June 24, 2022 • 21 mins
In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a centuries-old New York law requiring those that want to carry a concealed weapon for self defense to show a specific need for doing so. This decision also clears a way for legal challenges to similar laws in other states. The ruling comes down as the country is grappling with a series of mass shootings and a new gun law making its way through the Senate. Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for more.
Next, youth mental health has been a growing issue in the country that has only been amplified by the isolation and stress caused by the pandemic. In collaboration with the award-winning podcast, Force Multiplier, we’ll hear from mental health advocate, digital strategist and content creator, Jorge Alvarez, about today’s challenges with global and mental health access. He’ll also tell us why representation is a big factor in fighting the cultural stigma around mental health.
Finally, it’s the new layaway… Buy now, pay later. It has been exploding in popularity as more retail stores are offering it and a slew of new apps also getting in on it. It lets consumers take something home immediately and then pay off purchases in installments. Payments are usually interest-free making it an enticing option for those trying to avoid credit cards. Claire Ballentine, personal finance reporter at Bloomberg News, joins us for why some experts are warning of overspending risks.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Friday. Ju I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles and
this is the Daily Dive. In a six to three vote,
the Supreme Court struck down a centuries old New York
law requiring those that want to carry a concealed weapon
for self defense to show specific need for doing so.
(00:20):
This decision also clears away, for legal challenges, two similar
laws in other states. The ruling comes down as the
country is grappling with a series of mass shootings and
a new gun law making its way through the Senate.
Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter of The Washington Post, joins
us for more Next. Youth mental health has been a
growing issue in the country that has only been amplified
(00:40):
by the isolation and stress caused by the pandemic. In
collaboration with award winning podcast Force Multiplier, will hear from
mental health advocate, digital strategist and content creator Quartre Alvarez
about today's challenges with global and mental health access. Finally,
It's the new lay away by Now Pay Later. It
has been exploding in pularity as more retail stores are
(01:01):
offering it and a slew of new apps are also
getting in on it. It lets consumers take something home
immediately and then pay off the purchases and installments. Payments
are usually interest free, making it an enticing option for
those trying to avoid credit cards. Claire Ballantine, personal finance
reporter at Bloomberg News joins us for why some experts
are warning of overspending risks. It's news without the noise.
(01:25):
Let's dive in while we're still analyzing the decision. We
can say with certainty this decision has made every single
one of us less safe from gun vine. Joining us
down is Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter at the Washington Post.
Thanks for joining us, Robert, You're welcome. Well, let's talk
(01:48):
about this Supreme Court ruling that we saw. They found
that a New York law violates the rights of people
to carry guns outside of their home. This is a
centuries old law that basically requires those who wants you
carry a concealed weapon for self defense. You have the
show a specific need for doing that. Your celebrity or
something you need extra security, whatever the case may be.
(02:08):
The Supreme Court struck that down in a vote that
was six to three, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing for
the majority on this So Robert, what did we see
in this ruling? The conservatives on the court, led by
Justice Thomas, have said that, you know, the court decided
in two thousand eight that a person had the right
to own a handgun for self defense purposes in their home,
(02:31):
but never had addressed the question of what happened outside
the home. And Justice Thomas wrote that the words bear
arms means that there is a right to carry a
weapon for self defense outside the home as well, and
that New York's law was too restrictive. Tell me a
little bit about the original lawsuit was brought forth by
(02:53):
two guys who had a permit I guess to carry
a gun for hunting and target practice, but not just
kind of the unlimited concealed carry, And so they brought
they got denied that part of it, and so they
brought a suit forth because of it. That's right. They
were required under New York law to show a specific
need for it, not just a sort of general desire
(03:16):
for self defense. But you know, because they had received
a specific threat or something like that, they couldn't show that,
and so they were denied this license for carrying a handgun.
So then they brought the lawsuit New York's law is
particularly restrictive, and there are a handful of other states
that have laws like that, such as California, New Jersey,
(03:38):
and Maryland, and those laws I think now will be
challenged and are very unlikely to withstand that challenge now
because of this ruling in New York. What does that
mean for those that want to get a concealed carry
because there's other things, other hoops that you have to
go through. You know, you have to apply for it, obviously,
(03:59):
you undergo a few background checks, the New York State,
the FBI, they all review it. You get interviewed by
local police. Can all of that still stand or or
even those things go out of your How how narrow
was this ruling from the Supreme Court? You know, some
of those things stand. As the opinion points out, there
are forty three states that have what are called shall
(04:19):
issue permits, and that means that a person shall get
a permit if they meet certain requirements as you mentioned,
such as being fingerprinted or not undergoing a background check
for mental illness, and so those would stand. There are
other states that don't really require a permit to carry
(04:40):
a weapon openly, and those stand as well. So the
only ones that are under fire right now would be
those that require this specific need. But Justice Thomas said
that if states try to sort of take advantage of
the shall issue law by making it too hard to
get one to meet the require laments, or to make
(05:01):
them wait too long for a gun, then that might
be subject to a challenge. Yeah, and his ruling, Justice
Thomas said, we know of no other constitutional right that
an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers
some special needs. So this is was the crux of
the whole thing. And you know it's coming at an
interesting time, right. We've been seeing the slate of mass
(05:22):
shootings and killings, especially in New Valdi, Texas, and and
in Buffalo, New York. In his dissent, Justice Stephen Brier
pointed to a lot of these mass shootings as a
reason for why we need these extra steps and to
have to prove this stuff. He really threw it into
states issue, basically saying the states should have the right
to do this if they wanted, that's right. He said
that you know, all of these places are are different,
(05:45):
and that a number of the states that have this
requirement have big cities, big urban areas. You know, New
York City obviously, or San Francisco or Baltimore, places where
the states don't want a lot of people carrying weapons
all the time. So he said that states that courts
should be able to look at the state's reasons for
(06:06):
this and to sort of way the reason for wanting
these kinds of law against the constitutional right. But six
members of the Court rejected that approach. I mean, this
is obviously coming at an interesting time. I just mentioned
those shooting incidents were also seeing this gun safety bill
clearing different hurdles there in the in the Senate, the
(06:28):
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, And you know, that's obviously to
keep guns out of the hands of people who are dangerous.
At least in this when you're applying for the concealed
carry you have to have your gun license, you have
to go through various other background checks. You know, at
least with that due diligence, you know, the hope is
that the people that do get granted the license aren't dangerous.
(06:48):
Justice Brier pointed that out a lot of the reaction
to this decision has been from members of Congress and
other politicians saying that this is particularly sort of tone
deft time for the Court to relax gun restrictions and
to say that states can't do more to sort of
cut down on the proliferation of guns. But those in
(07:09):
the majority said that actually, what it might show is
that people do want a gun for their own self
protection because of all that's going on. To Justice Alito
wrote a separate concurring opinion in which he was quite
critical of Justice Brier for bringing up the mass shootings
and said, for instance, that this New York law certainly
(07:31):
didn't do anything to stop the mass shooting in Buffalo.
Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter at The Washington Post, thank
you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
I think it's been super revolutionary in as mentioned, cultivating
(07:54):
the community that I so desperately needed and still do need,
but also having the conversation and introducing the questions that
we don't really reflect on enough today. Joining us now
is Jote Alvarez. He's a mental health advocate, digital strategist,
and content creator. He's also a guest of salesforce dot org.
Thanks for joining USTe, Thank you so much for having me.
(08:15):
I really appreciate it. Well. We wanted to talk about
global health, mental health, the challenges to access to get
help with mental health. You know, it's a very it's
an ongoing issue that we've been dealing with a lot,
especially coming out of the pandemic. We heard a lot
of stories about loneliness, obviously stressful times. There's a lot
of people that have been struggling, and mental health is
(08:36):
one of those aspects that you know, maybe a lot
of people don't want to focus on too much, don't
want to seek out the help, and we wanted to
talk to you you you know, we've been an advocate
in that realm, working to get people a representation. It's
a big part of what you talk about. You know,
a big part of your work on mental health takes
place on social media, building a community there, as I mentioned,
you know, making sure people have that representation, at least
(08:59):
in Latie community. So tell me how how much of
a tools social media has been to help in this
realm with helping get people access to this Yeah, most definitely.
So first and foremost, how everyone my name is is
has just mentioned I am a content creator, digital strategist
and I recently graduated actually with a degree in public health,
and so I mentioned all that because as someone who
(09:20):
is an advocate for mental health, I am so because
I one am very passionate about everyone living happy, intentional,
purposeful lives, but too I recognize that we can't do
that without first prioritizing ourselves, and from personal experience early
in my undergrad journey and through it, I realized how
many people like me, specifically like me meaning other Latinos,
(09:43):
were experiencing, you know, mental illness and struggled to their
own mental health struggles. And I personally, from my own journey,
realized how because of the fact that this isn't spoken
about enough, the progress that could be happening isn't happening.
And so to your point, you know, a lot of
the work I do now is on social media. Although
I started back, you know, with grassroots activism and an
(10:03):
advocacy on my college campus, I used TikTok specifically as
my platform of choice to further amplify my voice because
TikTok does such a great job at reaching the desired
target audience, and not only that, but fostering community and
building a community around dialogue and conversation if that's what
you choose to cultivate. And so for me. Social media
(10:26):
has really been tremendously powerful because I went from speaking
to thirty people in a lecture hall, you know, about
mental health and about intergenerational trauma and different topics that
are very important to then reaching millions, you know, with
videos hitting a million views here and four million there
and a couple of hundred thousand and maybe even ten thousand.
But the fact that that video reached at least even
a thousand people speaks a lot of volumes and it
(10:47):
is something that if I was just in my in
a classroom, I would not have been able to do otherwise.
So I think it's been super revolutionary in as mentioned,
cultivating the community that I so desperately needed and still
do need, but also having the conversations and introducing the
questions that we don't really reflect on enough today. Yeah,
it's an important part, right and we've seen time and
(11:09):
time again, especially on TikTok right now more recently, that
these communities do form. You know, a lot of people
ban together and they find like minded individuals or find
you know, as we mentioned, the representation the help that
you need because other people are talking about it. So
it has been an amazing tool on that front. And
one of the other things that you speak about two
is cultural stigma, and it's one of the things that
(11:29):
I identified with myself. You know, myself, most of my
family is born in Mexico, my first generation American here.
You talk about sometimes your mom would say something like,
you know, what happens in the house stays in the house,
and it's kind of that general outlook of our problems
our own. We can handle ourselves. You don't need to
go ask for outside help, you know. I'm sure that's
one of the things that you're trying to break, trying
to break that mindset and and show other people that
(11:49):
you can go get that help, so you don't internalize
a lot of that stuff. Yeah, definitely. And that's honestly,
that was one of the biggest reflection points for me
when I started to look back on on my undergraduate
experience and the different mental like mental obstacles that I
was encountering. I realized that one of the biggest ones
was again, like in the household, the lack of conversation,
(12:11):
and not just the lack of conversation, but then also
statements like that, you know, what happens to the house
stays in the house were constantly thrown around and it
was almost a like constant reminder. And you know, looking back,
it wasn't with ill intent. Obviously our parents never intend
to do anything like that, or hopefully don't, but it
was their fear of what would outsiders think if we
(12:31):
open up, and that is very much rooted in, you know,
that generational trauma of struggling to trust others and wanting
to protect ourselves and wanting to kind of create like
a wall around the family secrets or whatever happens behind
the scenes, because you know, they didn't want to be
perceived in a negative light or they felt like they
had to kind of do that in order to you know,
(12:53):
succeed elsewhere in life. So that's definitely been you know,
a point of reflection where now I'm constantly asking myself, Okay, well,
how have these statements like what happens in the house
days in the house really impacted me? And you know,
a couple of years ago, it was obvious I was like, whoa, Like,
if I had not been told that all the time,
maybe I would have been more comfortable reaching out and
asking for help. But today I realized that, yes, it
(13:16):
was that, but it was also many other things. However,
it's so important that, you know, we have conversation around
those statements and we don't just move past them, because sure,
are they a common experience for a lot of us,
for a lot of people of color, Yes, but that
doesn't mean that it should be a normalized experience. And
kind of prompting other people to think about that and
reflect on how their culture plays a part of how
(13:38):
they perceive their own mental health and other things related
to that is so important because so often we navigate life,
you know, with those statements speaking to us in the
back of our minds, not realizing the massive impact that
they do have on how we make decisions and why
we don't open up, and then why that leads to
other issues like anxiety getting so bad that you have
to stay quiet until you can't professional help, But there's
(14:00):
so much you can do before that, and it's literally
just having a conversation. So the cultural stigma part is
something that I put at the forefront of my work
whenever I think about a video, you know, I asked,
how can I frame this in a way that speaks
to my people? And I recently posted a video and
it was specifically talking about like latinos and burnout for
that exact reason. And yeah, and that's so important. Like
I said, I identify with some of that. I've been
(14:21):
through that some of that stuff in my own life
and hearing about it, that's kind of that lifeline for
a lot of people that I think they need, you know,
just to hear others talk about it, have that conversation,
be part of those conversations, really speaks volumes and it
helps people reach out and look for that help. So
I'm really glad you're doing a lot of this work.
It's led to a lot of things. You were recently
part of a White House event called White House Conversations
(14:42):
on Youth Mental Health. Dr Joe Biden who was there,
the U. S. Surgeon General was there, Selena Gomez was there,
you know. So but getting all that word out, all
that stuff very very important. And if you want to
see more of his content on TikTok, you can find
his handle at I Joe Alvarez on TikTok. Jote Alvarez
guests of salesforce dot org, mental health advocate, digital strategist,
(15:04):
content creator. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank
you and for more conversations like this. Be sure to
check out season two of Force Multiplier, an i Heeart
Radio original podcast with Salesporce dot org featuring organizations and
community members solving some of today's biggest challenges like global health,
climate action, and education access. Listen to Force Multiplier on
(15:25):
the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Apple Pay Later. Let's you split the cost of an
Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments spread over six weeks,
with zero interest and no fees of any kind. You
(15:46):
can now get that espresso machine you've wanted and pay
for it over time with no additional costs. Joining us
now is Claire Valentine, personal finance reporter at Bloomberg News.
Thanks for joining us, Claire. All right, well, let's talk
about buy now, Pay Later. It's basically the new lay away.
It's been around for some time. You probably start hearing
(16:07):
about it a little bit more during the holidays. Is
a bunch of places, Target, Walmart, a lot of retailers
are starting to offer this, but increasingly now we've got
apps that are involved in this, so you can do
this year round. And what we're seeing is that a
lot of experts are kind of sounding some warning alarms
saying you've got to be careful. There's risks of overspending
if you're not particularly good at managing your finances. Apple
(16:30):
is gonna come on board with something like this too,
called Apple pay Later. So Claire tell us what we're
seeing with all this, they're becoming increasingly popular. It's one
of those services that makes it easier to buy things.
Um that almost every checkout counter now there's some form
of this, And essentially consumers like it because it breaks
up their purchase into smaller payments. Usually want to do
(16:54):
right away and then between four and six installments are
due and so those can every two weeks every month.
It's essentially just a way of breaking up the payments.
But the key thing is there's no interest along chopin
on time. Yeah, that's an important distinction. And what sets
it apart from, you know, maybe getting a credit card,
especially for people that have bad credit, maybe you can't
(17:16):
get a credit card. This could be a good option, right,
especially as there's no interest payments or anything. But it
works differently and and that, and you know, it has
some benefits and pitfalls because of that. It does, and
a lot of young people are very against credit cards
or are wary of them. You know, with those high
interest rates, you can really get in trouble, especially younger
(17:38):
consumers in the gen Z segment. So this is a
sort of a way to work around that. It's one
of those services that at times sounds a bit too
good to be true, and sometimes it is, and that
it causes people to spend more than they actually have.
Tell me a little bit about some of these apps, because,
as I mentioned the beginning, right once you get into
holiday times, retailers are offering it, says part of whatever
(18:01):
they got going on, just so people can start buying stuff.
But there's apps now that you can do it year around.
I mean you you either buy stuff straight through them
or you use it as a payment option and then
now you're just paying money to the app people. Yeah. Well,
what makes it so easy now is that so many
retailers offer it, so that can be right through the
checkout counter, you know, when you're going to say the
(18:24):
online so for a page. Some also have it for
brick and mortar stores in person, so it kind of
just pops right up when you're checking out. And then
what can get people in trouble is that there are
so many of these, and you can use different services
for different payments, so you know, you could have two
hundred to corner and four hundred to affirm and eight
(18:45):
hundred after pay, and then you're trying to keep up
with all of these different due dates and making sure
they're all paid back on time. It can get really complicated. Okay,
So there was a survey from credit Karma, so they're
saying that a quarter of respondents saw their total debt
increase after using some of these apps and these buy
now pay later services. Of them ended up using credit
(19:06):
cards to pay down those balances. So you gotta get
you gotta be really careful. And you know, as I mentioned,
financial experts are saying, if you're the type of person
to overspend already, you should be steering clear from these things.
If you do this responsibly, it can be really helpful.
I mean, you know, just to not have to pay
a full sum at once, maybe separate things out month
by month. But if you're the kind of person who
(19:28):
is prone to you know, seeing something they want and
impulse purchasing it, it can get pretty dangerous. And what
really can get people is if you don't say these back,
then their comb extra fees, extra charges, It can affect
your credit score. So it's kind of in some cases
really not helping people who already are struggling with with
(19:48):
debt and with their spending habits. And how can it
affect our credit score because some of the things that
you mentioned, they can pile on some fees, they could
send it away to a debt collection. Is that where
it would affect your credit Yeah? Absolutely, that's where it
would start to really hurt your credit score. You know,
we definitely depend on how much it is, how long
you haven't paid it off, circumstances like that. But it's
(20:10):
not a risk free surface and it's definitely not free money. Yeah.
I think a lot of people kind of get confused
at least with the you know, the it's interest free
as long as you're paying it on time. But yeah,
you've got to be really careful with this, and it's
something that we're gonna be seeing increasingly. Right as we mentioned,
we've already we're already seeing it from the retailers. There's
apps that are dedicated to this now, you know, so
(20:31):
it can all get very confusing very quickly, and you're
just gonna keep seeing more of it. It's as we mentioned,
it's the new layaway thing. It's the thing that you're
hearing every time holiday season comes up now, right, and
especially with um Apple getting into it. You know, there's
such huge force in the market with Apple Pay, and
you know it's probably only going to grow now that
they're going to offer that as a surface. Claire Balanine,
(20:54):
personal finance reporter at Bloomberg News, thank you very much
for joining us. Thanks for having me. That's it for
this week. Join us on social media at Daily Dive
Pod on both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us a comment,
give us a rating, and tell us the stories that
(21:15):
you're interested in. Follow us an I Heart Radio, or
subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This episode of The
Daily Dive was produced by Victor Wright and engineered by
Tony Sarrentina. Hi'm Oscar Rame Mirrors and this was your
Daily Dive
It's Friday. Ju I'm Oscar Ramirez in Los Angeles and
this is the Daily Dive. In a six to three vote,
the Supreme Court struck down a centuries old New York
law requiring those that want to carry a concealed weapon
for self defense to show specific need for doing so.
(00:20):
This decision also clears away, for legal challenges, two similar
laws in other states. The ruling comes down as the
country is grappling with a series of mass shootings and
a new gun law making its way through the Senate.
Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter of The Washington Post, joins
us for more Next. Youth mental health has been a
growing issue in the country that has only been amplified
(00:40):
by the isolation and stress caused by the pandemic. In
collaboration with award winning podcast Force Multiplier, will hear from
mental health advocate, digital strategist and content creator Quartre Alvarez
about today's challenges with global and mental health access. Finally,
It's the new lay away by Now Pay Later. It
has been exploding in pularity as more retail stores are
(01:01):
offering it and a slew of new apps are also
getting in on it. It lets consumers take something home
immediately and then pay off the purchases and installments. Payments
are usually interest free, making it an enticing option for
those trying to avoid credit cards. Claire Ballantine, personal finance
reporter at Bloomberg News joins us for why some experts
are warning of overspending risks. It's news without the noise.
(01:25):
Let's dive in while we're still analyzing the decision. We
can say with certainty this decision has made every single
one of us less safe from gun vine. Joining us
down is Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter at the Washington Post.
Thanks for joining us, Robert, You're welcome. Well, let's talk
(01:48):
about this Supreme Court ruling that we saw. They found
that a New York law violates the rights of people
to carry guns outside of their home. This is a
centuries old law that basically requires those who wants you
carry a concealed weapon for self defense. You have the
show a specific need for doing that. Your celebrity or
something you need extra security, whatever the case may be.
(02:08):
The Supreme Court struck that down in a vote that
was six to three, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing for
the majority on this So Robert, what did we see
in this ruling? The conservatives on the court, led by
Justice Thomas, have said that, you know, the court decided
in two thousand eight that a person had the right
to own a handgun for self defense purposes in their home,
(02:31):
but never had addressed the question of what happened outside
the home. And Justice Thomas wrote that the words bear
arms means that there is a right to carry a
weapon for self defense outside the home as well, and
that New York's law was too restrictive. Tell me a
little bit about the original lawsuit was brought forth by
(02:53):
two guys who had a permit I guess to carry
a gun for hunting and target practice, but not just
kind of the unlimited concealed carry, And so they brought
they got denied that part of it, and so they
brought a suit forth because of it. That's right. They
were required under New York law to show a specific
need for it, not just a sort of general desire
(03:16):
for self defense. But you know, because they had received
a specific threat or something like that, they couldn't show that,
and so they were denied this license for carrying a handgun.
So then they brought the lawsuit New York's law is
particularly restrictive, and there are a handful of other states
that have laws like that, such as California, New Jersey,
(03:38):
and Maryland, and those laws I think now will be
challenged and are very unlikely to withstand that challenge now
because of this ruling in New York. What does that
mean for those that want to get a concealed carry
because there's other things, other hoops that you have to
go through. You know, you have to apply for it, obviously,
(03:59):
you undergo a few background checks, the New York State,
the FBI, they all review it. You get interviewed by
local police. Can all of that still stand or or
even those things go out of your How how narrow
was this ruling from the Supreme Court? You know, some
of those things stand. As the opinion points out, there
are forty three states that have what are called shall
(04:19):
issue permits, and that means that a person shall get
a permit if they meet certain requirements as you mentioned,
such as being fingerprinted or not undergoing a background check
for mental illness, and so those would stand. There are
other states that don't really require a permit to carry
(04:40):
a weapon openly, and those stand as well. So the
only ones that are under fire right now would be
those that require this specific need. But Justice Thomas said
that if states try to sort of take advantage of
the shall issue law by making it too hard to
get one to meet the require laments, or to make
(05:01):
them wait too long for a gun, then that might
be subject to a challenge. Yeah, and his ruling, Justice
Thomas said, we know of no other constitutional right that
an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers
some special needs. So this is was the crux of
the whole thing. And you know it's coming at an
interesting time, right. We've been seeing the slate of mass
(05:22):
shootings and killings, especially in New Valdi, Texas, and and
in Buffalo, New York. In his dissent, Justice Stephen Brier
pointed to a lot of these mass shootings as a
reason for why we need these extra steps and to
have to prove this stuff. He really threw it into
states issue, basically saying the states should have the right
to do this if they wanted, that's right. He said
that you know, all of these places are are different,
(05:45):
and that a number of the states that have this
requirement have big cities, big urban areas. You know, New
York City obviously, or San Francisco or Baltimore, places where
the states don't want a lot of people carrying weapons
all the time. So he said that states that courts
should be able to look at the state's reasons for
(06:06):
this and to sort of way the reason for wanting
these kinds of law against the constitutional right. But six
members of the Court rejected that approach. I mean, this
is obviously coming at an interesting time. I just mentioned
those shooting incidents were also seeing this gun safety bill
clearing different hurdles there in the in the Senate, the
(06:28):
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, And you know, that's obviously to
keep guns out of the hands of people who are dangerous.
At least in this when you're applying for the concealed
carry you have to have your gun license, you have
to go through various other background checks. You know, at
least with that due diligence, you know, the hope is
that the people that do get granted the license aren't dangerous.
(06:48):
Justice Brier pointed that out a lot of the reaction
to this decision has been from members of Congress and
other politicians saying that this is particularly sort of tone
deft time for the Court to relax gun restrictions and
to say that states can't do more to sort of
cut down on the proliferation of guns. But those in
(07:09):
the majority said that actually, what it might show is
that people do want a gun for their own self
protection because of all that's going on. To Justice Alito
wrote a separate concurring opinion in which he was quite
critical of Justice Brier for bringing up the mass shootings
and said, for instance, that this New York law certainly
(07:31):
didn't do anything to stop the mass shooting in Buffalo.
Robert Barnes, Supreme Court reporter at The Washington Post, thank
you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
I think it's been super revolutionary in as mentioned, cultivating
(07:54):
the community that I so desperately needed and still do need,
but also having the conversation and introducing the questions that
we don't really reflect on enough today. Joining us now
is Jote Alvarez. He's a mental health advocate, digital strategist,
and content creator. He's also a guest of salesforce dot org.
Thanks for joining USTe, Thank you so much for having me.
(08:15):
I really appreciate it. Well. We wanted to talk about
global health, mental health, the challenges to access to get
help with mental health. You know, it's a very it's
an ongoing issue that we've been dealing with a lot,
especially coming out of the pandemic. We heard a lot
of stories about loneliness, obviously stressful times. There's a lot
of people that have been struggling, and mental health is
(08:36):
one of those aspects that you know, maybe a lot
of people don't want to focus on too much, don't
want to seek out the help, and we wanted to
talk to you you you know, we've been an advocate
in that realm, working to get people a representation. It's
a big part of what you talk about. You know,
a big part of your work on mental health takes
place on social media, building a community there, as I mentioned,
you know, making sure people have that representation, at least
(08:59):
in Latie community. So tell me how how much of
a tools social media has been to help in this
realm with helping get people access to this Yeah, most definitely.
So first and foremost, how everyone my name is is
has just mentioned I am a content creator, digital strategist
and I recently graduated actually with a degree in public health,
and so I mentioned all that because as someone who
(09:20):
is an advocate for mental health, I am so because
I one am very passionate about everyone living happy, intentional,
purposeful lives, but too I recognize that we can't do
that without first prioritizing ourselves, and from personal experience early
in my undergrad journey and through it, I realized how
many people like me, specifically like me meaning other Latinos,
(09:43):
were experiencing, you know, mental illness and struggled to their
own mental health struggles. And I personally, from my own journey,
realized how because of the fact that this isn't spoken
about enough, the progress that could be happening isn't happening.
And so to your point, you know, a lot of
the work I do now is on social media. Although
I started back, you know, with grassroots activism and an
(10:03):
advocacy on my college campus, I used TikTok specifically as
my platform of choice to further amplify my voice because
TikTok does such a great job at reaching the desired
target audience, and not only that, but fostering community and
building a community around dialogue and conversation if that's what
you choose to cultivate. And so for me. Social media
(10:26):
has really been tremendously powerful because I went from speaking
to thirty people in a lecture hall, you know, about
mental health and about intergenerational trauma and different topics that
are very important to then reaching millions, you know, with
videos hitting a million views here and four million there
and a couple of hundred thousand and maybe even ten thousand.
But the fact that that video reached at least even
a thousand people speaks a lot of volumes and it
(10:47):
is something that if I was just in my in
a classroom, I would not have been able to do otherwise.
So I think it's been super revolutionary in as mentioned,
cultivating the community that I so desperately needed and still
do need, but also having the conversations and introducing the
questions that we don't really reflect on enough today. Yeah,
it's an important part, right and we've seen time and
(11:09):
time again, especially on TikTok right now more recently, that
these communities do form. You know, a lot of people
ban together and they find like minded individuals or find
you know, as we mentioned, the representation the help that
you need because other people are talking about it. So
it has been an amazing tool on that front. And
one of the other things that you speak about two
is cultural stigma, and it's one of the things that
(11:29):
I identified with myself. You know, myself, most of my
family is born in Mexico, my first generation American here.
You talk about sometimes your mom would say something like,
you know, what happens in the house stays in the house,
and it's kind of that general outlook of our problems
our own. We can handle ourselves. You don't need to
go ask for outside help, you know. I'm sure that's
one of the things that you're trying to break, trying
to break that mindset and and show other people that
(11:49):
you can go get that help, so you don't internalize
a lot of that stuff. Yeah, definitely. And that's honestly,
that was one of the biggest reflection points for me
when I started to look back on on my undergraduate
experience and the different mental like mental obstacles that I
was encountering. I realized that one of the biggest ones
was again, like in the household, the lack of conversation,
(12:11):
and not just the lack of conversation, but then also
statements like that, you know, what happens to the house
stays in the house were constantly thrown around and it
was almost a like constant reminder. And you know, looking back,
it wasn't with ill intent. Obviously our parents never intend
to do anything like that, or hopefully don't, but it
was their fear of what would outsiders think if we
(12:31):
open up, and that is very much rooted in, you know,
that generational trauma of struggling to trust others and wanting
to protect ourselves and wanting to kind of create like
a wall around the family secrets or whatever happens behind
the scenes, because you know, they didn't want to be
perceived in a negative light or they felt like they
had to kind of do that in order to you know,
(12:53):
succeed elsewhere in life. So that's definitely been you know,
a point of reflection where now I'm constantly asking myself, Okay, well,
how have these statements like what happens in the house
days in the house really impacted me? And you know,
a couple of years ago, it was obvious I was like, whoa, Like,
if I had not been told that all the time,
maybe I would have been more comfortable reaching out and
asking for help. But today I realized that, yes, it
(13:16):
was that, but it was also many other things. However,
it's so important that, you know, we have conversation around
those statements and we don't just move past them, because sure,
are they a common experience for a lot of us,
for a lot of people of color, Yes, but that
doesn't mean that it should be a normalized experience. And
kind of prompting other people to think about that and
reflect on how their culture plays a part of how
(13:38):
they perceive their own mental health and other things related
to that is so important because so often we navigate life,
you know, with those statements speaking to us in the
back of our minds, not realizing the massive impact that
they do have on how we make decisions and why
we don't open up, and then why that leads to
other issues like anxiety getting so bad that you have
to stay quiet until you can't professional help, But there's
(14:00):
so much you can do before that, and it's literally
just having a conversation. So the cultural stigma part is
something that I put at the forefront of my work
whenever I think about a video, you know, I asked,
how can I frame this in a way that speaks
to my people? And I recently posted a video and
it was specifically talking about like latinos and burnout for
that exact reason. And yeah, and that's so important. Like
I said, I identify with some of that. I've been
(14:21):
through that some of that stuff in my own life
and hearing about it, that's kind of that lifeline for
a lot of people that I think they need, you know,
just to hear others talk about it, have that conversation,
be part of those conversations, really speaks volumes and it
helps people reach out and look for that help. So
I'm really glad you're doing a lot of this work.
It's led to a lot of things. You were recently
part of a White House event called White House Conversations
(14:42):
on Youth Mental Health. Dr Joe Biden who was there,
the U. S. Surgeon General was there, Selena Gomez was there,
you know. So but getting all that word out, all
that stuff very very important. And if you want to
see more of his content on TikTok, you can find
his handle at I Joe Alvarez on TikTok. Jote Alvarez
guests of salesforce dot org, mental health advocate, digital strategist,
(15:04):
content creator. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank
you and for more conversations like this. Be sure to
check out season two of Force Multiplier, an i Heeart
Radio original podcast with Salesporce dot org featuring organizations and
community members solving some of today's biggest challenges like global health,
climate action, and education access. Listen to Force Multiplier on
(15:25):
the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Apple Pay Later. Let's you split the cost of an
Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments spread over six weeks,
with zero interest and no fees of any kind. You
(15:46):
can now get that espresso machine you've wanted and pay
for it over time with no additional costs. Joining us
now is Claire Valentine, personal finance reporter at Bloomberg News.
Thanks for joining us, Claire. All right, well, let's talk
about buy now, Pay Later. It's basically the new lay away.
It's been around for some time. You probably start hearing
(16:07):
about it a little bit more during the holidays. Is
a bunch of places, Target, Walmart, a lot of retailers
are starting to offer this, but increasingly now we've got
apps that are involved in this, so you can do
this year round. And what we're seeing is that a
lot of experts are kind of sounding some warning alarms
saying you've got to be careful. There's risks of overspending
if you're not particularly good at managing your finances. Apple
(16:30):
is gonna come on board with something like this too,
called Apple pay Later. So Claire tell us what we're
seeing with all this, they're becoming increasingly popular. It's one
of those services that makes it easier to buy things.
Um that almost every checkout counter now there's some form
of this, And essentially consumers like it because it breaks
up their purchase into smaller payments. Usually want to do
(16:54):
right away and then between four and six installments are
due and so those can every two weeks every month.
It's essentially just a way of breaking up the payments.
But the key thing is there's no interest along chopin
on time. Yeah, that's an important distinction. And what sets
it apart from, you know, maybe getting a credit card,
especially for people that have bad credit, maybe you can't
(17:16):
get a credit card. This could be a good option, right,
especially as there's no interest payments or anything. But it
works differently and and that, and you know, it has
some benefits and pitfalls because of that. It does, and
a lot of young people are very against credit cards
or are wary of them. You know, with those high
interest rates, you can really get in trouble, especially younger
(17:38):
consumers in the gen Z segment. So this is a
sort of a way to work around that. It's one
of those services that at times sounds a bit too
good to be true, and sometimes it is, and that
it causes people to spend more than they actually have.
Tell me a little bit about some of these apps, because,
as I mentioned the beginning, right once you get into
holiday times, retailers are offering it, says part of whatever
(18:01):
they got going on, just so people can start buying stuff.
But there's apps now that you can do it year around.
I mean you you either buy stuff straight through them
or you use it as a payment option and then
now you're just paying money to the app people. Yeah. Well,
what makes it so easy now is that so many
retailers offer it, so that can be right through the
checkout counter, you know, when you're going to say the
(18:24):
online so for a page. Some also have it for
brick and mortar stores in person, so it kind of
just pops right up when you're checking out. And then
what can get people in trouble is that there are
so many of these, and you can use different services
for different payments, so you know, you could have two
hundred to corner and four hundred to affirm and eight
(18:45):
hundred after pay, and then you're trying to keep up
with all of these different due dates and making sure
they're all paid back on time. It can get really complicated. Okay,
So there was a survey from credit Karma, so they're
saying that a quarter of respondents saw their total debt
increase after using some of these apps and these buy
now pay later services. Of them ended up using credit
(19:06):
cards to pay down those balances. So you gotta get
you gotta be really careful. And you know, as I mentioned,
financial experts are saying, if you're the type of person
to overspend already, you should be steering clear from these things.
If you do this responsibly, it can be really helpful.
I mean, you know, just to not have to pay
a full sum at once, maybe separate things out month
by month. But if you're the kind of person who
(19:28):
is prone to you know, seeing something they want and
impulse purchasing it, it can get pretty dangerous. And what
really can get people is if you don't say these back,
then their comb extra fees, extra charges, It can affect
your credit score. So it's kind of in some cases
really not helping people who already are struggling with with
(19:48):
debt and with their spending habits. And how can it
affect our credit score because some of the things that
you mentioned, they can pile on some fees, they could
send it away to a debt collection. Is that where
it would affect your credit Yeah? Absolutely, that's where it
would start to really hurt your credit score. You know,
we definitely depend on how much it is, how long
you haven't paid it off, circumstances like that. But it's
(20:10):
not a risk free surface and it's definitely not free money. Yeah.
I think a lot of people kind of get confused
at least with the you know, the it's interest free
as long as you're paying it on time. But yeah,
you've got to be really careful with this, and it's
something that we're gonna be seeing increasingly. Right as we mentioned,
we've already we're already seeing it from the retailers. There's
apps that are dedicated to this now, you know, so
(20:31):
it can all get very confusing very quickly, and you're
just gonna keep seeing more of it. It's as we mentioned,
it's the new layaway thing. It's the thing that you're
hearing every time holiday season comes up now, right, and
especially with um Apple getting into it. You know, there's
such huge force in the market with Apple Pay, and
you know it's probably only going to grow now that
they're going to offer that as a surface. Claire Balanine,
(20:54):
personal finance reporter at Bloomberg News, thank you very much
for joining us. Thanks for having me. That's it for
this week. Join us on social media at Daily Dive
Pod on both Twitter and Instagram. Leave us a comment,
give us a rating, and tell us the stories that
(21:15):
you're interested in. Follow us an I Heart Radio, or
subscribe wherever you get your podcast. This episode of The
Daily Dive was produced by Victor Wright and engineered by
Tony Sarrentina. Hi'm Oscar Rame Mirrors and this was your
Daily Dive
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