Catalina Lauf, Chris Mattmann, Paul Caldwell, Lamia Kamel, Jonathan Scinto

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
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Sam's. We have such a greatshow lined up for you today, very
exciting stuff. And our political segmentbrought to you by bch Kucina. We're
featuring Katalina Laufe, a passionate American, former Republican nominee, Defense of Freedom
pack advisor for begin Health Kids,which is a kid's health startup. Now

(01:29):
Today, she's here to chat LGBTQideologies, how some of those ideologies are
being pushed on children, and whatAmericans need to know about, how Western
Europe is protecting children from gender ideologyand how they have taken things into their
own hands. And our Digital worldsegment brought to you by Navvy Travel.
Today, we're featuring the amazing ChrisMattman, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at

(01:51):
NASA. Today we're chatting all aboutAI, from how it can make space
travel and explorations safer, to howit will revolutionize data threats and reaches,
to even how we'll reshape human interactions. In our Innovation and Tech segment brought
to you by Caldwell Zones and OGPAdot Com. Today we're featuring returning guests
Lamia Cammell, Egypt's top branding expert, founder of Mega Media Summit, which

(02:15):
is narrative summit and PR firm CCplus News. She's joined by a regular
contributor, Paul Caldwell, Chairman andCEO of Caldwell Zones, and today we're
chatting about the mass adoption of digitalpayments across Egypt and its direct effect on
American tourism abroad. In our culinaryand Wine segment, brought to you by
B che Kuchina, we're featuring ourvery own Jonathan Sinto, bringing us the

(02:37):
latest with his summer recipe and underfive minutes. Definitely check out that summer
recipe of the week. Stay tunedfor Catalina Lauf in our political segment,
brought to you by B. CheKuccina, proud American, passionate, Goop,
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(03:46):
the Voice of New York iHeartRadio.I'm your host Zen. Sam's coming up.
In our political segment, brought toyou by b ch Kachina, we're
featuring a Catalino laugh, a passionateAmerican, former Republican nominee, Defense of
Freedom pack advisor at begin Health,which is a kid's health startup now.
Catalina was born and raised in Woodstock, Illinois, and is one of the

(04:09):
youngest appointees to the Executive Branch,serving as a special Advisor to the US
Department of Commerce. Parental and educationrights have always been at the forefront of
her campaigns. She promotes school choiceand education for all, bullishly addresses the
woke curriculum, push back against criticalrace theory and hypersexualization of our youth.

(04:30):
Today, She's scared a chat LGBTQideologies, how some of those ideologies are
being pushed on children, and whatAmericans need to know about how Western Europe
is protecting children from gender ideology.Welcoming down to the show is Trailblazer Catalina
Lough. Welcome to the show,Stunner, Thank you so much for having
me on. Absolutely, let's jumpright in. So bear with me as

(04:54):
I set the tone here. Okay. So, while Eastern Europe finally woke
up and realized the day damage andare now walking back and peeling back some
of their laws, changing their caremodel for youth seeking assistance to change their
gender, on the contrary, theUnited States is pushing forward with the very
practices that have caused European officials tohave grave concerns. Okay, So,

(05:15):
American public schools currently play a majorrole in convincing students that sex and gender
are mutually exclusive, that children choosetheir gender, and that some children are
born in the wrong body. Whyshould this matter to us? Well,
okay, so let's go back bearwith me a little bit more. Under
the guise of the name gender affirmingcare, American schools are amping up support

(05:41):
for children who identify as transgender.And this includes an overwhelming number of school
districts and state departments of education implementingpolicies that exclude parents from a child's decision
to live as the opposite sex atschool, and in one extreme case,
a school district worked with a genderto transition children behind their parents' backs.

(06:02):
What do you say to all ofthis and how can we as parents reclaim
our control? You know, Ithink it's twofold. I think when it
comes to from a cultural perspective,they're always after our economic system in some
way. Right, this transgender movementhas become a business. When you have
these hospitals, when you have theselegislatures pushing so much awareness and then subsequently

(06:28):
money into it, We've got tofollow the economic incentives for all of us.
Look at the surgeries look at thehormone. Everything from the health perspective
is turning into a money game.But from a cultural perspective, it is
destroying communities. It's destroying households.I've gone to so many sword meetings or
parents are in rights at what ishappening in the public schools. And the

(06:54):
only way to defeat it is ifyou have enough parents that are pushing back
and fighting against it. From agrassroots perspective, yeah, it doesn't belong
in the public school system and prideis not for children. And one example
of a lesson learned is England.UK's National Health Service found most use identifying
as trans are going through what theycall a transient phase, and as a

(07:16):
result, the National Institute of Healthrestricted gender transition treatments for under children under
eighteen and restricting puberty blockers for minorsto clinics controlled by medical doctors helps now
ensure that the children received holistic medicalcare, including psychiatric care, and that
the medical side effects of puberty blockersare considered. And in twenty twenty two,

(07:38):
the UK's National Health Service closed aclinic called tavists Stock and it's the
world's largest pediatric gender clinic due topoor evidence and its care model, putting
basically young people's mental health at risk, and the clinic is now facing a
class action lawsuit from as many asone thousand former parents and patients. So

(08:00):
it's it's you're right, destroying communitiesand destroying households. Now, I'd love
to get your perspective on this.A biology teacher at Newton North High School
in Massachusetts was also in charge oftheir to Be Glad events back in April
of this year, and teachers wereinvited to sign their classes up for three
events. In the morning, therewas a panel discussion on the intersectionality of

(08:24):
religion and queerness, and after schoolthere was a performance and at QUNA with
a drag queen named Missy Stake.Now, if teachers chose to attend,
there were no permission slips required fromparents. Should this be allowed in schools?
Absolutely not? Absolutely not. Whathappened to just teaching basic reading,

(08:45):
science and math? Now all ofthese teachers are so woke. A lot
of them are young millennial teachers thathave been indoctrinated on their own in college
and universities, and now they're they'reputting that on little kids. And again,
the only way to fight that isto look, these teachers should be
fire and you're going to be doingthat in a school. They should be

(09:07):
fire, and the parents have thevoice and the power to be able to
set the tone with that when itcomes to school board, when it comes
to showing up and disagree. Theproblem is, unfortunately, what we have
seen is that not enough parents willcool less and create a movement to stop
this. You know, it takesa lot a lot of the time to

(09:30):
these parents don't even know what's goingon from an after school or even from
a curriculum. They should, butultimately it comes down to the power of
the pairing and more parents have touse that power. You said it,
and in recent years, critical gendertheory activists have turned America's education system into
a tool, a tool to reachmillions of children in an effort to teach

(09:52):
and promote gender ideology. Schools arenow teaching students, including kindergarteners, that
gender is malleable and disconnect I thinkfrom one sex. I mean, this
is total insanity. And more proofcomes from friends friends. They have something
called Academy Nacional de mid Sin.It's a medicine research organization and they issued
a report in February of the lastyear urging medical professionals to use great medical

(10:18):
caution and that was a quote whentreating transgender children. And the report emphasize
that the medical supply for gender transitiontreatments has met the demand, which they
call an epidemic phenomenon, and thatchildren must receive now psychiatric care before any
prmonal or surgical intervention. So what'shappening now, Catalina is many European countries,

(10:41):
including the United Kingdom, Sweden,France, and Finland are taking a
more cautious approach to medically treating minorchildren with gender dysphoria. But what are
we doing here in the US.We're feeding right into it. Yeah,
and it all comes owned too.Look, you have so many woke politicians
that relies so much on the teachersunion to fund them to help them out,

(11:01):
and so it's all this ecosystem ofwoke miss if you will that Ultimately,
the only way it can be stoppedis if people come together and fundamentally
say enough is enough. You know, we have feminine hygiene products in elementary
school boys. Bat It's just itis being pushed so much and it's in

(11:22):
these kids' faces, and you haveto wonder why, right, Like our
attorney, our New York Attorney General, Latitia James, hosted a drag Story
Hour okay for children in Manhattan.This was back in March, and the
events sparked outrage, Like I mean, people were mad because this was over
the use of taxpayer money for sucha controversial event. And it was co

(11:46):
sponsored by Drag Story Hour NYC,which is a nonprofit showered again in taxpayer
funds, and it enabled them tosend drag performers into public schools and libraries
to interact with children as young asthree years old. And Latiti said that
her office was proud to host adrag Story Hour rita thought. She promoted
the event on her ig. Sheinvited families to join her, the drag

(12:09):
storytellers, the community leaders, electedofficials. I mean, Catalina, this
must be part of a much biggerpicture. Do you feel that this wol
curriculum is fueled by mind and governmentcontrol? I mean, what's happening?
You know, it relates back torules the radicals. You know a lot
of this is Marxism and it's notsomething that should be taken lightly. The

(12:31):
isolated issue, especially something like asocial issue, and they just bade it
in your face over and over againuntil they try to create a movement that
way. They believe that so manymillennials and so many woke parents, if
you will, if there's enough ofthem to support a cause like this,
that they actually can change the rulesand then ultimately have complete control. But

(12:54):
the best part about all of thisthe silver lying, if you will,
I think studden, I've shown thatthis cultural welcism is actually unify more Americans.
Yeah, that's every easier they look, the sayer, we look well,
thank you so much for coming on. It was a pleasure chatting with
you. Thank you absolutely, guys. Do check her out. She's incredible.

(13:16):
That was our political segment brought toyou by Bichacuccina, featuring the incredible,
the beautiful, the super talented CatalineAlau, a passionate American former Republican
nominee, and of course you cancheck her out directly on the gram at
Catalina Lau. You're listening to amoment of Zen right here on seven to
ten wo R, the voice ofNew York iHeartRadio, will be right back
after this. A moment of Zenis brought to you by Navy, a

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Tristate Area. You're listening to amoment of Zen right here on seven ten

(14:48):
wore the voice of New York iHeartRadio. I'm your host, Zen. Sam's
up next in our Digital World segmentbrought to you by Navvy Travel. Today,
we're featuring Chris Mattman, chief Technologyand Innovation Officer at Nassau and in
the aerospace industry in general. Hiswork has helped explore space and helped journalists
and governments track international financial crime amongstthe world's elite. Today, we're chatting

(15:13):
all about artificial intelligence, from howit can make space travel and exploration safer,
to how it will revolutionize data threatsand breaches, to even how it
will reshape human interactions. Space travel, exploration, and observation involves some of
the most complex and dangerous scientific andtechnical operations ever carried out. This means

(15:35):
that it tends to throw up thekinds of problems that AI is proving itself
to be outstandingly helpful with. Withinthe last decade, AI has revolutionized industries
such as healthcare with image analysis anddisease diagnosis, to customer service with twenty
four seventh support, and to retailwith demand forecasting and inventory management. In
relation to space exploration. By automatingspacecraft operations, AI systems can autonomously navigate,

(16:02):
avoid obstacles, and optimize mission efficiency, ultimately enhancing the success and safety
of space missions. With AI asa trusted ally, the possibilities for exploration
and unraveling the mysteries of the cosmosare boundless. Here in the chat.
Further is my expert at hand,Chris Mattman. Welcome to the show,
Superstar. Hey Zen, thanks forhaving me. Really happy to be here,

(16:25):
and hey everyone out there in theaudience. Absolutely, let's jump right
in. So, in what wayscan AI technologies help mitigate risks and hazards
what we call during space missions,and what specific applications of AI can be
utilized to improve astronaut safety. Yeah, so, then a lot of the
risks that we have in space missionsare due to things like anomaly detections,

(16:48):
there's an error with the instrument,or the power has gone lower than it
needs to, it's gone below athreshold. These are repetitive tasks and humans
like you and I and others gettired of checking the same things over and
over again. But computers don't,and in particular, AI doesn't either.
AI is like a superpowered set ofmany, many humans that's really good at
pattern detection, pattern matching and thingslike that, and so related to spacecraft

(17:11):
health, instrument health, things likethat, what the AI can do is
it can do repetitive tasks a lotfaster than us. And so you typically
hear words like robotic process automation,you know, an anomaly detection, so
on and so forth health. SoAI is being deployed in those types of
environments. And then AI is alsogiving us a lot a kind of broader

(17:32):
understanding of some of the science that'scoming back from these instruments as well.
So you know, like you talkedabout in your intro image analysis, data
analysis and things like that, andso AI is really being kind of like
a robotic intelligent assistant to help usthere. Yeah, without a doubt.
I mean when you read all ofthese science journals, I mean a ton
of advancements, autonomous operations, efficientcommunication between astronauts, and detection, as

(18:00):
you said, of any environmental issuesare always in which AI brings efficiency to
space systems. For example, Iwas reading Simon Crew Interactive Mobile Companion developed
by Airbus and IBM is an elevenpound robot equipped with facial recognition technology that
can converse with the astronauts and recognizewho it's talking to. It was fascinating.
So yes, I mean so much, so much application, which brings

(18:22):
me to let's chat application. Howcan the collaboration between AI experts such as
yourself and space agencies such as NASAenhance space exploration? And what are some
of the incredible ways that AI iscurrently being used in space travel? Yeah?
Absolutely, So the way it canenhance, you know, collaboration is
you can imagine that AI today replicatesat human or better level, many of

(18:48):
the human senses. In fact,it's biologically inspired. In twenty twelve,
there was a model called alex natand you might have heard in the news
recently Jeffrey Hinton, you know,left Google, you know, in a
tist basically saying, hey, youknow AI is going to be the biggest
thread and you know, to advocateoutside of Google kind of against AI.
And you know, one of thethings with that is his student Alex was

(19:11):
a developer of alex net, whichwas this model that replicates the ways that
our eye works. In twenty fourteen, Baidu pushed out the deep speech model,
which is the foundation of modern andI hope I don't send anyone's off
here that a word from Amazon thatI won't say, but Google Home and
things like that. For intelligient assistance, it's an ear. It hears sound
and it turns it into texts.Twenty eighteen, Burt from Google, which

(19:34):
is the foundation of chat GPT,which is language to language interactions. So
we've got eyes, we've got ears, we've got language to language interaction.
Imagine all of the applications for that, like you said, for astronauts in
space, for cruise, for allsorts of interactions, for seeing things,
for hearing things, for being ableto command and control without typing. Obviously
that's not so easy in a spacesuit, you know, and things like

(19:56):
that. So those are all theways now that we have AI. Sense
is that it can be helping.Interesting because there's so many incredible ways AI
is being used, especially when youtalk about predictive maintenance, star and galaxy
mapping. That was an interesting one. From your planetary geology, what they
call astrogeology, rocket landing. Soit's funny. I used to have a

(20:17):
segment called fly Me to the Moon, and I would speak to astronauts and
we would feature them, and rocketlanding was something that I was always talking
about. I was obsessed with thisone. So SpaceX has been improving and
refining how rockets operate, and theyuse AI to monitor and analyze data from
the rocket sensors and telemetry systems,allowing for better decision making and more precise
control of the rocket's trajectory and speed. And in fact, SpaceX and this

(20:40):
is not a plug for SpaceX,it's just interesting for their technology. They
also use AI to automate certain aspectsof the rocket landing procedures, such as
controlling the engines and landing gear andmaking sure the rocket is in the optimal
position to land. So yeah,I mean, like, where are you
going without these robots? Right?Let's chat data. So now, interestingly,
you are best known for a twentythree year career inventing the most downloaded

(21:04):
software on the planet, creating technologythat powers all the data systems in the
industry. Tica, the digital Babblefishis the key technology that solved the Panama
papers and one the Politzer Prize inJournalism in twenty seventeen. Congratulations, you
are a superstar for that alone,and for those I'm going to just put
this out there listening that the PanamaPapers are eleven and a half million leaked

(21:27):
documents that were published in April oftwenty sixteen, and the papers detailed financial
and attorney client information for more thana quarter billion offshore entities. Now,
Chris, what drove you to thisinvention? And now looking back with AI
at hand, in your opinion,how will it really revolutionize and detect threats

(21:48):
and data breaches more efficiently without compromising. Mean you did this by yourself?
Yeah, zen, I really appreciatethe question. And I joke about the
Panama Papers. That's where we figuredout Hermione Granger was storing your money in
off shore accounts, amongst other things. But you know, Emma Watson was
one of the people caught up inthat. So so you know, at
NASA at other places, I've I'vebeen the data guy. I call myself

(22:10):
a data plumber, and a lotof it is managing big data. Sensors
are bigger now that take more data, other things like that, and so
managing and processing and turning data intoknowledge is a foundation really of AI,
and not everyone sort of understands that, but basically, the simple way to
explain it is that AI expects datato look like Excel sheets. It expects

(22:33):
data to look like columns and rows, in which the columns are things we
want to observe and the rows aredifferent samples of those columns. However,
the world doesn't look that way.The world is messy. It's audio,
it's images, it's video, it'sit's all sorts, it's word documents,
powerpoints, it's all sorts of it'semail, it's all sorts of heterogeneous data.
And so the foundation of TICA andall of this work it did on

(22:56):
the Panama papers and all of thesethings before was to take at unstructured,
ugly world and turn it into structured, almost Excel sheets. And so,
you know, you heard about andreYang talk about this in the twenty twenty
presidential campaign. He talked about dataas the new oil, and the implication
for that. You know, oilis useful, right because we refine it

(23:18):
into gasoline which powers our cars.And you know, think pals are so
all sorts of things. But thatrefinement process is the IP it's the intellectual
property for BP, Chevron everywhere else. And so that's the type of work
that I've been working on, isthat refinement process to take unstructured world turn
it into structured knowledge. I loveit now when you look at the bigger

(23:38):
picture, like micro versus macro,I mean, AI can monitor data access
and use, like you said,patterns, identify unusual patterns that may indicate
a data breach, and alert datamanagers. Right. Can also suggest measures
to mitigate the breach, such asblocking an authorized axis and encrypting sensitive data
or strengthening these access controls. Butthis brings me to let's chat privacy.

(24:02):
Right. So, AI systems oftenrely on collecting and analyzing vast amounts of
personal data, which raises concerns aboutprivacy and the potential misuse or unauthorized access
to this data can result in significantreaches of privacy and personal security. What
do you say to this, Imean, it's true. What I say
is, you know, you don'thave to look anywhere else but the news

(24:22):
to see you know, there aregovernments, especially some of our foreign adversaries,
including China and other places, thatliterally have no problem putting facial recognition
out there using it on their citizensand everywhere, and there are no ethical
sort of guidelines related to that.And so one of the things I say
is that we need to continue developingAI ethics. The West and the US
could be a leader in this.Europe has the AI Act in which they're

(24:45):
starting to put out some of theseAI ethics guidelines related to bias. Bias
in the training data obviously the earlysmart car is one of the challenges with
them. They had never seen ahandicap person or asone in a wheelchair,
or they had never seen a personof color. So we don't want training
data that doesn't reflect our population.Number one, so bison the training data.
The second thing is when these aismake predictions, we want to know

(25:08):
the confidence in them. We don'twant to just know it's going to rain
tomorrow or it's going to be sunny. We want to know the confidence behind
that, because one of the challengesis when it doesn't rain tomorrow. What
they never told you is that itwas only fifteen percent confident it was going
to rain, and that was thebest option amongst all the other options beside
it, which were even less thanfifteen percent, which isn't really confident.
And then finally, we need tohelp people. A lot of people are

(25:30):
worried about their jobs related to AI. You know, are they going to
displace in all of that? Well, hey, you know I live out
here in Pasadena. The one tenFreeway was built in the nineteen you know,
the early nineteen fifties, nineteen fortiesfor roads and beltways. Right,
it's the craziest freeway in the world. It was not built to go eighty
miles an hour. Yeah, however, it was built in the horses and
buggy time right post that, andso we had all this upskilling, you

(25:53):
know, that was done. Thathad to be done to take the folks
who weren't building horses and buggies anymore, and we're building cars. The same
thing needs to happen with AI.We need to provide upskilling and soft landings
for all of our people. Youknow, Unemployment and job displacement is a
big one because the automation capabilities ofAI may just result in job displacement to
your point, and significant changes inthe job market are going to occur.

(26:15):
So this raises concerns about the impacton individual's livelihoods, on income into quality,
and the need for retraining and reskillingprograms. So lack of transparency is
also one because AI algorithms can becomplex and opaque, making it challenging to
understand how they make decisions or evenreach conclusions. So this lack of transparency

(26:36):
can undermine accountability and raise concerns aboutpotential biases to your point, or on
ethical practices embedded in the very algorithms. So that's a key one to really
look out for. Thank you somuch for pointing that out. Now we
have about two minutes left before Icut to a commercial break. But one
of the other interesting questions was arethere any specific industries or sectors where AI
has shown significant impact in revolutionizing datathreat and breach prevention. We have about

(27:02):
a minute left. Yeah, yeah, I think that there's a couple I
think related to ransomware AI and especiallycyberth security threats across hospitals and things like
that. I think AI will bea very powerful tool because it's already going
through everyone's you know, passwords andthings like that, and this is what's
telling us in the cybersecurity world,Hey, you know, we need updated

(27:23):
password requirements and guidelines. We needto reduce access to these particular networks and
things like that. So AI isreally poised to make a big contribution there
to protect against these cyber ransomware typesof things that are getting in and infecting
people's networks, and especially in verycritical environments like hospitals and other places like

(27:45):
that. You know, we inschools LAUSD had a huge cyber ransom hack
last November, and AI has thepotential to help mitigate that. Yeah,
without a doubt. Thank you somuch for coming on, my dear friend
Chris. It was amazing chatting withyou. Then. It was a pleasure
to come on anytime again. Andhope everyone's having a great rest of their
day. That was my Digital Worldsegment, brought to you by Natty Travel.
That was the awesome. Chris Mattman, chief technology Officer and innovation Officer

(28:10):
in the aerospace industry and at Nassau. You could check him out directly on
his website at Matman dot ai,or you can check him out all over
social media at Chris Mattman. You'relistening to a moment of Zen right here
on seven ten Wire, the voiceof New york iHeartRadio. We'll be right
back after this. A moment ofZen is brought to you by Caldwell Solmes
Incorporated, investing globally and transformative businesseslike Original Digital Corporation or ODC. ODC

(28:36):
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(28:57):
beautiful Tristate area. Listening to amoment of Zen right here on seven
ten w R, the voice ofNew York iHeartRadio. I'm your host,
Zen Sam's up. In just afew minutes, we have our Innovation and
Tech segment, brought to you byCaldwell Zones and ogpai dot com. And
today we're featuring Lamia Camo, Egypt'stop branding expert, founder of the Mega

(29:19):
Narrative Summit and the PR firm CCplus News. Impressively, she's also the
founder of Flair Magazine Egypt. Today, she's joined by our regular contributor Paul
Caldwell Chairman and CEO of Caldwell Zones, and today we're chatting about the mass
adoption of digital payments across Egypt andthe Middle East and its direct effect on

(29:40):
American tourism. Now in a recentreference in Business Monthly, the Journal of
the American Chamber of Commerce in Egyptin the region, digital payments are booming.
Mastercard's New Payment Index Flagship statistic isthat in twenty twenty one, eighty
eight percent of Egyptian consumers have usedat least one emerging payment method. Meanwhile,

(30:02):
fifteen percent indicated they used less cash. The bottom line is that understanding
international digital payment trends is essential forlocal players to capitalize on the country's dynamic,
young, tech savvy consumers. Egyptis a fertile ground for all that
is innovation and digital. Consumers inEgypt are adopting different payment options and discovering

(30:22):
more of the digital economy's benefits.Adam Jones, who is Mastercard's country general
manager, said Egypt received eleven pointseven million tourists in twenty twenty two,
and that was up from eight millionback in twenty twenty one, marking a
forty six percent increase now, Egypt'stourism revenues jumped by close to twenty six
percent during the second half of twentytwenty two to a record of seven point

(30:45):
three billion dollars. Now, accordingto recent data published by the Central Bank
of Egypt, these numbers are onlygoing to be increasing. Welcoming now to
the show. Are my experts athand? Allow me a camel and Paul
Caldwell. Well, my friends,hellos in Lamia. Let's start with you.
So let's chat digital payments, Lamia. When it comes to lucrative investments,

(31:08):
the opportunities across all parts of Egypt'sdigital economy are essentially undeniable, the
Ministry of Communication and Information Technology saidon its website. Objectives entail developing the
ICT, which is the information andcommunication technology infrastructure, fostering digital inclusion,
achieving the transition to a knowledge basedeconomy, fighting corruption, ensuring cybersecurity,

(31:33):
and promoting Egypt's position at the regionaland international levels. They seem to be
really promoting the digital economy. Tellme, Lamia, how has the mass
adoption of digital payments across Egypt andthe Middle East impacted the tourism industry in
your country? Six to four percentof Egyptians have increased your digital usage and

(31:56):
they're all payment solutions to be ableto de war of those transactions digitally.
And we expect and a population ofone twenty million people, we expect that
by the year twenty twenty five,which is coming up very soon, in
two years, we will have aroundfifty nine million people adopting payments and digital
payment solutions. So there is thisa huge transformation, there's this huge speed,

(32:22):
and it started off before COVID,but COVID really really impacted our need
for this and created this whole spacefor us to adopt these new ties.
I would also like to tell youthat the Ministry of Tourism Antiquities have adopted
these payments in the Pyramids, atthe Citadel, at the museum, the

(32:45):
National Museum and that year, whichis the biggest museum currently before the Gradutuate
Museum. Once digit Gradutate Museum isopened, also the payment solutions is going
to be intact over there, andalso in the upward Egypt where the most
of the our collegial sites are opening. Also four or five of those sides
have as opted digital solution. Isthe US Tourism, the US tourists come

(33:09):
as the number of between five andten laptop nationalities of our inbound tourism.
And knowing that because when you goback and I want to touch on this,
uh and just go thinking back offsomething that I'm going to ask Paul.
But to your point, an indispensablepart of any digital economy is the
ability to securely and conveniently process payments. And given the key role digitalization plays

(33:32):
in the financial lives of more andmore of the world's population, electronic payments
are at the epicenter of this chaptermationand so for travel and especially for Egypt,
this is essential. Now I'm gonnasway back to Paul here, Paul,
welcome back, my friend. Gladto be here. So this is
exactly right up your alley, thisconversation. So master Card, Paul said

(33:52):
nearly thirty five percent of those usingdigital payments used tappable smartphone mobile wallets,
twenty seven percent a digital money transferapp, and twenty four percent, interestingly
enough, QR codes. The restof the population make payments via left field
channel such as social media apps.So adoption of a broader range of digital

(34:13):
payment methods is accelerating. In fact, in Egypt, and the technology fueling
the future of payments is basically alreadythere. Tilmia's point, consumers in Egypt
are increasingly inactively using these solutions.In Egypt, Gen Z and millennials are
less likely to make in person purchasesand payments, and this is really based
off directly this MasterCard report, andthey're proactively seeking new payment methods, with

(34:37):
Paul forty percent of Gen Z andmillennials likely to have obtained a new touch
free payment method compared to the olderGen X. So cash is becoming obsolete
for the first time ever in Egyptianculture. Does this surprise you and what
do you have to say to this? I think it's less of an innovation
at this point because that's kind ofbaked into everything, and it's less of

(34:59):
a disrupt as well, because it'salready there and and it's it's not really
disrupting. I think where the bigchanges is in the transformation of how people
think about how they use their moneyin different ways. I mean, you
can be online and you can payfor things and touch lists in all of
that and whatever, but you know, you cannot eat dinner over the computer.

(35:21):
I mean, you just can't feedyou have to still go to a
restaurant or buy some food at thegrocery or whatever, make the food or
someone has to make it for you. So there's there's there's still this in
person component to this. I justsee it everywhere. UM in our in
our fun we're looking at Middle EastNorth Africa. We call it our Men
our mena app strategy. We're anacquisition mode right now for fintech companies.

(35:45):
We've acquired a company UM that hasa lot of North Africa presence and Africa
presence with the World Bank. Theseare the requirements here. Are are are
really specific because there are certain thingsaround what's called origination. There are certain
things around the transactions, the typeof the transactions, and then there's all

(36:05):
kinds of cross border commerce that goeson. You know, if you looked
at the number of people that arecarrying a visa card from the United States
or Europe or whatever, they goto Egypt and they use that card and
then they have to have foreign transactionfees. Digital can do away with foreign
transaction fees, so fee based incomeon the vendor side, on the merchant
side, on the master card visa. Everybody is shifting it's transforming. It's

(36:30):
in the back office. It's differentthan it used to be. So where
I see the convergence and the transformation, I should say, is in the
convergence of apps like the ogpay appthat you're familiar with zend that actually has
the QR codes, the wallet towallet payments that's off the rail, so
you can have both closed loop andopen loop systems operating within one environment.

(36:52):
So you slide your cards, canstill do your card processing and your merchant
services and so forth, but youcan also have wallet to wallet so that
if I was here and my parentswere in Egypt, that I wanted to
send them some money, I couldjust do it wallet to wallet for free,
no cost. And that's a transformationfor people that may otherwise have been

(37:14):
going to like a Western Union orsomething and sending that money when they get
their paycheck, can have to paya c for that. When they can
send that money and it's free,and then those people can use that money
straight away, it transforms how peoplethink about how they use the money.
That's amazing. And Ogpa is asuper app as we know it because it's
multilingual, multi currency, multi use, multifunctional, is very integrated and very

(37:37):
safe FDIC ensured. I mean,it's one of that's why I proudly endorse
him. Back it Lanmia. TheEgyptian government took a NUIs measure to stimulate
the travel sector, including deciding backin January to allow one hundred and any
nationalities to obtain tourist visas on arrivalto Egypt. Of course, there's a
little bit of caveats to that,but in general that was the point,

(37:57):
and the Ministry of Transport also launchedsince it's first ever online platform to regulate
the entry of yacht trips into thecountry. Is part of a newly developed
strategy to leverage the country's unique strategicalgeographic location and long coastal lines. Of
course, now, have there beenany challenges or barriers to the mass adoption
of digital payments in the tourism sector, and if so, how are they

(38:22):
being addressed? I mean, whatare Egypt's biggest challenges at the moment?
Meaning tourist demands? The general challengesauturism, which is basically ensuring that the
traveler has the right experience while he'sat the country. So although Egypt has
this massive arcological sites between Cairo,between Giza, at the pyramids, and

(38:42):
in the beach areas in upward Egyptwhere all the arcological sides of the in
Luxor and in the temples. Butstill the tourists wouldn't just come to see
the arcological sites are just to beat the beach. They want an overall
experience. They want to be ableto walk freely, They want to be
able to solve trust in the system. They want to be able to rely

(39:04):
on their payment methods, that they'renot going to be ripped offs, that
they're not going to be cheated onanything, that they're going to get the
right service that give they can getthe right products. And according to research,
for example, we noted that mosttravelers and tourists, tourists are looking
for eat payments through for shopping purposes, for restaurants and for bookings. These

(39:25):
are the major transactions that are happeningonline when it comes to tourism. So
you want to make sure at firstthat they trust the method, that they
go to the right shopping place tobuy what they're looking for, and that
whatever restaurant that they go to toenjoy the experience overall, is that they

(39:45):
are able to make those statements becausethese are these are the locations where tourists
fond to exercise freedom they want promotingand promoting tourism has gained further urgency now
more than ever in Egypt because ofthe global economic crisis that you know we
were face not long ago, whichhas put pressure on the local currency and
caused Egypt to face an actual shortagein foreign currency. So right now,

(40:07):
travel is essential. Paul, abouttwo minutes left and then we're going to
cut to a commercial break for extendedsegment. For those that you're going to
want to listen to expert talk moreexpert talking enough to tune into our YouTube
channel. But Paul, the PwCreports just behind the scenes, processing,
the plumbing of payments is changing asconsumers reduced their use of cards and traditional

(40:28):
accounts in favor of what we've beentalking about, these digital wallets and smartphone
apps. And the document attributed thetransition to regulators forcing the industry to strengthen
or build up domestic infrastructure for payments, and that entices digital payment providers to
outsource their infrastructure to cloud developers.This very survey accompanying the report found eighty

(40:50):
percent of financial services organizations expect tohave outsourced such infrastructures by the year twenty
twenty five, which is just aroundthe corner. That makes the interpt of
e wallets among local and overseas banksand non bank operators essential but not easy
to achieve well. In our operabilityis the function of necessity. It's kind

(41:10):
of like necessity drives inventions. Sayingright, I think it also for tourism.
Zen is a still a good example. If we stay on tourism,
there needs to be other tech based, fintech based solutions operating in a market.
An example might be the bus,the public transportation system, for example
in a country. If that wasenabled to where you just could scan your

(41:34):
phone when you step on the busand it automatically paid it, or it
scanned a code and it paid itfrom your wallet to your wallet completely bypassing
all the Visa, MasterCard, allthe credit card rails, and just was
a wallet to wallet transaction with thiscity and the consumer that bus. The
city owns the bus, the consumergets on the bus, scans it,

(41:55):
and there's no fees whatsoever. Thecity doesn't have to pay a merchant processing
fee to master Card or Visa inthat regard, they simply just do the
transaction with their customer, which isthe bus rider. Now that same technology
is the technology that would be operatingin the tourist sector at the hotels,

(42:15):
at the vendors. Little QR codeson the little kiosks of the lady that
makes the little gadgets or the blankets, you could just scan it and bloom,
you pay her. She's happy,she doesn't have to pay all It
would be so happy she doesn't haveto pay those fees. It's it's you
know, two percent, two pointnine, one point five card present these
kinds of things. So this iswhy you see the big card merchant processing

(42:37):
companies like like Fiser for example,and you see the visas and the master
cards of the world, you're gonnayou're seeing major shifts union pay or scene
shifts. You're seeing movement around alipay around the world more deeply integrated.
Everywhere. China has the bridge androads, the br initiative going on,

(42:58):
you see that they're they're bringing thecompanies in there as part of those solutions
for collecting tolls and things like thaton those bridges and those roads. So
there's a ton going on behind thescenes. I completely agree with the PwC
conclusions. I'm familiar with the reportyou're referencing. I just think it's going
to get faster and faster. ButI think it all comes down to success

(43:19):
is rooted in being able to transformhow people think about how they do something
that matters to them. And whenare you writing your book? If you
could do that, then I thinkyou have something really great to talk about
it. You are incredible. Ilove your commentaries. Don't move a muscle,
guys, I'm going to cut toa commercial break. You definitely have
to check out Paul Caldwell and LamiaCamel. You can go directly on Lamia's

(43:43):
website. You can go to atNarrative Summit on the web, at ccplus
News, at Flare Magazine. Youcan go directly to CC dashplus dot com
and again ogpa dot com for allyour fintech needs. You're listening to a
Moment of Zen right here on seventen War Voice of New York iHeartRadio.
Don't move a muscle. We'll beright back after this. A Moment of

(44:04):
Zen is brought to you by yourhome TV. HI, this is Kathy
Ireland here in a moment of Zenbrought to you by your home TV.
We've developed an all inclusive, subscriptionfree network that you're going to love,
whether it's financial freedom, fashion,beauty, health and wellness, wonderful weddings,
travel and culture, cooking, entertainmentand short form documentaries, programming for

(44:24):
everyone, classic films, and newshows including Kathy Ireland Presents American Dreams.
We've developed this network just for you. Please check out your hometv dot com.
Tune in to a Moment of ZenSaturday nights from nine to ten pm
on wo R, the Voice ofNew york iHeartRadio. Hey guys, this
is a celebrity. Stef Jonathan sentthe right here in a Moment of Zen

(44:46):
oneven WR, the Voice of Newyork iHeartRadio. Welcome to the Culinary and
Wine Segment, brought to you byBjkucina and today's mini segment. We're going
to be making a filet mignon outof crunched tacos with a spicy mango cold
flow. All right, we aregonna get out real nice and hot.
Now I'm using brand Man grills.This is an amazing commode. Oh here,

(45:09):
this thing it was going to bea game changer, but we're gonna
be using a really cool product.Okay, this is from barrel Proof.
This is authentic Kentucky bourbon barrel hits. All right, we only have to
take a few of them. Getthat nice sweet and smoky flavor. Oh
my god, I smell the burbitright here. You could definitely smell how

(45:29):
authentic it is. So we aregonna be making our steak very soon.
Get the grill nice and piping hotabout three hundred. All right, we're
gonna start on the spicy mango coldflow. I'm using a really really great
tasting hot saus Okay, this isCanalis. This right here is the mango
hot sous. It's got pinkhamalion sesail called powdered curry. It's got onion,

(45:52):
it's got hobbit narrow, it's gotmango, real mango through Okay,
you don't hear that too often.And it's also got some hollow so we're
gonna have some fun with this.As you see, it's chunky, so
we gotta get it coming out,and we're gonna probably put it about a
good eight tablespoons or so. Wehave the typical calls full of mix.
Right, throw that right and theycan get that any supermarket, So I'll

(46:13):
throw that in there. It's abouttwo cups right there. I got this
from Chef Mandela. This is whitebalsamic vinegar, straight from Italy. This
is really good stuff. So we'regonna give that about three tablespoons, and
they're gonna use a half a cupof mayonnaise. I don't like my call
flaw two mayonnaisy. Some people likeit that way. I like mine a
little bit more acidic. And sincewe're using the mango hot sauce and also

(46:36):
the balzamic vinegar, we got thatnice happy medium, a little sweet,
a little sour. Love that amommy flavor, right, that's what we
want. So get that mayo inthere, and that's about the half a
cup. We don't need any ofthe sould or any of the peppers because
that's in the hot sauce itself mixesall up, and we're gonna use this
lead to serve on our taco.So you can see our call flaw.

(46:57):
Exactly what I was looking for,and so you got a nice, really
nice balance. All right, We'regonna get our steaks seasoned up and ready
to go and hit it on thegrill. I'm using Marble fifty seven.
This is certified way Goog beef.This stuff is amazing and this is their
Filet's look how cool This packaging isright nice and easy to use, just
popping right open, and it's gotit right in the vacuum sealed package.

(47:19):
So we're gonna get our stakes seasonright now. I am using howdy part
of barbecue Rob from Nashville Spice Company. Oh man, Yeah, we want
a definitely season is heavy and I'mnot putting any olive oil or anything that
guy on this time because we wantto smoke the steaks. But I want
to cover this link. Don't beshy. I use that if Hey,
if you have to use the wholebottle, you can always buy another one.
Right. This is the beautiful filetMinana I was telling you about earlier.

(47:43):
I was not kidding when I saidgo heavy on the season. All
right, So this is what itlooks like. This stuff is so tender.
I'm ready to eat it now,a little tartar style. All right,
Let's get this steak on the grillfor a little bit on direct heat.
Right, we'll be here. Justwant to get that seer and then
once we get that seer, going. We'll move it and make it not
on the direct heat. Close thelid, and let's make some match while

(48:06):
look at the smell is unbelievable.Oh, that's exactly what I was looking
for, those beautiful seer marks likethat. And now we're gonna take it
directly off the heat so it cooksa little bit more. Not even you
could see it's still a little tender. That's exactly what I'm looking for.
That medium raresh. I'm gonna hitit for maybe another minute. Get those
flavors of them volding back in there, because I love that Kentucky bourbon.

(48:28):
Those chips in there. You cansmell it all. My neighbors are probably
losing their mind right now. Let'scut this beautiful folly opened. Oh that's
exactly what we were looking for.Look at that as the perfect pink scent
that I wanted. We'll cut theminto about one inch strips. Look at
that. Oh my god, Hey, that's an incredible All right, we're
gonna cut this up for the taco. Now we're gonna get the pang on

(48:51):
on the grill and we're gonna takesome cheddar cheese, beautiful cheddar like that.
This is about one and a halfcups and we're going to make a
cockle shell out of it. Sowe're gonna spread this out and we want
a big one, so that's whywe're using a lot of cheese like that.
So the outside is gonna be niceand crunchy. The inside is gonna
be that cheesiness that we like.Let's plate this. Look at this.

(49:12):
This is how the taco shell cameout. You could say crispy on the
outside. Look at that. That'sthe color we're looking for. Incredible.
We're gonna stopt plating our now ourchedd a crunch taco shell. So we're
gonna get that spicy slow that wemade. I'm gonna put that on the
bottom. Nice heap and portion ofthat. Oh my god, this looks
insane. I am starving. Andthen we're gonna throw some of that meat

(49:32):
in there. This looks incredible.Hit it with some nice acidity, Hit
it with the lime. Look atthis beauty that. It is a taco
that probably you'll be eating double andtriple of these amazing ones, right,
so real simple, plate it,serve it with a beautiful bottle of rose
Pinwoa. Over here. This stuffhere is from Castle Rock. We're gonna

(49:54):
get those nice fruity light notes.Look at that as a beauty right,
Yeah, yes to everybody, andJulia Summer, I'll see you rail Zoom.
That was our culinary and Wine segment, brought to you by b J
Kochina. Thanks for tuning in.I'm watching. This is Seth Jonathan sent
though on a Moment of Zen seventhWR, the Voice of New york iHeartRadio.

(50:15):
A Moment of Zen is brought toyou by your Home TV. Hi,
this is Kathy Ireland here on aMoment of Zen, brought to you
by your Home TV. We've developedan all inclusive, subscription free network that
you're going to love, whether it'sfinancial freedom, fashion, beauty, health
and wellness, wonderful weddings, traveland culture, cooking, entertainment and short

(50:36):
form documentaries, programming for everyone,classic films and new shows, including Kathy
Ireland Presents American Dreams. We've developedthis network just for you. Please check
out your hometv dot com. Tunein to a Moment of Zen Saturday nights
from nine to ten pm on woR, the Voice of New york iHeartRadio.
Well that's a rap, my dearfriends. Remember to join me right

(50:59):
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(51:21):
all episodes of a Moment of Zenare now streaming on Kathy Ireland's Your
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(51:44):
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