Speaker 1: After a difficult yet enchanting four years, I finally got
Speaker 1: to graduate from Columbia University. Looking out at that sea
Speaker 1: of baby blue Columbia robes, I couldn't help but be
Speaker 1: grateful that I've been able to achieve this moment and
Speaker 1: have my parents, my brother, my Boila, and the crowd
Speaker 1: looking on. And yet I felt this bitter sweetness that
Speaker 1: the guys who kept me from dropping out weren't among
Speaker 1: those faces. Because of how tightly packed this sea of
Speaker 1: people ends up being and the general chaos of the day,
Speaker 1: I didn't get to see them. The guys from the
Speaker 1: package center were the people I never got to say
Speaker 1: goodbye to that day. As I packed up my stuff
Speaker 1: into the car and we rolled on down to Lower Manhattan,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize what life would become. Well, I knew
Speaker 1: I would have to get a day job and grind.
Speaker 1: I still, at the time believed in the glamorized version
Speaker 1: of the dream that with my theater degree from Columbia
Speaker 1: University and my own grit, there's only a matter of
Speaker 1: time that I'd get to act with some of my favorites,
Speaker 1: whether it be Karenelivo, Chris Jackson, Viola Davis and record
Speaker 1: with artists like Jake Cole, the Jasmine Sullivan, the Three Tenors,
Speaker 1: and the Likes. What I didn't realize is in this
Speaker 1: city of dreams, anything can truly happen. Just as much
Speaker 1: as you could dream to the top, there was a
Speaker 1: deeper bottom. Ralph was right when he described the city
Speaker 1: as concrete, gray, treeless, and everywhere you look there can
Speaker 1: be piles of trash and it smells like trash. On
Speaker 1: top of that, even your ears are overwhelmed sirens, cars honking,
Speaker 1: people yelling, crying, laughing, chatting, phones, lasting music on boom boxes.
Speaker 1: People say the most private moment you can cry is
Speaker 1: on the subway because everyone will ignore you. While there
Speaker 1: are some New York magic moments. When you're in the city,
Speaker 1: everything costs a lot. Being someone who didn't come from money,
Speaker 1: a job was absolutely necessary and the faster the better.
Speaker 1: But I still wanted to and I had the privilege
Speaker 1: of pursuing my dream, which was to be an artist,
Speaker 1: being an actor, be a creator. And in order to
Speaker 1: do that, I went hunting for what we call in
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry a day job, and that was so
Speaker 1: many things under the sun for me. I at one
Speaker 1: point was a reservationist. I was a receptionist. I was
Speaker 1: a server, and the reality was in order to make
Speaker 1: ends meet in New York, even as a single person
Speaker 1: who has no one else to take care of, I
Speaker 1: was working crazy hours to not just make a living
Speaker 1: and not just pay off my student loan, but also
Speaker 1: to pursue my dream. And eventually I fell into the
Speaker 1: tutoring and nannying world in New York City. Welcome to
Speaker 1: When You're Invisible. My name is Maria Fernando b. S.
Speaker 1: But I know not everyone can will there are, so
Speaker 1: it's also fine to call me Maria. In today's world,
Speaker 1: we love to tell stories about people who have reached
Speaker 1: the top, like people who have achieved positions of cloud
Speaker 1: wealth power. On this show, I won't be doing that.
Speaker 1: When You're Invisible is my love letter to the working
Speaker 1: class and others who are seemingly invisible in our society.
Speaker 1: Helped to build a community here that will inspire you
Speaker 1: to have generous conversations with others that are different from you,
Speaker 1: conversations that might help you see life in an entirely
Speaker 1: different way. The tutoring in nannying world in New York
Speaker 1: City it's actually a decent gig in many ways. You're
Speaker 1: paid a decent amount, right because it's New York and
Speaker 1: most of the families who are asking for your help
Speaker 1: are the upper echelon. One day, at this photo shoot
Speaker 1: that I was at, I happen to mention that nanny
Speaker 1: and tutor for wealthy families, and this girl turns to
Speaker 1: me and she looks at me and she goes, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I do too. She's like, girl, I've been
Speaker 1: doing this for a long time. Let's chat. That person
Speaker 1: was an Asia. It's been a very interesting journey because
Speaker 1: I've been in different roles inside of household staffing. And
Speaker 1: I started as a nanny and then household management, and
Speaker 1: then I went into being a private chef. Anicia did
Speaker 1: have a before working as a nanny and personal chef,
Speaker 1: but she has health issues which restrict what she's able
Speaker 1: to do. She had to change into something somewhat more
Speaker 1: flexible to accommodate the doctor appointments and all of these
Speaker 1: things that she has to do to maintain her own health.
Speaker 1: I do want to point out, though, too, that these
Speaker 1: jobs aren't always flexible. In every single arena, people get
Speaker 1: their boundaries pushed we expect people to answer emails after hours,
Speaker 1: to be available on weekends. You can't take sick days, right,
Speaker 1: And that's in the regular workforce, where there's HR departments,
Speaker 1: there's legal departments, there's a contract involved. Now imagine walking
Speaker 1: into a space where there's no contract, there's no HR.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily clock in, so it's solely based off
Speaker 1: of the person who pays you. The more degrees of
Speaker 1: separation you have in between you and the family that
Speaker 1: you're working for, whether it's like your family friends, or
Speaker 1: you overlapping culture or where you grew up, the more
Speaker 1: you get separated from that, the more invisible pieces of
Speaker 1: you become. Depending on where you sit on that ladder,
Speaker 1: the pay can be different and at times you can
Speaker 1: then become hate using this term, but like the stereotypical
Speaker 1: help where they don't know you as people and you're
Speaker 1: seen to be there to just serve. Anisia being a
Speaker 1: Nigerian American and me being a Mexican American can mean
Speaker 1: different things when we walk in the room. We're both
Speaker 1: first gen children of immigrants, but people who have gone
Speaker 1: to college, and also an understanding of yes, I need
Speaker 1: to work, I can't be without a job. But if
Speaker 1: I really needed to, I could leave this particular job. Today,
Speaker 1: Anisya and I are going to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about this complicated dance and different things we've seen
Speaker 1: throughout our experiences walking through the room with some privilege
Speaker 1: and some invisibility. More when we come back from a
Speaker 1: break and we are back to this show doing these jobs,
Speaker 1: there's bonds that are awesome that you can form, and
Speaker 1: that's so beautiful. I know Nisa has this pair of
Speaker 1: kids that she's taken care of for a long time.
Speaker 1: She kind of terms them her best friends. May hang
Speaker 1: out all the time even when she's not there nanny,
Speaker 1: and she's close with their parents. When clients are amazing,
Speaker 1: they're amazing. I have a family. They make me dinner
Speaker 1: every time I come over. Some families you're not allowed
Speaker 1: to touch their food, like at all, can't touch it
Speaker 1: even if you're there at dinner time. I can't even
Speaker 1: have his neck. And there's families who will be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: take whatever you want from the fridge. That's really loving
Speaker 1: in a really gentle kind of way. This is why
Speaker 1: I'm sharing this range. Is like, sometimes the client can
Speaker 1: treat you like a person and be interested in your
Speaker 1: day when you have such good people, you can be
Speaker 1: shocked when you don't have that, like, wow, we just
Speaker 1: went from warmth. Who here's an ice bucket. Sometimes when
Speaker 1: you walk into these homes, you become an object. You
Speaker 1: eventually find out there's a dehumanization that happens. And it's
Speaker 1: in these situations that you realize how unprotected folks who
Speaker 1: are part of household staffs are. You don't even signed
Speaker 1: an independent contractor contract when you walk into these homes.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of verbal agreements, and then there's like
Speaker 1: no unions. There's no communication in between nanny's unless you're
Speaker 1: like at the playground, And there's so many people who
Speaker 1: don't have anything else lined up or this is their
Speaker 1: only option. They're stuck in these places because of their
Speaker 1: immigration status, because of their financial situation, and don't have
Speaker 1: a voice or a platform or a safety net like
Speaker 1: I or Anicia do. A lot of what people experience
Speaker 1: as part of the household staff is invisible. I was
Speaker 1: telling a friend. Most people interact with like executive CEOs
Speaker 1: or politicians or celebrities through their work through a TV
Speaker 1: screen or like at your office or something like that.
Speaker 1: Nanny's insiders interact with these people like on a very
Speaker 1: personal level, like with their children. Sometimes when you walk
Speaker 1: into a home, you become one dimensional. Your value becomes
Speaker 1: these specific things in your identity. So for me, it
Speaker 1: was being Columbia educated and bilingual. It can mean that, oh,
Speaker 1: that's really cool. Now you have Spanish, so use your
Speaker 1: Spanish in this job without it being like an additional
Speaker 1: skill we asked for. And then there's people who are like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: we are hiring you because we loved this skill of yours,
Speaker 1: and therefore we will compensate you accordingly. There's some people
Speaker 1: where my Columbia degree doesn't mean anything just because the
Speaker 1: nature of the job is simpler. I'm not gonna listen
Speaker 1: to you. I'm gonna assume you're dumb, which can happen
Speaker 1: as well. And sometimes my Columbia degree gives me more
Speaker 1: personhood or only just adds to my perfectly plastic Barbie
Speaker 1: toy persona to them where it's not anything other than
Speaker 1: an accessory versus like an element of where I come from,
Speaker 1: what I know, and who I am. They go to
Speaker 1: their friends and they're like, oh my god, I have
Speaker 1: this amazing girl. She's from Minnesota and like your kids
Speaker 1: would love her. You're like, oh, I just went from
Speaker 1: being fully in color to an outline. Having this opportunity
Speaker 1: to shed light on some of these behaviors, it's the
Speaker 1: opportunity to share stories of many out there as well.
Speaker 1: I work in this world, but I live in a
Speaker 1: different world. You really see the different realities that people have.
Speaker 1: People will leave me with their kids for Like weeks's
Speaker 1: asked me like around Christmas time, where are you gonna
Speaker 1: go for the holidays? Do you go to Paris or Tokyo?
Speaker 1: That's where my mommy and daddy go. And I'm just
Speaker 1: like no, like I've never even been. There have been
Speaker 1: clients who are like, I want salmon from Alaska, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, we're in New York, so what do you
Speaker 1: want me to do? And like they will pay for
Speaker 1: a private jet to go to Alaska to go to
Speaker 1: a fisherman to get the fish and bring it back.
Speaker 1: Like I've had clients literally, I've had a supermodel literally
Speaker 1: tell me I'm a big name. He should be happy
Speaker 1: that you're working here. This past year, I worked with
Speaker 1: this person while he was filming in that job. I
Speaker 1: think I cried, probably almost every single day for two months.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just me, it was like all the
Speaker 1: staff involved. I don't know, I just really feel like
Speaker 1: it's an American thing. In America, there are so so
Speaker 1: so many opportunities to you know, attain fame and fortune,
Speaker 1: and then it is super glamorized. It. It's crazy because
Speaker 1: while this wealth gap continues to grow in those wealthy homes,
Speaker 1: I'm finding kids are at times growing up with less
Speaker 1: empathy or understanding because they lack financially, ethnically and racially
Speaker 1: diverse community to help raise them. And I also think
Speaker 1: about all the workers who are leaving their family and
Speaker 1: their kids that next generation in order to take care
Speaker 1: of the ones in the fancy apartments, etcetera. Or those
Speaker 1: who are putting off families of their own because they
Speaker 1: can't afford it, or they're putting all their energy into
Speaker 1: raising other people's kids. That makes me wonder, like, have
Speaker 1: you met someone where you feel like they have qualities
Speaker 1: that are actually good or qualities. I've had a lot
Speaker 1: of clients that are normal people and they just happen
Speaker 1: to get rich. Mhm. But yep, I've had a client
Speaker 1: you're ago, he said, They didn't want kids, and I
Speaker 1: was like, why did you have three of them? He said,
Speaker 1: because I didn't want to die and my money would
Speaker 1: sit in the bank. It's my money. I worked for it,
Speaker 1: and I will have control where it goes. And it's
Speaker 1: going to be like someone that has the same genetics
Speaker 1: as me. This isn't even the craziest story that Anisia has. Anisia,
Speaker 1: can you share? So, like, where do I even start?
Speaker 1: So I am booked on this job as a cheft
Speaker 1: through like an agency or like a concier service. I
Speaker 1: don't know these people. They funded Hillary Clinton's campaign and
Speaker 1: things like that, so they're all very new to me.
Speaker 1: It's an Upper West Side home. They give me the
Speaker 1: address to give me the menu. I show up and
Speaker 1: the woman comes down and she's like, are you Anisia?
Speaker 1: And I'm like yes, and she's like are you legal
Speaker 1: to work in the uns? And I think that was
Speaker 1: the moment where I knew that this was going to
Speaker 1: be a thing. This was the first question this woman asks,
Speaker 1: and mind you Ansia coming from an agency that that's people.
Speaker 1: And then I started to kind of go through the house.
Speaker 1: I'm talking like statues in the middle of the living
Speaker 1: room and door knobs that are like silver shines, and
Speaker 1: the spiral staircases that you see in scary movies, and
Speaker 1: actual maids throughout the entire home. I totally remember watching
Speaker 1: those movies where you see the people in made outfits,
Speaker 1: and that's what this place was. These women in black
Speaker 1: and white, shining door knobs, glasses, cabinets, and even a
Speaker 1: laundry person ironing linens. This woman comes down the stairs
Speaker 1: and complains about its smelling like food while Anisia is cooking.
Speaker 1: She even complains about Asia's attire. She's like, are you
Speaker 1: going to change your outfit? And I'm like, no, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm wearing. I have a chef outfit and
Speaker 1: Apron like this is it? So women Sin's housekeepers to
Speaker 1: find me things to wear. I'm like this is bizarre,
Speaker 1: and then they can't find anything, and she's like can
Speaker 1: you go home? And I was like, I live in
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and she freaks out. Miraculously, someone does find her
Speaker 1: an outfit that's up to part for the standard of
Speaker 1: this woman, and Anisia goes to change the woman's husband.
Speaker 1: He wasn't any better. Her husband comes down and he's like,
Speaker 1: I want to block the soda. Okay, it's him in
Speaker 1: the afternoon. Sure, he pours a tryan called Pelaca soda
Speaker 1: and he drinks it, and then he just starts screaming
Speaker 1: at all the different staff for all the different things,
Speaker 1: things that are almost out of their control. The killer
Speaker 1: part for me was another staff member came up to
Speaker 1: me with a page and she's like, you have to
Speaker 1: wear this page. And I was like, what is this
Speaker 1: like for what? And she's like, this is how they
Speaker 1: are able to buzz you. And I was like, buzz
Speaker 1: me for what. She's like, we all have to wear them,
Speaker 1: and this is how they buzz for service. And so
Speaker 1: I found out that under the dinner table were like buttons.
Speaker 1: Each seat had a button. You are coming to someone's
Speaker 1: home and sitting at their table, and you are allowed
Speaker 1: to press a button. Don't have to get up, don't
Speaker 1: have to say a word. At some point, this woman
Speaker 1: finally apologized, but not to her staff, to her guests.
Speaker 1: She's like clinking the glasses and she's like, hello everyone.
Speaker 1: I would just like to welcome you to my beautiful home.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for coming. It's been a pleasure. I
Speaker 1: just want to make an announcement my original chef was
Speaker 1: not able to make it, and unfortunately, my concierge sent
Speaker 1: the most awful chef that they could find. And I'm
Speaker 1: really sorry that the service is just not up to par.
Speaker 1: Her outfit is not how we usually present our staff members.
Speaker 1: But I can assure you that the dinner will be delicious,
Speaker 1: and we've approved the food and we're going to have
Speaker 1: a good time. And I'm like, I'm standing right there,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, in what world is that? Okay?
Speaker 1: This kind of behavior is absolutely outrageous. And while I've
Speaker 1: never experienced it to the degree you that Anicia has,
Speaker 1: I have had some level of this interaction. And the
Speaker 1: other element to this is not only are you dealing
Speaker 1: with this emotionally and mentally, but sometimes there's even a
Speaker 1: physical changer, especially when kids try to run away from
Speaker 1: you into oncoming traffic or if you have a violent
Speaker 1: adult client. And I remember specifically in those moments, I
Speaker 1: could feel my body trying to figure out if we
Speaker 1: were freezing, fighting, or flying, and the mental gymnastics that
Speaker 1: go along in that. Anici and I broke this down
Speaker 1: a little bit together. You go into survival mode and
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, how do I just get through the
Speaker 1: next hour or the next two hours, or say it
Speaker 1: was a contracted job where you were set to work
Speaker 1: for or to six weeks. We start to think about,
Speaker 1: am I going to need this money for the next
Speaker 1: four or six weeks? Am I gonna need this reference
Speaker 1: for the job? Am I going to be able to
Speaker 1: suck it up and finish the six weeks? I also
Speaker 1: know she has very little vacation time and also deals
Speaker 1: with several chronic illnesses. Not only is she dealing with
Speaker 1: emotional burdens from her clients, but she's also dealing with
Speaker 1: her own personal pressures. I also know the pandemic made
Speaker 1: them worse. I think the pandemic was very hard for
Speaker 1: people who worked in homes because you saw different reality.
Speaker 1: You watched the news and you saw people losing their jobs,
Speaker 1: people not having housing, people getting evicted. You know, hospitals
Speaker 1: over booked, things like that. And you go into these
Speaker 1: homes and they have private healthcare. Their businesses are still going,
Speaker 1: they're not losing any jobs. In fact, they're making more money.
Speaker 1: More from an Asia. When we come back from this
Speaker 1: break and we're back while you know, us regular folks
Speaker 1: experienced the pandemic. In one way, the wealthy had a
Speaker 1: completely different experience. They got to have multiple nanny's, multiple tutors,
Speaker 1: personal chefs, and drivers coming in and out of the
Speaker 1: city so that they didn't have to deal with the
Speaker 1: potential of getting COVID while they were going on a
Speaker 1: grocery run or that kind of thing. Overall, it just
Speaker 1: reminds me how these people have insane access to things
Speaker 1: and don't necessarily have to endure the same way most
Speaker 1: of the world has to. It's funny because even with
Speaker 1: the ability to have access to so many things, these
Speaker 1: people still only want to pay for things based off
Speaker 1: of their own particular definition of what that means. I
Speaker 1: was actually talking to a nanny friend about this the
Speaker 1: other day. The family that she works for their actually
Speaker 1: really big restauranteers in New York, and they're just like
Speaker 1: not being nice her. In the pandemic, they paid her
Speaker 1: to be off, like when we can go anywhere, and
Speaker 1: they were like, Okay, we'll still pay you until everything
Speaker 1: opens back up. And then when things open back up,
Speaker 1: they were like, you always that money back. That threat
Speaker 1: of being taken advantage of is always at play. But
Speaker 1: the crazy thing is it also shifts depending on if
Speaker 1: you're an American born worker or if you're an immigrant
Speaker 1: domestic worker. And not only that, but then are you
Speaker 1: like of color or are you white? And do you
Speaker 1: have an accent or do you not? All of these
Speaker 1: factors into how you treated in a household. And when
Speaker 1: I've walked into those spaces, and Anisia and I discussed this,
Speaker 1: there's a sense of responsibility of being a woman of
Speaker 1: color who is the child of immigrants. You want to
Speaker 1: take care of the people who may not have a voice.
Speaker 1: That's another like part of the job that I just
Speaker 1: took on was being almost like a defense attorney for
Speaker 1: housekeeper was a woman that barely speak English, and you
Speaker 1: know they're getting abused and they're getting underpaid. This's close
Speaker 1: to home because I think about my mom, who was
Speaker 1: the first personal chef, the first nanny, and the first
Speaker 1: personal assistant that I ever knew. I think about the
Speaker 1: fact that her immigration status didn't quite let her work
Speaker 1: above table to help us through, so there was always
Speaker 1: the potential of being underpaid or abused. And I think
Speaker 1: we luked out partially when my mom ran a daycare
Speaker 1: from our house, which was mostly folks who were from
Speaker 1: our same working class or middle class background. But while
Speaker 1: that was a beautiful moment, I also know my mom
Speaker 1: worked really hard and was overworked and was looking after
Speaker 1: ten kids and trying to raise her kids at the
Speaker 1: same time. I have memories throughout my entire time growing
Speaker 1: up where my mom and sometimes my dad as well
Speaker 1: would be treated differently because of their accent. They would
Speaker 1: be seen as stupid or slow when they are brilliant
Speaker 1: and quick witted and incredibly compassionate. And knowing how people
Speaker 1: can get when they hear you or they assume something
Speaker 1: because of your position is really difficult to deal with.
Speaker 1: And the fact that I can't control how people will
Speaker 1: react to either my mom or the other workers, and
Speaker 1: I can't save them from that treatment. The only things
Speaker 1: I can do is advocate for people in the space,
Speaker 1: and I can do what I'm doing here, which is
Speaker 1: exposing it, and hopefully we can all pitching to course correct.
Speaker 1: So my parents were able to overcome, figure out, work
Speaker 1: through their difficulties and the things they endured in order
Speaker 1: to achieve the American dream, or their version of it.
Speaker 1: What do you want for your life? Where do you
Speaker 1: see yourself ten years from now? Do you personally want
Speaker 1: to continue in this industry, all right, I don't want
Speaker 1: to continue this industry. This is kind of what I've
Speaker 1: been thinking about the past couple of years and why
Speaker 1: I decided to launch my own startup. I did come
Speaker 1: to a breaking point in the pandemic, and I was like,
Speaker 1: how do I transition out of this career? Right? Eventually?
Speaker 1: I want to have kids and get married and have
Speaker 1: a house and things like that. And I thought, could
Speaker 1: I actually come home from these jobs, like to my
Speaker 1: own children, to my own family, Like absolutely not. And
Speaker 1: so that's what really inspired me to create eight Kids Table,
Speaker 1: which is like a meal delivery shot up service for
Speaker 1: families in New York and eventually will hope to branch
Speaker 1: out into other cities. I've experienced, you know, so much
Speaker 1: trauma and like mistreatment in this industry. I just feel
Speaker 1: like it is my duty to create a business and
Speaker 1: a platform that can provide jobs to people and pay
Speaker 1: them fairly, treat them well, offer them mental health, and
Speaker 1: treat them as equals. A lot of times when I
Speaker 1: was nannying, I was always like, I can't wait to
Speaker 1: be rich so that I can hire nanny and I
Speaker 1: can treat her really nice and pay her really well.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that you mentioned like when I'm rich, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, so there's the aspiration. It seems like
Speaker 1: to become part of this class. In some way, there
Speaker 1: is an aspiration to become part of this class, but
Speaker 1: to like figure out a way to change it and
Speaker 1: figure out a way that there isn't this industry standard
Speaker 1: anymore as a minority, to give other minorities opportunity to
Speaker 1: know that you don't need to go through these things.
Speaker 1: You know, oftentimes you do these jobs and they make
Speaker 1: you feel very, very less than almost inadequate. I'm learning
Speaker 1: this now because you know, I created this business. It
Speaker 1: is a startup, and I have been telling clients about it,
Speaker 1: and the feedback is very interesting. Some clients are very
Speaker 1: supportive and they're like, oh my god, this is really cool.
Speaker 1: But then you have these people who are in shock
Speaker 1: because they're like, you created a business, like you were
Speaker 1: my help, right, Like yeah, we are of service to me,
Speaker 1: Like how how did you even have the resources. It's
Speaker 1: those types of stigmas that I just want to completely
Speaker 1: definitely want them to be gone. Right. That's definitely interesting
Speaker 1: that with this idea of who the help should be right,
Speaker 1: we limit their potential even like remembering that everyone can dream,
Speaker 1: because I think when we put that label in that stigma,
Speaker 1: we limit the potential and possibility of individuals to grow
Speaker 1: and change and who gets to succeed. Yes, I think
Speaker 1: if people who are from oppressed minority groups are also
Speaker 1: sitting at those tables and can also say, you know,
Speaker 1: that's not okay. I want to be that person that's like, no,
Speaker 1: absolutely not, and I want to have the power to
Speaker 1: do so we're equals at this point, right. That's like
Speaker 1: the biggest reason why I would want to be rich
Speaker 1: is to fully normalize black, brown minority women to be
Speaker 1: in the basis. I think that's when things will change.
Speaker 1: That's where, like socioeconomic status matters a lot. It's kind
Speaker 1: of hard when you've lived in wealth your whole life
Speaker 1: to like see the full picture. How do we help
Speaker 1: people come up and have a seat at the table
Speaker 1: versus have already been born into it. The more people
Speaker 1: from all shapes and backgrounds right who can have a
Speaker 1: seat at the table, the more we're better off. In general.
Speaker 1: It's fun to believe in the potential of robin hood
Speaker 1: like persona, but talking to Anisia. I can't help but
Speaker 1: think the reality that not everyone has that potential to
Speaker 1: dream of reaching that class. I think about how fortunate
Speaker 1: Anisia and I are to be able to freely tell
Speaker 1: you these crazy stories, and the reality that there are
Speaker 1: thousands of more workers who don't get to share these stories,
Speaker 1: the people who I asked to join us on this
Speaker 1: podcast who were too scared to share it because they
Speaker 1: still work for people like this, and they still are
Speaker 1: attached to those circles with no other way to create
Speaker 1: a source of income beyond these homes. And if you
Speaker 1: are going through this, it's actually a lot of an
Speaker 1: emotional roller coaster, and I just want to honor the
Speaker 1: people who go into those homes every day. I don't
Speaker 1: think either of us are saying necessarily that these jobs
Speaker 1: shouldn't exist. I value every single person who has ever
Speaker 1: helped me, has ever bought in me dinner, who has
Speaker 1: ever given me advice, ultimately has helped me succeed. And
Speaker 1: I think for me, approaching it as like we are
Speaker 1: here because we have people we rely on, Like I
Speaker 1: am able to pursue a career because I have a nanny.
Speaker 1: It's understanding intricate connectivity that we have no matter what class,
Speaker 1: no matter what job, and we are capable of doing
Speaker 1: what we want to do because other people are doing
Speaker 1: what they want to do and some people who don't
Speaker 1: get to do what they want to do, which is
Speaker 1: the hard part. So to acknowledge that complexity is why
Speaker 1: this episode also exists. Is there anything that you wish
Speaker 1: people would know about the industry or you think that, like,
Speaker 1: the world would be a better place if fill in
Speaker 1: the blank. I think the world would be a much
Speaker 1: better place if people did not glamorize these types of
Speaker 1: individuals are the status I tell friends about the jobs
Speaker 1: that I have. I got to go into this person's
Speaker 1: house and that person's house, and they're like, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. You're so lucky. They say these things as
Speaker 1: if it's a privilege, and I think the world needs
Speaker 1: to know that it is far from privilege to be
Speaker 1: able to work with the privilege. So we've opened the
Speaker 1: door to one world in the New York ecosystem, and
Speaker 1: on the next episode of When You're Invisible, we'll be
Speaker 1: opening the door to another. This specific group of people
Speaker 1: that will be talking about are the crew workers who
Speaker 1: cleaned up New York after nine eleven, We're going to
Speaker 1: go down town to Wall Street, the site of what
Speaker 1: was the Twin Towers, which is now the Freedom Tower
Speaker 1: and the nine eleven Memorial. Amongst this gorgeous tribute to
Speaker 1: that awful day is the ghosts of those who not
Speaker 1: only passed the day of the event, but the people
Speaker 1: who passed because of all the illnesses that they got
Speaker 1: from working on the site and helping New York return
Speaker 1: to its glory. That's on the next episode of When
Speaker 1: You're Invisible. Tune in in a week. We'll see you then.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to one ear Invisible
Speaker 1: and for joining me on this journey. Don't forget to like, comment,
Speaker 1: and subscribe. You can find this episode and future ones
Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. I'm your host and creator Maria Fern,
Speaker 1: with executive producers Anna Stump, Nikki Tour and producers Dylan Hoyer,
Speaker 1: Arlene Santana, and Bablo Cabrera, with associate producer Claudia Marfa
Speaker 1: Corena and post production producer Daisy James. Original theme music
Speaker 1: by Tony Bruno. When You're Invisible is an I Heart
Speaker 1: Podcast Network production in partnership with Michael Toura Podcast Network