Community DC Music Mona Jhaveri Music Beats Cancer

Community DC Host Dennis Glasgow visits wtih Found and Executive Director for Music Beats Cancer, Mona Jhaveri, Ph.D. Topics that are convered, how her non-profit works, who it serves and the difference between her non-profit and many others in this field.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Good morning, and welcome to anotheredition of Community DC. I'm your host,
Dennis Glasgow. This is our firstvisit with the nonprofit out of the
Washington DC region, Music Beats Cancerfounder and executive director, Mona Javari,
joins us. And what Mona andher team do is very creative and that's
too literally, crowdsource donations for manydifferent types of cancer research funding and projects.

(00:22):
Cancer has touched almost all of us. So while always a tough subject,
music Beats Cancer and this conversation willbe well worth your time. Here's
my conversation with Mona. I hopeyou enjoy it as much as I did.
Good morning, Mona, Good morningDennis. It's such a treat to
talk to you. This is ourfirst time getting to be on this program
together with each other, and wheneverybody heard about Music Beats Cancer, and

(00:44):
I just want to let everybody knowfor those who haven't been introduced, this
is a really cool nonprofit that Monahas founded and she's the executive director of
it. I thought our listener shouldget to know you a little bit before
coming up with this wonderful idea,and we're going to hear about that origin
story about your own about where you'refrom, where'd you go to school,
and what you did before you cameup with the idea of music beats cancer.
We love to hear that story.My training is that I'm a cancer

(01:07):
researcher by training. So while mostcharities, especially cancer charities, are founded
by people who have either suffered canceror somebody close to them as suffered cancer,
that was not the impetus for me. Instead, it was a totally
different impetus. It was because I'ma cancer researcher and I know exactly what's

(01:30):
happening on the inside when it comesto our war on cancer. And in
fact, as a researcher i didmy work at the National Cancer Institute,
I fully understood how much we discoverand invent as scientists and how little actually
makes it to people. And therereally is a riff between what's going on

(01:57):
in science and then what happened whenyou are sick with cancer, and especially
for those where where there's very fewtreatment options. And so I think you
know, that's where music Beats Cancerwas born out of. In fact,
we had a discovery in our labthat I decided I would take and package

(02:19):
it up and become what we calla biotech entrepreneur and spin off a startup.
So I did that, and Ilearned all the challenges it takes to
move science from the bench and advanceit into something that might save people.

(02:42):
In my case, I was workingon a DNA based therapy and it was
for women with ovarian cancer, andin fact, ovarian cancer is one of
the deadliest cancers out there for women, and yet we have we just don't
have enough treatment options for these women. So this is what I was working

(03:04):
on, only to find that mycompany, just like thousands I might even
say tens of thousands of other startups, failed not because the idea was bad
per se, but because we justran out of money and there was no
good money to support de risking andadvancing these really important ideas. So that's

(03:29):
how this all began, and Istarted Music Beats Cancer specifically as a charity
as a five oh one C three, and I made the argument to the
I r S that we needed acharity to support these early stage ideas because

(03:50):
they're falling in a funding gap.They're disappearing because we simply just don't have
the funding for them. And inour industry and in many entrepreneurial industries.
This funding gap or this derth,this sort of drought of funding for these
early stage ideas. It's called thevalue of death. They say, it's
the value of death where great ideasgo to die, right, because they

(04:13):
simply lack the funding. And sowe you know, I made the argument
to the IRS that it's this valueof death that is a healthcare crisis for
our public, and that's how wegot the five, O one and C
three. So so just to beclear, you know, Music Beats Cancer
is unlike other charities where we're notfighting the disease because like I said,

(04:35):
somebody suffered it. We're fighting asystemic breakdown in the war on cancer.
And I would say there's just veryfew charities that are going after the systemic
problems. Right. So that's whatwhere I hope people would get inspired about
organization, because I think that shouldbe the role of philanthropy, not not

(04:56):
simply to save the people that aredrowning, but how do we actually turn
that, you know, that floodoff and so that we really see successes.
Well, that's so eloquently said.And to your point, I've talked
to so many charities on this program, and all worthy, whether they're a
one person band or they have many, many hundreds of people that work for
them. But you do get aroundthis other corner about it's not just for

(05:21):
whatever we're trying to cure or tomake life a little bit easier for people.
You're digging down into the inadequacies aboutwhether it's government funded, state funded,
or people don't donate for certain kindof cancers out there that are in
that value of death that you hadtalked about. So that's why I'm so
intrigued today. Obviously, like anyother family, Mona, I've had cancer

(05:43):
touched my family. My dad hadlung cancer when he was forty four and
passed away. He happened to bea big smoker, so he contributed to
that. But you know, I'vehad my mother in law who survived breast
cancer and she did radiation. Soit's touched all of us, and for
all the people that are listening toI'm sure it's touched more of them in
their lives. But I am socurious to ask you so many questions about
music being cancer because it's really differentwhat you're doing. And I love this

(06:09):
with your biochemistry background and working withcancers, you really have the inside track
and all the things that are goingon. And I'm sure as you started
this nonprofit too, you're probably prettyappalled about all the inadequacies that were happening
as far as things being funded andhow the money was going to solve different
cancers out there. So we'll talka lot about that, but I did
want to ask you about the originof the idea, past that and bringing

(06:32):
music into this, because this isreally the really extra cool part when you
came over this idea's founder to includemusic, and of course everybody loves music,
it doesn't matter what kind it is. So can you tell us a
little bit about that idea and howit all came together. What's really fascinating
about this particular journey is that,and you know, it really showed up

(06:54):
during COVID. You know, weas scientists, we as innovators, we're
just so connected from our public andwhat our public needs, what they understand,
and when you have this disconnect,I think, like I said,
we saw what we saw during COVID. There was misinformation, disinformation, confusion.

(07:16):
We had industry leaders that were peoplethat really weren't out there or needed
to be out there. I meanwe saw Fauci, but we as scientists
all knew who Fauci. You know, we know who he is, but
the but the community doesn't. Andnow and and through a pandemic, they

(07:38):
knew who these leaders are. AndI think that's a problem. Honestly,
I think science and the issues aroundscience should not be relegated to the four
walls of academia or biotech. It'sit's not just the problem of these of
these spaces, it's also the problemof the public. And yet the public

(08:01):
doesn't know. And when I started, even the word biotech was not a
word like people were confused. Youknow what, you're a biotech You're a
nonprofit supporting biotech? What's biotech?What's a bio on biotech entrepreneur? This
was It was such a confusion withthe public and vice versa the industry.

(08:22):
People in the industry would tell me, mono, how can you create a
charity where people will be donating tobiotech? They're not smart enough to know
what we do as scientists and innovators. And I just didn't buy it.
Across you know, across across theboard. I think people are smart enough.

(08:46):
I think we as scientists and healthcareleaders. We need to do a
better job sharing what we do.We need to do a better job enrolling
people and getting people excited about thepromise of science, and I think we're
really poor at it, and wehave no forum to do that. And
so that's where I saw music beatscancer. We need to be that forum

(09:09):
between the people working on solutions forcancer and the people who want to see
change in the war on cancer,and we need to bring them together.
And so that's where the idea came. And music is the conduit, right,
Music just is how we we bringpeople together, how we spread a
message. And I think you're right, you know, in fact, I'm

(09:31):
not a musician. I don't thinkit's I don't think adding you know,
and including music as part of anoutreach is anything unusual, because so many
charities have done this. Sure,what is unusual is that it's a that
we're a charity doing biotech that's thatsort of embraced music as it's vehicle,

(09:56):
and that part is unusual. Butthe but the fact, you know,
music has been a unifier since therewere ever humans, I mean there across
countries, across genres and ages andgenerations. Music has been a powerful tool

(10:18):
to shift how we sink and toreally inspire new think right, and I
can't. I mean, you thinkabout some of the most powerful musicians that
they are beyond their music, whetherit's David Bowie or I mean, he
had some serious messages for the world, as did Bob Marley, as Ditrika

(10:41):
Franklin, as did Van Halen,and these were all musicians that are iconic.
And I bring them up because theseare some of the musicians that in
fact have died of cancer and andand yet they're there. What they stood
for, you know, moves fromgeneration to generate. They're timeless, you
know, in who they are orwhere I should say. So I see

(11:05):
this. I see music as powerful, and I see musicians that have it
a certain responsibility to the shift cultureand stand for what they believe in.
If you have that gift, youshould stand for what's right. And you
see it all the time. Andso I really look up to musicians and

(11:26):
I applaud them, especially the onesthat want to do the right thing.
Well, that's well said. Andalso I think you know this is that
you know, people like me lookup to you for what you do because
I couldn't do what you do.But I know people look up to us
and radio say, boy, it'dbe fun if I could talk on the
radio and do play by play sports. And I think we always admire people
that are on the next level,that can do something very special, like

(11:48):
yourself. So I'm glad that youexplain that. I do want to talk
about the mission statement because I knowthat's really important to you and our listeners
about what exactly that is. Andthen we'll get into some more capabilities and
programs and events. But what's amission statement overall for Music Beats Cancer?
Yeah, so Music Beat Cancer wantsto support as many cancer fighting ideas as

(12:11):
we can. And the way wework, honestly, is we're a crowdfunding
platform. We're no different than akickstarter. You know, a kickstarter is
so like I like to think ofus as the Kickstarter but for cancer.
Yeah, where you know, Kickstarterwas originally formed for creatives because creatives couldn't
raise money, whether they they aremusicians doing albums or people making movies or

(12:37):
games. Well, I see scientistsas creatives and the only problem with scientists
is that we we don't have fanbases, so we can't really go But
you need some funding. Yes,yes, yes, but you need funding
and that too. A lot ofit. What you're working on is risky,
but what you're working on is alsopotentially life hating. So that's the

(13:03):
mission. It's to support as manycancer fighting ideas as we can. And
some of them will fail. Imean a lot of them will fail.
But I guess the way we believeit, the way we see it is
that you don't invest in failure.You'll never succeed if you don't try and

(13:24):
fund great ideas that we're never goingto have one or two or three.
That makes a difference. And there'sstory after story againnis you know that.
I mean, I think this iswhat makes just os me is we'll look
backwards, we'll see, you know, there'll be a breakthrough in cancer.

(13:46):
So for example, immunotherapies or celltherapies. And when you follow the story
of how these therapies became breakthroughs inevitably, there was a time when those scientists
were working on it and no onebelieved in them. They scraped the ground
and it went on for a decadeand finally, you know, little steps,

(14:07):
little steps, little steps, andsuddenly they found something and and and
in some cases these the scientists wenton to be Nobel Laureates or Nobel Prize
winners. And you cannot believe thepeople of this sort of genius were at
one point sort of the pariahs ofthe of the funding spectrum, like nobody

(14:28):
would give them money to work onsomething that the peers did not believe in.
And now some of these great ideasare bringing in billions of dollars annually
for pharma and and saving people's livesor improving lives. So I think,

(14:48):
I think you know, the proofis in the putting. We knew we
need to at the community fund moregreat ideas because some of these will actually
make it, and they will people. And clearly, with cancer, it's
not just one disease. It's hundredsof diseases, right, And some cancers
we do really well at and otherswe absolutely have nothing for them. And

(15:13):
as you were mentioning your father andlung cancer, if you have lung cancer,
you have a late stage cancer,let's just say, we don't have
anything to tell people wage disease.And it hasn't changed in you know.
So in nineteen seventy one, Nixondeclared war on cancer. He signed the

(15:33):
National Cancer Act. In his mind, if you put a man on the
moon, we should be able tocure cancer. You know, we came
up with pen still In, andwe came up with all these other things.
But in his mind and many others, there should be a cure.
And here we are fifty plus yearslater and there's no cure. And the

(15:54):
reason is because cancer is a reallytricky disease. In fact, you are
a multi cellular being, you areat risk of getting cancer. You just
are. It's part of being multicellular. And then that too, cancer
manifests in so many different ways thatfinding that one magic bullet cure is not

(16:18):
realistic right as we understand it today. So I think it's really about how
many ideas can we move forward thatcan actually improve the cancer patient's journey.
Maybe there might be some cures forsome people, but maybe it's just a

(16:40):
better quality of life, or maybeit's just better screening, or it's or
you know, there are people,for example, like women who don't have
access to what's already out mimography andso forth, So how do we save
those women? And then the issue, you know, the issues go on
and on. But I think theissues are more prevalent because of COVID,

(17:02):
because we saw all the breakdown duringCOVID. We saw that people had access
and then there were people who didn'thave access to the vaccine, or to
healthcare centers, or to emergency rooms, et cetera, etc. So how
do we address all these things becausecancer is not just a problem in the
United States or the Western countries.It is a global burden. Frankly,

(17:22):
yeah, it's well said, andit doesn't discriminate folks, doesn't matter what
social class, what color you are. Of course, some people more susceptible
than others, but it affects almosteverybody and probably most of our listeners that
are hearing our interview today. Iwant to circle back in just a few
minutes Mona to about allocation, aboutdonations money and why you choose a certain

(17:45):
cancers that you're trying to take alook at to eradicate eventually. But I
do want to talk about the artistsand musicians because this is an important part
of your charity, and of courseit's in the title of music Beats Cancer.
Can you tell me what it's likewith a relationship with the artists and
the bands and how you get themtogether and once again, I'm sure a

(18:06):
lot of these bands and artists aretouched by cancer, just like I am
and a lot of other of ourlisteners today. But how does this relationship
work and how do you get theminvolved in the charity. Yeah, that's
a good question. So we sourcemany artists from Reverb Nation and otherwise.
Artists come to us and find us. And what's so interesting, it's exactly

(18:27):
what you said. They have allbeen touched inevitably, right they come on
board, They've all been touched insome way. And I will say when
I first began, it was hardbecause I didn't know a single artist.
I didn't know anybody like you whoworked for in a music industry. It
was really tough to simply be ascientist who lived in the lab, you

(18:52):
know, and with my head inthe sand type of thing, and then
suddenly become a leader of a publicfacing entity make music beats cancer and try
to make it public right and tryto you know. So this was extraordinarily
difficult, and that too just personally. I was, well, I'm a
mother of two and back then,you know, I had my kids were

(19:12):
small, and so it was likewe use the word, you know,
mom entrepreneur. I was like oneof those, right right. And you
know, normally when you think ofentrepreneur, you think of someone who's moving
and shaking, they're out and about, they've got a network, they're going
to every you know, conference andcocktail mixer and that type of thing.

(19:34):
And you're a mom. You justdon't have that. So for me just
to get into this theme was superhard, and a lot of doors closed
on me, but I just keptkept going and sure enough one opened and
it led to another and another andand but what I find pretty awesome about
the artist that I wasn't expecting,it's just how much they taught me and

(20:00):
what I do with every single artistthat's interested. I get on a ten
minute, fifteen minute call and Ishare what we're doing, and I tell
them we're putting together a challenge andit's online and everybody gets to have a
page on the platform and a donatebutton, and the challenge starts, you
know, and X time and endswhy time, and you get out there

(20:22):
and raise money and do your best, and then the ones who raise the
most, you know, we're goingto have some prizes, but really we
want everybody who will just lend theirvoice, and sure enough they it's amazing
you've done this so many times now, but it's amazing how many times it's
this sort of replicable. There areartists that raise money and everybody's putting it

(20:47):
out there, and they're social andin a way it honors them as it
helps us. So I would saythis is really special because you can't imagine.
I mean, these artists struggle too, it's really hard to get their
music out. But but you justcan't imagine how caring people are until you

(21:11):
meet artists who who do who dothis from their heart, and it moves
me and it almost incentive and incentivizesme to keep to keep this, you
know, going. But they alsoteach me a lot because inevitably everybody has
a story. And I've learned aboutcancer because artists have told me how it

(21:33):
touched them someone in their band,their family members, their friends, and
down to the detail of it andsome of the success stories and some of
our failures as as ah, youknow, as a as a as I
guess the medical society we've you know, I don't you know. For me,

(21:53):
I think we fail people when wecan't help them to live and and
live a normal life, you know, as best as we can. So
they've taught me where these challenges existand that that has become a very special
relationship. It sure sounds like whata wonderful gift about everybody giving back,

(22:14):
and that's really what we're talking abouthere. So I do want to circle
back about allocations, not only fordonations, because everybody wants to know where
their money goes, but more thanthat. With your amazing background, you
know, you pick several different cancersand you know this death value that you
talked about about, you know,trying to fund a certain kind of cancers
that maybe aren't necessarily funded properly allthe time. So when you come to

(22:37):
choose, do you do you workwith the band a little bit? Are
you choosing on your own? Doyou have a board that does that?
And how does it all get allocated? I'm so curious about it. Yeah,
So so we have it's not reallytoo different from Kickstarter. So we
have companies that come to us andthey want to get on our platform,
and then we help them start upa campaign and we do get the company

(23:00):
these we look at the science,we look at what they're working on,
and like you said, we're notpicking cancers per se, but we're picking
ideas that where standard of care ismissing something right, right, So maybe
there are new surgical ideas that helppeople with certain surgeries. Maybe it's helping

(23:25):
people just in screening, you know, Like I said, they're really gaps.
There's so many of them. Metastaticdisease in one of them. If
I can find people that are workingon how do we go after metastatic disease,
I want them on our platform.Another disease that has not changed a
lot. I mentioned ovarian, butit's also brain cancer. Very hard to

(23:45):
treat, brain cancer almost nothing forthese patients. So I'm looking for ideas
that are groundbreaking and that will fillgap potentially filled gaps where standard of care
isn't working or not working that well. So that's kind of how that happens.
And then they set up a campaignand people can donate directly, so

(24:08):
it's not like they donate to musicNeeds cancer and then we have a committee
and then the money gets called outright, That's how many charities work. So
like for example, you might doa run or walk for life or whatever,
and then you don't know exactly knowwhere that money goes right in our
case. The whole point of itis we want people to decide where their
dollar should go, you know,and it should be compelling and interesting for

(24:33):
them. So we embrace the crowdmodel because I think we find it more
transparent and direct, and I thinkthat our public is shifted and that's something
that they care about, is theywant to know where their dollar goes,
and they want it to be somethingthat they care about. Yeah, I
agree with that, and I'd lovethat you brought up the word transparency because

(24:55):
folks, that's what it exactly is. If you will get the website here
if you haven't already found it onGoogle with Music Beats Cancer in just a
moment here as we wrap up orinterview in about five or six minutes.
But in the campaigns, you know, it does look like Kickstarter. You
see how much money has been allocatedso far and exactly what the cancer is
or what the process is of whatthat campaign is. So there's a lot

(25:17):
of transparency there, which I findabsolutely wonderful. And I think it's just
such a cool and different idea thatyou're doing, Mona, and this is
really unique. And I the lastthing, I you know, because we
only have a couple of minutes left. I want to make sure that you
know the artists that are listening thatcan reach out to you, or people
want to donate and get more information, and once again we'll give the website.
But I know that funding is justso important, and you know,

(25:42):
corporate sponsorship also, if any corporationsor businesses are listening. This is the
time to really perk up here becauseI think Mona's going to have a lot
to offer about how you can reallypartner up. Whether you're just a family,
or you're a corporation or you're anartist. You know, there's a
lot of different buckets that you workwith here. Mona so comes to donating,
whether it's their time or their moneyor anything else. How do people

(26:03):
do all that? Yeah, sopeople can go to our website, Musicbeats
Cancer dot org and if they hitclick campaigns, they can see the campaigns
that we're supporting at the moment.Clearly, if people want to be sponsors
or do something you know, ata partnership with us, they can email

(26:25):
me directly at Mona at music BeatsCancer dot org. We're always looking for
sponsors and for partners Frankly, andone of the sort of moving moving into
the future, One of the thingswe really want to do is we want
to come up with ideas where peoplecan get people can learn about innovation,

(26:48):
but in a way that that's fun, it's it's entertaining, it's and it's
exciting. And in fact, oneof the ideas that we want to do
down the road is something called theBattle of the Biotechs, where it will
be judged by musicians, and wewant to do like fun ideas like that,
and other ideas I've thought about isdoing tributes to music icons who have

(27:11):
passed away from cancer. And intalking about these musicians, we share about
the cancers and what what groundbreaking ideasare happening for these particular cancers. Like
I said, you know about Marley, he died in melanoma. In fact,

(27:33):
you know, I think it waspancreatic cancer that took Aritha Franklin's life.
So being able to share about cancerand what's going on and doing on
platforms where people can get together andjust find it interesting and fun at the
same time is what we're after.I want to give that website one more
time for everybody. Yes, it'sthe music beat cancer dot org. One

(27:57):
more thing before I let you go, and only have about a minute left.
But your knee deep in this,and with your biochemistry background and you
working in cancers, I'm sure you'veseen the miraculous, the good, the
bad, and the ugly and allof it. Are we making strides out
there that I know we can alwaysbe a little bit better. But when
it comes to not necessarily curatives,but as we treat cancer, are you

(28:19):
encouraged about the future. Yeah,I really am. I think we're making
strides, and I think we're makingstrides in many directions even from it,
because it's not all about the cure. Sometimes it's just about awareness. You
know. Again to bring up yourfather and you said he was a smoker.

(28:41):
We have as a country have saveda lot of lives because anti smoking
campaigns have yes, stopped a lotof people, but we still have millions
of people who still smoke, sowe have more work to do. But
just that alone has brought down thecancer deaths, the lung answer deaths.
And then on the other side ofthe spectrum is we have cell therapies and

(29:06):
mutal therapies that have have you know, miraculous remissions, creating miraculous remissions and
people this is to me hugely inspiringpeople that were not going to make it.
They need it, they're fine.Yeah, So we have, you
know, the spectrum of and Ithink this is the way we need to

(29:26):
fight this war is on all sides. It's not simply finding quote unquote leak
cure agreed and quality of life too, and that's a real big deal for
a lot of families out there,whether you have it or whether you're part
of that family. WELLA, I'mso glad we were introduced with each other.
We're going to keep in touch andsee how you're doing with music beak
cancer. But this has just beena wonderful conversation. We only hit the

(29:47):
tip of the iceberg, folks tohave all the things that Moan and her
team do. So we're very appreciativeof you joining us on the show.
So let's stay in touch, andthank you so much for joining us on
Community DC. Thank you guys,