Voxcali

Lea Salonga began her career in Manila at the age of seven and has spent decades making history voicing two iconic Disney princess anthems and earning herself a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Filipina singer and actress Lea Salonga is the only person ever to provide the singing voices for two different official Disney princesses. But before she brought Mulan’s “Reflection” to life, her career began in Manila, where she would perform professionally at just seven years old in a production of The King and I. She went on to play the lead in Annie as well as several other stage productions, spending years perfecting her talent. It wasn’t until 1989 when the creators of stage musical, Miss Saigon, began searching worldwide for an actress to play Kim, a young Vietnamese lead. Solonga became their star at the age of 18, earning the Laurence Olivier Award, before bringing it to Broadway and winning the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. This win made Solonga the first Asian woman to win the award in that category. Salonga continued her career on Broadway when she became the first Asian actress to play Éponine in Les Misérables, and later as Fantine, proving her versatility early on. Then came Disney. Salonga gave the world Princess Jasmine’s singing voice in the 1992 animated classic Aladdin which included the Oscar-winning song “A Whole New World”. Six years later, Salonga became the singing voice of Mulan, executing the iconic, “Reflection”. She also returned for Mulan II and was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2011 for her contributions to the company and stealing the hearts of millions of Disney fans. Solanga just recently performed the two classics at Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration during World Princess Week in August 2026. Aside from Disney, Salonga has continued to celebrate Filipino talent, joining the first all-Filipino Broadway company Here Lies Love in 2023. Her influence has since been recognized far beyond theater as TIME honored her with a TIME100 Impact Award in 2022 and on September 4, 2026, she became the first Filipina to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not only did Lea Salonga sing two of the most iconic Disney songs, she became a real-life role model for Asian performers, and now more than four decades after her first stage appearance, Salonga is still collecting career firsts.

From Dodgers plushies to Rams bobbleheads, Hello Kitty has become one of the cutest and smartest strategies in sports. Hello Kitty might seem like an unusual guest at a major sporting event, but for some reason, the Japanese character has been appearing on everything from Dodgers jerseys to a Los Angeles Rams bobblehead. In recent years, Hello Kitty Nights have become some of the most popular promotions in American sports. Fans arrive dressed in their favorite merchandise, line up for limited-edition collectibles, and sometimes purchase special plushies or jackets featuring Hello Kitty in their team’s uniform. But what does the adorable character have to do with sports? A Hello Kitty collaboration has the ability to turn an ordinary game into a pop-culture event, bringing in families, collectors and younger or more female audiences who may not normally keep up with sports. At the same time, it also gives existing fans an exciting way to combine team loyalty with their own personal style. Major League Baseball was one of the first sports organizations to capitalize on the opportunity. Hello Kitty merchandise connected to the Angels, Dodgers and Padres was found to be successful throughout the 2013 season, so Sanrio expanded its MLB partnership the year after to include merchandise for all 30 teams. The Dodgers hopped on the Hello Kitty promo train quickly, giving the first 40,000 fans an exclusive plush at a 2015 game. In 2022, the Houston Astros gave us a perfect example of the power that came with this cute Japanese character. The team introduced a Hello Kitty Night with a ticket add-on that sold out within one hour, leading them to also develop two annual Hello Kitty Nights in 2023. 2026’s Hello Kitty Night featured a $66 tumbler add-on and a $126 VIP package that included face painting, photo ops, and a meet-and-greet with Hello Kitty herself. The Seattle Mariners have seen similar demand as their September 2026 Hello Kitty ticket package, which included a Mariners-themed jacket, completely sold out, showing how an exclusive collectible can give people another reason to attend a particular game. Beyond baseball, LAFC became the first Major League Soccer club to partner with Sanrio in 2019 and in December 2025, the Los Angeles Rams announced the first Hello Kitty collaboration with an NFL team, releasing apparel, a bobblehead, and special programming inside SoFi Stadium. Also in 2025, Hello Kitty partnered with F1 to develop a 36-piece merchandise collection along with interactive activities at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Hello Kitty is bringing nostalgia and collectible value into a space historically marketed through toughness and masculinity. She’s not making sports less serious. She’s only expanding the idea of who belongs in the audience and what a sports fan can look like.

The millennia give way to the glittering moment as night settles into a great museum. Marble holds its breath all day Under glass the centuries lay Latin tags and dust in beams The dead lie quiet in their dreams Then the doors give up a sigh Heels come ringing, voices high Three thousand years look up to see The living in their finery [Chorus] Museum nightlife, the halls are waking up Sequins by the sarcophagus, champagne in a plastic cup Museum nightlife, the past can only stare While the future films itself and hangs it in the air We're all relics come the morning, so hold the pose, hold the pose Museum nightlife, the marble never knows [Verse 2] Pharaoh's got a velvet rope, the Venus got a sponsor's name Every arm's a tripod now, every face is in a frame Canapés on silver trays beside a Bronze Age bowl Everybody's curating something they call their soul Stiff collars and bare shoulders drift from room to room Bright loud laughter landing on a Roman tomb [Chorus] Museum nightlife, the halls are waking up Sequins by the sarcophagus, champagne in a plastic cup Museum nightlife, the past can only stare While the future films itself and hangs it in the air We're all relics come the morning, so hold the pose, hold the pose Museum nightlife, the marble never knows [Verse 3] A rhythm and a beat and some lyrics half-remembered Calling to a summer that slipped away one September Nobody knows the verses, everybody knows the hook Every mouth is moving, every eye is on the look The suits jerk on their hinges, the gowns swing on the beat Like mannequins remembering they used to have feet And the statues watch it all with their eyes rubbed blank Wondering which of us goes in the next glass tank [Bridge] And at every corner, feathered girls are posed Bare legs, painted faces, holding still like they're composed Reminders, if you needed one, the night is make-believe The showgirls never blink and the showgirls never leave So dance, little relic, while the lights are still on Something's got to be alive by the time the night is gone [Final Chorus] Museum nightlife, the halls are waking up Sequins by the sarcophagus, champagne in a plastic cup Museum nightlife, the past can only stare While the future films itself and hangs it in the air We're all relics come the morning, so hold the pose, hold the pose Museum nightlife, the marble never knows [Outro] Lights up, coats on, the guards throw the locks Ten thousand tiny galleries keep scrolling on the clock Marble takes its breath again, the halls go cold and still The digital museums never close And they never will

After a historic Super Bowl performance and a record-breaking career, veteran kicker Jason Myers is ready to help the Seattle Seahawks defend their title. The NFL season starts with an exciting Super Bowl rematch, and Filipino American kicker Jason Myers, in his 12th NFL season, looks to carry the Seahawks’ championship momentum forward.  He served as the sole player to score points through the first three quarters of Seattle’s 29-13 victory, ultimately setting a single-game championship record by connecting on all five of his field goal attempts alongside two extra points. Now 35 years old, Myers has established an impressive tenure with the Seattle Seahawks, highlighted by elite production and major professional awards. Over his career, he has earned selection to two Pro Bowls and finished twice as the NFL scoring leader. His historic Super Bowl performance crowned a campaign where he became the first player in NFL history to score over 200 points in a single season including playoffs. His professional journey began unconventionally after going undrafted out of college.  Myers caught his first professional break in 2014 by playing in the Arena Football League for the San Jose SaberCats and Arizona Rattlers.  The following year he entered the NFL signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Through 38 games in Jacksonville he converted 81% of his field goals, before eventually being released mid-way through the 2017 season. After spending a brief offseason stint with the Seahawks, he was claimed off waivers by the New York Jets in 2018.  During his lone season in New York, Myers had a breakout year – earning a Pro Bowl selection after making 33 of 36 field goals, setting a franchise record with seven field goals in a single game, and nailing an NFL-record five makes from 55 yards out or further. Myers returned to Seattle to find a permanent home, cementing himself among the league's most reliable legs. Before reaching the pros, Myers built his foundation playing college football as a four-year letterman for the Marist Red Foxes, handling both kicking and punting duties.  Growing up, he was a multi-sport athlete at San Diego’s Mater Dei Catholic High School. With the new season underway, Myers is once again locked in as he looks to help the Seahawks defend their crown.

After two decades in the industry, Công Trí has helped bring luxury Vietnamese designs to international runways and A-listers closets. The fashion industry has been noticing one Vietnamese designer in recent years as his looks have appeared on some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His name is Công Trí and he was born in Da Nang, Vietnam. He grew up with seven siblings and began to show an interest in art at a young age, eventually leading him to study Industrial Fine Arts at the University of Architecture in Ho Chi Minh City. While at university, Công Trí won the New Idea award at the Vietnam Collection Grand Prix and received recognition at fashion competitions across Asia. This gave him the confidence to pursue fashion professionally and after graduating in 2001, he established CONG TRI and turned it into a luxury fashion house. Over the next decade, Công Trí became known for his detailed construction and meticulous handwork, leading his designs to be worn by Vietnam’s most influential entertainers. He incorporates local materials and craftsmanship into his pieces, turning traditional Vietnamese clothing into modern fashion that’s capable of competing on runways. Công Trí’s work began to catch eyes overseas after the release of his “Em Hoa”, or “Little Flowers” collection, which was inspired by Vietnamese flower sellers. The collection appeared at Tokyo Fashion Week and Rihanna’s stylist ended up requesting several pieces. Rihanna wore one of them in a photoshoot campaign, exposing Công Trí to the extraordinary list of celebrities that wore his designs after. His gowns have become popular choices for award shows, red carpet events, and many other high-profile moments in American pop culture. In recent years, you can find Công Trí’s designs on A-listers including Michelle Obama, Ariana Grande, Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus, and Beyonce. In 2019 Công Trí became the first Vietnam-based designer to present a collection at New York Fashion Week, taking luxury Vietnamese fashion to one of the world’s most powerful runways. For over two decades, Công Trí has proven that Vietnam can also export original luxury design and creative direction. What began as one designer building his brand in Vietnam has evolved into a name seen on international stages and Hollywood red carpets, placing Vietnamese fashion in front of the world.

Zheng Qinwen and Jessica Pegula drive deep into the US Open, Jayden Maiava sets a USC passing record, and MLB pitchers deliver stellar late-season performances. The U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows has delivered elite tennis competition throughout the tournament.  Zheng Qinwen and Jessica Pegula both advanced to the quarterfinals, continuing their strong runs in New York. Zheng, who entered the tournament through qualifying after an elbow injury derailed her 2025 season, defeated Iga Swiatek in two sets after falling behind 0-5 in the first set.  It marked the second straight round in which Zheng erased a 0-5 deficit against a former Grand Slam champion.  She will face No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals. Pegula, the No. 3 seed, defeated No. 16 Sorana Cirstea to reach the quarterfinals for the third time in four years.  Still in search of her first Grand Slam win, she will face Emma Navarro. Naomi Osaka’s tournament ended in the fourth round with a loss to Rybakina.  Though Osaka was unable to match Rybakina’s serving and groundstroke game, her appearance this tournament will be remembered for her fashion tribute to Allen Iverson. Alexandra Eala’s run ended in the third round, with the Philippine star falling to Iva Jovic. In USC’s second game, quarterback Jayden Maiava continued his hot streak throwing for 349 yards and three touchdowns in a 39-0 shutout of Fresno State.  His 92% completion rate set the highest single-game mark by a USC quarterback since at least 1995 with a minimum of 25 attempts. BYU opened its season with a dominant 63-7 win over Utah Tech.  Thai American quarterback Bear Bachmeier accounted for four touchdowns, throwing three before halftime and adding a rushing score. Eastern Michigan QB Noah Kim struggled in a 27-21 loss to San Jose State, with a QBR or just 12.8, with one touchdown and one interception.  The former Michigan State quarterback will return to East Lansing next Saturday when Eastern Michigan faces the Spartans. On Sunday, Bryan Woo delivered one of the week’s best pitching performances, allowing only one hit and striking out nine over eight scoreless innings in Seattle’s 2-0 win over Oakland. Shota Imanaga earned the win in Chicago’s 6-1 victory over Miami, allowing one run on three hits over six innings.  With the playoffs approaching, the Cubs maintain in control of a Wild Card spot. After being injured most of the season, Yusei Kikuchi picked up his first win after throwing six scoreless innings with six strikeouts in the Angels’ 6-1 victory over Pittsburgh. The Mets’ Jonah Tong earned his second win of the season, striking out seven over five innings as the New York beat Miami 9-4.  His first start since June, Tong’s promising return earned him a return to the Mets’ rotation.

From a recent Broadway revival to upcoming animated Netflix projects, Stephanie Hsu continues to show why she’s one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors. Stephanie Hsu is an Oscar-nominated actress whose dynamic career spans theater, television, and film.  She stars in the upcoming animated Netflix series Dang!, playing Ruthie, a high-achieving older sister who disrupts her siblings’ lives in New York City. Before diving into her newest screen project, Hsu returned to her stage roots earlier this year, starring in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show at Studio 54.  She made her mark on Broadway early in her career by originating high-profile roles, including Karen the Computer in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical from 2016 to 2017 and Christine Canigula in the cult hit Be More Chill from 2015 to 2019. On the small screen, Hsu made regular appearances on MTV’s comedy series Girl Code from 2013 to 2015, spanning 56 episodes.  She went on to play Joy Armstrong in 19 episodes of the Hulu drama The Path from 2016 to 2018 and earned widespread acclaim for her recurring role as Mei Lin on Amazon Prime’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel from 2019 to 2023, appearing in 14 episodes. Hsu achieved major film stardom and an Academy Award nomination for her dual role in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once.  Her notable movie credits also include 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, 2023’s Joy Ride, and 2024’s The Fall Guy. The 35-year-old Chinese American actress was raised by a single mother in Torrance, California.  Her maternal grandmother fled mainland China for Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War, and her mother later immigrated to the United States.  Hsu moved across the country to study acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 2012 with a bachelor of fine arts in drama.  Following graduation, she spent the next few years breaking into the industry through New York’s experimental theater and comedy circuit before transitioning to mainstream screen and stage roles. Anchored by her comedic timing and voice acting talents, projects like Dang! highlight the next exciting phase of her evolving screen career.  As one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood today, fans can also look forward to her upcoming role voicing Margot in the animated musical fantasy comedy film Steps, scheduled for release on November 20th.

Kent Yu and Dr. Julie Chung reinvented an overlooked household appliance into a modern beauty essential, building a market for luxury hair tools. In today’s market, a $200 curling iron seems like your typical luxury styling tool, but when Kent Yu and Julie Chung launched T3 over two decades ago, hair tools were still treated like household appliances rather than high-end beauty products. Dr. Julie Chung is a Korean American ophthalmologist who attended medical school in San Francisco where she met her husband and business partner, Chinese American entrepreneur Kent Yu. Chung loved beauty and skincare and was always willing to invest in expensive, high quality make up and face products, yet she was using a hair dryer that did not reflect that same standard. Back then, there was an open space in the hair tool market due to shoppers only having the option between a cheap drugstore hairdryer or a bulky professional model. Being raised by two hairstylists, Yu began working on a dryer that would create salon-looking blowouts, while remaining lightweight and efficient. In 2004, the couple perfected the prototype, naming it the T3 Featherweight. The T3 was priced at $200, which is almost eight times more than an average hairdryer, so the initial feedback Yu and Chung received warned them about customers being unwilling to pay such a premium. However, T3 became the first electrical hair-tool brand sold at Sephora and as soon as it hit the shelves, customers flocked to invest, generating $3 million in sales during its first year. But it wasn’t until around 2016 when the tool started getting into the hands of beauty blogs and professional hairstylists. Positive reviews and viral videos then helped establish the tool as an industry must-have. Yu and Chung have since expanded T3 into curling irons, flat irons, and multi-stylers, all designed for simplicity and hair health. Now more than 20 years later, the couple still owns and operates 100% of the company out of Los Angeles, with an estimated annual revenue of $5.3 million a year. By treating a hair dryer with the same care as prestige skincare and makeup, Yu and Chung changed how styling tools were designed and sold, allowing T3 to successfully compete with global brands.

Japan has spent centuries turning everyday writing tools into innovative stationery instruments built around precision and personal expression. When walking down your average office-supply aisle here in the States, you’ll find your typical selection of supplies, black ballpoint pens, bright yellow highlighters, and college ruled spiral notebooks. But in a Japanese stationery store, you can find pens with disappearing ink, mechanical pencils that rotate their own lead, and adorable collectible erasers shaped like your favorite foods. In recent years, Japanese stationery has gained popularity due to the most unusually thoughtful products. Not only are the products aesthetically pleasing to collect, they’re designed to conquer any problem you may encounter in the office, essentially turning ordinary office supplies into a combination of technology, art, and personal expression. The fascination began in the seventh century, when papermaking developed in Japan and China. Communities created their own washi, a traditional style of handmade paper and during the Heian period, stationery became a way of expression. Specific paper, ink, and even one’s handwriting could reflect social status and taste, which made these materials a valuable part of Japanese culture. More modern stationery began to take shape in Japan when Western pens collided with traditional calligraphy and craft. Naval engineers Ryosuke Namiki and Masao Wada founded Pilot in 1918, selling a fountain pen decorated with traditional artwork. After World War II, competitors began to compete to improve the pen, pushing Pilot to introduce the world’s first retractable fountain pen in 1963. And ever since then, Japanese companies have continued to find ways to make it work even better. This industry is taken so seriously that Japan announces awards for the best stationery products each year. Tokyo’s International Stationery and Office Products Fair presents annual awards for functionality, design, sustainability and trends. With the market size reaching over $5 billion in 2024, Japanese stationery is spreading worldwide, allowing it to be a hobby, gift, fashion accessory, or collectible. Japanese stationery may be thriving partly because our lives have become so digital, so when everything is happening through a screen, something as simple as choosing a special writing instrument can feel extremely personal.

Victor (00:00) A friend reached out to me requesting that I do a more motivational podcast. But seeing as how we are almost about to end the year of the horse, I decided that it is time to beat a dead horse. ha ha Victor (00:18) Jokes aside, I don't really believe in motivation. I don't really believe in any of that sort of David Goggins over-edited du-da-da-da, you're on the ground. type of content. type of content that I want to make is focused on systems and it's focused on first principles. These are very, very boring things and I don't really believe in making sensational sound bites to get people hyped and ready to work out or whatever. Victor (00:55) While I think that it is neat to be inspired by a talking head on the internet telling you to stay hard or whatever, I don't really believe in that as a solid vehicle for transformation. Victor (01:15) I believe in accepting that life is oftentimes a series of mundane things and that transformation or excellence is a habit that you repeat over time. And if you are constantly running yourself into the ground trying to achieve something that a talking head on the internet is telling you to achieve, I don't really Sustainable, and in fact, you are working towards the ideals of someone else rather than internalizing. So Victor (01:46) What I really want to circle back on is the idea of finding intrinsic motivation or embodying whatever particular goals you have for your physique, your health, etc. etc. Victor (02:02) Start off this demotivational podcast, I will say that there is almost no point in getting jacked or getting a six-pack. Like, there really, really isn't. There's no moral imperative to get super lean. And in fact, whether you are 300 pounds or whether you have a six-pack, you're going to die at some point. Victor (02:30) But if really think about it, you to even get lean, there is a lot of tedium, and then there is a lot of suffering involved. You have to starve yourself, you have to track your food, you can't eat whatever you want. Whereas somebody who is 300 pounds plus, they get to eat whatever they want. Sure, they get to suffer in other ways, but they get to have full freedom in what they consume. Victor (02:55) Secondly, if you look in the mirror, you are the sum total of your habits over time. And there is no if and or but about it. You look like your habits. Victor (03:11) That last statement has offended many people I've said that to in real life. I've heard every range of rebuttal from, but I have a family, I have four kids, I work this many hours per week, I'm still kind of athletic, I just don't look it, etc. etc. But all those rebuttals don't actually counter the point I'm making though. If you are a father of four and work 80 hours per week, then well you're probably going to look like a father of four that works 80 hours per week. And unfortunately, life has found a way, has life has created the conditions where health and fitness are no longer things that one can prioritize. Victor (04:03) Because frankly, if the first thing that comes to mind, and if the first feeling is indignance when I say you look like the sum total of your habits, well, chances are you know that's probably true. And every single excuse does not refute my statement, and in fact, it reinforces it. Victor (04:26) If your life is truly so jam-packed with things that you are unable to control your food intake or exercise, then simply put, you are going to look like someone who doesn't diet or exercise. And the sooner you accept that, the less uncomfortable you're going to feel. Victor (04:50) Because think about it, if you truly work 80 hours per week and are raising four kids, then you are going to look like somebody who works 80 hours and raises four kids. What does having a six-pack or looking jacked add to that experience? Frankly, it doesn't. Victor (05:11) Now, this does remind me of a of an interesting philosophical question that one of my favorite villains in an anime asked. It was in Jiujutsu Kaisen. this character posed a question, what comes first? The body or the soul? And there's this whole theory he had about how the shape of the soul shapes the body rather than the other way around. And to a certain extent, I I did see this character's point. In a lot of ways, the shape of the body is going to resemble the shape of the soul. Victor (05:57) But simultaneously, I do think that there is the inverse relationship. The shape of the body can also influence the shape of the soul, and these two things kind of work together, right? A more capable body is probably going to shape the soul and the mind to have more positive thoughts, and a less capable body is probably going to do the opposite. Victor (06:23) If say one day you woke up and you found both your legs missing, then obviously your world is going to shrink, and with that shrinkage in your world, a lot of your psychology is going to change as a result of that. So we can't say that the body exists independently of the soul. They both kind of work together. Victor (06:46) Anyway, this does kind of remind me of a conversation I had with an older brother of an ex-girlfriend of mine, where he was a very big football fan. He would sit on his bed, and watch football for hours on end, almost every day of the week. And then he would always complain about how he had a round belly and how it was hard for him to keep weight off after turning 30. And around this time he was around thirty-eight or so. And because I was relatively fit, he always asked me, what is the best way to burn belly fat, etc, etc. And of course he never truly listened to any of my advice, you know, eat less, walk more, et cetera, et cetera. Victor (07:35) But again. If we think back to what I said earlier in this conversation, I said that your body is going to reflect the sum total of your habits. And if the sum total of your habits is drinking sugary drinks, eating chips, and watching football all day, then the body is simply going to take the shape that is most adept at accomplishing those tasks. a six-pack is not needed to watch football and drink. Starbucks all day. Victor (08:06) And in fact, I could say that all this person's frustration stems from the simple fact that he was not willing to accept that his lifestyle was not in line with how he envisioned he should look. Victor (09:09) If you really think about it, someone that spends all day watching sports, playing video games, eating out, and drinking sugary drinks from Starbucks, how would you envision them to look? Victor (09:21) That simply is not a lifestyle that requires a fit body. Victor (09:28) It is totally okay to give up on things that simply do not serve your lifestyle. Victor (09:38) So this begs a question, where does being lean and having a six-pack fit into one's lifestyle? Victor (09:46) Similarly, consider the role of a bodybuilder. Their entire sport is to build as much muscle as possible and to have as little body fat as possible to appear striated and large in front of judges. And as such, they need to have a six pack. Victor (10:12) And now consider a model or a movie star. They will likely be very lean and have little body fat because their entire profession depends on looking good and being lean. Victor (10:27) And now this leads into my next point. I think a lot of people have it backwards where they see the models, they see advertisements, and they see people with these aesthetic looking bodies, and they think, my god, I need to have that in order to be fulfilled. And that is unfortunately the advertising and the marketing working. Victor (10:48) Where I find that people screw up when it comes to their fitness goals and their New Year's resolutions is there is no sense of identity when it comes to those new goals. They are instead trying to bolt on random behaviors to an already fixed identity that isn't in line with being jacked. Victor (11:16) A concrete example of this would be again that older brother of my ex-girlfriend. He would entertain the idea of getting a diet coach or say he was going to hop on some fad diet like keto, carnivore, intermittent fasting or whatever, but those never followed through because in the end there was no shift or desire to change the core identity. For him, he was someone that Eats out. He enjoys eating out. He enjoys drinking sugary drinks from Starbucks. He enjoys watching sports and playing video games for six to eight hours a day. And he's just simply attempting to bolt on extraneous behaviors to a faulty foundation. Victor (12:10) I personally have been asked multiple times by multiple people whether or not I am on peptides, steroids, or GLP ones. I can say that I have never taken any of these compounds, and in fact I find it insulting when people insinuate that I'm taking any of these compounds, because they just assume that my principles and my sense of self has nothing to do with my fitness when that couldn't be further from the truth. My fitness level is directly tied to my personal values and my core principles, which is why the podcast is titled Getting Fit by First Principles. Victor (12:46) Personally, I love fitness. I'm a very active person. I've been doing jujitsu for almost seven years. I currently hold a brown belt. I compete regularly. I coach. I lift weights because I enjoy it. And recently I just started taking it running. And as I'm recording this, I have a half marathon scheduled for tomorrow morning. Victor (13:12) I love physical challenges and my body reflects all the time and dedication and intentional training and meal planning that it takes. Victor (13:25) And secondly, my fitness level lines up with my own personal principles. I love my friends, and being fit and being capable is how I show up for a lot of people. Victor (13:41) Recently I had been on a week long hiking trip through Utah and during one of the hikes my party ran out of water and we were a couple miles from the refill station and everyone was starting to overheat because in Utah I think it was a hundred and ten degrees and they had to take breaks every fifteen minutes while I was still good to keep hiking and that got me scared. So what did I do? I took everybody's empty bottles and I hiked two miles downhill and I hiked two miles back uphill to deliver water to everyone. And I could only do that because I was fit. Victor (14:22) And again, this is something that lines up with my own first principles and my sense of self. I am there for my loved ones and my friends, so I've built a body that is capable of providing for them in such situations. Victor (14:38) So on that note, when we think about adjusting our sense of self and our identity to fit certain goals, right, we can go back to that analogy of, say you're a father of four that works 80 hours per week and you're out of shape or whatever. Maybe we can change that narrative. Victor (14:57) Yes, the problems of the workload and the family will always be there, but is it possible to shift the mindset and the identity from being somebody that's overwhelmed by these responsibilities to somebody that lives long and shows up for their family through their greater capacity? Victor (15:18) Just some food for thought. I am just a guy in the internet that likes to lift things and struggle for fun. So take from that what you will.

Building on acclaimed performances in Halo and The Survivors, Korean Australian breakout talent Yerin Ha delivered in the spotlight as the Bridgerton season 4 romantic lead. Korean Australian actress Yerin Ha has rapidly captivated global audiences, securing a major breakout role in season 4 of Bridgerton.  Across eight episodes, this year she delivered a compelling central performance starring as Sophie Baek alongside Benedict Bridgerton in their Cinderella-inspired romance, firmly establishing her as a rising international star. Before entering the Regency era, Ha earned widespread recognition through Netflix’s mystery drama The Survivors in 2025, starring in all 6 episodes.  She also accumulated notable screentime from the Steven Spielberg-produced Halo series.  Based on the hit video game franchise, the show featured her in a main role as Kwan Ha in 17 episodes from 2022 to 2024.  Her feature filmography includes the 2022 Australian horror comedy Sissy, which premiered at the SXSW festival.  On television, Ha has appeared in the crime drama Troppo, the Stan miniseries Bad Behaviour, and the sci-fi prequel series Dune: Prophecy. Born in Sydney, the 28-year-old actor was raised in a family deeply immersed in the performing arts.  Her parents met while studying acting, and her grandmother Son Sook is a prominent South Korean stage and screen veteran.  Driven to pursue a professional career, Ha moved to South Korea at age fifteen to train at the Kaywon High School of Arts in Seoul, where she spent three years undertaking rigorous daily performance courses.  She then returned to Australia to complete a bachelor of fine arts degree in acting at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2018. Shortly after finishing her studies, she made her professional stage debut with the Sydney Theatre Company in a 2019 adaptation of Lord of the Flies. Yerin Ha’s budding career has built high-profile partnerships with luxury and beauty brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Charlotte Tilbury. Her strong classical training, diverse cultural influences, and dynamic versatility continue to expand her footprint across film, television, and theatre worldwide.

Blending high-energy stage stunts with a massive catalog of crossover hits, Steve Aoki remains a legend in electronic dance music. DJ and producer Steve Aoki is globally renowned for his electrifying, high-energy performances. Fans attending massive festivals like EDC and Tomorrowland expect his signature wild stunts: live acrobatic crowd surfing, launching sheet cakes directly into fans’ faces, spraying champagne bottles across the audience, and riding inflatable rafts right over the dance floor. Over his extensive career, Aoki has released nearly a dozen studio albums, shaping the modern electronic landscape through high-profile collaborations and crossover hits.  His massive catalog features heavy-hitting tracks like his 2012 remix of Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness,” which stands as his most streamed single on Spotify.  One of his most recognizable songs is the 2013 club and stadium anthem “Boneless,” which also spawned a vocal version “Delirious” with Kid Ink.  Aoki was one of the first American artists to collaborate with BTS during their mainstream explosion in 2017.   Their track, “MIC Drop” remix has gathered over 1.6 billion views on YouTube. Aoki grew up in Newport Beach, California and attended UC Santa Barbara where he graduated in 2000 with two bachelor’s degrees – one in women's studies and the other in sociology.  The Japanese American DJ is the son of Rocky Aoki, the visionary founder of the Benihana restaurant chain.  His musical journey began in his teens deeply immersed in the hardcore punk scene.  Playing in various punk bands, writing zine reviews, and hosting legendary concerts in his college apartment living room laid the foundational community spirit that led him to found his own independent label, Dim Mak Records, in 1996. Today, a full three decades later at age 48, Aoki is an international EDM force and remains one of the biggest festival DJs.

From dynamic wide receivers to premier QB play, Asian American standouts are defining the 2027 college football recruiting class with high-profile commitments to major programs. The 2027 college football recruiting class features several dynamic rising stars making waves across the nation, led by an elite group of Asian American standouts. Wide receiver Blake Wong has quickly established himself as one of the premier offensive playmakers in the country.  Hailing from Norco, California, the consensus four-star prospect put together a staggering high school resume, hauling in 84 receptions for 1,470 yards and 20 touchdowns during his junior season.  Known for his exceptional body control and physical play in traffic, Wong drew massive attention from elite programs.  After narrowing his choices down to a final five, he officially committed to BYU, choosing the Cougars over notable powerhouse offers from Ohio State, Oregon, UCLA, and Utah.  With BYU featuring standout Thai American quarterback Bear Bachmeier on campus, Wong’s commitment sets the stage for a high-ceiling Asian American connection in Provo. At quarterback, Furian Inferrera has emerged as an elite gunslinger in the 2027 cycle.  Originally from Santa Ana, California, the pro-style quarterback spent time at powerhouse program Mater Dei before transferring to Mission Hills High School in San Marcos for his senior season.  Standing at an imposing 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Inferrera possesses a powerful arm and high-level accuracy.  The Korean American received numerous Power Four offers, including Nebraska and Pittsburgh, initially committing to Boston College before ultimately flipping to the University of Minnesota. Three-star Vietnamese American wide receiver Braxton Huynh burst onto the scene for Peoria, Arizona’s Liberty High School during a stellar sophomore campaign where he led his class locally with 65 receptions for 1,094 yards and 11 touchdowns, playing a vital role for an open-division state champion.  Recognized for his precise route running and reliable hands, Huynh committed to San Diego State after securing notable Division I offers from programs such as Arizona, Kansas, and Colorado State.

From its Japanese origins to the rise of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”, this is how MSG became a controversial seasoning across the United States. For decades, MSG has always had a controversial reputation in the United States. Diners have blamed it for everything related to feeling sick after eating Chinese food, eventually even leading to the term “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”. Across the country, restaurants have signs advertising "No MSG”, but what exactly is it, why did it become so closely associated with Asian food, and is it actually bad for you? MSG stands for monosodium glutamate, which is made up of sodium, a salt component, and glutamate, an amino acid that is naturally found in tomatoes, meat, and cheese. MSG is an FDA safe food additive that brings a savory umami taste to a dish and its story begins in Japan. In 1908, Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese chemist and a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, became fascinated by the savory flavor of kombu dashi, a traditional Japanese broth made from kelp. Ikeda isolated glutamic acid from kombu and determined that it was responsible for a taste that didn't fit into the established categories of sweet, sour, salty, or bitter. He named the taste umami, derived from the Japanese word umai, meaning delicious or savory. Ikeda came up with a method of combining glutamate with sodium to create a seasoning that could easily be added to food and that following year, businessman, Saburosuke Suzuki II, began commercially producing the seasoning, introducing MSG into Japanese kitchens. Today, MSG is produced through the fermentation of sugar cane, sugar beets, starch, or molasses. Despite its widespread use, MSG developed a very different reputation in the United States. The controversy can be traced to 1968, when a letter published in The New England Journal of Medicine described symptoms the writer said he experienced after eating at Chinese restaurants. The letter proposed several possible explanations, one of them being high MSG content in the food and from there the collection of supposed symptoms became widely known as "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”. Scientific research, however, has struggled to prove the reputation MSG acquired to be true. Even though it is associated with Chinese cuisine, MSG is also found in many processed foods, restaurant dishes, and seasonings. Its negative reputation over the years was simply fueled by cultural stereotypes rather than scientific evidence, and when consumed in normal amounts, MSG is considered safe for most people.

As he's finishing up a midnight inspection of the Jack Tang estate, Special Aide Chip Garrison is surprised by armed intruders, forcing him to fight for his life in total darkness. Tom Kagy (00:01.038) Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom. Special aide Chip Garrison is just wrapping up his midnight inspection of Jack Tang's estate when he's interrupted by a pair of intruders. It quickly becomes apparent that these men know who Garrison is and just want to dispose of him expeditiously. No questions asked. What ensues is the fight of Garrison's life in total darkness against men who have no trouble seeing him. This is the second half of the very long chapter seven of Midnight in Karakorum. Chapter SEVEN Changing cartridges in the tiny vacuum, Garrison swept the insides of a few pairs that looked like they had actually known feet.  Suddenly his ears felt as though they were giving out.  He could hardly hear the vacuum.  They had been designed to be super-quiet, but they usually emitted a high-pitched whine that he could easily hear.  But now he could hardly hear the whine.  The sound was so faint it felt as though he were merely imagining it.  To check his ears, he rapped his knuckles against the wooden rack.  The rapping was audible but each rap sounded as though it had been cut short, sort of broken in half.  Strange.  He tried it again.  Same effect.  He turned off the vacuum and back on again.  This time he noticed that for a split second the whining sounded almost normal before quickly fading out to near inaudibility.  The unit’s vibration told him it was working all right.  Probably just the strange acoustics in the closet, Garrison told himself without quite believing it.  He went to the door and turned off the light before opening it.  On a hunch, he turned on the vacuum still in his hand.  The sound was normal.  He turned on the light.  A split second later, the vacuum’s whine diminished down to practically nothing.  The room was equipped with a sound neutralizing device switched to the light.  That explained the furnishings.  Tang had used the closet as a conference room where he could talk without being overheard.  The neutralizer had been designed to neutralize the sounds generated in the closet for the purpose of foiling high-powered directional microphones trained on bedroom windows from the street.  The neutralizer detected sounds and generated waves identical in amplitude and frequency but out of phase, thereby canceling them.  Garrison recalled the intelligence report on Tang’s suspicious overseas calls.  He had had reason to be paranoid. Garrison flicked off the lights again and opened the closet door.  Damn, it was solid, and heavy, requiring some shoulder to open and close.  Twenty past midnight.  He had spent way too much time in the house.  A few more minutes with the bathroom, then he’d be out of there.  Damn, the bathroom had windows.  He’d have to work darkling again.  He had just pulled out his penlight to rummage through the cabinets under the bathroom counter when he heard footsteps.  They were coming from the stairway, and were getting closer.  Sounded like two men.  Shit, Garrison thought.  It was too late to slip out of the master suite and get back down past them.  Maybe he would duck back into the closet.  At least he knew its layout.  Worst came to worst, he would just fess up and ask their cooperation in keeping his White House connection quiet.  Then he heard voices.  “The fucker’s up there,” one muttered.  He didn’t sound particularly concerned about being heard.  “Right in there.”  He was practically talking in a normal voice.  Whoever they were, they weren’t afraid of him.  They either thought he was harmless or figured they had him trapped and outgunned.  But how could they be so damned sure? “Yeah, I see him,” a deeper voice said.  “He’s in the bathroom.” They see me? Garrison thought frantically.  How could they possibly see me?  Then it occurred to him.  Heatscopes.  His body radiated heat, creating a heat signature which could be seen by heat scopes, right through most walls and around corners, like Superman with his X-ray vision.  He couldn’t see them but they could see him as plain as day.  They sure as hell weren’t the local sheriff’s investigators, but he was a fish in a barrel.  Maybe whoever discovered him in the house had called in the nearest S.W.A.T. team.  Time to put an end to this before someone got hurt, most like him.  After all, they were all law enforcement. “Boys, this is Chester Garrison, FBI,” said Garrison.  “I’ll come out with my hands up and you can check my badge.”  Raising his arms—which their heat scopes would show as clear as day—he took a couple of steps toward the door leading out of the bedroom suite.  That brought him alongside the open closet door, just in case. There was a brief silence before the deep voiced guy said, “We know who you are, Garrison.  Keep coming.” Something about the guy’s tone sent a chill down Garrison’s spine.  Law enforcement officers were trained to cut tension, not to raise it, and the guy’s voice was dripping with provocation.  That instant Garrison knew exactly what would happen when he reached that door with his hands up.  He’d get drilled.  If he dropped his hands and grabbed the 9mm in his bag, they’d run up and probably drill him anyway, seeing as how there was nowhere to run.  But at least he’d have a slim chance, as long as there weren’t more than those two. “Guys, I’m reaching into my bag for my badge, okay?” Garrison said.  Without waiting for a reply he reached in and gripped his SIG-Sauer P220.  The damned thing, with its 9 mm ammo, only nine rounds, felt puny.  Why hadn’t he brought an extra clip?  Better yet, why hadn’t he brought his trusty Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun with 10 30-round magazines loaded with jacketed hollow-point?  And worn his bulletproof vest? “Bullshit!” said the higher-pitched voice.  The flurry of footsteps told Garrison they were rushing the last few steps.  They had to be carrying Uzis and wearing bulletproof vests, Garrison thought.  They had come specifically to waste him.  Otherwise nobody was that foolhardy.  In the same instant Garrison whipped out his 9 mm SIG, he slipped around the doorframe and into Tang’s closet.  Then he scrambled to put his shoulder behind the heavy door and pushed it shut.  As he reached for a deadbolt he wasn’t sure was there, Garrison felt the shockwaves from the Parabellum rounds—fired point-blank and from Uzis judging by the 10-per-second rate—against a steel-plated door.  No wonder the damned door had been so heavy.  Yes—there was a deadbolt! He latched it, grateful for Tang’s well-founded paranoia.  His closet was a pocket citadel.  The next instant the goons were blasting the wall around the door, but that too was steel reinforced.  The steel armor rendered his cellphone useless but would buy him a little time.  Maybe Tang had equipped his desk with a phone.  Nope.  What would have been the point?  He probably figured it would only have gotten tapped like all his other lines.  A justifiably paranoid guy like Tang might have equipped the room with something useful.  It was hard to think with the deafening racket of ordinance slamming steel.  The neutralizer certainly hadn’t been designed to protect people inside the closet from the deafening rattle of gunfire.  Frantically Garrison pulled at the knobs on the drawers of the teak desk.  Maybe he had some stashed firearms, maybe some protective gear.  The drawers didn’t open, probably locked.  On closer inspection he saw they weren’t actually drawers at all, just knobs attached to an artful facade.  Then he notice that one of the knobs pulled out a couple of inches, but nothing happened.  Another knob could be pulled out as well.  Again, nothing.  Garrison tried pulling both at the same time.  The desk began swinging around slowly.  Just in time, Garrison crawled into the well beneath the desk and found himself swinging around to the other side of the wall. When the turning stopped, Garrison was looking out at a small sheet metal landing leading to a spiraling metal stairway like the one he had once climbed as a kid to get to the Statue of Liberty’s head.  Only this one spiraled down into blackness.   It was steep as hell, too, with the steps barely wide enough for Garrison’s feet.  His heart was pounding with the thought that once the goons blasted into the closet—which wouldn’t take more than half a minute—they’d see him gone and figure out the rotating desk in seconds.  Then, if they were as mean and determined as they gave every indication of being, they could drop a couple of grenades down the stairwell.  That was the worry that kept Garrison tromping helter-skelter down a frigging spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever.  Worried the living daylights out of him, to be quite frank.  Shit!  He’d tripped down at least forty feet, he figured—equivalent to a four-story building—and the bottom wasn’t even in sight.  Of course, it being so damned dark and his penlight being so feeble, he couldn’t see more than six steps down.  But he sweated with the fear that he might be descending some kind of eighth wonder of the world—the longest spiral stairway ever built!  Maybe soon he’d start finding skeletons of guys who’d never made it all the way.  Fuck!  Why did he have to open his big mouth and get sucked into this mission?  It wasn’t even his job.  About now he could be rolling over onto Deanne for round three before dropping off to sleep.  Instead he was about to get shredded by a grenade chock full of sharp objects while, for all he knew, Deanne was getting it on with someone richer and better hung.  Maybe she was even going down on the guy, on the first date!  Just how fucking deep was this damned pit anyway!  He was now at least fifty feet below where he’d started.  That meant he was below the basement, even below the foundation.  The muffled sound of automatic gunfire had stopped.  Another scary thought popped into Garrison’s head.  What if one or more guys had gone around to the other entrance to this bottomless pit?  The guys back upstairs had sure acted like they knew the place.  He could be rushing into an ambush!  He could be screwed on either end.  That nearly stopped him in his tracks.  But then he remembered the grenade.  Better to take his chances with a couple of guys on level ground than become minced squab on this stairway to hell. Suddenly a shaft of light came down the stairwell from above.  The light lasted only a second or two, the time it took the desk to make its rotation.  At least one of the goons was up there now, possibly pulling the pin on a grenade.  With his teeth.  But there was no sound of a grenade clanging down.  Maybe the goon was spooked by the stairwell and was hesitating.  Just then Garrison almost fell on his face.  His right foot had reached down for the next step, but there wasn’t one.  Instead, he was on his hands and knees looking into a concrete tunnel longer than his penlight’s reach.  He must be sixty or more feet below where he had started.  As he started trotting down the tunnel, another shaft of light reached down, then faded.  Garrison stopped and turned off his penlight.  He couldn’t make out their words through all the echoing steel surfaces between them.  In the pitch blackness Garrison shuffled into the tunnel, hands out front like a blind man.  No way they could catch him now unless they had someone waiting on this end.  He found a concrete wall and used one hand to follow it and kept the other in front.  He wasn’t about to turn on his penlight and tip off his position.  Their heatscope would be useless through the foot-thick concrete around the tunnel.  He heard no clanging of steps to suggest they were following him down the stairway.  They sounded stupid, Garrison thought, but they knew when to stop eating dust.  After going a good hundred feet into the tunnel without hearing anything, Garrison considered risking turning on his penlight A blast of automatic gunfire came from the stairwell.  By reflex Garrison fell flat against the cold moist concrete floor.  They must have fast-roped down the gap between the stairway and the stairwell wall, regaining much of the precious fifteen-second lead Garrison had been counting on.  The fuckers were meaner and smarter than he had thought.  The next instant Garrison was on his feet, scampering down the tunnel in an erratic zigzag.  A second gun joined in the insults.  How long was this damned tunnel anyway?  He needed a fix.  Without stopping, Garrison turned on his penlight.  Good thing too.  Less than ten feet ahead was a drop.  Coming closer he saw it was only a three-foot downjog of the tunnel, but that wasn’t evident until you were right at it.  From a distance, it might as well be the Grand Canyon.  If he kept running, they’d see him as plain as day.  The only chance he had was to get some lead into them, and this could well be his last chance to do that.  And he’d somehow have to leave the penlight before the drop to give him a little light to work with.  As he reached the drop, Garrison made a show of hesitating before jumping.  Dropping the penlight so it would hopefully land shining more light toward them than him, he jumped. Mid-jump he felt a crunching impact in his right calf that flipped out his legs, making him land on his left side just past the drop.  Hot lead hadn’t figured in his little plan, but he had to admit it definitely added a touch of realism to the fall.  He stayed flat, wondering when the pain would stab his consciousness.  Sure enough, there it was!  Now he had to stay still and pray the goons would think he had made a longer jump that put him too low to return fire.  If he stayed real flat, the solid concrete would shield his body from their heatscopes until they got to within fifteen feet or so.  Until then they would see haze from rising body heat, but no shape to give away his exact location, elevation or movement.  He slipped the 9-mm out of his shoulder bag and held it flat against his body.    The gunfire stopped.  Garrison heard a spent clip being popped out and another being jammed in.  They were about seventy feet away and approaching at a steady walk.  If he could surprise them at inside twenty feet, he might plug them both.  But they probably had body armor, which meant he’d have to hit their faces, if their face shields were up, their bellybuttons.  Not impossible under normal circumstances, but it would be trickier while lying on his side with a right leg about to go into shock from blood loss.  Hurry up, you fuckers.  Keep coming.  Fifty feet.  Forty feet.  Thirty feet.  Suddenly the footsteps stopped.  “That’s his flashlight,” the high-voiced one said.  “He must have dropped it when I hit him.” “How do you know you hit him?” the deep-voiced one said.  “Maybe I hit him.” “Wait, I think that’s him, right there,” the high-voiced one said.  “He’s playing possum.” “That’s just haze from his trail, you nervous nellie,” sneered the deep-voiced one.  “The guy’s long gone by now.” “I saw him take a hit,” said Nellie.  “He’s dead or playing possum.” “So what?  There’s two of us and one of him.  Let’s go.” “Well, there’s only one of me, John Wayne,” said Nellie.  “You go.  I’ll wait right here.” “Yeah, stand there shaking and watch a real man work.” Shit, Garrison thought.  At thirty feet Nellie could spray him with lead before Garrison could draw an accurate bead.  John Wayne resumed walking toward the drop.  Twenty-seven feet.  Twenty-four feet.  Twenty-one feet.  Eighteen feet.  Just as Garrison was about to jerk up, he heard John Wayne stop again. “See?” Wayne said.  “He’s gone.  Now come on.  If we lose him I’ll tell the boss you was hanging back jerking off.” “I’m just being professional,” Nellie said.  There was an uneasy pause.  “Okay, I’m coming.”  He began walking.  One, two, three, four steps.  Now! Garrison jerked his head and right hand up at the same time.  The little penlight didn’t throw much light, just enough so he could figure out about where John Wayne’s face ought to be.  He popped off two rounds, saw John Wayne start falling without getting off a shot, then dropped back down just in time to hear Nellie’s chattering reply whizzing past his head.  Garrison’s right leg was practically dead weight, slowing him down dangerously.  Nellie stopped firing, conserving what was left in his 25-round clip.  He wasn’t about to run out with John Wayne out of commission, not at this range, not inside a long concrete tunnel with no cover.  The way Garrison saw it, it was a Mexican standoff.  The element of surprise was gone, but there was only one of Nellie.  Nellie had the automatic and a bulletproof vest, but he had a concrete bunker.  Couldn’t blame Nellie at all if he were getting nervous out there. Then suddenly the odds changed horribly.  The penlight flickered and died.  Now they were in total darkness and Nellie had the heatscope.  Dear Mother of God, Garrison thought.  Right away he could hear Nellie getting braver, shuffling forward a few inches at a time.  Once he got inside of twelve feet, Garrison would be a sitting duck, naked and blind.  He had maybe three seconds to act.  Under the circumstances, the plan he came up with wasn’t bad.  Garrison slipped off the strap of his shoulder bag.  Having been pressed against him all this time, the bag was warm and alive, at least to Nellie’s heatscope.  Moving as quickly as his dying right leg would allow, Garrison pushed the shoulder back up with his left hand and, a split second later, raised his head.  He would have a quarter second to draw a bead on the muzzle flash of Nellie’s Uzi as it killed the shoulder bag.  Hope to god Nellie’s a good shot, Garrison prayed.  He felt the shoulder bag kicked away by Nellie’s outburst as he squeezed off his remaining seven rounds two-handed and heard Nellie cry out as one or more 9 mm slugs found him in the dark.  Nellie’s Uzi clattered onto the concrete floor at the same instant his body thudded. Now all he had to do, Garrison told himself, was somehow grope around for his shoulder bag, then drag his ass out of there before his whole body went into shock from the blood loss.  That was the last thought he managed before passing out.

As populations age and fewer babies are being born, Asia’s wealthiest countries are investing in their efforts to make parenthood more affordable.  Imagine receiving thousands of dollars from the government after having a baby. In the United States, that sounds unreal, but in some of Asia’s wealthiest countries, that concept is being utilized to convince younger citizens that starting a family can be financially possible. Singapore, South Korea, and Japan are all confronting historically low birth rates and fewer babies today means fewer working-age adults in the future to support growing elderly populations. So governments are spending billions on policies designed to make having children more affordable. Singapore has just recently announced an expansion of its Baby Bonus Scheme that has been in place for years. In August 2026, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced a new support package that will eventually replace the existing Baby Bonus scheme. With Singapore’s new system, every eligible Singaporean child will receive a $10,000 Baby Gift, $32,000 in Child Credits distributed from ages one through 16, a $5,000 Child Development Account grant, up to another $5,000 in government matching, and $10,000 toward post-secondary education. The announcement comes as Singapore’s fertility rate fell to a preliminary 0.87 children per woman in 2025, which is far below the roughly 2.1 needed for a population to replace itself without migration. South Korea has faced an even more dramatic decreasing fertility rate as it fell to 0.72 children per woman in 2023, the lowest in the world. The country has since shown signs of recovery as the rate increased to 0.80 in 2025 and the number of babies born increased by 6.8% from the previous year. Parents in South Korea receive a First Meeting Voucher worth 2 million won, or around $1400, for their first newborn and 3 million won for a second or third child. It was recently announced that the support will continue after birth as South Korea’s national Parent Benefit will provide families raising a child at home with 1 million won per month during the child's first year and 500,000 won per month during the second year. Japan’s battle against population decline has been going on for decades and its government has gradually expanded its financial support for families as the number of births continues to fall. The Childbirth and Childcare Lump-Sum Allowance provides families with 500,000 yen, or about $3100, per child to help cover initial expenses. Japan has also expanded its national child allowance where families receive 15,000 yen per month for each child under three and 10,000 yen per month from age three through high-school age. For a third or subsequent child, the allowance increases to 30,000 yen per month. In addition to financial assistance, Japan also provides free early childhood education and care for many children ages three to five. The country offers exceptional parental-leave benefits in order to make balancing careers and taking care of children easier for both mothers and fathers. Asian countries are determining whether their governments can make parenthood affordable enough to change how many children people choose to have and the checks may help, but whether money can actually reverse decades of falling birth rates remains a much more complicated question.

After leading the nation in receiving yards at San Jose State, shifty wide receiver Danny Scudero is bringing his explosive skill set to Coach Prime and Colorado. As college football continues to evolve through the era of the transfer portal, few stories highlight rapid ascension quite like Japanese American wide receiver Danny Scudero.  Looking ahead to the upcoming season, the shifty playmaker is making his third stop in the past three seasons, taking his elite skill set to Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes. Scudero looks to pick up on a successful 2025 where he starred at San Jose State.  During that breakout campaign with the Spartans, he led the entire nation in receiving yards with 1,297 on 88 receptions, while hauling in 10 touchdowns.  His stellar play earned him 2025 first-team All-Mountain West honors, a Biletnikoff Award semifinalist nod, and a CBS Sports second-team All-American selection. His collegiate journey started at Sacramento State – at the time an FCS school.  As a redshirt freshman for the Hornets, he immediately made his presence felt by tallying 664 yards and five touchdowns. Standing 5-foot-9, the agile slot receiver is a San Jose native who was tagged a three-star recruit coming out of Archbishop Mitty High School. Now, for the first time in his career, Scudero will play in a Power Four conference.  He joins a Colorado program looking to turn things around after a disappointing 3-9 season that revolved around a carousel of quarterbacks.  With a new offensive coordinator calling the plays and redshirt freshman Julian Lewis stepping in to take the helm at quarterback, Scudero arrives in Boulder with high expectations to serve as the Buffs’ primary weapon.

A man with a big grin and an even bigger dip keeps her coming back to the Desperado Dive. Walked in on a Friday at the Desperado Dive, Neon buzzin' low and the fiddle comin' live, He tipped his hat and flashed that grin — Lord, I was done right then, Quick-quick, slow, slow — girl, here we go again. [Verse 2] He offered up a calloused hand, said "Darlin', trust the beat," One turn 'round the hardwood and I lost my own two feet, That right pivot spun me like a record on a Sunday spin, Quick-quick, slow, slow — and I fell clean in. [Chorus] He's my big-dippin' two-stepper, king of the sawdust floor, Eight counts down to heaven and I'm comin' back for more, Quick-quick, slow, slow, he rocks me like a prayer, Dips me to the rafters with my boots up in the air, Oh, that big-dippin' two-stepper's got me swept up everywhere. [Verse 3] The jukebox jocks were watchin', all the barflies raised a glass, He waltzed me past the pool tables, smooth as polished brass, Every gal at the Desperado wished that grin was aimed her way, Quick-quick, slow, slow — but he asked ME to stay. [Chorus] He's my big-dippin' two-stepper, king of the sawdust floor, Eight counts down to heaven and I'm comin' back for more, Quick-quick, slow, slow, he rocks me like a prayer, Dips me to the rafters with my boots up in the air, Oh, that big-dippin' two-stepper's got me swept up everywhere. [Bridge - half time, swaying] Now I've been led by wranglers, been twirled by oil men, But none of 'em could dip me down and pull me up again, When the steel guitar goes cryin' and the lights burn low and dim, Every quick-quick, slow, slow — leads me back to him. [Verse 4] So if you're at the Desperado when the band strikes up at nine, And you see a gal gone dizzy with a smile she can't confine, That's me down in his eight-count dip, my heart hung on his grin, Quick-quick, slow, slow — take me 'round again! [Final Chorus - big finish, gang vocals] He's my big-dippin' two-stepper, king of the sawdust floor, Eight counts down to heaven and I'm comin' back for more, Quick-quick, slow, slow, he rocks me like a prayer, Dips me to the rafters with my boots up in the air, Oh, that big-dippin' two-stepper — (hold it now...) That big-dippin' two-stepper — (dip it low...) That big-dippin' two-stepper's got me swept up everywhere!

What started as gashapon machines has not only become one of the biggest crazes in the world, but also a multi-billion dollar market. From SKULLPANDA to Labubu to Sonny Angel, tiny figures are being collected and traded by millions of consumers, turning the blind box trend into a multibillion dollar industry. Blind boxes can be traced back to Japan, decades before the current craze. “Lucky bags” offered shoppers mystery assortments of merchandise, while gashapon machines let customers insert money to receive a randomly selected toy inside a capsule. Japanese toy company Bandai entered the game in 1977 and developed its GASHAPON brand around the concept of these “mystery capsules”. These machines were originally made as fun toys for children, but eventually developed a large adult following as manufacturers introduced more popular figures and higher-priced collectibles. By 2024, Japan's capsule-toy market alone had grown to approximately 80 billion yen and the modern blind box took this element of surprise and repackaged it for the new generation. Now consumers are buying identical sealed boxes from a collection without knowing which design is inside. Your average series contains several common characters and one extremely rare "secret" figure. This idea encourages collectors to continue buying boxes in hopes of completing the set or finding the rarest character. No company has capitalized on this idea more than Chinese brand Pop Mart. Founded in 2010, Pop Mart’s earliest hit came from MOLLY, a wide-eyed girl created by Hong Kong artist Kenny Wong. Pop Mart turned MOLLY into one of their signature figures and began building a business model centered around artists and blind-box collections. Their strategy produced an entire universe of characters, including SKULLPANDA, HIRONO, and LABUBU and these characters are generating enormous amounts of money. In 2025, SKULLPANDA generated approximately $490 million in revenue, while MOLLY generated $431 million and HIRONO generated nearly $259 million, making it known that the business is no longer dependent on one viral character. Altogether, Pop Mart reported 5.5 billion in revenue in 2025, but Pop Mart isn't alone. Japanese collectibles have also found an entirely new generation of fans in the U.S. with Sonny Angel and Smiski which have both gained their own followings with glow-in-the-dark figures hidden inside mystery packaging. According to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing, the global pop-toy market grew from approximately $19.8 billion in 2019 to $38 billion in 2024 and is projected to surpass $104 billion by 2030. So why are adults spending so much money on these mystery toys? Part of the reason comes from the element of surprise. A blind box creates anticipation and buyers don’t get to choose what character they will receive. Knowing that there is a figure that is more rare than others also makes the experience more exciting. Social media has amplified the craze even further as unboxing videos and rare pulls generate millions of views, basically turning each purchase into a potential viral video. It is clear to say that blind boxes have evolved beyond a simple toy trend into a combination of art, entertainment, and collecting. These tiny characters can be hooked to your purse or be displayed on your desk, giving consumers a new form of self-expression, and with the blind box market expected to surpass $100 billion, the mystery inside each box has turned into a very big business.

As an LA native, I’m sharing the places and experiences I think are actually worth your time, from some of my favorite restaurants to the best shopping spots across the city. Kelli (00:00) Hi everyone, my name is Kelli and welcome to the Goldsea Podcast. If you're planning a trip to Los Angeles, I feel like every LA guide always tells you to do the same exact things. Go to Hollywood Boulevard to see the stars, visit Santa Monica Pier, go to Malibu and hang out on the beach, walk down Rodeo Drive to do your shopping. I'm not saying you shouldn't do these things, especially if it's your first time here. I'm just somebody who's 24. I've lived in Southern California my entire life, and I feel like there's so much. more to do in LA than the stereotypical tourist experience. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, which by the way, people love to say isn't LA, but I'm sorry, come on, it's LA, it's in Los Angeles County. So I will happily say that I am from Los Angeles. I've spent my entire life going all over the greater Los Angeles area, from the valley to downtown to Hollywood, to the west side to Malibu, and everywhere in between. So if one of my friends told me that they were coming to LA for a week, what should I do? This is exactly what I would tell them. Today I'm going to talk about food, beaches, shopping, hiking, nightlife, and some of the experiences that I genuinely think are worth spending your time and money on. We're gonna begin with food. One thing I will defend Los Angeles on forever is our food. I genuinely think we have one of the best food markets out here, and one of the best things about living in Los Angeles is just how culturally diverse the scene is. You can literally wake up and get Vietnamese food, have Mexican food for lunch, Korean barbecue for dinner, then get ramen at midnight, and somehow if you're still out at 2 a.m., you can end your night eating tacos from a taco truck. You can find almost any cuisine here. And because LA is so cult and because LA is so diverse, you're not really getting that watered down version of it either. There are communities throughout the entire city where you can find incredible Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai food, Armenian, Persian, Mexican, Salvadorian, Filipino food. The list goes on. So if you are visiting LA, please do not spend your entire trip eating at chain restaurants that you could have just gotten at home. Try something new, try the hole in the walls. I'm going to give you a few of my personal recommendations. In my own territory, the San Fernando Valley, if you want that very pretty, classy Los Angeles restaurant experience, I would recommend Casaléna This is where I would go if I want to get dressed up and have a very nice dinner, take some photos. The restaurant is so gorgeous and it gives you that upscale SoCal atmosphere that people picture when they think about eating out in LA. It's Italian inspired. My favorite is definitely their vodka pasta. This would be a great place to take a date. It's great for a birthday dinner, a girls' night. Anywhere where want to experience dinner and a warm atmosphere. It's more of a splurge than just a casual restaurant stop. But if you are visiting LA and you want that beautiful, fancy dinner where you can get your Instagrammable photos at, Casaléna is definitely one of my recommendations. Going in a completely different direction is Crane and Elephant. This is one of those places that I love because you can come here late at night. They're open until 2 a.m. every single night, and this is the spot in the valley to get late night delicious food. Their ramen and curry are so good. And if you've been out All day and you're starving and you don't want fast food, Crane and elephant is where you should end your night at. Now for some amazing Vietnamese food in the valley, my favorite is Khuu Bistro. This is a very small mom and pop shop. I'm Vietnamese, so I'm going to be a little bit pickier about Vietnamese food. I actually want the flavors to taste right, and here at Khuu Bistro, they really throw down in that kitchen. This place right here is so delicious. It is owned by the nicest Vietnamese couple. If you want a really authentic Vietnamese meal without having to go all the way to Little Saigon in Orange County, you need to make a stop at Khuu Bistro. Now straying away from the valley, we're gonna go over the hill. And once you're there, there are obviously thousands of restaurants, but there are a few that have stood out to me because you're getting an experience along with the food. That's one of the most important things that I think you should think about when you are here in Los Angeles because you also because you want to get your money's worth. Perch is one of those places. If you're visiting downtown, you should have one meal where you can get an amazing view of the city. Perch is right in the middle of downtown LA and has beautiful panoramic views where you can sit there and look at the skyline and really think, wow, I am definitely in Los Angeles. Perch has French-inspired food, the atmosphere is beautiful, and it is absolutely stunning if you can get a reservation around sunset or at nighttime when downtown is completely lit up. If you're spending the day in Santa Monica, Meat on Ocean is one place that I really like. It's right by the ocean. Their steaks are to die for. And their apple dessert is one of those desserts that you will think about every single night. Then there's Yamashiro, and if you have never heard of Yamashiro, you've definitely seen photos and videos of it online. This is one of those viral, trendy restaurants, but it is a historic Japanese-inspired restaurant sitting right above Hollywood, and you are going to also get those beautiful views that overlook the city. Not only does Yamashiro have delicious food, I would also recommend this as a great date night spot if you're really looking to impress somebody. Because if you go when that sun is starting to set you're gonna watch LA light up below you and that is the kind of experience that I think is worth paying for. So moving away from food, if you want something completely different from that Beverly Hills luxury shopping, go to downtown LA because you can go to the Jewelry District to get some beautiful jewelry, or you can go to Santee Alley to get all of the fashion basics, all of your accessories, things that you do not want to pay outrageous prices for. Sante Alley is one of those spots where the environment itself is part of the experience. There's vendors everywhere. Clothes food, shoes, accessories, handbags, beauty products, anything that you could think of. You can walk around Santee Alley for hours, and compared to a lot of the shopping that you can do in LA, you'll find things that are actually useful and affordable here. Do not go to Santee Alley thinking it's some luxury polished shopping experience. That's not what it is. It's fun because you are walking through this busy part, negotiating deals and finding little random gems, experiencing a completely different side of Los Angeles. Now moving on to some actual shopping centers and malls that I would visit if you need to do some shopping while you're here. These places won't absolutely destroy your bank account like Rodeo Drive would. But if you are visiting, I recommend setting a shopping budget because there's always something to buy. I think I've been to every major mall in the Los Angeles area at this point. And if you actually want to shop and not just walk past designer stores, visit Westfield Topanga and the Grove. Westfield Topanga is in the San Fernando Valley. This mall is huge. You have a wide range of different brands, restaurants, and there are those luxury stores there as well. You can spend hours here, they have a store for everyone. On the other side of the 405, the Grove is definitely something worth visiting in Los Angeles. You get that shopping experience, and you also get that outdoor California day atmosphere. You can walk around, shop, get something to eat, and on the weekends they do have the original farmers market, so you can make a whole afternoon out of that as well. It's kind of touristy, but one of those experiences that I can get on board with. Another thing that I have done that I think is absolutely worth it, especially if you're here on a trip with your friends, is renting a boat in Marina Del Rey. You can find a bunch of different options online for boat rentals depending on your comfort level and your group size. They have smaller boats, Duffies, and yachts, and you can also rent the boat with a captain as well. This is such a great activity to get your friends together. You can bring your own snacks and drinks, make a playlist, bring a speaker, and just go out on the water for a couple of hours. This is another activity I would recommend to do during that sunset. It is so beautiful and it makes you totally feel like you're on vacation, even if you live here. Also, if you're splitting the cost between your group, can be such a reasonable price for your party. This is 100% something that I would choose over spending an entire afternoon walking around Hollywood Boulevard. Now this one might sound obvious, but if you've never been to LA, you need to go on a hike at least once. One thing that I always feel like I take for granted as somebody who grew up here is how beautiful LA actually is geographically. We have everything. We have mountains, canyons, ocean, city life, and on some trails, you can see all of it. There are so many different hiking trails as well. You don't necessarily have to do the most popular or the most famous ones. You can find a bunch of different ones that will lead you to beautiful finds, beautiful views. My recommendation is to go early, especially if you are here during the summer. Do not start hiking around noon because it will be a hundred degrees already. You should get up early, grab a coffee, and start your hike in the morning before that sun hits its peak and then finish it before the day gets really hot. If you get up really early, you can have your hike done by 9 or 10 a.m. and still have your entire day ahead of you. Make sure you definitely bring water and check the weather and the trail conditions before you go. If you're going to the beach, I definitely recommend taking the canyons. You have these winding roads that are surrounded by the mountains and it eventually opens up to the ocean. Listen to some music and spending the time to drive along the coast is something that you must do when you are here in SoCal. Now, if you are having your beach day, I definitely think Santa Monica and Venice are a little bit overrated if your goal is to actually have a relaxing one. Santa Monica and Venice are iconic. There's so much to do over there. But if you want somewhere That you can just relax, lay out and tan, and step into the water for a few hours, I would recommend going further towards Malibu. Once you start getting away from the very touristy areas, There are so many beaches that you can find along the coast that is much more my version of an LA beach day. Make sure you bring some food, your sunscreen, a beach blanket, get there early, you can spend a few hours there, and you can even catch dinner on the coast afterwards. That is an absolute perfect Los Angeles day to me. Now moving forward to nightlife. And I have something to admit about the Los Angeles nightlife because it is really not what people think anymore. People come here imagining they're going to walk into some nightclub and it's going to be like a scene from a movie with celebrities in every corner. And I will say there was a time when LA nightlife definitely felt more like that. Maybe in like 2016. But in 2026, I personally think that clubbing has gone downhill here in the City, but there are still fun places, you just have to know where you're going. So at this point in my life, when I go out, I actually want to dance and meet new people and have a good time, not just enter the club and sit at a table where everyone just kind of looks at each other and moves their bodies a little bit. Two places that I personally have had so much fun at are Bar Lis and Lock and Key. Bar Lis has that Hollywood rooftop atmosphere. It's stylish, it's lively, and depending on the night, you can really dance around and have some fun rather than just standing around and being a wallflower. Lock and key is a place in Koreatown that I really like when I want more than just a night out. There's people dancing, there's people socializing, the music is great, and I really am and that's really what I'm looking for when I go out. My biggest LA nightlife advice is to check what is happening that specific night before you go anywhere because the city is changing constantly. A place can be amazing on a Friday night, but completely dead on a Saturday. The event, the DJ, and the crowd will matter as much as the venue itself. If I had friends coming to the city for seven days, I would not tell them to cram forty different attractions into their trip. Los Angeles is huge, and I feel like that's the Biggest mistake that people make before coming here. They'll say that we're going to Malibu in the morning, we're gonna visit downtown for lunch, we're gonna hit Disneyland in the afternoon, then go out and get dinner in Hollywood and drinks at night. No, you're not. You're going to spend your entire vacation on the 405. You need to definitely organize each day geographically and base it all off of the traffic as well. You have to stay in an area all day if you want to make the most out of it. Have a Malibu Beach Day. Have your downtown day where you can go to Santee Alley and then visit rooftop bars and see the skyline views. Have a Hollywood day where you kind of do touristy things, visit the stars, do some shopping, go to a comedy club on Hollywood Boulevard. Or you can have a San Fernando Valley Day where you just explore all of the valley, go through the canyons. Visit some delicious restaurant spots, then spend another whole day shopping, spend one day hiking, spend one morning hiking, do a boat ride in the afternoon, and just leave some room to really explore. Because one of my favorite things about Los Angeles is that the best things are not famous attractions. I love being able to drive through a neighborhood that I've never been in. I love finding small restaurants that have not gone viral yet on TikTok. And even just going to a view and seeing the sunset. After driving through the canyons, these are things that I think LA is all about. I feel like some people visit LA sometimes thinking it's gonna function like New York, but it truly does not. LA is not one concentrated city where you can just walk outside and everything and everywhere you need to go is within five blocks. Los Angeles is a collection of neighborhoods, culture, and communities spread across a humongous area. Your trip here is going to completely change depending on where you are. The valley does not feel like downtown at all. Downtown does not feel like Malibu. Malibu does not feel like Koreatown, and Koreatown doesn't feel like Beverly Hills. But that's what I love about living here, because you can spend your entire life in Southern California and discover somewhere that you've never been every day. So if you're coming to Los Angeles, my biggest advice as someone who grew up here is don't spend your entire trip chasing the version of Los Angeles that you see in the movies. Definitely make some time for those iconic things. if you're a tourist, you should be a tourist. But eat somewhere that you've never heard of. Drive through the canyons. Explore places that people don't usually talk about. and actually give yourself enough time to enjoy where you're going instead of spending the entire trip driving because that will definitely ruin your entire trip. LA is expensive, it's chaotic, it's crowded, the traffic is as bad as everyone tells you. But I think Those that grew up here, forget how special it is. And within one day, you can see so many different things, see so many different cultures. And that's the LA that I would want someone visiting to see for the first time. So those are my recommendations as an LA native. Thank you guys so much for listening and we'll see you in the next podcast.

The 2025 release of Syndrome marks a pivotal shift as the soloist fully embraces an English-language sound for his global audience. Korean pop artist Wonho launched a new chapter of his career with the release of his debut English-language studio album, Syndrome, in June 2025.  The project’s signature style was highlighted by the singles “Better Than Me” and “If You Wanna.” This era was preceded by the 2024 release of “What Would You Do,” which served as his first English-language single and positioned him to further tap into the expanding global K-pop movement. Between 2021 and 2022, the former boy band member expanded his discography with a series of single albums and EPs, including Love Synonym Pt.2: Right for Us, Blue Letter, Facade, Obsession and Bittersweet.  These collections, featuring hits like “Lose,” “Blue” and “Eye On You,” consistently ranked among South Korea’s top releases and secured positions on the World Charts. Wonho’s breakout as a solo artist arrived in 2020 with the release of his debut mini album, Love Synonym Pt.1: Right for Me.  The album features his two biggest hits, “Open Mind” and “Losing You,” which have collectively accounted for over 70 million plays on Spotify. Prior to his solo career, Wonho gained international fame as a member of the K-pop group Monsta X from 2015 to 2019.  During his tenure, they became a global fixture, highlighted by the breakout hit “Hero,” which remains the group’s most popular track today with over 200 million streams. The 33-year-old has amassed over 5 million followers across social platforms and maintains a dedicated global fanbase that has supported his transition to a successful solo act.

Asia’s basketball stars shined on the international stage while major moves unfolded across College Football, the MLB, and the LPGA Tour. In the most recent FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, Kai Sotto delivered down the stretch with a last-second block to seal the win for Gilas Pilipinas in overtime against Jordan, on their way to back-to-back victories.  China’s Yang Hansen also provided late game heroics against Lebanon with a bucket on the block to keep their qualification hopes alive.  Meanwhile, Japan’s stars went scorched-earth against Qatar and Saudi Arabia.  Rui Hachimura averaged 37.5 points per game, with Yuki Kawamura as the primary distributor averaging 9.5 assists per game.  Keisei Tominaga shot 67% from three which included a 25-point game.  These remarkable performances from three Asian nations forged a perfect 6-0 record in August. In off-court developments for college hoops, Xaivian Lee committed to Gonzaga for a fifth season following a landmark NCAA eligibility ruling.  Lee previously spent three seasons starring for Princeton before transferring to Florida.  After serving as a core playmaker for the Gators, Lee suited up for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Summer League, appearing in five games before electing to return to college. College Football’s Week 0 kicked off the season with notable quarterback play from USC’s Jayden Maiava.  The Heisman watchlist talent powered the Trojans’ offense with 286 yards and two touchdowns passing while scoring a third on the ground.  Noah Kim put up nearly identical numbers for Eastern Michigan with 279 passing yards, two TDs through the air and one on the ground, leading the Eagles to an opening MAC win over Sacramento State. On the diamond, Blue Jays rookie slugger Kazuma Okamoto continued to display his power with his 27th and 28th home runs of the season in a weekend series sweep over the Mariners.  Okamoto became just the third player in MLB history to homer against 18 different opponents in a rookie campaign.  Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound was delayed, citing that he is not 100% yet.  The Dodgers did not commit to any further timetable of his pitching return. On the LPGA Tour, Ruoning Yin captured the FM Championship at TPC Boston in an emotional finish.  Finishing at 14-under par, she snapped her 672-day winless streak.

Victor (00:00) Hello, welcome back to Getting Fit by First Principles. This is part seven. In this part of the series, I am going over the lessons that I learned throughout my personal training history. where I have developed my own principles regarding my own health and fitness, and on top of that, how I've applied a lot of the lessons I've learned in my real life, as well as some observations along the way. Victor (00:32) So in the previous edition, I talked about my journey through powerlifting, which was in the latter half of my undergraduate career at UC San Diego. And then when I finally graduated UCSD and moved to LA, I was still powerlifting throughout my master's program. And I graduated from my master's program around 2019. I was still powerlifting at the time and I had just started jujitsu in late 2019. But That is when, as we all have experienced, COVID happened. Victor (01:08) To put it lightly, COVID was a big wrench in many people's fitness journeys. Victor (01:16) With the massive shutdowns, a lot of gyms closed, and with that a lot of people definitely had fallen off of their fitness journeys. I mean, most people I know during COVID ended up doing a lot of indoorsy activities. You know, it was mostly things like video games, baking, and just a lot of other online activities. Victor (01:44) And as I've emphasized before in my previous editions, you can imagine somebody that sits at home and bakes sourdough all day probably doesn't look like a particularly fit individual. Victor (02:04) As you can all recall, it was not an uncommon sight to see people gain 10, 15, 20 pounds post-COVID. Me personally, I managed to get through all of COVID actually losing weight. I think when COVID first started, I was weighing in around 217 pounds, and then by the time COVID ended, I was 210 pounds. Victor (02:29) Even now, as I record this, I weighed in at 192.6 this morning, but I digress. Victor (02:39) So one thing that I do want to highlight about my particular COVID story is how d because of the principles I had developed through my time in powerlifting, I was able to more or less stay on track with my own fitness goals. Victor (03:00) Obviously I had to make adjustments, but the point still stands that even if I changed the target, I already had the discipline from powerlifting to at least create some sort of plan that could lead me to those goals. Victor (03:18) And now if there's one thing that I would like to take away from my time in COVID, it definitely is how to deal with life circumstances that just throw a wrench in your training. Victor (03:37) While I did have some setbacks during grad school that may have pushed my training down in priority, I would say that COVID was the biggest stress test of my personal systems and my principles. Victor (03:52) I think the biggest lesson I learned from COVID that most people can take away from this episode is the ability to change or pivot your goals relative to what life gives you. Because life isn't perfect. As we all know, COVID was a very big disruptor. Victor (04:13) At the time I had started jujitsu and I still had aspirations in powerlifting. There was definitely a part of me that wanted to qualify for nationals by getting a high enough total. However, I had no access to the necessary gym equipment to even run the programs that I needed to run in order to get strong enough to lift the weights I needed to lift to qualify for nationals. Victor (04:42) One could say that maintaining that dream would have been an exercise in futility. Victor (04:52) Bad puns aside, when I looked at my circumstances, you know, I realized that, okay, going to Raw Nationals is just simply not in the cards for me. Right? USA powerlifting obviously put a lot of the events on hold because of the COVID restrictions, and I had no access to a gym and also with My financial situation being a little bit up in the air at the time, I had difficulties a j or justifying a purchase of thousands of dollars of equipment. Especially at that time during COVID. a lot of fitness equipment was being price gouged. Victor (05:35) This point, it would have been easy for me to just give up on fitness altogether. I could have just thrown my hands up in the air and said, Screw it, I can't train the way I want, so I'm just going to focus on playing video games and baking bread all day. Victor (05:53) So starting from square zero again and just following my personal value in my physical fitness, I just decided that okay if I could not power lift, I was still going to try to find a way to work out. Victor (06:11) So for a time I scrounged up whatever equipment I could find and I just improvised workouts. A lot of it was just based on push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and inverted row variations, as well as just walking whenever I could. Victor (06:29) Also at the time I did have the luxury of having super secret underground jujitsu training sessions where I would train jujitsu with two or three other people and no but and no one else. But Victor (06:46) simply had to shift my goals. I was no longer looking to excel in powerlifting because well life had blocked that option away from me. But rather than having this all or nothing mentality, I just decided, okay, I guess the path forward now is for me to improvise whatever workouts I can because something is better than nothing. I may not be able to achieve this focused goal. But simply keeping my body active was a benefit. Victor (07:20) I still imposed some level of structure onto these improvised workouts. Week by week I would log how many pushups and pull ups I was doing multiple times per week and then Each week I would try to push those numbers up. And then if I were to hit a wall on any of these exercises, I'd then just change up the variations and then repeated the cycle over and over. And throughout the time in COVID, I found that there were no noticeable regressions in my physique. People still said I had a good-looking upper body. Victor (07:58) Now moving on to the second lesson of COVID, which could very well be viewed as an extension of the first lesson, is to look for solutions whenever you are encountering a problem, rather than focusing on the problem itself. Right? If you have a wall that's in front of you, then constantly pointing at the wall isn't going to make the wall go away. Rather having an open mind to the ways around the wall or possibly seeing cracks in the wall will get you much further than constantly giving the presence of the wall power. Victor (08:36) COVID and the restrictions it brought, that was always going to be a constraint. Complaining about not being able to access gym equipment due to COVID was not going to get me anywhere. So instead of focusing on that, I just simply redirected my energy to figuring out ways of building external resistance, right? Because all resistance training, all weight training, is a matter of moving weight from point A to point B. Machines just have a way of streamlining. This process. Victor (09:08) So with an open mind, I looked to one place nobody else was looking towards, and that was the local Home Depot. At the time of COVID, getting your hands on gym equipment was extremely difficult because people were purchasing from all sorts of outfitters and then marking them up on Facebook Marketplace for two, sometimes three times their market value. Victor (09:34) However, on perusing what was available at Home Depot, they had some very cheap pieces of what I called external resistance. You I could have metal plates, but Home Depot had concrete cinder blocks and 50-pound bags of sand and gravel. Victor (09:55) Before I got my personal collection of canvas sandbags, I improvised by using bags of gravel from Home Depot and a laundry bag from Target and I created my own set of makeshift heavy sandbags. Victor (10:14) My girlfriend at the time was not a fan of me having these sandbags inside our apartment, so I kept them outside near my carport where nobody would steal them. And that is how I added external resistance to my workouts. Now is a fifty to a one hundred pound sandbag the equivalent of a two to three hundred to four hundred pound barbell? No. However, Victor (10:40) given the circumstances at the time, I was not in a position to really nitpick how optimal my setup was. The fact of the matter is I needed a setup and that was all I had available. Victor (10:54) Now, on any fitness journey, the biggest setback, the biggest pitfall that most people fall into is an all or nothing mentality. They think that if they don't have access to the gym or access to their regular workout routine, then they may as well not work out whatsoever. But the reality is life will throw monkey wrenches your way. Victor (11:20) There was an old quote. It was something like man makes plans and God laughs, but that is what happens a lot. You may have the most optimal workout plan, but then a random Tuesday night happens and you do not have access to your normal gym. And what do you do then? Do you just simply not work out or do you just adjust and improvise? Victor (11:47) Now would my modified equipment and workout program have gotten me into raw nationals for powerlifting? Absolutely not. It was definitely not a quote unquote optimal program, but it was a program which is better than nothing. Victor (12:06) You can imagine that in this day and age, we have many efficient modes of transportation. If you want to travel from point A to point B the fastest way possible, right now it's probably via an airplane. However, if you do not have access to an airplane, chances are you'll get to where you want to go faster if you were riding a bicycle rather than doing nothing. is a bicycle a an efficient way to travel a long distance? Definitely not. However, it is better than walking and it's exponentially better than sitting where you are. Victor (12:50) when the COVID restrictions had finally ended, I didn't really find myself wanting to go back to a traditional gym as I had collected a number of pieces of workout equipment ranging from a pullet bar, multiple canvas sandbags, and then now my adjustable kettlebells. And it got to a point where I didn't really want to spend the time to travel to a commercial gym and I was much more focused on jujitsu. Victor (13:20) I think if I did have access to a barbell and normal gym equipment, it would be more optimal, I guess, for measurable strength development, but I'm currently having a lot more fun with my current stack of gym equipment, so I still don't see a good enough reason for me to return to traditional lifting. Victor (13:46) Now to summarize what COVID had taught me, the first lesson is to always have a way to pivot given any roadblock. COVID was a major roadblock in my personal fitness journey, so I had to find a way to pivot my goals so I can keep moving forward. The second one is to focus on solutions rather than the roadblocks themselves. Like I said, roadblocks will always make themselves clear. So you may as well point your time and attention towards solutions rather than acknowledging the roadblock. Because again, the roadblock will always make itself clear. Victor (14:30) And finally, right, the ability to pivot and to find solutions I found meshed nicely with the principles that I had already built through my time in powerlifting. I already knew how to structure a training plan and how to keep track of things and to progress even in a suboptimal plan. Victor (14:55) And again, this is where the first principles truly, truly come through. Because as someone who identifies as being fit and disciplined and a problem solver, I found that when COVID came, that those qualities of myself came through. I still worked out, I still valued my fitness and I solved the problems. Whereas people that those things slide, honestly, they probably did not value their fitness. Victor (15:28) Now aside from, you know, the more extreme circumstances like massive health issues due to COVID or people having to take care of sick family members during this time, most people do have choices. They do have more options than they are willing to open their eyes to. Victor (15:47) The people who came out of COVID in worse shape probably did not really care all that much about their health and fitness. And then on the flip side, the people who came out of COVID in better shape or at least maintaining their level of fitness had some sort of identity tied to their fitness. Victor (16:10) So again, strong systems and strong principles are what allow you to overcome obstacles such as this.

Armed with elite talent and breakout momentum, USC quarterback Jayden Maiava looks to steer the Trojans to their first ever College Football Playoff appearance. Jayden Maiava enters his senior season as the starting quarterback for the USC Trojans, carrying immense expectations as a preseason Heisman Trophy contender with FanDuel listing him at +2500.  Standing tall at 6’4” and 230 pounds, the powerful gunslinger faces a historic challenge: guiding the Trojans to the College Football Playoff for the first time in the program’s illustrious history. Maiava is coming off a stellar breakout campaign where he started all 13 games, leading USC to a 9-4 record.  He put up career highs with 3,711 passing yards and 30 total touchdowns while completing 66% of his passes.  Displaying elite arm talent, he notably led all college quarterbacks nationally with 39 completions of 20 yards or more downfield.  His dynamic play earned him third-team all-conference honors and cemented his status as a semifinalist for the prestigious Davey O’Brien Award. Before anchoring the USC offense – where he previously made history as the first Polynesian quarterback to start a game for the Trojans – his journey began at UNLV. There, he initially redshirted before stepping into the starting role early in his freshman year.  He quickly made his mark by capturing the 2023 Mountain West Freshman of the Year award alongside second-team all-conference recognition. Now 22 years old, the quarterback of Samoan-descent forged his path through considerable adversity.  He grew up in Hawaii and threw for over 3,300 yards at Kaimuki High before his senior season was canceled due to the pandemic.  That disruption forced a pivotal move back to Nevada’s Liberty High, where he persevered to play in the state championship and developed into a three-star recruit. With his unique blend of physical traits, collegiate experience, and high-level poise, Maiava is ready to etch his name into USC lore.

From cult-classic action hits to prime-time television staples, veteran actor Mark Dacascos continues to leave his mark on entertainment. Mark Dacascos is set to star as a warrior monk in the superhero film Legend of the White Dragon, scheduled for a limited theatrical release on August 28th.  The versatile actor and martial artist has built an extensive global footprint across major cinema and television platforms. He’s known for his memorable performance as a lethal assassin in the 2019 action blockbuster John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which grossed over $320 million.  On television, he demonstrated his wide-ranging presence by being featured in all 50 episodes of the 2008 Chinese-language biographical series The Legend of Bruce Lee, as well as taking on the recurring role of the ruthless crime boss Wo Fat across 17 episodes of the 2010 to 2020 run of Hawaii Five-0. Earlier milestones in his career stand out prominently in martial arts and action culture, including his appearance in the 2003 Jet Li action hit Cradle 2 the Grave, the 2001 French box-office hit Brotherhood of the Wolf, and his breakout starring role as a capoeira expert in the 1993 drama Only the Strong.  Dacascos landed his first role in Hollywood with a small part in the 1985 feature Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart. Dacascos was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was immersed in martial arts from a very young age by his father.  He mastered various disciplines – including Wun Hop Kuen Do, capoeira, and Wushu – laying the physical foundation for a stellar career as an action star.  The 62-year-old of Filipino and Chinese ethnicity was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame in 2023 and was the recipient of the Bruce Lee Award at the 2024 Asian World Film Festival. Beyond traditional action cinema, he has also shown his range through memorable television roles, bringing charm to reality television as “The Chairman” on Food Network’s hit cooking competition Iron Chef America – a role he later reprised for Netflix – and competing on Dancing with the Stars. Whether portraying a ruthless villain, a heroic martial artist, or a charismatic television host, Mark Dacascos continues to push creative boundaries, proving that he is much more than a typical action hero.

A trip to Peru is as unforgettable as traveling to a whole another dimension. [Verse 1] Touched down in the clouds where the condors fly, Eleven thousand feet and I don't know why My heart's beating fast — is it altitude or awe? Cuzco's got me spellbound by what I just saw. Stone blocks big as buses, fit without a seam, Cut by hands of giants or some ancient dream, I ran my fingers down that wall and swore I heard it hum — Whatever built this city, tell me where you're from! [Chorus] 'Cause I'm out of this world Out of this world Peru, you got me floating Got my head in a whirl I came down as a tourist Now I'm out of this world (out of this world) [Verse 2] Sailed out on Titicaca where the sky meets blue, Islands made of reeds and the people are too — They wove their whole world from totora and sun, Floating on a lake since time begun. Grandma's on a reed boat with a dragon's head, Come aboard, amigo, is what she said, We drifted on the water 'tween the earth and space, Twelve thousand feet closer to a state of grace! [Chorus] 'Cause I'm out of this world Out of this world Sailing on a sea of reeds Where the mysteries unfurl Peru, you got me floating Got my head in a whirl I came down as a tourist Now I'm out of this world (out of this world) [Bridge] Then the little plane went up, and the desert opened wide — A monkey! A spider! A hummingbird glide! Lines drawn for the heavens, a thousand years old, Who were they calling? The story's never told… (Banking left… banking right…) (Don't look down… what a sight!) [Verse 3] Landed back in Lima with my head still spinning, Bartender's shaking something, and he's grinning, Pisco, lime, and magic with a frothy little crown, One sour turned to four and the sun went down. Toasting to the Incas and the reed-boat queen, The astronaut on the hillside and everything between, The city lights are dancing and my feet won't touch the floor — Peru, pour me one more, then one more! [Final Chorus] 'Cause I'm out of this world Out of this world Pisco in my glass And all the mysteries unfurled Peru, you got me floating Got my head in a whirl I came down as a tourist Now I'm out of this world (out of this world) [Outro] Stone and sky and water, lines out in the sand, Some things in this lifetime you'll never understand… So raise another glass to the magic and the blur, Peru… out of this world… (out of this world)

On a secret one-man mission to track down the First Lady, Chip Garrison begins with a thorough investigation of Jack Tang's estate and uncovers disturbing clues. Tom Kagy (00:01.002) This is Tom Kagy with unconventional wisdom. Sent on a hush-hush one-man mission to unravel the two-headed mystery of the First Lady's abduction and Jack Tang's murder, Chip Garrison flies across the country to Silicon Valley. To keep his mission from leaking, he sneaks past the police cordon around the massive Tang mansion for a nighttime one-man invesgitation. The vast kitchen in which Tang was elaborately butchered shows an immaculate execution. But one small loose end catches Garrison's attention. In the belief that how a man lived is likely to reveal why he was killed, Garrison moves upstairs to spend quality sleuthing time in Tang's boutique-quality closet. He finds a meticulously-organized wardrobe that seems to suggest a life lived in splendid duplicate. Among Tang's shoe collection Garrison finds an important clue, one that suggests a bizarre possibility. Here then is the first half of a very long Chapter Seven of Midnight in Karakorum. Chapter SEVEN Another Friday night alone, thought Chip Garrison, indulging in a little recreational self-pity while wending his way, map in lap, out to the Tang estate.  It was past midnight back in Washington, nearly one a.m.  Deanne was either asleep, consoling herself with a pint of Dryer’s, or getting it on with the new man she had promised to find if Garrison stood her up one more Friday night, someone richer and better hung.  The hell of it was, Garrison had planned to surprise her tonight with the challenging position he had learned from the boss last night upon barging into his little late-night tea party.  You had to hand it to the man—Garrison hoped he would be that limber at the age of 44.  Now a stretching of his sexual horizons would likely have to wait until the First Lady had been recovered, dead or alive.  He hoped it would be the latter.  He had always liked her straightforward style.  She was a good woman—not to mention a stone fox—caught in a bad marriage.  Not that Garrison blamed the President.  By now he knew enough about the boss’s job to know it didn’t call for a saint.  If anything, it called for someone on better terms with the other side of the cosmos.  An ideal president, Garrison had once cynically decided, was a chameleon—fast-adapting, cold-blooded, equipped with a backbone.  He knew better than to judge a president by his sex life—as long as it didn’t destroy his ability to hold the job.  As far as Garrison could judge such matters, the boss had a knack for puzzling out the lesser of two evils and usually for the right reasons.  Maybe that didn’t add up to greatness, but in the wacky world of politics the man, with all his flaws, was considerably better than the available alternatives. Out here in California it wasn’t quite ten yet.  As Garrison had half expected, the front gate of the Tang estate had been left open to be guarded by a San Mateo County Sheriff’s patrol car.  The investigation was technically in progress though none of the detectives or the forensics people were likely to be actually in the house at this time on a Friday night.  A little further up the quiet road an unmarked Plymouth, probably FBI, looked ridiculous parked in a woodsy stretch of a neighborhood where you could drive for weeks without seeing a Plymouth.  The bureau really should spring for a few late-model imports for those special cases when nothing less would do.  Without slowing down noticeably, Garrison noted that each car contained a single bored occupant.  They were there to keep an eye on the crime scene, not to participate in the investigation, and would stay in their cars except to piss or stretch their legs. Garrison could have pulled right up to the front gate and flashed his badge for access, but he had no intention of tipping off anyone that the White House was scoping out the Tang murder scene.  That would require an awkward explanation to Sam Hanson’s field agents and an even more awkward one later to the press.  Garrison continued along the long meandering loop that returned him to a T-intersection a half-mile below the Tang estate.  To keep from calling as much attention to his rental car as the FBI Plymouth was, Garrison backed up a hundred yards and pulled the car up onto the concrete culvert, nudging back the shrubbery.  He pulled on the black leather gloves before getting out with his black canvas shoulder bag which nicely matched his black sweatshirt, sweatpants and black cross-trainers over black cotton socks.  Getting run over was the least of his worries. He walked quickly down to the T-intersection and turned right to head up the winding unlit road toward the Tang estate, retracing the route he had driven moments earlier.  The sliver of a moon, the same one Deanne had been cursing him under, threw off just enough cold light to let him walk without resorting to a flashlight.  To the right of the road was a steep, thickly wooded upslope unbroken by gates.  To the left he had noted two gates before the one leading to the Tang place.  After passing the second gate, Garrison cut down through the strip of trees and shrubbery that shielded a small stream from the road.  Here the overhanging branches blocked the moonlight and forced him to use a tiny penlight for footing.  The center of the stream marked the lower edge of the Tang property line.  By picking his way carefully over a series of rocks, Garrison managed to cross it without wetting his feet.  Another hundred feet up a slope made slippery by moss and vines brought him to the hedgerow that edged a broad circular driveway.  Across it stood the most spectacular house Garrison had ever trespassed into.  A string of dim Malibu lights illuminated a curving walkway that led first to a side entrance for servants and deliveries, then on to the damnably white front entrance.  The driveway down to the front gate was long and winding enough that a driver parked out front wouldn’t see someone entering through the front door, and certainly not through the side entrance.  On the chance the sheriff’s deputy had gotten out of the car and strolled up the driveway, Garrison decided to try the side door first.  If investigators had been going in and out all day, there was a good chance it was unlocked.  At least the alarm would be disarmed.  He tried the side door and found it deadbolted.  Shit.  His FBI training hadn’t included a course in lockpicking and he didn’t want to waste time testing what little he had picked up from the times he had locked himself out of his own apartment.  He could try the front door or go around back to try one of the windows.  From the side door Garrison had a longer view down the driveway.  There was no sign of movement below.  The risk of going through the front door was minimal.  And if he was spotted, he could probably outrun some deputy in stiff leather shoes.  Cursing the Malibu lights and the sheer breadth of the house, Garrison scurried to the front door in a crouch and tried the knob.  It was unlocked.  He took off his shoes and slipped them into a pouch on the side of his canvas bag before walking in.  The damned place was huge.  For a moment its sheer size, amplified by the darkness, disoriented Garrison.  Get a grip, he told himself.  This shack isn’t half as big as the White House.  His brain shifted into gear and his eyes grew accustomed to the light which was even dimmer than outside.  Still, there was a lot of glass through which some light managed to seep in.  The living room first, he decided.  Much of the furniture was leather, which wasn’t optimal.  There was a silk-upholstered sofa and a settee.  Then he spotted the window treatment.  The heavy fabrics were ideal collectors of pheromones, the hormonal scent signatures as unique to a person as his fingerprints.  From his black shoulder bag Garrison took out a tiny black vaccuum-cleaner.  The vaccuum cleaner itself was ordinary enough except maybe in its size and power, but the gear that would sift through what it would collect was so cutting-edge that its existence was known to only a handful of people outside DARPA—Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  The PPI—Pheromone Positive Identification—project was one of a thousand so called “black” projects funded with tens of billions of federal dollars diverted into classified items of DOD and CIA budgets.  Garrison had first gotten wind of the project when he had seen it listed—along with several dozen other black projects—in a memo he had routinely reviewed for the President.  PPI had been conceived as one of several alternative strategies for equipping tiny intelligent drones with the means to reliably identify and home in on—for observation and possible termination—enemy leaders deemed worthy of being military targets.   This much Garrison had gathered during the briefing arranged under the President’s orders via the Defense Department.  Involving DOD was risky, given that DARPA oversight was shared by the DCI—Director of Central Intelligence—who also happened to be CIA director Martin Underwood.  By going through the DOD side Garrison had hoped to minimize the chances of a double-agent alerting the North Koreans who, purportedly, were responsible for abducting the First Lady.  With a little luck it would produce a lead to the near end of a trail that would lead to the First Lady.  Given the timing of Tang’s murder, and his role in the AATA fundraiser where the First Lady was abducted, it seemed reasonable to suppose the two events involved the same group of perps.  But the abduction had been so clean, and the number of people there so huge, Garrison had decided the only hope for making use of PPI was on the murder side. Switching on the vacuum, Garrison swept its flared nozzle down a long section of the window treatment.  He also swept swatches of a sofa that showed the effects of its exceptionally convenient location and inviting shape.  Next would be the kitchen where Tang had been killed, at least where he had been turned into ground round.  If the killer were human, even a cold-blooded one, his body would have released billions of pheromone molecules, most of which would have disappeared into the atmosphere, but thousands, perhaps millions, would have been absorbed by porous surfaces in the kitchen and, indeed, throughout the house.  In fact, since the murder happened just a little over twenty-four hours ago, the air itself could contain several parts per billion of the telltale pheromones.  But the name of the game here was relative concentrations.  PPI’s usefulness depended on the precise location where samples were taken and the relative concentrations of the various pheromones present within a given sample.  The sample he would take from the kitchen, for example, would be expected to reveal highest concentrations of pheromones from Tang’s housekeeper, then possibly Tang, then possibly the killer or killers in roughly the same concentrations as the various law enforcement and forensics people who had been polluting the air since last night, not to mention sundry guests, repairmen or delivery boys.  By methodically accounting for all known persons, the pheromones of the unknown killer could be isolated.  Then it would be a matter of matching those against samples taken from the abodes or offices of all potential suspects until a match was found.  Potentially, the technology could revolutionize crime investigations, but the amount of processing power and legwork it required, especially at this stage when pheromone samples weren’t routinely archived like fingerprints, made it prohibitive for all but the most serious cases.   During his nine years in the FBI, gung-ho special agent Garrison had met more than his share of fresh stiffs, but he found himself tensing as he entered the kitchen which was about the size of Garrison’s entire apartment.  A couple of the interstate abduction-murders he had worked had been spiced up by a touch of mayhem—eyeballs gouged with screwdrivers, fingers sliced off—but they had been garden-variety compared with what the preliminary FBI memo to Hanson had described.  In the center of the kitchen was a cooking island big enough to butcher, filet and cook an entire cow.  That’s where Tang had been found in various pieces and bits, but of course, he wasn’t there now.  By that afternoon every conceivable photo would have been taken and the other evidence collected and catalogued, leaving the coroner free to remove Tang for more refined fileting in the name of a tidy autopsy report.  Under normal circumstances, his body would now be lying in a drawer with a tag wired to his big toe.  In this case, however, the coroner’s assistant would have been at a loss as to where a tag might be tied.  Garrison arrived at a plausible option.  According to the report at least, the killer apparently hadn’t cut off and ground up that part of Tang’s anatomy as well. Cut the crap, Garrison reminded himself.  There’s a big job to be done and your lonesome white ass is on the hook. The blood on the large wooden cutting block had run off on one side and flowed down a table leg and spread in a large puddle on the white marble floor.  Most of the H2O having evaporated by now, the dried blood formed a virtually black crustation.  Law enforcement personnel would leave puddles like that untouched, taking care not to step in it, at least until all photos had been taken.  By that time the blood would have dried to the state it was in now.  Yet, about fifteen inches outside one edge of the puddle was a shoeprint.  It had probably been created when someone had carelessly stepped into the puddle before the blood had dried, then apparently taken a quick backstep on seeing his error.  What the hell.  The kitchen window was angled away from the front gate and the counter provided some shielding.  Garrison dug into his pocket for a penlight, twisted it on and shone it on the shoeprint.  It was from a man’s dress shoe, a new pair judging by the sharpness of the brand imprint—an expensive European one that probably cost as much as Garrison’s best suit—on the heel and in front of the instep.  The print looked to have been made while the blood was fresh, before it had turned tacky, judging by the way it outspread the sole’s outline around the toe where the most blood had been picked up—probably because full weight had been committed to the toe but not to the heel when the klutz noticed his blunder.  What’s more, just behind the print was a formation of tiny droplets, virtually proving the blood had been fresh enough to spray off during the quick backstep.  Even more convincingly, no evidence of the misstep remained in the main puddle, suggesting the blood had been fresh enough simply to flow over the misstep.  Assuming the blood had crusted at the normal rate for room temperature, the print had to have been made less than an hour or two of the killing.  It didn’t take long for human blood to turn tacky.  And since Tang’s secretary, who had discovered the body, was a woman, and no detective or investigator would have been so careless, the print was likely the killer’s.  From his bag he took out a tape measure, pulled out about a foot of the stiff metal tape and placed it alongside the shoeprint.  Then he took out his 17mm infrared camera and snapped twice. Garrison’s heart raced with excitement.  If the print were the killer’s, he suddenly knew a great deal.  The killer’s shoe size and taste in shoes.  That he was an amateur with a cast-iron stomach.  No pro would be that careless or wear new dress shoes for a messy murder.  He hadn’t even bothered to wipe off the print.  Must have been in one hell of a big hurry, Garrison thought.  Maybe someone was coming.  Or waiting outside.  Garrison looked for more bloody shoe prints and saw none.  The killer must have removed and carried it.  And if he were that careless, he might have let it drip more blood, which might provide some clue as to his movements. Several minutes of crawling around the kitchen and hallway on his gloved hands and knees with a penlight failed to turn up other drops.  He didn’t have time to scour the entire house, especially with all the pheromone samples yet to be collected.  No telling when an officer or a security patrol might happen across his rental Chevy and come bopping up to the house with a flashlight and an unsnapped holster.  Getting to his feet, Garrison surveyed the kitchen again.  What struck him visually was how neatly all the blood was concentrated on and around the cutting table.  There were some spatters on the adjacent stainless steel sink, the eight-burner Wolf range, the overhead fan unit, the large wooden block holding a couple dozen knives of all sizes and shapes, and, of course, the gleaming industrial-grade electric meat grinder that must have set Tang back at least couple of grand.  Perfect for whipping up moo shoo pork—or moo shoo Tang—for a hundred of your favorite computer nerds.  But every bit of the blood—except the shoeprint—was consistent with using a 14-inch electric roast knife to behead and dismember a dead tycoon, as the FBI memo had pointed out.  Not one sign of struggle. It was as though Tang had graciously lain on the cutting table for quick dismemberment.  Even if someone had surprised Tang and snuffed him before he could put up a fight, you would expect at least some serious trauma to the head or to the torso .  According to the memo, there hadn’t been so much as a strangulation mark on either side of the severed neck.  No bruises or broken blood vessels around the nose and mouth to suggest suffocation either.  Or hypodermic marks on the torso.  Of course, the arms and legs might have sustained any number of traumas and marks, but Garrison had never heard of someone being murdered with bullets to the thigh or arm.  In any case, some poor coroner’s assistant had spent a half hour mucking around in the mixed muscle, fat, bone and gristle filling the grinder’s output bin and failed to turn up any trace of lead or other foreign substance.  The killer had removed and taken all clothing and jewelry.  No slugs had been found at all on any part of Tang’s person or home.  Despite the tasteless way the body had been left, the killing itself seemed to have been effortless.  No doubt the coroner would turn up toxins or powerful narcotics in the blood.  Not even the most willing, well-mannered victim could lie still while being dismembered with an electric roast knife.  There had likely been a hypodermic injection to one of the extremities.  That was a possible non-whacko reason for the grinder, as the memo had suggested.  Having now seen the kitchen with his own eyes, Garrison decided the only possible explanation was that Tang had been napping, charging his batteries for the big fundraiser, been surprised and injected with a powerful fast-degrading toxin, then carried to the kitchen for butchering.  No more time to lose.  From the back of the tiny vacuum’s handle Garrison popped out a clear plastic cartridge that looked something like a tiny box of breath mints.  He labeled the cartridge with a permanent marker before dropping it into his canvas bag.  He popped in a fresh cartridge and made a few passes up and down the treatment of the kitchen window nearest the butcher table.  Then he moved quickly over to the dining room.  The long, lacquered table, gleaming dully in the wan moonlight from the double-height windows, still held Tang’s sumptuous last supper.  The one he had shared with Robert Rosefall, struggling publisher/editor who had graduated from Boalt and practiced law for nine years.  Tang’s buddy from way back.  Lives in Malibu with wife and couple of kids.  It hadn’t taken Garrison long to agree with Hanson’s assessment that Rosefall had been framed.  Garrison was no profiler, but as an FBI special agent he had studied enough profiles spit out by the FBI’s mainframe to know that Rosefall didn’t fit.  A real profile of a non-family killer would have been a junior-high dropout with a couple of aggravated assaults, an armed robbery or two, maybe a drug bust, a part-time job with some moving company or service station, an apartment in some dumpy neighborhood, no kids—at least none claimed.  Whoever framed Robert Rosefall must have known Schumacher would take a quick election-eve conviction over pursuing the real killer.  Probably someone with knowledge of the players in local politics.  Stop wasting time on speculation, Garrison reminded himself.  You can’t get caught in here with your pants down.  Changing cartridges, Garrison swept the fabric cover of the chair at the head of the table, where Tang had likely sat, then, changing cartridges again, the other chair with a place setting.  Then he climbed the staircase to the second floor and found the master suite.  He couldn’t miss it.  The suite took up practically the entire second floor.  The California-king-sized bed was neatly made.  Perhaps Tang had napped on the bedroom sofa.  What puzzled Garrison about the bedroom was that the shelves of both nightstands held an assortment of books and magazines.  Tang was a bachelor.  According to the housekeeper and the black project security team who had been watching him, Tang had rarely brought women into the house.  A software wonder boy who worked sixteen-hour days.  Experience had taught Garrison that people who slept alone in a bed made for two always favored one side, stashing their bedtime reading in and around only one of the nightstands.  Yet both nightstands held reading material.  Was Tang some oddball ambidextrous sleeper?  Maybe the rich were different from you and me.  Schumacher’s investigators hadn’t bothered taking Tang’s bedroom reading into evidence, probably hadn’t even bothered flipping through it.  Pathetic.  The time pressure weighed heavily but the FBI special agent in him couldn’t resist checking out Tang’s bedtime reading.  He started with the nightstand on the side near the bedroom door.  The untidy stack included three newsmagazine and four trade journals dealing with graphic arts and advertising design.  Two more glossies featuring the kinds of technically spectacular photos that photographers dream of creating.  Two tattered paperbacks printed in Chinese characters.  Stuck between the two books was a packet of photos.  After a brief hesitation Garrison slipped that and the two Chinese paperbacks into his bag.  Tampering with a crime scene and stealing evidence were felonies worth several years of his life.  But who would notice?  Sure as hell, not Schumacher’s people.  The nightstand on the other side, the side near the window, held five business magazines and two issues of Rim.  Also thick hardbound book on Russian history, a badly printed paperback on post-Soviet Siberian society and economy, a bound dissertation on the key players in the current Chinese political scene and a slim volume titled Thread of the Silkworm.   If Tang was using his two nightstands to organize his reading material by subject, the logic escaped Garrison.  With the luxury of a gigantic bed and two nightstands, Garrison supposed, he might organize his reading too.  Who was he kidding?  He had a hard enough time keeping his dirty laundry off the clean stuff.  The business magazines were all recent issues published during the past two weeks.  One issue of Rim appeared new but the other was wrinkled, practically tattered, as though it had been read and re-read over and over.  It had been published four years ago.  There was no time to peruse its contents.  Garrison dropped it into his bag, then, the Silkworm book. Garrison checked his watch.  It was nearly midnight.  He really had to get his ass in gear and finish up. Armed with a fresh cartridge, Garrison pulled back the plush bedcovers.  The sheets looked like they had just been changed.  Of course, Tang never got to sleep between them Thursday night.  Garrison pulled back the sheets as well and swept the gauze-covered padding below on both sides of the bed.  Then he changed cartridges and moved into the walk-in closet adjacent to the bathroom.  There were no windows in the closet though it could easily have accommodated a couple of large picture windows.  Finally, a room where he could turn on the lights.  As he shut the door, he noticed that it was surprisingly heavy, a thick slab of solid wood instead of the hollow affairs on most closets.  He flipped the light switch.  What a relief to see in color again!  Like the kitchen, the closet was bigger than Garrison’s apartment, and much more plushly furnished.  To the left was what amounted to a mini-den, containing a long, well-worn black leather sofa, a teak coffee table, two black leather swivel chairs and an eight-foot solid teak desk that must have weighed at least a half ton.  Why would Tang ever want to lounge in his closet?  The house contained several far more appealing places to lounge.  Privacy from the household help?  Perhaps.  To the right of the closet door were six rows of clothes racks and, against the wall, a long rack devoted to shoes and ties.  What a clothes horse! Garrison thought.  One rack was devoted exclusively to suits, in expensive fabrics.  There must have been five dozen, mostly in black, dark gray, camel and taupe.  The closet was like the men’s department of an exclusive department store.  The suits were carefully arranged by color, starting with the lightest shade of camel and working up to the blackest black.  There wasn’t a single suit that didn’t have at least one identical copy hanging beside it.  Those London and Milan tailors probably gave one hell of a big discount when you bought by the dozen.  Between the dark greys and blacks, however, there were a few gaps, as though several suits had been pulled out.  Probably being dry-cleaned.  He checked the vinyl cover on one of the suits.  Dynasty Cleaners, Los Altos Hills.  He jotted the name and phone number on a notebook he kept in an outer pocket of his shoulder bag.  By the look of things it was unlikely Tang wore a suit twice before having it dry cleaned, making the suits hardly worth sampling. The shirts, slacks, even the polo shirts, jeans and shorts, were hung or folded as though they were on sale.  There were the shoes though.  Unlikely even Tang would throw away shoes after a single wearing, if for no other reason than the sheer discomfort of breaking in a new pair.  The shoe rack contained dress shoes, tennis shoes, running shoes, cowboy boots, dress boots, hiking boots, even a few pairs of sandals.  In all, there must have been a hundred pairs.  Then Garrison noticed several things simultaneously.  Virtually every pair of dress shoes were the same expensive European brand as the one that had made the bloody misstep down in the kitchen.  Every pair of shoes had at least one twin.  Except three pairs.  They were unmatched.  Or rather, their mates were gone, leaving obvious gaps in the careful arrangement.  Could Tang have sent them out resoling?  Somehow Garrison doubted it.  Maybe he had had them donated to the Salvation Army.  First chance, he would have to talk with Tang’s housekeeper.

18 year old Filipino American Asia Rose Simpson became the youngest Miss World Philippines, using her growing platform to advocate for youth wellness through sports and dance. At just 18 years old, Asia Rose Simpson had already earned one of the biggest pageant titles after being crowned Miss World Philippines in February 2026, but her journey into the spotlight began long before she ever won the crown. She was born in 2007 in the United States to a Filipino father and American mother in Hobbs, New Mexico. When she was six months old, her family moved to Roxas City in the Philippines where she spent most of her childhood before moving to Quezon City. Simpson’s father taught her how to dance when she was three years old and in 2016, their family made an appearance on Pilipinas Got Talent as an acrobatic act called The Simpson Tribe. Unfortunately, they did not advance after the second round, but this allowed the Simpson family to focus on the founding of the SED initiative which has helped around 7,000 individuals achieve mental wellness through dancing and sports. Simpson’s pageant career eventually brought her back to the United States. In 2023, she won Miss New Mexico Teen USA, leading her to represent the state at Miss Teen USA. While she did not place in the competition, she did receive the Miss Congeniality award, voted on by her fellow contestants. Three years later in 2026, Simpson returned to the Philippines and represented Quezon City at Miss World Philippines, quickly becoming a competition stand out. She won the Talent Challenge, Beauty with a Purpose Challenge, Best in Swimsuit and also received the Dr. Toledo Cosmetics Ambassador Award. But Simpson’s most significant accomplishment happened off the pageant stage through her role in her SED initiative. The program uses sports and dance to promote physical, mental, and emotional wellness and this project is what earned Simpson the Beauty with a Purpose award. Her advocacy for the SED initiative became an important part of her winning answer at Miss World Philippines. By the end of the competition, Simpson was crowned Miss World Philippines 2026, making her one of the youngest women to take on the national title. And now, she is currently representing the Philippines at Miss World 2026 in Vietnam, along with over 100 other national representatives. On August 21, Simpson advanced into the Top 60 of the Miss World Top Model competition and the Top Model final is scheduled for August 28 and the Miss World finale will follow in September. Most 18 year olds are only beginning to figure out what they wanna do, but Simpson has already built a career around pageantry and youth advocacy. Whether or not she ultimately takes home the Miss World crown, her journey representing the Philippines has already made her a name to watch.

Fresh off a stunning Wimbledon upset against Iga Swiatek, Filipino tennis star Alexandra Eala is carrying her historic momentum straight into the final Grand Slam of the season. Earlier this month Alexandra Eala made history becoming the first Filipino player to win a WTA title.  Eala knocked off the top three players in the tournament and sealed the final set with a dominant 6-0 performance. This came on the heels of an impressive Wimbledon showing, where the 21-year-old tennis sensation delivered a stunning breakthrough by pulling off a massive upset against world number three Iga Swiatek.  This remarkable run to the fourth round marked the best major finish of her young career and cemented her status as a legitimate rising force on the global tennis stage.  Building directly on that hard-earned momentum, Eala is now fully primed and intensely focused on making a deep, formidable run at the upcoming US Open. Standing at 5’9”, Eala has enjoyed a stellar professional trajectory since making the jump to turn pro in 2020.  Her relentless work ethic, powerful baseline game, and high-level performances on the tour have propelled her to a career-high world ranking of number 18.  This remarkable achievement makes her the highest-ranked Filipino player in the history of the WTA Tour. The young star’s ascent has been defined by clutch performances and consistency across multiple surfaces.  In June, she captured the prestigious Birmingham Open title during an impressive grass-court swing that showcased her expanding tactical maturity, court coverage, and composure under pressure.  Her stellar campaign this season has also translated to major financial success, with the young athlete earning approximately $1.7 million in prize money through her exceptional feats on the tour this year. As the tennis world shifts its focus to the hard courts of New York, all eyes will be squarely on the Filipino trailblazer.  Armed with a newly forged reputation for taking down elite giants and immense confidence gained from her first title win and exceptional Wimbledon outing, Eala enters the final Grand Slam of the year not just as a dangerous dark horse, but as a genuine threat to go deep.

With championship golf, a big, lively casino, world-class dining and high-altitude ballooning, Pechanga Resort and Casino lets you enjoy twice as much action and relaxation during those precious getaway weekends. When I need a weekend getaway, the last thing I want to do is spend half of it staring at brake lights on the freeway.  That’s why I head for Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula.  It packs twice the fun per hour of driving time.  That means more actual fun and relaxation! For me Pechanga is spending the morning tackling the stunning links at Journey at Pechanga golf course, unwinding by the massive pool complex at The Cove, and feasting on an incredible dinner at The Great Oak Steakhouse.  Then it’s time to catch a headlining concert or live performance right at the Pechanga Theater.  If I’m up for more excitement, I head over to that dazzling casino floor. The next morning I’m ready for the ultimate Pechanga bonus treat: sunrise hot-air ballooning!  Floating thousands of feet above the Temecula Valley wine country, watching the morning mist roll over endless rows of vineyards, elevates a weekend getaway into an unforgettable romantic adventure. Twice the fun per hour on the road, plus a literal high-altitude bonus — all just a stone’s throw away.  What are you waiting for?

Shinjiro Torii opened a small Osaka shop in 1899 with the goal of creating Western-style spirits for Japanese tastebuds, building the foundation of a multibillion dollar empire. Before Suntory became one of the most recognizable names in the Japanese spirit world, there was one entrepreneur in Osaka who had the idea to create Western-style alcohol specifically for Japanese tastes. Shinjiro Torii was born in Osaka in 1879 and began working as an apprentice for a pharmaceutical wholesaler that also handled Western wines and liquors. This allowed him to gain insight on drinking culture, leading him to open his own store called Torii Shoten in 1899 at just 20 years old. At Torii Shoten, Torii wanted to do more than just introduce his customers to imported wine. He wanted to make something that was specifically tailored towards his Japanese audience. His first major success came in 1907 with Akadama Port Wine, setting a foundation for the business. Torii wanted to be a risk taker and decided to enter the whiskey business, so he invested in the construction of the Yamazaki Distillery outside Kyoto, which became known today as Japan's first malt whisky distillery. The company officially became Suntory Limited 1963 after Shinjiro Torii’s death in 1962 and his son Keizo Saji took over as president. Saji continued his father’s vision, creating some of the most popular Japanese spirits all over the world. Japanese whiskey began receiving more publicity in the 2000s due to Suntory’s bottles winning awards at global competitions, including a gold medal at the International Spirits Challenge in 2003. Suntory’s demand became so strong that the company announced their heavy investment in its long-term production capacity, which included approximately ¥10 billion in renovations and upgrades to their distilleries. In 2014, Suntory acquired Beam Inc. for approximately $16 billion, adding famous brands such as Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark to its portfolio. Then, one decade later, the business was renamed Suntory Global Spirits, strengthening the Suntory name throughout its international operations. Last year the entire Suntory Group reported approximately ¥3.43 trillion in revenue including liquor taxes, which is equivalent to more than $20 billion at recent exchange rates. Over 125 years after Torii opened his small Osaka shop, his great-grandson Nobuhiro Torii serves as president and CEO of Suntory Holdings, while Torii’s grandson Nobutada Saji remains chairman. Shinjiro Torii’s attempt to create Western-style drinks for Japanese consumers has become one of Japan’s most recognizable global beverage companies, not only helping establish the Japanese whisky industry, but also transforming Japanese whisky into a luxury category sought after around the world.

The Los Angeles Dodgers swept their recent series behind standout performances from Tommy Edman and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Lee Kang-in delivered a standout performance on his debut for Atlético Madrid, helping power his side to a decisive 2-0 victory. The winger broke the deadlock in style, controlling a crossfield ball, shifting past defenders, and curling a brilliant left-footed shot inside the far post to set the tone for the win. As the Premier League season was launched on Friday, defender Takehiro Tomiyasu made his debut for Crystal Palace, though it resulted in a tough 2-nil opening loss. NFL star defensive tackle Vita Vea and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers agreed to a lucrative contract deal, signing a one-year, $30 million extension that brings his total compensation to $48 million fully guaranteed over the next two years through the 2027 season. Las Vegas Raiders kicker Kansei Matsuzawa, once believed to be in a kicking competition, is now hoping to hold onto a roster spot.  In the second preseason game, “Tokyo Toe” missed 2 extra-point attempts, after his NFL debut consisted of a lone missed field goal attempt. On the diamond, Kazuma Okamoto broke the Blue Jays’ rookie record for home runs in a single season.  He’s now up to 26 for the year – top 20 league-wide.  Betting odds place him top 5 for AL Rookie of the Year favorite. Meanwhile, the Dodgers rolled through back-to-back sweeps over the Rockies and Pirates, powered by a dramatic walk-off hit by Tommy Edman and a brilliant quality start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto.  Though Shohei Ohtani contributed three home runs versus the Rockies in their series, he only acquired one hit against the Pirates.  That quiet stretch compared unfavorably to a massive offensive surge from the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong, which has pushed Ohtani back to second place in the NL MVP race. Asian LPGA dominance continued with Miyu Yamashita capturing her fourth title in impressive fashion at the CPKC Women's Open in Edmonton.  Yamashita tied the LPGA scoring record, shooting 257 on the 72-hole course, and dominated the field with a nine-stroke victory.

Blending sharp observational humor with deep personal vulnerability, Jimmy O. Yang has solidified his status as one of entertainment’s most versatile talents. Comedian, actor, and author Jimmy O. Yang returned to the spotlight with his stand-up special, Finally Home, released in March.  Captured during massive arena shows in his hometown of Hong Kong, the feature marks his third project following 2023’s Guess How Much? and 2020’s Good Deal.  These comedy specials leverage his sharp observational humor, personal immigration experiences, and cultural identity. Beyond his stand-up success, Yang has built a prolific acting career across television and film.  In 2024, he was the lead in the 10-episode Hulu action-dramedy series Interior Chinatown, portraying a background waiter at a family restaurant who is trapped inside a fictional police procedural television show.  Prior to that, he was featured in the 2021 hit romantic comedy Love Hard and co-created, wrote, and starred in Netflix’s space-comedy series Space Force from 2020 to 2022 across 17 episodes.  He also gained widespread recognition for his role as Bernard Tai in the 2018 blockbuster film Crazy Rich Asians.  Before transitioning into major film and television features, Yang first broke out with his recurring role as Jian-Yang on HBO’s hit tech-comedy Silicon Valley, appearing in 48 of the 53 episodes from 2014 to 2019. Yang made his television debut on the CBS series 2 Broke Girls in 2012, with early acting gigs that also included guest appearances on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Criminal Minds. Born in Hong Kong, Yang moved to Los Angeles at age 13, becoming an American citizen in 2015.  This journey he humorously documented in his 2018 memoir, How to American: An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents.  The 39-year-old graduated from UCSD in 2009 with a bachelor’s in economics. While in college, he took the stage for the first time to perform stand-up. By blending vulnerability with quick-witted social commentary, Yang continues to redefine representation in Hollywood, establishing himself as a versatile, enduring talent across both stage and screen.

Victor (00:00) Hello everyone and welcome back to Getting Fit by First Principles. So in today's episode, I want to cover lessons I've learned from my various athletic pursuits. And the topic of this one is going to be powerlifting. Now, the reason why I want to go over my quote-unquote athletic history is to showcase where I have learned these first principles. And I owe a lot of my personal knowledge when it comes to fitness to my time in powerlifting. Victor (00:38) Throughout my training history, I've had a lot of different phases and different seasons. And there isn't really anything I would say I regret. Even though technically I wasted time when I was 18 years old and had no direction, I feel that that was also an important experience for me. Victor (01:01) Even though I no longer engage with the sport of powerlifting, I still think everything I have learned while in the sport has stayed with me to this day. Victor (01:14) I first got into the sport of powerlifting during my junior year of college. I went to UC San Diego and there was a barbell club called Triton Barbell. And during my sophomore year, you know, I was admittedly a little intimidated because I was definitely smaller and weaker than most of the people on that team. And then by my junior year I just decided to take the plunge and just, you know, join them for a group workout. And that was a very humbling, humbling experience. Victor (01:47) When I first joined them, I was same height, you know, six foot one, but I was a skinny one hundred and eighty three pounds at the time. I had been running and lifting in the gym for a number of years, but nothing really impressive because I didn't really have a clear plan when I went to the gym. I was just lifting unintentionally. And then that is when I met one of my first ever mentors. She was a top ten power lifter in the US in the 125 pound female class, and she was outlifting me, which was very, very embarrassing. Victor (02:31) I remember our first conversation when I participated in a group workout with the barbell club. It was like an exchange straight out of a movie because she asked me, how long have you been lifting for? And then at the time I said, around four years. And then she said, why is your bench pressed so low? And, that was a very, very huge blow to my fragile male ego. Victor (03:06) And despite this rough first encounter, she ended up taking me under her wing like my powerlifting big sister. Which in retrospect was kind of a huge honor because she was in a way a local legend, in this powerlifting club, because she had already graduated like three, four years prior, and she chose to stay back and stay with the powerlifting team, which I thought was really, really cool. And I remember that summer of my junior year, I hung out with her a lot and we went back and forth about programming and programming methodology. Victor (03:47) Now the reason why in multiple episodes I keep harping on the importance of logging was in one of our first conversations, my mentor had asked me if I kept a logbook. When I said no, she said that's your first problem. You need to keep a logbook. And then she showed me one of hers. It was a leather bound journal. That was just covered in chalk and dirt with pages just crumpled from sweat getting on them. And she had kept this logbook for years and she was very detailed and meticulous about the way she logged her workouts, every single set, every single repetition, down to the way she felt about each set and little technical notes. And she said that if you're not logging, you will have zero data on how you will improve in the future. You need to keep a logbook. And that first kick in the ass was what I needed. Victor (04:45) So then after that exchange, I bought my own Moleskin journal and I started keeping track of my workouts too. I started writing down my sets and reps and seeing how I was progressing week to week. Victor (05:01) So after that initial burst of strength gains, right, when I started seeing my squat, bench press, and deadlift go up, I started getting into powerlifting YouTube, just consuming as much powerlifting content as possible regarding technique, programming, special exercises, et cetera, et cetera. And I was so excited, I would text my mentor, like, my god, this is what I did today. And then Sounding very unimpressed, she would reply, okay, that's cool and all, but what are you trying to accomplish here? Like you're just doing random things, and if you just want to have fun, that's fine. But do you actually want to get stronger? If if so, I'll tell you how to get stronger, but if not, like don't waste my time with this. Victor (05:49) Now, this exchange was where I learned my second important lesson from powerlifting: training with a plan and with a goal in mind. Because at the time, right, I was thinking of competing in the sport of powerlifting, and I wanted to get stronger, specifically at the squat, bench press, and deadlift. So When my mentor kind of called me out for just kind of following what seemed trendy on YouTube rather than having a distinct plan with a focus on developing a very specific quality, Victor (06:25) that got me to really sit down one of my first ever custom workout plans for myself. she said, Okay, this looks like a structured plan that will get you what you want, which is more muscle and more strength. Victor (06:42) And then when I committed to this program for that entire summer in college where I would do my schoolwork, work at my lab, and then go to the gym, I found that I was making a lot of gains. I went from I think around around 183 pounds to about 198 to 200 pounds. Victor (07:03) I also managed to bench press in the mid-200s, squat in the mid-300s, and start to deadlift within the mo mid-400s, like within a couple months, which I was very, very happy with at the time. Victor (07:18) at this time I truly understood the difference between exercising and training. Exercising is when you merely Get a sweat going with no clear direction. You're just moving your body just to move your body, which is fine for most people. That's a perfectly fine way to engage with the gym. However, I found that with training, you have a very specific goal and a very specific intention in mind. And with that level of focus, I found that I achieved a lot of the things that I wanted to achieve. I got stronger and I was able to build some muscle. Victor (07:58) After this initial burst of gains, right, I felt myself starting to plateau again. And then obviously, being young and not having the experience of multiple training cycles, I did start getting a little antsy. You know, there were points where I started tweaking my program. I started questioning my exercise selection, and then I would keep pestering my mentor about like, I'm having issues with this part of the lift. Should I start performing these? Types of accessory movements. And I was so anxious about my performance that eventually my mentor snapped at me again one day and she said, Listen, I can't answer these questions for you. I actually don't know whether or not these adjustments will be positive for you. You need to be scientific about it. You have the data, you're logging your workouts right. You need to just simply stick with your plan for three to four weeks. See if you are making progress in your lifts. And if you're not, you make an adjustment. If not, and if you keep making progress, then you don't make any adjustments. These are things I can't tell you. You have to experience them yourself. Victor (09:12) Now Even being a decade removed from this conversation, I find that there is still a lot of wisdom to be had in reflecting on it. Because my mentor was right. She had an idea of things that could work for herself, but I was a completely different body with a different set of experiences and training histories and injuries. So she c she can't say for sure whether or not changing one exercise here, one rep scheme there. Would have made a difference with me, and that I just needed to simply think long term and just follow a plan. If I think a certain adjustment would yield more gains, then I need to stick with it and let my body take time to adapt because these things take a while before you will see results. Victor (10:01) The third and final lesson that powerlifting taught me was to stick with the plan. If I make a plan that I need to stick with it in order to find out if it truly works and not to let emotions dictate my decision making. The unfortunate thing is that much like life, gains aren't necessarily a guaranteed outcome in any endeavor you pursue. The only thing that you can really guarantee is the amount of effort, intentionality, and focus that you bring to the training session. Everything else might be out of my control and I needed to accept that, especially being younger. I was kind of afraid of wasting my time, quote unquote. Like, what if I chose the wrong exercises? What if my program wasn't optimally designed? And the truth is It probably did not matter as much as I thought it did. I think what tr would have mattered more was the amount of effort that I was putting into each training session, and whether or not I was actually properly eating and sleeping. Victor (11:15) Now, the wisdom that we can extrapolate from this final lesson is that in a lot of endeavors in life, we are afraid of quote unquote wasting our effort, we can't always force a desired outcome for any of our endeavors. We can try to hedge our bets and work towards a given outcome. But there are a lot of external factors that can throw little Hickups and bumps and bruises into our vest laid plans. Victor (11:46) All we could do and all I could do was approach my programming and my lifting journey with a level of curiosity and discipline. Simply creating a plan, following it through, and examining the data objectively. Did I get stronger? Did I get bigger? Or did I not achieve those goals? And if I did not achieve those, then adjust. But also Giving myself the time to really get those training sessions in and allow my body to adapt. Victor (12:20) And now that I think about it, another great takeaway from my experience in powerlifting is the importance of finding a community in your fitness journey. Victor (12:34) To summarize the lessons that I took away from my powerlifting season of my life, I would say the first one is keep a running log of your training. You cannot improve what you don't measure. Secondly, create a plan. And train intentionally, have goals when you go to the gym, don't just wing it. Thirdly, embrace uncertainty and approach your training with a level of curiosity. Experiment but give yourself time to see whether or not changes are actually taking effect. And then The fourth and final lesson: surround yourself with like-minded individuals that are also pushing themselves. If you want to get faster at cycling, hang out with cyclists. If you want to run faster, hang out with runners. If you want to get stronger, hang out with powerlifters and find somebody who will nurture your attributes.

As the Chicago Cubs chase a crucial postseason berth, five-year veteran Seiya Suzuki delivers a standout offensive performance in his contract year. The Chicago Cubs have positioned themselves as frontrunners in the National League wildcard contention, fueled heavily by the stellar contributions of right fielder Seiya Suzuki.  Putting together another strong campaign, Suzuki holds the second-best batting average on the team while anchoring the middle of the order. He has also recorded 22 home runs, on pace for second-best of his career. This season marks Suzuki’s fifth year in the majors, having spent his entire MLB career with the Cubs.  Over his five seasons in Chicago, he has established a strong offensive track record, maintaining a career batting average of .268 and an on-base percentage of .347. Crucially, this is a contract year for the veteran star, who signed an $85,000,000 deal over five years covering the 2022 through 2026 seasons.  Before making the jump to North America, Suzuki built a legendary reputation during nine seasons in his home country of Japan playing in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. During his time overseas, he developed into a five-time NPB All-Star, where he tallied 182 home runs while batting .315.  Additionally, he earned six Best Nine Awards and five Golden Gloves. His winning pedigree also extends to the international stage.  Suzuki was a key member of Japan’s 2020 Olympic team, alongside MLB stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Munetaka Murakami, helping his home country capture the gold medal on home soil following a dramatic 2-0 victory over the United States in the gold medal game.  As the Cubs chase a postseason berth down the stretch, Suzuki’s clutch bat and extensive championship experience remain central to their October ambitions.

After a difficult flight the First Lady finds herself in a bizarrely sumptuous surroundings, trying to understand the motives of her enigmatic captors. Tom Kagy (00:01.132) Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom. The whole world is focused on the First Lady's abduction. Who could do such a thing? And where on earth did they take her? Megan doesn't know that her abduction is seen as having occurred simultaneously with Jack Tang's murder, but finds herself wondering at her new accommodations, which are both sumptuous and bizarre. Not knowing the efforts underway to locate and secure her return, Megan begins probing and testing her new environment and the psychology of her enigmatic captors. Despite being at the epicenter of what the world believes to be the geopolitical escapade of the century, she finds herself as baffled as the rest of the world. So let's get into chapter six of Midnight in Karkorum. Chapter SIX The cargo jet touched down rather violently and came to an abrupt, screeching halt.  The pilot wasn’t out to win points for passenger comfort, decided Megan.  The muscular young man named Rick came back to the cargo hold and put a blindfold on her, a large one that covered her entire face except the mouth and nostrils.  The First Lady was too tired to care.  She wanted only to be taken somewhere with a bathtub and hot water.  Rick draped her in a blanket before picking her up and carrying her down the cargo ramp.  The air was moist and cool, almost cold, suggesting the wee hours of the morning.  Or maybe Siberia or Hokkaido.  Regardless, the fresh air was a huge relief after the long flight.  The whine of jet engines from other planes suggested they had landed at a substantial airfield, not some remote landing strip.  Whoever had arranged to abduct her apparently had the support of someone substantial, perhaps an entire government.  The chill that went down the First Lady’s spine had nothing to do with the cool air.  She was set down in the back of a van, judging by the hollow slamming of an unlined steel door.  Two of the men got in with her, probably Rick and the other young one.  From the front seat came a muffled exchange that sounded like Scowl talking with the driver.  The van accelerated quickly, swerving as it picked up speed.  They drove for what seemed like an hour, the second half over a winding upgrade with very little traffic.  They turned onto a dirt road and climbed steeply for a few minutes, then stopped.  There was a brief exchange with someone outside, a guard perhaps.  Then the First Lady heard a gate squeaking open.  For a minute or two the van rumbled up a steep winding driveway covered with gravel before crunching to a stop.  “I can take this off now,” Rick said, pulling off the blindfold.  He jumped out of side cargo door and helped the First Lady step down onto the gravel driveway. It was dark.  A touch of blue toward one horizon suggested that dawn wasn’t too far off.  They were to the east side of a large three-story house perched on a steep, thickly forrested mountainside.  The wan light from its front entrance revealed it to be built of granite and glass in an angularly modern style completely devoid of regional architectural detailing.  It could be anywhere on earth.  But at least she could see her surroundings now and, after god knew how many hours, she was again standing on her own two feet on solid earth.  The sudden abduction had robbed the First Lady of her composure and strength.  Now she felt both returning.  The removal of the blindfold suggested that whatever her abductors’ ultimate objectives, their present intention was to show her such civility as was possible under the circumstances. As she followed Scowl and his men up the steps toward the front entrance, one of the double doors was opened by an Asian woman.  She was in her late-20s or possibly early 30s, a beauty with flawless skin and the kind of cheekbones that gave her a high-fashion look, the kind of face one saw strutting impassively down some Seventh-on-Sixth runway.  She was about Megan’s height, two or three inches too short and a little too voluptuous for the runways.  She wore a short black spandex dress that clung just so.  Her makeup was flawless, with impossibly elegant eyebrows and perfectly drawn lips.  The lipstick was dark plum, two or three shades too hip to suggest the tastes of a totalitarian society.  It convinced Megan that she was somewhere in South Korea.  Which meant the abduction wasn’t sanctioned by a government, South Korea being a close ally.  That thought gave her strength.  The abductors couldn’t operate with total impunity and had limited time, resources and freedom of movement with which to gain their ends, whatever they were.  On the other hand, they could draw on American resources, as suggested by American-trained operatives like Rick and the use of what must have been a secret American airfield and even an American aircraft to fly her out.  That must have required cooperation from at least a few US civilian or military officials. “Welcome, Madame First Lady,” said Plumlips, bowing before the First Lady had reached the entrance.  Her accent suggested she was Korean.  For the first time, Megan noticed that Plumlips was wearing black velvet house slippers instead of the strappy spikes that might have gone with her daring dress and disco-doll makeup. “Welcome to where?” said the First Lady, stepping into the house. Plumlips smiled and hesitated.  “To our home.” A quick glance around showed the interior to be as starkly modern as the exterior—marble, leather, brushed steel, glass.  A few large stone objets.  The effect was perfectly impersonal, absolutely devoid of warmth.  “Who does your decorating,” said the First Lady with a tight little smile. “An industrial robot?” “I’m sorry it isn’t to your taste,” Plumlips said.  “But we’ll do our best to make your stay comfortable.” “How many nights am I booked for?” “I’m sorry, I don’t know.” “Who does?” “Perhaps my boss,” said Plumlips gently.  Then she noticed the bloodstains on the First Lady’s no-longer-white Chanel suit.  Switching to Korean, Plumlips fired a question at Scowl who was standing near the entrance.  Sighing noisily, he murmured a reply.  That was met by another angry question.  Making a show of containing his irritation, Scowl spat back a curt response.  Plumlips shot him a look that hinted at further discussions at a more appropriate time, then returned her attention to the First Lady. “I am very sorry that—that you had such an unpleasant flight,” Plumlips said, her eyes showing genuine concern. “I won’t be flying that airline again.” Bowing in apology, Plumlips said.  “I will take you to your room.” As she followed Plumlips up the broad marble stairway, Megan saw Scowl and his men walking out of the house.  The rose tint of dawn threw enough light that the First Lady could look down through the tall picture window beside the front entrance and see the three men trudging down the driveway.  They appeared to be heading for a single-story barracks about a hundred yards below the main house.  Where the watchdogs sleep, Megan decided.  The barracks looked big enough for twenty men on friendly terms.  From the second-floor landing she could make out the top of a gate and a guardshack another hundred yards past the barracks.  There was probably a fence around the compound.  It would take at least three men to patrol it.  That suggested there were at least nine guards in addition to Scowl and his men.  Plumlips led Megan all the way up to the third floor and turned down a long dim hallway.  The house was larger than it had looked from the driveway, maybe eight to ten thousand square feet.  Megan’s room was at the far end of the hall, the west end of the house, judging by the direction in which color was spreading in the sky.  Plumlips opened the door and pressed the light switch.  The room was huge, with a view of a pine-covered mountainside through the large window smothered with heavy velvet window treatment.  What flabbergasted Megan was the decor.  Unlike the rest of the house, everything in the room was gaudy and mawkish.  The canopied bed, tables and chairs were abominations that paid badly misguided homage to Marie Antoinette.  Covering the bed was a brightly colored silk patchwork quilt that cried out to be donated to the Salvation Army.  If the rest of the house had been decorated by an industrial robot, this room was the work of a blind person with a weakness for overwrought varnished wood.  “Charming,” the First Lady said. The suppressed little smile on Plumlips’s face suggested the irony wasn’t lost on her.  “You will be comfortable here.”  She showed the First Lady the bathroom.  Unlike the bedroom, the bathroom was the work of the industrial-robot, not the blind person.  It contained a large jacuzzi-style tub, a glass-walled shower and a sparkling bidet.  It adjoined a large walk-in closet that was, surprisingly, filled with an assortment of dresses, robes, blouses, slacks, shirts.  Even jeans and swimsuits.  A cursory inspection revealed the clothing to be in her colors and styles.  There was also an array of shoes, slippers and athletic shoes.  Seeing the First Lady’s surprise, Plumlips said, “They’re your size.” Megan’s heart sank.  The closet had been stocked for an extended stay.  There was enough for weeks, maybe months for someone who probably wouldn’t be going out on the town every night.  The large marble dressing table was equipped with an exhaustive array of cosmetics from Estée Lauder, Clinique, Chanel and Lancôme.  It was as though someone had spent hours cataloguing the contents of her White House dressing room.  Had a White House staffer participated in her abduction?  The First Lady’s head swarmed with images of the several dozen secret service agents, maids, valets, chefs, stewards, aides and secretaries who had access to the Mansion.  It was a path Megan didn’t have the will to travel at the moment.  “I will leave you alone now,” Plumlips said.  “Breakfast will be sent up soon.  If you would like anything, please call me at extension 7.” “What do I push to get an outside line?” “I am afraid your phones aren’t connected to an outside line,” Plumlips said politely.  “I was afraid of the same thing,” said Megan.  “When can I speak with your boss?” “Perhaps he will arrive later today,” Plumlips said.  She bent at the waist in a formal bow before leaving the room.  Megan lost no time turning on the bathwater.  The water flowed clean and hot.  Gratefully, she stepped out of her high-heel pumps and shucked off her blood-stained suit and bra.  She positioned herself on the bidet and cleansed herself.  Whatever traces of the rape may remain in her, she had no desire to let it contaminate her bath.  Knowing that the rapist was dead helped.  The water helped as well.  Only time would wash away the rest.  While enjoying her long-awaited hot soak, the First Lady idly picked up the phone next to the tub.  She tried pressing 0.  After a couple of rings, it was picked up.  “Neh?” said a Korean male voice.  “Yes?”  Even Megan knew that much Korean.  “Please send up a taxi,” the First Lady said.  “I’ll be leaving for the airport in a half hour.”  The long silence that greeted her request made the First Lady smile.  There was a murmured exchange in Korean.  The man must have placed his hand over the mouthpiece because she could barely hear them. “No taxi here,” the man said in heavily accented English.  “Please you dial number 7.  Maybe you get lucky.”  That was followed by muffled laughter. “Thank you,” Megan said and pressed the hook.  That must have been the barracks, or maybe the guardhouse.  She tried pressing 1 and listened to the phone ringing numerous times before pressing the hook.  Given Asian fixation on hierarchy and protocol, that extension was probably assigned to the man of the house, the boss, as Plumlips had called him, who wasn’t there yet.  Megan tried 2.  Again, there was no answer.  Extensions 3 and 4 were also unanswered.  Extension 5 was answered on the fourth ring by a sleepy male voice.  “Yeohboseyo.  Hello.”  The tone of his voice suggested he expected whoever was calling to be an inferior and he was highly annoyed at having been awakened.  “Good morning,” Megan said.  “This is the First Lady of the United States.  Who am I speaking with?” The hesitation was briefer than Megan had expected.  “How are you, Madame First Lady?” the man said, his voice coming awake, as though he had been expecting her call any minute.  “This is Dr Park, Jang-sun Park.  It is truly an honor to speak with you.”  His English was excellent, hardly accented and rich with assurance. “Likewise, Dr Park,” the First Lady said.  “Are you a member of the household or an honored guest like me?” Park’s genial laugh contained no trace of apology.  “A mere family member.  I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for quite some time.” “Your invitation was hard to refuse,” Megan said drily. Again, the laugh, rich and well-oiled, dripping with assurance.  “I hope you won’t hold that against us for too long.  Our intentions are completely honorable, as I think you will soon see.” “If they’re so honorable, couldn’t you have just dropped me a card?” “Your, shall we say, protocol as First Lady of the United States probably wouldn’t have allowed you to consider our invitation.” “Whose hospitality am I enjoying?” “The hospitality of our leader.”  Dr Park gave another rich laugh.  “Of course, you have many questions.  All of which we will fully answer in due time.  At the moment, we would simply like you to make yourself comfortable, perhaps enjoy some breakfast and get some sleep.  Then we will get better acquainted.” “When can I go home?” “At the earliest possible moment, Madame First Lady.  See you soon.”  He hung up. Wondering what kind of doctor Park was, Megan pushed extension 6.  The busy signal told her it was probably her own.  Extension 8, she learned, was the kitchen.  A harried-sounding woman assured her in fractured English that breakfast was on its way and hung up.  Extension 9 was dead.  Probably the outside line.  The bath left Megan feeling human and famished.  She emerged from the bathroom wearing a thick white terry robe to find a breakfast tray on the ornate little table beside the window.  Beneath the stainless-steel cover was a large plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast.  The bacon was a little underdone, but the coffee was surprisingly good.  As she attacked the food, Megan couldn’t help wondering about the room’s horrible decor.  Was it their misguided idea of quarters suitable for a western guest?  Recalling Plumlips smile and Park’s urbane banter, the First Lady decided the decor wasn’t a reflection of their taste or level of cultural sophistication.  If not, why would they deliberately mar a perfectly nice room with such obscene furnishings?  To torture her sensibilities?  That made no sense, given their generally respectful attitude and the quality of the bath and the food.  To make her think they were uncultured boors?  No, because they had let her see the rest of the house which certainly reflected a high degree of sophistication if an utter lack of personal warmth.   No, Megan decided.  The decor wasn’t for her benefit.  Then whose?  It certainly wasn’t for theirs.   It was baffling, but maybe had no significance at all.  Perhaps she could simply ask her hosts later. The breakfast relaxed the First Lady somewhat, making her feel heavy with fatigue.  She went to the bed to lay down.  Through the window she saw that the sky had turned azure.  She heard the chatter of sparrows and felt a gentle breeze that shook the drapes.  She drifted into a deep slumber.  In her dream Bryce was trying to call her, to warn her about something terrible that was about to happen.

From their breakthrough culinary hit to global chart domination, the self-producing eight-member group has become an unstoppable force in modern music. K-pop group Stray Kids has established a clear foothold in the global music market, defined by their self-produced anthems and intense, technical rap style. In March, the eight-member boy band released their most recent standalone single “Stay.” This followed August 2025’s Karma, their sixth studio album most known for the lead track, “Ceremony.”  The project reached number one on the Korean charts, along with the other three Korean-language albums. Their highest charting single in the U.S., “Chk Chk Boom” shined on Stray Kids’ July 2024 EP, Ate.  The music video featured Deadpool & Wolverine stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who donned their respective costumes.  This high-profile collaboration extended to the movie’s official soundtrack, for which the group released the original promotional single “SLASH.” The same year they dropped their second Japanese-language album, Giant, preceded the year prior by The Sound. 2023 also featured their third Korean-language studio album, 5-STAR, featuring the hyper-energetic standout track “S-Class.” That sound evolved from their 2021 studio album NOEASY, which broadened their audience via the fusion single “Thunderous.” Yet, their trajectory was truly set by their 2020 breakthrough album GO LIVE and its culinary-themed masterpiece “God’s Menu.”  The track remains their biggest to date, amassing over 1 billion plays across Spotify and YouTube. Stray Kids has quickly grown from a rising name into a deeply respected K-pop mainstay with 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Filipina entrepreneur, Jemima Ty, dropped out of university to pursue her passion project, Blackbough Swim, a celebrity-loved swimwear brand making waves around the world. When Jemina Ty spent her saved up allowance on a swimsuit, she was thrilled to receive something stunning to wear, but after the one-piece arrived see-through and flimsy, she decided to turn this experience into the beginning of a business. She was born and raised in the Philippines and attended an all-girls Catholic school in a Chinese-Filipino community before attending Ateneo de Manila University to study Management Economics. After making an unfortunate swimwear purchase, Ty began to develop her creative instincts all on her own, playing around with different prints and swimwear designs as a form of self expression. Ty has explained before how her Filipino identity has helped her throughout her entrepreneurial journey. The country’s tropical climate and deeply rooted beach culture would eventually become a natural inspiration for Blackbough Swim. Ty featured florals, bright colors, and island imagery in her earliest swimwear collection, which have remained recurring elements of the brand. People began to notice Ty’s designs after producing a small batch of bikinis for herself and her friends, leading to strangers approaching her to ask for the details. Soon after, Ty’s entire home was overflowing with bikinis and so in 2017, she decided to take a major risk by leaving university to fully concentrate on Blackbough Swim. She found herself executing every part of the business, acting as a designer, developer, and marketing and e-commerce expert. Social media allowed Ty to expand beyond the Philippines and by 2023, Blackbough had over 900,000 Instagram followers and was being seen on some of entertainment’s biggest names. What made Blackbough stand out amongst competitors was its flattering silhouettes that were still comfortable, durable, and made for all different body types. Blackbough’s price range was also more affordable compared to other brands without compromising the product quality. The brand gained even more publicity in 2023 after Ty developed a collection inspired by Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, helping demonstrate the growing influence of Asian women on TV and in retail. Since launching Blackbough, Ty has been recognized by Forbes as a top female founder making an impact in the fashion industry and was named one of Tatler Asia’s Gen.T Leaders of Tomorrow in 2023. Without any formal fashion experience or training, Jemina Ty was able to transform a disappointing purchase into an internationally recognized swimsuit brand, proving that a homegrown Filipino idea can make waves beyond the islands that inspire it.

Who needs good poll numbers when you have a platinum harp that always plays your tune? I take my Harp wherever I may roam, From the golf course to the courthouse to my gold-plated home. She never plays a downbeat, never hits a note that's blue — 'Cause baby, when you're number one, what else is there to do? [Spoken, smug, over vamping bass] That's right, folks. Everywhere. And I mean everywhere… [Verse 2: playful, finger snaps] Now some Harps need a first-class seat, a limo, or a plane, But mine curls up in the back of the truck — never once complains. No room in the SUV? She says, "Don't fret, don't frown — Just pop the trunk, I'll ride with the clubs, wherever you're headed, I'm down." [Chorus: big band swell, brass punches] 'Cause it's me and my Harp, what a swingin' pair, She plays my tune in any key, in any hemisphere. The world's needs, well, they're lovely — but let's be smart: My needs trump the world's needs, says me and my Harp. [Verse 3: sly, muted trumpet fills] The pollsters say I'm sinking, ring-a-ding, what do they know? My Harp just strums a little louder and the numbers cease to show. She reads to me at bedtime from a scrapbook of my praise — A fella could float forever on those sweet arpeggiated waves. [Verse 4: swaggering, vibraphone accents] And can you blame a man for taking what the whole world's lined up to give? They buy my little tokens just to breathe the air I breathe — hey, that's how the big boys live! A meeting here, a handshake there, the coin goes in the slot — The music man plays pay-to-play, and brother, that's a lot. [Bridge: strings swell, tempo pulls back, intimate] Now I've got brass, I've got woodwinds, I've got a whole gold section on call, But my Harp — she's platinum, baby, the most valuable of all. Gold is for the also-rans, the second-place, the mild — Platinum plays it prettier when the headlines turn hostile. [Final Chorus: full band, triumphant] So it's me and my Harp till the last encore, She'll be strumming something gorgeous as they're rushing for the door. And when they ask who kept the maestro in the dark — [Spoken aside, wry] Hey, don't look at me, pally… [Outro: belted final line, big band hit, rim shot] …I just danced to my Harp!

Founded by former Raytheon engineer Ghonhee Lee, Katalyst Space Technologies is proving the viability of in-space satellite repair through a high-stakes NASA telescope rescue. Katalyst Space Technologies was awarded a $30 million NASA contract for a high-profile rescue mission to save the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a space telescope facing atmospheric reentry due to heightened solar activity.  The mission is actively underway.  Katalyst’s LINK servicing spacecraft launched in July to rendezvous with, dock onto, and boost the unprepared observatory – an orbital re-boost sequence expected to conclude in autumn. Building on this momentum, the startup raised $12 million in a funding round led by Geodesic Capital to develop its NEXUS robotic spacecraft and support a geostationary orbit servicing demonstration mission planned for 2027.  This effort marks a crucial step toward proving that high-value satellites can be upgraded, repaired, and sustained in deep orbit rather than left abandoned after hardware failures or fuel depletion. Headquartered in Flagstaff, Arizona, Katalyst Space Technologies was established in 2020 to shift the space economy from simple orbital deployment to active in-space operations.  The aerospace startup designs robotic spacecraft, modular hardware, and software that enable satellite life extension, post-launch hardware upgrades, and orbit repositioning to make space assets flexible and sustainable. The company was founded by chief executive officer Ghonhee Lee.  Lee earned his bachelor of science in aerospace engineering with an emphasis on astronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2018.  Following graduation, he began his career as a Guidance, Navigation, and Control engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems, contributing to defense programs alongside the United States Navy and Missile Defense Agency.  Expanding his leadership in the industry, Lee served as the inaugural Industry Chair for NASA’s Consortium for Space Mobility and On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing Capabilities for a year beginning in 2024. Looking ahead, Katalyst plans to scale its operations beyond individual servicing demonstrations to build a broader infrastructure for responsive space operations.  As demand grows across both commercial and national security sectors, the company aims to expand its fleet, broaden its software capabilities, and establish routine in-orbit servicing standards that redefine how assets are maintained across diverse orbital regimes.

A daughter's love and sacrifice for her blind father is magnificently rewarded in one of the best-known Korean traditional folk tales. Come here, my little stars. Yes, both of you. Scoot close, pull the blanket over your toes, and let Mama tell you an old Korean story — a story about a girl with a heart so bright that even the sea could not keep it hidden. Long ago, in a quiet village near the hills, there lived a blind man named Sim Hak-gyu. Everyone called him Sim Bongsa, which means Blind Man Sim. He was poor, and he could not see the blue sky, or the green rice fields, or the white clouds floating like rice cakes above the mountains. But he had something more precious than gold. He had a baby daughter named Sim Cheong. Ah, my loves, she was such a tiny thing when she first came into the world. Her fingers were no bigger than little bean sprouts, and her cry was like a kitten asking politely for milk. Sadly, her mother went to heaven when Sim Cheong was still very small. So her father held the baby close and whispered, “My little Cheong, I cannot see your face, but I know you are beautiful because my heart can see you.” Now, Blind Man Sim was clumsy with babies. Of course he was. Babies are slippery little dumplings, aren’t they? They wiggle, they dribble, they kick off their socks and then look surprised when their feet are cold. But he loved her. Oh, how he loved her. He fed her soft rice. He sang to her in a cracked old voice. He tied her tiny jacket crooked sometimes, but he always tied it with love. And as Sim Cheong grew, she became her father’s eyes. “Father,” she would say, holding his hand, “the morning sky is pink today, like a peach.” Or, “The barley is waving in the field.” Or, “There’s a puppy chasing its own tail. Oh! Now it has fallen over. Father, even puppies are silly.” And her father would laugh and say, “Then tell me everything, my Cheong. Your words paint pictures brighter than sight.” They were poor, very poor. Some days their rice jar was nearly empty, and the wind came through the cracks in their little house as if it had forgotten its manners. But Sim Cheong never complained. When she was old enough, she washed clothes for neighbors. She carried water. She gathered firewood. She mended torn sleeves. And when she came home tired, she still smiled and said, “Father, sit down. I’ll make supper.” Now, don’t think her father did nothing. No, no. He tried his best. He wove straw sandals and recited prayers, and sometimes kind villagers gave him a bowl of rice. But still he worried. “My daughter works too hard,” he would say. “A child should have time to play.” Sim Cheong would pat his hand. “I do play, Father. I play with the laundry bubbles. I race the water buckets. And sometimes, when the rice is cooking, I have a staring contest with the steam.” “A staring contest?” he asked. “Yes,” she said. “The steam always wins because it disappears.” One day, Blind Man Sim was walking near a stream when he stumbled and fell into the water. “Oh! Help!” he cried. A Buddhist monk passing by heard him and pulled him safely to shore. “You are fortunate,” said the monk. “The heavens protected you today.” Blind Man Sim, shaking and soaked, bowed again and again. “Thank you, thank you. How can I repay such kindness?” The monk looked at him gently. “Pray with a sincere heart. Offer rice to the temple, and perhaps the Buddha will bless you.” “Will my eyes open?” asked Blind Man Sim. The monk did not promise, but he said, “A great offering may bring great mercy.” Now, children, sometimes grown-ups hear what they most long to hear. Blind Man Sim longed so much to see his daughter’s face that his heart leaped ahead of his wisdom. “How much rice?” he asked. “Three hundred sacks,” said the monk. Three hundred sacks! Ai-goo! That was more rice than Blind Man Sim could gather in ten lifetimes. He went home heavy with worry. Sim Cheong noticed at once. “Father, your shoulders are drooping like wet laundry. What happened?” At first he would not tell her. But she coaxed him gently, and at last he told her about the monk and the offering. “My eyes might open,” he said, then sighed. “But three hundred sacks of rice might as well be three hundred clouds. I cannot give either one.” That night, Sim Cheong lay awake. She looked at her father sleeping on the floor beside her. His face was tired. His hands were worn. He had given her all the love he had in the world. And she thought, “If only Father could see the sunrise once. If only he could see flowers. If only he could see me.” The next day, merchants came through the village. They were sailors preparing for a dangerous voyage across a stormy sea. In those old days, people believed the sea needed a pure-hearted offering to calm the waves. It was a hard, sad belief from a hard, sad time. When Sim Cheong heard that the sailors would give three hundred sacks of rice to the family of one brave girl who would go with them as an offering to the sea, her heart became very still. Now listen carefully, my little ones. This is the part of the old story that can make the heart ache. But remember, this is a folktale. In folktales, people walk through sorrow so the story can show us where love and truth live. Sim Cheong went to the sailors and said, “I will go.” The sailors stared at her. “You are young.” “I am old enough to love my father,” she said. When Blind Man Sim learned what she had done, he cried out, “No! No, my daughter! I would rather stay blind forever than lose you.” But Sim Cheong held his hands and pressed them to her face. “Father,” she whispered, “please remember me not with sorrow, but with love. You gave me everything when I was small. Let me give you this hope.” He wept until his voice broke. She wept too. But her decision had been made. The rice was sent to the temple. The prayers were offered. And Sim Cheong walked to the ship. The sea was wide and dark. The waves rose like mountains. The sailors trembled. Sim Cheong stood at the edge of the ship and looked back toward the land where her father waited. “Please, heavens,” she prayed, “protect my father.” Then she stepped into the sea. But the sea did not swallow her the way people feared. No, my little stars. The sea opened like a blue silk curtain. Down, down, down Sim Cheong floated, as gently as a petal falling through the air. Fish with silver scales swam around her. Turtles bowed their old turtle heads. Lantern-like jellyfish glowed in the deep. At the bottom of the sea stood a palace made of pearl and coral. The Dragon King himself welcomed her. “Brave child,” he said, “your love has reached even the deepest waters. You shall not be harmed.” Sim Cheong was given warm food, dry clothes and a soft bed. Sea maidens brushed her hair. Little fish peeked through the windows and whispered, “Is that the girl with the shining heart?” After some time, the Dragon King said, “Your place is not here forever. The world above still needs you.” So he placed Sim Cheong inside a giant lotus blossom — a flower as pink as dawn and as fragrant as spring. The lotus floated up, up, up through the sea until it reached the surface. Fishermen found it and gasped. “A lotus big enough to hold the moon!” one cried. They brought it to the king’s palace. When the petals opened, there sat Sim Cheong, alive and radiant. The king was amazed. “Who are you?” Sim Cheong bowed. “I am only a daughter who loves her father.” The king listened to her story and was deeply moved. In time, he married her, and Sim Cheong became queen. But even in a palace of silk robes, golden screens and bowls filled with sweet fruit, she missed her father every day. At night, she looked out at the moon and whispered, “Father, are you eating well? Is someone guiding you safely? Do you know I am alive?” So Queen Sim Cheong made a plan. She held a great feast for all the blind people in the land. Servants carried invitations over mountains and across rivers. “Come to the palace,” they called. “The queen welcomes you!” Blind men and women came from every village. Some came with sons. Some came with daughters. Some came with neighbors. They ate warm rice and soup. They laughed. They rested their tired feet. Each day, Queen Sim Cheong watched the guests, searching for one familiar voice. Then, at last, an old blind man entered the palace courtyard. His clothes were worn. His back was bent. His voice trembled as he said, “I am Sim Hak-gyu. I came because they said all blind people were welcome.” Queen Sim Cheong’s heart nearly flew out of her chest. She ran to him and knelt at his feet. “Father,” she said. Blind Man Sim froze. No one had said that word to him in that voice since the day his heart broke. “Who are you?” he whispered. She took his hands and placed them on her face. “It’s me. Your Cheong.” He shook his head. “No. My Cheong went into the sea.” “And the sea carried me back,” she said, crying and laughing at once. “Father, I am here.” Blind Man Sim cried out, “My daughter! My daughter!” And in that moment, as tears washed down his face, his eyes opened. The first thing he saw in all the world was Sim Cheong’s face. Not the palace. Not the golden walls. Not the silk banners or the jeweled lamps. His daughter. “My Cheong,” he whispered. “Now my heart and my eyes can see you together.” Everyone in the palace wept. The king wiped his eyes with his sleeve and pretended there was dust in the room, though really, kings cry too. They just try to do it in a royal way. From then on, Sim Cheong and her father lived in peace. She cared for him with joy, and he spent his days looking at everything he had only imagined before — the sky, the flowers, the moon, and most of all, the daughter whose love had lit his life. So what does this old story tell us, my little ones? It tells us that love can be stronger than fear. It tells us that a good heart may sink into sorrow for a while, but it will rise again like a lotus from deep water. And it tells us that when you love someone, you become a little lamp in their darkness. Now close your eyes. The sea is calm. The lotus is floating under the moon. Sim Cheong is safe. Her father is smiling. And you, my darlings, are safe right here, where Mama can see your faces without any magic at all.

From $10,000 grapes to $36,000 melons, Asia’s luxury fruit market represents the generations of craftsmanship and gift-giving traditions that have transformed ordinary fruits into some of the continent's most fascinating goods. In the United States, shoppers are spending thousands on luxury items like designer handbags or expensive jewelry, but across parts of Asia, a perfectly round melon in a velvet-lined box can carry the same prestige. Japan is home to generations of farmers who have turned fruit cultivation into an art. Watermelons, strawberries, mangos, and all kinds of fruit are carefully grown to meet strict standards categorized by size, sweetness, shape, color, and skin pattern, allowing the most exceptional specimens to be sold for outrageous prices as luxury gifts or at auctions. This idea has been closely tied to Japanese gift-giving culture where premium fruit is presented in the same way a box of chocolate covered strawberries would be here in the States. No other fruit represents this industry better than the Yubari King Melon. It is exclusively grown in Hokkaido where farmers closely control growing conditions of the perfectly round fruit and only the best ones fully pass an inspection before receiving the Yubari name. Premium Yubari melons that are sold through normal retail vendors can cost hundreds of dollars, but just recently in May 2026, a pair of Yubari melons sold for a record breaking 5.8 million yen or roughly $36,500 at an auction in Sapporo. Another Japanese fruit is the Ruby Roman grape, which was developed in Ishikawa Prefecture. These deep red grapes are much sweeter and larger than your average grape as they must reach the sugar content of at least 18% and a minimum weight of about 20 grams, which makes each grape nearly the size of a ping-pong ball. Back in 2016 a single bunch of around 30 Ruby Roman grapes sold for 1.1 million yen, then approximately $10,900. 10 years later, this tradition continued as a one kilogram bunch with 33 grapes sold for 1 million yen at 2026’s first seasonal auction in Kanazawa. In Thailand, the Kanyao durian has proven just how valuable Southeast Asia’s fruit industry can be as one durian sold for 1.5 million baht, or approximately $65,000, at a Nonthanburi charity auction in 2019, breaking the Guinness World Record for the most expensive durian ever sold. Because of the demand for premium durian, China has transformed different varieties like the Malaysian Musang King and Black Thorn durian into luxury products. By 2025, China was responsible for nearly 95% of durian exports worldwide, importing about $7.5 billion worth of fruit that year. The high prices of these premium fruits is not just because of their appearance or exclusivity. It’s about the amount of work that it takes to produce them and even then, only a few end up meeting the highest grading standards. It is also important to know the difference between luxury retail fruit prices versus record-breaking auction prices since first-of-season auctions tend to generate publicity for growers and buyers, while versions of the same fruits can still be purchased for much less. Still, these sales paint a vivid picture about how differently fruit is valued across cultures because what may look like an ordinary durian, melon, or grape to us can actually be the result of true agricultural art.

From Nordstrom to TikTok Live to digital media, this episode shares how balancing multiple income streams helped me discover what I truly loved doing. Kelli (00:00) Hi everyone, welcome to the Goldsea Podcast. My name is Kelli and if you had asked me when I graduated high school what I thought I would be doing in my twenties, I probably would have told you something completely different from what I'm doing today. I definitely don't think I would have told you that I would be working in media, producing podcasts, styling people for Nordstrom, creating social campaigns, marketing a sports bar. But somehow I've been able to find a way to make all of those things fit right into my schedule within the last couple of years. My career has been anything but a straight line. I'm twenty-four now, and I think that one of the biggest things that I've learned so far being in my twenties is that you don't necessarily need to know exactly what you want to do when you're 18, 19, or even 22. Sometimes you just figure it out by doing things, going through experiences and realizing what you like and what you hate. That's pretty much what happened to me. So today I wanna talk about how I went from having absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life to balancing multiple streams of income while also building a career in social media, marketing and content creation. Going all the way back to when I first graduated high school, I attended community college, and my first major was actually business real estate. Throughout high school, I thought I wanted to become a real estate agent. As a child, my dream job was to become a fashion designer. But as I grew up and I got to high school, I decided to go towards a more traditional path and when I was younger I would always love going house hunting with my mom. She was always on the hunt for her dream house. So we would look at houses online together and then go and visit them as well. I really loved seeing the different homes, seeing interiors, and really just imagining what you could do with different spaces like that. So naturally at that age I was like, okay, I like houses. Maybe I should just go into real estate. But then I actually started taking the classes and I was like, okay, maybe not. There were a lot of numbers, a lot of math problems, technical concepts, and things that just really weren't exciting to me. I started realizing that liking houses and actually liking the business of real estate were two completely different things. And that was my very first lesson because sometimes you may like the idea of a career more than you like the actual work. So I switched my major multiple times. I considered criminal justice, sociology, and psychology, and I was just trying to figure out where I fit in and what I really liked. In my second year at community college, I landed on communication and media studies. And choosing that major ended up being one of the best decisions that I could have ever made in my life. Taking these classes felt like I was learning about things that aligned with how my brain worked. Growing up, I always had a creative side. I loved talking to people. I was always a social person. I loved understanding why people think the way that they do, and communication gave me the room to explore all of that. But more importantly, it didn't lock me into just one career. After doing my research about the major, I realized that I can work in marketing, I can work in media, public relations, social media, entertainment, sports. At the time I didn't know what I was going to do, but I finally felt like I was going in the right direction. Something that shaped my career was definitely timing. I was a part of the high school class of 2020, so the timing wasn't that great with the pandemic and all. I graduated into a world where nobody knew what was going to happen. School shut down, so we didn't have people that we could talk to and guide us into the next steps of our life. Businesses were closing, people weren't working, college was virtual at first. Entire industries were changing and I was here, freshly graduated, thinking to myself, okay, I'm supposed to figure out what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life now." And so aside from school, I would fill up the rest of my time with work. My very first job was at Kids Foot Locker and I also worked multiple serving jobs throughout college. One of my first major jobs was Nordstrom. I started off as a sales associate working in the women's department. I worked in lingerie, I worked in the activewear department. And this was really exciting for me because, like I said before, I always wanted to be a fashion designer, but this kind of sufficed because I was around fashion, I was around clothes, and I was around something that I was interested in since I was a little girl. This was the very first time I was working in an environment that felt creative because I was putting outfits together for customers, I was learning about different fashion brands, and I was learning about how clothes fit different people. Throughout all the years that I've worked in retail, I didn't really realize in the moment how incredibly important learning how to sell would become. Retail totally teaches you how to read people. Some customers do not want you to talk to them at all and they just want you to ring them up after they're done shopping. Other people want you to greet them when they step into the store. You learn how to ask questions about people and you really learn how to listen as well. So as I was working at Nordstrom, on top of that, I was also working my serving job. So throughout college, I had school, Nordstrom, and restaurant work, and that definitely helped me with the mindset that I have today. I strongly believe that working these jobs has helped me with my people skills. It has helped me become the person that I am today. And so during this time I really enjoyed being busy. I liked knowing that I had different ways to earn money. And without realizing it, I was also learning how to manage my time extremely early on. Throughout the first two or three years being in college, I was working three different jobs, Nordstrom and I had two restaurant jobs all at once. I got very burnt out and I eventually quit both of the restaurant jobs and I was only working at Nordstrom. So I started to ask myself, what else can I do here? After working at Nordstrom for over three years, I was offered the opportunity to become a Nordstrom personal stylist. So now customers could actually book appointments with me online. I could build my own clientele, I could create online styling boards, and then that's when another opportunity also opened up, and it was with content creation. I was able to become a part of Nordstrom's digital styling and influencer ecosystem and I started to film videos for Nordstrom.com. If you go on the website and you look up a product, there's always a video that goes along with it that shows you an up-close look at the product and tells you a little bit more details. When I was doing this, that was really my introduction to being on camera professionally. I would talk about products, I would demonstrate outfits, explain how pieces would go with one another, and just really create shoppable content. Here I would also get gifting opportunities. I would collaborate with other stylists all across the country working on digital campaigns for brands at Nordstrom. So I kind of personally taught myself how to create this kind of fashion content. And then I realized while doing it that I really like this. And I really liked being on camera. I really liked creating something and seeing people respond to it. And I loved seeing that people wanted to buy something because I was showing it to them. I realized that I really liked this. I liked figuring out how to make someone interested in a product. I just didn't know that I could really build a career around this retail position that I was in. Aside from Nordstrom, I was going to school, but I also kind of had a lot more time because I wasn't serving anymore. And so I started to kind of look at what else I could do besides that. I was sending out emails, looking at random opportunities, and one of those opportunities eventually landed me on the whatever podcast. For anyone who's unfamiliar with it, it's a pretty raunchy podcast that became known for these big panel discussions and debates, especially the ones around modern dating and relationships. At first I went on as a guest. I had no idea what was about to happen. I just thought, okay, I like being on camera. Let me try and see what this opportunity is all about. After the show, clips of my appearance began to circulate There were clips of me debating the other girls on the panel, debating with the host, and just sharing my opinions. And those videos were getting millions of views across TikTok and Instagram. And I remember watching it happen and thinking, "Wow people actually think that the stuff I have to say is interesting." And after that, I was invited back multiple times to be a guest on the podcast again. Eventually, I was able to develop a relationship with the show's producer, and he really liked the way that I thought. He liked how I communicated with guests and how I understood different people and personalities. And he offered me a position working behind the scenes rather than just being on camera in influencer relations. This was fascinating to me because this gave me the opportunity to really grow my network. Now I wasn't just talent sitting in front of a camera. I was helping build the panel, I was negotiating rates, I was doing influencer out I was doing influencer outreach, casting guests, and helping determine which personalities would work well with one another. And because this entire position was remote and it was contract based, I did all my work from my phone, just a couple hours each day and fit it around everything else that I was doing. So now I had another stream of income that replaced my serving income. And also I got more experience and another skill. So now at this point I'm working at Nordstrom three days a week, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and going to school on Tuesday and Thursday. Like I said, I would fit in the influencer relation stuff throughout my schedule whenever I had time. But then during my junior year of college came one of the most random and probably one of the most important opportunities I found a position for a hosting job at a TikTok livestream company. When they called me in for an interview, I really didn't know what I was walking into. I kind of showed up and they handed me a product. It was some kind of 14-day gut cleanse product. And they said, Here's the product, here's some notes, sell it to us for five minutes. And I was like, Five minutes of talking? That's it? I can yap for 25 minutes. I can totally do this. I had already spent my years working in retail and restaurants and without realizing it, I was training for this exact situation. Retail taught me sales. Serving taught me how to talk to strangers. Making content for Nordstrom taught me how to talk on camera. And working for the podcast taught me how to think quickly. Now all of a sudden all of my unrelated jobs were coming together and I did this interview and I got the job on the spot. Once I started to go in more, I was live streaming and I realized that I was really good at this. In the first month that I started, in the first month that I started selling this gut pill, I generated around $100,000 in sales. And that completely blew my mind. I was talking for six hours straight, which was way more than what the other hosts were doing. They would have three different hosts a day working two-hour shifts. And I would come and I would work a full six hours shift talking from hour one to hour six. Now, if you've never live streamed for six hours, it is a lot of talking. You're repeating information, you're answering the questions that people are asking in the in the comment section. You're creating urgency, you're keeping these people entertained, you're watching the sales numbers all at once. This is no editing. This is all in live time. So you don't have an opportunity to do another take. You just really have to keep going. When I would tell people what I was doing for work, they would be completely mind blown because they didn't understand how I was able to do it. But I loved it. As I was live streaming more, I realized that I kind of liked this a little bit more than working at Nordstrom. So I switched up my schedule. Now I was going to school on Tuesday and Thursday. I was going in live streaming on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And then on Saturday and Sunday, I would work at Nordstrom. Then throughout my schedule, again, like I said, I would spend time on my phone doing influencer outreach and casting for the podcast. Looking back at it now and saying it all out loud, I don't know how I did it. At the time, it felt normal, but I was basically working every single day and I didn't have no off day. But I was making money from multiple places But other than making money, more importantly, I was learning completely different skills from each one of the different jobs that I had. Each one was teaching me something new. Nordstrom was teaching me about fashion, sales, and client relationships. The podcast was teaching me about the entertainment industry, casting people, and talent relations. Live streaming was teaching me social commerce, content strategy, and performing, and then in school I was learning about communication theory and media. Suddenly I started to see a career building from this. I took the live streaming position very seriously because of how much I enjoyed it. Eventually it became more than just me sitting in front of the camera and doing these live streams. We started to plan mega live streams, some of them which lasted 12 hours long. And I became completely involved with the moderators and other team members to figure out what kinds of products are we pushing, Which hosts are gonna come on and do the live stream? How do we keep viewers entertained? Which deal should we do? What language is converting? There was an entire strategy behind these mega lives. And at that point, that's when I started to understand that social media wasn't just about making something look good and posting a pretty picture. There was an entire strategy behind everything. There's psychology, there's data, sales, storytelling, community management. And the more that I was executing the strategy behind these live streams, I thought that this is exactly what I love doing. I love working in this kind of environment. And by my senior year, I had some kind of direction. I knew I liked social media, I knew I liked content creation, I liked being on camera, I liked marketing, I liked storytelling. And so from there I started to just prepare myself for my life after graduation. I started to completely rework my resume. I built my portfolio and all of my random jobs did not look random anymore. I had so many videos that I had created over the years. I had campaigns that I worked on. I had real number results. I had social media experience, on-camera experience, styling experience, live commerce experience, and actual numbers behind my work. So by my final semester, I was applying for full-time positions, and that's how I ended up here at Asia Media Group. I joined Asia Media Group as an associate editor, and this role brought together so many of the things that I discovered that I loved. Here I write articles, produce podcasts like this right here. I create Instagram and TikTok content. I research Asian American culture, business, entertainment, and sports, and I also help keep Goldsea.com updated with stories that matter to the Asian American community. When I was initially hired, I was still in college, so I worked part-time, which meant my schedule changed yet again. So now Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I'm working at Asian Media Group. Tuesday and Thursday, I'm going to school, and then Saturday and Sunday, I would be at Nordstrom. Saturday and Sunday, I would still be at Nordstrom, and in between all of that, I would do the influencer relations still for the whatever podcast. Now at this point I had to dramatically cut down on live streaming because the commute to the office was about an hour each way. And I really would only so I started to only come back for major live stream events. So, even though I still had multiple streams of income, I did start becoming more selective, and that's another lesson that I learned along the way: having multiple streams of income doesn't mean you have to say yes to everything forever. Sometimes some things are only there for a little bit. Sometimes you will only have a gig for like four months, and that's okay. But I think the most important thing is just to say yes to the experience, But you don't have to keep saying yes to that if there are more opportunities that you want to go and explore. Something just serves its purpose for the time being. You learn from it and then you make room for the next opportunity. Once I finally graduated from college in 2025, Asian Media became my full-time position. So I had another decision to make. What am I gonna do with Nordstrom? I didn't necessarily want to leave because I had spent years, because I had spent about six years now building my clientele. I built so many relationships with customers, and I've already established myself as a stylist for the brand. But at the same time, I did not want to spend every Saturday and Sunday working an eight hour retail shift anymore. So I decided to take action and change the way that I was working for Nordstrom. I moved most of my styling online and I would create style boards for my phone and send products to different customers so that they I so that I could continue managing my relationships with them. And then I would physically go into the store once a week or once every other week. And now I finally had my weekends back. For just a little bit because apparently for some reason I do not know how to leave empty space in my schedule or time for me to take a break. So now it's been almost a year since I graduated from college and I've been working full-time. And with the flexibility that I had on the weekend now, I took on a contract marketing position with Game Changer Brewhouse, which is a sports bar in Sherman Oaks. This was exciting for me because I was going to be able to do something I haven't done before. I was going to be completely leading a restaurant's marketing strategy. So rather than just creating content and posting it, I started to have to think about the bigger picture. So I have to think about what's happening this weekend. What sporting event are we marketing? What are we posting? What flyer will get attention? How are we going to how are we going to get people through the door? And because this was a contract position, I didn't have to be on site all the time. So working on the weekends there fit right into my schedule. We just recently hosted the FIFA World Cup, which was absolutely crazy. And there was so much planning behind those events with soccer games every single day. Sometimes there was five or six games every single day. Sometimes there was back-to-back turnovers where there's fully sold-out reservations all day long. Gaining the experience that I got from that campaign taught me a completely different side of marketing. You need those views to become reservations, customers, sales, revenue. And knowing that made me a much stronger marketer today. So I would definitely say my career now looks completely different from what eighteen year old me would have imagined. My primary career is in media. I'm an associate editor creating editorial content and social content centered around Asian American stories. And at the same time, I'm leading digital marketing at Game Changer Brewhouse. Because of the industry that I decided to step into, I was able to find positions where I can create my own schedule and do things from home and do things right off of my phone. Over the years, I've been maintaining the pieces of my network and skills that I've built throughout fashion, content creation, and social media. And when I look back at everything that I've done, there are so many lines that just connect all of it. Back then, I just couldn't see the line when I was living it. I think people online always talk about having multiple streams of income and they talk about it like it's the glamorous life hack. Yes earning money from different places can be great, but I think the overall biggest benefit of it was the career leverage. Each job gave me something that I could bring to the next one. And that's the part that I wish more young people understood. Your first job is not going to be your dream job. Your second job isn't going to be either. But working so many different jobs has definitely helped me get me to where I am today. I don't want this to sound like I'm telling everyone in their twenties that they need five different jobs because you definitely don't. There were so many times where I felt absolutely exhausted, times where my schedule was ridiculous, where I wasn't even getting a break. And eventually I did learn that being busy and being productive are not the same thing. In the beginning, I wanted every opportunity, but now I'm much more selective. I stop and ask myself if it helps my career. I ask, does this teach me something? I ask if it pays enough to justify my time, and if I actually am going to enjoy what it is that I have to do. I think at twenty I was just trying to still figure out what I liked and kind of collect experiences. But now I want to build more depth. And I think that is a really important transition throughout anybody's career. I think if you are eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, any age really, and you have no idea what you're doing with your career, you should not panic yet. I think experimenting was one of the best things that I could do. Take those internships, send those emails. Don't be afraid to message people. Apply for stuff that you're not even sure if you're qualified for. I did not wake up one morning and decide that I'm gonna build my career around marketing and digital media. I took the opportunities that came along the way and I discovered what I truly like. And from there one thing just kept leading to another. So even though I changed my major multiple times and worked multiple different jobs in between hospitality, entertainment, and fashion, I can now look back and see how each of my experiences was giving me another piece of the career that I have today. I'm still figuring stuff out. I'm only 24, but I do know what I'm good at and what I love doing. I love turning ideas into something that people respond to. I love being creative. I love working with people. So really at the end of the day, I do not think your twenties are supposed to be about finding that perfect career immediately. It's really more about collecting enough experience to realize who you are in your line of work. Thank you guys so much for listening in, and we'll see you in the next podcast.

In a busy weekend of sports action, Asian golfers continue to have an imposing presence, while Murakami sparks White Sox’s success, and NFL roster battles heat up. Jeeno Thitikul claimed victory at the Portland Classic to secure the 10th title of her LPGA career, finishing with an incredible 22 under par.  She led an impressive showcase where fellow Thai players Chanettee Wannasaen and Arpichaya Yubol tied for second place one shot back at the top of the leaderboard. On the PGA Tour, Si Woo Kim secured a stellar runner-up finish at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. His brilliant performance advanced him further into the FedExCup Playoffs and earned him a lucrative runner-up payout of $1.6M. Over in Major League Baseball, starting pitcher Kodai Senga has displayed an extraordinary turnaround of recent by emerging as the New York Mets’ shutdown closer, locking down his third save during a dominant late-inning stretch.  Senga achieved this after struggling heavily early in the season, during which he accumulated an 0-8 record and an ERA over 8.00 before transitioning his role. Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox built a commanding 5.5-game lead in the AL Central. Munetaka Murakami delivered again by homering twice during the series, including a clutch, go-ahead home run to cap off a sweep over the Detroit Tigers. In NFL action, Carolina Panthers wide receiver John Metchie III made a strong case for a permanent spot on his team's 53-man roster by hauling in a late touchdown catch against the Buffalo Bills.  Also in a wide receiver roster battle, Kansas City Chiefs’ Nikko Remigio put on a solid display by grabbing two receptions to bolster his chances of securing a spot before final roster cuts. At the National Bank Open final, Brandon Nakashima’s remarkable run fell short in the final.  Despite missing out on the championship, he earned a prize of over $600,000 and generated significant buzz across the sports world for his candid comments regarding Toronto.

Victor (00:00) on this episode of Getting Fit by First Principles, I will be discussing how to structure your own training block. Victor (00:11) The get-go, I will say that there is no need for complex program design. For most people, having a simple, repeatable, one-week template is more than enough. I find that it is sort of the habits around the training program that have a greater impact than the training program itself. Victor (00:36) I am referring to things such as sticking to the program, eating properly, sleeping properly, as well as logging your performance workout to workout. This is where I find that people mess up. Victor (00:53) The reason why many gym goers can spend years, even decades in the gym without seeing any appreciable improvement in their physique, strength, etc, etc, is due to a lack of structure and system. Victor (01:11) If you have listened to my previous episodes about the philosophy behind training, then you could imagine what a directionless person in the gym would probably look like versus somebody focused with a clear goal, right? If you're not intending to excel at anything, then you are simply going to look like someone that does not excel at anything. Victor (01:39) Now, that being said, the type of workout I would propose is going to be largely based on strength with some sprinting. And the important thing to do is after you lay out one whole week of training, is that you log the effort that you put in every week. And after every workout, see if you can push the limit either through. Reps or adding weight to the exercise. Victor (02:13) I outlined this sample week of programming at the end of my last podcast. And the reason why it's so minimal is this is what I believe to be the bare minimum effective dose for a relatively novice lifter to see progress. Victor (02:35) Have it built very, very minimally to allow people to fill in the gaps with whatever pursuits that they want to fill it in with. Like if you really wanna want big arms, you can add multiple sets of arm accessories such as trisop extensions and bicep curls or whatever. Or if you just want to go on a bike ride, you can go on a bike ride instead. The whole point of this program is to allow flexibility for whatever goals you want. Victor (03:08) So as a refresher, the program I had laid out was one day of upper body push with a paired with a lower body hinge. So think something like an overhead press and a deadlift. The second day I had an upper body pull paired with a lower body squat. So think of a barbell back squat paired with a pull-up. And then for the last day, I have an upper body. push and upper body pull. So think things like bench pressing or rows or, you know, machine variations of the two or dumbbell variations of those two things. And then sprinting, which is another form of leg workout. Victor (03:54) Now for your compound put upper body push, upper body pull, and your hinge and your squat, I'm going to recommend a shockingly low amount of volume. For to start off, I would recommend just doing two sets of five repetitions for each of those exercises with a weight you can do comfortably for five repetitions. Victor (04:18) And every week on the second set, I would recommend that you would treat it as what's called a top set, meaning that you put a little extra effort in pushing your limits. For starters, I would recommend pushing the rep count on the second set. So if the first week you do five reps for the first set and five reps on the second set, I would recommend that every week you try to squeeze out. one more repetition on that second set. Victor (04:53) So for example, if you are doing pull-ups, right, and you do two sets of five repetitions on your first week, the following week you should push for five reps on your first set and then possibly six reps Victor (05:13) If on that second set you are able to reach ten or more repetitions, you should raise the weight by let's say five pounds. Victor (05:28) When it comes to sprinting, I would recommend something fairly low volume, like five repetitions of 40 meters with four minutes of rest in between each effort. Victor (05:43) Obviously warm up thoroughly before attempting any sort of sprinting as it can be surprisingly injurious if you are not properly conditioned for it. Victor (05:54) And the reason why I also included a third day for upper body pushing and pulling in this proposed workout program is the upper body can typically recover more quickly and handle more load than the lower body. And again, this gives you an opportunity to fill in the gaps of whatever you were missing from prior days. So if you were doing mostly vertical pushing and pulling, you could use this day to do horizontal pushing and pulling. Victor (06:26) So the next caveat I also have to mention is regarding form and safety. Since I am asking you to push yourself just a little bit harder week by week, some form breakdown is expected. However, you should exercise a little bit of caution when it comes to that, because certain lifts I find do not lend themselves to be failed very safely. Victor (06:55) make sure you are doing the correct things and keep yourself safe when performing these exercises, right? Use spotter arms when doing bench presses and squats, and make sure that you're not handling more weight than you can safely control. Because each of these reps should be performed with. Good control and good technique. There is a time to utilize bad form, especially when it comes to pushing your limits, but we have to be reasonable. Victor (07:29) That is also why I have my recommendations at fairly low volumes, because as long as the intensity is sufficiently high, I find that most trainees can get adaptation. Now you can start adding more volume based on some pretty simple heuristics. Victor (07:49) This is again where tracking becomes very, very important, right? Because as you progress week by week, month by month, it's important to keep track of how you are feeling session by session, week by week, and whether or not the weight on each exercise is increasing. Victor (08:12) If you find that you are plateauing on your main lifts but you feel sufficiently recovered, chances are you can handle a little bit more volume. If you are finding that you are plateauing on your lifts and you are feeling terrible, chances are you may be doing too much. Victor (08:34) Now, programming and training is also a journey of self-discovery. It's hard for me as a disembodied voice on the screen to really tell you what you're supposed to do because everybody is different. They everybody has different tolerances. So a lot of your training time is going to be spent figuring out what works for you individually. Victor (09:02) Now the reason why I have this program written out so minimally is over the years I found that it is much easier to start out with a little bit and then scale up over time rather than starting out with a lot and scaling down. Because especially if you are new to the gym, it can be daunting having an entire laundry list of exercises to complete each session. Which can be psychologically damaging. But if you see that you only have two lifts to do, then it in a way becomes exciting. Then you can always add more if you feel like you want to do more. Victor (09:43) Because at the end of the day, your physical training should be something that complements your life, but it shouldn't be your entire life.

As fans await news on a potential fourth season of XO Kitty, young star Anna Cathcart is already expanding her impressive Hollywood portfolio. Actress Anna Cathcart stars as the lead in Netflix’s hit romantic comedy series XO, Kitty, which celebrated its third season premiere in April.  With a total of 26 episodes in the series, fans are currently hoping for a season 4 renewal, though future plans for the show are reportedly stuck in creative limbo. The series, which originally began in 2023, serves as a spin-off to the popular To All the Boys film trilogy, which starred Lana Condor and Cathcart.  Both projects are the creative brainchild of Korean American screenwriter Jenny Han. Born in Vancouver, the 23-year-old actress began her acting career as a child, appearing in several commercials before landing her breakout main role in 2016 for the children’s television series Odd Squad and its spin-off OddTube.  The Chinese Canadian also showcased her talents across 15 episodes of the 2019 web series Zoe Valentine. In addition to her early projects, Cathcart built an impressive portfolio with prominent Disney roles, most notably playing Dizzy Tremaine in the Disney Channel original movies including 2017’s Descendants 2 and 2019’s Descendants 3, as well as starring in the 2021 Disney movie Spin.   Cathcart’s blossoming career in both television and film has established her as a prominent young talent in the entertainment industry.  The fame acquired from her filmography has yielded her over 12 million followers between Instagram and TikTok and has secured brand deals with Revolve, Fujifilm, and Aveeno. As she has been waiting on Netflix’s decision for a fourth season of XO, Kitty, Cathcart has expanded her talents into voice acting.  She will hold a starring role in Paramount’s upcoming animated project The Angry Birds Movie 3, scheduled for release on December 23rd.

If you’re in the Bay Area, gather your friends, pick your go-to sing along, and take a look at these four must-try karaoke spots for your next night out. If you’re from or ever visited San Francisco, then you know the city has no shortage of nightlife. But for those times when a night at a regular bar doesn’t cut it, the Bay has a karaoke spot for every type of singer. First up on Mason Street, at Pandora Karaoke and Bar you have the option to sing in front of others or host a private karaoke experience. This downtown lounge is open late-night and offers private themed rooms for groups who are celebrating a birthday, anniversary, or just a fun night out. At Pandora, you can sing at the main bar with strangers or book a personal room where you can sing your heart out without anyone watching. Next, we have Question Mark Tavern, a neighborhood bar on Harriet Street where you can get your karaoke spotlight experience. Here, there aren’t any private rooms for your party. Just take the stage in front of the crowd and choose from a catalog of over 10,000 songs. Question Mark Tavern also has a full kitchen, making it an easy place to fill up on dinner and drinks before grabbing the mic. Over on Market Street there’s The Mint Karaoke Lounge, a San Francisco staple since 1993. This spot feels like one big karaoke party where everyone performs on an open stage with the entire crowd. Whether you are looking to sing your favorite current pop song or a nostalgic throwback, The Mint boasts a library of over 25,000 songs, so you’re guaranteed to create your perfect karaoke experience. And finally on Post Street, we have a small hole in the wall stop called Taisho SF. This karaoke spot also doubles as a Japanese and Hawaiian-themed restaurant, so you can also order food and drinks while singing, directly to your room. For a fully private karaoke night, Taisho SF offers over 10 karaoke rooms that can host parties ranging from 6 to 50 people, making it the place to go for a VIP karaoke celebration. Maybe you’re brave enough to perform in front of a room full of strangers or maybe you prefer singing only for your closest friends. In San Francisco the nightlife scene can be lively for anyone, so grab your crew and warm up those vocals for your next karaoke night in the city.

To track down the abducted First Lady, the President's Special Aide begins a secret mission to find clues on the wildly gruesome Jack Tang murder. Tom Kagy (00:00.238) Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom. North Korea. What would American presidents do without it? Want to justify a big bump in defense spending? Pongyang's uncontrolled rhetoric provides a plausible justification without the need to alienate a major power like China or Russia. Need a high profile peacemaking trip? Or some political distractions? Pyongyang's blend of weirdness, mystery and danger makes it the perfect subject for a barrage of sensational media coverage. Certainly an over the top anti American exploit like kidnapping the First Lady begs to be pinned on Pyongyang. Who but North Korea is international rogue enough to execute such a wildly undiplomatic caper, especially with its long track record of abducting high profile people from foreign countries. But Special Aide Chip Garrison doesn't like easy assumptions, especially not when the abduction seems to have been paired with another equally bizarre event, the butchering of Jack Tang, the tech tycoon and the President's law school buddy. To avoid setting off an international incident by throwing around accusations, the President sends his special aide on a down low mission to get the first lady back unharmed. Garrison thinks the best way to track her down may be to track down the folks who ordered Jack Tang's gruesome murder. Welcome to Midnight in Karakorum, Chapter five. FIVE Garrison’s heart pounded as he opened the browser and typed the URL—a web page apparently sited in a server in France.  Before hitting the return key, he double-checked it against the note printed on the kind of laser copy paper you could buy in any Office Depot.  The web page appeared instantly, thanks to his dedicated T-3 link accessed via a secure server.  The page contained nothing but a single photo.  There could be no mistake.  It was the First Lady. Garrison immediately rang the encrypted inside line to the President’s desk two miles across town.  If the note were real, there was no time to lose. “I’ll see you right after the press conference and a quick meeting with McDavid,” said the President.  “I’m going to visit Bryce.  Plan on briefing me in the chopper over.” Garrison accessed the FBI’s massive database and formulated a search.  Then he moved onto the CIA’s database.  There wasn’t much, but what he turned up did offer some perspective on the abduction. As usual, Garrison arrived at the White House early and trotted down to his basement cubicle.  He turned on the TV in time to catch the tail end of the press conference.  The President looked properly bereft but resolute.  If nothing else, it would shut down that battleax Nancy Bartlett and those nasty tabloids, at least for a while.  Meanwhile the President could regain the initiative by putting the blessed North Koreans back in their place.  His Tuesday evening B-2 redeployment announcement hadn’t kept the North Koreans from taking the U.S.-South Korean 12-man patrol prisoners, of course.  It provoked a warning that B-2 intrusion into North Korean airspace would be answered with “all-out retaliation”.  The North Korean saber-rattling gave the President a nice hand, figured Garrison.  He could play the courage-under-fire card or the visionary-peacemaker card.  Either way, he could only win with voters.  How the North Koreans had gotten riled wasn’t important.  The voters would only remember the presidential soundbites in response to their tough talk.  Since Tuesday the North Korean situation had been leading newscasts.  Maybe it would do for the President what the Cuban missile crisis did for Kennedy though this morning it was taking a temporary back seat to the First Lady’s abduction and Tang’s murder.  Garrison turned off the TV, put on the headphone and settled into the cracked leather swivel chair of the cubicle to monitor the President’s meeting with his National Security Advisor. No question about it, a military crisis was more fun to eavesdrop than position briefings on the tax package or the trade disputes with Japan and China.  Since the North Korean crisis broke three days ago, the daily powwows with Lester McDavid were awakening the armchair general in Garrison. As usual the President felt a stab of apprehension as his National Security Advisor strode into the Oval office. At 68 Lester McDavid’s 5-8 frame remained so erect that everyone imagined he was wearing the dress tunic of a Marine four-star—not to mention a steel rod up his ass—though in fact McDavid sported a well-tailored black double-breasted blazer and gray trousers—with no steel, at least none implanted surgically.  McDavid’s crewcut was the same one he had worn in his beloved Corps.  McDavid’s bearing and steely eyes gave him fatherly sway over a president who had grown up without one, it had been whispered—falsely, thought the President.  The set of McDavid’s thin lips and his slitted eyes suggested they guarded matters of grave national concern that he’d be damned to share with anyone but the President of the United States.  As he nodded for McDavid to take a seat beside Reiner, the sparkle that normally warmed the President’s blue eyes was quickly overshadowed by solemn duty. “What would it take to get our boys back?” asked the President. “A formal mea culpa, more food aid and a reversal of our B-2 decision.” “I’d rather go down on Nancy Bartlett.” “We could steam a carrier battle group into the Yellow Sea and one into the Sea of Japan, scramble their F-14s and our land-based F-15s to tie up their air defense systems, then launch a B-2 raid on their command centers.  We’ll cut off their head before the body even knows what happened.” The President closed his eyes as though giving the scenario serious consideration.  “Just so we’re on the same page, Lester.  World War III would do wonders for my numbers, but let’s explore other options first.” McDavid shrugged, his eyes glazing over.  “Only other meaningful option is to turn up the heat by taking away the North Korea’s’ only ally.” “How?” “Arm twist our allies to let China join the WTO.” “Get real!” snorted Reiner.  “That goes against every trade principle we stand for.” McDavid smiled broadly and nodded as though Reiner had helped him make a key point. “Intriguing,” said the President, stroking his tie and ignoring Reiner’s outburst.  Then, turning to Reiner, “Make a pass at Jen without tipping off Dirk’s people at Commerce.  If Jen gets hard, we can start massaging our key allies.” “You can’t be serious,” Reiner protested with undisguised horror.  “That would wipe out all the progress we’ve made with the Chinese for the past ten years!  They’ll never take our trade demands seriously again.” “Trade’s one thing,” said the President.  “War is another.” “Why not just apologize?  We did violate the armistice.” “The American people would hate like hell to see our President kowtow to some fourth-rate dictator,” muttered McDavid. “You think the American people want us to throw our weight around for no good reason?” said Brock Reiner.  “We’ve been down that road before!” The President fidgeted and shifted in his seat.  “What about that, Lester?  What do we gain by facing down the North Koreans?” “It’s just basic dentistry, Mr President,” said McDavid calmly, almost yawning, as though he were a little tired of going over the same material for the slow kids in the back of the class.  “We can pull that rotten molar now or do a root canal down the road.  We believe the Dear Leader has no nukes yet, but for all we know, he’s trolling for some down in the Ukraine.  The North Koreans have between two and five hundred agents in the South.  It wouldn’t take much to stash backpack nukes in Seoul, Pusan, Taegu and every other big city in South Korea.  That would put tens of millions at risk, including 37,000 U.S. troops and as many civilians.  We won’t get a good night’s sleep until we drill out that rotten molar.” “That cuts both ways,” Reiner retorted.  “For all we know, they may already have nukes in place all over South Korea.  The minute we start a war, BOOM!” He pounded the desk for emphasis, causing the President to start, “—the whole country becomes a sea of fire.  For all we know, they have some stashed here in the U.S., maybe a couple right here in D.C.” “Now, is that really a possibility?” the President asked skeptically.  He was hoping like hell his National Security Adviser would reply that the possibility simply didn’t exist, what with our topflight intelligence network and hi-tech security devices. “Of course, it is,” McDavid replied nonchalantly.  “And my money says they’re the ones who abducted the First Lady.  They do have the capability to engage in covert overseas operations.  But the point here is, the odds of their delivering nukes against the South Koreans or us increases with each passing day.” “Unless we just stop provoking them,” Reiner said.  “I don’t see why that’s so unthinkable.” “He means appeasement, Mr President,” McDavid said with regal disdain, brushing an imaginary crumb on his lapel.  “I believe we’ve been down that road before.” Still entertaining the creepy thought that any second a nuke might go off right there in D.C., maybe right beside the White House, the President didn’t hear McDavid.  “Just for the sake of argument, what would happen if we just ignored the North Koreans?” McDavid snorted to let the President know just how preposterous his suggestion was.  “Finish digging their tank tunnels under the DMZ, put more agents throughout the South, maybe some with nukes, then hand us a long list of extortionate demands.” “Like what?” Reiner sneered.  “More food for their starving kids?  A little respect for their borders?” “Force us to pull out of South Korea, then force the South Korean military to lay down its arms.  They’ll simply roll across the DMZ and take over the world’s third largest industrial base.  Look, Mr President, it’s really quite simple—we cook their goose, or they’ll cook ours.” “All right,” the President said, signaling the meeting’s conclusion.  “Let’s see what we can do about getting the Chinese into bed with us.” The image amounted to a truly gross Freudian slip, and Reiner recovered from a snort almost in time to disguise it as a cough from that nasty summer cold going around. The President was about to shoot him a withering look when Lorraine Walker stuck her graying head into the office to announce that the presidential helicopter was ready for the flight to Foxboro Academy, the school attended by his son Bryce.  Before hurrying out McDavid offered his steely-eyed condolences.  The President grabbed his jacket and hurried out to the South Lawn where the Marine VH-60 was kicking up a lively gust.  Chip Garrison followed on his heels.  Two S.S. agents were in the forward cabin, leaving the President and his special aide alone in the back.  A chase chopper carrying four more agents lifted off a few seconds after Marine One. “This was slipped under the door of my Georgetown office just this afternoon,” said Garrison as soon as they were off the ground.  He handed the President a plain white envelope containing a laser-printed message on copy paper.  It read: “Mr President, The First Lady is safe as long as you play by our rules.  This must remain strictly between you and me.  Dear Leader.”  A couple of spaces below the message was a long series of characters separated by slashes which the president recognized as some kind of URL, a web address. “Looks like some hoax to me,” said the President.  Dear Leader indeed! Garrison shook his head.  “I checked out the URL.  It had this picture.”  He handed the President a glossy sheet containing a low resolution color photo, probably taken with an ordinary digital camera and stored in JPEG format.  It was grainy but the subject was unmistakably Megan.  Her short black hair was wet, making her elegant neck look even longer.  She was wearing a white bathrobe and was sitting on an ornate armchair sipping from a coffee cup.  Behind her was a regal-looking canopied bed covered with ornate bedding.  The room seemed to be choking in red.  Nothing in Megan’s expression suggested she knew she was being photographed. “It could have been faked,” the President said, not knowing what to think.  It sure as hell looked like Megan though. “That’s more difficult than most people realize,” Garrison said.  “The neck, the legs, the arms.  They would have had to use someone who looked just like the First Lady.” “Did you trace the URL?” “The address is a server in Paris.  Apparently some French internet company is giving away free server space to anyone who signs up for a dialup account.  As you know the North Koreans have an intelligence operation out of Paris.  Even if we could trace the account’s owner, it would be meaningless.  The photo could have been uploaded to that URL from any computer in the world.  I’ve refrained from asking Langley for a workup until I checked with you.  The note does suggest we should keep it strictly between us.” “So you think this is real?” “As far as their having the First Lady, yes, Sir.  But I’m not convinced the abductors are North Koreans.” “Why do you say that?” “It just seems odd to ID themselves right up front like that.  And to sign the note as coming from their President.” “Maybe they want to temper my response to this DMZ thing,” the President said.  “There would be no point in not identifying themselves.” “It’s more their style to fabricate some local radical underground group that supports the North Korean cause.  That would give the same leverage without potential embarrassment if things turn sour.” “Have they abducted anyone in the past?” “A South Korean filmmaker and his actress wife while they were traveling in Hong Kong, presumably because their Dear Leader liked their movies.  Apparently, he’s quite a film buff with a massive archive of foreign movies.  Then, there have been numerous abductions from Japan, France and the U.S. which some believe have been the work of the NKs.” “For what purpose?” “The FBI database turned up no case where a demand was established.  But that’s not surprising since they would have demanded secrecy from the families of the abductees.  The speculation is they take people as leverage for extorting classified information or other advantages from well-placed family members.”    “So maybe this is in keeping with their MO after all.” “I hadn’t thought of it that way, Sir.  It’s just that in the past, no one ever turned up a note taking credit for the abduction.  And they’ve never used an abduction as leverage in a highly publicized international confrontation.” “But we don’t have a demand yet, so we don’t know yet what their motive is.” “No, Sir.  But I expect they’ll send one soon.  Otherwise, what’s the point?” “Maybe it’s some kind of psychological warfare.  Aren’t they supposed to be into that sort of thing?” “To beat them at their game, we need to figure out what it is.  It may make a huge difference to all concerned, especially the First Lady.”  Garrison’s eyes locked on the President’s.  “But before we do anything, we need to decide whether you want to risk pissing them off by letting our intelligence agencies in on it.”  The President was silent.  Only three days earlier his big worry had been keeping Megan from filing for divorce.  Now, that fear was gone—as long as she was out of the picture.  Of course, if she somehow returned, she could well go through with the divorce.  On the other hand, if he failed to get her back safely, his presidency would be blemished.  The ideal scenario, President Taylor decided wistfully, would be to succeed in getting Megan back after the election.  If the web photo was to be believed, she didn’t exactly look to be in acute distress.  Probably best to put some wheels in motion so as not to look like he were sitting on his hands. “Can’t we get Sam Hanson to put together a small team on a confidential basis to work from this note?” “That would be impossible, Sir.  If we get Hanson to assign a team, CIA will find out about the note within hours and let it leak down to every field guy in the world if for no other reason than to make Hanson look bad.  That NK URL will get so many hits, it could become a top 5% site.  And they’d be able to see exactly where each hit came from.  I know for a fact from my FBI days that Hanson always knows what Underwood is up to.  We have to assume Martin Underwood keeps an eye on Hanson’s doings as well.  They’ve both got their boys spinning their wheels out there trying to find the abductors without a clue.  They’ll both end up passing the note down to all their boys just because they couldn’t stand the thought the other team might sneak an unfair advantage.  “I think we pretty much have to tell our spooks and risk pissing off the abductors, or keep it to ourselves and pray three times a day.” “I couldn’t live with myself if they did anything to Megan because of me,” the President declared. “Then we’d better keep quiet and hope everything works out for the best.”  Garrison was disappointed, though he couldn’t exactly fault the President for not wanting to be the one to put the First Lady even more at risk. “Unless you want to take a crack at it,” the President offered.  The notion of sending out his personal aide to track down the First Lady had a certain rough-and-ready appeal.  And being only one man with a pair of junior assistants, Chip wasn’t likely to succeed any time soon.  “You must be kidding, Sir,” said Chip.  “It could take weeks, maybe months, for my little team to work all the angles.  And if it turns out the First Lady’s been shipped overseas, it could be even longer.” “Don’t be modest, Chip,” said the President, glad for the chance to engage in at least the motions of securing his wife’s return.  “You’re a crackerjack agent.  Take whatever time you need to do the detective work and see where it leads.  You know you have my full support.  At the right moment we’ll call in whatever resources are needed to get her out.” “But don’t you need me at the White House?” “You’ll be reporting to me from the field.  I have a feeling you’ll have this solved so soon you’ll surprise the living daylights out of everyone.”  The President hadn’t quite forgiven his young aide for barging in on him so unceremoniously last night and for trying to push him to curtail his evening teas.  It was getting to be like living with his mother.  Having Chip out of his hair would be nice for a change. “To be honest, Sir, I wasn’t the worst agent in FBI history.  And I have worked a couple of kidnappings.  I’ve been thinking about a few angles I wouldn’t mind checking out.” “Wonderful,” the President said, glancing down at the Blue Ridge Mountains.  “I feel better already knowing someone I trust is on the case.  This can’t be easy for Bryce.  Now I can look him in the eye and tell him it’s only a matter of time before his mother’s back home.” “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Sir,” Garrison said.  In truth, he had begun to get a bit bored being cooped up as President Taylor’s special aide.  He could hardly sit still for thinking about his plan of attack.  He felt he would have a huge advantage over the others working on the kidnapping.  Having been assigned the task of staying on top of all developments that might affect the president’s personal interests, Garrison could confidently rule out several dead-end alleys right off the bat.  He had studied the note and the First Lady’s picture.  He had analyzed the timing of the past few day’s events.  He had arrived at some solid conclusions but had decided not to tell the President.  Not because he was disloyal to the man he was serving—that simply wasn’t in Garrison’s psychological makeup—but because the President had too much on his mind at the moment to listen to conjecture, no matter how brilliant.  Whoever the perpetrators were, Garrison felt sure of two things—they were acting extra-governmentally and they were somehow connected with Jack Tang. The choppers touched down on the Foxboro Academy football field.  The baseball team had just finished practice and was clustered around a Gatorade dispensor on a bench at the edge of the field.  Among the boys in white and purple uniforms, Bryce Taylor was easy enough to spot—he was the one not gaping at the choppers.  The two additional agents the Secret Service director had personally assigned to Bryce that morning, the President noted approvingly, were positioned unobtrusively in the background.  As it was, Taylor was bracing himself for Bryce’s protests at the doubling of his security detail.  As the President stepped down to the field, he gave his son’s schoolmates a smile and a wave.  All returned the gesture with varying degrees of respect, goodwill and humor.  Bryce didn’t so much as glance up being evidently absorbed in a more interesting event somewhere on the horizon.  Even cutting the kid slack for the tribulations of adolescence, the President had to admit his son was every bit as beautiful, cold and baffling as his mother—not exactly the popular young kid he liked to recall himself as having been at that age.  Knowing better than to give his prickly offspring a hug, especially in full view of teammates, the President simply placed a hand on the boy’s broad skinny shoulders and nudged him into a stroll across the grass to the aluminum bleachers on the other side of the field.  “How’s the batting average?” “How’re the poll numbers?” “Great.  Shot way up after I had your mother kidnapped to get some quick sympathy.”  The President was used to sparring with his son.  Often that was the only communication available to them.  “So how’s the batting average?” “Shitty.  Plummeted after I found out you were coming out to visit.” “You know why I came out here, don’t you?” “Good for the poll numbers?” “Exactly.  You’ve got the makings of a future president.” “I’d rather eat shit.” “You get to do a lot of that as president.” “Is that why you’ve always got that shit-eating grin every time I get ambushed by your mug on TV?” “You got it.” That robbed the kid of any easy rejoinders.  In silence they climbed to the top row of bleachers and sat down.  On the other side of the field the baseball team was trudging up the long broad flight of redbrick steps that rose the sixty feet or so to the school’s front parapet.  The Secret Service agents, now eight in all, had repositioned themselves discreetly around the bleachers.  A cluster of curious townies had stopped across the street to gape first at the choppers, then at their president sitting on the bleachers.  A Dodge Charger carrying some laughing rednecks honked as it roared by on the street behind the bleachers.  “You see all those agents around us?” the President asked. “Who doesn’t?” “You know what they’re for?” “Making sure I can never lead a normal life?” “They’re there to make the American people feel better knowing their President is well protected.” “They sure did a super job protecting Mom.”  Bryce leaned back against the aluminum siding and folded his arms. “That’s my point,” the President said.  “It isn’t really possible to protect anyone from a determined assailant.  Even with all these agents, you or I could be abducted or killed any time, if someone wants to badly enough.  There’s really no way to be completely safe and remain a functioning human being, much less a President.  Or a First Lady.  Or a First Son.” “The difference is, you wanted to be the Big Guy.  Mom and I never wanted any part of all this.” “And that’s the only thing that I feel truly bad about every day of my life in the White House.  I would give my left arm to spare you from the imposition on your lives.  But I can’t.  I can only hope you can somehow understand and forgive me.” “Well, I don’t understand,” Bryce cried in exasperation.  “As far as I can see, it wouldn’t make any difference who’s in the big white house.  Everyone knows you and Nancy Bartlett are both a couple of selfish, power-hungry jerks who would sell your families for three poll points.” “That’s a bit unfair.  I like to think what I’m doing will make the world a safer, cleaner, richer place by the time you’re grown up and raising a couple of snotnosed little ingrates.” “Ingrateful?  Not me, Dad.  I thank my lucky stars every time I turn around and catch my friends snorting over some juicy tabloid story.  But then I guess you’re porking Miss Eggroll and Miss Jiggleshow to make the world a safer place for me and my kids.” “A wise man once said, ‘Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear’.” “You mean the guy who got off O J Simpson?” “No, the guy who screwed around on his estranged wife and got caught.” Bryce discharged a lungful of air in a hurry and looked away.  “It’s none of my business anyway.  Don’t you have to get back and sign some bills or something?” “Your mother’s fine, Bryce.  We’ll have her back soon.”  The President clapped his son on the back and gave him a quick squeeze before his arm was shrugged off. Despite himself, Bryce couldn’t keep from asking, “You got a demand?” After a brief hesitation, the President nodded. “What the hell do they want?” “Nothing, yet, except to keep it secret.  It’s important that you not mention this to anyone.” Bryce turned to glare at his father.  Quietly, menacingly, he murmured, “Whatever they want, you give it to them.  Got that?  If you don’t, I’ll—I’ll ruin you!” For a second the President thought the snarling little shit was about to grab him by the collar.  Evidently, Foxboro Academy was going to seed, letting its students stay up late watching old gangster movies, the ones with a lot of smoke, trenchcoats and collar-grabbing.  Megan had thoroughly spoiled the little brat. Abruptly the President stood, forcing a fatherly smile for anyone watching.  Bryce stayed sitting on the bleacher while his father made his way down to the field and hurried into his chopper, toward which four secret service agents were now converging, for the flight back to the big white house.  The President was seriously annoyed.  His son had all but spoiled what should have been a moment of father-son solidarity. 

Filipino rapper P-Lo has been an influential staple of the Yay-Area’s iconic sound. Anticipation is high for the summer release of Filipino American rapper P-Lo’s upcoming album, Out the Box, which features a knocking titular track and the bass-heavy single “Run It Back.”  The project, promoted alongside Oakland sports icon Marshawn Lynch, embodies the classic, heavy-hitting Bay Area rap sound. Earlier in the year, the now 35-year-old artist dropped a single “S/O Alysa Liu,” accompanied by a music video starring the gold medalist following the Winter Olympics. P-Lo’s journey began as a founding member of the influential hip-hop collective HBK Gang in 2008, eventually reaching national relevance with “Never Goin' Broke” in 2013.  That same year, he established himself as a powerhouse producer behind hits like Wiz Khalifa’s “Bout Me” and Yo Gotti’s “Act Right” featuring Jeezy and YG – with the latter skyrocketing past 110 million views on YouTube. He solidified his status as a solo force in 2017 with his debut studio album, More Than Anything, anchored by the standout slap “Put Me On Somethin’” featuring E-40.  The track gained mainstream traction after being included in a Wingstop commercial. P-Lo followed up with 2018’s Prime led by the single “Samesquad,” 2019’s Shine, and 2022’s Stunna, which spawned the song “Stunna Anthem.” Demonstrating his international reach, P-Lo was featured on Filipino artist Denise Julia’s smash hit “B.A.D” in 2023, which stands as his most streamed song on Spotify with 87 million streams. The Pinole native has kept the culture thriving more recently with 2025 releases like “Newly” featuring Vietnamese American singer Thuy and the star-studded “Players Holiday ‘25,” which unites a powerhouse roster of Bay Area legends including Saweetie, G-Eazy, and Larry June.

From selling ice cream in Harlem to building the Benihana empire, Rocky Aoki helped introduce Americans to Japanese cuisine in the most exciting way possible. When Japanese food was becoming more common in the United States, Rocky Aoki managed to find a unique way to introduce more Americans to it, while also giving them a show. Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1938 into a family connected to the restaurant industry. Growing up, he kept himself busy by starting a rock band with his friends and competing in track and field, wrestling and karate. He was offered many wrestling scholarships, which eventually led him to move from Tokyo to New York City where he attended Springfield College, then transferred to CW Post College on Long Island. Here he became a three-time U.S. national wrestling champion. Aoki later moved back to New York City and worked seven days a week out of an ice cream truck, while also studying restaurant management. He decorated his truck with Japanese umbrellas and began creating a name for himself throughout Harlem. Eventually, Aoki took his savings, combined it with a borrowed loan from his father and opened the very first Benihana, which was named after his father’s coffee shop in Tokyo. Benihana sat on West 56th Street in Manhattan and initially struggled to attract business since Japanese food was still unfamiliar to diners. In order to compete with American restaurants, Aoki knew he had to develop a concept that would stand out and so he made the food preparation part of the dining experience and used ingredients like steak and chicken which were more familiar to Americans. Chefs cooked directly in front of guests, sliced vegetables, and performed tricks with their utensils, completely transforming dinner into entertainment. Aoki’s idea worked and Benihana went from a small Manhattan restaurant to an international success that made him one of the most recognizable Japanese entrepreneurs in the U.S. Before stepping away from day-to-day operations of Benihana, he had built a restaurant legacy that is still worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Aoki died from pneumonia in 2008 at the age of 69, but his influence is still seen across the country. In 2024 Benihana was purchased by The ONE Group Hospitality for $365 million in cash, proving the lasting value of the concept Aoki created. There are currently 80 Benihana locations operating in the U.S., Central and South America, and in the Caribbean. Rocky Aoki played a role in changing the way Japanese cuisine was presented in America and by combining cooking and entertainment, he turned teppanyaki-style dinners and flaming onion volcanos into a cultural phenomenon.