Episode 121 is a special edition of The Far Middle as Nick offers insight into the development, growth, goals, and future of the one-of-a-kind CNX Foundation Mentorship Academy. Before diving into the Academy, Nick pays tribute to John Robert Wooden for this installment’s sports dedication.

The “Wizard of Westwood” was not only one of the greatest basketball coaches ever and a Hall-of-Fame player, but also a teacher and mentor to countless student athletes. “He was as much Harvard Business School professor as he was UCLA hoops coach,” says Nick. Wooden’s teaching tools and tactics, such as his Pyramid of Success, not only apply to basketball but business, personal success, and organizational leadership.

The building blocks of Wooden’s Pyramid of Success—from self-control to initiative and from confidence to competitive greatness—are central focus areas of the CNX Mentorship Academy.

Nick proceeds to discuss the Academy’s origins and its aim to assist students from urban and rural economically disadvantaged communities in Western Pennsylvania who don’t intend to pursue a college degree right after high school.

As the Academy is gearing up for its third year and third class, Nick attributes many keys to its success, including partners spanning the building trades, energy industry, manufacturing, hospitality/ travel, real estate, construction, health care, and more. And then there are the mentors, which Nick describes as, “the glue that holds everything together…no mentors, no success, it’s that simple.”

In closing, Nick observes, “I can say without hesitation that every student that enters the Academy, and shows up over the course of the year, they will be in a markedly better place when it comes to life skills, awareness, and confidence than where they were when they came in. It all comes down to how you define success. It’s measured in different ways in this thing we called life, and I wish it were more ideal, but this is how it is.”

The Far Middle episode 120 begins with a little Labor Day history, including the debate of whether it was labor leader Peter McGuire or machinist Matthew McGuire who deserves credit for Labor Day’s origination. Nick fondly recalls Peter McGuire’s quote that the holiday is meant to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

And as the boys of summer prepare for fall and postseason play, Nick turns to baseball for this week’s sports dedication. While some listeners hoped “The Miracle Mets” of 1969 would earn honors for Far Middle episode 69, the Mets receive dedication honors this 120^th episode. However, it’s for an unfortunate record: the Mets’ 120 losses tallied during their 1962 inaugural season.

Nick adds that the 1962 Mets’ starting pitchers recorded just a combined 23 wins all season, which is less than Don Drysdale’s 25 games won—alone—that ’62 season for the Dodgers. And despite the record of the 1962 “lovable losers,” the Mets would of course bloom come the 1969 season for their first World Series Championship. For more on Drysdale, check out Far Middle episode 53.

While on the topic of losing in epic fashion, Nick connects to the topic of climate predictions and climate change alarmism.

In a unique Far Middle exploration, Nick reviews a century of highlights by “the experts’” climate predictions—beginning in 1923 with the New York Times reporting that Arctic ice was melting and “a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard of temperatures in that part of the earth.”

Nick then goes decade-by-decade, discussing numerous climate predictions by media, experts, and elites; including the late 1970s shift from predictions of catastrophic global cooling to unavoidable global warming.

After examining a century of inaccurate doomsday predictions, Nick offers four takeaways: 1) science is not about consensus; 2) we should not be setting policies impacting decades and trillions of dollars aiming for something we should have zero confidence in being able to accurately know; 3) why aren’t those making these past dead-wrong predictions held accountable; and, 4) where are present-day journalists reporting on the trends identified in this episode.

In closing, Nick pays tribute to Diana Ross, who this week in 1980 reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with her hit “Upside Down”—a fitting song title for this episode’s discussion on expert predictions.

The Far Middle episode 121 arrives as Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer, approaches. With fall on the horizon, Nick has basketball on his mind, which leads to a special dedication to basketball pioneer Arnold “Red” Auerbach. Nick calls Auerbach, “the most accomplished pro basketball coach and executive in the history of the game, both statistically as well as with respect to impact.”

After reflecting on Red’s historic career, Nick pivots to red’s complementary color: green. Specifically, he delves into the concept of green inflation, which is the collective combination of green energy policies, mandates, and subsidies driving general inflation.

Nick addresses the impact of waning worker and labor participation on inflation, but underscores that it’s climate change policies that is the single biggest contributor to inflation. “The true aims of climate policies are to manufacture and impose scarcity,” says Nick. “Energy scarcity then transmits to overall economic scarcity, and supply scarcity of everything, because everything needs energy as the fundamental input or feedstock.”

Nick highlights several data points illustrating green inflation. These include President Biden’s cancelation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, America’s first proposed cobalt mine being put on hold by its developer, and Ford’s EV business unit’s losses.  

“The only way for Ford to make money on EVs is for the price of EVs to go up and to force consumers to buy them, which means the supply of gasoline powered vehicles must go down,” explains Nick. “You see, restrict supply of the efficient, enforce the choice of the inefficient, and raise its price. Green inflation 101.”

Next, Nick calls out the hidden costs of wind and solar infrastructure on the power grid and how those new transmission infrastructure costs will be paid for. Moving on from power lines, Nick discusses traffic lines and traffic congestion pricing. The origins of traffic congestion pricing is the “hallmark of the Left,” says Nick. “Create a problem, purposely, upon the private sector and then use that created problem to justify more power and control over the private sector. It’s simple but effective time and again.”

In closing, Nick notes how summer weather these days is described by many as a sign of Armageddon. On the topic of summer heatwaves, Nick draws a connection to the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “Rear Window.” While Coach Auerbach was preparing for the Celtics’ 1954-55 season, “Rear Window” hit theaters on September 1, 1954. “It should be considered as one of the greatest films ever,” says Nick.

As many head back to college this August, so too does the start of Far Middle episode 118 as Nick honors Ohio State Buckeye legend and two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin for this Far Middle’s sports dedication.

Nick then moves from Ohio State to Stanford, noting Cardinal quarterback Jim Plunkett would earn Heisman honors a few years prior to Griffin’s back-to-back trophies. He then examines Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s forthcoming resignation following “serious flaws” found in his research.

“The controversy at Stanford highlights another connection we can jump to which interestingly still involves Stanford, but it also ties to a much broader topic that cuts across the entire western world,” says Nick. He discusses the big difference between science and “The Science,” and the ramifications of scientific journals wading into subjective politics and eroding their reputation of objectivity.

Next, Nick explains the “inside out” phenomenon, using examples from Alexis de Tocqueville and the idea of soft despotism, as well as the Spanish Civil War.

The theme of “inside out” runs throughout episode 118. From Archie Griffin’s ground game to a Stanford student reporter breaking news of data manipulation to the outside world, and from the Left gaining control from the inside of government, academia, and media to turn society from the inside out. The theme also applies to Nick’s recount of the story of Jonah and the whale (or big fish), as well as his discussion of Big Tech letting in the Left and their subsequent aims to now turn Big Tech inside out.

And for a fitting close, Nick looks back on Phil Collins’ single “Inside Out,” from the 1985 album No Jacket Required(released the same year Archie Griffin was closing out his professional career with the USFL’s Jacksonville Bulls). Nick recites the song’s lyrics to take to heart: “Now everybody keeps on telling me how to be, and everybody tells me do what they say, oh I’ll help myself it’s up to me and no-one else, but till I’m ready just keep out of my way.”

Far Middle episode 117, released on August 16, coincides with the anniversary of football icon Frank Gifford’s birthday. Nick reflects on Gifford’s legendary career on the field and in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth. In looking back at the eight-time Pro Bowler’s career, Nick also recounts meeting Hall of Fame linebacker Chuck Bednarik who delivered “The Hit” on Gifford in their November 1960 Giants/Eagles matchup.

“It seems as if every time we do a dedication on The Far Middle of an exceptional athlete, like a Frank Gifford, it brings to mind a few truths in life,” says Nick. “One being that in competitive worlds and arenas, there is always going to be an inevitable cycle.”

In sports, that cycle is players rising to greatness, declining, disappearing, and replaced with the next generation. It’s a cycle also evident in business, technology, empires, and global leadership. Nick proceeds to connect to Europe’s recent sharp economic/societal decline while India is on the rise.

After providing numerous indicators of Europe’s regression, including the Eurozone economy only growing about 6% over the past 15 years, Nick pivots to India, and specifically the megacity of Mumbai. “India and Mumbai, in many ways, parallel the United States and its cities a few generations ago,” says Nick.

He profiles Mumbai’s challenges, from infrastructure to affordable housing, as well as its bright future. “Few things, actually no things in real life, including progress, are ever going to be perfect, and Mumbai’s journey stands to be a net positive to millions of residents, both current and future,” says Nick. “But that journey will also harm many people in its path, that’s always been the case in human history, and that’s always going to remain the case.”

Nick’s discussion of Mumbai today then pivots back roughly 80 years ago to examine the complicated life and legacy of Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose. While Frank Gifford was turning 15 in Bakersfield, Calif., Bose would pass away this week, on August 18, back in 1945. Nick breaks out a Far Middle Yogi-ism in describing Bose as, “one of the best-known individuals you’ve never heard of.”

And in a final connection, episode 117’s release date—August 16—also falls on the anniversary of the passing of two well-known individuals you’ve definitely heard of, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin. As Nick paid homage to “The King” in episode 111, he closes by celebrating the “Queen of Soul” and sharing his four favorite Aretha Franklin singles.