July 13, 2024 • 29 mins
Ryan Gorman hosts an iHeartRadio nationwide special featuring Julie Garner, Founder of Project Yellow Light. Julie Garner discusses her organization’s work raising awareness of the dangers of distracted driving, especially among America’s youth. Also, Kendyl Berna, Filmmaker, Environmental Scientist & Founder of Beyond the Reef, checks in for Shark Week to discuss her ocean conservation organization’s focus on shark tagging, coral monitoring, and artificial reef building. Finally, Army Brigadier General Paul ‘Greg’ Smith (Ret.), Author of CONFESSIONS OF A WEEKEND WARRIOR: Thirty-Five Years in the National Guard, joins the show to share highlights from his career in the U.S. National Guard and shed light on the important work members of the National Guard do on combat missions overseas and domestic emergencies here at home.
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(00:00):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you this week. Here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks so much for joining us here
on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ran Gorman, and we have a few really great
conversations lined up for you. Ina moment, we're going to talk to
the founder of an organization working tohighlight the dangers of distracted driving, and
(00:24):
just to give you a sense ofthe scope of the problem. According to
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,in twenty twenty two, there were over
thirty three hundred people killed and anadditional two hundred and eighty nine thousand injured
in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving distracteddrivers. So a really important conversation coming
(00:47):
up. Plus, in light ofShark Week, we're going to be joined
by a documentary filmmaker and environmental scientistto talk about the science behind shark tagging,
along with the different types of conservationefforts for organists focuses on. And
finally, we'll be joined by retiredArmy bringing to your general Paul greg Smith,
author of the new book Confessions ofa Weekend Warrior, thirty five years
(01:11):
in the National Guard. He's goingto share with us stories about the incredible
and heroic work members of the NationalGuard do, from overseas combat deployments to
domestic emergencies, everything from natural disasterresponses to staffing clinics during the pandemic.
It's really a chance for us tospend some time focusing on those serving who
(01:33):
sometimes don't get the recognition they deserve. So all of that is on the
way for you right now to getthings started. I'm joined by Julie Garner,
founder of Project yellow Light. Youcan learn more at Project Yellowlight dot
com. Julie, it's great totalk to you once again, and let's
begin with an overview of why youput together this organization. Well is born
(01:55):
of a tragedy. My son waskilled in the car crash at the age
of sixteen, and you know,when that happens, you pretty much the
hight yourself. It's just devastating,as you can well imagine. And so
my husband, daughter and I knewwe had to do something to keep Hunter's
memory alive. We didn't want tolose him and lose his memory to others,
(02:19):
and we wanted to keep all ofhis friends safe because we realized that
car crashes were one of the leadingcauses of death of our youth, and
I had no idea up until thatpoint. And so we started this scholarship
competition in his high school where weengaged the young people to create videos,
(02:39):
and it grew from there. Afew years in the ad council taptos and
we went national overnight from one schoolto a national competition, and we added
on not only just a video competition, but also radio and billboards, which
has just kind of grown over theyears, and we also added a college
(03:00):
level. So we are just focusedon getting our use safe and to have
them communicate to each other the dangersof this to strike to driving, because
we feel like there's nobody better thanthat peer to peer, you know,
communication that just resonates with one another. You know, it really amazes me
(03:21):
that we still see as many peopledriving while on their phones as we do
these days, knowing the dangers ofthis. I mean, it used to
be when you were driving and yousaw someone going slow, breaking a lot,
maybe swerving things like that, itwas somebody who was intoxicated, maybe
(03:46):
they were drunk. Now, ninetimes out of ten when you see that
it's not necessarily they're intoxicated, it'sthat they're on their phone. They're looking
at their phone while they're trying todrive. They're missing what's happening ahead of
them and putting everyone around them atrisk. As you can tell, this
issue just infuriates me because I seeit still all the time, and you
(04:08):
know, your organization highlights the impactthat distracted driving has had the tragic impact
on so many families across the country. How has Project Yellow Light impacted those
young people who have participated in thiswork, Well, you know, I
think everybody who takes part, whetherthey're a winner or not, kind of
(04:30):
gets a little bit of an educationon the dilemma and the fact that we
are so driven by this, youknow, cell phone use, and we're
so addicted to it, and itreally is impacting our youngest drivers because they
grew up with it. They grewup with the cell phones, they grew
up with texting, and we justfeel like that so often they think they're
(04:55):
invincible, you know, they thinkthey're getting the car and they're fine,
and they're considered a go if theycan text while driving. So it's an
education process because every single person whotakes part kind of gets the feel and
the understanding of how seriousness is andhow often these car crashes happen with this
age group, and primarily due toa distruction which is one hundred percent avoidable.
(05:21):
So they are educating themselves and inturn, they're speaking out to each
other and educating each other and gettingthat message out there too to be careful
because the flip side can be help. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Julie
Garner, founder of Project yellow Light. You can learn more at Project yellowlight
(05:42):
dot com. So you've named thetwenty twenty four student scholarship winners who have
spotlighted the dangers of distracted driving.But step us through the process. How
does this all work? Well,it's an amazing thing. Everything you need
to know about our scholarship competition andsome facts and stats and all that are
contained within the website that you justmentioned, Project yellow Light dot com.
(06:04):
It's an annual competition that opens upeach October. Submissions due in the spring,
and then the winners are announced inJune, and in fact they're going
to be announced just in two daysin Times Square. So that's another little
feather for our winners in addition towinning a little scholarship money, they get
(06:25):
to have their work displayed on thebig boards in Times Square, and our
media partners including iHeart, distribute andshare these winning selections all throughout the country,
so from TV, radio and billboard. I mean, it's just a
wonderful opportunity for young people to speakout and have their message heard. And
(06:49):
not only that, but the biggeropportunity is to to impact positive change and
perhaps save life. How important isit that this message is not just focused
on younger people who are more likelyto drive distracted, looking at their phones
or doing other things, but alsothat this message is coming from younger people,
(07:13):
because when you start to move acrossgenerations, the communication and it changes
a bit, the message changes abit, and sometimes it's just not as
effective as when it comes from ayounger person's peers. When we first started
this project right after Hunter died,we looked at what was out there at
(07:36):
the time, and it was alldone by adult, well meaning adults,
but it just was not effective.You either had somebody in the uniform talking
down to the youth, or somebodykind of like wagging a finger at them,
or it was a kind of ashow of blood, guts and gore
that everybody just turned off and didn'tlook at. And so we felt like
(07:59):
it's time to hand this message overto the young people and see if they
can't come up with a solution andcan't impact this. You know themselves better
than we adults can, and Ithink they do. I think their voices
resonate with one another, and they'reable to talk to each other in a
way better than I can or anyother adults, and so we really feel
(08:22):
like giving this over to them andhelping them help us put an end to
this is the way to go.I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Julie Garner,
founder of Project yellow Light. Youcan learn more at Project yellowlight dot
com. What stood out to youabout how the participants in this program have
messaged the warnings of distracted driving totheir peers. I'm sure you've seen some
(08:48):
really tremendous PSAs that have been puttogether, But what stands out to you
about how they're going about doing this? Well, you know, we give
them creative license and pretty much,you know, give some guidance on our
website and tell them what we're lookingfor. But I think they the ones
that double to the surface. Arethe ones that are so simple and so
(09:09):
clear and also just kind of speakfrom the heart. You know. They
take this on in so many differentways. Some of them use humor,
We'll get rap videos, we'll getanimated, videos, will get serious,
you know, different kinds of radiospots. It's just wonderful the different types
(09:33):
of talent and creativity they approach with. But all of them are wonderful and
we just love that, and youknow, we continue to get more and
more each year and they become betterand better as well. Talk for a
moment about the resources that you haveavailable at Project yellowlight dot com and based
(09:54):
on your experience, what are somerecommendations that you would have for parents who
are listening right now, who maybehave a child who's about to start driving,
who just recently started driving, orjust a son or daughter they're concerned
about and they want to make surethey don't drive in a distracted way.
(10:16):
What would you recommend they do toreally get that message across. Well,
like you said, the website iscontains all kinds of that from NITZA,
who our sponsoring partner, the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administration, So you can
learn a lot of information there andalso just find out about the scholarship itself
(10:39):
and how to get involved. Andwe would just tell the parents of high
school juniors and seniors and undergrad collegestudents to tell their children to get out
there and take part. And that'sthe best way because they'll have to do
a little bit of research and educationon their own to figure out how can
I create a message? Do Ineed to do and therefore learn the horrors
(11:05):
of what can happen. Julie Garner, founder of Project yellow Light again.
You can learn more at Project Yellowlightdot com. That's Project yellow Light dot
com. Julie, really appreciate thetime and the great work you're doing on
all of this. Thanks so much, Thank you, Ryan, thanks for
having us and helping us spread theword. All right, I'm Ryan Gorman
here on I Hear Radio Communities,And now let me bring in Kendall Berna,
(11:26):
a documentary filmmaker and environmental scientist andfounder of the ocean conservation nonprofit organization
Beyond the Reef. You can learnmore at one beyond the Reef dot com.
That's the number one Beyond the Reefdot com. This week we Shark
Week on the Discovery Channel and Kendall, thank you so much for coming on
(11:48):
the show, and let's start there. One of the things that your organization
does is shark tacking. We seea lot of this when we watch all
the different specials during Shark Week,but I'm sure a lot of people are
wondering what exactly is the purpose behindthat. Talk to us about that.
Yeah, so thank you for thegreat introduction. By the way, For
my organization, we mostly focus inthe British Islands, which is a shark
(12:13):
sanctuary, meaning it's illegal to catchor kill a shark there, but there's
little to no research that's been doneon the sharks there. So for different
species we tag them for different reasons, but we just need a baseline data
basically. So one of the sharksthat we're tagging is lemon sharks, and
(12:37):
it's believed that lemon sharks might besimilar to a salmon and that they actually
go back to where they were bornin order to have their young. So
what we're trying to see is thisone particular island that we're studying a breeding
ground or a pupping ground, whichmakes it even more important and we can
(12:58):
take these things and use it forfurther conservation and also potentially creating marine protected
areas and places that we know arereally important. Are also just the first
time a few weeks ago, taggedour first tiger shark there, which a
lot of people didn't realize we're there, and we're realizing they're sort of a
what I'm calling tiger bank in thisone really specific area. So that's been
(13:24):
pretty cool to see. And wecan satellite tag them so we can actually,
you know, just go on ourphones and see all of their movements.
Are there other things that you endup learning about the sharks just through
the process of tagging them. Yeah, totally. Through the process of tagging
them, you know, we getto initially see where they are, how
(13:48):
many of them there are. There'sso much that you don't know even just
being on the water in an areafor so long, you don't really realize
any of these things until you actuallystart to do the research and get the
data. So yeah, before atag even goes on, just the process
of going out to the areas youneed to and and fishing for them.
(14:11):
That's usually what we do is wewe just call it fishing. We put
out a little bait, catch ashark, bring it right up to the
side of the boat, put aquick tag, and send it back on
its way. It's the most minimallyinvasive way that we can put a tag
on it. Now, have youhad situations where you're attempting to put the
tag on the shark and things goa little haywire? I mean, whenever
(14:35):
you're working with wild animals, youknow you're you're sort of in their territory
there. But the more experience youget, the easier it becomes. If
you have a good team, youknow it's it's pretty it becomes pretty simple
to capture it and tag it.There's always things that can go wrong,
(14:56):
but we tag you know, anythingthe twelve foot tigers to a less than
one and a half foot lemon sharks. That's the youngest that it could be.
So there's just really different methods anddifferent hook sizes and ITAs. You
know, we even just wade throughthe water to pick them up along.
(15:20):
We basically set out bait along theline and hook them that way, whereas
with the bigger sharks you'd bring themup just to the side of a really
small boat. We use a littleBoston whaler actually for it that we just
got out of out of Florida andbrought it down. We're joined by Kendall
Berner, documentary filmmaker and environmental scientistand founder of the ocean conservation nonprofit organization
Beyond the Reef, So beyond sharkTagging. Tell us about your organization,
(15:46):
how it came about, and someof the other work you do. Yeah,
So the organization actually came about afterHurricanes Irma and Maria, which I
feel your listeners are probably somewhat familiarwith as well. That happened in two
twenty seventeen, and there were abunch of garlic vessels along the coastline because
(16:07):
of the hurricanes. So my cofounder and I realized that we could turn
some of these into large scale artificialreefs. So we made these big,
you know, some of them wereone hundred foot ships, and we turned
them into art projects essentially and leanthem up to the same standard that you
(16:29):
would any sort of boat in theUS, which I think that also info
that comes out of Florida, andwe sunk them as artificial reef for a
few purposes. One to create artificialreef, two to recycle a vessel,
Three to increase tourism in an areathat had just been devastated by hurricanes,
(16:49):
and then we ask for any scubadivers on it to donate five dollars,
which goes directly back to local children'sswim and marine education programs. That's kind
of how it started, and fromthere it just turned into anything ocean conservation,
soup back research. In the sameway that there was no data on
sharks, there was no data onhumpbacks, so we're finding it's a really
(17:11):
important migration route. We also domoral treatment stony coral tissue loss disease,
and ghost fishing gear cleanup. Soghost fishing gear is any fishing gear that's
been lost or abandoned at sea,and the British Virgin Islands happen at a
lot of that that washes up ontheir shores, so we go in collect
(17:32):
it. Sometimes it's just free diversor scuba divers cutting with knives, nets
and ropes out of reefs, andsometimes it requires us bringing in a barge
and crane to lift a net that'sso big. And last thing I want
to ask you about coral reefs andsome of the issues that we're seeing around
the globe and why caring for themis so important. Can you break that
(17:56):
down for us? Yeah, Imean coral. Coral is a really sensitive
thing. They get a bad deal. Coral is really sensitive to acidification,
to heat, which can cause bleachingand occasionally diseases like stony coral tissue loss
disease, which was seen in Floridaand the Keys first and then made its
(18:22):
way down throughout the Caribbean. Butcoral is the home to so many animals
on the reefs where I think ourworld is actually much more reliant on corals
than we realize for both food aswell as protection. Coral acts as a
(18:45):
barrier in things like hurricanes, whichcan be really devastating places. And yeah,
it just has a semiotic relationship withall the animals that live there.
They can't exist without the coral.So when the corel goes away, their
home goes away, their food goesaway, and it becomes a very different
(19:06):
world than what we live in rightnow. Ye, it has a major
ripple effect. Kendall Berner, documentaryfilmmaker and environmental scientist and founder of the
ocean conservation nonprofit organization Beyond the Reef, which you can find online at onebeyond
the Reef dot com that's the numberone beyond the reef dot com and of
course she's part of Shark Week onthe Discovery Channel. Kendall, thanks so
(19:26):
much for all the great work you'redoing and for coming on the show.
We really appreciate it. Thanks somuch for having me appreciate it. Rian,
of course, thanks again, Kendall. I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio
Communities and now let me bring inour final guest. I'm joined by retired
Army Brigadier General Paul greg Smith,author of the brand new book Confessions of
a Weekend Warrior thirty five years inthe National Guard. General Smith, thank
(19:52):
you so much for taking the timeto come on the show, and of
course for your tremendous service to ourcountry. And let me start with your
b How did you originally end upserving in the National Guard? Ah?
So, Ryan, thanks for havingme this morning. You know when I
when I started writing the book,it caused called for some self reflection.
(20:15):
I guess one of the things thatI said in the book is that I
realized that I could never have notjoined the Army. Every time I saw
a parade. From the time Iwas a little kid, my favorite toys
were g I Joe's and tanks andall that sort of stuff. My father
was a Navy officer, and Ithink he cried a little bit when I,
(20:38):
uh when I joined the army.But uh So, the bottom line
is, you know, I feltlike I needed to serve. I was
kind of in my soul that Ineeded to be in the military and need
to see what that was like.Ro OTC helped pay for college, and
then you know, when I finishedrote, they wanted me to go in
(21:00):
the regular army, but I wantedto be a special ed teacher. So
the only way to do those twothings was to join the reserves for the
National Guard. So lo and behold. I joined the Massachusetts National Guard,
and for thirty five years I wasin the army or the Guard, and
(21:22):
most of the time in the Guard, and it was quite a ride.
For those who have never served inthe National Guard, tell us a little
bit about how that works and whatyou did for thirty five years. So
sure, and Ryan, that's that'sone of the reasons I wrote this book
(21:44):
is I really wanted people to understandwhat the inner workings of the National Guard
are, Like, what really getsunder gets my goat gets under my skin
when I hear elected officials saying,let's send the Guard there, Let's send
the Guard there, Let's send theGuard over there to fix this problem.
Now, the National Guard is America'sSwiss army knife. It can do tremendous
(22:08):
things, from staffing clinics, drivingschool buses, responding to floods and hurricanes,
and oh, by the way,deploying overseas for combat missions. Can
do it all. But the thingthat most people don't understand is guardsmen aren't
sitting around in armories. They're yourkid's second grade teacher. There, your
(22:33):
attorney. They're the nurse that broughtyou into the doctor's office. They're the
ups driver that delivered your package.You run into guardsmen every day and you
don't even know it because they areliving their lives doing their jobs their mothers,
fathers, little league coaches. Butwhen they get a call, they
(22:55):
pick up their bag, they changeinto that camouflage uniform, and they report
for duty to take on the mission. I like to call them America's quietest
heroes. Pardon me for being acheerleader, but I've always admired the people
who served with me. What theydo Monday through Friday or when they're not
(23:18):
wearing a uniform, and then whatthey do once they put on that uniform
and they and they go to duty. Can I tell you one revelation I
had and I wrote about this onemorning when I was a company commander,
and it was a Sunday morning,so everybody had sort of you know,
they worked on Saturday in the army, and then they went out on Saturday
(23:41):
night. And there they were aSunday morning at formation. And I'm walking
up and down the line of thesepeople who are in this company that I
commanded, and you know they wereI'm smelling. I'm smelling last night's beer.
I'm smelling perfume, I'm smelling cigarettesmoke. You know. I'm looking
at a mother who's trying to stayawake because she's been up with her baby
(24:04):
all night. I'm looking at akid who's all excited because he just came
back from basic. I'm looking ata guy who's missing a couple of teeth.
It's America. It's those are thesame faces that held the line at
Gettysburg, that stood on the commonat Lexington and conquered, that fought back
(24:26):
the Nazis at best, all thoseare American citizen soldiers who are ready to
respond today just as they have beenfor two hundred and seventy two hundred and
eighty years. And when that revelationsort of came to me, it just
confirmed how proud I was to bepart of that organization, to be part
(24:48):
of that family. We're joined byretired Army Brigadier General Paul greg Smith,
author of Confessions of a Weekend Warrior. Thirty five years in the National Guard.
So you share your story how youended up in the National Guard.
What about some of those you servedwith? You just mentioned, you know,
what you noticed about them, whatyou learned about them. Did you
(25:11):
get a sensus to why they feltit was important to be part of that
mission? So they served for allsorts of different reasons. They'll tell you
that they did it to get thebenefits for their kids. They did it
(25:32):
for, you know, for foreducation benefits, that they needed an extra
paycheck. But the bottom line isthey're all patriots. But they're not going
to say that. Nobody's ever goingto say I did it because I love
America. I did it because becauseI care deeply about safeguarding my neighbors.
(25:53):
But but that's really the core elementbecause if you're not a patriot, and
if you don't care about your neighbors, you're not going to weigh your life
on the line during a flood ora hurricane or an overseas deployment. And
they do that constantly, and Iyou know, we we all have friends
(26:18):
who made that sacrifice. So everyoneis well aware of what the cost of
service can be. But that's thething. They'll all tell you all sorts
of different reasons. But but butthey're all patriots. Can I can I
just tell you a little illustration.Absolutely different people are though. So I
(26:41):
was when I was a commander.We were getting DNA sampled and it was
just a cheek swab, but butyou know, it went into your records.
It's for identification purposes. And Ihad two guys who wouldn't get wouldn't
go for the spot. And atfirst, you know, I send him
(27:02):
a message, Hey, you needto get over the clinic to get a
swap, And then I kept ongetting messages back that these two guys weren't
getting them. So I called theminto my office and I said, I'm
tired of chasing you guys around.You've got to get to the clinic and
get the swamp. They looked atme and they said, we're not going
to do it, sir, AndI said, excuse me, why not?
And then they said, because thearmy just wants our DNA to clone
(27:26):
us. I looked at the twoof them and I said, if the
Army's going to clone somebody, theysure as hell wouldn't pick you. You
get a choice. Either get tothat clinic or you are now a volunteer
because I'm going to stop your pay. Well, they thought it over and
they went to the clinic. Butanyway, another but I got to tell
(27:48):
you another soldier. So I'm signinginto another company. And the unit clerk
comes out. Now he's a specialistthat's somewhere between a private and a sergeant.
It's not a very high rank.And he says to me, here's
your your biographical information, sir.You need to verify it. And I
look at the education and it saysbachelor's. I had just earned a master's
(28:11):
degree. And I said to him, well, I need to be recoded
on education because I just earned amaster's And he said, okay, I'll
change that to an E. AndI said, oh, you know the
code for master's degrees and he said, yes, sir, I have two
of them. That's funny. TheGuard has the whole given. Yeah.
(28:34):
I worked with a guy who wasa sergeant in public affairs who had an
Emmy Award for a video that heproduced. So there are all sorts of
people that you run into, fromfolks who who sometimes need a boot in
the butt to other folks who cantell you how to do your job.
(28:56):
And like you said, one thingthat they all have in common extremely patriotic
serving our country. And for thatwe are so appreciative. Retired Army Brigadier
General Paul greg Smith, author ofthe new book Confessions of a Weekend Warrior
thirty five years in the National Guard. General Smith, again, we thank
you so much for coming on theshow and for your service to this country.
(29:18):
We do appreciate it. Ryan,thank you for having me. It
was a pleasure, all right.And that's going to do it for this
edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As wewrap things up, want to offer a
big thanks to all of our guestsand of course to all of you for
listening. If you want to hearprevious episodes of this show, we've got
them all for you on our iHeartRadioapp. Just search for iHeartRadio Communities.
(29:40):
I'm your host, Ryan Gorman.We'll talk to you again real soon.
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you this week. Here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks so much for joining us here
on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ran Gorman, and we have a few really great
conversations lined up for you. Ina moment, we're going to talk to
the founder of an organization working tohighlight the dangers of distracted driving, and
(00:24):
just to give you a sense ofthe scope of the problem. According to
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,in twenty twenty two, there were over
thirty three hundred people killed and anadditional two hundred and eighty nine thousand injured
in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving distracteddrivers. So a really important conversation coming
(00:47):
up. Plus, in light ofShark Week, we're going to be joined
by a documentary filmmaker and environmental scientistto talk about the science behind shark tagging,
along with the different types of conservationefforts for organists focuses on. And
finally, we'll be joined by retiredArmy bringing to your general Paul greg Smith,
author of the new book Confessions ofa Weekend Warrior, thirty five years
(01:11):
in the National Guard. He's goingto share with us stories about the incredible
and heroic work members of the NationalGuard do, from overseas combat deployments to
domestic emergencies, everything from natural disasterresponses to staffing clinics during the pandemic.
It's really a chance for us tospend some time focusing on those serving who
(01:33):
sometimes don't get the recognition they deserve. So all of that is on the
way for you right now to getthings started. I'm joined by Julie Garner,
founder of Project yellow Light. Youcan learn more at Project Yellowlight dot
com. Julie, it's great totalk to you once again, and let's
begin with an overview of why youput together this organization. Well is born
(01:55):
of a tragedy. My son waskilled in the car crash at the age
of sixteen, and you know,when that happens, you pretty much the
hight yourself. It's just devastating,as you can well imagine. And so
my husband, daughter and I knewwe had to do something to keep Hunter's
memory alive. We didn't want tolose him and lose his memory to others,
(02:19):
and we wanted to keep all ofhis friends safe because we realized that
car crashes were one of the leadingcauses of death of our youth, and
I had no idea up until thatpoint. And so we started this scholarship
competition in his high school where weengaged the young people to create videos,
(02:39):
and it grew from there. Afew years in the ad council taptos and
we went national overnight from one schoolto a national competition, and we added
on not only just a video competition, but also radio and billboards, which
has just kind of grown over theyears, and we also added a college
(03:00):
level. So we are just focusedon getting our use safe and to have
them communicate to each other the dangersof this to strike to driving, because
we feel like there's nobody better thanthat peer to peer, you know,
communication that just resonates with one another. You know, it really amazes me
(03:21):
that we still see as many peopledriving while on their phones as we do
these days, knowing the dangers ofthis. I mean, it used to
be when you were driving and yousaw someone going slow, breaking a lot,
maybe swerving things like that, itwas somebody who was intoxicated, maybe
(03:46):
they were drunk. Now, ninetimes out of ten when you see that
it's not necessarily they're intoxicated, it'sthat they're on their phone. They're looking
at their phone while they're trying todrive. They're missing what's happening ahead of
them and putting everyone around them atrisk. As you can tell, this
issue just infuriates me because I seeit still all the time, and you
(04:08):
know, your organization highlights the impactthat distracted driving has had the tragic impact
on so many families across the country. How has Project Yellow Light impacted those
young people who have participated in thiswork, Well, you know, I
think everybody who takes part, whetherthey're a winner or not, kind of
(04:30):
gets a little bit of an educationon the dilemma and the fact that we
are so driven by this, youknow, cell phone use, and we're
so addicted to it, and itreally is impacting our youngest drivers because they
grew up with it. They grewup with the cell phones, they grew
up with texting, and we justfeel like that so often they think they're
(04:55):
invincible, you know, they thinkthey're getting the car and they're fine,
and they're considered a go if theycan text while driving. So it's an
education process because every single person whotakes part kind of gets the feel and
the understanding of how seriousness is andhow often these car crashes happen with this
age group, and primarily due toa distruction which is one hundred percent avoidable.
(05:21):
So they are educating themselves and inturn, they're speaking out to each
other and educating each other and gettingthat message out there too to be careful
because the flip side can be help. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Julie
Garner, founder of Project yellow Light. You can learn more at Project yellowlight
(05:42):
dot com. So you've named thetwenty twenty four student scholarship winners who have
spotlighted the dangers of distracted driving.But step us through the process. How
does this all work? Well,it's an amazing thing. Everything you need
to know about our scholarship competition andsome facts and stats and all that are
contained within the website that you justmentioned, Project yellow Light dot com.
(06:04):
It's an annual competition that opens upeach October. Submissions due in the spring,
and then the winners are announced inJune, and in fact they're going
to be announced just in two daysin Times Square. So that's another little
feather for our winners in addition towinning a little scholarship money, they get
(06:25):
to have their work displayed on thebig boards in Times Square, and our
media partners including iHeart, distribute andshare these winning selections all throughout the country,
so from TV, radio and billboard. I mean, it's just a
wonderful opportunity for young people to speakout and have their message heard. And
(06:49):
not only that, but the biggeropportunity is to to impact positive change and
perhaps save life. How important isit that this message is not just focused
on younger people who are more likelyto drive distracted, looking at their phones
or doing other things, but alsothat this message is coming from younger people,
(07:13):
because when you start to move acrossgenerations, the communication and it changes
a bit, the message changes abit, and sometimes it's just not as
effective as when it comes from ayounger person's peers. When we first started
this project right after Hunter died,we looked at what was out there at
(07:36):
the time, and it was alldone by adult, well meaning adults,
but it just was not effective.You either had somebody in the uniform talking
down to the youth, or somebodykind of like wagging a finger at them,
or it was a kind of ashow of blood, guts and gore
that everybody just turned off and didn'tlook at. And so we felt like
(07:59):
it's time to hand this message overto the young people and see if they
can't come up with a solution andcan't impact this. You know themselves better
than we adults can, and Ithink they do. I think their voices
resonate with one another, and they'reable to talk to each other in a
way better than I can or anyother adults, and so we really feel
(08:22):
like giving this over to them andhelping them help us put an end to
this is the way to go.I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Julie Garner,
founder of Project yellow Light. Youcan learn more at Project yellowlight dot
com. What stood out to youabout how the participants in this program have
messaged the warnings of distracted driving totheir peers. I'm sure you've seen some
(08:48):
really tremendous PSAs that have been puttogether, But what stands out to you
about how they're going about doing this? Well, you know, we give
them creative license and pretty much,you know, give some guidance on our
website and tell them what we're lookingfor. But I think they the ones
that double to the surface. Arethe ones that are so simple and so
(09:09):
clear and also just kind of speakfrom the heart. You know. They
take this on in so many differentways. Some of them use humor,
We'll get rap videos, we'll getanimated, videos, will get serious,
you know, different kinds of radiospots. It's just wonderful the different types
(09:33):
of talent and creativity they approach with. But all of them are wonderful and
we just love that, and youknow, we continue to get more and
more each year and they become betterand better as well. Talk for a
moment about the resources that you haveavailable at Project yellowlight dot com and based
(09:54):
on your experience, what are somerecommendations that you would have for parents who
are listening right now, who maybehave a child who's about to start driving,
who just recently started driving, orjust a son or daughter they're concerned
about and they want to make surethey don't drive in a distracted way.
(10:16):
What would you recommend they do toreally get that message across. Well,
like you said, the website iscontains all kinds of that from NITZA,
who our sponsoring partner, the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administration, So you can
learn a lot of information there andalso just find out about the scholarship itself
(10:39):
and how to get involved. Andwe would just tell the parents of high
school juniors and seniors and undergrad collegestudents to tell their children to get out
there and take part. And that'sthe best way because they'll have to do
a little bit of research and educationon their own to figure out how can
I create a message? Do Ineed to do and therefore learn the horrors
(11:05):
of what can happen. Julie Garner, founder of Project yellow Light again.
You can learn more at Project Yellowlightdot com. That's Project yellow Light dot
com. Julie, really appreciate thetime and the great work you're doing on
all of this. Thanks so much, Thank you, Ryan, thanks for
having us and helping us spread theword. All right, I'm Ryan Gorman
here on I Hear Radio Communities,And now let me bring in Kendall Berna,
(11:26):
a documentary filmmaker and environmental scientist andfounder of the ocean conservation nonprofit organization
Beyond the Reef. You can learnmore at one beyond the Reef dot com.
That's the number one Beyond the Reefdot com. This week we Shark
Week on the Discovery Channel and Kendall, thank you so much for coming on
(11:48):
the show, and let's start there. One of the things that your organization
does is shark tacking. We seea lot of this when we watch all
the different specials during Shark Week,but I'm sure a lot of people are
wondering what exactly is the purpose behindthat. Talk to us about that.
Yeah, so thank you for thegreat introduction. By the way, For
my organization, we mostly focus inthe British Islands, which is a shark
(12:13):
sanctuary, meaning it's illegal to catchor kill a shark there, but there's
little to no research that's been doneon the sharks there. So for different
species we tag them for different reasons, but we just need a baseline data
basically. So one of the sharksthat we're tagging is lemon sharks, and
(12:37):
it's believed that lemon sharks might besimilar to a salmon and that they actually
go back to where they were bornin order to have their young. So
what we're trying to see is thisone particular island that we're studying a breeding
ground or a pupping ground, whichmakes it even more important and we can
(12:58):
take these things and use it forfurther conservation and also potentially creating marine protected
areas and places that we know arereally important. Are also just the first
time a few weeks ago, taggedour first tiger shark there, which a
lot of people didn't realize we're there, and we're realizing they're sort of a
what I'm calling tiger bank in thisone really specific area. So that's been
(13:24):
pretty cool to see. And wecan satellite tag them so we can actually,
you know, just go on ourphones and see all of their movements.
Are there other things that you endup learning about the sharks just through
the process of tagging them. Yeah, totally. Through the process of tagging
them, you know, we getto initially see where they are, how
(13:48):
many of them there are. There'sso much that you don't know even just
being on the water in an areafor so long, you don't really realize
any of these things until you actuallystart to do the research and get the
data. So yeah, before atag even goes on, just the process
of going out to the areas youneed to and and fishing for them.
(14:11):
That's usually what we do is wewe just call it fishing. We put
out a little bait, catch ashark, bring it right up to the
side of the boat, put aquick tag, and send it back on
its way. It's the most minimallyinvasive way that we can put a tag
on it. Now, have youhad situations where you're attempting to put the
tag on the shark and things goa little haywire? I mean, whenever
(14:35):
you're working with wild animals, youknow you're you're sort of in their territory
there. But the more experience youget, the easier it becomes. If
you have a good team, youknow it's it's pretty it becomes pretty simple
to capture it and tag it.There's always things that can go wrong,
(14:56):
but we tag you know, anythingthe twelve foot tigers to a less than
one and a half foot lemon sharks. That's the youngest that it could be.
So there's just really different methods anddifferent hook sizes and ITAs. You
know, we even just wade throughthe water to pick them up along.
(15:20):
We basically set out bait along theline and hook them that way, whereas
with the bigger sharks you'd bring themup just to the side of a really
small boat. We use a littleBoston whaler actually for it that we just
got out of out of Florida andbrought it down. We're joined by Kendall
Berner, documentary filmmaker and environmental scientistand founder of the ocean conservation nonprofit organization
Beyond the Reef, So beyond sharkTagging. Tell us about your organization,
(15:46):
how it came about, and someof the other work you do. Yeah,
So the organization actually came about afterHurricanes Irma and Maria, which I
feel your listeners are probably somewhat familiarwith as well. That happened in two
twenty seventeen, and there were abunch of garlic vessels along the coastline because
(16:07):
of the hurricanes. So my cofounder and I realized that we could turn
some of these into large scale artificialreefs. So we made these big,
you know, some of them wereone hundred foot ships, and we turned
them into art projects essentially and leanthem up to the same standard that you
(16:29):
would any sort of boat in theUS, which I think that also info
that comes out of Florida, andwe sunk them as artificial reef for a
few purposes. One to create artificialreef, two to recycle a vessel,
Three to increase tourism in an areathat had just been devastated by hurricanes,
(16:49):
and then we ask for any scubadivers on it to donate five dollars,
which goes directly back to local children'sswim and marine education programs. That's kind
of how it started, and fromthere it just turned into anything ocean conservation,
soup back research. In the sameway that there was no data on
sharks, there was no data onhumpbacks, so we're finding it's a really
(17:11):
important migration route. We also domoral treatment stony coral tissue loss disease,
and ghost fishing gear cleanup. Soghost fishing gear is any fishing gear that's
been lost or abandoned at sea,and the British Virgin Islands happen at a
lot of that that washes up ontheir shores, so we go in collect
(17:32):
it. Sometimes it's just free diversor scuba divers cutting with knives, nets
and ropes out of reefs, andsometimes it requires us bringing in a barge
and crane to lift a net that'sso big. And last thing I want
to ask you about coral reefs andsome of the issues that we're seeing around
the globe and why caring for themis so important. Can you break that
(17:56):
down for us? Yeah, Imean coral. Coral is a really sensitive
thing. They get a bad deal. Coral is really sensitive to acidification,
to heat, which can cause bleachingand occasionally diseases like stony coral tissue loss
disease, which was seen in Floridaand the Keys first and then made its
(18:22):
way down throughout the Caribbean. Butcoral is the home to so many animals
on the reefs where I think ourworld is actually much more reliant on corals
than we realize for both food aswell as protection. Coral acts as a
(18:45):
barrier in things like hurricanes, whichcan be really devastating places. And yeah,
it just has a semiotic relationship withall the animals that live there.
They can't exist without the coral.So when the corel goes away, their
home goes away, their food goesaway, and it becomes a very different
(19:06):
world than what we live in rightnow. Ye, it has a major
ripple effect. Kendall Berner, documentaryfilmmaker and environmental scientist and founder of the
ocean conservation nonprofit organization Beyond the Reef, which you can find online at onebeyond
the Reef dot com that's the numberone beyond the reef dot com and of
course she's part of Shark Week onthe Discovery Channel. Kendall, thanks so
(19:26):
much for all the great work you'redoing and for coming on the show.
We really appreciate it. Thanks somuch for having me appreciate it. Rian,
of course, thanks again, Kendall. I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio
Communities and now let me bring inour final guest. I'm joined by retired
Army Brigadier General Paul greg Smith,author of the brand new book Confessions of
a Weekend Warrior thirty five years inthe National Guard. General Smith, thank
(19:52):
you so much for taking the timeto come on the show, and of
course for your tremendous service to ourcountry. And let me start with your
b How did you originally end upserving in the National Guard? Ah?
So, Ryan, thanks for havingme this morning. You know when I
when I started writing the book,it caused called for some self reflection.
(20:15):
I guess one of the things thatI said in the book is that I
realized that I could never have notjoined the Army. Every time I saw
a parade. From the time Iwas a little kid, my favorite toys
were g I Joe's and tanks andall that sort of stuff. My father
was a Navy officer, and Ithink he cried a little bit when I,
(20:38):
uh when I joined the army.But uh So, the bottom line
is, you know, I feltlike I needed to serve. I was
kind of in my soul that Ineeded to be in the military and need
to see what that was like.Ro OTC helped pay for college, and
then you know, when I finishedrote, they wanted me to go in
(21:00):
the regular army, but I wantedto be a special ed teacher. So
the only way to do those twothings was to join the reserves for the
National Guard. So lo and behold. I joined the Massachusetts National Guard,
and for thirty five years I wasin the army or the Guard, and
(21:22):
most of the time in the Guard, and it was quite a ride.
For those who have never served inthe National Guard, tell us a little
bit about how that works and whatyou did for thirty five years. So
sure, and Ryan, that's that'sone of the reasons I wrote this book
(21:44):
is I really wanted people to understandwhat the inner workings of the National Guard
are, Like, what really getsunder gets my goat gets under my skin
when I hear elected officials saying,let's send the Guard there, Let's send
the Guard there, Let's send theGuard over there to fix this problem.
Now, the National Guard is America'sSwiss army knife. It can do tremendous
(22:08):
things, from staffing clinics, drivingschool buses, responding to floods and hurricanes,
and oh, by the way,deploying overseas for combat missions. Can
do it all. But the thingthat most people don't understand is guardsmen aren't
sitting around in armories. They're yourkid's second grade teacher. There, your
(22:33):
attorney. They're the nurse that broughtyou into the doctor's office. They're the
ups driver that delivered your package.You run into guardsmen every day and you
don't even know it because they areliving their lives doing their jobs their mothers,
fathers, little league coaches. Butwhen they get a call, they
(22:55):
pick up their bag, they changeinto that camouflage uniform, and they report
for duty to take on the mission. I like to call them America's quietest
heroes. Pardon me for being acheerleader, but I've always admired the people
who served with me. What theydo Monday through Friday or when they're not
(23:18):
wearing a uniform, and then whatthey do once they put on that uniform
and they and they go to duty. Can I tell you one revelation I
had and I wrote about this onemorning when I was a company commander,
and it was a Sunday morning,so everybody had sort of you know,
they worked on Saturday in the army, and then they went out on Saturday
(23:41):
night. And there they were aSunday morning at formation. And I'm walking
up and down the line of thesepeople who are in this company that I
commanded, and you know they wereI'm smelling. I'm smelling last night's beer.
I'm smelling perfume, I'm smelling cigarettesmoke. You know. I'm looking
at a mother who's trying to stayawake because she's been up with her baby
(24:04):
all night. I'm looking at akid who's all excited because he just came
back from basic. I'm looking ata guy who's missing a couple of teeth.
It's America. It's those are thesame faces that held the line at
Gettysburg, that stood on the commonat Lexington and conquered, that fought back
(24:26):
the Nazis at best, all thoseare American citizen soldiers who are ready to
respond today just as they have beenfor two hundred and seventy two hundred and
eighty years. And when that revelationsort of came to me, it just
confirmed how proud I was to bepart of that organization, to be part
(24:48):
of that family. We're joined byretired Army Brigadier General Paul greg Smith,
author of Confessions of a Weekend Warrior. Thirty five years in the National Guard.
So you share your story how youended up in the National Guard.
What about some of those you servedwith? You just mentioned, you know,
what you noticed about them, whatyou learned about them. Did you
(25:11):
get a sensus to why they feltit was important to be part of that
mission? So they served for allsorts of different reasons. They'll tell you
that they did it to get thebenefits for their kids. They did it
(25:32):
for, you know, for foreducation benefits, that they needed an extra
paycheck. But the bottom line isthey're all patriots. But they're not going
to say that. Nobody's ever goingto say I did it because I love
America. I did it because becauseI care deeply about safeguarding my neighbors.
(25:53):
But but that's really the core elementbecause if you're not a patriot, and
if you don't care about your neighbors, you're not going to weigh your life
on the line during a flood ora hurricane or an overseas deployment. And
they do that constantly, and Iyou know, we we all have friends
(26:18):
who made that sacrifice. So everyoneis well aware of what the cost of
service can be. But that's thething. They'll all tell you all sorts
of different reasons. But but butthey're all patriots. Can I can I
just tell you a little illustration.Absolutely different people are though. So I
(26:41):
was when I was a commander.We were getting DNA sampled and it was
just a cheek swab, but butyou know, it went into your records.
It's for identification purposes. And Ihad two guys who wouldn't get wouldn't
go for the spot. And atfirst, you know, I send him
(27:02):
a message, Hey, you needto get over the clinic to get a
swap, And then I kept ongetting messages back that these two guys weren't
getting them. So I called theminto my office and I said, I'm
tired of chasing you guys around.You've got to get to the clinic and
get the swamp. They looked atme and they said, we're not going
to do it, sir, AndI said, excuse me, why not?
And then they said, because thearmy just wants our DNA to clone
(27:26):
us. I looked at the twoof them and I said, if the
Army's going to clone somebody, theysure as hell wouldn't pick you. You
get a choice. Either get tothat clinic or you are now a volunteer
because I'm going to stop your pay. Well, they thought it over and
they went to the clinic. Butanyway, another but I got to tell
(27:48):
you another soldier. So I'm signinginto another company. And the unit clerk
comes out. Now he's a specialistthat's somewhere between a private and a sergeant.
It's not a very high rank.And he says to me, here's
your your biographical information, sir.You need to verify it. And I
look at the education and it saysbachelor's. I had just earned a master's
(28:11):
degree. And I said to him, well, I need to be recoded
on education because I just earned amaster's And he said, okay, I'll
change that to an E. AndI said, oh, you know the
code for master's degrees and he said, yes, sir, I have two
of them. That's funny. TheGuard has the whole given. Yeah.
(28:34):
I worked with a guy who wasa sergeant in public affairs who had an
Emmy Award for a video that heproduced. So there are all sorts of
people that you run into, fromfolks who who sometimes need a boot in
the butt to other folks who cantell you how to do your job.
(28:56):
And like you said, one thingthat they all have in common extremely patriotic
serving our country. And for thatwe are so appreciative. Retired Army Brigadier
General Paul greg Smith, author ofthe new book Confessions of a Weekend Warrior
thirty five years in the National Guard. General Smith, again, we thank
you so much for coming on theshow and for your service to this country.
(29:18):
We do appreciate it. Ryan,thank you for having me. It
was a pleasure, all right.And that's going to do it for this
edition of iHeartRadio Communities. As wewrap things up, want to offer a
big thanks to all of our guestsand of course to all of you for
listening. If you want to hearprevious episodes of this show, we've got
them all for you on our iHeartRadioapp. Just search for iHeartRadio Communities.
(29:40):
I'm your host, Ryan Gorman.We'll talk to you again real soon.
Host
Manny Munoz
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