Best Refining Reason Podcasts (2024)

1
Market Update: Will the Election Make a Difference in Mortgage Rates? 9:56

5h ago9:56

9:56

All eyes are on the election this week because of the impact it might have across the economy. But will the results matter for mortgage rates? This week’s market update is all about rates rising despite the Fed’s recent cuts and what impact the election will have on the housing market. Here’s what we discuss in this episode: 0:00 – Intro 2:25 – Spe…

1
3 Main Reasons Loans Never Make It To Closing 12:53

6d ago12:53

12:53

When it comes to buying a home, everyone dreams of a smooth and celebratory settlement process. Making it to the closing table should be a positive experience, but not all mortgage journeys end happily. Today we’re going to discuss why some mortgage loans never make it to the closing table and how you can avoid these three main pitfalls. Learn more…

1
What Does a Good Pre-Approval Look Like? 11:37

20d ago11:37

11:37

What should I expect during the pre-approval process? It’s a big question for homebuyers, especially if they are going through the process for the first time. Buying a home is one of the most significant decisions you'll make, and understanding the pre-approval process can make this journey smoother and more successful. Here’s what we discuss in th…

1
How Quickly Should You Pay Off Your Mortgage? 10:20

1M ago10:20

10:20

Paying off a mortgage is a major goal for many as they approach retirement. People often wonder how quickly they should pay it off or by what age should they have the mortgage completely paid down. But is that always the best strategy? Comparison can often be the thief of joy so let’s talk about why it’s important to run your own race and move at a…

1
Market Update: Why Didn't Mortgage Rates Drop More After the Fed Rate Cut? 9:50

27d ago9:50

9:50

Recently, the Federal Reserve announced a significant rate cut, the first in four years, reducing the federal funds rate by half a percent. This news had many consumers excited, expecting a substantial drop in mortgage rates. However, the reality turned out to be quite different, leaving many wondering why mortgage rates didn't fall as anticipated.…

1
Making Stew? How Lingering Helps Us Let Go of All the Things 11:48

1M ago11:48

11:48

Ever find yourself stewing over something small that just ruins your whole day? We've all been there. But it's not where God wants us to be focused. So how do we let go? Join me on today's podcast as I share an experience I had while driving in Los Angeles traffic and how lingering with Jesus made all the difference. Let's chat. FROM TODAY'S EPISOD…

1
How To Find a Trusted Mortgage Lender 10:50

2M ago10:50

10:50

Finding a trusted lender can be a big challenge because it’s difficult to know where to start. If you go to a place like LendingTree or Bankrate, you might find your phone or email being bombarded with lenders trying to reach out to you. A simple inquiry shouldn’t be an invite to flood your inbox. But there is a better way, and Bill breaks it down …

1
How To Build Credit From Scratch 13:35

2M ago13:35

13:35

Building good credit is a huge part of being able to secure a mortgage for a home. However, not all of us are in the position credit-wise that we need to be, so how do we fix that? Many potential homeowners face the challenge of securing a mortgage with less-than-perfect credit. But don't give up! In this episode, Bill shares strategies for rebuild…

1
Anchored with a Paper Chain? 16:48

2M ago16:48

16:48

Are you feeling adrift in life? Struggling to stay grounded when everything seems uncertain? In this episode, we explore what it means to have an anchor that holds—no matter the storm. Join Janine as she dives into the truth of Jesus as our unshakable rock and learn how to secure our hope in His promises. Tune in now and discover how to replace fra…

1
How Do You Know If You Are Getting a Good Deal on Your Mortgage? 15:40

2M ago15:40

15:40

The average home buyer shops for a mortgage only a few times in their life so it’s a challenge to know if you’re getting a good deal. No one wants a surprise when it comes time to close, but how do you know if you’re getting a good deal from your mortgage lender? Here’s what we discuss in this episode: 0:00 – Intro 2:29 – Get it in writing. 7:04 – …

1
Market Update: Rate Cuts & Refinance Demand Is Up 10:09

2M ago10:09

10:09

The mortgage market has been interesting to follow the past few months and September is no different with the upcoming Fed meeting on everyone’s calendar. Join us as we check in with Bill on what he’s watching in that meeting and why the comments from Chairman Powell might actually be more important. Will the meeting result in lower mortgage rates …

1
Down Payment Options for an Investment Property 0:21

2M ago0:21

0:21

Real estate investing is a great way to build wealth but one of the toughest hurdles is having the money to put down on that new property. You might be tempted to pull from retirement accounts, sell stocks, or find other creative ways to pull together 20% for a down payment. But what’s going to be your best approach? Today we’re going to answer a g…

1
The Power at Work Within Me 13:27

3M ago13:27

13:27

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, we didn’t really talk about the Holy Spirit much. It was all about Jesus. Not that it was a bad thing, but the Holy Spirit is important too. Join Janine for a conversation about the true power at work within us and the affects of lingering with Him. FROM TODAY'S EPISODE Scriptures 2 Corinthians 12:9 Ephesians 3:20-21 …

1
The Hidden Costs Of Homeownership and How to Prepare For Them 14:43

3M ago14:43

14:43

Homeownership is a financial and personal goal that many folks have in their lives, and it’s hard to prepare for when you haven’t experienced it yet. Most first-time homebuyers will look at the cost of the home and what it will take to secure a mortgage, but how much have you budgeted for the expenses that come with owning a home? Here’s what we di…

1
Improving Agent Design, JPEG-LM's Visual Breakthrough, TurboEdit's Real-Time Image Edits, Video Segmentation Advances, LLMs Learning Like Humans, RL Benchmarks 16:00

3M ago16:00

16:00

xGen-MM (BLIP-3): A Family of Open Large Multimodal ModelsJPEG-LM: LLMs as Image Generators with Canonical Codec RepresentationsAutomated Design of Agentic SystemsTurboEdit: Instant text-based image editingSurgical SAM 2: Real-time Segment Anything in Surgical Video by Efficient Frame PruningFine-tuning Large Language Models with Human-inspired Lea…

1
Science & Clinical LLMs Leaps, Enhancing Small Model Reasoning, New Frontiers in Controlled Media Generation 14:24

3M ago14:24

14:24

The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific DiscoveryMed42-v2: A Suite of Clinical LLMsMutual Reasoning Makes Smaller LLMs Stronger Problem-SolversControlNeXt: Powerful and Efficient Control for Image and Video GenerationCogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert TransformerFruitNeRF: A Unified Neural Radiance Fiel…

1
What Changes We’re Seeing for the NAR Realtor Commissions Settlement? 11:05

3M ago11:05

11:05

We’ve been keeping a close eye on real estate transactions and homebuying following the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Commission settlement because it has been a hot topic in the real estate industry, and for good reason. This settlement has introduced new dynamics in how real estate transactions are conducted, particularly affecting the r…

1
Can Lingering Affect Our Anxiety? 21:10

3M ago21:10

21:10

Michelle writes… I struggle with anxiety…a lot. I believe in Jesus and I read his word but I still struggle. I want peace and I’m trying to linger but Can Jesus really help? I love this question because it gets to the heart of this podcast. Sure, we may know who Jesus is…and we may believe in Him and that He died for me and rose on the third day. B…

1
Multimodal Benchmarks, Visual Task Transfer, and 3D Object Generation 14:15

3M ago14:15

14:15

MMIU: Multimodal Multi-image Understanding for Evaluating Large Vision-Language ModelsLLaVA-OneVision: Easy Visual Task TransferAn Object is Worth 64x64 Pixels: Generating 3D Object via Image DiffusionMedTrinity-25M: A Large-scale Multimodal Dataset with Multigranular Annotations for MedicineIPAdapter-Instruct: Resolving Ambiguity in Image-based Co…

1
Markets are down so what about mortgage rates? 12:01

3M ago12:01

12:01

It’s been pretty rough across markets the past week beginning with the jobs report at the start of August. While the news been negative and the outlook for the stock market is pessimistic, there might be a silver lining as it relates to mortgage rates. Prediction markets have greatly increased the chances that rates get cut by 50 bps in September, …

1
Image and Video Segmentation with SAM 2, Gemma 2 for Efficient Language Models, Boosting Small Models with Contrastive Fine-Tuning, and MM-Vet v2 Challenges Large Multimodal Models 13:40

3M ago13:40

13:40

SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and VideosGemma 2: Improving Open Language Models at a Practical SizeCoarse Correspondence Elicit 3D Spacetime Understanding in Multimodal Language ModelImproving Text Embeddings for Smaller Language Models Using Contrastive Fine-tuningOmniParser for Pure Vision Based GUI AgentSF3D: Stable Fast 3D Mesh Reconstructi…

1
Refined to Reflect 17:33

3M ago17:33

17:33

Silver is refined in an incredibly hot crucible. Isaiah 48:10 says we. are refined in our suffering. As figure skater growing up, I desperately wanted to give up many times. But my coach wouldn't let me. She knew the good...the reward of not giving up. When we persevere through our trials, the good waiting for us on the other side is perfectly refl…

1
Text-Guided Image Inpainting, AMEX for Mobile GUI Agents, AgentScope's Multi-Agent Simulation 14:29

3M ago14:29

14:29

Diffree: Text-Guided Shape Free Object Inpainting with Diffusion ModelLAMBDA: A Large Model Based Data AgentAMEX: Android Multi-annotation Expo Dataset for Mobile GUI AgentsBetterDepth: Plug-and-Play Diffusion Refiner for Zero-Shot Monocular Depth EstimationVery Large-Scale Multi-Agent Simulation in AgentScopeData Mixture Inference: What do BPE Tok…

1
OpenDevin & AI Software Development, Enhancing Visual Language Models, , DDK: Refining Large Language Model Efficiency through Domain Knowledge 13:45

4M ago13:45

13:45

OpenDevin: An Open Platform for AI Software Developers as Generalist AgentsVILA^2: VILA Augmented VILAHumanVid: Demystifying Training Data for Camera-controllable Human Image AnimationPERSONA: A Reproducible Testbed for Pluralistic AlignmentSV4D: Dynamic 3D Content Generation with Multi-Frame and Multi-View ConsistencyScalify: scale propagation for…

1
How do you calculate home affordability for retirees and seniors? 9:30

4M ago9:30

9:30

Bill Litton and Cross Country Mortgage work with seniors quite a bit through the homebuying process. And the question that comes up quite a bit is, how do you calculate that home affordability? Is it different when you're working with seniors versus when you're working with a younger buyer? Today we're…

1
Vocabulary Expansion for Large Models, Big Data Enhancing LMs, 4D Reconstruction Progress, AI Cityscape Generation, DPO Policy Analysis, Expanding Code Models, Multimodal LM Trust Evaluation 14:55

4M ago14:55

14:55

Scaling Laws with Vocabulary: Larger Models Deserve Larger VocabulariesScaling Retrieval-Based Language Models with a Trillion-Token DatastoreShape of Motion: 4D Reconstruction from a Single VideoStreetscapes: Large-scale Consistent Street View Generation Using Autoregressive Video DiffusionUnderstanding Reference Policies in Direct Preference Opti…

1
What Should I Ask My Mortgage Lender? 13:29

4M ago13:29

13:29

Today we’re going to give you the questions to ask your mortgage lender to help determine if they are the right fit. From understanding their availability during non-traditional hours to ensuring they offer a variety of programs that fit your unique situation, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Whether you're a first-time homebuyer or l…

1
Qwen2 Language Model, Mitigating Privacy Risks in LLMs, Exploring Non-Determinism, Increased Efficiency with Q-Sparse, GRUtopia for Embodied AI 10:38

4M ago10:38

10:38

Qwen2 Technical ReportLearning to Refuse: Towards Mitigating Privacy Risks in LLMsThe Good, The Bad, and The Greedy: Evaluation of LLMs Should Not Ignore Non-DeterminismQ-Sparse: All Large Language Models can be Fully Sparsely-ActivatedGRUtopia: Dream General Robots in a City at Scale

1
Skywork-Math's Reasoning, Video Diffusion Model Innovations, Multimodal Learning, Q-GaLore's Memory Efficiency, MAVIS: Visual Math Instruction 12:11

4M ago12:11

12:11

Skywork-Math: Data Scaling Laws for Mathematical Reasoning in Large Language Models -- The Story Goes OnVideo Diffusion Alignment via Reward GradientsMultimodal Self-Instruct: Synthetic Abstract Image and Visual Reasoning Instruction Using Language ModelQ-GaLore: Quantized GaLore with INT4 Projection and Layer-Adaptive Low-Rank GradientsMAVIS: Math…

1
Questions You Should Ask Your Real Estate Agent 12:53

4M ago12:53

12:53

We talk all the time about the importance of having a real estate agent on your side when it comes time to find your next home, but do you know what you should be asking them? Today we want to help you with the process of finding the right agent that will assist you and give you the best chance to secure that dream home. If you haven’t been getting…

1
Beyond Encoders in Vision-Language Models, Revolutionizing Human-LLM Interaction, and Advancing Knowledge Graphs 12:05

4M ago12:05

12:05

Unveiling Encoder-Free Vision-Language ModelsFunAudioLLM: Voice Understanding and Generation Foundation Models for Natural Interaction Between Humans and LLMsAriGraph: Learning Knowledge Graph World Models with Episodic Memory for LLM AgentsRULE: Reliable Multimodal RAG for Factuality in Medical Vision Language ModelsChartGemma: Visual Instruction-…

1
Diffusion Forcing to Expert Tuning, Structured Planning, Vision-Language Models, and Tabular ML Benchmarks 11:34

4M ago11:34

11:34

Diffusion Forcing: Next-token Prediction Meets Full-Sequence DiffusionLet the Expert Stick to His Last: Expert-Specialized Fine-Tuning for Sparse Architectural Large Language ModelsPlanetarium: A Rigorous Benchmark for Translating Text to Structured Planning LanguagesInternLM-XComposer-2.5: A Versatile Large Vision Language Model Supporting Long-Co…

1
Advancing AI's Mathematical Reasoning: WE-MATH, ROS-LLM Framework, Autoregressive Image Generation 10:36

4M ago10:36

10:36

We-Math: Does Your Large Multimodal Model Achieve Human-like Mathematical Reasoning?ROS-LLM: A ROS framework for embodied AI with task feedback and structured reasoningMMEvalPro: Calibrating Multimodal Benchmarks Towards Trustworthy and Efficient EvaluationLiteSearch: Efficacious Tree Search for LLMWavelets Are All You Need for Autoregressive Image…

1
Persona-Driven Data Synthesis, Enhancing Medical MLLMs, Robot Learning, Knowledge Distillation in LLMs, Text to 3D Gaussian Revolution 11:24

4M ago11:24

11:24

Scaling Synthetic Data Creation with 1,000,000,000 PersonasHuatuoGPT-Vision, Towards Injecting Medical Visual Knowledge into Multimodal LLMs at ScaleLLaRA: Supercharging Robot Learning Data for Vision-Language PolicyDirect Preference Knowledge Distillation for Large Language ModelsGaussianDreamerPro: Text to Manipulable 3D Gaussians with Highly Enh…

1
OMG-LLaVA: Unifying Vision and Language Understanding, Step-DPO for LLMs Mathematical Reasoning, MUMU's Multimodal Image Generation 12:15

4M ago12:15

12:15

OMG-LLaVA: Bridging Image-level, Object-level, Pixel-level Reasoning and UnderstandingStep-DPO: Step-wise Preference Optimization for Long-chain Reasoning of LLMsMUMU: Bootstrapping Multimodal Image Generation from Text-to-Image DataSimulating Classroom Education with LLM-Empowered AgentsSeaKR: Self-aware Knowledge Retrieval for Adaptive Retrieval …

1
Market Update: Real Estate Inventory on the Rise 10:34

4M ago10:34

10:34

Heading into July, the biggest news is that inventory is starting to rise. More homes are hitting the market, which is a good trend to see. In this episode, we’ll dive into the rising inventory and what that means for buyers and sellers. Bill also provides insights into the current interest rate trends and what buyers can expect in the coming month…

1
FineWeb Datasets, YouDream's 3D Animals, PDE-Solving Breakthrough, Noise-Conditioned Perception Alignment, Language Models' Continual Learning 11:02

5M ago11:02

11:02

The FineWeb Datasets: Decanting the Web for the Finest Text Data at ScaleYouDream: Generating Anatomically Controllable Consistent Text-to-3D AnimalsDiffusionPDE: Generative PDE-Solving Under Partial ObservationAligning Diffusion Models with Noise-Conditioned PerceptionUnlocking Continual Learning Abilities in Language Models…

1
BigCodeBench Challenges, Cambrian-1 Leap, D-MERIT's Evaluation, Long Context Breakthrough in Vision 11:06

5M ago11:06

11:06

DreamBench++: A Human-Aligned Benchmark for Personalized Image GenerationBigCodeBench: Benchmarking Code Generation with Diverse Function Calls and Complex InstructionsCambrian-1: A Fully Open, Vision-Centric Exploration of Multimodal LLMsEvaluating D-MERIT of Partial-annotation on Information RetrievalLong Context Transfer from Language to Vision…

1
Should You Refinance Your Home? Here’s What You Need to Know 10:12

5M ago10:12

10:12

Today we want to talk about refinancing and what you need to know if you’re considering a refinance for your home. What do you need to know if you're thinking about refinancing? When does it make sense? What are some of the top reasons someone would want to refinance? We're going to discuss all that and break dow…

1
LongRAG Breakthrough, LLMs as Judges, Transformer Memory Insights, Video Library AI, Democratizing Art Styles 10:14

5M ago10:14

10:14

LongRAG: Enhancing Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Long-context LLMsJudging the Judges: Evaluating Alignment and Vulnerabilities in LLMs-as-JudgesComplexity of Symbolic Representation in Working Memory of Transformer Correlates with the Complexity of a TaskTowards Retrieval Augmented Generation over Large Video LibrariesStylebreeder: Exploring …

1
Scaling In-Context Reinforcement Learning, ChartMimic's AI Benchmark, Multimodal Document Comprehension, Long Context Reasoning Challenges 10:36

5M ago10:36

10:36

XLand-100B: A Large-Scale Multi-Task Dataset for In-Context Reinforcement LearningMake It Count: Text-to-Image Generation with an Accurate Number of ObjectsChartMimic: Evaluating LMM's Cross-Modal Reasoning Capability via Chart-to-Code GenerationNeedle In A Multimodal HaystackBABILong: Testing the Limits of LLMs with Long Context Reasoning-in-a-Hay…

1
Revolutionizing Vision and Language Models: Depth Prediction Breakthroughs, Pixel-Level Transformers, and Robotic Skill Learning 13:20

5M ago13:20

13:20

Depth Anything V2An Image is Worth More Than 16x16 Patches: Exploring Transformers on Individual PixelsTransformers meet Neural Algorithmic ReasonersSamba: Simple Hybrid State Space Models for Efficient Unlimited Context Language ModelingOpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action ModelAlleviating Distortion in Image Generation via Multi-Resolut…

1
Zero-Down Mortgages: What’s the Catch? 9:53

5M ago9:53

9:53

In the ever-evolving world of real estate, mortgage options are a hot topic, especially for first-time homebuyers. One such option that has recently gained attention is the zero-down mortgage. In this video, we’re going to help potential homeowners understand its benefits and drawbacks. What’s the catch? Tune in as we break it all down. Here’s what…

1
If your financial advisor only recommends annuities, they aren't a financial planner or advisor 9:45

5M ago9:45

9:45

Sean explains why someone who specializes in pushing annuities could be dangerous for your financial well-being — and the three red flags you need to be aware of.By Sean Kernan

1
When you should definitely NOT invest in an annuity! 4:55

5M ago4:55

4:55

If you want to invest in an annuity, you need to have a solid reason to use this long-term financial vehicle. And you should definitely have a financial advisor helping you determine if the annuity is your best option, or if another type of investment might better suit your needs.By Sean Kernan

1
What if I am wrong? 25:48

5M ago25:48

25:48

Sean and Ben often ask themselves if they're actually helping their clients, or if they may have made a mistake. Ben had a client who was certain he could handle his estate planning needs on his own, without Ben. Spoiler alert: He didn't.By Sean Kernan

1
The FASTEST and EASIEST way to confirm that your financial advisor is NOT running a scam 3:50

5M ago3:50

3:50

Sean recounts a thread in one of his Facebook groups where a member was dealing with a case of fraud, and didn't know where some of his money was. Sean recommends asking two questions: Who holds my money? and Who prints my statements?By Sean Kernan

1
Why you would want a CFP financial advisor — and 3 reasons it may not matter as much as you think 8:39

5M ago8:39

8:39

Sean talks about why you may or may not want to work with a Certified Financial Planner as your financial advisor. A CFP license holder might be the best advisor for you. But does it really make a difference?By Sean Kernan

1
How to check a financial advisor's public disciplinary history 16:39

5M ago16:39

16:39

Sean wants you to know how to check up on your potential financial advisor — because you need to know as much as possible about the individual — using a tool called BrokerCheck.By Sean Kernan

1
How to Think About Costs 40:08

5M ago40:08

40:08

Sean and Ben chat about a simple question with a complicated answer: How much does it cost to do a Roth conversion? There are many ways to answer "How much will this cost?" and they can become overwhelming .By Sean Kernan

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Refining Reason Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

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