Full Transcript for The Future Can't Wait.

00:02:33.919 But as the African proverb says, if you want to go fast, go by yourself. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:36.240 If you want to go far, you go together. 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:36.960 Together. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:38.800 And we're trying to live that, you know. 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:50.479 And it's not just together as co-executive directors, but really this notion of leaning in together, building together, that we as a people, as a species of humanity, we are interconnected. 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:51.919 We need each other, right? 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:59.280 And so for us, that's a big part of how we do the work and how we want this uh podcast to go as well. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:21.520 And let's take a minute to also just bring our brother James Bell into the room because we are here as part of the you know co-leadership of the Haywood Burns Institute, the institute that James Bell started, founded, who was both a friend, a mentor, a confidant, a companion, all of our people, right? 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:25.120 And we have a lot of gems that we've gotten from James over the years. 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:32.319 It's also, I think, gonna be front and center for us as we continue to have these really audacious conversations. 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:33.360 Absolutely. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:35.919 You know, James was all about innovation. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:43.520 The Burns Institute, we started our work addressing youth justice, addressing racial and ethnic disparities within the administration of justice. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:46.400 What everybody said, there's nothing you can do about that. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:51.120 Race and justice is as American as apple pie, is what somebody told me. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:55.759 And flat out would tell him, oh, you and these youngsters, what are y'all gonna do? 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.360 You're gonna do something about this, and very flippantly would say that. 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:02.560 And what we know now is, yeah, actually, we did do something about it. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:03.680 We did a lot about it. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:15.759 We got together with a whole lot of people that worked in over 300 jurisdictions across the country and showed every, all the naysayers that, oh, no, no, we're not gonna sit back and just watch this happen. 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:17.920 You know, we're gonna have something to say about it. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:19.439 But Sam, what what about you? 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:22.560 What's your thoughts on why we're doing this and where we're going? 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:24.800 Man, so many, so many thoughts. 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:31.439 I think for me, it is we, I feel like we are artists of difficult conversations. 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:46.560 And what better place to highlight, to spark, to engage in innovation and dialogue when we have the skill set that we have to kind of really normalize having tough conversations. 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:48.319 I

think we've learned a lot. 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:54.480 A lot of folks tap into us to talk through stuff to help them see another perspective. 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:57.600 Um, I think it's what the world needs right now. 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:00.319 I think it's what we do very naturally. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.759 I think we do it with authenticity, with integrity. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:08.480 I think we also bring a little bit of brevity to it, a little bit of levity. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:22.639 Um, so just really I'm hoping that we can spark much needed conversations and dialogue to not only bring us into a term we heard earlier today, which was optimistic innovation, right? 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:28.959 And thinking about a really audacious future for us all to really get our arms around. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:40.639 Um, but also the needed conversations around discourse and what's necessary and how we still see each other and center people as we're working towards something better, a better tomorrow. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:44.240 And I know you get it, just like I do from friends and family. 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:58.560 Like, what are y'all doing with all this craziness going down, with all these attacks on communities, with ice out there just snatching people up, you know, people just really being fearful right now and having so much uncertainty. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.120 And, you know, I know I get those questions. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:09.920 And also we wanted to use this vehicle, this opportunity to both be a place to acknowledge that, right? 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:16.079 Acknowledge what we've been through, but also not forget that this is not the first time that these plays have been made. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:26.560 This is not the first time these attacks have happened, and it will likely not be the last if we don't pay attention to both where we've come from, but also where we're going, right? 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:28.240 What is our North Star? 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:39.519 And so, as all of us are trying to make sense of the chaos, we feel that it's critical to also carve out space, to really think about well, what happens after this? 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:41.120 We're gonna get through this, right? 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:50.560 We're gonna people are are standing up, people are taking action, we're seeing that all over the place, we're seeing solidarity efforts from all walks of life. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:56.000 And yet we have to still tell ourselves, you know, it's important to think about what happens next. 00:06:56.399 --> 00:07:04.079 What are we building that will replace the things that are being torn down and and dismantled and taken apart? 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:06.160 You know, what does the future look like? 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:17.920 And so I think this is also, you know, really important to us as we think about, you know, that very uh question you raise and the notion of of you know what's going on right now. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:39.680 Yeah, the irony I think when I hear you speak is, and I know you get this a lot too, when we dive into these issues and when you talk about racial justice and the work that we've done and how you bring folks together and building these bridges, I think the passion that it brings out in folks and certainly in us, people almost think like we must be so angry, right? 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:41.120 Like there's an anger to it. 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:53.839 And I it it's so the irony of it is like what anchors us in the conversation, and I think on what anchors us and why we see the need to really talk about human potential is the love, right? 00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:55.439 It's not anger, it's love. 00:07:55.600 --> 00:08:02.480 Like love for people, love for solutions, love for belonging, love for all the things that we know that we need. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:13.600 And so, yeah, I also want listeners to know when we get animated, when we get agitated, when we debate, when we dive in, when our voices get rough, it's centered in love, not anger. 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:14.160 Right. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:15.920 And and it's about energy. 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:18.319 You know, we're we don't know the future. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:24.240 We don't have, you know, we can't turn to the back of the book to get the answers on all these questions we have. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:29.439 And yet that energy is so important to us to be able to get in there, right? 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:36.080 And hear each other, hear somebody get really excited about an idea that somebody else is like, well, that might be that's crazy. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:42.399 And then like, well, how many things that we rely on today were crazy ideas in the past, right? 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.320 That somebody thought, well, that's impossible, you'll never do that. 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:49.679 But yet, come on, come on, and oh, you want to give me an analogy. 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:51.360 Ah, yes, of course. 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:59.759 I mean, you know, there's so many, but I mean, I always think about as we're on podcasts and you might be listening on, you know, your fancy Bluetooth headphones. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:05.919 You go back in the day and you think about that Sony Walkman, the way you used to carry our music with us. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:09.519 We used to, you know, that and that was an advancement. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:13.200 So you had a little cassette tape and you could just put that in and go. 00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:14.960 And that was like state of the art. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:16.320 You had the yellow walkman. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:18.720 I know some of y'all older folks know you were really doing it. 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:20.720 Sony, that was the cutting edge. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:22.559 And then there was discs. 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:26.399 Then you got moved to the CD because you didn't have to

rewind and wait for it to be round. 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:28.159 Now you could skip around and do all that. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:32.639 So advancements were coming because people kept imagining other ways to hear music. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:34.639 And then some fools were like, well, guess what? 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:37.600 We're gonna get rid of the CD and the tape. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:40.639 We're gonna put it all in a digital format, right? 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:55.519 The iPod comes along, which then leads to the iPhone, and you just see these advancements all off of basically people's visions, and then them going about trying to create those visions, having the resources to support their research and development. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:56.799 Let's not leave that out. 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:02.799 But then also just really living out there on the edge, figuring out how to then make it accessible. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:07.440 Next thing you know, tapes and CDs are a thing of the past, right? 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:24.720 And so in human services and the work we do, we really believe that there's opportunity for this type of advancement, this type of innovation, but we have to free ourselves of thinking that we can't do it or there's no time or it's impossible, or my ideas are too crazy for me to share. 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:30.639 And or maybe I'll be embarrassed by your reaction, you know, the type of things that that we run into. 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:34.960 Yeah, I I love that analogy of the Walkman. 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:39.039 I I do actually think I had the yellow Sony that you're talking about, though. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:42.240 I do, um, but I've advanced. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:43.440 That's right. 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:50.000 But these kind of technological advancements excite people, right? 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:57.600 And I'm so curious, though, in human services, when we talk about change, what's different, how we advance, right? 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:05.360 How we go from kind of surveillance and control to innovation, freedom, livelihood, well-being, right? 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:07.919 When we get there, what do you think the challenge is? 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:13.039 Why aren't we as excited about getting there as we are about letting go of our Wachman? 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:15.039 I think it's risky. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.919 I think it's it's a risky thing to do. 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:26.559 And you have to build a culture where it's comfortable and safe for people to imagine and to dream and to envision. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:35.039 And so much of our work is about addressing racial and ethnic disparities within these human services and specifically justice. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:42.879 You're sitting with people who've had to do protective measures because they know that there's harm being done through their work. 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:44.399 Or they see it. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:49.600 They

may not own it, they may not say, like, oh, I'm doing this and I feel responsible. 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:59.039 But there is a sense and there's a strong sense amongst folk at the table that, like, this is both real, this is out of, this is larger than me. 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:01.519 I don't know if there's anything I can do about it. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:18.480 And at least what I've seen is people use that creative energy more to try to kind of also distance themselves from the parts that feel most uncomfortable, you know, of their aspects of their work, but also try to hold on to the sense of who they are while they're doing it. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:39.120 All of that gets clouds and muddies the water around this essence of like reimagining altogether what a new infrastructure would look like, rather than just like, well, what would my job look like, or what would our department or this agency look like with all of the limitations that come with those structures? 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:52.080 So yeah, I think I am one of those people that actually thought everybody in the nonprofit sector or human service sector was united in this until I realized that, oh, not so much. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:56.960 I had the mindset that we were truly all working ourselves out of a job. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:58.399 Like that excited me. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:09.039 Even when I was younger, uh, like it really excited me to think, oh man, we're gonna do this thing so that no one ever has to do this again, right? 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:25.519 And it wasn't until I got older that I realized how many people really looked at their career as like job security, feeding my family, making sure, like part, they're part of a much larger system that we were all operating within. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.639 And almost, like you said, there was a nervousness, right? 00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:30.480 To imagine something different. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:32.080 What does that mean for me? 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:34.320 How does my family get positioned in that? 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:42.559 What does it mean for, and if I believe what I'm doing is really helping people, then then what who's gonna help? 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:43.120 Right? 00:13:43.440 --> 00:14:00.080 And not necessarily thinking, oh, oh, right, like if we if we actually create the solutions where this position isn't needed, well, that by default, at least in my mind, always meant, wow, we're gonna create all these new exciting jobs, right? 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:01.840 I didn't see it as the end. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:04.320 I saw it as the birth of something new. 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:06.159 And I I think you're right. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:29.120 I think unfortunately, I think that nervousness of the unknown sometimes limits our ability to trust that this will evolve into something different, where I will soar in that space and be thankful that even if I truly am helping people every day, that that help is no longer necessary because they're thriving. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:35.600 And so I get to channel this into something even better, you know, that takes us all to the next level. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:39.679 Um, and I think that's part of that optimistic futurism, right? 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.000 It's like, let's get grounded in that. 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:46.240 Let's let's grounded in the sense of butt flying. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:47.360 You know what I mean? 00:14:47.600 --> 00:15:11.600 Yeah, I mean, I've I would say like where I've seen the most innovation in human services is from organizations that are small, very local, and have very little resources, which almost forces them to be creative and to be, you know, on the edge and not to be afraid to try something that may be seen as risky or taboo or off, you know, outside of the norms in a way that might raise somebody's brow. 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:24.559 But it is basically giving me so much by having, you know, we had a whole national network of community-based organizations, community justice network for youth, working to keep kids out of the system. 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:29.120 And over and over I would see innovation at the local level, right? 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:34.480 At that human level, usually rooted to relationships. 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:46.960 And so as these, as I experienced larger and larger institutions where relationships were much harder to be at the center, innovation just disappeared or was crushed. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:16:08.799 I mean, even so much so that I recall one time we had a meeting uh with some probation officers, and we asked them to identify a couple probation officers who really model some of the best practices, really, you know, cutting edge, very effective with these youngsters in the target population, mostly black kids uh from this community. 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.480 And so they invited these two brothers to this meeting. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:19.840 In the meeting, they basically hid and kept to themselves the good things they were doing. 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:24.879 Every time we asked them, they didn't feel comfortable sharing it or they would downplay it. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:32.559 They understood the culture to be very different than their practices, but they knew their practices were working. 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:42.080 So I approached them after the meeting, and I was like, Do you you know they invited you here to talk about like the stuff you actually do that that's above and beyond the job? 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.799 And they're like, them people don't care about that. 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:47.039 We're not speaking about that in here. 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:49.279 We do that with our own money. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:51.200 We don't get resources to do that. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:55.759 We do that outside of the kind of expectations of this role. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:02.480 And so even at that

level, it just became really clear that this is a real issue to innovation. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:10.799 You know, we really need to understand these dynamics that impact us as people, because it's whose job is it to do this, right? 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:12.799 It's it's all of our jobs, you know. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:47.440 Yeah, you know, you just reminded me the importance, I think, to state that sometimes bringing folks closest, and we say this all the time, to if we're going to um recreate, right, uh community-based alternative systems and structures, we're gonna create these new constructs, how important it is to center community, because sometimes what is seen in the work world of red tape and policy and practice, um, what is seen as innovation in that space is sometimes common sense and community. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:53.839 You know, I think about another innovation we saw was at Evening Reporting Center in Baltimore, right? 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:56.960 Where they had to figure out what they were gonna do with girls. 00:17:57.119 --> 00:17:58.880 Oh, they had to create this whole other thing. 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:00.559 Well, there wasn't enough girls to do that. 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:01.119 How are they? 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:05.920 It was the parents that were on the management team that said, What, well, why wouldn't the girls just come here? 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:10.160 Oh my God, people said, Boys and girls in the same center. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:13.680 Well, yeah, they're at school together all day. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:14.559 Like what? 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:17.359 Sure, they could come here in the evening together, right? 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:19.119 It was a no-brainer, right? 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.319 And it was yet it was so innovative in the field to then integrate girls into this program. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:56.079 And it's just, it just goes to show, right, how important it is to have all of us, those centered directly in the center of the issue in community, at the table with folks who are like from this different perch, almost seeing this in in very different ways, coming together to innovate and to create and to come up with ways that really should it it almost seems like sometimes your best innovations are really common sense, and yet we haven't touched them yet. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:57.680 That's future on deck, Sam. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:18:59.440 I've you said it in a nutshell. 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:19.680 Taking that mindset and thinking back, you know, historically, and not just for any one aspect, but you think of, you know, justice, and you think, you know, one aspect of justice that we could apply this kind of do some radical imagination together right now. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:24.240 The history of probation was started by a man named John Augustus. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:37.119 He was not a law enforcement officer, he was not a policeman, he was not a part of the penal system, he was a shoe cobbler who just made it his life's work to advocate for people to get out of jail. 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:39.519 And he would do that consistently. 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.079 Sometimes they'd come work with him, but not always. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:50.000 But he was consistent about advocating for people to get out of jail and to find a way back into a stable situation. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:56.960 And probation sees John Augustus as the grandfather of probation, the founding father. 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:01.920 But now probation is the number one referral source for you to be locked up. 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:07.279 So it's we've gone a 180 in a lot of senses. 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:26.480 And so if we get to take a little notion of radical imagination, what does it look like to reimagine a whole department that at its core are building and and supporting trusted relationships with caring individuals who are supporting youth and their families? 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:27.440 Right? 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:34.319 To actually be in service of building and supporting healthy relationships in the community. 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:35.599 Right? 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:38.079 What what would that job look like? 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.400 What would the entry-level position be? 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:41.920 What might the managers do? 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:46.240 What would the director of that and you know, like that level of thinking, right? 00:20:46.400 --> 00:21:01.519 Not just like, well, we start with the blue sky, but then we get into like right, we know relationships move people, we know that's the most effective intervention in a young person's life in trouble with the law, is a caring relationship with a trusted adult. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:08.319 But yet the system struggles to support that right now in such a way. 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:12.960 What would it look like to build something that at its core is built to execute that, right? 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:20.480 It is built with this, you know, clear North Star of no relationships are first. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:31.599 We're not gonna put the county budget or you know, the need to move something because of an elected official, you know, all the kind of pressures that face the current bureaucracies, right? 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:33.440 What would that really look like? 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:44.960 Yeah, I feel like that, I feel like everybody should be all probation officers in this example, would be all excited to redefine what that looks like, right? 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:50.960 To be grounded in relationship and trust and help young people develop, right? 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:53.279 What does it look like to be centered? 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:57.039 And it's funny because it brings me right to RLA work is well, right. 00:21:57.119 --> 00:21:57.839 What could that be? 00:21:58.000 --> 00:21:59.440 It could be youth development, right? 00:22:00.319 -->

00:22:09.440 In youth development and making sure that young people have all that they need to thrive, which I actually really do believe that everybody that does that work started with that idea. 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:15.359 I think job protection, political pressures, I think that can take people down some different paths. 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:22.640 But ideally, right, I think it's the excitement of saying, wow, we could really do this differently. 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:23.759 What does it look like? 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:29.599 I'll I'll tell you the evening reporting center I just spoke about that brought girls in. 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:34.640 I mean, the amazing thing with that was like kids actually wanted to go to it. 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:35.279 Right? 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:49.200 I mean, this is young people could be excited to come check in and see and give you their progress and what's going on and talk about these other things and interests that they have and what they now feel is possible for them to attain. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:57.759 I mean, there's just I feel like it's flipping it on its head to say, like, wow, you can even parent with tough love sometimes, right? 00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:01.279 You can tell your child what they did was wrong. 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:04.400 This was a mistake, this is a consequence, this is how we do it. 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:05.200 But you know what? 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:06.640 It's anchored in love. 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:11.119 And so the kid gets that, they come back, they're still engaged, we're diving back. 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:14.880 We're still gonna go to the park tomorrow, we're still gonna eat ice cream, right? 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:25.279 We're still gonna have all these great things, and I'm still gonna create a world of opportunity for you to feel you have whatever you need to be whatever you want to be, right? 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.359 Whether I agree with it or not, right? 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:32.640 Isn't my job as a parent to hope that my child has the agency to tell me that? 00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:42.240 Yeah, I mean, I think that part of why we look at history is because we have to establish some sense of how we've gotten here. 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:45.359 And we know that we're ahistorical in this country. 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:50.880 So many people don't know their own histories, they don't have a sense of the history of their people. 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:54.319 And that's not just black folks, that's not just people of color. 00:23:54.400 --> 00:24:01.119 There's many white folks who don't understand the history of their people past, you know, a certain moment. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:17.599 And that's a big part of our work is understanding we all come from rich cultural people who had practices that were sacred, who used those practices to help address some of the very issues that we're trying to grapple with. 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:32.960 And by acting like we are ahistorical and that doesn't exist, it also zaps us of a whole bunch of opportunities to learn from ancient wisdom, wisdom that was forged over generations, practice that have proven themselves to work. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.400 Um, and instead we're always constantly trying to recreate the wheel. 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.799 There's a lot of distrust, people don't know where each other are coming from. 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:46.319 You know, we you really have to be in you have to tap into who you are. 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:47.759 What's your integrity? 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:54.079 Like what level how do you practice living out your values in professional settings, right? 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:56.240 That's that adds a layer of difficulty. 00:24:56.400 --> 00:25:01.359 A lot of folks may not even do that in their personal life without some trepidation. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:10.559 But to do that in professional settings with hierarchy and all the things that come uh really makes some challenges, but we don't think they're insurmountable. 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:18.480 You know, we think that we can lean into our integrity and create space and opportunity to bring more of who we are to the table. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:24.720 And we're hoping to do and model some of that even through, you know, again, future on deck. 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:30.960 Because it's really about how do we all of us feel a responsibility for the future. 00:25:31.119 --> 00:25:32.559 Nobody has the answer book. 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:34.559 We're all going to be struggling together. 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:39.039 And I always tell people, history never walks in the room and tells you that you're making it. 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:45.920 So nobody in the past got to know that their contribution would stand tall and that everything would work out. 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:49.119 They struggled just like we're struggling right now. 00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:51.519 And yet they overcame, they came together. 00:25:51.599 --> 00:25:52.480 We can do that too. 00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:56.880 We can learn from those experiences and bring that forward. 00:25:58.240 --> 00:25:58.960 I love it. 00:25:59.119 --> 00:26:08.480 Acknowledging the history, knowing where we are now, and understanding the limitlessness of the design and capability we have for the future. 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:17.359 Well, I can't think of a better way to wrap up this first conversation. 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:19.279 First of many, my brother. 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:27.039 Appreciate the time in sitting down with you today and looking forward to unlocking our human potential. 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:28.240 Yes, it's coming. 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:29.200 I can feel it. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:30.480 I can feel it in the air. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:34.319 This is a long time coming and the time is now. 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:35.599 Future on deck. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:38.000 Bases loaded, shock us up to bed. 00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:39.359 We got next, baby. 00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:40.160 Here we come. 00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:51.599 We recognize what a privilege it is to share this time and space with you all as we consider our limitless potential to build a better future for this world. 00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:56.319 We would like to thank our listeners for your support, and thank you to our team and producers. 00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:05.839 There is a bright future on deck, and we hope this podcast is a reminder that you all have a meaningful part and a great responsibility in building it. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:08.160 It's the opportunity of a lifetime. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:11.839 You can download Future on Deck wherever you get your podcast. 00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:17.119 Be sure to like and subscribe and leave a comment to us about your own vision for the future. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:18.880 Help us get the word out. 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:21.039 So if you're new here, come on in. 00:27:21.119 --> 00:27:23.440 This is a space where we all belong.