Episode Transcript
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This week on the Art of Improvement. My guest is Michael Bensiah. He
represents ASRT, the American Society ofRadiologic Technologists, but he is also an
actor, and he has an incrediblestory behind his interest in the radiology field
as well as his brilliant acting careerthat you're going to want to know about.
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So stand by. My conversation withMichael is next on the Art of
Improvement. Thank you so much forlistening to the Art of Improvement. I
have a guest today that you're goingto be excited to meet and maybe you've
seen him before. Michael Benziah representsASRT, that's the American Society of Radiologic
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Technologists, but also Michael, you'rean actor. Thank you so much for
coming on today. Yeah, thankyou so much. I appreciate you having
me today. Well, I don'tget it. So I had met I
met a friend of yours, Ithink the head of ASRT, which is
American Society of Radiologic Technologists. Andall of a sudden, here here you
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are and you're an actor, butare you also a medical imaging professional?
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Yeah, no doubt. You met
Melissa yes, Melissa is the head. She's really really great. She's been
doing it a long time. She'svery knowledgeable on the field. And I
have been a member of the ASRTfor over seventeen years. So I am
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a raiologic technologist CT technologist. I'veworked in radiology even before I was an
act ray. I worked in medicalrecords, and I've worked in the hospital
setting for many years, and Iam a stag aftra actor. So yeah,
it is a little confusing at firstbecause a lot of times people aren't
in the dual careers right the waythat my Yeah, my trajectory of my
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life has been a little different.It's been a really really fun and cool
journey. So yes, it canbe confusing at first, but yes,
you are correct. Okay, Idon't know which story that you want to
start telling me first, But howdid this all come to me that year?
You do have these dual careers?Yeah, no, it is.
It's an interesting path that I've taken. So my mom had breast cancer when
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I was around twelve thirteen years old, and I went to her. I
went with her to her appointments,to her radiology appointments, and I also
met her radiation therapist, and Iwas just fascinated by the field. I've
always liked the medical world, butseeing radiology and seeing that we can kind
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of diagnose and we can catch thingsbefore they progress was very interesting to me.
So that was kind of the spark. But at that same time,
my mom was taking me and myaunt, who also worked on with Broadway,
was taking me from the Hudson Valleyto New York City and I saw
my first production of Porgy and BessRag Time. Yeah. So the that
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I was sitting, you know,watching the stage and these actors, and
that was a spark of interest aswell. So I had these dual kind
of fires burning in me and Ididn't know how they would materialize or manifest
in the future. But as Igot older, Mom was struggling more and
she sadly passed away when I waseighteen. I'm sorry, no, thank
you, I appreciate that. Butafter she passed, I decided that I
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wanted to be first, I wantedto be her advocate, and then I
wanted to be advocate for other womenstruggling with breast cancer. I wanted to
be a part of the solution,and to me, that piece that mastermind
piece that was between someone getting diagnosedsomeone getting healthier was radiology and that's where
the ASRT and that's where my backgroundas an x RA attech has come in
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and that's what connected the dots.That is incredible. I mean, that's
what a great introduction into who youare because it really shows a lot and
it has so much hard in it. And that's what makes me even think
that possibly you know, you haveto tell me yourself. It makes you
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a better actor. It makes Yeah, you have that experience, and so
how can where can people see you? What have you done? How can
people find you now? Well,what you were just saying is spot on.
Being a radiologic technologist or as manyknow in the field of healthcare,
you have to have a huge heartand to be an actor. People don't
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realize, but you have to havedepths of empathy. You have to be
able to relate and play that part. Even if that person that you're playing
in that production or that TV seriesis someone you wouldn't be friends with.
You have to come late and youhave to have love for that character because
no one thinks they're bad. Soeven when you're playing the villain in a
movie, yeah, you really haveto come for what a clean slate,
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and you have to understand, youknow, I have the death of empathy
to understand their struggle or understand whatthey've experienced. True, So that's number
one. Yeah, yeah, buteven just having using both sides of my
brain, which you do in radiologyas well. You have to be able
to think outside the box. Butthen you also have to be very science
related. You have to have patientcare skills, you know, you have
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to make your patient feel comfortable.And when it comes to the ASRT campaign
that we have rolling out this month, it really is about giving visibility to
the radiologic technologists, the radiation therapists, the radiology field in general, because
many people and you know instance,just you know, many times in the
hospital, we think of the nursesand the doctors. We don't off the
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forefront think of the radiology field.And that's what this campaign is all about.
It's giving visibility to the texts,the MAMMA text, the ultrasound text,
the MRI texts, all of thesedifferent modalities that fall under radiology and
educating people on what our jobs are, what they consist of. Very soon
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people will be able to see youand I you know, because you are
the representative of the b sing campaignfor a SRT. How can people find
that? Where are they going tofind that? Tell us how we can
see you? Yeah, yeah,of course. So Number one, I'm
beyond grateful to be involved with theSRT. It is it's been a great
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blessing of my career in my life. I've been able to work with them
in the past. I've written forthe ASRS ASRT magazine in the past regards
to burnout. You know, whatwe can do as technologists to keep ourselves
healthy so we're healthy for our patients, different different articles or mortalities. I
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went to UCLA for writing, sothat kind of incorporated and has helped me
in this new journey. But you'llbe able to see the campaign. It
will be on the commercial of thecampaign. It came out really great,
the cinematography, just the way thatwe went about it and the words that
are used, and it is reallyreally heartfelt. Well, I haven't seen
anything like this with the medical fieldbefore. I don't know, I have
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to say, And I've worked indifferent you know, different avenues of tell
where we work in medicine. Butthis is a campaign all in its own
it was really really gorgeously done,so I'm excited for people to see it.
When Melissa told me that about ASRT, I was like, Uh,
what what is it? I don'tunderstand. And by the end of our
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conversation, I was like, Iwant to tell every young person that hasn't
made up their mind where they cango and find a fabulous career. And
so I understand how you found it, but how is it that this is
such a I don't know's it's nothidden because people deal with it all the
time, but I guess the actualtitle of what it is. It is
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something that I think more young peopleshould look into. Yeah, I think
it's a great career able to alsoadvance in this field. So when I
started out, I was the youngestone accepted into the X ray program.
I had done my prerecs in highschool ahead of time because I kind of
knew what I wanted to do becausemoms struggle. And once I got in,
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it wasn't that I just stayed asan X ray tech. I was
able to learn different modalities. Youcan learn cat scan like I did,
you can do mr ultrasound. Iwent back to school for my radiological sciences
degree as well as Allied healthcare administration. So I went back and then got
my master's at Nayak College, soI was able to run a radiology department
at one point. So there's alot of room for advancement and which is
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great. So you know, gettinginto the field. You also with the
radiology field versus other aspects of healthcarein general, you have a one on
one with your patients. They comein, you see them, you see
them getting better. A lot oftimes we get to go into the ore,
the er, we're up doing portablesand you know, hospital rooms,
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we're meeting people over so we reallyare that glue that keeps a hospital or
outpatient center together. We go intoevery aspect of a hospital setting, which
I think is great because you know, jobs can get boring when you do
the same thing every day, butin riteology you don't. You always have
a new teatient, so it's reallyreally great. I love that aspect of
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So I'm excited for you know,young people or even because even in my
class, I was the youngest,but we had people on their second careers.
There was a nan in my extraclass that had been a belief and
then he went back to school,so any age you can get into radiology.
And I'm excited for people to seethis and to be able to think,
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maybe I can see myself in thatsetting. And I have not worked,
and I've worked at many different radiologyfacilities, i have not worked or
met a group of MR techs,CP techs radiation therapists who have not been
warm and just easy going. It'sjust a fun environment to work in.
So I'm excited for people to havethat opportunity and to see if it's a
fit for them. If you could, and I didn't ask you this ahead
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of time, I mean where canpeople find out more? Is there a
website? Is there something that theycan do to investigate it themselves? Yeah,
of course. I mean the scenecampaign that will have coming out,
you'll have some information on that.You can go to the SRT website.
Many different you can find your localRadiologic Technologists program. I know for me
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it was Sunny Orange, which isin the Hudson Valley, but we're national.
Yeah, so there's many places thatthey can plug in. I'll also
send you over some links that ifyou want to share as well, would
be great, and then I'll alsohave to send you some information in regards
to the things that have happened sincerevolving around the campaign and television. I've
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been able to speak to different outletsand I've been able to incorporate even you
know, it's funny, I wason set. I'm actually upstate now working
on set, and We've done acouple of medical can and I've been on
set for shows like How to GetAway with Murder, I've done Modern Family,
yeah, a couple. But I'vebeen on set many times where I'll
go to do the scene and it'llbe like an m r R an MRI
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machine, but it'll be a CPimage. So I've had like almost correct
different places, different shows on whatyou know what diagnostic imaging. So it's
not just us, you know,sometimes it's it's outside of the field,
even until they don't understand per sethe redly alogy field. That is crazy.
Yeah, So you've got to tellus a little bit about your acting
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career please. You mentioned you know, different shows, but like, can
you tell us about any of thatso we can check them out. Yeah,
of course, I mean I've beenI've been truly very lucky to even
be working in television and the waythat it came about. It was it
was kind of like a manifestation,if you would say. I felt like
it was meant to be to giveme a voice for those who are going
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through similar situations as my mom.Eventually, what I would love to do
is I want to sit down withCongress and discuss, you know, different
regulations and how we can get Ihave a documentary as well that will be
coming out that I'm working on withmy production company, Random Films, and
it's all about cancer pair radiology andthen what different countries do. So when
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someone is diagnosed, what are youroptions in that specific country, from New
Zealand to Finland, to America toChina. So we kind of put it
all out there in a documentary.So I will when that comes out all
haves to reach out and send yousome information all pase please. What an
amazing topic because there are more thanone answer, one technique, one path
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that people can take. Yeah,and that's what I love about radiology and
what I love about the ASRT isthat we are options out there for individuals
so they don't feel like they don'thave a voice in their own healthcare or
in their own treatment per se.I've played a lot of doctors. I've
played a lot of nurses, alot of paramedics. It's something that comes
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natural. I think casting feels comfortablewith me on set. I've been a
medical consultant on set. Most recentwork, I actually got a chance to
step out of the medical roles.I play a weatherman, Weatherman Navadro on
a new Amazon series that will basedon April twelfth. It's called Fallout,
based off the really popular video game. Jonathan Nolan created it. He also
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created Westworld, and he's my directoron set. I did some episodes of
Life and best Amy Schumer was mydirector on that, which was a lot
of fun. Yeah, so that'scoming up. I am shooting a I'm
actually playing a news reporter on that, which is funny that I seem to
be getting into these news reporters withWeatherman rolls. But doing a show called
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Zero Day, which is all aboutconspiracy theories. Robert de Niro is as
the executive producer and he also starsin it, as well as Angela Bassett,
who plays the President. So it'sbeen a fun ride and it's really
interesting to be able to say thatyou know, I've worked with I'll be
working with Angela Bassett, and I'veworked with Viola Davis, who, honestly,
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at this point, I think she'sone of the best artists actors that
we have. She just understands thecraft, the world around us, how
to drop into a character's world actions, because we are what we do,
you know, people and characters arewhat we do continuously, so to watch
I love watching people. That wasthe greatest aspect as well as being able
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to work in radiology. You meetso many people from all different walks of
life, and you get to seehow people operate and how they experience the
world I've taken. I think MarlonBrando was the one that said it.
You you watch people and then youtake from you know, their world,
from what they do, little actions, little movements, the physicality, and
then you incorporate that into characters thatyou play. It gives you a paintbrusha
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you get to paint with, youknow large. It's been a really interesting
rhyne. I'm very very thankful forit. I just I recently heard you
know what, I need to reintroduceyou, and please tell me that I'm
saying your name correctly. It's Michael. Yeah. So it's interesting. It's
Michael John Benzia. When people sayBenjia, it's been pronounced many different ways,
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and I recently did the I hadthe twenty three and me and then
I went further with it and Ifound out that actually my last name when
we came to Ellis Island was spelleddifferently. So it's been Siah is how
you're supposed to spell it and pronounceit, but we've kept it the way
that. Yeah, I know,it's not interesting. It came over my
dad's side is Italy, my mom'sside of Spain, and they came over
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and they changed the name. Iguess by mistake maybe when came. Yeah,
so there's many different pronunciations, butthe way you did say it properly,
but Michael John is my first.Okay, great. I was like,
oh my god. I didn't evenask you. I just assumed that
that's what it was. To behonest, I answered anything. I'm like
it, what do you need thesame? I get it. It's funny
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because I just recently heard an interviewwith an actor and I wish I could
even remember who it was. Ilistened to so many podcasts and I heard
an actor get asked the question whenwhat moment do you remember when you said
I've made it, I've really madeit. And his answer was, it's
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just there was never one moment.It's just been many moments when I'm like,
wow, I'm here, and itdoesn't you know, you could say,
oh, it was when I metViola Davis, or when I was
when I was, you know,with Jonathan Nolan. But do you think
of it as little tiny glimpses ofwow, this is you know, this
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is the life that I wanted.I just wonder sometimes if kids get a
message not kids, but young peopleget a message from someone like you who's
young, you know, maybe theywon't be so disappointed sometimes that maybe they
didn't get into the school they wanted, maybe they didn't find that job.
Do you have any experience yourself onsaying this is it? I made it?
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Yeah? Well, I guess thefirst question I would have to ask
is like, what for me personally, what is made it? What does
that consists of? I? Youknow, I'm very happy. I like
where my life's at, I likewho I am, the internal work that
I've done, and I've been challengedfrom life, from my career, like
all these things that have come inthat have made me a better person.
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So I guess yeah, made itwould be like are you are you truly
happy? Are you? Are youenjoying yourself in the moments. I also
live in the moments. I thinkas a SRT Radiologic Technologist member and as
an actor, you have to bein the moments with your patients and when
you're on set with your other actors. So to me is like living life
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to the fullest, which is beingin the moment with my patients and being
on set. So yeah, Ithink I've definitely made it in that regard
monetary you know, value or workingwith certain actors. Yes, the cloud
of saying Davis, but like theunderstanding of being able to collaborate with someone
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who gets it. It's the samething in the hostel being able to work
with the doctor or the nurses andbeing able to come together with the patient
and create a solution. That tome is making it as well. So
I've definitely seen many aspects of mylife that I feel like I've I've made
it. And if we can speakon what you were saying about disappointment,
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I think you touched a little biton that. I've had so many situations
in my life that like, justeven growing up, I was like,
well, I want to go awayto call and I have these ideas I
was going to be actually a historyteacher. And then mob got s and
everything changed, and I didn't wantto be away from her, and I
wanted to be there and be heradvocate. And and look where that brought
me. I never, never,in a million years, would have thought
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I would have worked in television,would have moved to California, you know,
moved back to New York City.Like I was from the Hudson Valley.
I was very comfortable living the lifethat I was creating. But I
think that something bigger than myself hadand whatever that is, I think we
all kind of have our beliefs,you know, whatever is driving us.
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I just think it's something bigger thanself, and it brought me to where
I am. So many times,those disappointing moments that we think, I
think we canmitted in our view ofwhat is possible by no ignorance, is
just by our own experience, youknow. I just thought like, this
is what I think can happen.And then you know, something bigger than
me was like, well, actuallyI have a bigger plan for you.
So I think it comes down toallowing ourselves to be flexible and knowing that
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sometimes you know, I know thisis very cliche, but some sins,
the biggest disappointments lead to actually thebiggest blessings. So I'm very fortunate at
now. When I look back onmy life, I go because even right
now, I'm in the midst ofa transition, guys moving on to the
next job, and I know Ihave faith that whatever is going to happen
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will materialize for the greatest good foreveryone involved. I think once we remember
that we're here for each other,that's when we co create and larger things
happen. So I get it.I've been there. I've been disappointed and
you know, I've not gotten intoprograms or you know, not gone to
the school I wanted to go to, or even when it comes to relationships,
you know, we all have situationswhere we go I thought that was
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going to last forever, but youknow, there's always that silver lining,
and I think we hold on tothat, and I think that's what this
campaign is about as well. Ithink it's about knowing that, you know,
the ASRT and radiologic technology radiation therapistwhere there you know, we're visible,
we're there, and we are helpingpeople get through that journey into the
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next step until that silver lining shows. Yeah, very very well said.
Thank you so much for those fantasticwords of encouragement for young people and pulling
it all together. Michael bensiah Isit represents ASRT American Society of Radiologic Technologist.
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He's also an actor, and ithas been a pleasure talking to you.
I can't wait to see go backand look and find you. And
it's something that I mean, it'snothing in it, there's nothing in it
for me. But when I hearabout new things, I always I just
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encourage young people to explore and justlike you said, you may be going
down one path, but don't ignoreothers that are around you. Yeah.
Yeah, I've seen that in mylife so many times, and I'm excited
to see that in the future.And I appreciate you taking the time to
speak with me, and I'm soexcited for everyone to see this campaign.
Liam, and I've listened. I'vedone a lot of different things in my
career and I've been excited about things, but this commercial that they did in
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this campaign that they're rolling out hasso much heart, and it educates people
individuals on what we do in therediologic field, and it's giving people a
voice, and it's allowing people tohave an advocate in their own healthcare journey
and that I'm so proud of andso excited to be a part of.
Michael, thank you so much forcoming on today. I hope I get
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a chance to talk to you inthe future. Yes, I'm sure,
and listen, that's how life is, synchronicity, and sure our pass will
cross again, so I truly amexcited for that. Thank you so much
for coming on today. Of course, I'm enjoy the rest of your day.