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Hello everyone and welcome to Talk Nerdy. Today is Monday, January 5th, 2026, and I'm the host of the show, Dr. Kara, Santa Maria. It is a new year. I'm actually recording this on the first of the year. So let's all forget about 2025 and just pretend it didn't happen.

Hopefully this one will be better. We will see. But I am starting it, I think, pretty strong. I have a

great episode for you, one that is inspiring and humbling and fascinating and I think pretty beautiful so before we get

into it though I do want to thank those of you who make talk nerdy possible remember this show

has now been on the air for 11 years I think maybe going on 11. And the reason I'm able to keep doing that since,

you know, we really are not selling ad space, the way that we did in the past, is by relying on

individuals just like you for support. We use the Patreon platform. So if you're interested,

you just need to visit patreon.com slash talk nerdy, where you can learn how you can pledge support on an episodic basis.

The top tier patrons this week include Resolutorial, I think, Chuck Buell, David J.E. Smith, Daniel Lang, Mary Neva, Anu Baravage, David Compton, Brian Holden, Gabbo J,

Ulrika Hagman, Pasquale Jalati, and Joe Wilkinson. There are also so many more of you. I,

...