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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff

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Speaker 1: I've Never Told you production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: And welcome to Feminists around the World, where we celebrate activists, advocates,

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Speaker 2: all those who are creating differences and making so much change,

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Speaker 2: and we want to get flowers while they're still with us. Annie,

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Speaker 2: As in fact, we actually got a shout out from

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Speaker 2: someone that we may have to come back to and

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Speaker 2: hopefully maybe we can do an interview. I'll tell you

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Speaker 2: off Mike, but yeah, we got someone who actually caught us.

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Speaker 2: They're like, I saw my name and I was like.

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Speaker 3: What, Oh, that's cool.

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Speaker 2: I meant to tell you this off Mike, but I

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Speaker 2: just remembered it as we're talking about it. Because that's

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Speaker 2: one of the things that we want to do is

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Speaker 2: celebrate who they are and what they've been doing while

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Speaker 2: they're still with us, and not wait till it's too late.

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Speaker 2: Ever happened way too much where people do not get

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Speaker 2: their flowers when they deserve it. We want them to

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Speaker 2: know we appreciate them. And that's kind of the point

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Speaker 2: of the segment in itself. And today we are talking

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Speaker 2: about an amazing activist, an entrepreneur who's been working to

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Speaker 2: change waste into something sustainable, and that activist and entrepreneur

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Speaker 2: is in zombie. Mati from Nairobi. Mati is an engineer,

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Speaker 2: an innovator, and environmentalist and so much more. She has

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Speaker 2: already accomplished so much within her thirty one years and

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Speaker 2: continues to change the world with her innovative ideas.

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Speaker 3: And apparently she's got a lot of them. This is

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Speaker 3: just one of them.

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Speaker 2: All the people who know her or have interviewed her

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Speaker 2: are like, yeah, she's got ideas.

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Speaker 3: So I'm really excited to find out if there's more

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Speaker 3: that we see. But yeah.

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Speaker 2: So. After being trained in engineering in biochemistry, Mati worked

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Speaker 2: as an engineer in the Kenyan oil industry, but soon

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Speaker 2: left her job in twenty seventeen to start her new venture.

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Speaker 2: She told interviewers quote, in twenty seventeen, I decided to

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Speaker 2: quit my formal job as a data analyst in order

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Speaker 2: to focus on sustainability and waste management. Using material engineering

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Speaker 2: and science background, I was like, how can we figure

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Speaker 2: it out a way to convert this plastic waste into

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Speaker 2: something useful. It was from here when I decided to

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Speaker 2: enter building space, because building is a basic human need.

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Speaker 2: Fast forward. That's how we ended up converting plastic into

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Speaker 2: building blocks.

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Speaker 1: And with that she founded the company Jingay Makers, which

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Speaker 1: has become an innovative solution to the plastic that has

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Speaker 1: been wasted and no longer in use. From their site

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Speaker 1: Jingay dot co dotke quote, Jingay constitutes a community focused

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Speaker 1: enterprise driving to cater to the requisite for sustainable and

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Speaker 1: economically viable alternative building materials within Kenya and the broader continent.

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Speaker 1: Our inaugural creations are innovations formulated from recycled plastics utilized

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Speaker 1: to fabricate plastic paid blocks, plastic paving tiles, and plastic

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Speaker 1: manhole covers. Our Assembly conceptualize the inception of a plastics

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Speaker 1: accumulation enterprise which was intended to categorize and vent plastic

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Speaker 1: waste to other recycling corporations. The realization that we were

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Speaker 1: amassing waste more rapidly than it could be absorbed by

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Speaker 1: the recycling entities led to a reevaluation and alteration of

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Speaker 1: our original concept. Consequently, a resolution was reached to augment

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Speaker 1: the value of these plastics. Thus the idea to create

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Speaker 1: alternative construction products was conceived.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it goes on talking about their mission, saying

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Speaker 2: our mission is to devise innovative solutions for the development

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Speaker 2: of esthetic, pleasing and sustainable alternative construction products, carrying not

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Speaker 2: only to Kenya, but also extending our reach across the

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Speaker 2: African continent. Our objective is the supply sustainable and cost

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Speaker 2: effective alternative building materials while simultaneously generating employment opportunities for

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Speaker 2: the youth and women. We are committed to fostering a

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Speaker 2: culture of cycling and upcycling within Kenya and throughout Africa,

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Speaker 2: contributing to environmental preservation and stateability. And they explain how

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Speaker 2: it's done, saying, we accumulate the plastic waste and utilizing

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Speaker 2: the state of the art technologies, we process it amalgamating

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Speaker 2: the recycled plastic with sand to formulate a mixture. This

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Speaker 2: concoction is then molded to fabricate our diverse products. Jinay

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Speaker 2: Makers has carved a unique position as a pioneering manufacturer

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Speaker 2: in delivering aesthetically pleasing, economically accessible, and environmentally sustainable alternative

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Speaker 2: plastic building materials, and.

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Speaker 1: In different interviews she has explained why she has dedicated

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Speaker 1: her life to doing this quote, plastic waste is not

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Speaker 1: just a Kenya problem. But it's a worldwide problem. Here

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Speaker 1: in Nairobi, we generate about five hundred metric tons of

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Speaker 1: plastic waste every single day, and only a fraction of

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Speaker 1: that is recycled. We decided what more can we do

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Speaker 1: instead of just sitting in the sidelines and complaining. Essentially,

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Speaker 1: companies have to pay to dispose the waste, so we

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Speaker 1: solve their problem. That waste essentially comes for free.

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Speaker 2: And she explains that she feels plastic is misused and misunderstood. Quote,

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Speaker 2: it is absurd that we still have this problem of

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Speaker 2: providing decent shelter, a basic human need. Plastic is a

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Speaker 2: material that is misused and misunderstood. The potential is enormous,

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Speaker 2: but this afterlife can be disastrous. We thought of this

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Speaker 2: amazing material, but we didn't think of the repercussions. We

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Speaker 2: didn't think about the afterlife, especially of single use plastics.

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Speaker 2: And in twenty twenty, she was named Young Champion of

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Speaker 2: the Earth Winner at the United Nations Environment Program or

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Speaker 2: un EP, and she was able to get funding and

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Speaker 2: mentoring through the program.

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Speaker 1: And here's a bit from the un EP website about

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Speaker 1: her work. Quote. Through trial and error, she and her

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Speaker 1: team learned that some plastics bind together better than others.

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Speaker 1: Her project was given a boost when Mattee won a

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Speaker 1: scholarship to attend a social entrepreneurship training program in the

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Speaker 1: United States of America. With her Pavor samples packed in

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Speaker 1: her luggage. She used the material labs in the University

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Speaker 1: of Colorado, Boulder to further test and refine the ratios

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Speaker 1: of sand to plastic.

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Speaker 2: Right, and here's a quote from lifegate dot com about

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Speaker 2: the process of the plastic waste recycling her company does.

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Speaker 2: Quote in Zombie explains that several stages to Jingay's mechanical

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Speaker 2: plastic waste recycling. She said, the first stage involves preprocessing,

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Speaker 2: which includes the sourcing and collection of plastic waste. The

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Speaker 2: waste is clean, shredded, and separated into different plastic types. Secondly,

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Speaker 2: the processing stage involves the mixing of waste plastic with

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Speaker 2: sand and glass. However, it isn't at this process when

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Speaker 2: they add color in the process. Meanwhile, the final stage

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Speaker 2: involves a hydraulic press, which includes breaking the mixture into

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Speaker 2: different shapes and sizes depending on whatever block you're making.

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Speaker 2: And then the materials are moved to the cooling bath

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Speaker 2: where they reduce the temperatures to room temperature, and once

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Speaker 2: the blocks are cool, they are ready to be laid.

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Speaker 2: And Zombie said the paving blocks are stronger and cheaper

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Speaker 2: than concrete blocks, and that's what the company specializes in

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Speaker 2: making high quality sustainable pavers and construction breaks from use plastic.

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Speaker 1: These bricks, though, were not her original intention. In euronews

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Speaker 1: dot com, they write quote, creating building blocks out of

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Speaker 1: plastic wasn't in in Zombie's business plan. She was initially

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Speaker 1: going to open a plastics collection company that would sort

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Speaker 1: and sell plastic waste to other recycling companies. How their

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Speaker 1: in Zombie realized Jingay was collecting waste faster than the

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Speaker 1: recycling companies could uptake, so she decided to use her

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Speaker 1: engineering background and pivot to create sustainable, alternative construction products.

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Speaker 1: Now Jingay has become a trailblazer in the industry and

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Speaker 1: her work is reaching beyond just the sustainability part. From

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Speaker 1: lifegate dot com article, they quote Matie saying our company

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Speaker 1: employees marginalized individuals, especially women in youth. Jingay Makers is

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Speaker 1: empowering communities and offering hope for a better future. This

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Speaker 1: combination of environmental and social sustainability makes Jingay Makers stand

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Speaker 1: out as a true pioneer in the world of social entrepreneurship.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, she has become an inspiration for so many and

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Speaker 2: as of twenty twenty three, her company has done so

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Speaker 2: well that the demand is exceeding the supply and according

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Speaker 2: to that eunews dot com, their work keeps expanding and

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Speaker 2: helping so many quote. Jingay also plans to help the

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Speaker 2: community by promoting upcycling, recycling culture and providing jobs for

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Speaker 2: young people across the African continent. I'm happy to say

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Speaker 2: we have one hundred and twenty three families benefiting from

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Speaker 2: this process, and Zombie says. Looking long term, the young

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Speaker 2: entrepreneur plans to use her skills to train the next generation.

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Speaker 2: She hopes this kind of recycling, turning plastic waste into

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Speaker 2: viral resources is a model every country will eventually adopt.

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Speaker 2: And honestly, I was looking at their site.

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Speaker 3: They look good. I want some of those.

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Speaker 2: I want some of those who put into my property

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Speaker 2: because they look like nice and they've done a really

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Speaker 2: great job. Of course, this is just one of the

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Speaker 2: things that she is doing and she's being recognized for.

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Speaker 2: Her award came in twenty twenty I can't imagine that's

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Speaker 2: the last award, but I haven't found anything else. I'm

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Speaker 2: sure we'll be hearing more about the company what they're doing.

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Speaker 3: I hope we do.

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Speaker 2: I hope becomes global because it needs to be accessible.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, this is such an important thing and I

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Speaker 1: have a lot of friends who are involved in stuff

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Speaker 1: like this, So this is an exciting topic to go over,

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Speaker 1: and I'm glad people are looking into it because it's yeah,

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Speaker 1: impacting all of us. Well, if you have any more

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Speaker 1: resources listeners that we could use to come back to

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Speaker 1: this topic or this person, please let us know. If

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Speaker 1: you have any suggestions for this segment, Please let us know.

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Speaker 1: You can email us at Steffania Momstuff at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at moms Stuff podcast,

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Speaker 1: or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You.

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Speaker 1: We have a tea public store, and we have a

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Speaker 1: book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks

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Speaker 1: is z Alwis too, our super producer Christina, our executive

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Speaker 1: producer Maya, and our contributor Joey.

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Speaker 3: Thank you and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: Steffan Never Told You is projection of iHeartRadio for more podcasts,

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