The Know Show – a look back on 2023, what a year

Did this year pass like lightening or what? It’s time for our last show of the year, and that means a wrap up of 2023, as we reflect on all the main news that’s been flying across our screens. From wars to political shenanigans, good news to living through the hottest year in 250,000 years, celebrity losses and moments that achieved headlines, and of course, what’s going on at Cop28, the need for peace, the health of the global economy, and why we must focus on developing strong resilience as the years ahead look to be challenging for all of us.

Of course, it’s not all bad. We’ll talk about the word of the year, the person of the year, the stupidest celebrity or political antics we’ve seen, and much much more, so please come and join us as we wrap up the year that was. It’s always amazing to reflect and remember how much has truly happened in a year. 

We are delighted to welcome two guests, the lovely Louisa Lee and Dr. Weng Cheu Yue, who both own DP Dental in Singapore. Louisa Lee is a serial entrepreneur, and her focus is on sleep, health, and wellness. Dr. Yue Weng Cheu completed his BDS degree at National University of Singapore, and his expertise is pain management, sleep and he is known as a tongue trainer. Between them, I know they are going to add a lot of value around how we can take care of ourselves when times are so challenging! 

The Know Show is a Livestream held every fortnight on Friday, where Andrea T Edwards, Tim Wade and Joe Augustin, and at least one special guest, review the news that’s getting everyone’s attention, as well as perhaps what requires our attention. We’ll talk about what it means to us, the world and we hope to inspire great conversations on the news that matters in the world today. 

The Know Show is based on Andrea T Edwards Weekend Reads, which are published every Saturday on andreatedwards.com, and covers the climate crisis, topical moments in the world, global politics, business, social issues, and passion/humor/history. Join us. 

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To get in touch with me, all of my contact details are here https://linktr.ee/andreatedwards

My book Uncommon Courage, an invitation, is here https://mybook.to/UncommonCourage

My book 18 Steps to an All-Star LinkedIn Profile, is here https://mybook.to/18stepstoanallstar

Transcript

Unknown: 0:03

Welcome to the no show the last show of the year. My name is Andrew Edwards. And my name is Joe Augustine. Now this, by the way, is the biggest show of the year, not only in terms of what we're going to cover, because we're doing a roundup of the year, there's been so much as has happened in the year. And also because we have instead of one guest, we have two guests, always looking to expand points of view on the on whatever it is we're talking about. So this time, we have a husband and wife team. And I can add actually a super team because I've seen them at work and the way things get done in their practice. And in the speaking that they do as well. Would you please welcome to the show. I'm gonna get them to introduce themselves more as well. So as Dr. year when two and Louisa Lee, you figure out who's the husband, who's the wife, everyone, thanks for having us on the show. I'm Andrea. Hi, Joe. Happy to have you both here. Thank you. Thank you. So yeah, let's let's do a quick lesson to the quick introduction as in like if you meet someone at a party, and we don't know who you are, what's the what's the quick 30 seconds introduction? Let me go first. So I'm Louisa and apart from being the managing director of dp Dental, I'm also the CEO of dp health verse. And it's a holding company that we have actually created an ecosystem for that not just houses our dental practice, but we also have a wellness, we will have a Academy and Chatto partnership, really, you know, just to we are here to change the way healthcare is in its current sick care model. And we really wish to shift it to true health care and making the invisible visible. So I shall leave with you to explain the rest about GP Dental. Yeah. So I'm a general dentist for the past 23 years, but also manage cranial facial pain, and also a sleep dentist. So but I think most important is that air is most important to keeping us alive. And we are here to optimise that whole intake of air and optimising health. So my tongue dentists, putting a lot of focus, gave a TEDx talk on it, almost five years ago, still a very strong advocate of it. Hmm, that's awesome. I love that combination. And, and the fact that it's moving into different territories, it's funny, my six year old son was diagnosed by a dentist, having sleep issues, which were linked to his tonsils. And the oldest son, it was he's he's issues with his tonsils wasn't picked up by a dentist, it was picked up by somebody else. But Dental. Dentists are really switched on to some some of the bigger issues that are impacting children. And I'm really happy to, to hear that there's big changes rather than just doing the work, right. It's looking at the whole, the whole patient. So that's awesome. Yeah, I think the habit is most important. So we look at it from the least he have the opportunity to even manage babies youngest patient says four days Oh, so we're looking at all the reflexes like solo brief. And then as they grow, we look at all the habits, whether they are mouth breathing or not. And then when you look at the growth and development of the jaw alignment of tea is an indicator whether the cranial facial or the teeth, the jaw, the whole head and neck area is developing to the fullest of dimension. So if it's not, then there must be some reason. So we go to the root cause we have a whole community of physicians and allied health practitioners so that we can then try to resolve the issue right at the knee of the problem. Yeah, yeah. And honestly, for any parents out there, especially with young babies, this is something to be paying attention to, because we've gone through years and years and years of hell, because we, we didn't get that we didn't get that service from from the healthcare providers that we were working with. So super important. So systemic Link has always been established. But you know, the dental and medical faculty is still separate faculties in the university. So I think what we really need to push through, right, is this integrated approach. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's the that's the bonus that those of you who joined us early on the show get you get stepping, you get to step into an area that you probably haven't stepped into before. And you want to find out more of course, you can, you can look up Louisa and Dr. Yang online as well. So we've got to get down to talking about the news and what's happened in 2023. Big Show and we're looking forward to your points of view as well as you and Louisa so I'm going to hand back the steering wheel to Andrea, who's done a lot of work on this particular episode. Yeah, I kind of got a bit overexcited, didn't I? But, you know, if you're gonna, if you're gonna go back through the year, you've really got to go back through the year and, you know, I can just go back through my weekend reads and just sort of get the summary of what's been going on. A lot of the titles were heat heat, heat, heat heat. So yeah, hot. Hot weather was obviously a big issue this year, but just to just to take everyone back because sometimes there's so much going on in the news. Some of the things that I saw I went, Oh, that happened this year. I thought it was like 10 years ago, but this was the 2023 was the year of spy balloons. Prince Harry's books spare was launched and the discussion around his torture, which is the word that everyone's using, was happening. We had Jeremy Reiner's slip, slip out, plough accident got cancelled. I can't say that. Bob Anoma as a word Nippo babies became a thing. That's one of those things that I thought had been around a lot longer. And we had the lovely Kylie Jenner wearing the head of a lion as a fashion statement, which was rather thoughtless considering the times we're in UFOs have officially moved into her official circles. When it's Paltrow ski trail, Donald Trump's mug shot. Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner split up and all the shenanigans that went with that the Beckham's Arnie sly, and Robbie and many, many other documentaries. And the doomsday clock was moved was reset to 90 seconds until midnight. And that's the closest it's ever been since it was established in 1947. It was changed mainly due to the Ukraine war, but with obviously what's going on in the Middle East, maybe it'll be changed again. So that's some of the, the wrap up of everything that I sort of was looking for, but the word of the year is raise. Now this is interesting, because I had never heard the word but it refers to a person's ability to attract a romantic partner through style charm, or attractiveness. So how does everyone think there is is a left eye behind me. I have to share the story of how I got attracted to h2o. So we we have been together for more than 30 years we met as classmates in junior college and his hair definitely you know, 10 upon 10 reads. Alright, so yeah, I was the only guy in my class that had curly hair and everybody had straight hair and I thought that was like different topics and I got caught by my primary school principal and secondary principal to go to the office. Explain why my hair is curly. Yeah, right, right permit on purpose. When you look, that's when you live in a culture where curly hair is not so common. Right? Good to know. He's got some risks. The some of that some of the other words that were contenders include situation ship. I'm amazed by how few of these I know by the way, beige flag. Nobody D influencing, which I thought is a good one because that's where the influence is that basically encouraging people not to buy so much stuff. parasocial heat, don't we know what those are and prompt. But of course, Swifty was also another potential in the mix. So but DS D influencing I was happy to see that in the mix. But yeah, where did the Wow. There's also a colour of the year, which I didn't didn't share with you guys because I found it last night. Pens colour of the year for 2024. Is peach fuzz? Yeah, so if you're decorating your home and you want to be on trend peach fuzz, but of course the big one is Taylor Swift is times Person of the Year, which is attracting some extremely interesting conversation. So what are your thoughts on Taylor Swift becoming Person of the Year? Well, I think what happens is we tend to take our interpretations of what person the year means. And then we say, Oh, you've got it all wrong. So they don't even speak we don't spend any time to figure out what person the year for Time magazine is. And Time Magazine's Person of the Year is about the person on sometimes thing that has had the most influence on humanity during the year gone by. And so in that way Taylor Swift qualifies, because she has been such an important I wouldn't say important part, but such as such as significant part of the way the world turns. I mean, she's got first of all that huge fan base. And what Taylor Swift begins to think about and begins to worry about actually does influence a larger population as well. And I think in very real terms, an economic powerhouse because you know, her toes were released, tickets were released and the size of that particular economic activity, never mind being the concert itself, but just the economic activity around the release of her tickets. Says that Yep, she's she's someone definitely to qualifying in that list I'm sure there were many others who qualified on that list as well. I'm sure ei was considered as a person of the year as well. It looks like Taylor Swift looks like the most human version of what we can get in that particular category this year. But I think they're conscious of course, seismic activity as well. That's so huge. Really, for me is that I I just chanced upon her short history, it's just that I think she represents the female power and also ironically, the word underdog Yeah. So she was starting with country music, but then later on, to really was played out by then she has to change her image. And then when for the mall, like say sexy and also funky, but but then, you know, in West actually, actually discredit her even though she won an award. And later, the company actually bought over the rights of all her songs. And in order to just read much to read, repackage and re recorded and then now you have the live version, which is doing better than her original version. And she Trump's the kind of pressing power, and then image real champion. Yeah, that's what that's what. Yeah, no, it's the way sir. I really don't know much about except that I hear that lots of people were queuing up a long time, waiting for the men to walk across the screen right to get the chance to buy the tickets. So like Joe says, you know, her, her her power of influence is definitely there with the younger generation. And so if somehow we can harness that power and get her to D influence right people into doing some right things, and that will be something to reckon with. Yes. Yeah. So I wanna I want to take the conversation to a deeper level because you know, this girl, girl power comment. So I, I am not a thrifty as far as the music goes. It's just not in my, certainly my attention. My boys are heavy metal rock fans. So anytime I get to listen to music, usually with them in the car. That's what I'm listening to Megadeth or Metallica or something. Right? So she hasn't crossed my path musically. But I've been watching her, her ever since that Kanye West example that you were talking about happened. And I find her one of the most intelligent and creative people I think, you know, she's been compared to Michael Jackson from a talent perspective, right? I'm constantly, I'm constantly seeing men, usually men mocking her. And what they're actually doing is mocking her her fans as well. And it's like, she can't it doesn't matter what she does, she doesn't get any credit. So for me, this is about this is the time the world's finally giving her the credit. That's true. But there's been criticism of her after the concert. And in Brazil, where one of the fans died of heatstroke. She's always there for the fans. That's that's the connection for her. It's always her priority. And a lot of the climate activists have been saying to her, you got to get involved in this you've got to get involved in you know, you can, you've got so much power. But what everyone seems to be missing is, what she's doing is empowering generations of young women, not just girls, young women, because she's been been around for a long time, the female power that she is like, so the women in the audience and the girls in the audience are listening to her lessons and what she's learned and how she's moved on. And they're applying it to themselves. So I actually think she's creating more change in the world. And I've got, of course, women power and girl power can be a bit obnoxious. We know that. But as a general rule, I actually think she's creating probably the biggest social change in the world. Probably. Oprah, Oprah Winfrey is probably the only other person that's created that level of change. So I think she's incredible. If you actually listen to his speeches, listen to her on chat shows. She's incredibly intelligent. She's also very kind. She's always got a compliment. So you know, I'm happy like, Sure, it should have been a climate activist or the climate scientists have been dealing with a lot of crap. But I we can we can underestimate her. And that's what I really want to encourage everyone to look at her with new eyes. Well, I can be the only one here to say something bad about her. I mean, she's it in my mind, she is someone who has mastered an art and it's the art of manipulation and through service and through to a true fan service and what have you and I I don't say that anything that you said is untrue. But I'm also saying that it's, it's, it's kind of manufactured niceness manufactured behaviour, it is understanding the art of what a human being is, and really employing it at the highest level. Because if there are little cracks that come through and you and you realise that Not people have to be balanced people, right? I mean, so you win when you do that much and that often and that nice. I know, I know that sounds very cynical. It sounds like what you'll say about Bill Gates. But there is this thing as a performer, your job is to impact the person impact the audience in a certain emotional way. And she does that. So this whole thing about moving from country to pop and all that none of that is because she had to, it's because she intentionally took her career and the path that she moved it in that direction, and she's pulling the audience along with her as well. So there is, there's definitely a lot of good that can come out of it. I'm just not about to make her a saint. No, no, no, no one's a saint. Right. But I think given more credit than then what you're what you're reading out there, and I think Time Magazine, both the article on her as well as why they chose her. I think they're both very enlightening, I think sometimes definitely got biatch uses called The Art down, it's the Bollywood moment, right? You know, it's, it's like the world is crazy enough already that we need just that, you know, respite from this, and then just go in, and then just enjoy that moment. Because we know that when we wake up on Dream, the reality sucks. So there was a story just from the other day that I just heard about, you know, the day of 911. And there was a CEO of a company that said, basically, he hired a mariachi band to come to your event that happened to be on the night of 911. And he said, just play we need we need something. Yeah, that was a weird night. All right. Famous famous deaths. So Lisa Marie Presley died, Barry Humphries, the Australian comedian, Jerry Springer, I didn't actually know he died. So he I don't think has contributed a lot to humanity. Tina Turner, fabulous. Tony Bennett, Sinead O'Connor, which is very sad. Michael Parkinson, who's I've always been a fan. Matthew Perry, your friends, fame is probably the biggest debt that was reported this year. And of course, shame ago, one of the pokes and have Henry Kissinger finally kicked the bucket at 100. So what was the famous death that got your attention? So I read I hear Yep, go ahead. Sorry, Joe. But I know, a girl has done our homework always gets the work ahead of me. But I thought what was really lacking in that list is Asian faces or Asian names. And I looked it up. And I think one person that I think is worth mentioning is Simone who the he started creative. Right. And he's really our Pioneer tech. Titan. And, yeah, he he left in January this year. And I think the, the, the amount of the achievement that he's made, right, being the first in Singaporean country to be listed in in Silicon Valley, if I'm not wrong, too. Yeah. And he's done a lot in terms of raising Singapore's profile in the tech scene. And some of his inventions were like, you know, really phenomenal. So I think he's definitely missed. Yeah. And, and Charlie Munger at 99 Warren Buffett's right hand man, I think to me, you know, I mean, we're Warren Buffett's the one who's like getting all the limelight most of the limelight. But to me, you know, sometimes this is where, like, how you know, when you and I practice couple entrepreneurship, right, we have our strengths and recover each other's weaknesses. I think Charlie does that for Warren and I think he's definitely also worth a mention for being that that long term partner right and right hand men in bringing Berkshire Hathaway to where it is today. Yeah. Yep, that's my homework done. Yeah, cope. Anyone else? Well, I was just struck at how how quickly be able to jump on Henry Kissinger. And I realised there's good reason for it. But at the same time, I think there was a there is a body of work and there's lots of thinking, which makes it very difficult especially around this time, especially with the with the whole situation in Israel, for instance, it's just this idea of, you know, having to make judgments about evil. You know, what, what is a more evil thing when you when I think that the phrase that I've been I've been having to work with the last few weeks has been when you are merciful to the evil, evil gets to be evil. That's something else I forget nice is when you are, when you are merciful to the evil, evil gets to be evil, to the merciful, you know, that that's the that's the kind of challenge that comes up of it. And I know Henrik is a job wasn't involved in a lot of these kinds of things, especially with, you know, with, especially in the military actions and stuff like that. And we were just talking about things like what happened in, in in Vietnam, right, that idea that it was it was a political situation in America had to pull out of the whole thing. And, you know, in a sense, people said, Oh, yes, we win, because there's peace. Well, what was the price of that, really, in terms of what else happened? Because nothing was stopping whatever we thought was evil, or at least in the minds of whoever it's looking. You know, there were lots of people who, who suffered evil, because there was no one to stop it as well. Yeah. But I think that itself is really sums it up the whole century, I would say the whole 100 years that is about because now we come to a point where we know who is making the judgement, for the world is uncomfortable, right? Because you can see the instability that's happening from from Asia, to Russia, to the Middle East, even at home of the Old North America. You know, a certain big country is actually making all the decisions. So I would say, I think the world has come to a realisation and we equilibrating some of the power. And I hope that you'll be a fairer system coming going forward. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, who would you give stupid as Person of the Year Award to? Well, I know the temptation is to go with Elon Musk. But I think Boris Johnson has really put down enough runs to prove that he has a lead on Elon Musk 111 thing is because Elon is still doing things to get out of where he is. And he's moving forward. And that the story never ends. I think for Elon, in terms of developing and moving forward in business, Boris Johnson. So the more and more you hear about what happened, you know, especially during during COVID. So you heard some news about where he's had too much or whether he's had to yet but that headline I read was a he was going to have to apologise for COVID. And we found out things like Well, first of all, he didn't know how to this is the claim, right? He didn't know how to read graphs didn't understand graphs. And you you imagine hanging on Prime Minister graphs and not separate universes, but apparently to him it was so all the transgressions, if you want to put down put it down to one thing was just how uninformed and stupid it was. So that kind of power with stupidity. I think that's the that's the amplifying factor. So it's, it's stupidity to the power to the to the power of power. He scores, he scores higher than Elon Musk on my list. I've got I've got other group of people on my list, the board members of open AI, we actually made the hasty decision to our Sam Altman. And then you know, having to reinstate him right, four days later, because the employees were threatening mass resignation. Yeah. So that's, that's top on my list. Yeah. Yeah. Well, then I can't choose one. But sometimes I had to choose many, because I think people are getting stupid in how they choose leaders nowadays. So to me, it's just the vote is not cast in the right direction, to choose someone that can actually lead the world into a better place. But now you can see many leaders around the world making decision that is actually making the 90 seconds shorter. So I think many, yes, yeah, that's true. I did Rishi Sunak to the list as well as the most detached from reality Prime Minister I think I've ever seen, and I gave him a go anyway, so time to get a little bit more serious. So 2023 kicked off with the World Economic Forum's Global Risks report. And they basically said that we are now in the era of the poly crisis. So if you don't know the poly crime crisis, is the simultaneous occurrence of several catastrophic events all happening at the same time, so we can all say it. So just so you know, what it includes, and there's lots of things that you can put within the context of it, but inflation cost of living crisis, trade wars, capital outflows from emerging markets, widespread social unrest, which we're seeing everywhere, geopolitical confrontation and the spectre of nuclear war, but some of the newer things that have been added to the pulley crisis unsustainable levels of debt, a new era of low growth, low global investment, and D globalisation, a decline in human development after decades of progress, rapid and unconstrained development of dual use, which is civilian and military technologies, and the growing pressure of climate change impacts and ambitions and an ever shrinking window for a transition to a 1.5 degrees C world, which is everybody who's paying attention knows that window has been firmly shut. So this has been a tough year because of that, at the beginning of the year, the poly crisis as a term wasn't really being talked about too much. But by the end of the year, more and more people are talking about it. Were you all aware of the concept of the poly crisis? Well, not not the term itself. But you know, when we when you when we talk about it is is that as you were talking about it up, and up until a certain point, it just sounded like the 70s. Right. I mean, that's what I take from it. We go through crises, we go through situations where things are really tough, inflation is bad, and everything. And the world as we know, it, then is about to end. But then now we have a few more things to add on top of that. So in a sense, I think what happens is with modernity, and with more things happening at the same time, we also have more things to go wrong. Like someone was talking to me about trying to try to expand the way I do my business, for instance, right? Do this and do that, whatever it is, and hire more people. And I thought about it, it's been said, it's basically for me an opportunity for more things to go wrong. And I think the world is in that situation right now. So many things are linked to behaviour and stuff like that, that maybe we really have more and more ways to screw it up. And we seem to have our hands more on the wheel of all these things going down. But, you know, we we've also faced, this is the worst it's been. But I think the Bali crisis is not a new concept. As I said, you know, it's unlike the 70s, that when you were talking about halfway through, yeah, but it's the layer of the climate and biodiversity and everything else on top of it that really makes it a much more serious time, you know, the decade of disruption, you know, that it's been predicted. And, I mean, it's obviously beyond the decade, but you guys get any thoughts? I mean, we were lucky, I think we are we were born in that era that we're, you know, in Singapore, especially, we are taking care of our parents worked hard, but they provided for us. And it's just that now that we have been also quite in economically, no provider for for last few years. And then now we are facing this whole big change in the whole how the world is being operated. And, again, being cliche is like crisis is always opportunities as well. I can't I can't predict how much more my life is going to last. But I know that what I can do today. So that's why we're still very active in trying to just establish what we can do. Not knowing how long more. But if we can make the impact now we can it's just like, you know that how Loki is trying to do right now the timeline thing? Right? So if you do something now you might have impacted the timeline. And it has it will turn in another direction. So why worry about future where you can do more at the moment? Right, we should spend a moment to make sure everyone understands we're talking about the Marvel character of Thor in the story that's on Disney plus multiple timelines. I think that, you know, this is the reason why I stopped reading the papers I hear or I just find, you know, generally news can be quite depressing. And, you know, for me, my on my list of strengths, actually hope is number one, you know, very high up there. And I think we need we need that, right? Because, yeah, otherwise, it's it can be very, very depressing. And like when she says, you know, you know, focusing on what we can do, right, and that's what we want to do. And for us, it's, you know, really focusing on educating people, you know, in the health care area, that actually they can be their own best healers. Right. And, and, and educating the young people perhaps, you know, I mean, the reason why we even set up health verse, you know, it's actually not inspired by Metaverse, but you know, we can see the future. One way young people and more and more are going to be sucked into the metaverse and And then what? Right, so we were invited, inspired by Iceland versus, you know, where, yeah, we want to bring people back to awareness of nature of what is still beautiful and still available right now. Right and, and appreciating it, appreciating ourselves our own health at this moment, and being proactive, and all these things. Yeah, focusing on what we can do. Right. And, yeah, something, we went through this process and celebrate, we are B Corp certified. So that's awesome. Well, the other opportunity you guys have obviously got is all of these billionaire bunkers that are being built all over the world, one of the one of the professions that they're going to need to recruit is dentists. So you never know, you might have a chance to go and live in one of them. Okay, so Israel, Palestine, Hamas, you know, we've talked about it a lot on the no show, you know, since October, the sevens which feels like such a short time ago and such a long time ago when it first started. But this week, we're finally starting to see more reports coming out of the violence that was that was perpetrated on the women who are right and brutally mutilated in Israel, by Hamas. And that's a, that's a very important part of the situation, because it hasn't been getting the credit, including from the women's groups like UN Women. So that's created a lot of problems and issues. But on the other side, of course, you know that we had a truce, which I think we're all just holding our breaths, hope, hoping it would last and it didn't. Which is false, the head of the Red Sky Red Cross to speak out about the brutality and the suffering of the Palestinians. And she's doesn't do that very often. And of course, the other thing that happened this week is the UN Secretary, Secretary General Antonio Guterres used a rarely executed power, which is urging the members of the UN Security Council to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, as the conflict in Gaza continues. So this is called article 99. And it allows the Secretary General to inform the Security Council of matters they believe, threaten international peace and security. So nearly nearly 16,000 Palestinians have died so far. And it's it's probably more, because I got that number yesterday. So we need peace. It's time. Any thoughts, guys on what's going on over there? Question, why do we need article 99? Yeah, so the question, the point, is that right, you know, the whole UN sits and all the conversation that went past. Why did they can force a ceasefire, right, you can see that some willpower, continue to, like say, even though on one side saying, Please stop, you're killing more than you should. And then at the other end, they're shipping weapons. They're still supplying Israel for more war. So why is that happening? And why is the rest of the world not able to stand against them? Right and stop this? When a small country can do? It will be stopped long time ago, when certain countries don't want? Right. So that's my question. I can comprehend that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, then yeah, who is obviously being held up in power by the extreme far, right. And they're absolutely pushing for total annihilation of of Palestine area where the guards were Hamas is, so that's not helping. But we can see the ramifications that it's having on political politicians around the world. I mean, there's a huge movement in the US that are saying they won't vote for Biden because of what's going on, you know, and because of the support, so the ramifications are just huge. So getting this under the control as quickly as possible. It's so important, because you can't I've been listening to a military specialist saying there's no no one can win this war. It's an impossible war. So what's what's the solution? It's not to continue killing women and children and elderly people. Right. So it's, it's a tough one. It's very tough. Well, most people don't look at what's happening in the in this war as actually being a chess move, you know, by by Hamas. It to the extent that it is, I mean, you know, if you think about what was happening before the seventh of October, it wasn't like nothing was happening that was every every everything that up to that point that would make it likely that that Hamas would take some sort of action, some sort of military action into Israel, that was always the case it would be below people always you know, like, because of the the feeling of oppression and the you know, the the occupation basically of the of the people right. So the context of the the big the big answer that the question is why Why does it happen this way is because of what actually happened on October 7. So if you look at the stuff that happened, it's the unspeakable stuff that happened, that really is what pushed, what would normally be just another equal response, like in terms of what the normal life is in Israel, for instance, is, if there's a rocket attack, there'll be a rocket of rockets going back and destroying some kind of military thing. And that's it. That's the that's the equal and opposite kind of response. But when you when you have this sort of really unspeakable thing done to you, intentionally, this is the that that changes the nature of what's being done, it's not like that there is a difference in terms of trying to eradicate militants, you know, that the the, the the military on the other side, and another side using civilians, as a reason why you should not attack me, you know, after we've done that thing for you. So it's not like the column and name and run back across the border, and then the rockets come back. And that's what's happened. It's, you've done these horrible things that, that that, you know, when this is what we use, the word unspeakable is used to describe this kind of situation, you it's really I can't even bring myself to say the things that have happened. And if you have that happened to you as a as an intentional act of proof of provocation. Now, Israel has been provoked in a big as this chess move goes beyond that is around the world, it's because it can't be one anywhere else. That there, that's why it's unwinnable. And that's why Hamas will prevail, in a sense, because Israel cannot go through it, what it needs to do is go through with which is basically to try and eradicate Hamas, because there's so embedded in the and the rest of the population as well. So it's, it's really an impossible thing. And the echoes of Vietnam have to be recognised in this as well, that it is a strategic move, to make it impossible for Western civilization to really stay with Israel as friends. It is it is predictable. I mean, if you asked me, if I did that, what would I expect from Israel, we would expect this, we just know that this is the kind of response is going to happen. And so when when I, the way I look at it is this. If we someone, we see someone walk into a bear compound into a zoo, and poke the bear, we kind of know what is going to happen in response to that. And that's what's happening. And it's tactical, though, because what's happening now is, people are also filming that make sure to say, Okay, I'm gonna poke the bear. And then people are using this footage and the story and whatever it is to say, the bears dangerous. And that's, that's the kind of game that is going on, which is a very unfortunate thing, because the people that are being used in this particular game, are real life, human beings, the civilians, that children affect is, for instance, like in Palestine, or the Gaza Strip anyway, the population, right makeup is more than 50% children. So there's no way any kind of response happening in that kind of place where you have taken the war into a civilian territory, even if they've warned you to say to get get out of there, but you don't let them happen. Let them take take that action. That is the statistical reality of it. So, you know, yes, Israel's responding. And it's arguably too much of a response. But that is also part of the problem, because we are not allowing, you know, we can't. Western civilization can't handle taking care of business the way you kind of have to, right as unlike there, when when, when the when the bombs fell in Japan. In America, there was celebration, about the end of the war. And until people realise that whole that's what happened when the bomb went off in Japan. That changed the way people thought about things. And that's why that action had to happen as fast and as quick in the US as it did, because had it prolonged further had the war gone on a bit more. The bombs and the and the and the kind of Fallout literally that happened because of that that would have lost America as America would have would have not been able to continue the war as well because people were said, No, this is too much. We can't do that we can't continue. So you know, it's never as easy as people just say Okay, we shouldn't be doing this. We should, you know, it's like, what what do you do with this? What is the future of a country if someone has declared that they want to completely kill you? Yeah, right. You didn't say, let's have a beer. I mean, you know, obviously not the thing that's going to happen there. But it's not likely. So one of the one of the one of the comments that I've been hearing has been this, you know, when someone says, They are out to kill you, maybe you have to take their word for it. Yeah. I mean, well, no matter what happens, like Hamas has won, right? They believe. It was horrific what they did, but that strategy means that they've won. And you know, the way the whole world's responding to it, and you're right, it's just not. It's not simple. It's not black and white. Alright, so the other war, of course, it's going on in the world is Russia and Ukraine. And we're not hearing as much of that in the media at the moment. So the US just I think yesterday said that the Republicans voted no to more financial and sort of military aid, you know, so, you know, that's, that's a problem. Because, you know, I don't think Russia is going to start from what I'm saying. But there's also a great freeze that has started across Europe and in Ukraine and Russia, the soldiers are facing terrible conditions. But it one of the things that's been sort of mentioned in the last sort of couple of weeks is Russian leadership, talking about creating a new world order. So that's our focus. And so when I hear when I hear that, my question is, what are they willing to do to achieve that? And I think that's what the unknown has always been. There's some really interesting stuff I'm going to include in the weekend reads about there's one article in particular on China is paying attention to what's going on in the wars, especially from a nuclear perspective, because they don't have the same level of nuclear power. But and I think what China does is definitely going to be a big part of what happens, it seems to me that China is pushing for peace in the world. But they're certainly paying attention to the military. sides on every on every angle. They're watching what everyone's got, how they're using the technology, obviously, nuclear is a big issue in the mix. And so yeah, so that's kind of interesting. But yeah, I'm feeling failing for the soldiers who are freezing, fighting this stupid war that needs to stop as well. Anyway. Thoughts. I think, if I may chime in here, actually, it's a little bit of a shift from all the political talk, but it's a it's about highlighting a hero story. I am a Rotarian. And a fellow Rotarian, Praveen. Actually back in 2022, right, when he first heard about the Ukraine war, he literally he's a nurse, and he literally packed his bag, and, and went over, flew over to Poland, contacted fellow Rotarians there, and he was, you know, helping Ukrainian refugees. And I think this is to me, you know, in any war that on either side, right, there's always the people who are who have lost their homes, who are this displaced, who are suffering on both sides, whether it's Ukraine or Russia, whether it's Israel, Palestinian, so that's, that's where I want to put my focus on, right and look at, look at what we can do to help people and so I think when, when there are heroes like that, who really go out of their way to do that little bit, to just ease the suffering, I mean, I just personally think they are amazing and inspiring. Yeah, absolutely. Let's tell their stories. Yeah. Instability also is trying to establish some stability, just like you know, HLP where, you know, some the energies just pass around this, this chaotic part, and then you have a bit more stability, you can see that some of the countries around the region will then band up together to say, maybe, yeah, we do want a different way, and way of government. So I think, again, I say we have no clarity to whether that's a better options or not. But I think hopefully, you know, the good leaders can really pan up and really stabilise this for us. Then, Elon Musk may not be that stupid after all, and he got his you know, spaceship already beautiful house ready and the robots are ready and then neuro link is ready. So we can just move to mass if we ever move the mouse. Yeah, I think we've got to start taking care of this planet. Otherwise we just end up in another one and destroy it. Alright, Joe, the global economy. Well, it's been a really interesting In the past year, and actually the economy keeps moving back and forth, because if you look at the if you look at, I mean, a lot of people will look at the stock market and think, Well, that's a good indicator how things are going. Now, a stock market really just tells you what price everything that's going at today, it's, it's not a reliable way to see how the economy is going. Because it usually follows what's happening in the world. So right now it is, I'm gonna just take a moment and say, like, all this stuff about the markets, and how well they're doing, despite everything does not give you a really good reason to be choppy about the future, because the world's growth is actually slowing down. This is this is actually what is the challenge that we're facing right now. The global economy is slowing down. And in terms of when we expect things to really kind of come back, it's probably going to be a year after sort of like 25 or 26. Next year is really going to be challenging, but this year has seen some slowdowns as well. And the reasons for for the slowdowns are going to be things like inflation, high high rates, interest rates, as well. And of course war. So we had one situation like halfway through this year, it looked really dire as well as we talk about the challenges coming up. Because people are not still very, very aware of the kind of food shortages that are probably going to come out of the Ukraine situation, because if we're not done with that, right, there's still there's still lots of food instability that's going to come up at that particular conflict. But you combine that now with higher inflation, and also governments that really have a challenge on their hands, because the answer to what they need to do from an economists point of view is austerity. And we're not made for that the world isn't made for austerity anymore. It's not the the idea that we're going to band together and give up a lot of things just so that we can get out of it together. We don't seem to have the stomach for that, at least as far as politics is concerned. Every time someone has tried, someone has tried to do that thing with austerity, the responsible fiscal thing. They've been punished in the ballot boxes. So it's a tough one. So you find that conflict, there's a what, what we're facing and what we need to do. And the balance is very, very hard to come up with. Of course, the geo economic fragmentation as well poses challenges to the economy. This is from on Tara news. If you look at this, where various faction This includes, of course, as we talked about Ukraine earlier, but the way the world is also diverging in terms of how it's doing business, I mean, China has changed quite significantly, what its its own home economy has been about recently, a lot of that had to do with the with the property situation that they had. And that really drastically changed the way wealth worked in China. And the relooking, at least, it seems to be a readjustment of how, how much consumption happens as well. So from an economists point of view, you know, like, economies need to thrive with consumption. And consumption has actually taken a bit more of a backseat in China as they move towards investment in infrastructure. So that's going to slow the economy as well, not to say the China's not going to grow, it's just gonna grow as fast as it did, it's still better off than many of the other economies of the world. But a lot of Chinese are still poor. That's the reality there. The Moody's, that famous ratings company, basically has given the US negative outlook, this is not to be confused with the credit rating that Moody's usually puts out as well. So while the the US outlook has been defined as as negative, they have maintained their triple A's status in terms of their credit rating. But you know, the claim that that there is there is no some controversy about the treasurer is in terms of what is a safe and liquid asset? Yes, you can still convert them easily into US dollars. But the US dollar itself is the one that we're we're concerned about isn't like is the US dollar still going to be the same thing? It will be, as it was, and it's been changing all throughout the year. There has been some strength as the as the as the economy is going left and right. But when you think about what's happening in the I think it's the BRICS nations ramming, they're forming a new way of doing business so that you might end up buying oil not no longer in US dollars. And that's going to significantly change the way the US dollar becomes a required currency. So a lot a lot of the world's a lot of the buoyancy of the US dollar actually comes from the fact that you need the US dollar to translate act a lot of a lot of the deals in the world. But if there is a shift away from the US Dollar as the as the main currency, that is also going to make a difference. For now, things look pretty good for now I would say the treasuries Yes, you still have that safe and liquid asset. But it's like, you know, you wonder whether or not you're where you get your cash in your US dollars, it worth as much as you were hoping they'd be worth in a global scale. What else we got? I think I think that's kind of what we've got right now. I think that the big the big, the big call for the world right now you're hearing a lot of it is actually about how we need to think a little bit more about how to move away from capitalism, capitalism does create a lot of great things. And it has brought us to where we are. But arguably, it's also going to take us over the edge and over the cliff. So I think there's a need for some kind of revision in terms of how we do it. But that kind of a change is not going to come really easy, because it's, you know, as as unhappy, as happens with, you know, wild wildebeest, as they're running towards a cliff as they are stampeding towards the cliff. Even if the ones in front stop, it doesn't stop the rest behind from continuing to go forward as well. So we have that kind of situation in the world right now. Our, our lifestyles, our economies, the way we plan for the future, a lot of it's still based on on that kind of economy of the idea of, of way, the way things run. So we you know, we have to wean ourselves off of it in a very sudden way. And they isn't the it's one of those things where the way out seems to be we have to do more of it, it's like the way for the for the for the for the for the climate situation to be improved, we have to find solutions, build some other solutions that are going to work and the very process of building itself is actually causing more damage to but it helps us get a bit closer to the final thing. So we need to do some culling very comfortably in terms of our way of doing things before we get to the other side. And as we're doing it, we're still going to cause more harm. So that's the that's the chirpy outlook for the future. It's really interesting listening to you talk, Joe, because I reckon about a couple of years ago, you wouldn't have been anywhere near thinking that way. Right. But I think you're finally seeing the light. And there's no easy, you know, I always say we decided on nature to do science, regardless of the decision will be made, you know, so we're up against physics, and we're using too much energy. And that's a problem. And I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna defend, I'm going to defend my younger self, I'm saying that I still believe in the free market. The thing is what has become currency or what is currency now is changing, right? So I still very much believe in the free market is just how we now design that. So capitalism isn't necessarily the free market, it's just capitalism is based on one idea of measurement of a free market. I think if I may chime in here, I think this is why for me, as business leaders, as business owners, I think we can do our part. In in and, you know, in, in, in shifting right, in educating investors, for instance, right, and in staying our ground, right to say that, hey, you know, actually, it's not always about, you know, just chasing profit alone. That, you know, when we build businesses, you know, we should be building businesses which with with with a conscience, right with that is that is really serving the people and, and, and what, and giving them what they really need. And, and that when the purpose is there, and I think the other thing about businesses is that we create employment, right for a lot of people. And you know, that, yeah, that that whole consciousness of of having a very clear purpose of taking care of the people in our businesses, and in serving then our clients and, and of course, you know, Andrea, you know what you're very much about right caring for the planet. Like if we do all these three, well, the profit will follow, not the not the extreme, crazy kind of profit that capitalism provides us but it will be a fairer way and, you know, everybody will be more comfortable. I think business owners business leaders have are in that driver's seat, in making that change. and, and and I think this is, yeah, this is where where we are at now. Andre, you know, when we're adding on to our growth, our investors now, you're, you're quite sure they're not that Maverick anymore. They are the lack of fun from the equity side funding from banks and lending is so expensive now. Right. So businesses really have to really dig deep now to really sustain themselves. Right. So I think that whole the proper way of conducting yourself because customers are also very clever, you are not doing them a favour, they won't come. So you have to do it properly, and then sustain, and then you grow really organically, right. And that's how things who's going forward. No longer that crazy. Like, you know, just what happened to we worked for example, the money came in a few billion dollar can just vaporise just like that. Yeah. And I see a trend of going back towards what nature intended, right? Or how business was originally. Even started in the past, right bartering of services, maybe or a lot more collaboration. Yeah, I think this is possible. And we just have to be more conscious. And, and, and hark back to what nature already shows us as an example of how, you know, in nature, right? The whole diversity, the whole ecosystem, right? How, how that works, you know, and how actually someone or one one insect or one animal that we see as a pest may not actually be a bad thing, right, when they're coming in to control the population of something else. Right, that started out as good, but could be harmful. So So I think we have a lot of lessons that we can take from nature. And we should constantly look at that as a model for how we should be shaping ourselves in the future. Yeah, so one of nature's abilities is it has no waste. And we all know how much waste we have. So for me, one of the biggest steps that businesses need to take is really look at themselves and say, Do we have a right to exist in this world at all? And you think about that, like you think if we if we got all businesses, all industries in the world to really sit there and go, do I have a right to exist? Am I good for the planet? Am I good for humanity? And we can, and if we could strip all that out, and I know that you know, the jobs conversation, we've got to keep people employed. And that's where things like universal basic income, I'd love to see. I'd love to see every country on this planet, give give people universal basic income, and then their job is to go out and rebuild their country, clean up their environments, you know, pay people to get the earth back in order so but we need to be thinking in a radically new way. Alright, so global politics. Obviously, it's been a bumpy year. It was good to see Lula sworn in in Brazil Jacinda Ardern, resigned at the beginning of the year, and they have now gone more conservative as a country. McCarthy, the US House became the US House speaker and then he wasn't the US House speaker and now he's about to resign at the end of this year. And Mike Johnson is now in the role if you haven't come across him. He's quite an interesting guy. We saw zhi, zhi ping, when he has gone into his third year third term, which which is not normal for China. Fox News settled its Dominion voting systems. We had the BRICS, we had Prigozhin, assassinated or whatever happened to him in that plane crash. But more recently, we had Australia voting against giving our First Nations people a voice to Parliament, which was incredibly disappointing for me. Javed Zevia Millay, in Argentina, the crazy man has been, has been elected. Let's see what he does. But also the Dutch government has gone extremely far right with a guy called good view builders, unexpectedly winning the most seats. And of course, just this last week, George Santos was finally kicked out after a vote in the House of Representatives. So yeah, I mean, a lot of stuff. And I mean, we're not even talking about Donald Trump and all of his legal woes. We talked about Boris Johnson and what he's going through with the current COVID inquiry, but there's so much going on in the world of global politics. It's yeah, it's quite stunning. what's your what's your standout moment politically this year? I think he has been quite quiet, right? Well, just in terms of relative relative it's always like when you have someone a really noisy neighbour then they're the worst neighbour right. You don't you you kind of get off the list. So I think I think we haven't noticed what's been happening as well. So yeah, it's just it's just I think America has taken all the attention away from the rest of the I mean, up He occasionally we shift a bit to Argentina, whatever it is, and then the US comes up with a new trick, you know, I mean, so the one of the great risks I forgot to mention this in our in the earlier thing about what Moody's outlook about the US was about is that is that political risk in the US is so bad because it's so so polarised, so difficult for government to run in any way to to to govern that it is unlikely that the, the government can do the job of governing to drive itself or pull itself in the right direction. So the US economy because of all the individual business owners and everything else, moving forward, despite all that, is going to do pretty alright. But the big decisions that have to be done at a government level may not come because of that whole thing. But you know, I don't I don't want your My nan in my camera, not gonna give you any credit for that. All right, so you want to move on to business he goes. Anything about politics, you want to mention, I think one name that really strike from the strike up from the list that you hired, you highlighted is just into Ardern. I am a total fan of hers, and the way that she conducted herself, you know, especially with the children, navigating them through the COVID period. So I must say I was sad when I heard that she resigned. But you know, really also want to just highlight, I think she's just been so she's she's the kind of leader that I hope the world has more of right. You know, someone who's really coming across as, you know, very kind, very compassionate, and yet, very strong. And yeah, yeah. So just want to give her a special mention. Yeah, she's got a special place in my heart. Yeah. And those female politicians like that also need to stop being attacked, and trolled and death threats and all the stuff that comes with it. Because in the end of the day, that's why she, she just couldn't do it anymore. For the family. Right. And yeah. Well, I mean, I noticed that we talked about politics, but we didn't talk about the presidential elections here in Singapore wasn't a big thing. I kid Okay. Business. Big Year. For me, lots of things happen. We had on January 24, the Adani enterprises, which is owned by Gautam Madani, the world's third richest man, basically that business lost $180 billion in value after the investment firm Hindenburg research publishes a report alleging stock manipulation and accounting fraud. You remember the train that the big accident in the US as well with toxic chemicals, including vinyl chloride derailed in Ohio, that started a fire and then after that, they had to have an intentional burn off of the chemicals to stop a possible explosion as well. In in March, we had UBS basically with mould in Switzerland's too big to fail situation. That largest bank agreed to by its rival Credit Suisse, for about$3.2 billion to help ease global financial panic. It was a deal brokered by the Swiss government. Of course, this year, we had all the talk about AI and not so much that AI is new, but because it came to the fore. So chat, GBT really is the other thing that you usually know about in terms of AI AI has been around for a long time your phone has been doing AI forever, just maybe not as well as you thought it might have. But yeah, the AI revolution we had on the May that on May the first Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, he resigned from Google to speak out about the dangers of AI, the economic as well as social things, eliminating jobs, creating a world where many may not be able to know what is true anymore. And that has a lot to do with how AI is able to create images. And things have been moving so fast that from that time, may 1 Until now, problem that he resigned over has become worse, I guess maybe he saw what was coming. And that was the situation. So speaking of things that happen on screen, the Writers Guild of America was to begin striking over pay and industry changes, bringing television and production to a halt. A big part of the complaints and concerns were actually in the area of AI as well. So they saw what was likely to happen as as AI moves forward. So if you think chat, GBT 4.0 is pretty smart right now and the commentary is always about how you can't use AI to write good jokes. Trying asking them to write a good joke, it gets better. So it is it is moving closer and closer to that and that what the Writers Guild of America as well as the actors. I think the the sag as well, the Screen Actors Guild ended up striking about is about the future of creativity in a world of AI as well and a fairer sharing of the pie because in terms of all the streaming services, I think they weren't getting a fair cut so you can have a hit show that was on streaming and you'd still not be able to make a good living. Me 12 Elon Musk announced that NBC Universal executive Linda Yeah, Karina will would replace him as CEO of Twitter. A lot of good that did. Seems that despite that, he's just had his his fun with that. I mentioned the actress that sag AFTRA leadership going on strike, along with my colleagues in the Writers Guild. On July 14, Rupert Murdoch finally moved on in terms of AI, if you've watched the Stevies this the series six succession that's supposed to be this sort of like parallel story told about Rupert Murdoch and his family at 92. At the tender age of 92, he announced that he is retiring from the board of Fox and News Corp, leaving his son Lachlan in charge. And by reputation is apparently not much of a an improvement. November 2, former cryptocurrency star Sam bank then freed was convicted of seven counts of fraud, of course, for the earlier shenanigans that happened at his company FTX and Alameda research in New York court, basically, upon investigation and finding out more about this. This was a a terribly, terribly run company that had huge, huge ambitions. It's basically what happens when college kids decide they can do all the adult stuff without learning all the adult stuff. And of course, we hit that they had a lot of very interested, you know, investors and you know, this despite everything that's happened since then people always talk about this as the as the as the collapse of it all. If you've looked at crypto recently, you realise that no, it's still it's still marching forward. I have some thoughts about that. But that's not what we're talking about here. November 17, highprofile, AI boss M oldman was sacked from the company, he co founded open AI. Apparently over a lie he told to the board, I never found out what the lie was about. Although some people suspect it has something to do with a breakthrough that was coming that was seen to be something that was going to be quite devastating when dangerous to humankind. That was that was that was the vibe about that. However, I think the board Miss misjudged how much of the loyalty of the company was linked back to him. And as you as you heard earlier, four days later, he was back in charge as well. The fossil fuel industry is a sunset industry aren't just kidding. Now it's doing rather well, we still have a huge appetite for it. And global warming also calls it something that we are going to need a way to heat ourselves up with. So there's going to be a need for a lot of fuel during the colder parts, especially in further up and down from the equator. So there's going to be a lot more consumption happening in terms of fuel just to stay warm. And as I said, you know, the business is in no danger of doing worse currently. And so if you're, if you've heard about the current meeting of the cops, I think the cotton economy thing that's going on right now, despite everything that's being said, the backdrop is that, despite everyone's saying that we need to get off it, we are still very, very much on it. The environment. Well, and I think this is this is your area. And yeah, but you know, going back to your business, it was certainly the year of AI. Any other business developments that you guys saw notice? I think just on the part of AI, I think this is newly launched Google's version called Gemini. I think that's one to be reckoned with, because chat GPD is only text, right? Because apparently Gemini has been fed with videos and images. So I think that's something that I am personally. Yeah, looking looking out for. For me, it's like check GPT has been a godsend. It's almost like my friend, right. I can call on for everything and anything right? Drop me a contract or give me some marketing ideas, you know, so really, yeah, I totally embrace this as a tool and Looking forward to what Gemini has to offer? Yeah. Well, just as we move into the environment sector, I think it's either 40 questions or 40 lines, in response from an AI machine is the equivalent of drinking a bottle of water. So there's actually a huge, it demands a huge amount of energy. So all this efficiency actually, also has an environmental impact. And that's a conversation that's going on, it might not be in the mainstream, but use it wisely. I'm not loving it. I know I need to sort of get stuck into it, because I'd be stupid if I wasn't. But yeah, from an environmental perspective, so this is going to be the hottest year on record. And it's the hottest year in 250,000 years, you might also read 125,000 years, but but most of most of the experts are saying 250,000 years. And in Asia, we experienced wet bulb temperatures for the first time back in the hot season, which is February to April, and that certainly spun me out. I always knew it was coming. But many, many did not. So I think it really feels like this is the year that the world woke up. But the problem was when you wake up to climate, the climate emergency and what's really going on, especially if you start digging into it, is it sends a lot of people into a panic. And I'm seeing the panicked voices out there. And there's a lot of them and you've got to get through the panic to the other side to acceptance before you can actually sort of be rational about it. So but just you know, from extreme events, we saw, obviously, the massive fires in Canada, which are just catastrophic, where Canada is actually being talked about as a failed state because of the fires. We obviously swim across Europe and then the devastating fire in Maui. Doubt droughts are having massive, massive, massive impacts on crops. If you guys notice the increase in olive oil prices. I stocked up on olive oil a couple of years ago, if you guys have noticed, you know, it's a good thing to stop. But food insecurity, it's certainly in increasing so wherever you are planted garden, we need to have some food independence. Because this is going to get worse and the hotter every every point one of the degree warming impacts crops. And we've also got to impact those help those who have been impacted by famine, cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, and I think the most shocking one for me this year was the one that he had. I could poco it emerged from a category one to category five within hours. And that's like they weren't they couldn't do anything about it. We had a glacial lake outburst which happened last year in Pakistan this year, it happened in India and there was another one in Alaska and of course, the floods that come with it. devastating flooding all over the world with truly shocking stories and terrible, terrible landslides. We had heat extremes in all over the world. In the ocean and on land, Brazil recently experienced 59.7 degrees Celsius wet bulb temperatures, and that was all around the Taylor Swift concert. These are completely unlivable territories. And this week, Australia is going through an extreme Heatwave, where there's a small town in South Australia, who it's all in the mid 40s. It's the hottest place on Earth right now. The glaciers are melting. And that's just climate change. And cop 26 is about climate change, right? So I don't know if everyone's really putting the whole story together about how complex this situation is, and why we're in a planetary crisis. So you've got climate change. So that's the warming of it. But you've also got biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and extinctions, you've got the waste crisis, forever chemicals and the impact that they're having on all life on Earth. And forever, chemicals are everywhere now. Aerosols whether there's too many or too few have an impact on what's going on the critical ozone layer, which last time we talked about, is now been announced that it never disappeared, and it's expanding again. And of course, the health of our oceans, rivers and aquifers. So we haven't, we've done a number on our planet, no question about it. And then, you know, we're in the middle of cop 28, which Joe mentioned. And, you know, this is the this is the moment when they're going through the process of the glam, glam, and the show is over. And now that it's negotiations and the big, the big one is we've got to make a commitment to phase out fossil fuels. And we're, you know, we've heard that that's not necessarily going to happen, but let's hope it does. So, either way, whatever happens at COP, we've really got to come together as a global society and get the job done and regenerate our land. You know, we need medical and scientific professionals working out how can we, how can we live in a world? You know, we I think we were talking about it a couple of weeks ago, the Forever chemicals that are in our environment. They believe that by 2060 men, human human males will be sterile will be sterile by 2060. But it's not it's not just humans that are being impacted by forever chemicals. It's all life on Earth and reproductive cycles of all life on Earth. So we're in trouble and it's been a big big year for the environment. I feel like everyone's finally waking up. Are we too late? I think we've, I think we've just got to say like I I know that The answer to that. But I think we've just got to say, no one believes that we're capable of changing at the scale that we need to change. And that's why no one believes that we're capable of doing what we need to do. So this is the time for us to really step in wherever we are all over the planet, and sorted out. It's only chance. I've been encouraged by by the bits of music come out on top that I that I've seen inadvertently, because I don't consume much mainstream media, but we had a staycation recently, and the TV's always on. So what was what was sort of interesting for me is I think this is the first time I've heard almost every thing coming out of COVID coming out of, of being about fossil fuels. So it's it's much more unity on that particular front and this time around, you know, usually it's a kind of a polite non mentioning of that, rather troublesome subject. But this time around is I think they're, they're, they're a bit more head on about fossil fuels. Yeah. Let's see if they put the words in the final thing. final document. That's always the struggle. But I just realised we've gone over time, are you guys doing for time? Do you need to jump off soon? No. You should. Okay, how about we finish up with COVID, which most people would have thought was over this year. But this is pretty interesting stuff going on. And then we can wrap it up? Well, the big news in the early part of the year was basically China and the big, the big outbreak that they had, because China had been trying to maintain a zero, it's 00 tolerance, right, basically, that if there was an outbreak, everything would be in lockdown. And what happened for them is they had a big social change in terms of seeing what was happening across the fence. So it knows that they weren't, there was a sudden outburst of the knowledge that the rest of the world was doing things very differently. And so there was a sudden change in the policy, and so much of China, which, you know, wasn't as as vaccinated as the rest of the world, was suddenly in a situation where it was from zero tolerance to no real measures in place to try and stop it. And there was a huge outbreak. So 60,000, COVID, 19 related deaths in just over a month, with some estimates that some 900 million people have been infected, that's some 64% of the country's population. That was in January. And I think what was interesting about this entity is how the rest of the world really didn't pay much attention to that, you know, and then didn't really say, Wait, hang on, that's what happens if you didn't, if you really didn't do the rest of the stuff we're doing. That's the kind of outbreak that happens over there. And for me, that was that was the same chickens there. May 4, who declared that the COVID-19 de COVID-19 was over as a global health emergency but remains a significant threat. Along the years, well, we found out much more about the the emergence of information about long COVID And the effects that it's it's having so you know, the nature of it is it is a disease that that is a prolonged disease. So you're not going to get information about that immediately after the fact people realise people don't realise that COVID is actually still rather young as a disease. So its long term impacts are still to come. You may have heard, this is technically not COVID. But there's a pneumonia that has been affecting mostly children causing white lung. Doctors are very concerned about this as well. And I think what we are looking out for as well, for me what my personal concern about it is what we did during COVID is actually going to affect our ability in the future to try to address some other kind of outbreak if there isn't if there's an outbreak or pandemic. Because of Well, I think part of it is just fatigue, fatigue from, you know, having to do the right thing. It's the equivalent of austerity, really, you had to kind of had an austere life and not not having full lifestyle. So I think we're we're being fed a lot of ideas where people talk about, you know, it didn't make that much of a difference what we were doing to try to to address COVID And I and I and I really think people are very bad and looking back at the whole thing and asking themselves, what would you do if you were faced with a different kind of situation? I mean, most people are not going to be able to say like, what if you could just say I'm going to let this thing happen. And you would I mean, like in my in my particular neighbourhood, for instance, where we have a large population of older people. The idea that you would not try to continue In COVID, and just let it run through and just, I can't imagine losing 10% of the people in my neighbourhood, because that's just the way this disease works. So I think those questions, sometimes they're going to be, we haven't considered them. So we don't we, we're not going to be ready for the next thing. So I'm hoping it'll be a long time before the next pandemic, because if it happens shortly, we are going to be completely screwed. We're not going to be we're not going to be able to do the things we need to do. Too much damage has been done by the governments of the world in terms of credibility. I can't imagine the UK being able to put a lid on any kind of outbreak now. Because, you know, look what happened the last time, right. Yeah, I, you know, it's so frustrating, because, you know, right from the get go, when we first started doing the show, COVID has been with us, I was reading the other day, that the fact that we didn't contain it and do what we needed to do and do the right things, means humanity, humanity is going to be dealing with this for 100 years, you know, and the arrogance of humanity in dealing with the virus, you know, like, how stupid were we, but we're gonna doctor here, maybe he's got some thoughts when he always no pressure, no pressure. The real thing is that we are, as a human being, we have more external viruses or bacteria on us than our own human cells. So I think we have to come to their reality. Alright, so we're always living in a balance, like the external war war, we have also internal universities in us. So understanding the viruses also is understanding our immune system. How did we come so far, you know, to be here talking to each other is that we're dependent on some immune system capability of our own selves. Like, for example, at the very beginning of COVID, there was a dormitory, like, say, wildfire that went through, right, and a lot of difficulty in getting COVID. So the simple method we, we came up with, with a pulmonologist from Harvard, system engineering professor from new US and breathing expert from Australia, and myself, and Louisa and the team, right is to just use your nose to breathe properly, right? You have nitric oxide coming up from your sinus lining that can kill viruses, and is being thankfully now being researched very extensively to see how we can kill SAS too. So the fact is that we have immune system capability to just clear, but we need to use it properly. So if we more, you know, engage in the whole practice of breathing, right, your immune system increased because of parasympathetic system, not just, you know, just using medication or anything else that boosts but just calming the body down immune system improves as well. So, so much already cultural, you know, inheritance in the census 1000s of years, we talking about it, now that we also have the research backing, to actually understand that knows, breeding is very, very important. Right? Why don't we use that to so that we can say, slow down that whole attack by our good, small, small friends around us. So funny. Did you instantly start breathing through your nose? Joe? I'm holding my breath all this time. Yeah, yeah. But the, the immunity is obviously a big issue. Like, you know, I've got one of my sons came back from school this week with a bit of a tickle. Now I've got it. And it seems to be sort of, like, someone's always sick around us, or, you know, we've got an event and someone's had to cancel. And it's a, it seems to be fairly ongoing. Right, you know, this immunity deficit that we've all experienced, so anything else? So it's been a, it's been a hard year. You know, there's no question about it. And, and I think, you know, I always have these feeling of euphoria on New Year's Eve, as we go into a new year and new opportunities, you know, all that sort of stuff. I haven't had that feeling for a while now. You know, I personally think it's, I know a lot of people are avoiding the negatives, but we've got to get ready for the future that's coming. So that's, you know, making sure you're making sure your family safe. Prepare, you know, like when we were talking about the economic situation, go and understand it from your own perspective. So at least you can make sure that where your money is safe, you know, you don't have to panic about it. You just need to understand it, you know, because so many people get blindsided by this but the wealthy people will be alright but it's the reach people, you know where your pensions are at their risk? You know, if you're investing in fossil fuel, what's that risk? And how far away is it? So I think it's just really important. Look at it practically from your own perspective, that's, that's what I'd say. But we need to adapt to the weather that's coming. Governments apart from Singapore, governments around the world are not getting prepared for it. So make sure that you're getting your family and your community prepared, because the heat is coming, the water's coming, the fires coming, wherever you are, there's something coming. So I think just focusing on adaptation is a really important thing. Any other conclusions from this year? I was at a talk yesterday, and this thing about how you know, when you're faced with all these different situations, and then you realise, you know, you've touched something, you're like, Oh, hang on, wait, I'm alive. That that is also something to be kind of enthusiastic about, as in like, yes, everything is kind of terrible. And yes, I'm still here, and maybe I should do something with it. So the the speaker that was speaking, his name escapes me right now Ma Ma, here could Euro? I think it was he just mentioned that, you know, basically, we still have that 18,400 number that looms over all our heads. And that's the number of seconds we have each day. And it's a decision to do something with that. Right? You can either do something useful. You don't make look, I will Schwarzenegger his new book, right? It's something about that really is just about that just be useful, right? Do something useful, move the needle in the right direction. It's, you know, it's the most trite of examples, really, you know, as a speaker, any speaker who goes on stage and tells a story about the starfish, they should be shot. But it's still it's still the truth as an I don't know really what you can do, right? The goldfish to? Oh, that's the attention span of a goldfish. disproven many, many, many times, so don't use it. It's called future a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for. I think, for me is Louisa as well. Well, the optimist. So again, I say we face we want to face the challenge. And we want to like, you know, in our little way, make the world a better place. We now interesting in get interested party, like medical doctors, even cardiologists to work together, and we're seeing light, we're seeing more integrative nurse, we're moving, like hand in hand to do more, with less even. So I think, to us is, it's good, I still look forward with all that noise around us. I think you have to, you have to find that inner peace. So that you can really focus and really continue to believe in yourself first thing, and then create the difference. So we are hard at it and we don't want to be derailed. We will do our best not want to end on a lot of hope. Right? And to me, I'll answer perhaps lies in quantum science. That is the trend that I'm seeing in the future. And you know, that's where, you know, a lot of this is invisible at the moment to us. And hence we are not able to fully know how to harness it yet. Right. So if we are just viewing the world as it is, with the technology that we know is happening right now, then it doesn't seem like there is a solution. But I think the hope comes in the fact that actually there's still a lot like naive, and you know of what we don't know yet that is invisible at this moment. But we are catching up and we are knowing more and more about it. There is collective energy. I mean that is collective. Yeah, energy that can be harnessed. I remember this example of how you know in Thailand, right? The this monk gathered all these children and they just focused on removing removing the haze. And basically, it lifted, it cleared for that few hours that they were focused in meditation on you know, so under, it's not all lost, really. And I think yeah, the solution is just not seen at the moment, but something will come and and who knows there is a solution out there that can actually really, you know, solve things exponentially, right? You're just not aware yet. Okay, all right. So the hope thing is like a lot of people say to me Andrew, you've got to make sure you keep the hope in there. There's a really interesting conversation around hope, where they're saying, basically hope is on the flip side of the coin of fear. And they're both, they both stopped moving forward, which, which I thought was, it's an interesting area I've been looking into this year. And I actually think what we need is resilience and determination. And yes, it's going to be something wonderful that's going to come, you know, and us coming together as the best thing that can happen, rather than being separated, but, but it needs action, and it needs resilience, you know, and I think getting our minds strong, like so many people tell me they can't cope with anything that's going on in the world at the moment. And I get it, I really understand it, but it least pay attention to the risks that you as a person in your community, your family face, at least do do that and prepare for that, you know, so, because yeah, because if you get if you get sideswiped, then you know, where are you going? You know, so that's all that's all I really want to emphasise. Yeah. All right. So what's what do you what do you what do you watch, listen to read. When you when you don't want to fight, pay attention to any of the ugly stuff? What's distracting you? Oh, get through my daily feed for WeChat. So, so it's a noose around the world. But I think it's, it's just my way to just like, say, understand, and appreciate. Yeah, that's all. Yeah. Okay. All right. So what anything, you reading anything or listening to any podcast? I think, like I mentioned earlier, I want to dig more into quantum science. And yeah, and I am on the mailing list of this person called janeiro co funnel. And, you know, he wrote this thing on 44 week MBA. So, yeah, so for me, I realised actually listening to all that you shared and summarise. I'm really grateful. Because it's like, I'm getting a whole year's download of worthy news, right in, in two hours, and one and a half hours, you know, because I realised that yeah, in order to cope with all the multiple roles that I have to play on a daily live, right, I literally have no time to, you know, even pay attention to things that is outside what my role requires. Yeah. Yeah. But, so so thank you. That's funny, Joe, what about you? And by the way, I don't know where to watch that Wrexham documentary you keep talking about? I've looked for it. I can't find it anywhere. Plus, welcome. Welcome to Disney plus. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So that's, I mean, and that rabbit hole continues to be like on the next thing, I mean, I we we just found that you can actually buy a pass and follow. Follow this lower division team through the live streams over the internet. But there you go. 10 pounds for a ticket or you can get a half Season Pass. That's clever. Often we watch Wrexham the recommended show to follow up with actually which I which I'm also going to recommend to you is, Brian, the impossible formula. One story, I'm not sure if you've heard much about this, but you know, it goes if you do not follow Formula One, you may have noticed somewhere along the way that Honda disappeared from the whole scene, you remember Honda dreams, all that kind of stuff. And suddenly, it all disappeared. They were swallowed up actually by the financial crisis. And it basically was situation with team that they sponsored, was gonna go completely out of business, they're just gonna stop completely. And this was the really the incredible story of what they did coming out of that. So if you think about an underfunded team, where the main sponsor basically said, we're going to have to close this down, what would you do with a situation and one of the things that can happen out of that this particular show is very, very interesting. It's, it's hosted by Keanu Reeves and he's an interesting interviewer as well quite a different way of approaching the subject. But I think you'll enjoy it Braun the impossible Formula One story so many things happened to this one team in that one year that it was enough for a series all by itself so go check it out. It's it's it's a really really really good story on Netflix or having your own you know, series right on Disney plus or Netflix seems to be like the ultimate marketing machine, or P Yeah. Yeah, especially Formula One, right? Yeah. I think drive to some I have completely transformed Formula One. But yeah, now that's one person with my son James. He's a bit of a car head. He loves his Formula One, which I don't. But anyway, yeah, so I've just started getting into the Vikings Valhalla series. Now. Have you guys watched it, any of that? It's on Netflix. It's, it's like the first series in particular, it's pretty badly acted, but I but it's compelling enough to keep going. But I love the story of the gods. Because I'm a big history buff when it comes to that sort of stuff, but also the story of the Vikings and the role of my men and women, female warriors, you know, all that sort of stuff. So I've been I've been enjoying that it's good distraction, with Steve being away, so I can't watch it while he's away. I've had a couple of weeks where I've been looking for something that I know that he'd hate. So it's something usually girly, I haven't been able to find anything. So if anyone's got a girly recommendation, I'm always happy for that. But yeah, it reminds me of something you should add in like a what to watch on Netflix, you know, to your list of weekly, whatever reads, right? Because, because what I'm realising is that we are like all victims of being, you know, profiled, and you know, so Netflix keeps throwing me more and more Korean dramas, because I watched a couple. And you know, then I'm realising that it's not giving me a lot of other things, right, that I would otherwise have found. So I think we need a direct shoe. We need, you know, recommend recommend to our friends, right. Yeah. Because I think this algorithm thing is not good in the long run, too, right? Because it's going to be, you know, just tunnelling us to more and more of the same thing. Yeah, absolutely. 100% I recently got my Spotify download of the year. Have you guys on Spotify? Yes, yes. I haven't done yet. Yeah. So I'll look out for it. Yeah, it was. It was corn, Metallica, Megadeth. You know, I'm like, at some point, I'll be able to get, you know, so you imagine what Spotify is pushing my way these days? Not what I want. Yeah. So just to be mindful of that, right. Yeah. Yeah, no, don't trust the algorithms, then they're not on your side, then you don't know that. They're acting, you know, there. But we shouldn't. We should have a walking algorithm at home. My second son now is a soccer freak. So he knows everybody who's playing in every club over the world. So getting a download for me every day. And but truth is I really getting to enjoy EPL or the British league again. So the English League. Yeah, I'm a Liverpool fan. And recent games are really exciting. And yeah, I think that's one of the too few 90 minutes that you can go like, down and up and down, up, you know, so many times. watching a soccer match again. It's nice, and it's nice to enjoy it with one of your kids. Right when they've got bonding time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh, well, Louisa Lee, wing to thank you so much, so much for coming and joining us on this show. It's a big one. I know. It's the biggest one. And so it's actually hard to take things out because there's so much going on and Joe into the season for for another year. I don't know when we'll get we'll kick off again, January, February sometime. But it's been a good year right. Now, and I definitely love for one on one of the things that I I put on my things. My my list of things that I need to do is this show. So it's something that keeps me thinking about things and No, honestly, the the weekend reads by you, I'm a terrible reader. So I actually don't read them. But I know the amount of work that goes into it. And I know this is my way of reading the weekend reads and liked getting the whole thing and you're just getting that that the highlights here. So this has been very important to me keeping up with things as well, so much as we've been telling people about it. For me, it's it's a constant re education for myself as well, this is me coming to something. And I think talking about something that is very important. So for me, someone asked me, why would I want to see in the world, the more more in the world, I just want to see more discussions about things based on fact, people need to know more about things go out of their realms and find out what what what the what the alternative ideas are, and try and figure out how those ideas come out and what's valid, you know, and one one thought that I want to kind of leave with with you is that you know, you can have something that's completely true for you and someone else can have something that's completely true for you. For them. There's no need for us to say that what you believe is not what you believe, isn't right. You know, I'm quite happy to sit with someone who says the earth is flat because it doesn't make a difference to me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think we are We're lacking nuance and appreciation of it, I think that's a massive thing, but also where we're lacking the ability to look at the news from every perspective. So, you know, when I put the weekend reads together, there's, there's people that I disagree with, but I still listen to them. I don't fight with people on social media who disagree with me, that's fine. You know, whatever, you know, we will get different points of view. So not not not going in for the fight all the time. It's not, it's not necessary. You know, if someone's put something up that you just think is stupid, you don't need to engage with that content. Yeah, you know, because you know, that those people believe what they believe and, and that's fine. And they've got a right to do it. That's the society, we, you know, free speech and all that, you know, we either believe in it or we don't, right? If you think you can, every now and again, I'll put, like, if someone puts a comment, which I post, which I think he's dangerous, I might sort of say, hey, you know, you might want to check this. But I'm not attacking them, you know, because we've got all got access to the information, and the same information, except, what are the algorithm algorithms driving you towards? But if you look at every, every angle of news, the algorithms get confused. Because they don't know where you stand. So that's kind of a that's another good reason to be looking at every angle, if you're sitting in that information. So like, get it get out of it. Just get out of it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yes, I think it's a good, wonderful experience, to be able to talk non dental stuff also. This is the first time that you know, the both of us are on like one show together. Yeah. So that opportunity. That's been great. I think, I think you're the only married couple apart from every now and again, when I drag my husband kicking and screaming to be on it. But ya know, it's, it's really great. It's really great to hear both your perspectives as well. And, you know, everyone's everyone's perspective is valuable. So and like Joe said, I, I just enjoyed the opportunity to talk about some of these things, because I spent so much time reading about it, thinking about it, writing about it to the chance for me to talk to other people and hear different perspectives is really valuable. So thank you. I appreciate it. Well, this time, and for everyone who is here. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you to everyone who's been supporting the no show. And wishing everyone a fantastic festive season. Yep. See you in the new year. Yeah. I hope for world peace. Yes, absolutely. This is what we need. Alright, guys.