Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: All right, sari uh, this is gonna be the introduction
Speaker 1: for the Don Bees interview about the Grant Amahara Steam Foundation. UM.
Speaker 1: I will also put in a very short ultra at
Speaker 1: the end of it. I apologize for all the audio
Speaker 1: being broken up this way, but I know you get
Speaker 1: all handled. So here we go. Beep hey there, and
Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm
Speaker 1: an executive producer with I Heart Radio, and I love
Speaker 1: all things tech. But on July eighth, twenty twenty, fans
Speaker 1: around the world were shocked to learn that Grant him Ahara,
Speaker 1: a roboticist and popular science and tech communicator and television host,
Speaker 1: had passed away suddenly. Grant became famous as part of
Speaker 1: the Build team on the television series MythBusters, in which
Speaker 1: he would help put various myths and beliefs to the test,
Speaker 1: often by devising intricate and complicated gadgets in order to
Speaker 1: do so. He was active in fandom circles and had
Speaker 1: previously been in the series battle Bots, first as a
Speaker 1: competitor on one team of battle Bots, and then later
Speaker 1: on as a judge in a later season. Grant's passing
Speaker 1: was shocking, and immediately there was an outpouring of grief
Speaker 1: and love from his friends, his family, and his fans.
Speaker 1: I remember feeling gutted when I heard about it, and
Speaker 1: I had only had the grief is meeting with him once,
Speaker 1: many many years earlier. His family and friends would take
Speaker 1: that grief and that love and they would focus on
Speaker 1: that love that they had for Grant. They wanted to
Speaker 1: do something to honor his memory, and so together they
Speaker 1: would create the Grant Immahara Steam Foundation. So today I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about Grant's life and
Speaker 1: his work in tech, and talk a little bit about Steam,
Speaker 1: and then we'll have an interview with Don Be's, a
Speaker 1: longtime friend of Grant and the one of the directors
Speaker 1: for the foundation. He's the president of the Grant Imahara
Speaker 1: Steam Foundation. Grant grew up in Los Angeles, California, and
Speaker 1: his mom says that as a kid, he gravitated towards
Speaker 1: toys that let him build things like Lego sets, and
Speaker 1: once he got hold of a screwdriver, he also took
Speaker 1: to taking things apart in order to learn how they worked,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty familiar story. Whenever I talked to
Speaker 1: anyone who is an engineer, the idea that you want
Speaker 1: to learn how something works, you take it apart, and
Speaker 1: if you're lucky, you can keep it working when you
Speaker 1: put it back together again. But often it just becomes
Speaker 1: a learning experience that and part of your education. Well,
Speaker 1: when he was a young boy, the first Star Wars
Speaker 1: film came out, that is, Star Wars A New Hope,
Speaker 1: or Episode four as we think of it these days.
Speaker 1: Grant credited that movie as being the jumping off point
Speaker 1: for his love of robots. He felt drawn towards the
Speaker 1: characters the droids C three PO and R two D
Speaker 1: two and thought, that's what I want to do. I
Speaker 1: want to make robots. Well. Grant attended college at the
Speaker 1: University of Southern California, and he majored in electrical engineering,
Speaker 1: or E as the cool engineers call it. By his
Speaker 1: junior year, he was no longer feeling really certain about
Speaker 1: his chosen major. He felt that the discipline didn't really
Speaker 1: give him enough space to be, you know, creative, and
Speaker 1: he found the studies rather unfulfilling and a bit daunting.
Speaker 1: And he was given the advice by a counselor to
Speaker 1: speak with a professor of cinema at USC, a man
Speaker 1: named Tom Holman, and Holman has an incredibly impressive list
Speaker 1: of credentials, not the least of which is the invention
Speaker 1: of the sound system called t X. And just as
Speaker 1: a quick tangent, I'm not going to go on about
Speaker 1: this for very long, but th h X is really interesting.
Speaker 1: It's it's not about a sound format. It's not like
Speaker 1: you record sound in a th h X format and
Speaker 1: that's what makes it special. Instead, it's more of an
Speaker 1: approach to quality control and sound reproduction. So a th
Speaker 1: h X certified system is on that can play sound
Speaker 1: back so that the reproduce sound you get when you're
Speaker 1: watching a movie is as close to the original intentions
Speaker 1: of the mixing engineers as it can possibly be. In
Speaker 1: other words, it's a means for theaters and filmmakers to
Speaker 1: create the most faithful recreation of sounds possible for the
Speaker 1: purposes of telling a story the way the filmmakers wanted to.
Speaker 1: So you want that explosion to have a particular reverberation
Speaker 1: and base to it. You want the music to come
Speaker 1: through in a specific way to help elevate the emotions
Speaker 1: of the audience. You want that dialogue to be crisp
Speaker 1: so that people can understand what's being said. All of
Speaker 1: these things play a part in it, and it meant
Speaker 1: making theaters more uniform in the sense that they would
Speaker 1: be able to replicate the stuff faithfully, and audiences who
Speaker 1: would go in to watch a movie would be given
Speaker 1: the opportunity to see it the way everyone wanted them to,
Speaker 1: whereas otherwise, you know, your mileage may vary, kind of
Speaker 1: like if signals coming in poorly over cable or or
Speaker 1: broadcast TV, You'll be able to see and hear stuff,
Speaker 1: but it probably won't be the way that the creators
Speaker 1: of that content had intended. Well. Holman had Immahara work
Speaker 1: as sort of an assistant, which meant Grant had the
Speaker 1: chance to sit in on Holman's classes, and effectively he
Speaker 1: got to take courses that his major would otherwise have
Speaker 1: prevented him from taking because he was already in his
Speaker 1: junior year of electrical engineering. So at that stage you
Speaker 1: don't have as much freedom to take whatever courses you want.
Speaker 1: You're kind of locked in. This gave him a chance
Speaker 1: to work around that. Holman became a mentor to Grant,
Speaker 1: and that relationship would oppress upon Grant the importance of
Speaker 1: mentors in general, and he encounter several more. In his
Speaker 1: early career. Emmahara heard about the intern program over at
Speaker 1: Lucasfilm and he met with Holman to ask him if
Speaker 1: he might write a letter of recommendation, because as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, Lucasfilm is a pretty competitive spot when it
Speaker 1: comes to internships. They only have a few and a
Speaker 1: lot of people really seek them out because that's a
Speaker 1: heck of a spot to have on your resume. Well,
Speaker 1: Holman said, I'm not going to write you a letter
Speaker 1: of recommendation, just have them call me. And apparently with
Speaker 1: his recommendation over the phone, Grant landed a spot in
Speaker 1: that intern program, and it's safe to say that Emmahara
Speaker 1: really found his calling there. He also got a chance
Speaker 1: later on to dress up as one of the robot
Speaker 1: heroes he loved. He got to be C three p O.
Speaker 1: Plus he got to work on a remote controlled operated
Speaker 1: R two D two that a full size R two
Speaker 1: D two that was used for promotional appearances. Grant really
Speaker 1: took the lead in updating the electronics in that uh
Speaker 1: that remote control are two because when it had originally
Speaker 1: been built, it was built on nineteen eighties era technology.
Speaker 1: Gret was able to update that into nineties technology and
Speaker 1: slim things down a bit and give it a little
Speaker 1: more of a robust versatility. And then Grantam Mahara would
Speaker 1: later make a move over to work at Industrial Light
Speaker 1: and Magic, the special effects studio, and he would work
Speaker 1: on films like Jurassic Park, The Lost World. He worked
Speaker 1: on Galaxy Quest, one of my favorite science fiction films
Speaker 1: of all time. I mean it's a comedy, but it's
Speaker 1: a science fiction comedy and if you haven't seen Galaxy Quest,
Speaker 1: you owe it to yourself to check out that movie.
Speaker 1: He worked on Ai, a very ambitious project that originally
Speaker 1: started out as a Stanley Kubrick project, and then morphed
Speaker 1: over to Steven Spielberg after Kubrick passed away. He also
Speaker 1: worked on the Star Wars prequels and the Matrix sequels,
Speaker 1: and around that same time, Grant began to build robots
Speaker 1: for the robot competition show battle Bots. In case you
Speaker 1: have never seen this show, first of all, you're missing out.
Speaker 1: This show was wildly entertaining, but it features teams of
Speaker 1: roboticists who compete in an arena combat competition and they
Speaker 1: pit their remote controlled robots against others from other teams.
Speaker 1: The robot that Emmahara worked on specifically was named dead Blow,
Speaker 1: and it featured a very low slung body on four wheels.
Speaker 1: It had a sort of wedge mounted in the front
Speaker 1: as almost like a ramp, and behind the wedge was
Speaker 1: an eight pounds sledgehammer arm that could slam down to
Speaker 1: smash opponents. Later that weapon would be modified into a
Speaker 1: CEO two powered pick acts. It competed in the middle
Speaker 1: weight division of the competition. They had lightweights, middle weights,
Speaker 1: and heavyweights, and dead Blow always did pretty well, though
Speaker 1: it never quite made it to number one, And as
Speaker 1: the series went on and the competitors began to design
Speaker 1: robots with uh particularly effective means of defeating opponents, dead
Speaker 1: Blow started to kind of lag behind a little bit.
Speaker 1: But Grant also became really close friends with a lot
Speaker 1: of the other competitors at battle pots, and there are
Speaker 1: stories of teams that would approach Grant to ask him
Speaker 1: for advice about how they should best operate their their
Speaker 1: robots and how the remote controls even worked, and time
Speaker 1: and again, if you ask them about it. You'll hear
Speaker 1: about how Grant was happy to walk people through how
Speaker 1: the systems worked and how best to optimize them. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was competing against some of these same teams, but
Speaker 1: he loved to talk shop and he loved to teach
Speaker 1: what he had learned, so he started to become kind
Speaker 1: of a mentor to some of the other battle Boats
Speaker 1: participants along the way. A couple of other guys who
Speaker 1: are also in the special effects industry and who also
Speaker 1: competed in battle Bots were Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage.
Speaker 1: Immahara would get to know them a lot better when
Speaker 1: he would join the show MythBusters after the show's first season.
Speaker 1: Adam Savage would go on to say that Immahara made
Speaker 1: an incredible contribution to that show, and he added that
Speaker 1: Emmahara was the only one of the hosts who had
Speaker 1: an academic background in engineering, so he really also gave
Speaker 1: MythBusters a sense of legitimacy. That way, Grant would end
Speaker 1: up building a lot of stuff for MythBusters in the
Speaker 1: the efforts to test various claims and determine whether they
Speaker 1: were busted that is, you know, not really possible, or
Speaker 1: if they were plausible or confirmed, and he also got
Speaker 1: a chance to live out the fantasy of being in
Speaker 1: multiple different kinds of stunts and crazy situations. I'm sure
Speaker 1: some of them were daunting, but the thing that really
Speaker 1: struck me as a fan of MythBusters was that Grant
Speaker 1: always seemed really excited and jazzed to do something truly
Speaker 1: insane as part of that show, and it was something
Speaker 1: that always found really really entertaining in the producers decided
Speaker 1: to phase out the Build Team, of which Grant was
Speaker 1: part of that and uh they focused solely on Hyneman
Speaker 1: and Savage for the remaining seasons of MythBusters, but Imahara
Speaker 1: kept working on various projects, including a show called White
Speaker 1: Rabbit for Netflix, where he joined his former Build team
Speaker 1: Comrades to do a season of that show. He also
Speaker 1: designed and built the robot that is the second Banana
Speaker 1: sidekick for Craig Ferguson's Late show and that was still
Speaker 1: on and that was also known as Jeff Peterson the Robot.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite on screen characters one Craig and
Speaker 1: And and Jeff the Robot. Their interactions together are some
Speaker 1: of the funniest ones I've seen on Late night television.
Speaker 1: If you've never noticed or seen that, I recommend going
Speaker 1: to YouTube and just searching for like Craig and Jeff
Speaker 1: that's geo Ff compilations, because they are They made me cry.
Speaker 1: I laughed so hard. Grant also worked with Disney Imagineering
Speaker 1: on various projects, including he built an animatronic baby Yoda
Speaker 1: figure from the Mandalorian and it was meant to be
Speaker 1: a device that you could take two different children's hospitals,
Speaker 1: which dang, hit y'all, that's just I mean, that's just
Speaker 1: awesome and inspirational. He also would take time to volunteer
Speaker 1: at high school robotics organization. He lent his expertise and
Speaker 1: his knowledge to help kids who were just getting into
Speaker 1: mechanical and electrical engineering, and he encouraged their work and
Speaker 1: taught them how to do things, and again that mentor
Speaker 1: mentality was really coming in strong. His impact continues to
Speaker 1: be felt throughout the worlds of engineering and entertainment. If
Speaker 1: you do a search of his name, you will find
Speaker 1: countless examples of amazing stories about his exploits, the impressions
Speaker 1: he did, his projects, and his genuine love of other people.
Speaker 1: The foundation named in honor of Grant Immahara will focus
Speaker 1: on providing resources for STEAM education. STEAM stands for science, Technology, Engineering, Arts,
Speaker 1: and mathematics. Uh, it's great that it's STEAM rather than STEM.
Speaker 1: STEM is very important. STEM is is science, technology, engineering,
Speaker 1: and math, but it doesn't have the art component there.
Speaker 1: But Grant found a lot of satisfaction by applying his
Speaker 1: knowledge in those other fields, specifically within the arts, and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people that that really resonates.
Speaker 1: So STEAM is a wonderful kind of approach to this.
Speaker 1: And there is no doubt about it that there are
Speaker 1: too many schools and school systems around the world, but
Speaker 1: particularly in the United States, where there is a real
Speaker 1: need for more STEAM resources and education. Coming up, we've
Speaker 1: got my interview with Don Be's, the president and director
Speaker 1: of the Grant Imahara Steam Foundation. But first let's take
Speaker 1: a quick break. Don. First of all, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for giving us your time and and being on
Speaker 1: the show. I am really please to have you on.
Speaker 1: I am an advocate for STEAM education in general, and
Speaker 1: to have this chance to talk about something a cause
Speaker 1: so near and dear to my heart means a lot
Speaker 1: to me, and I'm certain it means a lot to
Speaker 1: my listeners as well. So thank you for your time,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me, thanks for reaching out to us
Speaker 1: and asking for the interview. That's great. Absolutely, I was
Speaker 1: also one of the Well I can't say that I
Speaker 1: was one of the first, because I know that the
Speaker 1: reaction upon the announcement of the foundation was positive because
Speaker 1: I was seeing it in real time, But I was
Speaker 1: determined to be an early supporter, and so I did.
Speaker 1: I was one of those early donators to the foundation.
Speaker 1: I was so excited to see such passion. Well, it's
Speaker 1: thank you. I mean, my contribution is tiny in comparison,
Speaker 1: but it is, Uh, it is something that I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to talk about. But before we get into that,
Speaker 1: I was hoping that maybe you could tell us about
Speaker 1: how you met Grant and how your friendship formed and
Speaker 1: and sort of the things that you observed about Grant
Speaker 1: Amhara to kind of understand the inspiration behind doing something
Speaker 1: as as momentous as as building a foundation. So Grant
Speaker 1: actually has a really interesting story as to how he
Speaker 1: wound up at Lucasfilm which is where we met. Um.
Speaker 1: He was a student at USC and UM he was
Speaker 1: in he was an engineering student, an electrical engineering student,
Speaker 1: and I guess roughly his junior year he decided he
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it anymore. He just was bored
Speaker 1: with it. And um so he was trying to jump
Speaker 1: over to the cinema studies, I believe, and he couldn't
Speaker 1: do that. So somebody had suggested to him to, uh
Speaker 1: talk to Tom Holman. Who Tom Holman is the man
Speaker 1: who invented t X sound system. Um and it was
Speaker 1: red con but everyone was calling it th h X
Speaker 1: stood for Tom Holman's Experiment, but that's not true. But
Speaker 1: um so anyway, uh and Tom was a professor at USC.
Speaker 1: So he went in and I heard the story from Grant.
Speaker 1: I've also heard the story more recently from Tom. But
Speaker 1: essentially he went in and and said to Tom, you
Speaker 1: need an intern and and so he offered to start
Speaker 1: cleaning up Tom's office, and one thing led to another,
Speaker 1: and Tom started giving him jobs to do and this
Speaker 1: and that, and then then the internship possibility popped up
Speaker 1: for Grant at at Lucasfilm because they had every year,
Speaker 1: I think they had two sets of interns, you know,
Speaker 1: like a spring spring and a fall semester or something
Speaker 1: like that. And uh so he uh, he said I
Speaker 1: wanted to I want to do the internship at Becasfilm.
Speaker 1: Could you write me a letter of recommendation? And Tom said,
Speaker 1: she just said, we'll just have him call me. It'll
Speaker 1: be fine, and so he called. They one thing let
Speaker 1: to another in course, and uh. Grant was an intern
Speaker 1: at the thh X division of Lucasfilm. And so that's
Speaker 1: actually where I met Grant. I was in between doing
Speaker 1: film work, I was also doing I was also the
Speaker 1: Lucasfilm Archives, so I took care of all the props
Speaker 1: and models and costumes and everything from Star Wars and
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones and Willow and even Howard the Duck. So
Speaker 1: I knew people because of the work at the ranch,
Speaker 1: Skywalker Ranch and I l M. I knew a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of people and we would have lunch together,
Speaker 1: you know, do different people. I got to be friends
Speaker 1: with different people, and and that's how I met him.
Speaker 1: He came to lunch one day with some friends and
Speaker 1: um and a matter of fact, the first actually the
Speaker 1: first time I met him was at the thh X
Speaker 1: office and he was hanging on to someone's leg and
Speaker 1: she was dragging him along the ground and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what what a little nutcase, this guy. So that was
Speaker 1: my first impression of ground. But he we met, like
Speaker 1: I said, at lunch, and he just started kind of
Speaker 1: hanging out with him. He was only I think he's
Speaker 1: twenty two. He's turning twenty three that year. When we
Speaker 1: met in like ninety three, and I was doing a
Speaker 1: huge project at the archives at that point. We're getting
Speaker 1: a huge a lot of the models and archival stuff
Speaker 1: ready for an exhibition in Japan, and uh so people
Speaker 1: are coming over and looking at it and checking it
Speaker 1: out a lot. And he would come over the archives
Speaker 1: and kind of hang out with us a little bit.
Speaker 1: And then when I found out he was an electrical engineer. Um,
Speaker 1: one of the other side jobs I had was operating
Speaker 1: rt D two for personal appearances, and and our two
Speaker 1: was always in need of some sort of upgrade. You know,
Speaker 1: he's dealing with seventies early eighties technology at that point.
Speaker 1: So um, I, you know, I asked, Granted, says, you
Speaker 1: want to come and help me fix up our two,
Speaker 1: and he said of course, and and uh and that's
Speaker 1: how we bonded, you know, that's how we really first met.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I hear that there's no there's no experience
Speaker 1: that brings people closer together than working over a droid
Speaker 1: late late into the evening hours. Uh, that's that's incredible.
Speaker 1: How would you how would you describe Grant to someone
Speaker 1: who had never met him? Well, at that point, well
Speaker 1: he was I mean he's he always was generous. I mean,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know he continued that. But he was,
Speaker 1: especially at that point. He was really young, really enthusiastic, Uh,
Speaker 1: incredibly knowledgeable, especially for someone that young, willing to you know,
Speaker 1: take on any kind of problem and try to solve it.
Speaker 1: He was really good at like reverse engineering something. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, you, this is the problem we have,
Speaker 1: how do we get here? And he would figure it
Speaker 1: out and come back to stuff. So, uh, he made
Speaker 1: a really good fit with a lot of us that
Speaker 1: you know, we're working in industrial light and magic as well,
Speaker 1: because that's a lot of a lot of people there
Speaker 1: did this similar things. So he was just uh, incredibly clever. Um.
Speaker 1: Never really in a bad mood. Um. I mean I
Speaker 1: I got to witness a few you know, temper tantrums
Speaker 1: here and there, but they were always well deserved. But
Speaker 1: but he yeah, he was always really friendly. Uh, love
Speaker 1: to laugh, love to have a good time. He was
Speaker 1: like he had he could do killer impersonations. It was.
Speaker 1: He had a great impersonation of George Lucas. And he's
Speaker 1: the one that created the whole Jamie Hyneman where you
Speaker 1: put your hands up, you know, by your by your
Speaker 1: mouth and pretend to be have his mustache as your fingers.
Speaker 1: That was Grant that came up with that. Uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was always doing impersonations and um yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: just really really talented, friendly, nice guy really and and
Speaker 1: what that was what was great about when he ultimately
Speaker 1: uh found the success with MythBusters. I mean everything he
Speaker 1: was doing he was successful, and but the MythBusters just
Speaker 1: elevated into this level is global uh fame, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was one of those people that really deserved it.
Speaker 1: You know he really, um he you know, you wish
Speaker 1: that kind of thing on those kinds of people and
Speaker 1: and and there's so many people out there that deserved
Speaker 1: that kind of recognition and don't get it. And he
Speaker 1: was so fortunate to be in the right place in
Speaker 1: right time to get it and and definitely deserved it.
Speaker 1: And it never went to his head. You know, he
Speaker 1: was I hear from people that you know, met him
Speaker 1: years later, because of course I knew him before he
Speaker 1: was famous. Uh, but I, you know, met him, met
Speaker 1: people that just said he was always took the time,
Speaker 1: you know, would would remember people. Uh. He never acted
Speaker 1: like a celebrity, So that was great to hear that.
Speaker 1: He continued, you know, being pretty much the same person
Speaker 1: his entire life. It's funny. I I briefly met him
Speaker 1: at a dragon Con many years ago. Was the very
Speaker 1: first time that the MythBusters build team were guests at
Speaker 1: the dragon Con convention. And uh, my introduction to MythBusters
Speaker 1: was when I went to a farmer's market and two
Speaker 1: different people stopped me. Uh. At the time, I was
Speaker 1: wearing glasses and they saw me to say, do you
Speaker 1: do you have you as anyone ever told you? You
Speaker 1: look kind of like that guy from the MythBusters. And
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen the show yet. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: they were talking about. And I said, no, no one
Speaker 1: has ever told me that. And then the second person
Speaker 1: said that, I said, well, okay, literally five minutes ago
Speaker 1: someone told me that. Well, dragon Con one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things there is cosplay, something that Grant loved and um,
Speaker 1: and so I thought it would be funny. I've been
Speaker 1: going to Dragon Constance I was a little kid. My
Speaker 1: father's a science fiction author, and I thought it would
Speaker 1: be really funny as as a costume that I would
Speaker 1: dress up as Jamie from MythBusters. So I got I
Speaker 1: went and got a military beret, I did the Oxford shirt,
Speaker 1: I did khakis and uh, and the MythBusters crew were
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame section they were doing autographs,
Speaker 1: and so I made it a point to walk by
Speaker 1: to say hello. I was a big fan, and Grant
Speaker 1: looked up and gave the best laugh and then he
Speaker 1: said he pointed to me and said, you can't put
Speaker 1: me to work. I'm on vacation and uh, and it
Speaker 1: was just a wonderful moment. And also he hung out
Speaker 1: by all the battle butts. There's a battlebuts competition at
Speaker 1: Dragon Con, and he was still just ready to to
Speaker 1: look at how people were designing their robots and operating them.
Speaker 1: And as you say, it winted too that he had
Speaker 1: a genuine love for technology, for curiosity, and something that
Speaker 1: I personally found very inspirational is that he was so
Speaker 1: good at communicating that because I've I've met a lot
Speaker 1: of engineers who are brilliant and they're great problem solvers,
Speaker 1: but they don't always have the skill to communicate that
Speaker 1: in a way that's accessible. And I feel like Grant
Speaker 1: definitely had that. I felt he shined on MythBusters when
Speaker 1: he was explaining his thought process for a design of
Speaker 1: a build and the and the approach to trying to
Speaker 1: test a myth. So to me, uh, he is was
Speaker 1: one of the great communicators of technology and engineering and
Speaker 1: science and the fact that he had that love for
Speaker 1: it just made that even more genuine and exciting. It's
Speaker 1: one of those rare qualities that you see in people
Speaker 1: who are in that position. Uh. You know, I uh
Speaker 1: really admired that of him and considered him, uh, quite
Speaker 1: the role model for people who want to take that
Speaker 1: kind of approach to trying to to explain topics that
Speaker 1: are in science and tech. And I imagine that that
Speaker 1: was a large part of the inspiration as well for
Speaker 1: the friends and family who came together when conversations first
Speaker 1: started about forming the Grandamahara Steam Foundation. Is them I
Speaker 1: on the right track here, Yeah, pretty much. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, when just going back to what you were
Speaker 1: talking about with his ability to communicate that way. What
Speaker 1: was what was always amazing. You know, there's a stereotype
Speaker 1: of the the science or electronic or engineering nor the
Speaker 1: I T. Guy. You know that that kind of like
Speaker 1: socially in that kind of person. And that's what made
Speaker 1: really made Grants uh different from everybody else is that
Speaker 1: he didn't have that. He he was you know, his
Speaker 1: personality was great. He was affable, he was he was friendly,
Speaker 1: was completely approachable. You never felt intimidated by him or
Speaker 1: anything like that. Yet he knew so much I mean,
Speaker 1: and and his ability to explain what he was doing
Speaker 1: and and and make it fun on the show. One
Speaker 1: of the things since we started the foundation, we've got
Speaker 1: all this amazing, amazing emails and and and responses on
Speaker 1: social media and everything about how much he inspired people,
Speaker 1: which which is inspiring. You know that that he was
Speaker 1: such a role model and and I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that that kind of led us to
Speaker 1: do this. Well, first of all, we wanted to do something.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, obviously all of us are were
Speaker 1: heartbroken when he passed away, and um and the ability
Speaker 1: to try to do something in his honor just seems
Speaker 1: so right, you know. Um, so his mother and another friend.
Speaker 1: Um Uh, we're the ones that started talking about and
Speaker 1: then they asked the select group of people. Um uh.
Speaker 1: And I was fortunate, both myself, myself and my wife,
Speaker 1: who knew Grant for as long as I have, UM,
Speaker 1: we're fortunate enough to be asked to be part of it.
Speaker 1: And and it was really you know, for me personally,
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's a way to help uh mourn,
Speaker 1: you know it. It's it lessens the pain a little
Speaker 1: bit by knowing that we're doing something in his honor.
Speaker 1: And then the positive feedback we've gotten because of it,
Speaker 1: UM is h is really good. You know, is is
Speaker 1: really again heartwarming to to hear. UM. So uh yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you know, it just it just seemed the right thing
Speaker 1: to do. And then when we got together our first
Speaker 1: meeting got together, there's seven of us. There's grands mother
Speaker 1: of course, who's wonderful, wonderful ma sing lady, so strong
Speaker 1: in in this and and so so um touched, incredibly
Speaker 1: touched by by the the outpouring of love and affection
Speaker 1: for her son. Um. And then uh, there's Ijuana, who's
Speaker 1: actually a former girlfriend of Grants that they he stayed
Speaker 1: in touch with and stayed friends with all these years,
Speaker 1: myself and my wife and Ed ed Chin and his
Speaker 1: wife Kaya Elliott Ed and Koya well Ed was Grant's
Speaker 1: roommate UM at USC and so they've known each other
Speaker 1: for close to thirty twenty five years or something like that.
Speaker 1: UM and Uh and and then quite Uh Ed and
Speaker 1: Quaiya met Um I think at Skywalker Ranch because Koi
Speaker 1: is a sound editor at Skywalker Ranch. And then Fon
Speaker 1: Davis who Faun worked with us at Industrial Light and Magic.
Speaker 1: A matter of fact, Fawn and Grant got hired on
Speaker 1: very the first project Grant got hired on at I
Speaker 1: l M. Faun was hired on and fun Works and
Speaker 1: Stills works in the special effects industry is one studio
Speaker 1: down Funco Studios down in Los Angeles. So the seven
Speaker 1: of us got together and we're, you know, we were
Speaker 1: just really trying to form what exactly it was that
Speaker 1: we should do. Um And because the love of robotics
Speaker 1: that Grant had um he in the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: Uh mentored a team, a robotics team in Richmond, California,
Speaker 1: and and we kind of used that as a springboard
Speaker 1: as to like, let's let's honor and and start being
Speaker 1: able to help. It was it was actually a a
Speaker 1: team team a school that's you know, um of unrepresented,
Speaker 1: underrepresented youth um and and he made such a positive
Speaker 1: impression on those people and those kids that one of
Speaker 1: the kids that he mentored is still now runs the program.
Speaker 1: And uh so UM again using that Grant's love of
Speaker 1: of course science, technology and math. Uh was it was
Speaker 1: natural for STEM. But but the other thing that we
Speaker 1: really felt strong about adding was the a the arts,
Speaker 1: the steam and steam and because Grant was such a
Speaker 1: huge supporter of of arts, as you mentioned the couseplay stuff,
Speaker 1: obviously the film work and television work that he did.
Speaker 1: He loved making things that were artistic in addition to technical,
Speaker 1: you know. So so that was kind of that was
Speaker 1: that you know, we that was it just seemed all right,
Speaker 1: I guess is the best way to say. You know,
Speaker 1: it just seemed the right thing to do, and it's
Speaker 1: so important to me. Uh So. My own background was
Speaker 1: with a liberal arts degree in English literature with a
Speaker 1: focus on Renaissance and Shakespearean studies. And now I talk
Speaker 1: about technology, so so I I definitely have a deep
Speaker 1: respect for the arts as well as for the the
Speaker 1: STEM that we normally hear about. So when I saw
Speaker 1: that it was the Steam Foundation not the STEM Foundation,
Speaker 1: um that also was I found it not surprising but
Speaker 1: encouraging because I also feel that when you incorporate arts
Speaker 1: into the other, uh, the other disciplines, you get really
Speaker 1: special outcomes as a result. Uh you mentioned the robotics.
Speaker 1: I assume that the foundation is it's going to be
Speaker 1: playing a role in the first robotics competitions. First Robotics
Speaker 1: I believe Dean Cayman founded that many years ago, and
Speaker 1: it's a big thing here in Atlanta where I'm at.
Speaker 1: We have the the Georgia Tech robo Jackets as a
Speaker 1: participants in that because the Yellow Jackets are there. I
Speaker 1: was a u g A graduate, so I'm not allowed
Speaker 1: into those rooms. Um. Good old rivalries die hard. But
Speaker 1: what's what what sort of involvement does the foundation have
Speaker 1: with the or water The plans for the involvement of
Speaker 1: the Foundation with the robotics competitions, well, one of the
Speaker 1: things we're actually to be honest, we're still working out stuff.
Speaker 1: We we've literally formed the paperwork in August and we
Speaker 1: officially launched it on the twenty three October, which was
Speaker 1: grants fiftieth birthday. Um. Until that point, we had no
Speaker 1: money um and so uh the donations actually literally started
Speaker 1: pouring in from that moment on. It was a really
Speaker 1: amazing to watch that we crashed the website and all
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. It was really amazing to watch
Speaker 1: that that happened. Um. And what was also amazing is
Speaker 1: the reach. You know, it is literally from around the world. Um,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't just limited to United States or Australia,
Speaker 1: which is where Mythbuses was also was was created. Um
Speaker 1: so Uh. So we're working out exactly how we're going
Speaker 1: to do things. One thing is is mentorship. Because of
Speaker 1: the donations that we did get in the very first
Speaker 1: donation that we're a scholarship funding whatever you'd want to
Speaker 1: call it, that we're gonna be doing is with the
Speaker 1: Richmond team uh in that grant mentor and so we're
Speaker 1: able to actually fund them a fund a bunch of
Speaker 1: home kits for them, home tool kits for them. So
Speaker 1: that's the first thing that we're gonna do. We We've
Speaker 1: discussed everything from mentorships to scholarships to our own individual programs.
Speaker 1: So um, we're we're still working all that out. Um,
Speaker 1: but we you know, at this point, nothing is off
Speaker 1: the table, you know. We we've gotten had questions about
Speaker 1: like how how would we incorporate arts and music. Perhaps
Speaker 1: even a lot of people don't know Grant was actually
Speaker 1: an excellent piano player. Uh so um so uh yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know, we're we're we're looking and we're open
Speaker 1: for ideas essentially at this point. Uh um, We're you know,
Speaker 1: next year will be uh, We're gonna be doing a
Speaker 1: huge fundraiser that will be everyone will know about because
Speaker 1: it will be we'll be hitting pr really hard with
Speaker 1: that one. Uh. But uh, with that, with that influx
Speaker 1: of money, hopefully then we'll be able to to expand
Speaker 1: out to to do other kinds of supports for schools
Speaker 1: and and individual programs. Well. With that in mind, um,
Speaker 1: I guess a good segue would be to ask you,
Speaker 1: don what does steam mean to you? How is how
Speaker 1: has the various disciplines in in the under the steam umbrella,
Speaker 1: How has that affect your career path? For example? You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it into more recently that I was
Speaker 1: I'm really into engineering. Um uh that um, kind of
Speaker 1: the things that I've done all my life and my
Speaker 1: career have been engineering in some form or another. Uh,
Speaker 1: certainly I wouldn't call myself an engineer, you know, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to insult the people that have trained in
Speaker 1: those careers. But but you know, it is all of
Speaker 1: a matter of unfolding and figuring out how the best
Speaker 1: solutions for different things. And I'm fascinated about how things
Speaker 1: work and I've always been that way, So that that
Speaker 1: drive for the curiosity. But the other thing that my
Speaker 1: time in the film industry has also taught me is that,
Speaker 1: like you were discussing earlier than important element of art
Speaker 1: because um, you know you could. I think a good
Speaker 1: um example is like the Apollo program. A huge fan
Speaker 1: of the Space program and the Apollo program. You see
Speaker 1: the lunar module. Now that thing was designed by engineers.
Speaker 1: There was no art in that thing. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's beautiful in its functionality, but it certainly doesn't look
Speaker 1: like a spaceship. You know it was you could tell
Speaker 1: his designed by engineers. And then you look at the
Speaker 1: stuff like SpaceX is doing and it's like, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: the art mixed in with the technology. And and like
Speaker 1: I said, never get rid of the lunar module. I
Speaker 1: love the lunar module, but I think it's a prime
Speaker 1: example of how how the two UH should work together,
Speaker 1: or in that case didn't work together. UM. And so
Speaker 1: so the the the idea of science and technology and
Speaker 1: art and engineering. In my mind, math I was never
Speaker 1: good at. But but the first the first four letters
Speaker 1: UM I used constantly all the time in my career.
Speaker 1: And and I love, I love every aspect of that.
Speaker 1: And and I really having kids now that are growing up,
Speaker 1: but UH, watching what was what was working for them,
Speaker 1: it was always a practical, uh, instant instituting all those practically,
Speaker 1: So it's not you're just not studying one. You're seeing
Speaker 1: how one affects the other and it connects all together.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a real important thing that I
Speaker 1: think more education should should, uh you know, have more of.
Speaker 1: Is the integration of of all those things together. I
Speaker 1: completely agree with you. I'm also the son of two
Speaker 1: retired teachers, so obviously this this subject matter is really
Speaker 1: important to me. We'll be right back with more from
Speaker 1: my interview with Don Bees, the president of the grant
Speaker 1: Imahara Steam Foundation. After this short break. One thing, Amahara
Speaker 1: one thing Grant was really really really good at was
Speaker 1: inspiring that that curiosity right to He made it exciting
Speaker 1: to want to know how something was going to work
Speaker 1: or how he was going to tackle a particular challenge.
Speaker 1: And I find that that is an approach that resonates
Speaker 1: so well with younger people. Uh this, you know, talking
Speaker 1: about how that curiosity, that excitement is a cool thing
Speaker 1: and and it engages students, I feel far more than
Speaker 1: if you were just to memorize formula, you know, all
Speaker 1: the different uh formula for physics, understanding how to apply
Speaker 1: that in a way that's practical and fun, and you
Speaker 1: can actually see the result of that application and no, oh,
Speaker 1: I understand why it did the thing it did. I
Speaker 1: find that that for me anyway, always cemented the concepts
Speaker 1: much better in my mind, rather than just you know,
Speaker 1: vomiting out a series of different formula for the you know,
Speaker 1: nine points per second per second or something along those lines.
Speaker 1: And uh, that's something that I'm seeing in the in
Speaker 1: the promotional material for the foundation, there's an amazing video
Speaker 1: um that Honestly, as soon as I watched it, that's
Speaker 1: where I was like, Okay, well, I have to donate
Speaker 1: to this because that video was so well done UM
Speaker 1: and anyone who hasn't seen it needs to go to
Speaker 1: the Grand Omahara Steam Foundation page and watch it, because
Speaker 1: I feel like that encapsulated that whole philosophy, that ethos
Speaker 1: of curiosity being this incredible motivating force. UM. So I'm
Speaker 1: very excited to see what comes down the line with
Speaker 1: the foundation UH and and I can't wait to learn
Speaker 1: more about it, UM and to see the results, to
Speaker 1: see to see how people are benefiting from it through mentorship,
Speaker 1: or through scholarship, or through being able to do UH
Speaker 1: class work that has been either developed by or for
Speaker 1: or funded by or or however it manifests UM. And honestly,
Speaker 1: all the stuff I've seen so far just shows the
Speaker 1: the amount of passion, which speaks a lot about Grant's
Speaker 1: impact on everyone else's lives. When you see that that
Speaker 1: it has motivated you and the other founders to go
Speaker 1: to these extraordinary steps to create the foundation and then
Speaker 1: moreover inspired thousands of people to already contribute and to
Speaker 1: UH to follow along. UM. It says a lot about
Speaker 1: his character and the impact he had on on all
Speaker 1: the people around him, whether he whether they were close
Speaker 1: friends or just people who had seen him on television.
Speaker 1: Uh so this is one of those things that um uh,
Speaker 1: I'm really really truly excited about. And uh and I
Speaker 1: say that as someone who only met him the one time.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the biggest regrets I have is
Speaker 1: that I didn't really get a chance to to talk
Speaker 1: with them or to to spend more time with him.
Speaker 1: But everyone I know who did um had nothing but
Speaker 1: the best things to say. So you kind of touched
Speaker 1: on it. But um, what has been the general reaction
Speaker 1: among the founders to the response that you've seen from
Speaker 1: from people who who have just who have learned and
Speaker 1: started to support the foundation already? I think amazing? Is
Speaker 1: he we just we like that first day, we were
Speaker 1: just like astounded. Uh that the the I think we might.
Speaker 1: I certainly expected, you know, some positive reaction, but not
Speaker 1: as positive as we've gotten. Grant. I like that I
Speaker 1: knew Grant for it, met him ninety three. He started
Speaker 1: He left I l M I think roughfubly two thousand
Speaker 1: five for MythBusters and then was on MythBusters until two
Speaker 1: thirteen or something like that. But then he moved down
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles, and um, so I didn't get to
Speaker 1: see him that much anymore, and we we hardly talked
Speaker 1: in more recent years. Uh, just about a month before
Speaker 1: he passed away, we happened to be texting back and forth.
Speaker 1: So he had just finished, Uh, he had done the
Speaker 1: Baby Yoda and then he had he had just finished
Speaker 1: an R two D two and that was an rt
Speaker 1: D two project that I was part of when they started,
Speaker 1: had started twenty years before. UM. I never did mine,
Speaker 1: but he, uh, he was able to finish his. And
Speaker 1: so you know the grant I knew, and and we
Speaker 1: were more apart, distant apart, UM, and so I never
Speaker 1: really saw the impact that I never had any gauge
Speaker 1: or any sense of what what he did two four people,
Speaker 1: what is what he meant to people? And and to
Speaker 1: see this coming in um when when we announced it,
Speaker 1: UM was so touching, as is the best way I
Speaker 1: could describe it. I just you know, all of us
Speaker 1: were just heartwarm that that that he made such an
Speaker 1: impression on people. UM. I know his mother in particular
Speaker 1: has been so so touched and so overwhelmed by by
Speaker 1: the response. UM. And UM, yeah, it's it it you know,
Speaker 1: I think the the other thing about you know, his
Speaker 1: passing is in and the need for the foundation. I
Speaker 1: personally feel like I don't want anyone, I really want
Speaker 1: to continue his memory. I really want to continue he
Speaker 1: because of that, seeing that response and people has really
Speaker 1: inspired me to want to, um keep it going and
Speaker 1: and and of course that's the biggest challenge because you know,
Speaker 1: we're not him, you know, but how can we keep
Speaker 1: it going? What? What cool things can we do that
Speaker 1: would he would be proud of that, He would the
Speaker 1: way he would do something. So that's I think are
Speaker 1: going to be our biggest challenge moving forward. Well, I
Speaker 1: think part of the response maybe that, uh this was
Speaker 1: this was a way for lots of people also to
Speaker 1: process his passing, because I know that for many people
Speaker 1: and myself included, Uh it was it was a real um,
Speaker 1: a real shock and turning. Having having a means to
Speaker 1: honor somebody and to make a positive change or positive
Speaker 1: impact on the world in their name is such. It's
Speaker 1: such a grand thing to do. Uh It's such a
Speaker 1: wonderful expression in a way to give people that means
Speaker 1: of processing this and to feel good about the process. Um.
Speaker 1: It was like when I saw it, I was immediately
Speaker 1: attracted to it. I thought that this was such a
Speaker 1: brilliant approach and such a wonderful cause to to you know,
Speaker 1: further education and to to recognize that there are a
Speaker 1: lot of communities out there that are in need of
Speaker 1: that support, that we need to have this kind of
Speaker 1: uh educational support for underrepresented populations in in particular, that
Speaker 1: to me is really important because we've seen the gap
Speaker 1: between the halves and the have nots, particularly right now
Speaker 1: as we're in the middle of a of a pandemic
Speaker 1: and we're seeing the struggles that various communities have of
Speaker 1: whether to to access to things like digital education and
Speaker 1: distance learning. UM, you know, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: communities that are really struggling with that. So to have
Speaker 1: have another way of saying, this is a way for
Speaker 1: us to kind of support systems and support learning and
Speaker 1: encourage learning, and to remember that that really the the
Speaker 1: goal here is to inspire, which leads to bigger and
Speaker 1: better things. I think all of that is really phenomenal
Speaker 1: and UH really something to be proud of. UH. And
Speaker 1: the only other question I have for you, then, Don
Speaker 1: is for listeners out there who maybe are just learning
Speaker 1: about this, how might they get involved with the foundation?
Speaker 1: So you could go to the website. We have an
Speaker 1: info email that you can click on. I will respond.
Speaker 1: Usually it's me that will respond. Um At at the
Speaker 1: moment we've had we've had quite a few people that
Speaker 1: had responded and asked, UM, how they could help, you know,
Speaker 1: they can't might not be able to donate, but they
Speaker 1: would love to help in some way. How we're going
Speaker 1: to roll out any kind of mentorships or volunteer stat
Speaker 1: is still to be determined. Again, we're open to ideas
Speaker 1: if people have ideas. A few people have suggested some
Speaker 1: stuff that that sounds good, that will probably we will
Speaker 1: be discussing amongst the board. Um. Obviously there's a lot
Speaker 1: of uh, there's geographic things to consider. You know, people
Speaker 1: are writing literally from all over the world. Um so um,
Speaker 1: but um, we're keeping a database of everything everybody that's
Speaker 1: that's writing into us as we as we develop and
Speaker 1: discover which programs and how we're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: utilize the talents that people are writing, and we'll be
Speaker 1: reaching out fantastic. Don I wish you and and everyone
Speaker 1: at the Foundation the absolute best, Uh, I am. I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to seeing what comes next, and who knows
Speaker 1: maybe you'll be getting more emails from me, uh, because
Speaker 1: I would love to be part of it. Absolutely. Yes,
Speaker 1: you've been You've been so kind with the ones that
Speaker 1: we've said already and UH and and thank you again
Speaker 1: for being on the show. I greatly appreciate it, and
Speaker 1: and I look forward to lots of more conversations about
Speaker 1: about steam education and UH and ways to inspire well.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and thank you. I really appreciate you having
Speaker 1: having me on. Thank you. It was a pleasure to
Speaker 1: speak with Don Bees about Grant's impact and the goals
Speaker 1: of the Grant Imahara Steam Foundation. Grant's own life points
Speaker 1: to the importance and impact of mentorship, and the foundation
Speaker 1: aims to continue that important work and to expand upon it.
Speaker 1: If you would like to learn more and get involved,
Speaker 1: visit Grant Emma Horror Foundation dot org and watch that
Speaker 1: video because holy cow, it is so well done. It
Speaker 1: is inspirational and loving. It's a little sad, obviously, but
Speaker 1: it ends on a note of hope that I think
Speaker 1: is phenomenal, and it really just gets me excited to
Speaker 1: see what the foundation is able to do down the line.
Speaker 1: And I really hope that I can play a small
Speaker 1: part in that if you guys have any suggestions for
Speaker 1: topics I should cover on future episodes of tech Stuff,
Speaker 1: whether it's a specific technology, a company, a trend in tech,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be, reach out. The best way to
Speaker 1: do that is over on Twitter. The handle is tech
Speaker 1: stuff H s W and I'll talk to you again
Speaker 1: really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
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