WEBVTT - The Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:27.400 All right, sari uh, this is gonna be the introduction 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:33.760 for the Don Bees interview about the Grant Amahara Steam Foundation. UM. 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.400 I will also put in a very short ultra at 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.760 the end of it. I apologize for all the audio 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:42.560 being broken up this way, but I know you get 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:49.400 all handled. So here we go. Beep hey there, and 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.800 welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.600 an executive producer with I Heart Radio, and I love 0:00:55.800 --> 0:01:02.400 all things tech. But on July eighth, twenty twenty, fans 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.280 around the world were shocked to learn that Grant him Ahara, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:11.280 a roboticist and popular science and tech communicator and television host, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.960 had passed away suddenly. Grant became famous as part of 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:20.039 the Build team on the television series MythBusters, in which 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.640 he would help put various myths and beliefs to the test, 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.319 often by devising intricate and complicated gadgets in order to 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.520 do so. He was active in fandom circles and had 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:37.720 previously been in the series battle Bots, first as a 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.959 competitor on one team of battle Bots, and then later 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.960 on as a judge in a later season. Grant's passing 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:50.320 was shocking, and immediately there was an outpouring of grief 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:54.360 and love from his friends, his family, and his fans. 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.120 I remember feeling gutted when I heard about it, and 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.360 I had only had the grief is meeting with him once, 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:07.680 many many years earlier. His family and friends would take 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.080 that grief and that love and they would focus on 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.400 that love that they had for Grant. They wanted to 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.280 do something to honor his memory, and so together they 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:23.200 would create the Grant Immahara Steam Foundation. So today I 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:25.920 want to talk a little bit about Grant's life and 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.880 his work in tech, and talk a little bit about Steam, 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.760 and then we'll have an interview with Don Be's, a 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.680 longtime friend of Grant and the one of the directors 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.840 for the foundation. He's the president of the Grant Imahara 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:48.200 Steam Foundation. Grant grew up in Los Angeles, California, and 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.000 his mom says that as a kid, he gravitated towards 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:55.000 toys that let him build things like Lego sets, and 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.919 once he got hold of a screwdriver, he also took 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.640 to taking things apart in order to learn how they worked, 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.360 which is a pretty familiar story. Whenever I talked to 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.679 anyone who is an engineer, the idea that you want 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:12.639 to learn how something works, you take it apart, and 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.280 if you're lucky, you can keep it working when you 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.040 put it back together again. But often it just becomes 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.520 a learning experience that and part of your education. Well, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.519 when he was a young boy, the first Star Wars 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.079 film came out, that is, Star Wars A New Hope, 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.840 or Episode four as we think of it these days. 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.480 Grant credited that movie as being the jumping off point 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.840 for his love of robots. He felt drawn towards the 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.760 characters the droids C three PO and R two D 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.120 two and thought, that's what I want to do. I 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.120 want to make robots. Well. Grant attended college at the 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:53.240 University of Southern California, and he majored in electrical engineering, 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:58.160 or E as the cool engineers call it. By his 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:02.400 junior year, he was no longer feeling really certain about 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:06.040 his chosen major. He felt that the discipline didn't really 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.080 give him enough space to be, you know, creative, and 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.720 he found the studies rather unfulfilling and a bit daunting. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.680 And he was given the advice by a counselor to 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:23.080 speak with a professor of cinema at USC, a man 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:29.479 named Tom Holman, and Holman has an incredibly impressive list 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.920 of credentials, not the least of which is the invention 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:37.960 of the sound system called t X. And just as 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.240 a quick tangent, I'm not going to go on about 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.600 this for very long, but th h X is really interesting. 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.440 It's it's not about a sound format. It's not like 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.480 you record sound in a th h X format and 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.920 that's what makes it special. Instead, it's more of an 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:57.360 approach to quality control and sound reproduction. So a th 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.520 h X certified system is on that can play sound 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.480 back so that the reproduce sound you get when you're 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.080 watching a movie is as close to the original intentions 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:12.600 of the mixing engineers as it can possibly be. In 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:16.720 other words, it's a means for theaters and filmmakers to 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.520 create the most faithful recreation of sounds possible for the 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.400 purposes of telling a story the way the filmmakers wanted to. 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:30.640 So you want that explosion to have a particular reverberation 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.000 and base to it. You want the music to come 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.520 through in a specific way to help elevate the emotions 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.120 of the audience. You want that dialogue to be crisp 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.400 so that people can understand what's being said. All of 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.960 these things play a part in it, and it meant 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:52.080 making theaters more uniform in the sense that they would 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:57.120 be able to replicate the stuff faithfully, and audiences who 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.680 would go in to watch a movie would be given 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.279 the opportunity to see it the way everyone wanted them to, 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.440 whereas otherwise, you know, your mileage may vary, kind of 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:14.320 like if signals coming in poorly over cable or or 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.040 broadcast TV, You'll be able to see and hear stuff, 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.880 but it probably won't be the way that the creators 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:26.000 of that content had intended. Well. Holman had Immahara work 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.920 as sort of an assistant, which meant Grant had the 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:33.440 chance to sit in on Holman's classes, and effectively he 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.120 got to take courses that his major would otherwise have 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:39.640 prevented him from taking because he was already in his 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:44.560 junior year of electrical engineering. So at that stage you 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.760 don't have as much freedom to take whatever courses you want. 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.320 You're kind of locked in. This gave him a chance 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.200 to work around that. Holman became a mentor to Grant, 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.479 and that relationship would oppress upon Grant the importance of 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:02.200 mentors in general, and he encounter several more. In his 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:07.280 early career. Emmahara heard about the intern program over at 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:11.080 Lucasfilm and he met with Holman to ask him if 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.400 he might write a letter of recommendation, because as you 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.040 can imagine, Lucasfilm is a pretty competitive spot when it 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.520 comes to internships. They only have a few and a 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.920 lot of people really seek them out because that's a 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.720 heck of a spot to have on your resume. Well, 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:31.400 Holman said, I'm not going to write you a letter 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.080 of recommendation, just have them call me. And apparently with 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:38.520 his recommendation over the phone, Grant landed a spot in 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:42.360 that intern program, and it's safe to say that Emmahara 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.120 really found his calling there. He also got a chance 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.000 later on to dress up as one of the robot 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.720 heroes he loved. He got to be C three p O. 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.480 Plus he got to work on a remote controlled operated 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.680 R two D two that a full size R two 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.640 D two that was used for promotional appearances. Grant really 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.960 took the lead in updating the electronics in that uh 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.960 that remote control are two because when it had originally 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.480 been built, it was built on nineteen eighties era technology. 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:20.760 Gret was able to update that into nineties technology and 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:22.680 slim things down a bit and give it a little 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:27.880 more of a robust versatility. And then Grantam Mahara would 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.520 later make a move over to work at Industrial Light 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.320 and Magic, the special effects studio, and he would work 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:39.040 on films like Jurassic Park, The Lost World. He worked 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:43.120 on Galaxy Quest, one of my favorite science fiction films 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.719 of all time. I mean it's a comedy, but it's 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.480 a science fiction comedy and if you haven't seen Galaxy Quest, 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:50.520 you owe it to yourself to check out that movie. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.959 He worked on Ai, a very ambitious project that originally 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.120 started out as a Stanley Kubrick project, and then morphed 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.360 over to Steven Spielberg after Kubrick passed away. He also 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.119 worked on the Star Wars prequels and the Matrix sequels, 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.360 and around that same time, Grant began to build robots 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:16.280 for the robot competition show battle Bots. In case you 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.280 have never seen this show, first of all, you're missing out. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:23.080 This show was wildly entertaining, but it features teams of 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:29.959 roboticists who compete in an arena combat competition and they 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:34.280 pit their remote controlled robots against others from other teams. 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.640 The robot that Emmahara worked on specifically was named dead Blow, 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:43.360 and it featured a very low slung body on four wheels. 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.400 It had a sort of wedge mounted in the front 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:50.120 as almost like a ramp, and behind the wedge was 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.280 an eight pounds sledgehammer arm that could slam down to 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.320 smash opponents. Later that weapon would be modified into a 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.680 CEO two powered pick acts. It competed in the middle 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.920 weight division of the competition. They had lightweights, middle weights, 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.360 and heavyweights, and dead Blow always did pretty well, though 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.360 it never quite made it to number one, And as 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.520 the series went on and the competitors began to design 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:24.360 robots with uh particularly effective means of defeating opponents, dead 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:26.880 Blow started to kind of lag behind a little bit. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:29.960 But Grant also became really close friends with a lot 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.560 of the other competitors at battle pots, and there are 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.480 stories of teams that would approach Grant to ask him 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:40.520 for advice about how they should best operate their their 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.760 robots and how the remote controls even worked, and time 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.000 and again, if you ask them about it. You'll hear 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.960 about how Grant was happy to walk people through how 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.280 the systems worked and how best to optimize them. I mean, 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.880 he was competing against some of these same teams, but 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.319 he loved to talk shop and he loved to teach 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.439 what he had learned, so he started to become kind 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.640 of a mentor to some of the other battle Boats 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.280 participants along the way. A couple of other guys who 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.840 are also in the special effects industry and who also 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:16.360 competed in battle Bots were Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.800 Immahara would get to know them a lot better when 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.680 he would join the show MythBusters after the show's first season. 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.920 Adam Savage would go on to say that Immahara made 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.920 an incredible contribution to that show, and he added that 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.439 Emmahara was the only one of the hosts who had 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:40.160 an academic background in engineering, so he really also gave 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:44.760 MythBusters a sense of legitimacy. That way, Grant would end 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.959 up building a lot of stuff for MythBusters in the 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.920 the efforts to test various claims and determine whether they 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:56.320 were busted that is, you know, not really possible, or 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:01.040 if they were plausible or confirmed, and he also got 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.160 a chance to live out the fantasy of being in 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.720 multiple different kinds of stunts and crazy situations. I'm sure 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.120 some of them were daunting, but the thing that really 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.800 struck me as a fan of MythBusters was that Grant 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:20.080 always seemed really excited and jazzed to do something truly 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.640 insane as part of that show, and it was something 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:29.080 that always found really really entertaining in the producers decided 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:33.480 to phase out the Build Team, of which Grant was 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.480 part of that and uh they focused solely on Hyneman 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.960 and Savage for the remaining seasons of MythBusters, but Imahara 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:45.680 kept working on various projects, including a show called White 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.480 Rabbit for Netflix, where he joined his former Build team 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.920 Comrades to do a season of that show. He also 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.439 designed and built the robot that is the second Banana 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.360 sidekick for Craig Ferguson's Late show and that was still 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:04.360 on and that was also known as Jeff Peterson the Robot. 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:10.079 One of my favorite on screen characters one Craig and 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.439 And and Jeff the Robot. Their interactions together are some 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:18.440 of the funniest ones I've seen on Late night television. 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.800 If you've never noticed or seen that, I recommend going 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.480 to YouTube and just searching for like Craig and Jeff 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:31.360 that's geo Ff compilations, because they are They made me cry. 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.119 I laughed so hard. Grant also worked with Disney Imagineering 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:40.360 on various projects, including he built an animatronic baby Yoda 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:45.079 figure from the Mandalorian and it was meant to be 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.840 a device that you could take two different children's hospitals, 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.079 which dang, hit y'all, that's just I mean, that's just 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:57.360 awesome and inspirational. He also would take time to volunteer 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.920 at high school robotics organization. He lent his expertise and 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.680 his knowledge to help kids who were just getting into 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.360 mechanical and electrical engineering, and he encouraged their work and 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.600 taught them how to do things, and again that mentor 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:17.000 mentality was really coming in strong. His impact continues to 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.400 be felt throughout the worlds of engineering and entertainment. If 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.880 you do a search of his name, you will find 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:29.560 countless examples of amazing stories about his exploits, the impressions 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:34.520 he did, his projects, and his genuine love of other people. 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.120 The foundation named in honor of Grant Immahara will focus 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:46.320 on providing resources for STEAM education. STEAM stands for science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:51.040 and mathematics. Uh, it's great that it's STEAM rather than STEM. 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.920 STEM is very important. STEM is is science, technology, engineering, 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:56.960 and math, but it doesn't have the art component there. 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:03.200 But Grant found a lot of satisfaction by applying his 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.640 knowledge in those other fields, specifically within the arts, and 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.920 I think a lot of people that that really resonates. 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.840 So STEAM is a wonderful kind of approach to this. 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.840 And there is no doubt about it that there are 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.960 too many schools and school systems around the world, but 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:28.960 particularly in the United States, where there is a real 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:34.880 need for more STEAM resources and education. Coming up, we've 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.120 got my interview with Don Be's, the president and director 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.200 of the Grant Imahara Steam Foundation. But first let's take 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:53.320 a quick break. Don. First of all, thank you so 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.360 much for giving us your time and and being on 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:01.280 the show. I am really please to have you on. 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:07.160 I am an advocate for STEAM education in general, and 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:11.280 to have this chance to talk about something a cause 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:13.840 so near and dear to my heart means a lot 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:15.840 to me, and I'm certain it means a lot to 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.640 my listeners as well. So thank you for your time, 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.040 thanks for having me, thanks for reaching out to us 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:26.160 and asking for the interview. That's great. Absolutely, I was 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.440 also one of the Well I can't say that I 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.400 was one of the first, because I know that the 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:36.600 reaction upon the announcement of the foundation was positive because 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.960 I was seeing it in real time, But I was 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.680 determined to be an early supporter, and so I did. 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.280 I was one of those early donators to the foundation. 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:50.000 I was so excited to see such passion. Well, it's 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.880 thank you. I mean, my contribution is tiny in comparison, 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.280 but it is, Uh, it is something that I'm really 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.560 excited to talk about. But before we get into that, 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.520 I was hoping that maybe you could tell us about 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:10.440 how you met Grant and how your friendship formed and 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.920 and sort of the things that you observed about Grant 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:18.119 Amhara to kind of understand the inspiration behind doing something 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:23.119 as as momentous as as building a foundation. So Grant 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.600 actually has a really interesting story as to how he 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.239 wound up at Lucasfilm which is where we met. Um. 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:33.320 He was a student at USC and UM he was 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.639 in he was an engineering student, an electrical engineering student, 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:41.159 and I guess roughly his junior year he decided he 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.440 didn't want to do it anymore. He just was bored 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:49.320 with it. And um so he was trying to jump 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:53.320 over to the cinema studies, I believe, and he couldn't 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:58.440 do that. So somebody had suggested to him to, uh 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.679 talk to Tom Holman. Who Tom Holman is the man 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:06.960 who invented t X sound system. Um and it was 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.600 red con but everyone was calling it th h X 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.399 stood for Tom Holman's Experiment, but that's not true. But 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:17.119 um so anyway, uh and Tom was a professor at USC. 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.880 So he went in and I heard the story from Grant. 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.879 I've also heard the story more recently from Tom. But 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.680 essentially he went in and and said to Tom, you 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:32.680 need an intern and and so he offered to start 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.359 cleaning up Tom's office, and one thing led to another, 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.280 and Tom started giving him jobs to do and this 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.960 and that, and then then the internship possibility popped up 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.520 for Grant at at Lucasfilm because they had every year, 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.399 I think they had two sets of interns, you know, 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.920 like a spring spring and a fall semester or something 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:56.240 like that. And uh so he uh, he said I 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.400 wanted to I want to do the internship at Becasfilm. 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.680 Could you write me a letter of recommendation? And Tom said, 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:04.840 she just said, we'll just have him call me. It'll 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.919 be fine, and so he called. They one thing let 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.679 to another in course, and uh. Grant was an intern 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.080 at the thh X division of Lucasfilm. And so that's 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.000 actually where I met Grant. I was in between doing 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.240 film work, I was also doing I was also the 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.240 Lucasfilm Archives, so I took care of all the props 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.399 and models and costumes and everything from Star Wars and 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.639 Indiana Jones and Willow and even Howard the Duck. So 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.480 I knew people because of the work at the ranch, 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.280 Skywalker Ranch and I l M. I knew a lot 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.560 of a lot of people and we would have lunch together, 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:42.480 you know, do different people. I got to be friends 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.600 with different people, and and that's how I met him. 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.720 He came to lunch one day with some friends and 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:52.720 um and a matter of fact, the first actually the 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:54.520 first time I met him was at the thh X 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.520 office and he was hanging on to someone's leg and 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.680 she was dragging him along the ground and I'm like, 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:04.119 what what a little nutcase, this guy. So that was 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.639 my first impression of ground. But he we met, like 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.159 I said, at lunch, and he just started kind of 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.360 hanging out with him. He was only I think he's 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:14.480 twenty two. He's turning twenty three that year. When we 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.359 met in like ninety three, and I was doing a 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.880 huge project at the archives at that point. We're getting 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.920 a huge a lot of the models and archival stuff 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.920 ready for an exhibition in Japan, and uh so people 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.240 are coming over and looking at it and checking it 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.520 out a lot. And he would come over the archives 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:35.239 and kind of hang out with us a little bit. 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.600 And then when I found out he was an electrical engineer. Um, 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.040 one of the other side jobs I had was operating 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.040 rt D two for personal appearances, and and our two 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:46.040 was always in need of some sort of upgrade. You know, 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.840 he's dealing with seventies early eighties technology at that point. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.520 So um, I, you know, I asked, Granted, says, you 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:56.480 want to come and help me fix up our two, 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:02.000 and he said of course, and and uh and that's 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.600 how we bonded, you know, that's how we really first met. 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.440 So yeah, I hear that there's no there's no experience 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.679 that brings people closer together than working over a droid 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:19.720 late late into the evening hours. Uh, that's that's incredible. 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.720 How would you how would you describe Grant to someone 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.160 who had never met him? Well, at that point, well 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:28.399 he was I mean he's he always was generous. I mean, 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.840 but uh, you know he continued that. But he was, 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.639 especially at that point. He was really young, really enthusiastic, Uh, 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:42.040 incredibly knowledgeable, especially for someone that young, willing to you know, 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:44.920 take on any kind of problem and try to solve it. 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.520 He was really good at like reverse engineering something. So 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.440 you know, it's like, you, this is the problem we have, 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:54.760 how do we get here? And he would figure it 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:58.240 out and come back to stuff. So, uh, he made 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:00.840 a really good fit with a lot of us that 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:04.400 you know, we're working in industrial light and magic as well, 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:06.920 because that's a lot of a lot of people there 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:12.960 did this similar things. So he was just uh, incredibly clever. Um. 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:17.240 Never really in a bad mood. Um. I mean I 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.320 I got to witness a few you know, temper tantrums 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:24.639 here and there, but they were always well deserved. But 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:28.600 but he yeah, he was always really friendly. Uh, love 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:30.480 to laugh, love to have a good time. He was 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:34.720 like he had he could do killer impersonations. It was. 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:39.000 He had a great impersonation of George Lucas. And he's 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.000 the one that created the whole Jamie Hyneman where you 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.119 put your hands up, you know, by your by your 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.800 mouth and pretend to be have his mustache as your fingers. 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:50.720 That was Grant that came up with that. Uh so, yeah, 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:56.200 he was always doing impersonations and um yeah. So yeah, 0:22:56.560 --> 0:23:00.879 just really really talented, friendly, nice guy really and and 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:03.920 what that was what was great about when he ultimately 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.639 uh found the success with MythBusters. I mean everything he 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.280 was doing he was successful, and but the MythBusters just 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:17.359 elevated into this level is global uh fame, and you know, 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:21.399 he was one of those people that really deserved it. 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:28.040 You know he really, um he you know, you wish 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:30.159 that kind of thing on those kinds of people and 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:33.440 and and there's so many people out there that deserved 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:36.520 that kind of recognition and don't get it. And he 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:38.879 was so fortunate to be in the right place in 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:42.000 right time to get it and and definitely deserved it. 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:43.639 And it never went to his head. You know, he 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:46.800 was I hear from people that you know, met him 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:49.480 years later, because of course I knew him before he 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:53.720 was famous. Uh, but I, you know, met him, met 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.639 people that just said he was always took the time, 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:02.080 you know, would would remember people. Uh. He never acted 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:04.440 like a celebrity, So that was great to hear that. 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.359 He continued, you know, being pretty much the same person 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:11.040 his entire life. It's funny. I I briefly met him 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.120 at a dragon Con many years ago. Was the very 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:18.600 first time that the MythBusters build team were guests at 0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:25.480 the dragon Con convention. And uh, my introduction to MythBusters 0:24:25.640 --> 0:24:30.160 was when I went to a farmer's market and two 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:33.119 different people stopped me. Uh. At the time, I was 0:24:33.160 --> 0:24:36.200 wearing glasses and they saw me to say, do you 0:24:36.560 --> 0:24:38.040 do you have you as anyone ever told you? You 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.560 look kind of like that guy from the MythBusters. And 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:43.680 I hadn't seen the show yet. I didn't know what 0:24:43.760 --> 0:24:45.760 they were talking about. And I said, no, no one 0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:47.680 has ever told me that. And then the second person 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:50.320 said that, I said, well, okay, literally five minutes ago 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:52.879 someone told me that. Well, dragon Con one of the 0:24:52.920 --> 0:24:58.000 biggest things there is cosplay, something that Grant loved and um, 0:24:58.880 --> 0:25:02.720 and so I thought it would be funny. I've been 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:04.680 going to Dragon Constance I was a little kid. My 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:08.080 father's a science fiction author, and I thought it would 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:10.640 be really funny as as a costume that I would 0:25:10.680 --> 0:25:13.359 dress up as Jamie from MythBusters. So I got I 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:16.800 went and got a military beret, I did the Oxford shirt, 0:25:16.840 --> 0:25:21.400 I did khakis and uh, and the MythBusters crew were 0:25:21.680 --> 0:25:24.880 in the Hall of Fame section they were doing autographs, 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:28.280 and so I made it a point to walk by 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:32.200 to say hello. I was a big fan, and Grant 0:25:32.520 --> 0:25:36.040