Turning the Mic Around

The crew of Essential Voices shares what they’ve learned through our conversations with essential workers. 

Episode Transcript: https://app.trint.com/public/76b71a81-586f-4e9e-87c3-84b788e5d621

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh I am hey Wilmer. So here we are, here,
we are. We made it, We made it, We made it.
This is our season finale, and I am so proud
to finish this journey with you. I want to hop
right in. So why don't you tell everyone what's up
this week? So, as we announced last week, we're turning
the mic around for our final episode. The show has

(00:23):
meant so much to the folks who worked on it,
and we wanted to take a moment to hear from
some of our crew members who have been working hard
behind the scenes each week. Absolutely, and we thought there
was no better way to honor the amazing workers we've
spoken to then by sharing their personal impact on each
of us. So we're going to start by doing a
quick round of introductions, and then each member of the

(00:44):
crew will present a clip of a conversation that has
stuck with them from our time on Essential Voices. Well
then open it up to the group to further expand
on what each story means to us. So, without further ado,
please welcome the crew of Essential Voices. My name is
Adam Reynolds and I'm one of the producers on the show.

(01:05):
I'm Alison, I'm a producer on the show. Hey, I'm Kevin,
I'm a consulting producer. Hi, I'm Leo. I'm an executive producer.
And William Holman, I'm one of the associate producers. And
I'm Justin Chow I'm one of the editors for the show.
Our first clip was chosen by our editor, Justin cho
He chose a clip from our second episode, which featured

(01:26):
the story of Laticia Castillo Jenkins, who's a high school
health teacher. Here's the clip. So, you know, I grew
up in East l a. And you know, I was
in high school very into fitness, and I thought, you
know what, I want to major in something fitness related.
So I went to college and majored in kinesiology. And
I was so interested in these courses because every time

(01:48):
that they talked about communities and how we're impacted by
different diseases, whether it's heart disease, cancer, high cholesterol, you
name it, the Latino community was up there. We were
always inning in the worst cases in our community of this,
that and the other. And you're sitting there in your
classes and I'm not gonna lie. I was surrounded by

(02:08):
a lot of you know, um white majority in my classes,
and it was a very lonely feeling having to hear
our professors describe my community as we're in trouble. You know,
we need a lot of experts out there to help
these communities. And so it really opened up my eyes.
I thought I would be a pay teacher. I switched

(02:29):
immediately to a health teacher. I said, I want to
teach health. I want to teach health. I want to
teach young people about all this stuff that nobody ever
told me, Like, what is a pap smear? What exactly
is you know, you know, eating disorders and and and
then mental health issues. Is there something unexpected that you
love about your work? Like? Is there something like you like?
I didn't think I was gonna love this part of

(02:51):
my job, the fact that I love working with teenagers
more than adults. I work with adults, we collaborate. There's
a lot of great colleagues I have, but I don't
want to spend my day with them. I want to
be in a room full of crazy teens. I love
all their trends, the quirkiest of personalities. I love it.
I welcome it. I know that lots of older traditional
teachers have that red flag when a certain type of

(03:14):
student walks into the room like, oh, what are you wearing?
And I'm like, I love it. I love what you're wearing.
I love that area. You'll be everyone's favorite teacher for sure.
So moving on to UM, to this interesting time, right,
I mean you talk a little bit about when you
first learn about the pandemic, you know, specifically with your job,
because nobody could predict that it was going to be this,
you know, So what was like a conversation, Like, you know,

(03:37):
I teach a big unit on HIV in our class
because that's been the biggest virus that we need to
steal and and and eradicate and we're far from it.
So when the pandemic was first being talked about on
the news, I talked to my students about it. I said, hey, listen,
we've talked about viruses, we talked about how they're transmitted,
and I was using real current events to lie make

(04:00):
a point in my class about this is another virus
and this is why we need to always follow CDC,
watch the news, and listen to experts. I mean, this
is how real my classes, I said. COVID worries me
a lot more than HIV. HIV I'm in control of
this is different. This is droplets. You don't know where
this has been, and so you know you've got to
be really careful of your whereabouts. Tell your parents that

(04:23):
they need to be cautious, they need to move with caution.
And I want to be real with them too, like
I'm going through things to guys like I I'm not
feeling my best and I'm very Saturday, this is what
happened to my family and the kids comforting me. But
I've always known wem or how how important educators are,
and I just know that the public and the average
person doesn't know it until we either have a teacher strike,

(04:45):
crazy bomb scare and we have to close our schools
and they don't know where to leave their kids, or
in this case, the pandemic and everybody is now like
where do I leave my kids? Where do I don't
know how to teach? And a lot of people who
say I can do online it should be easy, it's not.
You know, your kid is missing out on some very
important feelings and experiences, and and you think that they
would appreciate us more, and we all hope that they would,

(05:07):
But can I be honest, I don't think. I don't
think we will be. It's going to be back to
normal at some point, and it's like teachers are expected
to work to the bone and teachers need a lot
of mental emotional support. I think what made me choose
this interview is due to my close ties with teachers
in general. Even though I was kind of a troubled

(05:28):
kid myself, I've always respected what they do and what
they kind of have to go through. I mean, I
was pretty handful myself. It was also my high school
teachers that played a huge part in what I wanted
to do in the future, which was entertainment, and so
latisia story really true my attention finding out that Latisia
wanted to provide real conversations about certain issues within health

(05:51):
that most would deem inappropriate or too soon was very
interesting to hear, especially in the perspective of a health consultant.
I do agree with lat See when she mentioned that
minority populations are struggling in almost every aspect, including health.
This parallels with the Korean American community that I come from,
and that is a whole other tangent. However, I think
starting to have these conversations can really benefit every community,

(06:14):
especially if it is done in a healthy, positive compartment.
I empathize with Laticia when she mentioned that she had
wished someone would have told her to potentially prepare or
just to answer the curiosity that we as human beings
just ache to fill, because that's how I felt as
a teenager growing up. I also do understand the perspective
of wanting to censor some parts of either the media

(06:35):
or these certain topics that happen within our bodies as
human instinct to protect those who are a lot younger
than us. However, I think the way we deliver these
messages can truly determine the positive outcome that we aim
to look for a fun little story, I recently watched
a movie called Turning Read by Pixar, which follows a
character that begins her state of puberty. It's such a

(06:56):
great movie I recommend to anyone, and I think it's
a perfect sample by Pixar because the communication is both
clear and most importantly, very acutely animated, allowing the younger
audience to both learn and enjoy the topic of puberty.
And bringing this back, I wonder, what is our turning
red what are our methods and clearly communicating to our children, nieces, nephews, dogs,

(07:20):
what have you about our health and what is to come?
This can go beyond health education like social media, cyber
bullying COVID. So I give my full support to let
and her efforts in continuing to teach her students about
health education, COVID and how we should continue to remind
those around us of preventative measures for any and all

(07:43):
situations when it comes to knowing about our health. Also,
just support your damn teachers. They all shaped you to
where you are now, even if you slept your calculus,
which I am very guilty of. But seriously, I think
to all teachers, please know that we see you, and
we value you and we love you. You. Forget how
teachers become, for so many minority communities, the authority on

(08:07):
so many things. You know, there's this assumption that a
teacher is supposed to know everything and that if they
say it, it's true, which goes to tell you about
how responsible and the critical responsibility of a teacher in
the lifespan right of a child's and families endeavor and education.
And that's a really really interesting thing to think about.

(08:29):
That we have to consider. We never look at them
look at them as humans, right, We look at them
as this like wise knowledgeable teacher who all they do
is teach children, you know, We forget to picture them
going home and having their own stresses. When I was
in high school, I took advantage of that and never
showed my appreciation. I definitely was the type of person
who was consistently leaning all my teachers. A lot of

(08:52):
them knew things about me that my parents didn't, and
maybe sometimes friends and as well. With that, like Leticia
being a health teacher and focusing on sex ed she
is kind of the perfect person to be delivering those messages.
You can tell by the way she spoke and her
passion for her students, empowering our youth to speak up
and speak their mind on certain things and giving them

(09:13):
a sense of self. And that is really interesting. And
our two year old has started to move voice his
opinion on things of like no, I don't like that.
And so as a parent, even if it's a playful
situation where you're tickling or romping around whatever it is,
you have to then switch over and register and say, like, no,
he's expressing something you have to stop and empower them

(09:35):
so that they know that those words mean something. I
think a lot of times like parents either don't have
the time or don't have the words and don't know
how to communicate it. Of certain things like I'm definitely
guilty of that, and I think we forget and take
for granted how much teachers really do help shape our kids.
We'll be right back after this break. Welcome back to

(09:57):
Essential Voices, and next top is the clip chosen by
our producer Kevin Rodkowski. The clip is from our fifth
episode about legal aid work in our Essential Worker West
trainee Ocampo. Here's a bit of a story. I've always
known that there's power in the law and understanding your
rights and what you are entitled to. But I think

(10:21):
knowing that not everyone knows that and has that and
can utilize that power in the same way it made
me want to be able to help others and to
advocate for others for their rights to be respected and honored.
I got got a call in the early evening that
the city would be shutting on, our offices would be
shutting down, and we need to pivot everything that we

(10:44):
do overnight, and I remember being up until one in
the morning, changing messages, outgoing messages, setting signage so that
people could still access our services. UM we had a
lot of public facing clinics and that people could just
walk into and get assistance with, you know, a variety
of legal issues, and with all those shut down, we

(11:08):
were kind of t having to scramble to figure out, well,
how will those people still get to us? Unfortunately, there
were also people that didn't necessarily have the technology access
and so we're still going up to our doors and
so how are we going to accommodate them? And so
some staff are still going and making drives out to
visit clients to make sure that we're understanding what documents
they were served with, understanding what we can do for them.

(11:30):
So it's been definitely challenging. But I remember that was
a scramble, lots of phone calls, lots of emails, lots
of coordination, and we were able to UM set up
our remote operations, which we're doing now. I had the
privilege of helping us find our essential workers for the
show and some thought leaders for the round tables. And

(11:52):
I knew from day one when I was brought on
that I wanted to have a legal aid advocate on
the show Essential Voices. The podcast is really about challenging
this idea of essential worker, and as such, I thought
having a legal aid advocate on the show would challenge
us to think about who are essential workers and kind

(12:14):
of expand our idea of who these folks are in
our community. Trainee story, as we heard it shows us
how critical legal aid advocates are for those in our
communities who are most affected by systemic and balances, those
who are the most vulnerable in our community, and how
much they rely on legal aid advocates like Training. I

(12:35):
think what Trainee spoke to and why I am such
a huge proponent for uplifting these types of legal aid
advocates is not everyone has the same access to services
as others. Who has access to online legal services, who
has access to email, who has access to the softwarees
and technology you need? Should legal services be pivoted entirely online?

(12:58):
And that's what came to light here in Training was
talking about these warriors on the front lines and the
legal services who had to go out to their communities
still throughout a pandemic, who had to stay up late
to put up those signs on the front doors because
they are providers to their community. And not only that
in so many languages, right, these softwares don't exist beyond
certain languages, are not built, and we're not equipped to

(13:20):
assist our communities in a crisis like this at all times.
All of this to say, you know, the law is
only as good as a society that upholds them and
protects our community members and really ensures that we all
benefit from the benefits of the law. And that's who
Train is, That's who all of these legal aid advocates are.
They ensure that although there might have been a eviction

(13:40):
moratorium or a moratorium on increasing rents, that doesn't mean
that wasn't happening. And it certainly still was throughout the pandemic,
and so we needed folks like legal aid advocates to
end up for communities to ensure that they were healthy
and safe just as much as everybody else who has
extra resources, privileged resources, and access. But I remember this

(14:03):
conversation super well, and I think it was in the
Essential Worker interview with three Ny that she talks about
landlords literally taking doors off of their hinges because folks
are late on rent because of the pandemic, because of
potentially losing their work, and I just remember that image
really sticking with me of like the audacity of a
landlord to literally take a door off of its hinges

(14:25):
for folks that are trying to feed their children, just
trying to provide stable housing was just ghastly to think about.
And then when we had that round table conversation with
your mom and with council Member Raman, I remember council
Member Raman talking about the primitive supportive housing that is
trying to come up all around Los Angeles, but how
once it gets proposed in certain places, people don't actually

(14:48):
want it to be in their neighborhoods. But then it's like, well,
what is the solution if you don't want to in
your neighborhood. It's not as simple as just providing a
bed and providing a shelter, Like, it's so much more nuanced,
and there needs to be support for mental health resources
and harm reduction, so like people are getting COVID safety supplies,
all these different kinds of things that are not easily accessible.

(15:09):
And I was so grateful to you for bringing us Traine,
and for your mom and Camber Ramen for really expanding
upon what is being done. And I think the point
that she also made in that clip about you can't
just stop passing the law. There's that moment where you're like, oh,
that's great, there was an eviction moratorium, but it doesn't

(15:30):
mean that those landlords are going to follow that, or
that there's going to be abuses of these solutions that
are coming out of city Hall or coming out of
larger legal structures. When we're thinking about holistic solutions, we
can't just stop at passing a bill. We have to
be thinking about those legal aid workers who are protecting
and making sure that those who might not even know

(15:53):
that there is a law protecting them or the rights
that they have are not being honored that there are
folks there to make sure that everyone knows. Mr. Do
you chose this clip right? Yeah? Yeah, I did. I
actually chose our next clip and our tenth episode highlighted
the story of farm worker Blanca Arroyo, and I wanted
to highlight it again today. We'll hear blanca story first

(16:16):
in Spanish and then followed by an English translation to
Los los CAMPSINOSUK by Loren theosch Is Persona and Pandemia

(16:44):
garneaa Gusa Nothing nothing here so rich of came, so
must minimal sized size as a la delante con conajo

(17:08):
kcvnte csta not as e k coaches for the portos
Companeros notre um locando and Andriao and to vajdas c

(17:31):
playlor oh moon companiero, the Drava necessary kilo companero not
por qustravos ballet persona qv and k republican almost almost

(18:06):
Alice is a man of consenting. Me and my name
is Blanca Arroyo. I live in Monterey County in the
state of California. I've spent more than twenty years working
as a farm worker. If I continue working in the fields,

(18:28):
I want to feel valued, no matter how little myself
or my colleagues have, because we are the people who
never stopped working when the pandemic started. When the pandemic started,
people still had fruit, they had vegetables, They had me
because we went out to work and we did not

(18:52):
have the right to receive help from the government. What
I really really want is for people to see that
we are human. Let them see that we are not
a public burden. We're not We are like all the
people who are in this country, whether here legally or illegally.

(19:15):
We are all equally important as human beings. More than anything,
we are human beings with feelings. We are essential in
this country. My message would be that your work, the
work of all the farm workers, is recognized, and don't

(19:40):
be afraid to speak up. Don't be afraid to state
your rights, ask for your rights. We came to this
country to get ahead, um with our effort, with our
dedication at work. That if you come with a goal
of getting ahead, follow your goal, do not deviate. And

(20:07):
that if you have the opportunity to have your voice
heard by your colleagues, don't be afraid to speak up.
Don't be afraid to say, um, what is happening to
your team, what is happening in your work life? That
you speak up, whether it's to an employer or a coworker,

(20:30):
you speak up. If you see someone has a need
and then no one is helping, you can say, please
help my colleague. Don't be scared because our voice counts.
We matter as people, We are people like everyone else
in this country. This episode, I think it really for me,

(20:55):
like touched upon a lot of the stuff that I
had been thinking about at home throughout a pandemic, doing
the work that I do, and hearing Blanca be such
a honest and vulnerable and just like fearless advocate for herself.
It was one of the first recordings where when I
heard her speak so candidly about speaking up for her rights,

(21:18):
being an advocate not only for herself but for her colleagues,
and encouraging her colleagues, and understanding how essential her work
has been throughout the pandemic, and speaking about it so beautifully.
That really touched me, because for so many immigrants who
have their heads down, just working, working, working, not taking
us moments to recognize, like what I am doing is

(21:40):
so invaluable and so essential and so important, it seemed
like she had taken some of that time to understand
how important her work was, and that made me feel
really happy that she even though she described working really
long hours, and sometimes I remember she said that she'd
go to the grocery store to get food for her

(22:00):
kids and it would be empty, and she would think
about the irony that she was the one working to
literally tend to the fields, and that yet she had
no food for her kids. And I remember that being
a really strong image, and that her hands were responsible
for literally feeding us throughout this pandemic. Monterey County is
one of the biggest areas in California for produce, and

(22:26):
it's likely that Blanca's hands were picking your broccoli that
you were eating, that you were getting from the store,
that maybe you weren't even going to the store, but
you were having it delivered. And so I think there's
this really intense, faceless, anonymous nature of essential workers where
we talk about these invisible hands that just magically mysteriously

(22:46):
deliver our Amazon packages, deliver our USPS packages. They have
a hand in everything that we're doing. And so Blanca
being an immigrant, being a mother, being so unabashed, lee
proud of her work and her colleagues and her position
as an immigrant, and then obviously to contextualize her story
with the Lotus and with Monica. Just to me, I

(23:09):
was so humbled, and I was incredibly grateful to uplift
this story and all the stories that we've done this season,
and I was really grateful for Blanca in this moment.
One thing that really pops up for me is finally
having a conversation of understanding the ecosystem that actually exists
and where a lot of it starts. It really starts

(23:30):
on the field. It starts with their hands, and it
ends on our serenity. When I think about the pandemic
and our ability to have food in our kitchens, I
think about the ecosystem, and I directly picture the thousands
of migrant workers who are on the fields across the
country providing the sanity that most people lost along the

(23:52):
way of the pandemic. I used the word very often
on every conversation, and that was sobering. You know, we
were kind of taught to think that a lot of
this stuff was magically done. You went to the store
and then there was this purely beautiful white bread that
you made peanut butter and jelly with, without understanding where
roll came over, how he got packaged, or he got

(24:12):
how he got delivered to that store in the first place.
We don't think about those things. We think about it now,
you know. Having the lot this word test for me
in that episode was iconic. I've done a lot of
work with her through what goes into maybe seventeen years
of my activities life, and I know Kevin and I
have experienced a lot of her greatness and many of
the things that Kevin and I have done, and so

(24:34):
when I think back of having her on our show,
it was such a great validated moment for the why
this show was important just to one day. I hear
stories like Blancas and it's so hard to hear because
I envisioned my mother. She's also an immigrant, and blanka
story really parallels with her, and growing up, I have
seen everything from people sealing from us, viewing our service

(24:58):
as a vending machine, and I she like society is
like to anown. Our society is viewing this world as
this perfect image of how the world should benefit ourselves,
and I think we never think about who is actually
providing the goods and services that feed our families, and
we end up de strolling around the grocery store just
joking and playing around with the idea of what is
the fruit of the week that's going to be in

(25:19):
our fruit pull today. And it's even more heartbreaking to
hear that she's asking perspect and it's so scary for
minorities at the moment. It's always been scary for minorities
to speak for ourselves. However, I think being heard is
more important than being pushed the side. And I think
that vulnerability of Blanca inspires me to speak out for
my own community just and it's so frustrating sometimes to

(25:42):
hear that the one thing we're fighting for is just
a little respect, when really we should be asking for
what we really deserve, you know, the acknowledgement for the
contribution that many of our communities have done in hundreds
of years to any country in the world. I appreciate this.
My love goes to your mother obviously, another hero of
your family and another example of all of us, you know,

(26:05):
who understand what what it's like to be an immigrant,
what it's like to be, you know, in in a
country where you come knowing nothing, where you sold everything
you had when you came to America to just invest
your last dollar in that savings account for a brighter,
more fuller refrigerator, and just a little better education for

(26:26):
your kids, education that our parents sometimes never had, the
very minimum of. That. We asked for, the integrity, we
asked for the values, you know, but we also ask
for this respect, you know, and unfortunately it's not a
two way street when it comes to that. You know,
we are expected to respect, but we are not respected,
you know, when we do so. I appreciate you bringing

(26:47):
that up. There's a lot about these conversations and these
essential conversations that have led me to understand the deficiency
of our understanding and how we've yet to connect to
just the beare value of why we are all in
the same country. Hearing her say I just want people
to say that we are human beings with feelings made
me really emotional, and what a cool thing that we

(27:09):
can put out there and have people listen. It's so important,
and I think in every conversation, I'm just so struck
by the humanity and how much we all share. And
I keep coming to that with every interview that we're
listening to, and definitely the one that I'm gonna be
speaking about later. So I'm just really proud to be
a part of it and beautiful sent to it. We'll
be right back after this break. Welcome back to Essential Voices.

(27:35):
As we continue our journey around the table, we'll turn
it over now to our executive producer, Leo clemm Leo.
By the way, without you, I would have never been
able to do this, So just thank you. Thank you
for that, and thank you for choosing the next clip
from Essential worker and owner of foti Acres Fresh Market
Liz Abuna. She was featured in our eleventh episode. So

(27:59):
deliver service actually started about two months after I launched
in February, and that was just a function of I
have more inventory than I sold at the market. How
do I sell the rest of this inventory so I
don't lose too much money? And so I was like,
I put out on Facebook, I have all of this stuff,
mark down on this spreadsheet what you want, and I'll

(28:19):
go deliver to you for like a three dollar or
five dollar delivery fee. And that's how delivery started. And
then I had friends would be like I would use it,
but this isn't convenient. Here's how you build something that's
more convenient for people to use. And so over time, um,
I was able to like create a small delivery platform.

(28:39):
Now before the pandemic, that delivery platform on a good week,
and I mean a really really solid week might get
seven orders. And so our main channel was, you know,
going into these spaces and doing pop up markets. Well,
with the pandemic, those spaces basically closed down on us
because everybody was closed. Um so we couldn't do our

(29:03):
markets there. So I think, no, I know the day
it was March thirteenth. We were supposed to have a market,
we closed it down, and we put on our website
just order delivery. We'll give you free delivery for the weekend,
and orders started coming in like first really slow, and
then we're like, wow, we just got five orders in

(29:25):
one day. We're like, we've never gotten five orders in
one day. And then by a week later, we were
getting like ten orders a day, fifteen orders a day,
and by the end of the month, we were doing
more revenue in delivery than we were in than we've
ever done in pop up markets. So I picked this

(29:46):
Essential Worker interview solely because I feel like we saw
a lot of essential workers pivoting as soon as the
pandemic hit. I think Lizz's pivot was very impressive and
very much needed, and just to see how our business
blossom because of it was pretty great to hear. And
as a consumer and someone who I'm sure all of
us started using delivery services way more at the beginning

(30:08):
pandemic because we're else we're gonna get things. I was
approaching listening to these conversations specifically as a consumer, and
it helped me appreciate the people behind these delivery services,
kind of back to seeing her business blossom. She also
spoke about the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer
and how that also affected the rise in her sales.
And I thought that was very interesting thing to bring

(30:29):
up because she saw an intersection of different communities coming
to her for her service. And although it wasn't the customer,
she started her business to service. You know, she started
making more money and that's great, but it had me
thinking about the businesses in my community that I explored
and interacted with that I previously might not have. And

(30:51):
there was a pizzeria next door to my last apartment
and I was there every day. I became really good
friends with the owner, and I think if it wasn't
for the pandemic, I wouldn't have done that. So I
really appreciate these services. Yeah, I just remember how brilliant
Liz was because she told us the whole story of
like how she started her business, which is called forty Acres.

(31:14):
And I remember her telling the story of looking around
in neighborhood and just not seeing banks. There wasn't a
grocery store and this was a predominantly black community and
she was looking around and again kind of goes back
to all the different types of solutions we keep talking about.
She talked about how often people jumped altruistic solutions or

(31:39):
jumped to bills and laws, and Liz's response was like,
this is a customer base that has a need and
I can fill it and built this whole business around it.
I remember just that brilliance came up in her pivoting
for the pandemic as well, and just constantly thinking about
how I can run my business us and take care

(32:01):
of my community at the same time. That was really
inspiring to me. I'm always just so impressed by, Yeah,
the resilience and the ability to adapt so quickly that
we saw people firsthand with businesses. And my mom had
a restaurant at the time during COVID and worked in Ohi, California,
and worked with the city of Ohi to help feed

(32:21):
the seniors, and I watched her, you know, I even
helped and would drive around and deliver firsthand. And just
so many cool programs and initiatives came out of this,
and it was just so beautiful to see and how
quickly people got together and organized. So I'm impressed. Next
up is the clip chosen by associate producer Lillian Holman.
She chose a clip from Dr Lance white Hair, who's

(32:44):
a doctor working for the Indian Health Service. He was
featured on our twelfth episode. Do you have a story
like that? Is there anything that that you could share
that you know, a moment that that you were a
part of that you will never forget that made you go,
you know what, this is why I do what I do.
This past week, UM, I was taking care of one

(33:05):
of my UH patients who has like a multiple grocers.
So she's on a amato suppressive medication and and UH
and she she's she's an obester BMS large. It's it's
a forty and she's you know, she's she's not she's
almost like like elderly. But she got COVID and she

(33:25):
got it very severely and she almost kind of needed
to be on um in basis but the ventilation. But
but like there's just there's kind of newer treatments that
have come out in the past like like a few months.
So I was one of the first ones to to
get it like imfilimated in this this hospital. So I

(33:47):
got her on that met and and she um recovered,
but UM, it took about like, um, like we can happen.
When I was discharging her, you know, like she was
on like room are no need for oxygen and she
was like I she said, she told me she's I
thought I was gonna die. I really thought it was
gonna die. And thank you Dr quite here, you know,

(34:11):
like like it was. It's just so you know, I say,
I just wanted to to to cry, but I just
kind of like that smiled and he gave her like
like a like a nice hug. My views and opinions
do not represent Indian Health Service. My views and and
and statements on my own. So we spoke to Dr

(34:32):
white Hair last summer, and his story and the round
table that followed with President naz An Ali Young just
has stuck with me. I've been thinking about it ever
since for many many reasons. But I wanted to highlight
this anecdot because it has a super happy, heartwarming ending,
but it really highlights Dr white Hair's passion and innovation.

(34:56):
He came to us with so much energy he want
to say about his work with the Indian Health Service
and how much he cared. I always left because we
had the self care question and when we kind of
were like, how do you take care of yourself? He
was kind of like, well, I love being at the
hospital and I love being there and it's actually really
hard for me to get away. And I was like,

(35:17):
you need to take care of yourself. So he really
does love being there. And one thing that was just
really inspiring. He was fighting tooth and nail throughout the
pandemic to find the newest and most effective treatments for
his patient. He was looking up innovative procedures. He was
trying to make sure that he was on track with
the latest, most effective treatments, but he was also looking

(35:39):
to see if there was new ones around the horizon.
And you can hear that come to fruition in that story,
like that woman is a lot because he fought for
her and he fought to make sure that she didn't
even have to be on a ventilator and that she
was going to be okay. And that story as well,
when I was looking back to it, just like, I
really love that he highlights his patients existing conditions because

(36:01):
we're at this moment when things are opening up again
and so many of us are now vaccinated, and it
means we get to do a lot more. But it
also means that the most vulnerable, and those who have
always been the most vulnerable, are those with pre existing conditions,
and it's folks like Dr White Hair who make sure
that we don't forget about them and that we don't

(36:22):
consider them expendable. Ali Young then expanded on this idea
in the round table, and that really stuck with me
because she talked about how the Navajo community put protecting
their elders at the center of their COVID response, and
that was actually how they got folks to follow a
lot of the regulations and kept people safe. It was like,
you are not just doing this for yourself. You are

(36:44):
doing this to protect the elders in your family, the
elders in your community. And when you're doing that, you're
protecting the culture and you're protecting our traditions. Putting that
and I had to call it a spin. Putting that
spin on it kind of really helped me when I
thought about it. Prioritizes like what are we protecting during
a pandemic, and I think that was at the forefront

(37:05):
of everything we talked about in that round table, and
President Nez talked about how the Navajo community should be
held up as a model for their COVID response, and
like I said, like from a personal standpoint, they became
my model. I was like, this is such a beautiful
response to this situation. I was almost jealous in a

(37:25):
way because they talked about coming together as families, as
a community and staying home and taking advantage of your
time to learn from each other. And even though I
have a beautiful family that I stayed in touch with
throughout the pandemic, I was sheltering by myself. And it
was like, I think that was part of it. I
was like, this community and these individuals, they just like
took this moment to think about what their priorities were

(37:49):
and how to protect them. And I found that really inspiring.
Thank you. I've always been super passionate for that very reason.
Their their spirit of perservation. You know what they've had
to fight to against to keep the entire video of
not just a reservation, but it's people, it's its history,
it's legacy, their values. You know, that's something that as
a Latino I could relate a number of levels. That's

(38:11):
one thing that I want to point out Ali Young.
You know, she's the force of nature herself and she's
done so much for that community and innovatively figure out
many ways and how to bring those conversations to the forefront.
I mean, the woman has been to the White House,
for god sake, you know, do that everything. But yeah,
so I echo everything you said. I don't want to
add anything because you've spoke about it so beautifully. I

(38:32):
think literally what you're pointing to of this caring for
elders like that spirit is something that I feel, like,
you know, folks in the Latin Latino community, like we
can really relate to this of just you know, our
family we live with. Our families were intergenerational like as
all hell, even if we wish we weren't, were there
around us all the time. And that means that we've

(38:54):
got to make sure that those who are older than us,
who are more susceptible to get in COVID or to
getting seriously sick from COVID, are protected. Meanwhile, I still
remember horrible conversations happening at large of like, well, why
are the older members of the United States getting vaccinated
before young people? Like that doesn't make any sense. Old
people are just old and they're going to die anyways.

(39:15):
I remember thinking to myself, like, oh my gosh, that
is so backwards, Like why are people saying things like that.
Why aren't we taking care of these elders who have
laid the groundwork for us to literally be alive today.
Why are we not paying our respect and making sure
that they're protected, because it will trickle down and make
sure the rest of our folks are protected. So I
thought that their model, as you said, was something that

(39:38):
we should all aspire to. I mean, I think the
number that they gave at the time was like eight
percent vaccination rate or something at the time, when like
the U s population at large had like fifty And
it just goes to show that if you center care
as one of the main mantras of your community, of
your spiritual practice, of just the way that you are

(39:59):
living your life, folks are going to respond to that
when they are thinking about others and not only themselves.
And I think we were in this moment of thinking
about ourselves not as much as others during the pandemic,
so it was easier to not think about other people,
especially given the amount of isolation that we experienced. So
I thank you you said that really beautifully, Lily, And

(40:19):
I'm really glad that you chose Dr white Hair story
because he was just a rock star and I really
enjoyed his story. As we get closer to winding down,
our second to last clip comes from executive producer Adam Reynolds.
In our thirteenth episode, we spoke to grocery work or
band has beautiful Ben. Thank you so much, man, I
really appreciate your chatting with me. You were one of

(40:41):
the reasons why I wanted to do this show and
develop this platform. Tell me a little bit how you
got into this line of work. I mean, when did
you get into how long ago you've been doing it,
and what you do. I've been working in grocery stores
since um the end of two thousand nine. I started
in Chicago. That's where about Something from. And at first

(41:02):
it was just kind of a needed a job, need
to do something. But at some point I realized that
kind of I kind of enjoy it a little bit.
There's there's definitely some neat things about being working in
a grocery store. Are working with so many people, are
seeing so many people. Uh, you're in the midst of it,

(41:23):
and and things can get can get real weird. And
I'm a big fan of the real weird. That's awesome.
You really found a passion for this, right, so this
is something you you you appreciate the community, you appreciate
your colleagues, and then there's like there's a level of
familiarity that comes with that, right Yeah, I mean it
appens and flows like there's there's definitely moments where I'm like,

(41:45):
I've had enough, it is time for a career change.
I have got to get out of here. This is
no more. And then there's times where it's like, yeah,
this is this is fine. What what are those what
are those moments like that? When the ones that you
goes this is fine. Usually it's when I have a

(42:05):
customer come up to me and you know, they see
something and they want to tell you a story. More
often than not, these when I the best relationships they
strike up are with older folks. If you get younger
folks there, they've got they already got their headphones on
their programmed, they're on their daily grind. They're not here
to to mess around. Yeah, and that's fine, I get
that's how I shall. But then you know, to get

(42:27):
the people that I don't got a lot going on,
come in, you know, like clockwork two or three times
a week. They know your name and you try to
remember there's and they'll they'll tell you about, you know,
anything I had. I had a guy who recognized a
band patch my hat on my my shirt from the

(42:47):
town that he used to live in. And he's like,
I know those guys. It's like I know those guys too.
It's and then something which we're talking about bands and
we're talking about instruments. This is how, you know, you
break up the monotony because what I do every day
is it says pretty routine. You know. I'm grateful that
you could, you know, walk me a little bit to
what your days like. I think about you know, how

(43:10):
how does that? How what was that like? You know,
for you what you were working in and all of
a sudden you get introduced this pandemic and then you
know your work now is all of a sudden is
deem essential, you know, and you're now have to really
stay at work, you know, and really do what you
gotta do because it's bigger than us. How how is
that like for you? In the beginning the first month

(43:30):
or two, I got a lot of people saying thank
you for being here and You've got a lot of
jobs that are deemed I guess not I hate to
say the word not essential, but you know, people working
from home, maybe office shops, and you get these people
come in and they say thank you for being here,
and it's I understand that there is a sense of

(43:51):
what they're trying to convey, but it's this isn't a
choice for me, you know, Uh, it's not a choice
for a lot of us. As we're seeing things kind
of stuff that we all opened up and rules being dropped,
you know, as as things progress. What what ripples do
you think have to have that you know, what effects
have had on you personally? I mean how I know

(44:13):
that you've probably had incidents with customers, with someone snapped
or something like that, and then do you feel like
there's been a ripple effect to that, Like, how are
you feeling? How are you feeling today? Um, I am
feeling pretty good today. But I'm feeling pretty good today
in part because of the changes in my life that

(44:34):
I've had to make because of this ripple effect. I
now take medication for my brain, which was not something
I did before last summer, and it's been a it's
been a real help it might have benefited me probably
before the pandemic, but it didn't become a necessity until

(44:54):
you build up all this stress. There was There was
a point last year where I had a little bit
of an outburst that wasn't great, and it was just
me unloading on somebody. There was a misunderstanding and they
got my We got about three or four months of
of stress, just smash on him and I went home

(45:17):
and I cried, not for the first time that week,
and it was just it was awful. And so the
silver lining is I have this tool now that makes
things a little bit easier to handle. My solution isn't
everyone's solution, but my problem is everyone's problem, which is,
you know, you don't want to get sick. Ben's story

(45:41):
was one that gave me all the fields. And I
say that because there's a very large personality that comes
across and hearing him talk and the way he starts
to be interview and describing what he's doing, and you
get this sense that he's a very content human being
that has found a place in life that works for him.

(46:02):
And there's a pace of life, there's an expect series
of expectations, there's a predictability to it. Again, for me,
it was the idea of touching on mental health and
him being incredibly vulnerable and speaking to that, and the
interviewing conversation just taking a shift that I was not
expecting it to take, and I just remember being floored
by that. You know, I think it raises a much

(46:23):
larger conversation around mental health and what we're doing. And
you know, I've certainly struggled with mental health issues and
I think we all have to a certain extent. But
it's being able to break the stigma of not talking
about it and putting in that into conversation and normalizing
that in a way that we can feel okay, like yeah,
I'm taking medication or I'm actively doing this to work

(46:43):
on my mental health, or this is a boundary for
me and I need to protect this space so I
can take care of myself. And you know, I think
it bleeds over into the work life balance, It bleeds
over into you know, where we are with pharmaceuticals and
the larger conversation of where we're going in terms of
an health and plant based versus pharmaceutical medications. Again, very

(47:04):
floored and honored that Ben was able to open up
and be so vulnerable for us. So, you know, one
of the things that I remember very dearly about this
conversation was just Ben. He was so enthusiastic about the patch.
You know, you wear the pats, aware of the beast.
He found so many things to relate to his customers about,
and he found that such community. The route awakening of

(47:27):
that community evolving with the pandemic and making it even
more difficult for him to do where he wants was
finding a groove and love for some of our grocery
workers really love working with vegetables and working with products,
and you know, for every job there's someone who has
an incredible passion for it. And I really respected that
so much about him. There was a humanity, there was

(47:49):
a simpleness, There was a contempt, like Adam says to Ben,
that I just appreciated and respected so much, And I
had so much fun talking to him. He was just
a real conversation with a real dude man, and he
really opened up on some really vulnerable stuff, and I
was really grateful because it really humanized that conversation for
so many of us. To add on, I really appreciated

(48:11):
Ben's honestly when He mentioned that he had no choice
when it came to working within the grocery store, and
I'm pretty sure that is something not one person wouldn't
want to say, which I had no choice. And I
recall blanca story since she is bringing in the product
and Ben, as a worker within the grocery store, is
facilitating the purchase. All of that requires an in person service,

(48:33):
which was so so scary at the height of the
pandemic and is still very scary. We really need to
take his perspective and apply to wherever we continue to
go in grocery stores, even if it means to put
up your bask before you enter. And I hope his
voice really gets to our audience as it did to us,
so we can view grocery store workers as genuine people

(48:53):
who may enjoy what you do, like then and care
for them like we do with any other essential worker.
We'll be right back after this break. Welcome back to
Essential Voices. Finally, to wrap things up, we have a
clip chosen by producer Alison Shano. She chose a clip
from our twenty one episode about E M S Workers.
The featured essential worker is paramedic Anthony al Mohra. Please

(49:17):
Note that this conversation includes mentions of suicide, the magic
of this job, and the real high when you go
to a call and then not breathing or talking and
then all of a sudden they get to the hospital
because of your interventions, they're breathing and talking. That's powerful, man.

(49:37):
We also get to celebrate the life, you know, we
get to sit there with the family and have a
moment of what I call a grief transfer, you know,
because I have to, I have to kind of unload
all that because I failed. Even though there's some extenuators,
I still take it as a failure. But I sit
there with the family and they look at me and
they say, thank you. Do you know what it's like

(49:58):
to have somebody die? And the don't remember goes thank you.
That means they saw what my part and I would
do it. They saw all the efforts given, and they're
thankful that somebody else cared about their family as if
it was their own. And that's what it feels like.
You know, things slowed down. You become a part of
the family. The stranger is now my family, and you

(50:19):
really feel like, you know, you're celebrating your life, even
if even if that person dies, you're celebrating their life
with them. While it does have a psychological impact what
we see, just for your own knowledge, e m S
workers have the highest rates of suicides amongst not on
one providers. So it's not like we see things and
then we're able to let it go. Some of us

(50:40):
follows us. I myself, I have had my own suicidal ideations.
Normally e MS in New York City does DRED four
thousand runs a day. It went to sixty hundred, seven
thousand runs a day. There's only about forty one hundred
of us, and we were running all over the city.
Will Up until that point, I always thought, because of

(51:03):
the way I was brought up, because of some of
my lifestyle practices and the experience of this job, that
had unlimited supply of empathy. But the pandemic showed me
it was I did not. I was going to calls
that you feel like you can save them. Thirty five
year old people who couldn't breathe. They're talking to you
by Tom again to the ambulance. They went to cardiac arrest.

(51:25):
We couldn't get him back. We saw people die at
a crazy clip. In one sixteen hours shift, for me,
I had thirteen cardiac arrests, thirteen people that we couldn't
get back. It wasn't just me, the medics and E
M T S. I was never more proud of them,
but I was also scared for them because they saw

(51:47):
so much death, so much suffering, And then what really
brought it home was we started to get sick. We
started to get sick, and we started to die. To
this day, I've had ten medics and E. M. T
s passed away from COVID. I've also had four of
them commit suicide. And I still have a whole slew

(52:08):
of others that still haven't been back to work because
of COVID, because of COVID longhaulers or other medical issues
that arose from it. The fire department has been mismanaged
for years. The short staffing we've been warning them about
because E M S workers when not when one workers
right when you call now on one do you get cops,
fire fighters, ems. But for some reason E M. S workers,

(52:31):
they want to pay thirty five thousand dollars less. They
won't give him the same pay and benefits. So right now,
at the height of the pandemic of my workforce, had
less than five years experience. That's not how you run
a ni O one agency. Right now, I work with
E M T s and medics who worked three jobs.
I work three jobs. You shouldn't as a paramedic in

(52:52):
this city, in the busiest E M S service in
the world, you should not have to work three jobs.
When I have to work three jobs. You know who
loses out. You're the citizen. I'm not focused on this
job like I should be. I'm not available for this
job like I should be. We have a lot of
E M T s and medics who really do struggle
because they have to work multiple jobs or they lost

(53:13):
the jobs, are in the pandemic um and we don't
make enough, so we we set up a foundation. If
I may, I can give you the website. UM it's
called the E M S, f D n Y Help Fund.
If you went online and googled E M S, F
D and Y Help Fund, it will take you to
the website. Anybody who's willing, they can donate a dollar

(53:33):
ten dollars. It goes towards helping the f D and
Y E M S, E M T s and paramedics
in the greatest times of need. We've been able to
pay people's hospital bills, We've been able to pay people's
back rent. I don't want to fight because somebody can't
pay the rent, or that the fact that my partner,
Greg that passed away from COVID on this job, his

(53:54):
family is only going to get three years pay and
no medical benefits for life. If a firefight, a cop
in New York City dies on the job in the
line of duty, the families get pay and benefits for life.
I mean, we're not even equal in death. There's so
much to say about this one. I mean, I was
just so moved by his vulnerability and honesty and openness.

(54:18):
But yeah, just so inspired by his leadership and daily
fight for what's right. And I mean that last statement
about not even being equal in death, just there's no words.
It's just so upsetting to hear, to hear that these
workers are paid less and also that their family members
will receive less. I mean, I wasn't aware of this
disparity between the jobs in that industry and was really

(54:42):
thankful that he shared that. And it's a huge problem,
and you know, I think overall, I was just so
amazed by his outlook and his perspective and seems like
he could continue to reach for the positives throughout such
a dark time. You know, this moment of a grief
transfer and celebrating life with the relieve someone that died
in his care or survived, and just that intimate moment,

(55:04):
and hearing about these families expressing love and appreciation towards
him even if it didn't go their way, you know,
in the hardest moments of their life. It gives me
so much perspective hearing his story, and I think we
talked earlier about continuing to get busier. Everyone has so
much going on in their life, and hearing this story
reminds me to kind of check myself, you know, when

(55:25):
I'm kind of in a negative spiral or complaining about
something really silly, and having the awareness and choice to
be a better human and care about each other. I'm
sure there's a lot others while chiming to say this
one is there's a lot to unpack here. You know,
it's it's no surprise this one hit me really, really hard.
The one thing I couldn't get out of my head

(55:46):
is the fact that an MS worker had to work
multiple jobs because that job wasn't enough for them that
they would going to shift from like four in the
morning to like noon, you know, and then they have
to go check it out, arrest run and all these
jobs tend to be jobs of service as well, right,
So they're going from one community to another community, whether
the just either a target or they're just enduring some

(56:09):
other type of phenomenon. And I just felt so connected
to history for many reasons, one because I love New
York City, and to the numbers just were incredibly traumatic
to hear. You started understanding, you started thinking about that
the actual science, right, how it would work when you're
on the ground, if you put try to put their boots.

(56:30):
You can't even imagine answering these many calls and actually
going from home to home to home to home to
home looking at cases and then anywhere along the way.
You just lose yourself. And the loosing of yourself is
the one that had been the hardest. As we know,
mental health has been this popular conversation. How do you
take care of yourself? What do you do for yourself? Like,

(56:50):
you know, treat yourself with kindness, But in a situation
like this, you're not really not just not giving the choice,
but I feel even it's for other than that. It's
like you have no time to actually even process what's
happening to you, what you're answering this many calls, and
then you go from the high frequency of that and
then check into your next job and maybe the third

(57:13):
when do you even stop to think about what did
today do to me? And then you go beyond that
you're exhausted, and then you just gotta go to sleep
for about four or five hours because you gotta check
in this vision. Right. Doing the math and visualizing and
wearing the hat made me so angry. It made me

(57:34):
incredibly sad and even more disappointed that I didn't know more.
It made me so disappointed in myself that I I
don't want anyone to relate to this part, but I
was so disappointed to myself because as someone who has
understood community, has submerged himself in all the different areas
of our incredible humans of service and these essential voices

(57:56):
HOWDA and not know how bad this one was, and
considering that one of these individuals saved my father's life,
It's something that I will never forget. And I'm so
inspired that I am seriously going to develop the film
or a show around this, and I'm in motion. I mean,
my production companies already in internal conversations about how do

(58:17):
we make this and what format is the most impactful,
what signaled is the brightest and whitest we can use
to idolize this job and to hopefully get more people
to want to take the job. But also before even
entering it, can we fix what's broken about the job
that should be heroic and celebrated and hopefully making the

(58:39):
job feel like it's not only enough, but it's a
career worth taking because we need individuals like them. Thank
you for contextualizing that moment. I think that putting in
perspective of processing everything you see and then going on
to the next job and then to the next job
and not taking time to think through and actually process

(58:59):
that is pretty significant, and you have to wonder. It's like,
what are the residual effects of that? And how long
can you do? How long can what is your expiration
date as a human being? Exactly? Actually, the day we
released this episode, I got a call. I found out
someone close to me actually went to the hospital and
they specifically said on the call, they just said, the

(59:23):
E M S picked this person up there in the
hospital and I got no other details, and I started
crying to this person I didn't even know because they
just happened to get my number through somehow. And it
was specifically because we've been reviewing this and you know,
we launched it that day, so I had all of

(59:43):
these ideas in my mind when this was happening, and
I was crying for like five minutes just because of
Anthony's story. But what was special was because I had
that in my mind, I was able to put my
trust in an individual that I've never met, and that
person made it to the hospital. The e MS gave
them the necessary thing to make sure that they're okay.

(01:00:06):
That person is at the hospital announced because I was
able to put my trust in those people. So that
was really harsh, uh hard day, especially because we launched
this episode so mad respect for the e m S community.
As we look into the direction and where we're going next,
I'm gonna leave you all with just one question. After
every word and every person and every story and every

(01:00:30):
heart we shared in essential voices, we'll move away with
the biggest question over it all, a question that we're
going to have to answer and their audiences hopefully we'll
searched for what is our role in all of these conversations?
What is our role as a community when you are

(01:00:52):
now aware, when you will finally know, or what really
takes to carry on two survive, to have sanity, to
be at home, or just to raise your child? What
is our role in all of these journeys that we
all partake and intertwined with one another. So as we

(01:01:13):
move off from essential voices, I know that this group
of amazing visionaries and producers and voices and brilliant minds
will carry these teachings, these lessons in this awareness. We
have a beautiful library of unbelievable and very well crafted
conversations that just so digestible to a point where it

(01:01:37):
just becomes truth. So I'm grateful to every single one
of you again, and thank you for trusting me, and
thank you for jumping on board on this thing. And
I know that life will find a road for all
of us to intertwine again. I just want to take
a minute quickly, and I want to thank Wilmer. You
were thanking all of us earlier, and I want to
turn that light on you and just say that using

(01:02:01):
your platform to highlight these stories that are often left
untold is really really meaningful for me and to have
you be leading these discussions. I mean, we had thirty
plus of these Essential Worker interviews and you found something
or multiple things to connect with with all of these humans.

(01:02:21):
You made everybody feel really comfortable getting vulnerable. You brought
a lot of levity and joy and laughter, and you
knew how to say supportive, very comforting things at the
right times. And not everybody can do that. I don't
I don't know if everybody knows that, but not everybody
can do that. You know, like it's it's a skill,

(01:02:43):
and it shows your dedication to uplifting these stories, your
dedication to your activism, and I just want to thank
you for using your platform to do that on this show.
I think, regardless of how many listeners, these stories need
to live on. So we should talk about how that
can have been in the future, because it is sort
of a time capsule of this very I love the

(01:03:05):
word bananas. It's very banana's time that we've been living
through the last couple of years, and that's the show
really has been a time capsule of of what's been
going on. So I just want to say mean grasses
and more. I truly can't think of a better note

(01:03:25):
to end on Wilmer, So thank you, Hey Mart, thank you,
And I want to say thank you to our listeners.
Thank you for joining us each week and giving us
some of your precious time. We've all endured a lot
in the past three years, and I'm wanted to have
been able to reflect on that experience with you. Please
remember to continue to appreciate the essential voices in your

(01:03:47):
lives and work to build a brighter future for all
us all. You know, this entire show, this season, you know,
every episode, every conversation we had, has been a transformative
process for all of us, in a transformative opportunity to
really see within ourselves and think about who can we be?
How are more thoughtful can we be about our surroundings

(01:04:08):
or environment and the people that the populated. It's important
that we take the responsibility to reach out to one another,
and I hope that through this show we were able to,
for just that moment, just for that conversation, understand what
it's like to be now suddenly deemed essential And I
just want to thank you all for supporting everyone that
was vulnerable in these conversations that allowed us to to

(01:04:29):
understand what they've been through. And uh, you know, to everyone,
all of our partners and Michael, to the podcast and network,
to my Heart, to clamor, to everyone that was part
of the making of this show, thank you very much
for be leaving in this You know, it's not your
conventional show. It's definitely not your traditional format, um. But

(01:04:49):
what we were able to do is create a space
that everyone could feel not only themselves but heard, and
create a space that hopefully continues to be provided for
everyone who needs at space everywhere else in the days
of our lives. So all my love to you guys,
Thank you so very much, and until next time. This
is the Voices. Essential Voices with Wilmer val Drama is

(01:05:12):
produced by me m R. Raquel, Alison Shano, and Kevin Retkowski,
with production support from associate producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers
Wilmer val Drama, Adam Reynolds, Leo Clem and Aaron Hilliard.
This episode was edited by m R. Raquel, Sean Tracy
and Justin Cho and features original music by Will Risotti.

(01:05:34):
Special thanks again to this week's Essential Voices, La Gastio Jenkins,
Trinio Campo Blanca, Royo, Liz Abuna, Dr Lance Whitehair, Ben Hess,
and Anthony Adamoheeda. This is a CLAIMER and w V
entertainment production in partnership with I Heart Radio's Michael Dura
podcast Network. For more podcasts from my Heart, visit the

(01:05:56):
I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite show else