Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, This is Kevin Bacon and I am back
Speaker 1: here with Ask Kevin Almost Anything episode. Hi Stacy, Hi,
Speaker 1: good to see you. I'm here with Stacy Houston, who
Speaker 1: is the executive director the stellar executive director of Is
Speaker 1: that what your title is?
Speaker 2: I always forget it is actually the proper way to
Speaker 2: say thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I'm being proper today of six degrees dot org,
Speaker 1: which is our foundation, and we've tried to, you know,
Speaker 1: take the podcast, which has been great having celebrity guests
Speaker 1: on it talking about the things that they really care about.
Speaker 1: But we're just putting a little spin audit here and
Speaker 1: Stacey came up with a cool idea of Ask Kevin
Speaker 1: Almost Anything. And I look forward to these because, boy,
Speaker 1: you never know what's going to be coming at you.
Speaker 1: How are you doing? How are the girls?
Speaker 2: They're doing great. You know. This past winter was fun
Speaker 2: for toddlers. I think everyone was sick at least once
Speaker 2: a week. But we've survibed. Right, there's a light at
Speaker 2: the end of the tunnel. What about you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, good, busy, busy as you know. I saw you
Speaker 1: in California for like one brief moment. You were out
Speaker 1: there doing some work with six degrees. And I was
Speaker 1: out there shooting one day on a movie. It's funny,
Speaker 1: you know, I've done this a few times. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say what the movie is, but I have done
Speaker 1: this a few times on films where you know, the
Speaker 1: movie is great and it just needs maybe one more
Speaker 1: little adjustment or one more little scene. I actually have
Speaker 1: a and so you have to do a reshoot or
Speaker 1: or or additional footage is really more what it's like.
Speaker 1: And I was doing that, and it made me think about,
Speaker 1: UH when we did a reshoot on a picture called Footloose,
Speaker 1: and what happened was the ending of Footloose, you know,
Speaker 1: has this big kind of dance sequence, and in the
Speaker 1: original UH, when we originally shot it in Utah, it
Speaker 1: went into slow motion. And when they tested the movie,
Speaker 1: everybody said, we don't want slow motion. We want to
Speaker 1: see people, you know, getting down. We want to we
Speaker 1: want to feel the music and and see everybody rocking out.
Speaker 1: So we went to Uh, California and a year later
Speaker 1: and reshot the ending, but not in slow motion, with
Speaker 1: a new new choreography and new dancers and a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of new things, and it's it definitely, you know,
Speaker 1: helped the move be a lot, I think. But the
Speaker 1: other thing about it is that as an actor it's
Speaker 1: very hard because you really, at least me, I don't
Speaker 1: know about other people. When I when I finish a character,
Speaker 1: I just want to say goodbye to him, you know,
Speaker 1: like I've been so in his world that like I
Speaker 1: don't I just want to like let it go. So
Speaker 1: they step back into his shoes like a year later,
Speaker 1: when my head is already in a whole other place.
Speaker 1: It's always just a strange kind of adjustment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I can only imagine. So that iconic scene
Speaker 2: at the end, you're telling me it was actually shot
Speaker 2: in California that yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So like I walk into the the same so
Speaker 1: like I come in, I'm trying to remember what it is,
Speaker 1: but I come into the barn. I guess it's a
Speaker 1: barn or whatever it is, and I say, let's dance, scream,
Speaker 1: let's dance. And at that moment in the original version,
Speaker 1: everything went to slow motion. And the whole end of
Speaker 1: the movie was like was like slow motion. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they had all this crazy stuff like slow motion glitter
Speaker 1: dropping and like lights around the lenses and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And it just didn't. It was romantic, but it didn't rock,
Speaker 1: you know. And and so yeah, we went back out
Speaker 1: to LA They hired a bunch of dancers. Everybody got
Speaker 1: like their hair, you know, back in the same look
Speaker 1: that you know. Chris Penn was there and I guess
Speaker 1: and yeah, I guess Lori Singer was there too. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to remember she must have been. And and then
Speaker 1: we shot that whole you know ending. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: completely know anyway, I nobody asked me that this is
Speaker 1: supposed to be, you know, ask kept almost anything. This
Speaker 1: is me just going off on things that I haven't
Speaker 1: been asked. But I just I'm just gonna say anyway,
Speaker 1: I just had to get it off your chat. I
Speaker 1: just had to get my friend sorry to drone on
Speaker 1: about that. You get okay? Thank you? Well should we
Speaker 1: what do you say? Should we go to our first question?
Speaker 2: Let's do it?
Speaker 3: Hello there, mister Bacon A long time, don't speak Digsy.
Speaker 3: We met about twenty years ago in a pup. All
Speaker 3: I wanted for Christmas was you. The question that I
Speaker 3: have is are you going to be branching out with
Speaker 3: six degrees? I'm bringing it to the UK or is
Speaker 3: it just going to be a Philly thing forever?
Speaker 1: First off, I'd love to be one of those guys
Speaker 1: that could like like completely locate Digsie's accent, you know,
Speaker 1: like I love accents, right, he sounds maybe, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe northern England, but I don't know. You know, it's
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. When I was a kid, I got
Speaker 1: this record that was a record of an album of
Speaker 1: British dialects, and it had the map of England and
Speaker 1: you look at this tiny, you know, relatively tiny space
Speaker 1: in between Scotland and Ireland and Wales and England. There's
Speaker 1: hundreds of accents. You know, it's so interesting. We don't
Speaker 1: really have that so much in this country because I
Speaker 1: think we I'm not quite sure why it is, but
Speaker 1: it was a It's very much like in England. It's
Speaker 1: a very much of a class thing, a way of
Speaker 1: identifying you know, who is from where, and you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like what you're statuses. I'm just going to
Speaker 1: do a quick plug because I can. Speaking of class.
Speaker 1: There's this amazing movie Origin that is really based on
Speaker 1: a book and about the cast system. Basically have you
Speaker 1: seen it? Did you see it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, I actually got to go to it streaming
Speaker 2: of it with ABA.
Speaker 1: What did what? Did you think?
Speaker 2: It blew me away? I mean, I, I mean, it's
Speaker 2: obviously very sobering film, right for lots of different reasons.
Speaker 2: But the writer and the research that she did to
Speaker 2: kind of look at class, the class system versus or
Speaker 2: the cast system, I should really say, versus just racism.
Speaker 2: Like I thought it was really powerful and one of
Speaker 2: those things that make the comversation broader, somehow broader, but
Speaker 2: then also more defined and clear. Yeah, I was. I
Speaker 2: was really blown away. I thought it was beautifully done.
Speaker 1: I should mention that it's it's it is. It's not
Speaker 1: a documentary. It's based on a it's an interesting thing.
Speaker 1: Is it's based on a nonfiction No, yeah, a nonfiction book.
Speaker 1: But she has kind of taken the writer's story, the
Speaker 1: writer of that book, and shaped it into a narrative film.
Speaker 1: But I agree with you. I thought it was just amazing. Anyway,
Speaker 1: back to Digsy in a pub somewhere in England. I
Speaker 1: don't know, did we meet in a pub, maybe, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty years ago in a pub. I mean, I've had
Speaker 1: people multiple times tell me about encounters that we've had
Speaker 1: that don't aren't necessary. I'd like to think that we
Speaker 1: did meet in the pub Digsie, I will. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to say yes, but yeah, you know, it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be the first time.
Speaker 2: I would be memorable. He seems like a like a
Speaker 2: good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, maybe yeah, he does seem like a good time.
Speaker 1: He does. And you know, first off, I love the UK.
Speaker 1: I love London. I've spent a lot of time there.
Speaker 1: I didn't for the whole first part of my my
Speaker 1: my years, I didn't go to I didn't go to
Speaker 1: England until I was probably about I don't know it,
Speaker 1: well into my thirties. And then when I did go,
Speaker 1: I started going all the time. I did a couple
Speaker 1: of movies there. I was an X Men First Class.
Speaker 1: We shot that in London, so I was there for
Speaker 1: months and months and months, and then also do commercials
Speaker 1: over there. It's great. I miss it, you know, I
Speaker 1: haven't been there since the pandemic. And London to me,
Speaker 1: you know, especially London, is it's like for a New Yorker,
Speaker 1: it's such a great city because it's a walking city.
Speaker 1: It's a you know, a subway city or the tube.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of different kinds of people
Speaker 1: that you're going to be bumping up against. Everything is
Speaker 1: kind of moving in this there's this kind of energy
Speaker 1: to it that really reminds me of New York. And
Speaker 1: I will go out and walk, literally, I'll go out
Speaker 1: and walk for four hours. In London, I'll just go
Speaker 1: and go and go and find, you know, all kinds
Speaker 1: of cool things, and you know, not really even have
Speaker 1: a direction. It's hard to have a direction because, you know,
Speaker 1: because of the way that the you know, the city
Speaker 1: was constructed back and I guess whatever it was Middle
Speaker 1: Ages or something like that. I'm not that much of
Speaker 1: a historian. You know, they just kind of put the
Speaker 1: houses wherever they were, so, you know, streets, it's very
Speaker 1: hard to find your way around because each only lasts
Speaker 1: like a block. It's like the name of a street,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like Covington Street or something. It's only
Speaker 1: a block long and then it ends and it has
Speaker 1: another name and they don't. Yeah, there's no there's no grid,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, there's no grid. Like that's the one different,
Speaker 1: big difference between Philly and and uh and and uh
Speaker 1: and and London or New York. In London, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have numbered things. I mean it's a little
Speaker 1: bit like I guess Greenwich Village is a little bit
Speaker 1: like that, you know, sort of streets kind of intersecting,
Speaker 1: and but London could be very confusing. Anyway, I love it,
Speaker 1: And yes, I mean, well you should talk to that, Stacey.
Speaker 1: Just in terms of six degrees in our our reach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we definitely although you're obviously a Philly
Speaker 2: Needed and we love Philly Need too, a fair share
Speaker 2: of work in Philly. Obviously, we reach across the whole
Speaker 2: United States, and that's really just been because we believe
Speaker 2: that there's a lot of really great global organizations and
Speaker 2: we felt like the impact that we could make most
Speaker 2: intentionally was here in the United States, and a lot
Speaker 2: of that had to do with like your projects and
Speaker 2: other people that we work with. You know how we
Speaker 2: often can kind of tie into that with social impact
Speaker 2: activations and a lot of them are filmed or when
Speaker 2: you're touring here in the United States. But with that
Speaker 2: being said, big fan also of the UK, and we
Speaker 2: actually have a lot of followers and supporters both that
Speaker 2: listen to the podcast and it's probably our second biggest market.
Speaker 2: And then in terms of supporters for six degrees, we
Speaker 2: have like a really nice chunk of supporters that are
Speaker 2: actually in the UK. So I've always sawne that fascinating
Speaker 2: and and I know that you've done some work there
Speaker 2: as well, so that that definitely helps. But there's some
Speaker 2: great organizations that do work, you know, in the UK
Speaker 2: and here in the US, and I think that's probably
Speaker 2: a way to tie in and see if we can
Speaker 2: do some greater good. But not opposed to it, for
Speaker 2: just you know, have been so focused kind of on
Speaker 2: the US outside of a couple of activations that we
Speaker 2: did that just went viral, right, Like I think like
Speaker 2: that I Stay Home for campaign back in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: was something that we couldn't even envisioned at the time
Speaker 2: would have went so global. But we were all experiencing
Speaker 2: a pandemic and everyone was being asked by their governments
Speaker 2: to do the same thing, right, And so that was
Speaker 2: one of those exceptions to kind of our work transcending
Speaker 2: the borders. But yeah, the UK is a very cool
Speaker 2: place and definitely very socially conscious and they do a
Speaker 2: lot of great.
Speaker 1: Work for sure, for sure. But I'm you know, obviously, Dixie,
Speaker 1: you must be listening to the podcast if you know,
Speaker 1: you know, came up with a question. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that we're reaching there and and thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for reaching out. And it's good good to
Speaker 1: hear from my friends on the other side of the pond. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we got another question here. I think I will
Speaker 1: read this one. Okay. So this is Linda Glenn and
Speaker 1: what she says is every Halloween they play the old
Speaker 1: scary movies. You were on Friday the thirteenth. You wore
Speaker 1: speedos when everyone else wore shorts, and you dove into
Speaker 1: the water when everyone else jumped in. Did the directors
Speaker 1: tell you to do this? There's one shot in your
Speaker 1: speedos that doesn't leave much to the imagination. I love
Speaker 1: your work. Oh boy, wow, all right, let's see how
Speaker 1: do I respond to this. Well, first off, let me say, Linda,
Speaker 1: you know, in the eighties speedos were much more common. No,
Speaker 1: this was actually the seventies that I think about it,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we shot that this one in
Speaker 1: the in the seventies. Uh. You know, when I was
Speaker 1: I used to have I remember after school i'd have
Speaker 1: to go to the Why my mother made me go
Speaker 1: to the y and takes swimming lessons, which I just hated.
Speaker 1: Was like the middle of winter and you'd have to
Speaker 1: I'd have to walk down the street and go to
Speaker 1: the why. But we always had tiny little bathing suits
Speaker 1: that that was just what. That was, just what bathing
Speaker 1: suits were. And when you watch the Olympics, of course
Speaker 1: those guys all wear speedos, but they've just become so
Speaker 1: out now, you know, nobody, nobody goes to the beach
Speaker 1: and wears a speedo. I mean maybe they do, now,
Speaker 1: maybe some people do, but yeah, yeah in Europe, Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: in Europe they do. That's true. That's true. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just not an American thing, you know. So that so
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that you're could be wrong, but I'm guessing
Speaker 1: you're probably a lot younger than me, and so that
Speaker 1: must look, you know, kind of weird to see that
Speaker 1: in an old movie. The other thing about it is that,
Speaker 1: you know, at this point in my life, I can
Speaker 1: kind of like pick my costumes a little bit more.
Speaker 1: There's a costume designer, but of course, you know, I
Speaker 1: have some input. But when I was doing Friday the Thirteenth,
Speaker 1: I'm just starting now. I just put on what they
Speaker 1: gave me. You know, it wasn't like I was going
Speaker 1: to say, oh no, no creative choices there I went
Speaker 1: board shorts that would not have you know, they would
Speaker 1: have said shut up, get into your speedo immediately. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you the other funny thing about that scene that
Speaker 1: I remember. Now, this is a very low budget movie
Speaker 1: Friday the Thirteenth, which is part of why it ended
Speaker 1: up being, you know, such a hit and starting this
Speaker 1: kind of slasher you know a lot of slasher movies
Speaker 1: that were made after that. You know, they spent so
Speaker 1: little money on it, and it's made so much money
Speaker 1: that everybody in Hollywood went, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: this is the golden ticket, right, we just will spend
Speaker 1: nothing and we'll make a boatload of money. And uh,
Speaker 1: that movie was shot in New Jersey and it was
Speaker 1: like October. So if you look at the lake that
Speaker 1: were jumping in, the leaves are changing around the around
Speaker 1: the thing. So it was for reezing. I mean, none
Speaker 1: of us wanted to get into the water. And it
Speaker 1: was absolutely I mean I thought we were, you know,
Speaker 1: going to get hypothermia. In fact, I think maybe some
Speaker 1: some kid might have really gotten I don't know, I
Speaker 1: can't remember, but I just remember it was. It felt
Speaker 1: it felt almost dangerous, but it was. It was so cold,
Speaker 1: but we had to of course pretend that we were
Speaker 1: it was hot, and we were frolicking, and you know,
Speaker 1: they had big lake.
Speaker 2: And then you chose to dive in.
Speaker 1: I chose to dive in. By the way, this is
Speaker 1: another thing that Linda is pointing out inadvertently, is that
Speaker 1: I remember a few years ago there was like a
Speaker 1: meme of how bad my dive was because to say,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not a diver by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 1: but I could have done better, or they could have
Speaker 1: given me another shot, or you know. But I think
Speaker 1: the whole thing was that our hair was supposed to
Speaker 1: be dry or something like that. So so we had
Speaker 1: to do it in one take. I don't know. We
Speaker 1: didn't get multiple takes. But my dive is absolutely terrible.
Speaker 1: If anybody wants to, you know, go back and look
Speaker 1: at it. You could see a very small bathing suit
Speaker 1: and a very bad dive. You know. That's that's what
Speaker 1: that's my memory of of of that movie.
Speaker 2: And you were the first person to be killed, right,
Speaker 2: and that was that.
Speaker 1: Uh, Like I don't I'm not sure. I think I
Speaker 1: don't know it's been to say that. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: it in about forty years, but probably you.
Speaker 2: Know, it's like having you jump in like that is
Speaker 2: like an intentional thing to be like this, this dude's
Speaker 2: getting killed, you know, like.
Speaker 1: Well, right, but I'll tell you what is yes, that.
Speaker 1: But the other thing is there was such a trope
Speaker 1: in horror movies that continued forever, and that was that
Speaker 1: if you did sex, if you had sex or did drugs,
Speaker 1: you were definitely gonna die. That was like number one
Speaker 1: because they always had this slightly kind of skewed morality
Speaker 1: to them, you know. And by the way, I love horror.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's been good to me, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm a fan. I'm a consumer of
Speaker 1: it myself. But you know, in the in the seventies,
Speaker 1: certainly there was a an idea of like, you know,
Speaker 1: the trashy, especially the trashy girls. You know, they're gonna
Speaker 1: they're gonna get it, you know. And in Friday the thirteenth,
Speaker 1: I h had sex and smoked a joint. So the
Speaker 1: floor they there was no way, yeah, yeah, there was
Speaker 1: no way I was surviving. So the combination of the
Speaker 1: speedo and the marijuana and the and the sex meant
Speaker 1: that I wasn't gonna stick around in that movie for
Speaker 1: very long. No, not at all, Not at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I had an older brother and sister
Speaker 2: six and eight years older than me. I have an
Speaker 2: older brother and sister, and they were watching horror movies.
Speaker 2: And I remember like sneaking into the living room when
Speaker 2: they were having sleepovers or staying up to like watch
Speaker 2: horror movies. So I was watching horror way too young.
Speaker 2: But my brother had this Freddy Cougar Krueger like poster
Speaker 2: on the outside of his bedroom door. Why I don't
Speaker 2: know why on the outside not the inside. And as
Speaker 2: a kid, I would always run down the hallway and
Speaker 2: like I had to pass his room to get to
Speaker 2: the main part of the house, and I remember just
Speaker 2: like bolting as a kid, and I'm like, why did
Speaker 2: my parents just say, like, no, we kinda take that down.
Speaker 2: They're like put it on the inside of the door,
Speaker 2: you know. But it's like a vivid memory of just like.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like, I don't know why they didn't
Speaker 1: do that. They should have have no idea. They definitely
Speaker 1: so that's sad. Poor little Stacy running down the hall
Speaker 1: past Freddy Krueger. That breaks my ar.
Speaker 2: I mean for like a long time, I feel like it.
Speaker 2: I'm sure if I asked man will now She's like, no, No,
Speaker 2: that's like it was like a week or two, right,
Speaker 2: But in my memory it was like all of my childhood.
Speaker 2: I was running past Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 1: Oh Man, that's funny. Running from Freddy. Yeah, like like
Speaker 1: running many exactly like many before you and since wow.
Speaker 2: The next clip that we're going to play is from
Speaker 2: a caller. Her name is Alexandra, and she called in
Speaker 2: about an organization that is really close to her art,
Speaker 2: So we'll play that now.
Speaker 4: Hey, Kevin, my name is Alexandra, and I have absolutely
Speaker 4: loved your podcast so far. I love listening to the
Speaker 4: guests and listening to their stories. I love listening and
Speaker 4: learning on how I can be an active citizen. I
Speaker 4: really enjoyed that episode with well, both episodes with Mark
Speaker 4: Bruffalo and Matthew McConaughey, they were fantastic. I think it
Speaker 4: would be really great to shed a light on the
Speaker 4: special Olympics and maybe talk to Timothy Shreigrin. It's an
Speaker 4: organization that I have been volunteering with for nearly a
Speaker 4: decade and they just do such wonderful things, and involunteering
Speaker 4: with them, I always smile, and I feel like we
Speaker 4: could all use some smile. So I think it would
Speaker 4: be really awesome if you all shed a light on them.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I heard the name Shreiver, and obviously I
Speaker 2: was like, hmm, I wonder if this is if he's
Speaker 2: related to Maria Schreiber. And fun fact that I was
Speaker 2: not aware of it. There's a really rich history about
Speaker 2: the Special Olympics. And it was actually founded by Kennedy
Speaker 2: Did you know that.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I had no idea. Wow, that's
Speaker 1: so fascinating. Yeah, when was it?
Speaker 2: So it was back in nineteen sixty eight, So it
Speaker 2: was actually JFK's sister. Okay, you nice Kennedy Schreiber, and
Speaker 2: she's really a pioneer, and it was and it was
Speaker 2: founded in Chicago. I think that's when they had their
Speaker 2: first one. It was like the summer of nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 2: which I thought was just a really fascinating fact. And
Speaker 2: we did try to reach out to the Special Olympics
Speaker 2: and Timothy Shreiver himself. We talked to their team. There
Speaker 2: was a lot of travel on their schedule. So we'll
Speaker 2: definitely share anything that we get along the way and
Speaker 2: we'll drop it in the show notes.
Speaker 1: But yeah, cool, Yeah.
Speaker 2: The Special Olympics, what I kind of found most fascinating
Speaker 2: and looking more into them is, you know, they they're
Speaker 2: very similar to the Olympic Games in that way they
Speaker 2: have like that every four years, so they'll have like
Speaker 2: a Summer Olympics and a Winter Olympics, and they'll stagger
Speaker 2: them so that every two years there's one or the other. Okay,
Speaker 2: so it's like mirrored in that type of way. And
Speaker 2: I know, obviously that's an inclusion piece, right, so that
Speaker 2: these athletes can take part in a very similar kind
Speaker 2: of Olympic tournament to really showcase their talent every every
Speaker 2: four years. But they also kind of kick off with
Speaker 2: that torch, you know, with the iconic torch ceremony where
Speaker 2: you see people.
Speaker 1: Do they use the same song? Do they use the
Speaker 1: same song? They do? They do? They do?
Speaker 2: But they THEIRS is led and so you know, we
Speaker 2: have kind of different leaders and icons and that sort
Speaker 2: of thing globally that participate. THEIRS is led by law
Speaker 2: enforcement specifically, and law enforcement uses it as a fundraiser
Speaker 2: to really raise funds and awareness for the Special Olympic Games,
Speaker 2: which I thought was really really cool.
Speaker 1: That's so cool, that's so cool. Yeah, I mean, the
Speaker 1: Special Olympics are incredible. I mean, when you think about it,
Speaker 1: it's just, uh, it's just a germ of an idea.
Speaker 1: Was just such an interesting idea, you know. And I
Speaker 1: think that probably you know, the what the Special Olympics
Speaker 1: did was probably more impactful in terms of people, uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, like sharing and opening people's
Speaker 1: minds to our fellow humans who are you know, neuro
Speaker 1: divergent in some way, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 1: and that must have really I just think it's I
Speaker 1: think it's just been I think it's really kind of
Speaker 1: like in some ways probably you know, changed a lot
Speaker 1: of people's thinking and a lot of stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: in this world. And the other thing about it is,
Speaker 1: you think I'd love to hear like how much it's grown,
Speaker 1: because when you think about nineteen sixty eight just in Chicago,
Speaker 1: you know, it's probably like a tiny little thing. I
Speaker 1: would think. You know, now it's global, right, global.
Speaker 2: Super global. They're in one hundred and ninety countries I
Speaker 2: was reading, So it is truly a global.
Speaker 1: Movement in ninety countries.
Speaker 2: Wow, And I mean you think about that. And this
Speaker 2: is a cause that knows no border right or ethnicity
Speaker 2: or age group. Like any person can you know, be
Speaker 2: connected to somebody that has either disability or those that,
Speaker 2: like you said, are neurodivergent. And this opportunity, I think,
Speaker 2: to inspire people to say yes, they can and should
Speaker 2: be able to participate in the Athletic Games just like
Speaker 2: anyone else is extremely important because it's not just promoting inclusion.
Speaker 2: But what I loved most about the organization is that
Speaker 2: they really are focused on more acceptance and respect. So
Speaker 2: it takes it further than just like Okay, let's make
Speaker 2: a space and include them in this conversation or inclusion
Speaker 2: them in this opportunity, but like, no, we should also
Speaker 2: respect them and their should mean acceptance. And they really
Speaker 2: do a lot of this work through young people. So
Speaker 2: they have what they call the Unified Champion Schools and
Speaker 2: a Global Youth Activation Committee, and so these are young
Speaker 2: people in Shooter heights and high schools that are really
Speaker 2: taking part in the games and fundraising and supporting them
Speaker 2: and really educating like their fellow students and others on
Speaker 2: the importance of it, which I think is powerful because
Speaker 2: when things start with young people, we know from our work,
Speaker 2: it can just be something that really resonates with with
Speaker 2: more people and it can kind of go the distance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is super powerful. I mean also the fact
Speaker 1: that it it has to do not just with how
Speaker 1: many medals does your country get, you know, which can
Speaker 1: kind of lean into a little of this sort of nationalism,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a
Speaker 1: weird way, and winning and losing and you know, bronzing
Speaker 1: and silver ring and all that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 1: you know, it has a it's got an actual, you know,
Speaker 1: social conscience, and I think that's that's really cool. Do
Speaker 1: we know when the Special Olympics is? When it's is
Speaker 1: this in twenty twenty four or is it in twenty.
Speaker 2: Twenty Okay, that's that's a really good question.
Speaker 1: We should find out, I bet you. I'm sure if
Speaker 1: we go to Special Olympics dot Org. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: throw it out there. Maybe I'm wrong, but you know, right,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing there's a way to find out.
Speaker 2: So yeah, definitely put that information yeah, in the show
Speaker 2: notes both the next Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Something
Speaker 2: that you know, you hear about the Special Olympics a lot,
Speaker 2: but I am. I live right in you know, outside
Speaker 2: of Washington, d C. And Fair Facts where we're actually headquartered,
Speaker 2: held a Special Olympics just a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: I want to say. So I know that they have
Speaker 2: them kind of all over the world, so we'll definitely
Speaker 2: put that in the notes. They're always looking for volunteers
Speaker 2: and people that can come alongside them to like like
Speaker 2: any Olympic games, right, They're just they need so many
Speaker 2: people to help pull this off, and so we'll share
Speaker 2: that information as well. But clearly a really great organization
Speaker 2: to support, to get involved in. And the great thing
Speaker 2: is that there's kind of chapters and supportive volunteer associations
Speaker 2: all over the world, so you should be able to
Speaker 2: connect wherever you are, which is you know, really really special.
Speaker 1: That is great, very very special, so to speak. That
Speaker 1: was fun. I really enjoyed that. Thank you to Christopher
Speaker 1: Dingley also known as Digsie calling all the way from
Speaker 1: the UK with with his question, and thank you also
Speaker 1: to Linda Glenn with her slightly inappropriate question about Friday
Speaker 1: the thirteenth, and also to Alexandra to wrap with us
Speaker 1: about the Special Olympics. I'm having a lot of fun
Speaker 1: with these ask Kevin almost anything questions, and this has
Speaker 1: definitely fallen into that category, so keep sending them in.
Speaker 1: You know. We were having a good time doing this
Speaker 1: and Stacy, once again, thanks for hanging out with me.
Speaker 2: Happy to you see you next time. Hey guys, it's
Speaker 2: Stacy again. So after that last episode, we actually did
Speaker 2: hear back from the Special Olympics and the CEO, Mary Davis,
Speaker 2: wanted to send a note about what the Special Olympics
Speaker 2: means to her and so many others around the world.
Speaker 2: Listen in.
Speaker 5: My name is Mary Davis. I'm the CEO of Special
Speaker 5: Olympics International, and I started out in nineteen seventy eight
Speaker 5: as a volunteer with Special Olympics program in Ireland. I
Speaker 5: then went on to become the first National Director of
Speaker 5: Special Olympics Ireland. We also host did a Were Games,
Speaker 5: first time the Games were held outside of the United
Speaker 5: States in two thousand and three, and I was the
Speaker 5: chief Executive of the organizing committee for those Games. After that,
Speaker 5: I went on to become the President and Managing Director
Speaker 5: of Special Olympics C Europe Eurasia, and from there got
Speaker 5: the call to come to headquarters in Washington to be
Speaker 5: the Global CEO. So here I am today.
Speaker 2: If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
Speaker 2: in supporting six degrees dot org by texting the word
Speaker 2: bacon to seven zero seven zero seven zero. Your gift
Speaker 2: empowers us to continue to produce programs that highlight the
Speaker 2: incredible work of everyday heroes. Will also enabling us to
Speaker 2: provide essential resources to those that need it the most.
Speaker 2: Once again, text ba con to seven zero seven zero
Speaker 2: seven zero or visit six degrees dot org to learn
Speaker 2: more