GoodEnough

In this episode, Mark and Sam start the year off right with a visit from their friend Tara Desmond.  They try to answer the comic question:

Will AI kill us all?

In this episode, Mark and Sam learn that there is good news about the economy.  This week they talked with Mike Doherty.  Mike is an independent consulting economist. He is the contracted business
development manager for Decision Innovation Solutions, an analytics consulting firm
based in Des Moines, Iowa, and has consulted on behalf of USDA and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO).
Doherty served as Senior Economist and Policy Analyst at the Illinois Farm Bureau from 2004 to 2023. He also served concurrently as the Executive Director of the Illinois Wheat Association from 2018 to 2023.
At Illinois Farm Bureau, Doherty was responsible for research and policy analysis of agricultural production, farm income, rural economics, food prices and commodity marketing. Doherty provided analysis of external research projects, government policies, proposed legislation, biofuels markets, and other factors affecting the profitability of agriculture. Doherty provided monthly economic outlooks on the RFD radio network, quarterly outlooks on the Illinois farm economy to the IAA board and quarterly outlooks on McLean County’s economy at Economic Development Council luncheons. Doherty has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and Crain’s Chicago Business and has been interviewed regularly on radio and television news programs for his insight on the Illinois agricultural economy. Before joining IFB, Doherty developed and led a statewide USDA Rural Development program, providing business planning, marketing, and financial analysis to value-added ag-business ventures in Illinois, Indiana, and the Carolinas. Prior to his experience with USDA-RD, he was a research associate in the Department of Economics at North Carolina State University and an educator for the North Carolina Extension Service. Doherty earned his B.S. in Economics at Illinois State University and his M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Clemson University in South Carolina. He has been an advisor and consultant to agriculture and rural development projects in Guatemala,
Paraguay, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Palestine, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador. He also presented at agricultural outlook conferences in Brazil and Argentina.
Doherty was raised on a farm near Merna, Illinois, and resides in Normal.

In this episode,
Mark and Sam talk to Julie Eliathamby about food deserts and how adaptive strategies and partnerships can work to over come the nutritional challenges of these deserts.   
Julie Eliathamby, a Chinese Indian from Malaysia, moved to the United States in 2005 and has lived in Peoria for the past 15 years. She is a multilingual, cross- cultural professional with over 25 years of
experience in operations, customer service and sales.  Julie’s primary focus is building client-centric teams and creating efficiency in processes. She loves an  entrepreneurial challenge and has been active in consulting locally, as well as running her own import-retail and construction and interior design companies in the US and Asia. Julie oversees operations for the investment division at Better Banks. She is married to Jim, a native Peorian, who works at Bradley University. They have one son at Peoria Notre Dame and another at Bradley.
For the past ten years, Julie has been very involved in community initiatives. She founded the Tireless Recycling Project in 2015 to address illegal tire dumping in Peoria, running the program for 2 ½ years. In 2018, she participated in Senator Chuck Weaver’s Leadership Program and founded the nonprofit Peoria Grown to address food insecurity by creating access and wellness programs.

In this episode, Mark and Sam discuss economic development strategies and philosophies with Patrick Hoban.  Patrick is the CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council.  He is a Certified by the International Economic Development Council.  He holds an Economic Development Finance Professional designation from the National Development Council.
Patrick graduated from Millikin University with a Bachelors in Organizational Leadership.  He graduated from the University of Oklahoma's Economic Development Institute.  He also graduated from Notre Dame with a Master's in Business Analytics.  
Patrick has served as the Vice President of Business Development for the Decatur and Macon county, Illinois, EDC.  He was the Economic Development Officer for the City of Decatur.  Before moving to Bloomington, he was the Economic Development Manager for the Village of Tinley Park, Illinois.  
We also discuss the AI and its impact on workforce development and local economies.  And, yes we ran out of time.

In this episode we talk with Laurie Swanson TED speaker and business owner of "InspiHER Tech".  Laurie talks who people hate their jobs and about career transformation, mindset, and intuitively-guided careers.  People make about 35,000 decisions every day and our world is more complex and crowded than ever. So how does one steer a career though all of this?  
The fallout from not steering is a disconnect with our inner selves. People experience a sense of drowning, of being overwhelmed and feeling stuck in their careers.  The results are quiet quitting and the glaring truth that what used to light us up just doesn’t do it anymore.  
She explains what happens when your learning curve crosses your wisdom curve and how that might change how you feel about that job you have loved for many years.  How do you pivot?  

Laurie's website
https://inspihertech.com

In this episode, Mark and Sam talk with Kori Clausen the author of "Paddle Out"  Her story is one of triumph over grief and how to accept what you have been given. 

Kori Clausen felt Clint, her husband, take his last breath.  She watched as his arm he was holding her with suddenly fell limp to his side.  She had just unexpectedly lost her husband and the father of their four daughters. She had also lost her pillar of strength.  And she thought then that she had lost her last chance of salvation from the demons that had haunted her most of her life. As the days and months passed, and Kori felt herself slipping back into the old familiar darkness, she wondered who would now set her free…and how.

Paddle Out is an inspiring look at a loving woman constantly combating life’s familiar struggles, the quest to find those things that can make us better, and how to overcome sudden tragedy when all that we know, all we depend on, is suddenly ripped away from us.

Available on Amazon and Audible.
https://www.amazon.com/Paddle-Out-Dea...

In this episode Mark and Sam talk to Rick Jebb.
Rick Jebb is a neuro divergent author who writes about adaptation: multigenerational influence, the power of community, art and nature. He has been called an “artist trapped in a businessman’s body,” and has striven to transverse the realms of ecology, geography, history, literature, fine art, neuroscience, religion and business.

His life often focused on the question: how to go-on when you want to quit? He deals with death, depression, mental illness and love.

Rick’s literary influences include: Herman Hesse, Anthony Doerr, Barry Lopez, Fredrick Buechner, Phillip Yancey, Christian Wiman, William Kent Krueger, John McFee, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Frank Herbert, Ralph Emerson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson.

An avid world traveler, and wilderness camper, since the age of twelve, he has led numerous canoe and hiking trips ranging from three to twenty days. As a canoeist and white water paddler, from age eleven through thirty, Rick paddled over 2,000 miles on lakes and rivers mostly throughout Ontario, Canada. He has run numerous white water rivers, and hiked mountain trails throughout the eastern United States.

He has been seriously writing since 2010, with seven essays published in The Boundary Waters Journal, Fathom, and Ekstasis magazines since 2019.

George is 70 years old and lives in Thailand.  He became a Widower after 40 year marriage.  His two adult sons live in the states.    George has lived in five different US locations in the Midwest and the South.

But now, George lives in Thailand with native Thai wife who he met while visiting Thailand while on heath vacations. 

George career spans 35 years in HR and HR adjacent roles in mental health, retail and manufacturing sectors.  He focused on individual, developmental, and team effectiveness working toward organizational excellence.  

Sam and George met each other while working at General Tire in Mt. Vernon.  The bond was set for life.   

Later in his career, George joined large engineering and construction firm in Middle East and finished career as technical writer and training director there.  

George says that the best part of working in the Middle East was that it provided travel opportunities in Europe, Middle East and Asia.  

George chose to retire in Thailand after exploring other locations.  He lives by the ocean in a small drinking village that has a fishing problem, near mountains of southern Thailand.  
At times, he has big lizards on his roof.

In this episode, Mark and Sam discuss Troy Taylor's book, Blood, Bullets, & Booze: Gangs and Ghosts of Southern Illinois.  Mark and Sam are both from Southern Illinois.  The people and places in Troy's book are part of their childhood and lore of the land.  Very entertaining.

His books are on Amazon or you can find all things Troy Taylor here:
https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/
He has a great website.

In this episode, Emmy winner writer Cort Casady talking about his new book:
"Not Your Father’s America: An Adventure Raising Triplets in a Country Being Changed by Greed"  You can find Cort's book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Not-Your-Fathers-America-Adventure/dp/B0BGNDYW3J/ref=sr_1_2?crid=LQ0PYQ7HH0FP&keywords=cort+casady&qid=1687982874&sprefix=cort+casady%2Caps%2C1022&sr=8-2
Father's Day
Roger Miller
AFI
Smother's Brothers
Soper Reece Theater
A Letter to my sons
Greed and Greenspan