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Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Sophia Bush here. Welcome to work in progress

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Speaker 1: where I talked to people who inspire me about how

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Speaker 1: they got to where they are and where they think

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Speaker 1: they're still going. Guys, I am so excited to share

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Speaker 1: today's conversation with you. The chat I had with today's guest,

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Speaker 1: who is truly iconic, was an absolute honor to sit

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Speaker 1: down with the inspiring, empowering and brilliant Mss Aaron Brockovich. Yes,

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Speaker 1: that Aaron Brockovich was truly a bucket list moment. Aaron

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Speaker 1: is not only the president of Brockovich Research and Consulting,

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Speaker 1: where she rights wrongs every day on multiple fronts, but

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Speaker 1: she is also a renowned consumer advocate and environmental activist,

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Speaker 1: a public speaker, and the founder of the Aaron rock

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Speaker 1: Witch Foundation, a nonprofit created to educate and empower communities

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Speaker 1: in their fight for clean water. Aaron is often best

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Speaker 1: known for spearheading the successful case against the Pacific Gas

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Speaker 1: and Electric Company pg n E as living proof that

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Speaker 1: an ordinary person can truly change the world. Aaron's efforts

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Speaker 1: in the pg NY case not only resulted any largest

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Speaker 1: settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in US history,

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Speaker 1: but also inspired the Oscar winning two thousand films starring

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Speaker 1: Julia Roberts titled Aaron Rockovich. Following the film's success, Aaron

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Speaker 1: used her new found notoriety to spread positive messages and

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Speaker 1: encourage others to make a difference through a variety of media,

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Speaker 1: including TV, film and publishing. A true crusader for both

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Speaker 1: the environment and public health and safety, Aaron actively participates

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Speaker 1: in exposing and justices and empowering the people by traveling

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Speaker 1: the world and lending her voice to those who do

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Speaker 1: not have one, as she remains one of the most

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Speaker 1: requested speakers on the international lecture circuit. Most recently, Aaron

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Speaker 1: published her second book, Superman's Not Coming, and is working

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Speaker 1: on an ABC drama based on her life. In my

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Speaker 1: conversation with Aaron today, we discussed the numerous environmental projects

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Speaker 1: she's involved in, her iconic PGNE case, the current global

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Speaker 1: water crisis, including water pollution, water scarcity, water policy here

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Speaker 1: in the US, and why there is such an urgent

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Speaker 1: need for citizens everywhere to get involved in the fight

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Speaker 1: for safe water, and as always, so much more enjoy Aaron.

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Speaker 1: I could not be more excited to have you here today.

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Speaker 1: I woke up with butterflies this morning, and I was

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Speaker 1: on the phone with one of my best friends and

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Speaker 1: he was like, are you okay, And I was like,

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Speaker 1: I'm just so excited. I'm so excited. And I realized

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Speaker 1: that in the way that you know, my parents will

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Speaker 1: tell you that I've always been a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a rebel fighter since I was a kid. When I

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Speaker 1: when I watched the film that was made about your

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Speaker 1: California story, I I really now, in hindsight, realized that

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Speaker 1: it was part of what taught me to be the

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Speaker 1: kind of activists that I am today, where where I

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Speaker 1: was like, no, you just you knock until you break

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Speaker 1: the door down, and and I think that so many

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Speaker 1: people who are inspired to fight have been inspired by

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Speaker 1: your story and your gumption. And thank you for coming,

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Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I was really looking forward

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Speaker 1: to it, very anxious and excited to meet you. It's

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Speaker 1: you know, it's exciting, it's pretty glad to be here,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. Thanks for having me. Oh my gosh,

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Speaker 1: I just am thrilled now I mentioned it, and I

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Speaker 1: imagine it must have been kind of a trip to

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Speaker 1: be doing the work that you were doing, you know,

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Speaker 1: fighting on this massive environmental case, and after that succeeded,

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Speaker 1: you know, there was a three and thirties three million

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Speaker 1: dollar settlement with the victims affected um by this chemical

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Speaker 1: company dumping waste and the contamination of water. And you know,

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Speaker 1: you go about your life and then this movie gets made,

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Speaker 1: and not just any movie, but a movie in which

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Speaker 1: Julia Roberts plays you and then wins an oscar. How

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Speaker 1: how crazy of an experience was that for you? Very crazy,

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Speaker 1: very overwhelming us. I'm still, i think, twenty years later,

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Speaker 1: kind of wrapping my mind around all of it. You're like,

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Speaker 1: is it a fluke? I mean, how does this happen?

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Speaker 1: Are you in the right place at the right time?

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Speaker 1: I mean, because I never set out for any of

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Speaker 1: this to happen, And who would who would get involved

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Speaker 1: in doing anything and stop and think someone's gonna make

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Speaker 1: a movie about it? Julie Roberts, you know, so they're like,

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Speaker 1: you know, okay, whooo, you're out there. I still think

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Speaker 1: I'm putting it all together. I have a greater understanding

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Speaker 1: of it now than I did then. I wish I

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Speaker 1: had a solid understanding of it then, because I feel

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Speaker 1: like I missed out on so much in so many

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Speaker 1: moments like the night that the film came out. I

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Speaker 1: mean I can barely even recall it because I wasn't prepared.

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Speaker 1: Who could be prepared. I've never been on a red carpet.

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Speaker 1: I certainly wasn't the actress. I've never been on TV. Frankly,

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Speaker 1: I don't like my picture taken. The commotion it was

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Speaker 1: so overwhelming. I literally was shaking so hard. My knees

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Speaker 1: were knocking together, and Universal was great at being with

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Speaker 1: me and saying, we need to get you to calm down.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna have to send you home. Um, I miss

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Speaker 1: so much, and so I don't think that I ever

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Speaker 1: really saw the film. It isn't about me. It was

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Speaker 1: about all of us. It was about pollution. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I was going through a cycle of you know, is

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Speaker 1: this a one off? Oh my gosh, I've come to

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Speaker 1: find out it's the entire United States of America. Don't

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Speaker 1: let the commotion, the hype, the start is um stuff.

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Speaker 1: Let's get into my head. I felt that would be

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Speaker 1: the worst place for me to go. So it was exciting, overwhelming.

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Speaker 1: It's still really weird. You know. I always have a

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Speaker 1: running Joe cry. My name is Aaron Brockfitch, not Julia Roberts.

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Speaker 1: It's funny how much confusion it's created, even to this day,

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Speaker 1: even today, like a week ago, going through t s A,

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Speaker 1: they look at me and they go, oh my gosh,

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Speaker 1: Aaron Brockvitch, I love every movie you've been in, and

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Speaker 1: I'm like, what so, and they're they're legitimate. It's that

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Speaker 1: has been strange, and you know, I wake up and

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Speaker 1: pinch myself. Is this real? What it's just? It's just strange.

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Speaker 1: And I mean what I don't think ever, was that

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Speaker 1: twenty years in the future we'd still be talking about it,

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Speaker 1: about pollution, about pollution, about the film, that the film

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Speaker 1: would be, that it would resonate with everyone like that.

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Speaker 1: And I believe it resonated with everyone, because everybody walked

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Speaker 1: away from the film going, you know what, that could

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Speaker 1: be me? Maybe that is me. I think it resonated

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Speaker 1: with everyone understanding a struggle of life or up against

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Speaker 1: a force that had to find the courage to come

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Speaker 1: out and stand up. I think it resonated with single

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Speaker 1: parents and out there working and taking care of a family,

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Speaker 1: and and all of those angst that did come out

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Speaker 1: was relatable and we were all that person we were are,

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Speaker 1: and I never dreamed that I would be sitting here

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Speaker 1: today talking to you about this. You know, I started

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Speaker 1: when I was thirty. How long it's been. I do

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Speaker 1: turn sixty in June. My kids are grown and gone,

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Speaker 1: so those little babies I had, I now have grand babies.

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Speaker 1: So all of that is something that I think I

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Speaker 1: often look at, and in a way it makes me

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Speaker 1: so humble because I'm now got it strong enough idea

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Speaker 1: around it that I'm not just looking back or anticipating tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: I'm really looking at, Oh my gosh, I'm having this

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Speaker 1: moment with you, and I'm having this moment with my

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Speaker 1: family or my work, and to be present and not

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Speaker 1: take so much for granted. And somehow that film and

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Speaker 1: all of these years has really helped me take a

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Speaker 1: look at don't get lost here, don't worry about that

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Speaker 1: I may never see tomorrow, but to take this moment

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Speaker 1: and observe and listen and be compassionate and reach a

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Speaker 1: hand out and find that voice to go, hey, what's

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Speaker 1: happening here? What's going on? When you talk about that,

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Speaker 1: the one of the things I hear that really stands

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Speaker 1: out to me. As you're talking about compassionate listening. And

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Speaker 1: I think about the story, and the movie told us

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Speaker 1: your story, and you know I can in doing all

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Speaker 1: my prep work, I can read your your bio and

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Speaker 1: your story online. And and you you had a claim

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Speaker 1: with the legal attorneys who you wound up working for,

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Speaker 1: because the claim they settled for you was horrible, and

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Speaker 1: you said I was trial and that it. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: you said you've got to give me a job so

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Speaker 1: I can earn a living because my settlements a joke

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Speaker 1: and it's your fault essentially. Well, yeah, because you know

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Speaker 1: I don't. I don't like being misled, yes, and it

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Speaker 1: irritated me. I'm short tempered, I guess that way. But

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Speaker 1: or you're just allergic to bullshit, which I admire. Right,

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Speaker 1: aren't a lot of us, though I had that situation

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Speaker 1: happened to me just yesterday. It's a long story. Won't

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Speaker 1: go into it. I'm like, but don't be asked me,

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Speaker 1: you know, don't dance around it, or you know, just

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Speaker 1: just say it. Um. I don't know why we can't

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Speaker 1: do that. And when we as a person like myself

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Speaker 1: that can be directed by daughter is even worse than me,

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Speaker 1: we can be offended by it. I think it's timing,

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Speaker 1: and it's tactfulness, it's a whole host of things. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: I needed a job, and you honestly told me it

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Speaker 1: was gonna be okay. See, I deal well in reality.

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Speaker 1: So give me that worst case scenari Look, kid, we

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Speaker 1: may not win this, okay, So now I can prepare.

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Speaker 1: If it's worst case scenario, what's plan B. I don't

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Speaker 1: I don't like to be in a box, So I

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Speaker 1: need my plans how I get out. And so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was really frustrated at that moment, and I needed

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Speaker 1: a job. And so you wound up working for these lawyers,

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Speaker 1: and you wound up at Ed's office, coming across all

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Speaker 1: this paperwork about these people who were suffering from cancer,

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Speaker 1: and and that's where this took off. And I think

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Speaker 1: about now bird's eye view, about you stumbling into your

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Speaker 1: calling in a way. You know, now is this activist

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Speaker 1: and this author and this person who's fighting around the globe.

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Speaker 1: How do you think that beginning to work on that

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Speaker 1: case taught you to listen the way that you do now, Well,

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Speaker 1: it definitely comes from my upbringing. Um, I didn't know

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Speaker 1: it then I started to learn more about it at

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Speaker 1: that moment where this behavior was coming from, or where

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Speaker 1: a visual skill and listening skills was coming from. And

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Speaker 1: I'm a dyslexic, So in school, I knew I can read,

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Speaker 1: but I knew I was comprehending differently, and I knew that,

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Speaker 1: and my teachers knew that by the way I did

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Speaker 1: my test. But I visually could see everything. Um, So

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Speaker 1: I listened intently, intently, and then I wouldn't forget what

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Speaker 1: you said. And that's really the beginning of it for me,

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Speaker 1: is as because I had a learning disability. Um, And

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Speaker 1: I was teased and I knew, I knew, but I

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Speaker 1: wasn't going to fight the system that way. I was

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Speaker 1: going to figure out a way around it. And I

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Speaker 1: started listening intently. My mom used to say, you can't

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Speaker 1: beat her at a game of concentration under no circumstances.

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Speaker 1: You cannot, because I photographed in my mind and then

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Speaker 1: I store it. So I dyslexics have a different way

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Speaker 1: of coding, in a different way of learning. And I

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Speaker 1: don't know that consciously I was aware of that. I

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Speaker 1: don't know that I was consciously even aware that that's

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Speaker 1: what I was doing in Hinckley, that was covering things.

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Speaker 1: By way of example, one of the first documents I

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Speaker 1: read made no sense to me, and I think, even

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Speaker 1: this is part of studies and how they're written today

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Speaker 1: and how we interpret them even today. It was dated

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Speaker 1: and it stated five ppm of hex chrome was still

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Speaker 1: in the monitoring wells. Why I had already learned from

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Speaker 1: experts that five ppm hex chrome at any level is

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Speaker 1: declared legal hazardous waste. So that number stuck out for me.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, God, that's still a lot, and it's And

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Speaker 1: then the next two sentences said of the chromemate had

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Speaker 1: already been removed via drinking water and agricultural use, And

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Speaker 1: I went, huh, So if it's five ppm gone, what

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Speaker 1: was it in two and seventy two and sixty two

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Speaker 1: in this community was thriving? And lo and behold, I

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Speaker 1: set off to find that information. So I went backwards,

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Speaker 1: not forward, and I found the documents. The actual amount

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Speaker 1: of hex valent chromium hitting that aquifer was fifty eight ppm.

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Speaker 1: See now that makes the difference in science, as a

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Speaker 1: larger number that can be more readily correlated. Two the

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Speaker 1: health effects that the people were seeing. And so it's

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Speaker 1: my dyslexy that kind of gives me that set of

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Speaker 1: skills that that's who I am, but it doesn't fit

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Speaker 1: the standard of conformance, especially in our educational system. What

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Speaker 1: was it like to grow up in the education system

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Speaker 1: when you did? What? What was your experience in school?

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Speaker 1: And and and how did your parents handle that the day?

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Speaker 1: Did they support you? Did they understand what was going on?

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Speaker 1: My parents saved me in a school teacher saved me.

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Speaker 1: I learned to become the class clown, you know, and

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Speaker 1: be well liked to cover for my discrepancy of not being,

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Speaker 1: you know, an a student. I struggled to be a

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Speaker 1: d blessed student. And you know, I I see so

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Speaker 1: many when I went to Hinckley see I saw in

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Speaker 1: them what happened to me that because they were different

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Speaker 1: or they dare do something different. There's this whole suppression

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Speaker 1: and judgment and labeling that you're this or that or

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Speaker 1: what you see isn't real. Nothing sends me sideways more

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Speaker 1: than someone trying to convince me. The minute you do that,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, what are you up to the minute you

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Speaker 1: want to convince me that what I read, what I'm seeing,

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Speaker 1: what I'm hearing isn't real And that's what was happening

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Speaker 1: to them, because the companies were telling them, oh, the

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Speaker 1: green water, that's the standard, that's normal. So see, they

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Speaker 1: actually at some point started thinking, Okay, well, I don't

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Speaker 1: want to question this because then they're gonna tell me

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Speaker 1: I'm stupid or what's wrong with you? Or nothing's wrong

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Speaker 1: with your water. It's a mineral. So we drank it

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Speaker 1: and they were already experiencing what I had already experienced,

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Speaker 1: and so there was this moment together that we could

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Speaker 1: kind of start blowing stuff open. And it it takes support.

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Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be the person to stand out first.

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Speaker 1: And then here all of the you know, judgment and

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Speaker 1: labels and gas lighting and suppression and all of this

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Speaker 1: stuff has actually been going on for a really really

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Speaker 1: really really really long time, and I think it it

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Speaker 1: pushes us back and we're uncertain how to go forward.

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Speaker 1: So because of how I grew up, because of my

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Speaker 1: mom and my dad, I understood I didn't have the

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Speaker 1: scientific knowledge to be figuring out what was happening, but

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Speaker 1: I had a lot of common sense, and I went

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Speaker 1: with my gut and they started to go with their guts.

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Speaker 1: And so when that PhD from p. G n E

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Speaker 1: standing there and said green water and two headed frogs

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Speaker 1: are normal. I was like, bullshit, bullshit, and so we

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Speaker 1: went with that. And people we don't really teach common sense.

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Speaker 1: I think we've moved away from common sense. We'd like

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Speaker 1: to label it as you know, where's your logic? Well,

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Speaker 1: if you use your common sense, you logically do the

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Speaker 1: right thing. And you know, growing up in Kansas in

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Speaker 1: the summer tornadoes, it never never dawned on me when

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Speaker 1: the sky turned green. And I could have that physical

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Speaker 1: sense if if you're connected to the environment, you know

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Speaker 1: something's wrong. You may not be able to be certain

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Speaker 1: what it is, but you know something's wrong. And I

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Speaker 1: always went with that, and sure enough, tornando sarians who

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Speaker 1: go off. I never called the weather channel to find

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Speaker 1: out if it was an F two or five. Who cares? Right?

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Speaker 1: I was in danger and I needed to get to safety.

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Speaker 1: And these are the arguments we have in these environmental

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Speaker 1: cases that really send me sideways as well as the

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Speaker 1: community members. If your municipality had rat poison in it,

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Speaker 1: you understand what rat poison is, right, It's poison. So

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Speaker 1: do you care if it's one part pavilion or five?

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Speaker 1: You don't. But we get into these arguments, and so

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Speaker 1: I want people to get connected again. And ten times

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Speaker 1: out of ten every side I'm on Hinckley being the first.

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Speaker 1: They're already connected. But what they're what they can't figure

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Speaker 1: out is they need permission to go forward and be

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Speaker 1: themselves and know what they are living in, drinking and

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Speaker 1: breathing and experiencing is real and not let the other side,

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Speaker 1: who doesn't want you to know what's go on, convince

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Speaker 1: you to hush up up that you're not this, you're

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Speaker 1: not that you don't have this degree. Therefore you shouldn't

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Speaker 1: say anything. Nothing could be further from the truth. You

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Speaker 1: take us away from being human. And it's so important

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Speaker 1: because this idea that we argue the minutia of science

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Speaker 1: to your point one or five parts pervilion poisonous poison.

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Speaker 1: And I was so moved this week. I saw this

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Speaker 1: incredible video of an elderly gentleman who pulled water from

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Speaker 1: his farm. And he's living in a community where they're

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Speaker 1: fracking around all the farms, and he brought water in

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Speaker 1: to a meeting with these executives and he said, you

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Speaker 1: all have gone on the record saying you would drink

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Speaker 1: the water. And he and he had it in the

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Speaker 1: thermos so you couldn't see what it looked like. And

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Speaker 1: he poured this water into three plastic cups clear cuts,

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Speaker 1: I mean, dark, sludgy brown water, and he said, here

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Speaker 1: you go, I brought it for you. Would you drink

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Speaker 1: it in front of us? All right? Now? Would you

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Speaker 1: drink it? And I just thought, there we go. And

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Speaker 1: these are people who are telling this farm or to

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Speaker 1: your point, what we've got scientists, And the scientists say,

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Speaker 1: and it's like, no, we know. We know what water

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Speaker 1: is supposed to look like, and we know how people

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Speaker 1: are supposed to feel, and we know that frogs are

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Speaker 1: supposed to have one head. And and it's strange to

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Speaker 1: me this this large systemic oppression that happens to people's

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Speaker 1: when the systems say you don't know as well as

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Speaker 1: we do. And it's like, well, you're being paid for though,

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Speaker 1: by the people making money off me getting sick, So

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Speaker 1: why am I supposed to trust what you say? You know? Well, absolutely,

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Speaker 1: and it you're a hundred person spot on you. That

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Speaker 1: was a scene in the movie, by the way, and

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Speaker 1: that's probably inspired by you the film. It actually happened

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Speaker 1: in a court of law, though pgin experts set this

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Speaker 1: is in my book. Um so I share a little

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Speaker 1: story out of the book about pins experts that filled

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Speaker 1: a hot tub full of hex vent chromium and sat

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Speaker 1: in it. And they sat there drinking wine and smoking scars,

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Speaker 1: laughing and touting about how it can't harm you. And

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Speaker 1: first of all, you're stupid for doing that. I'd like

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Speaker 1: to know how your health and welfare is today. Second

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Speaker 1: of all, you're making a mockery of somebody that, for

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Speaker 1: their entire life, for the first eighteen years of their life,

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Speaker 1: bathed in and drank it. And it's a completely different

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Speaker 1: long term exposure pathway. And let's see what I was

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Speaker 1: What does go back to the question you asked me?

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Speaker 1: Because I'm losing my train of thought and I don't

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Speaker 1: want to go off on some you know, tangent. We're

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Speaker 1: talking about the guy with the water. So in Hinckley,

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Speaker 1: during the case, we actually mixed a glass ex faiment

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Speaker 1: chromean for that expert that sat in the hot tub,

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Speaker 1: and we asked him to drink it, and he wouldn't,

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Speaker 1: he said, because I don't know what's in it. But

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Speaker 1: here's the point. They didn't know what was in their

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Speaker 1: water either, and you were telling them it's safe to drink.

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Speaker 1: So now you take that same risk. You don't know

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Speaker 1: what's in that water, drink it, or don't tell us

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Speaker 1: it's safe to drink. And I get into arguments with

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Speaker 1: science about this all the time, and they say, well,

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Speaker 1: you don't have the data, Aaron. And here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: You're right, I don't have all the data, and I'm

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Speaker 1: very happy to mention that. But what you won't mention

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Speaker 1: is you don't have all the data either, So how

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Speaker 1: can you say to us that it is safe. And

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, our planet and us

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Speaker 1: as humans on it, we didn't evolve to process chemicals.

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Speaker 1: Our bodies are not made two be filled with chemicals.

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Speaker 1: And what we see everywhere, whether it's chemicals used in agriculture,

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Speaker 1: chemicals used in chemical plants, steel mills, all of these

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Speaker 1: places that are dumping into our water system. More and

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Speaker 1: more people have cancer, more and more people have Alzheimer's,

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Speaker 1: more and more people have I mean, the rates of

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Speaker 1: infertility going up among both men and women. Autism, We

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Speaker 1: lupus so many autoimmune diseases. And it isn't just cancer.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why we don't why we're so connect

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Speaker 1: from the environment. It's without going into the story again.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm fascinated with the Wizard of Oz. In

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Speaker 1: the book The Wizard of Oz and Y. L. Frank

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Speaker 1: Baum wrote it. There's a whole political allegory to it.

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Speaker 1: We could talk about that, but I'm going to jump

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Speaker 1: right into when they were following the yellow brick road

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Speaker 1: and the Wicked Wish suppressed them. That's industry doesn't want

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Speaker 1: you to know. And I think that's where we've been.

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Speaker 1: And I think we're waking up just like they did.

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Speaker 1: And that moment, I'm more excited and inspired now than

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Speaker 1: I was five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago,

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Speaker 1: or twenty years ago. Why is that because it's now

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Speaker 1: affecting everyone. It's one thing when you're in a movie

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Speaker 1: theater and you see Hinckley and you think that could

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Speaker 1: be me, but you hope it will never be me.

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Speaker 1: That look ship rolls downhill, and that's exactly what's happened,

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Speaker 1: and it's now in everyone's yard. I can't think of

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Speaker 1: one state in the United States were not multiple cities

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Speaker 1: come to me with purple water, yellow water, greenwater, Blackwater, Sledgewater.

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Speaker 1: All these photos are in my book. I see it

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Speaker 1: every single day, from every single state, from every single mother,

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Speaker 1: from every single child with too much cancers. It's just there,

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Speaker 1: and they're in a place now that this is where

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Speaker 1: they live, this is what they drink, this is their land.

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Speaker 1: They are being affected. They now own it, they now

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Speaker 1: see it. And it's not just one of us speaking up.

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Speaker 1: It's millions and millions and millions. It will be that

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Speaker 1: collective voice, uh, that we finally will shift into a

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Speaker 1: new awakening and realize that we will wake up that

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Speaker 1: suppression has existed for all of us. It's not new,

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Speaker 1: and it's comfortable, itty and its complacency. I like disruption.

401
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 1: I think we're living in a disruptive moment and I

402
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:56,399
Speaker 1: think it is that disruption that is getting us to

403
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Speaker 1: wake up and go, you, what's going on over there?

404
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,520
Speaker 1: I'm sitting over here, just existing from clapping because it

405
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: would mess up the sound. But yes, just yes, I

406
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:10,440
Speaker 1: feel it and I and I'm a fan of disruption

407
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: as well. Did you? Because I want I want to

408
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Speaker 1: keep going on this, but there's questions. I love to

409
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Speaker 1: ask people about their childhood, and I don't want to

410
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Speaker 1: miss them with you. Did you love disruption as a

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Speaker 1: kid too? Like, like, because you walk in the door,

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Speaker 1: you are a powerhouse, you are a voice, You are unintimidated,

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Speaker 1: you are passionate. Were you this way when you were ten? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Mm I like it. I wish I could have hung

415
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Speaker 1: out with you girl my siblings. Why did Aaron get

416
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Speaker 1: that or set? My My mom's like, let's squeaky will

417
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Speaker 1: gets to oil because I'd see it and I didn't

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Speaker 1: understand it, sort of ask a question. If you didn't

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Speaker 1: answer my question, I got more frustrate where you're not

420
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Speaker 1: answering my questions, so I would just stayed with it.

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Speaker 1: Now my mom is the one. Uh. Early on, I

422
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:09,679
Speaker 1: was already like this in high school. I wasn't understanding

423
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Speaker 1: why I was like it this, but I was getting

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Speaker 1: in trouble all the time because I was being disruptive

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Speaker 1: and I'd come home defeated, and my mom would always say, Aaron,

426
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 1: where's your stick? Tuitiveness? And I, in all my lectures,

427
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,879
Speaker 1: I always say this word because it changed everything for me.

428
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 1: Destitutiveness is a real word. It's not some slang thing.

429
00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 1: It's definition noun propensity to follow through in a determined manner,

430
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: dogged persistence, born of obligation and stubbornness. And I never

431
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 1: forgot that. And I took that word as the little

432
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,479
Speaker 1: engine that could. I think I can, I think I can.

433
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: I know I can, I know I can. And when

434
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 1: something's going on and it doesn't make sense, I stick

435
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: with and I'm gonna keep asking questions till I can

436
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: keep digging and find out what's going on. And I

437
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:57,920
Speaker 1: realized the more questions I asked, the more I dig,

438
00:26:57,960 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 1: the more disrupted by them, the more upset they're going,

439
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:05,480
Speaker 1: what do you got going on over there? Keep going so, uh,

440
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,560
Speaker 1: my mom, my dad? You know, my dad is the one.

441
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: I go, Yeah, I get so emotional about my mom

442
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:13,119
Speaker 1: and my dad, and I've lost both of them, and

443
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 1: I missed them greatly. My dad was a engineer. He

444
00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:23,200
Speaker 1: actually ran the pipelines for Texico, and he taught me

445
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:27,199
Speaker 1: what was going on, what he saw, and that the

446
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: most valuable gifts we have is our land, our air,

447
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 1: our water, and our right to good health. I never

448
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:43,200
Speaker 1: forgot it. And from that day forward, I mean even

449
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:45,119
Speaker 1: when I when I went out to and claim, like,

450
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 1: oh my god, everything my dad ever taught me is

451
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: what's wrong? Here the waters green, people are dying, animals

452
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: are covered in tumors, they're suffering. What's wrong? And then

453
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 1: here comes my mom? Where's your stick? Suitiveness? And all

454
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:06,639
Speaker 1: the memories of school in the box? Stay there and

455
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 1: don't question any And I just started punching. I just

456
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: started punching. It was guttural, and oftentimes I didn't break

457
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,199
Speaker 1: that box what I was doing or why I was

458
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:20,200
Speaker 1: doing it, but they were here's the thing I saw. Well,

459
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 1: I'm not alone in this feeling because they're not alone

460
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,159
Speaker 1: in this feeling because the same thing is happening to

461
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 1: them and we just don't always talk about it. But

462
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 1: once we were able to understand the vulnerabilities and the

463
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 1: flaws and accept that, but we could march on anyway.

464
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 1: We did. I love it. I fired up. What do

465
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: you talk? You talk so beautifully about your family dynamic

466
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: and and I'm curious, how how did you come up

467
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:55,240
Speaker 1: in your family? What did you want to be when

468
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 1: you grew up? What were what were you interested in

469
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 1: as a kid. I wanted to be a medical doctor,

470
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 1: and one told me I couldn't do it. And I'm

471
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:03,280
Speaker 1: telling you what, I'm good with numbers, and I could

472
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 1: have done it, but because everyone else, you know, my

473
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 1: mom taught me her And just because there's see you

474
00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: as you know, inferior, that just because you're different doesn't

475
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 1: make you inferior. And just because they're choosing to see

476
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: you that way isn't how you can choose to see yourself.

477
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 1: And that's just super important. Um. I just you know,

478
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: I have one of my own kids just have a

479
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 1: meltdown yesterday and I said, you know, how you're going

480
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 1: to get through this too much time is your reaction

481
00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: to it and how it is you see yourself responding

482
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: to it. And I think that's so key. And I

483
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: learned really early on that the obstacle and how I

484
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: was going to get through the dyslexia or what I

485
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: took in from my parents, or how I was going

486
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 1: to handle Hinkley or standing up for myself and saying

487
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 1: I need that job is going to come for me.

488
00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:12,480
Speaker 1: And whether it's just innate or it's learned, I think

489
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,080
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of both. And not everyone has

490
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: that desire, but when you when you talk to them

491
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 1: and listen to them and can communicate with them from

492
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: a place of understanding, we always put a wall up

493
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: because I mean, my gosh, it's this society we live

494
00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 1: in is really hard. Walk this way, talk this way,

495
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 1: look this way, be this way. What car do you drive?

496
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 1: How do you live? And if we don't see ourselves

497
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 1: that way, then we just recoil, we retract, We feel

498
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: bad about ourselves, we feel suppressed, we feel depressed. Um,

499
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: A lot of things happens, and so I really want

500
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: to get to the heart and soul of each individuals,

501
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 1: of how unique we are as individuals. And you don't

502
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,320
Speaker 1: have to be this or that to be a human

503
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 1: to feel good about yourself. I mean, I can't tell

504
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:05,120
Speaker 1: you how many times I heard in Hinckley, you're not

505
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 1: a doctor, you're not a lawyer, you're not a scientist,

506
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 1: you're not a politician. What do you know. I'm like,

507
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: I don't have to be any of that to be

508
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,959
Speaker 1: a human. And to tell you, people are suffering and

509
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 1: we and it's on us to do something about it. Right,

510
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:24,120
Speaker 1: And I think the awakening is we've we're all waking

511
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: up to that, that suppression, that pushback. We've all felt

512
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: that we we we all have so much more in

513
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,120
Speaker 1: common than not and I think we have so so

514
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:34,800
Speaker 1: many people think we don't have anything in common. Oh

515
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 1: yes we do, because when you strip us and get

516
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: us right down to the to the bones of it,

517
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 1: it is this planet we're on, it is the air,

518
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 1: it is the water. Without it, we do not survive.

519
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,360
Speaker 1: We all understand how. None of us want to lose

520
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:51,479
Speaker 1: our children, none of us want to die from cancer.

521
00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: It's the fear that exists in us. But when we

522
00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: could at least get real and strip away that mask

523
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: and be okay with the person that's behind it, yeah,

524
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: we come a long long way. When you talk about

525
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:10,040
Speaker 1: your experiences in Hinckley, that being your first, you know,

526
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 1: environmental case that you worked on. What was it like

527
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 1: to not be taken seriously for you? As you mentioned,

528
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 1: people say, you're not a doctor, you're not a lawyer,

529
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: you're not a scientist. And I know for me, when

530
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: somebody tells me what I don't know, and they have

531
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: no idea what I do know, and no idea how

532
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:30,200
Speaker 1: much research I do, and no idea where I learned

533
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 1: and no idea, it makes my blood well. I'm like, really,

534
00:32:34,040 --> 00:32:35,479
Speaker 1: you want to have a policy discussion with me, I'm

535
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:40,800
Speaker 1: gonna mop the floor with you. Let's go you know, like,

536
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: I'm just like, oh, really, this is gonna be fun.

537
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 1: How how were you dealing with it then, because at

538
00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 1: least now to your point, we're in a we're in

539
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 1: a moment in time where we are having conversations about

540
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: our relative oppression. What we know, you know, my experience

541
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: as a woman, You and I share that experience of oppression.

542
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:04,440
Speaker 1: I can't compare to the experience of the oppression of

543
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,520
Speaker 1: a person of color, but I understand what my oppression

544
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 1: feels like and how much I hate it. So I'm

545
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:11,080
Speaker 1: sure ships going to show up to fight their oppression.

546
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: You know, we we are connected in ways now and

547
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: I think especially because of this digital landscape. Yes, we

548
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 1: didn't used to be connected that way. It opened us

549
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 1: up and we could see, oh that is happening to you,

550
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 1: to you was the only one, Yes, And I'm curious

551
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 1: in that small town and in this in this experience

552
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 1: that you were in then, you know, having to go

553
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: and make photo copiers, on photo copies, on Xerox machines

554
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 1: of documents. There's you know, there's no scan it, there's

555
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: no take of an iPhone picture of it. And you're

556
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:48,560
Speaker 1: a young woman, a single mom who who Everyone wants

557
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: to say what you aren't in your face, but you're

558
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,959
Speaker 1: out there fighting anyway. What what's your experience in in

559
00:33:56,040 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 1: that era, Like, well, you know, I never got child support,

560
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: I never got any help from the kids as father's um.

561
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:10,399
Speaker 1: Thank God for my mom and my dad, and they'd

562
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 1: help where they could. But you know, my dad always

563
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:13,359
Speaker 1: sit there and you're gonna have to get to work,

564
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to rise up. And so I've never

565
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,839
Speaker 1: been afraid to ask questions. I wasn't afraid to call

566
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 1: someone and go, what the hell is this hex valent

567
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,359
Speaker 1: Chromian thing. I wasn't afraid to sit in a room

568
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:27,640
Speaker 1: like we're sitting here today with some plaintiffs and they'd

569
00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 1: asked me a question and I'm like, well, hell if

570
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,800
Speaker 1: I know, let's call the lawyers. I'm not afraid to

571
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,280
Speaker 1: tell you what I don't know. And I'm very opening

572
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,719
Speaker 1: to learning and to asking questions. And I think that

573
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 1: that was key. And at the time, I wasn't really

574
00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 1: asking the questions the way you and I are talking

575
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,280
Speaker 1: about it today, with this thought that it's an environmental issue.

576
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: I was hella curious about the animals. I was curious.

577
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: I'm like the trees are dying. This place should be flourishing.

578
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,320
Speaker 1: Animals are covering in tumors. I think that's kind of odd.

579
00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,360
Speaker 1: The people are sick. That makes no sense for mothers

580
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,399
Speaker 1: to make those stories up. So I was coming from

581
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 1: a place what if this were my children? What if

582
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 1: my child had a blood test result like the one

583
00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 1: that I was looking at with ROBERTA. Walker. That was

584
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,600
Speaker 1: easy enough for me to interpret because it was done

585
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:29,800
Speaker 1: on a you know, a bar graft. So the white

586
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 1: count is off the charts. Well, usually a white count

587
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 1: off the chart means there's a virus. So you're sick.

588
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 1: Why is the white count high? I would be scared

589
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:43,239
Speaker 1: if that was my child. So I was operating from

590
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:46,799
Speaker 1: that place, relating with them mom to mom, I'd be

591
00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:50,719
Speaker 1: scared too. So if in my spirit time I could

592
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:52,879
Speaker 1: look something up that I could share with that mother

593
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 1: that would help her no more. That was kind of

594
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,520
Speaker 1: the process that I was in. I was never in

595
00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 1: it knowing that any of this was going to happen.

596
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:06,839
Speaker 1: I was in it as a mom that would be

597
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:10,319
Speaker 1: terrified if this was my child, and I'd want to

598
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:15,879
Speaker 1: know why. And that's really where I was coming from.

599
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:17,759
Speaker 1: And then the deeper I got in it, the more

600
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: I realized, Okay, well there is really something going on here.

601
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,879
Speaker 1: Let me take it upon myself, even though I don't

602
00:36:24,960 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 1: have a pH d, to ask some questions about hecks

603
00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:31,840
Speaker 1: of valent chromium. And then I did. In all I

604
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:35,200
Speaker 1: needed to hear was it's a poison. A poison, as

605
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:37,360
Speaker 1: a poison, as a poison all damn day long, you

606
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,600
Speaker 1: drink a poison. And so I just came from those places,

607
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 1: and I think it's so important. We are afraid to

608
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:47,160
Speaker 1: ask questions. We're afraid to be, you know, oh, in

609
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:50,239
Speaker 1: the dumb one in class. And I was always that person. Um,

610
00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:52,960
Speaker 1: And if I didn't know, I asked. I don't know

611
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:55,960
Speaker 1: why we don't do that. And and I'm teaching that

612
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: with my communities now. If you don't speak up, I

613
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,959
Speaker 1: I don't know you're there. I don't know how to help.

614
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 1: And so a lot of its personal accountability that I

615
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,680
Speaker 1: think we're starting to see that we can ask those questions,

616
00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:12,320
Speaker 1: we should speak up, We can take ownership of ourselves

617
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,880
Speaker 1: are surroundings and absolutely say I think this is wrong.

618
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 1: You never know where it will take you. So more

619
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 1: often than not, I encourage people to say something. So

620
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 1: that's where I was. I I think this has been

621
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 1: the hardest thing for me to answer since that film

622
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 1: came out, and even today. How could you possibly find

623
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:41,120
Speaker 1: yourself here without that education, without that experience, without that knowledge.

624
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: And that's the one thing that we've moved away from

625
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 1: the most that's destroying us. Now, we've detached from ourselves

626
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:57,279
Speaker 1: and and what we know instinctually and the connection we

627
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:04,800
Speaker 1: have and the priority and understanding and value of water

628
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:09,520
Speaker 1: and land and help. That's it. And I just can't

629
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 1: get past that. And so when I do get around,

630
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:16,279
Speaker 1: you know, and I have to deal with arrogance all

631
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:19,400
Speaker 1: day long. And listen, we need science, But is it

632
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:24,040
Speaker 1: implores us to to question at this point? Because see

633
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 1: now it is us. And I learned this in the

634
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 1: BP oil spill. Those fishermen knew more about where that

635
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 1: oil was, when it was going to come in, and

636
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 1: what it was going to affect than any scientist that

637
00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 1: had been in school for twelve years. They lived it,

638
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:47,880
Speaker 1: they breathed it, they owned it, they knew it, and

639
00:38:47,920 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: they were rooted in it. And that's just where I

640
00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:56,279
Speaker 1: was in Hinckley. That's just where they were, and that

641
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:00,799
Speaker 1: is precisely what's going on in every community. And what

642
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 1: I think has empowered them even more, and you brought

643
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 1: it up, is this revolution of technology. So they Facebook.

644
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:10,359
Speaker 1: I can't see how many times I've had a group

645
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:12,760
Speaker 1: of women come to me and say, oh my gosh,

646
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:17,080
Speaker 1: we love Facebook. Everybody after high school graduated and moved away.

647
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:19,720
Speaker 1: We've all found each other now. But isn't it odd

648
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 1: we all have the same cancer. So then they'll come

649
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 1: to me and then we start looking at oh wow,

650
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:30,360
Speaker 1: your school was built on a Kodak landfill. What's the connection?

651
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,920
Speaker 1: And so it has been the social media and the

652
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:37,640
Speaker 1: facebooks and the technology where we can get information that's

653
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 1: been concealed from us faster than we've ever been able

654
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,280
Speaker 1: to get it before. So now we're connecting some dots,

655
00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:47,000
Speaker 1: and now we're connecting to each other. And now we're

656
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:53,800
Speaker 1: finding that empowerment again, especially in the collective voice. Um,

657
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: nobody wants to be the first person to put their

658
00:39:55,560 --> 00:39:58,080
Speaker 1: hand up in the room and be wrong, right, But

659
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,279
Speaker 1: I'm so used to it. I am, I know, but

660
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:04,719
Speaker 1: I love that courage. I mean, we we do. We

661
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:06,920
Speaker 1: live in a world that one of them. I think

662
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,360
Speaker 1: the downfalls of technology is that it looks like everybody's

663
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: life is perfect but ours, and so everybody thinks, well,

664
00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 1: if I'm the one who's screwing up for the one

665
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:16,680
Speaker 1: who's falling behind, I don't want to tell anybody, And

666
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 1: so we do keep quiet about a lot of the

667
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:22,279
Speaker 1: things that if we shared them could help us. And

668
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:24,920
Speaker 1: I love that that in the rooms that you're in,

669
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: you encourage people to do that, because the minute one

670
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:32,719
Speaker 1: person shares, everybody shares, and then everything changes absolutely. And

671
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:36,560
Speaker 1: we're taught that vulnerabilities are bad. I think it's your

672
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:41,600
Speaker 1: flaws and your vulnerabilities that you need to embrace that

673
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 1: can be your greatest successes. I tell people, I don't

674
00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 1: know if I can cuss on these things, but if

675
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:47,839
Speaker 1: you really do what sucked up I was, you'd never

676
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 1: show up to a lecture. I mean, but I'm flawed.

677
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:57,759
Speaker 1: We all are, absolutely, yeah, But I think that's what

678
00:40:57,800 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: makes us so beautiful. And I wish we'd stop running

679
00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:03,719
Speaker 1: away from it. And I get very emotional about that.

680
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: I see my own children struggle with it, and I

681
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,920
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm like, I can't, I'm not reaching you, and

682
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 1: then you have to learn themselves. But I'd rather really

683
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 1: be flawed than just be this false ilustion of something

684
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,839
Speaker 1: you're not, and I think that breaks us down more

685
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,879
Speaker 1: than anything. It's okay. And so it's like my mom

686
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: always said, you know, just because you're different doesn't mean

687
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:35,160
Speaker 1: you're inferior. And we like to everybody's different, and we

688
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,759
Speaker 1: like to label somebody else who's different. You know, oh, well,

689
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:39,839
Speaker 1: therefore your this or that. But you know that really

690
00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:43,200
Speaker 1: comes from my own insecurities, and I just think if

691
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: we can own them and love them, we might be

692
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 1: a little better off. Like that in the space between

693
00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:59,799
Speaker 1: the fight in Hanley and the kind of advocacy that

694
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:01,799
Speaker 1: you do now, and I want to get into that.

695
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:04,799
Speaker 1: Can you tell everybody listening where did where did your

696
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,880
Speaker 1: career go? What happened? Did you stay at the firm?

697
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:10,840
Speaker 1: What did you start working on? Because you got inside

698
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 1: of one of the biggest legal cases of of our

699
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 1: lifetimes and the legal expertise that you gained on the

700
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:26,719
Speaker 1: job is not to be questioned. And I'm curious, how

701
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:30,279
Speaker 1: did that open up a career path for you? Well,

702
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting. At masre used to always say, kids,

703
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,640
Speaker 1: someday you're going to be a keynote speaker. UM. It

704
00:42:35,800 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: came very easy to me. I like being with the community. UM.

705
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 1: We'd always have these community meetings and you know, there's

706
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:44,440
Speaker 1: a stage and Ed and everybody to sit up there,

707
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:48,719
Speaker 1: and Ed's constantly like, he goes, where's Aaron? And I'd

708
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:50,880
Speaker 1: be in the audience and he asked me, he goes,

709
00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 1: what are you doing there? I said, I'm not gonna

710
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:53,480
Speaker 1: sit up there with you. I'm gonna sit out there

711
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:59,040
Speaker 1: with the people where the people uh. And that's I'm

712
00:42:59,200 --> 00:43:02,840
Speaker 1: I've I just don't ever see why you have to

713
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 1: sit up on a pedestal at you know, I could

714
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 1: break out into Beatles songs, I am you, you or me?

715
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:16,640
Speaker 1: We are all together. So since then I naturally went

716
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 1: into um more speaking when the film came out. Not

717
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: before the film, I was terrified the first offer I

718
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:28,839
Speaker 1: had up in Canada with unique lives and experiences, and

719
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:33,319
Speaker 1: so I got a writer to help me, and he

720
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:35,759
Speaker 1: was like, how did you get here? And we talked

721
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:39,359
Speaker 1: about stick to, We talked about dyslexia, we talked about

722
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:41,640
Speaker 1: moments of my frustration. I crying because that's what you

723
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:45,960
Speaker 1: talk about. Be you and I didn't have to go

724
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,720
Speaker 1: because I immediately felt oh, my god, I'm not a doctor.

725
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:51,319
Speaker 1: Move fland a lull and it's just be you. It's

726
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,640
Speaker 1: so hard to be you. Why should it be so

727
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: hard to be who you are? And it's just all

728
00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:58,839
Speaker 1: these parameters around is walk this way, talk this way,

729
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:00,719
Speaker 1: be this way, look this way, blah blah blah blah

730
00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:03,359
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah. Is the noises in your head.

731
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:09,000
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, my gosh. And so after that, I

732
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: was already working on the Kettleman case, which was exactly

733
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,880
Speaker 1: like Hinckley. That case took ten years to settle. It

734
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:19,880
Speaker 1: settled for three d and thirty five million dollars. It

735
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:23,320
Speaker 1: is in the San Joaquin Valley out by Kettleman City.

736
00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 1: So I was onto Pacific Gas and Electric from Hinckley

737
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:34,880
Speaker 1: from the Kettleman situation to Topac where all their gas

738
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:39,399
Speaker 1: compressor plants were had big hex valent chromium issues. So

739
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:44,200
Speaker 1: after Hinckley, I did the Kettleman case, I continued to

740
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:47,959
Speaker 1: do more and more. Speaking um, we did the whole

741
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:51,800
Speaker 1: chromium six blue Ribbon panel scandal, which is in my book.

742
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:55,439
Speaker 1: After the film came out, Governor Davis at the time

743
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 1: set up a panel to create the first ever look

744
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:03,680
Speaker 1: at and possible maximum contaminant limits for hex valent chromium

745
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:06,160
Speaker 1: and drinking water because there wasn't one. There are no

746
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 1: limits on this chemical in California. There still isn't and

747
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 1: twenty year fight. That's another long story where the we're

748
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:16,840
Speaker 1: supposed to be following the public health goal. We have

749
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 1: about eighty eight thousand chemicals hitting the marketplace and we

750
00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:25,719
Speaker 1: do everything asked backwards. The best way to explain it

751
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:30,560
Speaker 1: is p f o A. The Teflon uh I did

752
00:45:30,880 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 1: a documentary with Morgan Spurlock on the devil we know.

753
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:38,840
Speaker 1: Dark Waters just came out with Mark Ruffalo playing the

754
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:42,280
Speaker 1: attorney Rob Buloit, who took down DuPont after twenty years

755
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:45,239
Speaker 1: on the chemical p fo A, which we all know

756
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,680
Speaker 1: is Teflon. What we don't understand we know, but the

757
00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:52,839
Speaker 1: general public doesn't, but they're learning it is. We've said

758
00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:55,040
Speaker 1: for ten years it's gonna be the largest emergent contaminant

759
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:58,319
Speaker 1: in our municipal water and aquifers today, and it is.

760
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 1: And when I talk about the thousand chemicals hitting the marketplace,

761
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:06,360
Speaker 1: to understand what's happening, to let me explain the p

762
00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:10,160
Speaker 1: f o A. It was created by three M, and

763
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:14,279
Speaker 1: it is three thousand chemicals under one family group p

764
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 1: f c S. So you have like p fo A,

765
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:19,080
Speaker 1: which is a tefl on side of it. You have

766
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:22,480
Speaker 1: the p FAUS which is the firefighting foam side of it,

767
00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:28,239
Speaker 1: which it is ev And I mean, listen, this is

768
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:34,400
Speaker 1: not about panic. This is just a fact. It's everywhere.

769
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:38,440
Speaker 1: And so three M notified the e p A some

770
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:42,839
Speaker 1: years ago. This is a bad actor. Getting it out

771
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,879
Speaker 1: of the environment is nearly impossible, and keep your eye

772
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:49,400
Speaker 1: on it. So here's what e p A did. And

773
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 1: again without this isn't I can't express it enough. Placing

774
00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:57,919
Speaker 1: blame any of us, could blame anybody for everything that's

775
00:46:57,960 --> 00:46:59,920
Speaker 1: gone wrong. But where the hell is that going to

776
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:02,879
Speaker 1: get us. Let's just talk about what it is, where

777
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:04,719
Speaker 1: we are, how we're gonna, how we're gonna go for it,

778
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,239
Speaker 1: what's the solution to this? And so the e p

779
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 1: A and here's how the system operates. They were notified.

780
00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:16,520
Speaker 1: So they said we will set a guideline, not a

781
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:20,759
Speaker 1: maximum contaminant limit, which is by law, a guideline for

782
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:23,480
Speaker 1: this chemical, not knowing what it does or doesn't do

783
00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:27,400
Speaker 1: in the environment at four parts per troying where that

784
00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:30,480
Speaker 1: number came from I don't know, but that's what they picked.

785
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:33,879
Speaker 1: So now every municipality in this country, and there's over

786
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 1: eighty thousand of them, can run this chemical through their

787
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:41,720
Speaker 1: system up to four parts per troying through their drinking

788
00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:46,239
Speaker 1: water up to four parts per troy And so if

789
00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:49,799
Speaker 1: it's three parts per troying, you don't have to report it.

790
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:55,280
Speaker 1: Life goes on. Then the e p A commissions a study.

791
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:57,759
Speaker 1: So for every chemical in the marketplace, they have to

792
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:00,440
Speaker 1: commission a study to find out whether it or doesn't

793
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,640
Speaker 1: cause cancer. That costs millions and millions and millions of

794
00:48:03,640 --> 00:48:07,920
Speaker 1: dollars per chemical, takes ten fift twenty years to conclude.

795
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:11,040
Speaker 1: So we put the chemicals in our drinking water and

796
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:14,160
Speaker 1: then let people poison or not poison themselves for the

797
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:17,359
Speaker 1: next twenty years, and then we go, oops, we poisoned you,

798
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 1: or looks like we did. Okay, that's exactly what happens.

799
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 1: Seems like a great way to do things. I'm obviously

800
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:26,359
Speaker 1: being sarcastic. Absolutely a great way to do things. That's

801
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:30,520
Speaker 1: why I said it is so asked backwards, um, and

802
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 1: so e p A does this study, and about four

803
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 1: years ago science caught up with what I call policies. Houston,

804
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:43,360
Speaker 1: we have a problem. This chemical can cause up to

805
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 1: twelve different cancers. So what does E. P A do. Oh,

806
00:48:49,160 --> 00:48:51,799
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to drastically reduce this four parts per

807
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:54,719
Speaker 1: try until let's uh stay seventy again. I don't know

808
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:56,960
Speaker 1: where they're getting their numbers from. So now they have

809
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 1: to notifile the municipalities. You've got a lower your p

810
00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 1: F O A S to seventy parts per traying And

811
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:06,520
Speaker 1: they're like, what, we do not have the budget. We

812
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 1: have no bond money to put on the appropriate filtrations

813
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 1: to keep this chemical out at that level. So the

814
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:16,440
Speaker 1: science keeps coming in and it's getting worse, and science

815
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:20,040
Speaker 1: is getting hidden, and now states are going, wait a minute,

816
00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:22,320
Speaker 1: we're gonna drop it to twelve. I think the CDC

817
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:23,839
Speaker 1: is gonna come out and say it's going to be

818
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:28,000
Speaker 1: below five. So what happens on my end is now

819
00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:33,279
Speaker 1: the municipalities have to notify all the consumers. Every multiple

820
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 1: cities in every single state in the United States of

821
00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:37,879
Speaker 1: America is writing me, is that's why my son has

822
00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:40,640
Speaker 1: testicular cancer? Is this why I lost my daughter to

823
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:44,040
Speaker 1: the thyroid cancer? Is this and that and I'm literally

824
00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:48,000
Speaker 1: my computers are about ready to crash. I'm like, oh

825
00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: my god, what are we thinking? So the horses left

826
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:56,759
Speaker 1: the barn. Well, it's odd to me that we'd be

827
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:01,000
Speaker 1: allowed to subject our city is in read to chemical

828
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,560
Speaker 1: exposure without knowing what those chemicals do. I don't understand

829
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:08,320
Speaker 1: why the baseline rule isn't no chemicals in our water.

830
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:13,520
Speaker 1: That that's what's crazy to me. And of course, of course,

831
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:15,440
Speaker 1: but common sense would tell you that when there's a

832
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:18,000
Speaker 1: water crisis, we'd fix it. And I mean, you wrote

833
00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:21,480
Speaker 1: in sixteen, you wrote about the lid getting blown off

834
00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:25,560
Speaker 1: of Flint, and and you said something in your article

835
00:50:26,239 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 1: that I loved. You said, these issues don't see any

836
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: boundaries of rich or poor, black or white, Republican or Democrat.

837
00:50:33,200 --> 00:50:35,719
Speaker 1: All kinds of people everywhere are being taken advantage of.

838
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:38,440
Speaker 1: There is this false sense of security that we've all

839
00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:41,160
Speaker 1: been lulled into, and only now are people actually waking

840
00:50:41,239 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 1: up to reality. An e p A officials stated that quote,

841
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:47,400
Speaker 1: Flint was not worth going out on a limb for

842
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:51,640
Speaker 1: unquote the fact that someone from a government agency could

843
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:55,120
Speaker 1: so flippantly refer to the welfare of the American people

844
00:50:56,080 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 1: and that was. It's there's still brown water coming out

845
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 1: of pipes and foot And to your point, municipalities and

846
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:08,200
Speaker 1: the government are saying, we don't have the money for this,

847
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:11,320
Speaker 1: We don't have the The estimates in Flint are between

848
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:14,280
Speaker 1: eighty five and a hundred and sixty five million dollars

849
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:17,680
Speaker 1: to repair the city's water pipes, replace them, change the

850
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:22,200
Speaker 1: filtration systems. Yet the President of the United States can

851
00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:26,080
Speaker 1: joke in in under two seconds, I approved three trillion

852
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:30,280
Speaker 1: for the military. We have the money, but we're spending

853
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,320
Speaker 1: it ordering fighter planes we don't need, instead of spending

854
00:51:33,320 --> 00:51:36,880
Speaker 1: it on human beings in this country, their health and welfare,

855
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:40,319
Speaker 1: and and the preservation of our water supply. And and

856
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: you said it, without water, we're done. We're done. And

857
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:47,160
Speaker 1: the fact that so much of our water is so

858
00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:53,400
Speaker 1: full of chemicals like this, I I just can't fathom

859
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,480
Speaker 1: that it's allowed. And we all for so many years

860
00:51:56,480 --> 00:51:59,840
Speaker 1: have thought, well, someone's making rules about this, But no,

861
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:02,879
Speaker 1: nobody with any sense is making rules about this. So

862
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:06,759
Speaker 1: I wonder, what, knowing everything that you know, and having

863
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:11,160
Speaker 1: done this work now for the last thirty years, what

864
00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:13,120
Speaker 1: what do you say to the people who are listening

865
00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:16,279
Speaker 1: to this who are mad as hell, who are as

866
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:22,200
Speaker 1: fired up as we are. How do average everyday Americans,

867
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:26,560
Speaker 1: like everybody in this work in progress community I call

868
00:52:26,719 --> 00:52:30,000
Speaker 1: my whip smarties because they're smart. Um, how do all

869
00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:34,720
Speaker 1: these smart humans start getting active and start making noise

870
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:38,440
Speaker 1: in their communities to change this? Because if if we

871
00:52:38,480 --> 00:52:41,680
Speaker 1: don't apply the public pressure, the elected officials are certainly

872
00:52:41,719 --> 00:52:43,880
Speaker 1: never going to turn their backs on the corporations paying

873
00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:46,799
Speaker 1: them handouts, not gonna do it for us. So we

874
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:50,000
Speaker 1: have to make them. So what do we do about this? Well,

875
00:52:50,080 --> 00:52:53,319
Speaker 1: it starts at a really very local level. Everything we've

876
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:58,760
Speaker 1: been talking about again is this awakening is recognizing what

877
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:03,839
Speaker 1: that oppressions, oppression, anything that faults illusion has been and

878
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:07,879
Speaker 1: grabbing our own voice and speaking up oftentimes, and I've

879
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:11,719
Speaker 1: seen it happen over and over again. Again, what did

880
00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:14,120
Speaker 1: I say? You know, we can't blame everybody for everything

881
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:17,960
Speaker 1: that just gets us nowhere, So let's just not do that, UM.

882
00:53:18,239 --> 00:53:22,319
Speaker 1: City council members. Oftentimes I don't know what's going on

883
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:26,239
Speaker 1: because nobody in the community is coming in and telling them, Hey,

884
00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:30,799
Speaker 1: what's going on, perfect example Carson City, And we've got

885
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:33,160
Speaker 1: so many situations. I mean, people don't even realize we're

886
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:38,880
Speaker 1: delivering bottled water to South l A. And right underneath

887
00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:41,200
Speaker 1: our nose, because it's not drinking bottled water to Carson

888
00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:44,160
Speaker 1: right now, not Carson, but another area in South l A.

889
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:46,680
Speaker 1: I mean, my gosh, wait till you see some of

890
00:53:46,719 --> 00:53:49,759
Speaker 1: the pictures coming out of Guardena, California is as black

891
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:54,840
Speaker 1: as that coffee cup. And in Carson, Shell had a

892
00:53:54,840 --> 00:53:59,080
Speaker 1: big tank farm and it leaked into the environment and

893
00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:05,600
Speaker 1: it was literally tank farm, and all this crude was

894
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:09,480
Speaker 1: bubbling up in people's backyards full of benzie. Their kids

895
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:13,600
Speaker 1: were sick, and everyone was telling them this, fine, we'll

896
00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:15,520
Speaker 1: clean it up, don't worry about it, dad. But no

897
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:18,280
Speaker 1: one stopped to think, has anyone been to city council

898
00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:21,880
Speaker 1: to talk about this? So we get involved. Lawsuit gets involved.

899
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:26,600
Speaker 1: We go to a city council meeting and they said, okay, well,

900
00:54:26,840 --> 00:54:28,560
Speaker 1: as meaning a journe there's no one here, and we said,

901
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 1: we'll wait a minute. We have a few people from

902
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:32,719
Speaker 1: Carson that would like to come talk to you. There

903
00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:36,359
Speaker 1: was thousands of them that we bust in and each

904
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 1: one of them got to speak, and what they brought

905
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:41,480
Speaker 1: with them was a fake stuffed guinea pig, because they

906
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:44,440
Speaker 1: felt like they were the guinea pig, and their children

907
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:48,240
Speaker 1: with cancers and illness wrote their stories out and safety

908
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:52,240
Speaker 1: pend them. There was a pile halfway to the ceiling

909
00:54:52,760 --> 00:54:55,640
Speaker 1: in the many middle of these council chambers, and I

910
00:54:55,719 --> 00:54:59,960
Speaker 1: have to tell you, if they were acting there, they

911
00:55:00,080 --> 00:55:04,920
Speaker 1: would have should have won an oscar. They had no

912
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:10,279
Speaker 1: idea that this was happening to the people, because the

913
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:15,400
Speaker 1: people hadn't said anything to them. The next day mandatory

914
00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:19,200
Speaker 1: mandated on it, clean up orders, and I see this

915
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 1: happening everywhere. And this again, I'm not sure what the

916
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:28,480
Speaker 1: guideline is that we're supposed to have to run for office,

917
00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:32,680
Speaker 1: and we think, there again, that's that box, and so

918
00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:37,040
Speaker 1: we don't even therefore try. Hannibal, Missouri is another perfect

919
00:55:37,080 --> 00:55:40,120
Speaker 1: example that we talk about. A group of mothers came

920
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:42,120
Speaker 1: to us. You know what, they had lead levels higher

921
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:46,239
Speaker 1: than flint. Oh my god, And let's talk. I'll get

922
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:48,240
Speaker 1: to that in a minute, about the policies with Flint

923
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:49,920
Speaker 1: and how they've changed. But that's what we're going to

924
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:52,000
Speaker 1: have to get busy doing. And this is the excitement,

925
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:55,359
Speaker 1: especially for the younger generations, for the area of law

926
00:55:55,440 --> 00:55:58,160
Speaker 1: for the area of policy, for politics, for the environment,

927
00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:01,680
Speaker 1: all of it. All our policies that we wrote back then.

928
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:07,560
Speaker 1: We're all good and well, but they don't service today

929
00:56:07,920 --> 00:56:11,240
Speaker 1: or make us sustainable moving forward. They have to change.

930
00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:14,239
Speaker 1: And this is where there's the excitement that we get

931
00:56:14,280 --> 00:56:16,160
Speaker 1: to do that. We can see it and we get

932
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:20,680
Speaker 1: to do that. So Hannibal, Missouri lead levels higher than flint.

933
00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:23,359
Speaker 1: We went out there and educated them on why that

934
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:27,120
Speaker 1: was happening, because they were adding ammonia to the chlorine

935
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:31,920
Speaker 1: and they were creating a caustic water. And so eighteen

936
00:56:31,960 --> 00:56:37,560
Speaker 1: million miles of our distribution systems are lead pipes. So

937
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,480
Speaker 1: people realize when you turn your tap on, it doesn't

938
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:43,719
Speaker 1: just come from the municipality turning tap on and boom

939
00:56:43,719 --> 00:56:47,640
Speaker 1: there it is. It's going through miles of distribution from

940
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:51,000
Speaker 1: point A to get to point B. Well, those distribution

941
00:56:51,080 --> 00:56:54,560
Speaker 1: systems are unregulated. Nobody knows what's going on in there.

942
00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:58,759
Speaker 1: So when you add ammonia to chlorination, you render chlorination

943
00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:03,560
Speaker 1: less effective. You create a caustic water system and one

944
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:07,359
Speaker 1: where bacteria can grow and they love that. They will

945
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:11,000
Speaker 1: just feed on itself in there, and it's corrosive. So

946
00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:16,720
Speaker 1: the iron leaches out iron, lead, magnesium precipitates all of

947
00:57:16,760 --> 00:57:19,680
Speaker 1: that out into the distribution system straight to your top.

948
00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:23,479
Speaker 1: So they were drinking these horribly high levels of lead

949
00:57:23,760 --> 00:57:27,240
Speaker 1: now up until recently. And we shouldn't be drinking ammonia

950
00:57:27,480 --> 00:57:30,280
Speaker 1: or chlorine in the first place. We need to chlorinate water.

951
00:57:30,560 --> 00:57:32,960
Speaker 1: So here I'll give you a very quick less in water,

952
00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:38,960
Speaker 1: one on one, all of our water. But this is

953
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 1: the fun of once we understand it, then we take action,

954
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:45,400
Speaker 1: and people think it's water. See you're saying you're sweating it.

955
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:48,000
Speaker 1: You can't understand it, and I know you, and you will.

956
00:57:48,080 --> 00:57:50,320
Speaker 1: You're gonna. I'm gonna come back in here and go,

957
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:55,280
Speaker 1: I can't believe ya. You did that. Um. We get

958
00:57:55,320 --> 00:57:59,200
Speaker 1: up most of our water from surface water and rivers, creeks,

959
00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 1: t tributar, tear is, you know, and depending on times

960
00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:05,120
Speaker 1: a year, we also get water from our aquifer systems.

961
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:09,280
Speaker 1: So with most of it being surface water, when that

962
00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:15,000
Speaker 1: water comes into the municipality is called organic matter. Organic

963
00:58:15,080 --> 00:58:21,520
Speaker 1: matter is what dirt, fish vomit, deer poop, not sure,

964
00:58:21,960 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 1: but organic matter. So we don't have you col outbreaks.

965
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:29,640
Speaker 1: We treat that with chlorination. We have to. It's a

966
00:58:29,680 --> 00:58:33,360
Speaker 1: double edged sword. But what we don't understand is when

967
00:58:33,480 --> 00:58:38,240
Speaker 1: organic matter and chlorination meet, they create a very toxic

968
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:42,840
Speaker 1: compound called try hollow methanes, which are highly regulated by

969
00:58:42,840 --> 00:58:46,439
Speaker 1: the Safe Drinking Water Act. So once their try hollow

970
00:58:46,480 --> 00:58:49,320
Speaker 1: methanes go off, they have to begin the process of

971
00:58:49,360 --> 00:58:53,440
Speaker 1: balancing it, putting on the right filtration systems and keeping

972
00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:58,600
Speaker 1: that THHM in order. And oftentimes they can't and then

973
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:01,480
Speaker 1: that means they need to put on the appropriate filtration

974
00:59:01,600 --> 00:59:05,600
Speaker 1: system to control this. They don't have the money, so

975
00:59:05,640 --> 00:59:08,320
Speaker 1: we came up with this great idea to add ammonia

976
00:59:08,560 --> 00:59:11,640
Speaker 1: to the system as a way to balance the th

977
00:59:11,880 --> 00:59:15,520
Speaker 1: h m s, which just creates another problem. Right, this

978
00:59:15,640 --> 00:59:18,480
Speaker 1: is all so wild to me because if we just

979
00:59:18,920 --> 00:59:21,600
Speaker 1: sat and said what we should do is update the

980
00:59:21,600 --> 00:59:25,400
Speaker 1: water system, we should nationwide invest a couple of billion

981
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:30,240
Speaker 1: dollars in doing this, create infrastructure and jobs that could

982
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:31,960
Speaker 1: a trill and easy. By the way, if we have

983
00:59:32,000 --> 00:59:34,040
Speaker 1: three trillion dollars for the military, we should have a

984
00:59:34,040 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 1: trillion dollars for water. Well. Our infrastructures are failing. And

985
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:42,560
Speaker 1: if our infrastructures fail and we can't have clean water

986
00:59:42,840 --> 00:59:45,840
Speaker 1: and PGNs solution to when the wind blows is shut

987
00:59:45,840 --> 00:59:48,360
Speaker 1: the power down. We're third world. I know no one

988
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:51,200
Speaker 1: wants to hear that. But here's the thing, m I'm

989
00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:53,680
Speaker 1: going to keep talking. We're better than that. We can

990
00:59:53,760 --> 00:59:57,280
Speaker 1: address these issues. We are innovator address them. America is

991
00:59:57,320 --> 01:00:00,320
Speaker 1: an innovative country. We would be doing that so and

992
01:00:00,640 --> 01:00:03,880
Speaker 1: it makes me crazy looking at the way that we

993
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:06,840
Speaker 1: do and don't spend money here because again I don't

994
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:09,200
Speaker 1: say we're spending three trillion on the military to harp

995
01:00:09,240 --> 01:00:12,960
Speaker 1: on servicemen and women. I I am a proponent of

996
01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:16,560
Speaker 1: anyone who serves their country. I support those people. What

997
01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 1: upsets me is they're not getting they're not getting any

998
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:22,160
Speaker 1: of that investment. We're building bombers we don't need. We

999
01:00:22,200 --> 01:00:27,000
Speaker 1: already have enough. We're wasting money on toys because the

1000
01:00:27,040 --> 01:00:29,240
Speaker 1: current president of the United States, and forgive me if

1001
01:00:29,280 --> 01:00:31,360
Speaker 1: you don't agree with my personal opinion, is a child

1002
01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:38,040
Speaker 1: who wants to have a tank parade every weekend. You know, wonderful. Well,

1003
01:00:38,080 --> 01:00:40,360
Speaker 1: here we are welcome to the trust, to the tree

1004
01:00:40,400 --> 01:00:44,840
Speaker 1: of trust. But it's like we can't be wasteful when

1005
01:00:44,920 --> 01:00:48,000
Speaker 1: when lives are on the line, and lives are on

1006
01:00:48,080 --> 01:00:52,800
Speaker 1: the line here and and I'm so grateful for the

1007
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:56,080
Speaker 1: the deep science knowledge that you have and that it's

1008
01:00:56,120 --> 01:00:59,160
Speaker 1: practically applied, because to your point, when it's just a science,

1009
01:00:59,200 --> 01:01:02,880
Speaker 1: when it's science and estimation, like it was, I, I

1010
01:01:02,920 --> 01:01:05,160
Speaker 1: was down in Louisiana. I was on the Gulf Shores

1011
01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:08,400
Speaker 1: three weeks after the BPS bill. We probably walked right

1012
01:01:08,440 --> 01:01:10,800
Speaker 1: past each other. I was right down there on Orange Beach.

1013
01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:12,800
Speaker 1: I'm sure I was getting in a fight with the sheriffs.

1014
01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:14,160
Speaker 1: They were telling me I wasn't allowed to be there,

1015
01:01:14,160 --> 01:01:17,440
Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to have a camera crew I had

1016
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:20,240
Speaker 1: was I had two environmental attorneys with me who were

1017
01:01:20,280 --> 01:01:23,360
Speaker 1: like citing legal code, saying that essentially they were enacting

1018
01:01:23,360 --> 01:01:25,760
Speaker 1: martial law and public punishing us when you know they

1019
01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:28,520
Speaker 1: were protecting the polluters. It was. It was a weekend

1020
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:30,640
Speaker 1: of fighting, and I loved every minute of it. But

1021
01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:33,280
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time with the fishermen down there,

1022
01:01:33,440 --> 01:01:38,560
Speaker 1: and and they knew, but they know, they knew, they

1023
01:01:38,600 --> 01:01:43,240
Speaker 1: know connected people who are connected no to their land,

1024
01:01:43,440 --> 01:01:47,320
Speaker 1: to their water, and and and when when science says no,

1025
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:48,960
Speaker 1: it's not going to be as bad, and they're saying,

1026
01:01:48,960 --> 01:01:51,080
Speaker 1: trust me, trust us, it's going to be worse. They know,

1027
01:01:51,720 --> 01:01:53,440
Speaker 1: and it's crazy to me that we didn't listen to

1028
01:01:53,480 --> 01:01:56,120
Speaker 1: them then. And it's crazy to me that, as we

1029
01:01:56,200 --> 01:02:01,240
Speaker 1: have seen the protests at Standing Rock, our indigenous communities,

1030
01:02:01,320 --> 01:02:04,520
Speaker 1: Indigenous people's make up five of the global population, and

1031
01:02:04,520 --> 01:02:09,720
Speaker 1: they protect of our bio diversity. The fact that we,

1032
01:02:10,160 --> 01:02:14,080
Speaker 1: as Americans who live these big, beautiful lives on land

1033
01:02:14,120 --> 01:02:18,000
Speaker 1: we took from the stewards of that land, won't listen

1034
01:02:18,080 --> 01:02:24,160
Speaker 1: to them. I'm I'm apoplectic about it. And and when

1035
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:28,479
Speaker 1: they say nie a joni, which I'm probably mispronouncing, water

1036
01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:32,520
Speaker 1: is life, how do we not understand that that is true?

1037
01:02:33,360 --> 01:02:37,200
Speaker 1: How do we allow the United States military to shoot

1038
01:02:37,400 --> 01:02:40,479
Speaker 1: water cannons? The irony of wasting water in a fight

1039
01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:42,480
Speaker 1: over water? It is not lost on me to shoot

1040
01:02:42,560 --> 01:02:45,440
Speaker 1: water cannons at these protesters trying to protect water for

1041
01:02:45,560 --> 01:02:49,919
Speaker 1: all of us, in freezing temperatures, making people suffer hypothermia

1042
01:02:50,200 --> 01:02:54,040
Speaker 1: in the dead of winter. What do we do? What

1043
01:02:54,080 --> 01:02:57,840
Speaker 1: do we do about that? How do we show up

1044
01:02:57,880 --> 01:03:02,200
Speaker 1: and listen to the fisherman and to our indigenous communities better?

1045
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:06,080
Speaker 1: How do we advocate better? Because I'm sure, like me,

1046
01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:09,080
Speaker 1: you were watching those protests going down on TV and

1047
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:14,440
Speaker 1: watching those people being assaulted, contact with you know, Cody,

1048
01:03:14,480 --> 01:03:17,040
Speaker 1: two Bears and them right up there in that fight.

1049
01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:26,840
Speaker 1: It's arrogance. Um, it's egos and man's biggest stumbling block.

1050
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:28,320
Speaker 1: And that's why I say, you know, if you just

1051
01:03:28,360 --> 01:03:32,520
Speaker 1: get out of your own way, and they know. And

1052
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:37,880
Speaker 1: we're getting closer than we've ever been before. Again, we'll

1053
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:41,680
Speaker 1: talk about technology opening us up more and more groups

1054
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:45,600
Speaker 1: coming together. We have more comfortablelity we still haven't had

1055
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:48,640
Speaker 1: in my opinion, No, we do with climate issues, but

1056
01:03:48,760 --> 01:03:51,959
Speaker 1: not on water. That revolution that it's going to take.

1057
01:03:52,400 --> 01:03:55,240
Speaker 1: What are we possibly thinking. I'm talking to somebody the

1058
01:03:55,280 --> 01:03:58,720
Speaker 1: other day about well, how does water associate with climate change?

1059
01:03:58,760 --> 01:04:03,480
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, okay, first of all, it's environmental

1060
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:06,360
Speaker 1: air and water. It's their environment. We can't live without either.

1061
01:04:07,440 --> 01:04:11,640
Speaker 1: And in climate changes, we have more ice melts and

1062
01:04:12,440 --> 01:04:17,040
Speaker 1: more water rising. It's water rising, more hurricanes, more rain,

1063
01:04:17,320 --> 01:04:21,560
Speaker 1: more floods, it's water. It's the whole environment is off balance,

1064
01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:26,560
Speaker 1: and it will take all of us to wake up

1065
01:04:26,680 --> 01:04:30,240
Speaker 1: and were I think we're there. Has a huge revolution

1066
01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:35,440
Speaker 1: happened on the waterfront like we're seeing happening with climate.

1067
01:04:36,120 --> 01:04:39,040
Speaker 1: It's coming. We're they're just being here today and having

1068
01:04:39,040 --> 01:04:43,960
Speaker 1: this conversation and more and more people having access to

1069
01:04:44,160 --> 01:04:48,280
Speaker 1: understanding what's going on, and literally more and more people,

1070
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:50,600
Speaker 1: here's my black water, here's my brand will I've see

1071
01:04:50,640 --> 01:04:53,360
Speaker 1: it's hitting home for them. So it's becoming very very real,

1072
01:04:54,440 --> 01:04:57,840
Speaker 1: and the communities are there. We try to share that

1073
01:04:58,000 --> 01:05:02,120
Speaker 1: and inspiration back to Hannibal that we educated the women

1074
01:05:02,160 --> 01:05:05,160
Speaker 1: as to why this was happening. They and as well,

1075
01:05:05,200 --> 01:05:08,320
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna stay Ten times out of ten,

1076
01:05:08,400 --> 01:05:11,040
Speaker 1: it's usually a mom. I was gonna mad about something.

1077
01:05:11,520 --> 01:05:17,200
Speaker 1: She's mad. Mom's no, don't bullshit me. And it was

1078
01:05:17,280 --> 01:05:20,280
Speaker 1: the mother's and they were mad. So they went door

1079
01:05:20,320 --> 01:05:23,080
Speaker 1: to door and they were educating the town. They wanted

1080
01:05:23,120 --> 01:05:25,160
Speaker 1: to do more, so they said, what can we do

1081
01:05:25,360 --> 01:05:29,280
Speaker 1: back to our original story here about getting involved in

1082
01:05:29,440 --> 01:05:34,360
Speaker 1: local politics. So many of our policies are passed right

1083
01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:37,720
Speaker 1: at that level. So we said, once you run for office,

1084
01:05:37,760 --> 01:05:40,120
Speaker 1: you have a you know, city council collections coming up.

1085
01:05:40,840 --> 01:05:43,800
Speaker 1: We couldn't possibly do that, you know, I look everything

1086
01:05:43,800 --> 01:05:48,600
Speaker 1: you've learned. Well, they ran and they won. So now

1087
01:05:48,640 --> 01:05:50,600
Speaker 1: they're on that board and they know what's going on

1088
01:05:50,640 --> 01:05:52,520
Speaker 1: with the water. So they did a ref randum and

1089
01:05:52,560 --> 01:05:54,520
Speaker 1: they put it out to vote, do you want ammonia

1090
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:56,800
Speaker 1: in your water? Yes or no? Well, now everybody knew

1091
01:05:56,800 --> 01:05:59,200
Speaker 1: what ammonia was doing. They all said now, so it

1092
01:05:59,280 --> 01:06:03,200
Speaker 1: became law. Amazing, so they can't use emmone anymore. I

1093
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:07,560
Speaker 1: guess who's getting lead free water? And that's the power

1094
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:11,160
Speaker 1: of of us. And we've got to stop second guessing ourselves.

1095
01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:13,400
Speaker 1: And we've got to stop assuming someone else is coming

1096
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:16,560
Speaker 1: to save They're not, hence the book Superman is not coming.

1097
01:06:16,600 --> 01:06:26,400
Speaker 1: But guess what you're We're here and so I think

1098
01:06:26,440 --> 01:06:29,360
Speaker 1: we're well on our way. I am more excited than

1099
01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:32,360
Speaker 1: I've ever been. I'm more excited than I was in

1100
01:06:32,480 --> 01:06:35,760
Speaker 1: Hinckley or five years ten years ago. I was thinking,

1101
01:06:35,920 --> 01:06:39,320
Speaker 1: I'm just not I'm not making any headway. Um. But

1102
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:41,920
Speaker 1: we are, and we need to keep talking about it,

1103
01:06:41,920 --> 01:06:44,080
Speaker 1: and we need to keep showing these stories where we

1104
01:06:44,160 --> 01:06:48,080
Speaker 1: are making that headway. UM. More and more information is

1105
01:06:48,160 --> 01:06:52,320
Speaker 1: coming to light. And as more information comes to light,

1106
01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:54,640
Speaker 1: because when you wrote that piece I mentioned about Flint

1107
01:06:54,720 --> 01:06:58,360
Speaker 1: in sixteen, you created a map with more than ten

1108
01:06:58,360 --> 01:07:01,880
Speaker 1: thousand communities across the US suffering from contaminated drinking water,

1109
01:07:02,280 --> 01:07:05,439
Speaker 1: and I'm curious, four years later, what is the what's

1110
01:07:05,480 --> 01:07:08,320
Speaker 1: that number now? And are those cities connecting to each

1111
01:07:08,320 --> 01:07:11,280
Speaker 1: other to advocate for each other? Not yet. I need

1112
01:07:11,280 --> 01:07:13,640
Speaker 1: to do that on my map and on this app,

1113
01:07:13,680 --> 01:07:18,760
Speaker 1: and that takes money, and it's been really hard to

1114
01:07:18,800 --> 01:07:22,200
Speaker 1: fundraise that money because we're probably going to find out

1115
01:07:22,320 --> 01:07:25,760
Speaker 1: stuff that somebody else doesn't want us to know. And

1116
01:07:26,040 --> 01:07:30,240
Speaker 1: we don't monitor migratory pathways, and so people can grow

1117
01:07:30,320 --> 01:07:34,920
Speaker 1: up on a site. And remember chemicals have long latency period,

1118
01:07:35,000 --> 01:07:38,240
Speaker 1: So exavalent chromium, the latency period can be twenty years,

1119
01:07:39,440 --> 01:07:43,640
Speaker 1: and so somebody could drink it for fifteen graduate, move away,

1120
01:07:43,960 --> 01:07:47,480
Speaker 1: get a disease associated with that exposure, but it's not

1121
01:07:47,600 --> 01:07:50,440
Speaker 1: reported back to where they were from. It gets reported

1122
01:07:50,480 --> 01:07:53,120
Speaker 1: to where they reside. So I think there's missing data

1123
01:07:53,160 --> 01:07:56,320
Speaker 1: sets around. So we're working on getting all of that.

1124
01:07:56,360 --> 01:07:59,560
Speaker 1: The map is still there, we're working on building it

1125
01:07:59,560 --> 01:08:04,320
Speaker 1: out even further. But we don't have a national registry database.

1126
01:08:04,920 --> 01:08:09,360
Speaker 1: So before President Obama left office, they were redoing the

1127
01:08:09,760 --> 01:08:14,439
Speaker 1: Toxic Acceptance Control Act and within that he created Trevor's Law.

1128
01:08:14,800 --> 01:08:17,160
Speaker 1: So when I was presenting a young boy by the

1129
01:08:17,240 --> 01:08:21,080
Speaker 1: name of Trevor Schaefer was presenting he and numerous of

1130
01:08:21,160 --> 01:08:24,320
Speaker 1: his classmate's head brain tumors. He's the only one that survived,

1131
01:08:24,720 --> 01:08:27,719
Speaker 1: and he vowed to do something about it. So Trevor's

1132
01:08:27,800 --> 01:08:32,439
Speaker 1: Law requires our government to create a national registry database,

1133
01:08:32,840 --> 01:08:36,639
Speaker 1: because guess what, we don't have one. People don't seem

1134
01:08:36,680 --> 01:08:40,200
Speaker 1: to know that. So we'll create a registry base in California,

1135
01:08:40,360 --> 01:08:43,240
Speaker 1: but we can't share it with Florida, we can't share

1136
01:08:43,280 --> 01:08:46,800
Speaker 1: it with Maine. We have no national repository where we

1137
01:08:46,840 --> 01:08:51,360
Speaker 1: can see the big picture. So you can't really analyze

1138
01:08:51,400 --> 01:08:54,120
Speaker 1: the system. Well you well, yeah, and you can't. You

1139
01:08:54,200 --> 01:08:56,639
Speaker 1: really don't know what's going on if you can't really

1140
01:08:56,640 --> 01:09:00,800
Speaker 1: see what's going on and start looking at or making correlations.

1141
01:09:00,840 --> 01:09:06,640
Speaker 1: Wait a minute. You may think we only have fifteen

1142
01:09:06,800 --> 01:09:11,880
Speaker 1: thousand glioblastomas in this country, but when you look at

1143
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:14,120
Speaker 1: the map and all the states reporting, and what is

1144
01:09:14,160 --> 01:09:18,240
Speaker 1: that collective number, it could be five hundred thousand. It's

1145
01:09:18,240 --> 01:09:20,559
Speaker 1: a numbers game, and they've found a way for us

1146
01:09:20,640 --> 01:09:24,400
Speaker 1: to miss numbers. And I believe a self reporting registry database,

1147
01:09:24,439 --> 01:09:27,559
Speaker 1: which is what we've created, is how we're going to

1148
01:09:27,640 --> 01:09:33,120
Speaker 1: start finding out that information. And those missed data points.

1149
01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:38,920
Speaker 1: And now the purpose of that is, we can't eradicated

1150
01:09:38,960 --> 01:09:43,040
Speaker 1: chemical or change a policy, or look for a new

1151
01:09:43,120 --> 01:09:45,639
Speaker 1: cure or a cure for a disease if we don't

1152
01:09:45,680 --> 01:09:47,920
Speaker 1: know where it is, see where it is and what

1153
01:09:48,160 --> 01:09:51,519
Speaker 1: could be the cause. And so that's what we're trying

1154
01:09:51,560 --> 01:09:56,440
Speaker 1: to do with the map. I'm I'm, I'm so overwhelmed,

1155
01:09:57,200 --> 01:10:01,160
Speaker 1: and I cannot do this alone. None of us can

1156
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:03,160
Speaker 1: do this alone. But if each one of us is

1157
01:10:03,200 --> 01:10:07,160
Speaker 1: an individual, contributes and stands up and we start that

1158
01:10:07,320 --> 01:10:11,479
Speaker 1: movement in just our backyard, imagine if every city in

1159
01:10:11,560 --> 01:10:15,280
Speaker 1: every state across America did that. Have you created some

1160
01:10:15,400 --> 01:10:20,439
Speaker 1: kind of a toolkit for people, for for moms, for

1161
01:10:21,360 --> 01:10:23,920
Speaker 1: local constituents who want to get involved in something like

1162
01:10:23,960 --> 01:10:27,360
Speaker 1: this too, like a like a little play by play

1163
01:10:27,400 --> 01:10:29,439
Speaker 1: of how to begin. We do a little bit of

1164
01:10:29,479 --> 01:10:32,000
Speaker 1: that in the book. Um I have started a foundation

1165
01:10:32,040 --> 01:10:35,840
Speaker 1: where we want to be able to come in and

1166
01:10:36,080 --> 01:10:38,719
Speaker 1: like have that training session and give them the tools

1167
01:10:38,760 --> 01:10:41,360
Speaker 1: they need and give them that startup so they can

1168
01:10:41,400 --> 01:10:43,120
Speaker 1: do it in their own backyard, because none of us

1169
01:10:43,200 --> 01:10:45,559
Speaker 1: can be everywhere at once. I certainly can't be. I

1170
01:10:45,560 --> 01:10:47,720
Speaker 1: don't know anyone that could. But if we could at

1171
01:10:47,840 --> 01:10:52,640
Speaker 1: nite that group, person by person, community by community, we

1172
01:10:52,680 --> 01:10:55,920
Speaker 1: will affect that change. So we're in the process of

1173
01:10:55,960 --> 01:11:00,000
Speaker 1: doing that. What's the foundation call is Brockovich Aaron Brockovich Foundation.

1174
01:11:00,040 --> 01:11:02,960
Speaker 1: And you know, I try to think of some you know,

1175
01:11:03,400 --> 01:11:07,120
Speaker 1: I don't know cool foundation name it. Yeah, but it's

1176
01:11:07,160 --> 01:11:10,439
Speaker 1: better than it's yours because you're you're recognizable to people.

1177
01:11:10,439 --> 01:11:12,360
Speaker 1: It's an easy Google search, it's an easy way to

1178
01:11:12,360 --> 01:11:14,880
Speaker 1: find a way in the name certainly is absolutely. I

1179
01:11:15,040 --> 01:11:17,760
Speaker 1: love that. So all of those are things that we're

1180
01:11:17,800 --> 01:11:19,600
Speaker 1: definitely doing. And yes, there is a how to and

1181
01:11:20,160 --> 01:11:24,960
Speaker 1: we've we've been touching upon this whole conversation. Get the

1182
01:11:25,080 --> 01:11:28,519
Speaker 1: voices out of your head that you can't and start

1183
01:11:28,560 --> 01:11:30,720
Speaker 1: hearing the voice in your head and your heart that

1184
01:11:30,800 --> 01:11:35,439
Speaker 1: you can't. Ye, stick to itiveness. Yeah, yeah, all right,

1185
01:11:35,439 --> 01:11:39,479
Speaker 1: I was interrupting you going please you You mentioned that

1186
01:11:39,560 --> 01:11:42,160
Speaker 1: it's hard for us to track the reality of cancer

1187
01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:45,719
Speaker 1: clusters because of the lack of communication across state lines.

1188
01:11:46,040 --> 01:11:49,960
Speaker 1: We have regulations, so we can't always share data to

1189
01:11:50,040 --> 01:11:52,720
Speaker 1: see the whole picture. Right, what do we need to

1190
01:11:52,760 --> 01:11:55,240
Speaker 1: know about them? What do what do listeners need to

1191
01:11:55,280 --> 01:11:59,240
Speaker 1: know to find out if they live in one. Oh

1192
01:11:59,240 --> 01:12:02,080
Speaker 1: my gosh, well you you could just go to e

1193
01:12:02,280 --> 01:12:05,880
Speaker 1: p A and google super fund sites in your area.

1194
01:12:05,920 --> 01:12:07,960
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize. You know, we still have

1195
01:12:08,080 --> 01:12:11,880
Speaker 1: thirty thousands some superfund sites we can't get to right now,

1196
01:12:12,439 --> 01:12:14,519
Speaker 1: and we have a lot of regulations and good ones

1197
01:12:14,560 --> 01:12:16,840
Speaker 1: on the books. Our problem is no one's enforcing them,

1198
01:12:17,680 --> 01:12:20,400
Speaker 1: and not this administration, and no one's coming back in

1199
01:12:20,479 --> 01:12:23,320
Speaker 1: and cleaning them up. I mean, I wouldn't imagine that

1200
01:12:23,400 --> 01:12:27,200
Speaker 1: eradicating a chemical out of the marketplace. It's caused cancers,

1201
01:12:27,600 --> 01:12:30,280
Speaker 1: the lives you would say, the cleaner future you would have,

1202
01:12:30,360 --> 01:12:32,680
Speaker 1: the cleaner environment you would have. They're certainly doing it

1203
01:12:32,720 --> 01:12:35,320
Speaker 1: in Europe or way behind on The chrome stix has

1204
01:12:35,320 --> 01:12:38,840
Speaker 1: already been banned over there. We still use it over here,

1205
01:12:39,160 --> 01:12:42,760
Speaker 1: and we've got to start approaching it more like a

1206
01:12:42,840 --> 01:12:46,479
Speaker 1: f d A. We've got huge chemical lobbyists and they're big. Obviously,

1207
01:12:46,479 --> 01:12:48,880
Speaker 1: these lobbyists are hard to go up against and hard

1208
01:12:48,920 --> 01:12:50,599
Speaker 1: to go up against that kind of money that these

1209
01:12:50,640 --> 01:12:53,880
Speaker 1: companies have. But the e p A when and we

1210
01:12:53,960 --> 01:12:57,439
Speaker 1: have enough problems with medical devices going bad. But before

1211
01:12:57,600 --> 01:13:00,679
Speaker 1: medical devices can get into the marketplace, that company has

1212
01:13:00,720 --> 01:13:03,000
Speaker 1: to show a five to ten year study of the

1213
01:13:03,040 --> 01:13:06,320
Speaker 1: FDA what will or want to do in the human body. Well,

1214
01:13:06,320 --> 01:13:08,439
Speaker 1: how about we do that in the United States E

1215
01:13:08,560 --> 01:13:14,120
Speaker 1: p A. You give me the study long term of

1216
01:13:14,160 --> 01:13:16,439
Speaker 1: what that will do in the environment and to human

1217
01:13:16,479 --> 01:13:20,280
Speaker 1: health and welfare before you get to put it on

1218
01:13:20,600 --> 01:13:24,200
Speaker 1: the market. Just seem so obvious. It does, and it's

1219
01:13:24,200 --> 01:13:29,080
Speaker 1: gonna take policy change and lobbyists change and law changes.

1220
01:13:29,240 --> 01:13:33,360
Speaker 1: And you know, I'll never forget when Ed and I

1221
01:13:33,560 --> 01:13:38,400
Speaker 1: first started Hinckley and we were sitting in his law

1222
01:13:38,479 --> 01:13:42,040
Speaker 1: library with all those glorious law books sitting around, and

1223
01:13:42,080 --> 01:13:44,160
Speaker 1: he said to me, we can't do the case. Aaron.

1224
01:13:45,240 --> 01:13:48,400
Speaker 1: I'm like, what this scene that gets me the most

1225
01:13:48,479 --> 01:13:52,040
Speaker 1: when Julia Roberts is so angry and she's that's my work,

1226
01:13:52,680 --> 01:13:54,840
Speaker 1: that's not my time away from my kids. If that's

1227
01:13:54,880 --> 01:13:57,360
Speaker 1: not important, I don't know what is. What are you

1228
01:13:57,439 --> 01:14:00,599
Speaker 1: saying to me, we can't do this. Well, we got

1229
01:14:00,760 --> 01:14:03,760
Speaker 1: statute of limitation. Everyone's telling it. You don't have the money.

1230
01:14:03,800 --> 01:14:06,320
Speaker 1: We have a statue of limitation. Problem not gonna happen.

1231
01:14:06,880 --> 01:14:09,160
Speaker 1: So Ed was a little bit thrown in the towel.

1232
01:14:09,600 --> 01:14:14,080
Speaker 1: I said, you shock me. As I sit here in

1233
01:14:14,160 --> 01:14:18,920
Speaker 1: your law library. You tell me how every single law

1234
01:14:19,120 --> 01:14:23,640
Speaker 1: and every single one of these books came to be

1235
01:14:23,640 --> 01:14:27,800
Speaker 1: because somebody had the courage, had the gumption to step

1236
01:14:27,840 --> 01:14:30,280
Speaker 1: out on a limb and fight for a law, change

1237
01:14:30,280 --> 01:14:33,880
Speaker 1: a law, create a law, amenda law, And you're gonna

1238
01:14:33,880 --> 01:14:36,479
Speaker 1: tell me we can't do what. I always loved it

1239
01:14:36,520 --> 01:14:38,920
Speaker 1: when I got ed riled up because his ears would

1240
01:14:38,920 --> 01:14:42,240
Speaker 1: literally pitch back, and I saw his ears set back,

1241
01:14:42,240 --> 01:14:45,519
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh he ed me. He goes, you're right,

1242
01:14:45,920 --> 01:14:48,240
Speaker 1: But you know he got back in there and he

1243
01:14:48,360 --> 01:14:51,400
Speaker 1: pled within one year last pass, which was the truth

1244
01:14:51,439 --> 01:14:54,440
Speaker 1: and a fact that these people were just now learning

1245
01:14:55,240 --> 01:14:58,200
Speaker 1: of this. And Judge Lee Roy Simmons, you saw that

1246
01:14:58,240 --> 01:15:01,080
Speaker 1: scene in the movie. He left that case go through.

1247
01:15:01,479 --> 01:15:04,600
Speaker 1: But that's precisely what has to happen again today. What

1248
01:15:04,840 --> 01:15:07,400
Speaker 1: is this oath that we take as doctors, or our

1249
01:15:07,479 --> 01:15:10,920
Speaker 1: duty or our obligation to oneself, to our environment, to

1250
01:15:11,080 --> 01:15:13,559
Speaker 1: our health. The same way with the lawyers, and they

1251
01:15:13,600 --> 01:15:16,760
Speaker 1: have a deep sense of justice. The time is here

1252
01:15:16,920 --> 01:15:20,840
Speaker 1: where our policies and laws are antiquated. They may have

1253
01:15:20,840 --> 01:15:23,360
Speaker 1: worked for us, then they will not work for us today.

1254
01:15:23,520 --> 01:15:27,480
Speaker 1: There is an entire new opening here for the upcoming generations,

1255
01:15:27,760 --> 01:15:31,720
Speaker 1: in policies, in politics, in the law to change that.

1256
01:15:32,160 --> 01:15:37,640
Speaker 1: If we don't moving forward, we will not be sustainable.

1257
01:15:38,240 --> 01:15:40,519
Speaker 1: We're at that fork and a road, and I think

1258
01:15:40,560 --> 01:15:45,760
Speaker 1: that everything is coming together, these types of conversations with technology,

1259
01:15:45,800 --> 01:15:48,840
Speaker 1: with the disruption, this waking people up. We're going to

1260
01:15:48,960 --> 01:15:51,719
Speaker 1: make that shift. That's not going to come without a fight.

1261
01:15:51,840 --> 01:15:55,880
Speaker 1: But I think we're getting geared up for that, and

1262
01:15:56,040 --> 01:15:58,559
Speaker 1: it's been time for this well. And I think as

1263
01:15:58,600 --> 01:16:02,000
Speaker 1: we see the big to see, I'm visual and we

1264
01:16:02,200 --> 01:16:05,439
Speaker 1: all get involved in our own lives, so you can't

1265
01:16:05,439 --> 01:16:09,519
Speaker 1: really see that. Oh hell, what's happening to me is

1266
01:16:09,520 --> 01:16:13,000
Speaker 1: happening to you? And you and you and you and

1267
01:16:13,040 --> 01:16:17,040
Speaker 1: you were all more visual than we realize. And that's

1268
01:16:17,040 --> 01:16:18,799
Speaker 1: what I love about the map. It was an opening

1269
01:16:18,840 --> 01:16:21,639
Speaker 1: for me. I'm like, what the hell's going on out there?

1270
01:16:23,160 --> 01:16:27,519
Speaker 1: It really does. And you know, again, Uh, you brought

1271
01:16:27,600 --> 01:16:33,000
Speaker 1: up the military. I'm a military mom. I have Um

1272
01:16:33,120 --> 01:16:37,280
Speaker 1: they're both out, they're both medically retired. Matt's deployment was heinous.

1273
01:16:38,040 --> 01:16:40,320
Speaker 1: What happened to my daughter, you know, will be her

1274
01:16:40,360 --> 01:16:45,639
Speaker 1: story to tell. But um, they did that as their

1275
01:16:45,680 --> 01:16:47,559
Speaker 1: service to fight for all of us for what they

1276
01:16:47,560 --> 01:16:51,719
Speaker 1: believed in, and that was their homeland, their their water.

1277
01:16:51,920 --> 01:16:54,120
Speaker 1: And I get really upset. And again we talked about

1278
01:16:54,160 --> 01:16:57,640
Speaker 1: it in the book um Camp l June in North Carolina,

1279
01:16:58,920 --> 01:17:01,920
Speaker 1: and even a T. S d Are the Agencies for

1280
01:17:01,960 --> 01:17:06,600
Speaker 1: Toxiccepstance Disease Registry has estimated that up to twenty thousand

1281
01:17:07,200 --> 01:17:11,120
Speaker 1: of our servicemen and women who made it home from

1282
01:17:11,160 --> 01:17:16,479
Speaker 1: war we poisoned on their own soil. Their well waters

1283
01:17:16,520 --> 01:17:23,880
Speaker 1: were heavily, heavily, heavily contaminated with trichloroethylen. The number of cancers,

1284
01:17:23,920 --> 01:17:27,240
Speaker 1: the number of deaths is already so outrageous. What are

1285
01:17:27,360 --> 01:17:33,800
Speaker 1: we thinking that they come home and they're poisoned on

1286
01:17:33,880 --> 01:17:41,439
Speaker 1: their own land? And I take that. I just something's wrong.

1287
01:17:42,200 --> 01:17:44,080
Speaker 1: I don't know where we've lost our way. But if

1288
01:17:44,120 --> 01:17:47,760
Speaker 1: we don't keep talking about it and fight to find

1289
01:17:47,760 --> 01:17:50,960
Speaker 1: our way back, I do worry. But see, I have

1290
01:17:51,080 --> 01:17:53,960
Speaker 1: so much hope because I know what we'll do. I know,

1291
01:17:54,160 --> 01:17:56,800
Speaker 1: I know I've always banked on the people, and I

1292
01:17:56,840 --> 01:18:00,120
Speaker 1: always will to the day I die. But we have

1293
01:18:00,280 --> 01:18:03,720
Speaker 1: to start seeing these things. And you know a lot

1294
01:18:03,760 --> 01:18:05,760
Speaker 1: of times people say, oh, it's fake news, it's this

1295
01:18:05,920 --> 01:18:09,960
Speaker 1: or that, you know, going all the way back to Hinckley,

1296
01:18:10,200 --> 01:18:13,000
Speaker 1: What on earth would make me think that these people

1297
01:18:13,240 --> 01:18:15,840
Speaker 1: were so bored in their life that all they had

1298
01:18:15,880 --> 01:18:17,840
Speaker 1: to do was make up stories about the two headed

1299
01:18:17,840 --> 01:18:20,240
Speaker 1: frog and the green water and all their children with cancer.

1300
01:18:21,120 --> 01:18:23,240
Speaker 1: And so I don't know that we should always dismiss that.

1301
01:18:24,280 --> 01:18:29,400
Speaker 1: And so the military, um, their bases are heavily contaminated,

1302
01:18:29,720 --> 01:18:33,360
Speaker 1: their housing has deteriorated their health, and impacts to their

1303
01:18:33,400 --> 01:18:36,760
Speaker 1: health and welfare is quite concerning. And so we have

1304
01:18:36,840 --> 01:18:40,160
Speaker 1: to look at that as well and embrace our military,

1305
01:18:40,200 --> 01:18:43,479
Speaker 1: because they too are drinking poison water and living on

1306
01:18:43,520 --> 01:18:47,240
Speaker 1: it and breathing it. And so we're all up for

1307
01:18:47,280 --> 01:18:51,439
Speaker 1: grabs here. There is no boundary, there's no line. And

1308
01:18:51,439 --> 01:18:54,240
Speaker 1: and the fact that the current administration tries to make

1309
01:18:54,360 --> 01:18:58,040
Speaker 1: environmental protection seem like a party line is astonishing too.

1310
01:18:58,160 --> 01:19:00,920
Speaker 1: That's got to stop. It's got to stop. Protecting the

1311
01:19:01,040 --> 01:19:04,559
Speaker 1: environment and having strict regulation for our water and our

1312
01:19:04,640 --> 01:19:07,519
Speaker 1: land and our agriculture should just be what we do

1313
01:19:07,640 --> 01:19:10,760
Speaker 1: so everyone survives, regardless of who they voted for. No,

1314
01:19:10,960 --> 01:19:13,280
Speaker 1: I'm with you on that. I'm so sick of the

1315
01:19:13,280 --> 01:19:16,200
Speaker 1: political argument. I could honestly pull my hair out. The

1316
01:19:16,280 --> 01:19:19,080
Speaker 1: environment is not political. It's not. It can't be, And

1317
01:19:19,400 --> 01:19:22,479
Speaker 1: it's politics that's ruining it and stopping us from fixing

1318
01:19:22,920 --> 01:19:26,720
Speaker 1: our issues and becoming sustainable and moving forward into the

1319
01:19:26,760 --> 01:19:30,599
Speaker 1: new world that we are. Yeah, what what are your

1320
01:19:30,640 --> 01:19:33,439
Speaker 1: thoughts on the current administration? Because Trump has rolled back

1321
01:19:33,640 --> 01:19:39,280
Speaker 1: so many incredible strides that Obama made for increasing the

1322
01:19:39,360 --> 01:19:42,599
Speaker 1: regulation that the e p A could enforce in the country,

1323
01:19:42,960 --> 01:19:46,519
Speaker 1: and he's he's made a decision to not regulate to

1324
01:19:47,800 --> 01:19:50,439
Speaker 1: heavily toxic chemicals that are commonly found in the water

1325
01:19:50,479 --> 01:19:53,080
Speaker 1: supply and not regulate them at all. What what are

1326
01:19:53,120 --> 01:19:56,160
Speaker 1: the implications of all these rollbacks and all this deregulation

1327
01:19:57,240 --> 01:20:01,599
Speaker 1: extreme danger. Literally these role backs have you know, allowed

1328
01:20:01,640 --> 01:20:05,400
Speaker 1: at our headwaters now farming and all of that manure

1329
01:20:05,439 --> 01:20:07,800
Speaker 1: and stuff to hit those headwaters. And this is where

1330
01:20:07,840 --> 01:20:10,960
Speaker 1: I say it's gonna roll downhill. The outcome of that

1331
01:20:11,000 --> 01:20:14,000
Speaker 1: will be toxic algae blooms like we dealt with in Florida.

1332
01:20:14,240 --> 01:20:16,200
Speaker 1: And we'll see him in Lake Erie. We'll see him

1333
01:20:16,200 --> 01:20:18,760
Speaker 1: in rivers and creeks and two tributaries and back down

1334
01:20:18,840 --> 01:20:22,680
Speaker 1: in Florida. You will suffocate the environment. Their neurotoxins. It

1335
01:20:22,800 --> 01:20:26,880
Speaker 1: damages the climate, it will destroy the ecosystem. You cannot

1336
01:20:26,960 --> 01:20:31,479
Speaker 1: drink the water. Listen, we need to get really serious

1337
01:20:31,479 --> 01:20:34,439
Speaker 1: about here on these types of rollbacks, because what we're

1338
01:20:34,439 --> 01:20:37,839
Speaker 1: gonna see is more legion la outbreaks, which we're already seeing.

1339
01:20:38,360 --> 01:20:42,439
Speaker 1: We are definitely already seeing brain eating Amiba's now, okay,

1340
01:20:42,840 --> 01:20:46,639
Speaker 1: get scared, maybe we should. They're real kids have already

1341
01:20:46,640 --> 01:20:49,960
Speaker 1: died down in Louisiana because we're no longer treating our

1342
01:20:50,000 --> 01:20:56,760
Speaker 1: water appropriately. It's mayhem and so I am concerned, and

1343
01:20:56,800 --> 01:21:00,800
Speaker 1: I want to find a way to express that without

1344
01:21:00,920 --> 01:21:03,600
Speaker 1: the right the left, Let's go down the middle. I

1345
01:21:04,160 --> 01:21:07,559
Speaker 1: prefer to be seen as purple. And what I find

1346
01:21:07,600 --> 01:21:10,559
Speaker 1: fascinating about that is what happens when you mix red

1347
01:21:10,600 --> 01:21:17,240
Speaker 1: and blue. Don't you get purple. We need this political

1348
01:21:17,640 --> 01:21:23,240
Speaker 1: division when it comes to our environment and water and

1349
01:21:23,439 --> 01:21:27,240
Speaker 1: air and our health to stop. I don't care what

1350
01:21:27,360 --> 01:21:29,920
Speaker 1: party you're in, and I don't care how much money

1351
01:21:29,920 --> 01:21:33,840
Speaker 1: you have. You are not exempt from being poisoned by

1352
01:21:33,840 --> 01:21:37,960
Speaker 1: the water or the air. It's this is where I

1353
01:21:38,000 --> 01:21:41,960
Speaker 1: want the gas light to stop. And I ask every

1354
01:21:41,960 --> 01:21:46,080
Speaker 1: single person you see a change, you see it in

1355
01:21:46,160 --> 01:21:49,880
Speaker 1: the water. You see the effects. Don't let anyone else

1356
01:21:49,920 --> 01:21:53,400
Speaker 1: tell you that's not happening. It is, and I need

1357
01:21:53,439 --> 01:21:57,799
Speaker 1: them to get involved. Whether we do petitions, um and again,

1358
01:21:58,240 --> 01:22:01,400
Speaker 1: these may be federal changes. At at a state level,

1359
01:22:01,479 --> 01:22:05,400
Speaker 1: you can do your own and at a local level,

1360
01:22:05,800 --> 01:22:08,040
Speaker 1: so many of these industries here have to go to

1361
01:22:08,040 --> 01:22:11,280
Speaker 1: city council to get these permits. Let's get involved, Let's

1362
01:22:11,280 --> 01:22:14,280
Speaker 1: get over there. Let's start saying this isn't what we want.

1363
01:22:14,400 --> 01:22:17,080
Speaker 1: So you're saying, even even if the Trump administration has

1364
01:22:17,160 --> 01:22:19,680
Speaker 1: ruled these protections back at a federal level, we can

1365
01:22:19,680 --> 01:22:22,040
Speaker 1: each in our own states fight back and get them

1366
01:22:22,160 --> 01:22:24,519
Speaker 1: reinstated on a state level, at a state level and

1367
01:22:24,560 --> 01:22:28,639
Speaker 1: at a local level. Yes, California is the first state.

1368
01:22:28,680 --> 01:22:31,479
Speaker 1: No other states doing it. They didn't. They're not going

1369
01:22:31,560 --> 01:22:35,280
Speaker 1: to wait for the United States federal government to initiate

1370
01:22:35,840 --> 01:22:39,599
Speaker 1: a mc L maximum contaminant limit for hex avalent chromia.

1371
01:22:39,720 --> 01:22:42,679
Speaker 1: You know why, because they don't want to because it's everywhere.

1372
01:22:43,120 --> 01:22:46,160
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how widely used this chemical as

1373
01:22:46,200 --> 01:22:51,439
Speaker 1: an industry. So the state of California does a We've

1374
01:22:51,479 --> 01:22:54,160
Speaker 1: been doing it for ten years. We finally got the

1375
01:22:54,200 --> 01:22:57,960
Speaker 1: Public Health Goal five top experts in this country on

1376
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:00,840
Speaker 1: hexillent chromia that the public health goal should be point

1377
01:23:00,840 --> 01:23:04,479
Speaker 1: o two parts pervillion. Point o two parts per billion.

1378
01:23:04,600 --> 01:23:08,080
Speaker 1: You said there should be none. But if we're gonna

1379
01:23:08,080 --> 01:23:13,040
Speaker 1: go low, let's go that low. So in law, we

1380
01:23:13,160 --> 01:23:16,840
Speaker 1: have to make this a law. We got it set

1381
01:23:16,880 --> 01:23:20,080
Speaker 1: at ten parts pervillion, which is way too far from

1382
01:23:20,080 --> 01:23:23,160
Speaker 1: the public health goal, but it was set that high

1383
01:23:23,520 --> 01:23:28,040
Speaker 1: for feasibility studies for the municipalities because they have to

1384
01:23:28,080 --> 01:23:31,840
Speaker 1: do all the appropriate filtration in their system to bring

1385
01:23:31,960 --> 01:23:35,759
Speaker 1: ten parts to bring it down to ten parts pervillion,

1386
01:23:36,080 --> 01:23:40,720
Speaker 1: which still exceeds by magnitudes the public health goal. So

1387
01:23:40,760 --> 01:23:42,760
Speaker 1: it's an achievement, but we still have to keep end.

1388
01:23:43,080 --> 01:23:46,000
Speaker 1: And the judge just threw it back down, and so

1389
01:23:46,080 --> 01:23:48,160
Speaker 1: I think this might blow up in their face because

1390
01:23:48,160 --> 01:23:50,400
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to do this again. But my point

1391
01:23:50,400 --> 01:23:53,160
Speaker 1: being as California, you know what California is good about that,

1392
01:23:53,720 --> 01:23:57,200
Speaker 1: then you know the adage, you know, so goes California,

1393
01:23:57,280 --> 01:24:00,800
Speaker 1: so goes the nation, and they are taking in upon

1394
01:24:00,920 --> 01:24:04,720
Speaker 1: themselves to set these types of Every state could do that,

1395
01:24:05,680 --> 01:24:08,280
Speaker 1: So I don't It doesn't have to be gloomer doom.

1396
01:24:08,320 --> 01:24:11,760
Speaker 1: How we get out of. Half of our ship is

1397
01:24:11,840 --> 01:24:15,640
Speaker 1: our perception of it and our reaction and response to it.

1398
01:24:16,040 --> 01:24:18,559
Speaker 1: And there are other levels that we can go to

1399
01:24:19,920 --> 01:24:22,519
Speaker 1: and not everything has to trickle down from the top.

1400
01:24:22,640 --> 01:24:26,320
Speaker 1: Let's start here in our own backyard and move it up. Yeah,

1401
01:24:27,120 --> 01:24:29,640
Speaker 1: it's going to take absolutely and start going to your

1402
01:24:29,640 --> 01:24:32,880
Speaker 1: city council meetings. And I'm very very serious about that. Yeah,

1403
01:24:32,880 --> 01:24:34,960
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, me too. I mean, we all are

1404
01:24:35,160 --> 01:24:38,559
Speaker 1: going absolutely. So I think that what we need to

1405
01:24:38,600 --> 01:24:41,840
Speaker 1: do as individuals is we need to be accountable too,

1406
01:24:42,600 --> 01:24:46,599
Speaker 1: and no longer assume that whatever is happening is meant

1407
01:24:46,600 --> 01:24:51,120
Speaker 1: for our protection and start asking those questions and holding

1408
01:24:52,400 --> 01:24:58,280
Speaker 1: those individual Congressmen, women, senators, legislators, you have the power.

1409
01:24:58,479 --> 01:25:00,840
Speaker 1: We're voting in my office, I'm watching your asks or

1410
01:25:00,840 --> 01:25:03,800
Speaker 1: you're not getting in next time. But we have to

1411
01:25:03,840 --> 01:25:06,679
Speaker 1: take that accountability. And we won't if we don't believe

1412
01:25:06,680 --> 01:25:09,479
Speaker 1: that we can't do it. And here's the awakening. We're

1413
01:25:09,560 --> 01:25:12,920
Speaker 1: learning that we can. We have more power and tools

1414
01:25:13,080 --> 01:25:17,320
Speaker 1: and conversations and outlets and podcasts and we've ever had before.

1415
01:25:18,560 --> 01:25:22,839
Speaker 1: Take that information to educate yourself and find your courage

1416
01:25:23,520 --> 01:25:25,880
Speaker 1: to speak up. And as you said, if we're really

1417
01:25:25,880 --> 01:25:28,599
Speaker 1: sick of being repressed, we have to think we are

1418
01:25:28,800 --> 01:25:33,000
Speaker 1: that that frustration and channel it and hold their to

1419
01:25:33,040 --> 01:25:39,439
Speaker 1: the fire. Absolutely, and that's okay to do that. M hm,

1420
01:25:40,520 --> 01:25:45,240
Speaker 1: it's okay to do that. It's it's patriotic and it's fun.

1421
01:25:45,920 --> 01:25:49,400
Speaker 1: Uh what view and me both we're on the same page.

1422
01:25:49,400 --> 01:25:53,920
Speaker 1: We should go around together more often because the disruption,

1423
01:25:54,160 --> 01:25:56,439
Speaker 1: you know, I love you know, that's just kind of

1424
01:25:56,479 --> 01:25:58,719
Speaker 1: what wakes this up. But but it's really really true,

1425
01:25:58,720 --> 01:26:01,120
Speaker 1: and I think that right now it gets daunting for

1426
01:26:01,200 --> 01:26:04,800
Speaker 1: many people. There's a lot of negativity going around. And

1427
01:26:04,920 --> 01:26:11,080
Speaker 1: this is in my talks ram, which is about realized

1428
01:26:11,120 --> 01:26:13,920
Speaker 1: assests and motivate oneself. What we need is a moment

1429
01:26:13,960 --> 01:26:19,680
Speaker 1: of self renewal. And I encourage everyone too, Honestly, I

1430
01:26:19,680 --> 01:26:22,040
Speaker 1: don't care what you're doing today. Take a moment to

1431
01:26:22,120 --> 01:26:28,439
Speaker 1: do that and go walk on the beach and feel

1432
01:26:28,439 --> 01:26:32,200
Speaker 1: the sand in your toes, or listen to the waves crashing,

1433
01:26:33,120 --> 01:26:37,240
Speaker 1: or literally stop and smell the roses, or just take

1434
01:26:37,280 --> 01:26:40,320
Speaker 1: a moment to shut your eyes and feel the warmth

1435
01:26:40,360 --> 01:26:44,719
Speaker 1: of the sun. It is that connection, that very connection

1436
01:26:44,760 --> 01:26:49,120
Speaker 1: that we've disconnected from. If you will get there and

1437
01:26:49,200 --> 01:26:54,840
Speaker 1: stop and listen. You can hear yourself think, you can

1438
01:26:54,880 --> 01:26:58,240
Speaker 1: feel your heart beat, you can feel the love inside

1439
01:26:59,040 --> 01:27:01,160
Speaker 1: and in your mind, yourself. Through that moment of self

1440
01:27:01,200 --> 01:27:05,400
Speaker 1: renewal and your connection again to this environment, you'll find

1441
01:27:05,400 --> 01:27:08,120
Speaker 1: your why. Why do you get up every day and

1442
01:27:08,160 --> 01:27:12,160
Speaker 1: do this? You love your family, you love your health,

1443
01:27:12,640 --> 01:27:15,679
Speaker 1: you love this planet. You love the tripping of the birds,

1444
01:27:15,720 --> 01:27:19,720
Speaker 1: the smelling of the roses, everything that offers us. If

1445
01:27:19,760 --> 01:27:23,160
Speaker 1: you will go back there, you will know why you

1446
01:27:23,200 --> 01:27:26,599
Speaker 1: wake up tomorrow and why you will fight another day.

1447
01:27:28,200 --> 01:27:32,960
Speaker 1: And I absolutely know that, and I believe that, and

1448
01:27:33,040 --> 01:27:37,160
Speaker 1: every day I breathe it in and make sure you're

1449
01:27:37,240 --> 01:27:41,879
Speaker 1: breathing and look at what is the common ground for

1450
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:47,960
Speaker 1: every single walk of life. It is this planet. It

1451
01:27:48,160 --> 01:27:51,400
Speaker 1: is our air, it is our water, and it is

1452
01:27:51,520 --> 01:27:56,640
Speaker 1: up to us to take care of it. And in

1453
01:27:56,720 --> 01:28:00,639
Speaker 1: that process you'll find yourself and you'll be renewed again.

1454
01:28:01,520 --> 01:28:05,160
Speaker 1: I love that so much so. The podcast is called

1455
01:28:05,200 --> 01:28:09,559
Speaker 1: work in progress. Oh all yeah, And that's my question

1456
01:28:09,600 --> 01:28:11,640
Speaker 1: for you when you hear the phrase what, what's the

1457
01:28:11,640 --> 01:28:13,360
Speaker 1: first thing that comes to your mind as a work

1458
01:28:13,360 --> 01:28:16,679
Speaker 1: in progress in your life? This whole conversation and even

1459
01:28:17,200 --> 01:28:19,719
Speaker 1: looking back and going home and looking at my calendar

1460
01:28:19,760 --> 01:28:22,519
Speaker 1: and that overwhelmingness that I can't do it, and is

1461
01:28:22,560 --> 01:28:29,599
Speaker 1: reminding myself to breathe, practicing, practicing, everything that we just

1462
01:28:29,640 --> 01:28:32,960
Speaker 1: talked about. It is a work in progress. Life is

1463
01:28:33,120 --> 01:28:36,200
Speaker 1: a journey, and you know, I think of it a game,

1464
01:28:36,240 --> 01:28:39,679
Speaker 1: a football game. You know, you may rush fifty yards

1465
01:28:40,680 --> 01:28:45,120
Speaker 1: and get pushed back thirty, so you know, restrategize, shake

1466
01:28:45,160 --> 01:28:48,040
Speaker 1: it off, but get back up and back in that

1467
01:28:48,080 --> 01:28:50,960
Speaker 1: game because you may rush seventy five yards. But you

1468
01:28:51,040 --> 01:28:54,440
Speaker 1: have to always expect in life there can be setbacks.

1469
01:28:54,760 --> 01:28:57,840
Speaker 1: But how you respond to that? Can you imagine one

1470
01:28:57,920 --> 01:29:00,840
Speaker 1: team rushes seventy yards in the next pushed him his

1471
01:29:00,920 --> 01:29:03,840
Speaker 1: back sixty So what are you gonna do? Throw the

1472
01:29:03,840 --> 01:29:08,240
Speaker 1: ball down, walk off field, game over? Can you imagine

1473
01:29:08,280 --> 01:29:10,439
Speaker 1: how upset the fans would be? Well, I think of

1474
01:29:10,479 --> 01:29:12,640
Speaker 1: it that way. You don't just get to throw the

1475
01:29:12,680 --> 01:29:16,760
Speaker 1: ball down because you had a setback, Get up, learn

1476
01:29:16,840 --> 01:29:19,720
Speaker 1: from that setback, and go at it again. And when

1477
01:29:19,720 --> 01:29:22,519
Speaker 1: you're tired, or when you're questioning why the hell you're

1478
01:29:22,560 --> 01:29:28,479
Speaker 1: doing all this? Stop, oh freak, put your phone down.

1479
01:29:29,000 --> 01:29:31,800
Speaker 1: Oh my god. You know what work in progress? At night,

1480
01:29:32,200 --> 01:29:33,800
Speaker 1: I have to sit there and I'm like, hey, I'm

1481
01:29:33,800 --> 01:29:38,040
Speaker 1: gonna do it. I'm I'm gonna do it. I'm shutting

1482
01:29:38,040 --> 01:29:42,640
Speaker 1: it off. Oh my gosh, the anxiety it created. Disconnect

1483
01:29:42,720 --> 01:29:47,879
Speaker 1: from that and here yourself think and so take those challenges.

1484
01:29:48,040 --> 01:29:51,599
Speaker 1: Life is work in progress. Life is an evolution. If

1485
01:29:51,680 --> 01:29:54,200
Speaker 1: there's anybody out there that knows everything, you're going to

1486
01:29:54,280 --> 01:29:55,519
Speaker 1: scare the hell out of me, and I'm going to

1487
01:29:55,600 --> 01:29:58,720
Speaker 1: run the other way, because there isn't. We have to

1488
01:29:58,760 --> 01:30:02,120
Speaker 1: be open every single day of our life that we're

1489
01:30:02,120 --> 01:30:05,560
Speaker 1: not perfect. And so my work in progress is clearly practicing.

1490
01:30:06,400 --> 01:30:08,320
Speaker 1: I don't want to say what I breach, but what

1491
01:30:08,479 --> 01:30:12,720
Speaker 1: I share, and I don't always do that. Um, you know,

1492
01:30:14,479 --> 01:30:18,120
Speaker 1: I could get inside my head. I've I've worried greatly

1493
01:30:18,160 --> 01:30:21,080
Speaker 1: as a single mom and about my dad's my kids

1494
01:30:21,120 --> 01:30:24,320
Speaker 1: that really didn't have a present dad, and feeling really

1495
01:30:24,400 --> 01:30:26,920
Speaker 1: very guilty and beating myself up for it. And I

1496
01:30:27,000 --> 01:30:32,080
Speaker 1: try to practice every day, UM forgiving myself for my

1497
01:30:32,080 --> 01:30:37,479
Speaker 1: my own shortcomings and UM to love myself. And when

1498
01:30:37,479 --> 01:30:40,519
Speaker 1: I do, I have a better communication with my children.

1499
01:30:40,600 --> 01:30:43,000
Speaker 1: And and then I learned, mom, we never felt that way,

1500
01:30:43,479 --> 01:30:49,640
Speaker 1: and taking down walls that existing even in our own families, um,

1501
01:30:49,680 --> 01:30:52,040
Speaker 1: and not being afraid to say did I make a

1502
01:30:52,120 --> 01:30:57,280
Speaker 1: mistake or am I wrong? Or I'm sorry or I

1503
01:30:57,320 --> 01:31:02,840
Speaker 1: don't know. There's so much self loathing to just love

1504
01:31:02,880 --> 01:31:07,200
Speaker 1: who you are. Life is such a blessing and it

1505
01:31:07,240 --> 01:31:09,400
Speaker 1: can be fleeting, and it can be so short lived.

1506
01:31:10,520 --> 01:31:13,320
Speaker 1: I sit here and I'm going to be sixty in June,

1507
01:31:13,479 --> 01:31:15,559
Speaker 1: and I began my work when I was thirty. Where

1508
01:31:15,560 --> 01:31:19,040
Speaker 1: did the time go? Um? And I think, well, I'll

1509
01:31:19,040 --> 01:31:21,280
Speaker 1: have that moment where we wake up one day and

1510
01:31:21,439 --> 01:31:26,880
Speaker 1: our time is here to pass. Um. Don't regret that

1511
01:31:27,200 --> 01:31:31,479
Speaker 1: and embrace every moment and try to stay present. Forgive

1512
01:31:31,520 --> 01:31:34,439
Speaker 1: yourself for your past. We may not be promised tomorrow,

1513
01:31:34,479 --> 01:31:39,559
Speaker 1: but you sure as he'll have today. So love, live, breathe, forgive,

1514
01:31:40,960 --> 01:31:42,640
Speaker 1: and just accept. You know what. It may funk up

1515
01:31:42,640 --> 01:31:49,960
Speaker 1: again tomorrow, but that's okay. Keep going, Absolutely, it's worth it.

1516
01:31:50,800 --> 01:31:55,760
Speaker 1: Thank you. Every day I have to keep myself in check.

1517
01:31:56,360 --> 01:31:59,920
Speaker 1: I hear it so but it's it's been just through

1518
01:32:00,160 --> 01:32:03,120
Speaker 1: being here, this has been We've been chatting. Thank you

1519
01:32:05,080 --> 01:32:14,040
Speaker 1: close to two hours. Good Day. The show is executive

1520
01:32:14,080 --> 01:32:18,360
Speaker 1: produced by me Sophia Bush and sim Sarna Our supervising

1521
01:32:18,400 --> 01:32:22,240
Speaker 1: producer is Alison Bresnick, Our associate producer is Cate Linley,

1522
01:32:22,880 --> 01:32:26,040
Speaker 1: our editor is Josh Wendish, and our music was written

1523
01:32:26,040 --> 01:32:28,160
Speaker 1: by Jack Garrett and produced by Mark Foster.