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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Will DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud get the Texans back on track this season?
Will DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud get the Texans back on track this season? | Inside Coverage Jason Fitz, Charles Robinson, and Frank Schwab discuss whether or not C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans will have a successful season this year. Hear the full conversation on 'Inside Coverage' - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript What about the Texans? Advertisement Obviously, the cream of the crop in this just trash division. Uh, they went 10 and 7 last year. Over under on it is 9.5 this year. Rise, repeat, or retreat, Frank, from where you were a year ago on the Texans. How do you feel now? A year ago, pretty hyped on CJ Stroud being, you know, the. coming and the next Dan Marino and there we go. He's still had a very good year, but still, I like, where are we now? Easy retreat. I, I thought that over the second half of last season, the Texans were a pretty bad football team and we forget that because they won the, they got into the playoffs one playoff game, competed against the Chiefs. Advertisement So maybe they found something late in the year, but there was a stretch of about 2 months where you're just like, this is not a good team and everything kind of fell apart for CJ Stroud last year, and I don't blame it all on him, by the way. Their offensive line was a mess. Well, their offensive line is still a mess and the receiving situation, which we loved last year, oh, take Dale, Stefon Diggs. Well, those guys, well, Stefon Diggs is gone. Take Dell, we don't know if we're gonna see him this year, replaced by a couple of rookies, good looking rookies, they might, uh, you know, show out, but I just don't see how the tech. Advertisement are better this year. I, I do trust the coaching staff. I really do like the coaching. I like Dmico Ryan's a lot. I like CJ Stroud's talent a lot. I just don't like the infrastructure there, don't like the way they played late in the season. I just don't think this is a year ago we were talking CJ Stroud for MVP, Super Bowl contender, blah blah blah. We got two over our skis with that. I, me personally, I did. I know that. And I'm just taking, I'm kind of taking a step back with them and saying, I don't think this Texas team is really that good. I think they're gonna need another offseason. To fix some of their offensive problems before they can get back on that track where we really feel like, oh, the Texans are coming, the Texans are gonna be a Super Bowl contender. Advertisement I think they're gonna need another offseason to fix some of their issues. I think, you know, like you said, the, the wide receivers now heading into this season are far more unpredictable. Compared to last season when we knew Stefon Diggs was gonna be on the field, we knew Tank Dell was gonna be on the field and Nico Collins was gonna be there. Um, I, I was with you. I went through, I was flying high on them. I was like, uh, you know, this, there could be an MVP season for CJ Strout in year two. I did not foresee the offensive line just completely falling apart the way that it did and him getting pounded. Advertisement Um, I, I, I don't blame everything on him. I think, look, look, Bobby Slovik gets fired as offensive coordinator, clearly. The, I think D'Amio Ryan did not feel like Bobby Silk adapted his play calling or the offense down the stretch to augment for what was going on with that offensive line. He just, it just kind of ran it the way it was gonna run and it fell apart. I think it's a retreat because I, I look at a team that wholesale changes on the offensive line and I have no clue whether or not that's gonna, you know, fix the problem. And uh it's just very uncertain at the skill positions beyond Nico Collins and not having any idea whether the offensive line can protect um TJ Stroud, whose play definitely decayed as he got hit over the course of, of last season. So to me, I, I, I don't think they make 10 and 7 this year. I think they're, they're short of that.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Can the Colts sneak up on some teams this year?
Can the Colts sneak up on some teams this year? | Inside Coverage Jason Fitz, Charles Robinson, and Frank Schwab discuss their thoughts on the Indianapolis Colts, their strange quarterback situation and if they will be a playoff team this year. Hear the full conversation on 'Inside Coverage' - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript I'm in retreat on the Colts because a year ago we were like, man, Anthony Richardson, yeah, he only played 180 some snaps, but look at how good he was per play in this highlight and that throw and this, and he's gonna get better and he did not get better. Advertisement And now it's like, uh oh, you need to pay overpay Daniel Jones. What a sad statement that is to come in and Compete with your your supposed savior quarterback, the #4 overall pick a couple of years ago, and probably Daniel Jones. I, I, unless Anthony Richardson takes a pretty significant leap. I mean, we're talking about, he needs to add on 15% points, so his completion percentage should just be a relevant quarterback. Like, it was bad last year, it was really, really bad. So probably Daniel Jones is a quarterback on opening day, and that's, that's not good. That's just not what you want if you're the Indianapolis Colts. Advertisement So I just think Even though, you know, they weren't as bad as we remember last year again, 89, they were actually competitive for most of the year, but it just the trajectory of the franchise right now is just not good. I don't. What if, what if Daniel Jones is Ryan Tannehill going to the Titans? That's like Shane Steke and Daniel Jones together. I'm not out on this, guys. Like I, I don't think it's great, but I think it's at least OK. Like I'm actually higher on the polls alive, all of a sudden Tyler Warren comes alive. There's, yeah, I, I, I, that's actually not a bad point like. It could be like we've seen Daniel Jones play OK for some stretches, but I just think overall when when your answer is, well, Daniel Jones is gonna save the offense, it's not really a great situation, is it? Advertisement I just remember feeling that way when they went and got Tannehill. I remember feeling that way, you know, because remember it was like Mariota, they're like, oh, OK. This is kind of like either Marcus breaks through this year or or you know, it's done. We, we did everything we could kind of feels the same way. Richardson, either he breaks through this year, he's done. We've got this other guy who is a good athlete, by the way, Tan Hill's a good athlete, um, receiver in good offensive coordinator, um, as your head coach, right, um. Yeah, so I, I like, I felt the same way though, where I was like, I remember, uh, Tan Hill, I'm like, ah, I don't know Tan Hill. Advertisement Come on, that's a guy's kind of proven. He's just, it's pretty mediocre. There's not really much there to, and, and then I was wrong. Like he turned out to be a good, decent quarterback with a second shot at it. And, you know, maybe that's ultimately what happens with Dan Jones. Yeah, I think the Colts won 8 games last year with terrible quarterback play. Daniel Jones is gonna give them better than terrible quarterback play. I, I actually think the Colts could sneak up on some people this year. I'm, I'm a rise on the Colts guys are kind of changing my mind.
Business of Fashion
2 days ago
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Giancarlo Giammetti on Securing Valentino's Legacy
Listen to and follow the 'BoF Podcast': Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast Background: Giancarlo Giammetti met Valentino Garavani by chance on July 31, 1960, setting in motion one of fashion's most enduring — and most successful — creative partnerships. Together, they transformed Valentino into a global fashion powerhouse, celebrated for its elegance, craftsmanship and cultural influence. In 2016, Giammetti co-founded the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti to preserve their remarkable legacy, promote creativity and foster charitable initiatives. This week in Rome, BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed had the honour of sitting down with Mr. Giammetti at PM23, the newly opened home of the foundation, located right next to the Valentino headquarters where their journey together first began. In this exclusive interview, Mr Giammetti reflects on the founding days of Valentino, the importance of protecting creativity in a fashion market that prioritises commercialisation and why it's critical for the industry to support future generations of designers who are overlooked by a fashion system under pressure. 'This continuous change of people, using people to cover jobs … it makes a big confusion. None of them really becomes a part of the legacy of the company. That's what is a big problem today,' says Giammetti. Key Insights: Giammetti highlights the strength of his decades-long partnership with Valentino, emphasising their deep personal and professional connection. 'We grew up related so much to each other that we cannot be separate,' he says. 'Even when we had some rupture in our private life, after a while, we kept our family. That's why we have such a big family — because all of our friends became friends of our family with us.' Giammetti expresses concern about the fashion industry's current state, noting the disconnect between creative integrity and business pressures. 'Designers have become their own stars, they have their own style, and they don't want to really become a witness to the work of the companies where they are hired to prolong life – they want to work for themselves,' he says. Giammetti believes in preserving the heritage of fashion through new means. 'I hate fashion museums. I think that to see all the mannequins like Madame Tussauds look really like wax things. I don't think there is a life inside,' he says. 'With digital work, you have to work with that to project your legacy in a different way.' Giving advice to aspiring creatives, Giammetti encourages young designers to remain true to themselves and avoid distractions. 'Be yourself. Don't get distracted. You have to believe in yourself and do what you want.' The author has shared a YouTube video. You will need to accept and consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies by our third-party partners (including: YouTube, Instagram or Twitter), in order to view embedded content in this article and others you may visit in future. Additional Resources:
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Army vet builds fitness brand to empower women and veterans
You can catch Warrior Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. On this episode of Warrior Money, Army veteran and Dub Fitness founder Erica Liermann shares how her experience as a military police NCO shaped her entrepreneurial journey. Liermann reveals how she bootstrapped her women-focused gym from scratch, turning early financial setbacks into a thriving fitness community dedicated to building real strength, mental resilience, and long-term wellness. She discusses the challenges of transitioning from service to business ownership, her commitment to mentoring fellow veteran entrepreneurs, and the impact of her work with Ruff Ride and Team Foster to provide life-changing service dogs for veterans in need. Hosted by former Congressman Patrick Murphy and veteran investor Dan Kunze, Yahoo Finance's Warrior Money is a weekly vodcast dedicated to uplifting military veterans transitioning into civilian life. Through insights from fellow veterans and high-ranking officials, Murphy and Kunze are helping set vets up for success through financial education and inspiration. This post was written by Langston Sessoms. Welcome to Warrior Money, the show devoted to supporting our brothers to veterans. I'm Patrick Murphy and I'm Dan Kons. Today we're sitting down with Erika Learman, a US Army veteran and founder of Dub Fitness. After serving her country, she brought her passion for wellness in the life, creating a space where women build strength, confidence, and community. From just a handful of members to a thriving fitness family, her journey is inspiring. Please welcome the word money, Erika Learman. Erica, welcome to word Money. Hi, thank you. Thanks for having me. All right, Dan, I always start off with the, the bluff question. The bottom line up front, why are you on Warrior money? I am a warrior money because I'm a veteran, a small business owner, and somebody who just does not sit on the sidelines. I run a women's gym, Dub fitness, where we focus on building real strength, not just physically but mentally and emotionally. I've seen firsthand how movement saves lives, um, and as someone who served, I'm committed to helping others, especially my fellow veterans. Yeah, and as you served with distinction as a military police, uh, NCO in our army, and then you became obviously a entrepreneur, owning your own business. What gave you the confidence to take the plunge into entrepreneurship? To be honest, uh, I always say that I, it was my army values, right? Like learning to be a leader, having integrity, and I knew that I had something that um I shouldn't kind of keep inside. It would be selfish of me to keep it. So I wanted to share with my community the ability to be healthy in a fun way, um, to almost to my detriment though, because I wasn't charging in the beginning. I just wanted people to exercise and work out and learn to love it. Uh, we talk a lot on this show about mental and physical health and how that really is the foundation for anything that you do after that. Can you tell me specifically how that relates to the female community or the women community that you support? So, I mean, the, the female community is uh, if for lack of better words, right? So we are emotional, we take on a lot of roles, wear many hats, and a lot of the time we put ourselves on the back burner, and uh a lot of women don't want to talk about that or just kind of write it off as like, oh, it's part of the gig, well, it's not part of the and so there's a big sign on my door when you hit the handle and it says, you just did the hard part. I'll take it from here. And essentially it's drop all your baggage at the door and and hand it to me. And that's the difference I think between myself and all of the other gyms around, you know, I've been around 11 years now and I've had the same members for 11 years and it's because I don't just talk about it, right? I show them, I get down with I can equate it to uh a push up analogy. I don't look at you and say, come on, you can do it. I am literally on the floor next to you telling you that you can do it. I mean, there's been tears shed in there, laughter, anger, all kinds of stuff, and it's just really kind of tapping into that like female uh, I don't know, like fortitude I guess in there where how I can connect withwomen. Yeah, I, uh, my, so my, my wife is, uh, she works as well, and watching what women do that have to work as well as, uh, like to care for kids and have babies and all that stuff. So you've you've had a few babies and you've also gotten back into the healthcare in the healthcare how, talk to me about that transition for you from military service to family, to having kids and coming back into the healthcare community and healthcare world. Oh, talk about identity crisis for a little while there. So, uh, my kids are 3 and 2, so I'm very new to motherhood, and I honestly never thought that I was going to have kids. So I was in crazy shape, doing all kinds of insane fitness activities.I mean, I did a mile of burpees to raise $10,000 for, for uh foster. um, yeah, I, yes, and I expected other people to like jump on board and do it with me. And so that didn't happen, but they were there to support me. But those are things that I could not really empathize with mothers at the time. I mean, our earliest class is at 4:45 a.m. and when people would cancel last minute, I really would give them a hard then I got pregnant and, you know, I found out that I was pregnant and I was like, yes, I'm gonna leave this awesome, you know, like pregnancy workout. Well, I got so sick. I didn't even exercise for eight months. I had to wear a heart rate monitor. It was like the antithesis of all that I had planned. Um, so I had to kind of back up a little bit, and this is where I'm really thankful for the right? We're always lifting and shipping and you have to adjust fire. So, um, I kind of wrote an apology letter. It was like at the public community letter to my people, you know, now I understand, I can empathize. Uh, and I I actually handwrit wrote handwritten, handwrote cards to some of the former members, um, letting them know, hey, it is different. I understand now. Um, and then I guess, the way that I handled my business. I started caring a little bit more deeply, uh, about timing, and now I have a mommy and me class. Um, and so in the beginning, you know, when I talked about not just physical fitness, but mental fitness, right? Like we are exhausted and we are touched out by the end of the day. Like I tell my husband all the time, he comes in the kitchen, he's like, what can I help you with? And I'm like,You're asking me another question, like, I just do something, you know, and so that is kind of where us women, we get to, we get together, um, and we strengthen ourselves by being around like similarities and we we understand that we're all the same, we're all in this fight together and here we are getting stronger, and it's just therapy. Yeah, I think it's great because you created this tribe and you know, you left one tribe, the US Army, Riley referred to as America's varsity team to, to create your own tribe, you know, in suburbs of Philadelphia, and it's growing, but you've also helped create another tribe of business owners, veteran business owners through the greater Philadelphia Veterans Network. Tell us about your role there and, and helping others, elevate other entrepreneurs. Yeah, so the greater Philadelphia Veterans Organization um was a really the catalyst that kind of threw me into the veteran community here in Philadelphia, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. And as I told Dan in a conversation a few weeks ago, I will not have any help business. I had no idea that the VA offered loans. It was just all bootstrapping, opening up credit cards, maxing them out, you know, touch tapping into my vanguard, all kinds of things where I'm kicking myself now, um, for doing that. But at VBRN I got to share that story so that these future veteran entrepreneurs won't make that same mistake. Uh, I'm not afraid to talk about what I did wrong, as long as it will help others, you know, improve, um, or be successful. And there are other veteran, you know, personal trainers and gym owners in the area that I'm happy to help. And some people are like, I can't believe you're helping the enemy. And I'm like, you know, there, there's enough money to be made by everybody, and I can't train everybody, nor do I want to. But I also believe in karma and taking care of each other. So whether, you know, you're my enemy in the business still my brother or sister in arms, you know, we still bleed the same blood, we, you know, support our country, we fought for our country, and I just kind of believe in community and and helping each other out, good karma. No,no doubt, I mean, it's not about fighting over a slice of pie, it's create a bigger pie, but what about some of those mistakes? Erica walk us through some of the, I know you rattled a few off, but walk us through so our viewers can hear what are some of the mistakes that maybe that you made that you didn't leverage the opportunities that were out there. Well, number one, like I said, being not opening or taking out a loan, not even like a, a bank loan, um, so what I won't name that is the credit card, but it was like 19.4%. And again, and I'm not going to say that enlisted people aren't as educated, but we don' don't have, uh, we're not left, we don't leave the army with the skills, OK, so maybe the army is better now. I'm an old lady. So I think that they're doing a a better job of preparing people, but I just kind of left the military and was like,All right, like credit cards are easy money, you know, kind of thing, uh, so that, and it took me a long time, uh, to pay that off, and then not really having a business plan. So I knew that I was really good at physical fitness, and I knew that I could yell at people, and I knew that I was not afraid to be vocal, but I really had no and and sight and goal, I guess, um, and listening to one of your other shows, someone had a 200 year plan, and I was like, holy crap, like that's kind ofHow I, I operate now, um, but I wish that I had somebody mentoring me and and saying, hey, I have a 3 year plan, a 5 year plan. How many members do you need to make a profit? Um, because for the 1st 5 years I was just paying the bills, and I, I couldn't hire anybody because I didn't have any money to pay them, um, and then I was going to school on a GI bill and I was using the GI bill to pay off my debt, and it was just a so when I talk about, you know, the, the failures, these are all things that I that I list off because had I been able to save that money or take out a proper loan, I would have started making money earlier. Um, not to say everyone makes mistakes and I maybe I'm better for it now, uh, but I, I wish that maybe there was like a little angel, financial angel on my shoulder kind of thing, hey, so. Yeah, I think that's a great, that's just a great story. And I think part of the reason why we have Warrior money is because there's always a new generation of people that need that mentorship, that need to be that I, I, I refer to it as transitioning from a lifestyle business to kind of an enterprise or sustainable business, and that's kind of the journey that it sounds like you went on. What was the transition point from you from taking it from kind of the left side, which is let's just pay my bills and survive to like let's think about this over a period of time. Let's reinvest back into the business. Let's grow this to a scale that that works. What was that transition like for you? Well, if we are being completely candid. It was a was a it was a divorce and COVID simultaneously that kind of sprung me into into action. It was either, um, I'm not gonna do this or get off the so, uh, I talked to, uh, a financial investor, and I said, I want this to be my career. I want to be successful. I don't want to just make ends meet. I want to live the life that I dreamed of. Um, not necessarily a life of luxury, but maybe leisure, you know, making my own schedule, and being able to leave when I want to leave. And so we sat and then the world shut down. I mean, literally, it was like weeks later and I was like, whoa, OK, is this a sign? Like should I not be in this business? Um, and then I told him, I said, I want to launch a second business, and he was like, what do you mean? And I said, I, I think that I could run two simultaneous businesses right now during COVID, and we can kind ofUse this, uh, my benefit. So we launched an online app program where in my one bedroom apartment post divorce with a couch and a TV and that's all I had in there. Um, I just started recording myself doing exercises and my commentary and just talking and people laugh at me, so I'll have conversations and then answer myself and do this out loud and fast and they love it because they justI don't know if it makes them feel like holy crap, these are the thoughts I have in my own head, uh, but then more and more people just started hopping on these videos, uh, to just listen to me talk and it was during COVID, and then at one point I turned it into T with Coach and so I would just sit there with my cup of tea and we would just talk and then I would say I still stretched, and so, you know, not only did my business, my physical business survive, but now here I am launching this online platform, um, which is still around, you know, I still do it today, not as much as I would like to, which is very time consuming, but IIt's interesting when people talk about how all these gyms shut down during COVID, and I'm like, man, like that's when I thrived and I don't know if I should feel bad or feel like, hey, like I have worked my butt off, um, to sometimes my detriment and sacrificing family time and things like that, but now I get to, you know, pick up my kids and stay home with my boys on Fridays. I don't have to work, you know, all the time. It feels really good. I would say it's a lot. I mean, the fact that you showed that tenacity of, of that never quit attitude, that kind of the military ingredients in all of us, and then you've brought that to the private sector. So we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back more with Erica Neerman on where Money, just a right, welcome back to Warrior Money. We're joined by Erika Learman. Erica, you are passionate about d fitness. Uh, you are a retrepreneur, uh, either serving in the military. I look at the problems that you're helping solve, not just in suburban Philadelphia, but across the country, especially when you look at the obesity and overweight crisis we have. Right now, 70% of Americans are obese or overweight. Why do you think that is and and what do you propose we could do about it? Oh, so this is a question that I'm actually asked often, and it's led me to start a new program for the GLP1 users actually. I'm opening my doors, um, for a, it's we're gonna call it a free trial period where for 3 months we're gonna have meetings, kind of like AA I guess is the best way, um, kind of discuss this, right? So getting other people's a lot of people come down to, we're so busy, it's cheaper to not take care of ourselves. And then to which, yes, exactly, but to which I respond, you know, if you don't take time now to be healthy, you're going to have to take more time later when you're sick, right? So hospital bills, staying in the hospital, you know, people not having paid time off for that, what I taught for one year at my degree is in education and I taught the Philadelphia Military Academy and part of what I really tried to bring into the school was, you know, eliminating detention and sending the kids to my classroom and we were doing yoga and talking about diet and talking about nutrition, because that's where it starts. Um, a lot of myClients who are 40+ will say, I'm of a generation, you know, where we just diet when we have an event and then we just eat, you know, whatever we want. We do the yakkins, we cut carbs, but really, it's the whole body that we need to be preparing for, right? So when you're under 18, you're training your metabolism. And so if you are feedingYour metabolism, you know, foods that have plastics and chemicals and and poisons in it. One, you become addicted. The food is a drug, essentially, right? So when we think about what is being offered to people, um, especially like low income families, they don't have much option, right? They're they're essentially in a food desert, um, so I think whatThe education piece is important, um, and I don't know that there's many health and physical education teachers like me who volunteered to show up early to take on detention to change it into something else. Hopefully somebody wants to do that. Um, but that's what it's gonna take. It's gonna take small steps in early education, and, you know, Michelle Obama started it, right? She kind of like started making noise and she's been a really big inspiration and I would quote her often andUh, it starts with the kids and, and even in my, in my house, you know, my husband, uh, he took the kids from McDonald's once and hid it. I hid it maliciously from me, but I saw it in the trash can and I was like, why are you checking in there? There's no reason you know I for no reason, but it is. I just don't, it's an addiction and so when little kids learn early that that food is a treat, you know, you just, you shouldn't be rewarding with food, it shouldn't reward with um cupcakes and ice cream, have those on special occasions, but when your kid does great in school, you know, reward them with a new pair of shoes or with an activity or with an and it's part of, you know, when I work with my student athletes, I always say, don't treat yourself with, with a food item, right? Like, give yourself a Pandora bracelet and add a charm each time you need a milestone. So it's just making smaller habits. Um, that's, you know, a long answer to your question, but I think it starts when we're, when we're young, and it's up to our parents and, and leaders and stuff, yeah. There's two things you said that that I think are really important. One, we talk a lot on the show about time and how it compounds your money and your interests and you compound time, right? But the decisions, the healthy decisions you make also are a compounding effect over time, right? So if you're eating poorly in your 20s or your 30s, becomes a problem when you're in your 50s or 60s and and time starts to create more, uh, more of a lasting impact there. Um, uh, do you?Do you see substantial changes in people's behaviors when you start to educate them? And, and if you do, how does that work with the folks in that GLP group that you're thinking about as well? Like, can you, can you talk a little bit more about that for me? Because that's that's all the rage. Everybody wants to do like the GLP, but I'm like, is there a psychological change that also has to happen? Like what does that all look like? Yeah, so it's a, it's a choice, right? So we talked about there's no easy fix. Well, I, you know, now we've found one, there is an easy fix. Um, but it's not sustainable to to use that easy fix forever. And so what I am offering is the explanation on why along with this GLP one, you need to have exercise, right? You need to build muscle, especially for women, like, you know, you asked about the women in my density for us is going to start to deplete much earlier than it is for men. And so lifting weight is scientifically proven to be the single source of increasing bone density, right? So, avoiding osteoporosis, and so,Teaching people how to eat as a lifestyle rather than a diet. So, you know, the diet mentality is absolute garbage for, again, lack of better words. And, and I'll straight up tell women that. Like, we're not going to do 30 day diet challenges here. I'm going to just say, you can eat whatever you want. Just make sure it's good food. You don't have to count calories or count macros. Um, and with the GLP users, I know that it affects it's really important to ensure that you're getting enough protein, where we talk about, you know, putting money in the bank, like that's your food is the money in the bank for your body and um you can spend all the money in the world on cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery, but that's not gonna fix internal organs. It's not gonna fix the visceral fat around your kidneys and your liver or your so a lot of what I want to do for I guess free for this next 3 months is just educate these women and convince them that investing in yourself is is paramount, you know, when you say that you have a village to take care of and you don't have time for it. Well, when something happens to you, now who's taking care of your village? You've left them hungry, you know, and, um. And I would say to Eric, I would say the, I think the beauty of what you're offering is the fact that you're basically saying what we call in the army before triad, like, yes, exercise, eat right, because food is medicine and then recover. Um, I have to go though, we, we are one or dying to know about the rough VA for our struggling brother and sister veterans does not provide service dogs to them, even if they're on the struggle bus. What does, what is the rough ride and why is it so important to you and so many of us? So Rough Ride is a 24 hour spin relay located here in Philadelphia. It's also in Pittsburgh, and we are expanding to New York next year. Um, that's phenomenal. But what it is, it's, you don't have to be in shape to do it, is the first, uh, thing I like to tell people. You don't have to be a cyclist, you don't have to be a spin studio, you know, waving your pony tail everywhere. You just have to want to support so what it is, we raise money um to provide service dogs, accredited service dogs to injured and disabled veterans at no cost to the veteran, and that also includes vet bills, um, any, any discrepancy with the dog or any issues with the may have because we don't want the veteran to have to choose between their own bills and then taking care of this service dog. It should not be a burden. It should be something that's their life saving tool. Um, and as you know, or most people know, it takes up to 2 years and $35,000 and it's also not even guaranteed that that dog will to be a service dog, and then you have to go through the process again and all of the money again. So what Team Foster does for one of their events, the Roughri is we raise money for that. And what's really, really special about it is that those veterans who have been partnered with dogs are there and they get to share their story across the 24 hour period. They'll come in and you get to meet them andI, I, I have never used double negatives. I've never not cried when I hear their story, even though I've known these people, they've been in my home, but hearing them on the platform, you know, speaking about it when they were scared to leave their house, it's just pretty remarkable to see it. Yeah, I know, I know for the rough, Dan and I are gonna be doing the rough ride with you. I know it's in Philadelphia. We, we appreciate what you're doing and especially with like T Foster, Eric Foster, uh, who was killed about eight years ago, served in the 2nd Airport division, Duke graduate. So thank you for what you do with Rough Ride, that's RUFF ride, uh, and the nonprofit team Foster. Dan, take it over. All right, before we let you go, we're going to do Q and A. Uh, first question, uh, first question, what is the one, what's the one piece of advice you'd give young Erica Lehman, uh, when you were leaving the military that would make you successful and make you more successful now? Um, I would have applied to college, a good college. I would have done my research instead of making my mom kind of kick me out of her attic and go to the first college that would take me in. So yeah, definitely education, and I would have put that first and foremost. And and what's the one piece of advice you'd give an aspiring entrepreneur that you that you know now that you wish you knew when you were younger? Find a mentor, a big, big famous important one and ask, right? So don't be afraid to start asking at the super high level and, you know, keep asking until someone tells you, yes. Don't just do it on your own. There are people who want to help, people who want to invest, um, and who want you to succeed. Erica, thanks so much for joining us on worry my. We appreciate you. We appreciate your leadership, and we appreciate what you do for our uh, you can follow Erikaman on obviously social media or Rough Ride or the nonprofit team Foster or her business, Do Fitness. Erica, thank you so much. All right, that's our show. So listen, subscribe, and review Warrior Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast or find us at Yahoo Finance. I'm Patrick Murphy and I'm Dan Kons. We'll see you again next week. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. 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Are we reading Machiavelli wrong?
There are very few philosophers who become part of popular culture, and often, if their ideas become influential, people don't know where they came from. Niccolò Machiavelli, the great 16th-century diplomat and writer, is an exception. I don't know how many people have actually read Machiavelli, but almost everyone knows the name, and almost everyone thinks they know what the word 'Machiavellian' means. It's someone who's cunning and shrewd and manipulative. Or as one famous philosopher called him, 'the teacher of evil.' But is this fair to Machiavelli, or has he been misunderstood? And if he has been, what are we missing in his work? Erica Benner is a political philosopher and the author of numerous books about Machiavelli including my favorite, Be Like the Fox, which offers a different interpretation of Machiavelli's most famous work, The Prince. For centuries, The Prince has been popularly viewed as a how-to manual for tyrants. But Benner disagrees. She says it's actually a veiled, almost satirical critique of authoritarian power. And she argues that Machiavelli is more timely than you might imagine. He wrote about why democracies get sick and die, about the dangers of inequality and partisanship, and even about why appearance and perception matter far more than truth and facts. In another of his seminal works, Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli is also distinctly not authoritarian. In fact, he espouses a deep belief in republicanism (the lowercase-r kind, which affirms representative government). I invited Benner onto The Gray Area to talk about what Machiavelli was up to and why he's very much a philosopher for our times. As always, there's much more in the full podcast, so listen and follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The popular view of Machiavelli is that he wanted to draw this neat line between morality and politics and that he celebrated ruthless pragmatism. What's incomplete or wrong about that view? What is true is that he often criticizes the hyper-Christian morality that puts moral judgments into the hands of priests and popes and some abstract kind of God that he may or may not believe in, but in any case doesn't think is something we can access as humans. If we want to think about morality both on a personal level and in politics, we've got to go back to basics. What is the behavior of human beings? What is human nature? What are the drives that propel human beings to do the stuff that we call good or bad? He wants to say that we should see human beings not as fundamentally good or evil. We shouldn't think that human beings can ever be angels, and we shouldn't see them as devils when they behave badly. But the basic point is if you want to develop a human morality, you study yourself, you study other humans, you don't put yourself above other humans because you're one, too. And then you ask, What kind of politics is going to make such people coexist? I take it you think his most famous book, , is not well understood? I used to have to teach Machiavelli and I would just say, It's a handbook for tyrants. But he wrote the Discourses, which is a very, very republican book. So that's the first thing that sets people off and makes you think, How could he have switched so quickly from writing The Prince to being a super-republican writing the Discourses? So that's a warning sign. When I started seeing some of the earliest readers of Machiavelli and the earliest comments you get from republican authors, they all see Machiavelli as an ally and they say it. They say he's a moral writer. Rousseau says, 'He has only had superficial and corrupt readers until now.' If you ever pick up The Prince and you read the first four chapters, and most people don't read them that carefully because they're kind of boring, the exciting ones are the ones in the middle about morality and immorality and then you come to chapter five, which is about freedom. And up to chapter four, it sounds like a pretty cruel, cold analysis of what you should do. Then you get to chapter five and it's like, Wow! It's about how republics fight back, and the whole tone changes. Suddenly republics are fighting back and the prince has to be on his toes because he's probably not going to survive the wrath of these fiery republics that do not give up. So who is he talking to in the book? Is he counseling future princes or warning future citizens? It's complicated. You have to remember that he was kicked out of his job and had a big family to support. He had a lot of kids. And he loved his job and was passionate about the republic. He was tortured. He doesn't know what's going to happen next. He's absolutely gutted that Florence's republican experiment has failed and he can't speak freely. So what does a guy with a history of writing dramas and satire do to make himself feel better? It's taking the piss out of the people who have made you and a lot of your friends very miserable, in a low-key way because you can't be too brutally satirical about it. But I think he's really writing to expose the ways of tyrants. Would you say that Machiavelli has something like an ideology or is he just a clear-eyed pragmatist? He's a republican. And again, this is something that, if you just read The Prince, you're not going to get. But if you read the Discourses, which was written around the same time as The Prince, it's very, very similar in almost every way except that it praises republics and criticizes tyrants very openly. Whereas The Prince never once uses the words 'tyrant' or 'tyranny.' So if there's a guiding political view, whether you call it 'ideology' or not, it's republicanism. And that's an ideology of shared power. It's all the people in a city, all the male people in this case. Machiavelli was quite egalitarian. He clearly wanted as broad of a section of the male population to be citizens as possible. He says very clearly, The key to stabilizing your power is to change the constitution and to give everyone their share. Everyone has to have their share. You might want to speak a little bit more for yourself and the rich guys, but in the end, everyone's got to have a share. Should we treat Machiavelli like a democratic theorist? Do you think of him as someone who would defend what we call democracy today? If you think the main principle of democracy is that power should be shared equally, which is how I understand democracy, then yes. He'd totally agree with that. What kind of institutions would he say a democracy has to have? He's pretty clear in the Discourses. He says you don't want a long-term executive. You need to always check power. I realize we exist in a very different world than Machiavelli, but is he a useful guide to understanding contemporary politics, particularly American politics? This is a really Machiavellian moment. If you read The Prince and look not just for those provocative quotes but for the criticisms, and sometimes they're very subtle, you start to see that he's exposing a lot of the stuff that we're seeing today. Chapter nine of The Prince is where he talks about how you can rise to be the ruler of a republic and how much resistance you might face, and he says that people might be quite passive at first and not do very much. But at some point, when they see you start to attack the courts and the magistrates, that's when you're going to clash. And he says, That's when you as a leader — and he's playing like he's on the leader's side — that's when you've got to decide if you're going to get really, really tough, or are you going to have to find other ways to soften things up a bit? What would he make of Trump? He would put Trump in two categories. He's got different classifications of princes. He's got the prince of fortune, somebody who relies on wealth and money and big impressions to get ahead. He would say that Trump has a lot of those qualities, but he'd also call him this word 'astutia' — astuteness, which doesn't really translate in English because we think of that as a good quality, but he means calculating shrewdness. Somebody whose great talent is being able to shrewdly manipulate and find little holes where he can exploit people's weaknesses and dissatisfactions. This is what he thought the Medici were good at. And his analysis of that is that it can cover you for a long time. People will see the good appearances and hope that you can deliver, but in the long run, people who do that don't know how to build a solid state. That's what he would say on a domestic front. I think there's an unsophisticated way to look at Trump as Machiavellian. There are these lines in about knowing how to deploy cruelty and knowing when to be ruthless. But to your deeper point, I don't think Machiavelli ever endorses cruelty for cruelty's sake, and with Trump — and this is my personal opinion — cruelty is often the point, and that's not really Machiavellian. Exactly. I wouldn't say Trump is Machiavellian. Quite honestly, since the beginning of the Trump administration, I've often felt like he's getting advice from people who haven't really read Machiavelli or put Machiavelli into ChatGPT and got all the wrong pointers, because the ones that they're picking out are just so crude. But they sound Machiavellian. You're absolutely right, though. Machiavelli is very, very clear in The Prince that cruelty is not going to get you anywhere in the long term. You're going to get pure hate. So if you think it's ever instrumentally useful to be super cruel, think again. This obviously isn't an endorsement of Trump, but I will say that something I hear often from people is that the system is so broken that we need someone to smash it up in order to save it. We need political dynamite. I bring that up because Machiavelli says repeatedly that politics requires flexibility and maybe even a little practical ruthlessness in order to preserve the republic. Do you think he would say that there's real danger in clinging to procedural purity if you reach a point where the system seems to have failed? This is a great question. And again, this is one he does address in the Discourses quite a lot. He talks about how the Romans, when their republic started slipping, had 'great men' coming up and saying, 'I'll save you,' and there were a lot before Julius Caesar finally 'saved' them and then it all went to hell. And Machiavelli says that there are procedures that have to sometimes be wiped out — you have to reform institutions and add new ones. The Romans added new ones, they subtracted some, they changed the terms. He was very, very keen on shortening the terms of various excessively long offices. He also wanted to create emergency institutions where, if you really faced an emergency, that institution gives somebody more power to take executive action to solve the problem. But that institution, the dictatorship as it was called in Rome, it wasn't as though a random person could come along and do whatever he wanted. The idea was that this dictator would have special executive powers, but he is under strict oversight, very strict oversight, by the Senate and the plebians, so that if he takes one wrong step, there would be serious punishment. So he was very adamant about punishing leaders who took these responsibilities and then abused them. Listen to the rest of the conversation and be sure to follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
