Speaker 1: You've got a genius five year old, and it sounds
Speaker 1: like a genior. Is he nine or ten? Now he's eleven.
Speaker 1: Han's like the hair growing on his little legs. It's
Speaker 1: super weird. Don't even talk about that. Combat. I keep
Speaker 1: huffing Henry's neck, just trying to catch the last tiny
Speaker 1: scent of babyhood, of childhood, but it's obviously absurd because
Speaker 1: he's now a strapping dude. How is he he's thirteen.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's very nice of him to let me
Speaker 1: huff his neck. He's really like a sort of labrador,
Speaker 1: just sort of I was gonna say, I do that
Speaker 1: to my dog's ears. There's like a gaminess. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: just wanted lives right in there. It's the right, whether
Speaker 1: neck meets the back of their ear, it's exactly right.
Speaker 1: And by the way, one day I'll write a paper
Speaker 1: on the parallel between labradors and boys, and that having
Speaker 1: a labrador is a really good precursor to having a
Speaker 1: baby boy. Hello, I'm Mini driver. Welcome to the Mini
Speaker 1: Questions season two. I've always loved Cruce's quest Jeanette. It
Speaker 1: was originally a nineteenth century parlor game where players would
Speaker 1: ask each other thirty five questions aimed at revealing the
Speaker 1: other player's true nature. It's just the scientific method, really.
Speaker 1: In asking different people the same set of questions, you
Speaker 1: can make observations about which truths appeared to be universal.
Speaker 1: I love this discipline, and it made me wonder, what
Speaker 1: if these questions were just the jumping off point, what
Speaker 1: greater depths would be revealed if I asked these questions
Speaker 1: as conversation starters with thought leaders and trailblazers across all
Speaker 1: these different disciplines. So I adapted prus questionnaire and I
Speaker 1: wrote my own seven questions that I personally think a
Speaker 1: pertinent to a person's story. They are when and where
Speaker 1: were you happiest? What is the quality you like least
Speaker 1: about yourself? What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you?
Speaker 1: What question would you most like answered, What person, place,
Speaker 1: or experience has shaped you the most? What would be
Speaker 1: your last meal? And can you tell me something in
Speaker 1: your life that's grown out of a personal disaster? And
Speaker 1: I've gathered a group of really remarkable people, ones that
Speaker 1: I am honored and humbled to have had the chance
Speaker 1: to engage with. You may not hear their answers to
Speaker 1: all seven of these questions. We've whittled it down to
Speaker 1: which questions felt closest to their experience, or the most surprising,
Speaker 1: or created the most fertile ground to connect. My guest
Speaker 1: today on many questions is Chassi Visiram. Chasi is an
Speaker 1: extraordinary American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, probably best known as
Speaker 1: the founder of Happy Family Organics and Healthy nest To, companies,
Speaker 1: which were started with the purpose of helping parents raise
Speaker 1: healthier babies. Chassis work has been influenced by her own
Speaker 1: parenting experiences, raising her son who is on the spectrum
Speaker 1: of autism, and her daughter who is neurotypical. We had
Speaker 1: such an interesting conversation about rinting and about life and
Speaker 1: about being a woman who works. And I find her
Speaker 1: incredibly inspiring because she's she's one of those people who
Speaker 1: we say in the back of our mind, how do
Speaker 1: they do it all? And she's vulnerable enough to let
Speaker 1: you see that she can do it all, but it
Speaker 1: is very, very hard. It was a great conversation. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy it. What question would you most like answered?
Speaker 1: This one's easy. You know when you like blow out
Speaker 1: a candle and make your wish. My wish has been
Speaker 1: for nine years now and it will always be until
Speaker 1: it's answered. Is what is going to be the novel
Speaker 1: therapy that heals my son of his artism, that allows
Speaker 1: him to be independent. What is it going to be?
Speaker 1: Because I have watched in the last year and change
Speaker 1: this world come up with COVID vaccines, COVID treatments, to
Speaker 1: a pandemic that has rocked us all. But I have
Speaker 1: watched in my own life this epidem make of autism skyrocket.
Speaker 1: When Sane was diagnosed, it was one in a hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty eight and actually April one of last year,
Speaker 1: the CDC in the US released data it's two years old.
Speaker 1: Based on so before it was one in fifty nine
Speaker 1: and now it's one in fifty four. And that happened
Speaker 1: in two years, so I'm looking at one in fifty
Speaker 1: four babies born in the United States will get a
Speaker 1: not to some diagnosis. And remember it's a spectrum. But
Speaker 1: in my world, the spectrum is one where I fear
Speaker 1: for the worst and hope for the best, and I
Speaker 1: just I want my son to be independent and be
Speaker 1: able to show his gifts because he's actually the smartest
Speaker 1: person in the world, but he's stuck in this body
Speaker 1: that doesn't allow him to show that. You know, sometimes
Speaker 1: a lot of times given the prevalent that like the
Speaker 1: hyper prevalence, and those numbers are just shocking that you
Speaker 1: just said, why do you think there isn't the research
Speaker 1: and answers to those questions? When you're right, when people
Speaker 1: get motivated and galvanized, we can come up with extraordinary stuff.
Speaker 1: So why do you think they haven't around this? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not a neuroscientist and I'm not a geneticist,
Speaker 1: but what happens is, you know, let's say with the
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, you have a virus that you can identify.
Speaker 1: We know what it looks like. It's very specific. With
Speaker 1: the autism. Autism is the result is a set of
Speaker 1: symptoms that present based on a trigger. And I think
Speaker 1: for every unique being, the trigger can be very different,
Speaker 1: and it's every genetic and it's a confluence of so
Speaker 1: many things. So you don't think it's just environmental, like
Speaker 1: there's been so many theories as to what it is.
Speaker 1: I do think it's environmental, but there are a trillion
Speaker 1: things in the environment that can make a difference and
Speaker 1: also your specific genetic makeup makeup right that is evolving
Speaker 1: based on how it's interacting with that environment. So it's
Speaker 1: a moving target. And yet there are things, and I
Speaker 1: can only speak from my friends who have children on
Speaker 1: the spectrum, the things that I've seen firsthand that make
Speaker 1: a difference, Like food can make a huge difference. I've
Speaker 1: seen that one. Because that's one of the many things
Speaker 1: that you could say are sort of ancillary to having
Speaker 1: this diagnosis, is that, like I believe it's almost half
Speaker 1: of children with autism have gut issues. And if the
Speaker 1: tissue of the brain is the same tissue of the gut,
Speaker 1: and if there is inflammation in the gut, there can
Speaker 1: or will likely be inflammation in the brain. So removing
Speaker 1: things that are a trigger from inflammation is certainly like
Speaker 1: step one. I mean, that's like table stakes, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like gluten and dairy uh, you know, our triggers
Speaker 1: for inflammation. And I've seen it make a massive difference
Speaker 1: behaviorally that one wouldn't immediately think. But there's so much more.
Speaker 1: And we've done so many different therapies and some are
Speaker 1: wows for us and some have zero effect, but they
Speaker 1: might be a wow for a friend of mine who
Speaker 1: has you know, because if they say, if you've met
Speaker 1: one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.
Speaker 1: Oh god, it's frustrating. It's frustrating that that's how it is.
Speaker 1: But that's my question, and I know we can answer it.
Speaker 1: I know some things that can either per event or
Speaker 1: ameliorate an artism outcome. And I practiced it because we
Speaker 1: have a daughter. So my daughter Asha is five. They
Speaker 1: think during the pandemic, the world has shifted to talking
Speaker 1: about mental health in a way that has never been
Speaker 1: as open and clear. I mean, I don't even know you.
Speaker 1: You and I don't know each other. I'm sharing with
Speaker 1: you enough to be you know, it's like a therapy session.
Speaker 1: And I almost do that with anybody I joined a
Speaker 1: zoom with. Lately, I've noticed that having done this through
Speaker 1: the pandemic, I think that's exactly what it is, a
Speaker 1: wall or a membrane that it was kept us slightly
Speaker 1: separate from what we're feeling in the need to process
Speaker 1: and process quickly to accommodate what was happening circumstantially. I
Speaker 1: hope it's gone for good. I mean it feels a
Speaker 1: lot more raw, but it feels closer to figuring out
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. And also it becoming typicalized, you know,
Speaker 1: talking about mental health, Well, it's like human and kindness.
Speaker 1: And my point is, if we can now have this
Speaker 1: shift to be talking about mental health and address it proactively,
Speaker 1: then let's look at developmental health because to me, that's
Speaker 1: the epidemic that is facing our future, far larger than
Speaker 1: the pandemic that I hope becomes endemic and is temporary,
Speaker 1: but the epidemic of neurological health. And if it's one
Speaker 1: in six children in the United States, I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is elsewhere, but one in six will get
Speaker 1: a developmental diagnosis. It's shocking when you say it like that.
Speaker 1: But what's shocking on top of that is there are
Speaker 1: no protocols like you have to have a mother like you,
Speaker 1: or a mother like my friends, or fathers like my
Speaker 1: friends with kids with developmental differences, pushing and finding and
Speaker 1: asking and seeking and navigating while they're still trying to
Speaker 1: make a living, keep the home the lights turned on,
Speaker 1: take care of other children that we haven't got systems
Speaker 1: in place societally. When numbers look like that, it feels
Speaker 1: bananas and I hope that changes at the very least
Speaker 1: to start. Was interesting. My friend who moved from America
Speaker 1: to England. England, they got locked down a lot tighter,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure it's because it's a smaller country and
Speaker 1: because we have you know, socialized stuff isn't seen as
Speaker 1: communism in England, but there's a protocol which makes you
Speaker 1: feel safe, so it makes you feel stronger. I watched
Speaker 1: her be empowered as a parent, as opposed to flailing
Speaker 1: in a sea of information that was impossible to navigate
Speaker 1: through when she was fearful and tired and trying to
Speaker 1: take care of her kids. So maybe that's it. Maybe
Speaker 1: like the basic logistics, maybe it will start there. But
Speaker 1: I just I wonder if, like it's often. There was
Speaker 1: this cartoon I loved when I was a kid where
Speaker 1: aliens came and took over Earth and it was a
Speaker 1: complete nightmare and the world was over and the human
Speaker 1: race was going to be over and everything was done
Speaker 1: for and then an alien got a cold and it's
Speaker 1: spread through their ranks, and the cold was why the
Speaker 1: aliens left Earth. I wonder if it's something that is
Speaker 1: incredibly boring and typical and normal and to do with
Speaker 1: just like a fundamental logistic which will open up the
Speaker 1: whole kind of arena. Like if we start with like that,
Speaker 1: just the little tiny things. Have you heard of that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure you have canaries in a coal
Speaker 1: mine analogy to me that that is actually the same
Speaker 1: as your aliens, because that's what our children are. They're vulnerable.
Speaker 1: They have one way of presenting this information. Are they
Speaker 1: going to sing or are they not going to sing?
Speaker 1: And you send this canary into a coal mine and
Speaker 1: it will tell you whether or not it's safe. And
Speaker 1: when the canaries are not well, that is the human
Speaker 1: wake up call that we need to clean it all up.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's my life's work. So what relationship, real
Speaker 1: or fictionalized, defines love for you? I had a really
Speaker 1: cool dad. I mean he was not just a great dad,
Speaker 1: but he was like the coolest person I've ever met.
Speaker 1: I think the way that he showed me love, which
Speaker 1: is unique because he was like my best friend. He
Speaker 1: was was older when he had me, and just super wise,
Speaker 1: and he's like it's just really funny, like he would
Speaker 1: just drop these bombs and everyone would be laughing, and
Speaker 1: he just was just so chill and cool and smart
Speaker 1: but practically illiterate. And you know, I grew up so
Speaker 1: my parents were Muslim, and in that world, you know,
Speaker 1: a girl is less likely than a boy to be successful.
Speaker 1: And my dad's best compliment to me was like that
Speaker 1: I was like ten sons. It was like not just
Speaker 1: that he loved me, but it was that he constantly
Speaker 1: reminded me that I could do anything. And I know
Speaker 1: that it comes from being the daughter of immigrants. I
Speaker 1: feel like I've always been given this duty to make
Speaker 1: the world a better place because I've seen them do that,
Speaker 1: and I know that that was their highest purpose in life,
Speaker 1: was to help other people. I think that I have
Speaker 1: superpowers to change the world, like I think I can
Speaker 1: move mountains. I've been told that ever since I was
Speaker 1: a little Like my dad would say, shah Zi, you
Speaker 1: are a lion, and like I just always think that way.
Speaker 1: And I mean, i grew up in a motel room
Speaker 1: in Alabama, but I'm still a lion. And so when
Speaker 1: I think I can do something, I will just I'll
Speaker 1: do it. And it's like when you love someone so
Speaker 1: much that you want them to have not just the
Speaker 1: best in life, but like you will sacrifice anything so
Speaker 1: that that person can have that opportunity. That's big. And
Speaker 1: I saw him do that for me for so many years.
Speaker 1: So you think that sacrifices the major Korniston of love.
Speaker 1: I think it's not the necessity, but it's the willingness
Speaker 1: to put someone else ahead of you for their happiness
Speaker 1: or their potential. There's something beautiful about that. And while
Speaker 1: you're doing it, to be laughing and having fun, like,
Speaker 1: you can't beat that, right, that's it. To be laughing
Speaker 1: and having fun while you're making people feel good about themselves.
Speaker 1: That would be amazing. I would like that for my
Speaker 1: old age. Certainly. I had an older dad as well.
Speaker 1: I think they just they're just not going through so
Speaker 1: much their own ship. I always felt like my dad
Speaker 1: is like, God, you know you're staying out till thirty.
Speaker 1: When I told you to be home at town, it
Speaker 1: was low on the list of his this is going
Speaker 1: to totally funk up your life. What I loved was
Speaker 1: that he'd sort of lived through the Second World War
Speaker 1: and through PTSD and through rebuilding his body and his
Speaker 1: life and his everything to come to this point where
Speaker 1: he had a little daughter when he was fifty, and
Speaker 1: he was kind of like Wow, you're amazing, you know,
Speaker 1: and europain in my ass didn't take everything quite so
Speaker 1: seriously is the wrong word, I don't know what the
Speaker 1: word is. But he never made me sweat stuff that
Speaker 1: he was still working through himself. Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1: My dad was a truck driver. He drove like a
Speaker 1: semi truck in the Mount kilman Jaro region of Africa.
Speaker 1: He grew up with dirt floors under his feet. And
Speaker 1: I met people at his funeral that met him one
Speaker 1: time on the side of the road in Africa, that
Speaker 1: came to his funeral in Alabama. Wow, Like it was
Speaker 1: like one of the people that just left you better
Speaker 1: after one conversation. That wisdom and that I don't know,
Speaker 1: it was like it was just like super charming and
Speaker 1: to be so grounded and be able to be that
Speaker 1: charming and after having had like a lot of hardship.
Speaker 1: And yeah, he didn't sweat the small stuff because it
Speaker 1: literally was like a gnat. It's like nothing. When you've
Speaker 1: seen those things, it's amazing how they continue to be
Speaker 1: fuel for you, you know, our parents, or they continue
Speaker 1: to be fuel even after they've gone. That's also the
Speaker 1: selfless gift in a way, like it carries on even
Speaker 1: after they die, the good ones, there's some thing so
Speaker 1: we don't want to carry on. That's one thing I
Speaker 1: learned more recently is that I didn't do this when
Speaker 1: I had either of my children. But now I'm like
Speaker 1: a really big proponent of sitting down with your partner
Speaker 1: or however you're going to bring new life into the
Speaker 1: world and saying, like, what what is my mission statement
Speaker 1: for this new relationship? Like what kind of person do
Speaker 1: we want to raise? And how are we going to
Speaker 1: be as we do it? And what are the things
Speaker 1: from our family lives that were so good that we
Speaker 1: want to bring into this next version of ourselves that's
Speaker 1: their own person, And what are the things we want
Speaker 1: to leave behind that didn't serve us? Yeah, because I
Speaker 1: definitely had. It's not like everything was sunshine and rainbows,
Speaker 1: you know, right. I like that corporate approach. I like
Speaker 1: a mission statement with a human I think that's a
Speaker 1: really it's a pretty cool idea. I like that it's
Speaker 1: like a family mission statement. Where and when were you happiest?
Speaker 1: Hands down, it's not even a competition. The first time
Speaker 1: I held my son in my arms, happiest moment of
Speaker 1: my life. Sounds cliche. No, no, no, I don't think
Speaker 1: well cliches a cliches because there's sort of repeated truths now.
Speaker 1: But what for you was that moment? I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: the joy of meeting this person that you've quite literally
Speaker 1: made inside you. But was it the fulmination of other things?
Speaker 1: I think for me, because I'm idealistic and I'm in
Speaker 1: my head a lot, and I always wanted to be
Speaker 1: an artist and paint pictures, and I thought being creative
Speaker 1: was my life's study. And then I ended up not
Speaker 1: pursuing painting, and I pursued business as my expression of
Speaker 1: creativity because I realized that that can be creative too,
Speaker 1: and that was going well. It's a roller coaster, interesting
Speaker 1: and somewhat self defining. But then having the baby in
Speaker 1: my arms, like hands down, there's nothing more creative than
Speaker 1: creating new life. It's just the fulfillment of my body's
Speaker 1: ability to make something so special and beyond anything one
Speaker 1: could ever imagine. Because you don't know the future, you're
Speaker 1: not in control, it's the most beautiful moment. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who don't want to have babies nowadays,
Speaker 1: and I can understand why. It's a crazy world to
Speaker 1: bring a child into. But it's the coolest, most empowering,
Speaker 1: most creative thing in the world to make a human being.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more. It's astonishing. I think
Speaker 1: it's why man is so scared of us. Well, it's
Speaker 1: pretty powerful. Yeah, it really is super when you were painting,
Speaker 1: when you're making even that they can't really be an
Speaker 1: equivalency of maybe making some are and like that creation
Speaker 1: of a human But was there that feeling of the
Speaker 1: satisfaction of making something and the freedom of that and
Speaker 1: the uniqueness of making art. It was the ability to
Speaker 1: have the expression and control it, but with lacking the
Speaker 1: technical skill of the masters. Yeah, I could like replicate
Speaker 1: not like Malcolm Gladwell style blink, replicate like a Van
Speaker 1: got But I could do a starring night, just not
Speaker 1: the same. You know, it's like having a vision in
Speaker 1: your head and being able to try to bring it out.
Speaker 1: I'm like super critical, you know, just the act of
Speaker 1: the expression. That's sort of like that's like running or
Speaker 1: taking a bath or drinking a glass of wine, Like
Speaker 1: that's a way to just get out your emotional I
Speaker 1: don't know that pent up emotion. But what I also
Speaker 1: wanted was to have the expression and then have the
Speaker 1: end result be super beautiful and reflective of what I
Speaker 1: had in my head. And I think that somewhere there
Speaker 1: was a disconnect and I let that go. Do you
Speaker 1: think that's why you could have your life's work evolve
Speaker 1: into business because maybe there was a sense of like
Speaker 1: never being able to reach the place that you wanted
Speaker 1: to with your art, or do you think that it
Speaker 1: just one grew out of the other. I think that
Speaker 1: the business, the beauty of the business being my sense
Speaker 1: of creative expression is that it becomes a living, breathing
Speaker 1: work of art that evolves and affects people, and that
Speaker 1: you can shape a business in a way to affect
Speaker 1: people truly for good, truly for changing the world. Whereas
Speaker 1: the work of art, at some point it's static. You
Speaker 1: hope it might move someone in one way or another.
Speaker 1: You hope it might have like gotten your you know,
Speaker 1: yah yah's out or whatever by making it. But the
Speaker 1: business is like alive, but it's still not as alive
Speaker 1: as of human It's not what would be your last meal,
Speaker 1: My last meal would be I mean, without a doubt,
Speaker 1: Number one has to be with my dad, because it'll
Speaker 1: taste better, but it was our favorite food to eat together.
Speaker 1: My mom makes these samosas, which is an Indian thing,
Speaker 1: but my dad was from Tanzania, so they had the
Speaker 1: East African Indian version of the samosa is a little different,
Speaker 1: so you can't just get it in a restaurant. Anything
Speaker 1: in a restaurant or any Indian food for me that
Speaker 1: I buy somewhere, it's not the same. But she makes
Speaker 1: these incredible samosa as my mom, and you take a
Speaker 1: bite and you sweeze some lemon and it's like this
Speaker 1: perfect philo dough around this like heavily spiced ginger and
Speaker 1: garlic meat filling. And then my dad had this chi
Speaker 1: his chi. I know how to make his chi. That
Speaker 1: would be my last meal. I would eat that every
Speaker 1: day if I could. I like that idea of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it would not just be my last meal, it would
Speaker 1: be my every single day meal. Maybe she can teach us.
Speaker 1: I had to make it, but I don't have the
Speaker 1: patience to learn from her. You know that sounds like
Speaker 1: a very good granny granddaughter. Past time for an afternoon?
Speaker 1: Can you tell me about something that has grown out
Speaker 1: of a personal disaster? Well, may I have two answers,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to one is silly, you can
Speaker 1: answer both. I don't mind silly and serious. We had
Speaker 1: this dog named Willie, and Willie was like, you know,
Speaker 1: like the love of your life. He came into our
Speaker 1: lives before we had autism, and he was just this
Speaker 1: like perfect esthetically perfect being and so intuitive, you know,
Speaker 1: like when my dad passed away, he wouldn't even let
Speaker 1: me go to the bathroom alone, like he just stayed
Speaker 1: with me. And then I mean, when Zane was diagnosed
Speaker 1: with autism, he wouldn't leave me. And there were times
Speaker 1: like we moved from this tiny little apartment in Jersey
Speaker 1: City to this weird Connecticut house, and there are times
Speaker 1: where I'd be putting Zane down and he'd be flailing
Speaker 1: around and I don't know, he accidentally hit me one
Speaker 1: time and it wasn't on purpose, but it made me
Speaker 1: cry because I just it's just every once in a while,
Speaker 1: it just something makes you cry and you need to
Speaker 1: and I just hear this, like this dog would come
Speaker 1: and he's just like paw opened the door and he
Speaker 1: would jump on the bed and he wrapped himself around
Speaker 1: your neck and licks the tears off, and that was
Speaker 1: like my Willie. He was incredible, and uh he ended
Speaker 1: up getting diagnosed with cancer and we went all in
Speaker 1: and we yield him. Actually he was fine. He ended
Speaker 1: up passing away afterwards after conquering cancer with an accident.
Speaker 1: But before that, we took a biopsy and I found
Speaker 1: a place to clone him. Oh my god, are your
Speaker 1: dog well? So what happened was because Willie was so
Speaker 1: I mean, he was like so special, you know, and
Speaker 1: we were so lonely, and they knew him. My son
Speaker 1: knew him. And it's not like he loves all animals,
Speaker 1: but he knew Willie and he had the makings of
Speaker 1: the perfect autism therapy dog. So I'm thinking, okay, well,
Speaker 1: if we can get him back, then we can try
Speaker 1: him and he will become the perfect autism therapy dog
Speaker 1: because he has that intuitive It was uncanny. So I
Speaker 1: went ahead and pulled the trigger. I said, okay, do it.
Speaker 1: And then they implanted an embryo and didn't work, and
Speaker 1: they called me and they said just keep going, and
Speaker 1: I said okay. So they implanted another embryo, didn't work.
Speaker 1: So then the third time they said, okay, well we
Speaker 1: can do too. That way we'll increase the odds. Are
Speaker 1: you okay with putting two? And you know, I'm just thinking,
Speaker 1: oh my god, to baby cute little willies like of course, like,
Speaker 1: let's just do it. Like And so the irony is
Speaker 1: I have two labor roodles. They look exactly like Willie.
Speaker 1: And because they're literally themselves, I couldn't then say, oh no,
Speaker 1: we only want one because they're both Willie. But because
Speaker 1: there's two of them, they could never be a notto
Speaker 1: some therapy dog because they have each other. You can't
Speaker 1: train them because they have each other. They're like incredible.
Speaker 1: They're as human as Willie was. It's not like their
Speaker 1: science experiments. And they look exactly like him, and they
Speaker 1: have many of the same characteristics, but they have unique personalities.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I wish I cloned my dog. I know.
Speaker 1: So now Joe and I have our own autism therapy dogs.
Speaker 1: That is completely extraordinary. That's actually one of the best
Speaker 1: stories I think I've ever heard. But it's kind of
Speaker 1: off brand, but it is. Actually it's a reversal of
Speaker 1: that question, or maybe it adds its own addendum. So
Speaker 1: in your life, can you tell me something that grew
Speaker 1: out of a personal disaster. Well, yeah, my dog died,
Speaker 1: but I cloned him. I'm gonna try to show you
Speaker 1: what Willie looked like. I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: see this. Oh my god, I'm looking at a picture
Speaker 1: of both of them. God, it is actually really weird.
Speaker 1: You're looking at the same dog. That's wild to me.
Speaker 1: Anything is possible, So then why don't we have a
Speaker 1: novel therapy or preventative measure or cure for autism? But
Speaker 1: if you ask me who changed your life? I mean,
Speaker 1: my son changed my life because it made me realize
Speaker 1: I have so much more to do, and I've learned
Speaker 1: so much. And see what happens is when you've learned
Speaker 1: so much because you can't help but create your own
Speaker 1: PhD and understanding caused this? What could I have done
Speaker 1: differently removing the guilt? But what were the things I
Speaker 1: could have done differently? What would I do differently next time?
Speaker 1: Which I did with RuSHA that experience. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not at a place where I like want
Speaker 1: to plug a business, But healthiness to my company is
Speaker 1: that it is saying everything I wish I had learned about.
Speaker 1: Like if you're going to have a C section, ask
Speaker 1: for a vaginal swab so you can maintain your baby's
Speaker 1: healthy microbiome from day one. You know, that becomes their
Speaker 1: immune system. Like everything that I learned the first time
Speaker 1: around that didn't go right, that you can control. I
Speaker 1: want to share that with other people because I think
Speaker 1: it can be prevention. I think it can be proactively
Speaker 1: beneficial to our children's health. I think that's absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: I'm not even going to cite the brand that I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of, but the idea of disseminating information that is
Speaker 1: really going to affect change, and not just put an
Speaker 1: overly expensive bubble somewhere up your person to make you
Speaker 1: feel better, to really create a company that's going to
Speaker 1: affect change. I mean that what you just said a
Speaker 1: at the C section, the fashional swob, that's a game
Speaker 1: change that nobody tells mothers that that's free. In China,
Speaker 1: the autism rates the highest in the world. It's one
Speaker 1: in twenty seven in Hong Kong, and in China. You know,
Speaker 1: the cities are like twenty million people. And in China
Speaker 1: they have this thing culturally where they're really into astrology
Speaker 1: and like numerology and being born on the right day
Speaker 1: at the right time. Ah, So c sections are really prevalent,
Speaker 1: and so you think you're doing this thing to have
Speaker 1: this fairly auspicious birth. Oh my god, look at that.
Speaker 1: So when the baby comes through the vaginal canal, whether
Speaker 1: this is empowering to the mother of having the birth
Speaker 1: you wanted or not, the baby's first exposure to bacteria
Speaker 1: happens then comes into their mouth, into their ears there
Speaker 1: are otherwise been sterile their whole life. And then the
Speaker 1: breast milk that you feed them or other milk, but
Speaker 1: it's the oliga sac rides in breast milk are the
Speaker 1: yin to the young of the bacteria. So it feeds
Speaker 1: that bacteria and that becomes your immune system. And so
Speaker 1: if at birth, there's one thing you can do to
Speaker 1: be like, all right, if I end up having a
Speaker 1: C section, I'm gonna take Basically, it's called a vaginal swab,
Speaker 1: and I did it with my daughter after trying for
Speaker 1: forty hours, and we rubbed this gauze all over her,
Speaker 1: in her mouth and in her ears, and we've tested
Speaker 1: her gut health and it is like a one perfect
Speaker 1: She's never had antibiotics, and I think it made a difference.
Speaker 1: I actually did a ted talk in China and I
Speaker 1: said the word vagina on the stage and the translator
Speaker 1: stopped talking and everybody in the audience like freaked out,
Speaker 1: and then that he had to leave, and then a
Speaker 1: woman came and took his place, because I was trying
Speaker 1: to tell them about that a man couldn't even say
Speaker 1: she has. I'm so fascinated. I've written about a million
Speaker 1: notes of things that I'm going to go and research.
Speaker 1: Thank you, really, thank you so much. Of course, it's
Speaker 1: my pleasure, so fun meeting you. You can hear more
Speaker 1: from Chassis on her upcoming podcast, The Healthy Baby Show.
Speaker 1: The show will explore a number of debated topics in parenting,
Speaker 1: including control, postpartum health, fertility, gut health, and well being.
Speaker 1: The trailer for The Healthy Baby Show will be released
Speaker 1: on March sixteenth, and I'll be on her first episode
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, March. Mini Questions is hosted and written by
Speaker 1: Me Mini Driver, Supervising producer Aaron Kaufman, Producer Morgan Levoy,
Speaker 1: Research assistant Marissa Brown. Original music Sorry Baby by Mini Driver,
Speaker 1: Additional music by Aaron Kaufman. Executive produced by Me Mini Driver.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Jim Nikolay Will Pearson, Addison, No Day,
Speaker 1: Lisa Castella and A Nique Oppenheim at w kPr DA,
Speaker 1: La Pescador, Kate Driver and Jason Weinberg. And for constantly
Speaker 1: solicited tech support Henry Driver