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In this episode of Getting to Aha!, host Darshan Mehta and guest Renee Brown dive deep into the world of customer insights and marketing strategies. Renee, a seasoned leader in financial services, shares her expertise on using ethnographic research to uncover customer pain points, and how simple, often overlooked insights can lead to transformative business strategies. The conversation covers social media's role in brand authenticity, the power of AI in marketing, and the evolving landscape of influencer marketing. Renee emphasizes the importance of open dialogue, feedback, and vulnerability in both personal and professional growth.
The presidential election is right around the corner and Michigan is going to play a crucial role in the election results.For MSU Today's 2024 Election Spotlight Series, I'm talking with MSU researchers and experts who can discuss all things elections and politics. Each guest brings a unique perspective on research and work they're doing that relates to the 2024 Election. For today's episode, we are not talking with faculty. Instead, we have guests joining us who are playing active roles in getting out the vote around campus and the greater Lansing community. We are joined Marie Wicks, city clerk of East Lansing, Shawn Turner, general manager of WKAR and Renee Brown, executive director of MSU's Center for Community Engaged Learning and co-director of MSUvote. Su Webster is co-director of MSUVote and director of Community and Student Relations. Conversation Highlights: (1:09) – What is WKAR's role in the election? (1:53) – Describe your role as East Lansing city clerk. (2:32) – Tell us about your roles at MSU. (4:27) – What is MSUVote? (5:38) – How is East Lansing engaging residents about voting? And what can you tell us about Michigan's new voting laws? (9:40) – What should we know about voting at WKAR this year? (12:30) – Remind us about registering and voting in precincts across the state. (13:59) – Are there any MSUVote events coming up? Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.
Fasting for Women, PCOS & Hormonal Balance: Non-Negotiable Wellness Tips with Renee BrownHave you ever wondered if fasting around your cycle works? Renee from @wellnessbyreneebrown chats to us this week on the pod all about her experience giving Intermittent Fasting a try, tips and advice if you're wanting to give it a go. She shares how her personal journey with PCOS inspired her to balance her hormones through wellness and nourishment, becoming a health coach to be able to share with other women going through similar experiences.We also chat about:How women can add in more nutrients for nourishmentFasting around the menstrual cycle Non negotiables as mothersTaking moments to check in with yourself through the day Her fave Beauty Bircher Bowl recipe Renee's new business BYRÉ wellnessRenee has such a glow in her presence and really does inspire you to give new and challenging things a go in health and wellness that you may not have before. Renee Instagram @wellnessbyreneebrownBYRÉ Wellness Club Instagram @byrewellnessclubQuick guide to Fasting for Women HEREWellness By Renee Website HERESend us a textSupport the showSuggest any podcast requests or connect with me on socials, Send me a voicey on Instagram, I'd love to hear from you!If you would like more you can connect with me here:Instagram - @inspiringher.podcastTik Tok - @eliseinspired Website - www.eliseinspired.comBuy me a coffee to support Inspired to Be HERE Love and Light, Elise x
Health Coach and Doctor JoDee Baer and Renee Brown talk Books on Building Fortunes Radio with Peter Mingils. Health Coach JoDee Baer has been a Building Fortunes Radio host with Peter Mingils for many years. Doctor JoDee Baer has help many people lose weight and increase their health. She has become a best-Selling Author with Internaltional Best Selling Author Les Brown in his Ignite The Hunger in You Series. Her Building Fortunes Radio link is https://www.buildingfortunesradio.com/jo-dee-baer-health-wealth-coach/ She has also had articles on https://mlm.news MLM News and then even some recent adice on https://mlm.charity MLM Charity You can find more for Health Coach JoDee Baer on https://www.healthcoachjodee.com and https://drjodee.com with more news about Health coaching on https://healthcoach.news and https://alternativehealthcare.news and https://vets.charity You can always find more on https://www.networkleads.com and https://www.youmongusads.com Peter Mingils (386) 445-3585
Welcome back to Let's Talk Money and More Podcast! In today's episode, we have a captivating and insightful conversation with Martin Coul. Martin is a mental health advocate with a focus on evidence-based prevention in schools and the workplace. With inspiration from his own lived experience, his purpose is to diffuse the negative narrative and bring a more human, compassionate voice to well-being & mental health for everyone, every day. Join Martin and I as we dive into the world of finances, mental health, and everything in between. Martin also shares about his personal journey with money and the power of support during challenging times. We hope you find this episode thought-provoking and insightful. Remember to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this episode to your family and friends to spread the wisdom and ignite meaningful conversations about money and well-being. Enjoy tuning in!Key HighlightsMen's Mental Health. Martin's journey highlights how men tend to internalise their emotions and may resort to destructive behaviours. It is crucial to create safe spaces for men to open up and share their frustrations and vulnerabilities without judgment or excessive questioning.Emotional Needs in Relationships. Martin recalls a powerful story from Renee Brown, where a couple checks in on each other's emotional wellbeing daily. They understand that a relationship is not always 50/50, and each person may have different emotional needs on different days. Together, they strive to support each other to reach 100% emotional wellbeing. Employee Well-being. Companies that prioritise their employees' mental health and well-being witness higher engagement and retention rates. The pandemic has exacerbated mental health challenges, and organizations must gather actionable data and measurements to make a tangible difference.To learn more about the Money and Mindset Made Simple – For Teenagers, www.themoneyconfidenceacademy.com/money-mindset-simple-teenagers-course/Connect with Martin CoulLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/coulmc/Website https://www.otii.io Connect with Lesley ThomasFREE Resources www.themoneyconfidenceacademy.com/resources/My website www.themoneyconfidenceacademy.com/Join my Facebook Group www.facebook.com/groups/letstalkmoneyandmoreYoutube channel www.youtube.com/@themoneyconfidenceacademyFollow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/lesleythomascoaching/Connect with me on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-thomas Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Take a look back on season 3 thus far with some of our favorite guests including Brooke Papiri, the Chief of Staff for Marketing and Communications at Lyft, Renee Brown, the Chief Marketing Officer at iLending, Larry Shaffer, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Insperity
Renee Brown, the Chief Marketing Officer at iLending, discusses partnerships and a focus on digital advertising, and how both make a big difference for marketing. Vincent and Ajay both enjoy traveling for conferences.
Guest Speakers Tim & Renee Brown share about God's perspective on our friendships and how they influence our lives. For more information about Chi Alpha Memphis, please visit us at: www.chialphamemphis.com
In this episode, you’ll hear Renee Brown talking with Katie Widestrom-Landgraf about how she took up an opportunity to switch from being a medical SLP to being school based. Renee talks about aspects of being a school based SLP that she needed to relearn and update to meet current practice. She also talks about what’s worked for her to work collaboratively with teachers, and other duties SLPs may find themselves tasked with in the school setting. A therapist who takes a holistic child led approach, Renee talks about the importance of advocacy not just for students, but also yourself, and the SLP profession. Visit FreshSLP.com/podcast for this episode's show notes, a full audio transcript and more great resources at the intersection of grad school and a successful SLP career.Not a substitute for a formal SLP education or medical advice for patients/caregivers. Fresh SLP is in no way affiliated with or representing any university.
Today's new episode is all about promoting voting and democracy on college and university campuses. Many states have recently held primaries and midterm elections are right around the corner in the U.S.. This episode's panelists are engaged—both inside higher education institutions as well as beyond—in exploring voting initiatives and increasing democratic engagement among college students. Joining host Heather Shea are Renee Brown, Adam Gismondi, Stephanie King, and Suchitra Webster.
Renee Brown joins Lachie Stuart on The Man That Can Project Podcast.They discuss:1. Attachment styles in relationships - the different types, how to identify yours and your partners' and learn how to work together based on the attachment styles. - When is it formed? 1. Anxious (also referred to as Preoccupied) 2. Avoidant (also referred to as Dismissive) 4. Secure 2. Present moment awareness - the science behind mindfulness, some strategies on how to engage in the present moment in day to day life. 3. Values-based living - reflecting on values across the different domains in life and how to live by your values in everyday life.4. Good sense of the qualities, beliefs and standards for the Behaviours that are truly important to you.Join the Strong Men of Value Community on https://themanthatcanproject.com/strong-men-of-value/Listen to all episodes on audio:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/performance-coaching-the-man-that-can-project/id1313350766Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1nuxEoJPTgtfZKjWLkXnNw?si=449dc8d74a934183Get in touch in the comments below or head to...Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lachlanstuart/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lachlanstuart1Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lachlanstuartCheck Out My Website:https://themanthatcanproject.com/
In this second in a 2-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss Strength-Based Learning. Specifically, the following questions/topics were addressed: 1) What are some attributes a person could examine to determine their strengths of positive qualities? 2) How do strengths affect relationships? 3) An activity was shared for finding strengths in challenging times. 4) The Three Good People exercise for spotting strengths was shared. and 5) Fr. Harry and Deacon Ronnie spoke to strengths needed to strengthen and develop a relationship with God.
In this first in a 3-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss finding happiness. Specifically, the following questions/topics were addressed: 1) How can people build genuine and long-lasting happiness? 2) What are some exercises people can use to promote gratitude in their life? 3) What are some techniques or tips people can utilize to demonstrate gratitude in relationships? and 4) Fr. Harry and Deacon Ronnie spoke about gratitude to God.
In this first in a 2-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss Strength-Based Learning. Specifically, the following questions were addressed: 1) How do one's strengths promote positive mental health? 2) What are some questions people can ask themselves to determine their strengths? 3) What is an activity for strength exploration? and 4) How strengths promote God's love.
In this second in a 3-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss finding happiness. Specifically, the following questions/topics were addressed: 1) How does exercise promote happiness? 2) How do meditation and mindfulness differ, and how does meditation influence happiness? 3) What are some other ways to create happiness? 4) Please share an activity for mindfulness, meditation? and 5) Fr. Harry and Deacon Ronnie spoke about fostering a relationship with God as a means for creating happiness.
In this first in a 2-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss mental health protective factors for those incarcerated and likewise for those who are not. In this session, our hosts spoke about the following: 1) What is meant by Protective Factors as related to mental Health? 2) What are healthy coping skills someone can use to promote positive mental health? 3) How can a person develop a sense of purpose while incarcerated? 4) What type of social supports are needed for a person to improve their mental health outcomes? and 5) How the Church can act as a social support for incarcerated persons, help incarcerated persons develop purpose, and how prayer can help as a coping skill.
In this second in a 2-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss mental health protective factors for those incarcerated and likewise for those who are not. In this session, our hosts spoke about the following: 1) How can incarcerated persons increase self-esteem? 2) What attributes of physical should be addressed to promote good mental health? 3) What is meant by healthy thinking, and how does it act as protective factor 4) What are some things people can control that will build upon protective factors? and 5) How can focus on God, the Church, and the Sacraments promote healthy thinking?
In this third in a 3-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss finding happiness. Specifically, the following questions/topics were addressed: 1) What is mindfulness and its components? 2) What are the benefits of mindfulness? 3) The practice of mindfulness was explained. 4) How do values influence happiness? and 5) Fr, Harry and Deacon Ronnie spoke to how mindfulness improves spiritual connectedness with God.
A lively and passionate discussion where we introduce the ideas and research behind Self-Determination Theory, which could help you make giant leaps with your music. Some core topics covered in this episode include intrinsic & extrinsic motivation, autonomy, how rewards actually make us perform worse, ego & needing approval from others and ourselves, and how we can practise & cultivate intrinsic motivation in our own piano journey. Show Notes [2:55] Brief intro to Self-Determination Theory (SDT) 3 Basic Psychological Needs: Autonomy, Competency, & Relatedness Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation What is Autonomy? Rewards undermine intrinsic motivation School, parents, society, etc can undermine intrinsic motivation by use of rewards But some factors that promote autonomy will increase intrinsic motivation [17:55] Continuum of extrinsic-instrinsic motivation: External regulation (reward, punishment) Introjection (ego, approval from self & others) Identification Integration [27:00] Teacher's role is to show students how to love the music more [33:30] How to move towards intrinsic motivation: -improve mindfulness (mindfulness is linked to autonomy in studies)- including practising non-attachment -increase our sense of competence by letting go of perfectionism, and reducing comparison with others. Cultivate a felt sense of 'always good enough' -Remind ourselves why we play music- IMO the purest most helpful reason is to connect with the music, and other people through the music -Resist unhelpful cultural baggage- especially in classical music -Recognise introjection while practising/performing- and practise not reacting or identifying with it [52:30]- How I connect with the music when I'm playing [54:35] Competency vs relatedness: Am I mainly being driven by a need to feel competent or am I bring driven by a desire to connect? Being aware of this & moving to connection really helps me to perform well under pressure [56:30] How to be a good student when you have a teacher [59:10] Importance of a growth mindset (feeling competent enough) [1:09:05] Zen and beginner's mind [1:10:15] Related academic fields and psychological skills: Renee Brown on vulnerability and Kristen Neff on Self-compassion 1:16:55 We can see intrinsic motivation in its purest form when we watch children playing. When we lose this sense of playfulness as adults, we lose the performance benefits of intrinsic motivation & autonomy Notes: The core academic textbook: Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness- https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GF0ODQAAQBAJ The YouTube video showing a talk by one of the authors Richard M.Ryan- an excellent introduction to the subject: https://youtu.be/iUgNbWkcnHs A second YouTube video by the same speaker that goes into a little more depth in the field of education: https://youtu.be/1VBywz1c4cs The highly influential book The Inner Game of Music: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xdMuBgAAQBAJ Brené Brown- an academic who has popularised her work on vulnerability: https://brenebrown.com/ And Kristin Neff- an academic who has popularised her work on self-compassion: https://self-compassion.org/ Dan Pink's TED talk: https://youtu.be/rrkrvAUbU9Y where he sums up some of the ideas in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us- https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/ Some earlier Heart of the Piano Podcast episodes with guided meditations to use at the piano: https://heartofthepiano.com/guided-piano-meditation-introduction-to-meditating-at-the-piano/ https://heartofthepiano.com/guided-piano-meditation-further-down-the-road/ https://heartofthepiano.com/guided-piano-meditation-listening-and-posture/ The Master and His Emissary- an excellent book about the brain hemispheres and how Western Culture makes our brains...
Starting solids can be a big milestone!In this episode I talk to nutritionist and health coach @wellnessbyreneebrown about all things solids.Whether you are getting ready to start solids or managing picky eating, this episode is for you and will encourage and empower you to feel confident when it comes to solids as we chat through how to start solids, what nutrients we need to be aware of, how solids should progress, managing picky eating, creating a balanced plate and so much more!Renee is a wealth of knowledge and her instagram page @wellnessbyreneebrown has been a total life saver! She has also written TWO incredible cookbooks that are perfect for the whole family which you can grab hereYou can connect with Renee, head over to her website
In this 4-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss personal boundaries, what they are and how they should be set and often are set inappropriately. In this episode, the following questions are addressed: 1) What is meant by a personal boundary? 2) What is the importance of establishing, maintaining and enforcing boundaries? 3) What are some of the mental and emotional benefits of using boundaries in our relationships with others? 4) What are some of the barriers to setting boundaries? and 5) What are some of the basic principles of thought, to consider about the development of personal boundaries?
In this 4-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss personal boundaries, what they are and how they should be set and often are set inappropriately. In this episode, the following questions are addressed: 1) What are some of the myths associated with boundaries? 2) What are the types of personal boundaries? 3) Can you elaborate on physical and emotional/intellectual boundaries? 4) What does it mean to have rigid, porous and/or healthy boundaries? 5) What are the guidelines for setting boundaries with others?
In this 4-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss personal boundaries, what they are and how they should be set and often are set inappropriately. In this episode, the following questions are addressed: 1) How does a person know what their boundaries are? 2) What are some thoughts or personal beliefs about self that can help someone in developing their personal boundaries? 3) What do healthy personal boundaries look like? 4) What are some things people can say or do to maintain their boundaries with others? and 5) What are some tips for setting healthy boundaries are there any helpful steps to consider when developing/establishing boundaries?
In this 4-part series, Renee Brown, Father Harry Dean, and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica discuss personal boundaries, what they are and how they should be set and often are set inappropriately. In this episode, the following questions are addressed: 1) What are some of the signs of unhealthy boundaries? 2) How can one identify if a friend or family is ignoring my boundaries? 3) How do you set consequences as part of maintaining boundaries? 4) What are some of the beliefs or thinking patterns that a person may possess that allow for others to violate their boundaries? and 5) How can a person assess themselves to determine if they have difficulty using boundaries?
This podcast is bought to you by Ārepa - caffeine free, processed sugar free, brain drink to help cognitive performance and mental focus when your brain is under any type of pressure, fatigue or stress. To replace energy drinks, this has been designed by leading scientists and clinically proven to improve performance and focus of the brain while under any pressure/fatigue/stress (could be finishing an assignment the night before its due when you're tired right through to kicking the winning conversion in the final play). Best part? Its a complete health drink and taste like a healthier Ribena. Click Here to automatically add a 20% discount code to your order online! Or use code “HUSTLERS20 at checkout. Try it for yourselfToday we have founder and director of one of the best up & coming clothing brands at the moment - Renee BrownRenee founded Arby & Opal 2 and a half years ago and has taken massive leaps and bounds since!Since starting, she is now in stores nationwide, has her own store open in Auckland, and is turning over units that she probably dreamt of 2 years ago.Renee started in active wear but has found a lot of demand since she has placed more emphasis on loungewear.Hope you guys enjoyRenee is a true hustler.Podcast also available on YouTube - Enjoy!Follow our content and keep up to date on instagram @_carlosprice & @_onethreeeightPodcast Intro Music By - YegrPodcast Cover Art By - April Yorwarth
On this episode of the Jason Cavness Experience I talk to Walter J. Whitehead – Managing Director of Madison Street Capital We talk about the following Attending Clark Atlanta and the decision to attend a HBCU Raising Capital The racial wealth gap What does a Managing Director do Walter's Bio Walter J. Whitehead is a Managing Director at Madison Street Capital, LLC where he advises clients on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions. Prior to joining Madison Street Capital, Mr. Whitehead was Founder and Managing Partner at Hunter Baron, a lower middle market investment bank focused on capital raising and M&A advisory services. Prior to Hunter Baron, he was co-Founder & Managing Partner of A.J. Baron Capital, a global investment bank where he was responsible for Strategy and Operations. At Merrill Lynch Private Bank & Investment Group in Los Angeles he was on a small team of strategically managing $300,000,000; at J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Management he was on a small team of 3 in their Chicago-based Financial Leaders Team strategically managing $3,000,000,000. At Blackwater Capital Group, a Private Equity firm, he co-managed the strategic distribution of a $250,000,000 management buyout and venture capital fund across a multitude of industries including Business Services, Software, Defense, and Education. Mr. Whitehead graduated from Clark Atlanta University where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a dual concentration in Finance & International Business. He studied at The Harvard Business School (HBS) Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), a competitive residential educational program designed to increase diversity and opportunity in business education. He was accepted to study in Oxford at Trinity College, one of several top-ranked medieval Oxford colleges under the educational auspices of the Oxford Study Abroad Programme. He also studied in Durban, South Africa at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. He holds a Series 79 Investment Banking license, Series 7 General Securities license, and Series 63 Securities Agent State Law license. Walter's Social Media Company Website: https://www.madisonstreetcapital.com/ Walter's Email: W@HunterBaron.co Walter's Gift You can reach out to Walter at his email to set up time for a 30 minute talk on finance, raising capital, solving the racial wealth gap or anything else. Walter's Advice My family pillars are agape, authenticity and spiritual freedom. One of these quotes have been on my heart for a very long time. I think it encourages authenticity and it encourages, you to kind of just be you. It's from Renee Brown. She said that you either walk inside your story and own it. Or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness. To me what that encourages is when you see people oftentimes feel like they have to be something else to be accepted. Again, to me, acceptance is love, you have to try to be something else that you're not, economically, you're trying to be something that you're not romantically. You're trying to be something that you're not, socially or politically. This is when you're kinda are standing outside of your story, and you're trying to do things or go hustle for your worthiness. I think your worthiness ties to your acceptance and love. I think it's important to walk inside your own story and own it and really be you. I think people have a special tone, a special sound that the world wants to hear. A special taste that they can create in the kitchen or something like that. A special aroma that they're kind of creating. So be authentically you.
Episode 36- The Future is Fluid Lindsay Mustain00:00I'm Lindsay Mustain and this is the Career Design Podcast made for driven ambitious square pegs and round holes type professionals who see things differently and challenge the status quo. We obliterate obstacles and unlock hidden pathways to overcome and succeed where others have not stagnation feels like death. And we are unwilling to compromise our integrity and settle for being average in any way. We are the backbone of any successful business and those who overlook our potential are doomed to a slow demise. We do work that truly matters aligns with our purpose, and in turn, we make our lasting mark on the world. We are the dreamers, doers, legends, and visionaries who are called to make our most meaningful contribution and love what we do. Lindsay Mustain00:42I cannot be more excited about this podcast, I've been trying to book it with you for weeks now, I think and so I had a few challenges like COVID getting in the way and you coming back from a beautiful talk. So I want to introduce you to Don Mamone, who is one of the most beautiful human beings that I know. And we're gonna talk about the future is fluid. So I want to just start here and say, This is not my expertise. However, as somebody who loves you, and wants to support you, I'm gonna say the wrong things. And I'm gonna be your student here. So I want you to just introduce me to the idea like, Who are you today? Like, who are you? And then like, let's walk through what is the future is fluid actually mean? Don 01:25100%. So thank you for having me, Lindsay. You know, I'm one of your biggest fans, and I'm super excited to this podcast. Thank you for acknowledging that you don't know everything all the time about specifically this topic. I hold you in such high regard and I know that your audience is going to be voraciously listening to you and by extension me. So thank you for having me here. You know, I am a hospitality veteran or survivor, however, you want to look at it. I'm a photographer, I'm an artist, I'm also an individual that's living happily outside the gender binary. I identify as they/ them. And that is a lifelong journey that I waited 40 years to unearth, unleash, acknowledge and own. And that's where I'm at, at this very moment. And I think that's one of the main reasons why we're here today is to talk a little bit about what it looks like to live outside the gender binary and/or what it's like to be transgender versus cisgender space. And so I'm excited to have a great chat, and inspire and educate and create an implementation in the world, right? To make sure that people start understanding what this is and what it means. Lindsay Mustain02:35Okay, I love this so much. And I, when I say I'm a student, I've used the wrong pronouns already here today. And when I say that, it's, it's, you know, Dom is very, very kind about saying, it's not that like, it's not gonna offend me personally, it's that we're working towards progression. And so with that idea, because I didn't know you, and we use different pronouns that that's been actually offered to me on my podcast, and I'm so glad that this is the time that we're doing it because this message is so potent and powerful. So you just got back from Vegas about talking about the same topic, correct? Don 03:07Yeah. So it's a really funny anecdote, and I'm going to tell it, so I, I finally acknowledged this about my gender identity. So I'm 45 years old, 45 years young. And I waited 40 years before I told a single individual on the planet about this internal feeling. It was my wife who was the first person I ever told. And I told her about five years ago, and it is something that I knew from childhood just wasn't willing to admit. And as I was going through this leadership program, and I acknowledged it, and I unearthed it, unleashed it, and started to really become comfortable with living truth and a reality that is valid and exists they reached out to this organization, which is the National Association for Event Professionals reached out and said, Hey, you submitted in 2020 to speak, we would love to have you submit again, for 2021, since we had to cancel for COVID. Do you want to speak? And it was literally at the exact moment, I was going through this realization. And I said, I do want to speak but I want to change my topic. Is that okay? Sure. Absolutely. Here's the form, submit your talk. I literally within 45 minutes created the talk that I wanted to give about gender inclusivity and diversity, have the needle what it means and they accepted it, and I gave that talk the first week of August, and it was literally the definition and Lindsay, I know you're spiritual and you believe things happen for a reason and there are no accidents. It literally happened in a container of time, where if it happened at any other time, if it had happened just before, I probably would not have been ready. If it happened just after I might have thought I'm too busy. I've got too much going on. It was literally perfect. And it was the most beautiful moment. It was so much fun. Lindsay Mustain04:47Getting to see the pictures from it, I can see I could feel the emotion in those images of you connecting to the audience though. I even have goosebumps right now. Like I'm just so so honored for you to share this journey because it's incredibly personal, but what I think we, you know, I talk a lot about this industry and particularly with, inside the career space, that's what I'm really working in occupational. What I'm really about is like, I'm a part of human resources, but somehow we forgot about the human. And we've just been overworking on treating people like numbers, like numbers on spreadsheets, and how do we almost put them in containers. And then I call them jobs description, like cages, and we forget about the actual humanity of individual people. So I do see like, that's one thing where everything about human resources we put like legal officers, and everything is about risk mitigation from our own people and then I see this other side work still awakening really happening in the world, and in communities where we see DNI like diversity and inclusion. And I always want to say diversity inclusion is not any one thing. Like I think that's a really, really big misnomer. When I talk about diversity, I am talking about diversity in thought, I'm talking about diversity in gender, and talking about diversity in background. I am not looking at some of these, you know, disability status as a number of diversity, diversity looks very different when we look at an individual level. So when we talk about creating like this inclusive culture, and I'm from Seattle, I mean, I am one of the most liberal and embracing cities that is in the world, I'm so very thankful for that. But I also see these really antiquated structures, and we've created like male and feminine. And that's like the only two options for people to exist in organizations. So the duality, which is really all of us has both of these insides of us. And giving a place for people to be safe and to be authentically them at work is a way for them to tap into their true power. So let's talk about like, what gender is? Because I feel like this one, I want to listen to you what it is, what is it isn't? How do we experience it? Tell me about that. Don 06:44So, first of all, again, thank you. I mean, genuinely, because I live in a world where I try to help career-driven professionals and entrepreneurs alike, understand and acknowledge that when unique starts with you, right? Why oh, you, you can basically bring your whole and authentic self, your genuine self to everything you do, whether you're a cog in a really wonderful important machine, or whether you're the machine in and of itself. Okay. And so, first thing, right, some undeniable truths, okay, the first thing is, gender identity is real and valid, and all of them should be represented. And when I say all of them, gender identity is as unique as the individual. So there are eight billion people on this planet, an undeniable truth that I want everybody to acknowledge is everybody's gender identity is unique. That means that there are 8 billion gender identities. Lindsay Mustain07:35Oh, okay. So we can't put people into two boxes is what you're telling me. Don 07:39Not only can we not put them into two boxes, but we can also even put them into a million boxes, because basically, what I'm telling you is each individual is comprised of four things, okay? That makes up their gender. Okay? The four things that make up your gender or your gender identity, right, which is what your mind and your heart tell you about your gender. That's number one. Number two is your gender expression, which is how you take that feeling of gender identity and express it forward. That means the roles that you exist in the way you express yourself in fashion, the way you express yourself in your behavior, the way that you express yourself, presentation, hairstyle, makeup, skincare, all those things. Okay, so that's your gender experts, lipstick, fierce lipstick, 100%, red finish, the lipstick looks so good on you. It's a statement. The third is your anatomical or biological sex assigned at birth, which we can look at it and basically scientific right, there is certainly scientific nature of it. But even that is not two boxes, right? We know that you have an X and a Y chromosome. But we also know that people have male and female parts, secondary sex characteristics. Some people have three sex chromosomes, right? Because of a mutation, right? biological mutation. So that's the third. And finally is your sexual orientation, which is who you're attracted to mentally, physically, emotionally. And one of the common misconceptions is your gender identity is in any way related to your sexual orientation, or your biological sex assigned at birth, or any of those things, each of these four things right, exist in and of itself. But if I had a pretty diagram here, I would show you a Venn diagram where these four circles intersect. And at that very middle part where those four things intersect is the picture of you. And that's why every single person's gender identity is different because you have no idea what their identity, their expression, their sex assigned at birth and their sexual orientation are. Lindsay Mustain 09:32Oh my gosh, okay, so this is the clearest that anyone has ever paid to this for me. I've never heard that actually. And so we talked about, there's a lot of things happening in HR, we talk about intersectionality, right? So the embracing of different they're almost different backgrounds of diversity, and so I've never heard it discussed like that. So that is incredibly powerful. Okay. So what we're saying is that anybody can have a multitude of different options and that centerpiece is going to be different than every other person that exists. So there is no way to just categorize people, we have to look at them as an individual people. Don 10:05Yeah and we have to open up tolerance and acceptance and inclusivity and diversity, right? Based on how that person identifies, expresses, maybe sex assigned at birth, maybe sexual orientation, right? There's a point at which if someone comes in for an interview, or is an entrepreneur and runs an amazing business, I'll use myself as an example, okay? My four quadrants are becoming increasingly clear every day and I use the words unearth and unleash when I look at gender, because this isn't something that we transition into,right, I totally understand and acknowledge that a common word is a transition, get it totally fine. Typically, though, for someone who is either transgender or sits outside the binary happily as I do, this has been unearthing. I'm not changing, I'm basically finally unearthing and acknowledging and unleashing what I consider to be my already existing gender that I've denied or hidden or struggled with for the better part of four decades. And finally getting there. And that means that I identify as nonbinary, which means there are male and masculine and female and feminine parts of me that I love. My expression is becoming not necessarily androgynous but fluid, which is why I say the future is fluid, right? Some days, I will be crawling under my jeep, and I'll be completely messy and dirty and have my hat on backward and present fairly masculine. Other times, like today, I am here and I am presenting slightly more feminine, my sex assigned at birth was male, I have male sex characteristics, which is just that's my chromosomal makeup. And I'm straight as, like, far as the day is long. My wife and I are happily married. We're not monogamous. I love her desperately and endlessly. And so that center part of my gender is the amalgamation of those four things and nobody else is like me, they may have similar things, but nobody's like me. Lindsay Mustain 11:58Yeah, this is so powerful. And this is making me feel a lot better. So I feel people get a little nervous and even be I'm an HR professional, right? And I really, and I'm a huge the human part of the HR piece like I really want to see individual humans, but I always struggle with like, okay, when we move into this, like, how do we, how do we approach it in business, I guess, tell me about like how this matters inside of the industry, business and people. Don 12:21So ultimately, I genuinely believe if you bring your most authentic and genuine self, you're literally going to unearth and unleash who you are. And that is directly proportional to the impact you have on the world, your potential is unearthed and unleashed based on you, acknowledging, accepting your authenticity. And what happens is, and let's just go ahead and go a little bit deep for a minute. For me for 40 years, I was doing, I was not being I was doing everything I thought I was supposed to do. Okay, I was raised in a very conventional home, not conservative, we were liberal. My mom was very loving and caring, she would say like, if you're gay, be gay, if you're straight, be straight, marry who you want. I did, I was raised in a conventional home though I had short hair, there were certain things that we have ways in which men and women and masculine-feminine expressed themselves. And you add to that, that in society, there were no positive representations of somebody that felt the way I felt. It just didn't exist. You just didn't see it. And if you did see it, Prince, David Bowie, people like that. It was a cultural icon. It was a musician, a rock star, I wasn't those things. So it didn't align, it didn't make sense for me. And so I lived in a place where I built an invisible prison in which I lived. And it was based on fear and guilt and shame and doubt, and judgment and compartmentalization. I worked in hospitality for 10 years, I had loved everything about it, Lindsay, but I could not have walked into a hotel company with long hair and makeup and said, I would love to be your conference services manager, your director of events, it did not exist, it was not okay at that time. And so, when we talk about companies, Lindsay, we need to get to a place where an entrepreneur, which is where I now, I don't have to concern myself with whether or not I'm going to lose business, be shunned and ostracized, be alienated, not be able to find professional partners. If I'm in a career-driven professional space, I have to not fear if I show up as my true and authentic, professionally driven self, that I'm not gonna be able to get a job because I don't fit into a very narrow-minded box. Lindsay Mustain 14:30I'm getting a little emotional listening to you talk because this is like at the core of what I teach people to do is just be who you really are. And I'm gonna say that answer is not static. The answer is not static. Like I like we're always evolving. And I hope you're always up-leveling. And right now, I feel like there's never been a time where you could actually go in like a better time. And I'm not saying it's going to be easy, because I think you could probably say some of those things too. But to be really useful, like when I talk about the things I want to do, I'm talking about I want you to tap in, like, what I really go to is like, Can you do something passionately? Can you do something with purpose, can you do something and pursue that and then make it really profitable for yourself in your business. That's really, really like a powerful statement. Like I don't care about what your qualifications are hear about who your soul is. And we seem to have forgotten that. So I feel like this is like the biggest extension of that is recognizing and it doesn't just apply to gender, it applies to every single breathing person who walks into a building, virtually or in-person like that is the power of this message. Don 15:32It is the power of this message. And the concept of the future is fluid. It doesn't say gender is fluid, it doesn't say the future of gender is fluid, when I talk about the future is fluid. I literally mean to your point of like, it's not static. people's identities evolve every day, not just their gender identity, right. That's the purpose of today's talk is to talk a little bit about that reality for me. But everybody's identity is fluid and changing based on who they are, what walk of life they're in, whether they're a parent or not a parent, whether they're married or divorced. And I think what happens is when we go through an identity shift, right, and identity conflict, or at worst, I think identity crisis, it's because something has changed in our life, that we are concerned about what that will mean. And as an example, I had a wedding planner that I would talk to that is incredibly talented, that hid from the world that she was going to have to go through a divorce. Now, despite their best efforts, they could not reconcile and it was time to get divorced. She was mortified that she was a wedding planner who's getting divorced, she was so concerned that nobody was going to want to hire a divorced wedding planner. And my immediate thought was, I get it, I don't have the answer to this, I get it. But we need to get you past this. Because if this is a crutch that you hold on to or something you feel like you have to hide, every time you talk to somebody, you are literally going to bury, right, that potential, and it's time to unearth and unleash it, right. And so the shift was, she was an unbelievable co-parent, they had two children, those children were unbelievably supported and loved by both parents, they were able to create a life in which they co-parenting and got along just great. Like that's something to be celebrated, not hidden. So we really need to find the things about our identity that make us unique, own them, claim them, and then be able to go out into the world and have that impact. Lindsay Mustain 17:25I love that. And when we feel like we have to hide it, I have a client that just began with me, and came from a very, very masculine environment, I'm gonna say that's in general, what we are, we don't spend a lot of time in letting people like if we think about the masculine, the masculine, this is I'm going to define it, what I see is really the doing like it's the action, right? The feminine is like the nurturing the embodying, and the beam, right. And together, like Yin and Yang, you guys need both sets of hormones, like you don't have just like every man has estrogen, and every woman has testosterone. And actually, I was reading something from a doctor, I talked about how some men have more estrogen than women. So like, if we were to base it, there is complete fluidity. That's a big word for me to say there in this process. And so what we've been conditioned to believe, is very different. And so the environment has been where he was incredibly spiritual, and you would never know it and talking to him because he had been so trained to be so masculine and to be so right. And to be, everything is about action. And to be completely like straight face, you would never know that there's emotion, and what we're like, I think Renee Brown has done a really big gift for the world and really trying to embrace both vulnerability and authenticity about who we are but it's even deeper. Like, I feel like you're taking that to a whole other level. And I love that. This is the first time by the way, cuz I'm talking about the connections that I'm making here, that you were talking about. It's not that you're not the futurist fluid. It's not about gender, which is what I really thought we're gonna be talking about today. But that every person so like, what am I going to hear is intersectionality diversity and inclusion, you know, whatever you want to call this container, which is just fucking seeing people for being people, in my opinion, like, recognizing that we have no boxes. If there are, you know, a billion people on the planet, there are no boxes that we can all fit in and we would stop categorizing people. How do we make this culture? Like how do we create this culture, where people can show up as their most authentic selves where we can be inclusive? Where do we stop categorizing people, tell me how do we do that? Like, what can you tell my audience here? But how do we do that? And how do we show up as a company to like a company because I feel like that's gonna be something you're gonna do in the future is really advising companies? But how do visuals become this advocate for themselves and stand in their own power? Don 19:39So the hardest thing is, our influences and experiences teach us who to be how to be what we think is going to happen, and the stories we tell ourselves are the ways in which we build that invisible prison. So the best thing each individual can do, whether it be their gender identity or any other identity is they basically need to break down walls. That's what I've done over the last four months, I have basically taken brick by brick, and I've removed the invisible prison in which I lived. And those bricks were fear, guilt, shame, doubt, like I said, compartmentalization. Right. Let's start at the very center of my bullseye and we'll work our way out. And I want to tell a really raw and emotional story because what it does is it encourages people to feel compassion and empathy. And it, it creates one of two things, they walk away, and they go, Oh, my God, I had no idea or somebody out there is gonna listen to the story and say, Oh, my God, just like me, or both, okay. So when I decided to tell my wife, it's because I had a 10-month-old baby girl and when that baby girl was born, I looked at her and I said, I'm gonna love you unconditionally, no matter what you can be married, do whatever job doesn't matter, I will love you unconditionally and over the course of those 10 months, I started looking at myself in the mirror and for most of my life, I either sort of denied this feeling and then after a while, I'm like, I can't deny it because it's still here. And I'm like, 35,40, 45, whatever it was, so I just started hiding it and I was like, well, whatever, it's just in there. And I'll just ignore it. Well, once I had a baby girl, and I have marriage and a wife that loved me unconditionally, and that I loved unconditionally and we shared that unconditional love for a daughter, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I went, Okay, so you've gone from denying it, to hiding it to now basically being a hypocrite about it, which makes you a liar, you're just a liar. And I couldn't look at myself in the mirror day after day and feel like, okay, you're a liar and so I decided to tell my wife, and I didn't even know what to tell her. At the time, I was like, I've got this feeling inside of me. I'm not masculine. I've never been toxically masculine, you know that. But there's literally like, part of me, that's a woman or part of the time, there's a part of me, that's a woman, I don't know how to explain it, I just am. And she's like, okay, we're gonna figure this out together and over the course of four years, until I finally had the courage to talk about it in public, my wife consistently looked at me and was like, we're gonna stop together, and you're my person, I will love you forever. That's it. So that process was an ability for me to basically take brick by brick, and basically destroy these walls of this invisible prison in which I lived and what it allowed me to create was new stories. So the story of I knew my wife would love and support encouraged me and be unconditionally loving. But she might have said, I can't go on this journey with you. I just can't, like, this isn't what I signed up for and she would have every right to say that, and I wouldn't be able to hold that against her. And so that story got taken out of my wall, because she looked at me and said, You're my person, I'll love you forever and we're in this together. And then the, I can't tell my mom about this, she'll never understand it. Okay, I get to get rid of that, because I talked to my mom about it and I can't present myself as my authentic self, because people won't hire me anymore, or people won't want to hire the non-binary photographer, because it will. Okay, I got to do that. Because as I present, I have more people saying, This is amazing. I'm so glad you are who you are. And it makes me more inclined to partner with you to hire you to support you, including a super fun anecdote, hired by recently by an unbelievable production company that I love. They're unbelievable they hired me not necessarily knowing that I had gone through this awakening, I showed up. And for this product launch, they had brought in a troupe of ballerinas and models and fashion icons from New York City, to include a non-binary model to show the intersection of like art and commerce. And as I was there, I just immediately was like, This is the world that we need to create, that it was important to that company to include all walks of life. And I was able to then use photos that I took of these individuals in my presentation in Las Vegas, like I said, everything happens for a reason where I showed this is what gender looks like gender is, whatever the person is. And so first thing you can do as an individual, looking outward, destroys those walls. Okay, and then next, if you want, we can talk about I think what other people that are kind of outside of prison can do to help. Lindsay Mustain24:12I would I think that that is the most powerful thing. And I think I'm gonna be honest, I felt a little intimidated when I looked at your story because I thought how do I do this, right that doesn't offend somebody and that I absolutely love and care about this person. And I want to be supportive, but I don't even know the right thing to say. So how can I How can I do it in a way where I feel like people will be like, I'll give you an example. After my brother was murdered. A lot of people avoided me. They just didn't know what to say to me and they were intimidated, and they were sure they're gonna say the wrong thing and I didn't know how I would feel and so I'm always like, Listen, I have zero clues. I don't read through this either. So I was like, the biggest thing was just being there. It didn't matter like coming with really unconditional love. So I don't know if that's true for you. But I would love to hear how can somebody support this culture how as an advocate for an individual that you know, Don 24:57I'm so so sorry about that and I know that people probably say it to you all the time. And you're like, Okay, I get it. My sister is one of my best friends in the world. And so you live my worst nightmare. And I want to acknowledge that. This is also a conversation about identity. I know, it doesn't seem like it. But you went from one identity to another abruptly and, unfortunately. And so what we can do for people that are going through an identity conflict, identity shift, and identity adaptation, is do exactly what you just said, is be there, and love them the way that they need to be loved, at that moment, unconditionally, and so you and I share, again, very different scenario, but I literally would want people to look at me and be there for me, whether it be physically, emotionally, psychologically, whatever. And essentially, say exactly what you're saying, Lindsay, like, I don't know, and I don't get it. But I want you to know that I'm here. And I love you unconditionally, and I'll support you. So tell me, if there's anything that I can do to do that. Now, you'll hear a lot of people use words like microaggressions and it's not my responsibility to educate you. I do agree that if you care about someone, and you want to love them, and support them through a transition through whatever, a difficult time, and awakening any transition in their life, you can do a little due diligence, that won't be wasted, right. So for example, right, doing research on gender identity, listening to a podcast on gender identity, doing research on someone who's lost someone that's close to them, trauma, grief, like we can educate ourselves a little bit so that the burden of responsibility isn't on the person, right to do the educating at the same time, if you come to me, and there's a very important word here, Lindsay, and I'm sure you know it, if you come to me with the right intention, I'm going to know it. I'm going to see it, I'm going to feel it and so when people are like, you know, he, they Oh, I'm so sorry. And they make they get all flustered. But I'm like, I get it. It's cool. It's something that we've been like, you've called me here for the last 44 years, I don't expect you to get it overnight, right? Just be like, I meant they, and let's move on. Right? It is there are ways in which we can support each other. Now, the other thing I really want for people to understand is, if you are cis-gendered, right, which for those of you that don't know, because it's not a very common word cis-gendered is basically anybody who's not transgender or non-binary or falls under that umbrella. So your gender assigned at birth, and your gender identity align. Cisgendered is what we call you, right? What's what the scientific word is for it. If you're that person, finding ways to show that you're a safe space, and that you believe in that undeniable truth, that every gender identity is valid and to be respected. Any way in which you can do that, please do that. And what that includes is, if you're on Instagram, add your pronouns, even if they seem obvious, right? If your gender identity, Lindsay is perfectly aligned at birth with what your gender identity is, as an adult, that makes you probably put your her in that because what that means is when I look you up, when I start to interact with you, I'm like, Okay, cool. This person agrees with my undeniable truth that gender identity matters, as opposed to somebody who's like, Well, no, I don't, I don't agree with that your snowflake, it's your guy, your girl. And then I know that I can just behave differently. Lindsay Mustain28:25Yes, because that's the thing people want to feel safe. Like, that's a core need that we need to have is feel safe. But also, I want to go back to one of the most core human needs that we have. And something that's really, really missing in all core. Corporate America is love and connection. It's one of the biggest core needs that we have as human beings. And so when we, when we, when we neglect people as humans, they don't feel connected to their environment. And when you ignore that part of somebody and I have come from square as I've evolved, if I become the person that I really was meant to be, as my experiences have shaped me, and my identity has shifted, you know, those things have been denied by people who I was born to even and the people who get to truly see me and love me now, like, that is how we feel like we matter in the world. And when we look at some of the epidemics around, you know, people who had a suicide in particular, and people who have been ostracized for their lives, it's because we don't show up and just love them. So like I always say, my highest value is love and it's a very weird thing inside of a world of corporate. I'm like, I am just going to love you exactly as you show up for me. And that doesn't mean that I have the answer. In fact, like I want to be students and what to learn, but just show up and love people and if you do that, if you come with this heart approach, I mean, that is the real true definition of like love and connection are you just show up and we just embrace people exactly as they are, you know whether or not you think they are, you know, right or wrong. Like just love it. Somebody like judgment was a big part of my thing I had to let go and how other people feel about me has no definition of who I really am. Don 30:08So you have, you've undergone a very tumultuous journey. And you're very comfortable and confident, right inside your container. Now, I have to tell you, first of all, I love everything about what you just said, I think love is by far and away one of the most powerful emotions. And I believe that in this world, even though there's a lot of hate, and a lot of ignorance and a lot of aggression, that there's far more love. I just I genuinely believe that. However, I will tell you that based on what you just said, one of the things that we all need to do is sit still in a quiet room for a moment and close our eyes, and ask ourselves how, and whether or not we truly love ourselves the way in which we should, because I'll tell you, that's literally the story of my 40 years as I was fundamentally incapable of looking in the mirror and loving myself, the way that I loved my daughter. And that, for me, was was literally the linchpin, it was literally the time at which I said, you can't love yourself in the same way you love your daughter, and then expect your daughter to go into the world and love herself the way that you love her, right? So I need everybody to do that. Because that's where we oftentimes get into problems. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm 100% on board with you, that other people look at us and judge us and try to compartmentalize us and therefore aren't loving us the way they need to love us. But ultimately, first, we got to look inward. And I will tell you in the last four months of my life, and I love telling this story because it was one of those moments where like, how do I get my unusually large foot out of my mouth right now I looked at my wife. And I was finishing up this leadership program, I had just finally unearthed, unleashed, acknowledged, and owned the fact that my gender identity didn't align and that I was going to present as non-binary and fluid and love everything about life. I was getting ready to do this talk in Vegas like everything was firing, and I was like, Oh my God, I've never been happier. Wait a minute, I married I had a kid like That's not fair. But what I acknowledged was in that moment, I literally sat still, and was watching all these things swirl around me and how they were coming together in unconditional love for myself. And I said I've never been happier with myself and how I feel about myself. That was ultimately it was literally a free pass. It was a ticket. It was a ticket to freedom to happiness, that doesn't mean that there's some fear. That doesn't mean there's not intimidation that's not, oh, gosh, what about, but it was literally a feeling of freedom that I had never ever felt in 44 years on this planet. And I want everybody to have that. Lindsay Mustain 32:56And I think you're completely right. In order to love people really fully, you have to start by loving yourself. And that is one of the biggest journeys that we can take. And it's a process. It's still my process. Because something that I do when people look at me, and they see the transformation that I've made this last year, what I did is I started to fall in love with myself. And I stopped denying bullshit that I had actually repressed and truth that I had embraced because I was worried about other people judging me and I just decided to be me. And that's not perfect, not even close. But it is completely authentic and exactly who I was meant to be. Don 33:27And we'll find ways to love ourselves in spite of things because of things. We develop a new fit. Like, I just love the fact that life isn't static like just isn't static. It's 100% fluid. And so are each and every single one of us on the level, all the work that you're doing to help people in their professional and personal journeys. It's amazing. Lindsay Mustain33:48Well, thank you so much for being here. So if somebody wants to reach out to you, because I feel like you can be here to talk about this, and help enlighten people and shed journey if they want to follow you if they want you to talk how can they contact you? Don 33:58I am like the easiest person to find on the planet. You can go on every social media site out there and I'm at donmamone@donmamone.com. My wife and I are on Facebook, we have a website for our photography and so I'm a relationship marketer at heart. It says it right behind me and you and I know it's people first and profit. Literally, a person just needs to send me a message and we'll connect and I'll have a chat with them. Lindsay Mustain34:22I love that. Thank you so much for being here. Don 34:24It's my pleasure.
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Hello. Hello. Life challenges make a person, and Rachel Shumway is no exception. She has gone through relocation, depression, divorce, and eating disorders. She created victory for herself. She's originally from Oregon and presently is living in China. She is the creator of the bad-ass academy. Please welcome, Rachel Shumway. Welcome Rachel. Hello? Hello? Hello. How you doing over there? It's evening time for you, morning over here. So wild. Give us some background because that's an awful lot. Relocating to another country, depression, going through a divorce, eating disorders. That's a huge amount of things to tackle. So give us a little background and then maybe tell us like how you decided to make the transition to help other people with their confidence. Okay, for sure. Yeah. So sometimes I, I wake up in the morning and I look at my life and I'm like, oh my goodness. For how old I am. I'm 27 turning 27, this year. I've gone through so many different things. I've been married for more years than most people my age. Yeah, from a background perspective, you know, the boring stuff is, you know, went to university and studied exercise and wellness and all of these things. Let me start over. So, yeah, my background has always kind of been from the time that I've been young in thinking and pondering and trying to make random connections in different ways of thinking different areas of life. I've always been a very, very curious person. And sometimes when I was younger, I would just kind of go around and go on walks and be like, What does time, you know, as an eight year old, I remember walking to school and asking, asking, um, my sister, who I walked to school with, like, what is time? And like, who invented it? And like questions like this from an eight year old, like do not ever happen on such a deep level. And so from that perspective, I guess who I've always been, has been someone that's. Seeing something, seeing a problem, seen a little question and just kind of ran towards it. And so that's probably why I have ended up in so many different random areas of my life. You know, I've lived in four different continents by the time I was 23, like I said, yeah, I was married, had been divorced. And, um, just from this kind of place of being someone that I see a challenge. And then there's something there that's like, that looks fun. What kind of torturous wonderful, evolutionary growth can come out of this. Um, and I guess that's kind of the spirit of bad-assery. That's always been inside of me from a young age. So eventually, um, you know, I was living in Sacramento. I'd been married for five years at the time. I'd already lived in China for a year. And, you know, the relationship that I was in, the marriage was completed and I decided, you know what, what's the next challenge that I want to take on. I really didn't know who I was. I didn't know who I was outside of this relationship. I was very much relying on, um, eating behaviors to kind of keep me feel like I keep me feeling like I was a float. And so it was like, you know what? I don't want this relationship anymore. It's complete. I don't know who I am without food. I don't know who I am spiritually. None of any of this makes sense. I need to kind of destroy the walls that are around me. And so that's why I decided to pick up and to move to China, which is kind of an external representation. If you will, of going into a place where I felt so lost, lost externally to match the lost internality of my world. And so from that place, it was just kind of like. We're going to do this. This is the challenge. Let's see what we can learn here. And so yet picked up and relocated over here. I love your analogy of feeling lost and I also liked the way you said that your marriage was complete. It was a beautiful way of putting it. Yeah. I don't like to think of anything like ending. I've never heard anybody speak to that before and I applaud you. I think it's beautiful. So go ahead, go ahead with your story. Yeah, so kind of rebuilding, I look around, I don't know what the Chinese characters mean. I don't know anybody in the city. I like one friend. And so I learned how to find myself in a place where nothing made sense. I didn't have any expectation of who I was supposed to be. I could all of a sudden, like it was okay. I could go and have a couple drinks. My family wasn't there telling me, um, that I could or couldn't do that. I grew up, um, just in a, in a place where alcohol wasn't really a thing until it was like, wow, I have all of these choices now, what do I want? Right. Instead of what do I have to do? So. That was kind of just the process that I went through. And then I found who I was, I was able to discover that who I was was already there all along. It just had a little fuzzy, like lots of clouds and expectations and, you know, habits and addictions that once all of that was cleared away, it was like, ah, yes. Thank you, true self for showing yourself. You've been here all along and if I can figure it out, like there's literally nobody else in the world that can not figure it out because I feel like I kind of checked off, like, I don't know the big six or whatever of life, things of transitions. And so it's like, I cannot be quiet about this anymore. There's so many people that feel like they're lost, but it's like, Yo, you're not lost and I can help you with that. So that's why I decided to transition more into coaching, especially it was actually during when COVID hit. I was living in Shanghai at the time. Um, and so of course, everyone in China was freaking out. We're like, okay, great. It was kind of paradoxical because in that moment it was like, the world was kind of freaking out my circles, my social circles with like, what's going to happen to us. Are we going to have to, you know, leave and be relocated? And it was just like this sense of calm steadiness that came to me. And it was just like, Rachel, the world is uncertain, but you are certain in who you are. And you need to bring that to life and you need to start speaking of that. So that's when the bad-ass academy was born and here we are today. I love how that you just got up and went to a new place. I think that's super cool and very bad-ass. And in honor of the hat i have on on which our listeners can't see, it says beautiful bad-ass I had to wear it tonight in your honor. Can you define Badassery for me? I know it's like my favorite word ever. So, I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with Renee Brown and Glennon Doyle and Pema Chodron, those are the three people that mentored me in this journey towards my own definition of badassery, which is using to live in the discomfort of vulnerability and fear and courage that comes when you're living an authentic life. You don't settle for cheap counterfeits because who you are, what you really desire is a life that's filled with truth and passion and vision. And those things are not possible. When you settle for settle for a quick fix and instant gratification and closing yourself off. So it's kind of those three things of authenticity and vulnerability and commitment to the life that, that you have those desires in your heart, that they feed off of each other to create bad-assery. And it's not perfection. It's messy. It's ugly. It's lots and lots and lots. Of yucky and negative emotion, but at the end of the day, it's true. It's the human experience. And you're a stronger, better person for it. And I'm going to get a poster that definition and put in front of me every day. That is just an awesome way to live. I've been really trying to develop my uncertainty muscle, so this couldn't be any more appropriate for where I standing at this very minute so I thank you. One thing that I really like about your program, I applaud your efforts, for not treating everybody as one size fits all. You try to do a unique coaching concept, can you explain how you go about that? Yeah, so, I mean, badassery or just having a goal in general. Like there are so many different ways that experts can help people. Right. I believe that at the end of the day, 95% of the time, people already know exactly what they need to do, they may not know, you know, exactly every single strategy and skill and step from A to B of where they are and where they want to go. But they know what's in front of them. They have the foresight to take one step ahead of them. So for example, a client that I'm working with is working on losing 50 pounds right now. She doesn't know exactly what her food protocol is going to be when she achieves that result. She doesn't know exactly what kinds of foods fuel her body. She doesn't know, you know, should I eat cashews or almonds? She doesn't know exactly. But she knows right now that she needs to stop eating sugar. She knows that right now, eating four meals a day, isn't working for her. She knows that right now she's making a plan for herself and then not following through with it because she feels uncomfortable. So she knows she needs to learn the skill of allowing urges and loving herself through that process and that where she is right now. That's the only thing that she really needs to know. She knows who she's going to become, and she has the steps in front of them. And so for me, it's, first of all, it's like a weight off of my chest. Cause it's like, I don't, I don't know what you should do. And what I know and what I help my clients with is helping them to discover. That, what they do know is enough who they are is enough. And if I can teach them that and if I can teach them how to view their challenges, not as something to fix so that they can be worthy and loveable. Then they can take that and they can apply it to weight loss. They can apply it to business. They can apply it to their relationships because it's who they are. It's who they've become through the process of creating this goal and creating this result for their life. And I love that. On my bathroom mirror, I haven't vinyl letters, I am enough. People don't realize that. They just need to look in the mirror and take what's there. Cause it's kind of all there, but sometimes they need a little guide there to show them what is there. So I'm glad you were there to guide. With your badassery program, you have three pillars. Would you talk to us about your three pillars? Yeah. So kind of going back to the definition, the three pillars are vulnerability, authenticity and playing big. So with vulnerability, the way that I kind of just that I, that I like to think about it is like, you've got this Coliseum shaped thing, like that big triangle on top and then three pillars. And then if your vulnerability is low than your authenticity or playing bigness kind of tend to like pick it up. So for example, like if you're feeling really, really incapable of feeling vulnerable, you're going to see that manifest not only in the way that you, are resisting emotion and kind of trying to, play smaller, but you're not dreaming for bigger goals. So it's like as one pillar is kind of affected is stronger than the others, it always balances out. Like the first pillar, there are four skills that you can use to increase your ability to embrace vulnerability. So spiritual connection is the first skill. When you connect to a higher power. God angels universe. She highest self Buddha Krishna. It doesn't matter what it is. But when you have a foundation of this idea that there is some power that is greater outside of you, that loves you. That believes you are enough, then all of a sudden, you're able to embrace vulnerability a little bit more because you're not doing this alone. It's not like you having an experience of negativity or shame or whatever. It's not anything wrong with you, but it's like, okay, there's someone here, deeply lifting, guiding and supporting me. So it makes that vulnerability a little easier. There's the physicality of it strengthening your physical body. So this is nutrition. This is exercise. This is mind, body connection, knowing how to meet your physical needs, just at a very, very basic level. And there's emotional management. Obviously, this is a huge one, right? People want to feel better. I would just, I just don't want to feel anxious anymore. Um, so it's understanding, okay. What causes anxiety for you? Where does anxiety come from? And anxiety is a feeling. And what I teach is that your feelings are always caused by your thoughts. So if you feel anxious, it's not because you lost your job. It's because you lost your job and now you have a story about how you're not going to be able to provide for your kids and you're worrying and you're spinning around and all of these thoughts that are producing anxiety, but it's not because you lost your job. It's because the way that you're perceiving the circumstances around you. And when you're able to get into that place, right. Then all of a sudden it's like, okay, I'm feeling anxiety, but where can I take my power back? And then you actually move into solution finding mode instead of crap. I just feel anxious that what am I going to do about it? It's like emotional management here is creating a routine. Or you're proactively caring for yourself proactively, um, going into the garden of your brain, if you will, and taking out the weeds, making sure that it's, that it's a clean area and that you're also planting seeds of love. You're planting seeds of joy and intentionality in there, so that the garden of your mind is filled with the plants and the flowers and the fruits that you want to be there. Because if you don't do that, Then it's going to, you're going to absorb those things from the world around you. I liked the way you was talking about the balance and how, one of the pillars might need to be a little stronger to keep the balance, everything's a balance. When you have success in one area, you take physical health, for example, you borrow confidence from that. So one of the things, that, that I do is like, when I go to the gym and I have a really good workout, I just notice the thoughts that I'm having about myself. Oh my gosh. Rach, you're so strong. You're a, bad-ass, you are resilient. This pain is worth it. Like, how can I make this fun? How can I play more? And those are like the power self-talk that I give myself in the gym, which is like, where I totally kill it. And then I go into another area. So like I'm on, um, I'm like learning clubhouse, for example. And I'm kind of like, I noticed myself going on. I have no idea what to do here. It's okay. But wait a second. How is it true? That I'm strong here. I'm strong in the gym. How is it true that I'm strong here and you can kind of transfer it into other areas, even if like you're not really good at something yet. It doesn't really matter. Cause like babies aren't good at walking, but they keep trying. You can feel more confident in areas of your life simply because of who you are. That's so funny that you just said that I literally just. Narrowed my avatar and I'm niching it to successful entrepreneurs and healthy habits because they understand discipline and business and I just want to use that to transfer it into their health. That is karma right there happened in live people. Um, that's awesome. I tell you what, I'm glad I wear my hat. Um, give me a couple of, of clients stories, for success. So just to kind of a general example, I just finished up, a program with, oh, I'm going to miss this client so much because she. When she came to me, she came to me just for, you know, general things. She was struggling with a little bit of anorexia also over-drinking and she just came to me and she was like, you know what? I don't even know what I want. I just want to feel better. I feel angry all the time. I feel stressed out. I feel like. I go into this relationship with my boyfriend. She was having a lot of people, pleasing things where, you know, her boyfriend would want her to come over and she's like, well, I don't want to, but okay. I guess I will. And then she'd spend the whole evening like angry and upset at him. Cause she's like, you made me come over here. Which of course, you know, he didn't. And so what her and I worked on together is she just decided like, Cause it w with the emotions, when you say, I just want to feel better, it's really hard to measure. It's really hard to track that. So what I do is I use a tool that's called like the emotional set point and your top three feelings. So on her, her emotional average scale, basically what she was feeling was indulgent and angry. And resistance. Those were like her top three emotions that she was feeling on a day-to-day basis. And so we set the intention that what she wanted to feel was more self regard, more peace and more groundedness. So, yeah. So throughout this process, we worked on unmemorized the feeling of anger shifting from not reacting to anger, but allowing it to be there, not judging herself for having those feelings when things didn't go right. And it's going to make me cry. But at the end of this package, um, what we, what we got to was like, She's like, yeah, I feel anger still, but it's not a reflection of anything that's wrong with me. I am a human that's feeling. Anger. Sometimes things happen in the world. Like, um, she, she worked at a school and she was like, I see parents hit their kids or I see the children being neglected and I choose to be angry about that because it's injust, I'm not making my negative emotions mean that anything's wrong with me. I love myself and I have this human experience. And what I think is so beautiful about that is she was able to get to a point that yes, she did change her emotional, um, her emotional set point. She had that sense of self regard and gratitude and peace and calm, which of course at the end of the day, We all would love to feel good all of the time, but we're humans, right? So not the way that the world works. If we wanted to feel good all the time, then that means everything in the world would have to be perfect all the time. And it just isn't, but we can embrace that as part of the human experience. And that's where she got to. At the end of the day, she was like, you know what? I. Know how to feel. I know how to create emotions that I want, and I know how to be there with myself instead of leaving, instead of turning to alcohol, instead of turning to anger and reacting and hiding under the blanket and watching Netflix all day, I'm able to show up for myself in my life from that place. And I think that it's a wonderful success. It just makes me really happy. Ah, it sounded like she really could understand her feelings and know how to navigate through them. Cause a lot of do, they just get lost and then they turn to something that's not healthy for them, whether it's alcohol or food or whatever, not conducive to a good life, so good for her. And that's awesome that you get to help people like that. That's that's a really nice feeling. I'm sure. Very rewarding. My signature question for you. If you could eliminate one thing it from the world forever, what would it be and why? Um, I think loneliness. Oh, that would be the number one thing. I don't think it's the purpose of our life here to eliminate challenges to eliminate. Uh, chocolate to eliminate alcohol. Um, I mean, on, on an, on some level, you know, that would solve some of the problems, but the worst and most toxic thing that I ever see myself, I see as the, myself, I think in everybody, is this idea that nobody else understands where I'm going through, what I'm going through. And I'm totally alone in this journey. And that is never true because I have lived. I have lived in a place where I didn't know anybody. I had nothing, but like this numb fog of depression sitting over my body all of the time. And I felt. Completely alone. And there is nothing more discouraging and disempowering than believing that lie. That is so true. And there's always ways, you know, a lot of people expect the loneliness to just go away, but you have to do something about it. One of the things Tony Robbins says is, action cures all. And it's true. You'd have to go out there and find somebody social media, especially with the lockdown. A lot of people experience a lot of loneliness. I heard somebody say was just talk to somebody. Like if you're sitting on the grocery line, learn something from everybody you meet. And it's a great way to just engage with others. You know, I mean, just pipe up a conversation, you knew what they probably want to talk to. So it's just a win-win. That is a stupendous answer, loneliness. I haven't got that one yet. So, way to go. Rachel, I know you were perplexed on what you were going to say, torn between so many. That and Frito-Lay, but I decided to awesome. Oh my God. I am right there with you but yeah, that was that's funny one. Yeah, that is true. So, um, loneliness is, is very hard, but I think the cure to that is people just have to put that foot out and take that first step on their own. Uh, and when you can't get yourself to just, you know, like push yourself to do it, I kind of made a challenge for myself too, is like, you can make it fun. I'm a musical theater person and so sometimes I like to just step into this other character. When I go out, it's like, okay, today, this is who I'm going to be. I'm going to make eye contact with 10 people, ohh I love it, different reactions I can get from them based on energy that I present with it, because I mean, what's the worst thing that's going to happen. You develop your strength in your uncertainty muscle, which is always a great thing. That's so fun. I love that so thank you. Um, but yeah, you've got to put yourself out there, right? I mean, you just, you have to go places that you're not comfortable in and because if you don't, you're never going to change from where you are, right? Yeah. Yeah. And if you know that, you know, you're going to put yourself out there, you're going to like start a conversation with somebody in the grocery line. Okay. You probably are going to feel scared doing that, but. So what, like the worst thing that's going to happen. If you can get the skill of like, just feeling scared all the time for going out and doing the thing, then it's like the world opens up. I love it. Ah, such good wisdom, I tell you what. Not everyone can pick themselves up and move to another country or live in several countries. That is really pretty neat. I've been meeting a lot of people like you lately. It's opening my eyes to some very interesting, perspective things in the future. Audience where they can contact you. Yes. So you can find me on Facebook, Rachel Shumway. That is where I hang out. You can add me and send me a message, or you can also find me at thebadassacademy.com. There's a little button there that says, apply to the bad-ass competence program or just book a free 30 minute call. I do offer consultations for anyone that wants to have a chat, whether you want to, you know, find out more about working with me or if there's something that you think I can help you with on this free 30 minute call also totally cool. So you can find me on either of those things. And I will, of course put them in the show notes. No problem. And I thank you for, sharing with us, your history and, your great academy, because I think that's so important to help people that are feeling that needs a boost their confidence. So hopefully people will connect with you and you can share your wisdom and, and your expertise in that arena. And I appreciate your time today so much. And thank you for having me. How cool is that? We live in a world where we can meet 12 hours apart and still have this call still recur record this podcast. And yeah. Absolutely. You're like in a different day. It's like so bizarre to me. I don't know. I behind me, I can done in the side here. I have all my world class. I'm always trying to figure out where people are and what time it is. It's like a constant challenge, but, um, this has been great and I love it. You and I are going to keep connecting because I feel like we're in the same page with so many things and it's been a complete pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you And I just want to remind everybody out there. Life has no remote. Get up and change it yourself. Ooh, I like that.
Listen As Our Host Amir Aahlee (NYC) Speaks With Renee Brown, A Loving Mother Of Two Who Has Filed For Divorce From Her Husband After 13 Years Of Marriage. YOU DONT WANT TO MISS THIS!!! SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN NOW!
Life. Is. Hard! (Thank you Captain Obvious). How we tell our stories and talk to ourselves directly impacts our mental health and abilities, to not only recover from brain injury, but to live a fulfilling life. In this episode we talk about how to love yourself through ALL times. Vanessa Woodburn, integrative health coach, PCS survivor, and author of Bounce Back: Reclaim Your Life After a Concussion joins us with practical advice on self care. Even if you don't have PCS this episode applies to all brain injury survivors and we venture to say, all humans. Topics covered in this episode: Integrative health coaching: looks at the whole person: emotional, spiritual, nutritional, physical, sleep Post concussion syndrome: there can be a lack of awareness in the medical community of what to do for someone with PCS, “you look fine,” “your test results are fine” Vanessa found she needed to search for help on her own https://www.vanessawoodburn.ca/#:~:text=Bounce%20Back%20is%20for%20people,navigated%20the%20post%2Dconcussion%20experience. (Bounce Back: Reclaim your Life After a Concussion) by Vanessa Woodburn Applies to any brain injury. The book focuses on self compassion while doing this work. Gives a stepwise approach for recovery addressing many topics such as sleep, nutrition, exercise, self talk, telling your story, etc Writing our stories (self talk) Is what I'm telling myself true? We have the ability to change our story into positivity https://amzn.to/3r60l5a (Rising Strong by Renee Brown). The reckoning, the rumble, and the revolution of our stories. We are neuro-biologically wired to make ourselves safe in our story. We have to search for what is true. Our stories never end and constantly change https://amzn.to/3j2cW6N (Night of the Gun by David Carr): a reporter who had addiction issues that after recovery wrote about his story. He found that the way he represented his story was not actually true, he had created a safer story leaving out difficult parts. After interviewing others he found a more true version The constant rehashing of your story can get you bogged down. What does the revisiting to the story do to your mental health? There have to be points along the way where you release parts of your story so you don't get stuck. Sometimes you need space from it rather than living in it “If you fight for your limitations you get to keep them” (Jim Kwik). Am I putting a lot of energy to stay in a certain place that doesn't feel good? You can choose to put your energy into moving forward (16:12) It's a balancing act of listening to what you need but not getting stuck in a spot Self compassion: with all these things going on, what do I need today? The answer might be different then what it was yesterday. Is today the day to push yourself? (18:45) Self-compassion and Self-care: what will nourish you? Your brain, your body, and your mental health? Self-care considerations: moving your body, how is your sleep? how are you connecting with yourself on the inside, building in quiet so that you can actually listen to what you need? Bring it to a practical level. Kristen Neff, researcher- self care has a ying and yang, a fierceness to take care of yourself and to ask yourself “what do I need.” It is a push and a pull, the both/and Your standards for what you need change daily. Just because you are resting and caring for yourself doesn't mean you have to let your goals go. It just changes the path to get there Balance- there are many ups and downs that happen at a fast speed. We have to be kind to ourselves and recognize that our needs change Rigidity is not practical. Have to be flexible Have to be nice to yourself through the process “O my gosh, but I said i was going to do this” (25:55) Self-compassion and kindness to ourselves allows us to change...
Episode 1/3 with Stanzi (Constance) Moseley sharing her experiences in Olympic-level goal-setting and previews Renee Brown's work on rumbling with out emotions.
Today the guys and I are joined by Renee Brown as we talk about our travel experiences. We discuss the different cultures, food, weather, and many more differences we’ve encountered visiting other countries. Tune in and let us know your favorite place you’ve been to! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience in the area of preparing for release from prison. Renee has family members who were incarcerated and in this 6-part series, she shares the step by step process of both preparing for release and surviving and thriving in the years following a prison term. This series is hosted by Fr. Harry Dean, a pastor in the Restorative Justice Ministries with the Diocese of Austin, Texas. His years of pastoral ministry are also interwoven in the discussion between he and Renee throughout this series.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience in the area of preparing for release from prison. Renee has family members who were incarcerated and in this 6-part series, she shares the step by step process of both preparing for release and surviving and thriving in the years following a prison term. This series is hosted by Fr. Harry Dean, a pastor in the Restorative Justice Ministries with the Diocese of Austin, Texas. His years of pastoral ministry are also interwoven in the discussion between he and Renee throughout this series.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience in the area of preparing for release from prison. Renee has family members who were incarcerated and in this 6-part series, she shares the step by step process of both preparing for release and surviving and thriving in the years following a prison term. This series is hosted by Fr. Harry Dean, a pastor in the Restorative Justice Ministries with the Diocese of Austin, Texas. His years of pastoral ministry are also interwoven in the discussion between he and Renee throughout this series.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience in the area of preparing for release from prison. Renee has family members who were incarcerated and in this 6-part series, she shares the step by step process of both preparing for release and surviving and thriving in the years following a prison term. This series is hosted by Fr. Harry Dean, a pastor in the Restorative Justice Ministries with the Diocese of Austin, Texas. His years of pastoral ministry are also interwoven in the discussion between he and Renee throughout this series.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience in the area of preparing for release from prison. Renee has family members who were incarcerated and in this 6-part series, she shares the step by step process of both preparing for release and surviving and thriving in the years following a prison term. This series is hosted by Fr. Harry Dean, a pastor in the Restorative Justice Ministries with the Diocese of Austin, Texas. His years of pastoral ministry are also interwoven in the discussion between he and Renee throughout this series.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience in the area of preparing for release from prison. Renee has family members who were incarcerated and in this 6-part series, she shares the step by step process of both preparing for release and surviving and thriving in the years following a prison term. This series is hosted by Fr. Harry Dean, a pastor in the Restorative Justice Ministries with the Diocese of Austin, Texas. His years of pastoral ministry are also interwoven in the discussion between he and Renee throughout this series.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience addressing the topic of distance parenting. This 6-part series addresses the techniques and value of parenting while distant from one's children. Renee has family members who were incarcerated, leaving behind small children, and has gained a depth of ability in this subject, which also applies to families who have been separated due to illness, work, and military deployment.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience addressing the topic of distance parenting. This 6-part series addresses the techniques and value of parenting while distant from one's children. Renee has family members who were incarcerated, leaving behind small children, and has gained a depth of ability in this subject, which also applies to families who have been separated due to illness, work, and military deployment.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience addressing the topic of distance parenting. This 6-part series addresses the techniques and value of parenting while distant from one's children. Renee has family members who were incarcerated, leaving behind small children, and has gained a depth of ability in this subject, which also applies to families who have been separated due to illness, work, and military deployment.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience addressing the topic of distance parenting. This 6-part series addresses the techniques and value of parenting while distant from one's children. Renee has family members who were incarcerated, leaving behind small children, and has gained a depth of ability in this subject, which also applies to families who have been separated due to illness, work, and military deployment.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience addressing the topic of distance parenting. This 6-part series addresses the techniques and value of parenting while distant from one's children. Renee has family members who were incarcerated, leaving behind small children, and has gained a depth of ability in this subject, which also applies to families who have been separated due to illness, work, and military deployment.
Renee Brown, LPC with Catholic Charities of Central Texas, has personal and professional experience addressing the topic of distance parenting. This 6-part series addresses the techniques and value of parenting while distant from one's children. Renee has family members who were incarcerated, leaving behind small children, and has gained a depth of ability in this subject, which also applies to families who have been separated due to illness, work, and military deployment.
In this week’s episode of Dorothy and the Dealer, Mitch and Mills turn the Spotlight on a much-loved client and longstanding member of the MJB tribe, Renee Brown. From attending our ‘Relationships and You’ seminar over a decade ago, to her current role as Master Equilibrator at MJB; it’s been an amazing journey so far and we’re beyond excited to share with you Rennee’s story and hear her inspiring thoughts surrounding becoming a mum and parenthood. Parents you DO NOT want to miss this episode!! Tune in to discover... - How a recommendation from her sister started Renee’s journey and put her on the path to becoming an integral part of the MJB tribe. - How her own personal experiences and struggles trying to conceive her first child, provided her with the amazing lesson of finding the love for herself....with or without children. - Why we all have preconceived ideas of what parenthood will look like, and how the pressures of being the unattainable “perfect parent” can lead to unnecessary emotions that do not serve us, or our family ... SPOILER ALERT the perfect parent doesn’t exist (and that’s okay). - The importance of being aware that our own journey is just that, OUR journey, and not that of our children; and why we need to be aware and careful not to transfer our own fears and desires onto our children. Remember... “Our kids aren’t the easel on which we can paint our perfect lives” Mills Don’t forget we have a new episode every Sunday.
Durante este episodio podrás escuchar por qué el matrimonio ha sido una célula muy dañada y al mismo tiempo es la que más futuro tiene. Además, José nos dirá como formarnos en pareja para seguir crecimiento en la relación. En las relaciones en pareja debemos dejar el egoísmo, las heridas del pasado y empezar a tener una visión en pareja. Un libro recomendado sería "Los 5 lenguajes del amor de Gary Chapman" y el video de Empatía de Renee Brown. Puedes seguir a José Belio en Facebook e Instagram @Pepebelio y su celular es 5549442193. Finalmente, no dejen de seguirme en redes sociales Instagram @alexjuarez_coach Facebook @alexjuarezc Youtube Alex Juárez Coach
The first episode recorded for the season (but the fourth to be released) and obviously recorde when dat rona was not a concern on our radar, Kevin welcomes his former co-worker from a previous (and shitty) job, Renee Brown, to the podcast. In the tangential nature of the program, the two talk about a lot more than the eclectic mix of tunes Renee has provided—including the stress of buying concert tickets, feeling seen and attacked by Lana Del Rey, the pure joy that is Lizzo, and that you never really stop being an emo kid. For more information about the AWARD WINNING music blog Anhedonic Headphones, click here! Episode 18 credits: The intro to the episode featured an instrumental version of "Labels," performed by GZA/Genius, taken from the 2012 Get On Down/Geffen/Universal Music Special Markets release Liquid Swords - The Chess Box (Instrumentals.) The song originally appears on the 1995 Geffen Records release Liquid Swords. The theme music is a YouTube rip of the intro to BET's "Rap City: The Bassment," airing from 1999 to 2005. In today's episode, we discussed: "Summertime Sadness," written by Elizabeth Grant and Rick Nowels; performed by Lana Del Rey. Taken from the 2012 Polydor/Interscope release Born to Die. "Give a Little Love," written by Charlie Fink; performed by Noah and The Whale. Taken from the 2008 EMI release Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down. "We Came to Dance," written by Benny Horowitz, Alex Levine, Alex Rosamilia, and Brian Fallon; performed by The Gaslight Anthem. Taken from the 2007 XOXO Records release Sink or Swim. "Exactly How I Feel," written by Melissa Jefferson, Theron Thomas, Mike Sabath, and Radric Davis; performed by Lizzo, featuring Gucci Mane. Taken from the 2019 Atlantic/Nice Life release 'Cuz I Love You. "Your Rocky Spine," written and performed by Great Lakes Swimmers. Taken from the 2007 Nettwerk release Ongiara. "Make Me Wanna Die," written by Taylor Momsen, Ben Phillips, and Kato Khandwala; performed by The Pretty Reckless. Taken from the 2010 Interscope releases The Pretty Reckless and Light Me Up. "Joan of Arc," written by Maria Brini, Johnny Andrews, Kevin Churko, and Chris Howorth; performed by In This Moment. Taken from the 2017 Atlantic/Roadrunner release Ritual. "Famous Last Words," written and performed by My Chemical Romance. Taken from the 2006 Reprise Records release The Black Parade.
Valerie Morris is an author and an expert on influence, and is the perfect person to talk about this today. In this episode, Valerie and Nate talk about having confidence like a buffalo, how building up your courage leads to confidence, and how to take steps into expanding your influence despite the discomfort. I've definitely learned for myself how important confidence is for influence. And I brought in Valerie Morris. She wrote the book on influence. We're talking about confidence today. Alright. So, I saw her notes and there was something about a buffalo. So, we're talking about confidence and how confidence relates to influence. Tell me where we're going here. -So, I married a really confident guy. And one of the phrases that he taught me anytime I went into a job interview or I went in to meet with a big client or did something really just that was scary was he encouraged me to have the confidence of a buffalo. Having the confidence of the Buffalo means just being rock-solid. Not moving and being kind of a force to be reckoned with. -Have you ever encountered Buffalo? -I have. And you? -In Yellowstone National... -Yeah. Yeah. They're pretty scary creatures actually. But they're huge and sometimes they just stand there. And they will block the entire road. There are massive creatures and they really... I think, it just is a fun little saying of, "Alright. I'm going to go into this scary job interview or I'm going to go meet with this client. I'm so scared. But I'm going to be Buffalo." I mean, has anyone ever told you to be a buffalo? -No. -No. -Well, that's my encouragement to you today. -So, how do we have the confidence of a buffalo? -Well, you know, it's interesting. There's a concept that I learned in another of Renee Brown situation. I've referenced her a few times before. But she talks about this concept of couraging. And how you build more courage the more you do courage. So the more you go out and do something, the easier it's going to be the next time and the next time and the next time. So, I remember the very first time I recorded videos on my webcam to do for YouTube videos or Facebook videos. Any of those kinds of videos when I was creating for my business. It was very, very scary. So, I remember when live video came out and it was even more scary. You know you press that live button and there's no turning back, right? So, I remember just thinking, "I'm just going to get better at any more confident at doing recorded video where I can delete it if I don't like it. And then once I've done a few of those, then I can work my way up to live video." Now, some people just jump right in and they do the live thing and that's great. But a lot of us, we're a little bit scared about that. And so, just doing a few little steps, it gives you the courage to go do those steps more. And now, I don't have that like flustered feel every time I hit the live button because I'm more comfortable there. So, that's one step is just go out and do it. The more you do... -It sounds like you know, we've heard the phrase fake it until you make it. -Sure. -And I've heard people like talked some for it, some against it. Kind of sounds like a little bit for it in this case. -Yeah. I mean, I don't think it's necessarily faking it to go out and do it. -So, you're not you're not faking your expertise. -No. And I'm not faking it doing the video. But I am going go and do a few videos and build up my confidence. Because the reality is once you've done it once, you can already say you can do it. And that builds just a little bit of confidence in you that you can do it again and again again. So, if you're scared about something, go do that thing. Go write a book. Once you've written a book, then you can say, "I'm an author." And then you have the ability to go say it to other people. And say it on live TV. And maybe write a few more books. So it's just this concept of doing that gives you the confidence to go do it even more an integrator level. -That's awesome. -Yeah. -When we're having this conversation about confidence related to influence, we're talking about influencing somebody else or really making a big impact in the world. And to do that, I recognize that we have to put ourselves in out of our comfort zone. -Yes. -There's a lot of things they have to do that are totally uncomfortable. How do we do that? I mean how do we take that step that's something so scary. I mean you talked about it. How about just doing it but... -You know, it's very scary. Especially if you have a message that is very new or it's controversial or it's really going to go against the grain of most the people in your community. It's going to be a scary thing. And I'll be honest, there's a couple things that have helped me. One is I start by doing a little bit. And then once I gain confidence with that that I expand my circle and I'll share it with someone else. So when I first started my business Facebook page and even just my business in general. I would only share my content with a few select people. It was pretty pathetic. Considering that I now tell people, go broadcast it to the world. I was just sharing it with this very safe group of people. And over time, once I got some reinforcement from them, I have expanded that and then I will share with another ring of people. And another ring. And the more I've received acceptance of that content or of my expertise the more confident and I felt to go after larger and larger audiences. To the point that sometimes, I look at myself and I say, "Where did you come from? Who are you that you're you know, writing a book or speaking on stages or you know, building this audience that has the potential to reach people worldwide?" I never had that aspiration as a child. But yet here I am with this message to share with people and I know that I can get it out there. And I think the other thing too is once you realize that you have a message that the world needs to hear. It gives you a lot more courage to go after and really get it out there. So, if you have a message that you feel like the world has to hear and you believe so strongly in it, you need to get over that courage. And I think if you are that passionate about the message, that passion will override your fears every step of the way. Now a final little tip is to have friends that believe in what you're doing or have friends that are going to help share this message with you And in my book I talk a lot about tribes and having that group of people who are going to support you along the way. And so sometimes you're going after really hard messages. You're sharing things with people that are new. It's a kind of scary topic, it's a controversial topic. Maybe it's some sort of earth-shattering new idea. And if you have a few people in your corner that you can turn to when you know that you know you're getting a lot of criticism or you're scared to put yourself out there, having those people who have your back is going to be crucial. -That's awesome. What's interesting is, is a lot of my clients and a lot of the viewers on our Channel, there are public speakers. And which is such a scary thing and yet they've they've mastered it or they they take the stage and speak in front of hundreds or thousands of people. But what's interesting is a lot of them are still really nervous they say, "Yeah, but how do you get over the nerves? I'm just so afraid of being in front of the camera." So, it's a real thing. -Mm-hmm. -And something that I just recently learned... I'll give a shout out to Michelle Villalobos. She taught me this principle of anchor versus a sail. You need both in your life. You know you need anchors because they help you you know be steady and and safe. But a sail is what's gonna drag you forward. And so what you're talking about there is like if I'm nervous to be on camera or nervous of putting my message out there in video, the people that I want to share that with first are the sales. The people that are going urge me, because an anchor, you need anchors in your life but not necessarily for when you're sharing your vision or you're putting your heart out there in the most vulnerable way. Because they might say, "I don't know because they want to protect you." Right? The anchors want to protect you. But the sills are like, "Oh, yeah you got this. You're doing it." -Yeah. -So, anyway, I appreciate you sharing that part. -Yeah. -I know myself as I've grown in confidence and just gained more credibility and track record, it's given me a natural boost of influence. I mean people have seen what I've been able to do on other channels and so they want to listen to me more which you know gives me more confidence. So it's kind of a... So, I appreciate you sharing your wisdom here. Everyone, needs to check out this amazing book. Valerie Morris' We're All Ears. You find it on Amazon. Let me give a way. I talk a lot about Keyword research and this video we're talking about influence. But when you do keyword research, you find the questions that people are searching for that you can answer it. So if you click the link below, you'll find my keyword research guide. And with that, we'll see you tomorrow.
On the tenth installment of The Link Up with Latesha, our incredible host Latesha Byrd, founder of Byrd Career Consulting, helps us effectively approach getting back into the job search game by sharing five tips that help manage the process a little better. On average, it takes five months to land a position. Don't give up, and keep pushing through the uncertainty!Find out more about Latesha on the BCC website or connect with her through her socials! LinkedIn, IG, Twitter, FBCheck out Latesha's YouTube channel!BCC's socials: LinkedIn, IG, Twitter, FBTRANSCRIPTLatesha: What's up, everyone? Welcome to The Link Up with Latesha on Living Corporate. This podcast is for young professionals that need some real deal advice, tips, and resources to navigate corporate America and dominate their career. If you're looking to upgrade your brand, get the knowledge you need to level up professionally for your future, you are in the right place. I'm your host Latesha Byrd, so let's get into today's episode. So today we are talking about getting back in the game. For those that are searching for their next opportunity, I know just how hard and challenging it can be to push through the uncertainty. I often times relate job searching to the dating world. Like, for instance, let's say you go on a first date, you really hit it off, but he or she has not called you back. So you are sitting there wondering, "What the heck happened?" You know, "We had a good conversation. We have a lot of commonalities." You know, "We just really hit it off. Good vibes, good connections, all of that," but you are still uncertain about whether you should hit that person up or do you wait? You know, do you text first? You don't want to seem too interested, but maybe they're waiting for you, right? And so--[laughs]--dating is a whole game in itself, but the job search process is so similar to it, and so I know from experience--and also as a career coach and a former recruiter--just how hard it can be to really get back into the game and to get focused and to, you know, push through the unknown, you know? When it comes to searching for a job, you are having to just constantly put yourself out there and talk to different companies and, you know, some of them you may hear back from, some of them you may not, or you may, you know, interview, and you get really great feedback, and then it's crickets, right? But for some of those that maybe haven't applied or interviewed or had to search for anything, you know, in a really long time, the question is where do you start and how do you start? What do you need to start? You know, there are so many questions and things that go into it. So I'm here to tell you to, you know, don't give up. Don't give up. Keep pushing. Keep working through the uncertainty. Push through it anyways. On average, it takes five months to land a position. I've done a lot of research on this, on Forbes and CNN Money and all of those sites. The average amount of time that I'm seeing that it takes to land positions is five months. Now, some of my clients are able to land jobs pretty quickly, you know? In a month or two months, but for some, you know, it takes a little bit longer. And it's challenging because waiting to hear back from someone who literally has your future in their hands can be so painful, no matter how well you did in that interview, no matter how bomb your resume is, no matter how bomb your career coach is or even how great your network is. When it comes to landing a position with the company, that is something that you simply won't be able to control. And it likely will take a lot longer than you think to find something, and I'm not saying jumping at the first job offer that you get, but actually finding something worth value, something that is aligned with where you want to be professionally or grow professionally. So I have just a few tips that I wanted to share to help you manage this process a little bit better and to fully get back in the game. #1 - have you tapped into all of your resources? Have you tapped into all of your resources? Take an inventory. Take an inventory of your resources. Often times, we don't tap into people that we already know, such as family, our friends, college classmates or college professors. What about those professional associations or those organizations that you volunteer with in the community? Your peoples at church. [laughs] Your neighbors. The list goes on here, but sometimes we don't think about who we already know, 'cause you never know who knows someone else. So let's say I want to find a job as a management consultant, okay? So my neighbor may not be a management consultant or work for a management consulting firm, but what if his wife's cousin's--I don't know, I'm just--you know, y'all know how that whole wife's cousin's baby momma's hair dresser thing goes, right? [laughs] You just never know who knows someone. And this is a little bit unrelated to the job search, but in terms of a situation that happened to me recently, I was actually tapped for a speaking engagement with a TV or media news company in Virginia, and that connection came from my--this is gonna sound a little tricky, y'all [laughs]--but this came from my father's ex-wife's brother's ex-wife. Right? I didn't even know that she was watching, you know, what I was doing in my business. We had been connected on social media for, you know, a few years now, and it was one of those things where I said, "Man, you never know--" First of all who's watching you, and then number two you never know who knows who or who that person is that could be, you know, get you the key to the gate. So think about who you already know, and you've gotta tell people. Like, you have to tell people that you are actually seeking employment. Let the pride fall where it may, right? This is about utilizing your social capitol. You're not using people. You're not using your friends. You're not using, you know, those folks in your network, because this means that if--if they're able to help you land a job, you could probably help them in some way down the line in the future. So let the pride go and use your connections and ask for help. Ask your connections, as well, to match you with other connections. This is specifically related to LinkedIn. If you all have used the LinkedIn job board for your job search--which I highly, highly recommend, and this is why--because LinkedIn is gonna give you a lot more intel than literally any other job search platform out there. So for instance, if I'm looking--and I'm based in Charlotte, y'all. So, you know, big banking center here. So let's see you're looking at jobs at Wells Fargo and you find a position at Wells Fargo on LinkedIn. LinkedIn will show you who you are connected with that works at Wells Fargo, or it will show you who you're connected with that's connected with someone that works at Wells Fargo. That's why I freaking love the LinkedIn job board, for those connections solely. I had a client actually a couple weeks ago ask me to connect her with a talent acquisition manager at Credit Karma, which is also here in Charlotte. And she just reached out and said, "Hey, I see you're connected with..." She named the gentleman's name and said, you know, "Would you mind facilitating a connection?" And I was like, "What, girl? Heck yes." I have no problem with doing that. I didn't even know him. Now we are acquainted. We just happened to be connected on LinkedIn, but what she did is she was looking at particular companies she wanted to target, and I'm believing she looked for folks in talent acquisition or recruiting and was looking for mutual connections and saw that we were connected. So I was able to facilitate that connection. I reached out to him. I said, "Hey, I have a client who is an accounting operations finance executive. She is wanting to get connected for potential opportunities. Do you mind if I connect her to you?" And he responded immediately, like, "Yes, no problem at all." It is that simple. So #2 - don't be afraid to make new friends or make new connections. This is normal on LinkedIn. This is what LinkedIn is for. Again, LinkedIn is a social networking platform, so you should be socially networking. Look up recruiters. Look up talent acquisition managers. Look up people that are in positions you would ultimately like and just reach out to 'em. You may or may not hear back. It will, you know, take a lot of courage to reach out to them, you know? To say, "Hey, I'm actually interested in working for your organization," and, you know, what have you, because that shows a sign of vulnerability, right? When you have to ask someone for help. That's showing a sign of vulnerability, because that's a quote-unquote weakness, when you need help. I love, love, love Renee Brown. I love her books. I love her TED talk. I love her Netflix special. I just love everything about her. And she talks about vulnerability, and this is something that I talk to my coaching clients about all of the time. You know, vulnerability is--and the way Renee Brown says it, it's like getting in front of a crowd with no clothes on. [laughs] Getting in front of a crowd completely naked, and you are not sure how they are going to respond, but in that vulnerability there is a lot of courage, you know? There is a lot of bravery, because you're pushing through the fear, and you're doing what it takes anyways without even knowing what type of response it is you're gonna get back. So you gotta be brave here. #3 - be specific in what you're looking for. Don't keep it super broad when you're searching for opportunities. Like, for instance, if you are looking at marketing positions, get clear on what type of marketing positions, because there's a whole lot of marketing jobs out there. For example, is it public relations? Is it communications? Is it integrated marketing? Digital media? Et cetera. Quality over quantity is key. If you keep your job search broad or if you are looking for a broad range of roles, because you're not being specific in the key words you're utilizing, whoo--you're gonna be looking at thousands and thousands and thousands of jobs, and that can get really challenging. Well, not challenging, but overwhelming. So be as specific as possible. #4 is get deeper in your craft. Take time to develop more skills. Think about online courses. I love Lynda on LinkedIn. You know, there's Coursera. There's Udemy. There are so many, you know, ways that we can continue to get deeper in our craft and expand our knowledge, you know? I am a--I have a Ph.D from YouTube University, [laughs] so I am always, always, always looking up how to do things or how to develop certain skills on YouTube. It takes some time to get deeper in your craft while you are searching. #5 - brand yourself online. You know, as you are networking socially on this social networking site called LinkedIn, you've got to make sure you're branding yourself. That's gonna bring more attention back to your page. You know, my recommendation is to post three times a week. One of my clients, she is in HR, and she has been posting pretty regularly on LinkedIn, and her tweets--not tweets. Wow, I'm thinking about Twitter. [laughs] I love Twitter, y'all. Follow me. @Latesha_Byrd. But LinkedIn, she posts about three times a week, and some of her LinkedIn posts have gone viral, and through that--through the virality, she gets a lot of attention from recruiters reaching out to her, which is exactly what she wanted. So brand yourself online. You don't have to post, like, you know, all of these long, thoughtful, deep messages, you know? Just start posting articles related to what's going on in your industry, posting questions to kind of get folks thinking. You know, post a quote. You know, again, just post regularly. Start to brand yourself online. Set some boundaries with yourself. I promise you you don't have to spend two hours every single day looking at job boards. Those jobs are not going to grow legs and run away. So if you take a day off from searching for jobs, it is going to be okay. So set some boundaries with yourself. Maybe you only search for jobs three days a week - Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Maybe you do 30 minutes in the morning, you do 30 minutes at night. So, you know, don't go too hard, right? Because that job search fatigue is real and we've talked about that before. Get an accountability partner as well, someone that can hold you accountable, to make sure that you are applying to jobs, that you are networking, that you are posting online. Be very specific in the goals that you share with them, and you need someone that is actually really going to hold you accountable and that's going to encourage you and build you up. The last thing that I want to say here is be patient. Be patient with yourself. I am actually in the process of searching for a home. I'm looking to buy fairly soon, and if you have ever bought a home before, you know just how hard that process could be. And I had a friend that told me, "Delayed is not denied," you know? So again, just be patient with yourself. Finding your next best thing, it really will take some time, and I want you all to make sure that you are giving yourself some grace in this process and not taking every "no" you get or, you know, the silence, don't let that get to you and don't take it personal. You know, sometimes these jobs are filled internally. Another thing is that sometimes jobs are posted as a formality in the process, even though they already know who they are going to hire. They may have to just interview some folks, you know, to show that there was no bias, right? And so just know you never know. You really never know what's going on on the other side. So give yourself some grace. Be patient with yourself. Know that your job is out there. You have to--you have to--believe. So I hope that these tips helped you all today. Remember to push through the uncertainty. Just get out there. And I am always rooting for your success. I hope that you are able to land your dream job soon. And that is all I have. So I wish you all the best of luck as you are applying. If you enjoyed this topic, if you have any questions at all, if there's anything you actually want to hear on this podcast, then hit me up. I'm really easy to find - @Latesha_Byrd. L-A-T-E-S-H-A underscore B-Y-R-D. You can find me on Twitter. You can find me on Instagram. LinkedIn, Facebook, all of the things. So thank you guys so much, and I will talk to you next week. Bye.
As many of you know, my grandmother passed away last August She and I were VERY close, and the morning that she passed away was actually the same morning that I had the results of my MRI and the doctor told me that he thought I had cancer. The kick-off to last years Back to School was anything but joyful for me. Instead, it was a time of grief. A time of unknown and just an overall HARD season. Today’s guest, Renee Brown knows her share of grief and homeschooling through it. In this episode, she will share her story with grief, the illness, and death of her father, and how her son learned to be independent in his homeschool learning while she was away caring for her family. Be sure to listen to the whole episode. This is just a small snippet of our conversation. If you liked this episode be sure to leave a rating or review. These serve as a notice to iTunes that I’m not speaking to myself. It will also give you a chance to have your review read online and win a gift from me. Not sure how to leave a review? Here are instructions foriTunes and Stitcher users. Resources mentioned in this episode: Podcast sponsor, Teaching Textbooks Renee at Great Peace Follow on Instagram Follow on Facebook Subscribe for weekly encouragement emails AND a coupon to my store Joy in the Journey store
Abigail Manning shares the key to being aware of others’ triggers and how to be more understanding compassionate - living with Authentic Health. In this episode, Abigail and Mike both share specific lessons they teach around the world for living with respect toward others’ boundaries and how to recognize abuse. * You are invited to join our community and conversations about each episode on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/MutuallyAmazingPodcast and join us on Twitter @CenterRespect or visit our website at http://www.MutuallyAmazingPodcast.com** *BIO:* Abigail G. Manning is an Awareness Creator of Authentic Health to prevent and end all forms of Abuse. Having experienced childhood abuse by both of her parents and domestic violence as an adult, Abigail uses first-hand experience combined with her Indiana University Communications double major specializing in cognitive, behavioral and social theories, 5 years of abuse research, $20,000 of therapy modalities investigations and her own unique insights, to teach others how to build Authentic Health. In a positive and pro-active approach, she uses touches of humor to illuminate the challenges of recognizing and understanding the codes, cycles and connections found in unhealthy behaviors including toxic relationships, manipulations, sexual harassment, bullying, child abuse, domestic violence, manipulations, and more. By creating awareness, abuse moves out of the silent darkness where it starts and thrives, into the colorful light of mainstream conversations and creates a brighter future for us all. *LINKS* https://abigailgmanning.com/ https://www.facebook.com/abigailgmanning/ https://twitter.com/AbigailGManning *Recommended Books:* Dr. Henry Grayson, Mindful Loving Robin Norwood, Women Who Love Too Much Brene Brown’s books especially, Rising Strong READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPTION of the EPISODE HERE (or download the pdf): **IMPORTANT: This podcast episode was transcribed by a 3rd party service and so errors can occur throughout the following pages: Mike: Welcome to the Respect Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Domitrz from mikespeaks.com, where we help organizations of all sizes, educational institutions, and the US military create a culture of respect. And respect is exactly what we discuss on this show. So let's get started. Mike: And welcome to this episode. Today we have Abigail Manning. Abigail is an awareness creator of authentic health to prevent and end all forms of abuse. With a positive and proactive approach, she brings insights and answers to how we can each lead healthy and happy lives. Abigail, thank you so much for joining us. Abigail: Thank you so much for having me on your show, Mike. Mike: I'm thrilled to have you here. Can you give a little background on what it is you do? Abigail: Sure. As you said, I'm an awareness creator. So what that means is it's a proactive and positive approach to helping others see where maybe they might be lacking in having true authentic health. And the whole reason behind it is because I came from childhood abuse by both my parents and domestic violence as an adult, and as an eight year old, I took a vow in front of a mirror to end abuse. And so this is my next chapter of life, and this is my next mission, is to help others learn the lessons that I have learned, but hopefully a lot easier and faster, quicker, and with a lot more positivity than the way that I learned them. Mike: And at eight years old, you looked into a mirror and said, "I'm going to end this pattern." I'm not gonna let this cycle repeat, is sort of sounds like you described there. I'm going to make a different path for myself. Where does that come from at eight years old? Abigail: Right. Well, what it is, is that it was, I devoted myself at that point to love, respect, and kindness. Mike: I mean, that's mind boggling for a lot of people to hear it and say, wait an eight year old committed to and stayed with it. Right? Because a lot of ... When we're young, we'll go, oh, I have this goal and this dream. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, or I'm never gonna do that, and that changes very quickly as we get to teen years or pre-teen years. So what kept you focused? Abigail: What kept me focused was having firsthand experiences of harm. So I really only have one rule and when I raised my kids, it was do no harm. At all costs, do no harm. And the next best goal is to have love, respect, and kindness for yourself and for others. Now, it doesn't mean that that was easy. It doesn't mean that I didn't understand. I didn't understand abuse. I didn't understand it at all, but I was committed to those values, doing no harm to someone else because I knew what that felt like, and I did not want to do that to anybody else. And what do I want the world to be? How do I want the world to treat each other? I want there to be safety and trust and respect, and for me, those words have always kind of boiled down to love, respect, and kindness. Abigail: And so unfortunately because I didn't understand abuse, I went through the pendulum swing of marrying someone who is not of great health and being in that marriage for over 10 years, and then swinging out of that. And that's what I mean. I've learned all these different things by going through $20,000 of therapy modalities, and reading, and going through crisis center. PTSD hit me really hard. I was like, okay, I have to really understand this and be able to explain it in a way that I can understand it. Abigail: And so other people saw that and they started asking me, can you explain to me what you're doing and how it's working so well for you? So from that, I started this company, Create Awareness Change Lives where we go and we speak, and we do workshops and training and keynote speeches and things like that to help others learn what I did along the way, hopefully way back at the early stages, and signs of unhealth and disrespect so we can stop it there and make it into something positive and proactive for all of us. Mike: Well, I appreciate your openness there because while at eight years old you made the commitment, it took 20 plus years to figure out the journey which is true of a lot of us. In a do no harm philosophy, which I'm a big believer in, when I teach my all day workshops on how to do training on sensitive issues, we talk about do no harm. At the same time, you have to also make sure that you're not doing harm by doing no harm because that can actually happen. Abigail: Right. Mike: You can think so much about, I don't want to harm anybody in the room, that you do harm at the ability to impact and to teach and to connect because you're so working in fear of not doing harm. And that's not what do no harm means, but that's what people can interpret it to mean, and you can live it. It sounds like you went through some of that in your own personal life. Abigail: Correct. I agree that you can't ... We're not a world where we have to be ... I don't want to be in a world where it's overly polite. One of the things that we are is transparent. Transparent can be firm, it can be direct, it can still be polite and kind, but it's no longer a doormat and you don't withhold information. So I help people. One of the realizations that I had was the crisis center told me, "When you do this work, it's not when. You absolutely will trigger somebody else." Abigail: So it's a matter of knowing you're going into that, giving a space that's trusting and safe for people to really vulnerably feel it because I'm about authenticity, right? Not just the robotic kind of, I mask my feelings, but someone is going to get triggered. How do we help them? Because that's the first step. When you first realize, whoa, I have a problem, or oh, I didn't know that was me, or I didn't think I thought about that word that way, or something. Abigail: So being triggered doesn't have to be a horrible, bad thing. It can be a realization that this is the first maybe eye opening experience that you're like, I'm ready to be better. I'm ready to be healthy. I'm ready to have control over this and not have it have control over me. Let me flip it into the positive like it's okay, I am going to trigger people, and that is okay, but I have to have the responsibility, which I take very seriously, of letting people know that they can trust me, they're safe with me, and that I truly, truly do care about them and their wellbeing. Mike: Yeah, and you're not intentionally triggering people. Abigail: No. Mike: There are people who do that, right? We see people in the media and in politics who go out and say insightful things intentionally to insight, to trigger in a different way than the kind of trigger we're talking here, but it's a form of triggering. And so you're saying, no matter what I do, someone can be triggered. I'm out of control of that, but I am in control of the atmosphere that I create in which that takes place. Abigail: Right, and trauma informed approach is really important. So I would never go out of my way or try to ever trigger someone in an unhealthy way, in a harmful way, in overstepping their boundary lines. But understanding that you're going to do that and you're doing it from a loving place, you're doing it from an I care place, and this is the way you're going to have to face it. Because if you don't face the beast, the beast is always going to be there. Abigail: So I don't care if your beast is addictions, I don't care if your beast is that you're with somebody abusive, or that you are abusive yourself. You've got to face the beast in order to stare it down, understand it, and be able to walk away confidently from it. And you can do all that in a very healthy way. So the question is always, am I being helpful and healthy or am I being hurtful and unhealthy? That's my measuring, and hopefully I'm never hurtful to somebody, and I'm always been helping and healthy for them. Mike: So how do you help somebody? How are you supportive of someone? We get suggested questions for our shows and the one question is, how do I treat people who have been through abuse with respect and not pity? So how do I give that person that respect and pity? Because we see it all the time. In my line of work from the stage, I'll tell people the number one mistake I see people say to survivors is, "Oh, I'm so sorry," which is meant as loving and caring, completely comes off as total pity. Abigail: Right. Mike: I'm so sorry. And it feels like I'm so sorry that happened to you. It didn't happen to me. I'm so sorry it happened to you. And how you know it's pity is because the majority of the time the survivor will respond with, oh, it's not your fault, which means they're now counseling you for your reaction to them, which tells you it's pity. That's a dead sign that they felt pity right there. It was not a moment of empowerment. Abigail: Correct. And that's interesting. I've never thought of pity in that way. What I wanna do is help both sides. So when someone really cares, I don't think they want to do pity. I think they don't know what to say. Mike: Correct. And that's why giving people precise words is everything in those moments. We do that [inaudible 00:08:54] all the time. Here's exactly the words you can use that can make sure that you are empowering each other and respect and admiration. What do you teach for that? Abigail: Well, I teach to be authentic. I teach to be honest. I teach that being direct. So having eye contact with the person and saying something like, "Thank you for sharing that," or, "You are so brave," or, "I didn't know, how can I be of support?" Even to me, I see people all the time kind of go, and so I just move on into what I do really quickly because it gives them permission not to have to respond and react. Because we all feel like, oh gosh. I mean, none of us want anybody to be abused. Abigail: So if you can just come back with, wow, I didn't know. How did you get past it? I mean go to the positive. What could I do to help somebody in the future? Is there anything specific I can do for you? And that's the number one thing. People don't know how to respond. You don't have to know how to respond. Just be yourself. If you're kind, be kind. Mike: Yeah, and if you can learn language that can help you be comfortable in that, then use it. Like we teach the same thing. We teach, "Thank you for sharing." We'll say, "Thank you for sharing. Clearly you are strong and courageous. What can I do to be of support?" Abigail: Yeah. Mike: Because that opens the door. And the reason those three steps are so important. One, thank you for sharing lets the person know, I've come to the right person. Because the fear is, is it okay to share with this person in this moment? That's often a fear for a survivor. Is this a safe person to share? So when you open with, "Wow, thank you for sharing," oh, okay. And then when you say, "Clearly you're strong and courageous because you shared," I mean, that's true. So that's honesty and validation at the same time. Reinforcement is a better word. Mike: But then to say, "How can I be of support?" They might say, oh no, I just wanted to share. Okay. But they might be like, oh, I just wish there was someone I could talk to. Oh, well have you talked to a local crisis center? Have you talked to ... And you give them options. It creates this exploratory option for them to get the resources and support they deserve, which is so, so important. Mike: And for anyone listening, this goes to any difficult news someone ever gives you. It doesn't have to be a survivor. Somebody comes up to you and says, "My dad passed away last night." Oh, I'm so sorry. Where do you go from there? You've got nowhere to go from there. Somebody says, "My dad passed last night." Wow, thank you for sharing. Now how can I be of support? Now they see somebody trying to engage not just, let's move on from this uncomfortable situation. Abigail: I love it. I love it. In fact, I wrote it down because I am a big thank you and please person. Call me old fashioned, but I still really like using thank you and please with people all the time, even people I know, my family and everybody. Just thank you for helping me with dinner or something like that. So that's acknowledgement, everything you said was just, to me, spot on, perfect, and beautiful, and brilliant. To acknowledge, to thank, to prove that you're a safe person, you're a sincere person. I love it. Mike: I appreciate that. We've always taught it from stage and all my books. We teach that same ... PART 1 OF 3 ENDS [00:12:04] Mike: We've always taught it from stage and in all my books. We teach that same statement, because it's just ... People don't have the skill. I love what you said about be yourself and be authentic. Sadly, some people are afraid to do that, because they have been taken as being callous in the past. They feel, "If I'm myself, I could do harm." Well, what if I could give you this little phrase? And if you said it from your authentic self, with these words, it's going to come off as you and be loving, and caring, and supportive. Abigail: Right. One other thing I'd like to point out real fast, Mike, is that the person who has the difficult thing to explain. Like you said, whatever that happens to be: a death in the family, coming out for the first time talking about abuse, or something like that. That person is coming from a place where they've already been shamed, blamed, judged, isolated, ridiculed, minimized, all of that. They're kind of ... At least in my case, I was very nervous, and I would watch people. The moment that they would kind of like at me like ... like that. Shut it down. This is not a safe place. This person's not going to be able to understand. The turtle pulls its head back into the shell real fast. Abigail: Just know that when someone comes to you with an act of bravery, when someone looks really strong on the outside or you see them as being very strong or successful or capable or confident, we're all the same in the inside. It's really scary to come forward. Strong people ... I know, because I've been called a strong person more than once in my life ... It's scary to feel weak. It's scary to feel not in control of how someone's going to respond to you, not that we can control it. Just know going into that that's why I like telling people to be really authentic and just your connection with that person. A lot of times you don't know that person, but it could be just someone you've met. It happens to me all the time. I will start with a compliment for them of like, "I'm honored that you told me." Mike: Yes. Yes, because what you said there is important about the concept of that took them strength to share with you, whatever the difficult news was. So to honor that just means the world to people. We should be honoring that. Now you talk about something that is what I've been doing for decades, which is to ask first. Ask first. You talk about it specifically when it comes to hugs. Because in my world, people think, "Well, Mike teaches us to ask for a kiss," or, "Mike teaches before sexual intimacy to ask." But you say, "Why should I have to ask before I hug someone." You teach in your work why that's important. Let's go to there. Why is it respectable to ask for a hug versus just assuming, "Look, I'm giving you a hug. That's loving. That's supportive"? What's the harm in me just giving them a hug? Abigail: Yeah, right. It goes down to our healthy boundary lines, right? What is healthy for you may not be necessarily healthy for someone else based on their life experiences. For example, if someone ... That was the first step of abuse, let's say. Because that's what I specialize in is preventing and ending abuse. If someone was abused by, let's say, a parent who comes up and the first thing they do is they come up towards you face on, and they put their arms towards you. That person knows they have to go into fight, flight, or freeze mode, so it's unsafe. When our brains get hijacked, we don't know how to respond until we are taught how to respond, until we're taught what those warning signs are. And, what is ours to own versus the other person? Abigail: Is everyone out to attack you that's going to hug you? No. But until we can get that through our brains and really assimilated it into our bodies and our responses, and we can understand it ... There's different techniques, like EMDR. There's Somatic. There is EFT ... on how we rewire our brain, so that we don't automatically jump into that reactionary fight, flight, or freeze mode. You think you're being friendly and kind, and I think you're ... subconsciously without even realizing it ... coming to attack me. Because some people bury, especially childhood abuse, so far down, they don't even know that that's what it's related to. Mike: Yes. The word that we often don't discuss here is grooming. This is how the predators often groom their victims and those who would go on to become survivors. For anyone who's listening, what that means is a predator will start with a hug. They'll get very comfortable with that hug. They'll make that hug little tighter and a little longer. Then they move to touching, and they move to other things. But it all began there, so for the survivor ... especially if it has not been addressed, if it is down deep ... there's an immediate moment of, "That's where it all started, and now this person's starting it all." Mike: Like you said ... I love that you said that ... they might not even be aware of this, because subconsciously this can happen. People go, "Well, that's not my ... I'm not supposed to know what everybody else has been through. I mean, that's just political correctness gone awry." You are about to touch another person's body. If you are going to touch another person's body, it is on you to respect the possibilities of how that could impact them, because it's their body. That's not like you're just saying something from across the room, which can be harmful, but you're literally going to engage another human being's body in some form or fashion. Abigail: There's three spaces. There's our professional or public space. Then there's our personal space with our friends and stuff. Then there's an intimate space that you would share with a partner, or a child, or maybe an elderly parent, or something like that. That's your intimate space. We say that people aren't really allowed into your intimate space unless you want it, unless it's healthy for you. Why would I assume just because I like a hug, that other people would like it. I always try to, again, honor, respect. I try to respect the other person. I would just say things like ... For the first time meeting them. I have my group of friends, we hug all the time. But there's an understanding, because the first time that we've met, we've said, "Oh, would you like a hug?" Not, "May I hug you?" Because, again, you're coming onto them, but, "Would you like a hug? Are you a hugger?" Mike: Yeah, that's a great line. I know friends that use that. Myself, I've done it too. They go the handshake hug kind of thing, and you're like, "Are you a hugger?" They're like, "Yeah," so then you know you're good. But if they're like, "No, I'm good," yep, the handshake works. I think what people forget is why are you hugging them in the first place? You believe it will be supportive. You assume. So if the hug is about supportive and/or connection, shouldn't you make sure that will be the outcome? Abigail: Right, right. Also, maybe conversely, because Authentic Health is really turning that mirror around and looking at it at yourself. I'm not saying hugs are bad. Personally, I love hugs, but other people don't like them, and that's okay. If you're like, "I hug everybody, and I don't even ask." Why? What is it I need? What is the physical touch lacking in my life. What am I trying to express. Maybe question is that so important for me to do that? Abigail: I had someone in a business setting, never me the person before. She's actually a lawyer. When she came up to me ... I always shake hands the first time I meet somebody, because in our society, that's totally acceptable. It's not awkward ... and I extended my hand. She immediately pushed right past my hand and threw a hug onto me. I took a step back, and I said, "I'm more of a handshaker when I get to meet people." She completely didn't understand. I don't know if she thought we were best friends reconnected. Abigail: But just watching the body language. We talk a lot about cognitive, social, and behavioral theories. Well, the behavioral theory is if someone's putting out their hand to shake hands with you, they want to shake your hand. Or, they put a hand up to high five, just do the high five. Those verbal and behavioral cues are important to watch for. Mike: Absolutely. Abigail: Then ask [inaudible 00:19:55] ask, but you don't ... It's out of consideration. It's just a form of respect, in my opinion. Mike: Definitely. Abigail: Don't take it personally if they say, "No, I'm not." Mike: Yeah, you don't have to cure them. I think that's the other thing that happens. I think people think that, "If I give you enough hugs, you'll be okay with hugs." That's really dangerous and messed up to think, "The more I push your boundaries and disrespect what you want, you'll learn to like the boundaries I'm giving you." If you actually say that out loud, you'll recognize how predatorial that is, right? Abigail: Yeah. Mike: We need to help understand it. I'm not saying that I haven't done some form of that when I was younger. Most of us have, right? Abigail: Oh, absolutely. Mike: In some form, we thought, "Well, if I do this, they'll get more comfortable ..." Whatever it was. It doesn't have to be hug, touch. But recognizing just how predatorial that is, and how we've been taught to do that. Like, "I'll teach them." No. That's not your job in that moment. Abigail: Right. I think a lot of times ... and you can tell me from a guy's perspective ... from a girl's perspective, I was taught, "Be kind. Be nice. Give to others." I have a saying of pour love. Pouring love, pouring love on others. That was a strong social message that was given to me that, "Don't make waves. Everyone would be your friend." All of those which are not healthy. In the situation, a lot of times I think women end up hugging each other not necessarily because they want to, but they don't want to appear rude, or unfriendly, or stuck up, or something like that. Abigail: I wanted to erase that and saying when you own your own Authentic Health ... whatever it is, if it's a high five, if it's a fist bump, if it's a hug ... whatever it is, if you own it, it's okay. Be good with who you are, and not have to worry that you're offending somebody else, and not worry if you offend somebody else by saying, "I prefer this. I don't prefer that." Mike: Absolutely. Abigail: By living authentically, it's okay to stay within your own boundary lines, and what feels good, and is healthy for you without worry about what others and outsiders are thinking about you. Mike: Abigail, what are red flags of a sign that someone is being disrespectful or being abusive? Abigail: Red flags. Okay. We all have that gut feeling that goes off. We have red flags. We hear warning bells, all of those things. To me, I guess, the difference between those two would be healthy boundary lines. Our definition of abuse that I made up is repeated mistreatment. If people don't remember anything else, if you just remember repeated mistreatment. The rest of the definition is, "Repeated mistreatment where one person uses manipulations to gain and maintain power and control over another person." Abigail: If someone is being disrespectful, is it repeated? That's the first part of the definition. If it's a one-off, maybe they're being a jerk, maybe they are disrespectful, or something like that. Hopefully by you giving your healthy boundary lines and with a polite, but kind, but firm comeback on something, "I prefer a handshake, not a hug," something like that. Then they will stop it. It's not repeated. Abigail: Now if they decide to repeated it, "Oh, yeah, there's that Abigail. She ..." and it goes on and on in different ways from emotional, to physical, to sexual, to financial. Different forms of abuse. Different forms of manipulation. Different forms of trying to take your power and control or exert their power and control over you. Then you absolutely know the person is acting abusively. Mike: Let's pause there, because I love the two words. Repeated mistreatment is very powerful. I think it's also important to acknowledge that it doesn't mean it needs to be repeated for it to have been abuse, right? Because, there could be a one-time situation that is highly abusive. Abigail: Correct. Mike: Usually what you're describing here, what we're talking about, is, "How do I know when a situation that I'm regularly in is one of abuse or mistreatment?" versus a one-time situation. Abigail: Right. A lot of times, a sexual ... that's a sexual assault, which is awful. Nobody ever, ever deserves any form of abuse. No one asks for it. No one deserves it. No- PART 2 OF 3 ENDS [00:24:04] Abigail: ... deserves any form of abuse. No one asked for it, no one deserves it. No one, even though you can be groomed or gas lighting into thinking that you deserved it, you had ownership over this. You never did. It's what someone did to you versus what you went out and did to someone else. You were never worthy of being their target. You're right, it doesn't have to be awful or an assault or abusive, but when I use that term, a lot of times it starts really small, so unless it's like you're walking down an alley and you're attacked, right? That's an assault. But a lot of times in the abusive world when you have relationships with neighbors or co-workers or family it always starts small, like you said, they start with a hug, or they start with something, or they start with a lingering touch, if we're talking about sexual harassment. Mike: Or just not honoring your voice, right? Abigail: Correct. Mike: I don't wanna go this far. Let's say it's sexual. I don't wanna go this far. Oh, it'll be fun. What did you not get about I don't wanna go this far? I didn't say whether it'd be fun or not fun, I don't wanna go this far. It's not on the survivor to have to say that either. The moment I said it once, you should've listened, but that's a subtle, and it's a form of somebody starting to show abuse that is likely to say they might not be respecting me as this night goes on, because they're not reciprocating my voice right here and now. Once again, I wanna stress that's not on the survivor to stop the criminal, it's on the criminal to stop being abusive in the first place. Abigail: Right, and so that is the red flag that you just mentioned. So that, well I set a boundary line and they didn't ... They either didn't acknowledge it and blew right by it, or they made fun of me for it. They ridiculed me for it, or they're like, "What in the world are you talking about?" Stuff like that. I thought you wanted to be my boyfriend, I thought you wanted to be my girlfriend. Just like in sexual harassment, we do some workshops for corporations and government and things like that on what's sexual harassment and if this then that, quid pro quo, it's the same thing. It's not honoring those boundary lines, so just kind of watch because it tends to be small and then a lot of times someone who's abusive is very quick, very practiced and that's those manipulations of coming back and saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that," or they have some story or something, so just watch for a pattern or really, not even a pattern 'cause sometimes it gets a little too tricky for people to see, just is it repeated? Mike: Yeah, I love that statement, the repeated mistreatment. It's perfect. Just due to time 'cause this next question we could do 30 minutes on but due to time, what is one or two steps, if somebody's listening is a survivor, of trauma or abuse to help them feel respect towards themselves? Abigail: Fantastic. Well for me, I would say it's authentic health. Gaining your power and control back where you can have your authentic health where you're not looking for outside confirmation, you really know the patterns and what has happened to you, what your life experience, we're all shaped by our life experiences, so I guess the key would be what has shaped your life experience? What has created your story? What is that negative take or that purple thread running through you that is a lie that is not truth, but you've read that book so many times you believe it actually happened. You've heard that story so many times, you actually believe that's who you are. Mike: Can I pause just so I'm understanding? Abigail: Yeah. Mike: Are you referring to for instance victim blaming, self victim blaming? So somebody's sitting there going, "Had I not done this that night, that wouldn't have happened," and they have played that tape and that tape is causing them to feel blame. Abigail: That could be their life experience yes, or it could be you see for example, really, really thin anorexic, bulimic people but the tape that they've been told is they're big and fat and ugly. They're on their deathbed believing that their big, fat and ugly when they're really not, right? So we all have our tapes, I'm not smart, you should have seen my brother, he's really, really smart. I'm not the smart one. Things like that. Like, what is your story? That my career's never work out, my love life never works out. Mike: I love adding the question to that, how's that working for me? Right, so let's say I put the story out in front of myself, I believe this. How's that working for me? It never makes me feel better. Abigail: Yeah. Mike: It's not working, right? This story, this negative story I got has never benefited and even if it benefited once, 99 other days it bothers me so it's a negative impact on my life. Abigail: Right, and a lot of times what I'll say is break it down to simple. Is it healthy or is it unhealthy? Mike: Yeah, that's perfect. Abigail: Is this healthy? Is this going to propel me forward to the vision that I have for my life? Is this going to make me a better person tomorrow than I am today or is this unhealthy? Is this gonna continue keeping me in this loop, in this cycle, in this pattern, in this lane and [inaudible 00:29:02] false beliefs. So if you feel like [inaudible 00:29:04] and someone comes in and sweeps you off your feet telling you how smart you are, if you actually own your own ... If you own your life story then you're not swayed by what people may or may not say. They can use those as manipulations. Mike: Yes. Abigail: So if you think of yourself as not charming let's say and someone comes in your life and their like, "Oh, you're so charming and you're delightful," and you're like, "Oh wow." They can manipulate you because they're able to find your weakness but when we own our own weaknesses and we own our strengths, that's authentic health. Mike: Yes and a great example is parenting. Parents who say, "Well, I don't want to tell my kid I love 'em too much," oh yeah? Wait till the kid comes along that does tell them because that kid will ... If they don't believe their loved, that kid will be their new source versus them being their own source. Teaching them to be their own source. Yeah, somebody should say to you, "Oh you're great," and in your mind there should be a little bit of thanks and yes, right? Doesn't mean you have to say it out loud, or you're beautiful or you're great, or you're brilliant and there should be a little bit of thank you and yes. Mike: We should feel these things about ourselves so we don't ... That's what I loved about what you said there, we don't need them from somebody else because if we need them from somebody else, control goes over to that person to get it. To get what they need, that can be the unhealthy part. You had three books that you told me that you really love, one was Mindful Loving by Dr. Henry Grayson, another was Women Who Love Too Much by Robin Norwood and Renee Brown's books, you especially like Rising Strong. Why these three books? Abigail: Well I think anything Renee Brown has written I love. I love- Mike: Same here. Abigail: ... her attitude and approach and she breaks it down. She inspired me to take what I know and break it down and simplify it and explain it in storytelling formats that make sense and so, that's been a lot of things. It helped me a lot on my path on ... I couldn't stand when I opened up her book and I read the word shame. Ugh, I don't need more shame and blame and anything like that and of course she did a big wonderful twist on all of it and it was really, really helping but again, we started the conversation with about triggering people. So I had to be a little angry with Miss Doctor Renee Brown because she was triggering me with the whole word shame but I'm glad she did and I'm glad I had the fortitude to keep reading through as well as those other books and other therapy and talk therapies and things like that because that's how you feel the beast and you keep moving through it and you get better and you look in that mirror and you're not afraid to look in the mirror. Abigail: You're not afraid. None of us are perfect, right? I'm supposed to be perfect, authentic health is not being perfect. It's not being great at everything, it's just being true to who we are and willing to look in the mirror and not willing to listen to the whispers of any kind of negativity and by being vulnerable and that's a big strong theme that she has been superior in explaining to people is vulnerability and shame as well as many other things. But those are the reasons why I really like her books and I just love the way she writes too, I think it's fun. Mike: Yes. Abigail: [inaudible 00:32:11] for a male's perspective as well as a female's perspective on When You Love Too Much and that's that healthy versus unhealthy. From different people I've put together what I feel authentic health is and both of them I thought from a male perspective as well as a female perspective they did a really good job of showing where that line is between what is good authentic love and what is not, because you have to keep in mind, I wasn't raised with it. I wasn't raised with love, respect and kindness. I wasn't raised with mutually loving parents, I had to figure it out. I watched for it, I looked for it in movies, I watched for it in couples and so I stumbled along trying to learn these things in my own life and through reading books so that I could figure out how to have happy, healthy, successful love in my life. Mike: Well I think that's a great way to end our show 'cause I think too many people think things like, "Well that should be obvious," but they forget well it's obvious to you 'cause you might have been raised in it or you learned it because of something in your culture, your family. Millions of people have never been taught these lessons so if you're gonna say I'm a compassionate, caring person you need to think of the possibilities of others, which you just brilliantly shared with us. So Abigail, thank you for being with us today. For anybody listening you can find Abigail at abigailmanning.com, we'll have her Facebook link, her Twitter link all on our show notes, and remember if you're listening or watching you can join discussions on this episode on Facebook at our Facebook discussion group called The Respect Podcast Discussion Group. So look that up on Facebook, join us in our conversation. Thank you so much Abigail. Abigail: Thank you very much. All the best to you. Mike: Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Respect Podcast which was sponsored by the Date Safe Project at datesafeproject.org and remember, you can always find me at mikespeaks.com. PART 3 OF 3 ENDS [00:34:08]
Join Pleasance Silicki as she interviews author Renee Brown Small on the writing and publishing of her book, Magnetic Hiring. Renee Brown Small works as a cybersecurity expert with professional experience that goes way back to 2001. With this wealth of experience, companies have counted on Renee to improve their recruitment and training processes where cyber security is concerned. Her book says it all, and it is actually ideal for anyone in human resources looking to better their hiring game. Learn more and download the transcript: Renee Brown Small on The Author Incubator
Adaptavist Live - The Adaptavist Atlassian Ecosystem Podcast
Ryan and Matthew are joined by professional writers Krista Parker and Renee Brown to talk about how creating a style guide for Confluence and JIRA can help standardize content and make it easier for people to engage with your Atlassian systems. Creating a solid style guide will help with everything from branding to training, and you can also use them to make sure your content is accessible for people who are vision impaired. In this episode, we'll share some key tips for creating and maintaining a style guide. We also talk about styling for mobile devices, the differences between heading 3 and heading 4, screenshot sizes and formatting, export styling... we cover the gamut of Confluence styling, and then turn to JIRA and some simple things you can do to make JIRA easier to use by modifying the visuals. At Adaptavist, our style guide is simply a page on Confluence that defines the different elements (headings, screenshots, bolding vs. italics, icons, etc.) and explains what those need to be and how they should be used. This approach makes sure the style guide is accessible to everyone in the company, we're all using the same instruction manual when we write, and we can update it quickly, easily, and collaboratively. So tune in for Episode 4: Styling Style Guides! Adaptavist Live can be found using your podcast app of choice, and you can also find us at adaptavist.com/live. Join us next week for Episode 5: Mistakes Were Made. We'll be talking with Rachel Wright, author of the JIRA Strategy Admin Workbook, and trading stories from our misspent youths when we started administering JIRA, the mistakes we made, and how you can avoid making the same mistakes.
Adaptavist Live - The Adaptavist Atlassian Ecosystem Podcast
Renee Brown joins Ryan Spilken and Matthew Stublefield for the second episode of Adaptavist Live: The Adaptavist Atlassian Ecosystem Podcast. On this episode, the podcast is named, and the gang chats about how stories shape culture and how we can leverage stories to improve how we work together.
Joan Ball is a UC Berkeley Grad student in the College of Natural Resouces. Peter Oboyski is Collections Manager & Sr. Museum Scientist at the UC Berkeley Essig Museum of Entomology. www.notesfromnature.orgTranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next Speaker 2: [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]. Speaker 1: [00:00:30] Welcome to spectrum the science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews, featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 3: Hey there and good afternoon. My name is Renee Rao and I'll be hosting today's show. Today we get to hear about an exciting citizen science project from Joanie Ball and Peter Oh Boyski. [00:01:00] Joni is a UC Berkeley graduate student in the College of natural resources where she focuses her research on dragonflies. Peter is a collections manager and senior museum scientist at the UC Berkeley Asig Museum of entomology. They spoke to Brad Swift about the new cal project. The ASIG is collaborating with Zooniverse to run the cal bog website, which allows anyone with an internet connection to help digitize the vast collection of bugs specimens in nine California natural history museums [00:01:30] just over 3000 citizens, scientists have joined the project today. We'll learn more about cal vogue and bugs in general in today's interview, Speaker 4: Joanie Ball and Peter O. Boyski, welcome to spectrum. Thank you. Thank you. Let's talk about the cal bug project that you're both part of and how did that get started? What was the genesis of the project? Speaker 1: So Quebec started in 2010 as a collaboration of the major entomology collections in California. And [00:02:00] as a group, the collections were awarded an NSF grant to database their entymology collections through this program called advancing digitization of biological collections. And the goal is to digitize over 1 million specimens. The purpose is to capture the collection information from the labels, like the species name, when the specimen was collected, who collected it and when it was collected. Speaker 4: So the ECIG museum is an insect collection at UC Berkeley and our collections go back about a hundred years. [00:02:30] And these represents the research of our faculty and students over that period of time. And it's a representation of what's lived in California all this time. So each one of those specimens in the museum is a data point. It tells you what lived where at what time. And so the problem is it's all locked up in these specimens. It's on these tiny little labels sitting in a museum somewhere. And nobody has access to this information. So the point of this project is to make that data available to, to the research community, into the public cause this all [00:03:00] goes online free to everybody to look at. So that's the big point of this is to make this a hundred years of of data available to people, researchers and to do this, you know, is it's a pretty overwhelming task. Speaker 4: Now, other museums have done this before with their vertebrate collections. For instance, the Museum of vertebrate zoology here on campus, they've already database their entire collection and they're able to do wonderful things with it. They're looking at distributions of different species and what time of year they occur. But entomology museums have lagged behind just [00:03:30] because of the sheer volume of specimens that we have. We have orders of magnitude more specimens than some of these other museums and we just thought that was too big of a job and nobody wanted to tackle that job. But now with this funding from the National Science Foundation, we feel like, okay, we can take a shot at this now let's take a stab at it. How big is the collection? Well, we don't actually know, but uh, when you multiply how many specimens per drawer and all the jurors that we have that comes out somewhere around five to 6 million specimens that we have in our collection, and that's [00:04:00] just a USAC, that's just the ecig museum and then combine that with the eight other institutions that we're working with. We're talking tens of millions of specimens among all of us. So to do the 1 million is just a, you know, the tip of the iceberg, but it's a place to start. Speaker 1: In the beginning of the project, we were hiring students to enter the data manually directly from the specimens themselves, but we found that that was taking a really long time. So we started taking photographs of the specimens, which is [00:04:30] beneficial in that we then have a record of both the specimen itself and the labels so we can go back and check specimens later. People can also enter this data from the images from wherever they are online. That's how we've started this notes from nature project where we have an interactive database now for people to enter. The specimen data online. As of this morning we had to over 2,790 people entering data. We're approaching 170,000 [00:05:00] total transcription people entering data online through this project, which started just a few weeks ago. Speaker 4: Wow, that's impressive. It is. Have you tried to calculate how many people you think need to volunteer to help? So when we initially started this project, and we are even in the planning stages, we thought, well how long would it take us to actually database? Just our collection alone. You look at the amount of staff that we have in the budget that we [00:05:30] have, and we figured at least a century to do this in house. So we hired some students to help us out, take some of these images, and they started doing the database for us, but we realized, okay, that cut it down to maybe half a century. It's still, that was going to be too long. We needed more help in having these images that you can be sitting online anywhere in the world and jump online and help us transcribe these images. So that was a huge step forward. It's incredibly simple step to take, but it was a very important one. And how did that idea bubble up? Well, we heard about Speaker 1: Zooniverse, which does a citizen [00:06:00] science organization that creates these web interfaces. In particular, we saw this project called old weather. What this project did was enter weather records from ship logs from World War One. The purpose is to improve climate models for the oceans in that time period. So we knew we wanted to do something similar with with our images. I submitted an application to them. What won them over I think was the actual photos of our specimens with the [00:06:30] pen sticking through them. They're really impressed with that and that's also something that the citizen scientists really like as well. They really enjoy seeing the actual pictures of the insects. Speaker 5: [inaudible] you're listening to spectrum. I'm KLX Berkeley, I guess today are Joanie Ball and Peter Boise from the Calvin project. In the next segment they discuss how they choose which specimens to begin at. Speaker 6: [00:07:00] Talk a little bit about the people at the ECIG that keep it all going. Speaker 4: Yeah, we do have a pretty limited staff in the museum, but I have to say the real work gets done by the undergraduates. These are either volunteers or work study students and they put in endless hours and they're the ones who are taking these images that were putting up online without them work just doesn't get done on campus. They really are the, the workforce of this campus. Speaker 6: Going back to the involvement of the citizen scientists, the transcription [00:07:30] work that they do, how would you characterize who's good at it? What sort of person would enjoy this? Do you have a sense of who that is or do you think people should just try it and see? Speaker 1: Does anyone who's curious and has little time to help out? But it tends to be people who are really enjoy contributing to something. Speaker 4: Yeah, it is an opportunity to be part of a larger community. People enjoy that and I think some people are surprised when they, they like it. So some people just log on, Eh, it's okay. [00:08:00] And some people, it just doesn't do it for them. But they took a look and now they know. But other people, they kind of surprise themselves like, oh, this is actually kind of fun. And in a way you're following an expedition. You can see where these things are coming from, what year they were collected. We had some really funny comments about one of our professors who is still actively collecting. Somebody suggested perhaps he's a vampire because he's been collecting for 50 years and the specimens are still coming in. So a little observations like that and people just, they become part of our community without even knowing it. Speaker 1: Yeah, and some people [00:08:30] who never really had an interest in insects before find themselves now more interested in what's around them. One woman mentioned that as she was driving and insect splattered on her car and she was trying to identify it or you know, suddenly she had this new appreciation for insects, which was pretty neat. Speaker 6: How are you choosing the million specimens start? Speaker 1: Uh, well actually one of the groups that we've decided to focus on [00:09:00] start with are the dragon flies. The reason for that is that we have good collections for them over the hundred years where we have our collections. They've been well collected over time. They're pretty charismatic group. They're also used as biological indicators for stream ecosystem health. So that's one of the groups that we're focusing on. We're also focusing on certain insects that are used in applied research like pollinators or biological control agents. What are the, some of the other groups, Speaker 4: the approach we use to slicking [00:09:30] the groups where groups that we have well-represented in the museum, groups that have some significance regarding global change, whether it be land use change that be climate change, changing the way water is distributed. So which groups are more sensitive to that. That might give us some indication of of what's happened in the past. The other criteria and we use was places where we have longterm collections because museums have some biases in them and we have [00:10:00] to recognize that when we do this kind of research people when to a particular place at a particular time because there's something interesting there for them. So some places we have fewer collections over the years, other places we have nice longterm data sets. So we also focused on locations where we knew we had nice longterm data. That makes sense. Yeah, so collecting is ongoing. Speaker 4: It is consumer. We continually collect the museum specimens. The insect collection comes from a number of sources. The most common [00:10:30] is research that's done right here on campus. Professors, students who are doing research projects, they deposit what we refer to as voucher specimens in the museum. So you write a publication that says you found this species at this place. Somebody else reads it and says, well that sounds odd. I don't think that thing occurs there. Well, you have to be able to go back to that specimen and look at it. Oh yeah, sure enough, there it is. I wouldn't believe that. So we have to voucher these specimens in a museum. So that's a large part of where our collection comes from. In 1939 professor ESIG, [00:11:00] the namesake of our museum, had this idea to start the California insect survey. UC Berkeley is a land grant school, which means we owe a certain responsibility back to the community, to agriculture, to forestry, to the urban ecosystem. Speaker 4: And we need to be able to answer questions. But if we don't have representatives of the insects that are out there, then it's much harder to answer the sort of questions. So that was his logic in launching the California Insec survey, sending professors and students all over the state. And that was in 1939 [00:11:30] so our collections go back earlier than that, but that's where the real boost began in our collections. So from that point on, we've had regular collecting trips. People in the museum, professors, other folks will go out and collect all over the state and then deposit their material. Another source of our specimens, our donations, there's a lot of hobbyists, enthusiasts that aren't necessarily professional entomologists, but they enjoy butterflies or beetles or whatever group. At some point when have their family and their kids and they've got these big boxes taken [00:12:00] up a lot of space in their house. They said, well, Geez, you know, I really like having these here, but yeah, maybe I should give them to a museum somewhere. So I get a lot of that kind of stuff as well. Just in the past couple of years we've had, I don't know about 10,000 donated specimens, which has been really nice. We don't do much in the way of trading there. There are museums out there that'll buy and sell specimens, but because the main interest of our museum is answering questions about California, we can go out and get most of that stuff ourselves. Speaker 5: [00:12:30] Our guest today on spectrum are Joanie, Baal [inaudible]. In the next segment they talk about how cal bug is already affecting research. This is k LX Berkeley. Speaker 4: So how is the end product affecting research do you think from pre digitization and now post digitization? [00:13:00] How are people able to leverage what they have in a database now that they couldn't do previously? Speaker 1: I am doing research using the Jag and fly collections from a few different angles. One of my projects is to resurvey sites that were originally sampled in 1914 for Jag and flies. So this collector clearance, Hamilton Kennedy went around California and Nevada collecting dragonflies that in 1914 and create a list of species [00:13:30] for all of the sites that he visited, which turns out to be around 40 sites throughout the region. The problem was he didn't include the dates that he visited these sites. That information is on his specimen. So I use the collection to reconstruct the dates that he went to these specific sites. And then I revisited those sites on the same day. And now what I'm doing is I'm comparing my surveys to the original surveys that were done in 1914 to see how things like species richness and that proportion of habitat [00:14:00] generalist versus specialist and some other community metrics have changed over that time period. Speaker 1: Another project that I'm working on will be using all of the museums specimens for dragon flies and I'll be comparing communities for different counties for the different time periods throughout that hundred years that we have collections. So I'm looking to see which time periods have enough specimens for a comparison. For example, there was a lot of collecting activity in the 70s there's a lot of current [00:14:30] collecting activity through another group, actually dragon fly enthusiast group who report their sightings, so I'm using their sightings for current species distribution throughout California. One of the last projects that I'm working on is creating species distribution models, which is something that a lot of ecologists are doing right now with historical data. The museum collections are points for that. You can create a latitude and longitude for where you find individual specimens throughout time. I'm using these to [00:15:00] look at changes in species distribution over recent decades in relation to factors like climate and land use. So I started analyzing some of the changes in the dragon fly communities based on the resurvey and some of the things that I'm finding so far is are that communities are becoming more similar throughout this survey. Previously you might find much more different species of at different sites, whereas now you're finding a lot of the same things over and over again. So we're seeing kind of a homogenization [00:15:30] of Jag and fly communities. Speaker 4: A lot of researchers have come to the museum to do similar sorts of studies to Joanie's where they're looking at one species. It's distribution over time. And that meant coming into our museum, looking at our specimens, typing that up, they would bring that home and put that into their database, write up a report on that. But that didn't always end up back in our database. And there's only one species at a time. So the advantage to what we're doing now is we can look at whole communities at a time Joanie's case, the whole dragon [00:16:00] fly dams will fly community rather than looking at one species at a time. So you couldn't do that before without one of these larger databases. We keep thinking in terms of the research, which is one of the main reasons why we're doing this, but there's a lot of practical outcomes for the general public as well. Speaker 4: For instance, maybe you're a fly fisherman and you're going up to this particular drainage basin or this river and you want to know what, what's flying up there? I want to know what kind of flies I should be tying. So at some point in the future you'll be able to pull up in our database and see, well what's flying at that time of year in that area? Or you find a spider in your [00:16:30] house and you want to know what kinds of spiders are found in my area, you should be able to go to our database and find that. Or yeah, you're a farmer and you're thinking about rotating to some new crop that you haven't planted before and you want to know what kind of pests should I be worried about? What things feed on this plant in this area? So those are the kinds of questions that other folks outside of the museum community should be able to use. And like I say, this is all freely available online once it's all been database. So this is, you know, it's not just for us, it's for everybody. Speaker 4: What ends up [00:17:00] being the most diverse species of insects. If you were mentioning dragonflies aren't really all that diverse. Beatles. There's a famous geneticists Haldane. When asked, what has he learned in his studies about the creator? Said the creator had an inordinate fondness for beetles. Certainly beetles are the most species rich out there, and within the Beatles, the weevils, a lot of these are very hosts specialized, and so for every species of plant out there, you may have several species of weevil that specialize on them. So [00:17:30] it said that if you were to take one of every species, take a black tail deer, a blue whale, a sequoia tree, every species of insects out there and lined them all up, four out of 10 would be a beetle. So 40% of the diversity of the macro diversity. Now, when I say this to people who study bacteria and viruses, they say, ah, yeah, well, I see. Okay, you right, you're right. There are, there's a lot out there with that, but of multicellular animals and plants, the insects, certainly out number, most other things. Speaker 3: [00:18:00] I'm Renee Rao and you're listening to spectrum. Today's guest are Jody ball and Peter Boyce. In the next segment, they discuss the importance of entomology. This is Kayla Berkeley. Speaker 4: What is the most studied insect? The more charismatic things, as you might guess, get a lot more attention. Butterflies get a lot of attention there. Show either out during the day, they're conspicuous, they don't hide [00:18:30] themselves. It makes them easy to study and for hobbyists to notice them. The more obscure things, the tiny, the brown, the cryptic things that are much more diverse but are much harder to study and there's far fewer people that actually study them. It's just human nature. Yeah. We were attracted to some things that we find aesthetically pleasing and other things that we don't. It takes a special kind of person to look at them. We call them entomologists. Speaker 4: Within the current environment. Are [00:19:00] Insects ascending or is, are they struggling or is it case by case? Very much case by case and again, the more charismatic things we know a lot more about, I know of about 20 species that are listed as endangered in California. 14 of those are butterflies. Then there is a large [inaudible] three pretty charismatic beetles, lion of grasshopper, so these are all pretty conspicuous sort of things. A lot of them are endangered because of habitat loss. They specialize in a particular plant that only occurs in a particular habitat and especially meadows. [00:19:30] So many meadows had been turned into grazed plots or housing developments or golf courses. There's been all kinds of lawsuits around what to do with this meadow and that sort of thing, but there's probably a lot more out there that have become very rare that we just don't know about it because nobody has looked at them in any great depth. Speaker 4: That said, some of the things we do also promote some insects. Certainly our agriculture is this great field of food for not just us, but for insects as well, so some pest species where we consider them past, you know, they're just trying to live, they flourished. There's other things [00:20:00] prescribed burning where you open up a habitat and let the new vegetation grow back in. There are some insects that specialize on that. Unfortunately, the things that specialize in more stable habitat, say old growth forest, they're having less of a good time about it because those habitats, once you disturb them, it takes a long time for them to get back into balance. So yeah, it's a case by case basis. Somethings are doing well, others are not. Speaker 1: The other thing that we're seeing is like in many other groups, habitat generalists are really expanding because they can [00:20:30] live in a variety of different environments and they're more tolerant to changes in the habitat so they can even live in urban areas. So a lot of the habitat generalists are really expanding while the habitat specialists are more likely to be declining. Speaker 4: So I think to some extent we've talked about it, but is there anything specific about the importance of studying insects that you want to mention? Well, we like to think that humans rule the world and [00:21:00] uh, but you know, if our species was to disappear tomorrow, the world would probably go on. Okay. Maybe even better. But if insects were to disappear tomorrow, most ecosystems would collapse pretty quickly. And so I think that's a pretty compelling reason right there to look at them. The act as pollinators, they're recycling nutrients, they're keeping plants and checks are the plants don't over run the world. They're keeping other insects and checks so they don't overrun the world. It kind of keeps things in balance. The act as food for a lot of other organisms. So they're, they're, uh, one of [00:21:30] the most important components of the ecosystem. And to me that's enough reason to study them. Speaker 4: But beyond that, their biology, their behavior sometimes just fascinating to just sit by a pond and watch a dragon fly. It's, it's just amazing to see how they move and how they can move. I mean, they've inspired so many things. I think the, uh, the helicopter was inspired by dragonflies. It's the same kind of design, you know, beyond that, their physiology, there's just so many things about them that are fascinating. And that's where I came from in all of this as an undergraduate, I was an electrical [00:22:00] engineering major for three years and finally realized that biology was really my passion. By coincidence. My first entomology professor got his phd here at Berkeley in entomology and this is at the University of Connecticut. He's the one who got me excited about it. For me, every day of that classroom was just fascinating. Everything I learned was telling me about this world that has been all around me my whole life, but I've never noticed it. Speaker 4: And then all of a sudden somebody opened my eyes [00:22:30] and I just started noticing more and more and it just fascinates me. I mean it's, it's 20 something years later. I still am just as fascinated today as I was before. But I think some of the more obvious things are things like pollination. Our crops depend on having pollinators in with colony collapse disorder going on with the honey bees. What does that mean? So there's a lot of very compelling reasons too, is to study insects. But I think for most of us it's because we love it. They're just fascinating. Great. Joanie ball and Peter o Boyski. Thanks [00:23:00] very much for coming on spectrum. My pleasure. Thank you. If you think you might want to get involved with cal bag. Here's Peter with some more information about how to do that. There's a number of websites where you can find information about us. The ECIG museum. If you go to our website, ecig.berkeley.edu I'm the collections manager, Peter Boyski and you can contact me directly. Gordon Deshita is one of the coordinators of our project. He's on that website as well. There is a cal bug website, get's cal bug.berkeley.edu [00:23:30] and that also has information about the project. Okay. Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 5: the science and technology events happening globally over the next two weeks. Brad switch will join me in presenting the calendar Speaker 3: next Monday. The California Academy of Sciences will host a lecture [00:24:00] by Dr. Anthony [inaudible] Guerra and associate professor of physics at UC Santa Cruz. Dr. Guerra will speak about the evolution of models that scientists use to understand and study the universe. For over two decades, scientists have been refining the standard model they currently use with new data. In light of this, the concept of inflation has been revised in many cases, inflation completely upends. Our picture of the large scale structure of the universe and suggests that the universe may not actually have a beginning. [00:24:30] An object of such enormous size and complexity can only be described as a multi-verse. Dr. Guerra will walk through the development of these ideas and describe other aspects of the multi-verse that scientists wish to test. The lecture will be held on Monday, August 5th at 7:30 PM in the California Academy of Sciences. Planetarium tickets will be available online@calacademy.org Speaker 6: the August East Bay Science Cafe Presents Huta Greys Hammer Phd, [00:25:00] a science officer at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency that manages bond funds dedicated to support basic translational and clinical stem cell and regenerative medicine research in California. Her research background is in the study of embryonic development, elucidating how the cells of mouse and chick embryos assemble into functional organs. Udo will explore the power of the promise and the problems [00:25:30] of stem cells. That's Wednesday night, August 7th, 2013 in the Cafe Valparaiso, 41 30 Solano Avenue in Berkeley from seven to 9:00 PM Speaker 5: on spectrum. We also like to cover science stories, so we found particularly interesting. Brad swift flew join me in presenting papers. Speaker 6: A multidisciplinary team at the University of Texas Southwest Medical [00:26:00] Center has found that measuring the oxygenation of tumors can be a valuable tool in guiding radiation therapy, opening the door for personalized therapies that keep tumors in check with oxygen enhancement in research, examining tissue oxygenation levels and predicting radiation response. University of Texas southwest scientists led by Dr. Ralph Mason reported in the June 27th online issue of magnetic resonance in medicine [00:26:30] that countering hypoxic and aggressive tumors with an oxygen challenge, which amounts to inhaling oxygen while monitoring tumor response coincides with a greater delay in tumor growth in irradiated animal model. The next step is clinical trials to assess tumor response to radiation therapy says Dr. Mason. If the results are confirmed in humans, the implication for personalized therapies for cancers could mean fewer radiation treatments [00:27:00] or perhaps one single high dose treatment. In some cases, the simple addition of oxygen to stereotactic body radiation greatly improves response. The key is to identify those patients who will benefit Speaker 3: an android app released Monday. Allow smart phone owners to donate their phones, computing power to scientific research around the world. The app was developed by the Berkeley Open infrastructure for network computing or Boy Inc a project [00:27:30] that is best known for developing similar software for personal computers. The app install software that allows the charging phone's processing power to be used to analyze data or run simulations that would normally require expensive supercomputers. The app supports a variety of projects ranging from a program that searches radio telescope data for spinning stars called pulse eyes to one that searches for a more effective aids treatment through a community grid points creator. David Anderson [00:28:00] noted that the computing power of the nearly 1 billion android devices currently being used around the globe exceeds that of the world's largest conventional super computer. The app is currently available at the android app store, but I found you should keep an eye out as Anderson's next project maybe to design a version compatible with apple systems. Speaker 2: Okay. [00:28:30] [inaudible] [inaudible] music in the show is written produced by Alex Simon, edited by Renee Brown. Speaker 5: [00:29:00] Thank you for listening to spectrum. If you have comments about the show, please send them to us via email. Our email address is spectrum, Doug K l x@yahoo.com join us in two weeks at this same time. Speaker 2: [00:29:30] [inaudible] [inaudible]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Joan Ball is a UC Berkeley Grad student in the College of Natural Resouces. Peter Oboyski is Collections Manager & Sr. Museum Scientist at the UC Berkeley Essig Museum of Entomology. www.notesfromnature.orgTranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next Speaker 2: [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]. Speaker 1: [00:00:30] Welcome to spectrum the science and technology show on k a l x Berkeley, a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews, featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 3: Hey there and good afternoon. My name is Renee Rao and I'll be hosting today's show. Today we get to hear about an exciting citizen science project from Joanie Ball and Peter Oh Boyski. [00:01:00] Joni is a UC Berkeley graduate student in the College of natural resources where she focuses her research on dragonflies. Peter is a collections manager and senior museum scientist at the UC Berkeley Asig Museum of entomology. They spoke to Brad Swift about the new cal project. The ASIG is collaborating with Zooniverse to run the cal bog website, which allows anyone with an internet connection to help digitize the vast collection of bugs specimens in nine California natural history museums [00:01:30] just over 3000 citizens, scientists have joined the project today. We'll learn more about cal vogue and bugs in general in today's interview, Speaker 4: Joanie Ball and Peter O. Boyski, welcome to spectrum. Thank you. Thank you. Let's talk about the cal bug project that you're both part of and how did that get started? What was the genesis of the project? Speaker 1: So Quebec started in 2010 as a collaboration of the major entomology collections in California. And [00:02:00] as a group, the collections were awarded an NSF grant to database their entymology collections through this program called advancing digitization of biological collections. And the goal is to digitize over 1 million specimens. The purpose is to capture the collection information from the labels, like the species name, when the specimen was collected, who collected it and when it was collected. Speaker 4: So the ECIG museum is an insect collection at UC Berkeley and our collections go back about a hundred years. [00:02:30] And these represents the research of our faculty and students over that period of time. And it's a representation of what's lived in California all this time. So each one of those specimens in the museum is a data point. It tells you what lived where at what time. And so the problem is it's all locked up in these specimens. It's on these tiny little labels sitting in a museum somewhere. And nobody has access to this information. So the point of this project is to make that data available to, to the research community, into the public cause this all [00:03:00] goes online free to everybody to look at. So that's the big point of this is to make this a hundred years of of data available to people, researchers and to do this, you know, is it's a pretty overwhelming task. Speaker 4: Now, other museums have done this before with their vertebrate collections. For instance, the Museum of vertebrate zoology here on campus, they've already database their entire collection and they're able to do wonderful things with it. They're looking at distributions of different species and what time of year they occur. But entomology museums have lagged behind just [00:03:30] because of the sheer volume of specimens that we have. We have orders of magnitude more specimens than some of these other museums and we just thought that was too big of a job and nobody wanted to tackle that job. But now with this funding from the National Science Foundation, we feel like, okay, we can take a shot at this now let's take a stab at it. How big is the collection? Well, we don't actually know, but uh, when you multiply how many specimens per drawer and all the jurors that we have that comes out somewhere around five to 6 million specimens that we have in our collection, and that's [00:04:00] just a USAC, that's just the ecig museum and then combine that with the eight other institutions that we're working with. We're talking tens of millions of specimens among all of us. So to do the 1 million is just a, you know, the tip of the iceberg, but it's a place to start. Speaker 1: In the beginning of the project, we were hiring students to enter the data manually directly from the specimens themselves, but we found that that was taking a really long time. So we started taking photographs of the specimens, which is [00:04:30] beneficial in that we then have a record of both the specimen itself and the labels so we can go back and check specimens later. People can also enter this data from the images from wherever they are online. That's how we've started this notes from nature project where we have an interactive database now for people to enter. The specimen data online. As of this morning we had to over 2,790 people entering data. We're approaching 170,000 [00:05:00] total transcription people entering data online through this project, which started just a few weeks ago. Speaker 4: Wow, that's impressive. It is. Have you tried to calculate how many people you think need to volunteer to help? So when we initially started this project, and we are even in the planning stages, we thought, well how long would it take us to actually database? Just our collection alone. You look at the amount of staff that we have in the budget that we [00:05:30] have, and we figured at least a century to do this in house. So we hired some students to help us out, take some of these images, and they started doing the database for us, but we realized, okay, that cut it down to maybe half a century. It's still, that was going to be too long. We needed more help in having these images that you can be sitting online anywhere in the world and jump online and help us transcribe these images. So that was a huge step forward. It's incredibly simple step to take, but it was a very important one. And how did that idea bubble up? Well, we heard about Speaker 1: Zooniverse, which does a citizen [00:06:00] science organization that creates these web interfaces. In particular, we saw this project called old weather. What this project did was enter weather records from ship logs from World War One. The purpose is to improve climate models for the oceans in that time period. So we knew we wanted to do something similar with with our images. I submitted an application to them. What won them over I think was the actual photos of our specimens with the [00:06:30] pen sticking through them. They're really impressed with that and that's also something that the citizen scientists really like as well. They really enjoy seeing the actual pictures of the insects. Speaker 5: [inaudible] you're listening to spectrum. I'm KLX Berkeley, I guess today are Joanie Ball and Peter Boise from the Calvin project. In the next segment they discuss how they choose which specimens to begin at. Speaker 6: [00:07:00] Talk a little bit about the people at the ECIG that keep it all going. Speaker 4: Yeah, we do have a pretty limited staff in the museum, but I have to say the real work gets done by the undergraduates. These are either volunteers or work study students and they put in endless hours and they're the ones who are taking these images that were putting up online without them work just doesn't get done on campus. They really are the, the workforce of this campus. Speaker 6: Going back to the involvement of the citizen scientists, the transcription [00:07:30] work that they do, how would you characterize who's good at it? What sort of person would enjoy this? Do you have a sense of who that is or do you think people should just try it and see? Speaker 1: Does anyone who's curious and has little time to help out? But it tends to be people who are really enjoy contributing to something. Speaker 4: Yeah, it is an opportunity to be part of a larger community. People enjoy that and I think some people are surprised when they, they like it. So some people just log on, Eh, it's okay. [00:08:00] And some people, it just doesn't do it for them. But they took a look and now they know. But other people, they kind of surprise themselves like, oh, this is actually kind of fun. And in a way you're following an expedition. You can see where these things are coming from, what year they were collected. We had some really funny comments about one of our professors who is still actively collecting. Somebody suggested perhaps he's a vampire because he's been collecting for 50 years and the specimens are still coming in. So a little observations like that and people just, they become part of our community without even knowing it. Speaker 1: Yeah, and some people [00:08:30] who never really had an interest in insects before find themselves now more interested in what's around them. One woman mentioned that as she was driving and insect splattered on her car and she was trying to identify it or you know, suddenly she had this new appreciation for insects, which was pretty neat. Speaker 6: How are you choosing the million specimens start? Speaker 1: Uh, well actually one of the groups that we've decided to focus on [00:09:00] start with are the dragon flies. The reason for that is that we have good collections for them over the hundred years where we have our collections. They've been well collected over time. They're pretty charismatic group. They're also used as biological indicators for stream ecosystem health. So that's one of the groups that we're focusing on. We're also focusing on certain insects that are used in applied research like pollinators or biological control agents. What are the, some of the other groups, Speaker 4: the approach we use to slicking [00:09:30] the groups where groups that we have well-represented in the museum, groups that have some significance regarding global change, whether it be land use change that be climate change, changing the way water is distributed. So which groups are more sensitive to that. That might give us some indication of of what's happened in the past. The other criteria and we use was places where we have longterm collections because museums have some biases in them and we have [00:10:00] to recognize that when we do this kind of research people when to a particular place at a particular time because there's something interesting there for them. So some places we have fewer collections over the years, other places we have nice longterm data sets. So we also focused on locations where we knew we had nice longterm data. That makes sense. Yeah, so collecting is ongoing. Speaker 4: It is consumer. We continually collect the museum specimens. The insect collection comes from a number of sources. The most common [00:10:30] is research that's done right here on campus. Professors, students who are doing research projects, they deposit what we refer to as voucher specimens in the museum. So you write a publication that says you found this species at this place. Somebody else reads it and says, well that sounds odd. I don't think that thing occurs there. Well, you have to be able to go back to that specimen and look at it. Oh yeah, sure enough, there it is. I wouldn't believe that. So we have to voucher these specimens in a museum. So that's a large part of where our collection comes from. In 1939 professor ESIG, [00:11:00] the namesake of our museum, had this idea to start the California insect survey. UC Berkeley is a land grant school, which means we owe a certain responsibility back to the community, to agriculture, to forestry, to the urban ecosystem. Speaker 4: And we need to be able to answer questions. But if we don't have representatives of the insects that are out there, then it's much harder to answer the sort of questions. So that was his logic in launching the California Insec survey, sending professors and students all over the state. And that was in 1939 [00:11:30] so our collections go back earlier than that, but that's where the real boost began in our collections. So from that point on, we've had regular collecting trips. People in the museum, professors, other folks will go out and collect all over the state and then deposit their material. Another source of our specimens, our donations, there's a lot of hobbyists, enthusiasts that aren't necessarily professional entomologists, but they enjoy butterflies or beetles or whatever group. At some point when have their family and their kids and they've got these big boxes taken [00:12:00] up a lot of space in their house. They said, well, Geez, you know, I really like having these here, but yeah, maybe I should give them to a museum somewhere. So I get a lot of that kind of stuff as well. Just in the past couple of years we've had, I don't know about 10,000 donated specimens, which has been really nice. We don't do much in the way of trading there. There are museums out there that'll buy and sell specimens, but because the main interest of our museum is answering questions about California, we can go out and get most of that stuff ourselves. Speaker 5: [00:12:30] Our guest today on spectrum are Joanie, Baal [inaudible]. In the next segment they talk about how cal bug is already affecting research. This is k LX Berkeley. Speaker 4: So how is the end product affecting research do you think from pre digitization and now post digitization? [00:13:00] How are people able to leverage what they have in a database now that they couldn't do previously? Speaker 1: I am doing research using the Jag and fly collections from a few different angles. One of my projects is to resurvey sites that were originally sampled in 1914 for Jag and flies. So this collector clearance, Hamilton Kennedy went around California and Nevada collecting dragonflies that in 1914 and create a list of species [00:13:30] for all of the sites that he visited, which turns out to be around 40 sites throughout the region. The problem was he didn't include the dates that he visited these sites. That information is on his specimen. So I use the collection to reconstruct the dates that he went to these specific sites. And then I revisited those sites on the same day. And now what I'm doing is I'm comparing my surveys to the original surveys that were done in 1914 to see how things like species richness and that proportion of habitat [00:14:00] generalist versus specialist and some other community metrics have changed over that time period. Speaker 1: Another project that I'm working on will be using all of the museums specimens for dragon flies and I'll be comparing communities for different counties for the different time periods throughout that hundred years that we have collections. So I'm looking to see which time periods have enough specimens for a comparison. For example, there was a lot of collecting activity in the 70s there's a lot of current [00:14:30] collecting activity through another group, actually dragon fly enthusiast group who report their sightings, so I'm using their sightings for current species distribution throughout California. One of the last projects that I'm working on is creating species distribution models, which is something that a lot of ecologists are doing right now with historical data. The museum collections are points for that. You can create a latitude and longitude for where you find individual specimens throughout time. I'm using these to [00:15:00] look at changes in species distribution over recent decades in relation to factors like climate and land use. So I started analyzing some of the changes in the dragon fly communities based on the resurvey and some of the things that I'm finding so far is are that communities are becoming more similar throughout this survey. Previously you might find much more different species of at different sites, whereas now you're finding a lot of the same things over and over again. So we're seeing kind of a homogenization [00:15:30] of Jag and fly communities. Speaker 4: A lot of researchers have come to the museum to do similar sorts of studies to Joanie's where they're looking at one species. It's distribution over time. And that meant coming into our museum, looking at our specimens, typing that up, they would bring that home and put that into their database, write up a report on that. But that didn't always end up back in our database. And there's only one species at a time. So the advantage to what we're doing now is we can look at whole communities at a time Joanie's case, the whole dragon [00:16:00] fly dams will fly community rather than looking at one species at a time. So you couldn't do that before without one of these larger databases. We keep thinking in terms of the research, which is one of the main reasons why we're doing this, but there's a lot of practical outcomes for the general public as well. Speaker 4: For instance, maybe you're a fly fisherman and you're going up to this particular drainage basin or this river and you want to know what, what's flying up there? I want to know what kind of flies I should be tying. So at some point in the future you'll be able to pull up in our database and see, well what's flying at that time of year in that area? Or you find a spider in your [00:16:30] house and you want to know what kinds of spiders are found in my area, you should be able to go to our database and find that. Or yeah, you're a farmer and you're thinking about rotating to some new crop that you haven't planted before and you want to know what kind of pests should I be worried about? What things feed on this plant in this area? So those are the kinds of questions that other folks outside of the museum community should be able to use. And like I say, this is all freely available online once it's all been database. So this is, you know, it's not just for us, it's for everybody. Speaker 4: What ends up [00:17:00] being the most diverse species of insects. If you were mentioning dragonflies aren't really all that diverse. Beatles. There's a famous geneticists Haldane. When asked, what has he learned in his studies about the creator? Said the creator had an inordinate fondness for beetles. Certainly beetles are the most species rich out there, and within the Beatles, the weevils, a lot of these are very hosts specialized, and so for every species of plant out there, you may have several species of weevil that specialize on them. So [00:17:30] it said that if you were to take one of every species, take a black tail deer, a blue whale, a sequoia tree, every species of insects out there and lined them all up, four out of 10 would be a beetle. So 40% of the diversity of the macro diversity. Now, when I say this to people who study bacteria and viruses, they say, ah, yeah, well, I see. Okay, you right, you're right. There are, there's a lot out there with that, but of multicellular animals and plants, the insects, certainly out number, most other things. Speaker 3: [00:18:00] I'm Renee Rao and you're listening to spectrum. Today's guest are Jody ball and Peter Boyce. In the next segment, they discuss the importance of entomology. This is Kayla Berkeley. Speaker 4: What is the most studied insect? The more charismatic things, as you might guess, get a lot more attention. Butterflies get a lot of attention there. Show either out during the day, they're conspicuous, they don't hide [00:18:30] themselves. It makes them easy to study and for hobbyists to notice them. The more obscure things, the tiny, the brown, the cryptic things that are much more diverse but are much harder to study and there's far fewer people that actually study them. It's just human nature. Yeah. We were attracted to some things that we find aesthetically pleasing and other things that we don't. It takes a special kind of person to look at them. We call them entomologists. Speaker 4: Within the current environment. Are [00:19:00] Insects ascending or is, are they struggling or is it case by case? Very much case by case and again, the more charismatic things we know a lot more about, I know of about 20 species that are listed as endangered in California. 14 of those are butterflies. Then there is a large [inaudible] three pretty charismatic beetles, lion of grasshopper, so these are all pretty conspicuous sort of things. A lot of them are endangered because of habitat loss. They specialize in a particular plant that only occurs in a particular habitat and especially meadows. [00:19:30] So many meadows had been turned into grazed plots or housing developments or golf courses. There's been all kinds of lawsuits around what to do with this meadow and that sort of thing, but there's probably a lot more out there that have become very rare that we just don't know about it because nobody has looked at them in any great depth. Speaker 4: That said, some of the things we do also promote some insects. Certainly our agriculture is this great field of food for not just us, but for insects as well, so some pest species where we consider them past, you know, they're just trying to live, they flourished. There's other things [00:20:00] prescribed burning where you open up a habitat and let the new vegetation grow back in. There are some insects that specialize on that. Unfortunately, the things that specialize in more stable habitat, say old growth forest, they're having less of a good time about it because those habitats, once you disturb them, it takes a long time for them to get back into balance. So yeah, it's a case by case basis. Somethings are doing well, others are not. Speaker 1: The other thing that we're seeing is like in many other groups, habitat generalists are really expanding because they can [00:20:30] live in a variety of different environments and they're more tolerant to changes in the habitat so they can even live in urban areas. So a lot of the habitat generalists are really expanding while the habitat specialists are more likely to be declining. Speaker 4: So I think to some extent we've talked about it, but is there anything specific about the importance of studying insects that you want to mention? Well, we like to think that humans rule the world and [00:21:00] uh, but you know, if our species was to disappear tomorrow, the world would probably go on. Okay. Maybe even better. But if insects were to disappear tomorrow, most ecosystems would collapse pretty quickly. And so I think that's a pretty compelling reason right there to look at them. The act as pollinators, they're recycling nutrients, they're keeping plants and checks are the plants don't over run the world. They're keeping other insects and checks so they don't overrun the world. It kind of keeps things in balance. The act as food for a lot of other organisms. So they're, they're, uh, one of [00:21:30] the most important components of the ecosystem. And to me that's enough reason to study them. Speaker 4: But beyond that, their biology, their behavior sometimes just fascinating to just sit by a pond and watch a dragon fly. It's, it's just amazing to see how they move and how they can move. I mean, they've inspired so many things. I think the, uh, the helicopter was inspired by dragonflies. It's the same kind of design, you know, beyond that, their physiology, there's just so many things about them that are fascinating. And that's where I came from in all of this as an undergraduate, I was an electrical [00:22:00] engineering major for three years and finally realized that biology was really my passion. By coincidence. My first entomology professor got his phd here at Berkeley in entomology and this is at the University of Connecticut. He's the one who got me excited about it. For me, every day of that classroom was just fascinating. Everything I learned was telling me about this world that has been all around me my whole life, but I've never noticed it. Speaker 4: And then all of a sudden somebody opened my eyes [00:22:30] and I just started noticing more and more and it just fascinates me. I mean it's, it's 20 something years later. I still am just as fascinated today as I was before. But I think some of the more obvious things are things like pollination. Our crops depend on having pollinators in with colony collapse disorder going on with the honey bees. What does that mean? So there's a lot of very compelling reasons too, is to study insects. But I think for most of us it's because we love it. They're just fascinating. Great. Joanie ball and Peter o Boyski. Thanks [00:23:00] very much for coming on spectrum. My pleasure. Thank you. If you think you might want to get involved with cal bag. Here's Peter with some more information about how to do that. There's a number of websites where you can find information about us. The ECIG museum. If you go to our website, ecig.berkeley.edu I'm the collections manager, Peter Boyski and you can contact me directly. Gordon Deshita is one of the coordinators of our project. He's on that website as well. There is a cal bug website, get's cal bug.berkeley.edu [00:23:30] and that also has information about the project. Okay. Speaker 2: [inaudible]Speaker 5: the science and technology events happening globally over the next two weeks. Brad switch will join me in presenting the calendar Speaker 3: next Monday. The California Academy of Sciences will host a lecture [00:24:00] by Dr. Anthony [inaudible] Guerra and associate professor of physics at UC Santa Cruz. Dr. Guerra will speak about the evolution of models that scientists use to understand and study the universe. For over two decades, scientists have been refining the standard model they currently use with new data. In light of this, the concept of inflation has been revised in many cases, inflation completely upends. Our picture of the large scale structure of the universe and suggests that the universe may not actually have a beginning. [00:24:30] An object of such enormous size and complexity can only be described as a multi-verse. Dr. Guerra will walk through the development of these ideas and describe other aspects of the multi-verse that scientists wish to test. The lecture will be held on Monday, August 5th at 7:30 PM in the California Academy of Sciences. Planetarium tickets will be available online@calacademy.org Speaker 6: the August East Bay Science Cafe Presents Huta Greys Hammer Phd, [00:25:00] a science officer at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency that manages bond funds dedicated to support basic translational and clinical stem cell and regenerative medicine research in California. Her research background is in the study of embryonic development, elucidating how the cells of mouse and chick embryos assemble into functional organs. Udo will explore the power of the promise and the problems [00:25:30] of stem cells. That's Wednesday night, August 7th, 2013 in the Cafe Valparaiso, 41 30 Solano Avenue in Berkeley from seven to 9:00 PM Speaker 5: on spectrum. We also like to cover science stories, so we found particularly interesting. Brad swift flew join me in presenting papers. Speaker 6: A multidisciplinary team at the University of Texas Southwest Medical [00:26:00] Center has found that measuring the oxygenation of tumors can be a valuable tool in guiding radiation therapy, opening the door for personalized therapies that keep tumors in check with oxygen enhancement in research, examining tissue oxygenation levels and predicting radiation response. University of Texas southwest scientists led by Dr. Ralph Mason reported in the June 27th online issue of magnetic resonance in medicine [00:26:30] that countering hypoxic and aggressive tumors with an oxygen challenge, which amounts to inhaling oxygen while monitoring tumor response coincides with a greater delay in tumor growth in irradiated animal model. The next step is clinical trials to assess tumor response to radiation therapy says Dr. Mason. If the results are confirmed in humans, the implication for personalized therapies for cancers could mean fewer radiation treatments [00:27:00] or perhaps one single high dose treatment. In some cases, the simple addition of oxygen to stereotactic body radiation greatly improves response. The key is to identify those patients who will benefit Speaker 3: an android app released Monday. Allow smart phone owners to donate their phones, computing power to scientific research around the world. The app was developed by the Berkeley Open infrastructure for network computing or Boy Inc a project [00:27:30] that is best known for developing similar software for personal computers. The app install software that allows the charging phone's processing power to be used to analyze data or run simulations that would normally require expensive supercomputers. The app supports a variety of projects ranging from a program that searches radio telescope data for spinning stars called pulse eyes to one that searches for a more effective aids treatment through a community grid points creator. David Anderson [00:28:00] noted that the computing power of the nearly 1 billion android devices currently being used around the globe exceeds that of the world's largest conventional super computer. The app is currently available at the android app store, but I found you should keep an eye out as Anderson's next project maybe to design a version compatible with apple systems. Speaker 2: Okay. [00:28:30] [inaudible] [inaudible] music in the show is written produced by Alex Simon, edited by Renee Brown. Speaker 5: [00:29:00] Thank you for listening to spectrum. If you have comments about the show, please send them to us via email. Our email address is spectrum, Doug K l x@yahoo.com join us in two weeks at this same time. Speaker 2: [00:29:30] [inaudible] [inaudible]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A discussion between two physicists on the Higgs Boson and Super Symmetry. Simone Pagan-Griso, Postdoc Chamberlain Fellow at LBNL, works on the ATLAS team at CERN. Will Johnson, a Physicist at Sandia National Lab in Livermore CA, has worked on the Collider Detector at Fermilab.TranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next [inaudible]. Welcome to spectrum the science and technology [00:00:30] show on k a l x Berkeley, a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 2: Good afternoon. My name is Brad swift and I'm your host today. In today's interview, Rick Karnofsky talks with two physicists about the search for the Higgs Boson and supersymmetry at cern, Simona Pagan. Greece is a postdoctoral Chamberlain fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. [00:01:00] Some money first appeared on spectrum on September 23rd, 2011 you can listen to that show online at iTunes u soon after that appearance, somone moved to Switzerland to work in close proximity with the atlas team at cern on among other things, the search for the Higgs Boson. Rick is also joined today by will Johnson, a physicist at Sandia national laboratories in Livermore, California during will's Phd Studies in physics at UC Davis. [00:01:30] He worked on the collider detector at Fermi lab in Illinois. Somani was visiting Berkeley recently and we invited him and will for a followup interview. During the interview you will hear mention of GE v which stands for Giga Electron volt. Speaker 2: The Electron volt is a unit of mass and energy head to Wikipedia for more on the electron volt. Now the interview, welcome back to spectrum. Thank [00:02:00] you. Thank you. Glad to be back. Let's get to it. A few months ago it was widely reported in the media that scientists have discovered the Higgs. Can you walk us through exactly what people found and what bearing that has? Yes. Just a reminder. We look for coalitions of protons at the very high energy in this accelerator in Switzerland, and so what we really look at these, the products of these collisions and we tried to reconstruct for what to see what happened at the very [00:02:30] smallest Cade few months ago. We helped enough data and our analysis of the data got to enough refined to be able to distinguish from the existing of expose explosive with that mass and the not existence. And so we actually found it. Speaker 2: So that was awkward of success in the official masses and efficient mass is around 125 GV GVU is the unit information that we use for the mass. So is a roughly equivalent to the mass of a, [00:03:00] and what detector was this all? So we have two main detectors. General purpose for these kinds of searches are the large Hadron collider. One is called atlas, which is the detector I'm working on and other trees called the CMS. So both experiments had independent analysis on independent at the samples and they confirmed the existence of the heat disposal. So we had two different experiments confirming the same result, which of course is always good, right? And now [00:03:30] what's next? Now? Next, our first call is to measure more accurately the property of this new particular we found to really establish if it is fully the he exposed on or fetus any deviation. Speaker 2: There are several reasons why we may expect some deviations, but up to now I have to say everything looks like he exposed to as predicted by the most simple theory what kind of deviations would, so you can have several things if you want precision measurement that are ongoing [00:04:00] to determine if this is really the particle we were expecting. But on top of that there is a full harder program looking for other different products of these collisions which may show deviations from what we expect. We mentioned I think last time, very briefly one today, which is really popular in the last decades, which is called supersymmetry. This is probably the very next big thing that we are hunting for. Stepping back a little bit, in [00:04:30] the months that interceded are for sharing with you and the report of the Higgs, what if any big steps in data analysis or the way that you guys were running experiments had to change? Speaker 2: Since we talked? One big step came from data. When we're collisions that almost doubled the amount of data we had since we talked and that discovery was announced. One collision happens, but you may have multiple collision happening at the same [00:05:00] time and you need to disentangle them from what you see. A lot of work was put into actual decent tankers, these interactions, and this was really a key to be able to analyze efficiently. So enormous progress was made. Just to give you a rough ideas in our detector, one part of it try to track charged particles transverse in our detector. What you end up having are different points in different [00:05:30] layers of Europe. Sub detectors are you need to connect them to actually track the particles. So this seems easy to have one or two particle, but then you end up having more than a thousand of particles and you need to disentangle who belongs to whom. Speaker 2: Right? So this for example is an area I've worked a little bit hard to to be able to make sure that we actually can efficiently distinguished different particles and not be confused [00:06:00] by our connecting points, which are actually belonging to different particles. Tens are there still improvements being made to the data analysis? Of course, improvements are always ongoing. We worked very hard on that. Right now the larger collider is shutting down for a two years period and on February it will actually shut down and work will be made on the accelerator itself for two years almost. [00:06:30] And we expect to be back in taking data for physics analysis the first months of 2015 and the reason we do this works not only as maintainers, but actually to improve one big thing is that we will be able to raise the energy of the collision of disc pratum's almost double it a little bit less. Speaker 2: So right now we are working at around 8,000 GV. After the shutdown and improvements, we [00:07:00] will be able to collide protests around the 13 thousands GV. So why is that important? Increasing the energy. It actually also increased the probability of producing rare phenomenon like the he exposed in production or particular that predictably supersymmetry theory. In all this theory, the likelihood of producing such particles increased dramatically with an edge. The higher energy we can probe, the higher [00:07:30] are likely to produce those particles. And this is also because they may be heavy, even heavier than the Higgs and not only rare but also with a heavy mass and so the more energy you have the more likely is that you can produce them and what kind of work will be done besides this upgrade, what are all the staff scientists going to do with their time for two years? Speaker 2: We will keep us busy. I'm sure the detectors themselves will be upgraded as well. The [00:08:00] trust, etc. I'm working on has a big project of trying to replace one of its inner most part. I mentioned these detectors to detect charge particles. These are based on silicon and they suffer radiation damage. With all this collision happening, we have a lot of tradition which can damage all the electronics and the censor themselves. A new detector was made and we'd be inserted in addition to the existing ones in order to improve [00:08:30] the detection of discharge particles. This is probably the biggest project which will be ongoing doing shut down for our experiment. There are also several other minor maintenance and other upgrades which are ongoing and in the meantime we easy our analysis strategy, our software in order to be ready when we come back to put in practice what you've learned, analyzing the past two years data and to be even more efficient. So with these [00:09:00] new detectors it'll be detecting even closer to the points of collision? That's correct. In fact, I mentioned things happen very close to where the protons collide. So when I mentioned that particles decay to other particles and so on, that usually happens in a small space like way less than half a millimeter. So it's important to note that you never actually see the particles you produce. You only see the decay products from them. [00:09:30] That's correct. Exactly. Having a detector which is close to where the protons collide will allow us to differentiate even better. Yeah. Speaker 1: [inaudible] you are listening to spectrum on k a l x Berkeley. Our guests today are Simona and Pega and will Johnson both are physicists. In the next segment they discuss supersymmetry. Speaker 3: [00:10:00] It may not be obvious, but so actually one of the main goals for High Energy Particle Physics is actually defined a single equation. And from this one equation we can drive everything we could possibly need to know about how particles interact, what particles exist, how everything works. So the goal is one grand equation, a grand unified theory right now we have a great equation called the standard model that takes [00:10:30] care of all forces. Everything we know about how physical objects interact and how they exist can be described by this one equation with the exception of gravity. We can't combine that in with this one equation. And also there's some parts to the equation that we think could be a little bit more elegant and we want to combine it with gravity and also possibly take care of some of these ambiguities. Going to supersymmetry allows [00:11:00] us to do that. So one of the big questions is we haven't seen supersymmetry yet. I know when the LHC turned on, everybody was hoping that it would just be very obvious and we would just see supersymmetry. But that hasn't been the case so far. Has there been any hints or signs that people are looking for that supersymmetry is most likely to be hiding? Speaker 2: We were hoping to see signs of the supersymmetry in a couple of years of running of the large Hadron collider. [00:11:30] The large Hadron collider started with an energy which was slower than what is designed and only after this shutdown we will get to the energy which was designed for, so we really hope that is increasing energy, which can shed more light on the natural supersymmetry and why we didn't see it so far. For sure. The data we analyzed so far already poses a slight challenge to the theory itself. It might be good to explain why supersymmetry is such an attractive theory. People who have been looking for it for [00:12:00] 30 years now, we've seen no hints of it yet. Still very convinced. Yes, supersymmetry can explain a lot of the unexplained feature that we see up to now. Supersymmetry will give us from the practical point of view, the door to unify also gravity with the other forces. Speaker 2: A lot of people think that this is the right way to go to be able to actually describe gravity together with the other forces in our single tier. People have already [00:12:30] heard about the string theories and so on. The all implicitly assume that supersymmetry exists in some form of it. So it's very important for us to find any sign of it or this theory, we lack a fundamental part of it. And so actually what happens if it turns out we don't see supersymmetry, the Higgs bows on looks exactly like the standard model predicts and we see no other hints of supersymmetry. Well certainly this is something that we need to consider, right? [00:13:00] There are open questions that we hope supersymmetry can answer if supersymmetry is not found still we need to answer those questions so we need to keep looking. There are several other theories which may predict and explain the same scenarios, just had not the more simple ones. Speaker 2: So just means that probably the most simple solution we found was not the correct one. So we still need to look for other sign of it. I we do it already in parallel. So we consider [00:13:30] the possibility of supersymmetry is not the right answer. It's just the one that we think is most likely we will keep looking even if we had no sign of it, so we really expect to find some sign of something. Maybe supersymmetry may be something else, but we really hope that with the next data we will find a sign of something else beyond what we know. If that doesn't happen still we need to find a mechanism to explain what we see, which is different from what we have taught so far [00:14:00] and that for sure will require big synergy between the theoretical part and the experimental one trying to work together towards a new different solutions. Speaker 2: There are people actively working on data from the LHC looking for other theories. Technicolor is one of the other big ones, but the detectors aren't designed specifically to look at supersymmetry. They're designed to try to catch as wide of possibilities as possible. [00:14:30] Yeah, this is actually a very good point. We perform some generalist searches which do not depend on a specific models, but just look for consistency between the given theory that we have. The standard pondered and what we see. So any hint of it can be used, at least as our guidance in watch theory can predict this kind of phenomenon. So we keep looking also for unexpected as much as possible. Speaker 1: [inaudible] [00:15:00] this is k a l x Berkeley. The show is spectrum. Our guests are Tsimané, Pegol Rizo and Bill Johnson in the next segment. The detailed useful byproducts of high energy particle physics. Speaker 3: Can you think [00:15:30] of any good examples of the technology developed our hundred [inaudible] physics or maybe the announced techniques designed for high energy physics and invented for it have affected people in common everyday life. Speaker 2: This research is really targeted in fundamental research, understanding how nature works, so the effects of it are usually a very long term, so it's very hard to predict what will happen. However, the means that we use to actually [00:16:00] perform these searches, they may have a more direct impact. If we go back a bit in the history, all the nuclear science that was used to start this particle physics in general decades ago is, for example, used to treat cancer. Here in alifornia is for example, very advanced in what is called heartland therapy, so try to treat cancer with protons and they have sidebar advantages with respect to the common radiotherapy, particular for inner most tumors. [00:16:30] In this way you can reach and try to kill the tumor burden, the size of the tumor without having to burn whatever is in the meter. All these kinds of the tactful with a lot of r and d of course on top of them but were taken from what was developed for nuclear physics in the past. Speaker 2: This is a very good example of how technology that we may use for our scope can actually be bring vented and adapted for other scopes in other very big challenge that we face every day [00:17:00] is that the amount of data we collect and the computing power we need to analyze it is huge. In order to cope with this, we had since several years our projects for distributed computing in order to be able our to analyze data everywhere using computing that are located everywhere in the world, sharing computing resources, sharing disc. This was a necessary step for us. In order to be able to carry on and having physics results. However, that can have [00:17:30] also an impact to everyday life. What we see now is our all the cloud computing increasing faster and faster in our everyday life. This is a slightly different version of this distributed computing that we've been developed and worked so far. Speaker 3: The web as we know it today from Speaker 2: what was created at cern. So if you actually see some of the photos of the very irst web browsers, they actually have design specifications and pictures [00:18:00] of the atlas detector at certain it was created for the scientists to communicate, but then it was such useful technology it felt to the rest of the population. So an interesting story is that even today that when you press and you don't find the page, you get these set of [inaudible] and this was actually the room at cern where the irst web server was hosted. A lot of the physics analysis that we do is [00:18:30] really from a statistical point of view, decent target. These huge amount of data that we collect and trying to find a rare phenomenon. It's usually trying to find a handful of events of collisions which have the characteristics you want among the billions that happened. Speaker 2: So these techniques are very similar and are in common to other challenges where you have a huge amount of data and you to find a specific [00:19:00] ones on a slightly different level. But it's what Google needs to find when you put some keywords and you can find what are the relevant pages for you. And there are few. So even in this case, what you need to do is basically try to find the most appropriate few pages among the billions that exist, which match what you're looking for. In many senses, this is not very different from what we try to do. And in fact, some of the technologies [00:19:30] with very big differences are actually in common. Well, ne question of course, is with the shutdown or from your lab, do you see the need for more accelerators besides certainly I strongly think these accelerators are big and they take a lot of resources of our community, not only in terms of the money you need to build them, but also as intellectual power of our community. Speaker 2: Run random and analyze data, but [00:20:00] having a new accelerator right now is not worth the investment in both their mind, intellectual power that we need to put on it, so the larger other collider will run at least up to the end of the Deca. Then probably up to the end of the next tech ad and this will be enough to give us data to answer most of the questions we actually build it for. Of course, people are already thinking of what's next. They're thinking [00:20:30] of new accelerators. They're thinking what is the best choice? I want to build it. If we have the technology, if we need to develop something that we are missing and people are actively working already on this and the LSE is a giant machine. It's hundreds of feet underground in miles Speaker 3: and miles across. So building a bigger tunnel is a very, very expensive proposition. Yes. And there's just fundamental limitations on how strong magnets can be. So a lot of people are investing [00:21:00] a lot of effort into finding other ways of accelerating particles or studying phenomenon that doesn't necessarily need accelerators. Is there anything particularly promising? There's the plasma wave accelerator. Um, there's cosmic sources, so some of the highest energy collisions we get are actually from particles from outer space. And a lot of people are using the atmosphere itself as a detector. So you can look at the interactions in the atmosphere [00:21:30] and then decay particles from those interactions to see what happened. There's also a lot of work going into just looking to see if you can study these processes with a lower energy. So maybe you won't be able to see what particle you're looking for, but you'll be able to see some very slight effects on other particles or another process. Very, very slight effects, which if you're very careful and you study it, it might tell you information about these much heavier particles than you can produce. So there's, there's a lot of ways of finding supersymmetry [00:22:00] yes. Or other further beyond the standard model. Yeah. These are complimentary ways in many senses. As you mentioned, there is a lot of work on going and it's very promising, so we really look forward to these [inaudible] well, thanks for joining us. Thank you Rick as thank you Rick. Cool Speaker 1: background [00:22:30] is archived on iTunes university. To find the archive, do a search in your favorite browser for iTunes Dash u space Calex space spectrum. Speaker 3: We'd like to mention a few of the science and technology events happening locally over the next wo weeks. [00:23:00] Rick Kaneski joins me for the calendar. The theme for the Spring Open House at the crucible is the science of art. The Criswell is located at welve sixty eventh street near West Oakland, Bart and mission on Saturday April ix it's free from leven am until our pm the open house seeks to highlight the scientific principles, inquiry and exploration behind the industrial arts processes. Taught and practiced at the [00:23:30] crucible. Highlights include the science of fire, the gravity of mold making, mysteries of steel made visible bicycle physics. Yeah. Surfing the solar flares with science at cal recycled glass processing and more. Speaker 4: There will be demonstrations, tuition discounts, food and bikes for sale. Visit the rucible dot org for more info. In April of wo thousand and twelve a small asteroid impacted [00:24:00] close to home in alifornia at Sutter's mill. The site where gold was irst discovered in ighteen forty eight media are astronomer. Peter Jenniskens of the Seti Institute started a tally of fines and mobilized NASA Ames research center into leading the recovery effort from the air and the ground. eventy seven media rights were found. He will summarize research results reported in a recent eventy author science article and also discuss a econd meteorite fall that happened in [00:24:30] Nevato and Sonoma last October. The presentation is Monday pril eighth at the Academy of Sciences. Planetarium. Tickets for the even hirty event can be purchased nline at Cal Academy Dot Org San Francisco Science Museum. The exploratorium is reopening in their new location at peer ifteen on Wednesday pril seventeenth to celebrate. They will offer free outdoor programming from ine am until en pm [00:25:00] the new museum offers ix galleries on human behavior, living systems maker culture, observing the landscape scene and listening as well as an outdoor space. Speaker 4: More nformation at exploratorium dot edu also on pril seventeenth UC Berkeley is holding its monthly blood drive. You can make an appointment online but walk-ins are also welcome. You are eligible to donate blood if you are in good health, weigh at least ne hundred and ten pounds [00:25:30] and are eventeen years old or older. You can also check out the eligibility guidelines online for it and initial self screening if you are not eligible or you prefer not to donate blood. There are other ways to support campus blood drives through volunteering, encouraging others and simply spreading the word. The blood drive will be on Wednesday, pril seventeenth in the alumni house. On the UC Berkeley campus. It [00:26:00] will last from noon until ix pm you can make an appointment or find more information at the website. Red Cross lood dot Org using the sponsor code you see B. We also like to bring you several news stories that we find interesting. Once again, Rick joins me for the news and Red Alax died of cancer in ineteen fifty one but her immortal cell line called Hela cells derived from her cervical cancer is the oldest and most [00:26:30] commonly used human cell line. Speaker 4: The cells were used to test the polio vaccine and have been used in the research of over eventy thousand scientific papers since lar Steinmetz and others in ermany published the genome of Heela and the journal g hree in March. However, the team has since removed the data from public databases because of privacy concerns expressed by family members and other scientists. Blacks did not give her a consent for the line [00:27:00] to be used and some are concerned that it may disclose genetic traits shared by her descendants. However, no law required that kind of consent in ineteen fifty one and even current regulation differs widely as to what consent would be required to sustain a modern cell line due to the extensive documentation of the cells. The privacy of the healer line may have already been broken with literature already published. Harvard medical school researchers have assembled a draft genome and [00:27:30] a team of University of ashington researchers have spoken about not only the heela genome, but also the more specific information about individual haplotypes at the American Society for Human Genetics Conference in San Francisco. Speaker 4: A recent UC Berkeley study on the lives of wild bees find that the insects thrive better within diversified farming systems. While you might consider the insects yellow nuisances, bees actually play a crucial role in the life cycle of cross pollinated [00:28:00] crops, which account for ne hird of our caloric intake. The mysterious decline in both honeybee and wild bee populations in recent years has prompted many scientists to study the buzzing insects more closely. This study found that crop yield generally increased with wild bee population, but also linked to the recent decline in bee populations to heavy pesticide or fertilizer use. Typically in large scale monoculture agriculture, a number [00:28:30] of alifornia beekeepers seem to agree. They recently sued the federal EPA for failing to ban wo pesticides, widely regarded as harmful to wild bees and honeybees. The wo insecticides named in the lawsuit known as [inaudible] and Simon Foxen have already been found to pose an unacceptably high risk to honeybees by the European food safety authority. Speaker 1: [inaudible] the music heard during the show [00:29:00] is by Louiston at David [inaudible] help on folk make available at creative Commons license hree point zero after music production and editing assistance by Renee Brown. Thank you for listening to spectrum. If you have comments about the show, please send them to us via email. Our email address is spectrum dot k a l xat Yahoo Dot com [00:29:30] join us in wo weeks at this same time. [inaudible] [inaudible]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
A discussion between two physicists on the Higgs Boson and Super Symmetry. Simone Pagan-Griso, Postdoc Chamberlain Fellow at LBNL, works on the ATLAS team at CERN. Will Johnson, a Physicist at Sandia National Lab in Livermore CA, has worked on the Collider Detector at Fermilab.TranscriptSpeaker 1: Spectrum's next [inaudible]. Welcome to spectrum the science and technology [00:00:30] show on k a l x Berkeley, a biweekly 30 minute program bringing you interviews featuring bay area scientists and technologists as well as a calendar of local events and news. Speaker 2: Good afternoon. My name is Brad swift and I'm your host today. In today's interview, Rick Karnofsky talks with two physicists about the search for the Higgs Boson and supersymmetry at cern, Simona Pagan. Greece is a postdoctoral Chamberlain fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. [00:01:00] Some money first appeared on spectrum on September 23rd, 2011 you can listen to that show online at iTunes u soon after that appearance, somone moved to Switzerland to work in close proximity with the atlas team at cern on among other things, the search for the Higgs Boson. Rick is also joined today by will Johnson, a physicist at Sandia national laboratories in Livermore, California during will's Phd Studies in physics at UC Davis. [00:01:30] He worked on the collider detector at Fermi lab in Illinois. Somani was visiting Berkeley recently and we invited him and will for a followup interview. During the interview you will hear mention of GE v which stands for Giga Electron volt. Speaker 2: The Electron volt is a unit of mass and energy head to Wikipedia for more on the electron volt. Now the interview, welcome back to spectrum. Thank [00:02:00] you. Thank you. Glad to be back. Let's get to it. A few months ago it was widely reported in the media that scientists have discovered the Higgs. Can you walk us through exactly what people found and what bearing that has? Yes. Just a reminder. We look for coalitions of protons at the very high energy in this accelerator in Switzerland, and so what we really look at these, the products of these collisions and we tried to reconstruct for what to see what happened at the very [00:02:30] smallest Cade few months ago. We helped enough data and our analysis of the data got to enough refined to be able to distinguish from the existing of expose explosive with that mass and the not existence. And so we actually found it. Speaker 2: So that was awkward of success in the official masses and efficient mass is around 125 GV GVU is the unit information that we use for the mass. So is a roughly equivalent to the mass of a, [00:03:00] and what detector was this all? So we have two main detectors. General purpose for these kinds of searches are the large Hadron collider. One is called atlas, which is the detector I'm working on and other trees called the CMS. So both experiments had independent analysis on independent at the samples and they confirmed the existence of the heat disposal. So we had two different experiments confirming the same result, which of course is always good, right? And now [00:03:30] what's next? Now? Next, our first call is to measure more accurately the property of this new particular we found to really establish if it is fully the he exposed on or fetus any deviation. Speaker 2: There are several reasons why we may expect some deviations, but up to now I have to say everything looks like he exposed to as predicted by the most simple theory what kind of deviations would, so you can have several things if you want precision measurement that are ongoing [00:04:00] to determine if this is really the particle we were expecting. But on top of that there is a full harder program looking for other different products of these collisions which may show deviations from what we expect. We mentioned I think last time, very briefly one today, which is really popular in the last decades, which is called supersymmetry. This is probably the very next big thing that we are hunting for. Stepping back a little bit, in [00:04:30] the months that interceded are for sharing with you and the report of the Higgs, what if any big steps in data analysis or the way that you guys were running experiments had to change? Speaker 2: Since we talked? One big step came from data. When we're collisions that almost doubled the amount of data we had since we talked and that discovery was announced. One collision happens, but you may have multiple collision happening at the same [00:05:00] time and you need to disentangle them from what you see. A lot of work was put into actual decent tankers, these interactions, and this was really a key to be able to analyze efficiently. So enormous progress was made. Just to give you a rough ideas in our detector, one part of it try to track charged particles transverse in our detector. What you end up having are different points in different [00:05:30] layers of Europe. Sub detectors are you need to connect them to actually track the particles. So this seems easy to have one or two particle, but then you end up having more than a thousand of particles and you need to disentangle who belongs to whom. Speaker 2: Right? So this for example is an area I've worked a little bit hard to to be able to make sure that we actually can efficiently distinguished different particles and not be confused [00:06:00] by our connecting points, which are actually belonging to different particles. Tens are there still improvements being made to the data analysis? Of course, improvements are always ongoing. We worked very hard on that. Right now the larger collider is shutting down for a two years period and on February it will actually shut down and work will be made on the accelerator itself for two years almost. [00:06:30] And we expect to be back in taking data for physics analysis the first months of 2015 and the reason we do this works not only as maintainers, but actually to improve one big thing is that we will be able to raise the energy of the collision of disc pratum's almost double it a little bit less. Speaker 2: So right now we are working at around 8,000 GV. After the shutdown and improvements, we [00:07:00] will be able to collide protests around the 13 thousands GV. So why is that important? Increasing the energy. It actually also increased the probability of producing rare phenomenon like the he exposed in production or particular that predictably supersymmetry theory. In all this theory, the likelihood of producing such particles increased dramatically with an edge. The higher energy we can probe, the higher [00:07:30] are likely to produce those particles. And this is also because they may be heavy, even heavier than the Higgs and not only rare but also with a heavy mass and so the more energy you have the more likely is that you can produce them and what kind of work will be done besides this upgrade, what are all the staff scientists going to do with their time for two years? Speaker 2: We will keep us busy. I'm sure the detectors themselves will be upgraded as well. The [00:08:00] trust, etc. I'm working on has a big project of trying to replace one of its inner most part. I mentioned these detectors to detect charge particles. These are based on silicon and they suffer radiation damage. With all this collision happening, we have a lot of tradition which can damage all the electronics and the censor themselves. A new detector was made and we'd be inserted in addition to the existing ones in order to improve [00:08:30] the detection of discharge particles. This is probably the biggest project which will be ongoing doing shut down for our experiment. There are also several other minor maintenance and other upgrades which are ongoing and in the meantime we easy our analysis strategy, our software in order to be ready when we come back to put in practice what you've learned, analyzing the past two years data and to be even more efficient. So with these [00:09:00] new detectors it'll be detecting even closer to the points of collision? That's correct. In fact, I mentioned things happen very close to where the protons collide. So when I mentioned that particles decay to other particles and so on, that usually happens in a small space like way less than half a millimeter. So it's important to note that you never actually see the particles you produce. You only see the decay products from them. [00:09:30] That's correct. Exactly. Having a detector which is close to where the protons collide will allow us to differentiate even better. Yeah. Speaker 1: [inaudible] you are listening to spectrum on k a l x Berkeley. Our guests today are Simona and Pega and will Johnson both are physicists. In the next segment they discuss supersymmetry. Speaker 3: [00:10:00] It may not be obvious, but so actually one of the main goals for High Energy Particle Physics is actually defined a single equation. And from this one equation we can drive everything we could possibly need to know about how particles interact, what particles exist, how everything works. So the goal is one grand equation, a grand unified theory right now we have a great equation called the standard model that takes [00:10:30] care of all forces. Everything we know about how physical objects interact and how they exist can be described by this one equation with the exception of gravity. We can't combine that in with this one equation. And also there's some parts to the equation that we think could be a little bit more elegant and we want to combine it with gravity and also possibly take care of some of these ambiguities. Going to supersymmetry allows [00:11:00] us to do that. So one of the big questions is we haven't seen supersymmetry yet. I know when the LHC turned on, everybody was hoping that it would just be very obvious and we would just see supersymmetry. But that hasn't been the case so far. Has there been any hints or signs that people are looking for that supersymmetry is most likely to be hiding? Speaker 2: We were hoping to see signs of the supersymmetry in a couple of years of running of the large Hadron collider. [00:11:30] The large Hadron collider started with an energy which was slower than what is designed and only after this shutdown we will get to the energy which was designed for, so we really hope that is increasing energy, which can shed more light on the natural supersymmetry and why we didn't see it so far. For sure. The data we analyzed so far already poses a slight challenge to the theory itself. It might be good to explain why supersymmetry is such an attractive theory. People who have been looking for it for [00:12:00] 30 years now, we've seen no hints of it yet. Still very convinced. Yes, supersymmetry can explain a lot of the unexplained feature that we see up to now. Supersymmetry will give us from the practical point of view, the door to unify also gravity with the other forces. Speaker 2: A lot of people think that this is the right way to go to be able to actually describe gravity together with the other forces in our single tier. People have already [00:12:30] heard about the string theories and so on. The all implicitly assume that supersymmetry exists in some form of it. So it's very important for us to find any sign of it or this theory, we lack a fundamental part of it. And so actually what happens if it turns out we don't see supersymmetry, the Higgs bows on looks exactly like the standard model predicts and we see no other hints of supersymmetry. Well certainly this is something that we need to consider, right? [00:13:00] There are open questions that we hope supersymmetry can answer if supersymmetry is not found still we need to answer those questions so we need to keep looking. There are several other theories which may predict and explain the same scenarios, just had not the more simple ones. Speaker 2: So just means that probably the most simple solution we found was not the correct one. So we still need to look for other sign of it. I we do it already in parallel. So we consider [00:13:30] the possibility of supersymmetry is not the right answer. It's just the one that we think is most likely we will keep looking even if we had no sign of it, so we really expect to find some sign of something. Maybe supersymmetry may be something else, but we really hope that with the next data we will find a sign of something else beyond what we know. If that doesn't happen still we need to find a mechanism to explain what we see, which is different from what we have taught so far [00:14:00] and that for sure will require big synergy between the theoretical part and the experimental one trying to work together towards a new different solutions. Speaker 2: There are people actively working on data from the LHC looking for other theories. Technicolor is one of the other big ones, but the detectors aren't designed specifically to look at supersymmetry. They're designed to try to catch as wide of possibilities as possible. [00:14:30] Yeah, this is actually a very good point. We perform some generalist searches which do not depend on a specific models, but just look for consistency between the given theory that we have. The standard pondered and what we see. So any hint of it can be used, at least as our guidance in watch theory can predict this kind of phenomenon. So we keep looking also for unexpected as much as possible. Speaker 1: [inaudible] [00:15:00] this is k a l x Berkeley. The show is spectrum. Our guests are Tsimané, Pegol Rizo and Bill Johnson in the next segment. The detailed useful byproducts of high energy particle physics. Speaker 3: Can you think [00:15:30] of any good examples of the technology developed our hundred [inaudible] physics or maybe the announced techniques designed for high energy physics and invented for it have affected people in common everyday life. Speaker 2: This research is really targeted in fundamental research, understanding how nature works, so the effects of it are usually a very long term, so it's very hard to predict what will happen. However, the means that we use to actually [00:16:00] perform these searches, they may have a more direct impact. If we go back a bit in the history, all the nuclear science that was used to start this particle physics in general decades ago is, for example, used to treat cancer. Here in alifornia is for example, very advanced in what is called heartland therapy, so try to treat cancer with protons and they have sidebar advantages with respect to the common radiotherapy, particular for inner most tumors. [00:16:30] In this way you can reach and try to kill the tumor burden, the size of the tumor without having to burn whatever is in the meter. All these kinds of the tactful with a lot of r and d of course on top of them but were taken from what was developed for nuclear physics in the past. Speaker 2: This is a very good example of how technology that we may use for our scope can actually be bring vented and adapted for other scopes in other very big challenge that we face every day [00:17:00] is that the amount of data we collect and the computing power we need to analyze it is huge. In order to cope with this, we had since several years our projects for distributed computing in order to be able our to analyze data everywhere using computing that are located everywhere in the world, sharing computing resources, sharing disc. This was a necessary step for us. In order to be able to carry on and having physics results. However, that can have [00:17:30] also an impact to everyday life. What we see now is our all the cloud computing increasing faster and faster in our everyday life. This is a slightly different version of this distributed computing that we've been developed and worked so far. Speaker 3: The web as we know it today from Speaker 2: what was created at cern. So if you actually see some of the photos of the very irst web browsers, they actually have design specifications and pictures [00:18:00] of the atlas detector at certain it was created for the scientists to communicate, but then it was such useful technology it felt to the rest of the population. So an interesting story is that even today that when you press and you don't find the page, you get these set of [inaudible] and this was actually the room at cern where the irst web server was hosted. A lot of the physics analysis that we do is [00:18:30] really from a statistical point of view, decent target. These huge amount of data that we collect and trying to find a rare phenomenon. It's usually trying to find a handful of events of collisions which have the characteristics you want among the billions that happened. Speaker 2: So these techniques are very similar and are in common to other challenges where you have a huge amount of data and you to find a specific [00:19:00] ones on a slightly different level. But it's what Google needs to find when you put some keywords and you can find what are the relevant pages for you. And there are few. So even in this case, what you need to do is basically try to find the most appropriate few pages among the billions that exist, which match what you're looking for. In many senses, this is not very different from what we try to do. And in fact, some of the technologies [00:19:30] with very big differences are actually in common. Well, ne question of course, is with the shutdown or from your lab, do you see the need for more accelerators besides certainly I strongly think these accelerators are big and they take a lot of resources of our community, not only in terms of the money you need to build them, but also as intellectual power of our community. Speaker 2: Run random and analyze data, but [00:20:00] having a new accelerator right now is not worth the investment in both their mind, intellectual power that we need to put on it, so the larger other collider will run at least up to the end of the Deca. Then probably up to the end of the next tech ad and this will be enough to give us data to answer most of the questions we actually build it for. Of course, people are already thinking of what's next. They're thinking [00:20:30] of new accelerators. They're thinking what is the best choice? I want to build it. If we have the technology, if we need to develop something that we are missing and people are actively working already on this and the LSE is a giant machine. It's hundreds of feet underground in miles Speaker 3: and miles across. So building a bigger tunnel is a very, very expensive proposition. Yes. And there's just fundamental limitations on how strong magnets can be. So a lot of people are investing [00:21:00] a lot of effort into finding other ways of accelerating particles or studying phenomenon that doesn't necessarily need accelerators. Is there anything particularly promising? There's the plasma wave accelerator. Um, there's cosmic sources, so some of the highest energy collisions we get are actually from particles from outer space. And a lot of people are using the atmosphere itself as a detector. So you can look at the interactions in the atmosphere [00:21:30] and then decay particles from those interactions to see what happened. There's also a lot of work going into just looking to see if you can study these processes with a lower energy. So maybe you won't be able to see what particle you're looking for, but you'll be able to see some very slight effects on other particles or another process. Very, very slight effects, which if you're very careful and you study it, it might tell you information about these much heavier particles than you can produce. So there's, there's a lot of ways of finding supersymmetry [00:22:00] yes. Or other further beyond the standard model. Yeah. These are complimentary ways in many senses. As you mentioned, there is a lot of work on going and it's very promising, so we really look forward to these [inaudible] well, thanks for joining us. Thank you Rick as thank you Rick. Cool Speaker 1: background [00:22:30] is archived on iTunes university. To find the archive, do a search in your favorite browser for iTunes Dash u space Calex space spectrum. Speaker 3: We'd like to mention a few of the science and technology events happening locally over the next wo weeks. [00:23:00] Rick Kaneski joins me for the calendar. The theme for the Spring Open House at the crucible is the science of art. The Criswell is located at welve sixty eventh street near West Oakland, Bart and mission on Saturday April ix it's free from leven am until our pm the open house seeks to highlight the scientific principles, inquiry and exploration behind the industrial arts processes. Taught and practiced at the [00:23:30] crucible. Highlights include the science of fire, the gravity of mold making, mysteries of steel made visible bicycle physics. Yeah. Surfing the solar flares with science at cal recycled glass processing and more. Speaker 4: There will be demonstrations, tuition discounts, food and bikes for sale. Visit the rucible dot org for more info. In April of wo thousand and twelve a small asteroid impacted [00:24:00] close to home in alifornia at Sutter's mill. The site where gold was irst discovered in ighteen forty eight media are astronomer. Peter Jenniskens of the Seti Institute started a tally of fines and mobilized NASA Ames research center into leading the recovery effort from the air and the ground. eventy seven media rights were found. He will summarize research results reported in a recent eventy author science article and also discuss a econd meteorite fall that happened in [00:24:30] Nevato and Sonoma last October. The presentation is Monday pril eighth at the Academy of Sciences. Planetarium. Tickets for the even hirty event can be purchased nline at Cal Academy Dot Org San Francisco Science Museum. The exploratorium is reopening in their new location at peer ifteen on Wednesday pril seventeenth to celebrate. They will offer free outdoor programming from ine am until en pm [00:25:00] the new museum offers ix galleries on human behavior, living systems maker culture, observing the landscape scene and listening as well as an outdoor space. Speaker 4: More nformation at exploratorium dot edu also on pril seventeenth UC Berkeley is holding its monthly blood drive. You can make an appointment online but walk-ins are also welcome. You are eligible to donate blood if you are in good health, weigh at least ne hundred and ten pounds [00:25:30] and are eventeen years old or older. You can also check out the eligibility guidelines online for it and initial self screening if you are not eligible or you prefer not to donate blood. There are other ways to support campus blood drives through volunteering, encouraging others and simply spreading the word. The blood drive will be on Wednesday, pril seventeenth in the alumni house. On the UC Berkeley campus. It [00:26:00] will last from noon until ix pm you can make an appointment or find more information at the website. Red Cross lood dot Org using the sponsor code you see B. We also like to bring you several news stories that we find interesting. Once again, Rick joins me for the news and Red Alax died of cancer in ineteen fifty one but her immortal cell line called Hela cells derived from her cervical cancer is the oldest and most [00:26:30] commonly used human cell line. Speaker 4: The cells were used to test the polio vaccine and have been used in the research of over eventy thousand scientific papers since lar Steinmetz and others in ermany published the genome of Heela and the journal g hree in March. However, the team has since removed the data from public databases because of privacy concerns expressed by family members and other scientists. Blacks did not give her a consent for the line [00:27:00] to be used and some are concerned that it may disclose genetic traits shared by her descendants. However, no law required that kind of consent in ineteen fifty one and even current regulation differs widely as to what consent would be required to sustain a modern cell line due to the extensive documentation of the cells. The privacy of the healer line may have already been broken with literature already published. Harvard medical school researchers have assembled a draft genome and [00:27:30] a team of University of ashington researchers have spoken about not only the heela genome, but also the more specific information about individual haplotypes at the American Society for Human Genetics Conference in San Francisco. Speaker 4: A recent UC Berkeley study on the lives of wild bees find that the insects thrive better within diversified farming systems. While you might consider the insects yellow nuisances, bees actually play a crucial role in the life cycle of cross pollinated [00:28:00] crops, which account for ne hird of our caloric intake. The mysterious decline in both honeybee and wild bee populations in recent years has prompted many scientists to study the buzzing insects more closely. This study found that crop yield generally increased with wild bee population, but also linked to the recent decline in bee populations to heavy pesticide or fertilizer use. Typically in large scale monoculture agriculture, a number [00:28:30] of alifornia beekeepers seem to agree. They recently sued the federal EPA for failing to ban wo pesticides, widely regarded as harmful to wild bees and honeybees. The wo insecticides named in the lawsuit known as [inaudible] and Simon Foxen have already been found to pose an unacceptably high risk to honeybees by the European food safety authority. Speaker 1: [inaudible] the music heard during the show [00:29:00] is by Louiston at David [inaudible] help on folk make available at creative Commons license hree point zero after music production and editing assistance by Renee Brown. Thank you for listening to spectrum. If you have comments about the show, please send them to us via email. Our email address is spectrum dot k a l xat Yahoo Dot com [00:29:30] join us in wo weeks at this same time. [inaudible] [inaudible]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Documentary filmmaker Renee Brown tells great visual stories through her work. She has made several short documentary films that have been featured in a variety of film festivals nationally and internationally including:The New Beijing International Movie Festival, The Nashville International Film Festival, The Dingle International Film Festival in Ireland, and the Short Shorts Film Festival Asia. One of her documentary shorts is called Katy Sullivan. This short film shows the inspirational Katy Sullivan as she trains in her carbon fiber running legs.