What's up everyone? It's your girl Kenzie here from Layton Sports Cards and I'm ripping 2022 Penini Donress Elite Football Hobby Six Box Half Case Break Number 4 Random Teams. Again, here's a look at the random results. You can always find these at LaytonSportsCards.com underneath the results tab and the link is also in chat for you. Thanks again for filling us up. Here we go. Good luck. Let's see a case hit this go around. Still have not seen a case hit or one and a half cases in. So let's see if it's in this half case or not. Feel learn. Out of 49, Aaron Donald. Patrick, some of his stuff is live. Some has been live and some hasn't. Playmakers, Jamar Chase, Vante Smith, TJ Watts, Jelani Woods out of 999 Colts. Top TikTok, ripping brand new release today. Don Russ Elite Football. We'd like to hop into some group breaks, link and bio. We've got pen pals on the rookie auto for the Cowboys Jalen Tolbert. Cowboys taking the first auto out. I'm at Stafford Elite Deck, link and bio for you TikTok. If you'd like to hop in, JJ Watts out of 399. Still have two breaks left. Only two to go now with spots remaining and they are up next. Half case, random team, 69.99 a spot. Elita, Sterak Henry, Titans. Again, that breaks next. Nice. That worked out pretty well for you then, Rhys. We've got Cooper Kup on the receiving title for the Rams. That is 38 out of 75. 10 to go on the next break. Those spots coming in hot. 10 to go. Don Russ Elite Football, brand new release today. Rookie elitist, Aiden Hutchinson, Lions, link and bio. 69.99 a spot. Get to your random team and a half case break. Roger McGree, Rito 999, Titans. Pulled a 101 Thibodeaux auto out of the last break, if you did not see it. It's pretty sick. Rookie on deck, Kenny Pickett, Steeler. Filler, we've got Jahan Dotson out of 99 for the commanders on the aspirations. What's up TikToks? Hope everyone's having a great Friday. Thanks for joining in. Thanks for watching. Again, link and bio. Playmakers, Joe Burrow. If you're into gaming, Brad is currently live over on the late gaming official with dual release today of Pokemon and Magic the Gathering here. Thibodeaux out of 399 Giants doing group breaks of both of those. So definitely check that out as well. We've got a little Justin Jefferson on the Moxie Patch Vikings. JJ action, CMC. Yeah, only two total breaks with spots remaining and those spots are coming in hot. Out of 24 on the status die cut, Javante Williams. There you go, Broncos. Nice low number die cut there. The school says hunting. Viking Span and Chat. You got Mile Hyde, Javante Smith. David Bell, Rookie to 999 Browns. Yeah, they are hard to uh, sleeve and top. Rookie Alita, Sam Howe. Get all Parsons. All right, couple left here. Turn of the century, Rookie Otto for Cleveland. 147 of 199. David Bell. Browns, Jalen Waddle, 399. Last box, box one here. Really want to see a case hit. We have not seen one yet. Thanks, Chad. I appreciate it. Thanks for hopping in and best of luck, man. Rookie on deck, Breeze Hall. Jets. Hello, Jen. Heck yeah. All right, box number two. So that means what, maybe down to seven? Possibly less. Sean's going to check right now. Again, TikTok link in bio. Only two breaks with spots remaining. Rookie Alitas, Malik Willis. Again, both are half case breaks. Random teams, 69, 99 a spot. Three to go. Wow, those spots coming in super fast. Three to go on the next break. Lincoln bio out of 75. Josh Jacobs, Raiders. Once those two breaks sell out, we are all full for the night, but plenty of room for Personals. Only one person in queue currently. Rookie on deck, Sam Howe. Again, Personals start around midnight Eastern. So order now. It'll be one of the first ones to get ripped. Playmakers JT. Plenty of stuff up on the site, latentsportscards.com, under the personal boxes tab. Epic materials, Josh Jacobs for the Raiders. Here's to see how he plays this year. Good luck, crazy. Awesome. Best of luck. Elite deck, Justin Jefferson. All right, we've got Jalen Tolbert, the 399 Cowboys. Oh man, filler. Sam Howe, the 999 Commanders.  I've seen, yeah, I've seen a lot of that happen recently. Barry Sanders on the Alitas. It's already midnight. Where are you, Parker? Wait, weren't you in, were you in the UK? I can't remember. Spellbound, the 349 Trevor Lawrence. Jax. We were talking about the other day, how it was the same time where you are in Ann Nigeria. We were confused how that works. Etched in time signatures, 109 out of 149 Jake Plummer. This time in the Cardinals, Unie. We pulled a patch earlier. He was in the Broncos, UK. Yeah, okay. Nice one there. We got Tom Brady, the 99 for the Bucks. Go Jags. I'm a Steelers fan, so I'm going to say go Steelers. Steady lamb, Highlife. Sam thinks the Dolphins are winning the Super Bowl this year, so. We got Highlife, DK Metcalf. That is 18 of 25. Seahawks. Seabirds. Hey, let's go. Weirded beasts. What's up, McKenna? What's up, man? We got Rookie on Deck, Jameson Williams. See you. You break on TikTok every now and then. Nice. Seahawks fan. We're getting fans from everywhere. Kurt Cousins of 399. Hey, everyone. Just a couple spots remaining for breaks tonight. We've got nice Jets. Penpal Rookie Auto Garrett Wilson. I'm telling you, Jets have at least one to two hits per break so far. Jeff W with the Jets. This break. There you go. Got Dak Playmakers. Again, TikTok, Lincoln. Bye. I'd be like to hop in a break. I'm doing great, man. Doing great. Alec Pierce out of 999 Colts. Waiting for this baby, man. 35 weeks on Saturday, so she should be coming pretty soon, hopefully, because I'm getting to the point where it's like, come on now. Kyler Elite Deck. One spot left in the next break. Sold out. Sold out. Never mind. JK. Sold out. We've got David Montgomery out of 49 for DeBear, so we've got one break remaining with Spots left for the night, and that is going to be the last half case random team. After that, we've got Tiered Random and Divisions out of 99. Josh Allen on the Spell Bounds. Last pack, box two. What's up, BR? You already know Brock Purdy out of 99. 999, sorry. And base 15 to go in the last break. Half case break, Random Team. 69.99 is spot Lincoln. Bye, if you're watching on TikTok. Brand new release of Don Russ Elite Football. Look at those penthouse signatures of passing the torch. Single and doubles. We got triple autos in this year's product out of 399 of Alante Taylor Saints. It's a brand new release today, Bacon. Brand new release, Don Russ Elite Football. Darius Leonard to 53 on the blue color match. They're Colts. We've got Filler Elite Deck, Justin Jefferson. Man, this is a Jefferson half case. Seeing him all over the place. James Cook Rookie to 999 for the bills. He didn't look so hot last night. He had one fumble. I know I saw one. I don't know if he had one or two. Man, he didn't look too hot last night. We've got Alitas Berry Sanders for the Lions.  First game, you know how it is. That's a big hype game like that. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Turn of the century, we've got Giants to 199 auto of Wanda Robinson. Giants. 399 Romeo Dobbs. Green Bay. No, I don't think these go for 800 a box. We've got my High Life CD Lamb. Someone else asked me earlier. Let me check real quick. Personal boxes. They are 324.99.  Taylor. Yeah, they whooped the Rams last night. My goodness. I'd love to see the bill. I'm a Steelers fan, but I would love to see the bills when a Super Bowl. The heck is that? I got another piece of a card here. Full throttle to 349 Derek Henry. Plenty of room for personal. Again, only one person in queue currently. So if you order now, you'll be one of the first ones. To get ripped tonight. T. Higgins, mile, mile high. Our High Life. We've got Asamoa, the second to 999 Vikings. Yeah, John. We were just talking about that. I think you will. A rookie elitist of Malik Willis. Titans. He was saying he wants to see Baker bring it all at Carolina. I pray he does. Yeah, same for Wilson with Denver. Nice Herbert. That is... That one's not numbered. These have been numbered to 75. I wonder if this is an error card. All of these have been numbered to 75. That's odd. Usually the numbers are right down here on the right or the left-hand corner. Three. That's weird. At least Seattle didn't do Rust-A-Roll. Oh yeah, no doubt. Sam Howell, rookie on deck. They definitely did make her turn. Yeah. Daniel Jones to 399. We've got Kyler on the Moxie Patch. Cardinals. Jonathan Taylor, playmakers. Montrell Washington to 99 Broncos. Yeah, I think Russell Wilson's gonna have a big year. Rookie elitist, Crystal Lave, Saints. Dave Davis, Jalen Hurts. A couple packs left. Isaiah Spillard to 999 Chargers. Last pack, box three. We've got Nye's, Penfows, Lions, Rookie, Otto, Aiden Hutchinson. There you go, Detroit. Who's got the Lions this go around? Brett B, second Hutchinson auto. We full tonight. Congrats on that. We'll mag that. Yeah, I'm sure you do agree, Brennan. You like to see your Broncos do well, huh? Garrett Wilson, Rookie. Matt Ryan, Tyreek Hill. They better do good. I picked Russell on my team. Yeah, I think he's gonna do great. I think he's gonna do great. Tyreek Hill. He just scared me last year. He was on MVP Basement. Yeah, we got Jets. Vinny Testeverde on the throwback threads. That is 11 out of 15 on the three-colored patch. That's a cool one. Nice rapid good luck. Jets. Player warning material on that one. Got elitist, Aaron Donald. Parsons, Mixon. Awesome. Good luck. Rapid thanks for hopping in. Limited break. Spots remain tonight. 3 of 10. Devonte Smith on the second year. You go Eagles, Gober. Elf to go. That is the last break with spots remaining for the night. Everything else is sold out. Thank you all so much. Justin Ross, the 999 Chiefs. Yeah, I don't know, Bruce. That's really weird. I think it might be an error car. Got rookie elitist of Thibodeaux. Giant. Total one-on-one auto of him earlier, if you guys didn't see. We've got full throttle to 349. Devo Samuel, CMC, Jared Jr. Century, going back to the Lions. I get it. Aiden Hutchinson, that is 135 of 199. Lions, staying hot. There you go, Brett. Nice one there. Chase Younger, 399 Washington. It was the, what insert was that one of one? It was that turn of the century. It was just black in the background. It was a one-of-one. Playmakers, Cooper Cup. That's the only one of one that we've seen so far. Had the black background. Lee Deck, Dalvin Cook. We've got George Pickens, the 99 Steelers. Nice one there. Down to 11 to go in number six. That's the last random team half case break. We've got Penpals, Rikki Otto, Skye Moore. Chiefs. And we've got Dyka, two attack by Loa. That is eight out of 99 on the aspirations. Jefferson Matt Ryan. Drake London out of 999 Falcons. Got Samori Toyer out of 399 Packers. Tom Brady, 2021 passing title, 41 of 75 for the Bucks. Nice one there. Garrett Wilson in 999 Jets. Got Rikki on deck. Kyle Hamilton. See you later Parker. Bye Parker. We've got Zach Wilson's second year, three of 49. Cheers mate. Couple packs, last box four. Got Nick Chubb, Playmakers. And last pack, Lee Deck, Lambjack. Box number five. Team is the best for this year to get. I don't want to say Steelers, but Pickett is probably one of the biggest, I'd say Pickett. You got your first couple picks, Trayvon Walker, Hutchinson. You're looking for more offensive players like Desmond Ritter, Drake London, or Desmond Ritter is a quarterback. Garrett Wilson. That's hard. What team would you say? The best team to get this year. Leo the 999 Steelers. There's not one that jumps out. There's a couple good ones. Jess, this was random team. Random team style. Jalen Waddle, Highlife. What do you all think? Yeah, that's true. Andrew Booth, Jr. to 999 Vikings. Yeah. We've got a Danny Gray on the rookie pen pals for the Niners. Danny Gray. Matt Stafford, Elite Deck. Yeah, Mike Fitzgillers too. Yeah, I'd say, you know, because you got Pickett and Pickins. We've got to 24 on the bronze status die cut Michael Carter. Jets. Derek Henry on the elitist. Titans. Jefferson, Matt Ryan. I think Matt Ryan is going to have a good year in Indy as well. Spellbound to 349 Justin Fields. Bears. The best hole would probably be the 1-1 Kevon Thibodeau auto that we pulled. Rookie elitist, Aiden Hutchinson, Lions. Then probably the Kenny Pickett pen pals. For a couple Aiden Hutchinson autos already too. Zemir White to 999 Raiders. Yeah, like those elitist inserts are pretty darn cool. Rookie on deck, Kenny Pickett. Steelers. Also Wilson, Danny Jones. Damon Pierce out of 399 Texans. Damian Pierce, sorry. Again, everyone only one break with spots remain for tonight. It's going to be the last half case random team of the night. So we've got Joe Burrow. Then after that, we've got tiered two tiered random team half casers and then two divisional half casers. Yeah, see this is out of 75. Vonte Smith at Herbert. It's probably an error card. There was no number on that one. Here you go, Eagles. Yep, everything shifts out of this jest. Absolutely. Most of our breaks, everything will ship, except for like Bowman, baseball, like really base heavy products. We got Craftsman out of 99, two attack by Loa for the Dolphins on the two color patch. Lead deck, Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, Bacon. Mike, so this break was 69 99 a spot random team half case break out of 399 Derek Carr. Still 10 spots left in number six. Link is in bio for you. If you'd like to hop in to talk in bio for you, only 10 spots remain turn of the century man. Lions having a break 10 of 25 a Jameson Williams. There you go. Lions Brett on fire with the Lions tonight out of 72 Joe Mixon rookie on deck. Derek Stingley Jr. Texans rookie there learn your Jermaine Johnson the seconds to 399 jets 99 99 last pack box five. What? Jamar Chase playmakers. Sounds like a lot more box. Here we go again. TikTok link in bio. If you'd like to hop in 10 spots remaining and random team half case break number six 999 Calvin Austin the third. What up Mike D? In the place to be. Hey Mike, how's it going? Patrick Mahomes on the 2002 throwback that Ryan Tyreek Hill. There's Stefan Dix the 399 bills. Jacob's we've got Johan Dotson turn of the century read the 75 for the commanders turn of the century auto. Isaiah likely to 399 Ravens. Congrats Mike. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. That is awesome. Carol Aftis rookie on deck. Man, that means I'm close after huh? We've been talking about it for a while. Congrats. Healthy. Everything's good. Got filler Alvin Camara playmakers. For those you're not on YouTube, Mike said he just had their baby girl this afternoon. Congrats to Mike. Elite deck Aaron Rogers. How much did she weigh? Two pounds. Thank God. Is this a one of one? No. I don't see a number on this one. Khalil Shakir. I have not seen this insert yet. It looks like it should be a one of one. No, no number on this front or the back. That's good to hear Mike. Very happy for you guys. Bills. Six pounds, five ounces all. That's awesome. No, she was not 13 pounds. No, six pounds, five ounces full throttle the 349 PS2.  You ready for some sleep deprivation? I think he said that's their second. May have a talk right now, I believe as well. Rookie Aletus, can you pick it? Yeah. Yeah. No, not 14 pounds. Man. Rookie on deck, Matt Corral. C-E-H. We've got Justin Herbert on the Epic Materials. Let me go Chargers. Herbie action. Playmakers, Patrick Mahomes, Danny Dimes. Dang son. That's a big boy. Oh wow. We've got Bailey Zappie for the Pats out of 99, Rookie. That was like 6.8 or something like that. That's awesome. God, Josh Jacobs of 75, Raiders. We've got Carson Strong on the pen pals, Rookie Otto. There you go, Eagles. Rookie quarterback there, Carson Strong. Bob got Dyka, Jonathan Taylor. That is 35 of 72. I think it smells. Patterson. Down to eight left and number six, everyone. Again, that's the last break with spots remaining tonight. Matt Corral out of 999 Panthers. T.J. Watts on the Aletus for the Steelers. John Lamjack. Couple packs left and we'll do a recap. Killer. Young out of 999 for the Seahawks, Rookie. Two packs left here. Got a League deck, Derek Henry. Yeah, I like them. I like them for sure. We've got Star Stat is Debo Samuel. That is eight out of 99 for the Niners. Camara and Kelsey. All right, that will do it for the break. Give me one second. Down here. We had the Justin Herbert Epic Materials Chargers, Craftsman to 99, Two Attack of I Low Adolphins, Threads, Vinny Test of Varidata, 15 for the Jets, Kyler Murray Cardinals, Moxie Patch, Josh Jacobs, Epic Materials, Justin Jefferson Vikings, our Autos. We had Carson Strong, Eagles, Turn of the Century to 75, Johan Dotson, Commanders, Turn of the Century, Orange to 25, Detroit, Jameson Williams, Danny Gray Niners, Skymore Chiefs, Turn of the Century to 199, Aiden Hutchinson, Lions, Wondell Robinson to 199, Giants, Garrett Wilson Jets, Jake Pormer to 149, 40, Cardinals, Browns to 199, David Bell, Jalen Tolbert, Cowboys, and then the Aiden Hutchinson for the Lions. Congrats again, everyone. Thanks so much for the film. We got another half case coming up in a bit. Thank you.


Next up we have Cara Santa Maria Her talk is called science with a side of atheism Skepticism out in the open. She was she used to be a senior science correspondent for the Huffington Post Her haiku is Seven syllables Cara Santa Maria perfect second line. Please welcome to the stage Cara Santa Maria Hi everyone So I think I'm gonna cut my talk a little bit short so that I can get some more kind of interaction I'm really hoping that there's a mic out in the audience or that we can wing this so that we can have more conversation I much prefer to talk with people than to talk at people and I'm not gonna lie, but I was kind of up until 5 a.m. Playing poker last night I think that's kind of the risk of doing a skeptic convention in a casino Like what do you expect really and I have to prepare because I'm gonna be playing in the poker tournament tomorrow night And hopefully a lot of you guys are gonna join. Yeah Yeah So I kind of wanted to Introduce myself first and mostly I think I'm gonna spend the time that I have today What little time I have kind of talking to you about who I am and how I came into What it is that I do because Tam is a really exciting Experience for me. This is my first time here a lot of times when I give talks I either specifically give talks at science conferences or I specifically give talks at Atheist conventions and so this is super interesting for me because the science the skepticism the atheism It all is kind of coming together in this great group of people and it makes it really hard to focus and figure out what it is I you know really want to talk about so I figure You know, I'm the embodiment of all three. I'm gonna talk about me Hopefully that doesn't bore you guys too much So I wanted to start by telling you a little bit of who I am and what I do and why the organizers of this event the wonderful Organizers even thought to call me up and ask me to come speak to you guys today. So my name is Cara Santa Maria Those of you in the audience who do know me most likely know me either from my work that I do with the young Turks Which is an online news organization a progressive online news organization or with the work that I previously did with the Huffington post So I started at Huff post Probably about two years ago I just left in April to pursue more kind of TV and online opportunities but when I started at the Huffington post they didn't have a science page and I thought it was really important that they have a science page because let's be real They needed a science page and and you know what we really kind of aimed to do when I first went there was to Make a safe haven, you know, we had no control over what went on in the health pages We had no control over what went on with specific bloggers that showed up all around the site There's like 50 verticals on that site and every vertical has a different editor But we thought if we start a science page We can have a home where there's no woo where evidence-based thinking can live And so that's what we set out to do and I started a video series there called talk nerdy to me where I would talk nerdy well, thank you and and You know it ran the gamut really I was the science correspondent my background is a neuroscience I'll get to that But they really wanted me to focus on all things science so long as they didn't step on the toes of the green pages of the health pages so I Would focus on space stories I would focus on brain stories kind of new news in the sciences But I always snuck in a little bit of that skepticism. I did a piece about what happens when you die I did a piece about whether or not prayer really works I did a piece probably one of my favorites about the power of positive thinking And I really like to focus on those kind of evergreen stories those stories that sort of fly in the face of what The general public and especially on the left, you know I'm not going to claim to know the political affiliations of most of the people in the audience but I have a feeling we're a little left-leaning and And it's funny how much woo really does exist on the left You know we think about the right and the climate deniers and the anti-evolutionist But you know the anti-vaxxers kind of live on the left and especially the anti-gmo people they live on the left And sometimes I think it's really important to to stand up for those things even when it's your your people It's your audience because they're not getting a good dose of that. So So basically that's kind of where I'm coming from. I've done a lot of television I did a pilot for HBO called talk nerdy to me when I first started out in this field Which ultimately got got folded into my Huffington Post series. I've appeared on Larry King and on the Nerdist and on Some old CNN shows Parker Spitzer things like that back when they were around Attack of the show on G4 if any of you guys watch that And and now I'm basically freelancing I've done some work for Sundance channel for travel channel for Nat Geo and I'm about to start a new venture on a new network That'll be launching in August. I'm gonna be working on their daily show So I'm super excited about that The transition there for me came from science into news current events and politics and again I'll talk a little bit about why Why I think that's an important transition for me But before I before I focus on what it is that I'm doing now and why it is that I'm doing what I'm doing now I wanted to tell you a little bit about how I got here because I Am an American atheist But I was born as a Texan Mormon So my folks at the time were married at the time were Mormon my last name is Santa Maria I can't think of a more Catholic last name than that my father's Italian my mother's Puerto Rican They were tried and true Catholics who converted together and Join the LDS church and you know, it's funny while I was playing poker last night I think I got a lot of insight talking to some of the folks at the table and to this one very interesting gentleman who claims to have walked on water He was fun And and and I talked a little bit about, you know, why it is that I think at the LDS church Seems to be so attractive and in some ways I find myself Not defending it it is still very much a part of my family, which is difficult because you know, it's bullshit And it's it's really easy for me to say that but I I understand a little bit why people Swallow the bullshit in the Mormon church and that's because in order to have an answer for everything The answer start to get really crazy now people who are raised Catholic I think struggle with this idea of Okay, the Trinity it's like God and he gave birth to himself And that's really confusing and he's also a ghost that kind of hangs around I don't get it and then the answer is always oh well God works in mysterious ways and you've got to have faith and you know, that's gonna help you out and and I think that probably my parents To some extent they really started on that path of being truth seekers and I think that they were struggling with this idea and and they were interested in finding answers and Coming from this kind of safe place in the Catholic Church where they were confused all of the time where where where God works in Mysterious ways was not satisfactory to them anymore. They stumbled upon the Mormon church Well in the Mormon church, there is an answer to every question you might ask. Well, how can God give birth to a son? Oh, well or how can God give birth to himself? Well, it's not him. The Trinity is three separate beings that's what they teach in that church and How is it that we can interpret this scripture as inheriting our own kingdoms after we do? Oh, well, you just get your own planet It's a good deal for you and and and it starts to get kind of insane But the reason it's insane is because that curious kid who shows up to Sunday school because I don't get this How does this work? What's the answer to this? There's always an answer and it feeds you and you start to get more interested, which is why I held on until I was about 14 So I was baptized at eight because of course in the LDS church eight is the age of concept We all make the best decisions of our lives when we're eight years old I guess it's better than being an infant and having no choice in the matter But let's be honest what eight-year-old isn't just trying to impress their parents isn't just trying to do what they think their parents Want them to do so I was baptized. I went through the gamut. I baptized dead people. You guys have heard of this, right? It's weird They're not actually like dead bodies in the font or anything like that.  I was really in it, you know Sunday for three hours Wednesday for two hours Monday family home evening every day before school from at 6 a.m going to seminary studying the Bible the Book of Mormon the Pearl of Great Price the Doctrine and Covenants and Around the time that I was 14 I came to my father My parents were divorced at this point my mother I lived with my mother, but my father had joint custody and I went to his house For all of those times that I mentioned to be engaged in church activities And I went to my father and I said, you know dad, I don't I don't think I believe in God I'm I'm questioning this a lot. I'm a little confused about it and You know like the good Mormon that he was he said well care I have a moral obligation to God to force you to go to church until you're 18 as long as you live under my roof and being the kind of Let's say Revolutionary 14 year old that I was I said well, I guess I can maybe won't live under your roof anymore It was a tough decision to make at that time It was it was really was a Sophie's choice, but in so many ways I liken this unto anybody else who's coming out for any other reason It's so hard to pretend like you're something that you're not Year after year after year and I think it really starts to take a piece of you away And at that point in my life, and I don't regret this decision I knew that I couldn't do this anymore and that I was willing to risk a Relationship with the person that I was supposed to trust most in my life It's a lot kind of to be on the on the shoulders of a teenager But it was that important to me and since then you know, we've kind of reestablished our relationship We didn't we didn't speak for many years But I'm feeling much better about things things now even though there's always lingering issues And I'm sure many of you have dealt with that in the audience many of you Who decided to leave your church whatever church that may be and we're raised in the south like I was in Texas or raised in the Bible Belt raised in in a kind of controlling environment and disappointed your parents in doing so and it's a tough place to be but I think it's a testament to your strength and And I think that you guys are great examples I try to be an example for those kids who kind of feel like they're Maybe a little lost like all they know are other people in the church and something just doesn't feel right I think it's really important to kind of be true to yourself regardless of of how you do it and what that means to you so The interesting thing for me is that the atheism came first long before the science I Don't know if the atheism informed the science. I don't know if the science Reestablishes the atheism. I think probably there's there's an intermediate variable at play, you know confounding variable that is just this kind of angsty anti-spirit this questioning spirit this This personality trait that says I want to know the truth and I don't care Who is feeding me these lies?  Oh my god. No, okay, sorry I was like I have not been going for 30 minutes only 10 only 10 were good I Started school. I started college with an intention of studying vocal jazz performance like you know every normal child does Went to college at 16 Started studying studying music. I went to the University of North Texas amazing school for jazz music quickly realized that I hate playing piano and You got to really be pretty good at piano to major in what I wanted to major and got lazy smoked a lot of pot and Decided that you know, I'll get a psych degree. Why not that seems easy enough and And I started focusing on psychology. I Really focused on it I decided to get a bachelor of science as opposed to a bachelor of the arts so that I could understand the scientific method a Little bit takes some extra coursework in research methodology, right a thesis I got involved with a neuropsychologist in my kind of junior senior year and started seeing patients with brain damage and Became fascinated by their stories fascinated by the Situations they found themselves in fascinated by linking how they were as people by linking their behavior and their personalities to What had happened to them dramatically or to how they had had difficulties with development and ultimately I decided that I wanted to know more so I stuck around I got a master's degree in neurobiology where I specifically focused on cell culture techniques and and kind of some Parkinson's studies and After that I went to New York Thought that I would get my PhD in clinical neuropsychology fell in love with a boy moved to LA never finished the PhD You know life takes you on turns But it but it really opened a lot of interesting doors for me because I found that I always really loved being in the classroom I love teaching. I didn't so much love being at the microscope I didn't so much love having to sacrifice mice every day. I knew it was important It was a part of the work that I do. I'm a huge advocate of animal research, of course And and I'm I'm proud of the work that I did but I don't think it was for me I like teaching and I realized that kind of If I go through the media, I can teach a lot more people and I can teach them in more creative ways So so that's really how I made that transition into doing things on the web and doing things on television and doing podcasts and Trying to get out there and communicate science in that way So I mostly focused as I said I was I was working as the senior science correspondent for huff post and I was focused on kind of the hard sciences But then I started getting involved with the young Turks and that was really exciting for me because I started to realize that I was sort of in an echo chamber. We'll pretend like we're not in an echo chamber right now But I started to realize that When you communicate science sometimes you're lucky enough to do a video that goes viral You're lucky enough to do a story that a kind of an outside outlet picks up and shares around the web but a lot of times you're talking to people who are interested in hearing stories about science and Really, I wanted to reach those people who maybe don't think they want to learn about science or maybe Don't really know that there are atheists out there in the world and so I started to get involved doing more kind of political reporting and I love it. I love talking about current events I love talking about what's going on in the news and I specifically always try to maintain this focus on evidence-based thinking critical thinking on Thinking scientifically about things that aren't necessarily scientific because I am much less concerned about the kids Kids are scientists kids are naturally scientists. They're curious. I mean kids have the traits that scientists have They're born with them. We beat it out of them usually But most of the time at a young enough age kids are already exploring the natural world the way that scientists like to do I'm really concerned about the adults. I'm concerned about about their parents And I'm concerned about people who show up and they walk into that voting booth. I want those people To be able to exercise Their skeptical minds. I want those people to understand How to make decisions based on available evidence and that is what I'm always trying to communicate That's what I do as a science communicator. That's why I think science literacy needs to be improved in this country Not because I think we need to make new scientists. There will always be people amazing people who will do science but everybody should have the gift of Thinking scientifically everybody should be able to wear that lens That turns a light bulb on that illuminates dark corners and that squashes the fear That comes along with not knowing, you know, people talk about this This concern that as soon as you know how things work, it's gonna take the magic out of them well No offense to a to James, but I don't mind living in a world without real magic. I want to live in the world Where we understand why because when we understand why there aren't any monsters under our beds anymore There's a lot less to be afraid of so Where am I? Well, I'm pretty much there. So that brings me to today and I kind of already mentioned why it is Or how it is that I that I got into this this realm into this kind of Science meets news meets current events meets skepticism meets atheism. I don't know. It's a whole weird mishmash Mostly, I just know how to be me. I Talk the way that I talk and so far that has served me. Well, I Hope it continues to I know that this room is a room full of people Who I think hold similar values and it's a room full of people who? At whatever level are doing their part to do the same thing that I'm trying to do I have a media platform and I'm very grateful for that I'm very lucky to have that and I hope that I can hold on to that The way that I try to hold on to that is to be as genuine as possible and to really speak from the heart But everybody in this room. I know does the same thing that I do whether you do it on The web or you do it around the kitchen table or you do it around the water cooler. I urge you not to be afraid and I urge you to kind of come out of the darkness and To speak about these things with people who may not understand that skeptics that atheists are moral beings People who need to see strong examples so that we're no longer ranked lower On a self-report survey than rapists I'm not sure if you remember that study that came out Maybe about five years ago where individuals rank ordered a bunch of different types of people and Atheists were ranked lower in trustworthiness than rapists and The reason for that is because people don't understand They don't know that the guy living next door the guy who they borrow You know sugar from and who's loaned them their lawnmower is an atheist They don't know where we are because we're hiding oftentimes in these dark corners because we're still not accepted now I like to speak about science about skepticism and about atheism Out loud not because I'm trying to Convert that's not even the right word People not because I'm trying to bring more into my fold. It's not a fold. It's not an organization it's a lack thereof but because I I Think that we really are in an in an era right now where this is is probably going to be the next big Civil rights movement because we're still living in a culture We're just saying that you don't believe in God Prevents you from getting elected to public office We're saying that you don't believe in God could prevent you from getting a job You know we need to stand up and show people that We're just like everyone else We don't have horns.   So that would be difficult and We're strong moral people We have values with families. We give back to our community All of those things are important and you know why we do it because we want to not because we fear eternal retribution There's no better reason than that So I want to thank you guys so much for listening to my story brief as it was because what I'd really like to do now And I hope that you guys Actually have questions or comments or or any way to join the conversation. I'd love to be able to open it up to that Because like I said, I don't think it's really that interesting to be talked at for a half hour I'd rather speak with you. It's very hard for me to see though, and I also don't know if there's a moderate. Oh Look at that cheers. Thanks so much You know what? Let's do what we did last year really quick so we can not block anyone's view Let's form a line right here real quick.  We'll take our first one right here I'm gonna form a line right this way and that way you can see them and we're good to go Science editor at Huffington Post Correspondent Correspondent not the editor I wanted to make that clear because it sounds kind of like going into the belly of the beast I wondered if you would expand a little bit on how much you Flack you got for that from some of the other you said you had to stay away from medicine You had to stay away from D-Pak Chopra or whatever How did that work out for you? Yeah, um, you know what what's interesting Anybody here in the crowd today? Kind of a member of the science online community SIO science online. No, okay well science online is a great group of people who meet up every year and Basically who who communicate science online? They write blogs. They make videos. They're very engaged And we have a conference every year the very first year that I went was two years ago I was invited by Boris of Kovic She was the blog editor at Scientific American and he said I want you to come to this conference and you will have a target on your back Just David Dobbs is gonna grill the hell out of you Carl Zimmer is gonna be pissed off and and I said, okay, I'll go I'll go I'll take a bullet and that was a big part of what I did as the science correspondent for the Huffington Post is Operating this weird Middle space where I was kind of trying to defend the post But I was also trying to make sure that the public and that the scientific community understood Where I was coming from and for the most part I was really surprised and and pleasantly surprised and impressed to see how many people within the HuffPost community Saw what I did there as a breath of fresh air and really appreciated what I was doing there Interestingly enough one of my closest Or I should say most interesting Colleagues there was a religion reporter and he was a really good reporter and was always really interested We learned so much from each other. He did such a good job reporting religion We talked like for hours on end about about the LDS church He would call me when he needed to make sure that you know help with fact-checking and things like that So so it was tough But I really didn't have that much direct communication with the editors that were giving people like Jenny McCarthy and Deepak Chopra a mouthpiece I had to be a little bit Diplomatic, you know when I did the piece about the power of positive thinking I talked about Eckhart Tolle I talked about Deepak Chopra. I talked about Robbins I didn't so much talk about Oprah because I want to have a career I mean it was tough, you know because she was very much involved with HuffPost And and I wanted her picture to be the lead picture about why the power positive thinking movement is just destroying America But it is tough. Sometimes you have to kind of make those kinds of decisions But but you don't want to make those kinds of decisions at the risk of the content and so As as careful as I had to be I think I was very lucky in that regard I'll keep my answer shorter. Sorry. Hey Karen. My name is Steven. Hi Steven I was surprised how many first-tammers we have here last night at the Baxter and Brian show last night Can you talk a little bit about for maybe for first-tammers or atheists that are still kind of in the closet or So the science science-based Believers, how do they come out of the closet? What's the first steps? How do they not necessarily get involved in starting their own podcast or all those advanced steps? But those those just kind of how do you let people around you know? It's not okay to disparage atheists or to to talk about the great wonder of homeopathy Right, it's not easy. It's not easy and for me. I mean I think for me it was about Coming out to my parents. I think that was the first big step But it's tough, you know, I have a lot of LGBT friends and I know that kind of a mantra in the LGBT community Which I think is an important mantra is that you don't have to tell anybody you don't want to tell like it's your life It's your decision and I do feel very strongly about that When we're talking about your belief structure to if you're a very private person and you don't want to do that I'm not saying that you're doing anything wrong for not coming out and speaking up but Those of you who do and who said a really good kind of example in your community are helping Those those who are kind of scared and kind of hiding to be able to feel more comfortable to do that And so I think things like this are a great first step finding like-minded individuals finding them It's that's one of the best things about living in the internet age Is that you can actually find people who have the same ideals as you have when you might have grown up in a Small southern town where you literally didn't know anybody who didn't go to church Now all of a sudden you can go to an ex Mormon chat room and meet people all across the country Who are dealing with the same things that you're dealing with and so I think the first thing is finding your community? the first thing is finding people that you trust that you can kind of confide in and What happens is that you start to kind of gain a strength from that and you start to feel less like you're Going to fall without a safety net if you do speak up and you start to realize that well If I tell people that I don't believe and they hate me for that if I tell them that I don't believe and they Don't want to have anything to do with me anymore Why was I friends with those people to begin with and and so I think You know developing a cushion and putting putting people around you that are open-minded and that are interested is probably the first The first step to that. Hi. Thank you. I love what you're saying Thank you. I'm a United Methodist minister I I'm left-wing. I did a gay marriage back in 1971 but I'm wondering if if You believe that the empirical paradigm Does explain how everything works? Is that a theory supported by the empirical research or is it a statement of faith? I think that this is a really good question and it's something that I didn't really clarify Clarified it last night at the poker table. It's all blurring together. I didn't really clarify it up here But I feel very strongly I call myself an atheist and the reason I call myself an atheist is for simplicity's sake I got some tweets this morning from people like atheism is militant and agnosticism is the only true way And you know truth be told we're all agnostic. I feel very strongly about this We are all agnostic because it is impossible to use scientific methodology Science is the study of the natural world. You cannot study anything metaphysical or supernatural by definition With the tools of science now some people will say it's because it's not there Other people will say maybe it is there, but I can't interact with it in that way There's no way to gain empirical evidence about something that by definition is ineffable and untestable That being said I think we all live our lives either as theistic agnostics or atheistic agnostics For me the idea of a God doesn't factor into my daily life the idea of Being watched over of a great plan is not necessary. I'm not saying that science Like I'm not saying that you can disprove God Through scientific methodology, but I think that scientific methodology does Put me in a position at least To to look at the world that I live in look at the universe that I live in and say God is not necessary to explain Kind of the grandeur of the universe actually I've got to wrap up But I have a quote my most recent tattoo is like big and it's down my ribs And if you watch this episode of Star Talk radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson At live at the bell house. I'm talking about it in that episode and he like drags me to the front of the stage And like lifts up my shirt to show off my tattoo and somebody in the audience is like, how did you know she had that? Neil was like she told me come on But I have this tattoo on my ribs and it's a quote by Carl Sagan And it says we are a way for the cosmos to know itself and for me That's a really beautiful statement because a lot of people I think want to feel like there is a greater consciousness Like the cosmos itself has some sort of design some sort of plan. I don't believe in a collective consciousness I don't believe in anything supernatural and I love this because it's so poetic and it gives you it gives me that Spiritual I never use that word because it's like is meaningless to me It's an eye roll every time I hear the word spiritual drives me crazy But that whatever that is those chills that you get This idea that because we can contemplate on our place in the universe And we are made of the stuff of stars We are made of the same material that was produced in the furnace of a star being born That we in essence are away for the cosmos to know itself That thought to me is humbling enough and fantastic enough and amazing enough that I don't need God in my life To be able to explain why I'm here and and and what this all means But ultimately I think it is important that I make that distinction. I am an atheist Agnostic and you sir or a theistic agnostic and thank you for your comments. Thank you guys so so much for coming


Coming to you from RTIF Studios, I am Anithya Antoine and this is your Midday News Brief. St. Lucia has significantly boosted its media presence following participation in the just concluded Caribbean Tourism Organization, CTO, Media Day and Press Conference in Toronto, Canada. Representatives from more than a dozen Caribbean destinations will on hand the dialogue with travel media at the August 22, 2019 activity. The island was represented by the Minister of Tourism and CTO Chairman Honourable Dominic Fede, who appeared as a keynote speaker provided updates on the Caribbean and the economic development of the region. Minister Fede told his audience that 1.4 million Canadians had visited the Caribbean in the first quarter of 2019, with overall arrivals rising 12% to 9.1 million. That 12% figure for the Caribbean compares to 4.4% for tourism visits around the world, highlighting just how robust the Caribbean's comeback had been following a devastating hurricane season. A new cohort of Peace Corps volunteers have officially been sworn in. The 11 volunteers will help fulfil the overarching goal of the Peace Corps Caribbean, achieving world peace and friendship. Associate Peace Corps Director Sharman Jules noted that over 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in St Lucia since the collaboration in 1961. The trainees resided with host families in the community of Barbano, while they underwent training and began settling into St Lucia's culture. The volunteers give a demonstration of what they have learnt, while being here. The Peace Corps swearing-in ceremony was held at the Coco Palm Conference Room on Friday, August 23, 2019. St Lucia celebrates breastfeeding month. The Ministry of Health and Wellness is seeking to help create an environment that supports breastfeeding. Ministry of Health officials says that whilst they continue to play their part in promoting breastfeeding, studies show that St Lucia's rates of breastfeeding remain low. The theme for this year's observance is empower mothers enable breastfeeding. Public Health Nursing Supervisor Prasar Jouda says it's not just breastfeeding, but breastfeeding exclusively, which means only breast milk for the first six months. This has been your media news brief. Thank you for watching.


first of all, and thank you to Kellogg-Hubert Library and Poem City. This has been such an amazing event every year. This year is the first time we got our entire flow group together to read. We've always had someone missing, so this is kind of exciting to have all of us. Poetry, process, and perspective. We are all going to read or talk to you a little bit about an element of being in a group, and then also read our poems one at a time. So for those who have never heard us before, flow stands for four left, one right, W-R-I-T-E. I invited everyone together to form a poetry group, and as we were doing our first exercise, I was finished first, and I looked around, and I was like, they're all left-handed. I'm right-handed, but they're all left-handed. So I was like, oh my goodness, we have a name for our group. Four left, one right, and we just shortened it. acronym, flow. So that's who we are. And we are going to start with, oops, sorry, Susie Atwood, who is going to be reading. She was in Central Vermont, and she practices therapy, wilderness guiding, and writing poems about the convergence of human beings in the untamed world. She has a master's degree in education and counseling, and has taught writing at the high school and college level. And it's also a very good person. Susie? And thank you for coming to support Home City, which is such a great event every year, and to come and see us read, which feels special too. So as Jesse said, we're all going to speak to some aspect of what it means to be in a group together. We've been together eight years, and there was nothing more gratifying than being asked to talk about inspiration. It's just I've been walking around with that for some weeks thinking, and I probably could have written a book by now, but you know, it's like one minute. And so inspiration at its root means to breathe into or put spirit into. And in our group, it is kind of the background or the breath of our work together as a group. The poet, Biswa Shiborska, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996, said that described inspiration as whatever it is, it is born from a continuous I don't know. And which is such a beautiful piece, and you know, it's that root of curiosity I don't know. But I believe a poem is an answer to the question that follows I don't know what is this. We encounter all kinds of facets of reality and our inner experience. And if you have the writer's eye or the poet's eye, you would just go, well, what is this? And then you try to find the words. So in a writing group, what we do is witness each other on that journey of what is this? And I think that, you know, it's a deeply personal question for each of us that we hold. And so often, how we reflect on each other's writing is that we hold the thing that we're trying to express, each of us as sacred. So that when we're critiquing a poem, we're very, very careful to work around clarifying the very sacred thing that each person is trying to develop. So that is kind of, I think, the heart and soul of that inspiration. In addition, we extend appreciation and affection for each other. And so there's this very lovely container that we hold for each other that celebrates our sort of individual and unique curiosity about the world. And then collectively, we are able to, I don't know, show up for ourselves and each other pretty much consistently doing the work. So that's what I'm going to say about inspiration. My guess is that if anybody else in our group spoke to inspiration, they would say something different and beautiful. So the first poem I'm going to read was a little over a year ago, I think, when Ukraine War was just coming on the horizon. And it's called Spring. I can't quite name the moment when this season invited hesitation, fear even, of a world bereft of care orbiting toward war. Yet like it or not, spring calls me to my yard, where rake in hand I see green shoots appear amid the snowmelt forcing up through frozen ground. A robin with its bright eye head cocked descends to see if I have scratched up anything worth eating. Time marked now by budding bird song and nearly empty wood pile. At the hearth a dying flame outside an earthy breeze prevails. And the robin keeps singing, keeps singing. This next group of poems relates back to a place I lived not too long ago that was called Milk Moon Farm. And the title, this is short, this is a very short poem, the title of which is The Milk Moon is the May Moon. The Milk Moon is the May Moon. The Milk Moon is the mantle moon washing the green upwelling of seed, leaf and blade and pale shimmer. A long restful breath held overnight, seeding to sun, bud and paddle, delighting the ruminant tongue, filling the silky udder, suckling the young. This next one is also about the same place. It's called Leaving. It is June. I'm waking early. Lilac wraps the porch in scent and purple. The rose throws pink along the wall. A finch has shifted to the vacant robin's nest and fawns step lightly through the grass below the barn. Leaving Milk Moon Farm, the green knoll of hayfields, trees and private spaces, ringed by hills rising up to mountains, the long views gracing coupe and pen, summoning bees to journey from the hive. I pack boxes, sweep, give away the books and tools this dream was made from, give away the hands. Now tracking something closer, deeper and find, I've been created here, broken and opened by my labor's Milk Moon and I. I didn't move very far. This next poem was, it's about freedom. Reflecting on the freedom of humans and of animals. And I think I was thinking about detainees and incarceration and just kind of all came together. And this is called Barbed Wire. I left a dream behind, resettling just above the old milk house, south of the hayfields in among a stand of pines bound together by barbed wire, no cows to keep in now. Three rusty scarring strands embedded deep in bark, fur pinched here and there from astonished deer who left an in mid air felt its spiteful sting. I pulled on leather gloves and spent an afternoon snipping it away, restoring a chore of undoing as so many chores in fall become the wires metal thorns cutting the brow of the living land, sorrowful evidence of a need to detain, confine. Some would argue necessary, yet those who leap would disagree. And my final poem, which somebody told me I read last year, but I had no evidence of that. And it is actually the poem this year that sits on Main Street somewhere down the way here. And in this poem, I like because it's about our group. It's about our writing group. And it's called Water Bellen. I think of sweetness and the sharing of it on a humid morning in August, cricket call and croissant sitting on a rain soaked porch with women who know bitter and sweet, know how to tell it, laugh to some of us who've nearly died. No guarantee that every day is sweet. But this morning, we are tasting it. Thank you. Now I get to introduce our next writer poet, Mary Elder Jacobson, who I believe lives in Calis. I have her short bio from the which is very out of date, enjoys both the work and the play of writing. Her poems have appeared in print and online publications and elsewhere for well years. She lives in North Calis. And she is a very dedicated poet and is increasingly getting published widely. So we're very happy to have you here. Thanks everybody for coming. Jesse started this group and she just sort of always keeps us on her toes and raises the bars. And not only do we have to talk about an aspect of our practice, but we have to read our poems and we have to introduce some experts. All of them are certain. So let's see. My first task is to talk about an element of our practice and I have been given critique. And critique in our critique is different than criticism. I think we really know that. And it's really too faceted. It has to do with giving feedback to someone and also receiving feedback. And how do you do that? You try to be fair. You try to do unto others. You try to do the medical and hypocriticals of first do no harm. And see what else I wanted to say here. Yeah, it's just involves whether you're giving or receiving caring, honesty, being brave and forthcoming and also being silent, focusing on what works to guide the writer to her own determinations about revision, sometimes offering a solution and sometimes refraining. So that's critique for you. I didn't know who would be here today. But I chose my first poem because I think there are things that we all have in common. And I know that many people in this room have them. Which is if I asked you these questions, you would probably say yes, which is have you felt loss in the past few years? Have you felt a loss of ritual in the past few years?  Have you lost a loved one? This poem, oh, have you reached a milestone age that maybe ends with a zero? So I think everybody in this room probably could answer yes to some of those, if not all. This poem is called Animal Stories and it was written for a friend who turned one of those big ages that ends with a zero, who experienced many of those things in the past year. And like coming back to poem city and being in the library, it was an occasion poem that was about barn party. So you can imagine that you're in a barn when I read this.  Well, friends, here we are again. How many heartbeats has it been since we were last shepherded in to the same shared space together? Once some years back, one old friend was dumbstruck to see inside this barn, a spread of fancy foods and guests in party dress, the crowd that couldn't begin to fill it up from the stalls below to the loft above. This farmer gasped and gawked and squawked. For God's sake, put some animals in this place. Well, friends, here we are again. We may not be a flock of sheep, herd of cattle, or litter of pigs, but haven't we all gladly sucked our mother's teats, laid down in grass, peed in moonlight or eaten scraps? Maybe most stories of creatures not just surviving but thriving, outlasting storms and floating forward into the future. Oh, a debt to Noah and his well wrought boat and to his wife. Let's give her a line and even say her name. Mama. Isn't there more to every story? How this old barn is not a boat, and we're not sailing over water. But aren't we all of us a float? So how is it we stay buoyant? Let's flesh the story out. Besides the Ark and Noah the carpenter, his helpmate and the messenger dove. Let's not forget the animals themselves and the lessons of their living. How they kept a lookout for one another, pulled out splinters with their teeth, licked each other's wounds, groomed the fur and preamed the feathers of their fellow animal friends, then snuggled side by side for warmth through long stretches of chill and dark and damp and even cracked some jokes to make each other laugh and just kept on keeping on telling and retelling their own animal stories until the sun came out again. This poem is called On Plain Air, which many of you may know as the French phrase for in open air and reversed painting outside or sketching outside. And to jump off from the farmer, it begins with a plow. Maybe it's a John Deere, I don't know. On Plain Air, the plow draws furrows and contour lines across the hillside from north to south. As yellow, ochre, umber leaves fall from trees, curling downward like fine pencil sheathes. And sun lost in her own gradation studies lays down her graphite marks by depth degrees dark and darker, darker still until her long thin shadows from ridgeline trees have sewn the fields with cross hatched strokes. She smudged from west to east at end of day, highlighting her landscape in such enviable ways. The artist can only dream of mimicking one day or on a topic of shadows in there. I'm going to read a poem called Shadows. One thing that I sort of love to do myself if I've ever what I have taught or anything, it's I thought I need a really good exercise to not write from the point of view of yourself, but to write from the point of view of someone or something else. So this poem is from the point of view of shadows, shadows, without a peep, deep from the yawning barns ink black silhouette, we see on asleep. We spill in silence in puddles in every shape of dark. We curl up tight at her feet and wake to pat about all the proverbial cats pacing the path as mute as the marks beneath cats practiced pause and one to be reading these with the scoop because they all existed earlier, but now different. All right, this one I'm going to ask for a little audience participation. This poem is about bees. And it's also about being captivated. So I hope that you'll be captivated by the words. And then the poem ends with the words plum trees. So two beats plum trees. And after I say plum trees, if you could just wait two weeks, like the poem, plum trees, and then everybody. Let me hear what you got. It's a peaceful summer day. And you're not frightened. It's an us warm beekeeping. Once we kept bees and hives, or they kept us, kept us mesmerized, kept us drunk on the end lines, dazed and dizzy by road sides, kept us fellbound in fields dusted and pollen, all of us kept us out in those downpours and pedals humming and orchards kept us fed on ambrosia, appetites aroused, the bees, the bees left us amazed under plum trees. I just have two tiny poems. This one, I'm gonna read this one for my friend, Alison. I think she's the person who's heard them before. But she doesn't know the title, which we had a fun group talking about long titles once. And I decided to give this poem a long title. And it's a sentence fragment as well. It's called out a fall field overwhelmed with sunshine and out in a fall field overwhelmed with sunshine. And the wasp is immersed in the golden rod. Well, I am enthralled by the goal. The last poem is a haiku. And I realized I was looking back in time. And it's the very first poem I ever submitted to poem city, which was called poetry alive. And I'm not sure what year that was. I think it was 2000. But it was really fun when I was very excited to submit something. And then I ran to Rachel Seneshawn had been accepted. And she said, Oh, I read that. I just knew. And then it was really exciting because it was in the window of the knitting store, which I forgot what it was called, but they did their whole window based. They got inspired. The knitting studio.  Okay, haiku. Bare knitting needles, bright new skein, stitching fresh green leaf, node, leaf, node, leaf pleasure of introducing Andrea who's going to be next. I don't have her bio in front of me. She and her writing are heartfelt. She writes from everything from a sense of humor to intrigue to grief. Her topics can go from blossoms to bovines to belly dancing to borscht. Her metaphors and her similes are often surprising. Her poems are unique. She's one of a kind. She's humble, receptive, giving and curious. I could use a lot of literary terms to talk about her work. But what I love about her work is that it makes me go and sometimes it leaves me speechless. Andrea Gold. Somehow I missed something that I didn't realize and I really was going to prepare an introduction. So I'm going to read something from Lisa's phone after, you know, Lisa's phone after, because I can talk about my experience of working with her. But I wanted to be more specific about your books and your other things that you've done. I apologize for not having prepared a real introduction. And I made a decision today that I'm only, well, the last couple of days that I'm only going to read poems that appeared in poem city. So that narrowed things down quite a bit. Because I realized I have so many poems. And every time I look at a poem, I want to revise it. And it's an endless thing. So I decided I'm going to use my poem city. I have some flyers and I'm going to use them. But the first, before I do that, I wanted to my topic or my, what I'm going to be really talking a little bit about, are two concepts that are really important as being part of a group, because they have to do with relationship between us in the group, as well as our relationship with ourselves as members of the group, as well as our relationships with our own poetry. So the two concepts I'm going to be reflecting on are attunement and affirmation. Could you take the mic up just a little? Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, yeah. So attunement and affirmation to me are central to the heart and soul of our process as a group. Here's one definition of attunement, the ability to emotionally connect on another level, allowing yourself to feel what the other person is feeling by entering their inner world. And here's a definition of affirmation, communicating appreciation and respect for another person, emotional support or encouragement. My first and only poetry teacher, other than my group who had my husband, who's also my teacher. My first poetry teacher, the late Sherry Olson, always said that you can write a poem about anything. For me, writing poetry is a process of shining a light on something which results in making it sacred for me. Our poetry group has become a sacred and trusted community for me, because we are attuned to one another, entering each other's inner worlds through our poems. In our process of critique, we offer affirmation and become intimate with each other's personal stories and poems. The poems become old friends. So I'm going to read six poems that I've had in Poem City. I looked it up today. I guess Poem City first, the first year was 2009 I think, but maybe I'm wrong. I looked it up and it sounded like that was probably what it was. And I guess my first poem appeared in 2013 in Poem City. After I decided to read this poem, I found out that today is actually a Jewish holiday called Yam Ha Shesh, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. And it happens that this poem is related to Holocaust. And it's actually my closest friend growing up. It's about her mother, Bianca. And it's called Bianca's Soup. This is what remains. Her recipe for brown baraka, woody Czech mushrooms, foraged each May, and the bohemian forest, marjoram, parsnips, carrots, half inch squares of celeriac. The pungent scent conjuring up the Jewish ball 1938 Prague, where Bianca met George. White Poe de Swab loves to her elbows, layered gown of organza and lace, satin shoes. He filled her dance card with walsas and tangos, securing her destiny, both of them forgetting the brown-shirted men marching in the plaza.  They were both in a concentration camp and he was able to save her. So I grew up eating her food, which was unbelievable. And she became an editor of Warming Magazine, so she was an amazing cook. Second poem I'm going to read is from the 2018 poem City. And it's for Sherry Olson, who I mentioned before. 1944 to 2016, she died in 2016. She was a poet, a teacher, and a great gardener. Garden scissors stand in sustained arabesque, tiny dancer in my hand. Strong legs tapered to pointed toes while I snip chick-bitty and dunky tail and fill glass jars with cuttings. Whispy stems dangle, lined up like budding ballerinas at the bar. Delegate rootlings become fleshy roots, intertwined, asked to be planted. Sherry, your succulents fill my sunroom while metaphors shall say across the page. This poem is from 2018 Poem City. I change the title slightly. It's called Parkinson's Mind Class at the Senior Center and it's dedicated to Rob Merman, who taught the class. 20 pairs of hands conjure creation, awakening the first rain, small seeds and trees emerge, swaying the first breeze, the first breath, a succession of creatures slithering, shimmying, winged, and with the universe humming the first beat of a human heart. We balance peacock feathers on noses, chins, extended fingers, make slow circles around ourselves, hold our breaths, defy gravity, then exhale as feathers cascade to earth, like autumn leaves whose work for this year is done. This poem was from 2022 Poem City. Excuse me. It's called Pinus Strobus and there's an epigram by Yoni Noguchi which is, I Hear You Call Pine Tree. I knew she was ancient by her generous girth, creaking like an old house in the winter wind, thick bark and scales as dark as the eyes of the night creatures gathered near her dusk, poised, waving. Soaring above her neighbors, just below the hayfield, needles hanging in feathery fascicles, spruce limbs woven through her myriad of branches. She waits for the processional of 17 wild turkeys who crisscross the shadowy field and fly up to roost in her strong arms. Heads folded under wings, wings draped over branches, vigilant, teetering between response and repose. They find refuge high above the coyotes and foxes. This one was from 2019 Poem City. I changed the title slightly. It's Second Marriage for David, 1950 to 2012.  You were cubes of rosy tuna dipped in shiru mixed with green mustard.  You were jellied fish eggs, oranges, marigolds, glistening like jewels, sweet, salty, slippery. You were a shoji screen, rice paper framed by a lattice of bamboo hiding your interior spaces. Mysterious is our brief marriage until I read your obituary years later, survived by partner Brad. And the last one is the one that's in Poem City this year. The tiny burden of her death and that title comes from a poem by A.D. Hope. I expect birds to rise in the air effortlessly, untethered by gravity or grief. Was it a miscalculation of velocity or a moment of distraction that caused a flurry of black feathers to tumble across the road then scatter in the sultry air, quiet as a prayer? I'll read that. Thank you. I'll do better next time. Lisa Masse is a poet, parent, herbalist, nutritionist, and homesteader on unceded Abenaki land. Lisa emigrated to the States from Italy as a teen and is passionate about sovereignty, lineage, and indigenous ways of knowing. Her book of poems, I Won't Be Long Here, was released by Kelsey Books in 2021. For details, visit her website. Oh I do. It does have poems in it. It's called The Culinary Pharmacy and it'll be out through inter-traditions press in December. And I will be reading from my book this evening and if anybody wants a copy you can get one at the back afterwards. Here it is. It's a picture I took of my home in the Dolomites in Northern Italy.  It's amazing to think we've been writing as this group for eight years and I wanted to speak a little bit about revision. And I love this topic because I never revised when I was writing poems. You know, in elementary school, middle school, high school it was like the poem came out and it was, you know, pure gold, right? And then I went to the Bennington Summer Program in 1994, which was and is a place where high school students can go to Bennington College and do work in the arts and all kinds of different arts. And I had an incredible poetry teacher there and she really raked me over the coals around revision. And now I see revision for what it is and that word comes from the Latin, right? Revisio to see again. And I even think about this book of poems, which I wrote, you know, over the course of years and came out two years ago, and I would even revise the poems that are in print. And I think revision is truly a gift because it's a way to understand how we see the world as we are changed by the world through the passage of time, right? We're always sort of seeing ourselves again and ultimately I think poetry is revision because it is this opportunity to see the world again, see our experiences and what we notice again. And one of the huge gifts of our group is that through inspiration, through prompts that everybody brings, through the critique and conversation about the poems that we share, revision is happening and often we will actually bring poems back to the group that have been revised and it's such a joy to see how we see ourselves in our poems again and how we're all part of the revision in this way. And I actually wanted to start with a poem based on a prompt that Mary brought to us and ABC Darian. So we were each given a portion of the alphabet and our charge was to write a certain amount of lines and, you know, one line had to start with the letter S, the next line, the letter G and we all composed a poem together and after all the pieces were put together we did each contribute to the revision and that being said it was quite miraculous really to see just how it flowed and each one of our sections came together. So I'll read this which is our collective group poem. A poem for all of us. Because grief upon grief returns praise in concentric circles, wrapping seasons spent diligently weaving words into metaphors that elevate our stories through the art of transformation, we form poems that transcend us an offering grateful for a day of sharing each month when we stopped to share words honored by the presence of wisdom of each of you the intelligent dialogue that stimulates our minds jewels formed from the craftsmanship of our seven-year practice together kin at the table of poetry listening to the tremolo of loons five daughters moved together through the vividness of words notice the shutter of scarlet leaves and a tumble descent cracking open our hearts allowing poetry to shape our stories quietly at times let's write and thoughtfully respond to the day's random prompt suddenly suggested by an A to Z list of possibilities tomorrow though let's grow bold revel in the world's utterly exquisite gifts earth water sky and sing sing loud viewpoint is everything the seasons shift the weight of our words like a glade of birches our xylem transports the food of our hearts our yearnings for interconnection from our roots to our crowns poetry the zenith of what makes us human makes us friends so the first two poems i wanted to read um are actually from prompts that were brought one by mary guzzle which is an ancient persian form of writing poetry that involves a theme and repetition i think you'll pick up on it um and the second one was brought by andrea and it is about all of us bringing a photograph bread guzzle my father taught me that fenugreek caraway and fennel are the secrets to our rye bread hard enough to crack under a fist we call it by its german name chütlbrot every fall we stocked namna cellar with newspaper wrapped stacks of this hard tack bread after moving to the states i spent a year researching the roma who carried spices in their caravans for bread they brought fenugreek caraway and fennel from north asia wouldn't let those seeds drop until they reached a safe place to bake their motto the alps became this haven and rye sourdough has been handed down ever since bubbling into the staple with which we were bred when i go home to italy grains are not the villains they have become for america's health obsessed disdainers of bread instead they are revered as keepers at the chapel door of seasons there is strength to persevere if one at least has bread fenugreek cleanses the fluid body caraway disinfects and fennel helps digest what may be too dense about liza's pannet Easter picture on our way to church mom in her coral jacket that i would inherit in high school holds our hands in front of first cithia first spring gold my father the photographer calls for a smile counts off and guido proud in his navy suit decides to grin through his freckles instead of making his usual fish face i am the one who has something to say in my pink dream glasses and yellow dress with white lace the snapshot captures me arms flung skyward head tilted back leaving the others behind and again in the theme of revision so many of these poems are ones that i've brought to this group and it's really in many ways because of this group that my book exists in print so revision and critique and togetherness or a gift um these next two poems are sort of snapshots character portrayals of different individuals so just let your imagination take you away chihuly over venice loridana balboni had heard the trumping of paint splattered shoes across her balcony even glimpsed the eye-patched man more than once but never thought to mention him to her sister the tizia or suggest they invite them to sit prosecco from crystal flutes that while dazzling under a glass chandelier at one of their seasonal festae paled against the green grandeur of the glass this gapped tooth man blue blue in his pilchup workshop workshop overlooking the quiet water puget sound so unlike the rising canals of venice it's a wonder he ever found his way to or maybe she sent him away so she could marvel at the sculpture entirely alone lie beneath it on her balcony by candlelight wake up and take her gondola into the kind of grandeur pointed to it with a grimace pretending she had no idea how it had landed suspended above her palazzo as though opera singers had wailed out each tail tipped sphere during a midnight performance of la fagliata voices rising from ashes as glass does singing itself to life from a million grains of sand hiding inside each line that the sculpture breathed out of fire pitraca of the ogani and pitraca is a famous italian poet among other things as you'll hear as poet he kept ten inkwells wrote to please persimmons so they might ripen before the bear of winter took them to her den as priest he gleaned pomegranates before heities could count on too many gray months hardened his sermons when fire would not warn the hearts of shivering villagers as public official he collected leather baglita from farmers who herded goats and cows along the Apennine mountain spine he would have preferred to trade cheese for their servitude returned to his home of river stone walls and wine bottle windows light the taper and eat picorino with grapes and bread i wanted to read this poem that is a great example of revision so this is a poem i wrote and this group actually suggested that mixing up the stanzas would give more of an element of understanding what my mom is all about and my mom's lineage is one of mental differences and bipolar diagnosis both my grandmother and my mom and i i took the group's advice because the poem as it reads now does give a little bit more picture of what it felt like to grow up with this person and so that revision was extremely helpful letter to my mom my eyes welled when you wouldn't leave your bed for three days at a time with no explanation except a migraine your suffering bounced off the cold marble floors of our apartment i wanted to avenge you but there were too many culprits your father sitting on the porch with a shotgun when you missed curfew your mother running away with the car salesman to buy another pair of red pumps your church demanding a dollar every sunday when your allowance was only 50 cents after four miscarriages you were born blue and silent until the nurse gave you oxygen behind privacy drapes at kansas city children's hospital in 1941 raising your babies in italy kept you from getting burned until you had to return to kansas walk over the coals of your memories care for the failing parents who could not care for you you don't believe you're crazy but crazy has been rising slowly inside you since before you were born a candle left to singe your mother's dining room curtains after all the voices in your head had stumbled to bed you weren't able to dampen the flames the generations of women have fanned into a blades i see behind those narrowing eyes you rub throbbing temples and let the fire of your welsh turn to mist midwest heritage burn you down i am making a reduction of my life so i might understand yours i'll read one more short one out of the sapiona cloister which is one of the cloisters we would drive past on our drive from the adriatic sea where i mostly grew up to the dolomites where most of my family lives sapiona cloister we leave fed right after dark headed for our ancestral dolomites blind to changing landscape until the moon emerges and reveals that we traded the pole river plains for steep peaks protected by holy ones i roll down the window here cloister songs echo from a rocky fortress high above the autostrada built with the same stone that harbors sisters praying everyone knows they devote their lives to spirit yet no one is allowed inside to touch the secret that which was never born but lives in the mountain blessed by the bright moon and the moonless night and i'd like to introduce jessie libosco jessie is a poet a visual artist residing on unceded land of ashiname in michigan and abenaki in vermont her book native was published in 2020 copies available in the back and she was a participating fellow of nature cultures writing the land project as well as a yearly contributor and facilitator for poem city and the organizer of us all thank you jessie what a group of poets to work with right it's pretty amazing these women are so committed that word wasn't talked about but i think it's really important to say how committed they are um even you know through zoom having zoom as a tool i get to be part of the groups even when i'm in michigan and and they're here which is great we haven't skipped a beat it's been great so my topic is the element of exploring the craft so we could come to poetry group and just catch up and read our poems and do our critiques but the best part of our coming together would be lost because monthly we encourage each other to grow as poets not to do the same old same old each person is responsible for facilitating and bringing a new tool for us to use so those things bring ways to change our thinking we use forms and techniques that shift our minds we take them out of every person gets taken out of their comfort zones because we can get really comfortable writing in a certain way with a certain rhythm and we have all kinds of things that force us out of that everything from haiku to pantoum to villanelle or using art to inspire an ecrastic poem or the lining up of letters in an acrostic poem and lisa mentioned a couple too that that we used but for eight years i don't think we've repeated many it's pretty amazing and if you noticed i don't know if and maybe i should wait till i read to ask you this question but if you listen to each one of the poets they all have their own voice even though we all work together a lot of times artists in our groups will start painting similar like their subject may will become similar and many poet groups start writing similarly but i think because we have these tools and we're constantly refreshing our minds that our poets have remained pretty unique and and clear to their own style so i guess i just want to say that exploring the craft really takes us out of like if you if you were a great cook and you just keep trying new recipes you get to be even better because one informs the other and that's kind of what happens with us and we challenge ourselves by the experiences and there's definitely a concentration and dedication to each one of these writers to develop their voice so i would like to begin with my poems i'm going to read the first one from native and it's a prose poem it's called the first immigrant never born i dwell in foreign landscape i'm going to start over this was inspired by Clarissa Pinkoli Estes and she said this this sentence the soul is the first immigrant and that is the catalyst of this poem never born i dwell in foreign landscape flow with water the color of blood sail shorelines of skin and bone tread lightly on language of the ordinary in complete harmony with fire and stars when recognized all life gestures through my fingers into fruition i am a stranger in a lonely land a small stone a golden sun usually it takes death to be noticed the final fall the last chance the injury that changes all matter of things how can i speak to you i can't i have no voice you must look for me so that i can cross the border of mind into mythology perceived in the present see me in another the stallion the bear the ones who dance and sing ones who orchestrate symphonies of astounding music ones who walk the streets with grocery carts and sacks on their backs looking for homes hunger opens how deeply do you want to discover anything other than your own reflection be curious have courage you don't have to feed me the gardens of the gods will be waiting when the sky grows dark the fires were in the distance the earthquakes of your life shape shifts into something unrecognizable you'll see me i'm standing where i always am amidst the rubble upon a mountaintop under an apple tree with you being the privilege of living with my mother as she grows old and loses her memory and she's 90 now and it's quite an event to kind of lose the mother you know and observe and witness what she sees and and just be part of the conversation this poem is called the turtle bird a female pheasant appears one day in a place she was never seen before her row ton body wobbling scavenging for food in the court yard gardens nibbling on fallen berries from an old tree she scatter seeds found from the fear next door my elderly mother thinks it's a turtle until i assure her it has feathers yet i do not tell her she is wrong the unraveling of the mind takes her to a different kind of seeing and perhaps what she perceives is really there the bird returns each day like a peasant woman about her business stops to see us through the glass my mother is entertained and i wonder if the bird is a spirit sent to notify us not to fret but to remain poised and trusting that all will be as it should and that even the pheasant has found pleasure in her new home so this poem is a combination of acrostic hybun and haiku and it's short it's not long but it is poetry is the title and each letter for acrostic is p o e t r y and then each one of the other poems will refer back to that poetry penning words that express how i see the world opening to new perspectives evolving into creating an original voice trusting the process of dedicated writing reading a variety of authors to gain skill and inspiration yesterday's tragedies and stories crafted into poems each time i witness the news violence in a vicinity far from home words become islands small marks on paper in which to ponder my thoughts capture them like fish in the sea hold for observation words a way to hold world complications in quiet try to understand so lisa had mentioned that i was um in the nature cultures writing the land poets i was assigned the vermont land trust trail on sparrow farm between sparrow farm and north range nature center for one year to walk through in and write poetry about and then it got put into a vermont or a land trust book for many land trusts throughout the country but vermont land trust had three poets and i was one of them and this is only one poem from that it's called what steps to take my steps are not the bears lumbering through forest ferns pressing their weight clawing bark reaching berries nor are they thin prints of fox arrow to the wind swiftly scouting land for mice and moving food i am not like wolf masking my hunt around stands of trees and brush waiting for prey who am i daring to travel in this moss covered land that my kind have separated from without asking questions i know nothing how do i walk so as not to disturb listen so that i do not disrupt sit quietly so that all creatures and plants around me are free to fly and run sense that my presence is not a threat that i will not squash partridge berry under my feet take a birch to the ground lead burning coals from a warning fire and like any home that i enter not dismantle the woodland altars that have spirited the caves and spaces with their grace i'm going to read one more and then we'll have time for questions if you have any because i reside in two places like failure vermont and right near detroit gross point michigan or sinker shores in that area i get to see a whole other part of i know we have homeless people in everywhere but this particular homeless woman really struck me she had created a world under a bridge the other side of the veil on a highway overpass under a cement bridge she made her home with comforters made of plastic bags a shopping cart filled with old shoes dirty socks magazines and empty water bottles when she paced her ragged hair dreaded in her knee to her knees like a mane intertwined with dust and debris the roar of traffic was her symphony echoing in super sludge a guardian of her realm she talks to the drivers going by or ignores them in mumbles head toward the sky to the spirits that provoke her does she see something that i cannot is she on the other side of the veil where voices live with stars she could possess something ancient like a shaman in this corner of the street where she thrives and her story was nothing to eat thank you and i must say it's thrilling for us to be able to hear each other because we are so hard at work when we get together every month um it's it's really great for us to hear each other as well so as far as questions go you can ask any of us um i don't know if we should all just come up and be up here um does anyone have any questions for anyone of course because this one has um innervising it over a number of years and i feel like i maybe i've got it now but anyway draws furrows and contour lines across the hillside from north to south as yellow ochre umber leaves fall from trees curling downward like fine pencil shavings and sun lost in her own gradation studies lays down her graphite marks by depth degrees dark then darker darker still until her long thin shadows from ridgeline trees have sown the fields with cross hatched strokes she smudged from west to east at end of day highlighting her landscape in such enviable ways the artist can only dream of mimicking one day what what was it for each of you that drew you to the group jesse jesse but once you hooked you what made you stay i'll tell you when i first went i did not know that i would keep doing it i thought i'll try this and um i will say that if um you know i could be in this group to try to um to have it help me improve my poetry but being with this group of women wants me to improve myself as a person they're an amazing group of women they're strong and uh that's just really supportive so that's my three that sounds good well my reason for even bringing people together was uh lisa and i have been writing for 18 years we we i think i invited a group of people way back 18 years ago there was a snowstorm night and lisa was the only one that showed up at the door and from that point on we stayed very dedicated we still still write we still do once a month with each other and with the group as well but i thought it was really important because it was just the two of us to broaden and learn more from others have other voices come in um and and it's definitely has happened like we all feed each other so much and grow from each other tremendously so um i just wanted to branch out i thought lisa and i were doing great but we just and right we spiced it up we spiced it up and i agree with what jesse had said previously which is that we all maintain a really unique style and voice um and i learn so much from that every time so yeah a beautiful group of humans and and that hook that kind of keeps us going of you know what we bring to the group with you know the different prompts and exercises we bring in what we learn from each other yeah and i would also say that um with anyone who's been in a in a writing group or that kind of group that we get really do get to know each other's voice style whatever it is we're working toward and can um help mirror that back you know to the to the writer and say you know yes or or know that that that it could you know is there a different you know is that really what you want to say or something not i mean and that's not criticism but it's more it's always that refining and and clarifying and holding it for each person and the more we know about each other's writing the sort of more dedicated we get to that to doing that yeah to supporting each other one thing i can say is that i i of all the group on the least i have no formal training at all with poetry um everyone else here that's really studied poetry deeply and i really haven't so i always was i sometimes i feel uh you know like a little bit of the imposter syndrome but the fact is you know i've stayed with it i at first i was pretty intimidated i would say and you know i but you know now i feel like this is really my my group my my tribe don't let her fool you yeah she's amazing yeah we're intimidated by her no seriously yes everyone has evolved tremendously yeah for sure so i know one other thing i wanted to say is that each one of us has something we go after in our critique form it's really interesting i watched that all right listen for it when poems are read each in five ten okay thank you it's really interesting the focus each one of us has when it comes to critiquing and you'll hear it come in the way uh what we look for which you have five different people looking at the elephant from different angles it's awesome so we really get our poems tweaked nicely um thank you everyone for being here and there are books in the back um if anyone's interested thank you