August 20, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode, I’ve included highlights from five episodes from the first year of Introducing Me. These episodes were recorded between February and July 2021 and thoughts or opinions may have changed since the time of recording. Check out their entire episodes in the archives.
Kelly: Former and Future Political Candidate; https://www.tiktok.com/@kellykrout
Kevin: Strength & Conditioning, Now in the NFL
Mirinda: Author and Avid Traveler; https://mirindakossoff.com
Kandrea: Bringing AI to Entertainment
Rabbi Noyo: Non-Traditional Paths and Inclusivity; https://www.tiktok.com/@rabbi.noyo
Donate to the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/introducingmepodcast
Want to share your story and be a guest? Email: introducingmepodcast@gmail.com
Find all the podcast social media and more on the website: https://www.introducingmepodcast.com
Artwork: instagram.com/vashaundesigns
Music/Editing: youtube.com/colemanrowlett
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
- Hello and welcome to Introducing Me.
I'm your host, Sarah. Istarted this podcast to get
(00:21):
to know other people and lifestyles while
discovering more about myself.
Each episode I give a new guest a chance
to discuss their background,culture, interests,
or whatever they want to talkabout to help increase all
of our own worldviews.
However, in this episode,
we're taking a look backat some previous episodes.
You'll hear clips that wererecorded in my first year
of podcasting, specificallybetween February 13th, 2021
(00:44):
and July 18th, 2021.
In the next couple of episodes,
we'll be looking back at episodesfrom years two and three.
As I close out my fourthyear of podcasting.
I hope you enjoy these episodes
and their different formatwhile I catch up on different
things in my personal life.
It's important to realize
that these episodes were notrecorded within the last few
weeks, like my regular episodes.
(01:06):
Things these guests stated atthe time may not be a fully
accurate representationof how they are today,
but I wanted to pull different stories
and life experiences for today's episode.
There are clips of varyinglengths from five different
episodes, and I hope
that if you haven't heard these episodes,
you give the archives a chanceto hear their entire stories,
(01:26):
or if you've heard them before,give them another listen,
and you might find joy in recalling back
to when you firstlistened to that episode.
The first clip comes from my 23rd
and most popular episode,which was with Kelly Krout,
a former political candidate in Arkansas.
In this episode, we spokeabout campaign life,
being a mom and a foster parent.
In this clip, Kelly hadjust shared that she used
(01:48):
to be very conservative,
but over the period of seven to 10 years,
she moved from one side of the spectrum
to the other politically.
And would you be able to,
or willing to share some ofthose beliefs that changed
and a little bit of that personal process?
- For sure. I think partof what started it is I,
I actually was not raisedsuper conservative.
(02:08):
Um, my, one of my parentsis pretty liberal, actually.
The other one's pretty moderate,
but that was, I was, I was sortof raised in that, you know,
we don't really do a whole lot of,
I don't remember my parentstalking about politics.
Maybe they did, but I, I wasn'tpaying attention to that.
And it was one of those morepolite things like we don't
ask people who they voted for.
And then as we've grownup, it's gotten more open.
A lot of people have anyway,
but when I was a teenager,I, my friend group
(02:31):
was really involved in a prettyconservative youth group,
and I just sort of fell inwith this group of friends
and just kind of became very conservative.
And that's just such a moldable age.
And whatever I was beingtaught there, I just sort
of absorbed and didn't question it
because I trusted everybodywho was talking to me.
So I don't really feel likeI made those decisions myself
as far as becoming super conservative.
(02:53):
And like I said, I was notparticularly political,
but hindsight, I can look back
and be like, oh, 20-year-oldme definitely would've voted
Republican, you know,because I didn't know really
what I was thinking at the time.
But then in my mid to late twenties
and I started meeting morepeople who were not like me,
who were not the same coloras me, who identified as,
(03:14):
you know, part of the LGBTQ+community, I realized
that my belief systems were really hurtful
to some of these communities.
And I consider myself avery loving and kind person,
and that is the basis of Christianity.
And I thought, I, this,this doesn't settle to me,
so I'm gonna have to tear thisall down, start from scratch
and figure out what I think for myself.
(03:36):
And it, and it was quitea, quite a process.
I did a lot of reading
and listening to voicesthat weren't like mine
and just seeking outdifferent opinions and,
and just sort of landed, like I said,
on the other side of the spectrum.
- Awesome. I appreciate yourwillingness to share that.
And I know you've shared a little bit
of it on TikTok as well.
I think it, you know, having a moment
(03:58):
where you could be introspective about
that is, is really important.
So I, I think it's great that, um,
you, you're able to share that.
- Definitely. I think one ofthe other really big things
that's worth noting as far as
for people in my area in theRepublican party is abortion is
a really, really huge issue.
And a lot of people are singleissue voters over abortion.
(04:18):
And, and that's adifficult thing for people
to discuss in the Christian community.
And it was a difficultthing for me to grapple
with in the beginning as well,
because, again, 20-year-oldKelly would've thought
very differently about this.
But when we get to like,critically thinking, okay, like,
why is abortion a problem?
Well, abortion is a problembecause we've got people
who are experiencingunplanned pregnancies.
(04:38):
We've got people who areexperiencing systemic poverty, who,
who don't have the resources.
We've got people who are not educated as
to how people get pregnant.
That, and I know that peopleliterally can't believe
that when they hear it,but it is just true.
We need comprehensive sex education.
We have, the research is astounding,
(05:00):
if you wanted to dive into that.
The pregnancy rateselsewhere are so much lower
where there's comprehensive sex education.
And so I am not pro-abortion,
but I am pro, Hey, let's,
let's prevent unplanned pregnancies.
And that's one of the thingsthat I try to do on TikTok is,
Hey, let's gather where we canhave some common interests.
It doesn't, I'm not gonna sit here
(05:20):
and argue the moralityof abortion with you
because there's, we're notgonna get anywhere with that.
But if we can both agree, hey,nobody wants more abortions.
Like, I don't, I don't know those people.
So let's just put the motivations aside
and focus on the shared goal.
And the way we achieve thatgoal is education, prevention,
access to healthcare, that kind of stuff.
(05:41):
And so trying to make it aless polarizing conversation,
hopefully has been helpful,
but that was another, that's a big part,
a big concern about people around here.
- The next episode was with Kevin Maxen,
who more recently made headlines
for being the first openly gay NFL coach.
Kevin and I grew up together,
and in this episode hetalked about hometown life
(06:03):
and what it was like to get to the NFL.
In this clip, he talksabout being a strength
and conditioning coach and how that works
during an NFL game.
So what is it that you do, um, on a daily
for working in strength and conditioning?
What is, what is that job and field like?
- Uh, it, it's a lot more thanwhat I think people expect.
(06:27):
It. It's not, I, I thinkthere's a negative, um, idea
of a strength and conditioningcoach where we're just guys
who drink energy drinks andcoffee and yell all day.
Uh, that's really not what it,
that's about the farthest from the truth.
Now, there are guys like that,
I don't know if they're the best
strength conditioning coaches.
Um, it, it's a lot of,
(06:50):
it's a lot different things.
Uh, there, there's a lotof science space to it.
There's a lot of technology to it.
There's a lot of actualtechnical hands-on to it.
And then there's the not so objective,
understanding humannature, understanding how
to conduct and relate to people.
Um, but really, like, I'll justwalk through this past week,
(07:11):
and it's different becausewe're a brand new staff.
Head coach is new, um,head strength coach is new.
I think there's maybe one
or two, um, strength coacheswho are from the last coach.
So we're really just tryingto get everything set.
For when, the players come back.
Uh, so the typical dayis we're probably there.
(07:34):
I I'm usually there around 5:30
and I'll train for about anhour, an hour and a half,
and then start settingup the weight room, uh,
when guys get in around eight.
So we all kind of help justset up like, Hey, we're bench,
today's a lower body day, what do we got?
Alright, so let's put the bench
or the bars up so they can squat.
(07:56):
Um, things like that. It's alot different just set up wise
in the NFL than college.
In college, you can tella 19-year-old kid, Hey,
go set your bench up whenyou're coaching a nine year
veteran in the NFL, youcan't really tell him, Hey,
go do this, because he's gonnasay, I'm not gonna do it.
And you're gonna say, oh,okay. So, uh, we'll do that.
(08:19):
And then we'll be on thefloor coaching, usually nine
8:30 to 11, 11:30.
Um, so the coachingportion of the day is very,
very small in the NFL.
Um, in college you can be coaching 9:00 AM
to 3:00 PM.
So I'm very fortunate that the,the actual time on your feet
(08:43):
coaching is like, you canget it done pretty quickly
because a roster is half the size.
Um, so then that
after that, it's, it's a lot of meetings.
Uh, it's a lot of, like Isaid, being on the computer.
Uh, right now I'm researching some, uh,
velocity based training mechanismsso it can track bar speed
(09:07):
and power output.
So trying to load all of our formulas,
load all of our workouts,uh, figure out the best scope
to use when we're thinkingabout bar speed, uh, and power,
and how we can use thatto manage guys from March
to middle of November when it's week 14.
(09:30):
And we have guys who have beenbusting their butts all year.
Um, so there's a lot of work on that.
And then usually around five o'clock, uh,
Coach Meyer will come down and,
and we'll have like a,a full staff meeting,
but what direction we're going in,
what have we accomplished?
What do we need from him?
(09:51):
Um, so it's very, it's a veryproductive work environment.
Um, there's a lot of roomfor us to grow, especially me
as, as a younger coach.
Um, like ha having theopportunity to say, Hey, coach, I,
I want to go to SouthCarolina to visit this coach.
Yeah, go do it. Come backwith great information.
(10:13):
So it, it's really,it's fun. It's exciting.
Like this is, it's, as ayounger guy, like I get to go
not only coach for someguys who, who I look up to,
but now I get to go this, it's encouraged
and expect that I go visit them.
So it's really great. It's,it's a really, there's,
(10:33):
we have such a big upside, I think,
but down here, just in terms of us
as individual coaches and as a program.
Um, so yeah, it's, it's a lot.
Uh, but you, you enjoy it.
You, you really do love what you're doing.
And to be able to add value, um, to
(10:53):
the individual players,to the organization,
and to have that mindset, Hey,
we're gonna be the best strength
and conditioning program in the
entire National Football League.
That's a pretty cool motivator.
Um, and when you have your,your boss is telling you, Hey,
yeah, you're, you're right.
We are going to be, do whatever you need
to do to make that happen.
(11:14):
Um, it's pretty exciting.
I don't think that happensin a lot of other, um,
not just in strength conditioning,
but just in working in general.
Um, it's, it's hard
to have everybody inline on the exact same
path of where we wanna go.
So that's very special and exciting.
- Yeah, it sounds like there'sdefinitely a lot going on.
(11:34):
What do you do, you know,
like when the seasonstarts back up in the fall,
what will your role belike during gameplay?
- Um, hopefully there's games.
Uh, we, we don't know what'sgonna happen with Covid.
We don't know whose role is gonna be what.
Um, but I can go back moretowards last year at Vanderbilt.
Uh, what my role on game day was.
(11:57):
Uh, basically we just have tomake sure, uh, that guys are
where they have to bewhen they have to be at.
So if we're on offense
and it's third down, hey,
punt team's gotta beready to go on the field.
Or if it's, um, again, we're on defense
and it's second and long andwe need a certain package
(12:19):
or personnel group onthe field, Hey, wheres so
and so, I, I got him.
I know where he is. So it's, it's, uh,
it's basically babysitting more
or less, uh, making sureguys are paying attention,
guys are involved in thegame, um, kind of helping with
what do the actual coaches need,
what do the athletic trainers need,
(12:41):
what does equipment need?
And we're kind of the ones,um, that are making everything,
connecting all the pieces, so to speak.
- Next up, when I spoke to Mirinda Kosoff,
there were heavy topics thatshe touched on in her book,
but we spoke about traveland different cultures.
This clip is from thatpart of the conversation.
(13:03):
So can you talk a little bit,um, with all of your travel,
some of the different culturesthat you've experienced?
- Yes. Um, I think one
of my most memorable trips was to Turkey.
And I went by myself.
Um, I was in, um, Istanbul for a week
(13:27):
and stayed at a little boutique hotel.
And the first night
after I arrived, I was sitting on the, um,
roof of my hotel, which had a restaurant
that served you at tables on the roof.
And I looked out and I sawthe moon shining on the
Bosphorus, and I could hearthe raisins call to prayer
(13:51):
and see the Blue Mosque,the famous Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.
And you could see their spires.
And they were lit up at night.
And I just thought to myself, wow,
it doesn't get any better than this.
This is, this is just a dream come true.
And I'll never forget this.
And then I went to a littletown called Ibrahim Pasha
(14:14):
in the Cappadocia region of Turkey.
Cappadocia is very hilly and mountainous,
and it has these strangerock formations, um,
that were over the yearseroded to look like,
like a frosty freeze cone of ice cream,
(14:36):
except it was a, I thinkit was called Tufa Rock.
But what was so interesting in Ibrahim
Pasha was, well, I didn'tspeak any, um, Turkish.
I, I learned a few words to be polite,
but I discovered that thepeople in this little village
were exceptionally, um, generous
(14:58):
and open-handed.
They were poor. Um,
and I think they lived together well
because they always helped each other out.
And it was interesting, youknow, the men being Muslims,
the men were separated from the women,
and there was a, a teahouse in the middle of town
(15:19):
where all the men wouldcongregate and smoke.
And at that time, I hada very short haircut.
And, um, I started greeting the women,
'cause I wanted to be friendlyto the, to these people.
And I would say, merhaba,which is, hi, hello.
And they would turn away fromme and not even look at me.
(15:41):
And I thought, well, what's up with that?
I'm being friendly here.I don't understand.
And it turns out, um, oh, Iforgot to mention the fact
that I was in IbrahimPasha to do a week long
art workshop, and I stayed in a cave.
Um, two artists, uh,from the Netherlands, uh,
(16:05):
relocated to Turkey, bought this place
and converted the cavesthat were in their,
their little acreage into rooms.
And it had all the modern amenities.
The only problem wasthe, the ceiling shed.
And, and they said, uh,that's why there's, um,
(16:26):
a net over the bed is to catch
whenever the, the ceilingwould start falling in a little
bit, you know, like smallpieces of, of dirt and stuff.
And so everything got coatedthat was line like clothes
or things lying around, left in my room,
had this little sheen of, um,
(16:47):
tufa dust all over it.
So anyway, the, the Dutchartist that I was studying
with spoke fluent Turkishas well as English as well
as her native language.
And so I, I told hermy dilemma about why I,
I can't, why I'm getting the cold shoulder
(17:08):
from the women in the village.
And she said that oneof them asked her, uh,
why I didn't bring my wife.
And then she realizedthey thought I was a man
because I had very short hair.
(17:28):
Um, they didn't notice thatthis man had breasts, you know,
and this man was not wearingmanly clothes, but, you know,
and they're not supposed to speak to men
who aren't their husbands.
So once that got straightened out, I mean,
and it was a small town,so once something's out,
the whole town knows about it.
(17:49):
And so the women thenwere very friendly, um,
and they raised a lot of their own food.
You wouldn't think that thingslike tomatoes would grow
so well in this powdery soilthat your feet sink down into.
But I went tomato picking with, uh, one
(18:12):
of the, the men I met whorun, who runs a little
antique and artifact shop,
and he asked me if I wantedto go with him and his wife,
or his daughter, I can'tremember which, to pick tomatoes.
And they were huge.
And they were the be, they were the
best tomatoes I've ever had.
(18:33):
So once people knew that I liked tomatoes,
they would bring me tomatoes.
I was walking down the street,
a woman would hail mefrom her courtyard and,
and pulls down some grapes from a
grapevine and give them to me.
And they were so kind and generous.
Um, I felt, I felt sad when I left.
(18:55):
I felt that I had made some friends,
despite the languagebarrier, especially the guy
who ran this li littletiny would be like a
quickie stop, or, you know,one of those quick stop
grocery stores, just a few things.
But he always had fresheggs, and I had a hot plate.
(19:16):
So I cooked eggs in themorning for my breakfast.
And he, and I became, hespoke, he spoke some English,
and he and I had a greattime going back and forth.
Uh, so I was sad.
He, he waved me away when I left, uh,
when I left on the bus, my last, um,
morning in Ibrahim Pasha.
(19:39):
So that was a great experience.
And I, I feel a lot of kinship
with the people from that village.
And I often wonder, gee,if I were to go back,
would they recognize me?
Um, it's been probably eight
or nine years since I was there.
(20:00):
I wouldn't, I don't thinkI would go to Turkey today.
Um, there's too much turmoil gap.
It would be, it would be a little scary.
And while I was there, there was a,
a bombing in the capital city,which is, um, not Istanbul.
It's, um, well, I can'tcall up the name of
(20:22):
that city, but there was a, aterrorist bombing in the city.
So my husband was concerned about that
and was, um, texting me
and writing me, you know,how far are you away from?
And I said, oh, oh, miles,
probably a thousand miles.
I had to fly to Cappadocia for Istanbul.
(20:45):
So, um, and I did my firstballoon hot air balloon
ride there.
And, uh, we went up,
I guess almost as far asyou can go without oxygen,
because I could see the whole,
I could almost see acurve of the landscape.
And to see all those tufastones, uh, from a great
(21:07):
distance was wonderful.
Uh, in Tahiti, the culturethere is very relaxed,
and I was so impressed by the tattoos
that the Tahitian men wore.
They were ornate and beautifully done.
(21:29):
And of course, tattooscame from sailors who,
who met the indigenous people
and took up the art of tattooing,
or having themselves tattooed, like,
because they thought itlooked pretty cool too.
And I almost had an ankle tattoo put on,
(21:49):
but they told me, if, if wedo that, you won't be able
to go in the water for therest of the time of youre here.
I was like, no, I, I'mdefinitely going in the water.
I had a little, um, mantaray feeding experience
where these giant manta rayswould, would come up close
to shore, and I held, heldfood in the flat of my palm,
(22:13):
and their mouths would comeover it like a vacuum cleaner.
Like they just hoovered up the food.
That was very interesting.
Um, and you could, you know,
you could pick a mealoff the trees around you.
There are all these fruittrees, banana trees, uh,
it was a paradise.
(22:34):
And I went to the main island, um,
but also to Raiatea and Huahine.
And one of those islands, uh,was in the film South Pacific,
and I can't remember, I think it was Raiatea.
So there was that connection,
because as a child, Ijust loved South Pacific.
(22:56):
I listened to the music constantly,
and of course I'd seen themovie a couple of times,
and to be able to, to seethe place where it was filmed
was a lot of fun.
- In this next clip, I'mspeaking with Kandrea Wade,
who at the time was a PhD studentin the information science
(23:18):
department at the Universityof Colorado Boulder.
We spoke a lot aboutartificial intelligence
and the entertainment industry.
And so what are you learningin the realm of diversity,
race, gender, that sort of research
that you were talking aboutwithin the AI tech industry?
(23:38):
- Yeah, so I mean, I'mlearning a lot about, I mean,
I think a lot of us know,
or we're starting tolearn about the, the bias
and discrimination thathappens within the AI
and within these technicalsystems that a lot of companies,
um, and even ourselves,we're relying on these days.
And so I think that a lotof people are starting
to learn themselves
(23:59):
or by what you're seeing inthe media that the same type
of bias and, you know, discrimination
that we have in the real world is starting
to be reflected within these systems.
And what I'm learning about is, you know,
why this is happening andwhat do we do about it?
Do we do anything aboutit? How do we prevent it?
Do we retool and rebuild thesystems that already exist
or do we, you know, scrapthem and start all over again
(24:21):
and build a better future from there?
And so I'm looking at mainlyright now that I've kind
of done all of thislike preliminary work on
understanding what's happening.
How do we then educate thepopulations that are most at risk
of the implications ofbeing sorted within systems?
How do we actually reachthem where they're at,
speak their language, and inform them
and educate them about things
(24:42):
that they typicallywould never hear about,
which is why they often endup being, uh, most affected
by the, by the things that
are happening within these systems.
So that's why I'm looking atthings like fine arts and media
and entertainment and, um,
these informal learningtechniques to be able to
educate people on thesevery complicated topics.
(25:03):
- And is there a, like,good solution, you know,
answering the question ofdo we retool everything?
Do we try to change it? Dowe try to make it relearn?
Is is there an answer?
- At the moment,
I mean, a lot of peoplehave different opinions.
I have to say, I don'tthink there is one solution.
(25:24):
I think that a lot of it hasto do with educating the user.
And so I think it's a, it's atop down and bottom up issue.
I think the bottom upis educating the users
so they can be smarter about the decisions
that they're making abouttheir digital footprint,
where they're seen and how they're
representing themselves within systems.
Um, but I think that there just needs
to be also regulationcoming down from the top on
(25:46):
what is able to be done with data.
What is, you know, how capableare these systems of making
real decisions that affect people's lives?
And so there's the twobigger aspects there,
but when it comes to whatdo we do about, you know,
what's happening withinsystems now, one of the,
the biggest things that Iusually talk about is like,
do we really need AI tosolve all of our problems?
(26:08):
Do we really need, um,computers to do things
that humans sometimeswe're great at doing,
sometimes we're terrible at doing?
Or do we just need totrain those humans better?
Um, so I think the question
that I'm exploring rightnow is we, I think we need
to take a better look at AI being,
is it really necessary in solving all
of the world's problems, oris it just like the hottest,
(26:29):
newest, most convenient thing?
'cause it, the, the computing
and processing power isreally what the benefit is.
You know, large amountsof data very quickly,
the predictive analysis that it does.
But, um, you know, when you have bias
that's built into asystem that is human bias,
and now it's running at a bigger,
faster speed at a higher capacity, um,
(26:51):
the same problems are just nowreflected at a bigger scale.
So I think the questionfor me is are do we need
to be using AI for everything?
- This final clip comes frommy interview with Rabbi Noyo,
who referred to herself as a quote,
radically inclusive rabbi.
This episode included a lot of talk
around religion and identity.
(27:13):
And when did you decide thatyou wanted to become a rabbi?
- That's a fun question.
I would come home during rabbinical school
and people would say, oh,what are you doing these days?
And I'd say, I'm studying to be a rabbi.
And they're like, oh, I always knew
that's what you wanted to do.
And I'm like, really?You could have told me.
(27:35):
'cause I didn't I, fresh outta college,
I applied to not rabbinical school,
but cantorial school,which is a school, a,
a, a training for the otherkind of Jewish clergy cantors.
Um, and cantors are trained in
(27:56):
Jewish sacred music.
Um, there are lots of differentsystems of chanting, um,
holy texts, lots of different, um, modes
of chanting daily, weekly,
monthly holiday prayers.
Um, and, uh,
it's an entirely different skillset.
(28:19):
There's some overlap, obviously,
but, um, a lot of people think that
if you are a rabbi
and you can sing, then you can be both
the rabbi and the cantor.
And that's not true.Cantors are fully fledged
clergy with a different skillset.
Um, and that was originallywhat I wanted to do.
That's what I wanted to be.
My three of my big passionsin life are music Judaism
(28:42):
and people, being a cantor seemed
to nicely encompass those three things.
I was like, all right,that's, that's clearly the job
for me off I go to applyto Cantorial school.
I, I applied the responsewas, we like you,
we see a lot of potential.
We want you to work on some things
and apply again in the future.
(29:02):
In the process of working onsaid things, I realized, well,
I shouldn't say, I realizedit wasn't quite so easy.
My dad was the one who suggested
that I think about being a rabbi.
He's like, I thinkyou'd make a good rabbi.
You should think about doing that.
And I was like, no, I know what I'm doing.
I don't wanna have to make any decisions.
This is like, this is mypath. Don't distract me.
(29:25):
But I was hanging out with a lot of rabbis
and working, uh, in a Hebrew prog program
with incoming rabbinical students.
And, um, the more I thought about it,
the more excited I got about.
And, and I finally justwas like, why not rabbi?
(29:46):
And it was that mo
that moment was like a puzzlepiece fitting into place.
Like, yeah, yeah, that's whatI wanna do. I wanna do that.
I wanna be that clergy .
So I made the switchcapital s and three years
after applying toCantorial school, I applied
to rabbinical school and got in.
(30:07):
- And what was it like, uh,like during your childhood,
being a member of the Jewish community?
- I grew up in thereformed Jewish movement.
There are several, uh,movements, branches, sects,
how you can call them any, anynumber of words of Judaism.
(30:30):
Um, some of the, the mainones are reform Judaism,
conservative Orthodox,which Orthodox has its own
like subset of, um,different types of orthodoxy.
There's reconstructingJudaism, there's renewal, uh,
and they're all reallydifferent and amazing.
(30:51):
I grew up reform, uh, reformed Jews, uh,
are often said to be thesecular movement, uh,
that, I mean, there's some truth to that.
There, there are a lot of reformed Jews
that do consider themselves secular, um,
and prefer secular overreligious to describe themselves.
(31:14):
Uh, but I was a religious reform Jew ,
the motto of the reform movement
is choice through knowledge.
And I was like, give me that knowledge.
I want, I, I had aspirations to do
Judaism like an Orthodox person, but
because I learned about it
and decided it was meaningful to me, not
(31:36):
because God told me to, I did not
ever at any point in my lifedo all of the same things
that an Orthodox Jew would've done.
But I started keeping kosher,um, which my family didn't do.
Uh, I started keeping Shabbatin some kinds of ways.
None, none of what I was doingwas the same as if you were
(32:01):
to ask an Orthodox Jewor a conservative Jew or,
or any other, uh, movement,
somebody from any other movement.
What I was doing wasnot going to look like
and it what most people were doing,
but I was finding ways
to make Jewish practice meaningful to me
and make them work for me.
(32:22):
And that's really what thereform movement was all about,
was making Judaism accessible
and applicable for peoplewho didn't wanna do it
in the same ways asother movements, I went
to Hebrew College, which isnot affiliated with a movement.
It's a non-denominational,pluralistic institution.
(32:43):
I identify now asnon-denominational and pluralistic.
But that, that value of
meaning making from my reformupbringing really plays a big
role in the way that I do Judaism myself,
and in the way that I try toguide people who come to me
(33:04):
for, um, guidance in making practices
come to life for them.
- Now, it seems, I don'tknow, I I think it can be kind
of confusing possiblyfor someone to say, oh,
I'm non-denominational and a rabbi.
- Yeah. - So, so when peoplestart to question that,
how, how do you handle that?
(33:28):
- I don't really, I I haven'treally had anybody question,
am I really a rabbi if Idon't have a denomination?
I think a lot of people who are Orthodox
will just group anyone who's not orthodox
in the same blob and just label it reform
(33:50):
and be like, oh, those reformJews, they're not real Jews.
That not, I just wanna be clear,
not everybody who's orthodox or,
or any, nothing is a monolith.
I still have had a lot ofexperiences where people
who call themselves Orthodoxwill say that I am not Jewish
(34:12):
because I am quote reform,
or I'm a woman whothinks that I'm a rabbi,
but that's not, that's nota thing, so I'm not real.
Um, and I think that's really unfortunate.
I think that those voices,unfortunately, tend
to be a lot louder thanprogressive Orthodox voices.
(34:34):
Um, I, I do know
that there are progressiveOrthodox Jews out there who know
that I'm a rabbi, respect that I'm a rabbi
and respect that my Judaism,
my practice looks different from theirs,
and that it is still valid.
Um, unfortunately,that's, you'll find people
who will invalidate anythingdifferent from what they know
(34:55):
anywhere in, in any religionand in any topic really.
- All right. That bringsthis episode to a close.
I'll be providing therelevant episode titles
and resources for theepisodes you heard clips from
today in the description.
And of course, thank you fortaking the time out of your day
(35:17):
to hear some clips from some old stories.
Until next time, bye.
- Hello and welcome to Introducing Me.
I'm your host, Sarah. Istarted this podcast to get
(00:21):
to know other people and lifestyles while
discovering more about myself.
Each episode I give a new guest a chance
to discuss their background,culture, interests,
or whatever they want to talkabout to help increase all
of our own worldviews.
However, in this episode,
we're taking a look backat some previous episodes.
You'll hear clips that wererecorded in my first year
of podcasting, specificallybetween February 13th, 2021
(00:44):
and July 18th, 2021.
In the next couple of episodes,
we'll be looking back at episodesfrom years two and three.
As I close out my fourthyear of podcasting.
I hope you enjoy these episodes
and their different formatwhile I catch up on different
things in my personal life.
It's important to realize
that these episodes were notrecorded within the last few
weeks, like my regular episodes.
(01:06):
Things these guests stated atthe time may not be a fully
accurate representationof how they are today,
but I wanted to pull different stories
and life experiences for today's episode.
There are clips of varyinglengths from five different
episodes, and I hope
that if you haven't heard these episodes,
you give the archives a chanceto hear their entire stories,
(01:26):
or if you've heard them before,give them another listen,
and you might find joy in recalling back
to when you firstlistened to that episode.
The first clip comes from my 23rd
and most popular episode,which was with Kelly Krout,
a former political candidate in Arkansas.
In this episode, we spokeabout campaign life,
being a mom and a foster parent.
In this clip, Kelly hadjust shared that she used
(01:48):
to be very conservative,
but over the period of seven to 10 years,
she moved from one side of the spectrum
to the other politically.
And would you be able to,
or willing to share some ofthose beliefs that changed
and a little bit of that personal process?
- For sure. I think partof what started it is I,
I actually was not raisedsuper conservative.
(02:08):
Um, my, one of my parentsis pretty liberal, actually.
The other one's pretty moderate,
but that was, I was, I was sortof raised in that, you know,
we don't really do a whole lot of,
I don't remember my parentstalking about politics.
Maybe they did, but I, I wasn'tpaying attention to that.
And it was one of those morepolite things like we don't
ask people who they voted for.
And then as we've grownup, it's gotten more open.
A lot of people have anyway,
but when I was a teenager,I, my friend group
(02:31):
was really involved in a prettyconservative youth group,
and I just sort of fell inwith this group of friends
and just kind of became very conservative.
And that's just such a moldable age.
And whatever I was beingtaught there, I just sort
of absorbed and didn't question it
because I trusted everybodywho was talking to me.
So I don't really feel likeI made those decisions myself
as far as becoming super conservative.
(02:53):
And like I said, I was notparticularly political,
but hindsight, I can look back
and be like, oh, 20-year-oldme definitely would've voted
Republican, you know,because I didn't know really
what I was thinking at the time.
But then in my mid to late twenties
and I started meeting morepeople who were not like me,
who were not the same coloras me, who identified as,
(03:14):
you know, part of the LGBTQ+community, I realized
that my belief systems were really hurtful
to some of these communities.
And I consider myself avery loving and kind person,
and that is the basis of Christianity.
And I thought, I, this,this doesn't settle to me,
so I'm gonna have to tear thisall down, start from scratch
and figure out what I think for myself.
(03:36):
And it, and it was quitea, quite a process.
I did a lot of reading
and listening to voicesthat weren't like mine
and just seeking outdifferent opinions and,
and just sort of landed, like I said,
on the other side of the spectrum.
- Awesome. I appreciate yourwillingness to share that.
And I know you've shared a little bit
of it on TikTok as well.
I think it, you know, having a moment
(03:58):
where you could be introspective about
that is, is really important.
So I, I think it's great that, um,
you, you're able to share that.
- Definitely. I think one ofthe other really big things
that's worth noting as far as
for people in my area in theRepublican party is abortion is
a really, really huge issue.
And a lot of people are singleissue voters over abortion.
(04:18):
And, and that's adifficult thing for people
to discuss in the Christian community.
And it was a difficultthing for me to grapple
with in the beginning as well,
because, again, 20-year-oldKelly would've thought
very differently about this.
But when we get to like,critically thinking, okay, like,
why is abortion a problem?
Well, abortion is a problembecause we've got people
who are experiencingunplanned pregnancies.
(04:38):
We've got people who areexperiencing systemic poverty, who,
who don't have the resources.
We've got people who are not educated as
to how people get pregnant.
That, and I know that peopleliterally can't believe
that when they hear it,but it is just true.
We need comprehensive sex education.
We have, the research is astounding,
(05:00):
if you wanted to dive into that.
The pregnancy rateselsewhere are so much lower
where there's comprehensive sex education.
And so I am not pro-abortion,
but I am pro, Hey, let's,
let's prevent unplanned pregnancies.
And that's one of the thingsthat I try to do on TikTok is,
Hey, let's gather where we canhave some common interests.
It doesn't, I'm not gonna sit here
(05:20):
and argue the moralityof abortion with you
because there's, we're notgonna get anywhere with that.
But if we can both agree, hey,nobody wants more abortions.
Like, I don't, I don't know those people.
So let's just put the motivations aside
and focus on the shared goal.
And the way we achieve thatgoal is education, prevention,
access to healthcare, that kind of stuff.
(05:41):
And so trying to make it aless polarizing conversation,
hopefully has been helpful,
but that was another, that's a big part,
a big concern about people around here.
- The next episode was with Kevin Maxen,
who more recently made headlines
for being the first openly gay NFL coach.
Kevin and I grew up together,
and in this episode hetalked about hometown life
(06:03):
and what it was like to get to the NFL.
In this clip, he talksabout being a strength
and conditioning coach and how that works
during an NFL game.
So what is it that you do, um, on a daily
for working in strength and conditioning?
What is, what is that job and field like?
- Uh, it, it's a lot more thanwhat I think people expect.
(06:27):
It. It's not, I, I thinkthere's a negative, um, idea
of a strength and conditioningcoach where we're just guys
who drink energy drinks andcoffee and yell all day.
Uh, that's really not what it,
that's about the farthest from the truth.
Now, there are guys like that,
I don't know if they're the best
strength conditioning coaches.
Um, it, it's a lot of,
(06:50):
it's a lot different things.
Uh, there, there's a lotof science space to it.
There's a lot of technology to it.
There's a lot of actualtechnical hands-on to it.
And then there's the not so objective,
understanding humannature, understanding how
to conduct and relate to people.
Um, but really, like, I'll justwalk through this past week,
(07:11):
and it's different becausewe're a brand new staff.
Head coach is new, um,head strength coach is new.
I think there's maybe one
or two, um, strength coacheswho are from the last coach.
So we're really just tryingto get everything set.
For when, the players come back.
Uh, so the typical dayis we're probably there.
(07:34):
I I'm usually there around 5:30
and I'll train for about anhour, an hour and a half,
and then start settingup the weight room, uh,
when guys get in around eight.
So we all kind of help justset up like, Hey, we're bench,
today's a lower body day, what do we got?
Alright, so let's put the bench
or the bars up so they can squat.
(07:56):
Um, things like that. It's alot different just set up wise
in the NFL than college.
In college, you can tella 19-year-old kid, Hey,
go set your bench up whenyou're coaching a nine year
veteran in the NFL, youcan't really tell him, Hey,
go do this, because he's gonnasay, I'm not gonna do it.
And you're gonna say, oh,okay. So, uh, we'll do that.
(08:19):
And then we'll be on thefloor coaching, usually nine
8:30 to 11, 11:30.
Um, so the coachingportion of the day is very,
very small in the NFL.
Um, in college you can be coaching 9:00 AM
to 3:00 PM.
So I'm very fortunate that the,the actual time on your feet
(08:43):
coaching is like, you canget it done pretty quickly
because a roster is half the size.
Um, so then that
after that, it's, it's a lot of meetings.
Uh, it's a lot of, like Isaid, being on the computer.
Uh, right now I'm researching some, uh,
velocity based training mechanismsso it can track bar speed
(09:07):
and power output.
So trying to load all of our formulas,
load all of our workouts,uh, figure out the best scope
to use when we're thinkingabout bar speed, uh, and power,
and how we can use thatto manage guys from March
to middle of November when it's week 14.
(09:30):
And we have guys who have beenbusting their butts all year.
Um, so there's a lot of work on that.
And then usually around five o'clock, uh,
Coach Meyer will come down and,
and we'll have like a,a full staff meeting,
but what direction we're going in,
what have we accomplished?
What do we need from him?
(09:51):
Um, so it's very, it's a veryproductive work environment.
Um, there's a lot of roomfor us to grow, especially me
as, as a younger coach.
Um, like ha having theopportunity to say, Hey, coach, I,
I want to go to SouthCarolina to visit this coach.
Yeah, go do it. Come backwith great information.
(10:13):
So it, it's really,it's fun. It's exciting.
Like this is, it's, as ayounger guy, like I get to go
not only coach for someguys who, who I look up to,
but now I get to go this, it's encouraged
and expect that I go visit them.
So it's really great. It's,it's a really, there's,
(10:33):
we have such a big upside, I think,
but down here, just in terms of us
as individual coaches and as a program.
Um, so yeah, it's, it's a lot.
Uh, but you, you enjoy it.
You, you really do love what you're doing.
And to be able to add value, um, to
(10:53):
the individual players,to the organization,
and to have that mindset, Hey,
we're gonna be the best strength
and conditioning program in the
entire National Football League.
That's a pretty cool motivator.
Um, and when you have your,your boss is telling you, Hey,
yeah, you're, you're right.
We are going to be, do whatever you need
to do to make that happen.
(11:14):
Um, it's pretty exciting.
I don't think that happensin a lot of other, um,
not just in strength conditioning,
but just in working in general.
Um, it's, it's hard
to have everybody inline on the exact same
path of where we wanna go.
So that's very special and exciting.
- Yeah, it sounds like there'sdefinitely a lot going on.
(11:34):
What do you do, you know,
like when the seasonstarts back up in the fall,
what will your role belike during gameplay?
- Um, hopefully there's games.
Uh, we, we don't know what'sgonna happen with Covid.
We don't know whose role is gonna be what.
Um, but I can go back moretowards last year at Vanderbilt.
Uh, what my role on game day was.
(11:57):
Uh, basically we just have tomake sure, uh, that guys are
where they have to bewhen they have to be at.
So if we're on offense
and it's third down, hey,
punt team's gotta beready to go on the field.
Or if it's, um, again, we're on defense
and it's second and long andwe need a certain package
(12:19):
or personnel group onthe field, Hey, wheres so
and so, I, I got him.
I know where he is. So it's, it's, uh,
it's basically babysitting more
or less, uh, making sureguys are paying attention,
guys are involved in thegame, um, kind of helping with
what do the actual coaches need,
what do the athletic trainers need,
(12:41):
what does equipment need?
And we're kind of the ones,um, that are making everything,
connecting all the pieces, so to speak.
- Next up, when I spoke to Mirinda Kosoff,
there were heavy topics thatshe touched on in her book,
but we spoke about traveland different cultures.
This clip is from thatpart of the conversation.
(13:03):
So can you talk a little bit,um, with all of your travel,
some of the different culturesthat you've experienced?
- Yes. Um, I think one
of my most memorable trips was to Turkey.
And I went by myself.
Um, I was in, um, Istanbul for a week
(13:27):
and stayed at a little boutique hotel.
And the first night
after I arrived, I was sitting on the, um,
roof of my hotel, which had a restaurant
that served you at tables on the roof.
And I looked out and I sawthe moon shining on the
Bosphorus, and I could hearthe raisins call to prayer
(13:51):
and see the Blue Mosque,the famous Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.
And you could see their spires.
And they were lit up at night.
And I just thought to myself, wow,
it doesn't get any better than this.
This is, this is just a dream come true.
And I'll never forget this.
And then I went to a littletown called Ibrahim Pasha
(14:14):
in the Cappadocia region of Turkey.
Cappadocia is very hilly and mountainous,
and it has these strangerock formations, um,
that were over the yearseroded to look like,
like a frosty freeze cone of ice cream,
(14:36):
except it was a, I thinkit was called Tufa Rock.
But what was so interesting in Ibrahim
Pasha was, well, I didn'tspeak any, um, Turkish.
I, I learned a few words to be polite,
but I discovered that thepeople in this little village
were exceptionally, um, generous
(14:58):
and open-handed.
They were poor. Um,
and I think they lived together well
because they always helped each other out.
And it was interesting, youknow, the men being Muslims,
the men were separated from the women,
and there was a, a teahouse in the middle of town
(15:19):
where all the men wouldcongregate and smoke.
And at that time, I hada very short haircut.
And, um, I started greeting the women,
'cause I wanted to be friendlyto the, to these people.
And I would say, merhaba,which is, hi, hello.
And they would turn away fromme and not even look at me.
(15:41):
And I thought, well, what's up with that?
I'm being friendly here.I don't understand.
And it turns out, um, oh, Iforgot to mention the fact
that I was in IbrahimPasha to do a week long
art workshop, and I stayed in a cave.
Um, two artists, uh,from the Netherlands, uh,
(16:05):
relocated to Turkey, bought this place
and converted the cavesthat were in their,
their little acreage into rooms.
And it had all the modern amenities.
The only problem wasthe, the ceiling shed.
And, and they said, uh,that's why there's, um,
(16:26):
a net over the bed is to catch
whenever the, the ceilingwould start falling in a little
bit, you know, like smallpieces of, of dirt and stuff.
And so everything got coatedthat was line like clothes
or things lying around, left in my room,
had this little sheen of, um,
(16:47):
tufa dust all over it.
So anyway, the, the Dutchartist that I was studying
with spoke fluent Turkishas well as English as well
as her native language.
And so I, I told hermy dilemma about why I,
I can't, why I'm getting the cold shoulder
(17:08):
from the women in the village.
And she said that oneof them asked her, uh,
why I didn't bring my wife.
And then she realizedthey thought I was a man
because I had very short hair.
(17:28):
Um, they didn't notice thatthis man had breasts, you know,
and this man was not wearingmanly clothes, but, you know,
and they're not supposed to speak to men
who aren't their husbands.
So once that got straightened out, I mean,
and it was a small town,so once something's out,
the whole town knows about it.
(17:49):
And so the women thenwere very friendly, um,
and they raised a lot of their own food.
You wouldn't think that thingslike tomatoes would grow
so well in this powdery soilthat your feet sink down into.
But I went tomato picking with, uh, one
(18:12):
of the, the men I met whorun, who runs a little
antique and artifact shop,
and he asked me if I wantedto go with him and his wife,
or his daughter, I can'tremember which, to pick tomatoes.
And they were huge.
And they were the be, they were the
best tomatoes I've ever had.
(18:33):
So once people knew that I liked tomatoes,
they would bring me tomatoes.
I was walking down the street,
a woman would hail mefrom her courtyard and,
and pulls down some grapes from a
grapevine and give them to me.
And they were so kind and generous.
Um, I felt, I felt sad when I left.
(18:55):
I felt that I had made some friends,
despite the languagebarrier, especially the guy
who ran this li littletiny would be like a
quickie stop, or, you know,one of those quick stop
grocery stores, just a few things.
But he always had fresheggs, and I had a hot plate.
(19:16):
So I cooked eggs in themorning for my breakfast.
And he, and I became, hespoke, he spoke some English,
and he and I had a greattime going back and forth.
Uh, so I was sad.
He, he waved me away when I left, uh,
when I left on the bus, my last, um,
morning in Ibrahim Pasha.
(19:39):
So that was a great experience.
And I, I feel a lot of kinship
with the people from that village.
And I often wonder, gee,if I were to go back,
would they recognize me?
Um, it's been probably eight
or nine years since I was there.
(20:00):
I wouldn't, I don't thinkI would go to Turkey today.
Um, there's too much turmoil gap.
It would be, it would be a little scary.
And while I was there, there was a,
a bombing in the capital city,which is, um, not Istanbul.
It's, um, well, I can'tcall up the name of
(20:22):
that city, but there was a, aterrorist bombing in the city.
So my husband was concerned about that
and was, um, texting me
and writing me, you know,how far are you away from?
And I said, oh, oh, miles,
probably a thousand miles.
I had to fly to Cappadocia for Istanbul.
(20:45):
So, um, and I did my firstballoon hot air balloon
ride there.
And, uh, we went up,
I guess almost as far asyou can go without oxygen,
because I could see the whole,
I could almost see acurve of the landscape.
And to see all those tufastones, uh, from a great
(21:07):
distance was wonderful.
Uh, in Tahiti, the culturethere is very relaxed,
and I was so impressed by the tattoos
that the Tahitian men wore.
They were ornate and beautifully done.
(21:29):
And of course, tattooscame from sailors who,
who met the indigenous people
and took up the art of tattooing,
or having themselves tattooed, like,
because they thought itlooked pretty cool too.
And I almost had an ankle tattoo put on,
(21:49):
but they told me, if, if wedo that, you won't be able
to go in the water for therest of the time of youre here.
I was like, no, I, I'mdefinitely going in the water.
I had a little, um, mantaray feeding experience
where these giant manta rayswould, would come up close
to shore, and I held, heldfood in the flat of my palm,
(22:13):
and their mouths would comeover it like a vacuum cleaner.
Like they just hoovered up the food.
That was very interesting.
Um, and you could, you know,
you could pick a mealoff the trees around you.
There are all these fruittrees, banana trees, uh,
it was a paradise.
(22:34):
And I went to the main island, um,
but also to Raiatea and Huahine.
And one of those islands, uh,was in the film South Pacific,
and I can't remember, I think it was Raiatea.
So there was that connection,
because as a child, Ijust loved South Pacific.
(22:56):
I listened to the music constantly,
and of course I'd seen themovie a couple of times,
and to be able to, to seethe place where it was filmed
was a lot of fun.
- In this next clip, I'mspeaking with Kandrea Wade,
who at the time was a PhD studentin the information science
(23:18):
department at the Universityof Colorado Boulder.
We spoke a lot aboutartificial intelligence
and the entertainment industry.
And so what are you learningin the realm of diversity,
race, gender, that sort of research
that you were talking aboutwithin the AI tech industry?
(23:38):
- Yeah, so I mean, I'mlearning a lot about, I mean,
I think a lot of us know,
or we're starting tolearn about the, the bias
and discrimination thathappens within the AI
and within these technicalsystems that a lot of companies,
um, and even ourselves,we're relying on these days.
And so I think that a lotof people are starting
to learn themselves
(23:59):
or by what you're seeing inthe media that the same type
of bias and, you know, discrimination
that we have in the real world is starting
to be reflected within these systems.
And what I'm learning about is, you know,
why this is happening andwhat do we do about it?
Do we do anything aboutit? How do we prevent it?
Do we retool and rebuild thesystems that already exist
or do we, you know, scrapthem and start all over again
(24:21):
and build a better future from there?
And so I'm looking at mainlyright now that I've kind
of done all of thislike preliminary work on
understanding what's happening.
How do we then educate thepopulations that are most at risk
of the implications ofbeing sorted within systems?
How do we actually reachthem where they're at,
speak their language, and inform them
and educate them about things
(24:42):
that they typicallywould never hear about,
which is why they often endup being, uh, most affected
by the, by the things that
are happening within these systems.
So that's why I'm looking atthings like fine arts and media
and entertainment and, um,
these informal learningtechniques to be able to
educate people on thesevery complicated topics.
(25:03):
- And is there a, like,good solution, you know,
answering the question ofdo we retool everything?
Do we try to change it? Dowe try to make it relearn?
Is is there an answer?
- At the moment,
I mean, a lot of peoplehave different opinions.
I have to say, I don'tthink there is one solution.
(25:24):
I think that a lot of it hasto do with educating the user.
And so I think it's a, it's atop down and bottom up issue.
I think the bottom upis educating the users
so they can be smarter about the decisions
that they're making abouttheir digital footprint,
where they're seen and how they're
representing themselves within systems.
Um, but I think that there just needs
to be also regulationcoming down from the top on
(25:46):
what is able to be done with data.
What is, you know, how capableare these systems of making
real decisions that affect people's lives?
And so there's the twobigger aspects there,
but when it comes to whatdo we do about, you know,
what's happening withinsystems now, one of the,
the biggest things that Iusually talk about is like,
do we really need AI tosolve all of our problems?
(26:08):
Do we really need, um,computers to do things
that humans sometimeswe're great at doing,
sometimes we're terrible at doing?
Or do we just need totrain those humans better?
Um, so I think the question
that I'm exploring rightnow is we, I think we need
to take a better look at AI being,
is it really necessary in solving all
of the world's problems, oris it just like the hottest,
(26:29):
newest, most convenient thing?
'cause it, the, the computing
and processing power isreally what the benefit is.
You know, large amountsof data very quickly,
the predictive analysis that it does.
But, um, you know, when you have bias
that's built into asystem that is human bias,
and now it's running at a bigger,
faster speed at a higher capacity, um,
(26:51):
the same problems are just nowreflected at a bigger scale.
So I think the questionfor me is are do we need
to be using AI for everything?
- This final clip comes frommy interview with Rabbi Noyo,
who referred to herself as a quote,
radically inclusive rabbi.
This episode included a lot of talk
around religion and identity.
(27:13):
And when did you decide thatyou wanted to become a rabbi?
- That's a fun question.
I would come home during rabbinical school
and people would say, oh,what are you doing these days?
And I'd say, I'm studying to be a rabbi.
And they're like, oh, I always knew
that's what you wanted to do.
And I'm like, really?You could have told me.
(27:35):
'cause I didn't I, fresh outta college,
I applied to not rabbinical school,
but cantorial school,which is a school, a,
a, a training for the otherkind of Jewish clergy cantors.
Um, and cantors are trained in
(27:56):
Jewish sacred music.
Um, there are lots of differentsystems of chanting, um,
holy texts, lots of different, um, modes
of chanting daily, weekly,
monthly holiday prayers.
Um, and, uh,
it's an entirely different skillset.
(28:19):
There's some overlap, obviously,
but, um, a lot of people think that
if you are a rabbi
and you can sing, then you can be both
the rabbi and the cantor.
And that's not true.Cantors are fully fledged
clergy with a different skillset.
Um, and that was originallywhat I wanted to do.
That's what I wanted to be.
My three of my big passionsin life are music Judaism
(28:42):
and people, being a cantor seemed
to nicely encompass those three things.
I was like, all right,that's, that's clearly the job
for me off I go to applyto Cantorial school.
I, I applied the responsewas, we like you,
we see a lot of potential.
We want you to work on some things
and apply again in the future.
(29:02):
In the process of working onsaid things, I realized, well,
I shouldn't say, I realizedit wasn't quite so easy.
My dad was the one who suggested
that I think about being a rabbi.
He's like, I thinkyou'd make a good rabbi.
You should think about doing that.
And I was like, no, I know what I'm doing.
I don't wanna have to make any decisions.
This is like, this is mypath. Don't distract me.
(29:25):
But I was hanging out with a lot of rabbis
and working, uh, in a Hebrew prog program
with incoming rabbinical students.
And, um, the more I thought about it,
the more excited I got about.
And, and I finally justwas like, why not rabbi?
(29:46):
And it was that mo
that moment was like a puzzlepiece fitting into place.
Like, yeah, yeah, that's whatI wanna do. I wanna do that.
I wanna be that clergy .
So I made the switchcapital s and three years
after applying toCantorial school, I applied
to rabbinical school and got in.
(30:07):
- And what was it like, uh,like during your childhood,
being a member of the Jewish community?
- I grew up in thereformed Jewish movement.
There are several, uh,movements, branches, sects,
how you can call them any, anynumber of words of Judaism.
(30:30):
Um, some of the, the mainones are reform Judaism,
conservative Orthodox,which Orthodox has its own
like subset of, um,different types of orthodoxy.
There's reconstructingJudaism, there's renewal, uh,
and they're all reallydifferent and amazing.
(30:51):
I grew up reform, uh, reformed Jews, uh,
are often said to be thesecular movement, uh,
that, I mean, there's some truth to that.
There, there are a lot of reformed Jews
that do consider themselves secular, um,
and prefer secular overreligious to describe themselves.
(31:14):
Uh, but I was a religious reform Jew ,
the motto of the reform movement
is choice through knowledge.
And I was like, give me that knowledge.
I want, I, I had aspirations to do
Judaism like an Orthodox person, but
because I learned about it
and decided it was meaningful to me, not
(31:36):
because God told me to, I did not
ever at any point in my lifedo all of the same things
that an Orthodox Jew would've done.
But I started keeping kosher,um, which my family didn't do.
Uh, I started keeping Shabbatin some kinds of ways.
None, none of what I was doingwas the same as if you were
(32:01):
to ask an Orthodox Jewor a conservative Jew or,
or any other, uh, movement,
somebody from any other movement.
What I was doing wasnot going to look like
and it what most people were doing,
but I was finding ways
to make Jewish practice meaningful to me
and make them work for me.
(32:22):
And that's really what thereform movement was all about,
was making Judaism accessible
and applicable for peoplewho didn't wanna do it
in the same ways asother movements, I went
to Hebrew College, which isnot affiliated with a movement.
It's a non-denominational,pluralistic institution.
(32:43):
I identify now asnon-denominational and pluralistic.
But that, that value of
meaning making from my reformupbringing really plays a big
role in the way that I do Judaism myself,
and in the way that I try toguide people who come to me
(33:04):
for, um, guidance in making practices
come to life for them.
- Now, it seems, I don'tknow, I I think it can be kind
of confusing possiblyfor someone to say, oh,
I'm non-denominational and a rabbi.
- Yeah. - So, so when peoplestart to question that,
how, how do you handle that?
(33:28):
- I don't really, I I haven'treally had anybody question,
am I really a rabbi if Idon't have a denomination?
I think a lot of people who are Orthodox
will just group anyone who's not orthodox
in the same blob and just label it reform
(33:50):
and be like, oh, those reformJews, they're not real Jews.
That not, I just wanna be clear,
not everybody who's orthodox or,
or any, nothing is a monolith.
I still have had a lot ofexperiences where people
who call themselves Orthodoxwill say that I am not Jewish
(34:12):
because I am quote reform,
or I'm a woman whothinks that I'm a rabbi,
but that's not, that's nota thing, so I'm not real.
Um, and I think that's really unfortunate.
I think that those voices,unfortunately, tend
to be a lot louder thanprogressive Orthodox voices.
(34:34):
Um, I, I do know
that there are progressiveOrthodox Jews out there who know
that I'm a rabbi, respect that I'm a rabbi
and respect that my Judaism,
my practice looks different from theirs,
and that it is still valid.
Um, unfortunately,that's, you'll find people
who will invalidate anythingdifferent from what they know
(34:55):
anywhere in, in any religionand in any topic really.
- All right. That bringsthis episode to a close.
I'll be providing therelevant episode titles
and resources for theepisodes you heard clips from
today in the description.
And of course, thank you fortaking the time out of your day
(35:17):
to hear some clips from some old stories.
Until next time, bye.
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