35 Burst results for "Spartan"
The Breakdown
A highlight from Bitcoin Up 100% in 2023, Hits Pre-Luna Crash Prices
"Worth noting is that the SEC is under no obligation to approve anything before January 10th. That could be a long time for this narrative to hold and so the question is can inflows continue in the meantime or do we reset to some new level? What I do know is that the energy is starting to flow back into the space. Big moves coupled with powerful narratives like those being offered up by Larry Fink are capturing attention even outside this community and that is the recipe for the very very very earliest beginnings of what will in time become the next crypto bull. Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, N .L .W. It's a daily podcast on macro, bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on guys? It is Tuesday, October 24th and today we are talking about, well of course, we are talking about bitcoin's crazy price surge. The bull market is back whether you're ready or not. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly breakdown pod. Hello friends! Well yesterday, as you know, we did a little bit of an October is Back episode but my goodness was yesterday a breakout. Today we are going to talk about what the heck is going on and we're even going to extend it a bit into traditional markets as well. I think a very good summary of the sentiment comes from Blockworks Jason Yanowitz who tweeted this morning, in 24 hours crypto twitter flipped from bear market angst to bull market FOMO. There is no middle ground. So let's start with what actually happened. Monday's bitcoin price action was volatile, lively and energetic and most importantly it was positive. Late on Sunday evening as you heard yesterday, bitcoin had pushed through the key psychological level of $30 ,000. By 9 am, bitcoin had already spent the past 12 hours trading above that line but had fully retraced the early morning price action. Once traders were at their desks and the opening bell was rung on wall street, bitcoin began to take off. Both the morning and the afternoon sessions each saw a respectable 1 .6 gain with bitcoin closing out normal trading hours at around 31 ,700. All by itself, that would have been the highest daily close since June of last year, narrowly surpassing previous bear market tops in April and July. However, one of the things that makes bitcoin different is that of course it never closes. And when the stock market shut down, bitcoin clearly wasn't done. At 6 pm, bitcoin took off in one of the largest god candles we've seen over this bear market. As you heard yesterday, many had noted that $32 ,000 would be a significant level to test for a breakout and that thesis turned out to be entirely correct. Once the price broke above $32 ,000, it moved violently upwards with bitcoin gaining around 7 .5 % in just minutes. That move ended up just shy of $35 ,000 before retracing back to around $33 ,000. Notably, the positive price move continued into the late evening rather than breaking down. The $35 ,000 level was tested a second time around 1030 with every dip being bought along the way. Overnight on Monday, bitcoin seemed to hold on to strong support at the $34 ,000 level after one of the more remarkable days of price action in a long time. Bitcoin is now back at levels not seen since May of last year when the collapse of the luna ecosystem first plunged crypto markets into what would become a long crypto winter. Now, there was a lot of surprise at this move. Crypto news aggregator Tier 10K said, Ayo, what's going on? Also, there was lots of talk about the breakout. Bitcoin Jack wrote, Clearing $32k is significant and finding support sets up some range that I expect to grind higher until shorts run out of money again at which point price continues, supported by spot demand. 10T's Dan Tapiero had an even simpler explanation. Bitcoin, he wrote, melts all faces, but especially boomer naysayer faces. And Dijen Spartan posted a classic copy pasta from recently arrested Suzu. One of the fastest ways to talk to yourself as a crypto pleb is to ask, what's the reason for the bitcoin pump today? Its path to 1 million is preordained. On any given day, it needs no reasons. Now, of course, clearly the biggest narrative driver for recent price action has been the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs shifting from a hope into a firm and perhaps even imminent reality. On Monday morning, Davis Polk finance lawyer Scott Johnson noted a few key details from most recent BlackRock filing, which had to that point gone unnoticed. Specifically, the BlackRock ETF had received a QSIP, which is an ID number used in electronic trading and asset management systems. They had also disclosed a plan to seed the fund with assets sometimes this month. The seeding isn't expected to be a massive amount of bitcoin buying, but rather a nominal amount of a few million dollars to ensure the fund can trade smoothly on launch day. Now, a little later, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balcones pointed out that the BlackRock ETF had been assigned a ticker symbol and listed in the DTCC's trade clearance system. Once the fund is launched, it will trade under the ticker IBTC on the Nasdaq exchange. Balcones tried to tamp down excitement, saying all part of the process of bringing ETF to market. But man, having that ticker be real definitely made this whole thing a lot more real to everyone watching. Today's episode is brought to you by Kraken. For far too long, the whole financial system has been standing still. Too slow. Only on for certain hours. Overly designed for some types of people, but not for others. Crypto, at its best, represents progress. It asks the question, what if? It invites people in instead of leaving them out. It's on 24 -7, 365, and moves at the speed of real life. Not everyone believes it. We've got our fair share of detractors. But that's the way it always is when you're building something new. Kraken is a crypto company that has been through the highs and lows of the industry, facing forwards towards progress throughout. And now they're inviting us to see what crypto can be.
Epicenter
A highlight from Guy Young: Ethena - USDe Synthetic Dollar via Delta-Neutral Staked Ethereum Hedging
"Welcome to Epicenter, the show which talks about the technologies, projects, and people driving decentralization and the blockchain revolution. I'm Felix, and today I'm speaking with Gai Yang, who's the founder and CEO of Ethina Labs. Dina is building EUSD, a delta neutral stablecoin backed by Staked Ether. We're going to dive into what that all means, but yeah, first of all, welcome, Gai. So glad to have you on. Yeah, thanks. Awesome. Yeah. So generally, we start more about your personal journey to crypto, you know, Epicenter is mostly about kind of how did people get into the space, what were their vision or why they're trying to work on future of decentralized finance. So yeah, when we start there, how do you like learn about crypto and get into the space and what did you do before? Yeah, sure. So before crypto, I was working at a hedge fund in the US. They focus primarily on financial services. So we're investing into everything from banks to insurance companies, specialty finance, and that was across the capital structure as well. I had a friend who was a DeFi founder back in 2019, introduced me to Ethereum and to DeFi back then. And it was just something that was immediately interesting to me. And I was investing into it on the side of my day job all the way through until when Luna collapsed. And it was when Luna went down, Arthur came out with his sort of thought piece around how we might think about a more secure and scalable crypto narrative step coin. And that's how we sort of landed with the idea of Athena. Yeah, that's a really interesting post there and sort of origins with Arthur's post and also like he's a founding advisor to Athena. And in the post, if you look through it in the ad, it actually says, right, if I find a team that does this, let's do it. So that recall you guys found each other there, I guess, we'd be curious to hear actually how that went down. Did you reach out to him? You started building it and then later when it had some shape, you were like, hey, Arthur, it's happening? Yeah, that's exactly right. I thought we wanted to flesh out the idea a bit. So you actually had a bit of a game plan and architecture behind the whole thing and a business plan that actually made sense that he could get behind rather than just sort of putting our hands up. So we put that together, had this sort of design and everything ready to go. And then had a connection into Akshat, who's the guy who's running his family office Maelstrom, had a few calls with them and then got introduced to Arthur directly there. Awesome. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So I also like, I guess, for our listeners, I think many people know Arthur Ace, right? It's like BitMax founder and like a sort of person that's very famed in the crypto space around macroeconomics and trading in general. And he wrote this post called, actually, I don't know, Dust on Crust, I think. It starts about skiing and kind of draws parallels to the crypto space. I think in general, Arthur is a pretty great writer. So I recommend reading some of his blog posts. And it goes into this idea of the NACA dollar, which is essentially sort of a new type of stablecoin that he was thinking about that is based around derivatives and sort of hedging out the price risk of cryptocurrencies. But we'll get into that. I think I wanted to start because I guess stablecoins, like huge topic. You also already mentioned Luna there, right? In general, stablecoins seem to be one of the kind of use cases of crypto that has gotten the most traction. So yeah, I wanted to kind of get your view of the history of stablecoins in the space. What did you find interesting and what was lacking, like going from DAI and these sort of like more centrally backed stablecoins? Can you just kind of talk through a bit how you were thinking about stablecoins before you started Ifti now? Yeah, sure. So the history of stablecoins goes all the way back to Tether and it was originally called Realcoin back in 2014. And then they launched officially as Tether on Bitfinex back in January 2015. So that really the key innovation there was a lot of the crypto businesses that existed were really struggling with banking relationships and being able to off -board and to interfere. And really the only innovation that they had there was if Tether could get the right banking rails set up, you only really needed them to be able to do that as sort of an off -ramp to the real world. And then everyone else within the crypto ecosystem could rely on Tether as transactional money within the space. And so that was really the first use case, which was just a trading pair on exchanges. And it's obviously evolved pretty significantly from then onwards. After that, I think actually the origins of Athena was probably the next example of how a stablecoin -like asset sort of surfaced. And so it was actually on Bitfinex where everything was BTC denominated. So single every instrument that in order to margin the derivative required Bitcoin as the collateral asset. And so if you wanted to get into a flower position, they got a short inverse perpetual against that BTC collateral. And that would in effect create a synthetic gold position out of those two things and ending off. And really that's kind of the origin of the Athena story, which is what we're trying to do is tokenize and export that as an actual product rather than just a trade that was sitting on Bitmax. Since those days of Bitmax, I think you saw a few different evolutions going away from the centralized model of stablecoins. So you saw MakerDAO and originally it was called SAI with single collateral being ETH and then move to DAO, which allowed different collateral types to come in there. At a very basic level, what was happening is you're putting up collateral on one side and then you're able to borrow the stablecoin into existence on the other. Really the key moment though for MakerDAO was in the March 2020 crash where the system basically became insolvent with what happened with the price crash in ETH. And in order to actually remedy that situation, they needed to onboard USDC as a collateral asset there. And so I think really that changed the course of history for MakerDAO where they sort of made the decision that they were going to take on centralized assets and that fundamentally sort of changed the actual profile of DAI as an asset going forward. And now you sort of look at it and it's more than 50 percent centralized assets, whether it's or RWAs USDC sitting in there. And then we obviously get to Luna. I think everyone's pretty aware of what went on then, happy to sort of jump into what we think went right and wrong there. But I think it's a pretty well spoken story at the moment. All right. Yeah, totally. I think very interesting to hear that I guess on BitMEX there was already this product there, but I guess it was only on the exchange, right? It didn't make its way into on -chain or DeFi. And that's sort of what you were after, since that also has evolved a lot. So it goes back quite far, which I guess most people maybe don't know. I think you were also mentioning in some of your materials the stablecoin Phrylema. Can you sort of expand on what's the trade -offs that stablecoins generally make and then how Athena fits in that? Yeah. Well, I think Trilemmas are used quite a bit within pitch decks in crypto, I think to make up problems and pretend that we're solving them to get a capital raise. But I think actually the Trilemma as it relates to stablecoins is actually a very real one. So the basic idea here is you've got decentralization, scalability and stability, and you only can really have two of those three components. We personally think that it's a pretty unhelpful sort of definition of the world where if you're focusing on these words, which are just very broad, like decentralization and scalability, it's quite unhelpful to actually say, are you actually attaining those qualities that you're actually after? And so for us, we're trying to think a bit more deeply about what are the more narrow qualities of each of those three pieces that we actually want to try and retain within our product. And what we arrived at is within this decentralization phase, what is actually the base that you're trying to solve for here? And that is actually having censorship resistance. So for us, that meant you don't want bonds or real world assets sitting within SPVs or banking structures in the real world, which a regulator or some of the entities can come in and shut down in the space of the day. And so for us, that was really the piece that we were trying to unlock. And it's something that was echoed in the sentiment of Arthur's piece, which is you're not actually trying to create a purely decentralized stablecoin because I don't actually think that they exist in reality. What you're trying to do is create a stablecoin, which is independent of the fiat system. And that's actually the quality that you're going for. So for us, yeah, like I said, it's a more narrow definition that we're going for. I don't think we've solved anything when it comes to the trilamor that's sort of presented as it is. But we are more narrowly defining what it is that we're trying to achieve. And in doing so, I hope that we're just presenting something that's honest to our users in terms of the type of trade -offs that we're making. Let's get into this in a sec. I think another one that's very common, like fear or concern in the stablecoin space, especially around Tether, is sort of this transparency angle. Is that kind of related to the censorship resistance for you or how do you think about that? Since I guess in Tether's case, many think, is the backing actually there, there's not enough audits? And yeah, is that something you're addressing as well? Yeah, 100%. So I think we felt like we weren't leveraging the openness and transparency of DeFi within our product. We'd be doing our users a massive disservice with the way that we put it together. So it does look slightly different here because we are leveraging centralized liquidity to put on the hedges. And we can jump into the reasons for that later on. But what you do have are wallets where you can see where the collateral is actually sitting. And then the corresponding hedges that offset that collateral, you can obviously just have a read from the exchange APIs to display that. So really what we're trying to do is elevate the local transparency here well beyond anything that you see, even from like a USDC where you're often waiting a month to get watered down or the reports come back. And here you can see a real -time dashboard of every single cent of collateral and hedge that sort of corresponds to that. And we think that showing that to our users and being fully transparent about it is the way that we really want to present the product to our users. Right. Yeah. Let's definitely get a bit more into this. I think maybe we take it back a bit around this actual principle of how the stable coin is created. So I guess in Athena it's called EUSD. And it mostly relies on this principle that you already said that you have the long asset, the core asset and a short position against it. Can you explain that maybe in a few sentences again for our listeners that maybe are not so familiar with financial products? Yeah, for sure. And maybe just before we jump into that, I know we've mentioned stable coins a few times on this. I think it's a word that we as a team have been thinking a bit more deeply around in terms of how we're marketing these type of products to people outside the space. So I just wanted to be clear before we jump to the mechanics that really the risks around this product look very different to having a normal stable coin with bonds basically sitting in a bank account in the real world. And so I think we're just thinking about repositioning the way that we describe the product as something that is closer to that synthetic dollar concept that I described earlier on. And yeah, really what goes into the synthetic dollar idea is you have, in Arthur's case, his idea was long BTC on one side and then short inverse perpetual on the other. And the basic idea there is that for every percentage change in the underlying collateral, those two positions are essentially netting off so that you always have one dollar of collateral that's in and out. One key change that we made to Arthur's post was thinking about swapping out Bitcoin for a stake Ethereum. There's a bunch of different reasons why we thought that that made sense. The main one being that you now have a positive carry to being long stake Ethereum. So you get paid some yield that's ranged between three and a half to six percent this year. And what that does is not only enable you to create what we think are really interesting yield products around the synthetic dollar, but then also it gives you a really interesting margin of safety because these hedges often do pay you to be short. So over the last three years, you get paid roughly seven percent to be short the ETH contract. But that's not always the case. And sometimes it is negative. So for periods during 2022, when the whole space was blowing up and centralized entities were getting liquidated, you did see that sort of briefly dip into into negative funding territory. And so having that stake return on one side obviously helps for you to be able to cover that risk as well and just create a more secure product. Right. So this funding rate, just to go into this a bit more, right, if you're shorting pay this funding rate to the other side, essentially. Right. And usually you get paid for putting on the short. So it's you can sort of think about it as there's a natural long demand for leverage within the system. And crypto is a long biased market where most people who are in the space think it's going up. And so they're willing to pay for that leverage to be longer than one X they're not worth. And so in our case, we're taking the opposite side of that position with a short and they're getting paid for that. But essentially the underlying to what if it's like negative or positive, the funding rate is essentially like a market dynamic of like supply and demand for short longs. Right. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah. Okay. And you mentioned already. So they that mostly it's like long bias, I guess we'll maybe get into a bit more like how this could turn out in the future and things. But I guess one other question that I had around, you know, like you already said, you know, switching out Bitcoin for Ether, but is there also a potential to, you know, have multiple assets as collateral in a system like also Bitcoin maybe or even like other proof of stake assets? Yeah, absolutely. For us, it's really just a question of sequencing. So Bitcoin's obviously got the deepest derivative market sitting behind it, but it's obviously got that issue of not having as much interesting yield for you to be able to create a product. And so the way that we thought about this is in order to bootstrap something from zero and, you know, fund an insurance fund that can sit behind the whole thing and ultimately actually just drive demand for it, we know that people within crypto respond to yields. And that's how you can sort of address that cold start problem in the beginning by interesting people with something that has a bit more yield. But as we sort of grow in scale and you start to tap out the potential of derivative market and staked Ethereum, you can obviously generalize that to look at Bitcoin and then also other proof of stake assets like Solana. The issue here is that on one hand, Bitcoin's more scalable due to the size of the derivative market that exists around it, but you don't have the yield. But then on the other hand, you've got something like Solana, which, yes, it's got a proof of stake yield that's attached to it, but the derivative market is like a 20th of the size of Ethereum. So really, it is a question of sequencing for us. But who knows where these markets grow over the next three to five years. But we are sort of restricting ourselves to staked Ethereum, aren't they? Right. Yeah, makes sense. Makes no sense. I think what's also interesting, I guess, is this insurance one you just mentioned or like sinking fund, I think it's called in Arthur's post. So like that's basically for these periods where the funding rate goes negative. Can you like expand a bit? How does it exist in how are you building this? What like sort of, I guess, portion of the yield is diverted to that? How do you how are you thinking about the system to do that? Yeah, you can you can think about the sources and uses for the insurance fund in basically two ways. So the first is just raising capital. So when we're raising capital at the equity for the Ethereum Labs business or within the if we eventually have a token and do treasury sales through that, you obviously have an ability to basically raise dollar capital in exchange for the equity yield tokens. And I think that that's just a pretty clean and easy way to get to get an initial insurance fund set up. The other interesting piece about this is to the extent that you're generating yields on the product that are above market. So roughly this year, this product has been running at around 12 percent unlevered. And that's with crypto rates being pretty close to the low of their cycles versus like the real rates in the real world at 5 percent. What's interesting there, I think, is, yes, initially you want to pay out most of that yield, I think, to users in order to sort of bootstrap liquidity and supply in the beginning. But there does come a point where that interest rate differential to rates in the real world. I'm not convinced that you need to pay out the full amount to keep sort of users in the product. And so there might be an equilibrium where, you know, rates in the real world are at five, four, three. And this product's at 10, 12, 15. That obviously gives you some scope there to be able to capture some of that yield to the insurance fund going forward. I think the interesting piece about that is obviously, as I mentioned, funding is typically skewed positive where you get 7 percent over the last three years. And if you just look at the distribution of sort of the days of positive funding versus negative, when you include the stakeholder yields, you get 89 percent of the days you're getting paid and you can add cash to the insurance fund and only 11 percent where you're going to be drawing from it. So really, it is in your favor that you're going to be accumulating cash into the insurance fund through the life of the product. And we think it's quite interesting because you're capturing, you know, some value within the token, within the product and actually helping to create a more safe and secure product going forward by capitalizing the insurance fund. Right. Right. That makes sense. And then I guess if it turns negative, the insurance fund would like sort of subsidize that to get the yield back for a while. Is that sort of the mechanic that it would? Yeah. Well, what itself performs is zero in that case. So we don't want to be in a position like with what you saw with Anker and Luna, where I think actually creating that inflexible endogenous interest rate there, I think was one of the biggest mistakes that they made because you really need external market forces, I think, to be calibrating the supply of the whole system. And whenever you're stepping in and trying to pay more yield than it's naturally producing, I think it's just a bit of a slippery slope where it eventually leads to breakages in the system at some other point. And so really what the insurance fund is doing there is when it would be negative, you're just getting it to zero so that, you know, users aren't losing principle in the stablecoin. And then naturally what's going to happen is when you get paid zero percent to hold the stablecoin, we expect that some users would step out of the product. And in the process of doing so, we'd have to lift the shorts on the exchanges, which causes funding to mean Roberta going back above zero. So just to be totally clear on this one, the funding rate is not something that we're scared of. It really is like core to the whole design here, which is we want users to be responding to positive and negative interest rates. And when it does get too low, that means the supply of the stablecoin is too high relative to dynamics in the rest of the market and it needs to shrink. And we're not going to stand in the way of that. Right. I read this tweet where you answered basically some concerns of like each and Spartan there. And I found it very interesting that essentially the stablecoin can adjust by just people withdrawing and then you're closing out the shorts, like you just said. But there's also the just like general mechanics are not as many people might think, I think, in the that are like scarred from from Luna that it would be like totally collapsing at once or it's very, very hard to do that. Can you can you explain maybe why the like a deep hacking wouldn't be like, you know, from one dollar to zero versus instead maybe going like more gradually losing value in this sort of case? Yeah, for sure. So I think the the the key difference here is that you've actually got the collateral sitting behind the stablecoin. So Luna was obviously backed by basically just the faith that the Luna token had some sort of value and then market maker's ability to stand in and save the system a bit like a central backward in the real world. And the key difference here is, yes, even if you do have some of these issues and there are other risks outside of the negative funding, but we can just focus on this one, even if it does go negative, if you look at sort of the bottom twenty five centile of funding, are you like the worst quarter of where funding gets to, it's typically around sort of the negative five percent range. If you think about that on an annualized basis, if you're bringing that down to a daily attrition that you'd see within the stablecoin, it's literally one basis point per day. Right. So it's like not even comparable to a swap on curve or a little bit of slippage that you'd be paying like anywhere within this entire system. That's how much you're losing every day if this thing is at like the bottom quartile of the funding. And so really the risks are very different here where if something is going wrong, it's a very slow, gradual attrition of the principal of the stablecoin rather than something that sort of collapses to zero in the space of a day like you saw with Luna. Right. Totally. I think that's very interesting. I think maybe we can get a bit into like technically how it works. I think the interesting piece in Isina's case is I guess it has like the sort of interaction between CeFi and DeFi. So like there's there's elements on chain and there is like interaction with centralized parties. Can you just explain how that works and why you need that maybe? Yeah, for sure. So this is something that Arthur was pretty interesting on on his piece, which is the demand for this type of product we think is is here right now. And it's it's a product that sort of the need is immediate and urgent. And we don't really have the time to be able to wait for perpetual DEXs on chain to go to a size that would be able to accommodate for it. So centralized liquidity, rough numbers is between 25 to 30 times larger than what you see on chain. And part of the issue is that even on -chain DEXs, they're not a single unified source of liquidity. So you have Synthetix sitting on Optimism, you got GMX and Arbitrum, you got DYDX doing their app chain on Cosmos. These are all disparate areas and pools of liquidity, which you can't even sort of aggregate into one place to try and build this product. And so for us, it was really accepting the fact that you needed centralized liquidity in order to get this to scale, to achieve the goals that we have as a team and deliver a product that we think is useful for millions of people rather than thousands. And given that fact that you need to make those trade -offs, we ask ourselves the question of, can you do that in a trust -minimized way while you still retain the core pieces of decentralization that we care about? And so just going back to that original point that you're making around the trilemma, for us it was really asking a more narrow question of what is it that you actually care about when you have your assets on an exchange and what is it that you're trying to protect yourself from? And for us, it's really just you don't want your assets sitting on a centralized exchange. And so we've seen this over, if you have FTX 2 .0 out and again, where you want to be able to hold your assets and make sure that a centralized exchange is not going to basically withhold you being able to take them out. And so we've seen really interesting unlocks when it comes to custodian setups that have been put in place since FTX, where you have an ability now to hold your assets outside of the exchange, but then still use them as a marketing instrument for the derivative on the other side. And so what that unlocks is our ability to be able to, A, provide the transparency that I was describing earlier, so you can actually see those wallets and be able to read into them as a user on the other side. And we'll be providing that in dashboards on the app. And then B, it reduces that counterparty risk to the exchanges obviously enormously by being able to disaggregate the assets from sitting on that service.
The Breakdown
A highlight from Chokepoint Across the Pond: Chase UK Says No Crypto Transactions
"We've got election season coming up, remember? And if the Dems win and Gensler comes back to the same office, he doesn't care because he has the wind at his sails. And if he loses, he also doesn't care because he's out of the job. I would expect, in other words, for every court decision that goes against the SEC to be answered not with a rational shift in policy and approach, but instead two blazing middle fingers from a bureaucrat potentially on his way out the door. Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, September 27th, and today we are talking about this crazy, strange Chase UK letter banning people from accessing crypto from their bank accounts. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find the link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, I have to start the show by eating some crow. In the morning yesterday, a letter started going around that people were, of course, breathlessly posting as fact long before it was confirmed, and it just did not read right to me. So much so that as more and more people started tweeting about it, I actually posted it saying, I think this letter is fake. Let me just read the whole thing to you. So it's not long, so you have a sense of why I was skeptical. The header says Chase, and it says our policy around crypto is changing. Here's what it means for you. Hi. To help keep your money safe from fraud and scams, we're changing the type of payments you can make from Chase. From 16th of October, 2023, if we think you're making a payment related to crypto assets, we'll decline it. If you'd still like to invest in crypto assets, you can try using a different bank or provider instead, but please be cautious as you may not be able to get the money back if the payment ends up being related to fraud or a scam. Please head to our website for more info about how to protect your money. We've made this decision because fraudsters are increasingly using crypto assets to steal large sums of money from people. Declining these payments is one of the ways we're help keeping you and your money safe. All the best, the Chase team. So a couple of things that really stood out to me. One was the tone in general non -professionalism of the letter. The use of the word fraudsters seemed very, very strange from an official corporate communication. This is obviously quite a colloquialism and so the idea that it was being used as a formal explanation for why a bank would be denying an entire category of payments options to its users seemed a little crazy. Continuing that questionable tone was the ending, all the best. That's how I sign off my emails. That's not how a major bank signs off its emails. Now, of course, there was also the general grossness of the policy if it were to become real, but that really wasn't even what I was thinking about initially. And yet, shockingly, it was confirmed to be real. I was wrong and somehow a bank associated with Chase had sent out that letter. Now, later in the day, it became clear that the policy was for Chase UK rather than the broader US or international banks. But even if it was only a domestic UK policy, the aggressive move still rubbed many people, perhaps most people, I would say, in the industry the wrong way. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted, Now, Andrew Griffith is the UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury and Minister for the City of London and Rishi Sunak is, of course, the Prime Minister who was formerly the Chancellor of the Exchequer who said while he was at that post that he wanted to make the UK a crypto hub. LightSpark CEO and former head of the Libra project at Meta, David Marcus, added, Now, UK commenters were surprisingly quiet and that's perhaps because Chase is a relatively minor player in the UK despite being a major global banking brand. Chase has, in fact, only had a presence in the UK for around two years and has less than two million customers. They're also limited to offering online services, so are, in practice, a lot closer to a fintech platform than a traditional bank. Just by way of comparison, relative to the population, Chase UK has a similar footprint to Huntington National Bank in the US. Now, if Huntington banned crypto transactions in the US, you can bet we would be chattering about it, but it wouldn't ultimately be seen as that big of a deal which perhaps explains the lack of outrage from UK crypto investors. That said, of course, Chase isn't Huntington. Regardless of whether they have a large customer base, Chase UK is still a subsidiary of the largest western bank in the world and because of that, the important part of the policy change is unpacking whether this is an idiosyncratic decision of an insignificant bank or speaks to a broader policy outlook at JPMorgan Chase. Now, the reason given in the letter for this policy change was, of course, to prevent fraud. When fielding questions from media throughout the day, a Chase spokesperson doubled down, saying, Austin Campbell rightly points out, quote, Bitcoin attorney Crypto Hat responded, Austin, eminently reasonable as he always is, responded, and other financial institutions to fight said fraud, not turtling. Now, of course, even if this policy change only affects a couple of million Brits, it still matters in the broader fight to ensure crypto investors and firms have fair access to banking services. This has, of course, been one of the biggest themes throughout this year. The pushback from the US crypto community matters in order to ensure that banks can see that these sort of blanket bans are simply not an acceptable way to deal with issues around fraudulent transactions. And for a place that said it wants to be a crypto hub, the UK in particular has had a string of larger banks rejecting crypto payments over the past year. In February, a group of CEOs from major UK banks appeared at a parliamentary hearing. Multiple CEOs said their banks were blocking crypto payments, and although they listed fraud as a major concern, they also mentioned the volatility of crypto investments. The problem became so large that the UK's Financial Conduct Authority published a report on de -banking earlier this month. The report stated that the regulator had facilitated conversations between banks and crypto firms to ensure that they would be able to open and maintain accounts. Still, some large UK banks, including NatWest, are currently refusing to service crypto firms across the board. Now, one alternative opinion came from Francis Pulio, the founder at Bull Bitcoin. He said, via video chat, and essentially interrogate them to make sure they aren't being sucked into a yield, cloud mining, or other crypto ponzis. Still, as you might imagine, even among Bitcoiners who share Francis's disgust with crypto scams, this wasn't the primary opinion out there. Indeed, by and large, the sentiment was, and this is the end -then -they -fight -you phase. So what to do? Well, some, like dGen Spartan, basically say vote with your feet. They write, but getting banks to open accounts for crypto individuals and companies is another. Just vote with your money. My crypto -friendly banks get my highest share of account. The others? Meh. Now, another response is the entrepreneurial opportunity. Rama Lawalia, the CEO of Lumida Wealth, said, Although, indeed, later he tweeted, I don't know, man. All in all, it feels a little choke pointy to me. Remember, the whole point of Operation Choke Point and why it's problematic is that it creates a scenario where government and regulators don't have to ban anything because they just make it so economically untenable and politically risky for big service providers like banks to work with crypto companies that a de facto ban is the natural response. And speaking of de facto bans, let's turn now to the intransigent SEC, a bipartisan group of House Financial Service Committee members have written to SEC chair Gary Gensler calling for the regulator to immediately approve spot Bitcoin ETF applications. Mike Flood, Tom Emmer, Willie Nickel and Richie Torres penned the letter, which asserted that, The SEC's current posture is untenable moving forward. Following the Court of Appeals decision, there is no reason to continue to deny such applications under inconsistent and discriminatory standards.
Crypto Banter
A highlight from Crypto Investors AREN'T READY For What Happens Next, Top Altcoins & More - Jos (Delphi Digital)
"What's up, Banta fam? I'm here with Jose from Delphi Digital. Today, we're going to be discussing all about the crypto markets, DeFi, altcoins, layer twos, and more. We've got some awesome topics lined up for today's interview, which is part one. And we're also going to be doing a part two as well to discuss some other altcoin stuff. So Jose, welcome to the channel. Hey, Maz, thanks very much for having me. So I did an interview with you, I think it was like six months ago, and we went into a lot of the, like the basic fundamentals of your investing, your strategy. I want to focus more on current events in today's podcast, because obviously, a lot has happened since then. So I wanted to get an update from you. Like, what are your thoughts right now in terms of where we're sitting in the market, kind of in a weird low volatility period with people hanging on for this Bitcoin spot ETF approval? Yeah, definitely, definitely a bit of a weird sort of period. I think this is kind of always the case with with like bear markets, where it starts with kind of like fear and panic and volatility. And then it kind of gets like it continues to like indifference almost right where the market really slows down, volatility goes away, people start to think and that's when people really start to think it's dead. And like it kind of drives people insane, especially trader types who just get like wrecked with the with the chop. From my perspective, there's loads of loads of cool stuff happening in the background. I mean, I think infrastructure is progressing really well. There's now like multiple options for devs to launch applications in ways that are like very scalable. There's, there's a lot of development happening on the application front as well, although it's like largely unseen. But like, there's billions of dollars raised for crypto games. We like invested a lot of crypto games. So we get kind of a sneak peek and pretty exciting some of the stuff that's going on in the background there. I think, like, DeFi gets a lot of hate. And obviously, he's been in a famous the Gen Spartan kind of 36 month bear market. But I think DeFi has shown like how resilient it is through throughout everything that happened here, both with Curve and with with the stuff in 2022 too. So overall, I think we're in like, pretty good spot. Yeah, I mean, obviously, Bitcoin ETF would be would be huge. But I think there's like enough kind of natural momentum from from stuff that's being built that. Yeah, I'm pretty, pretty bullish from where I'm sitting. Amazing. Yeah, I want to ask you about some of those like protocols and altcoins specifically. But first, to just touching on the ETF, once again, what are your thoughts on the implications? How do you view view it overall affecting like the Bitcoin flow structurally? Yeah, I don't know that I have like a particularly interesting or good take on this. I think it'll make it much easier for external money to enter into Bitcoin. And it will also kind of like be a stamp of approval for Bitcoin from TradFi. And like once you have like, obviously, BlackRock itself has has like $10 trillion under management. And I think there's there's multiple spot ETFs filed by like massive entities. And once they start putting their marketing dollars behind the behind it, and you're kind of like aligned with them, it kind of changes the game for Bitcoin a little bit and makes it makes it much more unstoppable. And then, I mean, obviously, what we always see with Bitcoin is if Bitcoin like the a lot of the bull runs kind of start with Bitcoin, and then people move, like take their Bitcoin gains and move further out the risk curve to ETH and then from ETH to alts, right, so should be very kind of positive for the entire crypto market. But I also think a Bitcoin ETF kind of makes an ETH ETF, like inevitable from my perspective, and it'll just take a bit longer. And so that'll be super positive, too. I think once like if TradFi likes Bitcoin, I think they're gonna love ETH with like a yield and deflationary narrative and all this stuff. Yeah, so I think it's very positive. And obviously, like the approval is likely to to coincide with like the happening, which is just like, I think going to end up being pretty explosive, pretty explosive, explosive combo. So yeah, I don't have like a very original take. But yeah, I think it's obviously very, very bullish. Well, I want to touch on the second half of what you're saying just there like referencing like Ethereum and how it could potentially lead to an ETH ETF as well. I want to refer to a tweet that I did yesterday kind of listing some of the reasons why I'm personally bullish on ETH. So we're seeing, I feel like a shift in the market, like with a lot of L1s rebranding to like ETH L2s, obviously, the layer two TVL keeps increasing. And you also have specific ETH catalysts that are on the horizon. You could think of like EIP 4844 as one we'll probably discuss later. But like, generally, just there's a lot of bullish momentum for Ethereum. Do you see this trend continuing? Like what do you think this means for the overall layer one, layer two landscape? Because it just seems like yeah, there's just a lot of momentum for Ethereum that continues to be built.
AP News Radio
Florida Atlantic end's Fairleigh Dickinson run for Sweet 16
"It's Michigan state of Florida Atlantic moving on from Columbus. Florida Atlantic as a 9th seed ended 16th seed fairly Dickinson season with a 78 70 win after its first round upset of Purdue. The owls who got 29 points from Jonah Davis are heading to the school's first sweet 16. We've been talking late nights after the game at the prices all this time are we really, we really can make it too much manners and make some noise. We've been saying this since day one of the summer we got put out last year. 7th seed Michigan state got by number two seed marquette 69 to 60, Tyson walker let the Spartans with 23 points. Tom mccabe, Columbus
The Dinesh D'Souza Podcast
Kevin McCarthy and the Language of Power
"All right, so Kevin McCarthy finally made it. He is House speaker, I guess he's now legitimately in the speakers office that he moved into before he actually had that position. And the question is, how is this all turned out? I think it's an interesting exercise to do a little bit of a post mortem on an exercise in the language of power. Now, there are some people who as soon as Kevin McCarthy got the votes threw up their hands and basically said, that's it. A swamp creature is now in place running the Republican House, my gosh, we have my McConnell in the Senate. We have Ronald McDonald still in the heading the RNC. This is very bad news. We, the Republican base are not even really represented by these people, so this is an unmitigated disaster. I want to argue that this is not, in fact, the case. Now, for a while there, you had these 20 holdouts led by, well, there was bob Perry. Mary Miller, who's been on the podcast, or Matt Gaetz, Lauren boebert, and the phalanx of 20, we're almost like the Spartans at the past they were holding out, they were holding firm. They were sort of bent down with their shields above their heads, and they seemed immovable. Vote after vote after vote, I think for ten straight votes or so McCarthy didn't seem to be making any progress at all. But and then you had something very interesting, which is it looked like it looked like a McCarthy really upped the concessions that he was making to this group. In other words, both the substantive concessions, things like I'm going to have this investigation and a COVID investigation, the origins of COVID and I'm going to do a investigation of the border policies, and I'm going to defund the 87,000 IRS agents, and also procedural concessions.
The Charlie Kirk Show
The Battle of Wills for House Speaker With Marjorie Taylor Greene
"Joining us now is Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is voting in support of Kevin McCarthy to get the other side of the debate. Marjorie Taylor Greene joins us, congresswoman Greene. Thank you for joining us. What is the latest on the floor? Do you think Kevin has the votes to seal the deal walk us through it? Well, we just did our fourth round. Our fourth ballot. And he didn't have anyone to we just had the same group 20 people vote for their third speaker candidate who, by the way, has presented no plan whatsoever. No agenda hasn't told the American people or our conference what they want to do. So again, this is proof that they have no plan, which is my problem all along. It's hard to support a secret candidate for speaker because they never want to announce to their running. And then when you find out who the person is, there's nothing presented. We have an agenda and the agenda is to do investigations into Hunter Biden, the Biden administration, impeach mayor kiss. I want to impeach Joe Biden border security shut down the fentanyl killing Americans every single day. And to rein in the spending that has inflation out of control to audit Ukraine, that's a resolution I introduced and we can get it passed. We have so many things that we want to do, hold the D.C. jail accountable. And I want to investigate them. COVID origins, vaccines, but we can't do any of this stuff until we elect Kevin McCarthy, who was fully on board with all of these things. So what you saw is, again, the pretty much the entire conference is supporting Kevin McCarthy, except 20 people and Victoria Spartans voted present because she's planning to run for Senate and her state. And maybe opposing campaigns. That's the rumor.
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"So thank you for saying that. Now onto your actual question. The one thing that makes me crazy, Game of Thrones comes out. And it is this bomb success, you know? Both as a book series and then later as a television series. And it's a success because of the incredible interplay of the deeply flawed characters, right? You have intrigue and assassinations, you have sex. You have murder you of power and fantastic, you're powerful women that are real characters that are front and center of the story. It's not just a sausage fest like so many of so much television recently. And it becomes this incredible success. And it inaugurates the series of televisions, Sopranos, yellows, and orange is the new black. Now we have Yellowstone and they're all sort of this idea that these almost plotless stories where the incredible flawed humanity of the characters and their agenda is pumping up against each other is what makes the show. Well, that is the wars of the deodorant, which is faster wars, which is the squabbling generals fighting over the empire of Alexander the Great after his death. It is one of the most gripping intricate and it has every high note I just described. Women front and center, marriage is sex, assassinations, battles, entry, flawed human beings bumping up against it. It's just it's Game of Thrones. And I can not understand why TV Land is about seized on it..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"What I do know is that the notion of criteria and military elitism is incredibly powerful, almost I brought up the death threats that people are coming after me over this topic, which is pretty much you couldn't even argument kind of not relevant to moderns is lives. And yet people are willing to threaten me with death. You know, over this thing. And that is because this emotional attachment we have to this idea of Pretoria is and this idea that if we emulate this is probably going to get me in trouble. But I always say that Christianity is the best example of this. This concept of what's wrong with you and how you need to be right is too complicated to explain. Here's Jesus, imitate Jesus, right? This is the example. And I think that that conception is what we're seeing here. What's wrong with you? Why you're a bad while you're inadequate? Well, how you need to be better is too complicated to explain. Here are the Spartans. Do what they do, right? And then you might be worthy. You might be good enough. And people are deeply deeply insecure. And they want to have that example to follow, because engaging in incredibly difficult intellectual rigor and emotional analysis that's necessary to kind of unpack where you want to go in your life. It's much easier to have a model to follow. So I think it's an incredibly powerful notion. And I really agree with Tom Holland..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"I mean, the Greeks fought a lot. They were there a contentious people. And so what explains their ability to defeat large, more or less professional Persian armies on a number of really decisive occasions? So the first thing that I want to say and I always say this is a very common question is where are our Persian sources? How many aquarium ended writers have I read that comment on the sand battles and the answer is zero. And a lot of this has to do with God it makes me upset is modern relationships between the United States and Iran. I can't flatter on. I can't meet up with Iranian scholars and have conversations with them. There are a couple of notable American historians and British historians writing on the Persian Empire who have who are braver than I am in terms of making those trips and making those connections. But look, I worked in intelligence in the military in my whole life. You know, I'm not going to destroy my ability to work in the future by maintaining contacts with Iranian nationals. I can't risk that in my job. Which is unfortunate. It's so stupid too. But that's the world in which we live. So I do think that a lot of our perception remember when we look at ancient history, we're looking at this tiny fraction of the source material. And we are not looking at Persian sources. And I think it's really important to remember that when we ask that question. I also want to refute your point that the Greeks fought a lot. Everybody thought a lot. I don't think that the Greeks were any more or less more like any other people. And one of the things I was so struck by is, like I said, I'm doing a project now in the English Civil War. The single Civil War that I'm dealing with now, depending on how you count it, is the 8th..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"Impacted it, but we have this classical image of a hoplite at four ADC, which is, of course, the helmet, usually the full face or in the helmet. The thorax or the metal bell chorus. You have the teres, the kilt around the waist. You have the griefs that cover the knee and the thighs. And then of course you have the aspect, which is the big round shield and the door, which is the 6 to 9 foot thrusting spear. And this is sort of the classical image of how a hot light is equipped now. I do want to point out that even back then, that is how a wealthy hoplite is equipped. The only thing you're required to have to stand in the phalanx is the shield and the spear and I'm sure there were plenty of people that showed up for work like that because that's what was available and they weren't turned away because everybody counts. But they were probably in the back. They were probably not in command positions. But we don't see them represented in art, which is interesting. And we don't, I mean, maybe to some extent we do, but certainly less so. And there's not a lot of discussion about that. We sort of have this image of this uniform pop light and one of the things I struggle against in all of my historical work is breaking away from this idea of uniformity, especially in ancient medieval warfare. Uniforms are a post westphalian. So we're talking 16 40s. Idea. And even then they weren't super uniform. I'm currently doing a project on the English Civil War. And I'm fighting against this conception of uniformity, which didn't exist even so recently as that. So but then what you see is a gradual shedding of armor across the 5th century. Culminating in 400 around 400 around the victory of Sparta in the Peloponnesian war with no armor with the for everybody..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"That is an example of reenactment. And it was one that made it into an academic paper in the news. It was in the journal of archeology. Because he didn't do it wearing an armor and had pictures of himself wearing armor, which he should have in my opinion. I don't think he came in for as much maltreatment as if you were a larger as we call it. I'm Larkin kind of, I think uses a derogatory another example. Oh yeah, for sure. Another example of this is that I thought was super helpful was there's a conflict between livy and polybius discussing the battle of canoe papillae, Philip the fifth's charge down the hill into the Roman manipal that's facing him. And one of them, I think it's polybius as they lowered their pikes in charge. And livy says they dropped their pikes through their swords in charge. And everyone assumes that livius mistranslating polybius is creep because he's writing later. And I was thinking, man, we know Philip doubled up his phalanx of 16. We know that the sarissa are like 21 feet long. We know that there's three foot intervals. I don't know about you, but if I'm running down a hill with a 21 foot pike and I have 15 men behind me and I'm wearing whatever, 30, 40 pounds of kit, I'm gonna turn into a pole vaulter. That's not effective. I might want to drop my pike in charge. That makes sense to me. And then my immediate reaction was, well, heck, we know where the battlefield is. We know where the hell this is anybody ran down it and seeing how stupid is because the reality of it is is that in geologic time, 2500 years is nothing. It's a blip on the radar. Unless there's been major geological activity, excavation or water activity, you're looking at the stem battlefield absent vegetation. So the one thing I just wanted to say was that I wished that historians that rely entirely on literary analysis and visual examination of material culture would add reenactment. There is there are lessons to be learned there are questions that can only be answered by putting on the gear and doing the action. And this is especially true of the military history. Although it's certainly true of every other aspect of it as well. And if you're immediate reaction, when you see an experimental experimental archeologist, there are reenactors to go, oh, well, that's nice. You know, maybe look inwardly and ask why you're doing that because this is a really critical tool in historians toolbox. So one question in particular I had because and you talked quite a bit about the battle of, as it turns out, I don't think we're spoiling anything by saying Stevens won. Where you talk about this living spear where you have the 50 ranks deep at one particular part of the battlefield. And so have you actually tried something like that? Because when I was reading about it, I was thinking, like, I mean, does that really work having 50 people behind you? Are you generating that much more force than having 16 people? Because surely it's not just additive. There has to be you have to be lost as to friction and that kind of thing..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"And then you know, I mean, it kind of, but they also had reasons. And you can sort of understand what their reasons were. The other thing, just to talk about what you brought to this discussion. And I think this is more from lesion versus phalanx than from bronze lie. But I loved your discussion of how officership works in a military unit right down to NCO ship. I mean, that was incredibly illuminating for me in terms of talking about you have this many people and nothing has changed between the 5th century and right now in terms of people's ability to manage other people. I thought that was a really productive way to take your personal experience. And military experience and illuminate what's going on in the Macedonian phalanx. Thanks. Thanks, yeah, and I also on that span of control concept, I think, because there's a debate in Roman military history and someone with the role of a century unless you have a lot of people talking about them as a sergeant. And I was like, no, they're captains. And this is based on span of control and based on the duties of a modern jail. This is an academic point, right? Who really cares? But I do think it's useful because especially for staff officers, people who are in military college is trying to conceptualize what someone in ancient militaries doing it doing through a framework that they can understand. I think that that's critically important to make those kinds of distinctions. So another thing that and I think, again, this may have been a little bit more legitimate. But you certainly talk about it in bronze lie. So one of the methods you use is reenactment. Or you have been part of a reenactment community. Not just organic community, but what volumes are called LARPers, right? But real sort of reenactment. Can you talk a little bit about using that to sort of inform your analysis of what's going on?.
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"Remember who it was, but I was thinking about it in a low edition, which talks about a particular spirit used in a battle as a Lance. He's describing it as a Lance. Well, to me, that conjures the image of a nightly Lance, right? Like a horseman's weapon that's a certain length where, okay, maybe he's talking about a contos, which is a kind of Macedonian Greek cavalry spirit with a certain length, but he's actually talking about a sarissa, which is a 21 foot long infantry pike that has wielded in a completely different way and has a completely different bearing on the battle. So the definition of the word matters. But why would this guy care? He's a geopolitical she's not talking about melter his own Lance, good enough for me. It's like, you know, do I need to know it's a Glock? No, gun is fine. Call it a gun. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. So you've got to do your own translation. So one of the things I always talk about is that it's three languages. It really is. And what he wants to deal with that because languages are hard. So that's a really important thing. So then the advantage, though, of being an autodidact and having fire service experience. So look, I don't want to get into the fight with people. Oh, you serve you didn't, whatever. All experiences in life are military experiences. If you're watching a war on folded home on TV, you're having military experiment. But there are some advantages to having been an officer, having served having been downrange, because there are universalis and to help people fight how they handle fear. And that stuff I'm able to come to grips with. And that's where we get into the law of confidence, which I put out here is that so much of the narrative that you see in sources, particularly in sources where you're dealing with Barbarians, right? You're othering a group of people. Where the assumption is, they made this error because they're done. Wrong word. I apologize for using it. That's not the correct word. Stupid. So using this word, they're using this method because they're stupid..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"Is, it involves more legwork on the part of the student. You know, when you're reading facilities, you've got to Google around. You've got to understand the context that comes with it. And I hate to say that because people are busy. You know who wants to deal with it? But that really is the only answer to using this stuff safely. And when you think of like, I always get frustrated when people talk about a democratic Athens as being any way comparable to a democratic United States. It's just, you know, what you are really dealing with, remember, Athens is democracy. We're extremely rich people are on the boules that have voting rights. You and I are not voting in Athens, right? We're not members of this sort of noble club. It's the way I can sort of equated it to yeah, there's a House of Commons in 17th century England, but unless you're Jeff Bezos, you're not on it. You know, like, so this idea that it's representative democracy and direct democracy in the same way that the United States is just not true. What you really have in the Peloponnesian war is a conflict between two different oligarchies. And the Spartan argument that Athenian oligarch Athenian democracy is really a form of model rule. I don't agree with it. But there's so much argument there, right? So I wish I had a better answer other than do the work. Because it's frustrating and I hate to sound, I don't know. Pedantic and professorial, but that really is the only way to use this stuff safely. You have to know not only the context of the texture reading, but it's context and current affairs. Because I really think that that impacts how you're receiving it. So I want to talk a little bit about your method. And especially I like the way you phrased. And I can remember the exact phrasing, but it was the assumption of competence. Because these are texts where we often have we have often only one source we have the introduction of all sorts of deities and other sorts of weird things. Thucydides is in a lot of ways the exception here, but so tell me a little bit about how you approached a lot of these angio texts in terms of talking about these battles and especially about the assumption of competence on the part of the commanders. Sure. So it's funny, Paul cartilage just eviscerated me in a review in the I think it's the times literary supplement in London. And one of the things that one of the nice things he said was that I'm an autodidact act of the best time..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"I certainly knew it would be true of the Spartans and lo and behold when I dug into the evidence it was. So one of the things I point out is that I didn't do anything particularly extraordinary in my analysis of ancient Sparta. All I did was go back through the source material that exists and keep score and look at it with a clear eye. And what was shocking to me was the degree of hate that poured out of the Internet when I began publishing articles at a piece in the new republic, it came out a few years before the book. And it's been uniform like from major academics from right wing ideologues like Mike cernovich, the volume of death threats I've gotten. People are incredibly invested in this idea of Spartan supremacy. And an attack on it has been received almost like an attack on a more divisive and current political issue like abortion or school shootings or something. But it's just amazing to me. Yeah, so there's just generates all kinds of things. So I have and I want to come back to this theme. I mean, I have sat in a class with the army war college, where I teach thucydides. And there are people who are legitimately surprised. Wait, wait, no, they're not supposed to be surrendering here. What are they doing? It's like, you know, this is not new, right? I mean, this is not like some sort of new thing that we're revealing. This text has been with us for literally 25 centuries, right? And so, you know, it's not, it's not a secret. You know, it's interesting to me because I remember even back in undergraduate talking to people in a classic department. So there are some ways in which I feel this isn't the Sparta worship. Certainly seems to have some origins in 300, but it's not quite new, because I remember somebody telling me that so many classics departments undergraduate and graduate divided themselves along Athens versus Sparta lines. And the Sparta guys were always assholes, right? And it's like, well, why would you prefer Sparta? And so it's interesting to me that it has played out in such a polarized way now. And it's also, and this is not your focus, right? A few years back, I'm considering different tattoos. I would not have been above, like, contemplating an SPQR tattoo. But now I'm glad I don't have one, because now it's a right wing signifier, right? And that's what sucks. I would have to get it removed or change to something else. Well, you could make the argument that you're really appropriating it from the far right. But yeah, I mean look I definitely would advise anyone considering any kind of classical history tattoo, especially one from a vexilla, or from any kind of military angle to check because a lot of this stuff. And I do mean a lot of it has been sucked up by the far right..
podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"spartan" Discussed on podcast – Lawyers, Guns & Money
"My name is rob Farley, and with me today, I am delighted to have Mike Cole, who is the author of the bronze lie, which is a recent book about the Spartan mirage or the legacy of Sparta in the modern and ancient worlds. He is also the author of legion versus phalanx and a whole host of other works. How are you doing today? Mike, good, thanks. I really appreciate you having me on. Well, it's absolutely an honor. I devoured both bronze lie and legion versus phalanx. And pretty rapidly. And actually, at the end, I want to come back to that because I listened to the audiobooks and I saw I have questions about the audiobook versions and how those came together. So I mean, why don't we just start out with the big question, which is what was the bronze line, what attracted you to talking about Sparta in this way? Sure. So look, I have always had an abiding interest in ancient warfare, just coming out of being a war gamer, which is what led me to legion versus phalanx. And my interest, of course, was very tactical, very practical, sort of what you would expect from normal Warner kit deployment logistics all that kind of stuff. But what I think look, I make no secret about my leftism. And I think I sort of became very alarmed with the rise of trumpism and because you have to remember it wasn't just an American phenomenon in 2016. It was a global phenomenon. And I think at the same time that the unite the right rally was going on in the U.S., there was a massive one in Poland, and that was something like ten times the attendance. So what I noticed across all of these movements and I do mean all of them is that they use Spartan iconography as, and mind you, I'm not talking about reasonable conservatism, right? I'm a leftist, but I'm not a wild slavery leftist, right? I want to be clear about that. I'm very interested in, I don't like flipping. I mean, literally every leftist has exactly that same thing that they say about other leftists. I know that because I just travel in these circles. But there's always of course I'm not a lunatic. But rob I mean it. I'm the one who really needs it. But yeah, and unfortunately, I think we live in an injury you have to make that disclaimer, right? Is that there's such intense political division globally, not just in the United States, where you really have to identify when you say that you're on the left or the right that you're on the same in moderate left or right and not part of this because those polls are really a serious phenomenon throughout the world right now. So I do think it does bear speaking to. But anyway on the far right mind you, I'm not talking about conservatives in the mold of a David French or a Brett Stevens or whatever. I'm talking about generational identity tear. And the oath keepers and things like that. Spartan iconography was universe universal. And I kept thinking, what is this?.
The Mindless Morning Show
"spartan" Discussed on The Mindless Morning Show
"Solely speculation by all means come have enjoy. And if you don't like it well fuck off absolutely and all the links will be the description as usual. And i mean did it. It's been a pleasure having you in. We do this pretty much every episode but we always like to ask our guests. Is there any words of wisdom that you would like to give any words of wisdom as well glasses come off. B b scottish. No look at the end of the day. I know we've taken the best of cast because they clearly started to monetize it or doing something during law that s one thing i've learned from this is if you have something that you're passionate about and you want to talk about and you think you have a good enough voice to carry on it. Try it it so easy to try it. And i don't be scared about it. Don't worry about numbers or anything else. Just gal microphone and talk about this subject throughout the world. You'll be pleasantly surprised unless you find a decade who comes in trouble you but don't listen to the trolls one. There's ever more talented than they think. This could be your talent but for the majority of people. It's not. I've heard shitting podcast and yeah bieber irby scottish not british helps but that's my thing so get your own right and listen to the salty speculation bughouse also send our podcast join our server and shit you draw. Listening door podcast. If like hanes point watch it on youtube slater all grow join our district server just ya new coach and join Because we are one of the scumbag podcasts. Trying to monetize look fucking degenerates. Just like a straight thirty dollars a month just to pay for producing but can i just say something honestly up the two of you right now and this is even for. Everybody else are lettuce. I'm not. I'm not talking. The beg podcasts are talking about our little you know little private for date right us. You eat asking you to subscribe to the patriots. Joined the districts. Ever under-financed we. They have a laugh on this show. We've had a laugh on the show today. But i speak to these guys every fucking day. And i do i do it because i enjoy the company if i didn't i just a fuck about but i enjoy learning about their late. I enjoy them because they've got a fucking vibrant personnel. Jen is measurable. But only she generally lovely. So if you really want to get involved in this the best place to join the desk or with them. How the cia and just join in harare. It's a lot better than sitting there going through the same shit. You always framed on. Facebook no common. Get the news. Direct from jank and that is my endorsement of their man young. So send me your account. So i can send you the ten dollars in britain we pay pal here but i'll still do okay opinion. Pay awesome. You pay pal. So.
The Mindless Morning Show
"spartan" Discussed on The Mindless Morning Show
"I probably would lifelock lok for some like a i. Technology to find the words for eighty cents. I say that. And i make jokes about it and everything else like where i do swear like docker acom health. It's just a darker it's just the phrase sailor. Men's bring your own names. Are you personally pilot. Or whatever right balmy new fire. That would make sense a pilot not so much. I know a pilot ayler just like hard labor type things but i car because it starts just like my upbringing where i'm from all my friends while i guess just the way it is. I will say that. For the first two or three episodes of our show. I maintain thought and i would swear constantly and i just made a conscious decision to try and stop fat during the show i mean. Don't get me wrong. The occasional fox. Okay because sometimes you just need to show emphasis like me going. Oh my gosh isn't gonna work but fuck that you know what i mean. It works but i wouldn't say that our show is like a family friendly and it's not solis with carson carson in it. It's a lot more family friendly. Some more family friendly the next fucking show. I can I don't know like me and in the idea of curse words it just doesn't hit the same as it does with most people like to me. Yeah it it's my authentic busy. It is me what i want to say in. That's that and search warrants. The are the words words. But you don't like it tough shit people that do a lot of like fall into wards again giving them power. They're not they're fucking vocal ranges told the are though there to communicate. It's nothing to do with power. And all that. So i try to be as much as i don't like it. I try to be wary about how other people would feel when as like if someone who's really interested in our show bought they don't wanna lesson because me and necker gone. Well fuck you fuck bedford. You know that you know. I don't wanna i don't wanna lose patterson because of something that we could have very easily changed if you know what i mean. Get some righteousness self-righteous this thing here. We're we're battling the beginning. Yeah yeah so i mean. People are automatically thrown off. Because i mean they here naked mitch mcconnell and they're probably like fucking gone after that you know. This is what i would be off by the trigger wars..
The Mindless Morning Show
"spartan" Discussed on The Mindless Morning Show
"Hey guys welcome back to the mindless morning show. I'm jen and with me josh. As usual and then. The winker d- jay Salty speculation podcast was up. Jay was up everybody at one in this context means i find a considerable amount of alcohol. And that's got nothing to do with the fact that i'm wearing a spartan helmet yet. We decided unmasks and then we decided it is very much for the intro. Because they're all very painful. Very very josh is pretty at lake. He's wearing eight mask for people that don't actually watch but you should and it sou- it did you wait. I definitely like every anime watch. I'm going to pause the recording momentarily. Draw jaw thank. You otit yes. We are all masks nascar Methyl matt resist. That urge the worst decision. I ever made was to start doing videos goddamn helmets i thought it would be a funny five minutes thing and then not would be every single week at ev. I swear my hand is getting bigger as more and more every time aware. And i don't get it like eight horrible. I hate it. And that's a real metal. Mass so of a helmet is an actual helmets so there is a strange stupid story behind this my friends for christmas. I decided to buy him something. I knew very much like which was crushed by you. Massive mastercraft kazaa. Text me about a week before christmas. Saying of going something that you love and get their christmas day on the spartan helmet. And i do love it but i have absolutely no idea why he saw. I'd love spartan helmet. I've i've never talked to him. But both spartans my love for them or anything he just went. It really liked that. So now i own a spartan helmet and then tell the show started. I had no idea what to do with it. So now has it gives another few. You're like predicted your show. Which by the way tell us about. Yeah so our show is speculation. Relatively new podcast. We're actually doing quite well more better off than we thought we would be On we talk about anything. And i mean anything that can be said of weird or as i like to call it. We are joaquin wonderful. So ghosts was talking about that stuff but then move straight and raelians from aliens start talking about credits and from there the mandel affect because why the hell no a.
Dealcasters
"spartan" Discussed on Dealcasters
"That's how you. That's why do editing that way and the old the right and there was nothing worse than handing that over and then finding out you did it wrong and then you go back and it's And and there are. There is free software available right now for you to download whether it's davinci or or whatever that does that in and the great thing about it is you can now teach yourself because it is free. You've got your phone. You got the free software and with editing. You just do it. You look at it. Does it look right now. Let me try this do it again. You can actually as long as you. Don't have the pressure of a deadline or a client. You can teach yourself the access to youtube right. It used to be like you know. How do i learn this well. I'm going to have to go to university or i'm going to have to like You know find out somebody that could you know. Just do it for me. I think there's a store that they do that for you where i can. They can take all you know. Whatever now searched on youtube. Somebody's somebody's doing hundred percent right right. So it's a it's a great source for for and you can watch youtube at double speed. Which is what. I do pretty much all the time. Oh that's a. That's the secret. Why do edit at at double sometimes astor speed Don't tell anybody jim. Then don't tell any of my clients that i that i at double speed. You just told him yeah. I guess i did cats out of the bat. Marian so you made this transition from film to podcasting. Which in of itself is a really fascinating. What do you really. What is it that you really enjoy about. Not only a podcast or but you also have a business where you're helping people get started on their podcasting journey. Can you tell us a little bit more about that as well. Yeah well should. I jump back and tell you how i got into podcasting or should we talk about. Yeah about that one. So so I don't know if you guys know. Joe san are who is. He's the founder spartan race and. He's he's a character in his own right and and he was my neighbor. And as i said had a background in film and sports live down the street from him so we started working together and his first book was coming out and he wanted to promote it and he had been interviewed on a couple of podcasts to promote his book and he found when he started travelling around the world after that when people came up to him that knew him. it was because they'd heard him on podcasts. And so said we gotta do this. And so he and i just started kind of trying some ideas and he's you know being to the way he does business. He's like how soon can we do it. You know and i figure it out. So when i started the podcast i was using all the originally i was using all the film techniques. Had lava layer. Mike's on wireless lava leers was shooting it on film multi-track You know all this stuff and Doing it on location and we kind of came up with a plan at first we were going to do those podcast at the time called barbells drug and there were four guys across guys and they would go and they would do kind of like many films so without her i will. We'll do four hosts we did probably twenty episodes with these four host and none of those have been aired and know what sonically or content wise front and. okay wise. Yeah we had some great guests unfortunately like there was some nuggets in there that it's sad. They never happened but we just did not get the growth rate. It would just was not there yet and then joe thought. He had the opportunity to interview. Richard branson and we thought well that would be kinda cool and so we went and You know went to his island and that's a whole nother story. It's a great story but we recorded that interview and that's when we kind of thought okay. Here's a format that works. Joe and i go travel around he interviews the people we comeback and we had a set of four co hosts and we would have them do an intro and then at the end they would do a discussion about the topics in kind of their take on a response to what the interview was and so that was our format right up until kovic. We would do them that way. The success of the podcast has been amazing. Are there any stories that you've heard of people being impacted by the podcast. I know that you spoke it. I caught ear in for those of you. Who are Are fan girling. Like i am right now There's a your podcast movement. Talk is on youtube and Some of those stories that you told about Spartan up in how You know that helped you in terms of resilience and fears that you had. Are there any of those stories you'd thought to maybe share here. Yeah let me think about this You know one of the guys that we talked too early on because what you know when you were. When i was getting ready for this i thought okay. Like what are some of the the guests and i opened up actually was looking at some of the archival footage because we're actually going to do a series of telling some of those old stories and so looking at some of the older stuff and there's this one guy they call him tony the fridge and He's he lives in england and he runs ultramarathons night. Do you guys know one. An ultra marathon is. That's a that's a very very very long. John noble the marathon. Five so yes technically. It's any an all an ultra. Marathon is anything over a marathon summer. The hundred miles two hundred miles five hundred miles so. This guy runs ultramarathons with the fridge on his back now. It sounds absurd but when you hear him speak. It will give you goosebumps. It is so powerful because he talks about the metaphor of the bird that he carries for others and then he carries for people that couldn't carry it themselves and he felt like i get goosebumps. Now he tells stories of cancer survivors or even family members who've lost cancer. You know somebody and he says. Like if i can do this you can do it. I want to give up. I'm carrying this burden for you. And he stories of like you know running into his running over the hills and there's a woman die standing on side of the road and she says she was waiting for him and that her child had just passed away of cancer and she meant so much to her that he was doing this and he had actually fractured his his foot. And he he said at that point. I had to keep going. You know and he tells it just. I can't do the story. Justice the the guy he tells very very powerful stories. So there's those kinds of stories these these just incredible people that have either chosen these struggles or those. That haven't chosen them. You know people who were injured people who were born with different conditions in how they have taken that and turned it into this superpower. Almost there's a guy we interviewed pretty recently. You can look him up shave. S q and at age six. He was burned all over his body and he's now one of the top ranked ironman athletes and when he interviews. You helped. he'll play a prank and he takes his ear off because he's got a prosthetic ear. But if you hear the stories. It's not just that this guy was burned as a child you here. I had no idea what what it's like to go through. Because and i don't wanna get too gruesome but when you get severe burns like that The tissue doesn't grow and so he had surgeries year after year after year. You know over thirty years. Just the brutality of what he had to go through.
Dealcasters
"spartan" Discussed on Dealcasters
"Interview and of course the spartan podcast as well that we've talked about a spartan race for the mind which i think is a is a is a killer hook. It's like so there's this idea that there's a year the average five best friends right. There's that you've heard that but some of us can't surround ourselves with the people that maybe aren't gonna lift us up and that was kind of the idea behind the podcast with three days a week and every time you listen you're going to be elevated a little bit and it works on me like i listened to it. I listened to every episode. Even if i recorded it edited it produced it whatever. My role was in the episode. Listen to everyone and it keeps me from getting stuck in my own kind of spinning my wheels or getting stuck. It keeps me motivated. Keeps me inspired. Gives me little nuggets tips. Like i use it totally. That's the that's the advantage of a lot of people are like. How can you be a video editor. How can you be an audio editor. How can you add it all these pockets and was like guess. What if. You're an entrepreneur. You coming get to choose your work. And so there's some some of these clients that it gets to work with. I get done. Editing a podcast. I feel awesome. Ray and i feel like i just got done with something that was worth it was and it took a while to get through it but like you here even if you hear things over and over again somehow you're hearing something different that may persist so i'm interested if we could go backwards because i know you were massively involved in film and You again you may be too humble but there's a lot going on with you in terms of what you did with filming and i know you were involved in in you said sports so it was. It was skiing probably the and A lot of what you did feel ming. What happened in vermont. And and all of that. What i guess if you kind of like maybe walk us through a little bit of that but how did that move into podcasting space. I know you touched on you. Know how is spartan up and everything but now you've just gotten this huge bug like are you. Are you looking to go back into film. Are you still doing a little of that. So what's what's going on there. That's it's a it's a good question and it's one. I have to think about a little bit but look the thing that i love to do is help people tell stories and how people make connections through their stories and i like to do. It was pictures. I like to do it with moving pictures. I like to do it with sound. Film is all of them together. Podcast is just the sound. it's it's it's it's fun and exciting and it's probably the only career that would have kept me interested for this as long as it's been right because i've done things from standing at the starting line you know here's a great one used to shoot the the us freestyle nationals for skiing. And have you ever seen inverted aerials. That's when the guys go off the jumps like this and they're doing like flip flip flow right so i had a camera position. The jump is like this. And i'm standing with my back to the jump looking straight up as the flipping over me right so everything from that to interviewing and insurance salesman like and it's all interesting right and you get to see you know. I've gone to south africa and been on a safari with landrover. I've gone to greece and traveled in the peloponnesian islands and visited traditional greek weavers crazy stuff was spartan over the years so it's a great career because if you're a curious person like you said if you like it it doesn't feel like work i always say like don't tell my clients but i would do this for free right. Your secret's out now. Nobody will and we talk about. We talked about the tech as it relates to podcasting. But i mean in the film industry. It's insane And and you know when you were doing more of the film stuff it you know. And now there's what a cave cameras or whatever that are in the huddles of nfl games and these ridiculous you know. The tech is ridiculous but in the end of the at the end of the day. It's like some people are getting great shots photography and great shots. You know filming with cameras. They're just they just know how to how to manipulate how to do it. And so i mean how has tech. Is it parallel to what you're doing in in podcasting from yeah i mean this is actually the thing about. The pencil actually came years ago when i was working in video. Editing and people were freaking out because all of a sudden there was non linear digital editing. It became affordable. Everybody bought it and they were like well. You know this is terrible and it was like. It's not the equipment it's not the system you know all those trends are going to keep happening and you can either freak out about it or you can just enjoy it and you think about you know the camera that i'm using right my primary camera. I have another one behind the screen. Here that used to be like a forty five pound thing that sat on my shoulder and didn't do half of what that does i couldn't shoot slow mo i couldn't shoot stills. I didn't have the same range the same light ranging from light to dark. This thing you know is like i'm holding it my left hand. It's tiny it's light it's unobtrusive. I could shoot anywhere you know. What kind of camera are using marian. That is a sony office. Sixty five hundred so again. It's not the most expensive. It's pretty similar to the a seven. What is it the seven s but It's cheaper you know but it does the as far as the image quality. It's exactly the same. It doesn't have some of the bells and whistles but if you know what you're if you know what you're doing you know a lot of people can just use this use. Their phones one hundred cameras the cameras that are in the phone You know cameras right. Yeah it's it's like one of those things. Where boy. If i had that when i was a kid all my gosh yeah jury asking about the technology you know. And that's that thing is like you can do so much more with less and you can get upset about it because you're getting left behind or you can get excited about it because there's potential i like to tell this story. You have a second for for what editing used to be. We have as many seconds that you want to share right so you stop me if this gets boring but this is okay. So you've done video editing or audio editing So you're putting two shots together and you want to add ten frames. I i shot is a little too short. You say add ten frames go plus ten. Hit return right so in film in the old days. If you wanted to add ten frames first of all you had three people in the room because you had the editor of the assistant editor in the third assistant or second assistant which was me in the old days right my first job and so the editor would say i want to add to this clip. The assistant would look up. What film real it was from now. I would go and get a box off the shelf. That had that real film from that shoot in. It also had the real of sound that had been sink to it. And you would take these two reels and you'd put it up on a special table that literally had to cranks that you would turn right and so you put the reels on there and you wind through it to fifteen minutes in where the shot was. You'd find the shot and you pull that down and use the little the little. It was like a little thing you hit. Cut the cut. The film open spicer vice. Yes so i'd spice open film. Cut out the ten frames. I'd have to put something called fill in there so that in stayed in sync with the audio output. A ten frame piece fill-in wind up back. Put the two reels in the box but the box on the shelf take that piece of ten frames and bring that to the editor and she could spice it in..
Dealcasters
"spartan" Discussed on Dealcasters
"I have you know and so And and kind of move it around and and one of the things the great thing about doing spartan up was so we would we record all the episodes in person and the main host is jody. Sonny's the founder and ceo spartan and. not only. Is he a bradley but he's also a busy guy. He's starting this huge company and So you know there were moments where we'd be in a taxicab. He's on a phone call. I've got all my equipment so everything we had to do. The podcast with i had to carry with me and i had to carry usually my overnight bag as well because we never spent more than one night in one place off the plane. You're taking a cab from the airport to somebody's office where you're going to record a podcast and you've never been there before and And so i'd have you know my clothes and my camera and my mic all my stuff and And he'd be on the phone and he'd be getting out of the taxi and hannah me is credit card as he walked away on the phone inside the cab so i'm trying to pay get all my stuff and you know after him with all the equipment Hence the the monaco odds in the in the trunk on more than one occasion. But what it did was. It was like You know talk about the dumbbell. It was like repeat repeat. Repeat repeat every day could be five ten fifteen interviews in a day A whole bunch of different locations outdoor on the street in new york city in an office on an island on ship like in a taxi. You've done at all and so you get to sort of like all the equipment becomes an extension of you and it really is You forget that it's tack. It's just kind of what you do. You're like what what's the best tool for this solution. How do i make it work then. I would imagine having that experience that you did. And now you're working with a lot of other podcasters right you were in in. You know these are these are podcast is not necessarily just starters right. You're working people that Are maybe afraid of you. Know or don't understand like well it's it's it's outside. It's it's here That you can't do that whereas what you've done it you've done it over and over and over and right know how to do it and Again it just kinda of comes back to that. Let's let's work for the reps. Let's get used to it so so much of it. Is people just getting past that. So they can work on the content right. So do you work with with the podcasters on You know not necessarily all of that tech stuff but like what they're talking about developing that whole game plan for them. Here's what i like to tell people. This is a pencil right. You can't right without a pencil. But nobody thinks that's what makes a writer right. So yeah. I need a microphone but that is not what it's about. That's not what's gonna make you a great podcast or right. So yes i mean. I i certainly can. My big thing is a couple things. One is looking at your goal. And when i mean your goal i mean like the big y deep y but like do to make money off this thing. You want upgrade conversations. Do you wanna meet people. Do you wanna like serve your community like why are you doing it. Mortar your resources and do they match you know and then once that's all there and sometimes that is you know do you buy a Seventy five dollar my or do use a studio or you know. That's that part of that resources and goals right and then you get into the whole like what is the subject. How are you being strategic. How are you choosing guests. How are you working with the gas. How do you elevate your conversations to achieve your goals but also just sound good have a great conversation be interesting to the audience. Like that's the main thing right. How do you keep it interesting. And the other thing i think about is like the i think there's a misconception. Generally when someone hears podcast. They think that there are gazillion podcasts. Out there in. There's just say podcasts. I mean audio podcasts. So it granted content. Obviously is is your podcast. I know you do video for the podcast. But i don't know if you necessarily have videos show for the correct that's correct show. It's actually been really nice doing granted content which is kind of more. My personal podcast. You know and just doing audio. It's actually kind of freeing after six hundred and fifty episodes of spartan up which are every single one is video It's kinda nice not to have to deal with that. Be honest to just focus on the conversation will and it's interesting. Because mary and we know at podcast there was a lot of talk about adding video component to your podcast Cy i guess you you've seen both ends and I think there's still space for both. I don't think it has to be an either or i mean. What are your thoughts on that. Yeah one hundred percent. I mean for us for us. We actually get a significant number of views on youtube. And i think what works on. Youtube is kind of different than what works in audio but for us. I suspect that a lot of people. Just go to youtube. Because they don't want to deal with podcast player or they don't know about you know it's like everybody knows how to do youtube and so i think a lot of people are not necessarily watching but they're using it mean. My kids play a song. They wanna find a song and they don't wanna pay spotify or something they open it up on youtube. They play the song so I suspect a lot of people are just playing the podcast on youtube. Even if they're not focusing on the video. I just think like the more places you can be. You wanna be where people are listening in the more places they can find you the better one hundred percent. I'm a big fan of casting. The net as why she could go. It's like when amazon launched podcasts. And i you know you immediately go to the amazon music player and you go to the web and you kinda see it and any and on my nerd mind goes to well. I'm comparing it to all these other. Podcasts players i think to myself oh my gosh now. The phone book just got like inordinately higher right. There's an amazing amount of people. Now that are listening to ground contact. That are listening to spartan up. And so you're reached just goes astronomically up from there but i agree with you. I think as a podcast or that is maybe just doing pure audio and you wanna get up on youtube. I also think like if you can do it relatively easily repurpose it and just kind of get it up there. You're going to get some views. But i think the ones that the podcasters that are sort of i don't wanna say crushing it on youtube but you know a seeing some sort of impact on youtube are the ones that are kind of like saying okay. I'm gonna lean into this ranking audio. And i'm going to lean into this youtube and maybe it's a different version. That's a little more visual. That's learned people into the different Avenues and that's what i liked about like on the latest podcasts. You did this steve What's his last name. I'm sorry just. This guy was a ridiculous. He was hilarious. Oh yeah yeah video on. Even the thinking sam's yeah yeah. He's great he's great. He's got a book called blue fishing which is Which is a really cool book. That i should have. I didn't read the whole thing before. I've finished it after. I wish i had finished before because it was so good. Marines podcast called grounded content I just listened to her. Interview with jessica jessica kupperman. Who is with she podcasts. It's an amazing.
Harvesting Nature’s Wild Fish and Game Podcast
"spartan" Discussed on Harvesting Nature’s Wild Fish and Game Podcast
"Pursued for food is taking us into the wilderness across rivers and atop mountains. These journeys have connected us to the wild. it is. This connection allows us to experience the wild places. This world has to offer in search for both wild game and adventure. This is my adventure for food..
View from the Cheap Seats
Michigan State Spartans will not be changing their name to include Rocket Mortgage sponsorship
"Michigan state missteps. And you just knew they would step in it and it has to do with The renaming of their sports team jay it away while and of course you knew like when you found out dan snyder was kind of involves not dance matter. I think it's dan gilbert yeah. I didn't snyder snider alumnus of of michigan Michigan state. you made yeah okay. Find standard stance that so so they. They said that they were going to rename sponsor. Essentially the basketball team. Renamed them the michigan state spartans presentative presented by my rocket mortgage. So i mean by the way rocket mortgage. I like walking. So do i need them and they do have a guy on their basketball team. Name get lots. Why can't rocket watts be presented by rock- rocket mortgage. Yeah i would have been easier like sell. Yeah so they put it out there that they're going to change the name and then they got trolled by everyone acheiving so much negative press and also just because you know. I think people think college sports and this is why this has been the argument against paying college players for soa college. Sports has his purity. That pro sports doesn't have college. Sports is like an anon- tattooed person. It is clean. It is perceived purity because we know there's a lot of on a ferry arrest of but perceived purity that you don't want to mess that up by calling them. The michigan state spartans brought to you by rocket mortgage that has going to become the arizona state as text presented by toes-to-toes. Like when do we stop like. Is it the start to get to sponsors. Could it be like you know what i mean you start to get to sponsors on the scene. Usc trojans presented by trojan trojan condoms. Like i actually would see. That's that's actually got go cell but like there we. We're in a situation right. Now where the washington huskies brought to you by lane bryant. I'm habe fair. he may not. But you're the reason why people are upset and you've got democratic senator of connecticut chris murphy coming out so it was awesome. Who was instrumental in presenting legislation to try and get players paid for their likeness and image. And that's an ongoing process. That randy and i both believe will eventually come to fruition. Why should why should the coaches make all this money. When it's the players who actually really bring people to the stands and why should university sponsored. I mean they they unless you're going to start making the games free for people unless you're gonna start using your sponsorship to make ticket prices. Nothing for the fans were to then you cannot is just. It's a money grab and people don't like that and they think it's a bad look especially when you're seeing coaches salaries just go up and up and up. It looks like it looks very greedy at a time when we don't intuition is going up and up. It's greedy when you don't need to be greedy. Right puts the schools in a bad light right so the public doesn't benefit from this. The the students don't benefit from this. The players who need to benefit don't benefit from this so it just again like you said it it a pit him is is this sort of capitalistic greed. Which i think again makes teams look bad in a team like michigan state in a year when they've looked bad on the court. This was not what they needed. This was not the capper. There's there's a chance they're playing tonight as we record this for all. We know they could beat. Ucla or they could lose to ucla if they lose to ucla in the plane game and they don't even make the tournament and they have to sit out and watch his. How long's it been since michigan statesman in the tournament. It's been a longtime now run. They and they could go on a long run in the tournament and find they could salvage their year but it's been a rocky year for them and to have this sponsorship thing come up it once again and i'm happy that the world of public opinion kind of self corrected this situation. They came out and said they're not changing their name. But they but i'm asking you is this. Was that just a test balloon to go up are we can see a different way like a gentler. Way to kind of push this through because you know for years. We said we're not going to see any sport. Any you know. Advertising logos on sponsorship on professional athletes. Uniforms like you do see in the english premier league but again. I think we're what there's a now the clippers the little honey logo and i love. Honey i think those guys are awesome and that doesn't bother me. I actually was like for a second. I was like. I don't know if that's going to fly for me and it didn't. It doesn't bother me the way the way. It's being used right now. The way the team name as brought to you by something it just feel it does feel like the san diego Point setia credit union community credit union ball right feels like that which is just a joke at that point so all right didn't work it didn't work. Thank you public opinion for glad. The public opinion can still shoots the things down
View from the Cheap Seats
Michigan State Spartans will not be changing their name to include Rocket Mortgage sponsorship
"Michigan state missteps. And you just knew they would step in it and it has to do with The renaming of their sports team jay it away while and of course you knew like when you found out dan snyder was kind of involves not dance matter. I think it's dan gilbert yeah. I didn't snyder snider alumnus of of michigan Michigan state. you made yeah okay. Find standard stance that so so they. They said that they were going to rename sponsor. Essentially the basketball team. Renamed them the michigan state spartans presentative presented by my rocket mortgage. So i mean by the way rocket mortgage. I like walking. So do i need them and they do have a guy on their basketball team. Name get lots. Why can't rocket watts be presented by rock- rocket mortgage. Yeah i would have been easier like sell. Yeah so they put it out there that they're going to change the name and then they got trolled by everyone acheiving so much negative press and also just because you know. I think people think college sports and this is why this has been the argument against paying college players for soa college. Sports has his purity. That pro sports doesn't have college. Sports is like an anon- tattooed person. It is clean. It is perceived purity because we know there's a lot of on a ferry arrest of but perceived purity that you don't want to mess that up by calling them. The michigan state spartans brought to you by rocket mortgage that has going to become the arizona state as text presented by toes-to-toes. Like when do we stop like. Is it the start to get to sponsors. Could it be like you know what i mean you start to get to sponsors on the scene. Usc trojans presented by trojan trojan condoms. Like i actually would see. That's that's actually got go cell but like there we. We're in a situation right. Now where the washington huskies brought to you by lane bryant. I'm habe fair. he may not. But you're the reason why people are upset and you've got democratic senator of connecticut chris murphy coming out so it was awesome. Who was instrumental in presenting legislation to try and get players paid for their likeness and image. And that's an ongoing process. That randy and i both believe will eventually come to fruition. Why should why should the coaches make all this money. When it's the players who actually really bring people to the stands and why should university sponsored. I mean they they unless you're going to start making the games free for people unless you're gonna start using your sponsorship to make ticket prices. Nothing for the fans were to then you cannot is just. It's a money grab and people don't like that and they think it's a bad look especially when you're seeing coaches salaries just go up and up and up. It looks like it looks very greedy at a time when we don't intuition is going up and up. It's greedy when you don't need to be greedy. Right puts the schools in a bad light right so the public doesn't benefit from this. The the students don't benefit from this. The players who need to benefit don't benefit from this so it just again like you said it it a pit him is is this sort of capitalistic greed. Which i think again makes teams look bad in a team like michigan state in a year when they've looked bad on the court. This was not what they needed. This was not the capper. There's there's a chance they're playing tonight as we record this for all. We know they could beat. Ucla or they could lose to ucla if they lose to ucla in the plane game and they don't even make the tournament and they have to sit out and watch his. How long's it been since michigan statesman in the tournament. It's been a longtime now run. They and they could go on a long run in the tournament and find they could salvage their year but it's been a rocky year for them and to have this sponsorship thing come up it once again and i'm happy that the world of public opinion kind of self corrected this situation. They came out and said they're not changing their name. But they but i'm asking you is this. Was that just a test balloon to go up are we can see a different way like a gentler. Way to kind of push this through because you know for years. We said we're not going to see any sport. Any you know. Advertising logos on sponsorship on professional athletes. Uniforms like you do see in the english premier league but again. I think we're what there's a now the clippers the little honey logo and i love. Honey i think those guys are awesome and that doesn't bother me. I actually was like for a second. I was like. I don't know if that's going to fly for me and it didn't. It doesn't bother me the way the way. It's being used right now. The way the team name as brought to you by something it just feel it does feel like the san diego Point setia credit union community credit union ball right feels like that which is just a joke at that point so all right didn't work it didn't work. Thank you public opinion for glad. The public opinion can still shoots the things
BBC World Service
Biden Administration Directs FEMA to Help Shelter Migrant Children
"The Button administration is sending the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the US Mexico border to help deal with the growing number of unaccompanied migrant Children. NPR's John Burnett reports. Government facilities are being overwhelmed. The problem is they get detained in the Spartan holding cells meant for adults and border patrol stations. Ah, court order says they're not supposed to stay in these places for more than three days, but the government paid shelters for migrant Children that are appropriate for youths have run out of room. So that's where the crisis of the border comes from. But Biden Steam refuses to call it a crisis. They're calling it a challenge, even though on Saturday, the White House announced the problem was getting so out of hand. They're dispatching workers from FEMA to the border to help move the kids out of those crude border patrol cells as quickly as possible. NPR's John
WLRN News Programming
Merkel's party suffers defeats in 2 German state elections
"Voters into German states Spartan Burton back and run and platinum to choosing new regional governments. The polls are seen as a test of the national mood ahead of a general election in September. When Chancellor Angela Merkel is stepping down after 16 years in office. Christian Democrats have bean struggling to prepare for her
The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard & Rob Parker
MSU Spartans... Presented by Rocket Mortgage?
"Michigan state has announced that its basketball team will now be called the msu spartans presented by rocket mortgage. You sit on a throne of lies. I would think so barat. it's true. Now here's the saving grace at. I believe in the way. I'm reading it. This is a story on. Yahoo is says the team will be called the michigan. The msu you know it presented by rocket mortgage at the breslin center. That's how they'll be known throughout the breslin center which is their home court their home arena so my guess rob is when near now announces a team. That's what he's going to call them at the beginning to gain when they come out for warm ups right before the game whatever. They're the msu sparks as presented by rocket mortgage. I don't expect that when they go elsewhere people are going to refer to them as that maybe they'll announce that before the game but obviously throughout the game everywhere you go. Call them the spartans or michigan state. You think i'm wrong. I mean there's it doesn't make it that much better but it makes it a little better to me. It's total nonsense. It's a allowed. Everything's not for sale. I'm sorry chris. I still respect the steinbrenner family. Chris for not taking the name. They could have put a name on yankee stadium on my right yes or no and made its montemar. Names right all right yankee stadium. How about madison square garden. Could it be very heels right. Could it be american express field reno. I mean they give me making money off of it and they won't do it. Can we have something. Everything's not for sale. I get it dan gilbert. Who was the president of ragweed and look is an alum. He went there. He loves the sports. He tried to hire tommaso to coach the cast. Chris i get the relationship. He's he's a spartan just beat the presenting sponsor when they when they make that announcement. You don't need to the msu sports presented by rocket mortgage. Why would you do that to your alma mater right. Well that's what i'm saying if it's anything but what i said right if is anything but okay well. We announced the team. You know we're announcing the starting lineup. The now star lineup. So the ms you spartans presented by rocket mortgage. But okay. i can deal with that. But if there you got jerseys now. And if that's what their official name is going to be elsewhere. There's a major problem. And i agree with you like and this is just this just shows the other greed. We talked about it and they're not paying players these deals. This is just a pity of the degree of this now rob. I'll even say this. I would've rather them. Just call them. The msu rockets michigan state rockets. Not is that this is ridiculous. This really is bad. And i just don't understand what all the money my god is it. Okay right don't get every nickel chris. I still would have been a sponsor right. There's tons of money probably just not as much maybe wide. I don't know how much is enough. I don't get it seriously. It's ridiculous like i say again. I'm betting that is just going to be announced at various times but not consistently
Morning Edition
Biden Administration Moves To Speed Up Processing Of Migrants In Family Detention
"Migrant families trying to enter the U. S. NPR's John Burnett reports, the administration will convert some migrant family detention centers into processing centers. NPR's John Burnett says the goal is to process migrants within 72 hours of arrival. There are three detention centers formerly used to hold families. They're being converted into processing centers to more quickly release asylum seekers with orders to appear in court, and that's so they won't be held for long and those spartan border patrol cells. We also know that government has recently been forced to open two facilities in Texas for mothers and Children and reopen a controversial shelter for migrant teenagers. NPR's John Burnett The Senate will reconvene this morning and
Get Up!
Michigan State battles to beat Duke for first-ever win at Cameron
"Run the floor through some of the college basketball action if we can't Let's own michigan. State and duke walk at watts scored twenty points to help number eight michigan state. Beat number six by six tuesday night in the champions classic. It was tom izzo. And the spartans first win at duke. Put a little bit of an asterisk next to it because there were no fans at cameron indoor force because of the pandemic
AP News Radio
O'Reilly scores only goal in shootout, Blues beat Stars 4-3
"Cassius Winston their led winning four streak players to in seven double figures with a with twenty three points zero to help win lead over twenty the fourth stars ranked Michigan it's the third state time to a this seventy season eight Saint sixty Louis six is struggle win together over at least ninth seven consecutive ranked Maryland victories handing the the Terps vehicles their first available home loss of that the year David broad forward integrated Lee Shen call had who escorted sixteen four and straight guard games rocket watts the stars thirteen get tallies with Tyler the Sagan win was pay it is back for the Terps a come John from Klingberg behind win in east whose goal Lansing with nineteen earlier seconds this year left and with it forced keeps the the extra Spartans session alive for the Jake big ten Allen title picked up the win Xavier in gold Tillman Anton had fourteen Khudobin points would and twelve take the rebounds loss the from blues Michigan with the state shoot out while what Jaylon did nothing Smith with led the game the terms winner with coming twenty from points Ryan and o'reilly twelve rebounds Mike Reeves Greg St heist College Louis Park Maryland
AP News Radio
Winston leads No. 24 Michigan St past No. 9 Maryland 78-66
"Cassius Winston led four players in double figures with twenty points to help lead twenty fourth ranked Michigan state to a seventy eight sixty six win over ninth ranked Maryland handing the Terps their first home loss of the year forward Lee call had sixteen and guard rocket watts thirteen the win was pay back for the Terps come from behind win in east Lansing earlier this year and it keeps the Spartans alive for the big ten title Xavier Tillman had fourteen points and twelve rebounds from Michigan state while Jaylon Smith led the terms with twenty points and twelve rebounds Greg heist College Park Maryland
WTOP 24 Hour News
Maryland isn’t hiding from the hype entering Michigan State showdown
"AM College Park will be the center of the college basketball universe tomorrow as ESPN's college gameday will be live for Xfinity center in the morning then at eight o'clock it'll be the ninth ranked Terps face the twenty fourth right Michigan state Spartans a win for Meryl no art at least a share of their first ever big ten title head coach mark Turgeon though isn't focusing on title talk well wait we're announcing we've handled everything it's about Michigan state we we don't get too high don't get too low for a lock in on Michigan state and do the best we can on we talk about small opportunities lead to big ones so tomorrow's game will smell feel like us you know small opportunity but it's Michigan state we just got a little lock in on them and try to figure out a way to win the game and then the rest takes care of itself Maryland's won ten of eleven also be Michigan state at Michigan state a
Lance McAlister
Mel Tucker is the 'fearless leader' Michigan State football hoped to find
"State college football after Luke Fickell Stacy we stayed with the Bearcats Michigan state today name Colorado's Mel Tucker is the Spartans new head coach soccer coach defensive backs for one season at Miami University he also coached at Ohio state and for the Cleveland Browns in it said just couple of days ago he was not interested in the job and would be staying