Hey everyone, this is Christian Buckley with another MVP Buzz Chat and I'm talking today with Amit. How's it going? It's going good. So for folks that don't know you, who are you, where are you, and what do you do? So I'm based out of Hyderabad, India, and I'm a Power BI community super user for last two years. And I recently got MVP for data platform this month. Congratulations. I know it's always, I try to keep track of an instance that I see people that got or are new or renewed that I've not yet had participate in this program that I don't know around the world to reach out. And so it's always great to hear from brand spanking new MVPs. And so how'd you get started? Like what was your path to becoming an MVP? Okay. So let me go a little bit back and then we'll come to the Microsoft path. So I started my career in 2002. And then I joined Oracle in 2003. And I was part of Antik's team. And then I went ahead with one startup where we were creating our own BI tool. And at some time after I we decided to move out. And then I decided to move out. That's what the time when I started working on Power BI. And I fall in the passion of Power BI. And I came to community around three years back for my own issues, which I was facing, I want to learn something, I want to get help. And then I found that, you know, I can, you know, help out people on the community. And I can, you know, learn more things about using that one, because, you know, you have limited scope in your project to learn.  And you can solve those are initial days I used to wait for it to get solved. Because if I don't know the answer, what's the answer going to be coming? So there used to be, you know, super users who want to answer that problem. And you wait for that, you subscribe to the issues. And you wait for the solution to come in. And then you try it out.  So that's how I started. And then I developed that interest. And then I spent a spare time, I have other than my work, I used to contribute a lot. And then corona blessing disguise has given a lot of opportunity to, you know, continue to work on that. And I became community super user and post that I continued to work there. I had given 15,000 solution on Power BI community till now, which is highest in number. And other than that, I ran a YouTube channel, which is having around 450 videos. I keep on writing down blog on Power BI community and medium. I'm pretty active, active on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, in fact, on Instagram also. And people keep on, other than community, people keep on asking me questions on these forums. So I try to encourage everybody to go to community for that. But yes, I do answer on those forums whenever I'm available on those forums. So this was my path. And then I got nominated in the, in July this year. And that's where I got it. Prior to that, I got nominated couple of times where I was not able to make it up. You know, it just made me think that, you know, that we have like the MVPs that kind of found that they, they had more time since they weren't commuting, working the same hours, you know, during the pandemic that we're able to really focus on community activities. So it's like, it's, it's almost like, you know, we have baby boomers, like, you know, people that were conceived during the post war period, the baby boom period, we almost have like pandemic babies for MVPs. And so it'll be interesting to go a few years from now and look back over, hey, did we have kind of a growth spurt the program around it? But the other point, I love that too, is that there's a lot of people that are wondering like, how do I get involved? And I think it's a great thing to say. It's like, you don't have it to participate in community. It might be initially that all you're doing is consuming information, listening in, trying out the solutions that other people are, are presenting at asking other questions, where you're not sharing anything back. That's still a great way to participate in community. Start to be familiar with what kinds of questions are people asking? What kind of problems are they trying to solve? Because over time, as you get more comfortable in the space, you start asking those questions as you're testing things out. I'm sure you went back and asked other follow up questions or had to tweak it slightly for the needs of, you know, the nuances of your business. That's a great way to get started in the community for those that are wondering, like, where to start? Yeah, I think sharing is learning. So if you are a Power BI community and if you are one user who are not aware that, you know, you can get help on Power BI. So Power BI community is the place I think you can start with getting help. And if you know a little bit and you, you know, a little bit of expertise on that and start helping out. And you know, when I go back to my work, I found that, you know, the problems are easy most of the time. And the reason being, because I have tried solving all those problems on the community, and that's making easy at my workplace, because I might have solved similar kind of problems and I've seen it. And there are so many different kind of requirements that you go and explore, you go and explore features, otherwise you might have missed out. So that's being on community gives that, you know, advantage that, you know, every features will be asked, everybody's doing some different stuff, hundreds of things getting explored at the same time and which you might not explore in your project. Because once after that particular time, your project will become as, you know, in a stage where you are only developing few things. So in that way, I think community is a great place. And anyone who wanted to go on a path of super user or MVP, my advice would be go ahead and start helping out on the community. Completely agree with that. So what else? So you talked about Power BI a few times and that's kind of the focus of like your MVP. What else are you passionate about right now? What are you excited about from recent announcements or other things that, you know, is happening within the ecosystem? So I'm pretty excited the way Power BI ecosystem is expanding. Like, you know, we have Power App integration, we have Power Automating integration, then the Power Virtual Agent coming in, and then we have this AI integration, which is happening in into the Power BI. That's give, you know, a lot of things because what happens is usually the BI tools are, you know, what we call is read only they don't write back. Now with Power App, you can go out and write back.  So this complete ecosystem, which is developing out is actually is a great advantage. And this is also giving us opportunity to learn something outside the BI world and, you know, explore those things like automation, app development and all those. So I'm pretty excited about, you know, the complete Power Platform. Yeah, it's incredible how quickly that ecosystem, the Power Platform world and the community around that is growing so rapidly. Microsoft often talks about, Hey, this was our fastest product. This is, you know, and it was SharePoint was for a long time. That was my background. My initially was a SharePoint MVP, was the fastest growing product in Microsoft history. Surpassed by then, you know, Teams was the fastest growing product in, in, in history. And for years, just the, the, the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is just dominated. But now you have very rapidly user groups are kind of moving their focus over to Power Platform. And of course, all the products within that you're still within the Microsoft 365 community. It all fits in there together. But that segment of community is growing so rapidly. It's incredible to see that it's having been in three different complete, completely different technology ecosystems. This seems to be like the golden era of Microsoft technology from a community standpoint. It's just on fire again. I don't know if you're seeing that where, where you are as well. I mean, that your user groups growing again. So user group going and when you solve the problem, you know, that amount of problem which is coming in like, you know, the number of problems you choose to come in 2019 and 2018, 19 when we started a number of problem when we see these days coming in and the kind of complex problems which are coming in, they have all increased widespread problem increase.  And that gives us an idea that, you know, okay, the product is, you know, getting a lot of attraction, a lot of new people are coming in, they're learning, and they're coming back to the community. Same thing we are seeing, you know, a lot of learning courses are coming in, a lot of people are teaching around it, a lot of YouTube channels are coming in, a lot of views are coming on the channels. And this means also that, you know, community is extending. And then there are more and more requirement of Power BI which is coming in. And also as a company, because we go into the market, we go a lot of get a lot of Power BI requirements. And they are increasing day by day means every day we get more requirements than we have yesterday. So that's why, you know, we are seeing huge growth. And the requirement sometimes comes with the need of power app, they come with power automated requirement. And that's give us, you know, real good thing that you're okay in the ecosystem, being in the ecosystem, we are going to solve those problems. And so for people that are new, maybe this is my last question for you is, where do you, where would you point somebody new coming in? Like where should they go and focus? What would you say that they need, they really should learn first? Or multiple things, but where would they go? Where do you point people? So my advice would be when you started learning on Power BI. So there's an official documentation we had for that. You can take in any of the courses from the experts which are available either on YouTube or some other places. And then once you have a little bit of knowledge, and that's where, you know, even if you when you face the challenge, you can come to community and, you know, ask questions. And once you learn a little bit of it, then you start, you know, solving some of the problems in community. And you don't have to, you know, think that, you know, I don't know, just wait for the solution is coming. There is the data you saw try to solve it, try to keep on attempting the problems more and more on the community. And keep on learning from the experience which other people are giving. They share some good links around those things. They share some videos. Community blog is another good place means we have so many blogs on so many topics. That is another place.  So most of the time what happens is if we search it rightly, we will have some blog or other blog, we have major gallery where you can get, you know, the solutions on the major. Then we have, you know, a themes gallery, we have the videos gallery and all those where you can get a lot of things. You just need to explore community, all the things which we are providing in Power BI community. I think there's a lot of help available. So as a newcomer, my advice would be go to community and explore all the things which we have, we are providing there. Yeah, tons of stuff out in.  It's always, I'm a huge advocate of that as well. Find people that you like, that you trust, reach out and connect with them, especially MVPs. The most approachable crowd on the planet, like, like we're there because we're connected in the community. Don't be shy, feel free to reach out. But some of the other resources too. So I know that like I'm, I'm actually going through a power platform training course through a group called collab 365, which is out of the UK. You have plural site, you have LinkedIn learning, you have YouTube videos. So free and paid, there are tons of training resources out there for power platform, of course across the board. And so, and then one of the favorite people in the whole world is Heather Newman who runs community for power platform. So you can always reach out and ask Heather questions as well. She's very approachable. But I'm really appreciate your time today. Folks that want to get, reach out and connect with you. What are the best ways to reach you? The best way to reach me is definitely if you're asking a problem in community, I will reply there. Some other folks will reply then I'm reachable on LinkedIn and Twitter pretty easy. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time and enjoy that beautiful San Francisco Bay area weather behind you.


Something strange happens to our brains when we fall in love. People who experience extreme attraction to another person notice all sorts of crazy things happen to their minds. It can feel like you're going insane. It could feel like a drug. It could feel like you're possessed. But what makes us feel this way? What happens to our minds to make us feel this way? Scientific research has been done to figure out if this concept of love has any real biological evidence behind it. And there have been some surprising, wonderful results. But a scientific explanation of love and attraction kind of takes away from the whole mystique of love and attraction, doesn't it? Is love just a chemical reaction in the brain? Or is it something deeper? Here are a few psychological effects of attraction that might give us an answer to these questions. 1. Intensified feelings One of the most confusing, exhausting, and wonderful things about love and attraction is the fact that you experience heightened emotions. Everything either seems beautiful or tragic. It's like your emotions are music and someone turned the volume to max. This can either seem torturous or amazing. 2. Information exchange People who feel attracted to each other have a more intricate social system of conversing with each other. More specifically, they tell each other more about what's going on, emotionally and mentally. Basically, they say whatever they're thinking. The specific term for this psychology is called information exchange. People who feel attracted to each other experience more of this. 3. Protects your mental health Researchers found that people in long-term relationships and people who are experiencing love are much less likely to develop mental illnesses. 4. Reduces trauma People who are attracted to each other find it easier to deal with traumatic events, such as illnesses or deaths in the family. This is because people in strong relationships are never alone when they deal with such events and always have someone to talk to. They know they'll always have the support of their partner. 5. Reduces stress Being in a strong relationship where both partners are extremely attracted to each other plays a vital role in reducing stress. Sometimes, the opposite happens, and certain parts of being attracted to someone can be stressful. But the rest of the time, it reduces stress. 6. Makes you more helpful When everything is going well and you feel very attracted to someone, the whole notion of everyone just caring about themselves pretty much goes out the window. To people in love, the very idea that someone could sit idly by and watch someone else suffer can be ridiculous. They have so much love in their hearts that it begins to influence their actions, causing them to be more likely to help other people who are suffering. 7. Makes you more brave People who are attracted to each other find things a lot less scary than people who aren't in a relationship. This is because no matter what, they know they will never have to face their fears alone. The one thing that people fear is being alone, because there's a certain level of uncertainty and coldness that people feel when being alone, and people who are in love never have to feel that way. 8. Releases adrenaline Adrenaline is released when you start feeling attracted to someone. This chemical gets released by the brain, but its effects are felt throughout the body. It causes the body to start sweating, the heart to beat, and the mouth to go dry. 9. Releases dopamine The neurotransmitter known as dopamine is usually found in drug addicts' brains, but interesting enough, it is also found in people who are experiencing high levels of attraction. Dopamine causes high rushes of pleasure throughout the brain. You don't need to be on drugs to experience it, just fall in love. 10. Releases serotonin Serotonin is another brain chemical that's found in drug users. Causing feelings of happiness and well-being. It regulates mood, appetite, and sleep. It is also found in the brains of people who are in love or strongly attracted to each other. This causes them to think constantly about their partner. 11. Releases oxytocin Oxytocin is a powerful hormone that is released at the height of orgasm. This hormone is still not very well understood by scientists, but they are certain that it has some huge effects on people's brains. It is thought that it makes people in strong relationships feel closer to each other. It is also responsible for creating a strong bond between a mother and her child. 12. Releases vasopressin Vasopressin is another hormone that's released by two people who are in love with each other after sex. It is also responsible for controlling your level of thirst. Although its effects are not very well understood either, it is believed that this hormone is responsible for causing a sense of attachment to people we are attracted to, causing the feeling that the people we love belong to us and no one else. 13. Causes hurt The area of the brain that is activated when we feel love-related emotions is the same area that's activated when we feel pain. 14. Causes addiction Similarly, areas of the brain that are responsible for addiction are also activated when we feel the emotions of attraction. Love can be extremely addicting, sometimes even more so than drugs. When you feel attracted to someone, even the act of thinking about that person can become an addiction, and many people find themselves daydreaming constantly about their partner. 15. Causes jealousy Another extremely common psychological effect of attraction is jealousy. This happens particularly when love doesn't go according to plan, and the person you're attracted to chooses someone else. Inevitably, you become jealous of the person who they chose over you, wishing you were them. 16. Leads to suicidal thoughts This is another result of one-sided love, one of the worst possible scenarios developing suicidal thoughts is an extremely dangerous psychological reaction to the feelings of love and attraction. 17. Causes anxiety Another possible effect of love and attraction is anxiety, a reaction that's not ideal. When you are so in love with someone, it's possible to care so much about making the relationship work that you start to stress out, constantly worrying that your partner will leave or that you might mess everything up. 18. You start thinking in the wee tense This effect of attraction can occur after someone becomes so in love with an individual that they cease to think of themselves as one individual and instead begin to view them and their partner as a single unit. For example, instead of thinking, I wonder if I'd like that movie that just came out, you think I wonder if we would like that movie. This way of thinking affects everything. 19. You feel rewarded According to various brain scans, parts of the brain which makes us feel rewarded are triggered when we feel attraction. This also ties in with the chemical dopamine, which is also responsible for feelings of being rewarded. 20. You feel safe People in long-term relationships also feel high levels of safety and security. This could be due to the human group psychology, where people feel safer when they're around more people. It's more likely, however, that people feel safer when they're in relationships because they subconsciously know they're less prone to at-risk behavior since they have each other's backs. 21. Causes aggressive behavior Another negative aspect of love and attraction is that it can lead to conflict between people. In the times of ancient Greece, a huge army was launched against the city of Troy because one king felt the trade after losing his life to another man. It can bring out primitive emotions and instincts in our brains, which makes us revert to displays of dominance and violent behavior in order to win our mates and make sure no one takes them away. 22. Activates the striatum An area of the brain called the striatum is also activated when people are in love. The striatum is responsible for a wide variety of things, including our reward system. It's also responsible for some very important behaviors that may affect our actions, including planning, decision-making, and motivation. 23. Activates the insula The insula is another part of the human brain that's activated when someone feels love or attraction. Part of the cerebral cortex, the insula is responsible for vital duties such as motor control and self-awareness. It's also responsible for thought patterns that are more relevant to the emotions of love and attraction, including emotions, perception, and interpersonal experience. 24. Causes obsessive behavior One of the hallmarks of love and attraction is obsession. Sometimes people can be so in love with someone that they worship them as gods, building shrines in their rooms to honor them, dreaming about them, and making note of every little thing they say. It comes to no surprise then that love has been proven to be linked to obsessive behavior, placating certain symptoms of disorders like OCD or obsessive-compulsive disorder. What are your thoughts about this? Do you find yourself showing any of these effects when you are in love? Let us know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe and check out our other social media. Thank you for watching!


We now move to a very insightful hopefully and an exciting one-on-one conversation Helming the conversation is Mr. Ruhail Amin senior editor exchange for media group could I request mr. Amin to join me on stage in Conversation with mr. Amin a Journalist who I think needs no introduction Miss Sonya Singh the editorial director for any TV can we have a big round of applause please ladies and gentlemen There's every no tax on the chairing, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you, Sonya for taking out time Sonya Singh Editorial director and a TV needs no introduction will straight away head into the conversation so this gathering is a eclectic mix of academics practical media and Students and and we have someone here who can address the concerns of all the three stakeholders in this conversation so straight way What we're debating is? how academic journalism is Maybe losing out in the race of practical journalism. We see that in the last ten years. We have If my figures are right, I mean one lakh print publishing Publications 400 news channels, you know and do we see the Journalism the academic side evolving at the same rate are they keeping pace with a changing landscape of media? Well before I before I answer a question directly I'd like to thank Anurag of course for inviting me and I was a bit wary of Attending this media educators because of course. I've never been to a media school I studied English which literature which as my parents told me is a course which will never get you any job It's a course you study for passion and luckily journalism is also something you study You work in for passion because there's no reason to work in journalism. It's not it's not glamorous It doesn't have the best pay it has the worst hours and Your performance reviews depends on what the audience finally thinks of it so journalism is a profession you should only join if you're passionate about it and Then I thought that actually perhaps the one thing I do know about media education Is the fact that I was lucky enough be part of the first batch of I think what was the premier media education? Institution of our country and that's NDTV because every television channel today is headed by people who are NDTV graduates So I think that has been a wonderful comment, I think on how a television company can a media company can also be a training ground and that I think perhaps is a challenge that many of the media schools now have to face that how do you actually make sure that you're Working ground your classroom is a slice of real life because after all what our journalists beyond looking at Reporting the stories of real life. How do you bring that real life in the classroom? And I think that is a challenge that Media companies and media institutions will have to look at working together in fact I think this kind of conversation is really important so we can bring those divides Much closer and look at how we can address that So so that blind spot if we have to pinpoint that blind spot that is there in the academic side of it I mean what would that be is there a heavier side to the theory part of it? Is there not the kind of right technology where the media has you know already arrived, you know Very exactly is that blind spot on the academic side? You know, I mean we do now tend to as said earlier as I said when I joined journalism We had people from very diverse backgrounds. Nobody had a journalism degree Everybody was where this English literature. We had engineering with very diverse backgrounds now We do look at media institutes. It's a plus point. Definitely. There's a degree from a media institute But what we do find is that often there's an obsession with technology But we leave aside then the old-fashioned values of journalism and when there's the journalism values Then there's a disconnected technology. So we need to marry the best of old-world journalism I think that really is something the The role that integrity ethics credibility must play in a journalist is something which I find sometimes in classrooms Has been taken a backseat to the issues of can you shoot your story? Can you do your can you the mobile phone properly or can you edit? So we have to marry that and I'd we are getting very bright young batches or recruits but we I think if there needs to be much closer connection between the The television companies or the internet companies are hiring and the classroom I think that has to be come together much closer, right? And when we see students aspiring to be journalists and when they look at news media, I'm specifically talking about news media What has happened is like as you're aware everyone is aware that it's slightly I'm sorry to use the word slided towards entertainment and you have screaming anchors, you know So how what is the responsibility on the media side when the Aspiring journalist is watching a news channel and he wants to be there. He's getting trained But he sees the idealism being stripped when he sees the real media How do you see that on the owners on your side? How do you try to address it, you know from your end? You know, I mean, I actually agree with you completely on that and often I mean, I actually find it now that I think this is a very difficult time for a young person to enter journalism because when I When I see like for instance, I think a case maybe and I don't mean to refer nasty to any particular channel or may as well but when I see Like maybe like I thought a clip I think Shashi through was coming out of some airport And there were 20 journalists surrounding him shouting at him I remember thinking if I'm a young reporter would I think I've joined journalism to shout at him Have you murdered your wife? You wouldn't and I do think that that way it is a television Channel that I was not just telling online But I think we are failing somewhere in a responsibility of remembering the ideals of journalism We all joined for I do have to say that all channels are headed by extremely brilliant Extremely smart people and we all joined with ideals We shouldn't let those ideals fall by the wayside because we are all big names in business down We think that we can dictate the political agenda We still have to realize there is a respect a certain Integrity and credibility which our words and our actions carry in fact even more than our words are actions So we tell a young person that you go out then you behave like this. They don't have a choice But to listen to you so the responsibility we have is immense and I do find it extremely worrying sometimes what young journalists Fresh from graduation schools are doing nowadays or being taught to do nowadays I agree with you That's a larger problem of the media especially at television media. I hope there will be a backlash I find amongst viewers. It is a backlash of people turning away from that kind of journalism. I hope that will Get people to actually correct because beyond self-regulation you can't this is not something someone from outside can tell you to do It has to come with From within I will go for two quick questions and I want to open it for the rest of them for next five minutes I'm showing a lot of them and nodding and they just want to ask you some questions First is what would be your three? Quick points about fixing the gap between academic side and the practical media side Three quick fixes not quick fix them into three solutions Well, I think I chase one solution I would suggest that and I know that at least any TV'd be very happy to do it that perhaps media institutions look at a Two or three month internship in actual newsrooms. I think that would be a wonderful addition to a course I mean news channels are always looking for young bright people It would help us almost as a kind of a bridge way to get a sense of how what are the things we actually look for a Company senior journalists on stories get a sense We have many interns coming to us because they need for their college applications So they know they want to intern with NDTV But I think it should actually be part of curriculum media institutions across channels to place Their students for at least two or three months in actual newsrooms I think that would be a wonderful bridge to actually get people better acquainted with what the expectations are in the real world Right and for aspiring journalists to what three things would you tell them in the contemporary, you know scenario to Learn or unlearn, you know to be the next future journalist who will be relevant and taken very seriously What would be those tips? I mean for the students who are sitting right at the back? Well, one is don't think journalism is glamorous. It's not glamorous at all It's it's hard work, but it's the most exhilarating exciting I mean, I hate the word profession because I don't think of journalism as a job or profession I think of it as a vocation a passion I think I mean I am very proud of the fact that we considered the fourth estate a pillar of democracy so I think really join it as a passion and Don't look at anything else. We are sincere. We committed hard-working and of course Definitely don't join it to be an anchor as I would say because we have many young kids will join and we'll do the interview and They'll say and all that we find and say, okay, ma'am, then when can I start anchoring? So I think that we have to wait a little bit for but I think it's In a way, I start off by saying that there's no logical reason to be in it, but it is the best Vocation to be in yeah, so five minutes. I would take that liberty and just want to open up whoever has questions only three questions But quick yes, please if you could introduce yourself and quickly Oh All right, okay because We actually had one but then we had we shut it down a few years ago because we did feel that there was not so many media schools We didn't need a separate one. So we are actually very open to placements and I'm not sure I said I know that Many others I think a republic also don't have their own media houses. So I think now there's so many I mean, I know our online division is also always looking for people. So I think that outreach perhaps I mean you can mail me you can mail our HR department, but we are always looking for fresh recruits and Often what we do like a lot is that we test that if you know if people are willing to work for three months as interns I think that willingness to and many of the people we've had have been young people who just badgered us We just want to intern with any TV because we believe in it and then have been absorbed because we feel that it They're so passionate being part of the channel Then these are the kind of people we want so I think that that's one of the ways perhaps that can be addressed Yes on the right side Yes, yeah, there's a mic You know these days there's no dearth of news channels around you know and you keep on surfing Switch one one from channel to another. I just want I'm very disappointed in one fact that are these News channels politically motivated and do they have affiliations? So can you give a short one question? Yes? Yes That's it No, I think I look I think the viewers the final judge I mean, you know, I think they will be there I mean whether it's X Y or Z and I'm not pointing at any channel and I'm sure you can say the same I mean people would say the same about us, but the viewers the final judge credibility our credibility is judged every day So I think if a viewer thinks if there is a political affiliation no viewers silly it will be out Very soon and it it comes out I don't think you can hide anything anymore in this world whether it's of social media or television. I Mean it's a badge of honor you're saying so I think but you know everybody has a remote control the way to vote as it says with We can take less of the conversation offline. There's one more question on that. Sure. Hi. I'm bridge. I'm from business world So, you know taking on from the last question Do you think that you know viewers today are foolish because? we see TPs of some channels actually on a rise and they and they are stuffing propaganda to people I mean, it's so out in the open, but they are also you But then they are still of course we are viewers But then they are still you know getting higher and higher TIP is of course those numbers are debatable But what is that? What is that? Which is you know, you know fully people and viewers Is it the hegemony of media as a fourth pillar? See a bridge. I'm not sure. I mean, I don't say anything on TRP's because last time I made some remarks I got a lot of trouble and a complaint after I talked about TRP's are not mentioning it But I think really we need to relook at TRP's and really has something rather than television rating with credibility rating points I think that is what is really what should be marketable in today's industry should be credibility that is really the gold standard if a channel is credible or not Often I find that should we have news system or some of the news channel should actually be the entertainment channels are not news channels that perhaps addresses some of the issue that perhaps You know, you're tired of being shouted at by your wife So you want to look at somebody else being shouted at on TV and you watch it for some reason But let's just say that I think the current TRP system the way it's being done is Not the ideal situation. However, I do find that I think credibility has become key for instance recently we had Nikki Haley in India and Nikki Haley at that time was a President Trump's representative at the UN and as you know the Americans and I'm sure I'm back from this research Impact and which TV channel they go to methodically. They look at TRP's. They look at online impact They look at what the feedback they'd get and they chose any TV is only TV channel And if they had gone by bark ratings, there's no way they would have chosen us But there is an intangible which cannot be measured which is respect which is credibility And I believe that even as I speak today Twitter has signed up with us only TV channel for town halls for the three election states These are these are companies thrive on research and market research And if those companies choose us over some other channels, I think the answer on credibility and why it's important really rest there So are we doing good on time? Is there time for I think we're doing really good on time And I think we have one more question, you know one more. Yes, please sir. Yes Yes I Giving them the exact basically point where they University with so many of us a graduate from the framework should be the same as it is of any subject in depth knowledge I think in depth knowledge is relevant to contemporary journalism with of course grounding in the history of the profession the greats of our profession the lessons of Journalism but it has to be contemporary That's the framework the rigor of academia must be there. I don't think journalism is easy It is the more we read the more of different viewpoints young students have been exposed to the better journalists They are but the academia has to be in sync with contemporary Requirements as well, which is often technological requirements along with the academic Rigger which is needed from any syllabus Thank you, I think we're done and thank you once again for your time. It was lovely to me too Can we have a huge round of applause? Thank you Thank you. Missing. I request you to stay on stage for just a minute. I Like to call upon mr. Sagar Kaushik go founder of pleasant stride foundation. Please and strike foundation I beg your pardon, please come on stage and felicitate our speaker Round of applause, please


Sam here with late in sports cards, and I am doing 10 bucks Tuesday 10 bucks immaculate treasures mixer number 1 23 here is the results again to the random as always you could find these on the website under the results tab as well as Lincoln chat Gonna make sure here. I just got the right boxes. So we're gonna start with 2022 wild card illumination So I'll have Sean look up the guys. We don't know And if they are on for autographs at least if the autographs are guys and still in college They will be random to all at the end So Sean will have Google on hand here Yeah, and if the auto is somebody who's still in college Not affiliated with any NBA team whatsoever. It will go to a random this Davion Mitchell 34 out of 40 Kennedy Chandler is the first auto that is 8 out of 15 Kennedy Chandler It looks like Tennessee volunteers, but he is Grizzlies. That'll be going to the Grizzlies. Thank you Sean Kennedy Chandler on the Smashing again Davion Mitchell the 15 Kennedy Chandler again I know I heard Johnny just ain't the 99. That's such a say card. That's like the number one cheese, right? We've got rising son Johnny juzang Josiah Jordan James is the next auto Josiah Jordan James. So Josiah dash Jordan James triple J triple J Still in college on Josiah Jordan James perfect Yeah, I believe we will AJ I know we're getting it in Got tie tie Washington to 25 or to 125 another auto. We got Marcus Bagley this time It's actually a fun fact, but Sam used to go by Sam Sam. Oh, yeah, I did Marcus Bagley Yeah wild card illumination See you as Bagley. Yeah, I'll see if I got it once that guys Believe he's still at Arizona State. Yeah, still at Arizona State So this will again be a random to the to all at the end. I'll just take the other one back Is this one? Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. And Buddy Bayhunt I got rising sons. I are Williams 20 Justin Powell is the next auto Justin Powell Not number. No, that's nine out of 12. Excuse me still in college again. It'll be random to everybody at the end Max Christie smashing And Tyler Edwards and last pack of wildfire, right are Williams Donovan Mitchell that is Trevor Kiehl's So 60 and we got Malik Hall is our last auto Malik Hall three out of 12 Yeah, and Malik Still in college will be a random to everybody at the end and Buddy Bayhunt again, that'll do it for wild card. Yeah, all right Perfect. Those will be random to all at the end gonna do some multi-sello up next 2020 prism multi-pack cello. Here we go face out of the way here I'm for some iMac and I see you dude. I Stopped so much fun.  We just got a fellow select at the end of the night everybody Here we go prism Silver Kamba Green Miles Turner Killian Hayes Zeke Najee. There's a LeBron Tribute hell. We've got a silver Lamello ball Congrats Hornets Let's go.  Get that one in a mag for you Jeremy lamb green Vernon Cary Cole Anthony base rookie gonna see him tomorrow and Jonathan Isaac It's about as big as you can get Silver Bobby Portis green Dwayne Bacon Tyrese maxi emergent. Whoops Julius Randall silver Green Jonas Valenchunas got Anthony Davis on the insert and killing Hayes Sold out sold out. Thank you guys now, I think all we got a fill is Select in ten box Tuesday got Three boxer and a six boxer select Spencer Dinwiddy manual quickly and base And then we got ten box Tuesday, which is pretty much centered around prism and select this week There is basely silver got green CJ LB rookie Josh green And Aaron Nessmith Hollow or silver Josh Richardson. So he's saying hollow now green Skyler maze rookie. There you go Hawks You'll catch and Demi of Dia Thank you guys for filling up elite Get right into break and that right after this Another silver rookie Silver rookie Tyrell Terry for the Mabs. There you go Mabs Green Spencer Dinwiddy again second one emergent Lamello rookie Achua Devon Bacell Couple packs to go up the base and then we'll get into our red, white and blues and we'll move on Hollow Ricky Rubio green Julius Randall green Kira Lewis Jr. emergent Nick Richards and base Silver James Johnson green Donovan Mitchell KD Kira Lewis Jr. DJ Warren Silver Chris Middleton green Keras Lever Jimmy Butler Kenny Martin Jr. Obi-Toppin ain't no stop them last base pack out of a multi-seller Silver Gorn Roger green Desmond Bain there you go gris nice hit there Allen Iverson Trey Jones and base That'll do it for the base portion now. We're on to our red, white and blues Good luck here everyone Denny of Dia color match for the Wizards Devon Bacell red, white and blue for the Spurs Nick Richards Hornets Riler Three boxers sick. Oh, would you say nine to go nine nine to go Nine left on a six boxer tiered random teams And 19 to go on ten box Tuesday mind dropping the link for Thank you, sir. Got Pokeshevsky rookie and last All right, um, let's do Do court Kings next nine to go on the select three boxer? That'll be fun nice cheap way to get into a three box. It's a select which is good Pretty much any big color is gonna pay for your spot on that one. Good So definitely check that one out. We've been kind of on fire with that Got Hella Burton Maestro's graffiti greats Paul George The bias Harris the Mars a bonus got Chris D'Warte level one Jalen Suggs level two and the Angela Russell pink 76 out of 99 Got our jersey card is Franz Wagner rookie expression and rookie auto going to the trailblazers Keon Johnson There you go the lasers Onto some revolution Good luck everyone on this group Lamello Isaiah Jackson rookie Got autograph for the nuggets Jamal Murray. There you go Denver. Congrats on that.  We got the Aaron Fox behind that on the impact to 149 and Shockwave job. Good Garza Jaden Springer He had an ACL I think in the playoffs right the year before yeah Vortex, yeah Yeah, he was so tough to come back from those sometimes Moses Moody on the cubic that is 14 out of 50. There you go warriors. Nice low-numbered Moses Moody Jericho Sims Ogy Anubi Jason Tatum Trey young an extra card in there Jericho Sims astral rookie and Joe Weisskamp astral Luca and Vortex Franz Wagner that'll do it for our um What's it called?  All right, we've got blue Moses Moody Six out of 49. There you go warriors to numbered Moses Moody's Bobon red to 99 and Jalen Brown to 99. We got our rookies are Charles Bassie Isaiah Todd Sharif Cooper He on Johnson and Cameron Thomas. Nice way to start it. How about a Jonathan Kaminga? 39 out of 49 blue auto congrats warriors Nice hit there. We'll take that for sure Our second one is also to 49 Kai Jones 36 out of 49 Hornets Congrats Hornets. All right, let's get on to number or 2020 choice And we've got two boxes of optic. We'll do iMac and we'll finish with Nc. All right, we've got nice Desmond Bain 41 out of 49 There you go grizzlies nice hit their gris.  That's sweet Very nice We've got we got a redemption guys Cassius Winston Nick Richards Trey Jones Daniel Oteru Jada McDaniels I'm gonna save the redemption for last because we've got dominators Dennis Schroeder Dennis Rodman 12 out of 49. I don't know why I went to Dennis Schroeder in my purse. That was weird There you go bowls nice hit there on the worm. All right. Let's see You know who's a redemption this year Come on baby one time choice red 224 Kenyon Martin jr. There you go Rockets Congrats on the KMJ Very nice it All right onto some optic Little dust really quick from everywhere. So that's some orders coming in. Thank you guys Trey man one out of five thunder Who's got Oklahoma City That would be Michael B Wow, Michael's been hitting all day in baseball now in basketball. Nice tray, man. We'll mag that one and Scotty Barnes Was not expecting to see out of five on that one. I gotta be honest Josh Giddy base rookie John Walgreen Jared Allen that is 65 out of 149. Yes, Kate Cunningham base rookie There you go. Pistons. Hello, Josh Hart Lewis the Bay reigning threes Love my people. They appreciate that buddy Name is Kate's a nice red Moses moody 52 out of 99 Warriors back to back to back boxes with a numbered Moses moody rookie. There you go. Congrats We've got dual here one two three is gonna go left four five six right. This will go for the entire break For optic unless it is a one-of-one or an autograph Four that will go right for the optic duals Yeah, if it's if there's a dual in NT or in immaculate, we will reroll Malcolm Brogdon hollow goes right that was right. Yes 75 years Alonzo morning James book night Julius Randall dominators hollow down hollow Jaden Springer sixers Scotty Barnes base rookie Raptors Derek Rose elite dominators at Giannis Jonathan Kaminga base rookie and light it up Bradley Beal Jalen Johnson 75 years Shea Gilgis Alexander thunder Santee Aldema Spargazing CP3 We'll go right with IT Jeremy Grant hollow Pistons. I have to soon move base rookie This will go orange Victor Ola depot 183 out of 199 heat Franz Wagner base rookie Raining threes Desmond Bain Joe Weiss camp hollow Al Horford Quentin Grimes and base Onto the next one out Isaiah Jackson on the hollow rated rookie auto Pacers.  He means Kate. Oh, hello. I have to soon move James book night We've got pink velocity 33 out of 79. Oh, gee, none of me go right with Carmella Raining threes clay. I have to soon move base rookie hollow Derek white Witton Grimes another numbered Victor Ola depot 15 out of 59 heat. There you go, Miami picking up a couple of depots Johnny Kaminga base rookie hollow Clint Capella Hawks 75 years Trey Murphy Pelicans Cade base rookie. There you go Pistons Hollow Russell Westbrook elite dominators Lakers elite are raining threes Duncan Robinson hollow Josh with Primo lime green Brandon Boston jr. 135 out of 149 clippers 75 years Karim Abdul-Jabbar Scotty Barnes base rookie elite dominators the honest Herbert Jones out of the right PG 13 Josh giddy base rookie and light it up Trey Hollow Joe Harris nets orange day Ron Sherp 87 out of 199 nets Dominators J ran and hollow Gary Trent, Jr. All right guys, let's go on to iMac getting into the fun stuff now 2020-21 a Maculet basketball See something a huge RPA here, baby. Come on Reboxer of select is sold out. Thank you guys all we got to do is fill the six boxer and The 10 box Tuesday and we will be sold out for the night. Right. We have got Base 29 out of 49 is Terry Rose here. Nice scary Terry We've got Come a Walker 46 out of 99 on the swatches Game one rookie is Zeke Najee 21 out of 25 three colored patch we've got Mama D. Diakitae rookie auto 65 out of 99 bucks. There you go bucks. This is nasty How about 15 out of 15?  Let's go is not expecting to see a one-of-one JJ Borreya Gotta be honest with you there Get both of those mags for you guys and now we are on to national treasures 21 22 and T Good look yeah big true RP. I guess that's what I would like. All right. We've got Kauai Leonard That is 62 out of 99 base One-of-one printing plate Al Horford from flawless That is going thunder right there. There you go thunder judge another one, baby. Let's go away. Oh, yeah Got Jason kid nine out of 99 that's New York Knicks Jason kid Game war on the J kid you've got 14 out of 25 Zach Levine century materials. There you go bowls. Nice hit for either bowls on the century materials We've got rookie auto going to the Kings 38 out of 49 Davion Mitchell Nice hit there Kings 75th anniversary rookie patch auto Sandro Mama Kuzhava Mama God Sandro Mama Kalash Billy For the box 35 out of 75 nice hit there Yeah, yeah, well you have to say it right first Jera Allen Jersey Treasure 77 out of 99 caps Demontus subbonus That is 8 out of 99 going to the Kings. That is when he was a member of the Pacers from the Jersey We've got Bernard King That is New York Knicks on the game gear autographs 82 out of 99 nice Bernard King and Finishing off we've got the father of the guy from two cards ago Arvitas subbonus for the Blazers 10 out of 25 Subbonus senior that'll do it for the break guys gonna do this random really quick. Here's how I'm gonna set it up let me go and Grab my random hold on a second to make this easier so I don't have to do four randoms for one I'm gonna pair a couple of the cards So badly We're gonna do Powell Bagley random So for the first random Since these cards are a both number. We have Justin pal 9 out of 12 Marcus Bagley is 39 out of 124 the team on top after the random will get pal the team on bottom are on the second team will get badly So let me go over to randoms gonna roll the dice It's gonna go 10 times for the first random. Good luck One two three four five six seven eight nine ten the Raptors will get Justin Powell Raptors will get Justin Powell and Hornets will get Marcus Bagley Back to main camp for a second so for the second one The team on top will get Malik Hall as that is number three out of 12 and the team the second team will get Josiah Jordan James is that is eight out of 15? So let me We've got All in James random. We're gonna go 10 times on that one as well. Bring it back to the random. Here we go one two three four five six seven eight nine and ten The Timberwolves will get Malik Hall And the Pistons will get Josiah Jordan James Yes, and all right guys, let's do a quick recap here. We'll start with relics We've got Jared Allen to 99 cabs so bonus 99 that is Kings Zach Levine to 25 bowls Jason Kidd to 99 nicks Kemble Walker to 99 Celtics Zeke Najee to 25 Nuggets and Franz Wagner rookie magic We've got our autos Josiah Jordan James Malik Hall Marcus Bagley Justin Powell. We just did the random for those So those are tagged off Arvita Sabonis the 25 blazers Bernard King to 99 nicks gave you on michael to 49 kings mama mamadi diakite to 99 bucks Isiah Jackson hollow Pacers Kenny martin jr for the Rockets Dennis rodman to 49 bowls jonathan cominga to 49 Warriors kai jones the 49 hornets jamal murray auto nuggets and keon johnson To 49 as well that is Trailblazers and then our mag cards. We had Sandro rpa to 75 bucks J. J. Berea one of one for the mavericks Isiah thomas sneaker swatch 15 out of 15 pistons Trey man Numbered to five auto there you go thunder And lamello ball on the silver for the hornets that'll do it for the break. Congrats again on the hits everyone Next up. We've got football


respected brothers and sisters in Islam we begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala God Almighty as He is most worthy and deserving of all praise we ask Allah and we ask Allah alone to forgive us of our sins those that we have committed knowingly and those that we commit unknowingly we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to guide us to prevent us from being misguided and from misguiding others we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless His noble Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam to bless His noble companions, His family, and the righteous everywhere Ameen we live in a time certainly here in our own communities here in the United States but the world over where whether it's politics, whether it's the pursuit of science and understanding based on science whether it's identity, identity politics whether it's how we define ourselves individually or collectively as a group we live in a very tribalized society we live in a society where people are more often than not more often than not inclined towards extreme views or circumstances or positions on various incendiary issues as I said whether it's politics or identity and so on and so forth science even and how we look at the pandemic and how we look at the idea of verifiable truths and so on we live in a society of extremes, we live in a time of extremes and Islam proposes a antidote or an alternative to this polarization that we see among humanity and this polarization is not something new it's not something that is just within our own lifetimes but I feel that whether it's the forces of social media and so on that have exacerbated or have made those stark differences or those lines of demarcation and difference extremely stark and people gravitate towards extremes and it is I think within this understanding of humanity this understanding of the human tendency that Allah SWT, God Almighty in the Quran says in Surah Baqarah in the 143rd verse and I mentioned that in particular because I'll come back to that where Allah SWT says Allah says that indeed we have made you a ummah wassata, a middle-most community or a moderate community and you are witnesses you are witnesses over or on humanity for humanity, for mankind as the prophets are witnesses over you as a community, as an ummah and as I mentioned this is found in Surah Baqarah a surah, a chapter that has 286 verses in it and this verse Allah SWT perhaps strategically but certainly by intention places this directly in the middle of that surah underscoring this idea of moderation or balance or equilibrium that is to say a precaution against adopting extreme positions or views but rather adopting the moderate position or middle-most position and I say this because whether we examine our ummah and Allah SWT is using this to present a salient feature of this community, of this ummah how he has made us an ummah wassata a middle-most community a community of as I said moderation and balance and we can look at or examine this idea of moderation and balance or a prevention from going to extremes in various ways various ways to look at what is this idea of wassata of balance or moderation or middle-most is it historical, is it political and so on but I think that if we look at it through various features of how the tradition or how the faith of Islam as a whole and the normative teachings of the faith tradition of our tradition found in the Quran and the prophetic legacy the sunnah of the Prophet SAW define or seek to flesh out this idea of moderation or balance and I want to look at this through various ways in which our faith and our tradition adopts this idea of moderation or balance because especially in today what does it mean we live through an age and certainly even now where it was like where are the moderate voices of Muslims where are the moderate voices that condemn extremism asking or presupposing what it means to be moderate and defining moderation or being moderate as principles or ideas and if you didn't fit that mold then you weren't moderate and it was such a loaded term and it remains very loaded and colluded term so how is it that we ourselves as a community, as an ummah based upon the teaching of our faith tradition how is it that we have defined moderation and a prevention of adopting extremes in any direction how is it that we have defined it based on our own faith tradition rather than having it poised on us this idea of what it means to be a moderate what it means to display or demonstrate moderation the first of these that I want to look at is the balance if you will between law and spirit and what do I mean by that Allah SWT and the Quran or we as believers of minimum 17 times a day recite the following supplication we ask Allah, we beseech Allah in Surah Fatiha in the opening chapter of the Quran to guide us to the straight path the path of those who have Allah's favor upon it not the path of those who have incurred Allah's wrath and anger and not the path of those that have gone extreme and the Mufassirin or have gone astray excuse me and the commentators of the Quran the Mufassirin tell us that what we are seeking refuge from what we are seeking Allah's protection from or to put it differently how we are defining or how the straight path the straight path is defined is by the avoidance or not defined by the characteristics as embodied in certain religious archetypes or certain religious types if you will and according to some commentators it refers to the Jews and Christians the path of those who have incurred Allah's wrath is perhaps best demonstrated by the tendency that is displayed or that we find in the Quran defining or describing Bani Israel for example the Jewish community and this isn't Jew bashing or Christian bashing but rather again defining religious archetypes religious ways how do communities go to extremes and how are we defining ourselves in distinction to those extremes what is the straight path the path that avoids these extremes and so the Quran is replete and is abundant in its descriptions of early communities specifically Bani Israel the Jewish community and the Christian community and as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that you will follow the ways of those that came before you as a sandal follows another so when you're walking one sandal one foot follows another that's how the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam defined or warned us that we would fall into these traps these traps of the Jewish community as is demonstrated in the Quran and the Christian community and those extremes are defined by this idea of a extreme view on law and spirit so for example when it comes to Bani Israel we find in Surat al-Baqarah a narrative or an anecdote that is presented that the Jews were asked to not engage in any type of commercial or business or work during their day of Sabbath the day of Sabbath was meant to be a day of observing one's religious duties and not engaging in commercial practice not working and so on this was the way in which the Sabbath was defined to the Jewish community and so the Quran speaks of a village of fishermen or a village where fishing was the primary source of income or commercial enterprise and so these fishermen again in observance of Sabbath were not to fish on the day of the Sabbath but on that day Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tests that village, that community by making the fish abundant in the water literally jumping out of the water like this is a test from Allah will you obey the Sabbath or will you give in to your prophet P-R-O-F-I-T will you give in to the temptation to engage in fishing and so the villagers the fishermen they devise a way in which to avoid the specifics or the letter of the law by casting the nets out the night before and then going back after the Sabbath and then collecting the nets and so they would have not engaged in fishing during the day of the Sabbath by laying out these nets prior the night before and to collect it after the Sabbath was over at sundown and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran that this was a way of going astray of incurring Allah's wrath because while they had skirted around the strictures of the law or the specifics of the law the letter of the law as we say the letter of the law what they failed to do was to practice or to live in accordance with the spirit and the essence of the law yes you didn't engage in fishing on the day of the Sabbath or in the hours of the Sabbath but you violated what the test or what the Sabbath was all about by trying to circumvent by trying to go around or finding loopholes in the legal ordinance or the legal scripture or stricture by finding loopholes in the law and so you resigned yourself or you said okay I'm not violating God's law or commandment of the Sabbath because I haven't actually engaged in fishing but you violated the spirit of the law and it is this idea of balance between law and spirit that we as a community are being called upon to practice in our daily lives that is to say that yes there is the letter of the law and the letter of the law is important and following the letter of the law is absolutely a part of what we are being called upon by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to follow but at the same time in the pursuit of practicing the letter of the law let us not forget what the essence of that law is let us not forget what the spirit of that law is so when we come to disputes or differences of opinion that we find in our very broad Islamic law let us not violate the spirit and the essence of what the community and the integrity of the community by dividing and argumentation and fitan and discord based upon these legal disputes and we have how we may be following the letter of the law or as we define the law what we are doing is violating the essence and the spirit of solitude the acceptance of differences of opinion and we can find examples of this in our own communities the way in which we exercise or the way in which we argue about the letter of the law and the spirit and the essence of what Allah SWT is asking and calling us to do and so the adoption of a moderate approach to the law and the spirit the letter of the law is important but that is not to violate the greater spirit of what Allah SWT is defining asking us to do or not do with regards to following that particular legal concept or idea so this idea of again being a balanced or moderate community as it comes to law as it comes to the way in which we approach our own legal tradition and then last for the sake of time the balance that Allah SWT the Prophet SAW constantly underscored throughout our legal throughout our tradition of Islam throughout our faith tradition is a balance between the various parts of our human nature and what do I mean by that we as human beings are a composite are a combination of a mind and soul we have an intellect but we also have a spirit and a heart we also have the ability to rationalize but we also have the ability to feel emotions to feel that idea of being in composite of a mind, body and soul that is to say that we recognize that yes we have we have spiritual needs and at the same time we have physical needs and what our tradition throughout the corpus of our tradition throughout all of Islamic law legal tradition all of our faith in the way in which we exercise it we find that we try or we attempt to strike a balance between the needs of the ruh of the spirit needs for intellectual pursuit and understanding and rationalization and the needs of our physical bodies so for example to give you a simple example that we find that if the time for prayer has come and one is has to answer the call of nature but chooses to pray and not respond to the call of nature and their anxious throughout their prayer and so on or if the time comes for prayer and you're hungry and a meal has been prepared for example and all you can think of the prayer is to answer the very physical need that you have to satisfy or to satiate your hunger that it is not forbidden perhaps but it is highly undesirable that it is detestable to not answer the call of


During the schism of 1378, there were three men who claimed total control over the Catholic Church? Sounds like a lot of papal bull. Everybody makes mistakes. For getting appointments, burning dinner, losing paperwork, these are the little annoyances of which life is made. But recently I've been fascinated by big, unforced errors. Catastrophes that any five-year-old could predict, but required some intelligent person or people very deliberately choosing every wrong turn necessary to arrive at the worst possible outcome. Here, let's watch a couple. I wanted to show you guys a quick cool feature on this lens. It's got this lock mode that if you just... Right inside of your cake mix. This is sugar-free cherry coke. It would be easy to lump these in with the forehead slapping mistakes we usually make, but I feel like there's something special about how hard you'd have to work to not see disaster coming. This is not a face of discovery. It's a face of sober acceptance, as though some shiny facade has been ripped away, leaving chocolate cake batter everywhere. If you ask philosopher Leslie Howe, that's more or less what's happening here. What sets these sorts of errors apart from the normal run-of-the-mill kind? They aren't simple miscalculations or bad reasoning from false premises or lapses in memory. They're errors of self-bullshit. We've talked a little about the Harry Frankfurt definition of bullshit, a kind of speech that isn't really true, but it isn't really lying either. It's some weird third thing that's wholly unconcerned with the actual truth or falsehood of what's being stated. Bullshit has received a fair amount of attention in the philosophical literature since Frankfurt's first treatise on the subject, and Howe's exceptional paper asks an insightful question. What does it mean for someone to buy their own bullshit?  When people bullshit, they might say true or false things, but if their audience takes those statements as literally true or false, the bullshitter has sort of failed.  It's a gambit to shift the conversation's standards to a state where truth and falsehood are irrelevant. Like, say someone asks if I know where Bolivia is, and I say something like, man, that's a pretty map, isn't it? Have you ever just sat back and stared at it and thought about all of the places you haven't gone? I've been meaning to visit Japan for ages, but you know, with COVID and everything.  It's pretty clear that I'm stalling or trying to redirect the conversation away from the question that might reveal how little geography I know. On the other hand, I might say something like, ah, yes, you will find Bolivia at the nexus of the geopolitical struggle between economic forces that may dictate our future. Okay, that might be true, or not. Where is that exactly? This is bullshit in the form of obfuscation, blurring the lines between what counts as a satisfactory answer to the question and the facts that actually pertain to that answer. In both cases, I'm trying to save face, to get the question asked her to cut me some slack for not knowing where Bolivia is, to reevaluate the ultimate importance of the facts in light of my sheer charisma. But bullshitters don't just try to convince other people that they're smarter, wiser, more virtuous, or more rational than the facts might warrant. They may also try to convince themselves, and bullshit can be just as effective when directed inward.  So long as I never have to stare directly at the evidence held right up next to my belief, I can acknowledge one at a time whenever the situation calls for it, and whenever I might be put in the awkward position of reconciling them, bullshit can be a useful tool for maintaining my delusion by minimizing the importance of the evidence. Oh, whatever, that's just rote memorization. Anyone can do that. I probably pointed at Africa because I was thinking of Botswana or something. Anyways, the important part isn't the where, it's the why. Facts about the world can get caught up in that process, too.  The goal is more or less the same as the goal of bullshitting others, to dismantle and replace the goalposts of evidence and consistency with a more forgiving standard of assent. Nothing has to follow from the facts. Nothing has to fit with all the other beliefs. So long as everyone concedes to play along, I don't have to reconcile any conflict, internal or external. Replacing the normal commitments of rational discourse with a standard of mere assent means a lot of stuff that doesn't really pertain to the quality of claims suddenly becomes the fulcrum on which their evaluation turns, which can get dicey.  A big shot can say just about any nonsense with impunity, confident that anyone with less clout, who might not buy their bullshit, would have to put a lot on the line to hold them accountable to the facts for even a brief moment.  Howe cites an argument by Jonathan Lear that this dynamic can make the act of bullshitting a sort of flex, a brazen display of the power of the speaker.   Almost. This is where we get back to our hilarious unforced errors.  The person who was holding the camera for the cake batter disaster must have had some misgivings about how Marie Knight was going about her demonstration, but they played along. Marie slipped into the role of someone who's had a brilliant idea about how to bake a cake without a mixing bowl. All the warning signs she might have received, that using power tools can be risky, that she hadn't really tried it out before, that little bit of force she had to use to get the mixer into the box, they all conflict with that narrative.  As powerful as belief can be, we are still material beings living in a world governed by physical rules. We have bodies made of meat.  If you remember our discussion in episode 220, there are echoes of Purse's pragmaticism here. There are numerous ways to escape the uncomfortable and paralyzing state of doubt and uncertainty, but most of them are unstable, prone to returning us to that state when they lead us to a less than satisfactory outcome. Tenaciously asserting that something is the case, waving away any questions of evidence or consistency, and just waiting for a grudging nod, can grant a temporary respite.  Do you think Howe's account of self-bullshit helps to explain how otherwise savvy people can do painfully dumb things?  Please, leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Thank you very much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe while I share, and don't stop thunkin'.


If you've been around the channel long enough, or you've seen like, you know, any meditation or spiritual themed movie over the last 10 years, you'll probably know that one of the most central and core themes of many New Age disciplines is the Seven Chakra System. Whether you've used them as meditation aids or seen them in gift shops, you're probably at least somewhat familiar with the idea. If not, go and check out our videos on them to get a basic understanding. Or, you know, just watch Doctor Strange and see how it turned out for him. Anyway, today's episode is kind of a philosophical, what if one. In that we're not going to be assessing the scientific studies of energy medicine or the empirical existence of chakras, as even we'll admit, there's a lot lacking in terms of proving alternative medicine. Instead, this time we're going to take a more open-ended question. What would the world look like if, at some point in the future, we actually found scientific evidence of the chakra system? What if we discovered a chakra in the body? Or all seven? And how would such a discovery affect our approach to different branches of science and philosophy? To start with, let's look real quick at how the chakra system itself came into our Western world. If you've watched our first video on chakras, you'll know that the modern New Age understanding identifies them as energy centers or wheels or vortices of energy inside the body that are associated with the classical Newtonian colors. But this wasn't always the case. In fact, the first uses of the term chakra in the Vedas didn't have anything to do with energy at all. Instead, it was used to refer to the wheel of motion that a king had over his empire. Further, even though breath channels, or as they're known in Sanskrit, the nadis, are mentioned in the Upanishads around 1000 BC, again, the chakras and energy centers aren't. Most academics tend to agree that the idea as we know it today came about during medieval India during 800 A.D. from Buddhist texts that showed them as hierarchies of inner energy centers. But this is still kind of debated, since others make the argument that the concept of chakras was only written down during this time, but had been around for much longer. So as always, decide for yourself on what feels right. Even more interestingly, the original Indian and Buddhist concepts of the chakras don't make any reference to colors. That's a completely modern thing. A man named John Woodruff translated two classical Indian texts into English in his book, The Serpent Power, which is largely credited with the introduction of the idea of the seven chakras into the West. You've probably seen a bunch of debates about the amount of chakras, with some people saying there are three, five, six, or like in his version, seven. See, the reason seven chakras are sort of canon is because the text that Woodruff was translating into English came from a school of thought known as Kaula. That believed in seven, and that was just the only version we got in English. Later on, another man named Leadbeater decided that Woodruff's book was too hard to read and full of jargon, so he published his own, which drew comparisons with the 17th century book, The Theosophia Practica by Johann Giezel, which talked about inner force centers in the body, which were reminiscent of chakras, and kind of came to mean the same thing. From that point on, the concept of chakras as inner centers of prana and life energy started to be adapted by Theosophist movements and slowly made their way into the New Age culture. Now, you might be wondering why I'm going off about all this history, but it sets the groundwork for the problems that arise when talking about Eastern concepts in a Western paradigm. This video was actually inspired by a section in Drunvalo's Flower of Life books, where he stated that during his time in the technology lab, his team was actually able to see extensions of the chakras in the Merkaba Light Body by focusing on or charging each chakra and then scanning that area with a molecular emission scanner or MES machine for short. According to Drunvalo, they originally struggled to find the chakras, but once they started scanning the light body itself, which extends outwards beyond the physical body, the scanner would light up to show that each chakra had a certain pulse attributed with it. So this really begs the question, can the chakras be measured scientifically? And what would happen if a lab one day proved their existence experimentally, as perhaps they may even already have?  But even this isn't enough to convince skeptics. So what would happen if we proved the chakras in a foolproof way? Well, the first thing would probably be a complete shattering of the current paradigm of understanding. Simply put, if chakras existed, one of the most central aspects of spirituality, what else could exist from that paradigm? First off, this would lead to a complete reevaluation of what we know in fields like biology, chemistry, and physics. It's kind of like a knock-on effect. If one thing was proved, then it would naturally encourage the pursuit of other things, which could lead to similar things like auras, third eyes, and morphogenic fields also being proved and recognized scientifically. Maybe this would even lead to a new branch of science appearing in the mainstream curriculum. A spirit science, if you will. If such discoveries were finally taken seriously, then it would effectively eliminate the stigma between science and spirituality, allowing us to explore both concepts equally and reach untold heights of understanding and philosophy. To quote Tesla, the day science begins to study non-physical phenomenon, it will make more progress in one decade than in all of the previous centuries of its existence. But what would society look like? What advances could we make holding the knowledge of the chakra system? Probably the biggest change for us would be in healthcare and medicine. See, the chakras for the most part stem from Ayurvedic tradition of ancient India, which is a practice of healing that stems back over 5,000 years and is often considered to be the foundation of all Eastern medicine practices. Here's where we see the fundamental difference between Western and Eastern practices like we've mentioned earlier. While Western medicine follows the Hippocratic method, one that focuses on curing diseases as they appear or are already present in the body, a paradigm that is incredibly lucrative we might add, Ayurveda is kind of the opposite in that it's a complete system of medicine that combines natural therapies with a highly personalized approach to treating disease that has the prevention of disease as its primary emphasis. So in this practice as well as in the chakra tradition, a healthy state is defined as one in which there's a balance between body, mind and soul in an equilibrium among the doshas or body types. If we somehow proved this system to be accurate and could measure its effectiveness, not only would our general health as a species go up, but so too would our quality of life, harmony with ourselves and our environment and probably most important during this trying time right now, our relationship with each other would improve. If we could use the chakra system to predict when and where diseases would strike, we could tackle the disease before it took a hold of someone, thereby saving countless lives. Just imagine, oh look, your root chakra is showing this negative energy pattern, a common early sign of cancer. So let's focus on healing that chakra based on what's needed, maybe nutrition, exercise or some childhood trauma therapy and guarantee that we heal this thing before it gets worse. We could even take it further and nutritionists and sports scientists could design diets and activities specifically catered to keeping your chakras in balance or maybe even target the centers that were out of whack and we could eliminate disease altogether. Of course, having no diseases would probably put big pharma out of business, which would probably make a lot of people lose their jobs. But that $82 billion that Johnson & Johnson made last year could be invested into further research or other branches of science that could lead to even greater discoveries. Like, I don't know, anti-gravity devices or quantum teleportation? I mean, maybe we might even finally find a way to unify quantum physics and the standard model. And guess what else? If we could use the chakra system to effectively eliminate disease, that also means no more healthcare bills or debt for millions upon millions of people. But hey, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here. After all, professional Ayurveda people still charge for a session, but it would be nowhere near as much. Even being conservative and saying that we could use the chakra system to complement Western medicine, it could pose a viable option for people who are allergic to certain medication or those who can't leave the house. Further, machines like the AuraStar, which is based on the sciences of biofeedback, reflexology, kinesiology, and concepts in Ayurveda medicine, can actually be used to measure biofeedback data and is way cheaper to produce than MRIs or CT scanners and could be used for similar diagnostic treatment. As a side consequence of this, it may even start to eliminate class divides with regards to access to treatment. Since the machines can be produced for much cheaper, anyone could access them. Just try and picture it. You wake up one morning and you're feeling a bit groggy or fatigued. You're suffering from low self-esteem.  Heck, imagine couples or marriage counseling where people could go to therapy to work on rebalancing their throat chakra to enable better communication. What about energy itself? Following numerous New Age beliefs, all living things have chakras. Since the Earth itself is a living being, she too has chakras dotted around various places. What if we could somehow tap into these huge reservoirs of energy to produce a natural, renewable, and healthy source of energy that could replace the fossil fuel industry? If you watched our other videos on chakras, we pointed out that, as wheels of energy, they both act as magnets for the energy around us and as channels for the universal source of energy to flow through us. Hmm, maybe we could even tap into our own auras or chakras to produce our own power by channeling the source field. Imagine being able to charge your phone using your solar plexus and some kind of electromagnetic induction. How cool would that be? Maybe it's a little far out there. I don't know if that's possible, but the conversation is at least worth considering. Again, this would do wonders for eliminating class divides and would also help to clean up the environment massively. I wonder if Greta would get behind that. But I guess if that happened, a lot of people would claim that the introduction of chakras to the world were a part of the Illuminati's plans to take over, and then we'd all beeline it back to drilling oil. So, yeah. Anyway, probably the most important aspect of our lives that would be changed by the knowledge of the chakras though would be our understanding of emotions, personal energy, and how interconnected we really are. We've been saying this for a while now, but while all of the problems of today appear as separate incidents, they're all ultimately coming from the same source, an unbalanced spirit body, a disconnection between our egos and our souls, and the feeling of separation from each other. Knowing about the chakras would change all of that. We would finally understand which areas of our spiritual body influenced which chakras, which in turn influenced certain aspects of our physical lives. By working through the chakras together, we could effectively help to dissolve our ego as a species. We would be guided by a sense of compassion and unity rather than ruled by a fear of separation. We could set up centers for meditation and healing that would cater to each chakra imbalance and help heal each other. It might even lead to the legalization of plant medicine as a means of healing and mental well-being and therapy. Conceptually though, as we mentioned earlier, this would cause a paradigm shift that could cause scientists to examine things from an inherently more spiritual perspective, perhaps even allowing for consciousness itself to be factored into equations, leading to untold discoveries about our place in the universe and how we ourselves affect and shape reality. Ultimately, discovering a way of measuring the impact of any treatment or practice on the energy system of an individual would break ground in our current system, both in terms of healthcare and scientific thinking. Examining the combination of practices, such as the chakras and other related alternative medicines, in the context of how they are used in our current medical paradigm, is a further step in this direction. Really, there's nothing to lose. Further scientific study into things like the bioelectric or morphogenic fields and the concept of chakras in general can only provide clearer and potentially paradigm-altering results. Even from a hardcore atheistic point of view, if such things didn't exist at all, more detailed study would prove that, which would also have an impact on society as a whole and at least evolve our more philosophical understanding instead. Whatever way the coin falls, we have the potential to change society by understanding the chakra system better. So what do you think? What kind of changes would proving the chakra system scientifically bring about in your life? What do you think society would look like? Let us know in the comments below. And if you're interested in exploring the chakras more, please come and check out the 7-day transformation, in which, over just one week, we'll go through each of the chakras with you together and help you to clear out and transform at every level. Until next time, stay in balance, and we'll see you soon.


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