Greetings, everyone, and welcome to Progressive Discussions. I'm your host, James P. Madonna, as seen on the web since 2007. I've been doing this. I hope everyone is having a very nice, how should I say, end of August 2023 weekend, despite the heat wave from global warming, the weather is easing up here in the Northeast. And I'm very relieved at that, even though tomorrow is supposed to be 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The people of Southern California are going to get hammered by a, unless it gets, unless it picks up strength. So far, it's a category one hurricane headed for the cities of Southern California. And the last time this happened was 84 years ago. How about that? So they're, they're prepared. California National Guard is prepared. And they're not used to this, but you can thank the greed of capitalism for causing this climate chain global warming. And pretty soon we'll have baseball playoffs and the kickstart of the football season, the new football season. So I just want to say before I start the topics for this week's progressive discussions that the most overrated computer programs have to be the imbeciles that invented, that created and maintain a voice to text.  Of course, the glitches, the many glitches of the internet, what can you do? It's like sailing. It's like the weather. Especially if you're dependent on wifi. And I'm not using wifi. So I'm going to see, let me start. Okay, let's start off with a light subject. Not all of the topics I read here on progressive discussion is negative. Sometimes we have positives or very positive articles. Okay, this one's positive and interesting. If you are a natural holistic lifestyle practitioner like I am. All right. Yo, there we go. Alvara, the hidden powers of this natural pest control. There's a cross section of aloe vera leaf with the energy. Barber densis commonly referred to as aloe vera as long been celebrated for its ability to treat skin issues, promote digestive wellness and heal wounds. Experts have now discovered that the discarded peels of the aloe vera plant often viewed as agricultural waste. They play a pivotal role in warding off insects, establish establishing themselves as a potent natural insecticide. Okay, the researchers will present their breakthrough at the full meeting of the American Chemical Society this year. Making aloe vera peels useful. It's likely that millions of tons of aloe peels are disposed of globally every year. We wanted to find a way to add value and make them useful. Said Dr. D. Bashish, Ban Yo Pad. Yeah, you know what? I'm just going to call him Dr. Band. Okay. Who led the study? During a visit to a local aloe vera production facility, Dr. Band made an intriguing observation while insects wreaked havoc on other plants. They conspicuously avoided the aloe leaves. This observation led to a potential theory and Dr. Band asked the facility's CEO for permission to examine the discarded rinds in his lab. The CEO initially offered samples of the company's products instead.  At first he was not complying with Dr. Band. Motherfuckin' CEO. Gotta love capitalism, huh? Natural pesticides. While a few enterprising home gardeners have employed aloe gel as a component of natural pesticides, often blending it with pungent ingredients like onions and garlic, the peels have been notably absent from these concoctions. On an industrial scale, these peels are primarily transformed into biomass to enhance soil quality in aloe farms. However, this approach is not without its environmental implications, as decomposing agricultural waste emits methane and other greenhouse gases exacerbating the climate crisis. Focus of the study. But Dr. Band, recognizing the dual challenge of insecticidal demand and waste management, embarked on a mission. He set out to harness the potential of the peels as an insect to turn, especially in regions grappling with insect infestations, and in the process make aloe reduction more environmentally sustainable. The goal is to recycle this waste in a meaningful way while making aloe production greener and more sustainable. Dr. Band. Said Dr. Band. Alright. His team from the University of Texas in Rio Grande Valley initiated their research by drying the peels to ensure that the plant's bioactivity remained intact. They employed a natural drying method, powerful insecticidal properties. Subsequent extractions revealed the presence of octococene in the hexane extract and established mosquito-cytl agent. However, the team's further analysis of the dichloromethane extract uncovered even more potent insecticidal properties. Using sophisticated techniques like high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, they identified over 20 compounds. Among them, six stood out octococenol, subanitin B, denoterm, Arjunctgenin, nanodecanone, and quilliac acid all recognized for their insecticidal attributes. Okay, let's see. Scientists are taking the leftovers from aloe production and turning them into useful chemicals. Aloe vera is farmed in huge quantities around the world as an ingredient for cosmetic and medicinal products. The leaves contain a gel that is commonly used to soothe and moisturize skin, but aloe farming can also generate a lot of waste. After I see this gel, that was Dr. Ban. Unfortunately, the microphone of the live stream does not pick up the video. The grind or peels are thrown away as agricultural waste. So just imagine how many million metric tons of aloe vera peels are produced as agricultural waste. Okay, yeah, there's no sense of playing the video, but you get the gist of it. At the beginning, they were filleting the aloe vera leaf. And it is the outer leaf that has the powerful effect of insecticide, natural insecticidal chemicals, not to mention being one of the most powerful laxatives known to man. The leaf that is, yeah, the leaf. Okay, let's, okay, we'll bring up this because it is very much a news breaking topic, climate change, global warming as it is going on today. Okay, there we go. There is another marine heat wave in US waters this time in the Gulf of Mexico. Record high ocean temperatures could affect peak hurricane season. What's happening in the southwest Pacific. The hurricane category one hurricane Hillary is headed for Baja California, which I've been to and I love very much. This is Mexico. People enjoy an early morning at a beach. November 24, 2022 in Naples, Florida. Well, forget it. It's a bathtub now. 100 degrees. Yet another heat wave is warming waters off US coast as oceans all over the world and do a warmer than normal temperatures according to experts. The Gulf of Mexico has become the latest region to experience a marine heat wave in addition to the northern Atlantic and the Atlantic waters off the coast of Florida as well as other occurrences around the globe. Okay, more above normal activity predicted for a remainder of 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. That's what it says Gulf of Mexico experiencing unprecedented ocean temperatures. Average sea surface temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico are the highest on record, and by a significant margin. Lowry hurricane specialist and storm surge expert for ABC Miami affiliate WPLJ told ABC news. Temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico are averaging 88.2 degrees Fahrenheit. After analyzing data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just know this breaks the previous weekly record Gulf temperatures averaging of 87 degrees Fahrenheit. A big deal. A one degree higher set in August 2011. Wetlands are seen along the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana, Texas border. Okay, the historical mean for Gulf of Mexico sea surface temperatures in August is about 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Chris Keebo director of the Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanic and Meteorological Lab in Miami told ABC News well they're not that far. It's really, I mean, 86 to 88 is really not that much of a difference. See how the news media sensationalizes their things and exaggerates. Brian McNulty senior research associate at the University of Miami's Rosin Steel School of Marine Atmospheric and Earth Science told ABC News the wars in the Gulf are currently freakishly hot. Well, yeah. Almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit. But describing the temperatures as beyond what has been observed any time of any year. The fact that this area is about one to two degrees above average right now is substantial and significant. Okay. May not sound substantial and significant, but the experts have their reasons. Home sit next to the Gulf of Mexico in Grand Island, the only inhabited barrier island in Louisiana. And these people have a ringside seat, of course, to hurricanes. Climate change plays a role in amplifying the warm ocean temperatures in the region, making the marine heat wave more intense. People keep people further noted. Average global temperatures were up by 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit for the month of July making it the warmest July on record. NOAA announced Thursday during its monthly climate advisory. The record was set for the fourth consecutive month. Sarah Katnick, chief NOAA scientist told reporters ocean temperatures have a strong connection to climate change with the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change previously declaring it is virtually certain that oceans have warmed unabated since 1970 and have absorbed more than 90% of excess heat from the climate system. Okay, record warmth Gulf of Mexico. Record average water temperature. There we are. Okay. The last 10 years were the warmest decade for ocean. Ocean since at least the 1800s, according. Well, see, that's not good. Only the last 10 years of this sense of between of this century. Yeah. According to NASA, while last year marked the warmest recorded year on record for ocean waters and the highest recorded global sea level, while water is much more difficult to heat than land. It is also much harder to cool triple digit ocean temperatures in Florida could be a global record, how marine heat waves could affect the Atlantic hurricane season. Record warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures played a partial role in NOAA's update to its Atlantic hurricane forecast issued last week, which increased the likelihood of an above normal season. To as many as 21 named storms compared to a typical year average of 14 named storms. We're not talking about what categories. They're going to be when they reach landfall. You know how powerful. The warm waters could also increase the rapid intensification of storm systems as they approach coastlines with the record warmth hurricanes in the right environment have a higher potential intensity and can more quickly strengthen giving those in the path less time to prepare Lowry said. The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is approaching, meaning activity will likely pick up in the coming weeks. Currently, there is a chance of broad area. There's a chance a broad area of low pressure could form in the central or western Gulf of Mexico with some slow development. It's possible as it moves west by the middle of next week. Okay, striking warm, strikingly warm ocean heat wave or Florida coast could decimate corals. Other marine life experts say, well, the corals are dying from being bleached coral reefs are suffering from the high temperatures. The warming has also decimated coral reef ecosystems in the region. A Caribbean wide coral bleaching event could begin in the matter of days. Noah announced Thursday in a call with reporters this will be in addition to the one that began destroying coral off Florida coast last month. Since the Atlantic hurricane season has been relatively quiet so far with just four named and one unnamed storms. There could be an additional month of heat stress in Florida as tropical cyclones tend to dissipate and redistribute the heat in the ocean. Derek Manzello coordinator of Noah's coral reef watch program told reporters on Thursday. It's really a beautiful thing to beautiful part of nature. I've done many snorkeling excursions and it's like it's such a peaceful serene world to be in the beauty. That's if you don't have any dangerous sharks around, then your paradise will be over. Oh, my favorite reef to ever snorkel was off Key West. Sergeant major fish swim around a coral reef in Key West Florida. Well, that's probably the reef July 14 2023 superheated sea water off Florida Keys has grown so powerlessly. Well, and here there's I guess that's it. Large scale heat stress and coral bleaching events are underway in two ocean basins the Eastern tropical Pacific. The Atlantic Ocean and in multiple countries Manzello say confirm coral bleaching is currently occurring in the Atlantic in areas including Florida, Mexico, Panama, Belize, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and in five countries in the Eastern tropical Pacific, including Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia, according to Noah. It's a bad situation.    See, let me do this one. It's interrelated. So let me do this one. Let me check before I click on this. I just want to say that this is the debut of progressive discussions being live streamed on Twitch. Before that it was just at first it was YouTube and Facebook and then we went from YouTube and Twitter. And now we are live streaming on YouTube and Twitch. So welcome Twitch. Greetings to all of you Twitchers. Does that mean you have involuntary spasm-like movements? Twitch? I hope not. Let's get into this. 40% of US climate emissions attributed to richest households study. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me is the old gated mansion. A mansion style home is seen July 12, 2005 in Atherton, California. Right. It's like the one Jed Clampett used to live in. Beverly Hillbillies with the Seaman Pond and Jethro Bodine who graduated from the sixth grade that wore a rope instead of a belt. The wealthiest 10th of US households are the source of 40% of national greenhouse gas emissions according to research published in the journal PLOS Climate. This is led by Jared Starr of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, analyzed three decades of household income data from 1990 to 2019. They found that during this period, a bottom 90% of households share of emissions has fallen while the top 10% share has increased. 50% of households were responsible for being 15% and 70% of emissions. Starr and colleagues analyze emissions associated with businesses owned by the households they analyze, but also factored in revenues relating to their investments for the top 10%. The investment income makes up a large share of those households emissions between 38% and 42% in the case of the wealthiest 10%. The investment piece makes up an increase in share of the emissions responsibility as we look further up the income ladder, as Starr told the Hill in an interview, just over 43,000 of the wealthiest 0.1% of households 34% were in the researchers dubbed super emitters. That doesn't mean that they they're responsible for an enormous amount of flatulence that refers to their their companies, or those responsible for more than 3000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year. They also found wide racial disparities in responsibility for emissions with non Hispanic white households comprising the highest income linked emissions and black households comprising the lowest. The emissions also vary by age cohort peaking between the ages of 45 and 64 and then decline. The results indicate that policymakers may have been looking at potential carbon taxes and their structure from the wrong angle. Excuse me, the allergies have been bad. While consumer facing carbon taxes have struggled to move from proposal to law in the United States and investment based carbon tax may be more equitable, politically palatable and equally justifiable. They wrote while acknowledging that this would likely face pushback from the disproportionate amount of the wealthiest Americans in politics. The greedy bastards will never have enough money. Just pay your taxes pay your fair share in taxes and shut the hell up by thinking of carbon as an outcome of income generation, rather than just an outcome of consumption. Such alternative policy solutions become possible they wrote. Okay, then it goes on and on about carbon taxes.  Who are the backbone of the United States economy. Okay, let's see what this is about. This is interesting. MIT researchers turn concrete into an energy storing super capacitor with one additive. What if you can turn concrete into a viable and a fifth energy storage option. While that might seem a bit out of this world. That's exactly what MIT researchers have managed to do, according to reports from new Atlas, a paper on the new concrete super capacitor is also available in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to this research MIT researchers were able to take an idea from 2021 said that you could store useful amounts of energy and concrete and scale it up effectively by simply adding a single additive to the concrete mix. The mixture thus became a combination of concrete water and carbon black.  When combined, the three components allow the researchers to create an energy storing concrete super capacitor that was easy to scale up with it only requiring a change from one millimeter thick electrodes to one meter thick electrodes. To go from powering simple things like LED lights to full blown buildings and homes. I guess that's a big difference in changing the size of the electrode solar panels could one day be connected to concrete super capacitors to collect energy throughout the day. Image source, and I can't pronounce this person's name and I'm not going to try. Zen Gaze Shan Chu, I'll call him Chu as in Achu. Further, because many homes are already built on concrete foundations. It's a system that should be able to easily scale up and at least negate some of the costs of the power consumption that homeowners are already undertaking through normal electricity bills. A racket, obviously. It's an intriguing idea and one that that bodes well for the future of building and architecture especially given that the researchers say a 1589 cubic foot block of the concrete super capacitor would be capable of storing up to 10 kilowatts I believe of electricity. Roughly a third of the energy needed to power a home on from there it could also be paired with next generation solar panels and since concrete is available everywhere it wouldn't be hard to incorporate it more widely widely. However, it's unclear at the moment just how effective this type of concrete would be outside where it could get wet. So the experiment certainly requires some more thought and testing before widespread use. Ah, there's always a catch. There's always a catch. Interesting. There's always a by the way, you know when Ralph Crandon said by the well by the people when somebody says by the way. That's the catch something is the something negative is going to be brought. Now this is interesting because as you you're well aware, your typical modern batteries today are lithium lithium ion right. Well, scientists are experimenting with improvements to replace the lithium battery and see how I'm getting bombarded here with with bait and switch. Excuse me. And switch, which means I'm opening up an article and they're bombarding me with all kinds of crap, getting me to go somewhere else so they can get me to spend money so they can get me to part with my money. Chinese scientists develop a high performance ultra long life aqueous zinc oxide battery. They're working on replacements for the lithium battery all over the world. So I welcome anything from the Chinese scientists because they're they're pretty advanced Hefe institutes of physical science Chinese Academy of Sciences, August 15, 2023. All right, a research team has developed an advanced aqueous zinc ion with an enhanced cycle, lifespan using a weak magnetic field and a new VS to material the breakthrough addresses the challenges of zinc, dendrite growth and cathode material limitations. The credit to Mao, you need a research team at the Hefe institutes of physical science of Chinese Academy of Sciences led by Professor cell bang bang bang. They developed a high performance aqueous zinc ion battery with ultra long cycle lifespan in a weak magnetic field. Okay, aqueous zinc ion batteries are a low cost and safe alternative to lithium ion batteries with high theoretical capacity. They still has to be tested. However, the limited electrochemical performance of cathode material and zinc dendrite growth on the end of reduces the energy density and cycle life of an aqueous zinc ion battery to develop better aqueous zinc ion batteries. It's important to design high energy density cathodes and suppress zinc dendrite growth. So it goes on, it gets very scientific. I don't want to scramble your brains and give you a massive headache, but it's in the experimental stage. And we all know how expensive the lithium ion batteries are to replace anyone who has attempted to do so with their electric vehicle. Unfortunately, found out the hard way. And also, when you go to the charging station, it takes way too long to charge the lithium ion battery. And its range is, from what I understand, like a few hundred miles. It's okay, but it's not where it should be. But it's definitely promising. These two are the same articles, though. I just want to make sure, because the titles are the same. There might be two different articles. Oh, let me go to the chat. Trusky Brusky, how are you, sir? Long time, no communicate. Communicate with, it's been a while. I'm trying to think. The last time I saw you, were you doing a video, was it with, it was either with Eric Hornfelter, or Alex the beer, Master Bader, or it could have been Michael Goldsmith Hilton. It was one of those, too. It was only like the three of us. I found something about batteries you might want to look at, look into. I'll check it out. I'm just laughing at your name. Osama Bin Shrek. Osama Bin Shrek. Welcome. You know, you probably are aware, right? Concerning what I just said about the expense of the lithium ion battery. And it's shortcomings. But you got a lot of science. Science continues to advance at a very fast rate. And it could be, it's science involving anything. It could be medical science. It could be the military. It could be, in this case, mechanical, you know, with electric vehicles. Our very smart phones, right? Lithium ion. Anyway, let me, let me bring this. This is, this is medical marijuana. I think there, I think I had two articles or it could be the same. I have to double check. This is, I have medical marijuana information. Medical marijuana is, is linked to improved quality of life and better job performance for people with neurological disorders. New study funds. And there is God's miracle plant. And I'm not joking either. What's all this shit? Medical marijuana use is associated with improved quality of life, including better job performance, sleep, appetite and energy, according to a new study. Oh, I believe it. Researchers at the University of West Attica in Greece, not to be confused with the Attica State Penitentiary in New York State, in Greece, published the study in the journal, G Needis Neuroscientific Advances on Wednesday, following an analysis of survey data from medical cannabis patients with neurological disorders. Medical, medical cannabis has been used to relieve the symptoms of people with various chronic diseases. The author said, despite this, it has been stigmatized. Yeah, by the same right-wing people that started prohibition back in the day. And the reason why sex toys are illegal in the state of Alabama, you know, that whole religious freak, zealot evangelical cults, you know, where they make up their own ideology based on no evidence. The study showed that a majority, 58% of respondents said medical cannabis is an effective treatment for their condition.  And 68% said it increased their energy and vitality. Our participants exhibited very few restrictions and activities due to emotional difficulties, a moderate general health status, as well as moderate vitality and energy. The study authors said participants who reported a longer period of receiving medical cannabis reported statistically significant more energy and vitality, but also better mental and general health steps. Oh, I have 110% behind this plan. The clinical questionnaire S5-36 Health Survey Scale that respondents completed also asked about their openness about using cannabis for therapeutic purposes. A strong majority, 85% of medical marijuana patients said that they disclosed their use to family.  Who cares what they think? And 93% said that they enjoyed their support. Ah, support this. If it works, it works. However, 81% said that they haven't been open about their cannabis use in their social environment, such as their workplace. Well, that I can understand. Appropriate knowledge could significantly help health professionals in the field of planning and implementation of personalized nursing care in order to achieve optimal therapeutic outcomes. The study concludes. The rest is yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. And you've got the gist. You've got the gist of the subject. It's very exciting when I read this. Let me see. Oh, okay. There are two different articles. Hey, look what it is. Gunner Lindblum is two alpha.  They sure screwed that up, didn't they?  Gunner. End it. End it. Those bastards. Those man hating bastards. They know what they're doing. They know what they're doing. They know what they're doing in the beginning that ugly, well, they're all ugly. Betty for Dan, Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, every one of them couldn't get laid in a monkey whorehouse with a sack full of bananas. Everyone, yeah, they do simp to them. How about that? Why did they simp to them? They got, they got raising balls, Gunner. I think they got raisins for balls. Feminist room, both the Democrat and Republican parties brought. They did. They absolutely did. They're raising balls.  Thank you, Gunner. I appreciate your kind words. Thank you. I appreciate it. Nah, I'm done with him, man. Nah, you talk to Mario Petrus anymore, bro. I saw him posting a few nutrition videos on YouTube, but he seemed to not doing much anymore. Well, I'll make a long story short. In 2012, I created a Facebook group called Holistic Health Talk with very good intentions. And down the road, Mario Petrus kept asking me, Hey, Madonna, hey, James, could you do me a favor? Could you do me a favor? Could you do me a favor? Could you do me a favor? Could you make me administrator of Holistic Health Talk? I said, let me think about it. So then I made him administrator.  He was a co- administrator. I was the creator. I was the founder. So Facebook, if you make somebody an administrator of your Facebook group, that person can kick you out even though you created the group. That's not fair.     What does that have to do with health and nutrition and fitness? It's really nobody's business. Your personal religious beliefs, your political beliefs, he has no right to do that, but Zuckerberg allows you to do that. So I turned around and I kicked him out of my international food and drink group, which is food. It's called Everything Is Food on Facebook. I've had that since 2012. It's pretty big now. I kicked him out before he can kick me out of everything. And I turned around and I created a new holistic called Original Holistic Health Talk. That's my group. So I created that one. And I blocked him from communicating with me. I blocked him by email. I blocked him by cell phone number. I want nothing to do with him. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Gunnar. I want absolutely nothing to do with him. Prasanna Nandrata. Yeah, you know what? My buddy who normally co-hosts with me on the show, Mick Von Raven, he imitates him saying, calling people a waste of sperm.   Sporning something like that.  He pulled like Julius Caesar. I had Brutus and those other guys sneaking up on him. Yep. That's the, that story is the God's honest truth. So be very careful. If you, I don't know why Zuckerberg does this, but if you're an administrator of a Facebook group, or even if you create a new group, be very careful who you appoint administrator. Learn from my mistake about trust. I still don't understand why Zuckerberg allows that. The person, the person who created the group is the person who has seniority, right? The administrator has seniority. So the one with seniority cannot be booted out by let's say a recently appointed administrator. It sucks, you know? All right, let me get back to this. I'll just, this is the last article I think, so I'm just gonna, before I start sending out the links to my panelists, states with legal medical marijuana see significant and sizable reductions in health insurance premiums, study finds. Oh yeah, I believe. A new study in the International Journal of Drug Policy found that states with legal medical marijuana enjoy significant reductions in health insurance premiums compared to states where cannabis remain completely illegal. Yeah, like Ron DeSantis is Florida, a fascist. Analyzing a decade's worth of private health insurance data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, researchers determined that in the years following the state's implementation of a medical cannabis law, premiums dropped dramatically. While the reductions were modest, immediately following implementation, the study found that by seven years afterward, annual premiums had fallen $1,663 compared to states in the control group, similar reductions were seen after eight years, $1,542 and nine years, $1,626, indicating that the decline was fairly stable over time. Although the effect does not begin until seven years, post-medical cannabis law implementation, the authors conclude there is a significant and sizable reduction in health insurance premiums in states that legalize medical marijuana. Excuse me. Due to the nature of insurance pooling and community rating, these savings are appreciated by cannabis users and non-users alike. Well, without boring people with insurance mumbo jumbo, and I know it's very boring. I hate talking about insurance, so I just wanted to bring it to people's attention that medical marijuana really works. It really is a miracle plan. Because the insurance companies would not acknowledge it to be so. Okay, now when I got it, hold on, Gunner, let me put your comment up.  Hey, anything's possible. I have an open mind. Never know, bro. They might like your opinions. Well, you know, the forces of evil have unseen dark spiritual forces guiding them.  You know what is Zuckerberg's pages? Facebook and Instagram is loaded with spammers, spamming and infomercials and scammers loaded. It's like non-stop. It just doesn't end. Every time you take a look at your profile and just get bombarded. Hold on. I got to do something important here. I have to go inside just for like a little bit, about a minute, 30 seconds to a minute. So bear with me. Okay, I'll be back in a flash. Okay, I'm back. Thank you for your patience, everyone. Thank you for your patience. Good morning, Masumi from Japan. Good morning and happy Monday to you, which is now, I believe, 5.07 a.m. Monday in southeastern Japan outside of Tokyo.  Okay. While I'm waiting for my panelists, my co-host, come aboard my pirate ship. Does anyone have anything they'd like to say, any subject you would like to bring up and address? It could be anything that's important to you. It doesn't have to be politics. It doesn't have to be climate change. It could be anything. It could be sports, pro-wrestling talk. It could be health, nutrition, fitness, relationships, the pitfalls, the perils and pitfalls of relationships, and so on and so forth.  Thank you. Thank you, Masumi. I could do this, but I'm going to hold off a bit. I could post the link to join the show in the public chat, but let me first wait for my co-host that is scheduled for this week. It won't be Mick von Raven, because Mick von Raven went to a rock concert, which he rarely does on a Sunday, but today was, just happened to be a Sunday that had a rock concert somewhere. So I hope Mick von Raven is having a good time. And we'll probably see him back next Sunday. Okay, let me check something here. A poll. After you finish with your video report, if I'm still on the air, which I am now. I'm live right now on YouTube and Twitch. I'll send you the link if I'm still on the air, but do what you got to do, okay? Well, the person that wanted to come on for about an hour hasn't seen the link yet, but they might see it soon. Hey, Mr. Ronnie S. How are you, sir? Ronnie S originally from Long Island now resides in Clearwater, Florida, which is outside of Tampa, a very popular place. Doesn't Hulk Hogan have a store, a gift shop or something in Clearwater? I hope the weather's good down by you. I hear the hurricane season might be really brutal this year. The Atlantic hurricane season. I know when he got taken to the cleaners by his ex-wife, Hogan, I guess she got the house. You see how the judicial system is?  So Hogan turned around and he had another house built in the same, I guess, general area, but from what I understand, he's got something, some business in Clearwater. Oh, he has a restaurant and bar on Clearwater Beach. Ah, how about that? Well, I'm happy that Clearwater extends to the ocean, not the ocean, the Gulf. When you're sitting outside by the in-ground pool, by your condo complex, how far of a walk are you from the pool area to the beach of the Gulf, to Clearwater Beach? How far are you? Not a slow stroll or you're bullshitting somebody. I mean, if you took a normal walk. Yes, his ex-wife got the house and he moved into another house very close by in the same neighborhood. Yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I thought. Oh, okay. You just saw the link. My co-host scheduled for this week's progressive discussions. You just saw the link to join. And here he is. I will bring him aboard. There he is, the one and only. Ronald J. Terrio from southeastern Louisiana. Hello. Good afternoon. I got the copper Moscow mule mug. Oh, that's nice. I got a New York beer. Oh yeah, what you got? Oh, I got to turn off the lamp so it doesn't glare. This is called White Tide. White Tide and Tail, like the Monopoly man. No, White Tide, Tide like water. And in Upper New York State? Rochester, New York. Oh, that's Upper. That's by Lake Ontario. So it's a Belgian style white ale with orange peel and coriander coming in at 5.4% alcohol. And it's produced by a brewery. Now they use an alias name on here, Rockwall Brewing. Yeah, but it's actually Genesee Brewing. Which is in Rochester. Right. And this is produced for the Aldi store chain. Oh, so that label is specifically for the Aldi machine. Ronnie, yes, says greetings to Ron. Hello, Ronnie. Nice to meet you. He lives south of Clearwater in Largo, Florida. I guess you made the move. I guess there were good reasons why you made the move. But anyway, unless you moved directly there. Okay, so what is, what kind of an aroma do you, oh, it's like a, it's a lager, right? No, it's a Belgian wheat ale. Oh. But it's filtered, you know, it's not cloudy. It's a little hazy. The aroma is not too bountiful. It's like a little bit of yeasty bread in the nose. But the flavor, I've been enjoying this. The flavor is bitter, pure from the hops and from the orange peel. It's a coriander spice in the white wheat. And medium body, not too sweet. It's more bitter than sweet. It's got a dry finish. I've got the six packet Aldi for $7.99. Wow, that's a great price. So a filtered Belgian wheat is similar to like a blue moon, but probably better. I don't know if it's better. It's just different. Yeah, it's different. It's made by, like I say, Genesee, but they don't put their name on the bottle, but it looks like a Genesee bottle. Yeah, it's very, I find the flavor and the mouthfeel of wheat beer to be very crisp and refreshing during hot weather. That's only me. It is. And we got up to about 97 right now. Oh boy. And then there's always, is this still dry by you? No rain. It's rained about two days since mid-May. So the steam bath is back. No rain. Yeah, we, I know Southern California, well, starting with Baja California, they're getting hit with like the first tropical storms in 84 years. 84 years. Category, I think touch, when it touches down in Baja, I think it's category one unless it picked up. No, it's already dropped to tropical storm. It's peering out. Cause once it hits those mountains, that's a, you know, it can't make it. Oh yeah. And Baja is definitely mountainous. Plus the Pacific ocean, you know, the water in the Pacific is cold. People, people are, people are creating videos like on TikTok. Oh, it's going to be catastrophic. California is going to be hit with a catastrophic storm. Yeah. Come on. No, it's a very mild storm. It's a lot of chicken littles out there.  The sky's falling. I know they exaggerate. Oh man. That definitely looks refreshing. I got it from Amazon. It's the other ones were coated. This is 100% copper. And it's got that hammered look to it that I like. Yeah. And it's designed for those Moscow mules. Yeah. Which I made, you know, it's not bad. It's decent. I mean, I like it. I didn't despise it. I didn't do handstands, but I like it. Yeah. It was okay. Yeah. I like ginger beer. If you spike it with something and you know, in this case it was vodka, but I wonder if you could do a rum instead of a Moscow mule.  I have a white rum. I think that might be the case. Where's Mick? Oh, Mick is at a rock concert, which is very unusual for Sunday. Mick is at a rock concert. I wanted to bring up something and you stop me if you think it's not true. He didn't go see Tete, huh? I didn't ask him. I'll ask him tonight when I order my food to be delivered. Taylor Swift. I'm talking about Taylor Swift. Yeah, Taylor Swift. She writes songs about her exes, right? She cries. She's got her face in the crying towel, and she's making money. Crying all the way to the bank, but she's generous.  That's nice to her. That's how much money she's making. A lot of entertainers, a lot of celebrity entertainers are very selfish and cheap, and I really, I raise my mug to Taylor Swift. That was big news. That she was really taking care of her people soon. Well, that's definitely a nice pocket change. She's got so much money she can't spend at all. Well, you were going to say something if you wanted to know. Yeah. I know Joel Osteen would never give his people bonuses like that. Yes, Ron. I have been enjoying the Pepsi with real sugar, but don't ever drink Pepsi with real sugar because you'll never drink that high fructose corn syrup version again. You know, I've been using a product called Sugar in the Raw. It's turbinado sugar, which is... Oh, yeah. It comes in a bag. It's dehydrated cane juice. The Hispanics call it Ponella with a P, because Conella is cinnamon. Ponella, P-A-N-E-L-A. It's dehydrated cane juice, so you get all the nutritional value of the sugar cane, which is loaded with nutritional value. It really is vitamins, minerals, and it's got the flavor of the mole lasses. And it's very tasty. I like it. I tried Stevia, which is also natural, but Stevia has zero calories and doesn't affect blood sugar, but I tried Stevia and there's like a bitter aftertaste, and this is the problem with some of them. Now, there's another one called Monk Fruit Extract that they're selling now. I've seen that. I've seen it. Yeah. Let's try it. Okay, now let me bring up this. Okay. I don't know if it's... All right, the Joe Biden administration sent a total of $24 billion to help Ukraine for the American citizens who lived on the island of Maui in Hawaii. He's only giving $700 per household in a one-time payment.  It's probably not really true. They probably... They're probably taking that out of context. It could be. Yeah. It was somebody... Because they're going to qualify for all sorts of benefits, and they might qualify for a lawsuit because there's a lot of evidence that the state government was at fault. Yeah. The governor of Hawaii says that the sirens broke. The sirens were busted. They were not operable, because normally, if there's an emergency like that... Well, the state emergency representative said that he chose not to blare the sirens because he didn't think it was going to help. Well, it's not going to stop the fire, but it's definitely going to save lives by having people evacuate. It's not going to help. He said he thought it was going to make people run to the fire. I don't know. I don't know his reason, but the guy... The guy resigned yesterday citing health reasons. So he says that... Maui is not in cahoots with the Biden crime family like Ukraine is. Right. That's another reason. Yeah. So he felt that people will run towards the flames. That's what he said. I saw some of his interview. It didn't seem very convincing, but I'm not an emergency management expert either. But there's more. I read an article saying that... Of course, the Hawaii power company has a monopoly like in every state. And they put all these power lines out in this grassy area west of the city. And it never rains out there, because some of Hawaii is like a desert. And it never rains out there, and the grass was very, very dry. And so some people think that one of the power lines caused the fire. And another thing is that there was an environmental group out in Hawaii. I can't remember the name of the group, but they had warned the state government three times over the last few years that those power lines being out in that dry grassland was very dangerous and could potentially start a huge fire. And the state just told them, no one wants to hear all of that. And then, well, look what happened. So the government, they never listen to anything until it happens. Then they say, oh, no. That's like if in the springtime, the roads over here are loaded with craters that are actually potholes. But they don't get to it and fix them right away. They wait. They let it linger until... I didn't know if my truck would survive that journey through New Jersey with all those potholes. And that was in the summer. Oh, you had potholes when you got to... When you got to northern New Jersey, so potholes. Oh, everywhere. All along the highway route. That was the worst part of it, all these potholes. And no warning.  I'm thinking this is a shame. You know, a major highway like this with these big holes in it, in the middle of the summer. That's because the politicians up here are too busy pocketing the loot, the booty. Yeah. Now we have problems like that in New Orleans with potholes that they don't bother fixing either, you see. So those are not caused by ice, obviously. Those are caused by the ground giving way underneath into the marshy land. But there's still no excuse they should fill in. Hey, I have a question. I haven't seen Jason Cleveland on your show in a while. No, he got mad at me because I was complaining that he doesn't... He hasn't really participated on the show like he used to.  I have a lot of my play after I have to cut the grass. And as my kid goes through different games after taking it to games, and then I go to watch the Seattle Mariners at the stadium. And then my wife and this and blah, blah, blah. I says, that's your choice. I mean, I don't think it's a hard and fast rule that just because somebody has a significant other that they have to totally give up all their hobbies and interests. I said, that's your life. So you got annoyed. I sent him an apology on his cell phone or audio. I don't know if he got it or not. He was definitely an asset to have on the show when he participated. Yeah, he's comments online sometimes. I probably won't be around much starting next week because the football season is going to get going and I'll be watching all of that.  I know football season is starting. You have college and NFL. So I'll watch all those. I'll watch those games. I don't watch all of them, obviously, but I watch. You attend college games. I go to the college games a lot and then I watch New Orleans Saints football games on television on Sunday. You know, my dad, my father, he'll be calling me on the phone. What do you think about that? Boy, what a terrible call.  You know, he'll call me about that. So he'll give you play by play. Yeah, he'll call. If it's some big play, he'll call. He said, I've never seen him play this bad.  I was, I was David Gropie there doing his hanging in there since his father passed on. Oh, yeah.  And it's a sad thing, but he was telling me about, I think his father got hurt in some kind of accident like 30 years ago. So he was basically sort of like disabled for the last 30 years and couldn't do too much had to kind of have help. So he wasn't doing too well probably since he was in his late 40s. So it was, it was just a matter of time. Yeah. New York Jets. I'm not excited about the New York Jets. Why? What is there to be excited about? I don't pay attention to them. But he got a new quarterback who's, who is the starting quarterback at Green Bay for a long time. But the guy's pretty much washed up. So I don't guess he'll do too much in New York Jets. Well, so all the geezers end up on the New York team. Yeah, I don't know what they were saying. Oh, he's going to be such a great player. I'm thinking all that guys, it was complain all the time. It's like complain so much. It's like with the, the, the Yankee fans are so livid that they're actually shouting fire, Brian Cashman fire because he has a habit of paying a lot of money for, for older, pretty much washed up baseball. I think he, I think he's probably washed up. I could be wrong, but I'm not looking for him to have a whole lot of success at New York. Cashman. Yeah, look at that. In last place, they got 60 wins and 63 losses. That team is just, I think there are two behind there are two under 500. They're, they're in the basement. Definitely. They get, they're getting swept by everybody and the cashman, this is the cashman has made several big mistakes, big blunders.  I mean, no, he's probably going his way out. Yeah. They keep that. Like Jim Carlos Stanton was a waste of money. He was a what? He was a one hit wonder in Miami, right? One year he hit 59 home runs and he's been terrible and they spent a lot of money on the on the old guy, Josh Donaldson. He's too old. He's not producing. Second worst hitting batting average in the whole major leagues. The only team worse than him is Oakland. And they have the last place record in the whole of any major league team. Well, I don't hate the Yankees and I don't just like the Mets. I'm actually, I'm not against any team. Even if they change their name to the Guardians. Well, the Orioles, I'm happy that the Orioles are red high. You know, they're doing great. But New York. Or New Jersey. New York, New Jersey area is stuck with a bad Mets team, a bad Yankees team. Well, the good thing is they're bringing up the Jets will do something. I don't know what the good thing is what they're bringing up two players from AAA Yankees that are totally tearing up AAA. Everson Ferrara and Austin Wells. I call them Orson Wells by accident. Orson Wells, he's a slug, he's a slugging catcher and Ferrara is like great with everything. So they're, you know, that's what they should do instead of spend a lot of money on players in their twilight, the twilight of their career. Bring up those AAA guys that are exceptional. Bring up those young guys. A lot of times the Yankees form system isn't very good because they've relied, in the past, they were such a wealthy team. They just relied on buying players from other teams, you know. Yeah, like, like, like when they, when they got, listen, when they got, I remember when they got Reggie Jackson from the Oakland Athletics and Jim Caffish Hunter, they, those guys were in the twilight of their career. They, you know, they, they made a big deal about it. I mean, how long did Reggie produce, really, before he started declining? Yeah. Hey, do the clappers. Do the clappers. Clappers? Clap on. Clap off. No, no, no, no. Never mind. Never mind. You know what I'm talking about though. The thing you do, the thing you do with the thing. Oh, you're talking about the gadgets, the instruments? Yes, yes. Which, which one, the, I got, I got the, the juice. Not because of, not because of, but the, the juice harp and the clapper thing. Oh, the bells? I don't, never mind, never mind. I got bells. Do, do them both, do them both at level. They're all in a drawer. I got to get them all. Well, never mind. Don't bother yourself. Oh, get them if you want. Don't bother yourself. I was just being a, I was being a bugger. How are you guys doing today? Fine. Okay. Everybody doing good. You joined, do you remember joining my show earlier today? Yeah. Yeah. Ron, thanks for having me. I'm still drinking. I'm still on the. Oh boy, you might want to cool it. I want to drink some water the rest of the evening. I would, but dude, I found out a friend of mine, a friend of mine, a fellow YouTuber. What'd he do? Pass away? Yes. And I, I don't think in a very good way either. Uh-oh. I remember, I remember somebody I know or not somebody I would know. No. Eight camel. His name is eight camel toes. No, I wouldn't know him.  And, and he's, uh, he's quite a smart. Yes. Young man. He's, he's. Um. He's sharp. Nine sheets from the thing, but I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you having me and I'm going to do a shot and, uh, I'm not in the best moods, but like, hey, I'm, I'm in high spirits. I wasn't this guy's best friend by any means. Huge.    If that's, if that makes any sense. But he was, he was, I got to know him a little bit and we talked.  You know, I don't want to get. What was it? What was the cause of death? They haven't even disclosed it, but I know it was. It was. Yeah, it was. That's it. I don't know. What exactly. Way he did it. That's the most avoidable cause of death of all. It's a shame. There's always, no matter how bad things get, there's always a glimmer of hope. You know. Yeah, I know. If it, it, it blew my mind. My buddy, when I went to, when I went to the channel, we were going to play poker. He's always had a poker game, right? We were going to play poker and he was like, where's Kimmel?  That mother of ours. He's like, hope alive. He's like, no. And I'm like, what, what's going on? What's going on? And he's like, he's crying. And I'm like, he's like, Drew. Drew. Don't. And he's like, he ended a stream and everyone begs me. He's like, Kimmel's not here anymore. His wife just called me. He's dead. Oh. Oh, he's mad. He was married too. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Did he get along with his wife or? Kimmel was, he was a free spirit.   I don't know how he treated his wife. He had an African American wife. You know. And. Which, you know, I'm not saying anything about that, but and apparently things weren't going well over there. Financially, he worked in the healthcare business. He got booted for like abusing patients. Patients like older, older patients and like, he was like flipping them wrong. Or, you know, he would get aggressive because he would lose his patience. He didn't have. Yeah. He was in the wrong line of work evidently. You know, I know how obstinate the elderly can be. I know. And stubborn, but you can't, you can't smack them around. Oh no.  No. Of course not. You know.  Hopefully none of us are in hospice. Well, it's just a matter of time. Listen, no, no matter how it's inevitable. It's inevitable. We are right here at home. No matter how much vitality we have, it's just a matter of time. Now, on the other hand, with sciences, they might say, look, you can decline with old age or we can turn you into a cyborg and you can live forever.  I'll take the cyborg. Dang man. Heck yeah, dude. I'll be an experiment. The way, the way science robotics is advancing, that's very possible. You know, but it's crazy. Yeah, you know, time waste, time waste for no man, you know, everything wear and tear on a car, wear and tear on the living thing. We're losing the subject. I want to come here with my stuff. What are you guys doing, man? We're just talking. Different subjects. We were just talking about sports, football baseball and before that, more serious topics, but right now we're on sports. Now, aside from sports because when loser draw, those people live a much higher standard of living than Ronald or you and I would live, so I don't want to like that too much. Not necessarily.  They live a long time and they say the more you aggravate the heart, the more you work the heart. It's good to work the heart but don't stress it. Stress increases your cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone. Cortisol is bad for your health. Stress is bad in general and I was just watching a video by Dr. Eric Berg and he was mentioning cancer prevention and different things, do's and don'ts and he mentioned stress is bad.  You don't have to react. Some of these athletes will stress themselves and like look at macho man Randy Savage ooh yeah let's start cocaine all the time and ooh yeah big cocaine and who knows what else but you know listen, the wrestlers in the old days didn't abuse themselves like the younger wrestlers and they didn't have a knowledge they didn't have a knowledge they didn't have a knowledge it's your choice you're an athlete you don't have to like like Mark McGuire I can't say go Barry Barth no one held a gun no one held a gun to their head to use steroids I mean, it was their choice and we all have choices you know like to get off to change the subject cigarettes that's a choice and we would trade in smoke but I do you know who smokes more than you much more than you more than you is that your fellow Michiganer Michiganer what's his name? B.C. Christopher who's that?


Okay. Okay, I can start now. So thank you very much for giving me opportunity to share my experience about Bangkok. This presentation is based on my former master students. It's a master thesis at work. So I would like to start with looking at Bangkok in a very different perspective. This is Bangkok, the result of urbanization in the past 20 years. And look at the closer look so you can see that the mixing between, you know, among modern high-rise buildings, the old low-rise communities and spotty green dots over the place. So this is in the situation in the inner city. But when you go, you know, further outside Bangkok along the urban area, so you can see mixing between land developments, which can be housing development or industrial estate development with surround by farmlands. And this is the premise of this study. So looking at urban vegetation, you know, and look at the spatial structure and spatial patterns and ecological functions. And looking at the understanding of these patterns and functions, how we use these understanding to improve urban environmental quality and the quality of light. And this is the basic that a few representations already explained about the benefit of trees in terms of surface temperature. So we're looking at landscape classification into three categories. The first one is vegetation categories, which is divided into sub-category trees, shrubbed and ground-covered. The second one is water bodies. The third one is build-up area and bare soil. And looking at the effect of different surface on surface temperature, you know, different building materials, trees and water bodies. So you can see the heat characteristic of these different. And we look at the Bangkok metropolitan regions and then we select areas that study sub-areas. So the first group is mainly in the urban area, which is, you know, more built area. And the second one is, and the second group is in the peri-urban area. It would be more farmland and then some built. And then the third one, we're looking at the area with very large water bodies. So this is, you know, we're looking at each area. And then we're looking at the ratio of the green and non-green area, you know, the green and don't. So we're looking at, you know, in terms of the same ratio, you know, half-half and then look at the different patterns. For example, where the large pass and then medium pass and then small pass would highly distribute throughout the landscape. And this is the base of our land classification. So we look at normalized different vegetation index and modify, normalize different water index to classify our land cover. And then this is what we're looking at, the land cover classification and characterization. And, you know, the combination of three shrubs, waters, built-up and bare soil and then the land cover ratio and different, you know, the first one would be more urbanized area. So the built-up area is majority. And then second one, the second group is in the very urban area, which is more farmlands. So you can see the higher ratio of the farmlands. And then let's build-up. And then the third group is with the very large water bodies. It's a Jalpia Revers. So this is what we, you know, based on our analysis and looking at the land surface temperature maps, you know, the by-test temperature value and then converted into the survey temperature maps of the study area. So we overlaid together. So this is what the characteristics of each land cover tries, you know, three shrubs and ground cover, water and built and bare soil in each group. So this is the first one, which is a highly urbanized area. The second group, which is more farmland area. So the characteristic and the range of temperature of each cover types. And this is the third group, which are really large body of water, Jalpia Revers. And then the left one, we have the Banga Jal area, which is green. So you can see the very green patch, large green patch. And then so, and then this is we looking at, you know, a very other effect of the last patch of the build-up and the green areas. You know, this is the big park and then the large train station, the Bansu train station, looking at the pattern of the green patterns and the temperature patterns. And then when we look at Aseland unit, look at the temperature, the surface temperature characteristic, the range, the maximum means and then the minimum of in the three groups. And the first group is the area which are more urbanized area. And then the second group is more farmland area. And then the third group is the large water body. So you can see a different range, mean and max, and the range of temperature as a landscape unit. And then we're looking at, you know, what the difference, you know, the wider range are very high, very low in a highly urban area. And then when you have a very small patch or distribute over, you can see that the lower highest temperature, the range is much narrower. And then also in the area with the large water bodies. So this is what, you know, the small experiment try to understand, you know, the pattern of the landscape. So we're not looking at just only a single trees, which is a way to understand about the pickup trees to look at how trees can reduce the surface temperature. So in this form our conceptualized the patterns, you know, so we come to what the conclusion of these small experiments. Each pattern has its own benefit. The urban vegetation patches benefit urban areas in reducing land surface temperature, consequently the increase of vegetation area, green infrastructure, either pattern A, B and C is necessary to decrease land surface temperature.  So we try to look at these kind of different patterns. And to see, you know, can be, you know, from the understanding we try to look at how can we apply that's the idea. So we look at, you know, the already existing regulation, you know, the FAR, and then we looking at the green coverage ratio, you know, we just have the new one that we try to think about how can we apply all these. So you add more tree coverage in the different proportion in your plot area. And these, the picture is my students try to simulate of what, you know, these applications can apply in terms of, you know, looking at how would we reduce the surface temperature. And this is my presentation about what's, you know, happening in Bangkok. Thank you very much.


Hey folks, I'm here with the 2017 NCHA 5,000 novice world champion, Stephen Schlesinger, and he rode Czech counter to win that title. Congratulations to you. Thank you very much. Tell us about your go rounds in the world finals, how they went, and describe the best one to us. Well, the first round I won it with a 224. It was a really good run. My horse has been outstanding all year, so I was really happy to lay down that run. Good time to do it on the first one, really kind of cementing your position. Right. I needed to get one check here to guarantee that I'd win the world, so it was nice to kind of get it over with and be done with it. Yeah, because you were coming in fairly tight, weren't you? The second place could have caught you? $4,400 in some odd dollars, I think, and there was $4,593 to be had here. And so if he would have had to win both rounds, Mike Wood, which is an awesome competitor, had to win both rounds, and I wouldn't have got a check for him to win. Okay, so those circumstances didn't come about because you didn't allow them, you had that great run and obviously a good world finals. What does this title mean to you? It means a lot because I started this horse, trained him, made the fertility finals here on him as a three-year-old. Superstakes finals on him here. He's just been a great asset to me and the owners are amazing owners and have really supported everything I've ever wanted to do with this horse. So how old is the horse now? He's seven years old. So you've had that horse for obviously a few years. Tell us what it's like to, like you said, take it to the fertility, but then get to see it develop as it really gets stronger and, you know, better at cutting. Yeah, he's always been a really good, really smart horse. I had a little trouble with him early in his five-year-old year. We were breeding him and hard to get focused. So we sent him to Jamie Snyder for about seven months and then I got him back and here we are today. So did you have to spend a lot of time on the road this year? How many miles or how many shows do you think you did? You know, I don't remember. Last year I kept track when I was hauling for the world, but I didn't keep track as well this year. We hauled probably 40,000 miles maybe and we went to a lot of shows all weekend. We really pushed hard this last little month and a half. About a month and a half ago I was only $150 ahead of him. Like you say, Mike Wood is a very seasoned world champion competitor. He's amazing. I show against him a lot. He's an amazing showman, great sportsman. It's been a pleasure working with him. He helped me here. I helped him. It's been a great time. Now as an open competitor, as a trainer, how hard is it to keep that going while you're on the road competing in the world finals? It's really hard. You've got to have a great team. I've got the best wife in the world and two great kids. I also have a great assistant trainer at home plus great show help that has been on the road and busting through the blood and tears. It's tough and I've got a great support group of clients. They've all supported me all year long. I've actually got about 15 of them, half my barn here with me, just to watch me show. It's been a great year. Well, you did them proud then. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you very much.


Welcome to the 21 convention podcast. My name is Steve Mayer and I'm your host of today's episode today We have Nick sparks an amazing guy and in this in this podcast We do an interview that gets really in depth. We talk about sex Sexuality his his speeches that he's given in the past But also some really intimate details on how to get more social how to be a better man and Both of our personal struggles that went into this equation. Don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel It's an easy click of the button and if you're watching this on social media, let's pass it on Let's get into this interview All right, here. We are with Nick sparks at the 21 convention man You just said something which was pretty cool. He said this was the the one of the highlights of your year Yes, man tell tell me about it because we've talked a lot, but I haven't heard that. Oh All right, just the collection of people. That's what I really love about it the speakers I'm to the attendees. It's you know the speakers guys who I don't get to see guys I don't get to hang out with who I have a lot in common in prior to this you had not met James Marshall James McLean Sasha. Oh you hadn't met Sasha. No, it's a big personality all sorts of sock. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah incredible inspirational And then also I know for myself and we talked to you got to experience it a little bit more because I'm like Going all over the place, but even the attendees What what was so like What was your first thought on I have some thoughts on it, but what really stood out, you know I've spoken at a few of these that are not the 21 convention and the crowd can be kind of a yeah You know guys who are just like really looking up there numbers. Yeah, or this and that but I mean this convention especially this year just the tracks men who are Awesome guys really looking to do like, you know the right thing and just looking to improve themselves in all areas of their lives Are pushing themselves and in every which way and I mean that's always inspiring to me Man, you know kid. This is what I I would say because there's always been a difference about the 21 convention and especially in what like the message that is produced but in this year you really saw the manifestation of speakers and attendees Going all in the same direction. It was just really cool, you know So everybody had the right mentality whether it had to do with diet bettering their lives I mean you just heard a different voicing of living a better life and you know the meaning of social I mean god dude the speeches. What was your favorite speech man? Um, Socrates. Yeah I think he won You know what I thought was so interesting was Every speaker especially guys that we see a lot, you know in the seduction industry and although you hadn't met Sasha or James Very familiar with them Everybody had a feeling of I just want to give like everybody gave you know including your speech Or we were talking about it just the pacing of it and the feeling of of Hey, man, we're being we love being social. We love connecting with people We do this because it's our passion, but we believe in humanity and let's just open it up And it was just so cool to see the different voicings of you know Sasha being Sasha You know James Marshall being James James of Clane yourself, you know, it was just a very very cool thing What are the transitions for you in this like that brought you to that Kind of level of giving and because for the past couple years. I really feel that you've opened up in a way that's I Don't know a very mellow calm Seductive expression of yourself like what what transitions happen? Oh, I mean growing up You're practicing what I preach instead of because yeah Any guy who's working in this industry tell you you get into it because you're you're trying to figure stuff out for yourself You're trying to do yourself on these lines as well and every single guy I work with I learned something new and I I'm going to be an example to people. I've got to internalize it I've got a y'all to bring it myself and then with this event especially I'm I always feel like I've got to bring my best Everybody else's Anthony always is and so just to kind of deserve to be on that stage with everybody else I've got to you know make sure that I'm resting as much as I can before my speech I'm giving as much as I can to the guys who are all bringing everything. Yeah got themselves Like I got to step it on and that that is something because speaking at the 21st This is something that you guys may not know is that it is so different because it's a different caliber in other Speaking events went for anything. It's like there's some riff-raff. You know, it's it's kind of easy to get the top 10 Roll out of bed hungover. I just go over there. Don't shower. Hey guys 21 convention. Yeah, like to speak on a stage with yourself like to be around that or Any of the other speakers some of the top guys in in health some of the top guys in the world in fitness doctors Yeah, I'm these and I'm supposed to be like we're that's the crazy thing about like the guys in the seduction industry Is we tend to be people that just you know kind of go about life in this way and it was a philosophy major Yeah, hey, at least you went to school. You know, I mean like a lot of us didn't but we're actually on stage with these like academics you know after this we got We have two guys would be actually I just interviewed a guy with a phd And we have another guy with a phd and it's just such an interesting thing I think that's something that the 21thvention Anthony everybody involved in it is put out there that you know Living your life living your expression living what you're truly passionate about you can get to this expert level of you know Spreading a good word. I mean is this happened for you, you know We enter into the seduction industry and you can kind of go whatever way you want But had I not been involved with the speakers and the people that I met I wouldn't have transitioned into More of the thought in the mindset in the you know, even feelings. I'm passionate about seduction, you know What what's happened between the 2009 convention And uh and now man Well, I've always kind of followed my own path when it comes to this sort of thing I've always been a figure things out on my own walk Whatever, you know, I ignore everything that else is out there and then really kind of think oh What do I believe is Is best even if all the other voices in the industry are saying something different right at the time that is you too They really were and so, you know, I I feel that I was maybe leaning towards a message or a direction before it was More popular before it was more accepted. Yeah, it was a gamble. Yeah, big time for sure But then it's it's it's humbling when when anthony starts kind of cutting out other people from the convention There's a lot of people that spoke that back then that right they butted heads when they weren't invited back And now it's just isn't that crazy. It's it's really it's really just reaffirming It's really like I said humbling that and then also with you Because you've I mean you're like super humble. You're like totally down to earth, right? Just a dude I've got my own stuff to work on like everybody. Yeah.  I'm validated, but for you. It's just like, oh, no, man That's not what it's about Uh went like that speech was released What a year year year and a half year and a half Yeah Like what was your reaction to all that? Even people started emailing you or you were just like, whoa, this thing is going crazy I was as shocked as anyone. Yeah Because you know my speeches would tend to get as many views right as the the other guys in the convention and then that one just went went off completely unexpected very very surprising and You know, I wasn't going to walk in here this year with a big old fur coat and like sunglasses like mr Big shot or anything But for me it was it was it was validating in a way and that you know The stuff that i'm talking about the the way that i'm going about this stuff is what people want You know, they don't want the top 10 like best pickup line people are looking for something else So if anything it was just like a reaffirmation that I was going in the right direction But definitely at the same time not like oh, I've arrived now Yeah, but that you know, I've got a lot more work to do but at least I know that You know, I'm I'm doing it somewhat right I think it did it did a service to everybody and even in the 21 convention With it's just video feed has done that for everybody because marketing tells you you have to be this way and then you come along and it's like I mean There's other people with other speeches that are much more, you know marketing and then this totally organic like You do all the things that are quote unquote wrong, right?  Yeah, there's anything else and it needed to be said So yeah, glad I got the opportunity. It was really good, man.  It's not about the words. Yeah about the thoughts. Yeah, it's only going to get in your Why, you know, you said something when we were talking about the speech I you know when I work with guys one thing that I notice and man what I notice about myself I mean Is when I fail at something how I react shows a window to what I need to work on or if I get rejected And they're two different things.  But I think also with how we deal with success You know and what did that teach you, you know, or what kind of It was validating in a way when you saw You know shoot man doing my things my own way because at the time like all these satellites of people that you probably weren't connected to You know may have been doing the right thing in the seduction industry the dating industry But you're kind of like alone with it And when you started to get that success What did it show for you did it trigger any things that you needed to work on did it it's like I said just mainly because I've had Conversations I know plenty of marketers in this industry and you know when I was who doesn't and they were all telling me Yo, we need you need to do this This is how you and and they were right to a certain extent like if you wanted to make money Especially it's kind of like this is what sells like yeah, and so this is what you need to be And I said back then that I get that I understand that this is where the money's at This is what people are buying and this is what you know gets their emotional selling juices going or whatever But I don't believe in it. I is a coach I know that if I taught that stuff and I just saw guys Basically being in the same place they were I wasn't doing my job and so I Yeah, I said I respect what you're saying and what you're doing But I just I can't do it. I I have to do something else And maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm gonna do it and a couple years later I'm going to just you know be homeless or whatever have to get out of the industry But it's it's it's really nice to know that There are guys that do want something out. There are guys that are tired of that message. Yeah, um, and so It's it's I won't say that that's the thing that that kept me sticking around But it was it was such a strong message That no that that there are other people out there that don't just want the rest of the stuff that are looking for something different Man, cool. Cool. Hey, let's take a break for a short minute and we'll be right back with nicks barks nicks barks back again and uh from a quick break and uh, we had a quick quick few jokes pasted there man, so uh, we're talking about all this stuff, but um Uh You you had said to me once that you really feel that when guys work with you It's like man, you just need a workshop. You need More when they take a workshop with you. You just need some time to work with you You know get some skills in there Get a little bit of follow-up, but that's generally all they need And so when guys work with you they they tend to get a very specific result Of you know, this nicks barks has kind of way of like relaxed and just like, okay Yeah, you know, I'm not worried about all this like You know head cheese jumble of you know overthought pickup stuff and I can just kind of exist in this social element what you know, what happens What's your workflow when you work with guys? um I mean first of all, I got it was just it was sad seeing guys investing like yeah years of their lives Thousands upon thousands of dollars And then just being right in the exact same position They started and when they were looking to improve this starting to sometimes worse Sometimes sometimes worse. It's frustrating. Absolutely. I've said, you know, some of my toughest cases are guys who have really been Attrenched in some negative negative stuff out there um, and so I you know, I needed to I didn't want to be just another one another thing that they went through and so I guess what There's a secret to to what I'm doing. It's one just you know giving the basic skills because it's not some complicated things That they're always feeling like I'm missing some other parter. I got to lump some more information Just giving the basics of what really constitutes great interactions Making sure that they have the essential skill set and they're not missing anything on that end Making sure they understand that this is what they need and they can create all the great interactions They want from these these basic things um And then it's just kind of hammering home like mindsets throughout the entire time that we're together You know four days of me they're they're getting tired. They're wearing themselves out And if I'm just constantly like hitting them over the head with the same Message it kind of can start to re-trigger and so You know a big message is just that you know, there's going to be some people that just aren't in the mood to social I said just aren't going to be looking for any romantic connection in their life for whatever reason that this isn't about Um, oh, there's a person. How do I get them?  It's not saying it's cloudy What dance can I do to you know make the sun come out right now? It's human beings are that uncontrollable essentially And so just kind of shifting the focus of what this is not supposed to be You know the message that so many other people promote as you know, this is what it is And that's what you're going to get to saying that's not what it's about And just kind of promoting and then also the stuff that I teach. It's very much centered around Real connection really enjoying the the company of people You know, whether it's going to be romantic or not and I mean at the end of the day I think that a lot of guys come in thinking that they just want more sex But what's really going on and I can relate to this in my own life Is there just they're kind of hungry for a deeper connection with with other human beings with people? Yeah, you know, um Because you bring up something really interesting Or you're bringing stuff up and I'm thinking about myself and sometimes if I talk about myself all the time Because I'm always in my head. I know it but you really have a different philosophy Going into this. I mean, I'm sure you know, you've worked on other people's boot camps and kind of seen how they do it Um, but you're really coming from this place of like, hey, you know, that's normally talk Like if you get rejected, it's not a rejection You know, it's this experience. So what do you say to a guy if it's like, no What are what are the three things I need to say, you know If I'm coming to you and saying like, well, how do I approach to give me three things that I can do I'm saying that's mine. That's that's that mindset that's just creating this cycle of like Misery and failure and frustration that you're getting in that it's it's not about that If you're looking for that you're going to be looking for the rest of your life and you're never going to get anywhere Right. It's like, what do you want? Do you want the top three things to say or do you want to be happy?  I mean when you're in pain and you can't see beyond that So with a guy like that, you just say, hey man, relax and go work on yourself or Say, you know, there's going to be other people out there that I think will really right Be more what you're looking for right now. And in earlier on in my career Well before I had developed as a coach and before I even had this track record It was more difficult for guys to see they believe like, I don't want that crap Yeah, like, oh yeah connecting like, all right. That sounds cute.  Yeah, I do want that. I think that sounds pretty good And the other thing too is is anybody who's actually having sex or like has a sex life, right?  You have friends Like if you have those if you have those things in your life and we're laughing about it, but It's like, god, you you do value the connection.  It's worse.   Where do I go from here?  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  Where do you see that? Where do you see that with other people or yourself or The world in general it's I mean Figuring this out for myself bad sex like things that that make me Like feel crappier is is basically sex with people that I don't really enjoy the company of yeah When I've got to like Act in a different way that yeah, they like me and I know how to be attractive But I mean at the end of the day I it's like, okay Like will you sleep with the person and that's done And then it's like then you can actually look at them as a real human being and say well Wait, I don't actually enjoy spending time with you whatsoever I was just kind of tricking myself into thinking that I enjoyed your company Just because like I had this this this desire for for sex And so that's what I would refer to as a sexual addiction when when you're putting that need first and ignoring everything else So a process that's been for me is to look and say Do I before I sleep with them? Am I am I just am I tricking myself into thinking I'm enjoying their company?    Like that's not my in front of me. I usually like let my intention known with my eye Well, that's the best way man because we're especially sexually I think the closer we can get even if we're not physically close But the closer humanly we can get people feel that and sex is not determined by like Do you like me? Yes. It's like this other language that's happening with Subcommunications and feelings and women here. I was attracted to knew I was attracted. Yeah. Yeah our conversation Yeah, actually, I've seen I've seen the the animal come out man. This is like Plus everything this is another thing. I was talking to this guy John, uh, man, you should meet him He was not at the convention John Lichenberg, but he's one of the the few guys that I'm like an ah listening to him about sex, but He has sex with everybody he's one of the few guys where this is his lifestyle You know, it's not like he didn't become polyamorous because it's cool and some sexual deficit And I want to do that for like he's made it a life, right? But he's like, you know, if I'm friends with somebody I don't really know them if I don't know their sexual side You know, if I don't if I haven't experienced that and you you put that out there, man You're like, yeah, I saw I saw you with the like But everybody has a different style, right? But I'll get like super aggressive But yeah, you do that being said man, you haven't even seen I know you're Baby and yeah, yeah, Marty is here and it's amazing and I'll get killed You will literally yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's pretty pretty vicious dude strong woman. It's what yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, but also I'd even say to that like she's had just as much experience as me.  I can't think because it was like it's just too much But that being said When I see a hot woman like that my My the next thing I know and you're kind of talking about this wisdom of like don't have bad sex is How can I See her like how can I see her sexuality to see if I like it? You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be her emotion, but that could be part of it But how can I see What she's about other and if I can't get that then then it cuts You know, that's where like I said, I'm still work in progress No, no, no, but how do you talk about the ideal thing of you know Needing to really enjoy their company But then something like that happens and like it's very very hard to keep that in mind.  Yeah So, yeah, you know, we're back in How do you deal deal with that the discovery? You know, well, it's really I'd say plugged into so much of what I teach like what I teach isn't really about Actively doing something to be attractive.  Um, you know making that seeing how they respond Just, you know asking them questions stuff I talked about two years ago at the convention of just really being curious showing just genuine Interest in in who they are what they're about and then leaving them space and then Seeing what they do what they say who they are, you know, and as they open that up, you know Show either be honest with myself. Is this something that I'm really enjoying? Is this something that you're not just she's hot so I'm gonna love everything that she says But is this something I'm jiving with is this something I appreciate and I've got enough experience to see how women can act one way And it's awesome and women can act another way and it's just it turns me off Um, but but so, you know, very much to just Put out give her opportunities to open up give her opportunities to To kind of be who she is And then just being honest with myself about if I actually like that or not and if if so being You know more curious more interested getting more out And if not just kind of Losing interest and and seeing if maybe she's going to recognize and say okay.  I mean everybody's different and I and I know how unique You are with this, you know to truly find the unique individual But like what was the last like, you know, kind of date that you went on or experience You had with a woman where this kind of unfolded just so guys can get these points that you're talking about and by points I don't mean specific action. I took her to fro you then I said, you know But but yeah walk us down an experience that you had um I'd say there's you know the majority of the Every so often Like and it's it's a rare thing. You know, you find the people that you really just click with where talking is like You just start talking to them and it's the best thing in the world. It's easy as time disappears There's there's nothing else you'd rather do exactly. It's it's the best I mean, so there's there But then You know those don't happen that often in your life. Those are more few and far between So a question I get a lot of how do you enjoy the interim? And in between there, I think that there's you know, a lot of people who You know, you know, you maybe it's it's not like that. It's not like that that very rare thing that happens um, but it's more But it's it's more Oh, jeez. How do you even describe that you?   They're saying things that you you care about talking about their family or talking about their friends They're not just kind of you know, I've tried going on dates with women that it's it's just like they're this Like like plastic and they have whatever the magazine or the tv say they should be and it's it's more It's more than not even if we don't completely match up on anything I'm gonna enjoy myself a lot more If a woman is Is really putting herself out there if she's really you know, not just kind of going through the same plastic steps Just like with guys I think yeah a big time same thing That's attractive or not and if I'm if I can see that she's the kind of person that That that can just be real that can't just be genuine and And and do all the same things that I'm trying to do find somebody else that's that can be real with But they're like that's just gonna make me respect her that's gonna make me Want to spend more time with her even if it's not you know for forever or even if it's just a friendship like I got I got this for you with You know you talked about commonalities and stuff like that One thing that I find like really interesting and and this is tough dude. I mean I I have to Check myself on this all the time But I remember I did these interviews way back when about American culture like totally separate thing and You know like what is American culture? What do you like about what do you dislike? You know all that sort of stuff. How'd you change those things? So I interviewed all these people but there were people like I went in with an agenda like I want to you know Have this ideology, you know highlighted.  We hit a commonality of like Okay, you think this way I think this way But you know this is why I think it and and I started to understand people and I was like wow In true socializing there isn't any judgment like when we're connected And I think for me, that's what I'm always looking for when I'm like wow How can I you know if there's this girl and she's from wherever and maybe she has a shield up or a wall If that lowers man, that's like such a beautiful thing It's what we try to teach our guys to do. I love that's what I see you do You know, yeah, it's because it's not about you hit the nail on the head It's not about you know, do you agree or disagree with my position? It's is is whether if you if you agree But it's still just kind of come from this like plastic thing like I'm just reciting something I heard somewhere else because I think it's like the right thing to say or because it works It's gonna feel weird. It's gonna feel I'm not gonna connect with that person Whereas even if they disagree if it's coming from like their real genuine belief if they're really speaking their their mind They're speaking their heart. Yeah, then I'm gonna feel that person. I'm gonna connect with them I'm gonna want to yeah talk with them more. Yeah No, man, it's just such a cool thing. This is something that we were talking about and I just was thinking about it going like wow I'd like to talk when I do interview Nick. I'd like to talk about this, but we were talking about orgasm and in some of the Orgasm orgasmic meditation stuff that you've done and you have a friend that is like, you know Teaches this in unique ways, but we just started. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we start talking about that expression of woman and women expression of sexuality Being in love with that like what when did this start for you and like not that you're like this like Super connoisseur because some people get like cold like into it, you know, but but yeah, like how did you Fall into that like tell me the story of that If Christina Berkeley is the person you you mentioned if anyone's familiar with orgasmic meditation The big name in this space right now Nicole de don and one taste They're they're kind of the biggest brand of orgasmic meditation really getting the most publicity right now And and Christina used to work with one taste used to be kind of Nicole's right hand woman running the the new york area And and there was a lot of stuff with the practice of of simply You know, yeah pussy stroking that that Christine wanted to do differently And and so she kind of broke off and I was when I first met her I was just looking for a female assistant for my program right and brought her on and I quickly realized the stuff She was sharing and the advice she was giving was just a whole different level. Yeah, and I mean she's helped guide my You know what I teach and my kind of my thinking around all this as much as anyone And and so I met her when she was going through this transition away from one taste and not her own thing And as she started building her own practice, this was maybe two two and a half years ago I started you know, she's telling me.  I'll get you not be interested in that It sounds it sounds fascinating And but at the same time, you know, my own sexuality my own relationship with women These were all things that I was very much working on very much trying to improve and figure out for myself Um, and and so this this practice sounded very attractive to me Yeah, and and so she really started forming her own thing and I said, you know, good friend of mine at that point. Let's Um, you know, I'm in this like sign me up And and so she took me through the same process or she took everyone else the same training process and um You know, I started doing it and yeah, it was it was hugely beneficial I'd say just for my relationships with women not even a sexual way, right? Yeah Really being you know comfortable with women not just as I mentioned not just kind of looking as oh, how can I Achieve sex but just being comfortable with with my sexuality with feminine sexuality. I'm in a in a much more healthy way I think there's an element to uh To sex as a man that you really touch on a lot like with this speech And just your general vibe like in the 2012 speech you may not specifically be saying this But there's a part that's the urge where you see that chick like when we're in the back of the You know this could have happened or not But in the back of the conference room when we're like fuck, I just want to I need to see those tits Sure, I want to I want to see what happens in between those legs But then there's this other side that's but no man, that's some like animal shit, dude You're like fuck It's god-given man. Yeah. Yes. Yeah And in men need to get in touch with that and I think you hit on that very well But then men need to hit on or get in touch with the the rapport side like how can we Feel and then there's this other side with the orgasm of like How can we exist in this sexual state in the act of sex with this woman and feel her Absolute expression, you know potential. Mm-hmm allow connection to happen you know allow the two things to become one and uh You just say it really well, you know, uh, we're almost out of time, but what, uh About those three things, you know the urge of man Yeah, the the rapport and then the the state of sex I think the big trouble that I've had that I think a lot of guys have is that We have these completely natural beautiful, you know desires feelings urges But then it's like we've been trained in our society We've been trained in our upbringing to quickly like our ego just takes over our head takes over Oh, yeah, I want her because it'll be this status and I'll feel so good about myself when I'm Bang in this hot chick right and and it becomes this just mental process and then the mental well How can I get her? How can I I can I can achieve that and we completely cut ourselves off? Like it comes from a great place But then we just kind of are taught our entire lives to make it about this This this ego driven thing. Yeah, and so to kind of learn to You know when that's happening to not just flee off into this is kind of unhealthy place with it But to learn to to keep it where it belongs to to keep it And that's why though the practice is called orgasmic meditation Because you're experiencing the sexuality, but it's really more about learning to meditate on those feelings learning to hold them And be present with that that natural urge and if you're you're coming from that place It's gonna feel good. It's gonna For yourself for the other people around you But you know when it once it becomes this kind of mental process is ego driven process It's gonna make everybody kind of less satisfied and less happy with it man. No, that's badass. That's beautiful. That's beautiful Uh nick sparks. How do we find out about you sparks of attraction dot com my upcoming book attraction make women want you and men respect you should be hitting the bookshelves in the next Month or two so check that out man can't wait and be awesome. Good to have you man. Pleasure steve Wow guys that was a cool podcast man Just just an awesome experience if you guys could Leave some feedback lead leave a comment We'll get back to you if you give us some thumbs up some likes and don't forget to hit the subscribe button So you can be a part of this awesome movement in following that we're doing here at the 21 convention I'm steve mayada and we're signing off