Episódios
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From cross-stitching your research proposals to diagramming the quantum internet, there are many ways that art and science can intersect – and it’s when artists in research are treated as equals that you get the best, most transformative results.
Join us for a thought-provoking discussion as we dissect the concept of STEAM and try to word the world better with Dr Jessica Foley and Dennis McNulty from the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications.
You can check out ForTechsSake.info for links to more resources, or find out more about CONNECT at ConnectCentre.ie and keep up with their research by subscribing to their newsletter.
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You know we love sustainability so we were very excited to learn about plans for digital product passports, which could slow down fast fashion, boost our right to repair and help shoppers make more informed choices.
Explaining this transformative tech for us are Dr Grace Walsh and Dr John Dooley from the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications.
You can check out ForTechsSake.info for links to more resources, or find out more about CONNECT at ConnectCentre.ie and keep up with their research by subscribing to their newsletter.
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Jenny and Elaine are back in studio and catching up after Elaine was zooming around San Francisco in a driverless taxi. But how close are we to seeing fully autonomous cars on every road? Will Tesla’s Cybercab have enough in its computer vision system to see where it’s going? And how safe are self-driving cars, really?
We put all these questions to Dr Aisling O’Driscoll, a researcher at the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications. At CONNECT, Aisling is discovering how connecting vehicles to create a vast information-sharing network can help improve autonomous capabilities, as well as overall road safety and transport efficiency.
You can check out ForTechsSake.info for links to more resources, or find out more about CONNECT at ConnectCentre.ie and keep up with their research by subscribing to their newsletter.
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For Tech’s Sake is back with a very special mini-series in partnership with the CONNECT Research Ireland Centre for Future Networks and Communications. Starting from Science Week, we’ll be releasing a new episode every week for five weeks, exploring the intersection of science, art and society with CONNECT researchers. In this preview episode, hear from CONNECT’s director Prof Dan Kilper about what to expect.
Find out more about CONNECT at ConnectCentre.ie, and check out ForTechsSake.info for links to more resources.
FTX x CONNECT is brought to you by your hosts Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody, in partnership with CONNECT and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, and produced by Hilary Barry.
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Despite all our “wireless” connectivity and “cloud” computing, the internet we enjoy today relies on extensive cables that cross seas and oceans, and our island on the edge of Europe has had a crucial role to play in this global network, both in the past and present. In this episode, we get a history lesson in telecommunications from Deryck Fay, author of Connecting A Nation, who appears alongside Elaine in the upcoming documentary, The Cable that Changed the World. We also follow this development to the present day, and examine Ireland’s continued critical position in protecting the internet’s infrastructure.
The Cable that Changed the World will air on RTÉ One, August 12th at 9.35pm. You can connect with Deryck Fay at DFIT.ie and pick up a copy of his book online or in stores. And check out ForTechsSake.info for links to some of the stories we discussed here.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
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In this episode, Elaine and Jenny look at the risks of working with robots – and it’s not just that they might steal your job. For this discussion, they are joined by Tom Deegan, a health and safety consultant at Mackin EHS who has become the go-to guy for risk assessments in workplaces introducing robotics and cybernetics, ensuring that the bots behave and everyone is safe. (You might even say he’s a robo-cop.)
You can find out more about Mackin EHS at MackinConsultancy.com or connect with Tom on LinkedIn. And check out ForTechsSake.info for links to some of the stories – and the many robots – we discussed here.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
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We often look at the mental and emotional effects of technology on For Tech’s Sake, and this episode we have expert help in understanding it all in the form of cyberpsychologist Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton, a lecturer on the topic at IADT.
You can follow Nicola on Instagram @nicolafoxh and on X @foxnic, and check out her work on her website, NicolaFoxHamilton.com. And head to ForTechsSake.info for some relevant links and resources.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
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Algorithms – they’re everywhere! But what the hell are they, how much influence do they wield and what makes them tick? This episode we’re joined by Megan Nyhan to explain it all.
Megan is a PhD researcher at D-Real where she is working on a framework for designing ethical and trustworthy AI recommender systems. Be sure to find her on LinkedIn if you are interested in Encode Justice and AI 2030. And head to ForTechsSake.info for all the links and resources for this episode.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
CONTENT NOTE: This episode includes some discussion on eating disorders, and if you are affected by or seeking support on these issues, check out these resources from Bodywhys.
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In this episode, we're looking at health data all the way from the cradle to the grave, and beyond! Helping us on this journey is Prof Ciara Heavin, co-director of the Health Information Systems Research Centre at University College Cork and founder of CommPAL, a software platform using AI to better allocate specialist palliative care.
Follow Ciara on X @c_heavin and get links and resources for this episode at ForTechsSake.info.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
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Everyone's talking about kids and tech, but is the internet responsible for young people's anxieties? And are bans an effective way of moderating behaviour? We looked at the research and spoke to an expert in early childhood education, Paula Walshe, who believes we can do better at teaching positive tech use from a young age.
Paula is a PhD researcher and assistant lecturer with Dundalk Institute of Technology. You can find out more about her work on TheDigitalEarlyChildhoodEducator.ie and you can also check out her own podcast, the ECE Quality Ireland Podcast – and keep an eye out for her book on STEAM in early childhood education coming out later this year.
As always, you can find links to the stories discussed in this episode at ForTechsSake.info.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
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Did you know there are bins in Dublin connected to the internet? They are part of what’s known as the internet of things, or IoT, which is turning into something of an internet of trash for reasons other than the bins. To explain this, we have Prof Dirk Pesch, the director of Advance CRT, which is a Science Foundation Ireland centre for research and training focused on advanced networks for sustainable societies.
You can follow Dirk on X (@DirkPesch) and you can find links to the stories and silly things discussed in the episode at ForTechsSake.info.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
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2024 is a major year for voters worldwide, but with tech being used to push all sorts of manipulative messaging and agendas, how can we trust what we see online during an election cycle? In this episode, we have Liz Carolan explaining how she remains (mostly) hopeful in the face of these threats to democracy, and giving us tips on how to muddle through the misinformation.
Liz is a strategist and campaigner for tech and democracy, and the founder of Digital Action, a globally connected organisation campaigning to protect democracy and human rights from digital threats. Subscribe to her updates at TheBriefing.ie and check out ForTechsSake.info for links to the stories discussed in this episode and more resources.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry.
CONTENT NOTE: This episode contains swearing.
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In this episode of For Tech’s Sake, Elaine and Jenny draw parallels between the tech industry and ‘fast fashion’ – notorious for its short production cycles and disregard for the environment and sustainability. Joining us for this conversation is Luísa Vasconcelos E Sousa, the new country manager of Swappie in Ireland, who introduces us to a more circular alternative for smartphone purchases.
For links to the stories and reports discussed in this episode, and other resources, check out fortechssake.info.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and this episode was guest-produced by Dan Wilcox.
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We’re back! And we’re catching up on all the AI news, good and bad, that’s been happening. And to prove there really are good applications of AI out there, we spoke to Dr Mark O’Sullivan, co-founder and CEO of NeuroBell, which is developing a device using AI to help detect seizures in newborns. You can find out more about their work at NeuroBell.com and on Silicon Republic.
You can also check out the following stories discussed in this episode:
— The problematic Tessa chatbot: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/08/1180838096/an-eating-disorders-chatbot-offered-dieting-advice-raising-fears-about-ai-in-hea
— Tyler Perry’s studio pull-out: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/tyler-perry-ai-alarm-1235833276/
— OpenAI’s Sora videos: https://openai.com/sora
— Why WPP’s partnership with Nvidia is bad news for creators: https://businessplus.ie/tech/ad-tech-nvidia/
— Joe Biden robocalls: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/fake-phone-calls-ai-voice-joe-biden-new-hampshire-us-elections
— Trump’s AI-generated Black friends: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68440150
— Jenny’s interview with Dr Pallavi Tiwari: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ai-machine-learning-pallavi-tiwari
— AI for Māori language preservation: https://www.newscientist.com/article/0-how-artificial-intelligence-is-helping-keep-indigenous-languages-alive/
— The story behind the development of Charlie Bird’s voice tech: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/future-human-keith-davey-trevor-vaugh-voice-banking-motor-neurone-disease-charlie-bird
— AI for flood warnings: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/flood-warning-system-ai-researchers-ceadar
You can find Conor Nolan’s excellent tribute to the Glasgow Willy Wonka debacle on Instagram (@cheesenolan), and we’ll share the hilarious AI-generated obituary on socials so you should follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.
Next week, we’ll have a special bonus episode for HeadStuff+ Community members, and then we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and produced by Hilary Barry. If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com.
CONTENT NOTE: This episode contains a brief discussion on disordered eating.
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This week it’s just Elaine and Jenny as we round up 2023’s tech news – which took a long time to get through! And even at that, things have changed since this recording and the EU AI Act did in fact enter the next stage of its development, and we’ll be following up on that in the new year.
In the meantime, we have plenty of suggestions to entertain you until we come back with season three. First of all, some episodes to listen back to:
— v1.1: Space is ace (with Prof Tom Ray and Dr Patrick Kavanagh, two Irish scientists who worked on the James Webb Space Telescope) https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v1-1-space-is-ace/
— v1.4_bonus: The Elon-phant in the room https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v1-4_bonus-the-elon-phant-in-the-room/
— v1.5: AI & U (with Dr Abeba Birhane from the UN advisory panel on AI) https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v1-5-ai-u/
— v1.7: Max power (with battery scientist Dr Valeria Nico) https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v1-7-max-power/
— v2.7: Be smart and break things (with Dr David McKeown, EIRSAT-1 lead engineer and Dublin Maker co-founder) https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v2-7-be-smart-and-break-things/
— v2.7_bonus: Even more from David on EIRSAT-1 and space-tech https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v2-7_bonus-dr-david-mckeown-rocket-scientist-and-dublin-maker/
— v2.13: Money talk (with Rachel O’Dwyer, author of Tokens) https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v2-13-money-talk/
You might also enjoy reading the New Yorker’s report on the ‘Turkey-Shoot Clusterfuck’, or you can get lost in space while gazing at these images from the James Webb Space Telescope:
— Cat’s Eye Nebula: https://www.jameswebbdiscovery.com/astronomy-news/webb-telescopes-exploration-of-cats-eye-nebula-and-its-galactic-impact
— Pandora’s Cluster: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/james-webb-telescope-pandora-cluster-galaxy-image-nasa
— Tarantula Nebula: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/james-webb-space-telescope-tarantula-nebula
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Hilary Barry for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.
If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com.
And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.
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For a sustainable future, farmers need to learn to work smarter, not harder. That’s according to our guest Padraig Hennessy, CEO of agri-tech start-up Terra NutriTECH and chair of AgTech Ireland. And while ‘smart’ often means internet-connected devices and technological wizardry, there’s a lot more to getting agri-tech right than that.
You can find out more about Terra Nutri-tech and the other agritech start-ups we mentioned on SiliconRepublic.com and here are some more links on topics we discussed:
— The cluck translator: https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chickens-emotions-research-translation-japan-2023-9?r=US&IR=T
— The study on pig emotions: https://science.ku.dk/english/press/news/2022/pig-grunts-reveal-their-emotions
— The hacked John Deere tractor: https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/15/23306650/def-con-hacker-john-deere-tractors-run-doom-right-to-repair
— The study on farmer burnout: https://www.independent.ie/farming/news/more-than-25pc-of-irish-farmers-are-burnt-out-new-research-finds/a1365570023.html
— The right to repair vote: https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1121/1417605-right-to-repair/
— And our recent robotics episode: https://pod.fo/e/1fd892
We’ll release Padraig’s interview in its entirety for HeadStuff+ Community members next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Hilary Barry for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.
If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com.
And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.
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Do you understand money? Neither do we, to be honest. And now that digital platforms are creating their own forms of finance – often without the restrictions of any pesky regulation – the meaning of ‘money’ continues to evolve.
To get our heads around the changing nature of money, we spoke to Rachel O’Dwyer, a lecturer in digital cultures at the National College of Art and Design and the author of Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform. Rather than deep-dive on the tech underpinning the likes of digital currencies and NFTs, we explore the cultural notion of value and how the digital world is disrupting and manipulating that.
You can get Tokens wherever you find good books and you can follow Rachel’s work @rachelodwyer on Twitter.
— Here’s a report on the NFT crash: https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/21/95_percent_nfts_worthless/
— Here’s some background on M-Pesa and recent calls for it to be regulated like a bank: https://techcabal.com/2023/03/09/m-pesa-lawsuit/
— And here’s a story from the Silicon Republic archive about Bruce Willis (allegedly) giving out to Apple over iTunes and ownership: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/life/updated-yippee-ki-yay-apple-will-bruce-willis-sue-over-itunes-inheritance
— For further listening you might enjoy our full-length interview with Aoife Barry on shifts in online culture, where we also discussed how the internet is becoming increasingly transactional. This is available for HeadStuff+ Community members right here: https://headstuffpodcasts.com/show/for-techs-sake/episode/v2-3_bonus-aoife-barry-author-of-social-capital/
We’ll also release Rachel’s full interview for HeadStuff+ Community members next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Dan Wilcox for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.
If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com.
And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.
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Robots are among us, and are likely to become an even more commonplace fixture in our future. But what does it mean to be living and working alongside robots, and what does it take to develop these robots responsibly? We spoke to Niamh Donnelly, co-founder of Akara Robotics, about these challenges and the considerations roboticists need to have for workers and society.
You can check out Akara Robotics’ work and robots at Akara.ai and you can follow Niamh on Twitter at @engineeve.
– Watch clips of the UN AI Summit robot press conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_rR1mMjEfE
– Check out this interview with Niamh for pics and video of Stevie the Robot: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/stevie-robot-elder-care-niamh-donnelly
– Here’s Jenny’s favourite hapless hot dog robot: https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/wtyyuj/this_robot_making_hotdogs/?rdt=45333
– And the bipedal who can’t shelve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzlsvFN_5HI
– And this is the adorable Disney robot Niamh mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cfIm06tcfA
– Read all about the MIT study looking at how to make robots more dexterous on Silicon Republic: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ai-smoothing-robot-hands-holding-objects-mit-study
– As well as the deployment of robots in United Drug’s Dublin warehouse: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/working-robot-trolleys-united-drug-baldonnel-dublin
We’ll release Niamh’s interview in its entirety for HeadStuff+ Community members next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Hilary Barry for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.
If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com.
And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.
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In this episode we look at tech’s impact across the arts, from designers and artists to writers and musicians. We also got the lowdown on Ireland’s new festival of art and technology, Beta Festival from its founder and curator, Aisling Murray.
You can follow Beta Festival @betafest_irl on both Twitter and Instagram, and follow Aisling @murray_aisling on Twitter or @ashomurray on Instagram.
— Libby Heaney, one of the artists showcasing at Beta, recently spoke to Silicon Republic about her work: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/quantum-computing-visual-art-uk-libby-heaney
— Here’s what Paul McCartney said about his plans for using AI on some old John Lennon recordings: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/23/paul-mccartney-says-theres-nothing-artificial-in-new-beatles-song-made-using-ai
— Here’s some background on virtual K-pop acts: https://edition.cnn.com/style/kpop-virtual-bands-ai-intl-hnk/index.html
— And a profile of musician Holly Herndon, who’s an advocate for artist-led use of creative AI https://www.wired.co.uk/article/holly-herndon-ai-deepfakes-music
— Here's the footage of Reeps One beatboxing with an AI counterpart at Inspirefest: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/reeps-one-beatboxing-ai-inspirefest
We’ll release Aisling’s interview in its entirety for HeadStuff+ Community members next week, and we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Hilary Barry for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.
If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com.
And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.
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Think you could tell a deepfake from real content? Think again. Dr Conor Linehan, a senior lecturer in applied psychology at UCC, joined us to explain how easily we can be fooled into believing what we see.
You can find out more about Conor and his work @conorlinehan on Twitter and you can read the Face/Off study here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287503
— Check out the threat report on deepfakes from the NSA, FBI and CISA here: https://media.defense.gov/2023/Sep/12/2003298925/-1/-1/0/CSI-DEEPFAKE-THREATS.PDF
— And test your own ability to spot a fake with this fun quiz: https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/ai-generated-art-photo-quiz/index.html
— Read more about the ‘car crash experiment’ on eyewitness testimony here: https://www.simplypsychology.org/loftus-palmer.html
— And find out about how deepfakes can do good in this Silicon Republic article: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/deepfake-ai-healthcare-diseases-insilico-medicine-pharma
If you liked this episode, you might like to learn more about cybersecurity in this one: https://pod.fo/e/18b914
We’ll also be releasing Conor’s interview in its entirety for HeadStuff+ Community members next week, then we’ll be back in a fortnight with an all-new episode.
For Tech’s Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network, hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody. Thank you to Hilary Barry for production, Matt Mahon and Dall-E for our graphics, Claudia Grandez for her social media support, and all at the HeadStuff team.
If you want to support The HeadStuff Podcast Network, for our sake, for tech’s sake and for many more great podcasts, visit HeadStuffPodcasts.com.
And follow us @fortechssakepod on your platform of choice.
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