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Season 2 of “Stop & Talk” has arrived! This season, dive deep into the themes of purpose and opportunity, guided by the insights of leaders in the arts and culture, sports, philanthropy, finance, and innovation fields. Together, we'll celebrate local achievements and envision what's possible in San Diego County. Let's converse and inspire one another.
Alright. Crystal?
Crystal Page:We've made it through season 2.
Grant Oliphant:We have. It's hard to imagine how quickly this has sped by, and we've had some great conversations.
Crystal Page:Yeah. We've had some great conversations, great relationships built off of meeting those folks, and I think even bigger ideas hopefully were helping to get those out into the world and into the brains of people who can actualize them.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. Well, and let me tell you how much fun it is for me to do this with you. I, I've really enjoyed having you to riff with at the beginning and the ending of these interviews, and now what we're gonna do is just engage in conversation about what we think we heard and saw during the course of this season. And you know, it's not because we wanna throw a summary at people, it's because we heard some really good thoughts, and they it feels like they are worth sharing, and reflecting on. And And one of the things that's kind of tough to do in the moment when you're doing interviews is step back and actually reflect on them.
Grant Oliphant:We try to do that at the end of every episode, and thank you so much for your ability to to to do that. But this is a chance for us to maybe go a little bit deeper in terms of the season as a whole.
Crystal Page:Yeah. 1st, I will also say thank you for inviting me to be your co host because I know I'm newer to the philanthropic space, but it helps me think through what are we really doing here? How do people see this world? And based on the feedback people have given me, they're like, oh, I had the same question as you, so I appreciate the the joint debrief. I think it's helping expand our thought universe of what are we thinking about and doing as a foundation, but hopefully as a region.
Crystal Page:Right? So first of all, thank you, Grant. You're always very generous. You asked really good deep questions for the record. We do give Grant, like, hey, here's some background on folks, but he really takes it to town in the moment in the interviews.
Crystal Page:I think that's what's making each interview so great. And I know he's now looking away because he doesn't have the compliments, but he's he's great.
Grant Oliphant:But I but I appreciate it, and I, you know, I do, we love doing this, podcast, both of us I think, because it's such an opportunity to engage with really interesting people and share their stories And, help our community better understand maybe some of the issues that that are important right now.
Crystal Page:And to add, Grant, I just also wanna say, if people don't listen to every episode, this is their chance just to get the quick cliff notes of some things that stand out. So, hopefully, going into the holiday season, folks walk away with, hopefully, some new inspiration or ideas to to take to heart.
Grant Oliphant:So let's start by acknowledging, you know, we're we're recording this in October of 2024, and, it's an interesting time. Lots of people expressing hope about the future, lots of people expressing concern about the future. The world we live in is complicated and there are plenty of people who are willing to tell us that we're in trouble as a society, that we're in trouble as a country, that we're in trouble as a planet. And in many cases, they're right. But how do we navigate that?
Grant Oliphant:There's always kind of a a through line in these podcasts about finding the path forward that can be hopeful and realistic at the same time. You know, keeping us grounded in what the real challenges are, but also moving us forward and giving us inspiration to feel like, yeah. We've got this. And by the way, after these interviews in this season, I believe we've got this. I I I don't know how you emerged feeling, but I the more people we talk to, the more I realize there are some great, amazing, inventive, innovative, thoughtful people out there, and we're going to get to the better future we want to.
Grant Oliphant:It will just be, time consuming and challenging. Yeah. I think the memo in my head is, oh, we've been here before Right.
Crystal Page:And the human cycles, we have to go through the rage and the rejection and all these things. I wish we could get there much faster. But I think all these thought leaders that we've had in on the show have taken the time to identify the struggles they faced. Right? And we can learn from that.
Crystal Page:And at least for me personally, it, takes away some of the discouragement. Like, we're never gonna get through this. And it's like, no. They've broken through, and we can surely do the same in this moment in time.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. Completely agree. So let's dive into some of the themes that I think you and I and of course we we talked a little bit before this, before we sat down to record this, but, you know, I think you and I broadly see 4 themes that emerged from the course of the year. One of them, very powerful was just the power of narrative. The role of storytelling and of creativity in helping a community and individuals find their place, discover who they are, heal from trauma, heal from, the the issues of the past, and find their path forward, or find our collective path forward.
Grant Oliphant:I think we heard that theme emerge a number of times and for me, the place that it began was in the very first episode of the season when we were speaking with Micah Parzen, who's the CEO of the Museum of Us, who spoke with us then about, his his project that at that point was still under wraps, but just becoming known, the border wall project, where he and the museum worked to save, I think it was 20 panels from the original border wall that were covered in graffiti and art and messages from one side of the border to the other as a form of community art so that those messages wouldn't be lost as a new more severe wall gets built along the border. And, you know, Micah used that as a jumping off point in a way to talk about the reframing of the mission of the Museum of Us. And I thought that was a really captivating conversation because he was completely committed to the importance of this institution that has been around for a long time, and completely committed to reinventing it. You know when we think about important things that are happening in San Diego, and we're gonna talk about a lot of them, you know one of them is definitely the willingness to rethink the role of a museum like the Museum of Us and its its ability to lift up stories.
Crystal Page:I think, the framing around storytelling and kicking off the season with Micah is really resonant because, one, the first thing I hear about the border wall preservation, to think of that as art was not where my brain first went. But I think it's like statues and monuments. Right? To remember that there was a different time in history and moment, that we can hold in community as it's part of our DNA. Right?
Crystal Page:It makes me think of someone else who I'm sure we'll get to shortly, Ramel Wallace. But there's also, you know, a lot of modern new age therapy is very much like, is the narrative serving you? Right? And even listening to Micah talk about, you know, what does this old border wall mean? What's Balboa Park mean?
Crystal Page:Right? He talked about the history of the the Kumeyaay in that unseated land. That history is not the history I learned growing up here. So to even really think about, like, what narrative serves us as a region to move forward that's gonna promote healing. The healing is to make sure other people are seen in the work and the lives they're living.
Crystal Page:Right? But then it's also to retell that in a way that's unifying and that celebrates the beauty of the region, so I felt like Micah got me to rethink about art and culture in a way that serves getting San Diego to move forward together.
Micah Parzen:I think it goes back to abundance versus scarcity, you know, that we're constantly creating a zero sum game. And, the Museum of Us is about trying to, create a world of abundance where everybody can, find a a place that they belong. You know? And I think the the entire sort of premise of museums and the idea that museums hold a great degree of public trust. Right?
Micah Parzen:They're among the most trusted public institutions out there. The data are always, supporting that. And I think it's a problematic house of cards a little bit that in many ways, museums emerged in a sort of elitist mentality to serve a certain subset of the population. And as we are maturing and becoming more sophisticated as a larger society, we realize that it's time to come up with a new foundation for trust, that instead of a house of cards, that if you blow on it too hard, it will all come tumbling down to create a foundation that really, centers community voices and lived experience and honors everybody and does so from a perspective of abundance, not from scarcity. You know, that that by making space in the, dominant mainstream narrative, for new voices and new lived experience to really inform the discussion.
Micah Parzen:We all get better in that process, and so it requires that sort of pausing and that, moment of humility that, I have a story to tell and that is important and it is one story. And the more I hear from others and their lived experience and their stories and the more we make room to center their voices, the better I become too because I understand the range of what it means to be human. And going back to Maya Angelou, you know, when we know better, we can do better. So I think it the museum and other institutions like ours can really be beacons of hope in that way because we're not reproducing the sort of traditional narrative and structure and trying to find a path. You know, Audre Lorde said the master's, tools will never dismantle the master's house.
Micah Parzen:Right? So we have to kind of come together to find out how do we build a new house together using different kinds of tools, and creating a different kinds of future.
Grant Oliphant:That question that you were asking, I think, could become a theme for the year, the whole season in a way, is the narrative serving you. That certainly came up in the context of our interview, subsequently with Rommel Wallace, who you just mentioned. And you brought Rommel to the to the podcast and suggested that we interview him, and what a great interview. It was just, you know, a really refreshing opportunity to laugh a little bit about some of the things that we believe about ourselves in this community and to think about the narrative that we wanna tell in this community. What for you were the big takeaways from that one?
Crystal Page:You know, the art is artifacts and my veins, that whole thing that he said that I know I've asked you about, like, 18 different times, I think it really sticks with me. Right? The things we do are artifacts for our community, but he's intentional in building and leaving behind. It's almost like love notes. Right?
Crystal Page:What I think is when I think of Rommel, I think of someone who is building the modern history of our moment. Right? Right now, he's a part of our south border north, and I have to give our engineer, Adam, some credit because he's like, this guy Rommel is amazing. You need to talk to him. But he is building community spaces right now that promote healing, arts, and culture that bring back the stories of, like, the last black man in Barrio Logan.
Crystal Page:But it's also I just think with him, he's sharing his thoughts in real time. Right? That the whole meme set that we joked about, the we are San Diegans.
Grant Oliphant:Yes. Yeah.
Crystal Page:You're right. It brings the humor to it. Right? It makes us laugh at who we are and accept and hopefully love that, but then it says, it kinda calls into question who we are and who we wanna be going forward.
Grant Oliphant:You know, I I, I found that interview to be such a a juxtaposition of the serious and the humorous, because you're precisely right. He he talked about challenging some some difficult issues, and he had a great sense of humor about it, and it's that that mix was was very powerful. I think that's something that we that we have seen in interviews with with artists that they have a capacity to sort of look sideways at an issue or a story. And again I love your framework of is the narrative serving you. What I got from Rommel and and I got from actually all of the folks connected to arts and culture that we interviewed this season was this sense of, and we can tell a new story.
Ramel Wallace:And so I was discovering this history and kind of turning that that monster into a masterpiece. Like, how can I flip this story and learn more about it? And so, I learned about, the black community that was in downtown and the Douglas and the Harlem of the west, and then how people ended up migrating to Barrio Logan and how that pink church is, was a black Baptist church and black folks built that church. And so, not only talking about the black history, but it's called black Barrio Logan. It's all of those words.
Ramel Wallace:What does that proximity do when you can have that intimate conversation and relationship and proximity to the Mexican and Hispanic community? What does that look like as well? And so I take pictures from the church. We're gonna take pictures from other times as well and give you that experience as well as a conversation about housing and redlining and why San Diego is shaped like this. Because when I did that viral video, the last black man in Barrio Logan, I was telling my story, but it was so many other people's stories that, I was humbled by that. And that's one of the biggest experiences. How are other people gonna gonna interpret this, and how can it affect and change their lives?
Grant Oliphant:No. This is, I think, what people sometimes forget where we actually do have the capacity to write a different story. So to the extent that we're caught in despair, or that we're wondering what the future may hold, it is not self help, and it is not trivializing, and it's not just positive thinking to say we actually have the power to affect that story in the future.
Crystal Page:Yeah. I will double click on that as I think some folks still say. Yes. But I do think it's
Grant Oliphant:like Certainly in later generations.
Crystal Page:In our later generation. Right. But it's the idea and that there's an empowerment and and we can tell another story, which we also know, Thelma Verrata de Castro is also doing. Right? She's taking in the healing of what it is to be a part of the Filipino, Filipina American community and really looking at what was the pain of the pandemic.
Crystal Page:Right? And telling it in a way where I think she also uses humor, and I've noticed with all 3 of the first folks we've mentioned, I think humor can get you a lot further in life so you can go deeper
Grant Oliphant:Yeah.
Crystal Page:And it kind of disarms folks. So so I appreciate also what she shared with us about that disarming humor tied to healing.
Thelma Virata de Castro:I worked with Asian Story Theater. Mhmm. So we centered the play around an Asian family, which is very relatable for the communities where the performances were, and I use a lot of humor. Skipping subjects, I also am a teaching artist
Thelma Virata de Castro:And I was just at Las Colinas last night for a performance of, the women's plays that they had written in a residency. I work with the old globe as a teaching artist for their community voices program, and they had some really funny jokes about their experience in jail. So humor is a way to acknowledge these things, these tough things. It just makes us human. It builds a bridge to putting it on the table.
Thelma Virata de Castro:I love humor because it allows you to say things you wouldn't normally say. It just it makes it easier when for for tough things to be said if you make it a little funny and if you allow for that break so that we can laugh about it. Like, yesterday at Los Colinas, I made a mistake with the title of our show. And so I just said, okay. I messed up already and I just got up and I had take 2 again.
Thelma Virata de Castro:And so that gave everyone else permission. Like, you don't have to be perfect. Let's just do it the way we want to and enjoy ourselves.
Grant Oliphant:I also appreciate her willingness to tell stories from her experience and about her community. You know, I think I'm a big fan of, of August Wilson's, and, you know, if you've ever seen any of August Wilson's plays or read read his material, it's very particular to a time and place, and and an upbringing, but the stories are so particular that they become universal. They're they're just overwhelmingly powerful, and I think what we see in art that tells the story not in a bland way of all of our community, of all of humanity, but about particular people in a particular place, is that it ends up telling a poignant story about all of our community and all of humanity, and it's just so much richer.
Crystal Page:And you're reminding me Grant what I appreciate about what you just said also is there's the element of the place and it it's extracted to be universal, but each one of these individuals that we've named, Micah, Ramell, Thelma, it's all play space. Right? Micah is is focused on Balboa Park. It's a different type of community. Ramell has the the 2 cultural districts, right, that we just launched in the city of San Diego.
Crystal Page:The one in the convoy district ties to the culture and the rich background that someone like Thelma brings and then we have this black cultural district that's also coming online, Rommel's leading in. So I think even the specificity further expands how we experience and understand what is valued here in San Diego County. So
Grant Oliphant:I I I like yeah. That that that is really important and it it connects with something that, that another of our guests, Mary Walshock spoke about. And you know Mary, was not an arts guest, she is in the category all by herself, because she has been involved in so much at the intersection of creativity and innovation during her years in San Diego. But that's precisely why it connects, you know, what she spoke about in in that interview was how important it is for a community to be creative.
Dr. Mary Walshok:New flora and fauna prosper because of the synergies and the connections. And for me, I think there's a social analogy, which is you can build a society where everybody believes the same thing, has the same set of skills, works in the same industry, but at its peril, it will go out of business or lose its relevance. But if you can create communities that are more like rainforest. So it's not just about everybody should have a chance to get a an existing education or work for an existing company. Everybody has to get a chance to be a creative, an innovator, to bump into one another because it's in those collisions that innovation and new ideas happened.
Dr. Mary Walshok:And that's what I think of as the importance of diversity to innovation.
Grant Oliphant:I think that's so beautifully said. Oh, thank you. No. It's just so beautifully said. I think what stands out for me is that this is another part of this power of narrative theme that emerged for us during the season is that we influence the vitality of that narrative by having more people be creative, have the opportunity to be creative, I should say, and to express themselves and to find outlets in San Diego.
Crystal Page:Yeah. I love that too because we know that Mary is one of the thinkers behind Park and Market. Right? And so she contributed to building this space or really led the the thinking to build a space that was inclusive of all these different ideas that will result in more innovation. Right?
Crystal Page:And I'm thinking about that as even though Thelma is in Paradise Hills. Right? The ideas she brings are now represented and given an additional special space in the convoy district and it's kinda that same, like, how do we mirror and collect these things in a way for us to experience and celebrate, but then it generates new ideas. And I think that's all that doctor Mary Walschow kept bringing is this, like, there's new ideas, new energy, and she's learning from her world travels, right, about how to live different styles and connections in unison with the community and the environment. So
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. It's that constant bumping up against different ideas and and the and the creative energy that can come from that. You're exactly exactly right. You know I think, not to put too fine a point on this in terms of this power of narrative theme, but what emerges for me from all of that is you know, a question about whose stories get told. And we are, as a culture and a society, too obsessed sometimes, I think, with, you know, my story versus your story versus Adam's story versus someone else's story.
Grant Oliphant:And and the and the reality is that when we are when we have a really richly creative community, We're getting the perspectives and viewpoints of everyone on and we're and everybody's stories are getting told in a way that connect us all in in ways that we can't possibly achieve just through hanging out together. It has to be through sharing stories. So I think this is just a very powerful part of what we heard, this season. What's the what's the next theme that came up?
Crystal Page:I mean, I felt like you were transitioning in us to our second theme, really, like, these folks who are building out communities, creating spaces for us to connect and engage in different ways. And and for me, that comes in the form of whether it's a developer architect or a, woman who's responding to the need for stronger food systems here.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. So I, I I wasn't preparing for that transition, but I I think it's a good time to go to that transition because that was a a a really, pronounced second theme for us. And, you know, we might call it the power of place. You know, if the first is the power of narrative, the second was the power of place. And a good place to start on that one was our interview with Omar Blake, who has been working with the foundation, and the city, and the and the, downtown partnership on rethinking the possibilities of the civic center project around city hall.
Grant Oliphant:And, you know, just to remind folks, the city of San Diego has a rare opportunity that's kind of unprecedented in a way to reinvent its downtown in a 6 block area and to help answer a question that is bedeviling cities all across the country, which is what are downtowns for, you know, in this remote work era and the post COVID era. So, Omar, we we we had an opportunity to talk about how, cities designed in ancient times sort of naturally work in a way that cities designed more recently tend not to because they were very deliberate about the creation of public spaces and meeting spaces and walkability and connections for people, elements that bring people together, elements that lift them up and lift their spirits, and quality as a hallmark of of design in those spaces. And we also talked about the power of art and the power of culture as a force in a downtown, as something that keeps people wanting to live there, gather there, work there, connect there. And I just thought it was a powerful conversation as we thought about how our unique place, San Diego, comes together.
Omar Blaik:We need to make the Civic Center meaningful to everybody, every community in San Diego, and not to a particular use or a particular type. And that requires a lot of engagement to actually translate what the what that meaning means. Mhmm. And, in in many ways, you we cannot make the same mistake again and replace one use with another single use.
Grant Oliphant:Right.
Omar Blaik:And, my my sense is that similar to many other downtowns that are struggling, we need to really bring rather than one large type of uses. We need to bring in smaller, more nimble, but diverse set of uses. In many ways, I I always think, you know, great cities are not made of one great project, are made of many small great projects. And size matters, scale matter. And the idea is that if you can create a a diversity of uses that are connected to the community, at the larger community in San Diego, then the place will mean something.
Crystal Page:I will probably continue to replay that episode with Omar because to be crass for a moment when he said that a city doesn't have to smell like a bathroom, I said I am all in on that. Yeah. But more importantly, the more pro active version of that is really a city can be welcoming and it can be designed to be that. And I wanna correct one thing. I don't think all of the city of San Diego smells like a bathroom.
Crystal Page:Occasionally, there's a there's a little gift left on the street. But to build a place in which that 6 parcel city area can feel welcoming, like you wanna walk in, you wanna look around, see the flowers, the art, you wanna go talk to your city council member, it promotes whether it's civic engagement, arts and culture. And what I love about Omar in particular is similar to all of our guests and that he wants to learn from other people, all the different regions he lived in across the globe. And I just really think he understands how special San Diego, the city, and the county really are. So how do we feature those things as assets that draw people in and that we can celebrate and that bring us joy?
Grant Oliphant:I think that was an element of all of our conversations connected with this theme of the power of place. We spoke with our board chair, Dan Yates, and, I know we we've debated, whether we think that episode was resonant of this theme over an economics theme, and it's kind of both. But I think Dan in in, his episode spoke so powerfully about growing up in San Diego and what it was like to, be raised in one one world and then to achieve success and and live in another and still have it all be the same world. And and how it is as a business leader then to think about feeding back into the civic fabric. I think that is an element of community that gets paid too little attention to but is so important, And in an era when people are global and mobile and remote, it can be so easy to forget that we we grow up in places and we connect in specific communities.
Grant Oliphant:And one reason there might be what, what the surgeon general has referred to as an epidemic of loneliness in our country is that we're not connecting in the same ways with community. And I thought Dan just did an incredible job of reminding us what it's like to view community in a coherent way.
Crystal Page:Yeah. I don't think I had ever heard a banker talk about the importance of being connected with the community. To understand the value of a community bank from the perspective of Dan grew up here, and Paradise Hills, Morse High School, all of those things are part of his fabric of his life, and he takes that into wanting to lead banks that are committed to staying in San Diego. What that means for the other businesses relying on this bank for their ability to stay here, I just felt like, he had a vision that's connected to what is special about this place, but also the potential when he invest in other businesses through his bank.
Dan Yates:What can I do to change that for our community going forward so we don't see each other as different colors and creeds, but a collection of wonderful human beings that make a fabric that lifts up San Diego? And that is what I've experienced since high school is constantly going back to the community I grew up in and trying to lift it up. Yeah. And and really take what I've learned in the business community and pay that forward. And it shows up.
Dan Yates:Just, the other day, I had a chance to do the commencement exercise for 2nd Chance, which is not far from, Morse High School. And these are individuals who have just recently come out of prison.
Grant Oliphant:Right.
Dan Yates:And they have they have the the beauty of looking at their future, not their past to define them. And there were so much joy in just getting to know them individually, hearing their stories, hearing, what they've done at the 2nd chance organization to prepare themselves to go back to society and not to return to prison. And it's my belief that the majority of those will live a productive life. Just being part of that story and sharing it, the joy it brings me is is you you really can't put it into words.
Grant Oliphant:For me it was a reminder of how, important community institutions are, and how again in a global age we've, communities all over America struggle to find corporate citizens who will really engage in the way that they once did with community. And when we when we see how it's done and done well, we recognize the value of it, and it connects very much with values that Dan grew up with and an appreciation of community that Dan grew up with, and I think we've got to somehow get back in touch with the importance of that because I think we have an illusion that we don't need that anymore and it's wrong. It's very clear that the communities that thrive do so in part because everybody who's there is invested in their success. The business leaders are invested, the politicians are invested, the citizens are invested, you know everybody is in it to win it for their community, and I think that's something that came out. The other piece of this by the way that came out in that interview with Dan was just an incredible, I think dissertation on leadership, and an example of leadership person ification of vulnerability in talking about the loss of his son, why he believes it's important as a leader to be able to talk about emotions.
Grant Oliphant:And again, if we think about how a any place, be it a community or a country, you know, how leaders can effectively lead us, you know, the model I like to believe in is the one that Dan exemplifies, which is that they can do it by showing us who they are, and being honest about the challenges that they have, and creating common ground that we might not have known we had.
Crystal Page:You're making me think about the part where Dan mentioned, you know, the fact that he had done an internship. He was gonna, like, do the internship or the fellowship and jump elsewhere, and someone said, no, you have to stay for at least a year. It'd be unethical otherwise, but I think that puts him in the community in a way where he understands what needs to happen for that community to grow its wealth. And the same thing happened when he lost his son. Right?
Crystal Page:He understands what does it mean to lose someone stuck in a county system, right, in a way that's not good for anybody. I think he brings all those things to his leadership, and the community's better because he's invested in that way. Exactly. Which makes me also wanna jump to Diane
Grant Oliphant:Yes. Let's go ahead.
Crystal Page:Who is a part of that as well. Right? Diane spotted a need in community and was curious and kept asking questions. In the same way, you talked about institutions being invested. Right?
Crystal Page:You have these city council members who wanted to see her work growing produce, providing resources to those who need food, who need to know how to cook, those resources. If you go to Mount Hope, you'll see one of the gardens she has set up. You'll see the mobile truck going around the community, but it's also she knows the nuances of, Hamishaw and Spring Valley and all these places that just need support. But also the longer you stay somewhere with that connection, remember she talked about the value of, she kept doing the work and Barrio Logan saw her as a partner so they literally rewrote a grant to be inclusive of her and what she was doing with Project New Village. So I think that invested and informed leadership that's place based and knowledgeable of a place makes a huge difference.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. I, everything you just said, I totally agree with. The you know, for for me, one of the really powerful takeaways from the conversation with Diane was again on this theme of place really mattering. Neighborhoods are real places too. You know, this this what what is true of communities comes down to the neighborhood.
Grant Oliphant:And if a community does not have access to fresh food and constantly gets messages of exclusion or disempowerment, that spirit will begin to pervade that community. And conversely, what Diane has shown is if that neighborhood is given opportunities to grow their own food, to engage, with the broader community in a different way, to empower themselves differently, then pride creeps in, a new opportunity creeps in, and a new enthusiasm creeps in. I mean, she shared with us how as she got started, she got phone calls and emails saying thank you for lifting up the community. And that's what she's done.
Diane Mosss:Can I just say the 1st week, just my regular neighbors, people I work with, I got phone calls and emails saying thank you for lifting up our community? Thank you for representing us well. This I didn't expect that. I didn't know who this announcement, who hears what, but that was overwhelmingly a good thing. You know, we're pushing a new agenda, this urban ag in our neighborhood
Grant Oliphant:Right.
Diane Mosss:And everybody's not in favor. So to hear people come out and say what I was doing for this geographical space, I just, I felt good but I also felt I have an obligation to move further. Opportunities are coming our way and we're taking advantage of those those opportunities to revitalize this community of Southeastern San Diego.
Crystal Page:I'm on her email list so I actually just saw now that same community garden, you know, they have a vision to build a grocery store but also now they do Friday night movies so people can go to that community and just gather and watch whatever movie they're gonna watch. They I think they had a dance off or something. And so really, I think again, it actually even comes back to the power of narrative and that connection is like she's promoting healing and connection through the place, and there's just value and fun. It it's that third space that really matters.
Grant Oliphant:And, again, what Diane really conveys is a type of enthusiasm and commitment in her leadership that, you know, if we're thinking about the power of place, then we can look to leaders like Diane to understand how to activate that.
Crystal Page:Yeah. And I realized, I just went to Diane as if everyone hangs out with her, but it's Diane Moss with project name.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. Yeah. I I I skipped that too.
Crystal Page:When they become your connection, your friend, you know, it's just like, that's Diane.
Grant Oliphant:So Yeah. Well and so, on that score, let's let's jump to to Amina Sheikh Mohammed who also has, in a very different way, but in also some similar ways, worked to embody the power of place and and and, strengthening community by doing the work that she does.
Crystal Page:Amina strikes me in reflecting back on the podcast interview. Amina's very good at spotting needs and asking us
Grant Oliphant:questions to invite us in. Right? So she just said, how do you make someone
Crystal Page:feel welcome? Mhmm. Are they getting invite us in. Right? So she just said, how do you make someone feel welcome?
Crystal Page:Mhmm. Are they
Grant Oliphant:getting the email you're sending out?
Crystal Page:Did you ask them specifically to come join you? And I think she uses she listens to and is in touch with her own personal experience as someone who migrated here to make sure others have a positive experience when they come here. Specifically tied to things like healthcare and community. It's culturally adept. It speaks to what folks who probably share an identity really want to see here and and connect, and I just love what she's doing in that way.
Grant Oliphant:So much of what she said was almost like a master class in how to build belonging in a community. And, you know why that's important in terms of the power of place is a place is only as strong as the people who are in it, and her message is that we have to make it a community, be a place for everyone, and there are some simple ways we can do that. And she talked, for example, about try to connect with the other person. Try to say something asking them about what they're comfortable with. Talk about food.
Grant Oliphant:You know? Talk about their aspirations. Open up to some some, different ways of looking at the world. And I I I think her interview is a particularly useful interview as we think about making sure that our communities are gen genuinely welcoming for everyone.
Crystal Page:Yeah. And what I appreciated to to your point of of that master class is, I think she makes it all feel within reach. Right?
Grant Oliphant:Yeah.
Crystal Page:Asking questions, inviting people, these are all basic steps anyone can take if we choose to be thoughtful and engaging in that way. And I think sometimes when we listen to to folks, at least when I hear folks, sometimes feel so big and hard to overcome, but she's like, no. These are basic steps and even built a community group around that.
Amina Sheik Mohamed:It's really individually should see what they can do to make people feel welcome. And this starts from getting holding the door for the elevator for somebody Right. To to inviting them to spaces that they're not there. You know? So it's like, we often look around other people and other institutions and other things, but individually, we should be thinking about what can myself, me, what can I do to make that happen?
Amina Sheik Mohamed:And I think that level is that starts there, and then it goes up to, like, foundations and other partners and other groups and, you know, as institutions. Right? But I think individually, there's a lot that can be contributed, and and, that is someone who may not speak the language or, you know, like feeling lost or inviting them to different meetings and spaces that they're not there. So it's really important, belonging, and I think people should, understand more.
Crystal Page:When we named her as one of our leaders of 2024, our leaders in belonging, she was able to to show us what she does, and it centers around food and community and connection. And it makes people more likely to show up again. Who knew?
Grant Oliphant:That's right.
Crystal Page:Very practical.
Grant Oliphant:That's right. It is it is very practical. And also very affirming I think for the foundation in that, you know, we started a couple of years ago talking about the importance of belonging in our community and part of what Amina talks about so well is belonging. And you know there are certainly communities that are exclusionary. Those places are very different from the places that are inviting and welcoming and inclusive and where everyone feels that they belong.
Grant Oliphant:And I I think a very powerful takeaway for me was simply that if we want to really build on the power of place, the way to do it is to make sure that everybody gets to participate in the joys of that place, our place.
Crystal Page:Absolutely. And I think Amina, as do all of these folks, but Amina carries such a joy in what she does. She even when she talks about us as Previce Foundation, she uplifts the joy in the partnership. So I think she's conscious as she's building relationships. How do I, in this place, build up friends and neighbors so that they feel capable of engaging and it's just she's very welcoming I think even to us and that just means a lot in terms of how we continue to go forth and say, oh, we are affirmed.
Crystal Page:Let's keep doing these things.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. Exactly. Let's move over for a second to the 3rd theme that you and I identified from this season, which, I think the next one I'm gonna I'm gonna talk suggest we talk about is economics, and the power of economics to move the systems that exist in San Diego. That came up a number of times, in a variety of different ways. And people might quibble with economics as the, you know, whether that's actually the power at play here.
Grant Oliphant:But, well, we'll we'll take calls on that or comments on it. But one one very, interesting and powerful episode that we had on this was with, Priti Badacharjee, who is the head of sustainable investing at JPMorgan Chase Private Bank, and has been working with the Prebys Foundation on making sure that our investments are in alignment with, the values of the foundation, and that we are doing everything we can through our investments and not just our grants to advance our goals and mission as a foundation. That episode turned out to be immensely popular. Lots of people are interested in the subject of how you align investments to be consistent with values, and how you invest so as to advance your impact in the world. And I thought her our conversation with her really illustrated that we can do things differently than we traditionally do, in how we use money to try and influence change.
Crystal Page:Just hearing her like, the opening thesis, if there's a thesis of that podcast is, if an economic system can hurt, can't it help a community? Right? And that stuck with me because I think economic systems feel so big. And so here is a woman who is testing, can we invest in a way that's gonna help and expedite things that we care about? And she also acknowledges every institution, every foundation may have different interests.
Crystal Page:Right? But we know that if we're making grants to an organization, we probably don't wanna undermine the thing we're making a grant to. Right? So even our investments need to align with that. I also think for a lot of us, we just learned a lot about, how an institution might use their investments.
Crystal Page:Not just have the money sitting there, but seeing this as a resource that can be used to better a community and and and a future that we all wanna see. Also, it allows us to take risk to invest in things like health care that otherwise might not get the support they need. You know?
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. Exactly. The other takeaway for me was that this is a, a long game. You know, it's it's not as simple as, a single lever. So we're gonna take our money and we're gonna invest it in the magical company or organization that allows us to sustain the work of the foundation and transforms the world.
Grant Oliphant:That's the goal. And as we talked about with Preeti, it's also rife with controversy, you know there's backlash against environmental, social, and governance investing that, you know, there is pushback against that, right now, and we're seeing, a backlash that's partly political in nature, and it's partly because people are just confused about what the standards which remain to be defined are, and of course they're new so they're being defined. I read, I think in the last couple of days that we're also seeing some backsliding from companies about major commitments on climate. So we're, you know, we're operating in a very complex environment, but what I think the conversation with Preeti underscore underscored for us was that, we're really looking at long term goals and values, and trying to invest in ways that are consistent with our values, that don't undermine our mission, but actually advance it, and recognize that this is an imperfect art that will take some time to get right.
Preeti Bhattacharji:One of the things that gives me hope in the face of that argument is all of the foundations like Prebys that are being really thoughtful about about their privilege and about allocation, not just of money, but of power. We were having this conversation earlier about acknowledging the power that comes with philanthropy, Facing it, naming it, and thinking of new structures to reallocate the power alongside the money. And there's some really thoughtful, I think, cutting edge communities of practice and foundations that are thinking about new investment committee protocols, new investment processes that face that criticism head on and say we're gonna have community led investment committees, for example. We're gonna have community led investment processes so that we aren't just perpetuating some of the power structures that have been, but are creating the power structures that as we want them to be, which I think gets us closer to the vision you outlined of a place like San Diego where you can have broad based prosperity.
Crystal Page:The more I think about the ESG piece, this environmental science governance, all the terms. Yes. The alphabet soup of investing, I think what I also take away because Prebys Foundation is a foundation is thinking about resources, you know. I think there's always these fights about economic systems. Right?
Crystal Page:Capitalism, things like that, but it's really this is a tool of resources that allow us to take a risk to support things that that we as a foundation value. And I think that's what all of this comes back to.
Grant Oliphant:Look, I think this is all about being in more intentional, and I think this was this was part of the theme of this power of, economics, section or theme that emerged from our interviews this season. And maybe another terrific example to talk about is doctor Constance Carroll's work in in helping students in community colleges to gain access to baccalaureate degrees where they can meet the needs of of, the regional and indeed national workforce for professions like nursing, and to address a shortfall in terms of the availability of those programs. Simply by changing the rules for what a community college can do that, and and and fix, a shortfall in the market, if you will, that isn't being addressed by traditional 4 year institutions. It sounds really simple or it sounds convoluted. I guess it depends on on your sense of these.
Grant Oliphant:But, you know, the simple what she pointed us to is, and this, you know, doctor Carroll has this Constance has this amazing background, but she knows that, there are many students who, if they could gain access to a baccalaureate degree through their community colleges, could become really robust contributing members of the regional workforce in areas that are desperately needed. And if we can make an intentional adjustment like that, we can make the world better for them and make the world better for the regional economy and the regional workforce. And I what I took from our conversation with her was, let's just be smarter about how we design these systems. It really is about, you know, the system is producing what it's designed to right now, and so we have a shortfall of of workers in critical industries. We can redesign that system, and our conversation with her pointed a pathway to how we can do that.
Crystal Page:I recall this moment where she talked about the work she's doing changes students' lives, because it gives them an entree into gainful employment, and that benefits the unmet needs.
Dr. Constance Carroll:The, decisions made in education should be about need, student need. And in workforce education, they should be about labor opportunities and unmet need. They should not be about turf Mhmm. And, and who's in charge of what. We already have, worked to to avoid duplication.
Dr. Constance Carroll:But, let me give you, an example. Mesa College was the 1st community college in, California to offer a bachelor's degree. Mhmm. That degree is in health information management, which is the digitization of, of, health records, which is something that the Affordable Care Act and others, require. That degree, health information management, before Mesa offered it and before Shasta College offered it the same degree, there was only one institution in the whole state of California, only one that offered that degree, and that's Loma Linda University.
Dr. Constance Carroll:Mhmm. So, should we then say that, well, because one institution in the state is offering a degree that offers tremendous opportunities in, workforce and employment, that no one else should offer it? And the my answer would be no.
Crystal Page:What I think about, doctor Carroll and myself both being African American, it's drilled into your head from a very early age that education is opportunity. Right?
Grant Oliphant:Mhmm.
Crystal Page:It's hard to get into some of the the University of California Schools because there's such demand and the community colleges are a wonderful resource. So to open the doors to careers that are needed, opens doors to other paths, opens other means to develop oneself no matter where you are in your career. And I just appreciate that she's thinking long term about, you know, there's a demand, but there's also opportunity. And we talk about purpose, opportunity, belonging, and We do. Yeah.
Crystal Page:Travis. And we know that opportunity may not we don't know what the careers of tomorrow are. We have to go back to season 1. David Miyashiro told us, we don't know what the future opportunities are. But if we open the door so people can learn and build the resources
Grant Oliphant:Right.
Crystal Page:That changes their future. We know from internships or other grants. Right? When people have an opportunity for an internship, long term, they're gonna make more. So, again, she's opening doors that strengthen our economic system overall.
Grant Oliphant:I love that. And I think the message really when you boil it down is let's be smart about meeting people where they are and and offer them what they need to get to the next level which benefits all of us again. You know, it's another illustration of how we all benefit by doing that simple thing of designing systems to meet people where they are. And I I just thought her the whole discussion with her, she's so self effacing and talking about it. A woman of giant accomplishment and she knows what she's talking about, and I and I and I think well worth listening to.
Grant Oliphant:Speaking of which, we also had an incredible conversation with the philanthropist, Erwin Jacobs. And philanthropy is another part of the regional economy, that I think illustrates the power of of, again, economics in that context. Erwin spoke with us about how he how he came to learn about philanthropy. What his what his interests were, how he has taken on tough issues during his years in philanthropy. I loved every bit of this conversation with him.
Grant Oliphant:He's lived an extraordinary life. He has made unbelievable contributions to this community, And he and his late wife, Jones' names are all around town, not in a self serving way, but to express their commitment to education and to the arts. And I I think our conversation with him really drew out, what it is like to think about the power of philanthropy to change a community.
Crystal Page:Yeah. And to your point about, Dan Yates, I think with Erwin Jacobs, he could go into power of place or this idea of economic systems. Right? Because we know it was his education that opened doors for him. He turns around and and reinvest in other students with with his, late partner, Joan, which is beautiful.
Crystal Page:But also, his understanding that investing through philanthropy, contributing through philanthropy was gonna open more doors, make more people wanna grow their family here. That vision of things like, hey, you know, every year we're doing this thing on the waterfront. Why don't we go to the port and make it permanent? You know, he's expanding the place which is good for the economy, but it also gives us as residents here more places to go, spend our time, celebrate, and spend our money. And so I just appreciate, he sort of ties the joy of the region to the economics of the region.
Crystal Page:Right? It's all the all the things people love about San Diego, he's investing in, and hopefully, it keeps attracting more folks here.
Irwin Jacobs:It's sometimes you have to be out there with other people. Sometimes you have to be able to kind of enjoy it yourself, your own time schedule. And so having these community facilities when people do wanna go out, is very important. The various museums, of course, are very educational as well as being just an very interesting way to spend some time, see what other people have been able to accomplish, how the museum directors and, put the various shows together to to keep them, interesting. I I find all of that fascinating.
Irwin Jacobs:The thing that's fascinated me, we we get to many of the events there as well as events many other places, but they're largely full. It turned out to be a community need that a variety of different audiences are taking advantage of. The same thing with the show. Great turnouts down at the show, but with the different events, you see pretty much a very different audience. And so it's kind of, in a sense, rewarding to see that having these facilities, making them available, and helping others to see that they're being used and enjoyed by so many.
Grant Oliphant:It was powerful for me that here is this man who created Qualcomm, and, helped, you know, found this enormous company that has been such an important player in this community, and obviously nationally and internationally in terms of its technology. And yet when I asked him the question about what really resonated the most for him in terms of his philanthropy, and I expected him to name, you know, the Jacobs Music Center, which is spectacular by the way, or his contribution to the Rady Shell, at Jacobs Park, which is spectacular also by the way,
Grant Oliphant:you know, instead, he didn't name those. He he talked about scholarships, and he talked about that one on one philanthropy helping one person find their potential. It's kind of a resonant theme actually hidden throughout all of these interviews this season is that, you know, that one on one changing a life. Is pretty much what every single one of our interviewees talked about at some point, was the powerful motivator for them.
Crystal Page:Absolutely. And I think for Erwin in particular, these the the giving of scholarships, but then there's also this mentorship he has with his children and grandchildren who are now taking up their own philanthropy. Right? So Yeah. Each one of those lives is having a multiplier effect of its own.
Crystal Page:Right? So whether it's the person who gets through school in part because of a scholarship or his children, grandchildren who are doing amazing things in the world, they're now thinking about how do they make their own philanthropy relevant in the future that is to come. And all of those things will continue to shape our region and and yes, it comes down to the personal impacts, which is so beautiful.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. It, it really that that conversation for me is that it's gonna stick with me for a long time, because of how how generous he was in sharing those thoughts with us. Alright. Final theme that, on the season, I would characterize as the power of health, and or we might call it the power of wellness. We talked with several, guests about health issues in our community, and what it looks like to be not only a healthy individual, or a healthy young person, but a healthy and well community.
Grant Oliphant:And so much power came out of these conversations. You know, we we had an amazing conversation with doctor Benjamin Maxwell from Rady Children's who talked with us about his work as a psychiatrist, working with young people on youth mental health issues. And I just found his understanding of the complexity of those issues to be really, helpful, and in a way very uplifting. You know, what he got, what he understood, and what he shared with us was there is a clinical problem, or challenge that has to be addressed at the individual patient level, but then there's a broader challenge in terms of reconnecting young people with each other and with community, and reconnecting young people with experiences in nature, and in art, and in sports that allow them to come alive, in a way that no amount of therapy alone will ever be able to do. And I I just thought his ability to appreciate the complexity of this landscape, actually, in a in a funny kind of way for me, simplified it.
Grant Oliphant:You know, it may it helped me to see there are things that we as a society can do to address the challenges that we face in youth in youth mental
Crystal Page:health. The simplification for me also was resonant because half the partners he collaborates with are actually folks that we also work with. Outdoor Outreach, YMCA, but we know it's not necessarily about taking away a device, but it's what else what other opportunities did today's youth have? Get back out in nature.
Grant Oliphant:Right.
Crystal Page:Run around. Hang out with your parents when you're young enough to still think that's cool. Right? But that's what I enjoyed about him, and he's using every tool to get out there and collaborate and contribute to that message. But I also noticed that he makes it very personal when he talks about being a dad.
Crystal Page:Do I give my kid a phone now? Yeah. Yeah. Or do I wait and engage them while I I still have their full attention? And I thought that that was, you know, health is wealth.
Crystal Page:And we know that community health starts with family health. Right? So he's taking care of his family, but as a pediatrician or as a chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, he's really taking what he cares about for his family and applying it in a way that works for an entire medical system. Right? As we continue to explore, he's pushing a conversation.
Crystal Page:In fact, when when we interviewed him, he was here in studio with his camera crew because he's trying to make it relevant and something that we can all digest and process as a community. What does it mean to be well? What does that look like? You know?
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. He he talked to your point, he talked about how important it is for young people to be enveloped in a community that has the richness of connections and organizations and opportunities to to meet other people and engage with them in various ways. He also talked about how important it is to have access to support. And yes, that looks like family, and yes, it looks like schools, but it also looks like community centers, and, and neighborhood centers, and events, and just opportunities to come together.
Dr. Benjamin Maxwell:What I'm interested in is how do we find a way to, at every step of the way, create an off ramp so that people have a place to go towards psychological well-being? That includes new parents. Now I was a new parent not that long ago. You think I'd know what I was doing when I took the baby home. I didn't know what to do.
Dr. Benjamin Maxwell:We we needed support. And so to find support early on, help get people off on the right path. If people fall off that path, have something in place that they can get back on. And that is places like, community centers, schools, families, neighborhoods even just coming together. You know, when you have the choice when you drive home tonight of whether you wanna wave at the person walking the dog or blow by him at 35 miles an hour on your neighborhood street.
Dr. Benjamin Maxwell:You know, I think there's things that we can all do that ultimately help the kids. It trickles down to their psychological well-being. If they can be enveloped in a community that has that sort of richness, people start to trust each other and have each other's back.
Grant Oliphant:I really thought that that conversation was powerful, and you're right. It's rooted in the fact that he also thinks about this as a dad of young children. You know, obviously, a lot going on on there Yeah. In understanding health. You know, we had a we had a similar kind of experience with doctor Isabel Newton, who was a recipient of a leaders in belonging award for the foundation.
Grant Oliphant:And, Isabel, a extraordinary researcher working on some very important science, and also keenly aware of the human side of the people that she's working with, and how important it is for her as a researcher to understand the community that she's anchored in, and make sure that everybody has access to tools that she's helping to invent. Otherwise, she's just creating another elite tool to help some people.
Crystal Page:Yeah. I love that she understood that everything depends on a patient feeling empowered. You know, they have to have all the information in language, and hopefully accessible language that allows a patient to make a decision that they're comfortable with, that meets their lifestyle needs, their community needs. And so I think the idea that, you know, she works in the hospital system, but then also built out this non profit where now they're offering consumer centered education tools really brings the whole picture together. Because we know healthcare systems have gaps, And the more we can partner and collaborate and provide those in in pieces of information, I imagine it's gonna result in better healthcare outcomes where people feel like their decisions matter.
Crystal Page:They're they have agency within the healthcare system.
Grant Oliphant:Right. I think she she spoke poignantly about what happens when rural communities lack access, when, disadvantaged communities lack access, and and what that does to the general fabric of community wellness let alone individual wellness. And it's clear that she's on a mission not only to make discoveries but also to help the rest of us appreciate why it's important that society open those up, to everyone.
Dr. Isabel Newton:First of all, health care is an equity issue at its at its very core. This morning, we had a stunning grand rounds by my mentor slash mentee, Peter Abraham, who's published extensively on this, and we published together about health equity and radiology and the impact of of the pandemic. But more fundamentally, when you're talking about some of these very cutting edge procedures, there's not access to them in an sort of an even way across our country. So, rural areas suffer from lower access to minimally invasive procedures, and then the same goes for the world. There are areas of the world where there is lower access to care simply because they're very cutting edge procedures that rely on technology and advanced training to, practitioners to be able to perform them.
Dr. Isabel Newton:And so what we did last May, is a group of us from the interventional initiative joined up with a sister organization called Road to IR, and Road to IR is very cool because they started a training program in Sub Saharan Africa, at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, and they recognize if we can train clinicians there, if we can train radiologists there to do minimally invasive procedures, we can improve this access issue.
Crystal Page:She has made herself a 100% available whether it's community partners, mentoring folks. She really understands that to build out these systems, it requires partnering with community clinics. It requires pivoting based on feedback, and I think the the 2 folks we've mentioned and probably the other 2 that we're likely to mention really do listen and respond while proactively pushing the vision that they hold. And that's the difference in good healthcare, where people wanna come back and and have their needs supported. Yeah.
Crystal Page:And as it turns out,
Grant Oliphant:also important for good research. And that's exactly what yes. One of the other people that, in this who whose interview embodied this was a special episode that we did with doctor Cindy Escobar Alvarez, who sat down with me in conversation in front of our Prebys Research Heroes, also our SHARE recipients. And, we we brought those those various recipients together to meet each other and to talk about opportunities and challenges they saw in the community in terms of of health and wellness. And then Cindy Escobar Alvarez spoke with us about why she thinks it's important that meetings like that happen.
Grant Oliphant:And part of her message was, again, just the importance of making sure that researchers reflect communities, that they, that they engage communities, that they listen to communities, that they listen to each other. Science is not just all about being in the lab, it's also about being in the community.
Dr. Sindy Escobar Alvarez:It's about better science and better tools for medicine. I think it is and for health. It is about, giving the treatment the giving the health treatment that everybody deserves and needs. Right? Because what we see right now is because of how you look, because of how you you may self identify or others may identify you in terms of race, you may be getting differential treatment that doesn't further your own health, especially if you're black or brown in America.
Dr. Sindy Escobar Alvarez:And so it is a matter of health care and medicine medicine and research serving people equally or or equitably, I guess is right? Because right now, we are if if I'm black, my then depending on the hospital I go to in the US, it might be underestimated how well my kidneys are functioning. And that may keep me from getting care for kidney function. Right? And so it is a matter of of of of health for Americans, you know, especially those who have, inexperienced unequal treatment for so long.
Crystal Page:And I forgot Grant before doctor Escobar Alvarez before she joined the foundation. She was, in fact, a researcher herself. Right?
Grant Oliphant:Yes. She was. Yeah. And and the foundation, by the way, is not the Prebys Foundation, but the Doris Duke Foundation. That's where she is They probably would frown on our team, but I'd ever hope for her work.
Crystal Page:Sorry, Doris Duke.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. But she, yes, she comes from that research world, and so has a distinct personal perspective on it.
Crystal Page:Well, and I I I would imagine that makes a huge difference. Again, it's her personal expertise help shape the way in which they're funding. And thinking about the work, I think she had talked about her experience as a researcher struggling to advance the work she was doing. So again, it's it's sort of similar to these other folks we've mentioned where they're bringing their lived experience to the table and helping make the research better. What's likely to get funded is better because of folks like her.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that's you know, there's there's one other, person that we spoke with who also fits in this category, but she's a very different type of of interviewee on this subject, CEO of the San Diego Girl Scouts, who, has steered her organization to focus on community wellness and to have this this, really integrated view of why it's important for the young women who are participating in Girl Scouts to think about community in the way that they talk about it in that program.
Crystal Page:Yeah. I was thrilled to have the Girl Scouts in. I just talked to, one of the kids that had been in in our care. She just joined the Girl Scouts up in Sacramento, and I'm so thrilled because the Girl Scouts, sort of like doctor Maxwell, are really taking on the how do we redirect that energy into things like being in nature. You're not thinking about a cell phone if you're jumping in and out of the pool all day or you're running around, hiking with your friends.
Crystal Page:And so I felt like the piece she's adding to well being is twofold. Right? When you have fun, you're gonna engage and feel more confident. But then there's also this piece where, there's staff, the parents involved. The kids are going to be trained to be able to notice when maybe someone's not doing so well and how do we support that rapid response when someone is having a mental health need, you know.
Crystal Page:And so, just the the overall choice to be responsible for community well-being is something I think the Girl Scouts are are stepping into and doing well.
Carol Dedrich:How do we equip the parents to know that, these mental health challenges that are that are occurring with their their children, their daughters, and those of their friends, it's it's walking into a conversation and being available to them without worrying about what to do or what to say or all of that. And the way that we're doing that is through the money that we receive from Prebys, which is youth mental health first aid and opening up that subject so parents and caregivers and adults can learn about what do you say, how do you react, what do you not say, what do you not do in situations, And how do you identify the signs and symptoms that a child could be in struggle? Right? And hopefully identify before they go into crisis mode. Right?
Carol Dedrich:So we all have a part to play in that, and being able to teach that and train that in adults would magnify, and also spread a ripple effect that could change our community for the better.
Grant Oliphant:Unfortunately, we we probably need to end it there for the sake of time. I I would just say, Crystal, so we've talked about 4 themes, and I I really think they're important. You know, when we think about the future of our work in San Diego and what we're paying attention to, you know, we are paying attention to the power of narrative and creativity, the importance of that in community. We're paying attention to the power of place and how place matters and how it gets brought alive and, the we're we're we're paying it obvious attention to the power of health and wellness. It's such a core theme of the foundation's work.
Grant Oliphant:But we're learning as we do that work that it's not simply about a clinical model. It is about nature and about art and about the way in which we create the fabric of community that strengthens and supports people. And then we care about the power of economic systems that drive different types of human behavior and different types of community results. We didn't intend to have those be the themes of the season.
Crystal Page:We did not.
Grant Oliphant:Right?
Crystal Page:We absolutely did not.
Grant Oliphant:So they emerged, but they you know, and if you think about it, I just wanna return this to a very simple idea. Which is and it came up again and again and again in these interviews, which is whose story gets told? Or whose need for connection gets met? Or whose need for support in the community, gets addressed, or whose health is important. And what we learn in these interviews is that only when we can answer that question that everyone's story gets told and everyone's needs are are important, and everyone's need for connection has to be met, are we ultimately going to achieve the goals that we want to as a foundation?
Grant Oliphant:I
Crystal Page:I think we it's so easy to open the paper and get depressed on any of these things. But I think not just the themes, but I think this season of Stop and Talk really shows us that there are people who see the big challenges, and every day, day in, day out, they are addressing them. And so let's remember that there are people out there trying really hard and getting better at it every day, and so there's no reason for us I mean, we're gonna despair. We're human. It's gonna happen.
Crystal Page:But I think there's a lot of hope and action out there. So I just think our future is very promising.
Grant Oliphant:Yeah. I just, wanna add an amen to that. You know, it is we are and and we'll say this many, many times over, I'm sure. But, you know, we're we're in a moment where, yeah, news is sometimes dire. And depending on what you're focusing on, it can be very dire.
Grant Oliphant:And the algorithms that drive so much of the news to us through social media and other online means have an interest in making it worse than it is. And, you know, there is a real negativity bias to the news, and to the ways in which we consume the news. And yes, there are serious challenges, but I think what we're seeing in our work to really underline your point, we're seeing that there are people who are figuring out solutions to the problems and who are giving us every reason in the world, not only not to despair, but to wanna join in the fight and to be hopeful about the future.
Crystal Page:Yeah. So, Grant, I wanna thank you for season 2, but also remind our listeners, like, share, comment. That's how the show gets heard, and we will post when we're gonna be back. Probably top of January, we'll be back with season 3 of Stop and Talk.
Grant Oliphant:Awesome. Thank you so much, Crystal.
Crystal Page:Thank you. Alright.
Grant Oliphant:This is a production of the Prebys Foundation, hosted by Grant Oliphant, and co hosted by Crystal Page. The program is co produced by Crystal Page and Adam Greenfield, and it's engineered by Adam Greenfield. Production assistance is provided by Tess Kresge, and our new theme song is by mister Lyrical Groove, a local San Diego artist. Download episodes at your favorite podcatcher or visit us at stop and talk podcast.org. If you like this show, and we really hope you do, the best way to support it is to share, subscribe, and review our podcast.
Grant Oliphant:Thank you for your support, your ideas, and most of all, for listening. This program has been recorded at The Voice of San Diego Podcast Studio.