Welcome to Ancestral Health Today, evolutionary insights into modern health. On today's episode of Ancestral Health Today, we have Pilar Egués. Pilar is an Ecuadorian cultural anthropologist. She's a writer and award-winning filmmaker. Over the past 20 years, she has lived, worked, and carried out research and community-based projects in and about Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and Japan. She's a co-founder and director of Comidas que Cura, Foods that Heal, an independent food education and media company, dedicated to researching and promoting traditional food knowledge through ethnographic research and film. Her award-winning documentaries have been screened in three different languages across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Through her research, public speaking, and films, she amplifies the voices of older men and women who are the bearers of traditional knowledge about food and medicine in Latin America. She has brought this work to communities in Ecuador through filmmaking and research education projects, as well as to U.S. college students in the United States through film screening and lectures. She's published, she's a published author and speaks internationally on topics ranging from cultural history, food heritage, health, nutrition, and conflict transformation. Pilar, welcome to the show, and can you please tell us a little bit about yourselves? Sure. Thank you, Isabel, and everyone that makes this podcast possible for inviting me. Well, I'm from Ecuador. I'm from Quito, the capital, and so from the highlands. I grew up there and partially went to school there, and then I came to the U.S. to finish my bachelor's degree, and then I went back to Ecuador for a while to get my master's and also work for a while, and then I came back here to Illinois to do a PhD in socio-cultural anthropology, and after that I did a postdoc for two years at U of I in community health, and that's when I started my food anthropology research, focusing on Ecuador, and I've been doing that for the past about 10 years. I started this project called Comidas que curan, Food that Heal, which is now like a production company, film production and research project that I've been working on for several years. I love to study and research about food, so I'm an anthropologist, so I work with communities, I go into different communities, especially in Ecuador. That's been my focus for the past 10 years, and I work with youth and older people, especially older women who are the bearers of the traditional knowledge with respect to medicine and food, and I also teach, so I do educational programs for the youth, the children and youth in the communities, so we've done a couple of participatory collaborative films with the people in communities as well as other documentaries that still have the participatory component, but last year was particularly good because we aired, I think there were two, two new documentaries, and it was a great year because of that, yeah. Amazing, that's a lot to unpack. What career to study anthropology in the first place? So I was doing my undergrad in economics, that was my major, it was really boring, I mean I was really good at it, I kind of like, I really like math and I was good at, you know, I did really well, but it was really boring because they always talked about models that didn't align with my experience in Latin America and Ecuador, growing up in Ecuador, so the economic models that I was learning about, they didn't align, and it was mostly based on speculations and like, based on the history also like of the US, and I was pretty disappointed, so I wanted, I ended up taking an elective class, it was an anthropology class with these anthropologists that were focusing on the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, and that's where I fell in love with anthropology because they, I mean, they really look at issues from this holistic perspective where not only the political aspects matter, but also the cultural aspects, economic aspects, and the political economy aspects with respect to the broader global economy and the broader global context, so it was, and then the spiritual aspects, and we talked about food and we talked about culture, so that's, yeah, that's what made me, you know, engage with anthropology and shift my career. And then from there, what gave you the impetus to even dive deeper into food anthropology and make that a big part of your focus? So, yeah, I took a break, well, yeah, I was doing anthropology, but no, I looked more at the history, so after that, well, I was, I was working with communities first in Ecuador and then I looked at issues of women's health and sexuality for a while, and then I was looking at human history, so that was my dissertation focus, and so after that, I was ready to do something more in the field, and my motivation to start with food studies or food anthropology was, it was very personal, it was my personal journey with food and with health, so I had been for the whole time that I was doing my PhD, I really struggled with my health. Looking back, I realized it was, it had a lot to do with stress, that, yeah, it couldn't be fixed with the diets, but I kept looking in the diets, like for answers, and I did, yeah, a bunch of diets, including vegan and, what's this other one, comparable to vegan, that you just eat rice and vegetables, so I got really, I became, yeah, I lost a lot of weight, I was really skinny that whole time, and I was always cold, and my gut was, I mean, that's when I really, like, destroyed my gut, just eating, I mean, I was eating a lot of oatmeal, I ate it every day, like, I ate oatmeal every day, I didn't soak it or anything, I was just eating oatmeal because I felt that that was, you know, it was healthy, and then, you know, the more vegetables and raw vegetables, I didn't understand, and a lot of beans also, and then I kept in touch with a friend from Ecuador, and she, you know, we exchanged a lot of this kind of information, and one day, she gave me the Sally Fallon's book, Norwegian Traditions, and then I found my mom's recipe for quinoa soup, which is a very, it's a very traditional soup, it's a traditional recipe from from Ecuador, especially from the highlands where I am from, so I was surprised to find that in that book, and you know, I read the book, and I was surprised to find all of this, like, this new perspective on, that was for me, like, new because I had been looking in veganism or vegetarianism for answers, and then all of a sudden, like, you know, this book had a lot of good arguments for eating the traditional way, the way that my mom raised me with, and my grandmother raised me with, and it was really simple for me to just try it, and as soon as I tried, I started eating meat, and because I was also, yeah, I didn't eat, like, beef or pork for a long time, so I started, you know, introducing more meat, and eating more the traditional way, like, you know, chicken and rice and vegetables, tortillas with cheese or whatever, and it's more close to my heart, and then immediately, I started feeling better, so going back to your question, that's what made me, that made me interested in pursuing food anthropology as a research path, because I realized how much wealth of knowledge was in my own family, and, you know, that's what I found on this book, and I was surprised that it was a book written in English, and it was a best-selling book, and I wasn't looking at this for my own, for my own health, and I felt that other people also needed to know, because everything made sense at that moment for me, like, everything made sense, like, this knowledge is being tested for so many generations, and it's being passed on, you know, by my grandmother's ancestors, and then I have that knowledge as well, not only for food and for recipes, but also for medicinal recipes with herbs and other things that are part of the way we are raised in Latin America, even my generation, I grew up in the city, but I got all of this knowledge from my elders who were raised in the country, that they were closer to the herbs, to the garden, to the animals, and so they have all of this folk knowledge about food and medicine, so that's what made me start this project. Wonderful. So, tell me more about how you grew up, and what was the food and culture intersection? How did people relate to food? Who prepared those foods? When was that, when different foods were utilized within your culture, and how that impacted people's relationships and celebrations and so forth and so on, and then what was the difference when you came to the States? Yeah, there were a lot of questions there, but one of the questions was who prepared the food, so for us it was my mom, we were raised, my brother and I were raised by my mom because my parents got divorced when I was five, so I was raised by my mom, and she's the one that made the food, and I remember, I remember that she sometimes gave a soup or beans and rice, not so much meat, I don't remember meat, but beans and rice for breakfast or soup for breakfast, which is very different to what my peers in school were having because I went to private school, and my friends in school, or not my friends, but my classmates, they were like wealthier, and it was an American school, so there's this cultural hegemony, I don't know if that makes sense, or I cannot pack it, but basically it's this idea that you have to try to mimic the US and US culture and whatever is related to the United States, and whatever is on Hollywood or the magazines from the States, so my classmates were, I mean, I know because sometimes I stayed overnight, like sleepover at their home after doing an assignment, and I know what they were having for breakfast, like cornflakes and milk and orange juice and pancakes from the box, because these were very wealthy families, the kids from wealthy families were my classmates, and so this is the class of people that used to go to Miami on the weekends, so they're being big landowners, they're in the political, also they also have a lot of political control in the country for a long time, they're part of the oligarchy, you would say, so they have money, so they go to Miami and sometimes they bring stuff from there, because at that time it was not so easy to get this kind of stuff, like in the supermarkets, right now you can get like Panky syrup in the supermarket, in some supermarkets, but back then you have to, some of these things, like very cultural, US cultural foods bring them directly from the US, so it was pretty sad, but I mean I was bullied, you know, like in school for eating these foods that my mom made, because we were not of this social class, like my mom was working class, she was a nurse and she was a single mom, so she sometimes sent me also these traditional snacks, like in my lunchbox, and it was totally unacceptable within my circle, because it would be like toasted corn, we call it tostado, with churros, which is lupin, which is like a, it's a kind of bean that grows in the Andean region that is very high in protein, and these are also, these are very, these are traditional foods, like even ancestral foods in this region, like for example lupin is native, is native to the Andes, so my classmates were bringing like, you know, packaged stuff, and that was a cool thing to do, and yeah, so that's what I remember in terms of my growing up, I also remember my mom going, you know, doing a lot of effort to, to bring me homemade food to wherever I was, so after, after school, like high school, or school, I went to music school in the afternoon, so I took the bus and dropped me off at the music school, and I spent my afternoon there, and then my mom would bring me the prepared food for me to eat, like on the sideway, or on the sidewalk, or like, just the entrance of the music school, like, you know, hall, and I would be eating that, and it was kind of shameful at the time for me, like, you know, be eating that way, because she didn't want me to eat the foods from the, from the store, like, you know, the packaged foods, she would really take care of, of us in that way, like, through the food that she would give us, and what I said about the breakfast is, is something very traditional in the country, you know, it's very, it's a very much of a part of the rural culture to have this, quote unquote, heavy breakfast, what you, for us, for anyone today, like, having soup for breakfast, or like, meat and beans and rice for breakfast is considered heavy, but in the country, it's traditional, it's traditional, so that's, yeah, that's one of, one of the ways I think my mom showed us her love, by really, you know, putting so much effort in, in really thinking in our nutrition, even though we didn't like it, because it was not aligned with, you know, with what everybody else was doing, and with our, you know, with classmates were doing, but yeah, and then in terms of the rituals and stuff that you were talking about, we always got together with my family, especially my mom's side family, and my grandmother was like the matriarch, she was the mom of five sisters, like, that were the sisters of my mom, my aunts, and they were many, especially a few or two or three of them were like my mom's, my second mom's also, like, they raised me, they know a lot, they knew a lot about like traditional foods and how to cook, how to cook, I really like this knowledge of cooking traditional foods as well as medicine, so they taught me a lot of the other things I know about the herbs, even though it's not a lot, but when I see other people, like, other people don't know anything, but I know, I realize when I come here, how much I know about herbs, because my aunts taught me that, like, they would prescribe certain herbs and preparations and remedies in special circumstances, and I learned all of those things growing up with them, so when we got together, it was all of them cooking and the kitchen was a mess, and my grandmother was usually very stressed out, she was super stressed out because these traditional dishes are very complicated to make, some of them, they are very, in Spanish, my grandmother would say laborioso, which means it takes a lot of labor, like a lot of work, it's very complicated, cumbersome to do, so she would have an entire crew of people, like all of her daughters, helping out, and then it would be a delicious meal, I mean, I can tell you about some of the recipes that are very dear to me that my grandmother used to make, like the plantain ball soup, that's one of my favorites, rompope, she used to make these, they're kind of like buns, but they're made with this tuber, which is, again, I think only found in the Andes, I think in Ecuador and Colombia, we call it sanoria blanca, which would translate as white carrot, but it's not the white carrot or the parsnip that you find in the store here, it's a different kind of tuber, it's a mix between yuca and something else, but it's one of my favorite foods, and she used to make, just even boiled that with some salt and olive oil, and she would tell me like all of the health benefits that is good for fertility, that is good for, it's like a very light food that you can eat at night so it can help you sleep, things like that, I mean, she knew everything about every food. That's amazing, so you go back and forth to your hometown or?  Have you seen those traditions changed or have they stayed the same for the most part? Totally, yeah, I mean, I would say like it's not a new change, but it's changing more and more, like for example, over the past, I don't know, five to 10 years that I've been going back. What I've seen is that it's surprising a lot, is like I go there with a lot of expectation to eat good food, because foods that you cannot find here in the States, and I go and ask friends or acquaintances, like, oh, can you recommend a place to eat? And a lot of them would say, just go to the mall, and go to the mall to the food court, so everything like I said, you know, there's this cultural imperialism that we are trying to mimic, you know, the United States in every way. So the malls look like a lot of them look like the malls here in the States, and they have a food court with a lot of these chains, a lot of which are U.S. food chains, and but a lot of them are also like local food national chains also. So for example, if you want ceviche or you want like arroz con menestra or something like very, very traditional, very Ecuadorian, quote unquote, it's very difficult to talk about Ecuadorian food because it's so diverse. There's so much of the regional cuisines, but for example, there's some chains that you can find at the malls where you can find ceviche and other things. And for me, the experience is terrible because one of the things for me, most important for me is like to be able to eat in real, like with real silverware and in real plates. And at these malls, it's always at the, it's always, you know, the paper plates and the plastic silverware. And for me, that completely changes the experience of eating and the taste, everything like. And because they're masks, they're chains, it's not, it's not, it's not the same. I was looking, you know, whenever I go, I always try to look for the hole in the wall type of places. But there's also a lot of new, new cuisines, like the chefs that are like academic chefs, they've gone to school, and they're trying to use the traditional foods as a base and then create new recipes, which, you know, some of them are really good.  And they also, I think they also, I am very critical of the way a lot of the chefs or the chefs inferiorize the traditional foods. And they claim to be doing something better. I think the traditional foods and the traditional recipes can't be improved. They are always already perfect. You can innovate, you can create something different. And that's fine. But you cannot claim that it's better. And a lot of these chefs, I mean, that's what they thought in schools, in the schools and in the culinary schools, because they follow the European models, the French cuisine and the Italian cuisine. And I think that's a very Eurocentric way of looking at food and culture. And it's unfortunate because we have such a rich culture, food culture, and we don't need to try to mimic anything or anybody. I mean, that's a very colonial kind of approach to food. So. Yeah. And how do you think that those changes are affecting the health of the population? What have you observed? Well, it's been going, it's been following the trend in the developing world, in the US and Europe, like our epidemiological profile of the population is, no, increased prevalence of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, etc. But it's coexisting with infectious type like profile and malnutrition. Malnutrition is widespread. It's widespread, especially in the rural areas. So it's a combined kind of scenario. Definitely, the standardization of the diet is what is behind a lot of these outcomes in terms of health. There used to be a lot more diversity in the diet in terms of the ingredients. And that's where my work with the seed savers come in because, you know, there's a movement of farmers in Ecuador to try to save the seeds of many of these vegetables and fruits and even animals that used to be eaten.  And because it's becoming more and more standardized, like just a few vegetables and, you know, they're just standard. In spite of that, if you go to a color to a supermarket, you will find a lot more diversity than you find in the US, especially in some somewhere like the Midwest, for example, where I have lived for a long time, it's pretty pathetic. Like, you know, just apples and bananas that come from somewhere else, like nothing's local. Over there, yes.  And there's widespread use of pesticides and and it's obviously affecting people's health because of that. And then I mean, as cities have grown more and more. For example, if I go back to to my home city, Quito, I don't recognize 80% of the city, you would drop me there. I don't I don't know where I am because only a tiny bit of it, it remains from from the time where I grew up. So it's been growing so rapidly. People I mean, there's a lot of immigration and the city has grown so much that that it's just impossible to for me to to recognize it. So what I what I'm trying to get at is that all of these changes bring along lifestyle changes for people, right? So there's like so much contamination and so much traffic in the streets because population is growing and growing and and all of these entails changes in how people eat.  It's hard, you know, it's even, you know, people don't have time to make food at home and the foods that they find in the in the street, there's some good options. But a lot of it is fast food, a lot of it is like convenience is winning. And that's impacting a lot of what people are experiencing in terms of health, I think. Yeah, the food of sterilization and the, you know, fast foods and everybody's out to work and this traditional roles within families that don't really exist anymore, really change the landscape and it affects food culture, it affects health, it affects community. It's a ripple effect into everything. Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because just yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine who is from from from my home city. And she was complaining about something I have also experienced that when I go back to Ecuador, I, I noticed that a lot of people don't get together any as often as they used before and getting to, I mean, like, I mean, I like to emphasize it. It's not just the food that you eat, but how you eat it that makes a difference in, you know, in, in how you're going to take that in how the impact is going to have in your body, etc.  I mean, this is how we evolve to eat. We evolve to eat with other people, right, to share our food with other people. That's, that's, it's kind of like in our brain, right? At least, and it's, it's very, it used to be, I think it's, it's much more still, you know, still a tradition or a way of, of eating that that is more prevalent in, in Latin America and in Ecuador in general, compared to the US, like in the US is more common for people to be okay eating by themselves. But in Ecuador, no, in Ecuador is very, is very much of a communal, a social activity. So, especially after the pandemic, this was, I mean, this really, it really changed the way that people interact with each other. And with people with cities growing, like I said, for example, I, I have family members that live in a part of the city that is very, like kind of far from, from the, like in a valley compared to the, you know, the main city. And they just don't like to go. They don't go because it's the traffic and, you know, it's the distance and they have a lot of these valleys that the surrounding cities and the servers have grown so much that they have all their facilities like the banks and, you know, other things in that area. And they don't have to go to the other area for any reason. So that's an excuse not to reunite with their, with their friends. So my friend was complaining that, you know, she has a group of friends and they never get together. They live in the same city. And every time we go back, like as immigrants, right, like we are always looking to meet with our loved ones, like with our friends. But we find out that they never get together. If we don't go back and, you know, create an excuse. So I think that this tendency to like alienate yourself from others is like ongoing and ongoing one, but it has been strengthened after the pandemic. And it has hurt.  And I still think that there's a lot more research to be done in terms of what the impact is of, you know, these psychosocial factors in, in your health through food. So not just what you eat, but in the context in which what you eat. I think some of those studies exist here in the US in terms of obesity, for example, child obesity, they look at how like family meals make a difference compared to like eating in front of the TV or eating by yourself. So I think it's a big deal, you know, creating more opportunities to eat in community. And that not only entails like, you know, people getting together, but how spaces are organized.  Instead of creating this, you know, this, this infrastructure, I remember, I think there's a chef's table episode with this Italian chef that refused to, to put separate tables in his area. It's amazing. It's a, it's, I thought it was, you know, it was revolutionary because he said, this is the point. I mean, it really doesn't matter what you're eating. It matters that you, you are all the, if you're coming to my restaurant, you have to all sit in this one table with two benches on the side so that we can have a communication around the food because that's, that's what's making a difference. Yeah, that's important for sure. So tell me more about the work that you're doing about food. Let's start with Komi das Kukuran, Foods That Heal. Yeah, like I said, it was a project that was inspired in my, in my desire to learn more and communicate to the world and to, especially to my community about the value there is in the, in our heritage, in our cultural heritage. And that is a life in the memory of grandmothers and mothers and, and even in us, you know, so that we need to really document it. We need to promote it. We need to know about it and, and we need to raise awareness of the value it has and the urgency of, of holding onto it. Because I think it's one of the treasures we have in our culture and in our country. And I know this because I've been living in the US for more than 15 years now. And I see that that kind of generational communication of knowledge that transmission is being interrupted for a long time here. Because the industry has taken the place of the, of the moms and the grandmothers. So the industry is the one who tells you what to eat because of through advertisements or whatever is available in the store. But, but it's not those heritage recipes, the one or, or your mom. I mean, but your mom might be cooking something that is significant for the family. And that's great. But it's, I mean, it's long disconnected from the local traditions and from the local foods. Right. So that's something that we still have in Ecuador, that we still have a regional cuisine. That means that it's a cuisine whose value comes from the, the fact that it's cooked with, with local ingredients with the, with the vegetables, with the fruits, and with the animals that are raised in the local area in that area. And that have been, you know, for generations from thousands of, for thousands of years. For example, one of my documentaries looks at a fishing community. They have been fishing their ancestors.  And the people there today continue to do the same. So I mean, this is really powerful.  They don't even know where it comes from. It may come from as far as China, you know? So there's such a disconnect from this, from the land, you know, from the land where you're standing, which is a really powerful way to build a sense of belonging. And belonging is a very, very powerful factor in mental health and physical health. I mean, it's one of the things that keep us going. You need to have this sense of belonging, this belonging, this community. And food is one way in which you reinforce that belonging. It's really important for mental health. The fact that your food is meaningful, it means something. It has a tradition, it has a story that is shared and that has been passed along for so many years in this community that you're part of. So this is what drove me to do this work and put it in the film format. So put it in a video format because younger generations, like kids and, you know, teenagers, they're not too interested in listening to their grandmothers. It's not interesting to them. So that was one of the ways that I and my colleague Alejandra came up with in terms of how to entice, how to motivate especially younger generations by creating this space, not only to engage with this knowledge in an audio visual format, like in our digital age, but also to create learning opportunities for them to also participate in the making and be the protagonists. So be the ones that are in the big screen, both as youth and to see their elders as protagonists in these films is very empowering. It's very empowering for everybody in the community. And I just heard from some friends in Esmeraldas where I did one of my, like two of my films are based in Esmeraldas, which is an area in the coast with a very strong tradition, Afro-Colorian tradition. Majority of the population is of African descent. And the food is such an important part, but again, they have all of these influences from the city and from abroad, from the U.S. And they brought the film to my two of these films, two of my films to the communities. And they just told me about how excited the kids were to see themselves in the film and to see their family members in the film, because it's a big deal, you know, it's a big deal, especially if they know it's been screened somewhere else, it's received recognition, it's like awards. I hope one day we will be on the TV, you know, we will get these films to show on the mainstream media because it's such a powerful influence for people, right? So that's, you know, that's kind of like the philosophy behind this project. There's a lot of us in the U.S. that have come from other places, other countries. How do you think we can best balance maintaining those traditions alive and telling those stories to our children and keeping that knowledge going without having access to the land where those foods come from? One of the things that I struggle with, I love my Dominican food, but, you know, that food is traveling a lot of miles is one thing and, you know, that struggle between eating that and putting more emphasis on what's local to the area where I am in the Northeast, which is nothing like what I grew up with or like the most. So how do you keep that balance going? I love that question. Yeah, because I struggle with the same, but I think you can do both things because I don't, I'm not like, I don't advocate for like a fanatic kind of like, you know, close-minded approach to eating and food. I think food is really, it's meaning, it's the meaning you make or you put in the food or the meaning that the food has for you. Like I said, it connects a lot with your emotions, with your memory, with your sense of belonging, with your connection to other people who we are eating with. So if we, like us, we are immigrants, right? We are sharing with other people that might or might not be our family members or members of our ethnic community. We're still building a community. We're still building a bond through the food, whatever food it is. We are still building a bond, a community, and we are still nourishing ourselves by sharing that food with other people, no matter what it is. Again, I am all for agriculture and, you know, organic foods and everything, but this is not the only way of looking at health. I mean, if we look at health from an integral, from a holistic perspective, like I said at the beginning, it's much more than that. It's much more than what you put in your plate. So for me, you can do that. You can still do that. The first thing I did here was try to find like what are the farms that are nearby? There are so many farms and they have local produce. They have milk. They have cheese. They have stuff. And for me, it's always a discovery. I just discovered a skier. I didn't know about it until I came here. And it's amazing, like they make it with the maple syrup that they make here. And for me, that's part of life. That's part of health that is being able to feel pleasure from experimenting new things and new flavors and new sensations. And I mean, traditional is great, but we are human beings. We are made to try new things and experiment, and we get pleasure from that. And pleasure is good for us. It's healing. It's repairing ourselves. But on the other hand, I also think that we have a right to our nostalgic foods. Yeah, so I think, I mean, it's very powerful. I have a friend who studies this concept of food nostalgia. And it's something that develops early in our years, like as we are developing our brain, you know, our brain develops in our early years.  So, and again, they are tied to memories and a sense of security that came with that space, and that was our home. And for immigrants, I mean, we navigate these feelings and these emotions in various ways, but it's still part of who we are. And I think we have a right to it, because it's, I mean, it's so, it never goes away. And it again, it's a source of pleasure. It's a source of peace of mind, of comfort that we get from, you know, reproducing, replicating, trying to replicate, attempting to replicate. Sometimes it's impossible to replicate, but these attempts to replicate our nostalgic foods, our traditional foods from home also have a healing benefit for us, like a healing potential, because they are they are having this effect of, you know, generating pleasure and, and, and, you know, having this whole effect in our body.  But, but I think that I think we, we are not to, first of all, I advocate for a guilt-free food. And guilt-free eating in that sense, not in the sense that we get in the, in the, in the tags from the food industry, like, oh, it doesn't have sugar.  No, we, we shouldn't feel guilty at all from eating any food, because if you add the guilt to the food, you're harming yourself, you're eating something toxic. Really? I mean, you're having a talk, like, you're, you're really hurting yourself by, by just adding guilt to food. And there's, that's again, like a big, a big question mark for, for research. I think the psychology, food psychologists are, are doing a lot of, a little bit of research on, on the impacts of, you know, what is the state, our emotional state when we eat, and a lot of us are eating with guilt. And a lot of us are eating with fear. And stress, and frazzled. And stress, and stress. So we, really, that's something that this is, this is the diet that we need to follow, like, you know, a guilt free, eating experience in the sense that wherever, whatever comes to your plate, give an opportunity, you know, to nourish you, you need to, you need to, you need to get out of that place of guilt and of fear and whatever is, is preventing you from enjoying that moment as it is with the people that you have around, because a lot of these diets, they put a lot of restrictions and they, they, they keep us away, you know, they, they, they take us away, they distance us from these opportunities to share food with other people. And I think that's really, I mean, it's, it's, it's harming, it's very harmful, because we are losing a huge opportunity to build a bond with someone because we are making a food choice. And yeah, I think that's, that's, that's pointless. And in terms of, of, like feeling guilty for the footprint, I don't think we are the ones I call that I don't think we, we, because we were eating our plantain or whatever, like our traditional food, we are not a, we are not responsible for a huge amount of that, you know, that damage, whatever it is for the, for the, I think there's, there's bigger forces, there's bigger forces compared to the ones that address the needs of immigrants or that demand that there is in the markets for, for these nostalgic foods.  I think we go back and forth more and more often. And as, you know, transportation becomes more available, I mean, and it's just part of the world we live in. I think we, we, we can't, we, we can't turn away from that at this point, because immigration is something that is something like a continuum, right? I mean, it's, it, and in terms of, like you're saying, like preserving the traditions or feeding into those, I think borrowing a little bit from the local and, you know, appreciating and teaching our, you know, younger generations to appreciate what's local, but at the same time to feel bright and love for your heritage, because a lot of, like I was saying at the beginning, a lot of us experience shame around our heritage, our cultural heritage when it comes to food. And it should be the case. You know, we shouldn't be feeling ashamed for what we're eating, because it's, there's nothing to be ashamed. I mean, it's a big value that we bring to the, to our community, to ourselves, and to the world. Yeah. So beautifully said. And that ancestral way of eating is just, it's not just what's on your plate, but how you're experiencing the food and how it's nourishing, who you are sharing it with and going back to those traditions of food, bringing us together and being at the center, no matter what it is. Yeah, absolutely. So if someone is listening to this and, you know, they may be the typical person who lives alone, works many hours, eats on the go, and they want to learn more about this way of experiencing food, where would you advise them to start? Well, I would, I mean, I always tell people to watch my films. I mean, a little bit of these is registered there in some of my films. I've also written about this in a few papers and they're in English. So they're on my website, comidasquecuran.org. Maybe you can include it in your Yeah, so I'll put it on the show notes. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I mean, invite me to teach a class. I've taught workshops and classes where I do a lot of these exercises like this. I have people have different experiences with eating, like eating alone, eating with someone else, and eating with an enemy, eating with a friend. It's part of my interest in conflict transformation. I use some of these exercises with eating in different contexts to understand some of the ways in which we can communicate across conflict. So yeah, I love to teach these classes. There's not an online class right now, but I'm always accepting proposals to teach and bring these ideas to communities, whether it's spiritually or in person. And I think that's what I can say for now. Wonderful. So comidasquecuran.com.org and we'll link that in the show notes. Any other places that people can find you, social media that you'd like to share? Yeah, Instagram is comidasquecuran and I'm on Twitter as Pilar A. West, even though I'm not very active on Twitter, but more Instagram and Facebook. My Instagram and also in Instagram, I have a Craspando underscore Coco, which is my one of my first film. I try to post in English and Spanish, but you can still use the translator to find out what I'm talking about. I've conveyed a lot about this in the papers I've written and some of my talks are also listed on the website. So yeah, that's where you can find me. And also our ancestral health symposium, YouTube channel. Some of your talks are also in there. So I hope you can go and see those. Yes. Wonderful. Thank you so much for being with us today, Pilar. This has been an amazing conversation and I'm sure that people will enjoy it and give some more thoughts about the place that food has in their lives and how it can be a transformative experience. Awesome. Thank you, Isabel. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Ancestral Health Today. We hope you enjoyed our discussion on how evolutionary insights can inform modern health practices. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast to catch future episodes.


Hello everyone, I'm Darko and Mr. is behind me. He will be joining you a bit later So we'll from none of it a creation company and we will be talking about mobile games to the cloud with Python or how we as a company made a transaction from a more More mobile from a mobile based gaming to a one that is cloud based So I will divide this talk into three parts the first part will remind me then missile will take over and then I will finish So let's get started So how is this talk going to be divided so we have four parts the intro and the requirements the Python back it but you will see that later But I want to tell you what our objectives are our first objectives is to show you how we Connected various technologies using Python how we created a scalable architecture as a result of it And how we are using Python in our company on a number of places But the second objective which I find more important is to show you the lessons We learned the challenges we faced the difficulties we had and what the problems were when creating such a system That has a lot of customers that has a lot of players Which which are on smartphones and which problems arise with smartphone gaming and stuff like that So who are we I'm going to just talk you through this going to be a short part about our company We are none of it. We are a creation game development company and we started in 2009 and up till until 2011 we were all developing Applications and then we started developing games because in that time the games were more profitable and more interesting part of the industry so After we switched the games we decided okay Our games are on the smartphone, but we need some kind of a back-end on The servers which are going to connect the players of our games together like a social part of the gaming So we started developing a back-end server in Python And after that we all we saw a steady growth We had all the games we developed connect to this back-end But after some time that back-end back-end became too slow and to it wasn't Sufficient enough for our new requirements on in our new games So as you can see we are using Amazon and we have a lot of instances and we have a lot of Request daily and that's rising every day and every year So how did we use Python in the past like I said we needed some social social features So we started with our first iteration of server with which was pretty easy we used simple HTTP server in Python and that that's Lasted for about a month and then we realized that that won't work We switched to a more robust and more proof solution which was Apache with Django and that was okay for our Requirements back then our requirements were only to connect the players in a social way so they can stick in view each other's games they can Send gifts to each other and stuff like that after that we added some more functionalities like updates in the games Push notifications settings and stuff like that And we added a secondary server which was for our in-house analytics system and that was working pretty well But we only had one big issue We had only vertical scalability So every 12 months our server would become too small and would be able to handle the stress and the number of requests So we had to To bump up the server and that lasted for three years every 12 months a bigger server And we wanted to have horizontal scalability, but we couldn't because we had a problem with save games Which were on which were which were saved on the disc and this would not allow us to have horizontal scalability So a change was needed because of that So why did we make the change? So we had a new game this new game and new requirements and these new requirements were okay Let's have a better multiplayer. Let's have players who play against each other And when you have apache that's not possible because apache is a pre fork worker based web server Which doesn't allow you a lot of consistent persistent connections. So we had to change that Another thing we had my sequel my sequel wasn't Good enough for stuff like that You couldn't we had problems with my sequel when we developed the analytic system because we had like 50 60 million million Rows of data in one table and we had to join it that didn't work. So we decided, okay, we're gonna change that We're gonna make a solution that is more scalable that could allow us not only to have the social part of the game but the entire multiplayer and One other thing we decided, okay, we're gonna change We're gonna put the game logic of the game on the back end No longer will the game be played only on the smartphone It will gonna be played on the on the back end from now on So a player would send a request to the server every time something happens in the game So that we can have save games on the server that we can have players that play on multiple devices And when you have save games on devices like we had in the beginning You have problems with cheating because as soon as a player can reach his own his own save game He can cheat. He can just change the number of like coins. He has to four billion He can change the price of some stuff in the game to minus two billion and when he buys the stuff He gains two billion coins. So that that was an issue. So we decided we have to change that we have to We have to stop the players from cheating like that So what was the goal? The goal was to have a system that was scale Horizontally every part of the system that was primary primary part of the system could scale horizontally We had wanted to have an automatic deployment because up till now we had to upload the source code It's each time to the server and that was not feasible enough We had to upload it. We had to restart the serve the apache this time we decided to change something and We wanted to containerize each part of our back end So like if we have layers of back and we wanted to have them transferable easily transferable between Instances between servers since I like I said the game the game logic had to be Transferred to the back end that meant that each player had to have a persistent connection to the server and Apache like I said wasn't good enough for that So we had to find a solution how to have like 10 20 30,000 of players which play Simultaneously and each of these players have Persistent connection to the server. So another thing up till now until now The game would pull new data from the server. It would send a request It would receive a response from the server. We wanted to change it We wanted to have the server push new data to the to the games to the client each time new data would appear so We decided to use a sort of a events based Architecture we had a number of requests that would be sent in a batch from the client if those Requests would not go through they would be a sent again in like three or four seconds at that that allowed us to have to have So the data would not be lost in transaction in the transfer and stuff like that and the cheating it made cheating very difficult because we Tried to to each request that would allow a lie that would arrive on the back And would be checked to see if this request is available is possible. For instance, if a player Wanted to buy something in the game. We would check if he if this player has enough coins has enough any enough gems or or any other Any other resource in the game So why did we choose Python? We already had Python like I said we use Django We used a lot of things in Python and that was Pretty nice for us and we wanted to continue that way as I like I said We needed a web server that will allow us to have a large number of persistent connections and tornado tornado fits perfectly here because it's Made for that it's made for persistent connections from the clients and after a couple of thousand connections to one tornado Instance we decided okay. We can start another instance We can have a proxy in the front in front of that that would load balance between it We wanted automatic deployments fabric is also great for that We had fabric connect to our Amazon easy to instances Check for each type of instance with tags and we used both of that You can see both on the slide to and we had workers workers were part of the system that would that would process the requests that arrive from The smartphones from the games Since we had a working Django server, we wanted to have some sort of backward compatibility so we can reuse the database data we can reuse the code and We can reuse the stuff we already had that was required for the new game and We had a lot of databases We had three databases and they all had great frameworks in Python So Python was the solution for that and we decided okay We can go with Python from from the from this part on and continue the way it was used until then So I'm gonna leave you to miss off. He's gonna walk you through the architecture and the parts of the system So I'll show the architecture better on the diagram later But for now the diagram the architecture is divided into several layers Approxies Roots the request to the web servers the web servers talk to the queue which which talks to the Web to the workers and they talk to the databases and send a reply back everything is horizontally scalable and Every part that needs to be scaled and is a unit in this layer is dockerized so That makes deployment really easy So Python is great here because not only did we develop the code That implements the system logic the game logic, but also it works great in binding all those services together with its libraries So everything is in a virtual private cloud. So and only the Proxy the engine X proxy is available to the outside You can see how the data travels to the system blue lines represent the inbound traffic and the yellow lines represent the album traffic Inbound traffic comes to the HTTP requests and the album traffic goes through the web socket as you can see we use a React Amazon RDS and ready says are back end for the web web server part Each it contains consists of two parts the HTTP layer which Receives requests and the web socket layer which pushes the responses back to the To the game the engine X uses IP hashing so the persistent Connections are possible and web sockets web sockets can survive The when the request comes it goes To the web socket to the web server and it's pushed to our in-house built queue and the responses are The responses come through redis and we use redis as a queue we use simple list and web sockets block on the On the list until our request our response arrives that gave us some problems, but we'll talk about it later now the workers Our single-threaded Python programs. They are dockerized and they are connected to RQ We had to use our current RQ because of some issues with react We'll talk about that later and They receive requests from RQ each message from client has a unique message type and when we develop new games, so we just have to Process different events that are specific to that game and the rest of the system stays the same RQ is written in go We had we had to write a queue because of an issue with react when because of its architecture It doesn't support transactions. So when multiple Multiple points are right to the same data point They can create what they call siblings which are pieces of data with different week logs And you have to manage that that yourself. We saw that issue by having a queue Which roots requests for single users or single connections always to the same worker we use ring hashing for that and So that makes sure that Every piece of data that is written to is written by the same worker and they will never write multiple times to the same Data point the queue detects when workers go online and offline Everything in the architecture is made that everything is detectable and messages will queue up until new workers come up or it will rehash and Start using a different number of workers so Technologies used our NGNICs for the proxy tornado for the web server zero MQ is used Several places so that we can turn off and on several components and the messages will go through as soon as it's Turned on for the databases. We use react redis and my sequel We was ready for everything we use Docker for all the components. We just have to make git push deployment master and post receive hook we'll build the Docker containers Tell the the fabric will tell With the instances which have to be restarted that a new image is available They will pull the image rest are the Docker and we will have a new code Running and SQL alchemy for everything SQL related So dark over So as you can see we use Python to bind various technologies together that works great And as you can see we have a web server in Python We have workers in Python and we have them connecting various databases clients together But I'm gonna talk you now through the lessons learned because when developing such a system You always face difficulties and we had a number of difficulties some more specific to the smartphone part of the industry So one of the first things Mobile devices have mobile connections mobile connections can be slow when a person walks to this to the to the street Sometimes it disconnects from one tower connects to another tower. It connects to beefy It disconnects for Dubai 5 so you have connections which drop and new connections which start and we had had that problem Because we TCP doesn't help you when you try to discover connection drops So we had to fix that by monitoring our connections frequently We had to ping from the client to the server. We had to ping from the servers to the client Why because each time a new connection would spawn it would steal some of the data which arrives to Redis And that was the problem So we used Published and subscribed in Redis to fix that issue. We had to to Inter tornado communicate between tornado instances because We had multiple tornadoes and when a connection would drop no other tornado instance would know that it is dropped So that was a big issue. It's still an issue And I think it's it's a problem with most with most smartphone Connections because they drop frequently our old our old system also had this type of problems But Apache would fix it for us You had like when a player leaves the game It would leave a hanging connection which would drop only in three or four minutes But that wasn't the issue then now it is an issue So we had to fix it with multiple things with multiple on multiple places And that was the biggest issue another issue is what miss love said react and raise conditions in react So react does not allow you to have it allows you to have multiple workers right to the same data But when you do you have a condition which you have to fix react just tells you okay You have a condition you have two siblings now you have to decide which data is the correct one You have to merge the data yourself and that was an issue to us because if we if two workers write the data to react then the workers would have to know how to fix the issues that arise and Since we have a lot of requests that come from from the games each request has its has its own request type We had to know how to fix each Request each request type and that was a big problem. So we decided okay We're gonna just skip the problem. We're gonna pretend the problem isn't there We're gonna fix it like miss love said you're gonna have one worker receive all the data from one client and This data would arrive in the same order and one worker would only write for his or his client and that would allow the client only to have one worker for him and That fixed the issue because there were no multiple workers writing to the same data point. So another thing sequel data When we use sequel it blocks our single-threaded nature of our workers and since workers have to process a lot of requests We had to make sure that it they run as fast as possible. So we decided okay We're gonna drop we're gonna push some data to additional threads Which would write to sequel only when there are no other data to process We decided that this data is low priority Some of the sequel data is low priority and it can be written in two three or four seconds after the request was Processed so the main thread will not block the main thread would be able to process as much as requests as possible And that in general would increase the throughput of our system Another thing tornado and red is they don't work together Quite well because tornado does not allow you to block Anything it has to go Is it is asynchronous? But if you try to block in red is you have to block on the web server side And if you block like on a block pop blocking pop or on a on a subscribe It would block the tornado itself completely. So there were a couple of Solutions, but both solutions. We tried had some issues. So we had to fix those issues We had issues when we tried to disconnect from Redis and stuff like that So we had to implement some new stuff on that part And that was a problem and another thing a react We have a react of five databases and we we had one Problem when one react instance crashed and we didn't know about it because we were in the middle of development and We have we had this one server crash for about one month and everything was working fine because a react healed itself Magically we didn't know anything happened until one day. We tried to connect to this instance that was down And we we realized that it wasn't responding to pings or anything But the data was secure data wasn't corrupted. Everything was working as it was supposed to work So what's in the future? Like like we said we dockerized every container possible and docker is a great new technology And I think you have a great talk tomorrow by our colleague Which will which will show you how to use docker in a product in a developed environment I and I would suggest you listen to that because it allows you some great stuff especially on the production like this you can transfer complete images of Your your code between service and docker now has a native Python support So you can write docker Docker containers from your Python code which you have for automatic deployment and stuff like that Another thing we are working on is an automatic automatic testing facility Which uses a lot of docker and it allows you to it allows us to run suit of tests on a new iteration of our web servers our entire back-end to see if each request that arrives would always yield the same response and Since we have two connections currently we have one connection which is HTTP Which has receiving requests and we have a web socket that is only for the responses to the game We want to unify this to one single connection because because it would be much easier than it is now This also brings us some issues But we are trying to fix it with one connection and one interesting thing when we developed our first game using this back-end It's required five months to do it because we had to write the entire back-end from scratch But the second game was finished in a month and a half because we only had to transfer the game logic from the game To the to the back-end we only already had the entire working back-end the web servers the queue the Workers and we only had to transfer how to process the requests that arrive to the server And that that would allow us to have our new games Which would which would be developed to also need a lot less time than the first game did So that's that's it. You can ask the general some questions if you want. Thank you Well, we send it in a Jason form we Yeah, the the the colleague was asking how do we send the data from the from the client to the servers? How it is how it is formatted. So we use Jason to format the data We try to we wait for for like three seconds to see all the requests That are going to be sent to the server and then we send it in a batch If this batch goes through it is marked as completed and it isn't sent again if it isn't received if If a message isn't received that it is processed it is sent again in the next batch But the next batch always has the same order of messages like they were produced in the game So basically we have a Jason data which has requests Which are requests that were generated in the last three four seconds that word process This is one type and the other type are messages that are Critical high priority. They are sent Instantaneously in as a one message those messages like our stuff like a player tries to attack another player a player tries to Request the current leaderboard and stuff like that. So data that is needed as soon as possible Well, we didn't have it for the first game, but we are doing it right now Yeah, I would forgot so the colleague was asking was our method of testing and staging in our system So we didn't have it at the beginning But now we are doing this automating testing which would allow us that as soon as we do a git push We would spin off a new backend in docker and it would had have unit test for each For each request type that that is in our system And it would try to you to start some use cases in the game and it then would Would try to run those use cases and see if the Responses in the database in the game are as they are supposed to be Well, the question is why did we use we use both zero MQ and Redis And why did we decide to use a redis as a public published subscribe service and not zero MQ? So basically when we started using zero MQ We tried to use it in place of the custom in-house queue We developed and we were we realized that it didn't support what we needed and we already had red is doing this stuff And since red is is very powerful It allows you to do blocking pops publish subscribes key value storage everything you need We decided that as we are already using redis for This kind of stuff we can use it as a as a published subscribe. So That's probably the main reason zero MQ isn't as much Isn't so much used in our system as Redis is so basically that's the reason So basically the question is why did we use tornado and did we try to use other technologies such as Web socket you and stuff like that. So when we started developing we decided we needed a web server That would support a lot larger large number of persistent connections and the choice we did some research we did some Look some documentation and some stuff like that And we decided that tornado in that point was the best solution because it It had great support and it had connections with with tornado The next with the red is connections with zero MQ and that was what we needed at that time So basically that was the reason we did it But we are currently looking into finding an alternative Because we are trying like I said we're trying to unify the connections only have one connection And that would allow us to have to try new technologies and see if something else would fit into the shoes of the Tornado fits right now. So that's a great question. I'm gonna repeat it. So the question is how do we? Deploy a web service because when you deploy web service and have if you have a persistent connection This persists connection would drop and what would the clients would then send requests to a server that doesn't exist basically So we have the client is Full bullet proof so to say to connection drops if a connection drops the client would know immediately because when the But engine X and tornado drop it it drops the entire TCP connection and Client would then reconnect immediately to a new web server, which is deployed automatically in that's Like a second or two delay, but since we don't have to have Responses that are immediate we can batch the we can send the messages in batch in every four or five seconds That isn't an issue. So we decided we can stop the docker containers and start them again in one second And the client would not know that anything happened. It would just reconnect again Okay, the question is why did we use web sockets and only for the for the returning part you mean Yeah, because we wanted to have Persistent connection and one of the solutions was to have a low-level TCP connection But we wanted to have a connection that is a more of a higher level sort of like HTTP because our requests that are arrived to the server Are also HTTP connections So we decided that to use web sockets because they are up an upgrade to our current architecture that we already use and they are an upgrade to do the connection we already use for receiving requests and The only we needed something that would that would have stream like connection and the web socket fitted the bill Perfectly here. So basically that's it


Hey, what's good y'all should boy down from the down showing friends and we back for another kpop reaction And so today we're gonna be doing choreography BTS DNA dance practice I really thought that me and the bros did this a long time ago not like really long like last year, but I'm it's not in the archives and I have to do this Thanks to a supporter in the comments that brought up boy with love and brought up DNA and Basically, I realized I haven't did this one even now with the bros I thought we did but it's all good though because we're about to do it right now So with that being said, please make sure you hit the like button Please make sure you subscribe ring that bell and share it to your friends and family that supports You know saying I like to support YouTube channels like this that you dance practice reactions and give you real reviews So with that being said Also, I have a second channel that you see it's taking me a little longer to finish this blog But I have a vlog channel Which is right in my channel that sounds weird I know but if you go in there you'll see I got like 65 subscribers But if you want to please check it out, I'm about to be showing my journey in my life as a dancer as an artist So I can't wait to share that world with you. I'm actually really really excited So with that being said, let's get into this. All right in three two One, let's see what we're working with. Oh We got right into it. Okay First off What I love about this at the beginning Start right here. Got the whole set up nice and ready to go and like they just went crazy right here Okay Mm-hmm and they ran the booths and I do understand why they wear boots I do Let's go Let's go Uh-huh, so it's a lot of hard hitting like that boom boom. It's like pop it pop It's hit all of that because if you listen to the track like like a music video wise you can hear the house beat So you can hear like they can go anywhere they want to with this like they can stay on the The jack or the beat like the rock that you hit that but you see them hitting really hard like boom that thing thing Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do you hear all that? That's interesting. That's really interesting Yeah, you see what I mean hide a hard hit mirror. I was just doing that that boom boom that hard hit. Ah Yo, hey, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hey Subscribers who record who record grab this The reason why I say that is because it's really interesting how they are working with this beat like I know this is a video That's definitely prior old and prior done this and you know, we already know what BTS look like right now It's BTS is eating But I'm just kind of it's interesting how they're dancing with this this song because I'm trying to listen to the track And then I'm watching the group dance and it's like there's so many ways They could have they could have done with this track like they killing this choreography don't get to twist it But I think I would approach this with more of a house feel I would have came in with house dancing and I would have came in with like waving and Popping and I'm talking about the beginning. I already know I'm only a one minute 22 seconds But the very beginning I would have came with more footwork for me as a as a choreographer I would have came with more footwork not saying the choreography is trash. No, it's perspective You ever hear something you like wow, I'm worried what it went. That's what I mean Not about hate what it's about is what would you do if you had this track? And I'm already asking y'all as a dancer as a choreographer or somebody that just love BTS How would you make the choreography the first woman in 22 seconds because other than that the choreography is hot But I'm just wondering how would y'all hit this because I know how I would attack this beat Go back go back. Did y'all see that? You saw fast That's why I said make sure y'all understood this choreography is cold and This is why because BTS you just don't know what to expect. Watch this. I want to put this on you Let's just enjoy it. I Love this real Michael Jackson fail phone You know fast you got to get to the ground to hit that and be on beat look at that. He ain't waste no time I'm there. I'm there. I'm already there That's crazy That could have been better with the wave telling you man These groups be having crazy transitions Yeah, yeah, I understand that yeah Yeah The reason why I'm getting excited I'm gonna tell you why cuz I don't like wasting our time and giving you fake reactions the reason why I kind of jumped away at this because now the more that I watch and learn about the k-pop culture and It's like every time I watched them There's never been a repetitive formation Like this whole segment the formations just kept changing now Let's put this on you because I know y'all know the song already. So we don't let's not worry about the song Let's look at the movement right now because this is a dance practice Check out how many times the formation changes one two Watch them change again three Boom four boom five like the it's not like not like big transit formations But just the fact that they just keep shifting boom six boom It's like they put in work and of course I'm out to go back so I can see what they did right here that that shit is That's that's nice. That's nice to do that in what only three minutes and forty four seconds Like I love that I love that about them You don't get bored with their choreography as you are joining the song because the song is a hit. Yeah Way to use that Yes, I fucks with that I Love this part this part nasty, but y'all saw that So notice when they started going to the choreography his segment was coming up watch this Singing boom now. I'm in the middle easy money. They're not playing Let's go let's go. Yes Yes, now the only thing I would have changed I understand what beat they was hitting it would have been crazy They would have made it just a little bit sharper like boom Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do boom like what they bodies like slice and I know it's just a dance practice I know but this is just me being an artist right now like oh my god. I saw so many things Y'all know what's coming next level changes Getting your feelings Wow, excellent excellent excellent Explosive this choreography is very explosive Beep beep deem. Yeah, you see that You know we're going back if you watching this video or you work with me, you know damn well I'm about to go back and watch that this whole part This whole part this whole part all of this all of this all of this this was crazy Say my DNA talk to him nice Say my DNA talk to me nice It's really in my DNA though, okay, I quit that plan, but I'm not playing though. It's really in my DNA. Hey my thought process When you have beats like that There's so much you can do there's so much you can do there's so much you can do Because you can manipulate the beat how you wanted to manipulate it You can play with this and for them to be this explosive and you know they're getting ready for a music video You know they're getting ready for tours and and I'm not just talking about this group All groups around the world is when you got to respect these groups out here in the world That is not just giving you a great song but giving you a great damn Choreography that you can follow and enjoy like you're winning You're winning. You're getting a whole beautiful performance. That's why I like I respect Beyonce And I know a lot of people for example say oh, I don't like Beyonce You know that stuff like that, but you cannot take away when you see Beyonce on stage. She gives you a whole like movie on stage and Kpop does the same thing BTS does the same thing straight kids same thing txt a tease and more and the more groups I'm learning same thing I Love it. I love it. I know the videos old they done this already and I'm just catching up I'm the one that's behind so I'm reacting to the things I never had a chance to see before But this was nice. This is really nice and I see why People asked me to you know, you know, it specifically there was a subscriber that literally asked for this It was like yo, where's is that and I'm like, yo, you're right. I thought I did this This was great This is great. So thank you. Thank you matter of fact, I should pull up who that was Let me see if I can find the person that gave me love and was like yo I really want you to react to this ready. Yeah, ready. Yeah, Marisha Walker Marisha Marisha, I'm sorry if I miss up your name Marisha Walker Thank you for reminding me and all the subscribers that's showing love that has told me to make sure I watch this Thank y'all so much. So I know y'all been rocking with me and I know to say the first time So I said to watch this video. So all y'all including Marisha. I hope I said right Marisha Walker, thank y'all all for showing love and thank you all to continue to hey say Donald Watch this video watch this video and don't worry y'all James and Lonnie and Carter are all coming back to be honest with you What's going on? It's that we're grinding. We're working quick creating. We got a lot of big projects and You know, and it's just been a lot right now. So we're trying to get all this done and still make sure this YouTube channel is rocket So I love y'all. I appreciate y'all and I'm about to go get some decoration for my home I need to look this spot up because I got I got a second channel And I want this place to look nice for the the future of this channel and my second channel But I'm gonna give me talking in the tangent I will see y'all later because I know y'all like Donald shut up and go away. All right. I love y'all


The black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market toward transaction that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by some form of non-compliant behavior with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services whose production and distribution is prohibited by law, non-compliance with the rule constitutes a black market trade since the transaction itself is illegal. Parties engaging in the production or distribution of prohibited goods and services are members of the illegal economy. Examples include the drug trade, prostitution where prohibited illegal currency transactions and human trafficking. Violations of the tax code involving income taxivation constitutes membership in the unreported economy. Taxivation or participation in a black market activity is illegal. Participants will attempt to hide their behavior from the government or regulatory authorities. Cash usage is the preferred medium of exchange in illegal transactions since cash usage does not leave a footprint. Common motives for operating in black markets are to trade contraband, avoid taxes and regulations, or skirt price controls or rationing. Typically the totality of such activity is referred to with the DEFINA article as a complement to the official economies, by market for such goods and services, e.g. the black market in bush meat. The black market is distinct from the grey market, in which commodities are distributed through channels that, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer, and the white market, in which trade is legal and official. Black money is the proceeds of an illegal transaction, on which income and other taxes have not been paid, and which can only be legitimized by some form of money laundering. Because of the clandestine nature of the black economy it is not possible to determine its size and scope.


Recent studies have shown that metal on metal hip replacements and resurfacings are associated with higher revision rates than other types of implants. These findings have prompted further investigation into the potential causes of this phenomenon. One possible explanation for the increased risk of failure is the release of metal particles from the implant which can lead to inflammation and tissue damage. In addition, some patients may experience no symptoms despite having an adverse reaction to metal debris. Therefore, it is important for healthcare professionals to remain alert and conduct thorough follow-up exams to identify any signs of implant failure. This article was authored by James Drummond, Fong Tran, and Camden Ferry.