But let me first ask Amirah, do you believe that they are born or made? Well I think both cases are true because like we've seen some cases whereby we have seen people who are into leadership because either they come from a family or maybe historically from ancestral line which has some leadership traits. Even tracing back to the Bible we've seen we hand families which were so much into leadership and they are also made because we see we have some program of mentorship whereby maybe when you have somebody who is a leader who is so much into maybe serving the people and together mentorship you get to learn from the person then you easily become a leader. So both they are made and they are also born. I don't know whether being born in a family where leadership is... Equates to being a leader. But I think what my friend here is saying is that then you're socialized to leadership. So then it may not be you're born a leader but you're socialized by your family and the people around you to be a leader and then so you find you may not have been born with strong qualities for addition and attributes for a leader but because you're socialized that way you have no choice. Your father was a leader, your grandfather was a leader, your uncle was a leader so the only thing you know around your environment is leadership. So that is why I say you can be born with those qualities but you can also be socialized. You can be socialized. I found the question very interesting considering your background in military as well. I used to be our former vice president Waikibaki's aide and I'd like to understand military are people who tend to take instructions not give instructions. So now that you're a member of parliament and you give instructions can you understand how the transition occurred? First for the military and I'm very glad to talk about the military because there's a lot of discussion about the military. Military is a profession like any other and it is not actually true that they just take instructions. Somebody in the military is giving instructions. In fact, this is where leadership is actually cultivated and you can say as we are saying also quite a bit of nurturing to leadership because everybody in the military starts from the bottom. If you're an officer you start as a second lieutenant then you grow to become a general. If you're a serviceman you start as a private then you can grow to become a warrant officer which is highest rank. So there's a lot of nurturing. So you start backing orders from the day you enter and you are also receiving orders. So it's not a question of just receiving orders you also give orders and therefore I would say contrary to the belief that maybe it was a messy transition or it's difficult to unseat I learned my leadership in the military and then in the politics it was just a question of mutating and just translating what I learned in the military. Mutating and translating. I like the words. Alright, I think we can move on to our next statement here. We have a leader provides vision for generations to come. A politician is concerned about the next election. So according to you guys, what's the difference? I think also when we talk about politicians versus the leaders there is also a lot of misconceptions because there's nothing like this size fits it all. There's nothing like this is the common belief for all politicians or maybe for all the leaders. Because we have hand situations whereby we have seen politicians actually we're not quoting attention, we're not even creating followers. We've seen politicians who are actually mentoring other people into leadership. So I think one thing we need to get is that being in politics also does not guarantee that you are a leader because leadership is not about the followers. But I believe leadership is more about even mentoring other leaders as opposed to creating just followers and being seen as you are the most public person. So I think that's my opinion on matters of that politics and the followers. Okay, so let me hear from Monica before me. She's been my response. It looks like it's just about to come in. I don't know. I can say maybe context. It depends on the context. Often in a society like Kenyan's society and most African societies, politicians, leadership it's seen as one thing which is distinctly not because a politician is involved with the activities of politics which is the struggle for power. And a leader is concerned much more about after the power, then what next? And then now a leader is involved in the long-term process of planning and strategizing for a people and a country or a region as a whole as opposed to a very short-term interest which can be described as the political activity. So this is a very distinctive thing and I think it should be identified that politicians are not necessarily leaders and leaders are not necessarily politicians but either one of those could be both, yes. Okay, okay, Mashimi, but now let's hear. Do you consider yourself a politician or a leader in this particular scenario? Thank you Hilda. I think let me start by how I ended up being a politician. I ended up being a politician because I worked for the president and I discovered he doesn't like gossip, he doesn't like too much talk politics, he doesn't like the usual talk of politicians, he actually didn't like it. He wanted to talk about an issue, he wanted to talk about a solution to a problem and I said, if this is what has been all his life as a politician, then I can make it because again, I also get, I tire with a lot of bickering and gossiping and all that. And what I learned from that is that you have to be a leader first and then you seek a political platform to express your leadership. So to me, the politics is just a platform where I can express my leadership, whatever goes and all that. Because without going to public office, then I cannot access my people of better south to a system. So I have to seek the platform and play the game. Once the game is over, then I have to go back to leadership to plan for the long term strategies for the people of better south. So I see it as politics, it's just a platform for leadership. So it's not necessary that you have to compare the two. I see. So you're basically saying one is an instrument of the other. Absolutely. It means to an end. To a leadership. Okay, so we have one interesting one, which came from Monica by the way. If this one is, make sure you pay attention, this one is going to start up something. All right, so in order to be a politician, you must be ready to kill, steal and lie. This is according to political science. Okay, I don't know. Do I start with you or do I start with Annalisa? So do I give Monica a chance? Monica to tell us what she is. Yes, that statement is very philosophical, it is very academic, it is very scholarly, but it is what has been said of politics. It is what the early philosophers in politics put through. These are the Machiavelles, the Thucydides, then they put this across in order to make a good politician, you must be able to at least one kill, two steal, kill three. And that's the theory. And I don't know, maybe Mahesh Muah can tell us if this is... We have some of these qualities. Thank you. Thank you. You haven't killed yet. I haven't stolen yet. I don't intend to do all those things. I think his perception and build up of narratives. Obviously there are people in history who have misused power. And here we're not talking about actually leadership passing, we're not talking about politics passing, we're actually talking about people who seek power and then they feel constrained to do anything that they can to access power. From my side of point of view is that power comes with responsibility. And those who seek power, for the power's sake, then you find they are prepared to do many, many things, even unparalleled things to access power.  And therefore, the more power you have, the more constraints you have. I mean the most powerful person in Kenya, the president, is severely constrained by the law, by the perception, by parties, by his friends. He gets a lot of constraints to even access that power. So if he is a leader, then he feels constrained and he has to maneuver his way around the constraints, around power. So if somebody is just looking for power, for self-expression, then those are the kind of people who go into killing another kind of thing. So it's selfishness that is the drive according to you. I would even call them my leaders, I don't think they are leaders. Kaviria, what do you have to say about this? Do you believe that a politician should possess all three of these traits or one of the three in order to stay afloat? It depends because that statement, as she said, it's philosophical. But there is a reason why it was put across, maybe based on the past experiences which we have seen in politics. But looking at even the scenario in Kenya, as now we're trying to put it into context, what is said, what sacrifice, what extent do politicians make for them to gain power? So because we've seen previously politicians, they do all sorts of things from trying even to take people's lives because we've seen when we come to one's elections, we have been having so many cases of kidnapping, whereby even the rivals or even the opponents are being kidnapped. We've had of cases like what we had in 2017 by one of the, in some constituencies, the opponent was actually killed. Another one was kidnapped and found after some days. And also maybe from his own country, we've had of cases whereby also the speaker went maybe missing or whether it was a game or not. But it's things which we've seen with politicians. And also there's a lot of investment which people make for them to access power. We've seen people leaving some very high-flying jobs in corporates, then coming to politics and then people ask, what is it that is in these politics that people are willing to go that extra mile and we have not seen that leadership push. Either this person want to protect some loot or either this person want to push some personal agenda. So I think it's something which we've seen, but it does not mean necessarily that you need to have all those qualities. So it also matters and also maybe what somebody is ready to put to get that power. Okay, Mahashimi, would you have anything to add before I say what it is I need to say? Perhaps the only thing I could add is that when we go to elect leaders, we need to be careful because at the electioneering period there's a lot of confusion.  They offer money, they offer all manner of things. That if you elect a leader because of money, because of false promises, then you're stuck with him.  Therefore people should be very, very careful and examine why is this person coming to this platform? Why is he coming to us now? Perhaps he's been absent. You should interrogate and find out why. If it's just for the sake of power, please deny him because that will not help him. Okay, interesting, sorry. Acabaria has brought something up which I found interesting. You used to be the former chairman of the National Cereal and Produce Board and currently they're having a lot of issues when it comes to food security and scandals are just looming in that area and we'd like to understand as a leader now that you're out of that particular scenario but do you feel like you can still weigh in on some of these issues? Do you feel like they follow you behind? Do you feel like the people who are here before are the reason for this mess? It means most Kenyans say that.  And also once you're the chairman, how do you take care of interests of yourself? The farmers and the cartels and the law that be, the powers that be, how do you find that balance? Thank you. I think Kenyans remember that province of National Cereal and Produce Board are historical, not just recent history. They ran way far in the history of Kenya. And one just googling you will see that there's been scandal after scandal around Maze and around National Cereal and Produce Board. When I arrived there, I had no idea how big the problem is. The problem is very big and part of the problem is actually structural that the parasitic functions under the minister of agriculture and there are many things that they are assumed to be doing and they don't do. It's done in the ministry and then it's assigned. For instance, big contracts, a fertilizer for instance, those are big contracts. Five billion shipments in about three weeks and it's finished. It's a very, very big contract. Those are actually negotiated at the ministry level. The Cereal Board is just assigned and then they look for money and put in the contract and deliver and that is it. So when things go bad, nobody knows the background of this contract where it was assigned, who negotiated it. They just assume it's a Cereal Board. That's not one of the problems that I had to deal with. And at that time there was still problems of and do farmers actually get the benefits of the fertilizer, do actual farmers get the benefits of the purchases of maize and I had to step in personally. I used to go around the country. I used to go and check up. We used to have meetings with the ministry and I thank God while I was there. That is why I was able to fed off the cartels that are filtering the fertilizer and also be able to sell maize, to buy maize from the right people. But listen, Hilda, I think what would require the National Cereal Board is a paradigm shift. It's a complete change of how business happens. They have to be given independence. But you cannot do things on the side. I assign them to Cereal Board and then blame them. And that is why even the blame doesn't go far because actually people know that actually most of them did do it. I'm not trying to defend them, but in many cases they don't do the big things. So I think they need to be as a surgery, they need to paradigm shift, just detach Cereal Board, let it do its business so that they can be blamed for what they do. But nothing is following me because I did the best I could at that time and I survived five years and there was no such scandal. They were filtering on that and I appeared in media many times catching people who are diverting fertilizer and things like those. So it was just vigilance that I did. But the structures are wrong and that's a big thing. So that's something that if they don't sort that out we are going to continue to see these problems. We're going to have problems, we are still going to have problems. Okay, I think at least now we've gotten a bit of an explanation on what we could assume happened with the NCPB. There was also something else that was brought up, which is that you should check the kind of leaders that are being elected. Are they bribing voters or what have you? When you won your seat in the year 2017, it was petitions. And the complainant said that you were bribing the voters. With 500 shillings and he actually accused you of witchcraft. So I would like to understand as a leader, how do you deal with this? This is a paradox of leadership. The person who petitioned my election was position 7. He was even the second or third or fourth, he was position 7. And the kind of things he came up with, were even a decrease in court. And this is what Mr. Cabrera was saying, that there are people who go out of their way and they spend a lot of money. And they are assured, they talk to other people, they are assured, this is yours. So when it doesn't happen, they are in shock. And they don't know what to do, they don't know what to say. Probably they have run off from money, so they run to court to save face. And I think this is what happened, trying to save face.  And even the judge kept on asking him, then even if you are given all the votes that you are asking for, you don't even come close to number 4. How are you going to resolve this? But it was saving face. And this is why I say, let us examine who is this, who is offering himself for leadership. And it was simple. The reason why he was even rejected, he doesn't even come from the area. So when people, they took money in the first instance, then after some time they discovered, oh, who is this? They discovered this fella doesn't even come from here. He just recently bought a piece of land and here he is. He doesn't know us, he doesn't know the area. Sometimes he goes to campaign across the border. He goes, he busts the constituency. Because he doesn't know the border. He is doing campaigns in Ucambani. And all that kind of thing. You cannot attack him so much. But I'm just saying that, yeah, I was taken to court. It was quite an experience. Because then you have to fight perception. And thank God, thank God. I stayed in my cool, waited for a thing, and the verdict came that there was no setting. Yes. And congratulations for your win. Thank you. Okay, okay, okay. Let's hear from Kiberia and Monika. When it comes to saving face, like he's talking about leadership, how do we know? Like somebody is genuine with us or not? What are some of the qualities that you think should be outstanding about a leader? One of the things that we should look out for, and Mahesh Mua is very correct, that we should be more vigilant as individuals, as the citizens, as the people who vote, is a track record. We should be curious enough to want to investigate, where has this person been? Who was he? And how had he performed where he was? What are his issues with integrity? Are there cases of him? Are there even rumors? We should not be at a point where we entertain, even just a rumor of someone lacking in integrity and still being in office. So this kind of vigilance is not really so hard to come across. It's just a matter of, with the age of social media and all this technology that is available, it is so easy to find out about a person's track record, find out about their personality, who the errors are people. And it is quite easy for people to do that. But I think short-term gains, you know, blind people, especially if you are young and desperate, have no job, and the short-term gain of 500 feelings, it is very alluring, although someone may not understand it who is very stable where they are financially. But for someone who is destitute in the streets, has no job and there's short-term, you know, a short-term success to be achieved in that 500 book, it is something that will actually make someone change their mind. And so the most important thing is to work on those root causes of why people are not concerned about, you know, the things that matter, the character of a person, the integrity. So what are these root causes? And it is systemic factors, structural factors. This lack of employment, lack of offering, quality education that will spark growth, innovatingness, and all these things. So this is what is really lacking. It is not that we're not seeing a good politician. It is that the base structures are not strong enough to support even a strong, knowledgeable, and independent-thinking citizen. I think that's the problem, yes. Okay, Kiberia. Well, for me, on these matters, I have two examples, maybe practical examples to give. One, back in my county, Meru County, the current member of parliament for Gambesaut, Honorable John Paul Muiregi, is just somebody who was elected without any money. Just a very humble guy just in college and was really competing with the big-moneyed people. But now when you look, it's not something which is common. That's why we put it as history. Because in Kenya, the kind of scenarios we have is whereby it's the rich, the famous, and the people from maybe the big families and big background who are elected into offices, irregardless of the atrocities and the things which they have done in the past. Remembering some time back, there is this common professor, Pierlo Lomumba, who died in, I think, Parkland's constituency as a member of parliament, and he lost Trebley. Because his campaign platform was on integrated issues. And when you read his book, he said that he came to realize that in Kenya, the voters do not look at the issues of integrity. They are not looking at the person as maybe the type of leadership you want to give. Because if you're not giving them money, if you're not giving them maybe false promises, if you're campaigning on a honest platform, then maybe there's high chances that you'll be elected out. You won't get any votes. Wow, I would actually like the MP in the studio to comment on that. So Kenyans, we are the problem. It's not even the politicians. Exactly. Because from what I'm hearing from Cambodia is he saying that Kenyans want someone who will lie to them. When somebody builds their campaign on integrity, they don't go anywhere. They don't want someone to lie to them. Do you think that there is a problem with the electorate of this country? Well, it is a problem. But I think it will be not right to generalize in that manner. People want to hear issues. But sometimes when one creates a lot of hype around an individual, and then goes for money and the other things, then you have a problem that he pulls a crowd and the fellow who has substance does not have the crowd. Now, so I think for when you go to the platform, then you have to have the skill to mix so that you have to say a bit of what they want to hear. Let me tell you. Let me tell you one of the things that was in this campaign, which I did not do in the campaign 2013 because I ran twice. This is my last campaign. We did a lot of singing and dancing. Hype. Just traditional dances in songs that people know and they sing along. We did a lot of that. Every meeting was a happy occasion. And that happy occasion then allowed me to say what I needed to say. I needed to sell my policies and if they get bored we sing some more. So one has to be tactful. But if you are just humming, people at different stages, if you are just on policy and programs and things like that, people at different stages, unless you sing to your straight or do something to your straight, then you can't carry everybody. You are only talking maybe to a few professionals that understand what you are saying, but the rest of the people are wondering what is going on. So I think it is a bit of both and I think the politician has to have the ability to mix his issues with the content that the people are used to. Like the dance, the better dance. Balance, being able to blend in with the people. Okay.


Herbert Marshall as the man called X. Wherever there is mystery, intrigue, romance, in all the strange and dangerous places of the world, there you will find the man called X. Now is the time for all wise men to treat themselves and their families to television. Of course, you're planning to buy a television set someday, but in the meantime, your family's missing seven days a week of the most wonderful variety of entertainment, whichever came the way of the human race. That situation's pretty hard for families to take. As a friend of mine discovered recently, when his children pointedly began leaving him out of their prayers and substituting the name of a neighbor generous with his television set. Don't make your family wait for the fun. Visit your RCA Victor dealer tomorrow and choose your RCA Victor television masterpiece from 18 beautiful new million proof models of all sizes and styles. Like the more than a million American families who now rejoice in the perfection of RCA Victor television, you will find your RCA Victor set the lasting pride and joy of your own life, as well as the best investment you ever made in the happiness of your family. It began a few minutes before midnight in the small dimly lighted cable office in Rangoon, Burma. Began when an elderly Burmese handed a laboriously written cable to the yawning clerk and then walked out into the blackness of the Asiatic night. Sorry, this office is closing now. We won't be able to... That's the story, Ken. The cable clerk was killed and a man named Laow Rao disappeared, along with the original cable he'd written to you. Luckily, the Rangoon police were able to make out the message from the impression left by Laow's pencil on the pad of message blanks. It's a copy of it. Thank you. The shadow from the north spreads swiftly over this land. For the welfare of all our peoples, I pray that you will come at once to Rangoon, signed Laow Rao. Oh, cheese! You remember Laow Rao. Sure. He worked for the Bureau of the Japs who were in Burma. Fractury ran the underground resistance there single-handed. Yeah. Nothing meant as much to him as his country's freedom. Yes, I know, Ken. But what about this cable? Chief, the United States has slapped an embargo on strategic war materials from Asia. Rubber, tin, antimony. Yeah, I know. So what's been hit me? We get reports of ten cartels of crude rubber turning up in Budapest. A thousand tons of tin are dumped at a Baltic port. Borneo oil turns up in Sofia. I know, Ken, I know. It's obvious we've been giving priorities to somebody who's been selling us out. Rerooting strategic war materials and shipping them behind the iron curtain. Well, what have we been doing about it? You know the Bureau's got men in every ECA country in Europe working on it. Sure. But we don't have any in Burma. Burma? What in blazes? Oh. Yeah. Take a look at your map. See what lies at the north of Burma. La Roe tries to warm me about a shadow coming from the north. Then he disappears. And when you tie that in with the fact that he owns some pretty big rubber plantations... Hmm. Well, Chief? Miss Brooks, book passage for Ken Thurston on the first plane for Rangoon. But this seat next to yours, it is unoccupied. Well, yes. Oh, do you mind if I take it then? Mine was so close to the engines and the noise was... No, please. Please do. Oh, you're very kind. You are traveling to Rangoon, Mr.... My name's Ken Thurston and the answer's yes. Ah, how fortunate. I am Olga Marovna. Why fortunate, Miss Marovna? Well, I've always found this journey from Bangkok to Rangoon, a most tedious one. Apparently my luck has changed. Yes. You see, I am engaged in what you might call a very specialized field of endeavor. I am a professional hostess. Sounds interesting. How does this business of yours operate? Well, there is little that a woman who is bored can do in Rangoon, except give parties. A number of us are very keen rivals in being the first to host the celebrities at our affairs. I see. I planned a party at my home for this very evening. I should like very much to have you there. Well, that's awfully nice, but I'm hardly a celebrity. Perhaps not, but you are obviously an American businessman and one who will be new to Rangoon Society. It will be a conquest for me. Besides, I will be satisfied in knowing that I have helped an American to feel more at home in a strange land. Will you be there? Well, after that, how could I refuse? Oh, you're very gracious. And I think you will enjoy it. Oh, there will be other businessmen there. Possibly with similar interest to yours. Nitrates, tin, rubber. Oh, I'm certain that you... You're pardoned, Mr. Thurston, but the radio officer would like a word with you up for it. Oh. He said it was quite urgent. Excuse me, Mr. Rovner. Certainly, Mr. Thurston. This way, please. Thanks. Mr. Thurston, radio call for you from the States. Apparently important enough to bypass regulations. You know how to operate? Yeah, thanks, yes. Hello, this is Ken Thurston. Hello, Ken. Chief, what's up? Ken, we've had a certain suspect under surveillance for some time as a possible international agent. I just learned that this suspect booked passage from Bangkok to Rangoon this morning and has aboard that plane with you. Huh? It may be coincidence, maybe not. But if that agent is mixed up in the sell-out of strategic war materials... Yeah. Let's have his description, Chief. It's not a he, Ken. It's a woman. The name of Olga Marovna. All right, then, Inspector Tejo. What have the Rangoon police found out about the disappearance of Lal Rao? We have placed a suspect under arrest and are holding him for questioning, Mr. Thurston. He is in the next room, even now. Good. What's the story? He had been lurking around Lal Rao's offices for several days prior to the disappearance. He had followed Lal Rao to the Lotus Bloom on a number of occasions. The Lotus Bloom? Yes, a nefarious palace of drink and of pleasure that is located in the dark area. I see. In addition, he has been most curious concerning passengers arriving on international planes. Well, let's talk to him, Inspector. Certainly. Come in here.  What?  I'm pretty lucky for you that I... Oh, hello, Mr. Thurston. Pagone. You know this person, Mr. Thurston? Does he know me? After all the years we've been friends together doing things for me. Inspector Pagone's elsewhere is without doubt the most unscrupulous man I've ever known. And I trust him as far as I would in advance case of the plague. Boy, what a terrific reference, eh, Inspector? What is your suggestion, Mr. Thurston? Release him in my custody, Inspector. I can use him. What? Oh, sure. You know how invaluable my services are, eh, Mr. Thurston? Pagone, you're going to be living proof that it takes a crook to catch a crook. Well, thank you, Mr. Thurston. Huh? You see, it was like this, Mr. X. I came here to Rangoon to be at my Uncle Ahmed's coming-out party. Coming-out party? Oh, sure. Coming out of the Kling, you understand? When I run into this Lallural, oh, naturally he was very grateful for how I'd practically snitched Burma from the jabs with a single-handed during the war. Sure. How must have you chiseled out of Lall? Oh, it was only ten bucks. Mr. Thurston. That's what I thought. But I didn't chisel nothing. He paid me for telling him where he could cable to you. And besides, I didn't get it. That dirty double-crosser got himself kidnapped to avoid payment. Yeah. Sure. In here, Pagone. Hey, what are we doing in this no-good-loaders-bloom joint anyway? To find out who's interested in shipping priority war materials behind the iron curtain. Huh? What's that got to do with finding Lall Rao? Yeah, let's take this table. I don't get it, Mr. X. I really... That Lall Rao didn't do nothing here except well talk to some strictly cornball characters about maybe selling his rubber plantations. Didn't say nothing about any kind of curtains. You wish to place an order, gentlemen? Yeah. For some information. Information, sir. You had a customer here during the past couple of weeks. His name was Lall Rao. This humble one does not remember all the gentlemen who are served here. He talked to some people here. Maybe about rubber shipments. This one is not in the habit of listening to customers' conversations. Maybe this will help your memory and your tongue. Mr. Thurston, a tense spot. I want to talk to the same people about the same things. If you find them for me, I'll double that. I will return with your orders in a moment, gentlemen. Mr. Thurston, if you have to be throwing money around, throw some my way. I could tell you for half what you're going to get from him. You could. Well, foolish in that character over there. Going into the back room. The one with the sheer sucker suit. That's the one that Lall Rao talked to. Who is he, Pagon? What does he do? Well, maybe I could find out for, let's say, 50 bucks. I'll give you five. It's a deal. What will I collect? I'll be here. Or I'll be at Algamorovna's party. Algamorovna? You know? That pretty petunia. See you later, Mr. Thurston. Yeah. Your friend is right, Thurston. Absolutely right. You're throwing your money away, throwing it away. Well, thanks for telling me, but what makes you think so? No, no, no, Thurston. Let's not beat around any bushy, shall we? I heard you talking to the waiter. I am the man you want, Mr. Stephen James. I am the man. Very interesting. You mind telling me why? Certainly not. I'm a broker, general broker. Imports, exports, insurance. That's me, Stephen James, general broker.  Well, sir, you better see me at my office, Thurston. Number 11, Kaising Road, about insurance. Insurance? Right, life insurance.  Very uncomfortable experience, you know. Goodbye, Thurston. I am particularly happy that you came to my party tonight. Oh, why? So that I may prove to you that my parties are much more enjoyable than those given at the Lotus Room. Oh, how'd you know about that? I'm not a clairvoyant, Ken, but I do have friends. One of them is over there with the perpetual glass in his hand. Uh-huh. Stephen James. Is your old friend of yours? Stephen? Oh, yes. Very old. And once very dear to me. But those are not happy thoughts for a night such as this. All of you, my dear, your reputation as Rangoon's number one hostess is rapidly becoming taunt. Really, Henry? Heavens, what a disaster. May I ask why? Simply because your guests do not like to see you spending so much time with but one guest. May I meet him, Olga? Of course, Henry. He is Ken Thurston. Ken, this is Henry Salvador. Mr. Thurston? And let me warn you about him, Ken. He is very shrewd businessman who is a good deal more interested in what profit you may turn his way than he is in my reputation as hostess. You are absolutely right, my dear. So if you will run along now, I shall see how badly I can best Mr. Thurston in a business deal. There, Ken, you have been warned. I shall return later to see how badly this wolf of finance has mauled you. Charming woman, Olga. Charming. Even if she is brutally frank. You seem to do all right along that line yourself, Salvador. A competition among the shipping and export firms here in Rangoon is very keen, Thurston. And seldom, gentlemanly or polite in its mode of operation. Uh-huh. You're in that business? Owner of the Far East Trading Corporation. Rubber, nitrates, antimony, and tin. Uh-huh. Olga has told me you're here on business. If it involves the sale of any such materials, please do nothing until you have an offer from me. I will guarantee both a profit and the arrival of that material at the proper destination. What do you mean by that crack, Salvador? As a loyal American, what else could I mean but what I said, Thurston? Well... If you're interested, you can find me at the Far East Trading Corporation in the morning. Number 15, Kai Singh Road. It's been a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Thurston. Good night. Good night, Salvador. Uh-huh. Mr. Thurston. Hey. Mr. Thurston. Come to join the party, Pagan? Party, smarty. Who cares? I'm here to collect my 50 smockaroons. It was five. Got some information on that man at the Lotus Bloom? Sure. Already I know him like an old cook. His name is Hawkins. And he's willing to spill plenty. All about shipments of stuff that wind up some place where they're not going. Where's Hawkins now? Waiting for us at the place he works as a bookmaker. Some shipping joint down at the decks called the Far East Trading Corporation. There's the joint now, Mr. X. Yeah, no lights on. You sure Hawkins is going to meet us? Believe me, that guy would meet my aunts and all be at the altar if there's money in it. Hmm. See? Yeah, he's left the door unopened and everything. Come on in. Oh, Mr. Hawkins. Are you who, Mr. Hawkins? It's me, Zelschmidt.  All right, Pagan, you can climb out of that wastebasket now. Whoever it was, gone. Who do you think the dirt in the wood was anyways, Mr. Thurston? What's the matter, Mr. Thurston? Thurston? That's you, Thurston? James, what are you doing here? My office just a couple of doors away. Saw you come in, heard that beastly racket? Guess you'll believe old Jamesy Waymsie now, eh, Thurston? Told you you'd need life insurance, didn't I? Sure, told you. Crummy neighborhood, Mr. Thurston.  Even less, maybe. Why do we have to pay visas down here anyways? Hawkins is your friend, Pagan, man. According to Inspector Tago's police records, here's where he lives. Well, he's not home. Why don't we go to a joint I know on a Queens Road and have a couple of short beers? Oh, quiet. Hey, what do you know? He's not home. Looks that way. One thing about your friend is you've got a nice habit of leaving doors open. The joint is empty, Mr. Thurston. Absolutely. Yes. Your friend Hawkins was at home. But why do you think somebody bumped him off, Mr. X? Maybe these papers he was working on can answer that. Hmm, hmm. What are they, Mr. X? They're from an outfit called the Aster Warehouse. Aster? Yeah. So what? So they might tell us what happened to Laurel Rao and who's recitarian strategic war materials behind the iron curtain. Oh, huh. Then why don't we figure out what they mean? I'm going to try right now, Pagan, at the Aster Warehouse. Boy, what a joint this warehouse is. Huh, Mr. X? Big enough to float the Queens Susie in. And all that rubber and metal and stuff. What does anybody want with all that junk anyways? Any country that wants a start of war needs plenty of that junk, Pagan. Sure, but look where it's going to. France, Switzerland, Italy. Nobody's got a chip on his shoulder there. I know. If that's where it's going. You don't think so, Mr. Thurston? I think Laurel Rao could tell us if we could find him. I think... Mr. X, who's that? What? He's up in that loft, Pagan. Let's get up there. Can you see anything, Mr. X? Well, I thought I heard a door close somewhere. Our friend's probably gone again. Let's take a round. A friend, he says. Such friends I wouldn't wish on Justin. There's sure to be a law against him. What is it, Pagan? I just checked on a sandbag. Sandbag? Yeah, I'll check with this flashlight. Mr. X? Yes, Laurel Rao. Looks like James was right. There's going to be plenty of life insurance. Unless we get some answers fast. In just a moment, we'll continue with the man called X, starring Herbert Marshall. Everywhere today, people who for years have sought a fast acting way to relieve the pain of headache, neuritis, or neuralgia are turning to Anderson. And it's interesting to know that these remarkable tablets work with incredible speed to relieve the pain of headache, neuritis, or neuralgia. Anderson is like a doctor's prescription. That is, Anderson contains not just one, but a combination of medically proven active ingredients. In fact, thousands of people have been handed envelopes containing Anderson tablets by their own physicians or dentists. If you have not already been introduced to Anderson in this way, why not try Anderson next time you suffer headache, neuritis, or neuralgia pains on this generous basis? If the first few tablets do not bring all the relief you want as fast as you want it, return the unused portion and your money will be refunded in full. Anderson is spelled A-N-A-C-I-N. Easy to take. Anderson tablets come in handy boxes of 12 and 30 and economical family size bottles of 50 and 100. And now we return to Herbert Marshall as the man called X with Leon Balasco as Pagan Zelschmidt. Henry Savadal. What about him, Chief? He was mixed up in a couple but plenty sharp. His Far East Trading Corporation looks clean. No adverse reports. Huh? An office about two years ago. Too much attention to drink and whim. I'll bet that record's clean too. Who owns it, Chief? Huh? What's that? It's Ren Corporation. Two of them are bookkeepers. You mind if I come in for a minute, Olga? Oh, I know. Please do. Thanks. The party has been over for some time, Ken. Yeah. I just came back to check on a theory. Theory? About these parties of yours. Tonight your guests were businessmen and government officials, military men. Pretty valuable contacts for making friendly deals. Oh. Yeah. Deals involving war materials shipped through licensed American firms to Marshall-planned countries where dummy customers reship them behind the iron curtain. But what do you think of that for a theory, Olga? Do you mind answering for me, Henry? Not at all, Olga, my dear. I should be happy to. So long as Mr. Thurston maintains his distance. I won't argue with you, Salvador. Or with that cult automatic. Excellent judgment, Thurston, as excellent as your deductions. Olga did hold these parties so I could make contacts, get customers, arrange private deals, but you made one mistake. Did I? Yes. I stressed the point once before that I was a loyal American. I am. My dealings have been and always will be for the benefit of my country. Well? And so, my dear Thurston, your accusations are false. I shall protect Olga from them at all costs. The door is directly behind you, Thurston. All right, Salvador. I'll go. Tell you, I got it all figured out, Mr. Thurston, that invoice staff that Hawkins was working on was a system to beat the bank at Las Vegas. No. Sure. Like I say, I got it all figured out how he was going to work it. Oh, well, all my needs are a little capital to get started on you understand. And you and me hope we'll be rolling in silver dollars. Believe me, Mr. Thurston, it's the chance of a life. Yeah, sure. Huh? What's this place? Number 11 Keising Road. Let's go in. Still in the mood to talk about insurance, Mr. James? Well, well, well, so you decided to take my advice, Thurston, very smart, very smart. Nothing like life insurance to ensure your life, I always say. Pretty good, eh? Pretty good. I'm talking about a different kind of insurance, James. Different kind? Yeah. Insurance to protect a free world. Huh? What do you mean by that, Mr. Thurston? Ames is an export broker. He'd contract the priority materials and ship them out through Aster, a licensed shipping firm he owns through dummy stockholders. What's that? He'd send the staff to dummy customers in legitimately cleared countries and then reship behind the iron curtain.  You must be older. She owns Aster? Sure. Olga does. Her name's on the list. Sure, because you played her for a sucker when she was your girlfriend before Salvador came into the picture. Another cover-up. Huh? That gorgeous Gerdini was, was this character's girlfriend? She let it slip at the party pay gone. And here, on this desk. Now, Aster invoices the same kind that Hawkins had when he was killed. You're doing a great deal of surmising without evidence, Thurston. It all ties in. Hawkins could have been one of your agents who decided to double-cross you. La Rau, a customer who got too suspicious. The invoice numbers. A code for the real destination of your cargo. Even if what you say were true, such operations would be perfectly legal. The only ones breaking any laws would be the customers overseas who were guilty of reshipping. Hey, is this character right, Mr. Thurston? I'm afraid he is, Pagan. We can't touch one any of that, but we can get him for murder. Murder? Yes. The murders of La Rau and Hawkins. And that gun you're wearing in your shoulder holster will give us all the proof where... Don't get that gun, all right, Thurston. Look out, Mr. X. Let's have it, James. Come on, let's have it. I said, let's have it. Grab it, Pagan. I got it, Mr. X. I got it. All right, you have it. Let go. Let go. You'll be glad to. Oh! Boy! What a smoker, Roo. He's out like a couple of lights. Well. Well, I guess we cleaned this one up, all right? Yeah, I guess we did, Pagan. Sure. What a pushover. Thinking he could pull the bull over his sheep's clothing by acting drunk. Well, that's the trouble. It wasn't an act. Huh? James, and all those like him, they're never acting. They're all drunk. Drunk with greed, with power. James thought he'd get away with murder just as long as he held a gun. He found out different. And you know, Pagan, that holds true for certain countries, too. And now, ladies and gentlemen, here is our star, Mr. Herbert Marshall. Thanks for being with us. Next week, Ken goes to the forbidden city of La Salle, high in the snow-covered mountains of Tibet. As Ken Thurston, a warm welcome awaits him. As Mr. X, sudden death. And of course, Leon Balask will be along as Pagan Zeltschmidt. So join us, won't you, when next I return, as the man called X. It's the Saturday night feature on NBC's five-show festival of comedy, music, mystery, and drama. Brought to you five nights a week by RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television. And by Whitehall Pharmacal Company, makers of Anacin, Coronos, Bicidal, and other fine products. Good night. The man called X, starring Herbert Marshall, is a J. Richard Kennedy production with music composed and conducted by Felix Mills. Tonight's story was written by Sidney Marshall. All characters and incidents on this program are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual characters or incidents is purely coincidental. Be sure to listen tomorrow evening for The Big Show with Tallulah Bankhead and Fanny Bryce, Groucho Marks, H.C.O. Pincer, Jane Powell, Hanley Stafford, John Agar, David Bryan, Frank Lovejoy, and Meredith Wilson. And until next week, same time, same station, this is Jack Latham saying good night for the man called X. For a maximum of fun here at Tallulah and The Big Show tomorrow on NBC.


It's beautiful to see so many of you on here today, and this is the first of my daily series for the week. So many of you are stuck at home because of lockdowns. I think billions of people around the world are largely stuck at home, and so I want to be of service, and so I'm doing a live video every day this week at 11-11 New York City Time that's 8-11 a.m. in California, and that's 5-11 over here in France. I chose 11-11 just because I like the time. I don't have any crazy significance to it. I just thought it would be nice for the people that I've seen asking that, and this series is here to be of service. I am here to share stories, to share inspiration, and my tips and my advice on how to live a more sustainable, happy, and healthy life. So please do ask questions in the comments section, and I will answer some of them. Today's topic is something that is absolutely one of the most frequently asked questions, and that is, how did I awaken? What was my awakening? A lot of people when they see my life, I've shared a lot. I've shared many times that I wasn't always this way, that I didn't always care about environmental issues, and wasn't always living in a manner where my actions were in alignment with my beliefs. I was living the American dream for a long time, and so a lot of people, they just see there must have been some sort of moment of enlightenment, some sort of awakening to get to where I am today, and so that's one of the most frequently asked questions and that's what we're going to be covering, and tomorrow we're going to take it to the next step, and tomorrow I'm going to share over 100 positive changes that I made, and that you can make as well. So here we are. It's wonderful to be here with you all of you, and I'm going to start on my story of awakening. So before I can really go into the actual awakening itself, I have to go to the time before that, when I was asleep, when I was dreaming. And so for much of my early teens, into my early 20s, my goal was to live the American dream. I actually grew up very low income in a small town in Northern Wisconsin, and it was my mom and us four kids in a two bedroom duplex, and we were very low income. My mom made about $15,000 a year or something around there to support four kids. Now we did get government help. We got food stamps and rent assistance and electricity assistance, and so we had our basic needs met, and we lived a fairly comfortable life. But I always felt extremely poor. And so for so much of my childhood, I felt different from everyone else. My dad was not around. There were three dads for us four children, and none of them were really around. So it was mostly just my mom and us kids, and then we had help from my aunt and my grandpa. So being poor and then not having a dad both set me, made me feel very different from other people. And then another big thing was that I am Jewish. Now we weren't really practicing Jewish family, but born Jewish.  We are from what would be present day Ukraine. And so where I grew up, there were only three Jewish families in a town of about 8,620 people. So in that way I was also feeling very different from other people. And where I grew up being Jewish, well, I didn't think of it as a good thing. Mostly I only heard, you know, negative words associated with being Jewish. I watched South Park, for example, and it was always negative connotations with Jewish people. And I actually grew up thinking that Jew, short for Jewish, was a bad word. I actually thought that Jew was, you know, basically a swear word. And so that was another thing that I was basically hiding. And so being, you know, being pretty poor, not having a dad around our house from the outside, the chips of paint, the paint was flaking off in chips. And I just wanted to be like everybody else. I wanted to have money and I wanted to be normal. And so for so much of my childhood, that was my goal. I bought clothes to fit in. I designed my life to largely fit in. And so that kind of shaped some of my early adulthood. What I decided is that I wanted to basically pursue the American dream.  I wanted to do that. I wanted to have a nice car and a nice house. I wanted to have a job and I wanted to pursue what I saw through media and through looking at some of my friends' family as the American dream, something that's a picture that's painted through a lot of movies, a lot of mainstream media and through society. And so that became largely my focus for quite some time. I decided that I wanted to become a millionaire by the time I was 30. That was a focus, a goal of mine that I made probably in my early 20s. And I became very focused on material possessions and financial wealth. And that was where I was going for a while. I went to school for biology at University of Wisconsin La Crosse. And during that time, I always had some environmental mindset at the parties that we had. I was the one who would recycle the beer cans and the beer bottles afterwards and not throw them in the garbage. I would always, you know, make sure to use water somewhat wisely.  And I put in energy efficient light bulbs into the house and every year I would take them and put them into the new house to save electricity. So I always was actually living somewhat of an environmentally friendly life. There was always some of that within me. So I'm actually, I'm watching some of the comments over here. So I get a little bit distracted, but I'm going to take questions afterwards after I share the story and then I'll take questions. OK, so what happened then? I was pursuing this, this, this, this basically this American dream. And what happened was after university, I graduated in 2009 and it was 2011. So I was 25 years old and something happened.  And this is the point.  But for me, there was nothing like that. What happened is I started to educate myself. I started to watch a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books. And I just started to learn that my life wasn't what I thought it was. I started to realize that my life had been sold to me by mainstream media, by society and by corporations and government. And I realized that what I thought my life was, it just wasn't. Now, at the same time, I had just moved out of Wisconsin to San Diego, California. And so I also was surrounded by a new group of people. I had moved away from Wisconsin where, where I grew up and where I went to school at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. I felt very much like you're kind of caged in by some societal norms. So I remember, for example, in Wisconsin, if you were vegetarian, it was like at every meal, you could have people harassing you, like where's the beef at every single meal. And just that little bit of being different. And this is something people experience all over the United States and the world. But there it was strong enough where I feel like it makes it very hard for people to change. So at the time that I was awakening, I was in San Diego and I was in a place where not necessarily everybody was thinking the same. No, but where people were just okay with you thinking whatever you wanted to think. I was around more open-minded people. And this allowed me to explore more easily and just explore being myself and embracing who I was. So I was educating myself. I was watching a lot of documentaries and I was reading a lot of books. And I started to realize that almost every single action that I was taking had caused destruction to the earth and had been monetized by a corporation. So the food that I was eating was coming from factory farms where animals were being treated horribly. It was being shipped around the world, guzzling fossil fuels and being sprayed with pesticides. And the food that I was eating was leaving behind huge amounts of trash for future generations. The car I was driving, well that gas that I was pumping into it, that was a part of the routine 10,000 oil spills that happened per year. And it was a part of war where a lot of American wars were being fought for oil. So I realized when I was pumping that gas into my car, I was a part of war and I was a part of these oil spills. And I realized the trash that I was creating from so many different ways was filling up landfills and some of it making it to the lakes, the oceans, the rivers and forests and littering the world that I loved. The cheap junk I was buying at the time I bought most of my stuff from Walmart or a lot of my stuff from Walmart. And I realized that people on the other side of the world were working in horrible conditions to bring me this cheap junk and that people's environments and other species' environments were being polluted for me to have this cheap junk. And even the water that I was drinking in San Diego at the time, I learned that it was put through canals across the desert, hundreds of miles and half of it would soak into the ground and evaporate before even getting to me. So I learned that the Colorado River was running dry and no longer making it to the Sea of Cortez to bring that water to me. And so what happened was I learned that almost every single thing that I was doing was causing destruction to people, to other species and to the world that I loved. And the thing was I just didn't know that. Before that, I hadn't realized that my actions were causing all of this destruction. I was disconnected from it. At the same time, I realized that my life had been monetized by corporations, that so many of the things that I was doing, I was really just doing because corporations had sold me on this idea that I needed it. So for example, body odor. At the time, I used old spice deodorant. And I thought that in order to be an acceptable human being in society, a contributing member of society, that I needed to wear deodorant. But I started to think about it and I realized human beings have existed long before deodorant ever existed. But there's this idea that everybody needs it in order to fit in, you need it. And this idea that it's bad to simply be a human being. And these corporations were making billions of dollars off of making us feel uncomfortable with ourselves. And I decided I just wanted to be able to comfortably be myself without needing approval and without having to buy things from corporations. I also realized that money in itself was causing so much destruction and that our financial system was so broken and had so much corruption in it. I learned that my money in the bank account, I had Chase Bank at the time was being used to invest in destructive practices. And the money that I had invested in mutual funds was invested in cigarettes and fossil fuels and other industries. So I learned that I was just deeply, deeply wrapped into all of this stuff that I didn't support and that there was so much corruption in the government that I was unearthing through learning. At the same time, I was also surrounded by new people, as I mentioned, and I was surrounded by some of my best friends in San Diego that I met. I went to a school called Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and they were studying traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, massage, and herbalism. And so that was another part of just rethinking my body. And so I decided that I wanted to break free from the corruption. I wanted to break free from all the injustice, all of the lies, all of the inequality. I realized that the way that I was living my life, just simply to meet my needs, it required me to be pillaging resources and quality of life from other people. And I just decided that wasn't right. That wasn't the way that I was going to live anymore.  I was 25 years old at the time and I realized that I was a living hypocrisy. I learned that my actions were not in alignment with my beliefs at all. And a lot of people at that point would feel total doom and gloom. Totally hopeless and helpless and just think, what can I possibly do? I'm one in seven billion people and I've been living this way for two and a half decades already. Can I really change my life? I mean, I'm surrounded by this normal way of being. So is there really anything that I can do? But I said to myself, look, I'm only 25. I'm not going to, if I live to be the average life expectancy of 80, that's another 55 years.   So rather than feeling, you know, overwhelmed, I actually felt inspired and empowered because these documentaries and these books that I was reading and watching, they didn't just tell me the problems that existed in the world. I also learned that there were solutions. I learned that there was a different way of doing these things. So sure, I definitely had days of just feeling just overwhelmed and that deep pain in the chest about the state of the world. And there were times where it was overwhelming to the point of not knowing if I could do something. But what I decided to do was embrace the situation that I was in. I decided that I could only be myself. I could only be in the place that I was in at the time and I could only be the time that I was in. So I had to deal with me. I wasn't able to control other people. I wasn't able to control the corporations or the government, but I was able to control myself. And so I decided that I was going to change my life one bit at a time. And this wasn't going to be selfless. This wasn't necessarily about sacrificing.  This was about being able to wake up and actually feel good about my life and my actions. And this was about ascending delusion, about starting to understand who I was and how my actions rippled out around the world. And so I decided that I was going to start changing my life. One bit at a time. And I came up with this idea that if I just made one positive change per week, that I'd be able to make over 100 positive changes in two years. And so what actually worked for me wasn't the thinking about it. That was important, the learning. But it was the setting out on the path and starting to make changes. By putting myself into action, that is what allowed me to change my life by actually changing my life. And so tomorrow, that's what we're going to go into. We're going to talk about over 100 positive changes that I made. I'm going to use those as examples of how you can make those as well. And some of them will be bigger and more extreme, things that you won't be able to get to right away. But some of them will be very easy changes that you can make immediately to start shifting your life. And what it was for me was that these individual changes, what they did is they created a foundation with each positive change that I made. I created a more solid foundation in being the change that I wanted to see, in being the me that I wanted to be. And so these changes aren't just about the action themselves, but they're about creating an empowered human being who can stand up and you can stand strong in the face of these challenges and the face of corruption of corporations and governments and such. So tomorrow, we're going to go through 100 positive changes and more. And so for now, I'm going to use the next 20 minutes or so to go through questions. So I'm going to scroll through these questions. And so please, as questions that you have right now, especially ones that are really related to this, the awakening is really the focus of this particular video. And I'm going to be doing a live video every day for this week, like I said. So I'd like to go primarily through questions of what we just discussed, but do ask questions that you'd like. I see my mom. Hi, mom. Nice to see you on there. Smile back to you. And let's see. OK, so I'm going to start looking through questions here. There's a lot of comments. And while I do this, I'm going to mention this again. If you are on this channel and you haven't subscribed, make sure that you subscribe so you get notifications of the next videos. And then also, if you haven't already next to the subscription, there's actually a little bell.  And I don't do a lot of videos, so it's not like going to be crazy or anything. So let's see what questions are in. So Alicia Serratos, hey, Alicia, nice to see you. So she said, we saw the list of your favorite documentaries. There's their list of books, too. So that is a perfect question that goes along with this is. The change, the change came because information already existed. I didn't have to come up with this information. There was already so much out there. So one of the earliest films that I watched was Food Inc. That was just mind blowing, rethinking, realizing the reality behind my food and the destruction that it was causing and realizing that the food that I was consuming the planet through the food that I was consuming. Zeitgeist was another documentary. Earthlings was another documentary early on.  This was a very eye-opening documentary for me early on.  And then since then, I've been adding films to that as well. And there's maybe 40 or 50 different films on there. As far as books, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules were some very mind-opening books for me. And if you go to robgreenfield.org slash books, that lists a good couple of handfuls of the books that were really mind-opening to me. Mark Boyle's books, his nickname is The Moneyless Man. He lived without money for three and a half years. He has been one of the more foundational human beings in my life through reading his books and through reading his work online. Let's see. So Celine says, hi Rob, I want to change my profession, but it scares me, I don't know where to start. So I have a blog that is called How To Quit A Job That Doesn't Serve You Or The Earth. So if you go to my website, I think it's robgreenfield.org slash quit your job. And that is basically my guide on rethinking your job. For me at the time, during my transformation, I did actually have a company. So my company at the time was called the Greenfield Group and we did marketing. And so at the same time as I was awakening, I was also running a company and trying to make money. And as I started to change my life, I realized I had to change my company's life too because my company really was just an extension of me. It's very easy to outsource things and say, well, that's not me, that's my job, or that's the company or, but the reality is that I was the one running the company, that was an extension of me. As if I was an employee working for a corrupt company or a company causing destruction, that work is me performing that work. So I decided that I had to transform my company. At first, I switched over to basic, well, basically one of the early things I did is I joined 1% for the planet and committed that my company would donate at least 1% of revenue to environmental nonprofits. But really, I think I committed to at least 10% of my environmental revenue being donated to, or sorry, my revenue being donated to environmental nonprofits. So that was one way that I shifted my company. And at first, I was still selling advertising to companies that I didn't support, promoting buying junk and unhealthy food. And the more I shifted my life, the more that I had to really shift the company. So I switched to eventually only marketing for companies that had a positive message. And through a long transition, I got to the point where I said, I will only market for a company. If it's a company, I would basically market for for free. As in what they are doing is meaningful enough that I would tell people about it, not because they're a customer, but because the world needs to see more of it. And there were other changes in between, but that's what I did is I shifted my company from one that was environmentally destructive to one that could actually have a positive impact. And I moved away from printing my stuff on plastic to doing online marketing. So that I wasn't creating, I was creating tens of thousands of pounds of garbage by putting advertising on hotel key cards and also on grocery store cards. So radically transformed my business. And then eventually I just, I've moved largely away from money in the last nine years since I woke up. And then I eventually closed down my business in around 2014 or 2015 and started a nonprofit instead. And then about one year ago, I closed down my nonprofit. How I make money right now is public speaking and I've committed to making less than the federal poverty threshold per year. The last three years I've made $9,800, $8,000 zero for that and $5,000 before that. So mostly I live extremely simply, so I need a lot less money. So that goes into a little bit of that awakening and that transition of my business as well. Let's see. Okay, hi, Rob. Where can I find information about how things are really produced that I use daily? Like energy, water, food. Okay, so one of the most important resources in my awakening was a short film called The Story of Stuff. And this blew my mind. I realized there's a whole process to get all this cheap junk to me. And so this short film goes through the extraction of raw materials, the shipping and then the processing of those raw materials and then getting it to the store and then us having to go and buy it and then it breaking after a short period of time because of planned obsolescence, things that are designed to break, designed for the dump and then going to the landfill. So from extraction to landfill, this short film called The Story of Stuff really just opened my mind to the reality behind everything, whether it was a microphone or a computer or they use the example of a cheap radio that's only $6, how the heck is a radio only $6? It's because costs are externalized. And that was a big part of my awakening as well was realizing that things were very easy and convenient for me because the burden was being placed elsewhere. I kept coming back to 2011 at the time up to 2020 now over the last decade and I'd keep looking at my actions and seeing that I had it so easy that it was everything had been made so convenient. And I kept asking, well, why is this so easy and why is this so convenient? And what I kept coming back to is that the burden had been placed elsewhere that destruction was placed elsewhere for me to have that convenience in that comfortable way of life. So an easy example of that is driving a fossil-fueled powered vehicle.  So this is your ankle, your foot and then you go like that and then all of a sudden you're going from zero to 60. Just move that foot forward and you're going from zero to 60 miles per hour or 100 kilometers per hour with no energy spent. So where is the burden being placed? Well, you have 10,000 oil spills that happen per year routinely. The burden is being placed on the other species, the other humans that live there. How about the oil refineries where those are located? Well, the oil refineries are located generally in near low-income neighborhoods and the people who live there have two to four times higher rates of cancer and respiratory diseases often. So the burden is being placed on these people who don't have clean air anymore and who don't have clean water because of the pollution. And so this is what I learned. So the story of stuff is an amazing resource to watch and they have a whole series of videos about bottled water and our clothing and all of these. So I would highly recommend that as an early source for awakening. Boris says for an environmentally friendly life, do you think living in a tiny house is a good option? Yes, it can be a great option. It's by no means the only way to do it but it is one way to really live simply to decrease your need for large amounts of material possessions, having lots of bills, having lots of stuff. So I've lived in a tiny house twice in San Diego and in Orlando, Florida. And it's a beautiful way of existence but there's other ways to do it as well. Let's see. A-Fishes and Loaves says, hey Rob is the group that helped you learn about growing food in Florida and South Florida as well. There are a lot of ways to learn how to grow your own food. If you go to robgreenfield.org slash free seed project guide, that is my guide for beginners on how to grow their own food. And the reason it's robgreenfield.org slash free seed project guide is I designed it for the 10,000 people who have received free seeds from myself and live like Ali Foundation to help them start their own gardens but that guide is helpful to everyone. And if you go to robgreenfield.org slash grow if you are in Florida, that is my guide for Florida and it has a lot of information both for Central Florida and down South for you as well. So the group that I worked with the most was called Orlando Permaculture and then also Sustainable Kashi and Sebastian but there is a lot down in your area as well and that website robgreenfield.org slash grow has a lot of information. Let's see. Okay, Amal says, how can I live more sanably while living in my apartment? Would love to grow my own food but it just seems complicated in my situation. All right, so when I lived in my apartment in, so a lot of people look at me and they see that I've lived in this tiny house, this 50 square foot tiny house in California and then a 100 square foot tiny house in Florida and also I often am living with almost nothing. Right now I have 44 possessions all that fit into a backpack which this is the backpack right here, everything I own fits in here right now and so a lot of people look at that and they think that it's always been this way but you've seen that I went through a radical transformation. It wasn't always this way. So before this I was living, when I was going through my awakening I lived in a three bedroom apartment and when I first moved in the apartment I took the largest bedroom because I had a lot of stuff and I felt like more space was better and slowly I went to the second biggest bedroom and then the smallest bedroom and then I actually moved into the closet which was 36 square feet, just six feet by six feet just barely big enough for me to stretch out and that was as I was downsizing my life and all of this change was happening while I lived in a pretty typical apartment. So I started to make all these changes in my apartment like for example, getting rid of paper towels and napkins and using reusable cloth towels instead and getting rid of all the stuff in the house that wasn't needed and doing gray water. So collecting the water that came up from under my sink and rather than it going down the pipe to sewer to be treated instead collecting that to water my plants to grow food. And so I actually, luckily had a video, well a guy come over to film it in 2012 and have produced a video. So if you go to my videos you'll see one that is simple and sustainable living in my apartment. I released that in but 2016 finally after filming it like three years before. So that video is a lot that you can do in an apartment. And if you go to robgreenfield.org slash house guide that is my guide of changes that I made in my home that are things that are largely adaptable whether you're living in a house or an apartment in the United States or around the world. Okay. Well Boris says how much money do you think is needed to start a more environmentally life with a tiny house get water from the sky forage for food, et cetera. It can be anywhere from zero to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on how you do it. I built my tiny house for $1,500 and to turn a whole front yard into an abundant food garden cost about $500 or $600 and within a short period of time I was producing that amount of money with a food per month. Thousands of dollars with a food per year easily from a $500 investment. So it just depends on how you do it. If you're highly resourceful, you can do it for next to no money. If you want to downsize luxuriously, I know people who have tiny houses that were 150,000 US dollars for a tiny house or even a quarter million dollars I've heard of. So there's different ways of doing it. If you're interested in doing it, the least expensive way I would recommend my YouTube videos from my tiny house in Orlando and I actually did a video on the build teaching how to build one out of 99% secondhand and repurposed materials. So Joe Sinaro says that is not possible in Switzerland and I'm not sure if you're talking about exactly what I'm talking about right now but what you have to do is take examples and adapt them to where you are. So nothing is applicable to everybody in the world. The easy way to not create change in your life is to look at exactly what someone else is doing and say I can't do that so I'm going to do nothing. That is exactly how you can maintain your status quo without having to change your life and to be able to rationalize it. Now, if you are wanting to change your life then what you have to do is you have to think critically and problem solve and look at the scenario and figure out how you can take what works and adapt it into your situation. So it doesn't matter where you live in the world, there is a way to live in a more sustainable way that requires a lot less money and that contributes a lot less to destruction and where you can live the life that you want. Now it's more challenging for some people than others but for most people that are watching this video where there is a will, there is a way. So it's really a matter of problem solving, critical thinking and figuring out a way to do it where you are. Let's see. So Nicola says, hello Rob, do you think you can start a family while being a self-sustainable minimalist or do you have to sacrifice some of your ideas temporarily to be able to provide a good life for your kids? So that's a great question and that goes perfectly in line with my transformation. When I woke up, I was a single person, 25 years old, lived a life that I could change it as desired. I didn't have kids or dependents.  As an example, that would be a very difficult place to be. So personally, I actually chose not to have children so that I could live exactly the life that I wanted and so that I could live a life that was super dedicated to making the change that I think is needed in the world. So when I was 25 years old, around the time that I really started to wake up was when I got a vasectomy. And that was for many reasons. One of them being that I had seen the destruction that birth control causes for so many people that I loved through depression and through throwing off their hormones. But also I was not supportive of the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the early things that I realized was a hugely corrupt industry that was largely controlling so many people. And so that was one of the reasons, but also because I wanted to dedicate my life to really focusing on the change. And so I write about that at robgreenfield.org slash vasectomy. But to the point of can you do this with a family? I cannot personally prove it as myself because I've chosen to not have a family. However, there are thousands and thousands of families out there that are living with their actions in alignment with their beliefs and that are living sustainably with children. And I'm actually working on a resource guide right now that will share videos and families with blogs to really provide that. But one of my favorite YouTube channels is a channel called Exploring Alternatives. And they have multiple videos of families with children. And then another one is Happen Films. Those are two of my favorite YouTube channels. And both of them have some great examples. So yes, it absolutely can be done. It has been done as long as humanity has existed. And it is absolutely 100% possible. It's a different challenge. And actually in time, my plan, one of the things that I'm gonna do on this YouTube channel is visit families that are living sustainably to share more stories and more examples of that. The same goes for cold climate. I've done my extreme sustainable living projects in warmer climates in Southern California and Florida. But it can be done in cold climates too. There's different designs. So you have straw bale houses, for example, that are amazing insulation. You have passive solar heating. There are different ways. And then there's earthships as well. So wherever you are, there is a way to live more harmoniously with the earth and be working with the earth rather than fighting it. So it can be done into the family. It can be done in colder climates. And the colder climates is something that I'll be demonstrating as well. Actually, I'm really, I haven't announced this over YouTube or social media yet, but I am going to do a year of growing and foraging 100% of my food in a cold climate. I'm committing to that. I'm going to do it. And so I will be demonstrating it most likely, right now I'm thinking upstate New York. That's zone five or zone six, if you know climate zones. And I will be doing it there. So I will be doing about two years of living sustainably in a cold climate as one of my next projects, but also I'm also going to be visiting families and people that are living sustainably in cold climates and showing examples of that as well. So Tony says, you have no idea how happy you just made me Rob. Why is that Tony? I do live in New York. Amber Kelly says, I'm in Pennsylvania and I need help. Superb says, come to Massachusetts. All of you can come and visit me in New York. What I'm setting up in New York will be hopefully at a farm. I'm going to be part of a community, creating a bit of a community where you can come and you can stay for a day, a week, maybe a month and learn how to grow food, how to live sustainably. And that's actually one of my longterm plans is to set up a place where I will be spending a good portion of my life and where people can come and learn to live simply and live sustainably. So you won't always just have to listen on YouTube. You'll be able to come. Black's Kid says, I live in Philly. So net zero, cool. So you can come out and visit. Francis says, I'm not sure what that means.  I can eat with them. I just have to forge the food and eat with them or we can forge the food together. Terry says, Rob, have been watching you for a long time. Very interested to hear about your plans. Teach us Obi-Wan, peace, yo, you rock. Good to hear my friend. So that's gonna be it for today. And I'm so happy that so many of you are on here. I've been watching the count and it's been nice to see that most of you have joined and have actually stayed on here. It's beautiful to have spent almost an hour with you all. So definitely if you're not subscribed to this channel, make sure that you do. This video will be on the channel after it's live so you can go back and watch it again if you haven't seen it. And if you haven't already, click the little bell to get notifications but I'll be live at the same time for the next four days. That is 11 11, New York time. That's 8 11 a.m. California time and that's 5 11 over here in France. And so I love you all very, very much. And it was a true pleasure to spend this time with you. I guess I'll finish my tea. Oh, actually, for those of you who consider this the end of the talk, but I think if this interests you, why don't you go ahead and practice a little breathing? So a lot of people during these times are having a hard time with the time that we're in. Being stuck at home with isolation and such. And so I just wanna share one small practice, the endness. And now that I think about this, I'm gonna do this at the end of each video. And the practice today is just simple breathing. So I'm gonna take 10 deep breaths. And I encourage you to join me for this as well. And the purpose of this is just to find centeredness, to balance and to reduce stress and anxiety. And Boris says every hour, yes, you could do this every hour, just spending two minutes every hour. So I'm just gonna do five deep breaths. You're welcome to watch or you're welcome to do it along with me. And then I'll say goodbye for real. That felt good. So I encourage you to do that. And yeah. All right, again, I love you all very much. I'm here with you in these times of difficulty. I'll be here with you for the next four days, but for every day, whether I'm online or not, I am here with you. And I'm excited for everything that is to come. I think that we can use this time to change our lives for the better. And that's the purpose of this series. It's not just to fill the time. It's not just to provide entertainment and inspiration. This is about changing our lives. And that's what I'm here to do is to help you change your lives radically.  So tomorrow, 100 positive changes that you can make to live more sustainably, more healthy and more happy. I love you all so much and I will see you soon.


Okay so today people we take a look at a new shotgun that arrived with the guns 11 tentacles dlc called the nothingness. Is this like I am seeing people claim the new best shotgun in the game? Well today people we find out. How's it going guys my name's DPJ and today I've been running over the BR3 video if you do enjoy it leaving a like really helps me out and subscribe if you do want to see more. So this nothingness is a Maliowen shotgun for me at least was such a pain to get the perfect one for my build because the drop rate seemed crazy low. Now this is a dedicated drop by the way to the Gimork boss within the Cranklewood upon Zylargos which I will show you guys in location 2 at the end of the video. So coming out of early access for this game I did see a couple of other content creators state this was the new best shotgun in the game. Now I won't ever go off what anybody else says as I always like to test off myself but seeing people rate this that highly who obviously know their way around this game it does push me to believe that this is what they say or at least up there. So this nothingness drops offering all elements I do believe and as many Maliowen weapons offer you can indeed switch up its element at any time you like. It comes offering two of any two elements in the game by the way. So my variant is binary compressing nothingness which does 4,103 damage times 2 but this other variant I have which is named the same does a little less damage but it does have double the ammo in its clip. Accuracy handling the fire rate though and this is pretty poor with the reload being about average to decent for such a clunky weapon. So playing around with this thing over the test dummy I can straight up see why people are indeed enjoying this thing. The way in which this acts upon firing it does remind me a little of the flacker but with a much tighter spread and said secondary explosions as after you charge this weapon as like 99% of Maliowen weapons in this game you do have to charge it. You release a laser beam which fires two lasers which within themselves do great damage but are followed up by many explosions which also do decent damage too. Now under my testing and slowing down as footage as slow as I could I counted around 15 explosions after the initial shot but I could be wrong here I mean it was so hard to count these it was unbelievable they were just popping off all over the place. Now shooting at the test dummy from this angle as you can see it seems as though those projectiles travel further than the target even if you direct impact that target you shoot at. So in many cases if you are too close to an enemy you'll see these projectiles beyond the enemy. If you're at a certain range from the enemy you'll probably see these projectiles explode prior to where that shot actually lands. So we have here a great AoE favoured weapon this means the bigger the target you are firing at the more likely it will see the full impact of this weapon and in reality for me it showed as the smaller enemies I was shooting at it seemed as though I was doing way less damage to them as because of the spread those secondary explosions. But if that target is of a decent size like I said you do indeed see these things presence. Well it does lack those range I mean it's got no range whatsoever it really has none of it which is a little disappointing due to it being a charged weapon you'd expect it to travel a little further. Other than that though it's quite a powerhouse which I did enjoy using for sure. Now the question is do I think this is the best shotgun in the game and my answer is quite simply no this isn't anywhere near the best shotgun in this game. Yanuki is almost better in every single way. Now if you use Yanuki the way it's made to be used after about that second reload this nothingness doesn't touch it in terms of damage output Yanuki also does way more dps due to that no charged time making it also much more efficient in my opinion in everyday usage and it also destroys that all ranges and just makes for better all round weapon. But in saying that this nothingness is still a great weapon and it's super powerful but as for being the best shotgun in the game I wouldn't say so. Unscrupulous is the route you must take to get to Gamor who has this within his loot pool but warning guys for me he was kind of stingy hopefully that isn't the case for you. So yes people those were my thoughts on this nothingness Malouan shotgun and on that note we have come to the end of the video if you guys enjoyed it leaving a like really helps out if you're new around here and want to see more Borderlands be sure to subscribe and if you never want to miss a video I upload canton notifications on by hitting that bell button but guys thanks as always for stopping by hopefully enjoyed the video and hopefully I will see you on that next one


Welcome to the CUBE's special program series, Women of the Cloud, brought to you by AWS. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. Very pleased to welcome my next guest. Courtney Kistler joins me, the SVP of Tech and CTO at ZooBilly. Courtney, welcome to the program. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Our pleasure to have you. Talk to me a little bit about your career path in tech and about your role that you're doing right now. Yeah, so I have spent most of my career in retail. So I spent 14 years at Nordstrom, which is where I learned a lot about what it takes to be a technology leader. And really that's where I started kind of my cloud transformation journey. And then after 14 years at Nordstrom, I ended up going to Starbucks as the VP of retail technology there and really enjoyed working at a global scale. Very different, learned a lot there as well. And also had cloud transformation there too. And then I went Nike as the VP of digital platform engineering and learned a lot there as well. Different scale and very different retail situation. And two years ago, almost two years, it'll be two years in January, I joined ZooBilly as SVP and CTO. And what I love about ZooBilly is, I mean, we were really born digital first. And so cloud is a big part of our ecosystem. And I love that we are innovators. We are data-driven, we're about experimentation and we leverage cloud in a variety of ways. I love that. You have an amazing pedigree background of companies that you've worked for. I can imagine all the experiences that you've had and how they've shaped you into the leader that you are today. What are some for people that are either in, maybe starting a little bit farther back in their careers or early in tech, what are some of the recommendations that you have for those that really want to grow their career and fast? What do you tell them? Yeah. So I would say the biggest piece of advice I can give is be a lifelong learner. The thing about technology is the technology is gonna change and evolve and the way you respond and react to that is what's critical. And so figuring out how to be somebody who could be a problem solver and learning all the time. I try really hard to surround myself with people who I can learn from and really grow and how might I continue to engage in the technology landscape but really make sure that I have a way to continuously learn. That's so important to be able to have the confidence to raise your hand and say, I wanna try something new or I don't understand something. I was reading some stats recently, I went women in tech and I saw that women won't apply for a job, Sam LinkedIn, unless they meet 100% of the job requirements whereas men will apply if they don't be 40%. I think more women need to know and others that you don't have to meet all those job requirements. There's so much on the job learning. You have to have the appetite, you have to have good mentors, good sponsors, but raise your hand, right? Lean into the conversation, there's amazing things that can happen as a result. Absolutely, and I love that you touched on the leaning in and also, this is an industry term, it's not mine, but I love it called have a personal board of directors, have people who can help you navigate and network. I would say that's one of the biggest learnings that I had throughout my career was build a community and lean on that community. And often the encouragement that you get from that will also put you in a position to be okay with not having all of the boxes checked before you pursue your next opportunity. Right, I love that you talked about having a personal board of directors. I wish that's advice you probably did too, that we had 20 years ago when we started in our careers, but it's such important advice. Technology makes it so easy for us to connect these days whether you're on Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn or Twitter, leverage that network but really create that personal board of directors I think is sage advice for anybody at any stage in their career. I don't think you have to be a newbie to be able to see the value in that. I think there can be value in it along the way. I'd love to hear some of your successes where you've solved problems related to cloud in your career, tell me about one of those. Yeah, so one just brief set of context. So I started my career in security infrastructure and operations. So I was learning how to support data centers. I mean, that was part of the landscape when I started my career. And then this thing called the cloud came into the environment and all of us I think who started as infrastructure whether you were a sys admin or those types of traditional roles thought what is this gonna do to me? Like as someone who's been in infrastructure for a long time. And what I really appreciated about the leadership at Nordstrom is we said let's embrace it. Let's figure out how to learn and let's figure out what this might look like for us. And at the time we weren't in the cloud but we said we are going to be, and a lot of companies say this, cloud first. Now it's easy to say, right? What does it look like internally? And I think there's multiple dimensions. One is are you really designing and architecting your applications and capabilities to take advantage of the cloud? I will share that there was a lot of debate internally and I think a lot of organizations do this where they say avoid vendor lock-in. Make sure you have flexibility. And it's important to be intentional about the use of cloud. Also super important to leverage the capabilities because one of the things that I believe in is that cloud can create a way for you to free up your technologist's mind share to focus on things that are more strategic. And over time cloud has become commodity. It's something that you can adopt and leverage to avoid spending time on provisioning servers and doing things that are now automated and part of the cloud offering. Right, yeah. Go ahead, sorry. Oh, I was gonna say and also I think skill set. So it does take a different skill set. So I do think it's important for organizations to invest and also lean on your cloud partner. So one thing I really appreciate about AWS is that there's a lot of learning and lots of ways to get certified and understand how to be successful in a cloud environment. So I think it's important to also know that there is another skill set that needs to be developed in order to be successful. What are some of the innovations that excite you that are coming down the pipe with respect to cloud that you may adopt at Zubli? Yeah, that's a great question. We're constantly looking at what can we take advantage of and I think what I get excited about is really the ongoing innovation when it comes to data-driven insights and how do you incorporate the knowledge of your customers and the broader kind of, I'll call it retail landscape into continuing to put relevant experiences in front of your customer. And I think doing that at scale is, I mean, you can achieve it in other ways. I think a great way to achieve it is leveraging cloud and the scale and performance and speed to, I'll call it like speed to data insights. Like you can get so much out of that and learn. And so for me, I think it's really anything that has to do with data. Every company has to be a data company these days, whether you're in retail or automotive or manufacturing, you have to become a data-driven company. You have to be able to derive those insights. You talked about in the retail space, I always think, oh, I'm such a demanding consumer because I've been trained, thanks to the cloud, that I can get whatever I want, whatever I'm looking for and these companies will start to learn me in a non-scary way, hopefully, and serve up relevant personalized content that, oh yeah, that's right, I need one of those. We have that expectation in our personal lives and I think we bring it into our professional lives as well. And so every company needs to be able to be that data company to deliver what the end user is more and more these days expecting that the demands are gonna be met. Absolutely, and I really appreciated what you said too about there's that innovation and expectation of your customer. There's also some really amazing innovation that can happen for your internal developer community leveraging the cloud. There's tooling, there's data-driven insights as well, like how long is it taking us to deploy software? Well, that's a learning moment and often cloud can help you solve for speed to delivery, having high confidence in your ability to deliver because many of the cloud tools allow you to do a canary deployment.  There's ways to leverage cloud technology that also makes it innovative for the internal developer and you might even say internal customers. That's a great point. I always think the internal customer experience and the external customer experience are linked strongly hand in hand. And one of the things that we're seeing more and more, I think a lot this year is how influential the developer role is becoming in the decisions and the technologies and what to deliver to the end user customer. So that internal experience and external experience need to be hand in hand for them both to be successful. Agree. And you hear a lot of movement in the industry around like platforms and developer experience and DevOps is an area that I'm super passionate about. And really ultimately what it is is how are we all delivering value as fast as possible to our customers with high quality? Because if you're doing speed right, you're not compromising quality. And I think this again is a recognition of where the industry has evolved to you can use cloud as a platform to accelerate those capabilities. Yes, it needs to be that accelerant really for things to be successful. I'd love to get your thoughts on over the last few years what are some of the biggest changes that you've seen in the workforce and innovation that come to mind? Wow, so I think what I've seen is really the shift in you mentioned data, every company is data driven. So the expectation of technology is to also be data driven. And I often think sometimes that many technologists think of technologies too complicated it's too hard to be data driven. And in reality, we're kind of wired for being data driven. And so infusing that into how we think about everything we do and making sure that that's part of kind of the DNA of the organization. I'm also a big believer in observability. So like really having good knowledge of how are the things that you're building really performing? And that's another area where cloud can help where you can really instrument the end to end journey and have transparency to that so that your teams are set up for success. They can understand the health, they can see it quickly and they can respond quickly. You know, I always think the horizon for technology is infinite, the innovation, the capabilities, we need to have good strong teams diverse teams, teams that bring in different thoughts different perspectives, different backgrounds. My last question for you is on diversity in terms of the tech workforce, what are some of the things that you're seeing and maybe some advice you would give for organizations to be able to really embody diversity, equity and inclusion? Yeah, so I'm a big believer in inclusion. Like I think that it often doesn't get as much focus as it should. So it's very similar to a customer funnel.  So my focus is often on am I creating an environment where diverse talent can thrive? Now, Zulily and our broader company Q-rate like we believe passionately in diversity, equity and inclusion and it shows up in everything we do. So I also think actions matter. So it's one thing to say it's important but it's like leaders need to demonstrate the commitment. So we've done some pretty, I consider to be investments in how do we continue to develop our internal talent and grow diverse leaders and leaders from any position. It doesn't mean that you move into management. We have leaders that are in engineering rules and product management rules. It's like, how do we continue to invest and also create inclusive leadership opportunities where our leaders are learning. What does it look like to operate as an inclusive leader? So important, but to your point, action is so important. Sounds like you guys are doing an amazing job at Zulily, not only in terms of embracing cloud first being born in the cloud but also from a DEI perspective, I love that Courtney. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us, your recommendations and thoughts. I know the audience found a lot of value in it as Dubai. Thanks again for having me. My pleasure. For Courtney Kisler, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching the CUBE special program series, Women of the Cloud brought to you by AWS. Thanks for watching.