Chase Masterson | Ep. 38

Actress Chase Masterson joins us for a wide-ranging chat about her role in Star Trek, her humanitarian work, and how fandom can be a force for good.

Each week, we explore and celebrate the lives that the Star Trek universe has forever changed. From former and future cast and crew members to celebrities, scientists, and astronauts whose personal and professional journeys have been affected by the franchise, we sit down and dive deep with a new friend, laughing and learning from their stories. Sit back, grab a drink, and join our hosts, Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, as we get geeky in The D-Con Chamber.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The show has begun.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
We've cor It's the.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Conch Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, trekkies and trekkers.
Welcome back to another episode of the dcon Chamber. I
am Connor Trenier, your co host, alongside my bestie in
a few continents inlyn Place's universe, Dominic Keating Dah. I. Guys,

(00:31):
we have a really wonderful, interesting guest. Most of you
know her as the Bajoran Dabbo girl Lita in DS nine,
where she graced the screen with a dulce tones and
her beauty and has moved into another arena in her

(00:51):
life in this pop culture hero Coalition, which I really
want to spend a lot of time talking about today,
but I don't know how many people know about this.
It's a very important charity organization that deals with a
host of things that young people have to deal with.

(01:12):
Without further ado, Chase Mattresson, Thank you so much, Connor
and Dominic.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
It's such a pleasure to be here, and huge congrats
to you guys on this podcast. It's so well loved
and you've really broken through and needed a fun, unique thing,
and I just I appreciate you having me here.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Of course, we're very happy to have you, darling. It's
been a long time, long overdue, and thank.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
You, thank you so much. Well, we've all known each
other quite a while. Yeah, it's fun to be working
with you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
I'm excited because I mean, and I've said, there's about
several other people have had on the show that we
all know each other for for literally decades now, and
yet we're kind of like passing ships in the nies
at these conventions. This is an opportunity where we sit
down and we actually spend some quality time and really
get to chat really where we don't do that a
lot at the conventions. And because we're so sort of

(02:02):
you know, tool in this way and that. So I'm
excited to you know, really spend some time with you,
Chase and.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Thank you back at you, Dominic. That's so well said.
I mean, we all you know, know each other and
care about each other a great deal, and yet conventions
are the one place where we meet up and our
focus is on the fans. So it's really nice to
be able to hang out with you guys.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Likewise, likewise, well let's start off with with you know,
I wanted to ask you how you got Lida.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Thank you. It's a bit of a story, I'll tell
you very quickly. So, back way before Star Trek, I
was in an acting class of ten people in a
city of twelve million people. And three of those people
were Garrett from Voyager, Jonathan del Arco from Next Gen
and the Card and me and two further the Star

(02:56):
Trek connections. The class was directed, or you know, taught
by Core Allen, who has a huge background in Star
Trek as well as an actor from Rebel Without a Cause.
And so Jonathan would go to class on Monday nights
and come in and tell us about this wonderful work
that he was getting to do on Star Trek and
the places where he got to go meet the fans,

(03:16):
the conventions, and he'd get to travel all over the
world and meet the people who make the show possible,
which is the fans. And I thought, oh, he sounds sickening,
o Jack, good for you, No, but I I thought
I want some of that. I thought, that's really the
show I want to be on. I'll also tell you

(03:38):
I had a boyfriend who was such a trekky that
I was only allowed to call him during commercials.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Oh my God, oh that lost.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Who's sorry now?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
So I needs yeah right right?

Speaker 1 (03:54):
So I knew Star Trek and I loved it for
various reasons, and I really wanted to be on this show.
Oh but back at that time, I didn't have a
great agent, and so I found a way to meet
casting directors, and this was by paying thirty dollars a
night to go see casting directors at these showcases. So
you could go meet a casting director and if they
liked you enough, they might call you in. But I

(04:17):
was too poor to be able to afford thirty dollars
many times. So I told the casting person, the workshop person, look,
I will make phone calls and increase your business if
you let me come in and take your casting director workshops.
And she did, And because of all of those conversations
with Jonathan del Arco, I met Ron Serma. That was

(04:39):
one of my goals. And Ron brought me in for
the role of Marda, which was a role that Adabo girl.
But you're a Dabo girl who dated Jake in the
second season. And I work really hard on the audition
and we got down to the final two and it
was another girl and me, and they cast the other
girl because Jake was sixteen. Uh, it was a role

(05:03):
to play opposite Jake basically, and Jake was sixteen and
the girl they cast was nineteen and I'm you were
not not, So I thought, oh, how close and yet
so far away. I just I really wanted this show,
and so I just kept plugging away.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
And lady to hear that Avery, Avery then sort of
earmarked you that you could be his girlfriend. Did I
hit something like that?

Speaker 1 (05:31):
He actually did, he said after that audition, he said
that girl, day am I son, she's I know, and
he said she's She's a little more right for me,
don't you think? And yeah, yeah. So so then I
found out that they wrote the role of Lida for me.

(05:53):
Oh and I had to audition anyway, but both both
Ira and Renea Tavria, who wrote the character, who wrote
that episode, told me that, And what an incredible hor
I mean, just more than words.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
She created the role having met you for for Jake's girlfriend,
and we can't pass this up. We got to find that. Well,
it doesn't surprise me, Chase. I mean every time I
see you on screen, you just you you pop off
the screen.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Love.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Well, that's really kind.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Thank you for kidding. I mean even in I mean
I had to only recredited too much. But even in
that film, we all did unbelievable I mean, which was believable.
It was unbelievable you were even in that I was,
it was extraordinary. Just how you shone literally like a
light off that screen.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Well, thank you, Dominic. I feel the same way about you.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, yeah, we worked together, Chase so a few a
few years ago on a movie where.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
At a hand puppet, and you know that's always going
to take focus.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Together on movies that have puppets. I think that's there,
that's our thing.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
You've done another thing with that with a puppet.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, yeah, I know. It was called Baby Packed two.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
This this, this was a fun movie. This was directed
by Matt Berman and Connor. You were wonderful in this film.
I highly recommend it.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
You guys, Thank you as as.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Were you and you know, and then to to to
echo with dom saying, you know what you see on
the screen is just like you.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
You pop and that's you do. Thank you a great thing.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Thank you. I appreciate that a lot. Well, I just
know how lucky I am, I mean, how many wonderful
actors are there out there across the board in theater,
film and television who really are talented and never get
to work at all, much much less have even a portion.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Of what we have, so very capricious business.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
I'm more grateful and.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
You get older. I wrote, the road is paved to
heaven and hell with great actors who have never had
a chance.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah. Yeah, so we're all pretty lucky and we owe
it to you guys, the fans.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
The experience on DS ninety, Did you enjoy it? Was it?
How did you feel about it?

Speaker 1 (08:22):
I really loved it. I was very surprised, though, because
part of what happened was I was only supposed to
be on one episode, So I was there for four
lines for one day, and that's all that the contract was.
And on that day Rick Berman came to set and
people were saying, oh my gosh, Rick Berman never comes

(08:43):
to set set, I know. And so on that day
there was another woman who was there as a one
day guest star, and people were buzzing about He's going
to pick either one of them to recur. It's going
to be one or the other, or maybe both, but
I thought for sure it's her. The actress's name was
Barry Hawkwold and she played basically opposite Sid in a

(09:08):
storyline there, and I just thought she was wonderful, and
you know, that was it, and she was wonderful, and
you know, the tide can always turn any way for
any of us. But for whatever reason, they decided to
bring Leeda back, and Barry went on to do a
lot of other television And so that makes me even

(09:30):
more grateful because you know, there are no guarantees. I
never had a contract, Max or I or many other
the recurring characters on DS nine were only episode to episode,
so they could have killed us off at any time.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I think sort of alluded to the fact that, yeah,
you were all a lot of the cast that we
thought were as regulars were as it were contract players
that were brought in literally episode to episode.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah huh.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
So what was it written in? So were you always
going to have a love interest with with Rom or
was that that was then you know, discovered later?

Speaker 1 (10:12):
No, that was discovered Leader. That's a great question, Dom,
thank you. So as as a story goes, Ira went
over to Max one day on set and he said, Max, Rom,
we're going to give you Lida. You and Leader are
going to be a couple and Max.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
Said, oh, thank you, and then Iras said, Ira said,
it's because doctor Basher is so attractive and all the
fans love him, so we want to keep him single,
and Max goes h que.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
So anyway, so yeah, so but Lda and Lida and
Basher were kind of a Barbie and Ken kind of couple.
You know, there wasn't a lot of comedy or drama
or anything you could really do. But with Lida and
Ram it was more lucy and ricky, you know, the
wackiness and right and and the differences of the cultures.

(11:08):
That was so beautiful. And one thing that Ira told
us is he said, I want you Ram and Leda
to be an example of a happy couple on television
because there really aren't many happy couples. And he said,
you know, all the couples are either involved in like
cheating or addiction or something nefarious. And he said, I

(11:30):
want to I want to prove to the audience that
people as a couple can be both interesting and you know,
can can can be and happy.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, and we were.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
We were interesting.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Great job, ain't you. And this is the act to
what this is Magarets singing, right, They knew about that
before this. It was singing a part of the first audition.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
No, I never sang on DS nine. I had sung
a bit, but not really a lot. At that point.
I had done a lot of theater and music in
clubs and stuff. But I was in a period where
I was so focused on TV and you know in
film that I just I wasn't really I didn't have
any samples to show them, and so I didn't. I

(12:17):
didn't get to sing on Deep to Face nine, but
I'm grateful to have been able to do that out
of Star Trek at a lot of events. And that's
just a really nice voice.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
And yeah, that's amazing. Well, I don't want to take
all of our time on Star Trek DS nine and
your character, no offense, but I do really want to
get into the work you've been doing for what the
last eleven years with the Pop Culture Hero Coalition as Q.
I really want to dive into that. And I initially
want to ask you what what was your impetus? What

(12:49):
what what made you do this?

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Well, it's it's it's it's a hard story. I went
through a period of extreme depression, really really bad in
the period after deeps face nine wrapped because I had
a stalking incident that was related to something in Star Trek,
in Star Trek fandom, and I it was Yeah, there

(13:19):
was a Star Trek fan who decided he wasn't getting
as much out of his fan club membership as he wanted,
so he shouldn't love Yeah, not funny, And he listed
me on a huge international dating service without my knowledge
or consent, as as if he were listing himself. So
he listed pictures of me, and I listed my acting

(13:40):
credits and disgusting lies, and he listed my home address
at the time, and so immediately my son and I
had to flee. And it was a very very It
was a devastating situation, partly logistically and also partly just emotionally.

(14:02):
It tore me apart in ways that how could how
can the world be this way? How can people do
this kind of thing to each other? I'm sorry. Out
of that, I received from one of the people on
matchmaker dot com who saw my profile hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds a threat from somebody threatening violence
on my son and me, and that was what really

(14:25):
put me over the edge, and I didn't handle it
well I drank, and I was deeply rageful and depressed
for a long time, and I managed that I'd stopped
drinking for six months at this point. And a friend
of mine said, if you want to help, if you
want to feel better, go help people who have it

(14:46):
worse than you. Well, I knew a lot of people
have it worse than me. I mean, you guys were
like in the top luckiest people on the planet ever.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Right right.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
But I couldn't think of anybody who was as angry
I was, little me as gang members. So a friend
and I went downtown and we started to help these
kids at Homeboy Industries. And it was a friend of
mine who had a self help book, and so we thought,
you know, let's see if this book works. Let's see
if we can help people who really need help. I mean,

(15:18):
I have this somewhat white collar problem. These kids grew
up surrounded by violence. These kids live like half an
hour from Hollywood, in a whole nother world. And I
started to really think about the inequity about this world.
And I'd go to Star Trek conventions on the weekends
or comic cons and we'd celebrate these billion dollar properties

(15:40):
with fictional bullets flying. And then I'd go to Homeboy
and I'd work with these kids Monday through Friday where
they lived, where real bullets are flying, and where you know,
these kids were in danger every minute of their lives.
And I thought, what can we do to bring these
two worlds together, to use the power of pop culture

(16:02):
and the power of Hollywood really to go in and
reach people who carry so much more than I can imagine,
who have only been born in the wrong zip code.
You know, I mean we won the birth lottery.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Ye, so, Chase, you were also saving yourself in that too. Yeah,
there's a certain And I've spent some time with people
who are in recovery, and there's a couple of things
that occur. Either you.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Become myopic and only think about yourself.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
Your ego, or the way that you work through all
of this is to be of service.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
That is exactly it. When I got there, I said,
you know, they look at me like, what if you
got you know, you're this little blonde girl from West
LA And I had to say, you know, I don't
know why the world works the way it does. Why
some people plan for college and other kids literally kids
plan their funerals, I don't know why people were born

(17:09):
in different places, some good and some not. But I
know what it's like to be afraid to go home
at night. I know what it's like to take a
substance and never want to wake up. I know what
it's like to want to hurt myself and other people.
And maybe if we work together we can make life better.

(17:30):
And so we did. And it was out of that
experience helping kids and them helping me, you know, as
you said, I was there to save my own but
I was six months sober then I'm eighteen years sober
next week.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, did you look at program at the same time
to you know, some sort of twelve step?

Speaker 1 (17:50):
I mean not, I have, and I have to say
it's very it is very helpful in ways that help
all humans, you know. Is the the foundations of the program, Yeah, resiliency.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
And then the camaraderie, the community. You know, it's a
it's essential really to try and knuckle this on your own,
is you know, well, it's a.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Bloody hell exactly exactly. We come up upon these, as
they say, eight hundred pound gorillas, and we we isolate
because you know, trauma makes us close in and we
addiction makes us close in and it really is in
the connectivity of being involved with people who face similar
challenges that we know that we can face our own challenges.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
And then being of service to them as well. Exactly
so the chat from our own boy, I think I
had him on the radio the other day. Did they
just celebrates an anniversary? I think of the little thing
they did. Didn't they forget his name?

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Do you remember you father, Greg Boyle rather Greg boil Well, don't.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, Yeah, he's a man's He's amazing.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
He was. He was my mentor basically in this and
it was just amazing to see how, you know, these
kids from hugely disparate back I mean backgrounds in terms
of like rival gangs, Like in their previous lives, these
kids would have shot each other for fun, and now

(19:22):
at homeboy, they were working together like brothers, really leaving
all the hate and conflict behind and knowing that love
is the only power and that making their lives better
was possible. And I thought, why can't we all do that?

Speaker 3 (19:39):
You know, what do you in your experience, what's the
clique that happens in people when when that occurs where
they're able to think outside of their own experience and
existence into you know, work with and four others.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
I think part of it. That was such a great question. Connor,
thank you you and uh and Domic too. This is
so great. I think it's partly a matter of hitting
a rock bottom, yeah, you know, and realizing that all
the things that we look to are so temporary that

(20:17):
they're they're fleeting that the real stuff is our connection
with each other and our ability to do good things
for the world. And that's part of why the Star
Trek community and what you guys are doing bringing this
community all together and celebrating these important stories. That's huge,
and it's it's it's so powerful to see the way

(20:39):
the Star Trek community supports each other, you know, how
how fans can really form life saving networks for each other.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Absolutely, it's become more apparent to us all as the
decades have gone by and we've stayed around it, that
we see this magic happening and it's a beautiful thing.
It really is. If you think about it, you go
to a Star Trek convention.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
I realized this pretty early on, is that you know,
we are the entertainment to an extent for other people
to get together who are like minded and who may
not feel in the mainstream.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
With the light that the moths want to gather to,
but then do the right thing.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, we're like to date, fay.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
It's a safe place to express yourself freely and fully.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Yeah, yeah, and what a beautiful thing. I mean, I'm
sure you guys agree. We could have been on any show,
you know, I mean or none. And yeah, to be
on a show that has all of this community and great,
great messages built in is such an honor. So so
why not use that in the various ways that we

(21:53):
all are and and so one of the ways that
I decided to use that was to form a non
off it to do the same types of things that
we did at Homeboy, but to directly use these stories.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
So, Star Trek, did you go to I mean, you know,
the idea is formulated. I mean, then do you pick
up the phone to and go right? I need funding?
I need How does that so.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Great? This is a great story?

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Uh So I heard about this little girl named Katie
who was bullied for carrying her Star Wars lunchbox to
school and all the boys would follow her around saying
you can't like Star Wars. You're a girl, right, ladies. Sorry.
So she went home and she cried to her mom, Mom,
I'm not gonna like Star Wars anymore. I'm just going
to carry my pink lunchbox. And her mom said, Katie,

(22:41):
you get to be who you are. You get to
love whatever you love. You get to love who you love.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Be you.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
And yet Katie was really upset. She said nope, and
she went to bed and she was crying, and her
mom got online and she wrote, if anybody out there
is a woman who likes science fiction, Star Wars, Star Trek, science,
anything non gender conforming, would you please say a few
words of encouragement to my daughter. Well, huffingkin Post picked

(23:10):
up Carrie's blog and it went viral and thousands of
people read it and circulated it. So there was this
hashtag may the Force be with Katie or Katie the
Star Wars girl, some of you remember. And then I
was one of the people that chimed in on the chat. Katie,
I'm an actress from Star Trek. I love Star Trek,

(23:33):
I love Star Wars and science. You can be you. Well,
Katie kept her Star Wars lunchbox because of all of
this encouragement, and she has encouraged other little girls to
keep their Star Wars lunchbox and fandom. And then her mom, Carrie,
asked me if I would She decided to write a book,
and she's a wonderful author, and HarperCollins picked up this

(23:54):
book and she interviewed me and it was called Bullied.
What every parent, teacher, and kid needs to know about
ending the cycle of fear? And isn't that right along
the Roddenberry lines of idic you know, we all get
be who we are. And so Carrie asked me if
I had any friends that I could refer to her.

(24:16):
So I referred her to my friend Peter Mayhew who
played Chewbacca. Rest in Peace, Peter. And so now Peter,
who played Chewbacca was friends with Katie who was bullied
for loving Star Wars. Don't with us?

Speaker 2 (24:31):
How you gotta say, yeah, yeah, please, I shut the
bullies up And suddenly she's a start. Yeah yeah, well
that's brilliant.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
We'll sort of the era. What date line was this?

Speaker 1 (24:44):
So this is twenty thirteen, and then Carrie just a
little part of the story more. Carrie asked me if
I would help her get her book into Comic Con,
and I said yes, And that's when it all came together,
all the stuff from home Boy and everything, and I
said that, let's form a nonprofit, let's form a coalition
to end bully And so I got off the phone
and I freaked out. I said, what did I just do?

(25:06):
Form a coalition? What even is that? I looked it up.
I got the right word. Okay, now I need to
form a coalition. Who do I call? The United Nations?
They form coalitions, So looked up. I looked up the
number online and I called the San Diego office of
the United Nations Association and I said, Hi, this is

(25:28):
Chase Masterson from Star Trek Demon Space nine and I'm
doing a coalition to end bullying and and you guys
do that with countries, right, and so I'm gonna, uh,
we're going to go to Comic Con uh to end
bullying and would you like to join us? And she

(25:48):
said the president of you and San Diego said, oh
my god, We've always wanted to go to Comic Con.
And so they did get just like that. And so
we've brought the UN UN Association, the UN proper in.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
New York and everyone back from Tibet, and we've.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Brought Amnesty International and the ACLU and the Trevor Project
and the No Hate Campaign and all of these organizations
to their very first Comic Con, creating an intersection between
justice on screen and justice in real life. And then
after that we formed a curriculum with clinical psychologists creating
work for kids in schools and Chase start in rup.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
What was the impact at that Comic Con? What was
the look that that give you a sort of direction
and focus is like, yeah, we're onto something here they did.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
We were the first really official bullying prevention ending bullying
panel at comic Con. Of course there's always been the
panels on inclusion, et cetera. But when you bring in
like these organizations and psychologists that really talk about how
to make it happened in the real world, and how
to how empathy can be taught, and how all of

(27:04):
these concepts can be you know, hurt people, hurt people,
and heal people heal people. So one of the important
things about ending bullying is that you need to help
people be comfortable with who they are first, right, and
so in really understanding that at Comic Con, we're here
to celebrate who we are. Who we are is important

(27:26):
and beautiful and everyone has that right, then we can
talk about if we get to be who we are,
doesn't everybody else? And so I don't know if this
answered your question or if I'm on a tangent, but yeah,
but but it really all fits together with the messages
of pop culture, and they knew it was a good fit.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
So how did you go about sort of, you know,
developing the first I don't know, talks of that panel,
did you? I mean, and the psychologists? Where did you
find these people?

Speaker 3 (27:56):
And?

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Uh, you know it takes some plan and piecing together,
doesn't that it really did?

Speaker 1 (28:02):
I mean, I've worked twelve and sixteen hour days very
often in the last twelve years. Part of it is
that there's so much built in. There are psychologists who
do the psychologists the psychology of Star Trek, the psychology
of Star Wars, of Batman, of Wonder Woman, doctor Janina Scarlett,
doctor Andrea Letta Mendi, doctor Alimtu. All of these people

(28:26):
are in this kind of a network that create this work. Anyway,
So what we did is we brought in educators and
I work side by side every day with my one
right hand person who got her master's and her doctorate
at Harvard and she also consults for the un And
we put together this curriculum which is evidence based and

(28:47):
you know, tested in the last couple of years and
it's the perfect balance between bringing pop culture fun and
the psychology of the social emotional learning skills. Really those
strategies together.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
How does it, How does it? How does it? How
does it effect say the bully.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
We have this concept that bullies are just kids who
need help, you know, as as we said, hurt people,
hurt people, and so when a kid is a bully,
chances are very good that he's been through he or
she or they have been through something that has hurt
them and that they have pain inside that they're trying

(29:30):
to let out. And so we really work quite a lot.
Our team works a lot with the bullies to find
out what's happening. What what is this thing where you
feel like you need to have power over another kid?
Why do you need to hurt somebody in order to
feel good? And so we really take things apart and
talk on the very deep foundational level, and.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
We see venues that you're going to you're getting into
schools now, I take it and and people are coming
forth and and identify themselves. I mean, do people self
identify as yeah, I'm a bully?

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Sometimes sometimes sometimes, but often it's just really the educator
or the instructor coming in and seeing the dynamics and saying,
this kid needs some extra help, not because he's bullied,
but because he's bullying. And this kid also needs help
because they're being bullied. So what are the dynamics, and

(30:29):
how can we deal with what's happened, including what's happened
previously and maybe at home, and really help so that
this kid doesn't continue being a bully through school and
in a relationship and in the workplace, or this kid doesn't,
you know, commit violence on a level that a lot
of people who have been bullied do.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Have you managed to get the parents involved? And uh, yeah,
that's the tough one because obviously, you know, no parent
wants to go yeah, I slept.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
My kid about and yeah that is true. You know,
it's I have one really really great story. So we're
working with a Y in Louisville and a YMCA.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
And and the why on you you you with why
I am?

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, Well, so I'll tell you just briefly, and this
is a story of resilience. We had a launch date
of March fifteenth, twenty twenty, for our curriculum. So we
started this work in twenty thirteen. It took us seven
years to put this together, and in writing, we had
this launch date of March to twenty fifteen, twenty twenty,
the exact date that the world shut down. Yeah, and

(31:36):
I sat there in my little chair in my little
apartment saying, oh, no, we have nothing. And then I thought,
right away, listen to the work that we're doing. We
don't have nothing like that kin in the corner of
the internet who just wants a real friend and now
can't make one, Or that kid in a pressure cooker

(31:58):
of a household who just wants to get out and
go to school and now can't. And now there's going
to be all of this extra pain and grief and
job loss and family fighting and bullying and stress and
all of all that that kid is going to have
to deal with. Or the kid who wants to come

(32:18):
out at the dinner table but can't because they're afraid
of being thrown out, and now there's nowhere to go.
And so I thought, right now, we need to pivot
our program to an at home version, and it was
against every logical thought because we'd put so much money

(32:39):
into this, and our own money and we were a
nonprofit by then, but still it was expensive and we
did it. We just we put it. We pivoted the
program to an at home version. We got it translated
to Spanish, German and Italian. Because of the nature of
the global pandemic, we put hotlines for each place that

(33:01):
people could be in, Like if you're in northern Italy
and you're having major mental health issues because of this,
here's your hotline. If you're in southern Italy, here's your hotline.
And we had this really hugely built out, like sixteen
or seventeen hour day work days, and we gave it
away and the YMCA heard about this and we got

(33:22):
a call from YUSA, the national office. They're the largest
youth development program in the world. They called us and
they said, we heard about the work you're doing and
that it's really fun and relatable and that you use
stories kids love and evidence based psychology, and can we
take a look at this, and they did and they
adopted us as their national program.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Wow, well, I have really thanks I've been a Y
member for thirty years here Hollywood Y in Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Oh right on, yeah, yeah, So we're not in every Why.
We're not in every Why. But they put our program together,
paid for an adaptation for it to be in the Why,
and the work has been provided free of charge to
over eighteen hundred locations over half a million people.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
Our wonderful executive producer, mister Dave Taber is in the
house today. God bless him. Thank you, Dave, Thank you, Dave,
Thank you very much.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
Hey everyone, Connor here, We just want to take a
moment to thank you so very much for tuning in
and being a part of the Decon Chamber family.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Your support keeps us going and we couldn't do this
without you.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
And if you love what we do and want to
help us even more, please consider joining us on Patreon.
You'll get exclusive perks, behind the scenes content, and even
opportunities to chat with us directly.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
And don't forget to check out our awesome mergh because
who doesn't want to rep their favorite podcast in style?

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Baby?

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Every little bit helps, I promise you, and we're really
very very grateful for all of you who make this
show possible. So thanks for being there and please enjoy
this episode of the Decon Chamber. I love No. Do
you do a lot of travel, then are you? Are you?
Are you bopping around the country, you know, hosting events?

Speaker 1 (35:13):
And yeah I am. Next week We're in Palm Springs
one day and the next day in Florida, So I'm
taking a red eye. It's that kind of work. But
it's it's we've we've been given a large grant by
the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation in Florida to do
a Spanish translation, and so it's really exciting that we

(35:38):
get to help kids that are in need in a
lot of different demographics. And now, if it's okay to mention,
I'll tell you we started a Patreon so that we
can really give these skills to kids and parents and
adults just adults without children too at home because everybody
needs mental health support. And so we have love that

(36:00):
are like five dollars, ten dollars, twenty dollars and that's weird.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Yeah, well we'll put this out there on the episode.
What will you tell us what the information is that
you can go to the destination for being able to
be a part of this.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Thank you, Yes, our Patreon is the heroic Journey, and
it's because this program teaches us to be heroes for
ourselves and for each other. You know, we all need
to be heroes over our own depression, anxiety, loneliness, bear shame,
self doubt, the imposter syndrome. Everybody experiences it. And the
good news is there are tools that we can use

(36:37):
to really stop our minds from those harmful cycles and
those you know, self critical cycles and to really grab
on to the truth, which is that we can be resilient.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yeah, and how did you how did you come to
the curriculum?

Speaker 1 (36:53):
So the psychologists and Carrie put this together with a
couple of other educators, people who are amazing like teacher
of the year in school districts and things like that.
And we we just got an amazing team of both
educators and psychologists and they put together this curriculum in
the shape of the hero's journey. So you guys as actors, know,

(37:16):
you know, we have the home setting and then the call,
like you know, come into this adventure and then the
hero usually says the refusal of the call, no I can't,
it's too much for me. Then somehow they get drawn
into their adventure. That's the adventure of all of us healing.
And we we had alloys exactly dom Yeah, I mean

(37:38):
we have to where are you right right? We have
you know, then we really we list our mentors, our allies,
our tools we have you know, they have tools of
their lightsabers. We have tools of self compassion and mindfulness
and you know, healthy identity. Knowing who we are is

(37:59):
so much of the battle and resilience and then conflict
resolution and an understanding of how celebrities are not necessarily
heroes and what does it take, you know, what does
it take to be a hero?

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Careful to meet them?

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Never meet your heroes, right, met a couple? Yeah? Well
we we want to be the ones that you can
meet and can can feel safe with.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
And so this is so great. It's my hat's off
to you. Love I mean, and do you I mean,
do you do you sort of enact well known hero
scenes that illuminate what you're trying to put across to
the kids. I mean, that must be so there's a
bit of dress up and cosplay going on and not us.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Sometimes there are other people that you know come in
and do that. And the teachers have the freedom to
do that. We do show scenes and talk directly about
you know, kids may have trouble talking about what they're
going through, but they can talk about wonder Woman, you know,
So we show them a scene and talk about what
did she go through?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Here?

Speaker 1 (39:05):
What are you going through? How are the two things similar?
And that's why these stories are so powerful?

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Right?

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Yeah, how far in your journey in this? How soon
in your journey did you realize that you were really
onto something that was effective?

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Well, we realize it every time we hear a great story,
and we started hearing great stories early on, and we
continue to hear them. One of my favorites is a
kid in Louisville who came in seven years old consistently
making violent threats at the YMCA, and he is consistently

(39:45):
saying what he's going to do to people, to the place,
et cetera. And so the instructor said, let's find out
what's going on at home? Why is this kid doing this?
And they found out that there was a lot of
trauma and this child was hurting, and they start working
with him with the heroic journey, talking about the Hulk
and how the Hulk there's two people inside of him.

(40:06):
The one that's like ragingly angry and the one who
doesn't want to be and who can manage his emotions.
And within two months, this kid was making videos for
us saying, I love the heroic journey because it teaches
me I don't have to be angry inside. And so
you know, who knows what we headed off In five

(40:27):
years or ten years that kid have could have destroyed
countless lives. So every time we hear a story like that,
and there are a lot of good ones, we know that,
you know, we're we're doing the work that is possible
with these stories. We're we're doing the work that's right
in front of us, right And I think that's a

(40:48):
great lesson for all of us, is just to do
the next right thing, you know.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Yeah, well pay it forward, isn't it's it's paying here.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
How healing has it been for you, my dear? I mean, yeah,
I'm you're winning me over.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
I got to tell you, thank you, Dom, thank you. Well,
you know, I've had my challenges. I've had a lot
of challenges myself, and I think that's how life works.

Speaker 5 (41:16):
You know.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
We get hurt and it just it makes life messy,
you know, And it's hard to show up for people
when we're hurting. And I'm finding that my abilities to
show up for people and for myself are much greater
because I literally think lesson three what would Elsa do?
Elsa would know how to manage her thoughts and feelings

(41:38):
and behaviors so she doesn't turn her sister into ice
and snow, right, you know, Elsa?

Speaker 3 (41:45):
You know?

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Or what would what would any of these characters do?
We go to a place where we know what we
want in the long run, not make an impulsive decision
for what we want in the short run. And so
I'm great that I'm I've learned a lot, and I'm
I'm grateful to help other people learn too.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
I got to be very, very difficult for a kid,
you know, to think that. I don't think that children
have this sense of the outside world for quite some time,
you know, until well, maybe they're forty five years old,
I don't know, but uh, you know, it's you got

(42:27):
got to be a difficult challenge too. And I really
am keyed into your idea about giving that sense of
the superhero or the or the story how that manifests
itself in a an ability to give a kid a

(42:49):
way to aspire to something that they couldn't otherwise do
in their own life.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Yeah, exactly, exactly, you know, teaching kids that we can
be hero like our greatest heroes. But we don't have
to save the world from ultron. We we can do
small things like the dishes when your parents are tired,
or we can do small things like go over to
somebody who's looking lonely and say, hey, you want to talk,

(43:17):
or do a small thing for a local nonprofit outreach whatever.
You know, there's so many things to do in the world.
We don't all have to do enormous things. There's a
butterfly effect that helps healing spread like wildfire, you know,
And so if you just do the next right thing

(43:38):
that you can find something small in your community, and
if you can't donate the price of a coffee to
somebody who's doing that work, wonderful things can happen because
it just takes a little from everybody and.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
You and you I remember, so with the conventions, You'll
be kind t shirt started showing up, but that was
one way you started funding this thing. Was that. Yeah, no, lovely,
great design and.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
Thanks you have several.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Thank you, thank you well. Our designer, Alan Chan is amazing.
He does the be Kind shirts as well as our
website and our videos, and he's incredible. We have a
great team. And then Punk Army does our manufacturing and
some of our of our design as well. And yeah,
be Kind is such a great it's a great campaign

(44:29):
as these T shirts because it's, you know, a great
message to wear on your body, and it's also helping
our work immensely because twenty five dollars at a time,
it adds up and we've been able to do a
lot of work with the support of the fans through
the bekind campaign. I'll let you know that I'm a
volunteer CEO. We've always put all of our money directly

(44:51):
into the programming. There's a lot you know, you can
do the research. There's a lot of nonprofits that pay
their CEO's huge amounts of money, and it's important to
have you know, a team that can go on and
do the work. And there's nothing wrong with getting paid.
I'm just letting you guys know that at this level
where we are right now, your support really counts and

(45:13):
makes kids' lives better directly.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Our full marks for not taking you know, a CEO
wage at this stage. And again I really truly commend
that and I've I've had a lot of experience of
people it's taking you know, this is like what are
you doing?

Speaker 3 (45:30):
You know?

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, yeah, And and it's all under the guise of nonprofit,
which is uh, it's pretty old. And so that's enabled
us to create more work. It's with that work, you know,
with what would be a salary, we've created a lot
of our lgbt Q A plus support tools for kids.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Who So the whole the program we're really broadened, didn't it.
It's a few spectrum now, isn't it. I mean, yeah,
we've got a Denny and lgbt Q rights and the
plus absolutely, and.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
We have children, parents and high school kids. So we've
created that whole high school program. We've been We've been
able to do a lot by using our money wisely.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
And you have some new we spoke earlier. You have
some new things that you wanted to share about what
was going on with the Pop Culture Hero Coalition.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Thank you well. One of them is our Patreon, which
is really exciting. And another thing is that we have
been able to create, Like I said, these high school
tools are are really immensely helpful. We're in a period
of time where high school kids are in dire need
of mental health tools, and you know, that's the pressures

(46:43):
of social media. The really a lot of pain in
society right now. The the backlash against inclusion has been
really difficult for kids, and they feel like they're lost.
You know, social media particularly back to that. It makes people,

(47:03):
all of us feel like we're comparing ourselves to everybody
else all the time, and when will I be enough?
When will I have enough followers or likes, or when
will I be seen as important, especially in this sea
of other people who are getting more attention.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Did you happen to see the show Adolescents just now
on Netflix.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
I've heard about it. I have not seen it yet.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
I must watch for you. It's it's yeah, it's affecting,
and it's exactly about all this.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
I mean it really it is. Yeah. In fact, that
was the inputus for the show. Yeah it is. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
When did you discover the power and punishment of social
media and have put that into a curriculum or into
your program?

Speaker 1 (48:00):
Well early on, really, I mean in twenty fifteen, when
we started putting this together, we could see how you know,
social media is obviously a tool where people are anonymous,
so people feel the freedom to be mean. And one
of our lessons is called social media funny versus mean,

(48:23):
And we talk about the timeline of mean. How a
person can make a quick joke and think it's going
to be gone in a second, but the person who's
the brunt of that joke, even on social media, the
pain can last a very long time. So we talk
about we always go back to our first lesson, which
is identity and who are we who do we really

(48:44):
want to be in the world? What are our core values?
Do we really want to be the person who makes
jokes at everyone else's expense and gets the laugh, or
do we.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Want to they said, you know, be the change you
want to see, and you know, as.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Yeah, yeah, that's a great that's a great remembrance. Yes,
exactly that dom And so we talk about, like what
is it that we go back to all the time.
The first lesson is identity is really having a set
of core values that we stick with in our actions.
And then the second lesson that we have is mindfulness.

(49:21):
How to again stop doing what we just want to
do and type or this will be fun, But to
think about what we just talked about, which was our
core values, you know, and then an understanding of how
our thoughts lead to our feelings and our feelings lead
to our behaviors. So our thoughts could be I'm gonna
say this thing because I'm mad at that person online

(49:43):
and that can you know, or because they bullied me,
and that can lead to a feeling of backlash. But
if we have a thought of that person was mean
to me, I'm just gonna wait. I'm not gonna lash back.
I'm gonna go back to my core values, which are kindness,
and I'm going to say, you know what, I'm going
to leave it alone, or I'm going to say something

(50:03):
to de escalate, you know, And that can lead to
a feeling of I did the right thing. I'm empowered,
rather than I'm going to be mean and I go
isolate or use a substance or you know, do something.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
I was talking about this this morning on a phone call.
I mean, it's about not having an opinion about everything.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
You know.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Maybe I could not have an opinion about.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
That exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
And then the world would be a lot easier for
you and people might like you more.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
And for everybody you know, and so really keeping our
values in mind and using our mindfulness to stop us
when we want to do something that's out of line
with those values. Look, we all make mistakes. I've made plenty,
and we we have to give ourselves a break when
we make mistakes, you know, I mean everyone does?

Speaker 3 (50:54):
Or is it?

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Part of mindfulness is you get to start over immediately,
You can start you can just start that train of
thought and yeah, oh my word, there's me thinking that
nonsense again and start over.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
That's such exactly, I mean, that's literally exactly the first
part of our program.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Welate yourself up for starting over and again again.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Right, And that's self compassion saying, look, I made a mistake.
Everybody does. It's not great, but it's human.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
And I'm now aware of the train of thought and
I'm catching myself.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
And I cannot do that again, if you know.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Yeah, the more times you catch yourself in the and
be mindful of it, the stronger that muscle of mindfulness gets.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
That is exactly it. Yeah, and then all those go ahead. Sorry,
I just want to say, so those are our first
four lessons literally, like identity, mindfulness, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, self compassion,
how to be as kind to ourselves as we are
to other people, and all that brings us to a
point of resilience. Right, So many programs start with resilience,

(52:03):
like you can be resilient, you can do it, buck
it up. But on the toughest days we need more support.
And so if you're eight years old, what a wonderful
way to grow up, right, learning these tools rather than yeah,
buck it up?

Speaker 3 (52:15):
God? That is what do you do? Th chase in
when you know you're in a situation as a young
person and say a comment's been made on social media
and then that comment gets twenty responses that are the

(52:36):
same kids who don't even think they're necessarily bullying, but
like yeah, so and so is a YadA YadA YadA,
or this and that and the other. Thing. You know,
there's that group of the people who are imposing this
monster of energy onto a kid who is struggling and
being picked on and bullied. Where where's the where's the

(53:02):
how do you get to a point where you disperse
that big ball of negative energy in a group?

Speaker 1 (53:11):
It's I I Well, first of all, we know as
actors don't read the comments, right.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
And that's so very difficult for a twelve year old kid.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Yeah, I know, and some oftentimes, and this is an
analogy I use with kids, like, Okay, so you're a kid, right,
and so I just come up to you out of
the blue and I go, here's a piece of Do
you have to take it? You don't have to take it.
It's not yours. It has nothing to do with you.

(53:41):
It was never yours. These mean comments are not yours.
There's somebody else's aggression wanting to hurt you so that
they can temporarily feel good about themselves. I don't care
if you weigh eight hundred pounds. If somebody is mean
about that, it's not because you ate eight hundreds, it's
because they're.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
I wonder what you're doing, Chase, is that you give
a there's a resource for kids to deal with.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
This, right to deal with it, to say, to put
it aside and go, this is not mine. This, to
have our thoughts, really, to have our thoughts say to ourselves,
wait a second, mindfully, I'm going to cut in and
say I'm not going to absorb that hurt because it
has nothing to do with me. Meanness, oppression, bullying, racism, misogyny,
LGBTQI plus bullying, cyber bullying, all of that is because

(54:33):
of the aggression inside the bully. It has nothing to
do with us. If you were bullied, it was never
about you, right.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
And yeah, and a lot of it starts at home.
I mean yeah, those attitudes and the inability to accept
different Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it does.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
And if you if kids hear their parents or people
on the news saying, yeah, I'm just going to say it,
if people, you know, in authority in this country are
saying things that are derogatory about groups of people, that

(55:20):
infects society, that that has everyone on this wavelength of
creating a space where that seems to be okay, if
our authority figures do it, other people do it.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Yeah. And then the authority figures are using these touch
button you know, hot topic buttons because they're easy to
set fire to and get the you know, get the
base yes to riled up and on you know, this
side of the fence or that side of.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
The fence, and it Yes, I'll just say, you know, wrong,
it's extremely wrong, it's harm it's monstrous, and I'll just
say my point of view is that what this administration
has been doing in terms of negating whole groups of
people is poison, and so we have to really stand

(56:14):
up firm and use extra doses of inclusion and kindness
and and understanding that everyone has the right to be
who they are and to shut down people, to marginalize
people because of who they are, is monstrous.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
And the notion that look, I think in any environment,
in any experience, there is a bar that can be set,
and you have your own responsibility for where that bar
lives for you. You can set that bar high or
you can sit down and let that bar be subterranean
and it goes to a place of negativity and pain

(56:52):
and bad news. But you know, I think part of
what you are doing with your program is saying to people, listen,
you can set a bar for yourself that is for excellence,
and that is excellence in any number of ways, but
excellence nonetheless.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
And if someone doesn't reach that, they're not part of
your deal. They're not part of.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
Your life, right right, And that person recognizes who was
not part of that that that you know, for like
say the bully coming out of an experience and realizing
that the reason they bully is for a variety of reasons,
and then that there's always a click that happens with
people in terms of doing good or bad things.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
And yeah, intrinsically in our hearts, we know. I mean,
I think this is talt. I think there is a
there is some sort of you know, sense inside of us.
Why are you? Yeah, I agree, I think some attitudes
are taught. But you you do know, you know when
you've when you're not being right inside? We do?

Speaker 1 (57:59):
We And so isn't it if we're if something is
going to spread like wildfire, why not it let be?
Why not let it be our healing and our kindness?
Because you know, when somebody kicks you, then you are
more likely to kick somebody else and somebody else, and
you know, and that whole butterfly effect can be very negative.
But we have the opportunity to get healthy and resilient

(58:22):
and make the butterfly effect a really good healing one.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Yeah, I'm as guilty as any. I mean, my knee
jet reaction is you know, going to get you mate,
and then have to come back from that.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Mine has mine has been too. And and I'll also
say that when we're feeling exhausted, it's harder to be resilient,
and it's harder to be kind. And I've done that myself.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
And I mean, turning the other chie turning the other
chee is not easy.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
It's nice, yeah, or just or just you know, having
the ability to have a just a as you said,
you don't have to comment on everything, you know, sometimes
it's better to just be quiet.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Because I've been watching a lot of it on the
on the socials lately, with the Musk stuff and the
Church of Tesla and friends of mine, they're all bought
those cars and invested in him and made a lot
of money. And yeah, I mean they're in some sort
of war on Facebook. I just read some of the comments. Go,

(59:26):
oh my god, yeah, turn it off.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
I'm not rely sure that we're meant to be altruistic
good people. I think that is a that is a
thing that we have to decide about ourselves, right, So
very easy to go the other direction. Yeah, it takes
work to be a positive kind person, and it does,

(59:52):
it does. It takes It takes actual work.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
And because stress comes in and we feel like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
You ow and you owe the lash, you know, the
lash out.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
You know, yeah, and we we don't really want to
see you up on the freeway.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
You know, the instinct isic, get sideways with him and
give him a good look. Oh, I mean, what is
that about.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
We've all done it? Yeah, just and so how lovely
to know that there are actual tools that we can
use to not do that, to catch ourselves and to
go wait a second, I can have conflict resolution. I
don't have to go up and go you did this.
I can say, hey, can we talk about this because
my feelings were I didn't feel great about that, and can.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
We tell you can?

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Also, you can also spend twenty four hours in a
day not doing well. But the grand notion of the
next day is is that it's it's open and free.
You can be a better person. You can't.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
You can choose to different way.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
And you know, right, yesterday was yesterday. Well tomorrow's a
new day and you have an opportunity.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Right and bear in mind tomorrow is not guaranteed, so
you know, yeah, ye better better be that way than
to other day. Waste the day with you know nothing
but hates in your heart. It's a wasted day.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
It's a good point and for kids and bringing this
back to this, this work that we're doing is that
kids who are raised in toxic households and there are
many you know, where the parents are fighting or whatever
it is that's going on, or maybe it's just the
parents are exhausted and there's a lack of social, emotional
mental health skills. These kids may never learn that, and

(01:01:44):
then they grow up to be toxic all their lives
and or maybe learn at a later age.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
It's just passed on.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
It is right, right and so and passed on. Yeah. Right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
So we're stopping that cycle. And it's wonderful that have
fan support in stopping that cycle, because frankly, kids are
going to rule our world, you know, in twenty twenty years.
In twenty years, these six year olds are going to
be voting on whether or not we get social security,
you know, in twelve years, they're going to be in charge.

(01:02:18):
And so why not teach the world to be kinder
for all of our sake?

Speaker 6 (01:02:23):
And I think to be old and I'm gonna meet that, Yeah,
I mean, I think that the effort to make that
possible is such a noble sound silly, but it's such
an important thing that with the work that you're doing,
I'm just so impressed.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
With what you do Chase. It really is. It's a
magnificent thing that you know you're almost taking something that
it's like an asteroid flying through space in a crazy
way that is literally meant to do damage, and then
trying to find a way to give it some sense
of control that it's not going to do damage. You're

(01:03:05):
sending Bruce Willis up for the team, Well, Ben afflex
direct thing was it?

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Ben?

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Thank you? Either one is good. We'd love the celebrity
support of anybody, everybody, but thank you. And I will
say this, this fandom has taught me so much. Star
Trek fans have really created this excitement in me because
years ago, I'll just tell you real fast. Back in
those pre Star Trek days, I was working on a

(01:03:35):
charity for kids with AIDS and I had to leave
the charity because I couldn't even take care of myself.
So when I got Star Trek, I was told that
we all would have this fan support for the causes
that we care about. And back in those days, we
had these fan clubs, and so I was able to
go back to that charity and say I'm back, and
look who I brought with me, the fans. And so

(01:03:58):
when I did these conventions in the nineties, and this
was so foundational for me, you guys, I can't even
begin to tell you. I would go to like some
little town and wherever, and they'd greet me at the
airport with a check for this AIDS charity and they'd
say we had to cling on bake sale or we
had a bully on car wash or you know whatever,

(01:04:21):
and they would think of it on their own and
do the work and support. And I thought, how beautiful
this fandom, this community is. And so it really is
based in that knowing that we come, we all three
of us, you guys, come out of this incredible legacy

(01:04:42):
of Roddenberry and his inclusion and kindness, and it really
is continuing. We're living Star Trek and so this is
my personal way and I'm grateful for the opportunity because
of really because of who the fans are helped us
create the work we're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
Yeah, and they are they are. They're mightily involved, aren't they?

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Yes, mightily mightily And it's every everything you know, nothing
is too small. I mean, buying a bee kind t
shirt helps coming on a five dollars level of our
Patreon or whatever chance can do it helps because there's
a lot of work to do.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Yeah, I don't have one. I'm should get one in
Vegas and when I see you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
I will. I will give you one of your choice.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Thank you, don it, thank you you're getting the money?

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
No no, no, no, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
No, Honestly, I've come on. I mean, that's silly and
I want to I want to contribute. I hear it.
Well you are let me. I in this chat, my dear,
and thank you, really, thank you. Thank you. Blanked to
listen to you and the incredible stuff you're doing, because yeah,
I could be a bit lazy, and so we all can.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
You know, Hollywood life is overwhelming, and so you know,
if we all do a little then it helps a lot.
I'll just tell you quick. Our website is uh popculturehroo
dot org. We have a really great rating on all
the charity rating websites, so you never have to be
worried about what happens to your donations. So popculturehro dot

(01:06:19):
org or at on social media, we're at superhero I
r L or on Patreon the Heroic Journey.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
Yeah, we will post all of this and it's just
a thrill to hear you talk about this. Stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
I'm so I'm so impressed by the work that you do.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
Thank you, Thank you, Connor and Dominic. This this whole
talk means so much. It's really good to hang out
with you guys, and thank you for Thank you for
all of this so much.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
I can't wait.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
Yeah at the b we know it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Yeah, a married ma'am. When I see you next, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Congratulations to you and Sarah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:56):
Yeah, it is exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
Yay yay.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
R y deep deep breaths.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
Yeah yeah, all right, well it's been lovely. Well, well
we'll speak soon.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Thank you so much for having me on, Dominic and Connor.
Thank you. It'll be nice and keep it on. Thank
you so much, you two, and congrats on this show.
It's so much fun and everybody loves it and I'm
grateful to have been apart.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
Thank you very much describing listen to how you want.
Thank you, Thanks you too.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Okay, talk soon. Bye,