Thank God It's Toby Highlights

Jason Fox often referred to by his nickname 'Foxy' is a television presenter, adventurer and former British soldier. He is best known as the longest-serving directing staff on the popular Channel 4 television series SAS: Who Dares Wins, and the presenter of the investigative documentary series Meet the Drug Lords: Inside the Real Narcos.

Fox joined the Royal Marines Commandos in 1992 at the age of 16. In 2001, he joined the Special Boat Service and reached the rank of Sergeant. After 20 years of military service, Fox was medically discharged on 5 April 2012 having been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Fox is one of the original presenters and directing staff on SAS: Who Dares Wins, a reality television programme where contestants experience a gruelling training course loosely based on a condensed version of the special forces selection process. Fox stars alongside former special forces soldiers Ant Middleton, Matthew ‘Ollie’ Ollerton, Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham, and Jay Morton. The programme first broadcast in 2015 is produced by Channel 4, and aired its fifth season in February 2020. In 2019, the first season of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins aired which also stars Fox.

In 2018, Fox presented a 3 part docuseries, Meet the Drug Lords: Inside the real Narcos. The series positioned Fox in his first investigative journalism role, spending time within drug cartels in Mexico, Columbia and Peru, meeting and talking to people living and working in those communities. Fox's interviews in the series included Popeye (Jhon Jairo Velásquez) – known as one of Pablo Escobars’ hitmen in Columbia.

In 2019, Fox presented the documentary The Final Mission: Foxy's War which saw him return to Afghanistan where he had served in the military.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Money-saving items such as heated blankets, thermal underwear and subscriptions to streaming services like Netflix are high on the list of things shoppers say they’ll be targeting in the pre-Christmas sales.

As the soaring cost-of-living forces consumers to tighten their belts, a new study by Vodafone suggests 1 in 4 (24%) cash-strapped shoppers in the run-up to Christmas intend to snap up practical goods that will help them to save money and cut their household expenses, especially energy bills.

Interestingly, nearly 1 in 10 (9%) say they will be looking to buy things that can be used now and potentially resold at a later date on online marketplaces, such as eBay and Depop.

41% of those surveyed intended to spend less overall on Black Friday than they did last year with a fifth (21%) stating they wouldn’t spend anything at all.

Almost half (44%) said they would be on the lookout for items that represent good value for money while just under a quarter (23%) said they’d be sizing up things that were cheap but fun or had a feel-good factor.

So how has the economic squeeze affected the way we think about where we shop?

A third of respondents (33%) said they were more likely to buy from retailers that offer buy-now-pay-later deals or provide cheap or 0% credit. Nearly half (49%) said they were attracted to sellers that offered special discounts, and 1 in 10 (12%) were more likely to buy from an outlet that offered some form of the trade-in deal.

Certain products, however, seem to defy cautious budgeting.

Shiny new gadgets such as smart speakers or beauty-related techs such as hair dryers and straighteners tend to be off-the-cuff purchases that are largely unplanned.

Just over a third (34%) of those surveyed described themselves as the kind of shopper for whom price is the most important factor. Almost as many (28%) say plan their shopping trips and always stick to a list.

But with 1 in 10 (9%) admitting they buy things on impulse and often regret splashing out on items they don’t really want or need, how can we get the most out of the end-of-season sales this year without suffering buyer’s remorse or spending more than we can afford?

Joining us to answer these questions is leading psychologist and broadcaster, Dr Linda Papadopoulos.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Donald G. James is the author of "Manners will take you where brains and money won't: Wisdom from Momma and 35 years at NASA." (Feb. 2021). Inspired by the overwhelming reaction to the 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy, Donald James decided to make his career at NASA, retiring in 2017.

Donald developed an early interest in aviation and international affairs due to his frequent travels with his parents to Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe. In grade school, he learned about the planned supersonic transport (SST) and the new jumbo jet, the 747. The idea that you could fly faster than the speed of sound or in an aeroplane as gigantic as the 747 captivated him. Both Donald and his brother Dennis wanted to pursue aviation careers. Dennis is now a Captain with American Airlines.

The experience of living in developing countries and a desire to solve problems of poverty inspired Donald to pursue International Relations and Economic Development academically, though he never lost his interest in aerospace. While considering employment options after graduate school, Donald applied to and was accepted into the Presidential Management Intern program. He was recruited and hired by NASA, beginning at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in 1982. He returned to California, transferring to NASA’s Ames Research Center in 1984.

Donald decided to make a career at NASA after the tragic Challenger accident in 1986. The loss of teacher Christa McAuliffe and her six fellow crew members, and the tremendous outpouring for the nation’s first educator astronaut persuaded Donald that NASA was one agency that could inspire students to be explorers. Donald loves being around brilliant people doing cool science, building better and faster planes, and designing spacecraft to explore low earth orbit and the cosmos. For Donald, working at the Agency that led America and the world to human exploration of the moon is an honour and a privilege.

Career highlights include: serving as Ames’ Education Director from 1999 to 2006; co-leading Ames’ first open house attracting a record-breaking quarter of a million visitors in one day (1997); serving as project manager for NASA’s successful bid to host the International Space University’s 2009 Space Studies Program; being accepted to the Senior Executive Service. Of all the amazing experiences Donald had, he counts one as the most gratifying: a young graduate student told Donald after a talk he gave that she was inspired to go into engineering when Donald visited her 7th-grade class a decade earlier.   

In August of 2014, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden selected Donald as the Agency’s Associate Administrator for Education. Donald retired after 35 years—all with NASA—on March 31, 2017.

Donald holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He received a graduate Fellowship from the National Science Foundation and completed an MA in International Economic Development from the American University in Washington, D.C. Donald also studied economics at Cambridge University, England in 1975 and attended Harvard’s Senior Executive Fellows program in 2004.

Donald enjoys speaking to groups, especially young people interested in aerospace careers and about the themes in his new book. Donald’s book (in collaboration with his brother Dennis) Manners Will Take You Where Brains and Money Won’t: Wisdom from Momma and 35 years at NASA is available.

Donald lives with his wife Tanya in Pleasanton, California. They have two children.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Son of American TV mom, Marion Ross (Happy Days/Gilmore Girls/Brooklyn Bridge), Jim Meskimen has become THE actor that Hollywood is turning, to appear as historic or recognizable characters, currently playing Senator Edward Gurney (opposite Julia Roberts and Sean Penn) in GASLIT and, just announced, portraying Phil Donahue in WELCOME TO CHIPPENDALES (starring Murray Barlett, Juliette Lewis and Dan Stevens), as well as Colonel Sanders in the popular KFC and George Washington (crossing the Delaware Turnpike) GEICO commercials. 

Jim is also currently appearing in HUNTERS (starring Al Pacino and Carol Kane) and a reoccurring role in THE BIG DOOR PRIZE (by Creators of Schitt's Creek), as well as having roles in films such as FROST/NIXON, APOLLO 13, THE PAPER, and VIRAL VIGNETTES, and TV productions as an actor, impressionist, voice-artist and improvisational comedian on WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY and IMPRESS ME. In addition, Jim has a dozen productions in both pre and post-production. 

Jim's ability to recreate true-to-life characters is not limited to acting but noted impersonations. We invite you to listen to this sample link of his vocal expertise on the voices of individuals such as Sir Patrick Stewart, President GW Bush, Morgan Freeman, Robin Williams, Tommy Lee Jones, Christopher Walken, Sam Elliott, Sir Ian McKellen

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the story of three men encountering their own personal demons, and how they ultimately collide on one nondescript Labor Day afternoon.

There is Roger Cisneros, who is a registered sex offender, and who wants to "get even" by kidnapping a child in a small town. There is Arthur, a local idiot who has just gone through a divorce and is severely misunderstood and so has suicidal thoughts. Finally, there is Lloyd Bridges, a small-town police chief who is burnt out and ready to retire and likes his alcohol just a little bit too much. Who will come out on top?

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Edmund Schiavoni's first-rate, "page-turning" novel 'Pathway To Glory' unfolds when the protagonist, Paul Stevens, attempts to take over the giant corporation that he is the chief financial executive of by boldly initiating a proxy contest against its incumbent management. This plot teems with high adventure, political intrigue, and the avariciousness that the machinations of Wall Street and lust for power consume him prior to committing this act...and the havoc he's encumbered with after its execution. The idea for this story evolved from two phrases: one, "Sorrow is the seed of holiness," formulated by a now-deceased cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and the other, "It is in defeat that we become Christian," coined by Hemingway in his novel, A Farewell to Arms. Thus, this story, with its pathos, comedic moments, as well as high adventure, gives the reader a panoramic view of the American scene and the Machiavellian schemes that its work ethic spawn and is much more than just another narrative about big business or the good and evil that vie within all of us because, besides that, it has a compelling message for everyone living in today's anxious world.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Award-winning intuitive composer, multi-instrumentalist, and cosmic polymath Charleene Closshey first appeared on stage at the age of 2 — the same year she began studying piano and reading music scores. 

Fusing her decades of classical Western music training with Eastern vibrational sciences, Charleene intuitively scores music tuned to specific hertz frequencies. Much of her music carries extremely low frequencies (ELFs) inaudible to the human ear but distinctly felt in listeners’ bodies. These frequencies are scientifically shown to positively stimulate the body’s longest and most impacting cranial nerve – the “wandering” vagus nerve. Her music is part of U.K. research (led by the preeminent acoustic-physics researcher John Stuart Reid) measuring its sonic effects on the regeneration of white blood cells, the building blocks of immunity and disease intervention. Her music carries inaudible frequencies proven to heal the mental AND physical body.

Her new album "ALIGNED: A Planetary Mantra and Gong Shower" 🪐 fuses ambient soundscapes tuned to the mathematically-calculated frequencies of the planets (+) planetary gongs (+) ancient Sanskrit mantra (+) space sounds recorded by NASA. https://charleene.com/aligned/

Before diving into vibrational healing arts, Charleene performed on Broadway, starred in major motion pictures, released a Billboard Top 40 Christmas single that’s now a mainstay on holiday radio in the U.S., U.K. and Europe, spun as a Top 5 most played indie artist on U.S. radio, sung opera in Rome, Celtic fiddled with world champion Irish dancers, composed award-winning film scores, produced Adult Contemporary vocal albums with multi Grammy-winning teams in Nashville, and even duel fiddled with Charlie Daniels for stadium crowds (twice). Her compositions have been performed by national orchestras on international stages, lauded for “break the mold”. Her music was even blessed by Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Charleene is a certified Mantra Chikitsa therapist, Primordial Sound Meditation Instructor, RYT® 200 Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga Instructor, Soul Detective, and Angel Therapist well versed in Energy Medicine.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Accomplished songwriter and film producer Kurt Rosenberg has been composing Scottish/Irish Music for over 25 years. Today, he is well on track to achieving his dreams of collaborating with some of the world’s finest, as well as partnering with the theatre industry to help produce his musicals.

Rosenberg’s music encompasses various genres of Celtic, Folk, Pop, 40’s Ballroom to 50’s Jazz and Film.

“Each piece of my music conveys a different emotion, thought, or message,” he says. “I want to compose melodies that touch people and are memorable.”

“Highland Home,” Rosenberg’s ode to Scotland, is about longing to return to a place that fulfils us and brings us joy. He went on to produce the award-winning music short film Highland Home, internationally recognized for its thoughtful lyrics and distinct sound.

Highland Home was selected to screen at prestigious festivals including the Cleveland International Film Festival, The Oxford Short Film Festival, and the World-Fest Houston International Film Festival. It won a Platinum Remi Award from World-Fest, a Director’s Choice Award at Santa Barbara’s International Fine Arts Film Festival, and the Best Music Video Award at Bath’s Jane Austen International Film Festival. Rosenberg won Best Lyrics Award at the International Music Video Awards in London.

Being successful in the industry requires hard work, passion and dedication to the craft. “A composer has to be disciplined,” Rosenberg explains. “This means that they must work on their music every day. If a composer wants to be successful, they need to view it as a job, not as an avocation.”

He particularly loves the process of songwriting and composing. Though perfecting a melody and getting the arrangement down can take days, even weeks, Rosenberg finds it to be a rather “mind-freeing, liberating task” that allows him to experience a meditative state.

As Rosenberg continues along his musical journey, he is driven to make a lasting impact on others through his lyrics and sounds. Several exciting projects are in the works that will surely attract listeners of all backgrounds worldwide.

“The Moon Followed Me to Falmouth,” Rosenberg’s English sea shanty-inspired song, will be completed as an animated music short by the end of May. It will begin screening at film festivals in July/August.

“Strolling Down Brighton Pier” is Rosenberg’s homage to English musical theatre (think “My Fair Lady”). The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will record the instrumental track in London on August 2. Rosenberg plans to add the vocals in 2023, and release the film in 2024.

“Dawn at Gougane Barra,” Rosenberg’s Irish Orchestral piece, will be recorded in Dublin on August 8. This recording will be the soundtrack for a music drone video. Filming is scheduled for August 10 and 11 at Gougane Barra. It will be screened in Ireland and the USA at hired cinemas, and will be posted online.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thaimko Conteh is an actor and former price fighter. He started his acting career with his 35min short film “The Game is on” which he also wrote, produced and directed. “The Game is on” was selected by several film fests. Conteh gathered experience by starring in music videos and shorts. He is a self-educated lateral entrant in the film industry but also trained with professional acting coaches such as Francisco Medina (MomentuMedina), and Murat Ünal (The Hollywood Turk). Conteh has worked behind the camera as a script consultant, story board-artist and fight choreographer.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

68% of children aged 8 – 16 do not understand how taxes work, 74% do not understand pensions and 41% mortgages

43% want to know more about mortgages 38% about taxes, and 36% about the economy – with 55% about how to run your own business

82% have already practised saving with their pocket money

A large number of children aged 8 – 16 do not understand how taxes work (68%), pensions (74%) and mortgages (41%).

Teaching kids about finances equips them with arguably the most essential knowledge and skills they will need for the future, and they want to learn about it too – 43% are keen to know more about mortgages, 38% about taxes, and 36% about the economy.

Not only that, but they are already practising good financial habits with 82% having saved up their pocket money to buy something they wanted.

Meanwhile, if they were to receive £1 million next week, the majority would buy a house, and go on holiday with their family, with some opting to invest or put into a savings account.

Highlights from Toby's Friday afternoon show on Shout Radio. Featuring chat with top showbiz guests.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.