Good evening everyone we will start here in a minute I see there's about 17 of you on here on zoom and I know that some of you are also over on YouTube so I will go over how to get in some questions here. I will introduce Dr. Janet Black who is joining me tonight our chief academic officer over in the academic affairs vice president's office. My name is Jim McCormick I'm the vice president of student life. And we are just kind of rejoicing today on making Thanksgiving. We have almost a semester in the books and so happy about that with you students and your sons and daughters. We are just thrilled that we've been able to make it this far. And so we wanted to just be available tonight as we started thinking about after Thanksgiving break. Wanted to talk a little bit about what we're doing to get everybody back on campus. And then open the floor up for questions mainly so not expecting a very long webinar tonight we can go as long as you need. But just wanted to make our stays available to to you guys tonight for that so well it seems fitting to to ask the Lord to be with us tonight and to thank him for what he's done over these these past weeks at CCU so please join me in prayer. Lord we just thank you so much for what you've done on the campus for this fall. The safety and health that you've given us and Lord the protocols that that we've put in place you have blessed. And so we just thank you for all that you've done with the energy that's gone into it with the compliance of the students and the creativity of our academics. Lord just everything that has come together to get us to this point and now as we look forward to ending this semester well. We ask that you would journey alongside us be with us and and to see us through these last two and a half weeks so Lord we just give you other glory honor and power you deserve in Jesus name, amen. Well, let me start with just how we are getting people back from Thanksgiving and then I'll turn it over to Dr black who can talk a little bit about the academic side or anything that she wants to talk about in terms of processes. So what we're doing right now what we're prepared to do is really starting Saturday at all of the main desks on campus. The Rockmont desk for Rockmont residents, the yetter desk for yetter residents. We have the Anschutz Student Center desk for the peaks and for the row and the Prino desk for our commuting students. We want to check everybody in with a health screening, just like we did for orientation this fall, and give everyone a green wristband that has gone through that health screening. So we're going to ask that only those students who have the green wristbands attend class Monday and Tuesday of next week the 30th and the first. If you don't have a green wristband, a faculty member will ask you to leave class and get your health check before you can go back to class so if you are currently staying at CCU you're one of the students that stayed over there and you're just going to go down to your front desk or are the front desk that I just talked about. If you're in the duplexes or East campus you're going to be in the Student Center as well. And you're going to get your check Saturday or Sunday really Sundays the day we're targeting. And then we will be in front of the Prino Monday and Tuesday to check any computing students in that did not check in on Sunday. As you go to class on on Monday, you can check in at the Prino and and head on to class from there. One of the important things that that I've been asked here lately is, is there any travel restrictions going on and currently there are no travel restrictions. So no matter where you're at you'll be able to come back in now the airlines might have a travel restriction. So if the airlines are saying you must be tested or whatever that's that's up to you and and the airline. But the states are not saying anything right now in terms of you have to quarantine when you get back or your hotspot or whatever. We're welcoming all our students back after break with a health screening, and then we will go from there for the rest of the two and a half weeks. Now one important thing that we are asking is that if you are exposed to a positive person this week, or have symptoms this week we're asking you not to come back to campus we're asking you to stay home and zoom in the rest of the time and Dr black will talk about that process, even if you happen to have something late this week. But we are trying to kind of bring everybody back healthy, so we can make these last two and a half weeks. And if you are someone who is not healthy, or has been exposed and need to be quarantined or isolated because of that exposure. We want you to stay home for those for these next two and a half weeks and not come back to our community. So moving over to Dr black. I will tell you that you can use the chat function here on the zoom call to ask questions, or the Q amp a function either way. And if you're on YouTube, you can email me your questions at Jim McCormick at ccu.edu Jim McCormick one word jim mcc or m ick at ccu.edu and I'll pick those up off my email. But if you have a question use the Q amp a or the chat function here on the zoom Dr black. Hello students, and hello. Also to the faculty that might be watching or families that might might be watching as well. I would like to first of all take this opportunity to thank you students. I thank you for participating with us this fall and all the changes that happened. We know that you had to wear masks and class and stay socially distance inside and outside and you were restricted from the dormitories for a while and even then that are restrictions were partial after the first part of the year and we just want to thank you because really it's the efforts that you made, and the efforts of student life staff the efforts of faculty that have allowed us to have in seat education this fall, it's been really amazing that we're able to stay in seat you know I have colleagues across America, who are teaching online, who all the classes for whom all the classes are online or many classes are online and we have this great high flex model that still has hiccups and is still not completely. I'm going to say wonderful for student experience and for faculty experience but it has enabled us to keep you in seat and getting the best learning experience possible. I do hope that you are able to come back and be in seat for the rest of the semester we know those last two weeks are really crunch weeks, many of you have final projects to write final papers to write like collaboration, you want to go to the writing center you want to go to tutoring, you want to get ready for your final exams which will be in that middle week in December. We do want you to come back, however, what Jim McCormick just said I really want you to take to heart. If you're experiencing any symptoms at all that are cold or flu like.  Just take that personal responsibility to keep your roommates and your friends from having to be quarantined once you get back because you all know what that was like many of you were in quarantine and out. Some of you in a second time and out, some of you in a third time and out and you were great. You were great you got some meals delivered maybe maybe your groceries delivered. But you also know how uncomfortable that was and how tiring it was for you, and it was tiring for other people to so please keep this all safe. If you decide that you want to finish the semester remotely for coven reasons let's say you start having symptoms right around this week sometime, or if there's another kind of caution that you want to prepare because of coven. There's a form that has been coming to you several times every week through the student updates so that your dean and the other faculty will be able to understand and know that you are asking to be remote learner for the rest of the semester. The other thing I'm going to ask you to do is I need you to be in good connection with your professors if you're not going to be on campus for your final exams. I will give you some information there are some platforms of learning for instance chrome books that do not have the applications that are accessible to take certain kinds of exams, not all exams not everything but chrome books especially we found to be problematic in the past you may need to bring a parent's laptop with you when you come back to school you may need to. If you're at home borrow something for final exams but staying close contact with your professors, so that you don't panic there's enough work to do, just reviewing all of your material learning everything you need to learn getting those papers in getting those projects and without the anxiety of, will I be able to connect my final and some final exams are more open ended where you can connect through different periods of time and others are very time specific. You need to open that exam at a certain time and finish within a certain time. So, the best thing to do is always stay in close connection with your professors.  I'm really looking forward to spring semester and even winter term where you're going to come back on campus. I think that's so important to CCU the relationships with professors and staff that's so important to you and to us. Thank you for being part of this. Thank you Dr black again. We will open up for questions. Not a lot of information to give tonight that hasn't been out in email form for students especially last week. I have a couple questions brewing again, you can email me at Jim McCormick at CCU.edu or use the q amp a or chat function here on mine. The first one from Kendall our students not allowed to come back only if they are exposed this current week, or is it last week as well. We'd like you to serve out that 14 days. So if you can get 14 days in because you're exposed and come back to CCU, then that is fine.  And if you have any more questions than that. You can contact your case manager if you, if you've got your case manager involved that would be your resident director where you live, or Sharon Felker if you're a commuting student. You can contact either of those and talk a little bit more about your case, because there are some nuances as we know, with this virus. And just today we heard that that quarantine may be going down from 14 to seven or 10 days but we're not adopting that yet from Kathy with Jeff co in red level status how has that changed CCU COVID processes. But the right now the only thing that's changed is you as we've had to cut back our offices from 25% to 10% so our on campus offices are cutting back staff. And most of our activities that we thought we might be able to run with 25 are now cut back to 10. And so most of our activities are all going to zoom for the rest of the semester. So, in terms of classrooms and housing and dining, nothing has changed that we can tell at this point. One thing that has changed, however, is we may need to reconsider our December graduation reception, which was planned for a larger group of 50 and then we replant it for smaller groups of 25. And if the Jeff co order the red order still stands by mid December and they may change it back to orange so we know that things change rapidly. But if it stands at red and we're not allowed to have any non instructional gatherings at all. We likely will make some significant changes in the graduation reception that we were December grads. So, what would be the indications during Christmas break that would indicate you need to move to online only and not return to campus in January. How much of this is a state of Colorado decision and how much is a CC. If you Chuck if you saw recently just yesterday I think the CDC put out a kind of a article or or an opinion that students are best in the classroom and that's what we're trying to do. So we are fully planning on coming back in January and having a spring semester just like we did in the fall. Obviously, if the state of Colorado decided to do a complete shutdown and tell us that we could not do that, then we would do that. But how much of it is a CC decision 100% on our side in terms of desiring to come back. We have our protocols that seem to have worked this fall. We are academic classroom experiences have been very good and the zoom has worked wonderfully. So we think we're in a position to replicate what we did this fall next semester. Now there's a whole lot of things that could happen that might change that decision, including the state saying you cannot be in school. But I don't think anymore. There. People are anxious to shut classrooms down. I think they understand that in person learning is the best for students. So we besides that, if we had many, many students contacting us over break that were positive and that kind of thing that would obviously cause us to pause. But we're we're planning a spring semester, just like we always have our academic calendar remain the same. And we will plow into the spring, asking the Lord to be with our protocols just like he was this fall. You know, the governor comes on every week and does his thing so we're just praying that the Lord will keep us going in the right direction as he has this fall. Let's see. The CC plan to stay open during the second semester. Is there any news regarding this topic. I think I just answered that one. We plan to come back with a rigorous spring semester again. So the Wi-Fi network improved in classrooms if more students have to stay at home and zoom in. Dr. Black, you want to talk about that. So the technology area is then looking at classrooms and monitoring the different loads on the bandwidth. What's really helpful is if any students have any problems. And this is actually not just for classrooms but even residence halls. If students have any problems with getting kicked off the zoom call. There are some things that you can do to help. First of all, you could perhaps just turn off your video and use only audio for a while. Another thing that you can do is to mark down the time and where you are so that when your class is over you reported to IT. Those reports, very specific reports of where you were and when this happened will help IT then troubleshoot what they recognize as maybe would be a bandwidth problem. I think that our Wi-Fi has had some hiccups this fall. I think many of the hiccups have been not so much in the classrooms, but more so when there are a large group of students in one specific area of campus zooming in and all at the same time. And that tends not to be in classrooms because the people in classrooms generally have their computers closed. It tends to be those students who are on campus other than classrooms. We do have professors who now are a lot more easy with the tech. We have had a great experience with educational technology assistant students who volunteered stepped up in a big way to make some of this technology happen so professors can focus on the content and not be watching when students have questions in the chat. That has worked really well. We're asking professors to go ahead and use that system again in the spring. Technology issues may pose another challenge. We're ready to make adjustments as needed. Any more questions? We are waiting on questions at this point. If you are the son or daughter or an athlete on campus, we are planning to have women's and men's basketball season starting here within the week. And indoor track will start as well so no changes there other than no fans at any of those and a ruling from Colorado today that you do not have to wear mask during competition but while on the sideline and on the bench they will. But we are planning to move ahead with winter sports at this point, albeit on a week by week basis. That's for sure. Those athletes are being tested once a week during their competition seasons. And so we will move on with that as well. We also have music performances that are going to be ongoing. There's a jazz performance on December 5. We have our great Christmas. Collation of music that will be performed in December as well. Those will be virtual performances. And we do ask that if you would like to join in on those just to go to the CCU Music webpage. Click on the performance and register your attendance. Some of the performances are free. A large Christmas music performance will have a small ticket fee but it's a ticket fee per family or per view, not necessarily per person attending. So there's still robust co-curricular activities in the School of Music as well. Let me remind everybody that our CCU Cares website has the latest on cases on campus and also has this webinar and other webinars on there for review as well. Kindle asks what do the new restrictions mean for clubs on campus? Kindle what those will mean is that your gathering will have to be 10 or less on campus. Going forward in the last two and a half weeks and if you have a event for the end of the semester, you're going to have to do that in some creative ways to keep the crowds small going forward. So look for something from campus activities here on Monday that will address all clubs and your events and activities going forward for the semester. Kathy asked if there is COVID testing available on campus? Yes, we do have COVID testing available on campus. It's by appointment. And we're asking that only symptomatic students be tested. So you can drop a note to the Health Services Office, call the Health Services Office and arrange for that testing. We usually do it on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Fridays. We have about a 36-hour turnaround to that testing and we are doing that for free for students. But we have not opened it up for the entire student body just to come get tested anytime they want to. That's not our purpose for that testing. Really our purpose for that testing is to try to cut down on quarantines and isolations if we can by getting a negative test coming back. It is a PCR test, so very highly effective test. So we're asking only students who have symptoms that may be something like they're used to in terms of an allergy or something like that and want to get a confirmation that it's not COVID. Those are the students that we're testing on campus and obviously athletes in season are being tested. That's mandatory from our conference at this point. Other announcements, Dr. Black, while we wait for any last minute questions here. I just want to say we're really excited to welcome you back. We really do want to see everybody back. That's possible to come back and we look forward to the rest of the semester. I'm really glad that we gave you a Thanksgiving break. You may have friends across the country whose schools have finished all in-person teaching as of the end of November. We are bold. We here really want those relationships with you. We really want you to be in class. We want that accountability that we know helps young students learn. We also love to see you on campus and so in our boldness we didn't change our academic calendar and we really want to move ahead with safety, with care, with care for you, care for our professors and staff, but also trying to provide the best learning experience that we know is possible for you. Last call for questions that wasn't our intention to have an hour or anything like that tonight. I just wanted to be available to those who wanted to come on and ask some questions. I echo Dr. Black's sentiments. We are just so thankful that the Lord has brought us to this point and we are just hoping to get back, get through the last two and a half weeks of school and send everybody off to what's hopefully a downward trend with all over the nation over Christmas and then set our sights on a spring semester that we're hoping obviously is a lot different than the fall in many ways. So please be in prayer with us for that. This is something that we have been praying about for the last weeks, you know, really since March. And it's a constant prayer obviously that the Lord will will just rid us of this virus completely, but that he'll also allow CCU to continue to do what we do with the students who want to be there. So, and that's what's happened this fall. So, again, if there's something that came up tonight that we didn't answer please email me at Jim McCormick at CCU.edu be glad to do that. If you have any questions about COVID symptoms are being exposed, you can always email me, or I gave that earlier if your resident director to Sharon Belcher if you're a commuter. Other than that, we will see you back this weekend for your health screening and health check, and then back in class on Monday to run the last two and a half weeks of the semester. Thank you for being with us. Great to see you. And I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving.


Hello once again. Let's talk about media and communication. We're going to be looking today at Google News Initiative and its impact on journalism in Africa and in the Middle East. And we are going to talk with our guest today, Mathias Sensch. He's from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil. And Mathias will jump into that very soon. We'll argue, we'll tell us that Google News Initiative is building an infrastructure of power, of dependency that could actually pose some risks to responsible innovation in journalism. I'm going to question Mathias very soon. We will explore this. If this infrastructure could be used to control the flow of information, to undermine the independence of the news media. So let's talk about it. Mathias, welcome to our episode. Thank you for the invitation. I'm really happy to be here on behalf of my co-authors to share a bit of what you have done in the last months in years to be honest. Perfect. This research actually is featured in some news outlets throughout the world. So let us know about why this topic received so much attention. Yeah, this is a really important topic. When we think about the media today, we know that there is like this very strong ties with the big tech companies. The big tech companies, mainly Facebook which is Meta now, right? And Google and this dependence on the big techs are putting the media, mainly the media innovation at serious risk. And why? Because there is a balance of power dynamics that disadvantage for media organizations which are not that strong, don't have a lot of resources. And when we are talking about Africa and Middle East, this is particularly important because when we think about the studies and they are generally focused on US and then we have some of Europe as well. And we have another scenario. So a scenario that organizations tend to have more money and some people are interested in paying for that. While in Africa, there are other more societal issues. And that's would attract way more interest of these people than paying for news, for example. Although news are really important for the democratic issues that they have in this region and only in Africa, but also Middle East and other parts in the global south. Besides that, there is also a large part of organizations that are really struggling to bring technology innovation to their newsrooms. And not only in Africa and Middle East, but around the globe. And I think that's one of the things that also attract attention because these grants are the ones that they are using to deploying these technology innovations. And usually when we're talking about smaller news outlets their money come from philanthropic organizations and they have their own agenda, their own interests. And usually it's not like helping these organizations to bring technology for or emerging technology like AI for their business model. And this is something that makes really hard for these organizations to deploy in these new tools or solutions using these innovations or emerging technology. So, and the focus is on Africa. As you said, this geographical context with a completely different financial, economic context. So when you started this research what were you hoping to find here? So what was your expectation when you started the research? Oh yeah, when we started doing this study it was more to understand what is the technological innovation in this region? But then we faced a lot of issues because first we saw that there is very Africa is a really big continent and you have like very different level of developments in the country. And we as we are covering Africa and Middle East this is also another issue because you know we have way more research in the Middle East than Africa. So the first thing that was really surprising for us is that like Middle East are trying to bring these emerging technology as I mentioned AI like in really like strong projects that use machine learning and other subfields of AI. While in Africa some of these projects were really basic and trying to bring this basic technology just like somehow strong their strategy their digital strategy. There was one project that I remember and it wasn't one of the first that we conducted an interview and they were really trying to establish a website, a CMS that could connect the requests for like because they're like collecting pitching from young journalists and they didn't have that that you're using before like a simple Google Forms and then they have like this website so they could showcase what they are doing. This is something basic and when you look for what are being developed in other newsrooms were like trying, for example in Lebanon we have a newsroom that was although they were struggling because of the language was really challenging they were trying to like using machine learning to understand what are being disseminated about this information and this information Twitter, for example. And so these creepings of the level of development and technology in this project were something that really attracted my attention. The other thing that was like a bit surprised to me but not really a surprise but it was really emphasized by these respondents was the lack of like staff that they could hire to work in this organization because they were competing with fintechs or organizations that are US and Europe which the sellers are really higher and these grants are co-founded so part of this money comes from the organization which is really hard for them so and then when they need to put like really high sellers these grants are really short and so that's another thing that I was like really surprised throughout the process and we are expecting to hear a lot of these struggles to have these people board paying their sellers but not competing with other industries that are way more stronger than the news media. So we have in one way a diverse background in newsrooms that you found in our interviews this lack as well of financial capacity so let us know now after all this the most important findings of your research. Yes, so the main findings is that in our opinion these big techs are the main custodians of the cutting-edge technology that we have today so what happened for example artificial intelligence that is now everyone's talking about after the buzz of this generative AI so they have muscles to develop that, deploy that and when we are talking about media so they need to learn that, bring to their business model and then when we talk about the structure of this organization they don't have technological teams that are really focused on bringing these technologies so these grants help them to hurry these people but it is just for one year so it's a really short period of time so when you see the description of the project they seem like very interesting, very complex but then when they get the grant and then they start implementing this project they realize that these projects are way more complex than what they proposed back there and what happened is that they need to make this a minimal bio-product or what I mean by that so a small version of that tests that and trying to see how they can continue deploying this project further although some of these projects were still available we saw that some of them still have bugs and they really require money to continue expanding and work on that so that's something that I believe that one of the main finances of this project is trying to see how these organizations can continue to develop this emerging technology which is going to be really important in media innovation in general for their business strategy and when we see these projects there is a huge potential to bring some news but part of the news value change that and help journalists to focus on other tasks but without the money and the support for a long term these projects will end and some of the examples that we found there was like that so they couldn't continue that later because the money was not enough and also as I mentioned requiring them to pay higher salaries and really specialize skills that sometimes is really hard for them to have that inside the newsrooms or even inside their country and then they need to go to other countries to hire these people and the last thing that I think is really important to highlight is that these organizations need to train these people as well to understand what journalism is how they could work with journalism this requires a lot of time so during this one year so they need to put these people that are really from the tech background to understand what is journalism what are the news products that they're trying to develop then after one year they cannot continue paying their salaries and then they go to other industries and it's also an investment that is going you know and like being throw away yeah so these are some of the main findings but yeah definitely you can find more on our paper of course this makes me brainstorm a bit brainstorm together about potential practical implications that we can look at from now on so is there something that either the governments or any organizations can do to empower more the newsroom or is there something that the newsroom by themselves can do to empower themselves or something connected to this question of media literacy that you were also addressing so I'm curious to know about policy implications now what can you tell us yes definitely there is a lot of policy implications for that first is like innovation through big tech companies I think governments can you know like push them to like if they are funding the journalism they are paying for the journalism they pay properly not only just small grants or programs that are being trained for them but something that is more structured at the same time I think organizations also need to work together you know to be strong and then when they have these organizations that these big tech companies that have a lot of power that's the only way that they can you know like try to balance this power and I think media innovation is going to be something really important for the future of media and I think working together they can diminish these barriers to you know develop some of this project and also you know exchange resources that are not easy to find as was mentioned and lastly I think it's really really important we rethink you know about you know AI and technology and thinking that this is really important to have you know in the curriculums of you know like these journalism courses and also prepare journalists that are writing the market for they understand what is AI because it's not about only understanding you know what is AI but how you can bring that for the news product and trying to bridge these two topics it's quite complex and not only require it's time for you know structurally understanding what have been deployed around the world but also it's important for you know these professionals to you know understand what are the issues that they can tackle using these AI solutions and what is not possible because sometimes you know there is also this trend to oh everything you need to use AI or emerging technology or everything you need to use no technology so but it's not necessary and only if you have the knowledge and the resources necessary you can do that and in a proper way and what are some hints for future research because there's a bit of some topics here that we could address so looking ahead research wise so what are some hints for future research now definitely there is a lot of topics that could be explored for for example one thing that we are trying to explore further because this is part of a large project you see how these technologists are being you know deployed with these grants in around the world and mainly in the global south because something that happened with specifically with the google news initiative innovation challenge it started you know mainly in latin america north america and then africa middle east and then asia pacific europe now has a version of that and so you see a lot of projects being deployed in using these grants but what are the difference across these regions what are the countries that are being these emerging technologists how they are using that so what are the best practices that other organizations can learn from that so that's something that we're trying to look first from the global south perspective would be very interesting to look also in you know the north america because it's a lot of grants that were being given to this region that is not north america but also only u.s and canada so it's the region that has a different you know like media system it's quite local news it's quite strong in some regions and you see a lot of money going to that also it's really important to understand you know like how these emerging technologists we have this imbalance of power and how these infrastructure are being deployed by these organizations and how these organizations are influencing you know media companies because some of these tools are really complex and you know you have to train data and etc and media organizations don't have all the resources to do that and how we can you know like collaborate with this big tech and how they can like somehow help these organizations with their infrastructure and the power that they have to train data and you know like something that would be more useful for media and i think there is also a lot of to explore in relation to the literacy as we are discussing you know how these different regions different countries are understanding the AI literacy and for example some of these countries they didn't receive any you know grant from google and why they are not receiving you know they are not aware of because you need to propose right to google and they're struggling to understand how to bring these emerging technologies to their newsrooms and if so how we can help them to you know understand the use of that and how we can prepare them for the future because the right that you always be like running you know to like competing with other organizations that are way more developed than them of course i mentioned before that this research has been as was featured in some news outlets around the world but for those who are watching us on the let's talk about media and communication website below the video you will be you will have access to some of these resources and Matisse i would like to ask you now if there are there is any other material that you could share with our listeners to further explore this topic definitely so one of my co-authors harris and have been he wrote a really interesting article you know looking for all the grants that were being given by these two big techs around the world is something that's very interesting there's a lot of you know discussion about the media capture from this big tech with something i also recommend people read about that and also about this power unbalanced of big techs and news organizations there are a lot of books on that but yeah i'm happy to feel free to reach me out and then i can also share some other links thank you for the invitation sure um so we have we have tried to approach a very wide complex topic here but i would like to close this episode by asking you to tell us in one or two sentences what should our audience remember about this talk so what's the punchline yes so what people should remember about this topic is that something that is not easy to solve but i think it's some it's really important we start discussing about that and mainly from perspective from regions that are not being real you know like really considerate or studied and in this case african middle east give you know a lot of insights about that because you know it's a region which different level of development using these technologies and so if we start discussing that and also about the infrastructure of big techs i think it's the first step to change that you know and also help these organizations to prepare them for the future using no media innovation technology and etc matias it was a pleasure thank you thank you for an invitation for those watching us on youtube you can find all the resources that i mentioned before all the materials the link to the article on the let's talk about media and communication websites and you can also listen to this episode wherever you get your podcast you can subscribe to our newsletter you can follow us on twitter at kojitatu lta several ways to to engage with us


And it's what, 10 o'clock at night in Israel, am I right? Rabbi Yonatan Udren. Hi Rabbi, how are you? Hi there Jay, it's great to see you. Good morning to you. It is 10 p.m. in the evening here so if I start to nod off a little bit you'll nudge me virtually. But I'm very happy to see your smiling face. Yeah, nice to connect with you. It's really important we, you know, we want to connect with the whole world and you're you're certainly part of that. And Israel is always a point of interest to really everyone in the United States for one reason or another. And it's of interest to us because of education in Israel and the innovative spirit if you will. Every time you turn around Israel is coming up with some, you know, remarkable success in research and development. It's just unbelievable. And that has to track on on, you know, how the educational process works and you're involved in that. But before we get to your involvement, Rabbi, I'd like to like to know just a little about your background. You're you're an American in Israel. How did that happen? Was that, you know, you got off the plane in the wrong in the wrong stop? What? How long is your show Jay? How long do we have? My goodness, that will take us quite far afield. But the short answer is I grew up in Florida and Pittsburgh. I had 21 great years in America and I came to Israel for the first time right after I graduated Florida State University. And I fell in love with it here. I felt that I was home. I loved the people. I love the food. Israeli food, unlike the Jewish Ashkenazi food that I the European food that I grew up with, you know, gefilte fish here. It's a lawful shwarma. I mean, really, you know, good stuff. So along with all of that and the feeling of this is just home and this is where I want to plant myself. This is where I want to raise my family. That's the decision that I made and never looked back since 2001 now. And so it's been a good number of years since I've been here in Israel and love it here. We really, really love it here. Yeah, I had a trip. Oh, it's a long time ago in 1978. And I loved it there too, especially the yogurt. The yogurt just blew me away. The yogurt was so good. Well, if you're into food, Jay, you got to come back. I mean, it's just exploding over here. The restaurants and all the international foods, it's it's quite a treat. So please, we'd love to have you. What about COVID? Is COVID exploding too? Thank God things are really, really good here right now. I don't know if I heard this term or I kind of made it up because it rhymes, but you're kind of the vaccination nation now. Bebe Netanyahu was able to create a deal with Pfizer and we received here in Israel enough vaccinations for a very large portion of the of the whole country here. So now over half of Israelis, that's including the Israeli Arabs and all the different sectors of the of the of the of the country are vaccinated. And just today, they removed the mask, the mask law outside. Inside were we're still asked to wear masks outside. There's no longer any according to the health officials, no need to wear the mask. And schools, you know, talking about education, schools today for the first time since maybe the first week in October have gone back to all in person classes all across the country. So there is a real feeling of hope and optimism here that the vaccine works, that you get a significant number of your population to take the vaccine. And thankfully, we haven't seen major, you know, any problems with that, any medical issues from the vaccine. And we get back to life here. And there are students on campus at Hebrew University where I work, which after over a year is just such an incredible joy. So there's life at the end of the tunnel. I'm not sure what the situation is there in Hawaii, but but here, thankfully, it's very, very positive. Yeah, we're doing pretty well. I'm not sure their stats are as good as as yours in a relative sense. There was an article in the New York Times this morning about how Israel was able to acquire from Pfizer nine million doses of the vaccine. That's more than a population of the country, isn't it? Well, you have to get two vaccines. So I guess you're going to have to cut that number in half. We have a lot of young people here in this country. I don't remember the exact percentage, but but it's a very, very young country. So we can't even vaccinate everybody. I think, you know, the amount of people vaccinated is quite high here, except for 16 and under they haven't got the the okay to do that yet. But hopefully very soon. Okay, well, you know, I'm really used to you said you worked at what Hebrew University? Correct. Correct. Yeah. But but you live on the West Bank, which is distance. I want to know how you commute. I hop in my car and I drive 35 minutes door to door. It's quite straightforward. There is a a pole booth kind of area where you have to drive through and they take a peek and make sure everything's okay. But otherwise, it's pretty normal commute, just kind of commuting to the suburbs right right outside of Jerusalem. Also, you know, you you haven't lost your American dialect at all. And I wonder, I don't have an Israeli dialect, OJ. That's the problem. I don't sound Israel. I don't sound Israeli. When I speak Hebrew, I open my mouth and speak Hebrew here and people instantly know that they're talking to American even after 20 years, though, the downside of that, but sure, but your conversation with Hebrew, I suppose you can read and write and speak the language and hear the language as well as anyone.  When you grow up in a language, and you're fluent in the language from a very, very young age, a lot of the little expressions, the nuances of language, those we sometimes miss. So I see that my kids get that and I learn a lot of Hebrew from them. Both the good words and the not so good words sometimes, which is also an educational process, because I didn't get to do the army. So I didn't learn the really, really bad words. But but but they teach us a lot of the slang and, you know, they teach us how to operate in a lot of ways, not just through language, but through Israeli culture, because they're the sabras, as as we like to call them here, they're the prickly cactus that's sweet in the middle that the Israelis are known as. And so they teach us a lot as well, including some of those nuances of language.  Yes, it's worked out for you in terms of having kids. But you know, what's this generation like, you say the prickly cactus, but yeah, what is special about them? What is different about them say when you first came to Israel 20 years ago? Yeah, that's a great question. As far as students that I work with here, just to give you a little bit of background about what we do here, our program is called the RRG Batem Adrash. It's a learning program for students of all backgrounds. We focus specifically on English speaking students who either come to study abroad. That used to be a thing before COVID and the airport were shut down. We're hoping it returns in strength very, very soon. So study abroad students who come to explore Israel, explore Jerusalem, explore what's going on here politically, spiritually, those students we work with and also young people who decide to make aliyah to immigrate to Israel to leave the mainland.  So those English speaking students, the ones that we work with, they are really driven and dedicated, especially the ones that have immigrated to Israel at age 18, 19, they join the army, they join national service, which means they're working in hospitals, they're working in schools, they're really out there with the people. So they're incredibly inspiring young people that come here, they're mature young people, an overseas student that decides to come to Jerusalem, as opposed to Sydney, or even Tel Aviv is looking for something very, very different. Though those students are very mature, they're deep, and they have questions. For me, that's the best part of being a rabbi on campus. I love those tough questions. Those are fun to crack open and getting into deep meaningful conversations. That's that that for me is the is the best part of the job that I do at Hebrew you and trying to help them guide them on their own spiritual journeys and who they are and where they're going those. So, you know, but to overall kind of categorize them. I guess, in Israelis, we see this as well. But there is an idealism and there is a lack of willingness to, to take the easy path in a certain way. It's kind of like all or nothing. We're going to do this a million percent or we're just going to sit in the couch and do Netflix. And they have a tremendous amount of leadership and strength and and vision. So, you know, as far as being an educator, with these young people who, you know, 20, 21, 22, when they're getting ready to make big life decisions for themselves, an awesome group to work with. I can't say enough about them. So do they come forever, or just for a visit? And wait to return fit in all of that. Depends. So there's, you know, just to clarify, there are two groups overall that we work with at Hebrew University. I should say myself and my partner, Rabbi Grodner. We work with either the overseas students and those students come, let's say, for four or five months. Many of them have come on a birthright trip or if you're familiar with birthright, talk about the right of return. So, Jews who are, I believe, between 16 and 25, if I'm getting the numbers right through an organization called Birthright can get a free trip to Israel. We're hoping those will come back soon. So a lot of young people will try that, will take that opportunity to see Israel, but it's a 10 day trip. It's a two week trip. They get a little taste of that. So they want more. So a lot of schools want them to do study abroad programs, especially if they go to more liberal arts based schools. So they'll come for four or five months, and they'll spend that time here in class. But they're also, as I mentioned, they're exploring. They're going to the old city. They're also going to Ramallah and they're seeing the political situation here with their own eyes, which I always encourage them, you know, no matter what person's right, left, or center, there always is a certain agenda that, you know, whatever media source is trying to put out there. We all have our biases. So you're interested in the conflict, you want to hear what's going on, you really want to know what the situation is, put your feet in the ground and walk in it. Talk to Israelis, talk to Israeli Arabs, talk to Palestinians, visit these places. And that's what a lot of them do. So especially the ones who are more politically inclined, the ones who are more spiritually inclined, they have a lot of questions about who they are and what Judaism means to them. They grew up in all sorts of different homes and backgrounds from very, very secular to very religious, and they're finding themselves along the way. So, you know, that's that group comes for a shorter period of time. Then you have a group of students who made Aliyah. Aliyah is the Hebrew word, alot means to go up. So whenever in the Bible, there is a discussion about going to Israel, even if it's going down, if you're coming from the north, coming down to Israel, it's always called an aliyah. You're always going up when you go to Israel and you're always going down when you leave it. So as far as making aliyah, immigrating, all Jews have what's called the right of return, as you mentioned, which is a obligation of the state of Israel to accept them, open hands, they even provide financial support. I got my second degree, my master's degree at Bar-Elon University for free as a new immigrant. So there are a lot of advantages. They really try to strengthen immigrants so that they can be successful here and contribute here. And especially American immigrants, they love American immigrants because they come from good educations. You know, from some, you know, not all Americans are rich, right? The stereotype isn't true, but Americans in general are more financially well off than, let's say, you know, those that come from Ethiopia or even Russia or other parts of the world. So you get a lot of support here from the country. I got six months free of Hebrew instruction when I first got here. I didn't know much more than the olive in the bet that I got from my reform religious school education growing up.  And it's kind of like a stinker swim. And then for the people that were a little younger, I was a little too old for the army. I was 25 when I got here. And they told me 24, excuse me.  And I went to this is when I went to the army office. I walk into the army office and I said, I'm here. I'm ready. I'm ready. Take me. And they said, who are you? What do you want? Take me to the army. I'm ready, you know, to help defend the country. Don't call us. We'll call you. I'm still waiting for that. But these young people that come at age 18, 19, right after high school, they are immediately drafted into the army. Some of them have very basic Hebrew. Or as I mentioned, they're in national service, which is the direction that a lot of the young women will take. So they'll go and they will be involved in hospitals and schools and the like for anywhere from six months to three years. And then at that point, they'll go to university. So you went to a bar in London and started Hebrew, but where did you study for the rabbinic? And why? And why, you know, that's a pretty heavy decision to decide. Did you say you were a Reformed Jew back in the U.S.? I grew up. All of a sudden you were in the rabbit and you're not reformed anymore. My parents, I think, still scratching their heads saying, what happened? What happened? You know, if they had superlatives in Hebrew school, I would have been, you know, most likely to never, you know, do anything Jewish again. I hated it. You know, my parents were very devoted and still are very devoted Reformed Jews. They're at synagogue, you know, it's not a pandemic. They were at synagogue Friday night.  It just wasn't my it wasn't my thing growing up, I guess you could say. But, you know, and I'd love to hear your story as well. You know, at a certain point, we start to ask those existential questions. Who are we? What is the meaning of life? Where am I going? What am I doing? And those questions really, really bothered me. And I think because of that strong Jewish identity that my parents instilled in me, when I asked those questions, I started to look towards the Jewish tradition for those answers. And I was very lucky to have at the Hillel at Florida State University, I think now it's a huge building. When I was there as a, it was a little broken down house on the corner of Dunwoody Street, you know, barely, barely standing. There was about 12 of us at a campus of several thousand, several thousand Jews at Florida State University. And there was a rabbi there that told incredible stories from the Talmud, incredible stories, stories that really addressed those fundamental questions that I was asking.  You know, these stories, they're great. And they're important. But to really feel it and to really understand it, you got to go to Israel. So I took his advice, hopped on a plane two weeks after I graduated. And that was my first experience in Israel. And that was my first kind of diving into Jewish text as well. And, you know, I mentioned that I fell in love with the country. And I also fell in love with the text, the Talmud. Yeah, I mean the Talmud is an incredible text, but the entirety of Jewish text, there was such depth and breath and, you know, a connection to something much bigger than myself, a chain to what we like to call them a story. To this tradition of really four thousand years, you know, I'm standing in a place. We live in a place called Beit El right outside Jerusalem, as you mentioned. Beit El is a story of Jacob's ladder, if you're familiar with that story, where Jacob had this vision. And Beit El is the place where it says in the Bible that that story happened. And maybe it's not exactly here, but it's pretty close. They have some archaeological evidence that it's pretty close. So I'm walking in my story here. And so being here and studying and learning and connecting has really helped me to address, not answer all of those questions, because that would be boring, but to address those really deep existential questions. And as I mentioned, when students come in with those questions, that for me is great, because they think they have good questions, but I got about 20 more that they never thought of. I can really confuse them, and then we can really start to talk. Maybe you'll share a few of yours with me as well, Jay, your existential questions. Obviously, taking off from New York and moving to Hawaii, there was a shift there that happened with you as well. Well, sure. It wasn't necessarily religious, but I do want to tell you a story. So there's humor. There's humor in Judaism. It runs right through it, and it runs right through it for rabbis, too. So this man comes to see his rabbi, and he says, rabbi, I have a very important question for you. And the rabbi says, yes, yes, what's the question? And he says, the question is, what is life, rabbi? I need to know what is life. And the rabbi says, you know, that's a pretty heavy question. I'm going to need a couple of days of dual research, look at the Talmud, whatnot. And, you know, come back Tuesday, and I'll tell you the answer to your question. Tuesday comes, and he comes in, says he rabbi again, and he says, rabbi, I'm here, I'm back, you were going to study and think about the meaning of life, and I'm here to ask you what actually rabbi, what is life? And the rabbi says, I thought about it, I read about it, and my answer is life is an ocean. Like I said, it's an ocean. That's it.  I come in here, I ask you this very important question I've been thinking about for years, and I ask you as a fancy rabbi, you're going to tell me the answer to my question, and you say, you're going to study it, and I have to come back Tuesday, and you tell me life is an ocean, that's what you tell me.  That's funny. I'm not sure that I know why it's funny. I just know it's funny. Do you know why it's funny? I think, I'll tell you why I think it's funny, and it was great in the telling, and I think that was part of it. You obviously got a good Jewish sense of humor yourself, but one of the things that I absolutely love about the Jewish tradition is that it has an ability to look at things from so many different perspectives, and that's the incredible thing you mentioned, the Talmud. You know, you look at the Talmud, it's not a book of answers. There are no answers there, or almost no. The book of questions, it's a book of analyzing questions from all sorts of different perspectives, and even in the codification of it, there are all sorts of different opinions that are codified in it, so if you're trying to figure out what to do and what the Talmud really wants from you, in a lot of cases, you just have to say, well, it's either like this, or it's like that, and that's something so Jewish about that. I love that, and I think it's also a really important point, you know, just to bring to our day, where things tend to be, you know, everyone's hearing their news and their perspectives in this little box. We get our news feeds, we get our Facebook feeds, we hear it, we listen to our news channels, and we hear one perspective, and we think that we got it. We know what that is. That's the right way, and every morning we listen, and our opinion is just strengthen a little bit more about the way we should look at the world, the way we should look at others. But the Jewish tradition says, well, you got to step out of that, and you got to see the other guy's position. You know, there's a great story about two famous rabbis, Hillel and Shammai. You might have heard of them, they're the most famous. You know, I work at Hillel. Hillel was the sweet one, the nice one. Shammai was the tough one, the very straight one. But in general, in the Jewish tradition, we follow Hillel because Hillel always explained Shammai's position before he explained his own. And there's something very, very important and powerful about that. So like all good jokes, I think there's a depth to it. That's what I heard in the joke. Yeah, well, yeah. I'm over-realizing a little bit. No, no, no, you're not. Thank you for helping me understand why it's fun. That's my explanation of the joke. You'll have to tell me yours. But that, you know, that takes us to the main topic here. We should spend a little time on that. And that is what is going on with education in Israel. Now, in the U.S., you know, look at the school system. We do not build citizens. We do not build people who understand the world around them, who are vulnerable to claims of racism. I mean, to cultural seduction of racism. They don't understand civics or government or the role of the citizen in government. And as a result, our country educationally is falling behind. They don't understand geography. They couldn't point to Israel on a map or many other countries. And so what we have is very narrow kind of silo education, all required, of course, by regulation, but not from the, you know, the national Department of Education. But, you know, it seems to me it's really questionable about whether education in the U.S. is working today and has worked for the past couple of decades. But in Israel, it has worked. And I'd just like to know your thoughts about Israel. Comes up with innovation all the time. Some of the most brilliant, you know, research and discovery in science and otherwise is happening in Israel over and over and over again. You see the articles like almost every day, there's something fantastic happening in education and discovery in Israel. Why is that? Yeah. There, we can get into more details about that. You'll tell me if you want to hear more specifics about the Israeli educational system, but I think the heart of your question is it comes down to this. Since 1948, when the state of Israel was founded, but the story goes back, you know, long before that and really to the beginning of the story, that Jews have always been not the start-up nation, but really not even the can-do nation, but really the must-do nation. That's one of my friends shared with that with me. I think it's right on the money, especially coming back to a very tough neighborhood in the Middle East and trying to start a state here with 600,000 people. We have now 9 million Israelis, which is incredible in itself, from, there's 80 languages spoken here. And I don't, over 100 countries have Jews that have come back home after all this time. So, but they come back home and they come back home to a very, very tough neighborhood. We came back to the war in 1948, the Independence War, the Six-Day War where all the surrounding nations around us tried to destroy us. Then we had the Yom Kippur, the Lebanon War, the first one, the second one. I mean, we have all the, you know, what's going on. Iran here is obviously of interest to everybody here, end of concern.  And somehow that must-do attitude, I think, really pervades Israeli society. It comes through, in a lot of ways, the army and national service, as opposed to Americans, now to speak about myself, maybe the same with you. At age 18, I took off for Tallahassee, Florida, and my parents said goodbye, and those first couple years of college are quite a bit blurry. It was a lot of fun and a lot of partying. 18-year-old kids here in Israel do not experience that. They go to the army.  They go into artillery units. They, for three years, are in a must-do situation. So that mentality, that army mentality that pervades the society here, really, I think, is a big part of what makes them such innovators. And it really is pervasive in all areas. You know, you talk to people, these people who are involved in high-tech. I had a great conversation with the gentleman involved in biotech on a flight from New York to Boston a couple of years ago, in Israeli, who was the head of a biotech firm. He was going back and forth between Boston and Tel Aviv, incredible stuff that they were doing. And I asked him the same question, because as much as I've, you know, I've spent a lot of time in my life there, as an immigrant, I do feel always a bit like an outsider, because I didn't go up there. So I asked him your question, because it's a fantastic question.  And you figure stuff out. So I think that's a big part of it, and it really does pervade the entire society here. I'm happy to answer more questions specifics, but I think in broad strokes, that's a big part of it. Well, I mean, that that would seem to apply to the students. And, you know, the culture and the we're going to call it the act, the intellectual demands and motivations made on the students. But what about the faculty? What are they like? And what are the classes like? You know, for example, when I went to law school, you know, the Socratic method was very effective in, you know, exchanging ideas and testing you to see, you know, whether you thought it through. Is that used? How are the classes like? And how is what is the relationship of the teacher and the student? I remember short story and I'll stop. After the Idi Amin affair in where was that Uganda? And the Israelis rescued a bunch of Israeli citizens who had been detained at the airport in Uganda. The local Jewish community brought out a doctor from Israel. He had been on this. He went 30 plane or one of them and spoke about the episode.  You know, in Israel, aren't doctors as worshipped as they are in the United States? How do you find yourself in a military situation like this? And he says, you don't understand doctors. It's just a trade. We're like everybody else. You know, we put our pants on one leg at a time. Nobody extols us. We're just doctors, shoemakers, shoemakers, doctors. It's just a trade. To me, that was really a window into the result of professional education. Is there something there we should understand? As far as I'm trying to kind of figure out an entrance way into this question because, you know, we see through our kids' education, our oldest daughter is 13. We see some very interesting, some positive and some challenging coming from America. As far as the universities are concerned, the starting age for university, as I mentioned, is much older. It's already 23, 24, maybe in 25, 26. If someone's very successful in the Army, they'll go beyond their three years and they'll be a commander and they could start their university at 27. So that maturity coming in, I think helps a lot. Also, the university system here, you start in your major. I think that's probably similar to Europe. You don't have those general requirement classes. You want to be a doctor?   If those grades are good, if you want to be a doctor here, they got to be real good because we only have a very small number of medical schools here. I think there's three in the whole country. You got to be the best of the best. Lawyers, we got tons of them. No surprise in the Jewish state, but there's tremendous competition there because of the lack of space in the universities for people that want to do this. So there is a real competitive nature here, I think from an early age. It does start with that army culture, though, because if you want to get into the top units in the army, you're already thinking about it from 12, 13. I mean, we see even our youngest, our oldest boy, excuse me, is nine years old and we're even starting to hear him talk about different groups in the army, different types of units in the army that I'm not familiar with that he already is aware of. So, you know, there is that push and that competition probably from an early age. There is something positive to that, I think. Something as far as differences between the educational system here that we've noticed with our kids, and again, they're a bit younger, but there's a real focus on social excellence, social units, social networks in the school that I never got, you know, and I don't remember, you know, growing up with. In other words, let's say you have a kid who, you know, is having a little bit of problems socially and doesn't have a lot of friends. Though the teacher may or may not contact the parents, you know, some kids are more socially adept than others. Social issues in the classroom are as important as grades, if not more so. And we've had calls from teachers concerned that one of our kids is not integrating socially in the class in the way that she would like to see her, and she felt like that was a big issue. So that, that I think is great, you know, it was just interesting to me. It's just, oh, that's different. So it's a teamwork thing, and I suggest to you that it came out of the culture of kibbutzim, no? Definitely. I mean, that original, the spirit of original Zionism and the kibbutzim and the socialism that kind of underlies that definitely plays a role in Israeli society still. Very, very much so in the social programs for sure. And I imagine the education as well. That definitely could be a part of it, for sure. I think that's a good look at it. It interests me that young kids would not hesitate to go into the army and if they qualify physically, go into battle without hesitation. It's part of their duty to the community along those lines. But let me ask you my final question here today, Jonathan. And that is, what can the United States and the culture here? And I know it differs from state to state and city to city and all that. And then communities within those cities. But what can the United States learn from Israel's ability to create innovative researchers and discoverers and business people? What is the magic, what is the magic sauce here that we could learn from Israel? That's a great question. Now, as I mentioned, there's that burning fire within the Israeli community that pervades it. That must do, that can do attitude. It would be interesting to think how to inculcate young people in America with a sense of, without having to put them in harm's way and having everyone be involved in the citizen's army. Obviously, we wouldn't want to see that. But to have them inculcate that attitude of have, do, must do, that fire within them to really, really want to make a difference in the world. One of the things that I see here in Israel that I would like to see more of here and more of across the world is we see in Israel, again, 80 languages, people from over 100 different countries. And as opposed to trying to get everyone to buy into one broader holistic national narrative, let's look around and appreciate how incredible all of the differences are from all the different groups. And let's say, you know what, you come from Ethiopia, you have a very special talent in Area X, bring that to the table. Your family comes from this tradition, excuse me, and I'm speaking on a spiritual sense, but as well as a holistic, organic view of where the country is going, everyone, every group has unique talents and gifts. Let's not cancel everyone out. Let's open up spaces to be able to let these different groups let their talents out and let's appreciate these different groups. That's my hope and wish that something we'll see here more of. We have a good, we're going in that direction. I'd like to see more of it. And I'd love to see that America as well because we share a lot with America. There's a lot of diversity there. There's diversity of thought, diversity of background. And so the idea of making space for these different perspectives, but unifying around a common destiny, I love that. And I think that we're doing a pretty good job with that in Israel. And maybe we can see more of that in America as well. Yeah, and it does start with something you mentioned. And that is first, you've got to figure out what the other guy is thinking. This is very, very important. You can't appreciate him unless you get into his thought process and appreciate the metric word being appreciated. Well, you're a great listener, Jay. So that, I think, is a great tool for all of us to use as well in that line. Yeah. Rabbi Yonatan Udren, thank you so much for joining us from Jerusalem today. It's great to have you on the show and I really, really mean this when I say I want to continue our conversation soon. I would love to, Jay. I would love to. This is really a lot of fun for me. And anytime you let me know. Shalom. Aloha. Thank you. Aloha and shalom, Jay.


Onward and upward. How's everyone doing? On a Saturday, our weekly Q&A session, 5 p.m. Mountain Time. It publishes every week. And here we go again in the newly redesigned studio talking all about marathon training based on last week's question of the day. Let's dive right in. Steampunk on YouTube asks, can you start marathon training too early? Steampunk, my answer is yes. Now, with a caveat, I think Steampunk, let's say your marathon is 18 weeks away or 16 weeks away. I think you could use the, so ideally you have at least, you want to have at least 12 weeks. You could pull it off with 8 to 10. But ideally you have at least 12 weeks for a marathon training block. And preferably I would say 14. A lot of the elite runners will bump up to 16. And that's based on they've proven that they can stay healthy and train at a high level for longer periods of time. But I'd say ideally you have at least 12 to 14 weeks to work with leading into a marathon. So if you, let's say you're 17 weeks out or 18 or 16, you could use, let's say you could use two weeks of that 18 week window to cross train, to stretch, to foam roll, to do plyometrics, to work on form drills. All these little things that will reap benefits down the road.  And for me, and the reason I can say this answer to you, Steve Funk, and everyone else, is that I had an injury in 2019 leading into the Cleveland Marathon because I believe I held my volume for too long at too high a level. It was an 18, it was like an 18 to 19 week training block. And it was just, it was too long. Oh, I learned my lesson. So anyway, Steve Funk, I do believe you could hold marathon training, you can start marathon training too early. All right, moving on. Number two, hi, Seth, running my first ever marathon here in Chicago in October. What preparation or workout should I be doing right now before going into marathon training? Thank you very much. And we love you, Darwin. Love you right back. All right, great question, Darwin. Basically what I just said to Steve Funk is, I'm going to say it again, lay that foundation of health. So making sure your, your running form is, is on point. Maybe go to a running shoe store and have them analyze if you trust them. Make sure it's somebody with experience, not just someone that was hired, you know, a week ago at the running shoe store, but have them maybe look at your gate cycle. And I'm not saying you need to change your running form, but just make sure that your, your form is not going to lead to an injury, especially if it's your first marathon. So that would be one little tip right out of the gate.  So strength training. I'm, and I, the reason I'm saying this over and over again is because everything I'm learning at the physical therapy office that I've been going to the past three weeks, because of this runner's knee, I've learned so much about tendons and overuse injuries, which is very common in marathon training and marathon race runners. So just laying that foundation is my recommendation Darwin. Also Darwin, if it's not until October, I would say definitely choose a race in June or July to peak four. So like a half marathon on, or even like a 10 miler, I would say 10K maybe isn't long enough a 10 miler or half marathon just to have a goal to shoot for it because Chicago, that's a long ways away sometime in October, early October, and you don't want to overthink Chicago for the next six months. Okay. Have so have another goal to shoot for in the meantime. All right. Good question from Darwin. Here we go. Jeffrey asks, do you have any tips or resources for someone hoping to run their first marathon? I've run a couple half marathons and regularly do 13 mile long runs, but the idea of 26.2 seems unreachable. Jeffrey again, connecting back to Darwin, definitely break up your training so that you have a mini goal to shoot for in the next, you know, depending on how far away your first marathon is. I would say also Jeffrey, as far as the tip goes, become comfortable with the 20 mile long run. And I know 26.2 seems very, it seems far, but if you can slowly, and this is where that training block ideally if you have at least 12 weeks, but ideally 13 to 14 weeks, if you can introduce the 20 mile long run throughout your training block, but don't go straight to 20.  So it's a slow incremental process to get up to that 20 mile long run. And then as far as resources go, I mean, gosh, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, I mean, oh man, I would say like I do trust Jack Daniels as far as his marathon training tips. So look up Jack Daniels on YouTube. He's a good guy. He's a good go-to resource. And what else? Gosh, Jeffrey, you're putting me on the spot. I'm trying to think of other. I mean, there's so many marathon training books out there. It gets a little overwhelming at times. So I'll just mention Jack Daniels for now. Jeffrey, that's a couple of thoughts for you. Moving on to Logan. During both of your marathons, how many miles in were you able to talk to the guys around you? Logan, I love this question. So he's asking, so in Amsterdam and New York City, how long was I able to talk to the guys around me? And it's a good indicator of the effort level. And was I going out too fast? Was I going out too slow? So Logan, I think it's a great question. As many of you know, went out a little too hot out in Amsterdam. So I would say in Amsterdam, I was unable to talk to people around me probably at like mile four or five. I would probably not be able to talk. But I will say Logan, in New York City, like the gentleman next to me, we were talking up until mile, basically like mile eight or nine. So definitely further into the race. And you know, New York City is quite a bit hillier. So that was interesting. So the pacing was a little better in New York. Yeah, it was a little better. It wasn't as even. Anyway, Logan, I love that question because it helps me think about lessons for the future for future marathons. Okay, leaving it there and moving on to number five, here we go from Sarah. If you only have 15 to 20 minutes a day, what strength training and or stretching exercises are most important to incorporate to supplement marathon training? Sarah, I would say Sarah 15 to 20 minutes is actually a pretty good amount of time. Obviously like stretching is so key, you know, gosh, 15 to 20. But I would say Sarah, if you go to the prehab vlog that I made last week, the hip exercises, I just like I'm so conscious now of runner's knee and overuse injuries because my left hip, it really was so much weaker than my right hip. So I would say ankle weight exercises to strengthen your your hips and just make sure your hips are even and there so you can go, you know, I don't know if you need to go to a physical therapist, but there's different strength tests that you can do just to make sure your hips are even as far as strength goes. That would be my I guess my go-to answer. Also, Sarah, I'm a big fan of turnover and quick feet and making sure our legs are snappy and I'm trying to chase down fast time.  But as marathon runners, if you want to chase down your fastest times, your PRs, your BQs, I think we need to work, we need to continue to recruit our fast twitch muscle fibers so in the gym, that's why you see me doing the quick feet exercises where you're standing in place and you're doing quick feet, the butt kickers, the high knees and some others that I'm going to be introducing very soon into my regimen, getting ready for my spring 2020 marathon. So, okay, short answer Sarah, ankle, ankle weights for hip strength and then quick feet exercises to make sure your turnover continues to press ahead. I think you can do it all in 20 minutes, I really do. Okay, moving on to question number six, here we go and I did not write a name down for this one, apologize. This is, says coach Tom of Tin Man Elite has been training marathoners with no race pace workouts. Do you think this method of training can have benefits? So, I don't know if that's, I don't follow the Tin Man Elite group as far as their everyday training, my guess is that this question that they are training faster than race pace, more so than right at race pace, I would think that they're not training slower than race pace, so my guess that, I would say there could definitely be some benefits, I guess though I probably fall, it's all about walking the line and making sure you can stay healthy, because that's the thing if you're training at high volume and high intensity, so faster workouts than let's say marathon race pace, you just got to walk the line and make sure you're not leading into an injury, which as we know can happen with marathon training, and I guess I would lean a little more in the direction of race pace for longer stints, so that's why I love my threshold training, like my 13 mile threshold run that I did before Amsterdam, gave me so much confidence going into Amsterdam and it was right at marathon race pace, so at altitude, okay, so anyway, that's my, I don't follow Tin Man Elite and that's my short answer to that question, oh that's a big question, okay moving on, this is from Always Physio, how do you determine the speed of your tempo runs during marathon training, is it based on previous runs, previous trainings or desired race speed, so this is a very interesting question, and the easy, my easy answer for you, Always Physio is that for tempo runs, my go-to reminder when I'm out there seeking out a little more of tempo run, and this is different than a threshold run, okay, but a tempo run, I always ask myself, can I hold a conversation, if somebody was running with me, can I hold a conversation with that person, if I can that means I'm going a little too slow, okay, tempo pace for me is, I can talk to someone, but it's difficult and the sentences that I'm saying are really choppy, okay, because it's hard to hold a tempo run should not be, you should not be able to hold a conversation, okay, so that's my short answer, Always Physio is, it's difficult to talk if somebody was there with you, all right, whereas threshold runs, there's like basically no talking, you're looking over, it's like, you can say a couple words and then you basically got to go silent for the next 30 seconds, okay, so that's my rule of thumb for tempo runs, Always Physio, move it on here, Cameron, at what point would you use nutrition during a marathon, he is training for a Milwaukee marathon on April 11th, so Cameron, I like to take nutrition every, basically every 20 to 30 minutes depending on how I'm feeling, so basically every like 4 to 5 miles, all right, depending on your pace of course, but I'd say at least every 20 to 30 minutes a gel or depending on what your nutrition is at in, at the aid stations, what options they are offering you at the aid stations, and usually Cameron, there's aid stations these days, depending on the marathon, but there's, there's there's a lot of aid stations out there, so some, and that's actually something I ran into in New York City, I think I did pretty well in New York City, but I may have, I may have drank just a little too much along the way, a little too, ah, yeah, a little too much water along the way, anyway, that's a little lesson learned, because I think in New York, if I remember, it was like every mile, I think it was every mile there was an aid station, it wasn't every, it was a lot, so anyway something to keep in mind, Cameron, but every, Cameron I would say starts taking your nutrition early, okay, because it's going to catch up to you, the lactic acid, the burning through your, your glycogen stores and your body, so anyway start taking your nutrition early, don't wait until later in the race, okay, moving on here, this is from OB9400, how many 20 plus milers should you do in a marathon training cycle? So I'm going to try and connect this answer to the broader audience rather than focusing on my training, because I realize like everyone's got full-time jobs and families, and like you can't go run 20 milers all the time, so I would say I recommend at least two, but preferably three or four 20 mile training runs leading into your marathon, so if you have a 12 week training block, that means week 7, 8 and 9, yeah, 7, 8 and 9 are your 20 mile training runs, and then 10, 11 and 12, you start the taper, I like the three week taper, for me personally because I'm coming off of such high volume you might be able to do week 10 for another, so that would be I guess is that number 4, so 7, 8, 9, 10, so that would be four 20 mile training runs and then week 11 is the beginning of your taper, so then 7, 8, 9, 10, so then 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 is that long, slow climb up to the 20, so it could be 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, so I'm just, I'm not a fan of getting up to your peak volume and holding it for too too long, okay, so I think 3 is good, if you can pull off 4 and if your injury history is low, if you don't have a high rate of injury, then I think 4 is good too, anyway, yeah, and can you pull off with 2 probably, but your marathon might hurt a little extra in that pain locker, okay, good question moving on here, do you increase mileage during training blocks or do you choose a peak mileage to cap out at while focusing on workouts like Jack Daniel Prescribes, that's from Giovanni, Giovanni, I think I actually just kind of answered that based on the last question, so it's a slow rise up and again Giovanni, I don't know, I'm a big fan of not introducing speed work early in the training block and I might be a little bit of an outlier here, the reason I don't like to introduce speed work is because one, because of my injury history two, I and this is where you just have to get to know yourself so so well, I tend to peak, I tend to get in shape quick, like really quick and if I hold my, I like to peak at the exact right time, so I arrive at the starting line as fit as possible, as fresh as possible and as healthy as possible and I think that if the speed work happens too early in the training block I tend to peak too early and I know it because my workouts are actually too good and the workouts feel too easy, whereas I want the race to feel too good and too easy, okay so, oh we could go really deep into that Giovanni but that's my answer is slow volume up and start the speed work depending on how I'm feeling start the speed work around let's say week 5 week 6 in the marathon training block, whereas everything before that is just volume building that aerobic engine just like I'm always talking about good question from Giovanni, moving on, Shane how to use your training block for a specific marathon race pace do you run your long runs at race pace or use the shorter runs for race pace or run longer, slower for aerobic building I'm trying to figure out how to train for a specific pace and build engine as well yes Shane, you don't run your long runs at race pace, definitely not so Shane, you run your long runs if you want to put a percentage on it, I would say if you're a heart rate trainer you could go that zone 2 to zone 3 and then I'd say it's like that 60 to 70% of your effort level so no, you don't do your long runs at race pace and then you use your shorter runs like your tempo runs, your middle distance runs to increase the pace just a little bit oh gosh, I wish I could give you some actual paces, but I don't know what times you're shooting for Shane so anyway, as I've already said, all about building that aerobic engine first, moving on here to Moby Life what is the hardest part of marathon training what are the tips or tricks that helped you along the way he's 21 years old he's trying to run sub 245 I love this question, like what's a hard part of marathon training I would say I would say Moby that I mean the threshold running is hard because it's mimicking that race pace and for me I'm at elevation so I like the hard it is at elevation because I know mentally when I go down to sea level it should feel easier and in fact it has felt easier at New York City and Amsterdam so the threshold training is very difficult the long runs are not difficult for me Moby because I enjoy that and I would say Moby of course the interval training is very difficult for me I just, I don't love interval training, but anyway that's my answer hardest part about marathon training I'll just say it stretching when your legs are tired it's so hard for me to sit down for 20 to 30 minutes and just take care of the body when I'm tired, when I want to sit in the recliner so it's not the running part per se, it's the maintenance so that's probably my best answer for you Moby, okay moving on here I might have to skip a few because I know we're going long here let's see let me find the good ones they're all good but they're the best ones currently run about 20 miles a week and longest I've raced is a half he'd love to run a marathon this year when would you say is realistically the soonest I could do it and also any other general advice about upping my mileage that's from Lewis currently running about 20 miles a week so Lewis I would actually say be very patient you might need to wait a year because 20 miles a week that's you know as I already mentioned I think 70 miles a week is an ideal number to shoot for 60 at the minimum if you want to really enjoy the marathon experience if you can pull it off with 40 to 60 that range but the marathon is just going to be so much more painful I just don't know if you're going to actually enjoy the experience so I always say 70 miles a week as kind of that baseline you'll arrive at the starting line so therefore Lewis I would say you might want to put the marathon on hold for a little bit until you can get your volume up to at least 50 miles a week slowly okay very slowly add like add 10 miles a month so if you're at 20 miles a week right now bump it up to 30 miles a week next month and then hold that for a month and then bump it up to 40 miles a week the next month and if you can stay healthy and your body feels good then work your way to 50 and then reevaluate so anyway I just say be a little more patient if you're only running 20 miles a week right now okay here we go Tyson asked what gels do I use for marathon racing the Morton gels the 160s I believe they are so the Morton gels spelled M-A-U-R-T-E-N and I know it's the big hype in the marathon racing world right now mostly because of Kipchoge but I must say the technology in those Morton gels it's not even necessarily the composition like the glycogen stores what the fuel you're actually receiving to burn but it's how it sits in your stomach and expands and doesn't slosh around also I like the fact that it's not crazy high in sugar so anyway Tyson there you go okay moving on interested in thoughts on sharpening in the later stages of marathon prep race pace versus speed versus threshold or some combination there of so he's interested in how to sharpen for a marathon um let's see so let's see oh my goodness sharpening sharpening okay so I like the three week taper so but I'm coming off of let's say 120 miles a week down to 90 and so I'm making a big drop down so for you maybe you're training 70 miles a week and that's why I like that three week taper rather than the two week taper which is typical for most marathon training plans and when I drop down um that's when I begin to introduce a lot more speed a lot more turn over so instead of 1k repeats I'll drop it down to 600 meter repeats and then 300 meter repeats so if I'm three weeks out from the marathon that's when I'll go from the 1k down to the 600 and then the next week down to the 300 meter repeats with a 100 meter jog in between on the track and um and at the same time as I already mentioned keeping up with the plyometrics so that quick explosive um exercises which I've made a vlog about that help with basically the um the fast twitch muscle fibers in your legs to make sure your legs are not going dormant in the taper which yes oh man all these vlogs are coming back to me we've talked about that as well I don't want my legs to fall asleep in the taper because they're so used to high volume high intensity and then I've seen it happen actually even almost mentally as well with runners where during the taper they feel like they're slacking a little bit and that they're they're not getting that work in their legs and their legs can kind of feel sluggish in the last two to three weeks of the training block so anyway hope that answered it to a certain extent I did not write a name down for that one okay here we go what is the minimum amount of recovery time between marathons marathons that is from colm what is the minimum amount of recovery time between marathons I think the minimum I learned you know Amsterdam to New York was I was two weeks so definitely not two weeks I would say the minimum would be six to eight weeks at the minimum but trust me that is not recommended that is not ideal I would say you want to do two marathons per year if you want to be in it for the long haul if you're pulling off three four five marathons a year you might be able to do that for a while but I think it's over time it's going to add up and build up in your legs and I just don't know if your marathon racing career will last as long if you're doing much more than two you know two to three marathons per year so there you go colm okay moving on we're almost done here let's see if you only own the asics glide ride and the beacon v2 from new balance which would you race a marathon in that's from thomas here we go glide ride I think even though it's a little it's a lot heavier but I think the glide ride it's just got a little more a little more pop it's heavier but it's got more pop so I would go I think I would go glide ride over the beacon v2 the beacon v2 is lighter and it's it's nice but if those anyway and those would not be my recommended marathon racing shoes okay here we go that was from thomas here we go from joshua tips for powering through miles 19 to 23 aka the wall so that's a great question from joshua as many of you know marathon racing you hit the wall around mile 20 usually when your glycogen stores are being depleted very rapidly and you got to make sure your pacing is on point and so joshua the I guess the quick answer you know we could get into mental strategies but the quick answer is make sure you are in a group and you're working together it's amazing joshua the power of a group so if you're I often you know I don't see that too often where you see these big city marathons and middle of the pack runners back of the pack runners they're running but I never really see a pack like 10 runners right pack together like that's what I love about marathon racing versus ultra running ultra running you're out on the trails and you're solo that's part of the reason why I have transition from ultra running back to marathon is so fun to run at your race pace in a pack it's so fun so talk to people around you and say hey I'm going to go run 830 a mile for the next 6 miles who's with me and like if you and just but like really pack up and I you'll be amazed at how much that helps you not not to mention like the wind like breaking the the wind ahead of you but I'm just the synergy of running together it's it's unbelievable what happens to you mentally as well so that would be my tip for you Joshua so at mile 16 start talking to everyone around you and say okay everyone let's do this let's pack up let's let's roll together okay here we go moving on last one from Alex do you ever do long runs that are further than the marathon distance so you know you are able to cover the distance and more Alex I would love to but actually I think in an eye I think it's not recommended why mostly because of recovery you might feel good it probably it will give you meant a mental edge but at the end of the day you just your recovery will be too long you might you might need two weeks to recover and that's two weeks and not like sitting on the couch recovery but you might not be able to hit your workouts over the next two weeks at the at the level that you need to to make sure your speed is there so Alex I just don't think you really don't really for the long run I think 22 miles is awesome some elite runners will do 23 to 24 miles definitely they never I've never heard of the elites going 26 miles leading into a marathon training maybe some I can think of maybe maybe like one or two but it's very rare to go the full distance so Alex good question and that is it everyone marathon training again there was over a hundred and seventy comments last week so I got to as many as possible I love you all thanks for watching thanks for being here question of the day here we go and this will be answered in next week's Q&A what questions do you have for me all about racing shoes specifically road racing shoes we'll do another Q&A about trail racing at another time let's dial it in to road racing shoes for the 2020 racing season this is a question of the day thanks for being here thanks for watching tossing it back on the right to the Q&A playlist if you missed some Q&A's in the past that'll be on the right and on the left we'll toss it back to last week's Q&A oh man onward and upward to marathon racing in 2020 see beauty work hard and love each other see you tomorrow