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charlieharry1 · 4 years

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Fee powerful digital advertising stratagies

The covid-19 pandemic touches every a part of our lives, and it's miles swiftly converting the manner that we do enterprise. If it’s left your reeling, recognise that you’re no longer by myself. Entrepreneurs everywhere have had to shift gears and adapt to those remarkable instances. While it’s tempting to step at the brakes, now isn't the time to halt your advertising and marketing activities. It's time to pivot to cost-effective advertising procedures that supply effects now and in the future. With live-at-home orders Digital Marketing Company in Leeds in effect across the u.k, digital marketing is extra relevant than ever earlier than, as people are staying interior and on their gadgets. Nielsen reports that there’s been a 60% increase in the quantity of content consumed. Human beings are online and your commercial enterprise wishes to be there too. Following the 2008 recession, harvard enterprise review studies confirmed that those businesses that invest for the duration of financial downturns recover extra fast than their counterparts. They percentage reassuring advice that:

Read Also:- How to use your free time to become a digital marketing expert?

“in recessions, entrepreneurs need to live flexible, adjusting their techniques and approaches on the assumption of a protracted, difficult hunch and yet be capable of respond fast to the upturn while it comes.”

of course, it’s now not enterprise as common both, and it’s up to you as entrepreneurs to determine the best balance. How do you manipulate charges, honour and solution your customers’ converting desires, and prepare to respond while the economy starts offevolved bouncing back? How do you do all this at the same time as nevertheless ultimate sensitive to the nation of disaster so many are in? The advertising techniques underneath offer realistic solutions to those questions. They’re no longer new, but they have been framed to reply to our modern-day fact. As you implement the strategies that are right for you, always continue to be empathetic on your clients’ desires and the global crisis. Bear in mind how to relate to your customers and decide what it's far they need from you. And, as continually, be useful. Now, let’s dive into how you can put into effect price-powerful client acquisition techniques like search engine optimization, electronic mail advertising, and social media. Create content material for seo and lead technology

content is the foundation of an effective seo approach and investments now will pay off in the future. Focus on content material for each the covid-19 pandemic and your consumer’s adventure. What’s beneficial right now? The first precedence is addressing your clients’ present day concerns approximately how to do business with you. How have things changed since the covid-19 pandemic? What questions are your customers asking? Update your homepage with a company statement, for instance. In case your consumers are asking a variety of the equal questions, answer them in advance. Offer as a whole lot facts as they need. If operations have modified, add a pop-up with that facts, linking to any relevant blogs, information merchandise, or services that your commercial enterprise is imparting. Ensure all of the data that your client desires is proper at their fingertips. Now, allow’s look beyond covid-19. If you’ve had content at the again burner, now's a terrific time to create it. Begin via accomplishing an audit of your present content and create an inventory list. Then, ask your self:

what am i lacking? Do i've content material for each step of the customer’s journey? Do i've content material for key phrases that i need to rank for? Are there often requested questions that i can reply to proper now? Do i want to sell a particular product or service line? After you’ve recognized the gaps in your content material inventory, you could begin filling them in with fresh, high-quality content. You might imagine that creating content material expenses quite a few money or takes quite a few time. Instead of beginning from scratch, use your stock listing for concept. Are you able to integrate old articles into a new ebook? Or maybe take a conference presentation and create a new blog collection? What approximately an present technical manual that may be parsed into an faq? Right here are some types of content material that you could start on:

comprehensive ebooks:

like i simply cited, now could be a notable time to create ebooks, white papers, and webinars. When you have an active blog, you likely have already got the facts you need. Check your blog and notice if you can integrate articles around a not unusual subject matter. With a bit elbow grease and clean facts, you could create a outstanding e-book that you may use as a lead magnet. Begin constructing a pipeline now to capture and nurture leads, then you may be equipped to meet the call for that is certain to come back. Checklists:

all people loves an awesome checklist, in particular if a person else is growing it. You probably have already got checklists which you use on your business. Talk along with your customer support and account representatives to look in the event that they have documentation or checklists that they proportion with new customers. Or possibly the income group uses a checklist while they’re discussing products or services blessings. Use this records to create checklists that make your clients lives’ less difficult. This doesn’t need to be fancy or complex, just ensure which you’re including cost. Checklists also make awesome content material improvements. You can “improve” a blog publish by means of including a name-to-action to down load a applicable tick list. Use the weblog publish to rank for goal key phrases after which convert the tourist with the content improve. Faqs:

now, extra than ever, humans have questions. Masses of them. Like i noted above, you first need to create an faq web page or website section that addresses covid. Speak how the pandemic has impacted your business’ operations and what meaning on your clients. After your covid-19 faq is stay, spend some time considering other questions your clients regularly ask. Do you locate yourself constantly answering the same questions about social media? Can your customer service representatives discover statistics gaps? What questions are human beings searching for? Create faqs to answer these questions so that website users can effortlessly locate the answers they want. Faqs can be standalone pages or they may be sections added to the bottom of related services or products pages. Make certain that you upload faq schema code for your webpages. If you do, you may be able to snag a rich snippet, which dominates the hunt engine consequences web page and can growth site visitors for your internet site. Faqs additionally improve your internet site’s person enjoy, which ultimately allows you change extra traffic into clients. Right now, you want to make every visit rely. Case research and testimonial pages:

in case you haven’t created any case research, now could be a terrific time to accomplish that. Exhibit how you helped your customers acquire brilliant outcomes. Thinking about highlighting customers that didn’t purchase your top class product or top-tier service. Humans are fee-touchy right now, so show how small investments can make a distinction. As soon as your case research are live, attain out to your featured customers and request that they proportion the case examine throughout their channels. This can assist boom brand consciousness and could assist generate backlinks, that are critical for search engine optimization fulfillment. Content material and hyperlink constructing move hand in hand; now, allow’s dive into what you may do to generate greater one way links. Growth link constructing efforts

now is a great time to strengthen your search engine optimization method and build hyperlinks to the existing (or new) evergreen content you need to rank well in search engines. With most physical locations shuttered, it’s greater vital than ever that your on-line content material ranks well and draws effective visits

people nonetheless need to resolve issues, and the first area they go to is their search engine. Search engines like google and yahoo use incoming links to decide a web web page’s function in its effects. The more extraordinary links which you have from reputable websites, the higher a given internet web page will rank. Here’s are three instantly-forward tactics to construct links:

write visitor posts:

that is a attempted-and-real technique of building links. Companies are seeking out approaches to aid each other at some stage in this difficult time. Write a visitor publish for your companies or suppliers. Or ask unswerving clients if you may write a guest put up about the way you helped them. Offer your information and assist to their target market. Write a joint press launch with fellow enterprise owners:

covid-19 is impacting different organizations for your area. Paintings with other enterprise owners to publish a press release that discusses how you’re navigating this case, the effect on enterprise operations, and the way you’re contributing in your nearby network. In addition to being published at the twine, each business can submit the clicking release to their website with links to the opposite agencies. Write op-ed pieces:

when you have a completely unique angle associated with covid-19 or can offer expert recommendation, write an opinion piece. Human beings are seeking out data and solutions. Don't forget, this isn’t approximately being promotional. It’s approximately helping. Those link constructing strategies serve purposes. Similarly to constructing back-links and strengthening your search engine optimization approach, you’re speaking to your clients and network what you’re doing to address the covid-19 pandemic. Get social with on-line video content

human beings are spending more time than ever on social media channels. In step with an inmobi observe, human beings are spending seventy three% greater time on their mobile devices, and 29% of that group reported that they may be spending more time on social media apps. If you want to hook up with your target audience that’s on line, you need to ramp up your social media activity. Humans are seeking out academic and inspirational content material, and video is a notable way to deliver each. Video receives extra engagement than another form of post on facebook, instagram, and linkedin. Thru video, you may show which you recognize their wishes, are empathetic, and prepared to help them get thru those tough times. Video for social media marketing

motion pictures don’t ought to be high-finances, either. When you have a telephone, you can begin creating low-price motion pictures for social media structures like fb live, instagram memories, and linkedin movies right away, normally of fairly respectable fine. Make sure your video content material assessments as a minimum one, if now not more, of the stipulations under:

informs

connects

entertains

facilitates

right here are three recommendations for developing effective video content material with your cellphone:

hold it quick and simple. As a general rule, shorter, extra concise videos perform better, in particular in social channels. Document in a quiet surroundings to get rid of historical past noise. If you’re outdoor, reshoot if it’s too windy or a vehicle is going with the aid of. If you’re internal and your family or canine is making quite a few noise in the historical past, wait until a quieter time to reshoot. Purchase a tripod or spend money on a cellular phone gimbal stabilizer. This will reduce digital camera shake and make your videos greater expert. Searching out more recommendations? This content advertising institute article stocks extra facts on a way to create effective motion pictures along with your smartphone. Build e-mail advertising and marketing automation workflows

e-mail advertising automation is cost-effective advertising method

advertising automation improves the performance and effectiveness of your e mail communications. While it takes time upfront to build automatic workflows, they’ll serve you for a long time. Plus, you probably have more time to do it now than you've got inside the past! There are low-value automation options which can be fairly intuitive along with mailchimp, activecampaign, and convertkit. And there are many methods that you can use advertising automation, as follows:

easy email advertising automation

create a blog subscriber welcome collection. If you don’t have a blog welcome e-mail, ensure you create it now! It is able to be as simple as one e-mail that welcomes new subscribers to your weblog. Or, you may build a multi-e mail marketing campaign that stocks relevant sources and encourages engagement. Beautify your confirmation emails. You probable already ship order confirmation emails, however consider how you could make them extra productive and useful. Include hyperlinks to applicable records, how-to articles, or case research. Use them as an possibility to move-sell or up-promote. Showcase different merchandise your clients is probably interested in. Put in force a client anniversary e-mail. Display your clients you admire them and their loyalty. Thank them for being a customer and take into account presenting a unique bargain on your products. Sophisticated automation

integrate e-mail marketing along with your internet site. Electronic mail advertising automation software program, like activecampaign or hubspot, can combine along with your website and cause e mail campaigns primarily based on unique website hobby. As an instance, if someone visits a product web page but doesn’t region an order, you may ship them an email that explains the advantages of the product or addresses ability purchasing limitations. Revive deserted carts. Marketing automation is extraordinarily useful for purchasing users back to their abandoned carts. When incorporated with your internet site, you may use marketing automation software to send website traffic a observe-up electronic mail with a coupon to lure them to finish their purchase. Email continues to be one of the simplest virtual advertising and marketing techniques to be had. Use this time to study and overhaul your email marketing software so you can speak with users when they’re maximum probable to respond. Marketing in the time of covid-19

none people have ever confronted a international pandemic this big before. Remember that we’re all in this together, and all customers and entrepreneurs are usually within the equal boat. Now's the time to pay attention for your clients, crew up with your fellow commercial enterprise owners, and create beneficial content that is empathetic to our shared Digital Marketing Company in London state of affairs. Simply because everybody is at domestic does now not imply that commercial enterprise has to shut down. And there are approaches to transport the needle through smart, strategic virtual advertising with out being opportunistic. The recommendations above are sensible, practical locations to start.

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celticnoise · 5 years

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You never go back. Isn’t that what they say?

Going back is like leaping into the dark, not the light.

The sense of the familiar is supposed to be comforting, but familiarity breeds contempt though, and since a football manager’s tenure usually ends in acrimony of some kind it doesn’t take long for all involved to remember how it got bad in the first place.

Neil Lennon’s departure from Parkhead last time was handled well.

The club was fulsome in its praise for him. He went with the best wishes of everyone. But it had already become strained inside the club, and Lennon, by his own admission, was no longer fully focussed on the job. It looked amicable, but both parties had just about had it.

That they parted on reasonable terms is a bonus, but some relationships which fall by the wayside end after the parties have fallen out of love but before it becomes tough just to sit in the same room as one another. It ends because both realise that if it carries on much longer all the positive and warm emotions which once were there will give way to more negative ones.

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I’m watching Chernobyl as it airs on Sky.

By coincidence, I had recently read a searing book on the subject. The disaster there did not happen in a vacuum; numerous key steps – some taken before the construction of the station had even begun – let down the path to what happened.

There had been dozens of minor accidents, some caused by bad equipment, some by human error, from the day it opened until the day of the accident itself.

Mistakes on the night were a contributory factor, foremost amongst them the flat-out refusal by some in the control room to believe that things could be as serious as they looked.

What is it that makes people behave like that?

Why do so many folk ignore big flashing warning signs, preferring to trust to their own “intuition” and other such foolhardy nonsense? They ignore advice from friends, they ignore the evidence of their own eyes … and they ignore the past, where all the best lessons are.

The answer might be important to us, and there’s a lesson close to home.

Alex McLeish is our lesson. He not only stands up as a sterling example of why you don’t go back, but he’s a lesson in how people sometimes ignore what is right in front of them because it’s not what they want to see.

Now, before the hysterics get started I am not comparing McLeish and Lennon either as managers or as men. Lennon is the better man and he is the better manager. By far. By a distance on both counts. But there are similarities in outlook which offer us fair warning.

Everyone in Scottish football who was looking at the matter dispassionately knew that Alex McLeish was a disaster just waiting to happen from the minute his name surfaced in connection with the job at Hampden. Yet few in the media or in the game looked at it that way.

Instead, all acted emotionally. McLeish was their mate, and so the job was a perfect fit. It was only those of us standing outside the bubble who saw it clearly and although some of us made sure that we made our voices heard on it, the appointment went ahead.

Do you remember it being greeted with scorn in the media? Of course not, because it wasn’t. Even now, when everyone knows how it ended, you will struggle to find a single media personality who will say they got it wrong, that they should have been more analytic instead of simply banging the drum for their pal. Hard as it is to believe, Lennon has a lot of friends in the media as well and they have been loudly promoting his cause for two months.

Yet McLeish’s career after leaving Hampden did not justify giving him the Scotland job. Then there was the manner of his departure in the first place, which was a scandal. As Lennon got bored with domestic football in Scotland, McLeish got bored with international football and abandoned his post to go to England. He should never have been allowed back after that.

The way the media which is going to bat for Lennon went to bad for McLeish proves that the people paid to write about our game here genuinely don’t understand it at all. McLeish had been out of football at the sharp end too long and his ideas were backward and outdated.

I believe Lennon’s are equally out of whack with modern concepts.

He has a similar management style to McLeish, that old school “shout at them until they get it” nonsense, which I saw some in the media were still defending last weekend. Frank McAvennie told a worrying story from inside the Celtic dressing room, about a player who called Lennon out after he had stormed in and started to bollock them.

Some in the media agreed with Lennon.

They agreed that it’s perfectly satisfactory for a manager to verbally abuse grown men, professional footballers, as if they were children. The days when rule by fear worked in dressing rooms is long gone though … that attitude breeds only resentment, and if one player is speaking up already you can be sure others are pissed but haven’t verbalised it yet.

And it’s easy to say that a manger who gets back-chat should just clear out the dressing room; there are players in that dressing room who have earned the right to speak up. If the choice is between backing the manager and losing half the first team squad – and if some of the malcontents are our best players – how good a decision would it be?

There are managers who believe that the only way to deal with dressing room strife is simply to run out the players who don’t get with the program.

But what if it’s the program itself which is faulty? What do you get when a manager wipes a dressing room clean of its leaders? You smash a winning team to smithereens and fill it, instead, with weak yes men … and those teams don’t win things.

That’s what Gerrard isn’t understanding.

He wants a dressing room filled with nodding donkeys, but he wants a winning mentality too. Is he crazy? You don’t get a winning mentality from a squad that is too scared to stand up for itself against the ranting of a deflecting manager. Leaders speak their minds. Men who have won everything are entitled to the respect that goes with that. I would hope they’d want to speak if they thought something was wrong in the approach.

Those managers who try to rule by fear eventually do run into opposition and those who crush that opposition do themselves more harm than good.

Our team has won everything these past few years. Rodgers was not a screamer.

The success of this team strongly suggests to me that he did it right. That he was capable of getting his point across without going red in the face. He respected his players, as men, and they respected him. He gave and so he got. That’s how it works in the modern game.

McLeish took the screamers attitude with the Scotland squad, and look what happened, and look who the first social group within it were who he pissed off. It was the Celtic contingent. These guys all know each other, play alongside each other, and the moment one of them reacted badly to the treatment then all the rest were certain to. This is how a dressing room splits open up. From the information in the public domain we can surmise that it’s how the crisis at Hibs began, with one player being singled out and his friends coming to his defence.

Similar happened at Ibrox; Wallace, who was cut loose yesterday with no fanfare at all, was the high profile victim of that.

His friends in the dressing room have long since been shown the door. What’s left over there now? A club that lurches from crisis to crisis, and Gerrard – in lashing some of the players the way he has – is setting the next one up already.

Remember, as of next season he’s no longer the “midfield legend” in the eyes of his players; he’s just another failed manager. I’ve said that I believe that club will come apart under the sustained pressure of the next campaign, and it will.

But that does us no good if our own club is coming apart at the same time, under the same sort of strain.

Some think we should not be questioning the professionalism of Neil Lennon. I disagree. As McLeish and his coaches thought it was perfectly alright to discuss problems in the personal lives of players and to threaten them with being banished from the national team whilst sitting in front of the media it’s also right to remind people that Lennon frequently threatened his own players via the press whilst at Hibs. He also made two public threats to resign.

Sources close to the Scotland camp talked about the chaos that ensued there, about training sessions which were a mess, about coaches who seemed to lack a clue. There was a laxity about it all which the Celtic players and guys like Andy Robertson found hard to believe and even harder to embrace. At Celtic, under Lennon, standards have definitely slipped in every area. Players have been given more time off than they should. Rumours abound that training isn’t as cogent and that tactical plans are not as coherent as they were under Rodgers.

Are those just rumours, or are they true?

There are good sources for these reports, but it hardly matters anyway.

Those inside the club know the facts of it and you might expect them to act on that, but people at the SFA presumably knew that the situation with McLeish wasn’t great either … in the end they fired him only reluctantly, and after results and performances had made it untenable.

But had Scotland got something other than a doing in Kazakhstan I reckon he’d still be there and Steve Clarke would have another year at Killie. I firmly believe that all at Hampden would have carried on with McLeish, in spite of all that, until something happened that blew everything up, the way Reactor 4 at Chernobyl finally did on 25 April 1986.

All this is to say nothing for the performances on the pitch, which are the best signpost to how a manager will do. They haven’t been great. It’s fair to say that Lennon has done the bare minimum in terms of what was required. Save for a few last minute goals the position wouldn’t look nearly as it does, and if that doesn’t worry people nothing will.

In one major way, this is different from the Scotland situation, of course. It’s different because Lennon hasn’t been given the job yet. He’s in it, but it isn’t his until the season ends and the board offers him a new contract, unless they’ve done so and all this is a charade.

But I have to think we’re looking elsewhere. I have to think that things have been happening behind the scenes and that we’re moving in a different direction. Yet it nags at me, this tendency some people have not to see what’s right in front of them. With McLeish, the SFA’s sales pitch was that he knew the people, he understood the job and would fit right in there … with no apparent thought as to how the game had changed since he last held the post.

With Lennon the sales pitch is that he gets it, that he’s “one of our own” as if that made you a better football manager. And so a lot of people are wilfully ignoring the evidence that says nothing good will come of this, that there’ll be problems which even now are easy to foresee for those of us who can take emotion out of it and look at it calmly.

I have to believe we can still get out of this.

We can still make the right decision for the club. We can still decide that this isn’t the way we want to go, and take another path.

Because this might not end in disaster – indeed, I expect us to win the next year no matter who sits in the dugout; as long as that person knows his ABC’s this squad will do the rest.

But it won’t end well, and there will be bitterness along the way.

And if it does all go nuclear, which it could, and only a fool would deny that …

Well our board will be out of excuses, with no way to contain the fallout.

http://bit.ly/2WiHbgI

#CelticNoise #Celtic #CelticFC #TheCelticBlog #News

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jaywrites101 · 5 years

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Religion and Star Trek: The Blasphemy Paradox

The following is an impartial breakdown of the question, How do you create an alien religion in a story? left to me by an anon. I myself am a non-traditional Christian with Baptist leanings and I am disclosing this now because I do not want to start a flame war over this. This doesn’t reflect my views as a Christian and is attempting to be a detailed analysis of religion in our stories. If it offends you that I am going to be saying unflattering things about Christianity, or that I have a favorable belief in Christianity, I am sorry. Likewise, if this discretionary paragraph ruins the “mood” or flow, it simply cannot be helped. Reader discretion is advised.

The first question you have to ask when creating fictional religions is What do you believe about the world? Are you an atheist? Are you a Muslim? Buddhist? There are a lot of religions in the world. All with varying degrees of mysticism. For example, Pagans have their mysticism turned up to eleven, but their deities are much less god-like and more in the powerfully demonic category. Compare that to traditional Christianity where the common themes suggest a single deity with reality warping abilities, but usually has very little mysticism and rites and such. The closest things most Modern Christians have to mystic rites are baptisms, speaking in tongues, and singing in the choir.

Your personal answer to this question will affect how you write religions in other cultures. To see how, let’s look at Star Trek and the example they provide.

Star Trek’s answer to the question, is there a god? is Yes, obviously. This casual acceptance always seemed kinda contradictory to me. Any casual fan could point out several episodes from any of the serials that addressed or even combated the issue of God or gods. Like the time in the original series where they fought Hermies. Or in Next Gen. where the crew spoke with a being claiming to have created our whole world. DSN exists around a portal created by the very same “prophets” the Bajorans worship. Cisco himself was an envoy to those entities.

This is a bit perplexing when their fanbase is by-and-large atheistic. You see, Star Treks purpose wasn’t to question if gods exist or not. But rather to ask what the epitome of humanity would look like. To that end, their interactions with god-like entities were always about how reasonable, righteous, free-spirited, and intellectually advanced humans interact with those beings. How do they communicate? And how would that entity perceive such people??

This leads us to what I like to call the Blasphemy Paradox.

To put it simply, the Blasphemy Paradox is: any attempt to change the relationship between the religion and its deity, creates a new religion. All religions are false except for the one subjectively chosen by the speaker. Therefore, any attempt to understand the speaker’s religion more than the speaker is blasphemy.

Ironically, the greatest example of this comes directly from the Christian Bible. Jesus, when he walked the streets, was demonized by the current authorities and treated as a heretic and a blasphemer. To put it in context with modern America, Jesus was walking amongst the thugs, the black, the atheists, the single moms, and the homosexual and telling them that they were worthy of entering the kingdom of heaven while the “God-fearing” churchgoing warmongerers were destined to go straight to Hell. Do not pass Go; do not collect $200.

My, that sounds familiar. <.<

To tie this back to Star Trek, the very act of them addressing the question of how gods would interact with humanity completely rejects the idea of traditional religion. Because now, the gods have to answer to the human's perceptions of them. We judge the judges. And we hold them accountable to our moral standards.

We also ask the question, what if we’re better than our gods? Thus so many atheists that find this show appealing.

So this leads us back to how do we write religion?

First, you need to ask did their gods walk among them? Because, as the above shows, the answer will change how you as an author have to write them.

If yes, you essentially have to create that god(s) as a character and fully integrate them into your story. Now there is an objective right or wrong answer to all the questions of religious interpretation. And you’ll have to address the consequences of that in some manner.

If, on the other hand, your answer is no, you need to ask who is abusing the religion, and how has it changed because of the abuse? This sounds pessimistic, but if no god actually walked amongst the people, then both religions are objectively false on some level. No one is right. And the only omnipotent force controlling these people’s lives is you.

You want to ask, how much mysticism can you afford? General rule of thumb? More mystisism=less power. This ties back into Trek as well since their general thesis dictated that the more a being demanded of you, the less that being was worth your devotion.

And lastly, you want to ask yourself how the religion ties into the theme of your story. Ideally, everything in your story connects to say one deep philosophical thing. Religion in your stories is the perfect way to ease your audience into the idea of your theme, even allowing you to address it overtly in certain scenarios. That’s not to say you have to, or that you need religion in your story to address deep philosophy, but, like all things, it’s a tool you can use.

This has been how to write religion. Thank you for reading. If you liked this, be sure to comment and find an excuse to reblog! Every note helps grow my platform and with more of the writer's community working together, we can truly create a space for developing the writer's craft, free of hidden fees or paid subscriptions. JayWrites101 started off as a shameless self-promotion blog, but it’s quickly evolving into the place for writer’s advice and providing answers to the deep questions that we try to write about. Thank you for your support.

#JayWrites101 #star trek #scifi #science #school #religion #god #Gods #mysticism #philosophy #paradox

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melledotca · 5 years

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Podcasts

I ported Parts 1-5 over from my old WordPress blog, and have updated those since. From then on has been added anew as I’ve started listening to new stuff. First post was back in 2010, so some of these I stopped listening to (or they ended) years ago. YMMV.

Part 1

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Andrew turned me on to this one, which comes to us from the BBC. If you've ever watched a show like Britain's Secret Treasures, this is quite similar, and one of the objects featured so far is one that was also on the show.

Each podcast they feature an item from world history and talk about what it is, when and where it came from, what it was for, and other socio-cultural contexts, often with interviews with really interesting folks. And there is some Attenborough. :)

Answer Me This!

Two British people get questions in from all over the world, though mostly from other British people, about anything and everything, and then they endeavour to answer them. Some of them relate to trivia, some actually require a bit of research about origins and such, and some of them are filthy and funny. Cuz, y'know, it's the internets. Host Olly really, really loves his cat, Coco, and Helen hates cats.

How Stuff Works

These were some of the first podcasts I started listening to. Stuff You Should Know has been going for a decade now, and while I listened to hundreds of episodes, I stopped listening some time ago. The landscape just filled up with too much more interesting stuff. I still listen to Stuff You Missed in History Class and Stuff Mom Never Told You, though I moved on from BrainStuff, TechStuff, and Stuff to Blow Your Mind, etc. some time ago. There have also been some video ones that I would catch up on while painting, doing dishes, etc.: Stuff They Don't Want You to Know, Stuff of Genius, Stuff From the Future. With various partnerships, etc., How Stuff works has a bunch more podcasts now, but I am kind of overflowing, so haven’t spent much time looking into them.

Fw:Thinking

This was a How Stuff Works/Discovery show (from when Discovery had acquired them, which has since been un-done). The two hosts from TechStuff and another guy hosted this one. Longer format, and tech topics that cover a potentially broader range – e.g. science that's not necessarily tech, as well as social implications and things like that. Lasted a few months on this one.

The Memory Palace

Publishing is a bit inconsistent, but I’ve had this one on the list for years, and it will stay. Interesting little vignettes from history. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, often presented from a really unique and brain-twisting angle. And Nate diMeo rivals Roman Mars for Most Soothing Voice.

Savage Lovecast

Dan Savage's advice show, which goes along with his column, wherein people call in and leave questions, comments, rants, etc. It's human sexuality-centric, though there are cultural aspects as well, particularly those relating to non-vanilla, monogamous, heterosexual relationships and interactions. I didn't listen to this one regularly, but would binge listen for a week or two until I was tired of the weird problems of the young/old/gay/straight/bi/trans/kinky/etc. I don't always agree with Savage's perspectives or advice, but I learned a fair bit, too, which is even better than just being entertained. Gave up on it some time back.

Sawbones

The husband, Justin, plays the dumb everyman to his wife, Sydnee, who is a doctor. They (mostly she) present a medical condition, phenomenon, etc. and discuss how it was perceived and treated throughout history. As you can imagine, many of them are rather horrifying from a modern perspective, but can also be kinda funny, hence the tagline, "A marital tour of misguided medicine". Everything from headaches to fertility issues shows up, and if you're the kind of person who makes it a point of visiting 19th century surgical museums while on vacation (yup), you'll dig this. That said, eventually it started to annoy me (him, particularly), so I gave up on it.

Welcome to Night Vale

This is weird. That cannot be overstated. Ostensibly it's a community updates radio broadcast from a desert town in the US. Except there are angels and aliens and wild dogs and homicidal wheat and wheat byproducts. There's not just a local constabulary, but a Sheriff's Secret Police. There's a long and expensive boardwalk, except there is no water anywhere near the town. There's an eccentric old woman and a dreamy scientist, and random shadowy characters who come and go. Occasionally people get vaporized. Or there's a bake sale. Anything could happen. That was just the first season. Like I said, weird. But with fun music and compelling overall. I never got around to following up on succeeding seasons, but I know some people remain big fans.

The Moth

The Moth is a series of storytelling events that go on around the US, and are semi-professional. A lot of the speakers present more than once, there are awards and a championship and such. A lot of the speakers are also professional writers, and I gather you call a hot line to pitch your story idea and they work with you to polish it up and get it ready for prime time. The podcast is a distillation of these stories (which are also played on the radio in the US, I gather), and rarely disappoint. In fact there've been a couple of times when I probably shouldn't have been driving while listening, they're that engrossing. There's a book, too, of hand-picked stories. Highly recommended, but eventually I just kinda lost interest, like with TED Talks, etc.

This American Life

Was the number one podcast in the US for a long time. Don’t know if it still is. I am not a fan of the host, Ira Glass', voice, but you get used to it. It's a bit like The Moth, in that it contains in-depth stories about lives often very unlike your own. But it's also journalism, too, to get these stories, with a fair bit more socio-political commentary, whether it's about a Chicago school with a lot of gun deaths, or just how dangerous acetaminophen is. The topics cover an amazing wide range, and some shows are a lot more heart- or gut-wrenching than others, which is cool. The amount of work that must go into making these shows is staggering. All that said, I didn’t stick around very long.

Quirks and Quarks

From the CBC, podcast version of the radio show. All manner of science, and plenty of dinosaurs – everyone likes dinosaurs! I've also noticed that there tends to be a lot of women among the scientists they interview, which I appreciate. Eventually moved on from this, too.

Ontario Brewer

A great way to get to know the breweries and beers of Ontario, and the people who make them. (Craft brewing folks tend to be a lot of fun.) I find Mirella Amato, the host, to be fairly pretentious, but it's not really about her. I also tend to only listen to every other podcast. They do two per brewer, first picking a couple of their beers and talking about them, as well as the brewery history and whatnot. Then in the second one they pair the beers with cheese, chocolate, etc. A podcast about people talking about tasting things strikes me as a bit dumb. Not sure if they still make this one.

99% Invisible

Originally recommended by two very different friends, which is a good sign, and remains a staple. They had a clothing mini-series called “Articles of Interest” that was super interesting not long ago. It's about design in the world, architectural and otherwise. It looks at things you may never have seen, and things you look at every day. They could cover a specific iconic building, or a chair design that’s been ripped off a million times, or the history of pockets. A good way of shifting your perspective a bit. And Roman Mars rivals Nate DiMeo for Most Soothing Voice.

The Nerdist

I find Chris Hardwick a little annoying sometimes, and things can get pretty in-joke-y when Matt and/or Jonah are there. However, they also interview really cool people, so those are fun. I don't listen to all of them, and skip the ones where it's only Chris and co. talking, or when the guest is someone I don't know or care about. Plenty of great geek culture, though. Gave up on this one a long time ago, and turns out Hardwick IS a dick, so done with that genre.

StarTalk Radio

Neil DeGrasse Tyson's space-y show/podcast. He gets some really cool guests, but the musical bits are really annoying. Includes both Tyson talking science, and discussing with the guests. The cool part is that they're not all boffins. Could be Dan Aykroyd or Tony Bourdain or Joe Rogan. Didn’t last very long with this one. Just didn’t click.

Crash Course World History

Video series. John Green delivers the history of the world in 10-ish minute chunks. He explains the what, where, when, etc., as well as how those things affect the world now. He also has mad love for the Mongols, which never stops being funny. Aside from learning a more inclusive, less west'n'white version of history, you'll also get fun tidbits, like how the Silk Road (which wasn't just one route) helped bring the plague (Black Death, anyone?) to Europe from Asia.

Thug Notes

Big props to Dave for turning me on to this one. Sparky Sweets, PhD (alias), delivers book/play summaries and analysis on classic works of literature, from Austen to Shakespeare, in 5-ish minute increments, accompanied by entertaining animations and charmingly colloquial language. Frankly, his summaries and analysis are better than a lot of the formal education in lit that I've received. And way funnier. I don’t think many of these get made anymore as they got acquired and he’s been doing other projects.

Part 2

CANADALAND

News, media, and criticism about Canada. Jesse Brown is the guy who broke the Ghomeshi scandal. It's opened my eyes to how little I knew about what's going on, news-wise, in the country, and who's making the news (and what their agendas are).

Caustic Soda

Violence! Disaster! Weirdness! Big time geeky, lots of science, lots of grossness, sometimes really interesting guests. Plus the Muppet Show cover theme song for when they have guests always makes me grin. Has been over for a while, but the archive is worth a listen.

Criminal

In keeping with the true crime vein, stories recounting actual crimes with interesting details, weird twists, or lingering mysteries. Fits in well for folks who like Serial and such.

The Truth

Short radio plays/vignettes that are odd, affecting, and strangely engaging. It's really hard to describe, but hooks you quickly. I tend to go a while not listening to it, and then I’ll catch up and an episode will totally grab me.

Part 3

CANADALAND: COMMONS

COMMONS is the second podcast CANADALAND started producing, covering Canadian politics and related topics. It initially drew me because it was sort of a “politics for people who aren’t into politics” twist. In addition to covering news and issues, they would get into things like what the Senate is and how it’s for, or dig into terms like populism or what a fiscal conservative is, which is handy. The podcast has cycled through several sets of hosts and with each iteration has had a very different focus and flavour. The second group focused a lot more on social justice issues. They have mostly had hosts who are relatively young and people of colour, which I think helps expand the perspectives. With the most recent iteration the host is a journalist who has been exploring corruption in Canada.

Freakonomics Radio

Same schtick as the books, etc., and one I'd listened to some time ago, but then it seemed to disappear. Back now and enjoying it. Economics isn't really my thing, either, so it's interesting to see it approached from angles that do interest me, or have a certain "WTF?" aspect, like an episode on the economics of being a sex offender (it's a really bad idea - aside from being punished for the crime, you're going to be punished socially and financially pretty much forever). Stephen Dubner has since gone out kind of on his own, and I think has plans to take the production in new directions, so we’ll see what they get up to.

All the Books

This one’s great because it’s about books and I get lots of recommendations and I like the hosts. It used to be frustrating because it was expanding my TBR list too quickly, but I learned after a while that the hosts and I don’t love the same things, so most of what they love/recommend isn’t going to be a huge priority for me. There’s a backlist show/episode interspersed with new releases, too, which I don’t really follow, but it’s an interesting rabbit hole. They get a nice variety of genres, author types, etc. as well.

Gastropod

This one is one of my favourites. It’s about food, but explored via science and history. And of course there’s the odd weird taste test, because food and entertainment. There's some cute "friction" between the hosts sometimes, as Nicola is British by birth, and so has very across-the-pond opinions on many things related to cuisine, manners, etc. Whereas Cynthia is American and Jewish and her east coast experiences reflect that, too. The ladies are both writers and journalists and have gone on some amazing adventures. And hey, what better way to learn all about a gazillion varieties of potato than to go to Peru and attend a festival for them. WILL make you want to eat and drink all the things.

Invisibilia

This one's about unseen factors that shape our world, though that sounds pretty vague, and if you just start listening to episodes things can seem kind of random. They will cover huge topics, like how humans' tendencies to assign (or chafe against) categorization shapes our world, or how our expectations of "disability" may be off base. Sometimes the approach is a bit more sideways/quirkier, though. I really like the combination of stories and anecdotes focused on the topics, but also how they blend that with science and studies and all that other rigorous stuff. They’re longer episodes, and seasons are spread out pretty far (I think the hosts have a lot of other projects), but good for a long walk and a think.

Mystery Show

Defunct now, but was super quirky and charming. The premise is that the host and chief investigator takes on a mystery for each episode. Something that's been bothering someone for some time (could be weeks, could be decades), and solves it. That could mean finding out something, returning something to its owner, etc. It can't just be something solvable by using the Internet, as we're so prone to doing these days. (I will note that my perception of the host based on her voice was SO completely off base when I finally saw a picture of her.) It’s one of those story-centric podcasts where the premise seems frivolous, but totally isn’t in the fullness of time, as it were. One of the earliest episodes I listened to was about returning a unique belt buckle to a chef. Turned out to be an amazing chase and surprisingly poignant. Certainly unique, and really gets you pondering unknown or unsolved things in your own life and how one would go about solving them (especially without the internet).

White Coat, Black Art

This one’s from the CBC, and the host is Dr. Brian Goldman, who’s a long-time ER physician in Toronto. The premise is looking at healthcare from “all sides of the gurney”. It goes well beyond emergency medicine, though, and tackles issues like wait times, marginalized or ageing populations, managing disabilities, the opioid epidemic, and broader ties to history, politics, and society. In a country where we have a huge Baby Boomer cohort getting ever older, and the challenges that brings, there's a lot to talk about. He also has some fantastic and intriguing guests, and some fascinating glimpses into how healthcare gets handled elsewhere (like the US and Europe), for better or worse.

Part 4

The Allusionist

Helen Zaltzman from Answer Me This talks about the English language. Quirks of words and phrases, where sayings came from, invented languages, colloquialisms and slang, history and evolution, you name it. She has some great guests from other relevant podcasts, too, which make for some fun times. Good stuff for word nerds.

Another Round

Another now defunct Buzzfeed podcast, but was really excellent. American, and largely focused on Black culture. (Both hosts are Black women.) Highly irreverent, and regularly makes fun of white people and mainstream culture - moments in white history are some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever heard. It's not all goofing off, though. There's a lot of discussion of race and related issues, gender, socioeconomics, straight up pop culture (it is from Buzzfeed...) and some really great interviews from people like Hilary Clinton, Valerie Jarrett, Anil Dash, and Hannibal Burress. You never quite know what you're going to get, which makes it more fun. Archive recommended.

The Black Tapes

I started listening to this one because Paul Bae of You Suck, Sir is one of the producers. I gave up after the first season. It was just trying too hard and dragging out waaaay too much. It’s a radio drama about investigations of the paranormal, a bit X-Files-y. The idea being a serialized investigation of an unsolved case each episode, but they got away from that pretty quickly. The dialogue is also a bit rough sometimes, and they go way over the top with the soundscaping for suspense and drama, which I found really distracting.

Death, Sex & Money

Does what it says on the tin, though depending on the interview, focus, and stories, might get more or less of any one of those foci. Mostly interviews and discussions with really interesting (sometimes famous) people about the stuff we don’t talk much about openly. And of course there’s plenty of, “I can’t believe I said that!” The one with Jane Fonda was excellent.

Lore

History, folklore, and stories woven together. This was Aaron Mahnke’s first podcast, and it has since spun out into a media empire with books, a TV show, and more podcasts, etc. Mahnke’s delivery style has smoothed out over time. He was a bit... Shatneresque for a while there. The stories are true, with a hint of mystery and plenty of the unexplained. But Mahnke does a good job of weaving in myth, folklore, the supernatural, and other relevant things to give richness and context to the stories. And they never entirely wrap up tidily. His Cabinet of Curiosities is a good, shorter sister accompaniment to this.

Planet Money

A bit similar to Freakonomics... but not really. All manner of finance-related topics covered from a variety of angles, though US-centric, unsurprisingly. Sometimes more finance-centric, but other times gets way more into psychology, anthropology, etc. There was an episode on the anatomy of a scam was fascinating and heartbreaking. Great investigative work. But then there are others like the one about "delicious cake futures" that're just irreverent and hilarious.

Reply All

"A show about the Internet". Which it is, but... that doesn’t really tell you anything. This one is often SO much fun, and they go down some incredible rabbit holes, whether they’re explaining internet culture to their boss by unravelling a tweet (”Yes, Yes, No”) or exploring a weird tech mystery, like a phishing incident. You will definitely learn things you had no idea about, become fascinated by fraud, and realize you barely know anything about the breadth and depth of internet culture.

Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project

Another round of serious geekery. Mythbusters' Adam Savage and friends just... talk about stuff. Projects they're working on, particularly Adam's, geeking out over... things. Things they like, things they've made, things other people made that they wish they had... There's a definite maker bent and a geek pop culture bent. Like The Martian has gotten a lot of love over the past while. But they talk about everything from billiards to camping, and it goes along with the Tested show as well. For science! I didn’t end up keeping up with this one for long, since I’m not that kind of maker and the shows were fairly long.

Stuff Mom Never Told You

This one I've been listening to for years, through several iterations of hosts. The focus was a bit more political and career-centric with the last hosts, and a bit more cultural with the current ones. All things feminism and gender, and the related issues where those things are concerned. It’s US-centric, so some of the content isn’t always entirely relevant outside the country (like healthcare and reproductive rights), but good to be reminded that Gilead isn’t entirely fictional...

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Like the above, have been listening for years, so time to give it its due. It is an American podcast, so there's plenty of US history on offer, but they do cover plenty of other countries, time periods, and types of history. Everything from fashion, to art, to great dynasties, to titillating scandals, to amazing characters, to disasters (both ancient and modern-ish). They try to include plenty of history that’s not just white and male-centric (though they get plenty of complaints about “too many women”, because people are assholes. They also have really interesting interviews, often with authors. This Day in History Class is their little sister podcast, which is a 5-minute daily on what happened that day historically.

Part 5

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

Coming to us from the BBC World Service, this one reminds me somewhat of my much-loved A History of the World in 100 Objects. It considers a wide range of products and services, from barcodes to insurance to paper. They explain where these things came from, why they were revolutionary, their broader influence and importance, and their ongoing value and evolution in today's world. Episodes are fairly short, so good for a quick hit thought provocation, or you can save them up for a fascinating topical binge (and see how some threads of history, business, tech, etc. fit together).

Crimetown

Exposes the seedy underbelly of various places and people. Season one was Providence, Rhode Island (including infamous mayor Buddy Cianci and New England crime boss Raymond Patriarcha). Season two will focus on Detroit. The first season had characters and stories that were straight out of the movies, including the wise guy accents. Classic mobsters and mayhem. Great for true crime fans, but with a bit of a twist.

The Infinite Monkey Cage

The longer format of the weekly BBC Radio 4 show, with Robin Ince as the straight man, and British science's favourite media son, Prof. Brian Cox. Each episode irreverently tackles a science topic, from sleep to gambling to climate change, assisted by a panel of scientists, academics, writers, and comedians. The schtick wore a bit thin for me after a while, though one Christmas episode on ghosts was a particular highlight.

Longform

As advertised, these are long interviews (typically an hour or a bit more) with a variety of interesting folks, the key connecting thread being that they're all writers or editors (or both). That's a pretty broad category, though, as interviewees range from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Nate Silver to Malcolm Gladwell. I don't listen to every one, but when you get a good one, man, is it interesting stuff. Problem is you don’t know before you listen what ones will be gold, and it’s a lot of time to commit.

Note to Self

Defunct now, this one styles itself as "the tech show about being human", which is true, though it leans heavily at times on lifehacking and projects - things like making ourselves more efficient, establishing good habits, etc. None of that was really my thing and I tended to skip those episodes. It also learned a lot toward issues and lifestyles of the modern family, which can either be interesting from a peripheral perspective (since I don’t have kids) or more blablah I don’t care about. Stuff about digital privacy, racism online, etc. were pretty universally interesting and useful topics, though.

Only Human

This one wraps science and humanity around politics and currently events (US-centric). Like US "bathroom laws" and how they tie into real families with trans kids, and the clinics and medical staff that work with and treat those kids. Or medical care on Native reservations accompanied by centuries old well-earned mistrust of the establishment. Or accompanying a doctor whose mission it is to provide safe abortions in the south, and how increasingly difficult that's become. I thought this one was defunct, but looks like I just stopped listening after a while. (I know they went through a pretty intense self-improvement project phase, which was of zero interest.)

Revisionist History

Malcolm Gladwell’s first dive into podcastland, and definitely one of my favourites. After the 2016 US election, this show and Tony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown kept me sane. In each episode, Gladwell takes a historical event, recounts it, then deconstructs it and re-recounts it from other angles, shedding new light and context on it. In certain ways it’s classic Gladwell. It tackles racism, sexism, homophobia, and all the other big -isms. It gives names to issues and societal quirks you’ve always been aware of but never had definitions for. Some stuff is broadly culturally or historically fascinating, but I guarantee something will hit you way closer to home than you ever expected. So far this one’s three seasons in, and he’s how started a network, Pushkin Industries, which also now includes the Broken Record music podcast.

See Something Say Something

Buzzfeed used to have some fantastic content by great diverse voices. I’m not sure how much of it is left now that this, Another Round, and probably others have ended. This one is about being Muslim in America, and is an instance where I have no issues with stories, perspectives, and content from Millennials and those younger. Mixes pop culture with religion, intellectual discourse with goofy irreverence, and you’ll definitely learn stuff every episode. The number of smart, successful female guests was also always a highlight.

Weekly Infusion

Didn’t last long with this one, but checked it out since Nicole Angemi, who I follow on Instagram, was a guest. It ended up a bit slick and overproduced for my taste, though it did dig into medical issues, pathology, etc., which is up my alley. They did make things really accessible, perhaps almost too much so. And they had celeb guests or other notables who either have a stake in the medical issues being discussed, or are experts in that field. I listened to episodes about anaphylaxis to epilepsy to synesthesia, so something for everyone if the format is cool with you.

You Must Remember This

The first couple seasons were a great binge for me, covering all the fascinating stories, scandals, juicy trivia, and big characters in the first century of Hollywood. There were some fantastic series, like Charles Manson's Hollywood, the Blacklist/McCarthy Communist witch hunts, Hollywood during WWII, or “Six Degrees of Joan Crawford”. But since then it’s gotten more meh. Just topics or series that don’t interest me or that feel like they’re getting a bit too peripheral. May still be fascinating to super hardcore movie history buffs, though. The most recent series was really side content to go along with the book she has coming out, so we’ll see if future seasons are any more like the older stuff or not.

Part 6

Aaron Mahnke’s Cabinet of Curiosities

This is the same guy who does Lore and Unobscured. These episodes are shorter, each with a couple of stories about a wide variety of people, places, things, events, etc. that are unique, odd, or generally unexplained. Because they don’t have to fill out a longer episode, you’re more likely to hear about things that weren’t covered in a bunch of other podcasts.

Broken Record

Malcolm Gladwell’s second podcast outing, in addition to my beloved Revisionist History. It’s only a few of episodes in so far, and music podcasts haven’t really been my thing, but the first episodes have been super interesting. I did skip the third one since I don’t like Rufus Wainwright. Definitely willing to give this one a few more episodes to see how it plays out. The guests are the folks who’ve been there and done that and have all the stories.

Committed

This one’s a season in, and it’s about relationships, but it’s wide and deep. Getting pregnant at 14, infertility, a terminal brain tumour, lost at sea, second marriage, life sentences in prison... these are not your average suburbanites. Or they are, but it’s parts of their lives you’ve never known. Elevated snotbomb risk from time to time, but really well done and there’s something relatable in every episode.

Bodies

Also one season in. By women, for women, about women (though anyone else listening in will learn A LOT). Stories of health and issues and the struggles of getting correct diagnoses and treatment and how life and bodies change. I suspect most women would relate to something in every episode, even if it’s not specifically about an issue you’ve dealt with. Men would probably have a lot of holy shit moments listening in.

No Such Thing As A Fish

The researchers for the UK quiz show QI sit around and riff on their four favourite facts of each week, along with supplementary facts and random anecdotes, bad puns, dumb jokes, and taking the piss out of each other. It’s very nerdy and a lot of fun and will fill your brain with excellent trivia. They do a lot of live shows as well, so many of those are a bit themed to wherever they are on that week.

OPPO

Another CANADALAND podcast, which I have recently gotten rid of due to overload. Jen Gerson and Justin Ling basically spend each episode kvetching at and interrupting each other regarding politics and issues of the day. Not sure how well they actually represent particularly opposing political views, but she’s a woman and lives in Calgary and he’s a gay dude in Toronto, so, okay? I do find out about issues I hadn’t heard much about, so that’s good. I think it’s more just YMMV re. the hosts.

The Secret Life of Canada

This one was picked up by the CBC and I am still kind of bitter that I missed the ladies at the Kitchener Library a while back (I wasn’t listening to the podcast yet, but still). Basically, stuff you never learned in school about our country’s history, and which, frankly, should pretty much just replace our still very white, patriarchal, colonial history teachings.

Sidedoor

From the Smithsonian, the podcast covers all kinds of stories, people, events, and things from the museum. A bit hard to pin down, but super interesting, and talks about everything from a famous skeleton in their collection (the guy used to work for the Smithsonian!) to Gullah cuisine. Very American-centric, unsurprisingly, but enjoyable for history/anthropology nerds.

Small Town Dicks

True crime stories, but the twist is that the detectives who investigated them are the ones talking about them. The hosts are Yeardley Smith (best known as the voice of Lisa Simpson) and Zibby Allen, who I wasn’t familiar with. Then they usually have one or both of Detectives Dan and Dave, who are twins and cops (though one’s retired now and the other’s been promoted to Sergeant), as well as frequently guests who are other cops talking about the specific case of the week. I’ve found the handling of the subject matter both really in-depth (and sometimes pretty horrific or even comical) but also respectfully done, which is more than I can say for some other true crime podcasts I’ve tried.

Sold in America

A fairly new 8-part series about sex work in the US with a focus on trafficking and the many issues directly entwined with it — previous trauma, poverty, unemployment, addiction, etc. I’m almost to the end, and it’s been excellent, and often quite uncomfortable. It is US-focused, but the issues there are no different from here or anywhere else. The host Noor and her team travel a lot of talk to a lot of people whose lives this is or has affected, so these aren’t third-hand stories; this is lived experience, from women at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada to trans youth trying to overcome homelessness.

This Day in History Class

The little sister of Stuff You Missed in History Class, a daily, five-minute quickie of what happened on that date historically. Good snack for history nerds. Sometimes ties into longer episodes on the same or related topic that SYMIHC will be covering as well.

Unladylike

The two former co-hosts of Stuff Mom Never Told You went out on their own and are working on a feminist media empire (their book came out last month). Same topics re. feminism, gender, politics, sexism, diversity, culture, etc. Sometimes lighter, sometimes super heavy, but really interesting and they have some fantastic guests. And they can swear now. In addition to all the doom and gloom out there, they do also try to bring the good news (and diversity), too.

Black Tea

Former CANADALAND: COMMONS co-host (and current Melle coworker) Andray Domise and his friend (lawyer and activist) Melayna Williams get into culture, issues, and current events, particularly relating to Black communities in Canada (and somewhat the US as well). A lot of it goes over my head (big reveal: I am not Black, and I am old), but it’s cool to learn about stuff I know nothing about, and a common complaint I have is that too much of the media I consume, especially podcasts, is US-made/centric, so the CanCon is refreshing. Also at times very funny, though when there is a rant to be ranted, they don’t hold back.

The Butterfly Effect

Author/journalist/film maker Jon Ronson did this one-off series investigating the effects of the explosion of the online porn industry on the legacy porn industry. He was fascinating by the idea that online porn as we now know it is basically attributable to one guy in Belgium (and one company), and wanted to know what the far-reaching effects of that have been. It’s fascinating, and weird when you end up having moments almost feeling sorry for people and producers in a business that is, to put it mildly, problematic and exploitative. However, at the same time, it is a fascinating dive into human psychology.

Death in the Afternoon

New podcast by the ladies behind The Order of the Good Death, including Caitlin Doughty, its founder, who has written two books and has a popular death-positive YouTube series; Sarah Chavez, who you have very likely come across online as she’s widely involved in death education, culture, etc.; and Louise Hung, their coworker, who has also written broadly and extensively online. Typically they start off digging into some story/urban myth about death (or a sensational death) and breaking down the truths and fallacies and intricacies of the story. Then Sarah will tell a longer story of death relating to the issue at hand, which often involves mystery, folklore, etc.

Dirty John

This was originally an LA Times series, which was turned into a podcast, and is now being made into a TV series. True crime story centring around a truly horrific dumpster fire of a human being and the family he terrorized. Sensational, certainly, but also mind-blowing that it actually happened, and a lot of psychological explorations. Big time potential triggers for mental and physical abuse, drug addiction, violence, and other issues.

Ear Hustle

All about life inside San Quentin prison in California, and hosted by Nigel Poor, who volunteers there, and Earlonne Woods, who has been incarcerated there, but whose sentence was commuted as of US Thanksgiving 2018, so he’ll be free shortly. One imagines things will change somewhat with him shortly being on the outside, though he’ll remain a producer on the show and will report on post-prison life. The show does a good job of fleshing out and humanizing the inmates and stories, though doesn’t sugar-coat that some of these men are in for really bad stuff. It also sheds light on broader issues like the prison pipeline, over-representation of people of colour, and challenges of life after prison.

My Dad Wrote A Porno

There are three hosts, all friends, and host/story reader Jamie’s dad “Rocky Flintstone” is the writer dad in question. Apparently a while back he learned of and/or read 50 Shades of Grey and figured he could do that. (Given how terrible it is, who couldn’t?) So he took himself to the garden shed and wrote... Belinda Blinked. The resulting podcast is Jamie, James, and Alice reading the book(s) and talking about it (mocking it savagely). It’s filthy, the writing is terrible (and Mr. Flintstone seems to lack even basic understanding of female anatomy, among other things). The commentary is hilarious and frequently includes education about things like female anatomy (as much for James, who is gay, as anyone). They just finished the fourth book as of November 2018, and will return with the fifth next year. After the annual Christmas special, of course.

Taste Buds

Another offering from the CANADALAND folks. One season so far, and I won’t be tuning in for a future one. The premise of a former restaurant critic sitting down with restauranteurs is potentially interesting, but nothing about the actual execution of it really grabbed me. It’s also all in Toronto, so places I’ve never been and mostly people I’ve never heard of (and don’t care).

Thunder Bay

Also a CANADALAND offering, and the result of hitting their crowdfunding goal last year. A five-part series hosted by former COMMONS host Ryan McMahon (who is an Indigenous person) about the city, people, politics, and culture of Thunder Bay, ON. Accompanied, unsurprisingly, by the corruption, racism, social issues, and deaths of a number of Indigenous youth over the last few years. It’s a horror show, and not easy to listen to, but the degree of racism, sexism, and corruption shouldn’t really surprise anyone with their ears generally open. Or if it is surprising, then listen to it twice. Also a good thing to send to anyone who tries to argue that Canada doesn’t have the same kinds or level of issues as the US.

Unobscured

Aaron Mahnke’s latest podcast, and a historical deep dive. (Kind of like the historical flip side to the cultural side that is Revisionist History). For the first season he’s digging into the Salem Witch Trials. It’s a degree of background and detail that very few people are likely to be familiar with, and it had way more to do with politics, power struggles, religion gone awry, misogyny, and other familiar social ills than with ergot poisoning, religious fervour run amok, the devil among us, or whatever else has become the pat stories in the succeeding few hundred years. As I understand it each season will be regarding one event and take a similarly deep approach. It’s at times a bit more detail than I care about, but I’m still curious about how it’ll wrap up and what next season will bring.

Part 7

Code Switch

One of the NPR family. Had to pick and choose of the backlist, since it’s been on the air for several years and there’s NO WAY I’d be able to listen to them all. However, it is really interesting to hear their discussions/insights of major events months or years later. The hosts are people of colour, as are the guests, so the focus is on race identities and issues. Being NPR, it’s pretty American-centric, but like most other things, that still affects the world beyond their borders. Sometimes hard to listen to, but I absolutely always learn something.

Dressed

This is one of those where, on the surface, it’s not my thing, but then I end up getting really engaged and learning tonnes. This one is from the How Stuff Works/I Heart Radio network, and is about the history of fashion. Now, fashion itself isn’t really my thing, but fashion is very much tied to history, politics, gender issues, the environment, global trade, race relations, and a million other things. I don’t listen to every episode, but I always learn stuff. The two-parter on the history of Black Dandyism is an excellent example of a topic that ties in all the subjects I mentioned and more, and was just super interesting.

Ologies with Alie Ward

Definitely a new favourite, though I’m still about a year behind in the backlog, and episodes tend to be 1-2 hours long. Host Alie Ward refers to it as a “science adjacent” podcast, though it is scientific and in the top 10 on Apple’s Science podcast rankings. Basically, Alie interviews an “ologist” in each episode, an expert on a given topic, anywhere from squids to crime to postcards. The personalities of the ologists really come through, which make it funny and quirky and sometimes things go down the strangest and most charming rabbit holes. A big bonus is that few of the ologists are old bearded white dudes. (Though the bearded old white dudes are delightful, too – mushrooms!) Alie’s asides and inputs take a bit of getting used to, but I enjoy them now. Sometimes they’re additional educational tidbits she researched, sometimes they’re just dorky moments. It’s one of those shows where, even if the topic doesn’t seem up my alley, I listen anyway, because I already learn and enjoy myself. And when there are topics like dogs I’m basically a slavering fangrrl. Also, excellent Instagram recommendations.

Terrible, Thanks for Asking

I was iffy about this one, though the host was a guest on another podcast I listen to and was really interesting, so I gave it a shot. It’s definitely not for bingeing, as it’s basically interviewing people and telling stories about the worst times in their lives. (There’s something of the flavour of Committed as well.) And the host, Nora McInerny, knows what she’s talking about in that realm. (She’s one of those stories that you would think was just too over the top if it was on TV.) Definitely shows you a lot of facets of life, though, and there’s much to learn and empathize with. Just... make sure you have something fun for a palate cleanser.

30 Animals That Made Us Smarter

Also from the BBC, and I love their series. This one basically takes aspects of nature that we’re researching to benefit the human world and influence new tech. Kingfisher beaks for faster trains, tardigrades and vaccines, etc. Short, fun, fascinating. Around the same time I learned about this one I also learned that 50 Things That Made The Modern Economy is also back with a new season, so that’s back on the list, too. Definitely recommended.

Atlanta Monster / Monster: The Zodiac Killer

I’ll say right up front that I didn’t love either of these, but was in a lull where I needed more content. I’m not a fan of this style where they really try an manipulate episode to episode, where it’s like, “He totally did it!” followed by “They’re totally railroading him!” And so on. Plus, neither series has a conclusive answer, which... is that ever satisfying. But it’s got the expected stuff for the true crime junkies.

Crackdown

This is a really interesting piece of journalism. It’s a series about the drug war, opioid crisis, policy, and the real world of addiction as produced by people who have addictions. The host was a heroin addict for years and has been on Methadone for quite some time as well. They also lost one of their editorial board members to overdose basically between the production of the first and second episodes. It’s real, raw, and often very angry, as it should be. It explores a lot of angles, like the disaster that was replacing Methadone, and Portugal’s decriminalization of drugs, to the dangers of the supply and using these days. Not pretty, but should pretty much be required listening for anyone living somewhere with an opioid crisis... which is pretty much everywhere...

Disgraceland

Self-described as “rock ‘n’ roll true crime”. It’s pretty much pure voyeurism, and absolutely illustrates the worst of humanity, but also doesn’t let us off the hook for our complicity in how celebrities act and why they’re allowed to be (expected to be?) like that. I mean, the first episode was about Jerry Lee Lewis and how he pretty much got away with murdering his fifth wife. (His fourth died under pretty sketchy circumstances, too.) If you like (auto)biographies by 80s/90s metal band members and that sort of thing, you’ll love this one. I tend to really like the behind the scenes stuff of just about anything, including history, and this fits that bill.

The Dropout

Basically, if you would rather listen to the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos instead of reading the book, this is your podcast. Based on what a friend said about it I was expecting it to be a bit different. I didn’t love it, but it does have plenty of twists and turns and sketchiness and intrigue. Unlike my previous gripe, they really also don’t try and make you go back and forth on whether you think they committed fraud or not. Or, at least, if they were trying to, they really failed. This is a standalone series, so is a shortish binge, pretty much.

The End of the World with Josh Clark

They put a lot of resources into this one, but given how long Clark’s mainstay podcast Stuff You Should Know has been one of the top downloads overall, he knows what he’s doing and probably has some sway with a passion project. (And given everything is branded with the “with Josh Clark” bit, his involvement is very intentional.) Basically, this one looks into ways we might wipe ourselves out - rogue AI, biotech, natural disasters, etc. It’s interesting and well done, but I found myself zoning out from time to time. The sound design also gets a bit over the top sometimes, which bugs me. I also think they dragged it out too much. They didn’t really need the end episodes.

Jensen and Holes: The Murder Squad

This is newish for me (and they’re only a few episodes in). It’s kind of an evolution in true crime programming. Jensen is a journalist and Holes is a recently retired investigator/profiler/scientist. His recent claim to fame is helping catch the Golden State Killer. (And Jensen helped finish Michelle McNamara’s book on the same subject after she died.) Both of them are specialists in unsolved and cold cases, and have decided to start focusing more on trying to get them solved rather than just reporting on and looking into them themselves. There’s a huge true crime fanbase with amateur sleuths out there, and this endeavours to harness that, along with new tech, social media, etc. Crowdsourced criminology, basically. Interesting idea, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out. Each episode they take a known killer, or known victims, and present what’s known about the victims, crimes, locations, killer, MO, etc. They interview people who were involved or investigated the crimes at the time. And they put the case information up on their website - facts, photos, maps, etc. and let the audience do their thing as well. So this one doesn’t talk about cases til the end of things, but if what they’re trying works, could be some fascinating stuff.

Lagered Tales

This one is put out by Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company out of Vankleek Hill in eastern Ontario. It features a rotating cast of hosts from among the brewery’s staff, and covers a variety of topics, from brewery news, industry events, local stories, deep dives on beer topics, chats with other folks who work at Beau’s, as well as Canadian entertainers and other interesting industry people. It’s folksy and well-produced at the same time, and while it won’t be up everyone’s alley, I find it fun.

This Podcast Will Kill You

LOVE this one. Haven’t been listening long, but totally binged the whole backlist. It’s two disease ecology grad students, both named Erin, and they talk about... diseases! They both have PhDs and one of the Erins is also in medical school, so they know their stuff re. infectious diseases. It’s both solidly scientific and accessible to the average person. They cover pathogens, parasites, etc. in depth, as well as what they do to people, how they spread, their histories, how dangerous they are to humanity overall, etc. They also have signature cocktails for every disease/episode. Perhaps not for the squeamish, but super interesting. Also occasionally dad-level bad jokes, which is just excellent.

Part 8

Everywhere

Fairly new and part of the I Heart Radio family (which bought the How Stuff Works family). Host Daniel is a travel writer, and he is intermittently joined by friends/colleagues (including Holly from Stuff You Missed in History Class). It is about travel, but also not. It’s not about “I went here and this is what it’s like and what I recommend”, though there are bits of that. It’s more about recommendations for how to travel well, both for your own enjoyment and the benefit of the people and places you see. He has an overarching “commandment” theme for each episode, but they’re positive, i.e. “Thou shalt” rather than “Thou shalt not”. Can get very philosophical and poetic, and his voice/manner of speech has taken me some getting used to. Not sure it’ll be a long term addition to my list, but still enjoying it half a dozen episodes in.

Solvable

Another from the Pushkin Industries stable (Malcolm Gladwell and co., so Revisionist History, Broken Record, and others). In this one several hosts take turns talking to experts in various fields working to solve the world’s big problems, from civil war to cervical cancer. It’s smart, deeply informative, and does leave you feeling more informed and, dare I say it, hopeful. Another one where, even if you don’t think the topic is right up your alley, you listen anyway because it’ll suck you in with learning and fascinating perspectives. And then there are some like the interview with former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard that are total “holy shit, YES“ experiences.

Your Undivided Attention

Fairly new, and I’m only abour four episodes in, but really enjoying it. Deep dives on the big platforms and technologies we use, and how they’ve been designed and built to control us, along with the lack of ethics and oversight going into how these companies develop tools and algorithms, because revenue and time on site and data mining is a bigger priority than actually not being evil. It’s hosted by Tristan Harris, who used to be a design ethicist at Google, and Aza Raskin, who has the dubious distinction of having invented infinite scroll. (His dad, Jef, worked at Apple and invented the Mac computer, Magic Mouse, and more, and wrote The Humane Interface.) At various points during their interviews with other industry experts (ranging from former YouTube developers to former CIA operatives) they also have asides where they do deep dives/discussions on various points or ideas that have come up in the interview. Doesn’t get overly technical for a lay audience, and will definitely get you thinking and paying more attention to how you use your devices and online services, and how you are being guided, manipulated, and used by the biggest companies in tech.

The Anthropocene Reviewed

Hosted by author and YouTube educator John Green, he picks two things that are part of the human-centered world (the anthropocene) and reviews them as a... human in the world, basically, and based on his life experience. He ends with giving each a star rating out of five. He has some method to the madness of the two things he picks, and how he feels they relate to each other, but he doesn’t really explain it. Teddy Bears and Penalty Shootouts, the Lascaux Cave Paintings and the Taco Bell Breakfast Menu – really anything is fair game. In his typical style, he relates personal memories and anecdotes, waxes philosophical, and wonders about questions big and small. He also at times goes mildly off-topic to address tougher issues, like depression and anxiety disorder, which he’s dealt with all his life, and which in one way or another relates to one of the topics he’s discussing. It’s strange and quirky and an enjoyable way to see the world through someone else’s eyes.

Hit Man

This one just got started, but so far has an interesting premise. The host heard about this small press-published book from years ago, which I’d also heard of, called Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors. It’s literally a murder manual, and has allegedly figured in an assortment of killings. In this case, though, there’s a specific multiple homicide that it gets tied to, and the eight-episode arc dives into that case and the surrounding story. Will probably appeal to true crime fans, but haven’t heard enough yet to determine if it’s a keeper.

Noble Blood

Another from the I Heart family, and it’s both historical and true crime, in a way. It’s also pretty new, so not a lot of episodes so far. Basically it’s about noble/royal and famous people from history who came to a bad end. The host kicked off with one about Marie Antoinette. Pretty sure you know what happened to her. There’s another about King Charles II, and one about an Australian butcher who claimed to be a long lost baronet. I like dirty history, so am looking forward to more of thing one.

Part 9

The Dream

Apparently the host wanted to call this something with “scams” in the title, but there were some legal issues there. But that’s what this podcast is about. Season one was about MLMs. Multi-level marketing, aka direct marketing, networking marketing, or, more closely accurate, pyramid schemes. Not only is it educational about what they are, how they work, and who they target, it explains a lot about who is susceptible (again, targeted) and why they persist, even though like 99% of people who attempt to get rich quick with them fail and lose money. Sometimes a LOT of money. The second season is about the “wellness” industry in all its predatory glory. Unsurprisingly, there’s a fair bit of overlap with MLMs, how women are disproportionately sucked in, etc. It’s pretty US-centric, but then, these scams exist all over the world, and I think we all know someone who’s tried to flog that crap at us, so super relatable.

Gravy

Created by the Southern Foodways Alliance, so pretty much entirely American-centric, but doesn’t lose anything for it, since there’s a tonne about culture, history, immigration, class issues, and other more broadly relatable topics. It’s all about the evolving American south through a food lens. It’s as engaging as it is hunger-inducing, and I guarantee you’ll be surprised at just how non-homogenous the South actually was and is.

mortem

This one’s new from the BBC, and is only a few episodes in so far. The host is Carla Valentine, who has a fair bit of a media presence already via her Instagram and TV work, among other things. It’s a semi-fictional, semi-scientific series, with the stories broken up into several chapters, one per episode. In each story, there’s a murder victim and a mystery about who done it. Could be an elderly woman found dead in her kitchen, or a discorporated jawbone found on the Scottish coast. These actual “murders” are fictional, but the processes and procedures Carla discusses are quite real, as are the medical, law enforcement, and forensic experts she talks to as if they were real investigations. Entomology, forensic odontology, a soil expert, you name it. Fortunately to date they have solved all the cases, so there is that pleasant sense of closure.

Make Me Over

This is a series presented by the maker/host of You Must Remember This, all about image and expectations in Hollywood. Weight, age, plastic surgery, drugs, racism - it’s got it all. It uses the same celebrity and Hollywood history lens as YMRT, and, for reasons that should be obvious, focuses on famous women from various eras, from Esther Williams to Vanessa Williams. Instead of Karina Longworth narrating these stories, she’s recruited a series of writers, journalists, and others to research and explore characters and stories that have interested them. It’s pretty damning, though I can’t imagine the realities of the Hollywood machine would be a surprise to anyone at this point.

27 Club

This one comes from Jake Brennan, host of Disgraceland, and continues the theme of celebrities behaving badly. Though in this case it ends up killing them, as each season will tell stories of one celebrity who died at the age of 27, hence the name. Season one is about Jimi Hendrix, and season two will be Jim Morrison. Presumably Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, and others will follow. Unsurprisingly, it’s a lot of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, though depending on your age and musical tastes, I imagine some featured performers’ stories will be more familiar than others. No shortage of crazy stories and self-destructive behaviour, with plenty of rock history in the mix.

Cautionary Tales

Tim Harford hosts this one, among many, many other things he does. (I also follow his 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy.) It’s been on hiatus a while. Or maybe he was only planning one eight-episode season. I don’t recall. Basically, it’s stories of mistakes, from the ancient world to modern times. Who did what, how decisions were bad, what went wrong, and what can we learn from that. There are often stories or parts of them we may know, from history, the arts, and beyond, but these are angles you’ve likely never heard of or considered. There are plenty of whoa moments when you realize how history would have been differently written without these errors.

Decoder Ring

From the website: “In each episode, host Willa Paskin takes a cultural question, object, or habit; examines its history; and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters.” Which does make it sound drier and more anthropological than it is to the ears. Like I guarantee you had no idea how long the song Baby Shark has been around, how many versions there are, and how many countries and origins can claim it. Or how ice cream trucks became a thing. Or the term “friend of Dorothy” and how it relates to the entirety of modern gay culture. Did you know “cancel culture” was as nasty as it is today back in the 1860s? And, near and dear to my heart... rubber ducks. History, anthropology, technology, economics, it’s amazing how interconnected things are, particularly those we rarely stop to consider.

Disorganized Crime: Smuggler’s Daughter

It may not be the case for everyone, but for me, definitely a glimpse into a world and someone else’s childhood that’s VERY much not like my own. The host and her parents are pseudonymous, but back in the 60s and for several decades, her parents (largely her dad) were fairly big time pot smugglers in California. It weaves together the 60s counterculture and its hippie proponents, the history of California and its regions and the people who’ve inhabited it before it became the sterile, exorbitantly expensive tech wonderland it’s become. And how those hippies built their thriving businesses. It ties in how the world changed over time and the business with it, becoming less of a gentleman’s game and more of a dangerous illegal business. And how the 80s war on drugs blew up everything and ruined a lot of lives.

Dolly Parton’s America

An absolutely fantastic nine-part series from WNYC Studios, and largely thanks to the fact that Dolly Parton was in a car accident years back and befriended her doctor. (The main host is his son.) A lovely combination of history, tracing Dolly’s life and origins, her career, her business savvy and the empire she’s built. All woven beautifully together with her music, interviews with her and those around her, and related stories from modern history and culture that she influences, like how Dolly became a gay icon. A brilliant, talented, and fascinating woman and some of her stories beautifully captured.

Historic Royal Palaces

Recorded talks by British academics, sometimes on site where the people they’re discussing lived and historical events took place. Eg. talking about the Tudors at Hampton Court Palace. There are people and eras we know a lot about, like the Tudors, Henry VIII’s wives, etc. But also ones looking at medieval queens and their lives, power, and roles, through to Princess Diana and how she was different than anyone before her. Women’s roles, women in power, how being LGBTQ+ was looked upon and lived historically, fashion and its meanings and uses, and other fascinating and very human topics also get explored.

Outliers - Stories from the edge of history

In partnership with Rusty Quill, for each episode a writer or playwright creates basically a one-act play about a character of their choosing. Typically they’ve given a few options and select one whose history, location, and circumstances are interesting. The general idea is that the focus is on some “nobody” who happens to be present for and fictionally shed a light on much bigger people and events. They’re essentially two-parters, with the second piece being an interview with the playwright and getting into the history, what captured their imagination, issues with the process, and other interesting tidbits. Often, the scullery maid, the valet, the prison guard, and others, can have a fascinating “voice”, and a more interesting take on historical events than any scholar.

Part 10

This is Love

From the folks who make Criminal, just, y’know, love-ier. I gave it a try when it was first launched, but it didn’t really grab me, so didn’t continue listening. Several seasons went by. And then to trumpet the arrival of Season 4, they did a crossover pair of episodes with Criminal, about some wolves in Yellowstone, and they got me. Season 4, you see, is all about animals, so I’m a half-dozen episodes in so far and really enjoying it. Because animal love stories! So far they haven’t been sneaky bastards with some “the dog dies at the end” twist, fortunately. Whether I’ll stick around for Season 5, who knows.

The Dose

Sort of a sister podcast in shorter form than CBC’s White Coat, Black Art, with the same host. It’s been COVID-centric since March, for obvious reasons, but did launch slightly before the pandemic, so early episodes were about things like aspirin and heart attacks, BMI and what it means and if it’s relevant, etc. I did some skipping over time when I was overdosed on COVID news, but they are broadening coverage again as time goes on, but keeping the topics very up-to-the-minute relevant, like discussing how racism in the healthcare system can affect people and make COVID treatment and outcomes worse.

Over the Road

By and about long-haul trucking (in the US), which may be a dying way of life, we’ll have to see. Hosted by “Long Haul Paul”, who’s been a trucker for several decades, and who is also a folk singer/songwriter (also intermittently featured). The stories are accompanied by a cast of characters, and truckers and those in their world are pretty much all characters. They cover a broad range of topics, like different kinds of trucking and how they’re perceived in the culture; how technology is affecting trucking and what that means short- and long-term; who chooses a career in trucking and why, and how that affects family and the the rest of life, etc. Since Dad drove truck for a bit, I’ve had a glimpse into that world, but it’s really engaging, whether you know anything about it or not. And it’s work that touches all of us, whether we know it or not.

Cool Mules

A six-part special series from Canadaland about ye olden days of Vice Media (around 2015), when coolness and exploitation were the name of the game, which ended up with cocaine smuggling-related convictions for “Slava P” and a bunch of young kids who made some really bad choices and were manipulated by people who shouldn’t be anyone’s role models. Proof that not all criminal masterminds are evil geniuses.

Home Cooking

Global treasure, chef, cookbook writer, columnist, and Netflix star Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway (aka Hrishi, broadly talented media dude and most familiar to me as the guy behind the Song Exploder podcast), decided to make a podcast series for folks stuck at home during the pandemic, possibly with a limited pantry, and perhaps forced to cook more than they were used to. There’s a running joke about beans... There are delightful guests and it’s a lot of goofy fun. There are terrible puns, and solid cooking advice that anyone can use. Alas, to date it’s only four episodes, but savour them like a fine meal, my friends.

Permission to Speak

I didn’t think I was going to get into this one, but every episode has managed to bring something that held my interest or got me thinking. Host Samara Bay is a voice coach for everyone from Washington to Hollywood, so her work ranges from teaching accents and dialects to helping women in positions of power (or who want positions of power) to speak up, to helping leaders engage their audiences instead of desiccating them or putting them to sleep with dry speeches. Every episode she has a guest, usually women, from a wide variety of professions and backgrounds, and their discussions cover a lot of ground, but there’s are always useful and engaging nuggets of realization, learning, and things anyone can act on.

Part 11

The Last Archive

This one’s newish and from Pushkin Industries, whence comes favourites like Revisionist History and Broken Record. Professor and historian Jill Lepore tells stories, digs into history and artifacts, and endeavours to answer, “Who killed truth?” And yet, none of that really clearly explains the episodes, which remind me a bit of the Decoder Ring podcast as well. Each episode features a story from the past, some historical episode, tied to some tangible thing that draws us into the largely narrative and context. (These things are from the fictional Last Archive.) If you like the kind of history that ties in weird and wonderfully disparate aspects with unexpected threads right through to the present day, this one’s for you.

Tumanbay

A narrative fiction podcast, now three seasons in, and with some book tie-ins to date with other media in the works. While fictional, it ties to the real history of the Mamluks in Egypt, and some of the world’s very real histories, cultures, religions, etc. The intermittent narrator is a key character in all seasons, and very much an anti-hero with an abiding interest in self-preservation. Game of Thrones fans with a bit of a more Middle Eastern interest would likely enjoy it, though there’s definitely a lot about palace intrigues and sabre rattling and invasions and the like.

My Funeral Home Stories

Grant, the host, is from a family that owns several funeral homes, crematories, and other death-related services. He started working part-time in the family business when he was 13, and while they didn’t immediately throw him into the deep end, he saw and experienced things at an age that would raise a lot of people’s eyebrows, I’d suspect. However, if you’re not squeamish, this is the guy you want to be seated next to at a cocktail party, because he has stories, and some of them are equal parts insane and horrific. Some of his descriptions are really graphic, so it’s definitely not for everyone. He also has sort of a running narrative/stream of consciousness thing going as he recounts what he was thinking during these events, and some of it is funny, dark, and at times weirdly random and unrelated. It tracks as very realistic for the average human in very non-average situations.

#podcast #audio #storytelling

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male-emporium · 7 years

Text

Introducing The He Spoke Style Shop

from He Spoke Style - Men's Style, Fashion, Grooming, Tips and Advice

An exciting new development in the evolution of HSS

Yesterday, we quietly launched something very special – the He Spoke Style Shop – and I couldn’t be more excited. The HSS Shop marks a new chapter in the evolution and development of our brand and I’d like to share the story of how we arrived at this point as well as some details about what to expect.

How did we get here?

This whole idea started two years ago as a result of a simple conversation with my friend Chris (the guy with the flasks) during a car ride. We have a lot of conversations that begin with Chris saying, “You know what you need to do…” and followed by whatever he’s determined to be the next big thing. To be completely honest, I usually listen politely then proceed to summarily dismiss his “advice”. And this instance was no different.

Why? Well, to be frank, running a digital media company (even one as lean as ours) is a lot of work. So entertaining any additional responsibilities or ventures inevitably boils down to the following question: do we have the bandwidth to support this? And 999 times out of 1000 the answer is, “no”.

The idea that started it all. Our 2 oz. flask from English Pewter Company. Designed for the “perfect pour”.

However, Chris persisted. Our imaginary core product offerings were made up of exclusive items – a signature flask was the germ. Now, I should mention that by this point, I’d begun to turn a corner and see the potential value of growing our business in this manner. (This book proved pivotal.) So, being the great manager that I am, I said, okay if you want the signature flask, you make it happen then report back to me. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t two weeks later and I was proofing CAD drawings from English Pewter Company for the monogram on what would become the first HSS product we’d have in our hands.

From there, it became about meeting with and lining up partners for an exclusive, private label collection, deciding what types of products we’d like to carry, building out our platform so the experience would be as close as possible to what you’ve grown accustomed to on these pages and creating the content to fill it all in. To make a long story short, we were fortunate to have had the assistance of many wonderful and extraordinary people throughout the entire process and all of the pieces fell into place rather neatly. For all of that, I am eternally grateful.

Welcome to the He Spoke Style Shop

Now, as I mentioned, the core collection in Chris’s “imaginary” HSS Shop was a bunch of signature items and that’s exactly what you’ll find in the Exclusive category of the shop today. Our exclusive collection is made up of timeless accessories to help you live a more stylish life as well as some other really neat things, which I’ll get to shortly.

First, however, let’s talk about our private label collection with Seaward & Stearn. If you haven’t heard of them, we’re going to give you an education. Here’s the short version: they’re a storied London maker who, for decades, have been producing fine, luxury handmade neckwear and accessories for some of the most prestigious, exclusive and respected men’s apparel brands around the world. We chose them, not just because of their exceptional pedigree, but because their vision of style is the spitting image of ours – classic with a modern sensibility.

Our Versatile Stripe and Gentleman’s Solid ties

Each tie in our collection was designed with both timeless style and maximum versatility in mind. You’ve seen our Classic English Madder tie styled on the site a few times already and we’re looking forward to cooler fall days to start breaking out our “Versatile Stripe” and “Gentleman’s Solid“. And then when the holidays swing by, it’s game-over with the “Ultimate Tartan”.

Though we’re committed to offering only the highest-quality products in each of our categories, nowhere is that more apparent than with these signature pieces. Many items, like our Abbeyhorn shoe horns and combs, can be admired in the photos but, honestly can’t truly be appreciated until you hold them in your hands. Now let’s talk about just one – actually, four – of those really neat things I mentioned.

Tug Rice’s exclusive and limited-edition illustrations for He Spoke Style – the four types of gentlemen. Clockwise from upper left: The Executive, The Connoisseur, The Scholar and The Rake.

There are times when I hate Instagram and there are times when I love it. The story that follows proved to be one of the latter. A few weeks prior to launch, a gentleman named Tug Rice reached out via DM to say he wanted to be involved. He’s an illustrator, so we conceived of a limited edition series of illustrations featuring four types of gentleman. One week later, I received these stunning depictions of The Executive, The Connoisseur, The Scholar and The Rake. Of course, they’re printed on archival-quality paper and have already proven to be quite popular after just one day.

We’ve got your covered from home to office

Now, because we know who you are – sorry if that sounds creepy, guys – we feel like we’ve got a pretty good handle on what will turn you on. You’re educated, professional and successful in addition to appreciating quality and style in all aspects of your life from your home to your office to your home office. As a result, we’ve rounded out the shop with a collection of products designed to enhance your appreciation and enjoyment of the time you spend either at your desk or on your couch.

For the office, we’re pretty excited about a variety of things, not the least of which is a completely handcrafted wooden pen and pencil tray (also a part of our exclusive collection) by British designer Andrew Hine, which looks particularly handsome with a Karas Kustoms brass pen. And then there’s our favorite refillable leather notebook along with a host of attractive brass desk accessories.

A Karas Kustoms brass pen with our HINE x HSS wooden pen rest

For the home, we like conversation pieces that are also solid performers. We’re talking the likes of the modern classic Master & Dynamic MH40 headphones, a heavy-duty brass match striker, and leather valet tray. And if you’re like us, you’ve got a few bookshelves. We can help you fill those up.

But wait, there’s mo… vintage watches

You know that we’re pretty big on watches here at HSS. And we know that the mechanical watch world – and vintage watch market, in particular – can be rather pretentious, off-putting and just seem plain out of reach. But the truth is, you don’t have to pay and arm and a leg or through the nose for a great vintage watch. With this in mind, we teamed up with our friends at analog/shift to bring you a collection of vintage watches that are high-quality, desirable and, most importantly, affordable – the kinds of watches that not only make spectacular first vintage watches, but just spectacular vintages watches, in general.

We wanted to keep it classic but also diverse in terms of the potential wearer’s proclivity for dressy or sporty. With perhaps one exception, all of the watches in our capsule collection were specifically chosen with an eye towards versatility.

A 1970s Universal Genève Polerouter with gold-plate and black dial

Yeah, we’ve got a 1970s Rolex Datejust for you, but don’t let “the crown” blind you. A vintage watch collector is many things, including a speculator. And we’re putting a lot of our chips on a brand called Universal Genève as one to watch (no pun intended). We’ve got two examples – one in steel and one in gold – to submit into evidence. Military buff? Try this one on for size. And no collection is complete without a classic chronograph.

Okay, now that you’ve gotten the complete low down (and hopefully have made it to this point in the post), check out the He Spoke Style Shop right here and have a look around at everything we’ve found for you. It is my sincere with that you like what what you find in the HSS Shop as much as we do.

Chime in: What would you like to see in the HSS Shop in the future?

Thanks for reading.

Stylishly Yours,

Brian Sacawa He Spoke Style

The post Introducing The He Spoke Style Shop first appeared on the men's style blog He Spoke Style - Men's Style, Fashion, Grooming, Tips and Advice

First found here: Introducing The He Spoke Style Shop

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leisurefarmers · 7 years

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Introducing The He Spoke Style Shop

from He Spoke Style - Men's Style, Fashion, Grooming, Tips and Advice

An exciting new development in the evolution of HSS

How did we get here?

The idea that started it all. Our 2 oz. flask from English Pewter Company. Designed for the “perfect pour”.

Welcome to the He Spoke Style Shop

Our Versatile Stripe and Gentleman’s Solid ties

Tug Rice’s exclusive and limited-edition illustrations for He Spoke Style – the four types of gentlemen. Clockwise from upper left: The Executive, The Connoisseur, The Scholar and The Rake.

We’ve got your covered from home to office

A Karas Kustoms brass pen with our HINE x HSS wooden pen rest

But wait, there’s mo… vintage watches

A 1970s Universal Genève Polerouter with gold-plate and black dial

Chime in: What would you like to see in the HSS Shop in the future?

Thanks for reading.

Stylishly Yours,

Brian Sacawa He Spoke Style

The post Introducing The He Spoke Style Shop first appeared on the men's style blog He Spoke Style - Men's Style, Fashion, Grooming, Tips and Advice

Introducing The He Spoke Style Shop published first on http://ift.tt/2vhdzTm

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geniuszone-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Geniuszone

New Post has been published on https://geniuszone.biz/women-power-bloggers-inside-the-minds-of-todays-successful-female-bloggers/

Women Power Bloggers - Inside the Minds of Today's Successful Female Bloggers

According to the Pew Internet Project’s PIP Blogging Report, forty-six% of bloggers are the lady and the numbers are developing regularly. However, many woman bloggers are a slightly disillusioned with the dearth of popularity in their enterprise. After a week of research, I sooner or later requested myself why aren’t women extra outstanding on the internet? Of all the weblog rating lists, except style and celeb blogs, a median of 12% of girls seem inside the pinnacle 100 of every list. And a few resources have the nerve to suppose that style blogs are “private diaries of favor”. After doing some studies I found out why so many bloggers and readers these days perceive girls bloggers in a different way than men:

Many men bloggers don’t hyperlink to girls bloggers Less than 10% of girls are political bloggers 60% of women created blogs are classified as “private diaries” Nearly 88% of pinnacle bloggers are white American men. Some men do not appreciate being lectured by girls Instead of studying RSS feeds and discovering list after list, I decided to go immediately to the source to get greater answers and discover how ladies electricity bloggers reached fulfillment, how they reach their readers, and what they think about the discrimination closer to expert ladies bloggers in the state-of-the-art blogging community.

blogger

I communicated with four very unique girls bloggers (Chanel Ward/Hip Candy, Charlene Li/Groundswell: Winning In a World Transformed through Social Technologies, Michele Obi/My Fashion Life, and Julie Strietelmeier/The Gadgeteer). After speaking with those women I found out that a “power blogger” has not anything to do along with your ranking on a list but the best of your posts, the attention of your reader’s needs, and the capacity to appearance past reputation and fortune and stay authentic to your concern count. This is a part one in every of a component collection offering girls bloggers who’ve modified the manner the sector perspectives them and their readers. Today’s featured blogger is Chanel Ward from Hip Candy and Charlene Li from Groundswell: Winning In a World Transformed via Social Technologies.

Chanel Ward / Hip Candy

It’s hard to pick one of my favored blogs, however, Hip Candy is very close to my heart. From the tagline, “sweet… However not in that fattening type a manner” to the blog’s proprietor, Chanel Ward, Hip Candy is sparkling, exciting and new.

Fashion clothier/image artist/author Chanel Ward turned into featured as 225 Magazine’s Top People To Watch in 2008 and for proper cause. After being the voice for the America’s Next Top Model Interviews and one of the finalists for Project Runaway’s fan favorite blogs this fashionista became invited to revel in and write approximately Fashion Week and is soon launching the plenty anticipated clothing line Hip Couture. Blazing a trail of personality and fashion her blog and her profession has an existence of its own, but don’t take my phrase for it.

1. What is the point of interest of your weblog and why did you pick out this unique area of interest?

The awareness of Hip Candy is my tagline. Fashion. Celebrity. Entertainment. Me. That’s essentially what I weblog approximately in a nutshell! I want to think about my weblog as fashionably fun! I chose this area of interest because my background is in Fashion Design (graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, 1999 – http://www.Fidm.Com) and I’ve always been intrigued with the aid of celebrity way of life, so I just notion it might be a journey to start a fun site that might cognizance on the one’s things, and on the same time, it would maintain me abreast of what was happening in the [fashion] enterprise. Hip Candy is aa laugh forum for readers to come and percentage their critiques on style, (the present-day traits, style don’ts…) celebrity (what they had been carrying, what had been they questioning?!) the ultra-modern happenings in leisure, with a touch little bit of what is taking place with me thrown in for top measure.

2. If you could describe your readers in 3 sentences or less what would you be saying?

I was surprised to learn lately that some of my readers are as younger as 12! But I also have extra “pro” readers, women over 50 and past in addition to every age (and gender) in between. Hip Candy readers are very opinionated. Even although most of them commonly trust most matters I opine, and “wax poetic” approximately, they do not constantly believe the entirety I positioned down, and that’s okay! Having a difference of opinion is what makes us particular! One of my maxima commented posts (sixty-nine feedback at remaining count) has a firestorm of study evaluations on it from start to finish. Anyone who takes a day out of their busy day to click on onto to Hip Candy read a post and proportion their reviews is greater than very well with me.

3. How has blogging advanced your career?

Wow. That’s any such loaded question! I’d in no way honestly considered myself an “author”, however, after beginning Hip Candy, I slowly commenced permit myself suppose otherwise. My blog has already reached ranges that I wouldn’t have imagined once I started it. I figured it might just be aa laugh interest. The reaction due to the fact I started it’s been extra special already! It’s very humbling. Some of the more noteworthy advancements have been 1) publicity to the loads from carrying out the “Top Model” interviews 2) getting credentialed and being invited to Fashion Week from my style insurance on the blog coupled with stable readership three) That same stable readership translating into month-to-month advert revenue generated on Hip Candy 4) all cost paid trips to cool trade shows and occasions ([http://blogs.Dreambrizo.Com/kbis_2007/]) five) popularity and acknowledgement from magazines, and in the end and in the long run, 6) built-in call recognition for a destiny apparel release! Blogging has truly been a marvel and a blessing and I look forward to more in 2008!

women

4. On common, handiest 12% of girls bloggers are featured on top one hundred lists. Why do you watch this is?

I hadn’t heard this statistic before, however, it’s quite wonderful given that I did pay attention that approximately half of the humans running a blog right now are ladies. I do not clearly recognize why extra ladies are not considered top bloggers. I’d like to locate that out myself. I’d love to find out what we as girls could do to level the playing subject. I’m not as privy as I’d like to be on how blog ranking works. I’ve made a couple lists within the past, ([http://www.Fashioniq.Com/wordpress/2007/04/23/top-50-fashion-blogs-in-the-us/]) (http://www.Customizedgirl.Com/weblog/) however unless you’re a website like Technorati who ranks blogs on several specific statistically based criteria, I’m now not sure how a great deal weight it holds. That being stated, I’m constantly thankful to be included on people’s “Top” listing, regardless of the standards!

5. If you could supply one word of advice to women bloggers today what would it be?

My phrase of advice to girls bloggers would be to not surrender! So a lot of us who may also have a robust voice on whatever concern, fall by means of the wayside after beginning blogs and don’t ever see the full fruit of what could have been. Unless you’re a celebrity, no one ever starts of evolved out with millions of readers! I’m nevertheless striving for that myself! So it is clearly a system, and growing pains are part of that technique. I can don’t forget back whilst my mom and some of my pals made up the whole lot of my readership. But if you’re placing out properly content, readers will always comply with. Have religion in yourself and what you’re doing! Especially in case you like it.

Charlene Li / Groundswell: Winning In a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Charlene Li knows what she’s talking approximately and he or she is passionate about it. Groundswell: Winning In a World Transformed by using Social Technologies is one of the nice written blogs at the net, length. Charlene is a professional on technologies like blogs and social networking and makes use of this information to steer the advertising and studies team at Forrester.

Charlene does not simply write approximately her passion, she consults others about tendencies and strategies surrounding her niche. She is the one of the maximum quoted analyst and has seemed in The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, CNN, NPR, and BBC, as well as The Wall Street, Journal, The New York Times, and BusinessWeek. As a be counted of reality while writing this biography and studying Charlene’s accomplishments, an industrial for 60 minutes segment on Facebook was advertised, Charlene furnished historical past on that story. Reading Charlene’s weblog has for my part superior my career as a technology chief within my enterprise and has kept me completely up to date on innovative marketing solutions thru social networks and blogging. I am very honored to have her make the effort to attain out my readers on the topic of girls and blogging.

1. What is the focus of your blog and why did you pick out this specific niche?

The recognition is traits in interactive and social technologies generally for advertising functions. Most currently, the focus is on using social technologies and supports a new ebook that I’m publishing in April 2008. The weblog is an extension of my work at Forrester Research.

mind

2. If you could describe your readers in 3 sentences or much less what could you assert?

I even have three very specific readers: 1) Businesspeople inquisitive about leverage interactive and social technologies, commonly in marketing; 2) Influential press and bloggers; three) Thought leaders in the area, whom I can tap for research purposes.

3. How has running a blog superior your profession?

Oh, in such a lot of approaches! It’s given me visibility beyond the limited Forrester customer base and extended my affect highly. I have contacts that I could never have developed without the weblog. And I rely upon it always to conduct studies amongst a community that doesn’t exist anywhere else. As such, I have got admission to higher research faster than all of us else within the industry.

4. On common, simplest 12% of ladies bloggers have featured on pinnacle 100 lists. Why do you think this is?

I’m assuming that you imply handiest 12% of pinnacle bloggers are women. This is partially a remember of who does the listing. And frankly, why does it remember in case you’re a “top” blogger? The most vital thing is to realize who your reader is and to hyper-serve them higher than each person else. I’m not going to ever make it on the Technorati a hundred list, but I’m really considered a “pinnacle blogger” in my field.

The different way to examine it’s far done ladies consider themselves to be a pinnacle blogger? If the stat is 12% of women bloggers bear in mind themselves to be top bloggers, then we have a vanity trouble!

5. If you could give one word of recommendation to ladies bloggers nowadays what would it be?

Be true to yourself and to your reader. There’s not anything worse than a blogger who is striving to be something they are not.

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wildlyhardphilosopher-blog · 5 years

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Pet Obedience Classes | Top Techniques

New Post has been published on https://dogtraining.dknol.com/english/pet-obedience-classes-top-techniques/?utm_source=Tumblr&utm_medium=Tumblr+%230+Freda+K+Pless&utm_campaign=SNAP%2Bfrom%2BBest+Dog+Training

Pet Obedience Classes | Top Techniques

Last night was the first night that Bear hasn’t demanded us to play and wrestle and was happy to lay quietly on his bed while we were relaxing. We are Dog Behaviour Specialists As soon as you bring your puppy home, step into his mind frame. Dogs are pack animals and like to follow a leader. If you act like one, your puppy’s biggest motivation will become making you happy. Contact SitDropStay Dog Behaviour Australia on Messenger At SitDropStay puppy training consultant will come to your home to help you create a training system that is tailored to your puppy’s specific personality traits, habits and temperament. You are in control each step of the way and get to decide how YOU want your dog to fit into your lifestyle. Our Website Width: px Make Club House and Canteen Level 5 Resend confirmation code Read our latest news, including animal appeals and media releases. Our Shop sells Award Winning Dog DVD, Dog Leashes, Dog Houses, Dog Bowls, Dog Grooming Tools, Dog Muzzles, Dog Collars and Dog Chains and Dog Accessories Related: Puppy feeding guidelines Harnesses Call Us Now: 1300 66 44 66 Contact Us A puppy will begin training with its mother and breeder as an infant. Once you’ve got the go ahead to bring your new canine friend home, it’s vital to know the immediate steps for training. Here, we’ve provided our expert opinion on the early stages of training your puppy. Candy’s Assessment – All About Animals TV Show – Episode 2 How can you help? Fundraising 12 Phone: 07 3459 2121 Youth and Community Programs Car parking for Hays Paddock is available in the Lister St carpark. Reactive Rover Dog Training Course Privacy Policy Boarding and Training Facilities How to protect your people Puppies have a strong urge to eliminate after sleeping, playing, feeding and drinking. Prepare to take your puppy to his/her selected elimination area within 30 minutes of each of these activities. In addition, although some puppies can control themselves through the entire night, most puppies need to eliminate every 3 to 4 hours during the daytime. With each passing month, you can expect your puppy to control themselves a little longer between elimination times. The puppy should be taken to his/her elimination area, given a word or two of verbal encouragement (e.g. “Hurry up!”) and as soon as elimination is completed, lavishly praised and patted. A few tasty food treats can also be given the first few times the puppy eliminates in the right spot, and then intermittently thereafter. This teaches the puppy the proper place to eliminate, and that elimination in that location is associated with rewards. Some puppies may learn to eliminate when they hear the cue words (eg. “Hurry up!”). Always go outdoors with your puppy to ensure that it has eliminated and so that rewards can be given immediately upon completion, and not when the dog comes back indoors (too late!). Once he’s in sitting position, say “Sit,” give him the treat, and share affection. Foundation local trainers more Length: 5wks Terms & Conditions Average. I had to go looking for it. When will you be able to trust your puppy to wander loose throughout the home? PLUS workshops, ABC Home Working in Communities

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dog obedience training

fbq('track', 'ViewContent', content_ids: 'dogtraining.dknol', ); Our History Gift Cards Difficult. It took me a while to find it. All Breeds Dog Training Related: Puppy feeding guidelines Data Measures Once he’s in sitting position, say “Sit,” give him the treat, and share affection. Course Content When I read the reviews about often only taking one session, I was a bit skeptical…. 1 Hour Personal Training Session Location: AWL Wingfield, 1-19 Cormack Rd Wingfield 5013 Main article: Dog collar Search Explosive Power Tools Awareness The Impact You Can Make Adult Dog Training ⟶ Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia Enrolment & Cancellation Fundraising Event Certificate III In Engineering – Boilermaking/Welding Share Algebra Data Probability Grooming Refresher – Our fast paced fun course to get you and your dog back on track! Cancellation Policy Tool Definition Welcome to We are very grateful for the help and advice that Goodog has provided to us in training our dog “Dexter.” The puppy classes including the advanced classes made for a lot of fun and really helped us to train our dog in many skills including sitting, recall and walking on a loose lead. Damien & Lauren i really like what they are doing to the dogs because the dogs are going to help a lot of people in the future and that is really good Puppy Training ⟶ ^ Jump up to: a b c d Burch, Mary R. (1 August 2012). “The Evolution of Modern-Day Dog Training”. National Animal Interest Alliance. Retrieved 30 November 2012. General Questions and Comments Handlers will practice and be coached on strategies to manage their reactive dogs. How to become a member Most, K. (1954). Training Dogs, (J. Cleugh, Trans.), New York: Dogwise Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1-929242-00-X 21st century[edit] Daily Dog Bark Busters news Support Us Agility equipment I think it is perfectly made…such an easy and efficient way of doing the course and very thorough as well. Usually I don’t fill in feedbacks, but when I really like something or I am really unsatisfied with something, I do. – Mait Kukk Frequent Feeder Program By Your Side Magazine Mateusz : Monday – Friday Level 3 Intermediate Dog Training Many thanks Allison and Barbara, Blog The Knox Obedience Dog Club is one of Australia’s largest Dog Obedience Clubs. Formed in 1967, the Knox Obedience Dog Club is a Non-Profit Organization, totally volunteer operated, with all committee, instructors and helpers giving their time freely to help dog owners from Knox and surrounding areas train their dog. Your dog’s welfare needs ABC TV Education Life Membership Nomination Hello, I have a puppy that is 9 weeks old, we recieved him when he was 8 weeks. He is easy to train when it comes to: jump,sit, paw, and come here. The problem is that we cant get him to walk outside. When he sees the dog harness, he runs away to hus bed and pretends to sleep to avoid it. When we carry him all he does is whines and refuses to move and even pulling backwards as we just stan in the same spot. We have tried with dog treats and to encourage him with a ”come here” but he wont budge and the whines becomes louder. We live in sweden and we have alot of snow it is about -5 celcius. He wears a puppy sweater for him but he hates going outside. Specialized training[edit] Jump up ^ Spector, Morgan (3 January 2009). “Who Started Clicker Training for Dogs?”. Retrieved 30 November 2012. Barbara : 0424 740 234 Media releases Share Recall Workshop Mountain Gate Let the team at Adelaide Pet Dog Training assist you with the best training solutions for you and your dog, so your dog becomes a well-mannered member of your family and a happy, well socialised canine citizen. Using force-free, positive reward-based training methods is an enjoyable and rewarding way for you and your dog to learn new and useful skills. Feed your dogs what we feed ours!!! Monday to Friday – 7:30am to 5:00pm (AEST) Dogs Victoria Equine Postal 07 Sep 2017 9:48:52am © Copyright 2018 RSPCA South Australia Jump up ^ Lindsay 2000, p. 219. Site Safety Training Woodhouse, Barbara (1982). No Bad Dogs: the Woodhouse Way, New York, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-54185-4 Stories Leash Walking Workshop Cat and Kittens Puppies need guidance in the form of puppy obedience training in order to learn good manners and develop a pleasant, obedient nature. While it’s true that puppies receive much of their socialisation from their mothers and litter mates in the first 12 weeks of life, as your puppy you will pick up where mother dog left off. Shopping With Us Support Groups Apartment Dogs Barking Renew My Membership (old) Dominance-based training[edit] Numbers and Place Value Name (optional) Jumping – All About Animals TV Show – Episode 3 Interactive Home / 5 essential commands you can teach your dog Skills/Topics: Discovering how dog’s learn Search We recommend that you start building a healthy foundation for your puppy with an initial two hour home consult that includes general puppy training as well as: Join our e-mail newsletter to keep up to date with our news & dog training tips Why is our Behavioural Training the best choice for you? In Home Dog Training Browse, select and collect in store! Save time and let us do the shopping for you. Just place your order online ahead of time and enjoy the convenience of our Click & Collect service. Available nationwide at PETstock stores, our team will have your order ready when you visit and we’ll even carry it to the car for you. It’s so easy, it’s pet’s play. Be A Dog Trainer | Read Our Reviews Here Be A Dog Trainer | Simple and Effective Solutions Be A Dog Trainer | Solutions That Work Legal | Sitemap

#Hunting Dog Training #Puppy Training Methods

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winckl9r · 7 years

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5/13/11 Before reading this piece that I wrote for a Media Journo class, understand that almost every implementable idea I came up with and present has in fact become a driving force of incredible revenue building seen implemented by internet moguls such as, Google, Facebook, Youtube and Hulu. Google bought out Youtube, who couldn’t figure out how to make substantial profits, while having one of the biggest populations of both subscribers and viewers, by simply adding those obnoxiously annoying advertisements we’ve all come to hate before almost every video on the site (but they bought this non-profitable domain for what some said was far too high, 1.65 billion, and turned around and transformed it into the projected 45 billion dollar net worth by 2016 behemoth we know today.) These ideas that I predicted and developed have made hundreds of billions of dollars over the last 4 years since this piece was developed in my sophomore year of college. (4/21/15) Q 3. On the faithful day of September 2, 1969 at UCLA, two computers were connected, and for the first time were able to communicate with one another. Since that day the technology, although slow in its progression at first, has now become one of the most heavily traveled and utilized pieces of technology man has, some argue, ever conceived. Its simplicity allows anyone from virtually anywhere with a computer, internet connection or phone to send, share, receive, create, and countless other seemingly impossible acts with a few clicks of a mouse. No one the day those two computers were first connected could of comprehended the effect or firestorm that would soon follow their, at that current moment, pointless discovery. “Most traditional communications media including telephone, music, film, and television are being reshaped or redefined by the Internet. Newspaper, book and other print publishing are having to adapt to Web sites and blogging. The Internet has enabled or accelerated new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Online shopping has boomed both for major retail outlets and small artisans and traders. Business to business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries. The commercialization of what was by then an international network in the mid 1990s resulted in its popularization and incorporation into virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth's population have used the services of the Internet” (Wiki). So as it grew into the behemoth we now know today as the World Wide Web, people still hadn't thought of the potential cash cow it could be. Which eventually led to the question of today, should websites be paid for or free? This might seem like a fairly straight forward question, but in all honesty if it was it wouldn't still be up in the air after all these years. Clearly both exist today, it typically depends on what the user is looking for. If their looking for viable information not accessible to many sources, with the security of total truth then more than likely it’s going to cost them. Where as if that same users looking for say the weather for that day, week, or any other fairly common information theres without a doubt going to be most likely a couple hundred, maybe even a couple thousand of free accessible sites willing to hand that data out, costing the user nothing more than a click and the time spent visiting the site. When it comes down to me picking sides, paid or free, I just don't see me or anyone else for that matter, being able to assess all the angles, data, and everything else that compiles the internet to give a fully understood and knowledgeable answer. Websites work in a few fairly simple manners, one way is by individual viewers pays a fee to enter the site and have full access, this can be a monthly payment or a payment for full time access. Another, is viewers are given access to websites for free, but instead they are, and most of the time obliviously exposed to large amount of advertisements. Another similar way websites function is by, again allowing full exposure the visitor and every click that person clicks is tracked and the website owner is paid depending on the amount of traffic that passes through his or her site, it’s also a way advertisement owners can track how kind of exposure their ad is getting, hugely important information. One of the last ways websites, typically this is associated with online news, makes money has to do with allowing views to see fragments of stories and breaking news but for the full stories there’s a charge, which in turn grants that viewer full access. Free sites are the most frequently visited websites that most everyday users visit, there the most abundant and for the most obvious reason, people love things that are free. Why would they subscribe to a site that requires payment to, say get the weather every day, when they can just as easily go to weather.com or use a quick and easy application on their phone to do it for free. The Web has also enabled individuals and organizations to publish ideas and information to a potentially large audience online at greatly reduced expense and time delay. Publishing a web page, a blog, or building a website involves little initial cost and many cost-free services are available. Publishing and maintaining large, professional web sites with attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however. Many individuals and some companies and groups use web logs or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to communicate advice in their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result” (Wiki). Also, free sites tend to make users want to come back more often, sites that viewers find use full or catch our attention are better off getting “bookmarked” and that then leads to, typically, frequent use. Now free isn't the only big money maker online, Netflix and iTunes have used the “convenience factor to lure their customers. These users tend to be older, less concerned about money but the younger people, those of us like me, and most of my generation would rather keep that fifteen extra bucks in our pocket a month; we end up paying for our savings in the form of time. Instead of having the convenience of iTunes or the Netflix sites that have what we want to watch on command with a touch of a button, we have to spend time searching the deepest depths of the net looking for that one free site that has the show, game, or movie we're looking for. Now, Hulu is kind of an exception. Hulu has taken an old style of media and modernized it, they've taken our beloved movies and shows and put them on one easy to use and accessible website that anyone can use. Yes, it’s free, but it has its draw backs none the less. Instead of just being able to click, and watch, Hulu has incorporated commercials, thus the way they make money. They do give you a choice, if you would rather watch a longer commercial in the beginning of your chosen show or movie, or if you would rather have smaller ones, breaking up your viewing more frequently, very similar to television today. Personally, don't enjoy using Hulu, it doesn't have every show and movie out there, but I guess no one does; regardless, I prefer to crawl around in the depths of the web looking for that one song, show, or video for free and with no commercials. Picky, maybe, but the easiest way of looking at this is simple, very few sites out there on the net today are completely free, I would say at least 95% of all pages are making money in some way, shape, or form; people who pay for their preferences lose money but gain convenience, those of us who would rather not spend that money, spend more time searching for what we're looking for, and lastly, those of us who use “free” site, such as Hulu, pay by watching the advertising. What I am getting out if that we all pay for our media, in one way or another, there’s no way around it. This world runs off money, and the Internet's no different. Paid web pages on the other hand, are a whole other animal. They make truck loads of money collecting on your money, given just to access their site. It’s a fairly strange idea, if you think about it, you’re paying a monthly fee for what, to use someone’s virtual tool or service. Sure, it take money to keep sites updated, bug-free, and functioning, but most sites are built, updated, and kept maintenance on by someone other than their owners, thus leaving me to ask the question, why so much money. Now, I understand the answers obvious, its because those people who are doing the updating and such cost money, but more importantly, the owners want as much money as they can squeeze out of their little virtual worlds they call sites. And I completely agree, I'm an American, I'm in that same search for more money, who isn't; but where I would change things up is in the price of entry, of subscribing. For example, why not have your original price set at whatever it may be, but next to that price have another option, say for half the original, the only catch is that joiner must bring with him or her, ten other subscribers. This does two big things, for one it just brought you in a hundred and five dollars a month rather than just ten, and secondly it ups your subscribers, thus jumping your traffic. Now, this could potentially be huge for those just starting out, if you have something impressive that people want, and those who find it are going to spread the word, except now it’s not just because they might think it’s cool, or could come in handy for their family or friends, but now it’s going to cut their costs, and who doesn't love that. One online writer for the Love to Know website wrote, “Luckily, one of the things that has not changed about the internet is the prevalence of free website hosting. Though it never quite delivered the return on investment speculated in the 90's, internet advertising has proven to be somewhat lucrative. Many websites are happy to give you space on their servers in exchange for a piece of the real estate on your website. These ads are usually banner pictures which change with every new visit to your website, and the best ones will even target your particular audience” (lovetoknow). If I were to create my own website in the attempt of a lucrative business I would probably incorporate a little of both aspects, paid and free. First I would need to think of what kind of website I was going to make, what I was looking to accomplish with it. In my case, it would be a type of combo site having a part devoted to videos, another devoted to blogging, and another for selling equipment. It too, would encourage video sharing and commenting, but more then that I would like to slim down the scope of interest to just skiing and snowboarding. There would be a homepage, introducing what the site was all about, for example it would have some crazy pictures of skiers and snowboarders doing intense stuff, like hitting huge jumps and dropping into next to vertical mountain faces. There would be another page that would link you to all the videos various people have posted, of themselves and their friends having fun on the slopes; there would be available lines for those who wanted to leave massages and such. I would also have a search bar at the top, that would allow views to search for whatever their particularly looking for, for example “craziest jumps ever” or “biggest air”. One other page I'd have would consist of a sales page, where views could buy winter gear, skis, boards, bindings, gloves, hats, basically anything related to winter sports; and on the same page would be listings of random prizes we were raffling off. The raffles would consist of prizes such as a free board or a pair of skies, there would be a vote about every six months; whoever posted the most extreme or likable video wins the prize. This would potentially increase both sales and viewership, both hugely essential for maintaining a profitable site. A writer for Buzzle.com had this to say about the simplified fact of a revenue producing web pages, “For your website or online business to be profitable, you need to get as much traffic as you can to it. That's because, no matter how good a website or service or product you have, if people can't find it, they can't buy it. But not just any web traffic. What you need is targeted traffic, traffic that is interested in your product. There are many things you can do to achieve this. You can increase website traffic by paying for it, or you can work for it and grow free web traffic organically” (Buzzle); so with that, it all comes down to traffic, it doesn't matter what type of website your going after, paid or free, you need people to visit it in order to get business. Without traffic you mind as well not even be online. Again, Buzzle.com tells us, “Paid web traffic has the merit of bringing visitors to your site almost instantly. You can use it for launching a site, or to do a sales promotion. You can also use it to jump start free traffic; but free traffic does not shoot up overnight. It takes time to grow and nurture; hence we have paid traffic. This is traffic you don't have to pay for, free traffic or organic traffic. You should try to get this, on top of any paid traffic. For one thing, free is good; for another, your visitors come because your site had something they wanted. That makes them more receptive to buying” (Buzzle). What it comes down to is all traffic is good, its the task of getting to your audience. Another way of increasing your web traffic is by getting your name and site details out there, spread the word. This can be done with the use of social networking sites, for example Twitter, Facebook, and even YouTube. These websites can give you free exposure, its a quick and easy way of getting people to “hear” about your site, whatever it may be. You can make videos that show what your selling, or what your service might be, and most importantly why what you’re doing so unique that people are going to want to stop using who or what they already are and switch to yours. Facebook and Twitter is the similar idea, it gets the name of our site out there, getting it to more than one place, the more exposure you have out there the more traffic, thus more money you’re going to make. Joelle Rene’ Hughe, a professional artist from Wildfire Video Marketing explains, “In a single day you can produce a video of your fine art and have it hosted on YouTube. YouTube also provides a button that allows you to 'share' your video on Twitter or Facebook. So if you are already an active member on those social networking sites you can instantly share your videos with the click of a button. As a YouTube member you will have your own Channel that you can customize. Your Channel not only provides you a central location for all your videos, it also has a subscriber list sign-up that will help you grow your customer base. Each time you post a new video to your channel, your subscribers will be automatically notified” (Planetprose). It doesn't get much easier than that. With all the YouTube surfing I do, I can't believe how little business related videos I come across, being such a easy and free interface. In the future of our great internet I could see things changing, evolving, as does with almost everything else in our daily lives. I don't see things going one way or another completely but I do believe the way the internet works is about to change tremendously, and also in the question of paid or free, my beliefs are things are going to move even more heavily towards free. Lets face it, as it stands now the majority is a free place to search, surf, do with what you will, but as did with newspapers, adds started small and quaint, but look at them today, their getting bigger and moving to more valued areas, for example the front page. The newspapers been around as long as this nation has, and as the world turns today, its heading for changing times, that much is clear. If such changes as these can affect such a old and respected piece of history why couldn't the internet be next. What I'm getting at, is an idea of a type of centralized internet, so to speak. An easier way to explain it would be to take a look at Google. Google has such a strong grasp on internet users; some might say they run the internet. Now, this isn't completely false, so much traffic goes through them they, in a way, determine who and what gets seen. Or more importantly what does or doesn't get seen. Could the internet on day set up like this, with one super power at the center and all users most go through them, sure, but it would have to be governmentally run, otherwise it would be a concrete monopoly. So many argue against this, but the fact government has such little control over the internet is a little suspicious. The creator of the great Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has a similar idea, “envisions a more personalized, humanized, web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source users will query this “social graph” to find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire. Rather than tapping the cold mathematics of Google search. It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center. In other words, rights where Google is right now” (Fred Vogelstein). Still different from what I am trying to explain but on a similar track, a “social graph” as Mark Zuckerberg put it, has a nice ring to it. One problem we still will face, is the overload of information we have to pick through every day trying to find either what we particularity enjoy or just what we want. This isn't anything new, this problems one of the reasons people argue the newspapers are failing. Now, the internet is a much easier way to blaze through massive amounts of useless information, looking for that one fact or story but another problem that almost levels us back to the papers status is the fact that information put on the internet typically never leaves it. Thus, creating a unbelievably large compilization of information we must pick through. Bree Nordenson, wrote a article called, “Journalism's Battle for Relevance in an Age of Too Much Information,” quoted Paul Duguid saying, “Living and working in the midst of information resources like the internet and the world wide web can resemble watching a firefighter attempt to extinguish a fire with napalm” (Bree Nordenson). Another man quoted from that same article was David Shenk, who said, “in the world with vastly more information that we can process, journalist are the most important processors we have” (Bree Nordenson). With that said, with my idea, of going through a so called “social graph” with the help of journalist's helping consolidate the important stories and information and this “social graph” people would have an incredibly easy way to find the information they wanted. By going through this graph system people would talk to friends and family that have already done or heard what that persons looking for, thus taking out the searching, and what some call “googlenomics.” Jay Winckler Q 2. Media companies are nothing new, they've been around for hundreds of years, but what makes some of the newer media companies so universal is the fact that some only exist on the internet. This was obviously not possible a couple decades ago, when the web had yet to be introduces into society for anyone to utilize. The web changed things forever, no longer does it take millions of dollars to create monstrous controlling businesses. Now companies can start out as a online company for virtually nothing down and slowly grow themselves to unbelievable measures. The best examples are Google and the ever growing Facebook. Both companies are power houses on the web, but Google some say, and in reality does run the internet in many ways. All five of my roommates and myself have Google as our home pages, coincidence, I doubt it. It just comes down to the blatant fact the majority of the searches done online go through Google in some way shape or form. Also they control what ads are shown, how often those ads are shown, and another huge part of their control derives from picking what links come up first. I mean if that’s not power what is, the internet runs the world we know and love today and one business controls a large chunk of that pie, it’s a little intimidating to think about. It’s strange to think there’s someone out there controlling what I'm searching for in the sense that I may not be getting the best results but the ones that are most popular or create the most turn over. Facebook on the other hand is working its way to, if not already there, becoming the most heavily trafficked site in the world. The wildest thing about Facebook is that it started out in a dorm room; Mark Zuckerberg took the idea of wanting a quick and easy way to meet new friends, keep in touch with family and friends and turned it into a worldwide sensation. Its blows my mind how big Facebook has become, its incredible. I believe what makes Facebook so exceptionally extraordinary is that it managed to take the strange stalker factor out of it, that had, in my opinion brought Myspace to its knees. MySpace kind of had this weird deal with friend competitions, who ever that the most friends was cooler, so people just were friends with more people they didn't know then those they did. Also it didn't take long for the stalkers and perverts to come out of the wood work. Facebook is about staying in touch and staying up to day with people you may not get to see a lot. I guess the best way to describe the differences between Facebook and Myspace, is that Facebook is more real and sincere where Myspace was more of a Sims world. With that, its clear making the big bucks on the internet doesn't have anything to do with charging those initial fees to enter the site. I can't tell you what the majority of other people do but in my case, and my best guess for the rest of us don't enjoy, thus staying clear of those types of site. Sure they have more turn over at first, it big bucks coming in from every subscriber, but subscriptions might start high but there going to slow at time, killing profits. This isn't the case when it comes to those websites that use systems similar to those utilized by the ever growing Facebook king and Google monster. Between the two my money would be on Facebook to soon, if not already take control of the internet. It started like most sites, small and aimless. If I were to be a investor, or someone on the Facebook team working on new and better ways to make money there’s a few things I'd bring up. First I would up advertisements, there pretty none existent now, and at least for me ads don't have any real effect on me, do my best to ignore them, regardless there going to bring in huge new profits. Secondly, I would add certain applications and make downloads available to those willing to pay for them. These could range anywhere from simple games, to more elaborate dating site additions. Finally, I would have promotional ads on the site giving away access to those new applications and such that cost money, and give them away free to those who get, say 20 new members to join and create accounts on Facebook. Simple, ideas that could potentially raise Facebook's turn over tremendously. In the stage of advertisements, these could range from really whoever was willing to spend the most for the space. Big companies such as Monster, Ebay, and FedEx, for just a few could potentially pay huge amounts to have ads on the busiest site on the World Wide Web. Nick O'Neil, a blogger from All Facebook believes, “Facebook’s single most important revenue channel is advertising. The company has always been ad supported and most likely will always be ad supported. While some have claimed that Facebook will one day charge for access to the site, those rumors are completely false. Facebook generates over half a billion in revenue each year, the vast majority of which comes from advertising” (All Facebook). He also explains how this all works, “Over the past few years Facebook has increased their targeting capabilities, including the ability to limit advertising to metropolitan areas as well as the following target variables: gender, age, network, workplace, schools, profile keywords, relationship status, and more. Facebook recently released the Facebook Advertisements API which provides large ad buyers with the ability to build robust ad managers on top of the Facebook advertising platform”(All Facebook). These ads could be like those that exist now that change almost every visit, or could be permanent ads that are in locked locations that don't rotate through other but these would be reserved for those willing to spend the big bucks consistently to keep that spot. My guess would be if a spot with that type of power existed on Facebook it would be fought over leading to huge sums of profits and if and when a particular buyer gets tired of page for that spot it probably wouldn't take long to find another willing party. Secondly, the applications would be phenomenal money producers. It’s a similar idea to giving users partial access and charging for full, the only difference is the full potential to the site is free, but if users want the side products its gonna cost them. Some examples of these applications could be the games they already have, such as Mafia Wars and Farmville; but rather then being free they would have a free trial period, maybe a month, and after that users would be required to purchase access to continue playing. Other examples for these bonus cash cow applications could be advances in the site it self, for example creating a dating service type arena, using the already tremendous population of Facebook. Of course this dating field would be closed to only those that have joined the “dating arena”, thus keeping those people who want nothing to do with it clear of it. Again, this could be paid for monthly or one single pre-payment leading to total access forever; knowing the little I do about business the choice would be pretty clear set on the monthly charge, just explaining the possibilities. These are just a few examples to convey my ideas of increasing revenue, it goes without saying there is no end the the number of games or any other type of application that could be offered to users for a access fee. This particular type of profit building is not only loved by companies but is just as crucial, with these, every month there are regular, sizable amounts of income no matter what; there is no waiting for say advertisers to a. buy a spot and b. run the risk of not being payed on time or at all without court proceedings. It can be simply set up linking user’s credit cards or PayPal accounts directly to the Facebook account, doesn't get much easier than that. The way Facebook makes money now is rather simple, as Nicholas Carlson explains, “We picked FishVille, the latest hit from Zynga. It came out only in November, but already its monthly active users are up to 20 million people. It grew 4.68 million in the last week alone, according to Insider Social Game's AppData. The object of FishVille is to build a magnificent virtual aquarium, full of spectacular fish and designer decorations. The way you do it is spending fake money to buy small fish for one price, and then, after tending to them for a few hours or days, selling them for more fake money then you paid. Then you use that money to buy more fish. If you want to speed your progress, you buy fake money with real money (Business Insider). I find it crazy people might spend money on something as clearly worthless as the trade of real money for “virtual money,” but then again people spend money for virtual items all the time, such as programs and data. The last option I believe will work with the best results of turnover for Facebook in particular has to do with growing the scope of the site in the form of users. With more users, the more people will be paying for the now optional games and applications freshly offered, and possibly even more importantly the more users is directly related to the number of those using the site and its links and such raising the margin for advertising prices. It’s not a hard concept, the more users, equals more traffic, which in turn makes the sites net worth go up. The ideas also simple, when Facebook was first getting its start I was just getting done with Myspace, and I vowed never to get a Facebook, I said, “that time of my life is over.” The only problem with that is that Facebook has become so large and in charge that a person is really at a disadvantage if they don't have a Facebook. One great example is I have no other way of contacting my Contemporary Issues in Mass Media teacher, except through the use of Facebook. As ridiculous as that my sound, Facebook actually has now become a more used form of communication, thus, at least for my generation killing the ever popular Email. There’s nothing wrong with this, its more simple, more people I care about directly are on it more frequently then they check their Email, and all in all we wouldn't be anywhere if technology didn't change and progress, its all part of how we move forward. Now back to the idea, its has to do with the way I was introduced into Facebook, I was sent, by about twenty different people AIM's to join. Its this type of simple addition that makes it so easy to spread the word and get those who may never of joined to finally give in after being pounded by their friends day after day. The only thing I would add is the idea of giving those applications and those other extras that cost money away for say a free month if a user brings in, say twenty new users. Obviously, this number is very loose, it could be anywhere from five people to fifty. That’s not the point, it’s the fact that people are enticed by freebies, even if its for things they're never going to use; they'll do it because that little voice thats in the back of everyones head that says, “well maybe I could use that at some point, what’s the harm.” With a system out there, such as this one my estimations of subscribers would sky rocket, maybe not as high as when Facebook was first getting its start and was nothing short of an international web firestorm, but it could bring them way higher then what they've been lately. Within the first year Facebook made it to their one millionth member mark, only a year later that number shot up to over five million, from there that number kept jumping anywhere from fifty to a hundred million members a year leading up until today (Facebook). That’s just with word of mouth and other such less effective ways of the word being spread, with this system offering up awards for those who make a point to get new members to join, that number could climb to unimaginable heights, maybe bring it from fifty to a hundred, to two or three hundred million new members per year. With such a vast member enterprise Facebook could become so large; it would start to be looked at as a monopoly of sorts. Its power over so many users would be unrivalled for other social networking websites and possibly news organizations. It could raise advertisement prices through the roof, therefore only the largest of the large business owners could afford advertisement, therefore cutting out the smaller businesses trying to build themselves up and create new ideas.. “The social network flexes its legal muscle. Now they're just being greedy. After suing Teachbook.com for using the word "book" in their company name, Facebook is trying to trademark the word “face,” as well. According to TechCrunch, any business starting with the word "face" could be at risk. It gets better. Not long ago, Aaron Greenspan,, one of Mark Zuckerberg's former Harvard classmates, claimed he had helped Zuckerberg create Facebook. Though the case was settled last year, Greenspan's back for round two. It turns out, his company, Think Computer, runs a mobile payment application called FaceCash. Rather than admitting defeat to Zuckerberg once more, Greenspan asked the Trademark Office for a time extension to oppose it” (Facebook Monopoly). This just shows the power Facebook has already it also sued, and won against Power.com, who wanted to use Fcaebook to interlink it with other social networking sites, such as Twitter. Facebook figured they were loosing at least some viewer ship so they shut them down. Sure they did it legally, but was it right, was it ethical, its hard to tell with such sites as ABYZ News Links and other that take data from other sites or simply provide links that gives users one easy place to go to get all their information in one place, the same reason Power.com was shut down. “Facebook overreached because it’s acting like a traditional media company with monopoly control of its channel. Remember, if you can, the days before the web, when every medium, TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers, were filled with ads. Everybody always said they didn’t like advertising, yet that didn’t stop people from consuming these traditional media in massive quantities and creating huge profit margins for large corporations. How did these media companies get away with making so much money by running ads that in most cases people didn’t really like; because they controlled the channel, and we had no choice. Then the web came along and exploded these natural media monopolies, nobody controlled the channel, the “user” is now in control. Except for Google, which developed two de facto new media monopolies, First the gateway through which all other online media are accessed or searched. Secondly, an ad network (AdSense) that became the most effective way for small, independent publishers to monetize content, they monopolized the monetization, not the channel. So what does this have to do with poor Facebook? Facebook’s user news feed, which are published to each of their friends, began to look like the next monopoly in new media. Want to find out what’s going on with your friends, who are all on Facebook, you HAVE TO go through Facebook; just like you had to subscribe to the local newspaper if you wanted to get news in the morning. The problem is that Facebook isn’t really a monopoly medium it just has high switching costs, it’s a pain to get all of your friends to switch to another social network” (Facebook Beacon). In other words Facebooks popularity is what’s lead to its power trip were seeing now. Because people are already devoted to Facebook they'll bend to their rules and regulations as they grow, for example the newly instated privacy settings. People are locked in to Facebook for its simplicity, all their friends are on it, why switch; its not until another social networking site comes along with something that really differs from Facebook in some mind blowing way, their only going to grow and flourish. For those still having doubts about Facebooks concrete lock on our lives, here is another reason for its tremendous success and achievement; adds to my reasoning; in Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. She states, “Our culture is one of multitasking, of cramming as many activities as possible into as short a period of time as possible. We drive and talk on our cell phones, check e-mail during meetings and presentations, eat dinner while watching TV” (Maggie Jackson). She goes on to say, “such multitasking is part of a wider value system that venerates speed, frenetic activity, hyper-mobility, etcetera, as the paths to success. That's why we're willing to drive like drunks or work in frenzied ways, although it literally might kill us” (Maggie Jackson). This is the exact reason why Facebook is such a global hit, it doesn't require people to scour the newspapers, websites, or magazines for the information we crave now a day more then ever, and thats the “news” happening among our closest friends and family. Sure, we are always going to need newspapers and other such news delivering devises to inform us about important events and issues going on be them in our back yards or across the world but people would rather here that their best friend broke up with his or her boyfriend or girlfriend before they hear about the latest acne cure or any other random events happening in the news. Bree Nordenson wrote in his article, “Journalism's Battle for Relevance in an Age of Too Much Information,” how the overload of our information intake each day is just to explosively high that we begin to either start shutting out large amounts or just never hear about it to start with. He goes on to say, “Many young people multi-task the extreme, particularly when it comes to media consumption. I've witnessed my twenty two year old brother watch television, while talking on the phone, IMing with several friends, composing an e-mail, and updating his Facebook page. A widely cited 2006 study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that 81 percent of young people engage in some form of media multitasking during a given week. But as cognitive psychologist have long known, human attention is quite limited. Despite our best efforts, when we try to do more than one thing at once, we are less efficient and more prone to error. This is because multitasking is actually a process of dividing attention, of toggling back and forth between tasks” (Bree Nordenson). In other words in the mad frenzy of what we like to call our everyday lives we try and do, more than not, more things than we should be, and especially what our minds can effectively handle. This is why so many people use Facebook as a type of short cut to manipulate their time in finding out the information that is important to them rather than using newspapers or the web; sure more young people then old, but Facebook is still young, half my older family now has a Facebook. The internet powerhouse referred to as Facebook will continue to grow and expand exponentially, this will lead to more users and obvious revenue increases, but if my ideas stated earlier were implemented, both those numbers would potentially be much higher. Syllabus Q 2. Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline Facebook Monopoly - http://www.inc.com/staff-blog/a-facebook-monopoly-on-nouns.html Facebook Beacon - http://publishing2.com/2007/12/01/facebook-beacon-a-cautionary-tale-about-new-media-monopolies/ Business Insider - http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-completely-addicted-to-a-stupid-facebook-game-2009-12 All Facebook - http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-makes-money-2010-01 Maggie Jackson – Annual Edition, Mass Media Bree Nordenson – Annual Edition, Mass Media Q 3. love to know - http://web-design.lovetoknow.com/Free_vs._Paid_Website_Hosting Buzzle - http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ways-to-increase-website-traffic-paid-vs-free.html Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet PlantProse - http://planetprose.com/2010/10/24/internet/how-to-increase-web-traffic-with-free-youtube-videos/ Fred Vogelstein – Annual Editions, Mass Media Q 2. using your own media usage and the current media landscape as guides, predict how a media company might increase revenue over the next ten years. All predictions must be possible. Be sure to cite current predictions and practives, both from readings and other. Q3. should websites be paid or free and why? Be sure to give at least three concrete examples, including at least one not mentioned in class and that support your theory and reasoning. Also be sure to reference at least one other person's theory on the matter.

Romulous Cooper, prior to the Google purchase of YouTube, as to which it couldn’t find a effective way to produce revenue. I clearly lay out the simplistic style in which the world works. If you have read this in its entirety I am incredible impressed! Thank you.

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