Making Global Styles and the Customizer work together

Before the turn of the new millennium, development teams could get away with supporting two platforms: Windows and the web. Today, there are dozens, with more created monthly. As a result, teams struggle to manage vendor, device, and platform fragmentation. To fully realize the potential of virtual reality, the Internet of Things, and other platforms […]

The post The future of software development Is automation first appeared on TECH Intelligence and is written by Aidan Cunniffe.

The Internet of Things (IoT) transforms industries, businesses, and daily life by connecting physical devices to the Internet, enabling real-time data exchange and automated operations. From smart homes to industrial automation, the applications of Internet of Things are vast, providing numerous advantages in terms of efficiency, convenience, and cost savings. This article explores the top...

The post Top 9 Applications of Internet of Things and Its Examples appeared first on noupe.

When it comes to choosing AI SEO tools, the sheer variety of options can be overwhelming. The popular ones may not always be the best fit for your specific SEO workflow and processes. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for finding the perfect AI tool for SEO automation. The right choice depends on your unique objectives, budget,...

The post 8 Best SEO Tools for AI Automation appeared first on noupe.

Thanks to generative AI, content creation has become one of the most important trends in today’s world, with a completely new approach. It is revolutionizing the creative field in many different ways, from advertising to marketing to automated newspapers and magazines. Users of this technology must note its opportunities and problems. This blog discusses generative...

The post The Impact of Generative AI on Content Creation appeared first on noupe.

Any kind of marketing approach that gives you a deeper insight into your customers has the potential to help you make stronger connections with them. Psychographic segmentation is a perfect example. Unlike demographic or behavioral segmentation, it goes into depth about what makes your customers tick, which means you can better understand how to reach...

The post What Is Psychographic Segmentation and How Can It Boost Engagement? appeared first on noupe.

If you have a profitable side hustle, you’ve probably considered taking your business full-time. However, before you take the leap and transition to life as a full-time entrepreneur, there are a few things you should do. Some tasks are simple, like opening a business bank account and setting concrete goals. Others, like building a professional...

The post 8 Things to Do Before Transitioning Your Small Business From a Side Hustle to Full-Time appeared first on noupe.

The requirement of safeguarding original presentation designs has never been more crucial as presentations get increasingly interactive, visually appealing, and indispensable in both corporate and creative domains. Your work is valuable, whether you are a tech entrepreneur creating software that changes the way presentations are done or a designer creating fresh slide decks for customers. ...

The post Protecting Your Unique Presentation Designs: IP Strategies for Creators appeared first on noupe.

Heuristic evaluation is a powerful tool in UX design, offering a structured way to identify and address usability issues in interfaces. But what exactly does it entail, and how can designers use it to improve user experiences?

Thomas Bohm rethinks technical illustrations and data visualizations, sharing interesting and uncommon examples of how to present data and information. Bar graphs and pie charts are great, but there’s so much more to explore!

Discover why you should choose Power BI Service for seamless data visualization, sharing, and collaboration. Ideal for data professionals, analysts, and teams.

Her, we’ll break down five practical choices you have, from simple workarounds to fresh upgrades, to keep your computer running safely and smoothly after the deadline.

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Experiencing three or more concussions is linked with worsened brain function in later life, according to major new research. The study – the largest of its kind - also found having just one moderate-to-severe concussion, or traumatic brain injury (TBI), can have a long-term impact on brain function, including memory.

A study involving more than 1,500 found that an earlier return to school benefited children ages 8 to 18, who had less severe symptoms two weeks after their concussion compared with kids who stayed home longer.

Female athletes are more susceptible to sport-related concussions (SRCs) and experience worse outcomes compared with male athletes. Although numerous studies on SRC have compared the outcomes of concussions in male and female athletes after injury, research pertaining to why female athletes have worse outcomes is limited.

In this case series of 152 contact sport athletes younger than 30 years at the time of death, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was found in 63 (41.4%), with nearly all having mild CTE (stages I and II). 

Children who sustain an mTBI are at increased risk for developing new affective or behavioral disorders over four-years post-injury.

Let’s talk about WordPress meetups! On this episode of The WPCandy Roundtable Podcast, I asked four awesome WordPress meetup co-organizers to chat about what makes a quality meetup and how they do what they do. We also went over what they would recommend to new WordPress meetup organizers. Joining me on the podcast are Angie […]

The post WPCandy Roundtable #3: WordPress Meetup Discussion with 4 co-organizers appeared first on WPCandy.

Let’s start this review with an honest admission. While in the 90s I collected (and read, mostly) tech books like they were going out of style. These days I barely get my hands around a book, let alone consume it. Frankly, I don’t have the time. I have three kids (two are twins) and a […]

The post Review: Professional WordPress Design and Development, 2nd Edition appeared first on WPCandy.

IT WAS GETTING late the night of Sept. 12, and Dr. Julian Bailes had settled in to watch a little football. The renowned neurosurgeon and concussions expert tuned in just as Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained yet another head injury. There was Tagovailoa, lying on the ground with his arms outstretched and his fingers curled into the fencing response, an involuntary position that occurs after a brain injury. To Bailes, it looked almost like a replay from a previous Thursday night game, Sept. 29, 2022, with Tagovailoa on his back, his fingers splayed in front of his face in another automatic response to a concussion.

A quick shake of the head after a hard hit could signal that a person has a concussion, a new study suggests, based on the experiences of young athletes. It’s an easily recognizable movement that could help significantly reduce the number of concussions that go undiagnosed if added to official evaluation guidelines, according to researchers from Mass General Brigham and the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is rejecting calls to retire after the third official concussion of his NFL career. 

North Carolina State quarterback Grayson McCall is retiring from football, he announced Wednesday after sustaining a head injury during a game earlier this month. "Brain specialists, my family, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in my best interest to hang the cleats up," he continued. "I have done everything I can to continue, but this is where the good Lord has called me to serve in a different space."

The family of the Army reservist who committed the October 2023 massacre in Lewiston wants to bring awareness to traumatic brain injuries among military members.

For many people, it’s a ray of hope rooted in research. Recent research is presenting a new way of thinking about suicide prevention, and both experts and patients believe it’s already saving lives.

A high school senior from Bangor, Maine, has decided that when the time comes, he will donate his brain to science. Fionn Parker-Cummings is the youngest person to donate his brain to the University of Pittsburgh National Sports Brain Bank. Researchers will check in with him every year for the rest of his life. Parker-Cummings said he hopes the contribution will advance traumatic brain injury research to protect players like NFL quarterbacks Drake Maye and Tua Tagovailoa, who have recently suffered concussions.

If professional athletes are meant to be real-life superheroes, Miami Dolphins star Tua Tagovailoa looked remarkably mortal on September 12. With his team down 31-10 in the third quarter against the Buffalo Bills, the quarterback spotted a gap at the line of scrimmage and decided to scramble for a first down. When he encountered Bills' defender Damar Hamlin, Tagovailoa lowered his head and ran straight into him. Tagovailoa stayed down injured after the play. He had suffered the third concussion of his NFL career, on top of the one he was diagnosed with during his time in the collegiate ranks.

A commentary, published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, calls for traumatic brain injury to be recognized as a chronic condition as are diabetes, asthma, depression and heart failure. To provide comprehensive care for traumatic brain injury throughout individuals' lifespans, the authors propose that coordinated care models they and others have developed, tested and applied to various populations—including older adults, individuals living with depression and post-intensive care unit survivors—be adapted to improve communication and integration between brain injury specialists—including physical medicine and rehabilitation clinicians—and primary care physicians, fostering better long-term patient care for traumatic brain injury survivors and more support for both patients and their families.

The WordPress directory has 50k+ free plugins that were developed so you can extend a WordPress website with functions and features far beyond your imagination. Additional thousands of WordPress plugins are available from various marketplaces. No matter how much you might have a need for a specialized plugin or two, would you really want to […]

How do you test the vision of someone with TBI who cannot communicate — talk or respond otherwise to questions?

A child with a brain injury may develop more injury-related issues as an adult.

In a significant recognition of her pioneering role in documentary photography, Susan Meiselas has been awarded the 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Photography by the Sony...

The post Susan Meiselas awarded Sony World Photography Awards’ Outstanding Contribution to Photography 2025 appeared first on DIY Photography.

We are proud to announce that we recently joined the NVIDIA Inception Program, which will help to speed up our deep learning development process and therefore offer the best possible audio processing tools to our users.

What is NVIDIA Inception

NVIDIA is a global leader in hardware and software for Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Their NVIDIA Inception Program will enable us to leverage NVIDIA's cutting-edge technology by accessing more diverse cloud and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) product offerings, which are used in most Machine Learning and Deep Learning model training instances worldwide. This will allow us to streamline AI development and deployment and train bigger machine-learning models to test and evaluate algorithms faster. The program will also offer us the opportunity to collaborate with industry-leading experts and other AI-driven organizations, among other things.

Our Deep Learning Development Process

For our development process, more GPU capacity means a great saving of time and therewith of course a saving of costs. As an example, one training cycle of our dynamic denoiser model takes almost a week trained with GPUs, however the same training cycle trained with CPUs would take several months.

To illustrate, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) can be compared to a race car, which is very fast but can only transfer a small number of packages, while a GPU in this comparison is a big truck, which can transfer a huge number of packages more slowly. Deep learning algorithms require for training very large datasets consisting of thousands of files, therefore our 'trucks', the GPUs, are the best hardware to choose processing multiple computations simultaneously.

The more GPU capacity we can use, the faster we get results for our tested algorithms, and the faster we know which way we should follow to offer our users the best possible audio processing tools.
Unfortunately, the world is right in the middle of a Global Chip Shortage, so the latest GPUs are very hard to get and super expensive to purchase – unless you have a partnership with a GPU manufacturer.

Conclusion

We are happy to join such a renowned program and look forward to the updates to our product that we will be able to implement and potentially a greater industry transformation.

You can read our full press release here: AuphonicNVIDIAInceptionPressRelease (pdf)

Today we release our first self-hosted Auphonic Speech Recognition Engine using the open-source Whisper model by OpenAI!
With Whisper, you can now integrate automatic speech recognition in 99 languages into your Auphonic audio post-production workflow, without creating an external account and without extra costs!

Whisper Speech Recognition in Auphonic

So far, Auphonic users had to choose one of our integrated external service providers (Wit.ai, Google Cloud Speech, Amazon Transcribe, Speechmatics) for speech recognition, so audio files were transferred to an external server, using external computing powers, that users had to pay for in their external accounts.

The new Auphonic Speech Recognition is using Whisper, which was published by OpenAI as an open-source project. Open-source means, the publicly shared GitHub repository contains a complete Whisper package including source code, examples, and research results.
However, automatic speech recognition is a very time and hardware-consuming process, that can be incredibly slow using a standard home computer without special GPUs. So we decided to integrate this service and offer you automatic speech recognition (ASR) by Whisper processed on our own hardware, just like any other Auphonic processing task, giving you quite some benefits:

• No external account is needed anymore to run ASR in Auphonic.
• Your data doesn't leave our Auphonic servers for ASR processing.
• No extra costs for external ASR services.
• Additional Auphonic pre- and post-processing for more accurate ASR, especially for Multitrack Productions.
• The quality of Whisper ASR is absolutely comparable to the “best” services in our comparison table.

How to use Whisper?

To use the Auphonic Whisper integration, you just have to create a production or preset as you are used to and select “Auphonic Whisper ASR” as “Service” in the section Speech Recognition.
This option will automatically appear for Beta and paying users. If you are a free user but want to try Whisper: please just ask for access!

When your Auphonic speech recognition is done, you can download your transcript in different formats and may edit or share your transcript with the Auphonic Transcript Editor.
For more details about all our integrated speech recognition services, please visit our Speech Recognition Help and watch this channel for Whisper updates – soon to come.

Why Beta?

We decided to launch Whisper for Beta and paying users only, as Whisper was just published end of September and there was not enough time to test every single use case sufficiently.
Another issue is the required computing power: for suitable scaling of the GPU infrastructure, we need a beta phase to test the service while we are monitoring the hardware usage, to make sure there are no server overloads.

Conclusion

Automatic speech recognition services are evolving very quickly, and we've seen major improvements over the past few years.
With Whisper, we can now perform speech recognition without extra costs on our own GPU hardware, no external services are required anymore.

Auphonic Whisper ASR is available for Beta and paying users now, free users can ask for Beta access.
You are very welcome to send us feedback (directly in the production interface or via email), whether you notice something that works particularly well or discover any problems.
Your feedback is a great help to improve the system!

We all know the problem: the content is perfectly prepared, and everything is in place, but the moment you hit the record button, your brain freezes, and what pops out of your mouth is a rain of “ums”, “uhs”, and “mhs” that no listener would enjoy.
Cleaning up a record like that by manually cutting out every single filler word is a painstaking task.

So we heard your requests to automate the filler word removing task, started implementing it, and are now very happy to release our new Automatic Filler Cutter feature. See our Audio Examples and Usage Instructions below.

What is removed?

While the definition of filler words is not the same, depending on who you ask, some words can be used as filler as well as content. For example, “like”, “well”, “you know”, etc. cannot be removed without the risk of removing also content and destroying sentences, even if those words are used as filler words in some cases.

Therefore, we decided to focus on the removal of the obvious fillers, namely any kind of “ums”, “uhs”, “mhs”, German “ähm”, “äh”, “öh”, French “euh”, “euhm” and similar.

Audio Examples

1. English Male Speaker

The first audio example is an excerpt from the interview “From Racing Failure to Red Bull Champion: The Untold Christian Horner Story”. Our algorithm found and removed a remarkable ten filler words in this 45-second snippet:

Screenshot of the Auphonic Audio Inspector: each pale red shaded area corresponds to a cut-out filler word.

2. Austrian-German Female Speaker

The following example is an interview with the Austrian Ex-Foreign Minister, Karin Kneissl, who uses seven filler words within 26 seconds:

Usage Instructions

To use the Auphonic Automatic Filler Cutter feature, you just have to create a production or preset as you are used to and select “Cut Fillers” for “Automatic Cutting” in the section “Audio Algorithms”:

When your production is done, all cut-out filler words will appear as pale red shaded areas in the Auphonic Audio Inspector on the production status page, as you can see in the upper screenshot of the Audio Inspector.

If you want to remove silent segments from your audio as well, please also enable our Automatic Silence Cutting feature.

NOTE: Our Automatic Cutting features (for filler and silence) are not available for video files!

Behind the Scenes

For the training of our Automatic Filler Cutter AI-Algorithm, we created datasets that contain manually labeled audio files, collected from 'real world' audio data. So far, we have labeled, trained, and tested the system with English, German, Spanish, and French data.

However, in the Auphonic Web Service, you can activate and test the Automatic Filler Word Cutter for all languages. We would be very happy to hear how the filler removal works out for completely different-sounding languages from, e.g., the Asian, African, or Slavic language families.

Please send us feedback on any problems or error patterns you discover! This will help us generate specific data for the training to improve the algorithm and eliminate your problems.

Conclusion

Automatic filler word cutting is a powerful tool for podcasters looking to enhance the quality of their content. It boosts clarity and professionalism, all while making your editing process more efficient. Some users, however, see a touch of authenticity in filler words within podcasts. So, we leave it up to you to enable or disable the Automatic Filler Cutter feature for your next Auphonic production, depending on your desired style.

We are currently working on filler word cutting optimizations for more languages, so watch our channels to get all the news on our upgrades!

If you have any feedback for us – how the filler cutter is working in your language, what you do or don't like, what you miss, what else you would want to remove from your audio besides silence and filler words, etc. – you are welcome to contact us via email or directly comment on our production interface!

For those of you who like to be in control of every applied cut, we are introducing an update for our Automatic Silence and Filler Word Cutting Algorithms today: The export of Cut Lists allows you to import cuts into your favorite audio/video editor to check and apply the cuts to your files manually.
Thanks to your great feedback, we were able to update our “Filler Word Cutting” algorithm as well.

Cut Lists Export

We now provide the export of various formats of “Cut Lists” in the Auphonic Web Service.
You can use these formats to modify and apply cuts in your post production audio or video editing program:

Screenshot of the Reaper DAW with imported “ReaperRegions.csv”: pale red regions display filler words and pale gray regions mark silence.

To generate the cut lists, choose “Cut List (Filler and Silence)” in the “Output Files” section. By selecting the correct “Ending” you can export the cut lists to a format that is suitable for your post production audio or video editor:

We support regions and EDL (edit decision list) formats:

• Region formats (“AudacityRegions.txt”, “AuditionRegions.csv” and “ReaperRegions.csv”) list filler and silence cut regions with their respective start and end timestamps.
  You can import those cut region lists into your existing Audacity, Audition, or Reaper projects. There you can edit the cut positions to your liking by deleting, moving, or adding individual cut positions. After that, you may apply the cuts manually.
• EDL (edit decision list) formats, “SamplitudeReaper.edl”, “FinalCutProLegacy.xml”, “FinalCutProX.xml” and “DaVinciResolve.edl” (also known as “cmx3600” format and compatible with various editors), can be imported in your software to automatically apply cuts from the EDL file. Depending on the software you use, you may also edit individual cuts manually before applying them. Be aware though that in some editors it may not be possible to add them to an existing project. If this is the case, simply open a new project with the EDL file instead.

Please just let us know if we do not yet provide a cut list format for your favorite audio or video editing program!

Export Uncut Audio

To only detect fillers/silence but NOT cut them, choose the “Export Uncut Audio” mode for “Automatic Cutting” in “Audio Algorithms”. Then you can query cutting times via our API or select your favorite Cut List format as “Output File” to only export cut times for later editing, but without applying cuts during the Auphonic audio post production.

Using the option “Export Uncut Audio”, it is also possible to use our cutting algorithms for video productions. In this case, we will just detect and report cuts, and you can import and apply them in your favorite video editing program afterwards.

Filler Word Cutting Updates

Thanks to your great feedback, we've been able to further optimize our Automatic Filler Word Cutting algorithm.
By now you probably know that our filler word cutter removes all types of “uhm”, “uh”, “mh”, “ähm”, “euh”, “eh” and similar sounds. If you haven't heard about it yet, our release blog post might be a good starting point.

• Enhanced Fade Curves
  We noticed that due to reverb or background noise in input files, some filler cuts did not sound as smooth as they should have. To prevent such rough cuts, we trained our filler detection models with more diverse speech data and compared different fade curve approaches. Now the filler detection is much more robust against noise. Additionally, we developed an asymmetrical fade solution, which, in our opinion, makes the cuts almost inaudible.

  We nonetheless recommend, though, that you use filler cutting in combination with our Dynamic Denoising or Speech Isolation algorithms. These algorithms remove heavy reverb or noise and thus prevent noise artifacts during cutting.

• Handling of Affirmative Sounds
  Some of you were bothered by the fact that affirmative sounds, like “mhm”, “aha”, and “yeah” were cut along with filler words. Driven by your feedback, we tweaked our filler detection algorithm in a way that will remove considerably fewer of these sounds.

• Multitrack Filler Silencing
  We also received requests to optimize filler cutting for crosstalk in Multitrack productions.
  Let's assume that two speech tracks are simultaneously active and one of the two tracks contains a filler word. In this case, we can not cut the filler word in one track without destroying parts of the speech in the other track.
  Our original solution was to skip such a filler. Now, however, we replace it with silence instead. This removes the filler words while preserving all the speech content.

Feedback

If you want to provide us feedback on how you like the updated filler cutting algorithm or about any other features that are missing, you are very welcome to contact us. You can also leave a comment in the feedback section on the status page of your concrete production.

Responding to your feedback, we are now proud to present new separate parameters for noise, reverb, and breath reduction to give you more flexible control for your individual, best output results.
Find all the new parameters below and listen to the Audio Examples to get a closer impression of the upgrade.

What's the update about?

Before

Previously, you could only set the Denoising Method and one reduction amount, that was used for all elements.
Depending on the selected method, you were already able to decide whether music, static, or changing noises should be removed, but there was no setting to keep the typewriter sound effects while removing the reverb, for example.

Now

With our latest upgrade, you can now set the reduction amounts separately for noise, reverb, and breathing sounds.
For example, you could completely remove the background noise while reducing the reverb just a little to enhance speech intelligibility but keep the atmosphere. Like we did in Audio Example 1.
Many of you have also asked about the possibility of slightly reducing breath sounds rather than eliminating them completely. In Audio Example 2 we demonstrate how you can prevent your audio from sounding strange and unnatural by reducing instead of eliminating all breathing sounds.

To all of you who are happy with the results and don't want anything to change, relax:
If you don't change the default settings, the noise reduction algorithms work exactly the same as before.

Note: As the 'Static Denoiser' removes only stationary noise, there are no 'Remove Reverb' and 'Remove Breathings' parameters available for this denoising method.

New Parameters

Screenshot of the new Noise Reduction Parameters in the production form.

In order to use the new noise reduction features, you may separately set the following parameters:

• Denoising Method: (unchanged) Select what kind of noise you want to remove.
  [Dynamic Denoiser (default), Speech Isolation, Static Denoiser]
  Note that the parameters 'Remove Reverb' and 'Remove Breathings' are NOT available for Static Denoiser!
• Remove Noise: Select the amount of noise you want to remove.
  [100 dB (default), Disable Denoise, 3 dB, 6 dB, ..., 100 dB (full)]
• Remove Reverb: Select the amount of reverb you want to remove.
  [100 dB (default), Disable Deverb, 3 dB, 6 dB, ..., 100 dB (full)]
• Remove Breathings: Select the amount of breathings you want to remove.
  [Off (default), 3 dB, 6 dB, ..., 100 dB (full)]

Feel free to experiment with all the options to find your preferred parameter settings! Editing and reprocessing existing productions does not cost any additional credits as long as you don't change the input file.

Listen to the results:

1. Reverb reduction with full noise elimination

For the first audio example by conduitministries.com we set the 'Remove Noise' amount to 100 dB (full) and varied the 'Remove Reverb' amount starting from 0 dB (Off) to 12 dB (medium) and to 100 dB (full). Listen to how first the noise is gone and then step by step the reverb is lower:

2. Breathing sound reduction

In the breathing reduction audio example by LibriVox.org we used the 'Remove Breathing' amounts increasing from the original audio with 0 dB (Off) to 12 dB (medium) and to 100 dB (full) reduction.
In the result files you can hear, that the 100 dB (full) elimination leads to weird, unnatural-sounding pauses, that can be prevented by just reducing the breathing sounds:

Try it now on auphonic.com!

Feedback

We hope you like our upgraded version of the Noise Reduction Algorithms with new parameters for more control.
If you have more feature requests or feedback for us, please let us know! You can also leave a comment in the feedback section on the status page of your specific production. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

We're excited to announce the release of our new speaker diarization feature! With our latest update, we can now detect individual speakers within a single audio recording, allowing users to see precisely who said what and when. This information is then reflected in the transcript.
Previously, this feature was only available in Multitrack Productions.

What is Speaker Diarization?

Speaker diarization is the process of identifying different speakers and segmenting an audio file accordingly, making it easier to accurately determine who said what. This is particularly useful in scenarios like meeting recordings, interviews, and podcasts involving multiple speakers.

What's New

Until now, Auphonic users had to use our Multitrack Production Workflow to gain access to speaker identification. With our recent update, this feature is now also accessible for single track productions, thereby further simplifying our workflow.

How It Works

When selecting Auphonic Whisper ASR as your speech recognition engine on our production page, the option to use “Speaker Detection” appears. You can select the number of speakers in the recording yourself, or have the AI identify and label them automatically.

Select "speaker detection" in the speech recognition menu

The identified speakers will then be shown next to what they said in the captions of our audio player and within the generated transcript. We know exactly who is saying what at any given time.

If you need to change speakers' names, you can edit them in our Transcript Editor. By changing the name of the speaker, the changes will be applied automatically within the whole transcript.

Click here for an example transcript to play around with!

The transcript editor also lets you edit the generated transcript's content and correct any mistakes. This gives our users the final say in quality control.

For more information on how to use our transcript editor, click here!

Conclusion

With our newly released speaker detection feature for single track productions, we simplified the automatic transcription process even further. You can drop a single audio file into our algorithms, the AI automatically detects and transcribes its contents and attributes speakers correctly. And if the model should unexpectedly be wrong at any time, you can correct it in our Transcript Editor.

Feedback

We're looking forward to having you utilize our new speaker diarization feature!
Please, feel free to send us feedback through our Contact Form or submit it directly in the status page of your production.
Happy detecting!

Words and tools are powerful, but are they our only way of making a mark? *Pause for emphasis* Stephan Moccio doesn’t think so. An artist, composer, and producer, he’s the name behind some of the most well-known songs and soundtracks on the planet. But surprisingly enough, all that success with sound has come through silence. In this podcast, I have the privilege of sitting down with him to discuss how strategic refrain and thought can benefit creative power. Creativity as a Muscle Skill can come naturally, but people rarely get to the top through their natural-born talents alone. Even 6’9″ LeBron James wouldn’t be where he is as a basketball player without putting in the unseen hours of success. Whether physical or mental, training effectively determines performance. “I’ve learned that to get great things and to achieve great things requires a lot of work behind the curtain…” Creative practice isn’t different from other forms of training in that making a habit out of it is hard. We all have lives outside of our passions, and those passions aren’t always fully funded. Many of us work day jobs while pursuing creative endeavors. Stephan has had to balance paying bills, raising a...

The post Stephan Moccio: The Power of Pauses in Life (and Music) first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post Stephan Moccio: The Power of Pauses in Life (and Music) appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

Change is a scary word. So when we hear it non-stop in conversations about AI, it’s no surprise that many people feel a sense of unease. But what if AI could actually be used for good? Imagine a world where technology is not just about profits and efficiency, but also about improving education and learning opportunities for all. Sal Khan believes that future is possible. If his name sounds familiar, that’s probably because you’ve picked up a skill or two through his widely-used learning platform, Khan Academy. And if that’s the case, you wouldn’t be alone. Some 170 million people around the world currently use its educational resources on subjects ranging from Algebra 1 to Chemistry. A lot of this help is video-based, but they’ve begun introducing adaptive software with interactive exercises more recently as well. Looking at the big picture, Sal hopes to build Khan Academy into a fully-fledged digital tutor capable of both teaching lessons and providing personalized learning experiences to users. Does AI Enable Cheating In Schools? The widespread popularization of AI has garnered some serious questions about cheating in schools. Teachers and parents are voicing concern that kids will use the technology to cut corners, or...

The post AI Is About to Change Education Forever (Again) first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post AI Is About to Change Education Forever (Again) appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in a loop, endlessly waiting for that burst of motivation to strike? You’re not alone. The fear of wasted potential and the desire for meaningful progress haunt creators and entrepreneurs alike. But here’s the hard truth: motivation is unreliable. It’s fleeting. It can vanish as quickly as it appears. If you’re tired of waiting for that perfect moment to take action, it’s time to shift your focus. What if I told you that momentum, not motivation, is the true driver of success? A Whisper of Intuition You know my story. From a young age, I betrayed my true passions, suppressing my creativity in favor of playing it safe. It wasn’t until my grandfather’s sudden passing left me with his cameras that I listened to that inner voice. It was a nudge, barely louder than the noise around me, but I took the leap. Following my gut instead of my conditioned safety net changed my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Just like that Chinese proverb: the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. This isn’t just true for me; it’s true for all...

The post 5 Proven Ways to Get Things Done (No Motivation Required) first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post 5 Proven Ways to Get Things Done (No Motivation Required) appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

In this episode, New York Times bestselling author, A.J. Jacobs shares his fascinating approach to interpreting America’s foundational document in his latest book, “The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning”. An acclaimed journalist known for his unorthodox social experiments, A.J.’s work blends memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help. In our conversation, A.J. takes us on a hilarious yet insightful journey into his attempt to understand the Constitution by living as closely as possible to its original meaning. We delve into his personal experiences, the larger debate about how the Constitution should be interpreted, and the Constitution’s relevance in today’s world. Some highlights we explore: Learn more about A.J. Jacobs’ unique experiments Tips on how to generate creative ideas and how to choose the right ones Learn more about what living 18th-century life is like in modern times How to apply the constitution, two-party system, and founding fathers into this experimental life What A.J. learned from leading this experimental life and his thoughts post-experiment And more… Enjoy! FOLLOW A.J. JACOBS: Facebook | twitter | website Listen to the Podcast Subscribe  

The post AJ Jacobs: Can You Live Fully by the Constitution in 2024? first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post AJ Jacobs: Can You Live Fully by the Constitution in 2024? appeared first on Chase Jarvis.

We often think of creativity and meditation as separate practices – one active and expressive, the other quiet and introspective. But what if these two seemingly different pursuits are actually deeply interconnected, each enhancing and amplifying the other? This fascinating relationship between creativity and meditation was at the heart of my recent conversation with Henry Shukman, an award-winning poet, author, and Zen master. Henry’s unique background bridges the worlds of artistic expression and contemplative practice, giving him profound insights into how meditation can unlock our creative potential. The Creative Benefits of a Quiet Mind One of the core benefits of meditation is learning to quiet the constant chatter of our minds. As Henry explained, this mental stillness creates space for new ideas and inspirations to emerge: “When we meditate regularly, we’re training our minds to be less caught up in the constant stream of thoughts and worries. And in that spaciousness, creativity has room to flourish. Novel connections and insights can bubble up from our subconscious.” This aligns with what many great artists and innovators have reported – that their best ideas often come during moments of mental quiet and relaxation. By cultivating a meditation practice, we’re essentially preparing fertile...

The post The Deep Connection Between Creativity and Meditation first appeared on Chase Jarvis.

The post The Deep Connection Between Creativity and Meditation appeared first on Chase Jarvis.