Zhao describes a friendly relationship with Gary Gensler before Gensler became chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. By Nina Bambysheva Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

De cryptomarkt heeft een herstel laten zien ten opzichte van vorige week. Bitcoin noteert rond de 71.000 dollar, een stijging van 6,5 procent. Ook andere munten bewegen mee omhoog. Daarmee is het sentiment iets minder negatief, al is van een volledig herstel nog geen sprake. Opvallend is dat de recente spanningen in het Midden-Oosten weinig blijvende impact lijken te hebben gehad op de markt. Toen Donald Trump op 28 februari Iran aanviel, stond de bitcoinkoers rond de 65.500 dollar. Inmiddels ligt die ruim boven de 70.000 dollar. Dat wijst erop dat de markt zich ondanks geopolitieke onrust relatief stabiel heeft gehouden. Zeker omdat crypto bekendstaat als volatiel en gevoelig voor macro-economische schokken, vooral in het weekend wanneer traditionele markten gesloten zijn. Tegelijkertijd kwam er opvallend nieuws uit Iran. Volgens de Financial Times zouden vrachtschepen die door de Straat van Hormuz varen tol moeten betalen in bitcoin. Het zou gaan om ongeveer 1 dollar per vat olie, wat neerkomt op zo’n 2 miljoen dollar per schip. Een woordvoerder van de Iraanse overheid stelt dat schepen pas doorgang krijgen na betaling, omdat bitcointransacties niet tegengehouden kunnen worden door sancties. Dat klopt gedeeltelijk: transacties zijn niet te blokkeren of terug te draaien, maar wel degelijk te traceren via de blockchain. Munten kunnen bovendien op zwarte lijsten terechtkomen. Ook stablecoins worden genoemd als alternatief, al kunnen die wél bevroren worden. Op de Amerikaanse beurs is er ondertussen een nieuwe speler bijgekomen. Morgan Stanley lanceerde zijn eigen Bitcoin ETF en kende direct een sterke start, met tientallen miljoenen aan handelsvolume op de eerste dag. Daarmee gaat de zakenbank de concurrentie aan met BlackRock, dat al zo’n 60 miljard dollar onder beheer heeft. Morgan Stanley kiest voor lagere kosten van 14 basispunten, waar BlackRock 25 basispunten rekent. Met een groot netwerk van financieel adviseurs kan de concurrentiestrijd verder oplaaien. Verder is er nieuw inzicht in de ondergang van FTX. In zijn memoires schrijft Binance-oprichter Changpeng Zhao dat Sam Bankman-Fried hem vlak voor het omvallen van FTX om miljarden dollars steun vroeg. Kort daarna trok Binance het vertrouwen in en besloot het FTX niet te redden. Uiteindelijk belandden beide mannen in de gevangenis. Zhao kreeg vier maanden cel na een schikking met het Amerikaanse Ministerie van Justitie en werd op 23 oktober 2025 gratie verleend door Donald Trump. Deze week in de CryptocastWe werpen een blik op de toekomst met Olivier Rikken, wetenschapper en ondernemer op het snijvlak van blockchain en AI. Olivier is de eerste in Nederland met een 'zero human company', een bedrijf zonder menselijke werknemers én met AI Agents. Reuze interessant natuurlijk. En die agents kunnen natuurlijk alleen betalen met crypto. Co-host is Mauro Halve. Met Daniël Mol (BNR Cryptocast) of Bart Mol (Satoshi Radio) bespreken we elke week de stand van de cryptomarkt. Luister live donderdagochtend rond 8:50 in De Ochtendspits, of wanneer je wilt via bnr.nl/podcast/cryptocastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Generating replicas without consent is personal infringement, experts say专家表示未经同意复制人脸属于侵权A Chinese short drama series suspected of using artificial intelligence to obtain people's facial data has sparked public outcry in recent days, prompting regulators and legal experts to stress that technological advancement must not infringe on personal rights.近日，一部国产短剧因涉嫌使用人工智能技术盗取他人面部数据，引发公众强烈愤慨。监管部门和法律专家强调，技术进步绝不能以侵犯个人权利为代价。In late March, several bloggers — including traditional Chinese attire enthusiasts and models — accused the popular AI-generated series Peach Blossom Hairpin of using technology to replicate their facial features, outfits and makeup without consent to create characters that were widely distributed on short-video platforms.3月下旬，多名博主——包括传统服饰爱好者和模特——公开指控热门AI生成短剧《桃花簪》未经其同意，使用技术手段复制了他们的面部特征、服装和妆容，并以此生成角色，在短视频平台广泛传播。By then, the series had already garnered more than 40 million views on Hongguo, a micro-drama platform, and some of the alleged victims said they were preparing to take legal action.截至事发，该剧在微短剧平台"红果"上的播放量已超过4000万。部分据称受害的博主表示，正准备采取法律行动。On Friday, Hongguo said on its official WeChat account that the series had been removed and that no new content would be uploaded for 15 days because its creator had failed to provide sufficient proof of compliance with regulations governing facial imagery.上周五（4月3日），红果在其官方微信公众号上发布声明称，《桃花簪》已被下架，且因出品方未能提供充分证据证明其符合有关面部影像的法规要求，该出品方将暂停上传所有剧集15天。The platform said adherence to legal and regulatory standards is a non-negotiable baseline, but noted that short dramas, as a new form of creative product, present major challenges for content review, particularly with the rise of AI tools.平台表示，遵守法律法规是不可逾越的底线，但同时也指出，短剧作为新生业态，尤其行业引入AI制作技术后，素材识别难度迅速增大。It pledged to strengthen content review processes, upgrade verification technologies and improve authorization procedures to foster a more regulated environment for content creation and distribution.平台承诺将率先强化内容审核机制、迅速提升内容审核技术、健全授权核验流程，努力与行业共同营造规范有序的内容创作与传播环境。Although the producer has not confirmed whether bloggers' photos were used as templates for AI generation, legal experts said such actions could still constitute infringement.尽管制作方尚未证实博主的照片是否被用作AI生成的模板，但法律专家表示，此类行为仍可能构成侵权。Zhao Zhanling, a lawyer at Beijing Javy Law Firm, said under the Civil Code and legal practice, if an AI-generated face leads the public to associate it with a specific individual, it may constitute infringement.北京嘉潍律师事务所律师赵占领指出，根据《民法典》及司法实践，如果AI生成的面部特征足以让公众联想到特定个人，就可能构成侵权。"Copying a person's image and processing it with AI is a typical example of using information technology to violate someone's portrait rights," Zhao said.赵占领说："复制他人形象并用AI进行处理，是利用信息技术侵害他人肖像权的典型表现。"As AI technology becomes more prevalent in the film and television industry, similar cases of AI-powered face and voice swapping have become increasingly frequent.随着AI技术在影视行业日益普及，类似的AI换脸、换声侵权案例也愈发频繁。Last month, the Beijing Internet Court disclosed a case in which an actress' images were misused by two companies using AI face-swapping technology in a short drama.上月，北京互联网法院披露一起案件：两名公司在一部短剧中利用AI换脸技术擅自使用了一位女演员的肖像。The court ruled in favor of the actress, ordering the defendants to issue a public apology and compensate her for financial losses.法院判决支持该女演员，要求被告公开道歉并赔偿经济损失。In another case, the court supported a voice-over artist, ruling that using AI to imitate someone's voice without permission constitutes infringement of voice rights.另一起案件中，法院支持了一位配音演员，认定未经许可用AI模仿他人声音构成对声音权的侵害。"The advancement of AI has facilitated creative production but has also been exploited for infringing activities," said Ma Xiangxiang, a lawyer at the Anjie Broad Law Firm.安杰世泽律师事务所律师马翔翔表示，AI技术的进步便利了创意生产，但也被不法分子用于侵权活动。She noted that regulators in China have begun addressing the illegal use of such technology, particularly in AI-driven face swapping in short videos.她指出，中国监管部门已开始着手整治此类技术的非法使用，尤其是在短视频领域的AI换脸行为。On Thursday, the performers' committee of the China Federation of Radio and Television Associations issued a statement condemning the unauthorized use of actors' images and voices through AI face swapping, voice cloning and unauthorized editing or remixing.上周四（4月2日），中国广播电视社会组织联合会演员委员会发布声明，谴责未经授权使用AI换脸合成、声纹克隆复刻、影视素材任意篡改、魔改、擅自抓取演员影像声频用于AI模型训练等侵权行为。The committee said any content that can be linked to specific actors — whether through AI-generated lookalikes, imitated voices, face-swapped dramas, commercial use, virtual replicas or derivative works — does not avoid liability, regardless of labeling.委员会表示，凡可关联特定公众演员的AI撞脸、仿声演绎、换脸短剧、商业植入、虚拟人复刻、素材二创改编等侵权内容，即便标注“非商用”“公益分享”“个人二创”等字样，均不构成合法免责依据，仍需承担全部侵权责任。On Sunday, the studio of Yi Yangqianxi said AI-generated dramas using the actor's likeness without permission had been circulating online.上周日（4月5日），易烊千玺工作室发布声明称，网络上出现未经授权使用该演员肖像制作的AI生成短剧。The actor has not appeared in such productions nor authorized any third party to use his image for AI synthesis, the studio said, adding that it had engaged lawyers.该演员并未出演此类作品，也未授权任何第三方使用其形象进行AI合成，工作室已委托律师处理。Zhao said pursuing legal remedies is important but noted that it is more difficult for ordinary individuals to identify infringement, as AI-generated content often draws on large datasets.赵占领表示，寻求法律救济很重要，但普通个体识别侵权的难度更大，因为AI生成内容往往依赖海量数据集。"Producers frequently claim that any resemblance is purely coincidental, making it harder to prove recognizability," he said. "Additionally, the costs of legal action — including evidence collection, notarization and litigation — can be prohibitively high.""制作方常常声称任何相似纯属巧合，这使得证明'可识别性'更加困难。此外，包括取证、公证和诉讼在内的法律行动成本可能高得令人却步。"He advised individuals who discover unauthorized AI-generated content using their likeness to immediately record or take a screenshot of the material and preserve evidence, preferably through blockchain methods.他建议，发现自己的形象被未经授权用于AI生成内容的个人，应立即对相关素材进行录屏或截图，并通过区块链等方式保全证据。He added that filing complaints with hosting platforms is a faster and more affordable way to seek remedies. Ma cited the Civil Code, which requires platforms to take necessary measures — such as removal, blocking or disconnection of links — once notified of infringing content.他还指出，向平台投诉是更快捷、更低成本的维权途径。马翔翔援引《民法典》指出，平台在接到侵权通知后，必须采取删除、屏蔽、断开链接等必要措施。Upon receiving such notice, platforms must promptly forward it to the alleged infringer and take appropriate action based on preliminary evidence and the nature of the service, she said.她表示，平台收到通知后，应及时转送给涉嫌侵权的网络用户，并根据初步证据和服务类型采取相应行动。She also called for a stronger legal framework to further regulate AI applications, thereby ensuring data security, intensifying personal information and minor protection and serving the healthy development of the digital economy.她还呼吁建立更完善的法律框架以进一步规范AI应用，从而保障数据安全，加强对个人信息和未成年人的保护，服务数字经济的健康发展。spark public outcry /spɑːrk ˈpʌblɪk ˈaʊtkraɪ/引发公众强烈愤慨infringe on personal rights /ɪnˈfrɪndʒ ɒn ˈpɜːrsənəl raɪts/侵犯个人权利replicate /ˈreplɪkeɪt/复制without consent /wɪˈðaʊt kənˈsent/未经同意Civil Code /ˈsɪvəl koʊd/民法典portrait rights /ˈpɔːrtrət raɪts/肖像权swapping /ˈswɒpɪŋ/替换、变换legal remedies /ˈliːɡəl ˈremədiz/法律救济blockchain /ˈblɒktʃeɪn/区块链

Mornings can set the tone for the day, and if you have IBS, what you do in the first hours can make a big difference in symptoms like bloating, urgency, constipation, and abdominal pain. In this episode, I'm sharing five simple morning habits that support gut motility, more regular bowel movements, less bloating, and a calmer nervous system - all key for managing IBS! These aren't complicated or unrealistic routines, just practical habits you can start right away to make mornings feel less stressful and help your gut feel more predictable throughout the day. In this episode, we cover:Why mornings are so important for IBS and digestionHow your nervous system affects your gut first thing in the morningWhat to eat for breakfast with IBSSimple routines to reduce bloating throughout the dayHow to create a gut-friendly morning routine that actually sticks If you're tired of Googling and want a clear place to start towards better digestion, download our Gut + Hormone Health Toolkit here. You'll get a free practical guide with daily habits, nutrition strategies, and a planning worksheet to help you start feeling better. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love to hear it, please leave a rating and review! References:Ajabnoor, S. M. (2025). Effects of meal regularity and snacking frequency on irritable bowel syndrome. Frontiers in Public Health, 13. DoiFrontiers | Effects of meal regularity and snacking frequency on irritable bowel syndromeLi, C., Li, J., Zhou, Q., Wang, C., Hu, J., & Liu, C. (2024). Effects of Physical Exercise on the Microbiota in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Nutrients, 16(16), 2657–2657. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16162657‌Salari-Moghaddam, A., Hassanzadeh Keshteli, A., Esmaillzadeh, A., & Adibi, P. (2020). Water consumption and prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome among adults. PLoS ONE, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228205‌Zhang, C., Zhang, J., Wang, Y., Lang, R., Su, L., Yu, M., Zhao, X., Yang, G., & Ren, Z. (2021). Association between breakfast consumption frequency and the risk of irritable bowel syndrome among Chinese female college students. Medicine, 100(41), e27541. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000027541

Publishing is having a trust crisis. With AI accusations swirling around authors like Mia Ballard, whose novel Shy Girl was dropped by her publisher despite her denying any AI use, questions about authenticity in publishing have never felt more urgent. But this kind of chaos isn't new. We saw it coming. We're revisiting one of our wildest deep dives: the Cait Corrain Goodreads scandal. Corrain had a highly anticipated debut novel, Crown of Starlight, coming out in 2024 — until she admitted to using fake Goodreads accounts to review bomb other writers' forthcoming books. Most of her targets were Black or queer authors. Corrain is white. The story has a lot of twists and turns, including a fabricated conversation with a completely made-up person that Corrain invented to take the fall. Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao was the first to bring it to wider attention, noticing that Crown of Starlight was getting glowing reviews from the same accounts trashing other books — some of which weren't even out yet. Zhao also compiled a 31-page Google document of screenshots and receipts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1__mO1uqIqcmupBAPKwXDzlUbZIwtY6fKf0S1Y0SNz0E/edit?tab=t.0 Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify. Pre-order our forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com ! Follow Bridget and TANGOTI on social media! || instagram.com/bridgetmarieindc/ || tiktok.com/@bridgetmarieindc || youtube.com/@ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet || bsky.app/profile/tangoti.bsky.social See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last time we spoke about the Wang Jingwei Regime. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, tensions between Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei escalated amid Japan's aggressive invasion. Disillusioned by Chiang's scorched-earth tactics, such as the Yellow River flood and Changsha fire, Wang defected from Chongqing in December 1938, fleeing to Hanoi to negotiate peace with Japan. An assassination attempt, likely ordered by Chiang, killed Wang's secretary Zeng Zhongming, deepening the rift and sparking retaliatory violence. Wang's group, aided by Japanese agents like Kagesa Sadaaki, navigated scandals and leaks, including a forged agreement exposed in the press. After grueling negotiations in Shanghai and Tokyo, Wang conceded to harsh Japanese terms, including limited sovereignty and economic controls. On March 30, 1940, he established the Reorganized National Government (RNG) in Nanjing, adopting the nationalist flag with a controversial yellow pennant symbolizing "peace, anticommunism, nation-building." Despite Wang's vision of constitutional democracy, the RNG functioned as a wartime puppet, isolated from Chongqing and resented as traitorous. Wang died in 1944, and the regime collapsed in 1945.   #195 The Xiang-Gan Operation Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the sweltering grip of August 1939, Chongqing languished under an unbearably hot summer, the air thick with humidity and the weight of impending doom. Perched on a sun-baked hillside along the southern bank of the Jialing River, roughly 10 kilometers from the chaotic heart of the city, loomed a two-story Western-style building. This fortress of stone and resolve, known as the "Huangshan Villa," stood as Chiang Kai-shek's official residence in Chongqing, a sanctuary amid the storm of war. Unless urgent meetings or crises at the Military Affairs Commission demanded his presence, it was here that Chiang orchestrated the fate of a nation on the brink.   One fateful evening, as shadows lengthened across the villa, the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics delivered a chilling report from Wang Pengsheng, the director of the Military Affairs Commission's Institute for International Affairs. Wang was no ordinary operative; he was a knowledgeable, experienced, and sharp-minded intellectual, a master of Japanese affairs, and one of Chiang's most trusted aides, his insights cutting like a blade through the fog of deception. In this urgent dispatch, Wang distilled the latest machinations from Japan. After the traitor Wang Jingwei defected to the enemy, Japan glimpsed a sinister new path to conquer China: ramping up political inducements for surrender, with brutal military offensives reduced to mere supporting roles. On June 20, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters unleashed "strategy" tasks upon its troops in China—to incite local armies, those ragtag "miscellaneous troops," to betray their own, isolating and pulverizing the central army units. Wang Pengsheng saw through the ruse; this "attacking the heart" and "subduing strategies," drawn from the ancient wisdom of China's military sage Sun Tzu, betrayed the Japanese army's desperate straits, manpower stretched thin, supplies dwindling to the point of desperation.   Chiang Kai-shek's eyes narrowed as he gripped his red pencil, underlining a passage in the report with deliberate strokes, marking it as a thunderclap of importance or urgency: To cooperate with the establishment of the Wang puppet regime and exert military pressure on the Chongqing government, under the direction of the Imperial General Headquarters, the commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Okamura Yasuji, had formulated the "Xiang-Gan Operation Plan" targeting the main forces of the central army in the Ninth War Zone and was intensifying preparations for its implementation. The words hung heavy in the air like a gathering storm. Chiang Kai-shek rose abruptly, his body protesting with a stiff ache from hours of unyielding vigilance. He stretched his weary waist and legs, then pushed open the wooden door beside the vast sun-facing window, stepping out onto the balcony as if seeking solace from the encroaching night.   The balcony commanded a sweeping vista, a momentary escape from the suffocating confines of strategy and betrayal. Gazing downward, the "Fog Capital" Chongqing emerged in rare clarity, serene and layered beneath the fiery embrace of the evening glow. The distant murmur of the Jialing River, flowing ceaselessly like the pulse of a defiant heart, whispered a fleeting sense of ease amid the turmoil. Yet even this pause carried the echoes of war's relentless march. After the Japanese horde seized Wuhan and surged onward to claim Yueyang—only to halt their southward thrust—both Mao Zedong in his Yan'an stronghold and Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing etched this moment as a pivotal divide in China's War of Resistance Against Japan. Mao proclaimed the war had plunged into the "stalemate phase," a grinding impasse. Chiang, ever the resolute leader, declared the "second phase of the war of resistance" ignited from this very point.   But across the vast national battlefield, the first half of 1939 roared with unquenched fury, the air thick with the acrid smoke of gunpowder. From the year's dawn, the Japanese army, bolstered by five divisions and eight mixed brigades, launched ruthless "security consolidation" operations in North China to fortify their blood-soaked conquests, only to be harried and bloodied by the Communist Eighth Route Army slipping behind enemy lines and the valiant troops of the First and Second War Zones. In late March, the Japanese 11th Army stormed Nanchang, clashing in a maelstrom of fire with the four group armies of the Ninth War Zone under the iron command of front-line commander Luo Zhuoying. For a grueling month and a half, the battle raged, the Japanese claiming the city at a staggering cost in lives. Chiang Kai-shek, his fury mounting, demanded a counterattack from the Ninth War Zone, but it crumbled into tragedy, over 20,000 souls lost, including Lieutenant General Chen Anbao, the indomitable commander of the 29th Army. Nanchang remained in enemy hands, fueling Chiang's rage like an inferno unchecked.   Then, in May, the Japanese Kwantung Army clashed with Soviet and Mongolian forces in the epic conflagration at Nomonhan. What ignited a spark of grim satisfaction in Chiang was not merely the Japanese rout, with nearly 20,000 of their ranks obliterated, but the broader ripple: this Japan-Soviet inferno would heap pressure upon the invaders in China, weakening their grasp. As the war sank into its stalemate phase, Chiang turned his gaze inward, fiercely guarding his military strength while awaiting the winds of change. He clung to a core conviction: the essence of the War of Resistance boiled down to that single, unbreakable word—"resist." Troops could be sacrificed, territories forsaken, retreats endured when battles turned dire, but surrender was unthinkable. As long as resistance endured, the nation would hold its place among the world's powers, and its leaders their rightful thrones. In time, the tides of international intrigue would shift; the imperialist giants, driven by their own insatiable interests, would not stand idly by as China fell to Japan's maw.   With resolve hardening like steel, Chiang Kai-shek strode back to his imposing desk and seized the telephone, dialing Xu Yongchang, the Minister of Military Orders. His voice cut through the line with unyielding command: instruct Deputy Chief of Staff Bai Chongxi, currently in the Ninth War Zone dissecting the bitter lessons of the Nanchang debacle, to hasten and aid Chen Cheng in crafting ironclad military deployments against the looming Japanese "Xiang-Gan Operation" and submit them without delay.   As the last defiant ray of sunlight plunged below the horizon, the sprawl of Chongqing's urban expanse succumbed to an enveloping darkness, a shroud of uncertainty. Since the government had fled southward, Chongqing had become a relentless target for Japanese bombers, their payloads raining death and devastation in waves of tragedy. By night, the city enforced ironclad blackout controls, its citizens huddling in fear behind heavy curtains, their lives reduced to whispers in the shadows. Chiang Kai-shek's mind drifted to the pre-war nights of the mountain city, when thousands of lights danced like stars upon the river's rippling waves. A deep, weary sigh escaped him, carrying the burden of a leader who refused to yield.   Far from the shadowed balconies of Chongqing, as China's War of Resistance Against Japan plunged into its harrowing third year, the misty haven of Guilin clung to its gentle, rain-soaked serenity, a fragile oasis amid the chaos of a nation torn asunder. Farmers, oblivious to the headlines screaming from distant newspapers, trudged barefoot through the lush fields, guiding massive water buffaloes with their backward-curving horns and deceptively gentle temperaments. Verdant tea groves blanketed the undulating hills, their leaves whispering secrets to the wind, while breezes carried the haunting, sweet-and-sour melodies of mountain songs that seemed to defy the encroaching shadows of war. Those weary souls fleeing the bloodied front lines stumbled into this paradise, their eyes widening in awe, as if they had crossed into a dream untouched by the nightmare raging beyond.   Nestled in the northwestern suburbs of the city, the Guilin Office pulsed with the raw energy of command, its operations post concealed within a colossal karst cave, a labyrinth of nature's own fortifications. Amid the jagged stalagmites and dripping stalactites, wires snaked like veins, cables coiled in tense anticipation, and radio antennas reached out like desperate fingers grasping for signals. These were the nerves of war, linking this hidden nerve center to the smoke-choked, blood-drenched front lines where heroes and horrors collided in the unyielding struggle for resistance.   Deputy Chief of Staff of the Military Affairs Commission and Director of the Guilin Office—Bai Chongxi—unfolded the telegram folder thrust into his hands by his confidential staff, his heart pounding with the weight of destiny:   "To Director Bai in Guilin: Telegram received. Deploy operations according to Plan A.   Zhongzheng"   Before departing Changsha, the Second Department had already whispered warnings of the Japanese horde's intent to strike southward, and fatefully, an urgent call from Xu Yongchang had demanded the swift forging of a battle plan to confront the enemy. As Bai Chongxi devoured the enemy intelligence, a bold strategy ignited in his mind like a flare in the darkness. Chen Cheng, the steadfast Commander of the Ninth War Zone, championed the tried-and-true tactic of successive resistance, but with a grim twist: retreat would be capped north of Changsha. Front-line troops would grind down the Japanese invaders, bleeding them dry before slipping to the east and west flanks. There, they would pounce on the enemy's exposed sides as the foes pressed southward, culminating in a devastating annihilation beneath the walls of Changsha with the aid of the garrison. This blueprint minimized troop movements and promised a swift, brutal clash. Yet Chen Cheng, burdened by his dual role as Minister of the Political Department of the Military Affairs Commission, had delegated command to Xue Yue as acting Ninth War Zone Commander. In heated deliberations, Xue Yue tilted toward Chen's vision, his resolve echoing the caution of survival.   But Bai Chongxi, his strategic mind a whirlwind of innovation, saw a bolder path through the storm. The Japanese forces lurking in the Wuhan area were fractured, split between the Yangtze's north and south, facing off against China's formidable heavy troops. Though intelligence on the scale of their assault remained shrouded in mystery, Bai knew their drawable forces couldn't exceed half their might, and their endurance in sustained combat would falter like a dying flame. "To swallow the attackers whole, the battlefield must be vast and unforgiving, our forces luring them deeper while retreating to the Hengyang area, stretching the enemy thin across a sprawling 200-kilometer wasteland." There, the invaders would wither in passivity, their food and ammunition lines stretched to breaking. Then, in a masterful stroke, troops from the Jiuling and Mufu Mountains would surge westward, while those west of the Xiang River drove eastward, severing every land and water escape route in a vise of total annihilation. Both plans stood as ironclad fortresses of logic, each unassailable in its reasoning, and were dispatched simultaneously to Chiang Kai-shek, the arbiter of China's fate.   By rank and protocol, Bai's vision claimed the mantle of Plan A, while Chen's bore the label of Plan B. Bai Chongxi had voiced his conviction and released it to the winds, content to let Chiang's judgment prevail. Bai Chongxi was a master of strategy, whispered among allies as the "Little Zhuge," his intellect a weapon as sharp as any blade. Yet Chen Cheng shared Chiang's Zhejiang roots and the unbreakable bonds of Huangpu camaraderie, drawing him even closer in the inner circle of trust. On such pivotal matters, Bai Chongxi often chose the path of restraint, yielding rather than clashing in futile strife. Five agonizing days after the plans vanished into the ether, Chiang's telegram pierced the tension, affirming the adoption of Plan A. A surge of quiet triumph coursed through Bai Chongxi as he signed the missive and strode toward the operations map, his steps echoing with purpose.   While strategic minds clashed in hidden caves and distant villas, the front lines pulsed with the raw grit of soldiers readying for battle. Guan Linzheng had been assigned a mount since 1930, when he became commander of the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Training Division, during the Central Plains War between Chiang, Feng, and Yan. He led the regiment to cover the retreat of the division's main force under Zhang Zhizhong. Pursued by several times their number of Feng-Yan troops, they fought while retreating in dire straits. From night to dawn, heavy fog descended, obscuring visibility beyond dozens of paces. Guan Linzheng's chestnut horse suddenly neighed loudly and charged back toward the pursuers. After trying to rein it in unsuccessfully, Guan simply ordered the troops to countercharge into the fog. Shouts of killing filled the air, gunfire intense. The Feng-Yan troops, unclear of the situation in the fog, thought Chiang reinforcements had arrived and ordered a retreat. By the time the fog cleared, they were gone. Guan's bold cunning successfully completed the cover mission, and he was promoted to brigade commander of the division's 2nd Brigade after the war.   In July 1932, during Chiang Kai-shek's fourth encirclement of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet, Guan Linzheng was brigade commander of the 4th Army's Independent Brigade. In battle, he was surrounded by Red Army troops led by Chen Geng and Cai Shenyi of the Red 25th Army Corps in the Anhui town of Zhuanfo Temple. His unit suffered heavy casualties, and a beloved horse was killed, leaving him distressed for a long time. With the outbreak of the War of Resistance, Guan Linzheng's military career entered its golden age. He believed this was truly raising an army of justice, fighting for the people and the nation. After promotions, though equipped with cars, he always kept a warhorse, often riding to survey terrain, inspect work, and command battles. In spare moments, he personally exercised and groomed the horse. That day, he led several staff on horseback to the Xin Qiang River front line, dismounting on the southern bank. 52nd Army Commander Zhang Yaoming and 195th Division Commander Qin Yizhi were waiting.   According to the Ninth War Zone deployment, the 15th Army Group had positioned Zhang Yaoming's 52nd Army and Xia Chuzhong's 79th Army, a formidable force of six divisions along the southern bank of the Xin Qiang River, stretching from Xin Qiang to Maishi beyond the provincial border. This ironclad first line of defense spanned over 100 kilometers, a vast bulwark against the gathering storm of invasion. Fifty kilometers to the south, Chen Pei's 37th Army, with its Divisions 60 and 95, held the Miluo River from Miluo to Pingjiang as the unyielding second line, ready to absorb any breach. Meanwhile, Li Jue's 70th Army, commanding Divisions 19 and 107 along the eastern bank of the Xiang River, was deployed north and south of Xiangyin, fiercely guarding the critical landing points like Yingtian, points that could spell victory or catastrophe.   195th Division Commander Qin Yizhi reported to Guan Linzheng with a voice charged with resolve: troop morale soared like a battle cry, fortifications stood complete and impenetrable, and the army's slogan for this fateful clash thundered: "Fight with the prestige of Taierzhuang!" The division's mobilization slogan echoed even fiercer: "Win fame in one battle!" Guan Linzheng nodded with grim satisfaction toward Zhang Yaoming, his eyes gleaming with the fire of shared history. Guan had once commanded the 52nd Army himself, leading it through a gauntlet of brilliant, blood-soaked battles on the anti-Japanese front. As the Japanese hordes prepared to surge across the Xin Qiang River southward, this was the first, most perilous barrier, a crucible where legends would be forged or shattered. He had entrusted his most loyal unit to the point of greatest impact, knowing full well the stakes. Zhang Yaoming and the division commanders, who had marched at his side for years through hellfire, understood the gravity: Commander Guan was setting an unassailable example, issuing orders that rippled through the ranks, no one could afford the slightest lapse, or face the merciless blade of military law!   "Who's on the north bank?" Guan Linzheng and the others sat on the hard earth, the weight of impending war pressing down; he pointed to the map's symbols for forward positions across the river, his finger tracing lines of fate. "Guarding the Bijia Mountain position is the reinforced 3rd Battalion of the 195th Division's 131st Regiment under Qin Yizhi," Zhang Yaoming replied without hesitation, his tone steady as stone. "Who's on the north bank?" Guan Linzheng repeated as if he hadn't heard, his voice a low rumble, demanding precision in the face of chaos.   Zhang Yaoming hesitated slightly, a flicker of uncertainty crossing his face, and Qin Yizhi stepped in: "3rd Battalion Commander Shi Enhua, Huangpu 8th Class."   The Central Military Academy had held its first five classes in Guangzhou's Huangpu, commonly called Huangpu Military Academy. Afterward, the school moved several times, but students continued using the Huangpu name, partly to inherit the revolutionary spirit against imperialism and feudalism from Huangpu's founding, and partly to indicate their central orthodoxy. Army generals, especially the "old Huangpu" big brothers, approved this practice, calling it Huangpu no matter where the school was.   Guan Linzheng glared at Zhang Yaoming, his gaze like sharpened steel, then pressed his knee and rose to his feet. Guan's left knee had been shattered by a bullet in 1925 during the Eastern Expedition against Chen Jiongming, a wound that had nearly claimed his leg and his future. Doctors had decreed amputation to save his life, but Liao Zhongkai, the party representative, had visited the wounded and intervened strenuously, preventing it. Otherwise, there would be no later glory for Guan Linzheng. After careful treatment and diligent exercise, the leg's function mostly recovered, though rising from a squat was slightly difficult. Zhang Yaoming reached out to help, but Guan pushed him away with a fierce independence born of countless battles. The group descended to the riverbank and stood in heavy silence, the air thick with unspoken tension. The horses either stood patiently with heads held high, vigilant sentinels, or lowered them to sniff the grass, casually plucking some to hold in their lips, oblivious to the human storm brewing.   The Xin Qiang River, an unnamed small river that had flowed quietly for countless years, had no great turbid waves in flood seasons and still shallow clear ripples in dry periods. It flowed peacefully from its source to Dongting Lake over dozens of kilometers. At this moment, it reflected the figures and thoughts of several soldiers, utterly unaware that in a dozen days, its name would leap to the front pages of newspapers nationwide, baptized in blood and etched into history.   Amid these preparations on the front lines, deeper internal conflicts simmered among the high command. Xue Yue regretted taking the position of provincial chairman, a decision that now haunted him like a specter from the battlefield's edge.   After the nationwide shock of the "Great Fire of Changsha," Zhang Zhizhong was punished with "suspension with retention," continuing to handle daily affairs amid the ashes. He sent several telegrams requesting resignation from the provincial chairmanship, expressing to the Executive Yuan his "shameless guilt and deep pain." On January 17, 1939, the Chongqing Executive Yuan passed a resolution to reorganize the Hunan Provincial Government. That night, Zhang Zhizhong received Chiang Kai-shek's telegram instructing him to hand over work and report to Chongqing.   In December 1938, when the Military Affairs Commission issued the order for Xue Yue to act as Ninth War Zone Commander, Chiang Kai-shek personally spoke with Xue, asking: "Brother Boling, do you think this arrangement is acceptable?" Boling was Xue Yue's courtesy name. Chiang, nine years older, addressed him as brother in private. Xue Yue said: "With Changsha in such a state, I truly lack the ability to handle such a major war zone task." Chiang Kai-shek understood Xue's implication about the disunity of military and political affairs making military work difficult. He said: "You go first; we can consider unifying military and political affairs later." According to He Yaozu, then director of the Military Affairs Commission Office who witnessed this: "My impression was that Xue Yue didn't want to avoid the acting commander role, but wanted to combine military and political powers. Chiang knew this, telling me 'If he's willing, let him do it,' words Chiang said to many seeking positions."   On February 1, 1939, the Nationalist Government officially appointed Xue Yue as Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang and Chairman of Hunan Province. With party, government, and military powers combined, troubles followed incessantly, piling upon him like relentless enemy fire. As war zone commander, he first thought of the troops. Upon taking office, Xue implemented a policy to restrict market rice prices for military grain procurement, proposing "flat prices" to acquire grain cheaply, forcing merchants underground. Upon hearing this, Xue angrily summoned major rice merchants, reprimanded them, and ordered them to deliver quotas. The result: insufficient low-price rice, with black market prices rising daily. After half a year, sharp-tongued Hunanese nicknamed him "Xue Pinggui," a name that became household, a mocking whisper that cut deeper than any blade.   Coincidentally, his father passed away. Whether Xue instructed it or subordinates "handled it," obituaries flew everywhere, sent to county-level units across the province. Each county had at least 20 units sending condolences, and higher-level cities and provincial units all sent, leading some to secretly calculate. After Xue Yue took charge in Hunan, his family members were transferred from other provinces, and arranging work according to their abilities was reasonable in that old society. His uncle-in-law Fang Xuefen became head of the Provincial Grain Bureau, brother-in-law Qiu Weiyi head of the Provincial Bank. His brother continued business, transporting Hunan rice to Guangdong for barter.   Xue Yue's talents shone not in officialdom. Only before military maps, on battlefields of gunfire and flying shells, could one find the general-like Xue Yue; "heaven-born talent" was for warfare. This descendant of an ordinary farming family in Lechang County, Guangdong, who entered Huangpu Army Primary School at 10, became commander of Sun Yat-sen's bodyguard regiment's 1st Battalion at 24, and once carried a machine gun through hails of bullets to protect Madame Sun Soong Ching-ling from rebel encirclement, earned the nickname "Tiger Cub" in blood and fire. What propelled him to life's peak was the Battle of Changsha.   On August 21, 1939, with war clouds over Changsha thickening like a noose, Xue Yue received telegrams and calls from Chiang Kai-shek, Bai Chongxi, and Chen Cheng. Chiang's telegram required immediate deployment according to "Plan A." Bai and Chen urged resolute implementation of the Chairman's instructions. Xue Yue stood motionless before the map, his mind a whirlwind of strategy and defiance.   Many articles recalling Xue Yue mentioned his daily habit, or hobby, of studying maps; he could do so all day. With battles, he looked; without, he still studied avidly. Perhaps map-reading had evolved from a commander's work need to a professional soldier's spiritual requirement, a way to express emotions, dispel worries, a soldier's way of existence. After Chiang's order to execute "Plan A," rather than comparing plans on the map for stronger bases for his preferred view, he was organizing thoughts, adjusting emotions, and gathering courage in this soul's sanctuary. Hours later, he turned and called Chief of Staff Zhao Zili, dictating three reasons to persist with "Plan B," instructing him to draft a telegram directly to Chiang Kai-shek.   He reminded Zhao that the wording should be forceful yet resilient, making the Chairman clearly feel his firm determination. The Ninth War Zone has sufficient forces and confidence to annihilate the Japanese north of Changsha. If our forces retreat to Hengyang, the Japanese 21st Army under Ando Toshikichi in Guangzhou (with 18th and 104th Divisions, Taiwan Brigade, and attached air units) might advance north along the Yue-Han Railway in support, forming a pincer on us, making the battle hard to control. Following Plan A and allowing the Japanese south would lead to Changsha's fall, exploited by enemy propaganda, causing adverse effects domestically and internationally. These three points presented the potential military and political disadvantages of Plan A as tangible, imminent dangers, more argumentative and unyieldingly firm than his original inclination toward "Plan B."   Zhao Zili quickly noted the points, his pen flying across the page with the precision of a seasoned warrior, before retreating to the staff office to draft the telegram that could alter the course of battle. A top student of Huangpu's 6th Class, quick-witted and resourceful, Zhao had risen like a comet through the ranks after a few blistering campaigns, pinning the insignia of major general to his shoulders at the tender age of 31, a feat that stirred envy among his classmates like a storm in their hearts. Zhao Zili, of course, understood Xue Yue's true intent, piercing through the layers of strategy to the raw undercurrent of determination and unresolved fury.   In May 1938, to avenge the stinging triumph at Taierzhuang, the Japanese had massed their forces in a vengeful storm, aiming to encircle and annihilate the Chinese main forces east of the Longhai Railway, striking from both east and north with ruthless precision. The northern route's 14th Division, under the cunning Dobashi Kenji, found itself surrounded in Lanfeng by a pantheon of fierce Chinese generals, Song Xilian, Yu Jishi, Hu Zongnan, Qiu Qingquan, Wang Yaowu, Li Hanlun, Gui Yongqing, Sun Tongxuan, and Shang Zhen, warriors whose names echoed like thunder across the battlefields. Chiang Kai-shek himself descended upon Zhengzhou to supervise the carnage, appointing Xue Yue as 1st Corps Commander to orchestrate the generals in a full-throttle offensive on the morning of May 25, with the ironclad goal of obliterating that longtime scourge of China and his 14th Division before the dawn of the 26th shattered the night.   The odds were a gambler's dream: 150,000 elite Chinese troops against a mere 20,000 second-rate Japanese soldiers. Victory seemed not just possible, but inevitable; Chiang invited journalists to the front lines for live dispatches, while the Wuhan Political Department feverishly prepared celebrations for the "second great Taierzhuang victory." Chiang Kai-shek was exceptionally angry, his rage boiling over in orders that scorched the ranks, reprimanding army commanders for "inept command, cowardly actions, leading to low morale and hesitation," and that "most army, division, and brigade commanders lacked courage and self-motivation, prolonging the battle." After the Lanfeng Battle, Chiang ordered the dismissal and investigation of future Nationalist Navy Commander Gui Yongqing and 1950s Taiwan Army Commander and Provincial Chairman Huang Jie, and executed 88th Division Commander Long Muhan. But he did not hold Xue Yue accountable for leadership responsibility. For a highly self-respecting person, self-blame is more painful than others' blame. Thereafter, Xue Yue spent more time buried in maps, his eyes tracing lines of terrain like a man possessed, seeking a monumental battle to avenge his wounded pride and redeem his tarnished honor.   On March 8, 1939, shortly after Xue Yue assumed the mantle of acting Ninth War Zone Commander, Chiang telegraphed him with urgent resolve: "To secure Nanchang and its rear lines, decide to strike first, take the offensive to thwart the enemy's intentions." Chiang valued Nanchang's strategic position, as did Okamura Yasuji, but Chiang was a step slow, his hesitation a fatal crack. The Japanese, wielding two divisions bolstered by the bulk of their army's tanks and artillery, seized the initiative like predators in the night, storming Nanchang before the Chinese heavy forces could muster. Chen Cheng remained the nominal Ninth War Zone Commander, relegating Xue Yue to a watchful perch in Changsha while entrusting the Nanchang front to his confidant Luo Zhuoying. Xue Yue haunted the command room day and night, monitoring the inferno through frantic phone calls and telegrams, his discomfort gnawing at him like an unhealed wound. He bore witness to Nanchang's fall and the counterattack's agonizing collapse.   The Nanchang Battle loss was not Xue's fault, but it scarred the Ninth War Zone under his watch, with generals' whispers spreading like venom, knotting his heart in a tangle of regret and resolve. Months of intense map study and on-site inspections had etched Hunan's terrain into Xue Yue's very soul, birthing a strategy that was bold, unique, and brimming with promise—a phoenix rising from the ashes of defeat. But as Zhao Zili understood with crystal clarity, Commander Xue's telegram to Chiang, a forceful plea to reverse the decision, sprang less from cold military "strategy" than from the seething "resentment" accumulated through repeated failures and humiliations, a fire that demanded reckoning. With Chen Cheng's help, Chiang finally agreed to change the plan, bending to the tide of persuasion. Xue Yue was delighted, his spirit soaring like a liberated eagle; Bai Chongxi was angry, his frustration simmering like a storm held at bay. After the battle erupted, Bai, dispatched by Chiang to assist Xue Yue, arrived at the war zone headquarters on Yuelu Mountain atop the Xiang River's west bank in Changsha but remained silent like a mute bodhisattva, his words locked away in disapproval. Even decades later, in his Memoirs of Bai Chongxi, discussing the First Battle of Changsha, he still did not consider it a victory, saying the Japanese "conducted a planned retreat without much loss, which is a fact."   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In 1939, amid the Second Sino-Japanese War's stalemate phase, Chiang Kai-shek received intelligence on Japan's Xiang-Gan Operation, aimed at pressuring Chongqing through military advances in Hunan. Deputy Chief Bai Chongxi proposed Plan A for a deep-lure annihilation south of Changsha, while Chen Cheng and Xue Yue favored Plan B for resistance north of the city. After tense debates, Chiang approved Plan B, influenced by Xue's insistence to avoid Changsha's fall and counter Japanese propaganda.   

China's top legislator Zhao Leji emphasized Asia's deep commitment to peace and the importance of respecting all countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This episode features "Crosstalk, Elysium" written by Carolyn Zhao. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhao_03_26 Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/clarkesworld/membership

This week on PREVIOUSLY ON…, Jason and Rosie break down the new trailers for two highly anticipated sequels: Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which shattered the record for most views in its first 24 hours, and Dune: Part Three, both set to release later this year. Next, they dive into the shocking news that ABC has pulled the latest season of The Bachelorette just days before its premiere, after a 2023 video surfaced of Taylor Frankie Paul, who rose to fame on Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, throwing a chair and assaulting her ex. Finally, they wrap things up with a round of rapid-fire headlines, including the passing of action star Chuck Norris at 86; the announcement that Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence will star in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming thriller What Happens at Night; the cancellation of Hulu’s planned Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, which had Sarah Michelle Gellar and Chloé Zhao attached; and news that Val Kilmer, who passed away in 2025, will have his likeness recreated with AI, to star in As Deep As the Grave, a film he was cast in but unable to shoot due to declining health. Follow Jason: IG & Bluesky Follow Rosie: IG & Letterboxd Follow X-Ray Vision on Instagram Join the X-Ray Vision DiscordSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chloé Zhao became only the second woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, for 2020's “Nomadland,” and she is nominated once again for “Hamnet,” starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel of the same name, the film follows a young William Shakespeare and his wife, and their grief at the loss of their only son. “Hamnet” is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, and five other awards.  Speaking with Michael Schulman, Zhao talked about the origins of “Hamnet,” the centrality of nature imagery in her work, and how the I.P. in a Marvel film is not so different from adapting a literary novel.   This segment originally aired on December 5, 2025. Further reading: “Chloé Zhao Has Looked into the Void,” by Michael Schulman New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

Biotechs in South Korea and other regions of Asia outside of China need to lean into innovation to distinguish themselves from their Chinese counterparts. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast, BioCentury's analysts are joined by industry guests Ya-Ting Lei and Luther (Ruizhe) Zhao to discuss why the best path for biotechs in Korea and Japan is to lean into target, biology and modality risk, as well as other takeaways from the fifth BioCentury-BayHelix Biopharma Summit, which ran March 9-12 in Seoul and Daejeon, South Korea.Lei is director of BD Asia at Merck KGaA, and Zhao is VP, China clinical analytics at Caidya.View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/658776#AsiaBiotech #SouthKoreaBiotech #BiopharmaSummit #BiotechInnovation #DrugDevelopmentStrategy00:00 - Introduction02:32 - Key Takeaways05:46 - Faster Trials, Better Data08:19 - Global Diligence, Local Success15:13 - Cross Border Synergies17:34 - Korean BiotechTo submit a question to BioCentury's editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com.Reach us by sending a text

It's my pleasure to interview the industry leaders of today and ask the questions we're all thinking of. But it's my privilege to present to you the industry thought leaders of tomorrow. Today we sit down with David Zhao, co-founder of the Chubby Group, to discuss how they're rapidly scaling their restaurant concepts globally through innovative joint ventures and growing their fanbase by the tens of thousands using an innovative approach to loyalty programs. Buckle up because this conversation is going to leave you questioning everything you believed about how to grow a successful restaurant group. For more information on his restaurant group, visit https://chubbygroup.com/._________________________________________________________Free 5-Day Restaurant Marketing Masterclass – This is a live training where you'll learn the exact campaigns Josh has built and tested in real restaurants to attract new guests, increase visit frequency, and generate sales on demand. Save your spot at restaurantbusinessschool.com

The unbelievable story of a 7th-century concubine who elevated herself to become the first and only female Emperor of China. We chart Wu Zhao's journey as she climbs the ranks of the royal harem, manipulates and murders her rivals, and leapfrogs over four of her own sons to ascend the Dragon Throne. In this funny, fascinating, and scandal-filled podcast, Jameela Jamil and historian Dr Kate Lister pore over the stories of six astonishing “other women”. Women who have been shamed, disparaged and underestimated. Some have been cheated out of the history books altogether. Now Jameela and Kate are placing their stories in the spotlight – to see what history looks like through the eyes of the so-called side-chick.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Sinners" set the record for most Oscar nominations with 16. "One Battle After Another" isn't far behind with 13. "One Battle" was considered the early favorite for many awards, but "Sinners" has been coming on strong during awards season. Which film will win the night? Will Paul Thomas Anderson finally win an Oscar? Can Timothée Chalamet top Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael B. Jordan? We'll know soon enough with the 98th Academy Awards airing Sunday night (ABC and Hulu, 7 p.m. EDT). On this week's episode of Streamed & Screened, co-hosts Bruce Miller and Terry Lipshetz discuss the two films and the favorites to win the major categories.  Complete list of 2026 Oscar nominees Best picture: "Bugonia," "F1," "Frankenstein," "Hamnet," "Marty Supreme," "One Battle After Another," "The Secret Agent," "Sentimental Value," "Sinners," "Train Dreams." Lead actress: Jessie Buckley, "Hamnet;" Rose Byrne, "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You;" Renate Reinsve, "Sentimental Value;" Emma Stone, "Bugonia;" Kate Hudson, "Song Sung Blue." Lead actor: Timothée Chalamet, "Marty Supreme;" Leonardo DiCaprio, "One Battle After Another;" Ethan Hawke, "Blue Moon;" Michael B. Jordan, "Sinners;" Wagner Moura, "The Secret Agent." Supporting actress: Elle Fanning, "Sentimental Value;" Inga Ibsdotter LilIeaas, "Sentimental Value;" Amy Madigan, "Weapons;" Wunmi Mosaku, "Sinners;" Teyana Taylor, "One Battle After Another." Supporting actor: Jacob Elordi, "Frankenstein;" Sean Penn, "One Battle After Another;" Stellan Skarsgård, "Sentimental Value;" Benicio del Toro, "One Battle After Another;" Delroy Lindo, "Sinners." Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, "One Battle After Another;" Ryan Coogler, "Sinners;" Chloé Zhao, "Hamnet;" Josh Safdie, "Marty Supreme;" Joachim Trier, "Sentimental Value." Original song: "Golden" from "KPop Demon Hunters," "Train Dreams" from "Train Dreams," "Dear Me" from "Diane Warren: Relentless," "I Lied To You" from "Sinners," "Sweet Dreams Of Joy" from "Viva Verdi!" Original score: "Bugonia," Jerskin Fendrix; "Frankenstein," Alexandre Desplat; "Hamnet," Max Richter; "One Battle After Another," Jonny Greenwood; "Sinners," Ludwig Göransson. Animated film: "Arco," "Elio," "KPop Demon Hunters," "Little Amélie or the Character of Rain," "Zootopia 2." International film: "The Secret Agent," Brazil; "It Was Just an Accident," France; "Sentimental Value," Norway; "Sirât," Spain; "The Voice of Hind Rajab," Tunisia. Documentary feature: "The Perfect Neighbor," "The Alabama Solution," "Come See Me in the Good Light," "Cutting Through Rocks," "Mr. Nobody Against Putin." Casting: "Hamnet," "Marty Supreme," "One Battle After Another," "The Secret Agent," "Sinners." Best sound: "F1," "Frankenstein," "One Battle after Another," "Sinners," "Sirāt." Cinematography: "Frankenstein," "Marty Supreme," "One Battle After Another," "Sinners," "Train Dreams." Original screenplay: "Blue Moon," Robert Kaplow; "It Was Just an Accident," Jafar Panahi, with script collaborators Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian; "Marty Supreme," Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie; "Sentimental Value," Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier; "Sinners," Ryan Coogler. Adapted screenplay: "Bugonia," Will Tracy; "Frankenstein," Guillermo del Toro; "Hamnet," Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell; "One Battle After Another," Paul Thomas Anderson; "Train Dreams," Clint Bailey and Greg Kwedar. Live action short film: "Butcher's Stain," "A Friend of Dorothy," "Jane Austen's Period Drama," "The Singers," "Two People Exchanging Saliva." Animated short film: "Butterfly," "Forevergreen," "The Girl Who Cried Pearls," "Retirement Plan," "The Three Sisters." Documentary short film: "All the Empty Rooms," "Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud," "Children No More: Were and Are Gone," "The Devil Is Busy," "Perfectly a Strangeness." Visual effects: "Avatar: Fire and Ash," "F1," "Jurassic World Rebirth," "The Lost Bus," "Sinners." Production design: "Frankenstein," "Hamnet," "Marty Supreme," "One Battle After Another," "Sinners." Film editing: "F1," "Marty Supreme," "One Battle After Another," "Sentimental Value," "Sinners." Makeup and hairstyling: "Frankenstein," "Kokuho," "Sinners," "The Smashing Machine," "The Ugly Stepsister." Costume design: "Avatar: Fire and Ash," "Frankenstein," "Hamnet," "Marty Supreme," "Sinners." About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is the retired editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin. The show was named Best Podcast in the 2025 Iowa Better Newspaper Contest. Theme music Thunder City by Lunareh, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: FV694ULMCJQDG0IY

Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet’ explores what may have shaped William Shakespeare as he crafted the masterpiece tragedy of ‘Hamlet.’ Read the full review. If you've enjoyed listening to Plugged In Reviews, please give us your feedback.

I had the chance to see Academy Award–winning director Chloe Zhao speak at Emerson College's Los Angeles campus, and her insights were some of the most thoughtful I've heard about filmmaking and creativity.In this episode, I break down the biggest lessons from her talk — including how losing two years of footage from her first film forced her to surrender and start something new, a decision that ultimately launched her career.We also explore her approach to working with non-actors, the paradox of authenticity in performance, and the somatic rituals she uses to help actors embody their characters before filming. Zhao also shared insights about casting child actors, the role of synchronicity in creative careers, and why artists must “live the question” rather than chase certainty.Whether you're a filmmaker, storyteller, or artist in any medium, these ideas touch on the deeper realities of creative work: embracing uncertainty, trusting intuition, and earning the privilege of an audience.I also reflect on how these lessons connect to my own work developing The Arbiters, where storyboards and animatics are helping transform a script into something people can actually see and feel.If you're pursuing a creative path, these takeaways from Chloe Zhao might change the way you think about failure, process, and artistic success.

What if the secret to building a great career wasn't about having all the answers — but knowing how to ask the right questions? Today's guest, Yue Zhao, has lived that philosophy across one of the most varied and impressive career paths you'll hear on this show. Yue is a Chief Product & Technology Officer turned executive coach. She helps aspiring executives accelerate their careers and reach the C-suite. Yue worked at Thumbtack, Meta, Instagram, and growth-stage startups. She co-founded a wine startup out of Harvard Business School, helped shape the future of Instagram Feed at Meta, and led product at McKinsey-backed Thumbtack from a 20-person garage startup to a scaled technology company. But beyond the resume, Yue is someone who has thought deeply about what makes great leaders great, what it really takes to grow in your career, and why the best decision you can make isn't always the obvious one. She's also a career coach herself — so she brings both the frontline experience of building products people love and the perspective of someone who has helped countless others navigate pivotal career moments. Whether you're just starting out, stuck at a ceiling, or wondering if it's time to make a leap — this conversation is packed with hard-won insight you won't want to miss. Here's what you'll learn in today's episode with Yue Zhao: Why the best leaders never give you answers — and why that's actually the greatest gift they can give you How to choose your next job — and why your future manager matters more than the company name or the salary The one communication habit most product managers skip — and how mastering it will set you apart at any level What a wine startup, a bioengineering degree, and Instagram Feed have in common — and what Yue's winding path teaches us about building a career that compounds The mindset shift that changed how Yue coaches people — understanding what's within your control versus what isn't, and why confusing the two keeps so many talented people stuck Why two years is not that long — and how reframing the length of your career can take the pressure off your next decision The simple calendar trick Yue uses to get back on track — when life, work, or routines go sideways Land your dream job in half the time and get paid your worth with the Career Pivot Playbook for free: https://www.omaid.me/newsletter  

In this episode of Possible, Reid and Aria talk with Ivan Zhao, co-founder of Notion, about what happens when intelligence becomes abundant rather than scarce. Zhao shares his philosophy of treating computing as a material — like steel or steam — and why organizations must be built for human scale in an AI-driven world. From Renaissance cities to Xerox PARC, the conversation traces a shift from productivity software to cognitive infrastructure, and arrives at a clear conclusion: in an AI-powered future, human judgment, taste, and values matter most. For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/

Stephen Hendry, Mark Watson & Steven Hallworth are joined by Abi Davies this week, looking back on the Sportsbet.io Players Championship and BetVictor Welsh Open events. They answer questions like where Barry Hawkins would rank in an all-time list, is John Higgins the most consistent player of the season, and discuss Mark Williams' phobia of tea bags!   Abi also discusses her inspirational tale of how sport helped save her life during dark moments.   TW: This podcast contains discussions of suicide and self harm. 

Masterpiece Podcasts: Collection of Chinese Classic Novels

On this episode Fred and Gregg welcome Xiaopeng Zhao, PhD, Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Mississippi, whose research bridges artificial intelligence, robotics, and dementia care. Topics: Dr. Zhao discusses how machine learning techniques are being used to analyze complex EEG brainwave data to detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease, patterns invisible to the human eye but accessible through advanced signal processing. Beyond diagnostics, his lab is deploying humanoid robotic systems to assist individuals with dementia during everyday activities such as making coffee or brushing teeth, aiming to reduce caregiver burden and improve quality of life. The conversation explores “lost moments”, short-term lapses in memory that disrupt daily functioning, and how AI systems might identify and respond to them in real time. Dr. Zhao also addresses usability challenges, patient acceptance, and the importance of human-centered design in deploying assistive technologies. With dementia affecting millions worldwide, this episode examines both the promise and practical realities of integrating AI and robotics into population health strategies. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

"Hamnet" is a biographical period film directed by Chloé Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O'Farrell, based on O'Farrell's 2020 novel. The film dramatizes the family life of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes, as they cope with the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet. It stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as Agnes and William, alongside Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, and Noah Jupe in supporting roles. The film had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival and received glowing reviews, with Buckley's performance receiving particular praise. The film has received numerous accolades, including winning the Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Buckley at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, and eight nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Zhao, and Best Actress for Buckley. It was listed among the top ten films of 2025 by the American Film Institute. Zhao, Mescal, and composer Max Richter were all kind enough to spend some time speaking with Next Best Picture Owner & Editor In Chief Matt Neglia, while Ema Sasic got the chance to speak with Jacobi Jupe, production designer Fiona Crombie spoke with Dan Bayer, and Cody Dericks had the opportunity to chat with costume designer Malgosia Turzanska. Please be sure to check out the film, now playing in select theaters from Focus Features and available to watch from home. The film is up for your consideration for the 98th Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Casting, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. Thank you, and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From creatures to avoid in the woods to superstitions about numbers, folklore not only gives us inspiration for stories, but also stories for the characters in your world to tell. So where do folktales come from, and how can we use them in our worldbuilding? Amélie Wen Zhao joins us to investigate the roots of folkloric monsters and their narrative potential! We talk about the sometimes blurry lines between folklore, mythology, fables, and legends. Sometimes, that distinction is about the scale of the story: are we talking about the creation of the world, or are we talking about the little creature that lives in your oven to keep your bread warm? Folklore is often more personal as well as more localized, and thus the stories are often very culturally-specific -- and that means they can communicate a lot about your characters' beliefs and values, representative of the world they've grown up in! You also get to decide... are these creatures only stories within your world, or are they really real there? [Transcript for Episode 175] Our Guest: Amélie Wen Zhao was born in Paris and grew up in Beijing, where she spent her days reenacting tales of legendary heroes, ancient kingdoms, and lost magic at her grandmother's courtyard house. She attended college in the United States and now resides in New York City, working as a finance professional by day and fantasy author by night. In her spare time, she loves to travel with her family in China, where she's determined to walk the rivers and lakes of old just like the practitioners in her novels do.

Evan Zhao is the Co-founder and CEO of Pacagen, using biotechnology to revolutionize consumer products. Before Pacagen, he served as Chief Science Officer at ODDITY, and previously built and sold Revela. He earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, and completed work as a Schmidt Science Fellow at Harvard.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we review the 2025 historical tragedy film Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao, who co-wrote the screenplay with Maggie O’Farrell. The film is based on O’Farrell’s 2020 novel and stars Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, and Emily Watson. We discuss whether this origin story for one of William Shakespeare’s famous plays was entertaining. We also debate whether the film should be nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen live Friday at 1 p.m. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the third series in the A Song of Ice and Fire television franchise. It is set about 90 years before Game of Thrones and almost 80 years after House of the Dragon. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is created by Ira Parker and George R. R. Martin and based on the Tales of Dunk and Egg series of novellas by Martin. And: Hamnet is the fifth feature film written and directed by Chloé Zhao. The screenplay is by Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell and based on O’Farrell’s 2020 novel. It stars Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as her husband, Will Shakespeare. Hamnet is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani: Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and the director of marketing at Washington Montessori School Taneisha Duggan: Director of arts, culture, and entertainment for the city of Hartford Tracy Wu Fastenberg: Associate vice president for development at Connecticut Children’s MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Bonny Sweet Boy – Les Witches What Do the Simple Folk Do? – Camelot Main Title (from the HBO Series Game of Thrones) – Ramin Djawadi Ophelia – The Lumineers On the Nature of Daylight – Max Richter See You On The Radio – Grayson Hugh Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feet Don't Fail Me Now, 7min., USA Directed by Fuzhi Zhao The sun will erase your memory. If you don't want to become nobody, you have to keep running. —— Subscribe to the podcast: Tweets by wildsoundpod https://www.instagram.com/wildsoundpod/ https://www.facebook.com/wildsoundpod

In a 2021 interview, Michael Sandel, author of the book The Tyranny of Merit argues that if merit can be understood as competence, a good thing to be clear, “The principle of meritocracy, simply put, says that if chances are equal, the winners deserve their winnings.” But as we grapple with meritocracy, or systems built around the idea that those who get ahead are deserving, he says, “What makes merit a kind of tyranny is the way it attributes deservingness to the successful.” How are we supposed to understand the great problems of our time: United States' incredible wealth and income disparities, child poverty, life expectancy gaps, infant mortality, student debt, or even incarceration rates through a lens of meritocracy? Sandel offers, “To rethink meritocracy requires, among other things, rethinking the mission and purpose of higher education.” But what about education inequality and the construction of affluent white suburban public schools as “Good Schools”, where the social and economic advantages of their proximity to wealth compound upward into higher property taxes, more funding, smaller class sizes, more course offerings, higher test scores and higher graduation rates?And that's a lens my guest today, Yong Zhao, Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies & Educational Psychology at the University of Kansas, wants to expand into redefining the purpose of K-12 education more broadly, from meritocracy to human interdependence.He's co-authored an open-access piece for the ECNU Review of Education by that name that you can search yourself or find in the show notes, and it's the focus of our conversation today. “[Meritocracy's] focus on ranking individuals according to flawed metrics fosters unhealthy competition, overlooks diverse human talents, fails to account for unequal starting points, and ultimately hundred both individual fulfillment AND societal progress,” they write, “We propose an alternative framework, the Human Interdependence Paradigm, which….emphasizes cultivating unique individual greatness, realizing [it] through applying it to solve meaningful real world problems for others, [and] fostering a sense of purpose and mutual reliance. The Human Interdependence Paradigm [for education] aims to create learning environments that promote collaboration, social intelligence, and ultimately, a more equitable and flourishing society.”You can email Prof. Zhao @ yongzhao.uo@gmail.comFrom Meritocracy to Human Interdependence: Redefining the Purpose of EducationThe Dark Side of Meritocracy, Noema Mag

‘It's so far from your reality because I didn't know anybody and I was an immigrant'Anita Rani speaks to the Beijing-born director Chloé Zhao about her career and her latest film, Hamnet.Zhao made history in 2021 when, at the age of just 39, she became the first woman of colour - and, at the time, only the second woman ever - to win the best director award at the Oscars.Now, just five years after her Oscars triumph for Nomadland, Zhao is making headlines once again as the director of the critically-acclaimed movie Hamnet, a dramatisation about the son of the English playwright William Shakespeare. It won two Golden Globe awards, including one for ‘Best Drama Movie', and has recently been nominated for 8 Academy Awards too.Thank you to the Woman's Hour team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Indian author Twinkle Khanna, former US Vice President Kamala Harris, and Hollywood legend Sir Anthony Hopkins. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Anita Rani Producers: Emma Pearce, Ben Cooper and Lucy Sheppard Editor: Justine LangGet in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Chloé Zhao. Credit: Emma McIntyre/WireImage)

Discussion of things literally or figuratively unearthed in the last quarter of 2025 continues. It begins with potpourri then covers tools, Neanderthals, edibles and potables, art, shipwrecks, medical finds, and repatriations. Research: Abdallah, Hanna. “Famous Easter Island statues were created without centralized management.” PLOS. Via EurekAlert. 11/26/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1106805 Abdallah, Hannah. “Early humans butchered elephants using small tools and made big tools from their bones.” PLOS. Via EurekAlert. 10/8/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1100481 Abdallah, Hannah. “Researchers uncover clues to mysterious origin of famous Hjortspring boat.” EurekAlert. 10/12/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1108323 Archaeology Magazine. “Medieval Hoard of Silver and Pearls Discovered in Sweden.” https://archaeology.org/news/2025/10/14/medieval-hoard-of-silver-and-pearls-discovered-in-sweden/ Archaeology Magazine. “Possible Trepanation Tool Unearthed in Poland.” 11/13/2025. https://archaeology.org/news/2025/11/13/possible-trepanation-tool-unearthed-in-poland/ Arkeologerna. “Rare 5,000-year-old dog burial unearthed in Sweden.” 12/15/2025. https://news.cision.com/se/arkeologerna/r/rare-5-000-year-old-dog-burial-unearthed-in-sweden,c4282014 Arnold, Paul. “Ancient ochre crayons from Crimea reveal Neanderthals engaged in symbolic behaviors.” Phys.org. 10/30/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ancient-ochre-crayons-crimea-reveal.html Arnold, Paul. “Dating a North American rock art tradition that lasted 175 generations.” Phys.org. 11/28/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-dating-north-american-art-tradition.html Bassi, Margherita. “A Single Gene Could Have Contributed to Neanderthals’ Extinction, Study Suggests.” Smithsonian. 10/30/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-neanderthal-gene-variant-related-to-red-blood-cells-may-have-contributed-to-their-extinction-180987586/ Benjamin Pohl, Chewing over the Norman Conquest: the Bayeux Tapestry as monastic mealtime reading, Historical Research, 2025;, htaf029, https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htaf029 Benzine, Vittoria. “Decoded Hieroglyphics Reveal Female Ruler of Ancient Maya City.” ArtNet. 10/27/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/foundation-stone-maya-coba-woman-ruler-2704521 Berdugo, Sophie. “Easter Island statues may have 'walked' thanks to 'pendulum dynamics' and with as few as 15 people, study finds.” LiveScience. 10/19/2025. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/easter-island-statues-may-have-walked-thanks-to-pendulum-dynamics-and-with-as-few-as-15-people-study-finds Billing, Lotte. “Fingerprint of ancient seafarer found on Scandinavia’s oldest plank boat.” EurekAlert. 10/12/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1109361 Brhel, John. “Rats played major role in Easter Island’s deforestation, study reveals.” EurekAlert. 11/17/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1106361 Caldwell, Elizabeth. “9 more individuals unearthed at Oaklawn could be 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims.” Tulsa Public Radio. 11/6/2025. https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/local-regional/2025-11-06/9-more-individuals-unearthed-at-oaklawn-could-be-1921-tulsa-race-massacre-victims Clark, Gaby. “Bayeux Tapestry could have been originally designed as mealtime reading for medieval monks.” Phys.org. 12/15/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-bayeux-tapestry-mealtime-medieval-monks.html#google_vignette Cohen, Alina. “Ancient Olive Oil Processing Complex Unearthed in Tunisia.” Artnet. 11/21/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ancient-olive-oil-complex-tunisia-2717795 Cohen, Alina. “MFA Boston Restores Ownership of Historic Works by Enslaved Artist.” ArtNet. 10/30/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mfa-boston-david-drake-jars-restitution-2706594 Fergusson, Rachel. “First DNA evidence of Black Death in Edinburgh discovered on teeth of excavated teenage skeleton.” The Scotsman. 11/5/2025. https://www.scotsman.com/news/first-dna-evidence-black-death-edinburgh-discovered-teeth-excavated-teenage-skeleton-5387741 Folorunso, Caleb et al. “MOWAA Archaeology Project: Enhancing Understanding of Benin City’s Historic Urban Development and Heritage through Pre-Construction Archaeology.” Antiquity (2025): 1–10. Web. Griffith University. “Rare stone tool cache tells story of trade and ingenuity.” 12/2/2025. https://news.griffith.edu.au/2025/12/02/rare-stone-tool-cache-tells-story-of-trade-and-ingenuity/ Han, Yu et al. “The late arrival of domestic cats in China via the Silk Road after 3,500 years of human-leopard cat commensalism.” Cell Genomics, Volume 0, Issue 0, 101099. https://www.cell.com/cell-genomics/fulltext/S2666-979X(25)00355-6 Hashemi, Sara. “A Volcanic Eruption in 1345 May Have Triggered a Chain of Events That Brought the Black Death to Europe.” Smithsonian. 12/8/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-volcanic-eruption-in-1345-may-have-triggered-a-chain-of-events-taht-brought-the-black-death-to-europe-180987803/ Hjortkjær, Simon Thinggaard. “Mysterious signs on Teotihuacan murals may reveal an early form of Uto-Aztecan language.” PhysOrg. 10/6/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-mysterious-teotihuacan-murals-reveal-early.html Institut Pasteur. “Study suggests two unsuspected pathogens struck Napoleon's army during the retreat from Russia in 1812.” Via EurekAlert. 10/24/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1102613 Jones, Sam. “Shells found in Spain could be among oldest known musical instruments.” The Guardian. 12/2/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/02/neolithic-conch-like-shell-spain-catalonia-discovery-musical-instruments Kasal, Krystal. “Pahon Cave provides a look into 5,000 years of surprisingly stable Stone Age tool use.” Phys.org. 12/16/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-pahon-cave-years-stable-stone.html Kristiansen, Nina. “Eight pages bound in furry seal skin may be Norway's oldest book.” Science Norway. 11/3/2025. https://www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-history-culture-history/eight-pages-bound-in-furry-seal-skin-may-be-norways-oldest-book/2571496 Kuta, Sarah. “109-Year-Old Messages in a Bottle Written by Soldiers Heading to Fight in World War I Discovered on Australian Beach.” Smithsonian. 11/6/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/109-year-old-messages-in-a-bottle-written-by-soldiers-heading-to-fight-in-world-war-i-discovered-on-australian-beach-180987649/ Kuta, Sarah. “A Storm Battered Western Alaska, Scattering Thousands of Indigenous Artifacts Across the Sand.” Smithsonian. 10/31/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-storm-battered-western-alaska-scattering-thousands-of-indigenous-artifacts-across-the-sand-180987606/ Kuta, Sarah. “Archaeologists Unearth More Than 100 Projectiles From an Iconic Battlefield in Scotland.” Smithsonian. 11/5/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-more-than-100-projectiles-from-an-iconic-battlefield-in-scotland-180987641/ Kuta, Sarah. “Hundreds of Mysterious Victorian-Era Shoes Are Washing Up on a Beach in Wales. Nobody Knows Where They Came From.” Smithsonian. 1/5/2026. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hundreds-of-mysterious-victorian-era-shoes-are-washing-up-on-a-beach-in-wales-nobody-knows-where-they-came-from-180987943/ Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Golden ‘Tudor Heart’ Necklace Sheds New Light on Henry VIII’s First Marriage.” Artnet. 10/14/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/tudor-heart-pendant-british-museum-fundraiser-2699544 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Long-Overlooked Black Veteran Identified in Rare 19th-Century Portrait.” ArtNet. 10/27/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/black-veteran-thomas-phillips-portrait-identified-2704721 Lipo CP, Hunt TL, Pakarati G, Pingel T, Simmons N, Heard K, et al. (2025) Megalithic statue (moai) production on Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). PLoS One 20(11): e0336251. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0336251 Lipo, Carl P. and Terry L. Hunt. “The walking moai hypothesis: Archaeological evidence, experimental validation, and response to critics.” Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 183, November 2025, 106383. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440325002328 Lock, Lisa. “Pre-construction archaeology reveals Benin City's historic urban development and heritage.” 10/29/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-pre-archaeology-reveals-benin-city.html#google_vignette Lock, Lisa. “Pre-construction archaeology reveals Benin City's historic urban development and heritage.” Antiquity. Via PhysOrg. 10/29/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-pre-archaeology-reveals-benin-city.html#google_vignette Lynley A. Wallis et al, An exceptional assemblage of archaeological plant fibres from Windmill Way, southeast Cape York Peninsula, Australian Archaeology (2025). DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2025.2574127 Lyon, Devyn. “Oaklawn Cemetery excavation brings investigators closer to identifying Tulsa Race Massacre victims.” Fox 23. 11/6/2025. https://www.fox23.com/news/oaklawn-cemetery-excavation-brings-investigators-closer-to-identifying-tulsa-race-massacre-victims/article_67c3a6b7-2acc-44cb-93ce-3d3d0c288eca.html Marquard, Bryan. “Bob Shumway, last known survivor of the deadly Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, dies at 101.” 11/12/2025. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/12/metro/bob-shumway-101-dies-was-last-known-cocoanut-grove-fire-survivor/?event=event12 Marta Osypińska et al, A centurion's monkey? Companion animals for the social elite in an Egyptian port on the fringes of the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd c. CE, Journal of Roman Archaeology (2025). DOI: 10.1017/s1047759425100445 Merrington, Andrew. “Extensive dog diversity millennia before modern breeding practices.” University of Exeter. 11/13/2025. https://news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-humanities-arts-and-social-sciences/archaeology-and-history/extensive-dog-diversity-millennia-before-modern-breeding-practices/ Morris, Steven. “Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic.” The Guardian. 12/8/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/08/linguists-start-compiling-first-ever-complete-dictionary-of-ancient-celtic Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Resolves Ownership of Works by Enslaved Artist David Drake.” 10/29/2025. https://www.mfa.org/press-release/david-drake-ownership-resolution Narcity. “Niagara has a 107-year-old shipwreck lodged above the Falls and it just moved.” https://www.narcity.com/niagara-falls-shipwreck-iron-scow-moved-closer-to-the-falls Newcomb, Tim. “A 76-Year-Old Man Went On a Hike—and Stumbled Upon a 1,500-Year Old Trap.” Popular Mechanics. 11/21/2025. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a69441460/reindeer-trap/ Nordin, Gunilla. “Ancient wolves on remote Baltic Sea island reveal link to prehistoric humans.” Stockholm University. Via EurekAlert. 11/24/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1106807 Oster, Sandee. “DNA confirms modern Bo people are descendants of ancient Hanging Coffin culture.” Phys.org. 12/6/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-dna-modern-bo-people-descendants.html Oster, Sandee. “Rare disease possibly identified in 12th century child's skeletal remains.” PhysOrg. 10/10/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-rare-disease-possibly-12th-century.html Osuh, Chris and Geneva Abdul. “Lost grave of daughter of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano found by A-level student.” The Guardian. 11/1/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/01/lost-grave-daughter-black-abolitionist-olaudah-equiano-found-by-a-level-student Silvia Albizuri et al, The oldest mule in the western Mediterranean. The case of the Early Iron Age in Hort d'en Grimau (Penedès, Barcelona, Spain), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105506 Skok, Phoebe. “Ancient shipwrecks rewrite the story of Iron Age trade.” PhysOrg. 10/14/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ancient-shipwrecks-rewrite-story-iron.html The History Blog. “600-year-old Joseon ship recovered from seabed.” 11/15/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/74652 The History Blog. “Ancient pleasure barge found off Alexandria coast.” 12/9/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/74860 The History Blog. “Charred Byzantine bread loves stamped with Christian imagery found in Turkey.” 10/13/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/74352 The History Blog. “Early medieval silver treasure found in Stockholm.” 10/12/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/74343 The History Blog. “Roman amphora with sardines found in Switzerland.” 12/15/2025. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/74904 The Straits Times. “Wreck of ancient Malay vessel discovered on Pulau Melaka.” 10/31/2025. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/wreck-of-ancient-malay-vessel-discovered-on-pulau-melaka Thompson, Sarah. “The forgotten daughter: Eliza Monroe Hay’s story revealed in her last letters.” W&M News. 9/30/2025. https://news.wm.edu/2025/09/30/the-forgotten-daughter-eliza-monroes-story-revealed-in-her-last-letters/ Tuhkuri, Jukka. “Why Did Endurance Sink?” Polar Record 61 (2025): e23. Web. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/polar-record/article/why-did-endurance-sink/6CC2C2D56087035A94DEB50930B81980 Universitat de Valencia. “The victims of the Pompeii eruption wore heavy wool cloaks and tunics, suggesting different environmental conditions in summer.” 12/3/2025. https://www.uv.es/uvweb/uv-news/en/news/victims-pompeii-eruption-wore-heavy-wool-cloaks-tunics-suggesting-different-environmental-conditions-summer-1285973304159/Novetat.html?id=1286464337848&plantilla=UV_Noticies/Page/TPGDetaillNews University of Glasgow. “Archaeologists recover hundreds of Jacobite projectiles in unexplored area of Culloden.” 10/30/2025. https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1222736_en.html University of Vienna. “Neanderthal DNA reveals ancient long-distance migrations.” 10/29/2025. https://www.univie.ac.at/en/news/detail/neanderthal-dna-reveals-ancient-long-distance-migrations Zhou, H., Tao, L., Zhao, Y. et al. Exploration of hanging coffin customs and the bo people in China through comparative genomics. Nat Commun 16, 10230 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65264-3 Zinin, Andrew. “Ancient humans mastered fire-making 400,000 years ago, study shows.” Phys.org. 10/10/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ancient-humans-mastered-years.html See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The show's coverage of things literally or figuratively unearthed in the last quarter of 2025 begins with updates, books and letters, animals, and just one exhumation. Research: Abdallah, Hanna. “Famous Easter Island statues were created without centralized management.” PLOS. Via EurekAlert. 11/26/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1106805 Abdallah, Hannah. “Early humans butchered elephants using small tools and made big tools from their bones.” PLOS. Via EurekAlert. 10/8/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1100481 Abdallah, Hannah. “Researchers uncover clues to mysterious origin of famous Hjortspring boat.” EurekAlert. 10/12/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1108323 Archaeology Magazine. “Medieval Hoard of Silver and Pearls Discovered in Sweden.” https://archaeology.org/news/2025/10/14/medieval-hoard-of-silver-and-pearls-discovered-in-sweden/ Archaeology Magazine. “Possible Trepanation Tool Unearthed in Poland.” 11/13/2025. https://archaeology.org/news/2025/11/13/possible-trepanation-tool-unearthed-in-poland/ “Rare 5,000-year-old dog burial unearthed in Sweden.” 12/15/2025. https://news.cision.com/se/arkeologerna/r/rare-5-000-year-old-dog-burial-unearthed-in-sweden,c4282014 Arnold, Paul. “Ancient ochre crayons from Crimea reveal Neanderthals engaged in symbolic behaviors.” Phys.org. 10/30/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ancient-ochre-crayons-crimea-reveal.html Arnold, Paul. “Dating a North American rock art tradition that lasted 175 generations.” Phys.org. 11/28/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-dating-north-american-art-tradition.html Bassi, Margherita. “A Single Gene Could Have Contributed to Neanderthals’ Extinction, Study Suggests.” Smithsonian. 10/30/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-neanderthal-gene-variant-related-to-red-blood-cells-may-have-contributed-to-their-extinction-180987586/ Benjamin Pohl, Chewing over the Norman Conquest: the Bayeux Tapestry as monastic mealtime reading, Historical Research, 2025;, htaf029, https://doi.org/10.1093/hisres/htaf029 Benzine, Vittoria. “Decoded Hieroglyphics Reveal Female Ruler of Ancient Maya City.” ArtNet. 10/27/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/foundation-stone-maya-coba-woman-ruler-2704521 Berdugo, Sophie. “Easter Island statues may have 'walked' thanks to 'pendulum dynamics' and with as few as 15 people, study finds.” LiveScience. 10/19/2025. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/easter-island-statues-may-have-walked-thanks-to-pendulum-dynamics-and-with-as-few-as-15-people-study-finds Billing, Lotte. “Fingerprint of ancient seafarer found on Scandinavia’s oldest plank boat.” EurekAlert. 10/12/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1109361 Brhel, John. “Rats played major role in Easter Island’s deforestation, study reveals.” EurekAlert. 11/17/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1106361 Caldwell, Elizabeth. “9 more individuals unearthed at Oaklawn could be 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre victims.” Tulsa Public Radio. 11/6/2025. https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/local-regional/2025-11-06/9-more-individuals-unearthed-at-oaklawn-could-be-1921-tulsa-race-massacre-victims Clark, Gaby. “Bayeux Tapestry could have been originally designed as mealtime reading for medieval monks.” Phys.org. 12/15/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-bayeux-tapestry-mealtime-medieval-monks.html#google_vignette Cohen, Alina. “Ancient Olive Oil Processing Complex Unearthed in Tunisia.” Artnet. 11/21/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ancient-olive-oil-complex-tunisia-2717795 Cohen, Alina. “MFA Boston Restores Ownership of Historic Works by Enslaved Artist.” ArtNet. 10/30/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mfa-boston-david-drake-jars-restitution-2706594 Fergusson, Rachel. “First DNA evidence of Black Death in Edinburgh discovered on teeth of excavated teenage skeleton.” The Scotsman. 11/5/2025. https://www.scotsman.com/news/first-dna-evidence-black-death-edinburgh-discovered-teeth-excavated-teenage-skeleton-5387741 Folorunso, Caleb et al. “MOWAA Archaeology Project: Enhancing Understanding of Benin City’s Historic Urban Development and Heritage through Pre-Construction Archaeology.” Antiquity (2025): 1–10. Web. Griffith University. “Rare stone tool cache tells story of trade and ingenuity.” 12/2/2025. https://news.griffith.edu.au/2025/12/02/rare-stone-tool-cache-tells-story-of-trade-and-ingenuity/ Han, Yu et al. “The late arrival of domestic cats in China via the Silk Road after 3,500 years of human-leopard cat commensalism.” Cell Genomics, Volume 0, Issue 0, 101099. https://www.cell.com/cell-genomics/fulltext/S2666-979X(25)00355-6 Hashemi, Sara. “A Volcanic Eruption in 1345 May Have Triggered a Chain of Events That Brought the Black Death to Europe.” Smithsonian. 12/8/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-volcanic-eruption-in-1345-may-have-triggered-a-chain-of-events-taht-brought-the-black-death-to-europe-180987803/ Hjortkjær, Simon Thinggaard. “Mysterious signs on Teotihuacan murals may reveal an early form of Uto-Aztecan language.” PhysOrg. 10/6/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-mysterious-teotihuacan-murals-reveal-early.html Institut Pasteur. “Study suggests two unsuspected pathogens struck Napoleon's army during the retreat from Russia in 1812.” Via EurekAlert. 10/24/2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1102613 Jones, Sam. “Shells found in Spain could be among oldest known musical instruments.” The Guardian. 12/2/2025. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/02/neolithic-conch-like-shell-spain-catalonia-discovery-musical-instruments Kasal, Krystal. “Pahon Cave provides a look into 5,000 years of surprisingly stable Stone Age tool use.” Phys.org. 12/16/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-pahon-cave-years-stable-stone.html Kristiansen, Nina. “Eight pages bound in furry seal skin may be Norway's oldest book.” Science Norway. 11/3/2025. https://www.sciencenorway.no/cultural-history-culture-history/eight-pages-bound-in-furry-seal-skin-may-be-norways-oldest-book/2571496 Kuta, Sarah. “109-Year-Old Messages in a Bottle Written by Soldiers Heading to Fight in World War I Discovered on Australian Beach.” Smithsonian. 11/6/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/109-year-old-messages-in-a-bottle-written-by-soldiers-heading-to-fight-in-world-war-i-discovered-on-australian-beach-180987649/ Kuta, Sarah. “A Storm Battered Western Alaska, Scattering Thousands of Indigenous Artifacts Across the Sand.” Smithsonian. 10/31/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-storm-battered-western-alaska-scattering-thousands-of-indigenous-artifacts-across-the-sand-180987606/ Kuta, Sarah. “Archaeologists Unearth More Than 100 Projectiles From an Iconic Battlefield in Scotland.” Smithsonian. 11/5/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-more-than-100-projectiles-from-an-iconic-battlefield-in-scotland-180987641/ Kuta, Sarah. “Hundreds of Mysterious Victorian-Era Shoes Are Washing Up on a Beach in Wales. Nobody Knows Where They Came From.” Smithsonian. 1/5/2026. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hundreds-of-mysterious-victorian-era-shoes-are-washing-up-on-a-beach-in-wales-nobody-knows-where-they-came-from-180987943/ Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Golden ‘Tudor Heart’ Necklace Sheds New Light on Henry VIII’s First Marriage.” Artnet. 10/14/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/tudor-heart-pendant-british-museum-fundraiser-2699544 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Long-Overlooked Black Veteran Identified in Rare 19th-Century Portrait.” ArtNet. 10/27/2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/black-veteran-thomas-phillips-portrait-identified-2704721 Lipo CP, Hunt TL, Pakarati G, Pingel T, Simmons N, Heard K, et al. (2025) Megalithic statue (moai) production on Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile). PLoS One 20(11): e0336251. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0336251 Lipo, Carl P. and Terry L. Hunt. “The walking moai hypothesis: Archaeological evidence, experimental validation, and response to critics.” Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 183, November 2025, 106383. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440325002328 Lock, Lisa. “Pre-construction archaeology reveals Benin City's historic urban development and heritage.” 10/29/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-pre-archaeology-reveals-benin-city.html#google_vignette Lock, Lisa. “Pre-construction archaeology reveals Benin City's historic urban development and heritage.” Antiquity. Via PhysOrg. 10/29/2025. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-pre-archaeology-reveals-benin-city.html#google_vignette Lynley A. Wallis et al, An exceptional assemblage of archaeological plant fibres from Windmill Way, southeast Cape York Peninsula, Australian Archaeology (2025). 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What does it really mean to speak of "socialism with Chinese characteristics"? Is it simply a matter of policy and political economy, or does it require grappling with thousands of years of civilizational history, philosophy, and culture? In this episode, Breht is joined by Zhao, the mind behind Goods for the People and author of Chinese Characteristics of Socialism: Civilizational Factors in CPC Governance to explore a bold and provocative argument: that while class struggle and material conditions must remain primary, China's socialist path cannot be understood without its deep Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist inheritance. From Yu the Great's flood control and the origins of infrastructural legitimacy, to the Mandate of Heaven, Da Tong, and the tributary system, we examine how ancient ideas of harmony, moral legitimacy, and collective responsibility continue to shape contemporary Chinese governance and foreign policy. This is a wide-ranging conversation for Marxists, socialists, and anti-imperialists interested in China beyond caricature, reductionism, and Cold War myths -- one that asks how history, philosophy, and material struggle converge in the making of a socialist future, and what China's trajectory might mean for the global path toward communism. Other episodes mentioned in this episode: Check out our 7 hour episode on the last 250 years of Chinese History HERE Check out our episode on Italy's Years of Lead HERE Check out our episode on the German Revolution HERE Check out our episode on the Spanish Civil War HERE   ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

Chloé Zhao was the second woman to ever win an Oscar for Best Director, for her 2020 film “Nomadland.” After taking a wide turn to create the Marvel supernatural epic “Eternals,” Zhao has taken another intriguing change of direction with “Hamnet,” based on Maggie O'Farrell's novel about how William Shakespeare coped with the death of his only son. In conversation with the New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman, Zhao discusses the role that nature plays in her filmmaking, from the American West to the forests of Britain; the process of adapting manga to film; and how neurodivergence informs her creative process.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.