Speaker 1: Like millions of people around the world, Hilly and I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in the last couple of
Speaker 1: weeks tuning into the Winter Olympics. As we cheered on
Speaker 1: Team USA and marveled at the almost superhuman athleticism on display,
Speaker 1: I was reminded why I love the Olympics so much.
Speaker 1: If you've listened to this podcast at all, you know
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of sports and athletes of all kinds.
Speaker 1: I admire their dedication, determination, hard work, and raw talent,
Speaker 1: and they embody what so many people aspire to be
Speaker 1: in their own lives. The Olympics puts that on display
Speaker 1: on a global scale. As President, I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to celebrate many triumphs by Team USA and meet hundreds
Speaker 1: of athletes who represented our country so well. It was
Speaker 1: a special honor to be president when the United States
Speaker 1: hosted the Games in Atlanta, and I'll never forget the
Speaker 1: experiences giving the Olympic Torch a ceremonial sendal from the
Speaker 1: White House as it began its journey to Olympic Village,
Speaker 1: attending the opening ceremony with Hillary, where Muhammad Ali lift
Speaker 1: the flame, visiting with athletes in the US, and several
Speaker 1: other nations while we were there was in some ways
Speaker 1: the most interesting thing of all. So why am I
Speaker 1: telling you this? Because at their best, the Olympics symbolize
Speaker 1: our world's potential for cooperation, for bringing people together, for
Speaker 1: honoring the common humanity that unitess across old divisions of gender, race,
Speaker 1: geographical borders. No one knows more about the Olympic experience,
Speaker 1: of course, than the athletes themselves, and today I'm honored
Speaker 1: to have two iconic gold medalists with me to offer
Speaker 1: their insights on the Olympics, on the years of training
Speaker 1: to go into qualifying, all the rigors of competing in
Speaker 1: the Olympics, the ups and downs at all athletes faced,
Speaker 1: and finding residience to keep going. Apollo On won eight
Speaker 1: medals and short track speed skating across three Olympics from
Speaker 1: two thou and two two thousand ten, America's all time
Speaker 1: most decorated Winter Olympian in the process, becoming the face
Speaker 1: of his sport and one of America's most iconic athletes.
Speaker 1: Since retiring from competition, he's transitioned successfully into business, philanthropy, broadcasting,
Speaker 1: and book rotting. His latest book, Hard Pivot, is out
Speaker 1: this month. It takes us through this transition and offers
Speaker 1: guidance for anyone facing big life changes, a subject especially
Speaker 1: useful in these times, as so many of us navigate
Speaker 1: uncharted waters. I've loved watching him throughout the years. I'm
Speaker 1: glad I got the chance to meet him twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: and I'm very grateful for the chance to speak with
Speaker 1: him now. Apollo. Thanks for joining us, Mr President. It's
Speaker 1: wonderful to see you again. Twenty years later. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about you know, we have in our home that
Speaker 1: picture of you and our family together in the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 1: It was great. I remember that very very well. It
Speaker 1: was it was an honor. I've been really impressed by
Speaker 1: what you're trying to do and helping people manage transitions
Speaker 1: in their lives and also supporting these athletes that are
Speaker 1: under so much stress. I think it's I think it's
Speaker 1: really good. The average person has no idea how much
Speaker 1: mental stress of companies, the efforts you have to make
Speaker 1: to be the best in the world, and anything I
Speaker 1: agree and I do is overlaw of support. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I think that that's that's why we all fall in
Speaker 1: love with with the Olympics. Every time they come because
Speaker 1: of the the kind of only limited three podium spots
Speaker 1: that are available, but the thousands of athletes that have
Speaker 1: dedicated a ten year or sometimes even a twenty year
Speaker 1: UM path towards being their best, and we tend to
Speaker 1: only celebrate champions the ones that they are standing typically
Speaker 1: on top of the podium or receiving a medal in
Speaker 1: some capacity UM. But it's not to say that those
Speaker 1: other those others haven't done the work, they haven't put
Speaker 1: in the time and the energy and that sacrifice and dedication.
Speaker 1: And so what's interesting I think in today, at least
Speaker 1: from my purview, is this transformation I think all of
Speaker 1: us are are having around this transparency of talking about
Speaker 1: the pressures associated with such high levels of performance, whether
Speaker 1: that is in the Olympics for the athletes specifically, and
Speaker 1: the other side of the coin of what's happening behind
Speaker 1: the curtain, right what's happening between our own two ears.
Speaker 1: And I think at the end of the day, although
Speaker 1: we hoist many people up on pedestals because we aspire
Speaker 1: and are inspired by them to to to be something
Speaker 1: that semblance a little more like them, I think at
Speaker 1: least what I've seen is Um, this ability to say, well,
Speaker 1: that person is also human and he or she has
Speaker 1: the same thoughts and the same struggles and the same
Speaker 1: insecurities and self doubts. You know that I do. And uh,
Speaker 1: just trying to help people manage that the best way possible.
Speaker 1: You wrote this book that I think it's coming at
Speaker 1: a very important time because everybody has undergone some chance
Speaker 1: in their lives lately as a result of COVID, and
Speaker 1: COVID has taken a pretty terrible tone, not only in
Speaker 1: the lives we have lost and the people who have
Speaker 1: been permanently impaired, but the fights were having over the
Speaker 1: vaccine and masks and just the anxiety that people have.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's unnatural to worry about going outside, walking
Speaker 1: down the street, being with your friends, doing all these things.
Speaker 1: So this book of yours is coming in an important time,
Speaker 1: and uh, I'd like to talk about it a little
Speaker 1: bit and why you think it's just as important for
Speaker 1: people who aren't Olympic level athletes to read is for
Speaker 1: people who are in high level competitions. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: you know this is the book it's called hard Pivot,
Speaker 1: Embrace change, fine purpose and show up fully it's a
Speaker 1: short book, it's a it's an easy read. And when
Speaker 1: I started writing this book two and a half years ago,
Speaker 1: it was actually and deeply rooted in kind of my
Speaker 1: own struggles and tribulations around my reinvention or my transition
Speaker 1: from this one identity that I had been married to
Speaker 1: my entire life, which was Apollo oh no, Olympic champion
Speaker 1: speed skater um, you know, fifteen years in the Olympic
Speaker 1: path in space, and so I had. I had only
Speaker 1: thought that that's what I was. I had no idea
Speaker 1: other facets my personality. I was naturally curious. I was
Speaker 1: interested in exploring different parts of business in the world,
Speaker 1: but I still carried that business card with me. It's
Speaker 1: really hard for me to figure out when I decided
Speaker 1: to retire, what's next, Like what am I good at?
Speaker 1: What am I passionate about? And will I ever be
Speaker 1: able to replace the feeling that I once had representing
Speaker 1: our country and competing in the Olympic Games and having
Speaker 1: thousands and millions of people around this country cheer for me.
Speaker 1: I had realized quite quickly that we always see things
Speaker 1: for what they are in the moment. We stay so
Speaker 1: zoomed in and we believe that this moment is the
Speaker 1: defining moment, this is what's going to have the rest
Speaker 1: of my legacy and chapter for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: And I think we failed to realize that it's just
Speaker 1: one chapter. It's a part of all these different experiences
Speaker 1: that make up the entire book. And so there was
Speaker 1: this deep psychological process that I had to go through
Speaker 1: in terms of who am I? What is important? My father,
Speaker 1: who has been a huge um just just advocate and
Speaker 1: support of my life, but also his philosophy on kind
Speaker 1: of always prompting me to ask the internal questions, and
Speaker 1: you talk about like how am I keeping score of
Speaker 1: a life well lived regardless of what the external circumstances
Speaker 1: are telling me as and and this book reminds me
Speaker 1: to kind of ask life, right, what does Apollo want
Speaker 1: from life? And what do I believe life wants from Apollo?
Speaker 1: How can I engage in this path um knowing full
Speaker 1: well that I'm gonna have failures, I will have multiple mistakes,
Speaker 1: i will have missteps, but also making sure that I
Speaker 1: am aligned with that true north so that I can
Speaker 1: zoom out and also remain committed on that path. And
Speaker 1: so the book is dedicated towards people who either during
Speaker 1: COVID they were laid off, they decided they didn'ty don't
Speaker 1: no longer want to pursue this career that they spent
Speaker 1: twenty or thirty years in, and now they're stuck with
Speaker 1: the same question of how do I do my best
Speaker 1: in life to find my true north? How do I
Speaker 1: keep score? And actually understand that the scorecard maybe was
Speaker 1: the wrong scorecard from the beginning. Maybe I was living
Speaker 1: a life in fear of other people's opinions versus what
Speaker 1: I fundamentally believe is the most important thing for me,
Speaker 1: my family and my community, etcetera. And I hope it
Speaker 1: will help improve and change at least light the fire
Speaker 1: within a lot of people. I remember, sometime around the
Speaker 1: time I left the White Else might be a yours later.
Speaker 1: I had given a lot of thought to what I
Speaker 1: would do in the rest of my life, but I
Speaker 1: knew just vaguely how I wanted to do it. I
Speaker 1: didn't I couldn't answer the how question. So first you
Speaker 1: have to say what, then you have to say how.
Speaker 1: And Uh. I read a little book by a man
Speaker 1: named Spencer Johnson called Who Moved My Cheese? And It
Speaker 1: was from a story about mice being trained in laboratory
Speaker 1: experiments to navigate fairly complicated mazes to get to the
Speaker 1: cheese once they found the cheese, and they had a
Speaker 1: surprising capacity to remember complex roots until somebody moved the cheese.
Speaker 1: And you know, you stopped speed skating and somebody moved
Speaker 1: your cheese. You biology moved your cheese. All kinds of things.
Speaker 1: You had to make that decision. And I think you're
Speaker 1: still young enough that a lot of people much younger
Speaker 1: than you know about you remember with great pride and
Speaker 1: excitement what you accomplished, but are out there asking these
Speaker 1: questions of themselves now because this is happening to people
Speaker 1: at all ages. I have a lot of young friends
Speaker 1: that I just see them asking these questions now, probably
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years before they would have asked had it
Speaker 1: out been for this total disruption of our lives in
Speaker 1: in two thousand two, before the first Olympic Games that
Speaker 1: I had competed in just six months prior was the
Speaker 1: September eleven, two thousand one, um devastating attacks on on
Speaker 1: this country. And you know, during that time, I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was eighteen going on fifteen I always
Speaker 1: joke and uh, and I remember walking into the opening ceremonies,
Speaker 1: you know, just a year six months after, you know,
Speaker 1: the country was very uncertain in terms of travel. We
Speaker 1: weren't we weren't entirely sure if we should be hosting
Speaker 1: a global event on home soil. We didn't know if
Speaker 1: it was an invitation to replicate what had just happened,
Speaker 1: and so there was this uneasiness that existed, this uncertainty,
Speaker 1: a lot of misinformation and disinformation that existed, and um,
Speaker 1: people were unsure. For the first time in a long time.
Speaker 1: We I think we as a country had been brought
Speaker 1: to a niece, so to speak. And it was hard
Speaker 1: to believe that, right. I think that the ethos of
Speaker 1: being American was kind of always brashedly, always saying like
Speaker 1: we're the best, We're number one, you know, uh, nothing
Speaker 1: can can can take us down. And and it was
Speaker 1: it was this time where I remember walking to the
Speaker 1: opening ceremonies and you know, seeing the the you know,
Speaker 1: the security and the Special Forces people were on top
Speaker 1: of rooftops and they had their night vision goggles and
Speaker 1: walking into the actual arena. And then at that point
Speaker 1: in time, you know, this like reverberance of energy that
Speaker 1: was like unified. They had walked in this flag that
Speaker 1: was flown at the World Trade Center from New York.
Speaker 1: One of my very close friends and teammates was a
Speaker 1: part of that contingency that walked in the flag and
Speaker 1: there wasn't a dry eye in the entire arena. But really,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, um, there was this sense of community.
Speaker 1: And you know, the Olympics was really powerful. It showed
Speaker 1: that hey, we're going to persevere, we are going to continue.
Speaker 1: Is there uncertainty, yes, is there going to be risk here, yes,
Speaker 1: but we have to continue and pick ourselves back up again.
Speaker 1: And that was at the moment for me in which
Speaker 1: I felt like, Wow, this is this is way bigger
Speaker 1: than this little sport of speed skating that I do.
Speaker 1: This is something that is very representative regardless of outcome.
Speaker 1: Here's an incredible opportunity in a chance to have unification,
Speaker 1: to have common belief, to have Team USA and a
Speaker 1: global arena for people to compete their absolute best and
Speaker 1: showcase the utmost of the human spirit. And my very
Speaker 1: first race, it was the two thousand two um Win Olympics.
Speaker 1: It was a one thousand meters in Salt Lake City. UM.
Speaker 1: I was favored to win the race. I was like
Speaker 1: on all these magazines and um a mirror. Moments before
Speaker 1: the finish line and I was in first place. At
Speaker 1: the snap of the finger, another athlete crashed into me
Speaker 1: and then all of us went spiraling into the paths
Speaker 1: UM and my Olympic dreams of winning gold in that
Speaker 1: race were almost over. And I scrambled to my feet,
Speaker 1: falling again. But I thrust my skates across the finish
Speaker 1: line in this like wild craze of just trying to
Speaker 1: finish the race. That was my instinctual habit. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what happened. I rush off of the ice. Um
Speaker 1: I had just one silver. Uh, and I was confused.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what happened. And and for for a second,
Speaker 1: you know, like many others, I felt like, hey, this
Speaker 1: was taken from me. I was deserving of that gold.
Speaker 1: It was mine, it was someone else's faults. Those are
Speaker 1: my natural human reactions and responses. And then in incomes in. Uh,
Speaker 1: this this friend of mine who also our physio and
Speaker 1: kind of slash doctor. He's got this crazy look in
Speaker 1: his eye, and he looks at me and he says
Speaker 1: Apollo that was the most incredible race in the world.
Speaker 1: At the time, I had this huge gash in my leg.
Speaker 1: I just cut myself and it's at that moment that
Speaker 1: I realized it, Wow, this this was a gift. I
Speaker 1: didn't get the color of the metal that I wanted,
Speaker 1: but representative of that was this ability to get back
Speaker 1: up and win that silver. And so I told myself
Speaker 1: as I went out to receive the medals in the
Speaker 1: in the metal ceremony, that I was going to celebrate
Speaker 1: this silver as if it was the gold, because it
Speaker 1: represented so much more than just the race itself. It
Speaker 1: was We're going to get back, We're going to get
Speaker 1: knocked down, and during those times is a defining component
Speaker 1: of how do you get yourself back up, recalibrate and
Speaker 1: continue on. And it's never easy, and oftentimes life doesn't
Speaker 1: give us the entire result that we would like if
Speaker 1: we were the ones holding the playbook and writing the script,
Speaker 1: so to speak. But I think it's how we react
Speaker 1: and respond to those life challenges that are at the
Speaker 1: time are seemingly crushing and they can paralyze you in
Speaker 1: a capacity that doesn't allow you be your best self.
Speaker 1: But then later on life. We realize that that was
Speaker 1: the most incredible blessing of all and that to this day,
Speaker 1: out of the eight medals that I've won, was the
Speaker 1: most significant, the most important, and the one that I
Speaker 1: think is my favorite because of the life lessons that
Speaker 1: I carry with me today, not because of the color
Speaker 1: of the metal. I was watching that, right, I remember
Speaker 1: the crash, and I remember being so proud that somehow
Speaker 1: you got up and finished in you tried out for
Speaker 1: the one or Olympics and you didn't qualify this right,
Speaker 1: what happened? Then? How did you react? Did you ever
Speaker 1: think for a moment about quitting? I did? I was confused. So,
Speaker 1: you know, in the Olympic Games are going to be
Speaker 1: held in not going to Japan, which is near where
Speaker 1: my grandparents are actually from. And so my father was
Speaker 1: a Japanese immigrant who came to the US um no
Speaker 1: money in his pocket, you know, like incredible immigrant story
Speaker 1: that just kind of fought tooth and nail and survived
Speaker 1: to live the American dream, which was to pursue his
Speaker 1: passion in this country. And when I was born, everything
Speaker 1: changed and so you know, for his entire, my entire
Speaker 1: life at that point, my father wanted me to do
Speaker 1: something special, and here was the moment in which we
Speaker 1: were going to come back to Japan. My dad was
Speaker 1: gonna say, see, it wasn't for nothing. Look at we produced.
Speaker 1: We produced this. You know, our our son, our family
Speaker 1: is going to compete on Japanese home soil, compete for
Speaker 1: the US. This is like the perfect story book. I
Speaker 1: was fifteen years old. One year prior to that trials,
Speaker 1: I was actually number one in the US. I was
Speaker 1: ranked number one in the U S. I had this
Speaker 1: incredible rise to um being technically the captain of the team,
Speaker 1: so to speak, by performance, not by not by age,
Speaker 1: of course, and uh in less than a year at
Speaker 1: those Olympic trials, I finished dead last, sixteenth place. Actually,
Speaker 1: I was kind of mentally defeated that year. I had
Speaker 1: not gone um to the levels that are required to
Speaker 1: be your absolute best. I went through the motions, and
Speaker 1: my father saw this pattern that was starting to show
Speaker 1: habits um in the way that I trained and approached
Speaker 1: the sport. And so after I did not make that team,
Speaker 1: was I defeated? Yes? And so my father took me
Speaker 1: and we flew back to the Seattle area where I
Speaker 1: where I grew up and I'm from and he drove
Speaker 1: me about three and a half hours southwest of downtown Seattle,
Speaker 1: and this area on the Pacific Ocean called the Palace Beach.
Speaker 1: And at the time, you know, we didn't grow up
Speaker 1: with a lot of money, and so whenever we had
Speaker 1: the chance, my father would drive me to these nature
Speaker 1: esque places um that we're somewhat nearby, and we would
Speaker 1: we would we would sketch, and we would walk, and
Speaker 1: he would talk to me about life and give me
Speaker 1: lessons and and all these things. And so this was
Speaker 1: the place that we had been many times. And there
Speaker 1: was an old cabin there that was a part of
Speaker 1: this um area. It was called Iron Springs Resort. Now
Speaker 1: at the time it was very old, very run down
Speaker 1: um and it was like a log cabin that someone
Speaker 1: had built um in these woods that that that are
Speaker 1: a part of the ocean. And my father drops me
Speaker 1: off at this location and he says to alone, and
Speaker 1: he says, you're not listening to anything that I've been
Speaker 1: saying for the past year. You've thrown away an incredible opportunity.
Speaker 1: And I'm not upset that you didn't make the team.
Speaker 1: What is concerning to me is that you are throwing
Speaker 1: away an opportunity to be your best and you have
Speaker 1: second guests, and and told yourself subconsciously that, well, maybe
Speaker 1: if I would have tried harder, I probably would have
Speaker 1: made the team or committed or been more dedicated. And
Speaker 1: these can potentially haunt you for the rest of your life,
Speaker 1: this feeling of regret, this feeling of maybe I'll just
Speaker 1: quit and and do something else. And so he says,
Speaker 1: You're going to stay here for as long as it
Speaker 1: takes for you you to understand and realize, like which
Speaker 1: direction on life that you want to go and how
Speaker 1: are you going to pursue that. So I'm fifteen years old, right,
Speaker 1: So this is the time. I can articulate much better
Speaker 1: today than I could back then. Back then, I was
Speaker 1: very confused and angry at my father all these things.
Speaker 1: I just I didn't want to be there. I was
Speaker 1: I didn't understand why. I just want to hang out
Speaker 1: with my friends in Seattle, Like I have no video games,
Speaker 1: there's no cell phone, there's no social media, there's no
Speaker 1: way to entertain myself. And so I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: trying to figure out and I'm journaling every single day
Speaker 1: and I come to this conclusion that I'm willing to
Speaker 1: take the risk and take the gamble one more time, uh,
Speaker 1: and pursue this wild, crazy sport of speed skating and
Speaker 1: try to make the next Olympic team, which be four
Speaker 1: years later, which in my sport is a very uncertain,
Speaker 1: vaulatile environment. So I called my father. I let him
Speaker 1: know the decision that I've made. He doesn't know which
Speaker 1: decision it was. I just told me, I've made a decision.
Speaker 1: He comes and picks me up. On the three and
Speaker 1: a half hour drive home, I explained to him that
Speaker 1: I'm willing to try us one more time. He's ecstatic
Speaker 1: a because he wants to see me and he believes
Speaker 1: that I have the talent skill to continue on. But
Speaker 1: also um, he was happy that I actually came to
Speaker 1: a conclusion that throughout this hardship, this tough love, was
Speaker 1: this underlying light switch that was turned on for some reason,
Speaker 1: and from that moment on, I harnessed the and leverage
Speaker 1: the emotional trauma that occurred of not making that team
Speaker 1: and the way that it made me feel, the chatter
Speaker 1: that I heard in the other parents and coaches years. Oh,
Speaker 1: he's just a low statistic. He can't handle the pressure.
Speaker 1: He's going to crack under pressure. Those things were deeply
Speaker 1: emotionally scarring, but they also were important to me to
Speaker 1: harness the power of And that's how my career took
Speaker 1: a real turn was when I decided to say, you
Speaker 1: know what, the work is the shortcut. I want to
Speaker 1: go somewhere and be there in four years, and the
Speaker 1: only way through was by doing the things necessary on
Speaker 1: a day to day basis that compound over time and
Speaker 1: aligned with what I felt at that time was was
Speaker 1: my purpose. I know that you have had spent some
Speaker 1: time with other athletes having doubts, and only they can
Speaker 1: decide what they want in their lives. And I think
Speaker 1: you know one of the things your book will do
Speaker 1: for people who are high achievers but at some tipping
Speaker 1: point is to convince them not to make the decision
Speaker 1: for anyone else, but not to make it out of fear,
Speaker 1: because there is some dignity in the decision. Just to
Speaker 1: keep trying. Handling these changes is a very big deal.
Speaker 1: In handling setbacks is a very big deal. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. What do you think we could do to
Speaker 1: pay more positive attention to the the enormous mental and
Speaker 1: emotional and psychological challenges and pressures. A lot of athletes
Speaker 1: are under and still continue to value competitive excellence and
Speaker 1: recognize momentary victories. How can we strike the write balance?
Speaker 1: I thought about this often. I think, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: my own conditioning around how I can be my own
Speaker 1: version of a warrior has probably also transformed over the
Speaker 1: past decade. And as we enter into an era where um,
Speaker 1: we're being much more communicative around what happens between our
Speaker 1: own two years and this connection and engagement that we
Speaker 1: can create with our communities through social or wherever. The
Speaker 1: good side is that we can actually show the human side.
Speaker 1: You can show that side that that makes us more awesome. Um,
Speaker 1: we can also exude the same type of qualities that
Speaker 1: we want to see in Olympic athletes and in those
Speaker 1: that we believe when we define the words strong. But
Speaker 1: I think the words strong now is encompassing and has texture,
Speaker 1: and that texture is associated with realizing and recognizing that
Speaker 1: you must have empathy, the vulnerability associated with seeking one's
Speaker 1: authentic truth. It's actually incredibly strong. And so you know
Speaker 1: my first reaction when I saw Simone Biles say that
Speaker 1: she was not going to continue and compete in those
Speaker 1: games might because of my own conditioning. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: that that doesn't seem fair. That seems like she's quitting.
Speaker 1: I think she's failing at what she's doing. That was
Speaker 1: my first natural response, and then I said, wait a second, Apollo,
Speaker 1: you don't know this person. Number one, You have no
Speaker 1: idea what this person has gone through or what is
Speaker 1: feeling and seeing right now and an actual reality. To
Speaker 1: say yes and continue on the same path that she
Speaker 1: had been on many many times before was actually the
Speaker 1: easy road. That was the road that was expected, and
Speaker 1: that was the road that she was conditioned to do,
Speaker 1: regardless of how she feels and or what has happened,
Speaker 1: or making a stand in some capacity, even if it
Speaker 1: meant that she was not going to get a medal.
Speaker 1: That's really hard to do. I'm not sure that I
Speaker 1: would be able to do that in full transparency. And
Speaker 1: on the flip side, to go against the grain, against
Speaker 1: what anyone else thought was acceptable and or um what
Speaker 1: we wanted to see happen. She said, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to compete because I'm not okay that has taken That
Speaker 1: takes so much strength to go against what what you know.
Speaker 1: Potentially I don't know a hundred million people in this
Speaker 1: country would say that's not the right answer, um, And
Speaker 1: so I commend her for doing that. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that that has not been easy. UM. I think that
Speaker 1: as we entered this era where yes, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of challenges this country has. Yes, there's a lot of conflict. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's all these things that sometimes we ask ourselves, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if we're going to make it, um. And
Speaker 1: I think the strength and the determination that exists when
Speaker 1: we define those words can live in the Olympic space,
Speaker 1: and so what can we do? I think we need
Speaker 1: to talk about it. We have to have the open
Speaker 1: lines of communication to still hold to our truth of
Speaker 1: you can be incredibly strong, you can persevere and overcome
Speaker 1: the most devastating of situations circumstances, and uh, you can
Speaker 1: come out the other side incredibly strong, calloused in a way, right,
Speaker 1: Douglas Douglas Mallock. Right, good timber does not grow with ease.
Speaker 1: The stronger wind, the stronger trees. That is the experience
Speaker 1: that we can live up to. And then realizing the
Speaker 1: scars that we have in our life, the things that
Speaker 1: have happened are what makes us who we are today.
Speaker 1: But people don't know about those unless you are communicating
Speaker 1: about them. And only through communication can we actually help
Speaker 1: those athletes proceed to be more wholesome, and I believe
Speaker 1: actually stronger, because then they own those things. They are
Speaker 1: no longer held in this mental prison, being handcuffed to
Speaker 1: this idea that I will have to do what everyone
Speaker 1: expects me to do versus knowing what is right and
Speaker 1: what I need to do. Uh, And that's available. So
Speaker 1: I think that I think we're on the right path.
Speaker 1: I think the communication has to continue UM and then
Speaker 1: for people who suffer UM on a chemical level, I
Speaker 1: think that we're understanding so much more about the brain,
Speaker 1: and there are treatments and people and professionals that we
Speaker 1: can seek to help us navigate through life's most challenging times.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you for not quitting when you've got
Speaker 1: off the drink. I'll be honest, I've never really put
Speaker 1: a nickel's worth of attention two speech skating and those
Speaker 1: smaller rinks until you came along, and slowly I saw
Speaker 1: first what skill it took, the second, what courage it took,
Speaker 1: third how it could be dangerous, and fourth how a
Speaker 1: lot of Olympic sports are like this, but how often
Speaker 1: in that sport you wind up being at the mercy
Speaker 1: of who bumped who first and what happens and you
Speaker 1: just seemed to lift yourself above it all Your head
Speaker 1: was in a good place. Life is a complicated piece
Speaker 1: of work. But I think the one thing that it's
Speaker 1: almost impossible to make people appreciate when they're young, it
Speaker 1: is how fast it happens mhm, you know, and how
Speaker 1: you you want to enjoy every phase of your life
Speaker 1: and you want something you've given back, And I think
Speaker 1: that's really hard to think about when you're young. My
Speaker 1: father died before I was born, so I always was
Speaker 1: more aware of my mortality than most people. And one
Speaker 1: of my great goals in life, when Helen I got married,
Speaker 1: I said, you know one thing I hope will happens.
Speaker 1: That will be old people one day sitting on a
Speaker 1: park bench and the young people will walk by, holding
Speaker 1: hands and laughing, and we will have no resentments and
Speaker 1: no regrets, just gratitude. But it's one thing to say
Speaker 1: and another to live. That's what that wag said. When
Speaker 1: all is said and done, more is said than done.
Speaker 1: You know what's you're like? To be that way you
Speaker 1: want to be, and I think you've got a chance
Speaker 1: here to have a really profound positive impact on people.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you. This is this has been This
Speaker 1: has been amazing. I have a lot of life lessons here.
Speaker 1: My next guest is a former professional basketball player, four
Speaker 1: time Olympic gold medalists, three time w n B A
Speaker 1: m VP, and Hall of Famer. Lisa Leslie is currently
Speaker 1: the coach of the Triplets in the Big Three Basketball League.
Speaker 1: She led to the inaugural Big Three championship in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: In addition to her pioneering basketball career, which includes being
Speaker 1: the first woman to dunk w n B a game,
Speaker 1: Lisa's resume includes fashion, modeling, acting, sports commentary, and now
Speaker 1: real estate. I had the honor to meet her when
Speaker 1: I was president and she was a member of the
Speaker 1: women's national basketball team when they won those gold medals
Speaker 1: in and in two thousand. I've been a big fan
Speaker 1: ever since, and I'm so glad to be speaking with
Speaker 1: her today. Lisa, thank you for joining us. Yes, thank
Speaker 1: you for having me, Mr President. I'm so excited. It's
Speaker 1: a great one to see you. To hear your voice
Speaker 1: always warms my heart. I remember, UH, just me really
Speaker 1: getting into voting and focusing more on our country and
Speaker 1: our needs. UM, after having the pleasure of meeting you
Speaker 1: and Miss Hillary and UM meeting you also on Beverly
Speaker 1: Hills at Rock the Vote. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: remember that. UM, thank you so much. It's always been
Speaker 1: a pleasure and I'm so happy to be on your podcast.
Speaker 1: So tell us just a little about winning. How you
Speaker 1: grew up, and how you became interested in basketball. I
Speaker 1: grew up in Compton, California, which is the inner city
Speaker 1: of southern California. UM. I was raised by my mom,
Speaker 1: who's a single mom with two sisters, an older sister
Speaker 1: and a younger sister. I'm the middle child, therefore the
Speaker 1: best child, who's most flexible, who gets along with everybody
Speaker 1: because I'm used to being told what to do. But
Speaker 1: I'm also used to leading and telling my younger sister
Speaker 1: what to do. So UM, I'd argue that the middle
Speaker 1: child's the best. Of course, my sisters would argue something different,
Speaker 1: but UM, you know, we just screw up. I come
Speaker 1: from very humble beginnings. UM had so much love and
Speaker 1: just positive affirmations from my mom for my sisters and
Speaker 1: I to, you know, take on the world and do
Speaker 1: the best that we can do, be our best, and
Speaker 1: do it with a lot of love and heart and integrity.
Speaker 1: But I gotta tell you, I didn't start playing basketball
Speaker 1: until I was twelve years old, which is really late
Speaker 1: considering all the success that I've had in this sport.
Speaker 1: But basketball, for me, really was about an opportunity to
Speaker 1: create change for our lives and for me to be
Speaker 1: able to go to college. That was the whole reason
Speaker 1: why I picked up a basketball because I recognize that
Speaker 1: that was the one sport that because obviously I was
Speaker 1: so tall. I was six ft in the sixth grade,
Speaker 1: so crazy, right. I remember telling my mom that people
Speaker 1: keep asking me if I play basketball, and she's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: because you're tall. To be heard, you know, they associate
Speaker 1: sports with people who were tall. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to play that, and she was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you don't have to. So funny. Um, But I went
Speaker 1: to middle school and there was a girl named Shay.
Speaker 1: They called her she and everybody's like Shay and she's
Speaker 1: so popular, and I'm like, why is everybody know her name?
Speaker 1: And they said, well, she's on the basketball team, and
Speaker 1: so I think God just had that happen for me
Speaker 1: so I can go, well, I want everybody to know
Speaker 1: my name. So I tried out for the basketball team.
Speaker 1: I guess the rest is history. It's amazing, that's how
Speaker 1: I started playing basketball. That's a great story. It's a
Speaker 1: great sport. Yes, it's It's changed my life and it's
Speaker 1: enhanced my life in ways that I would have never known.
Speaker 1: Through all the hard work and dedication of picking up
Speaker 1: that one basketball. In addition to your Olympic career, you
Speaker 1: made a huge contribution, I think to building the w
Speaker 1: n b A into what it is today. Talk about
Speaker 1: what that was like starting the league, expanding it. I
Speaker 1: know that Kobe Bryant did so much for the n
Speaker 1: b A. He supported it all much. A little about that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I kind of think back first, even going to high
Speaker 1: school and Title nine, Right, So Title nine played such
Speaker 1: a huge part and the opportunities that I've had even
Speaker 1: getting to the w n b A. Um, when I
Speaker 1: look at Title nine and I remember learning about it
Speaker 1: in high school in the ninth grade and just having
Speaker 1: the opportunity to be able as a female, to be
Speaker 1: able to play sports, and recognizing that Hey, this is
Speaker 1: an opportunity that although it's a bill and a law
Speaker 1: that can go away at any time. And so I
Speaker 1: think it was that understanding of the opportunity and the
Speaker 1: urgency to play sports and not knowing if it was
Speaker 1: gonna last that really motivated me to want to to
Speaker 1: be my best and to get after it. So I
Speaker 1: never took playing for granted. I went to Morningside High
Speaker 1: in Inglewood, California, and then I went on to USC
Speaker 1: and at USC, I played for a coach name Mary
Speaker 1: Anne Stanley, and it was coach Stanley who gave me
Speaker 1: that idea about, you know, representing our country and you know,
Speaker 1: understanding that there's basketball overseas. And from there, I have
Speaker 1: to say that making my first USA basketball team in
Speaker 1: the eleventh grade was my first opportunity to travel the world.
Speaker 1: And so what happens is sometimes we have kids that
Speaker 1: play these sports, but you never get an opportunity or
Speaker 1: you don't see the big picture. By making my first
Speaker 1: USA team and going to Spain out of the country,
Speaker 1: first time out of the country ever, my first passport,
Speaker 1: that was really what opened and brought in my my
Speaker 1: horizons to the fact that other women in other countries
Speaker 1: play basketball professionally, like there are more opportunities outside of
Speaker 1: our state. And then I would come back to our
Speaker 1: country and go, well, why don't we recognize or celebrate
Speaker 1: women's sports as much as we do men? And so
Speaker 1: I knew that I had really um one of voice
Speaker 1: and a purpose, and my purpose was to try to
Speaker 1: spend spread the word about women's sports and us playing
Speaker 1: at this next level and us being even better. So
Speaker 1: when you look at what we did in six it
Speaker 1: really started in when the USA team traveled the world,
Speaker 1: playing everybody in their country and beating them. By the
Speaker 1: time we got that gold medal placed around our next
Speaker 1: we were sixty and oh and so that's sixty and
Speaker 1: oh is really what elevated the idea that women can
Speaker 1: play professional basketball in our country. And so the w
Speaker 1: b A was then launched in um. I was assigned
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles and the w b A again a platform,
Speaker 1: an opportunity to be a role model for so many
Speaker 1: young kids, boys and girls, signing autographs, taking pictures, um
Speaker 1: doing community service because I knew we had to invest
Speaker 1: in our fans and try to grow our basketball in
Speaker 1: our country. And so that really was the pivotal moment
Speaker 1: for me was just understanding the platform, understanding the importance
Speaker 1: of networking, understanding the importance of you know, my appearance,
Speaker 1: and you know I love being feminine and I love fashion.
Speaker 1: So that for me was like, Hey, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: play basketball and they're gonna play as hard as I can.
Speaker 1: I loved having those opportunities. And I would say that
Speaker 1: our NBA counter parts, our guys, were our biggest supporters.
Speaker 1: And yes, Kobe Bryant was probably had done more for
Speaker 1: women's basketball and our awareness and a very short period
Speaker 1: of time than anybody else in history when it comes
Speaker 1: to a man that really loved what we were doing,
Speaker 1: aside from David Stern himself and the late doctor Bus.
Speaker 1: Tell the people who are listening, how long you played well?
Speaker 1: I played professionally for UM. I'd say eleven years in
Speaker 1: the w n B A UM, because I stopped and
Speaker 1: I had my daughter, and I went back and played
Speaker 1: and played in my last Olympics. UM, but I've been
Speaker 1: playing basketball for over twenty five years. UM. I played overseaves,
Speaker 1: I lived in Italy, I lived in Russia. UM got
Speaker 1: a chance to eat some amazing food and learned to
Speaker 1: speak another language. Um, and bath sketball. Like I said,
Speaker 1: picking up that ball in seventh grade changed my life forever.
Speaker 1: I always say, you know, it was one thing for
Speaker 1: me to represent my city and even my state and
Speaker 1: winning state championships in high school, but it's been the
Speaker 1: biggest honor of my life to represent our country playing
Speaker 1: for Team USA. At first, that's a beautiful sentiment and
Speaker 1: I'm glad you feel that way still. So you won
Speaker 1: gold medals in two thousand, two thousand four, and two
Speaker 1: thousand night, anyone in particular stand out for you? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: Mr President, it will always be for me. Um. If
Speaker 1: you remember that, Um, which is not to put a
Speaker 1: damper on it, but there was a bomb that went
Speaker 1: off in at the in Atlanta at the Olympic, and
Speaker 1: so um our men and women's team stayed across the
Speaker 1: street from that Centennial Park. That bomb went off outside
Speaker 1: of my balcony window, and UM, that moment was sort
Speaker 1: of surreal because you know, things you saw on television,
Speaker 1: but to be on our US soil and for that
Speaker 1: to happen. In that moment, I think we were all
Speaker 1: faced with the challenge of like, are we gonna move
Speaker 1: in fear? Or are we gonna fight, And it was
Speaker 1: a symbolism to me that you know, our country, our security,
Speaker 1: everything stepped up right. We were aware and we were
Speaker 1: prepared for anything. And that's the same thing we were
Speaker 1: as a team Team USA. We had a talk and
Speaker 1: we were you know, shaken by that, but also it
Speaker 1: was like, this is the point we have on this
Speaker 1: USA uniform. We are fighters, we work hard, we don't
Speaker 1: give up. And that moment, for me, it was just
Speaker 1: very symbolic because we had an opportunity to sort of
Speaker 1: power away or be like, you know, we're afraid, we
Speaker 1: don't want to go on with the Olympics or whatever,
Speaker 1: and it was just like, you know, a second that
Speaker 1: that comes in, it's like, no, we are we are USA,
Speaker 1: and no one's going to you know, stop us from
Speaker 1: fighting for our country. And although again I love and
Speaker 1: respect our military. My husband flew um, he went to
Speaker 1: the Air Force Academy, he flew in Desert Storm and
Speaker 1: Desert Shield, um as well as my you know, my father,
Speaker 1: my grandfather, and my uncle's my father in law. So
Speaker 1: our military means so much to me that I understand
Speaker 1: that they fight and protect us in such a way,
Speaker 1: but that for me was just like I thought about
Speaker 1: our our military and that you know, even though I'm
Speaker 1: just an athlete in this USA uniform, we have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to fight for our country and to still go
Speaker 1: out there. And so the nineties Olympics um will always
Speaker 1: be my favorite just because we were on us soil
Speaker 1: fighting for our country. Yep, it's a wonderful memory. Yes,
Speaker 1: let me ask you a little bit about what you're
Speaker 1: doing now and we'll come back to the Olympics. Not
Speaker 1: all of our listeners know about Big three basketball, and
Speaker 1: you're a coach of a team and you've got some
Speaker 1: pretty outstanding players. So tell people about just a little
Speaker 1: bit about Big three basketball, how to get store the
Speaker 1: who's behind it, and how did you get involved. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: first off, President Clinton, we have to have you at
Speaker 1: a Big three game. You have a personal invitation in
Speaker 1: a court side seat because we would love to have you.
Speaker 1: And this amazing league was started by ice Cube, Jeff Quasnet,
Speaker 1: and Amy Trash, three amazing, brilliant people who came together
Speaker 1: to start this league. And you know, ice Cube is
Speaker 1: just he's really a genius in our time and so
Speaker 1: amazing that he would think of three on three for
Speaker 1: players who still have a lot in their tank, but
Speaker 1: maybe you know, just they don't have a spot on
Speaker 1: the NBA team anymore. Although a lot of our players
Speaker 1: have been picked backed up by NBA team, So three
Speaker 1: on three or NBA men who um left the NBA
Speaker 1: or retired and have an opportunity to play three on
Speaker 1: three half court. We have an amazing game. That's the
Speaker 1: first team the fifty. You gotta win by two. We
Speaker 1: have three point shots, four point shots, uh, you name it.
Speaker 1: We also have something called fireball that was at it
Speaker 1: last year, which is also brilliant. So ice Cube decided
Speaker 1: that if you want to challenge, you know, a foul call,
Speaker 1: unless it was an offensive foul, you can challenge that
Speaker 1: call and then go one on one. So we call
Speaker 1: that fireball, which is also so exciting. And we were
Speaker 1: talking a little before the program started about real essite,
Speaker 1: how did you get into the lap Yeah, well, you know,
Speaker 1: Mr President, having the opportunity to play in the w
Speaker 1: n b A was really the first time that I
Speaker 1: was able to make money, you know, and I have
Speaker 1: also endorsement deals and so once I got there, I
Speaker 1: was very lucky and blessed to have an uncle, two
Speaker 1: uncles who aren't both um, they are both accountants, and
Speaker 1: so having them, I went directly to my uncle, who
Speaker 1: you know, obviously was very well off, and I was like,
Speaker 1: how do I keep my money? What do I do?
Speaker 1: You know? And he was like, well, the first thing
Speaker 1: we need to do is, you know, open up your
Speaker 1: corporation and you need to go and get some real estate.
Speaker 1: So it really started in and having that advice, I
Speaker 1: started to buy homes. I bought myself a home, then
Speaker 1: I bought my mom a home, which I kept in
Speaker 1: my name, and I started out like that really slowly,
Speaker 1: and I'm about to launch the first national Black um
Speaker 1: real estate agency across our country. We've never had one.
Speaker 1: It's called Aston Rose. And the beauty of that is
Speaker 1: that it's gonna be an opportunity for all of us
Speaker 1: to be very inclusive with investing in athletes as well
Speaker 1: as entertainers and trying to not just help them with
Speaker 1: their real estate, but also to educate them because sometimes
Speaker 1: in the African American community, we we miss out on
Speaker 1: that educational opportunity of understanding how to keep your money.
Speaker 1: And we know of so many athletes and people in
Speaker 1: the past who had millions of dollars and have nothing
Speaker 1: to show for it, whether after they retired in five
Speaker 1: years they have no money left or if they blew
Speaker 1: it all um just on things that really didn't appreciate.
Speaker 1: And so it's it's time. It's time for us to
Speaker 1: make that change. And I think for all of the
Speaker 1: things that happened with the pandemic and the social unrest
Speaker 1: really also gave us all clarity on the change that
Speaker 1: needed to happen in our country. And so you can
Speaker 1: either talk about the change or you can be a
Speaker 1: part of the change. And so for me, I felt like,
Speaker 1: how can I be a part of the chain understanding
Speaker 1: that you know, we've been in situations where minorities were
Speaker 1: not allowed to live in certain areas or even have
Speaker 1: access to certain schools, and so we have to change
Speaker 1: that by how we invest and how we can create
Speaker 1: generational wealth. That's not something that happens by accident. Is
Speaker 1: something that we have to educate. We have to come
Speaker 1: together as a community to do that. The thing that
Speaker 1: I found interesting is that there are we're really there
Speaker 1: are two different issues. One is you want to make
Speaker 1: sure that all athletes are fairly paid. The second, once
Speaker 1: they get paid that they you manage what they've earned
Speaker 1: so it can be valuable to them over a lifetime,
Speaker 1: long after they stop playing sports. And those are two
Speaker 1: distinct problems, both worthy of pushing. I think so, Mr President,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's important to recognize that we don't
Speaker 1: have that education and not that it's hard to have
Speaker 1: the education about money when you don't have money. Let's
Speaker 1: just say that. And when you come from the inner
Speaker 1: city in the way most of us do, and a
Speaker 1: lot of the athletes and entertainers, Um, we've worked hard
Speaker 1: for where we are, Like, we're working as hard as
Speaker 1: we can. But where were you going to get this
Speaker 1: education about financing? I mean, I went back to school
Speaker 1: to get my master's in business and that was probably, um,
Speaker 1: the first understanding and infrastructure of just like economics, you know,
Speaker 1: in general on a micro level, on a macro level,
Speaker 1: just understanding like oh wow, and things that are depreciating
Speaker 1: or understanding the stock market. That's a whole another level
Speaker 1: of education that is not necessarily provided. So where would
Speaker 1: they know how would they know? You know, they don't,
Speaker 1: but they know that they're hard work and their talents
Speaker 1: is getting them a check. But now what do you
Speaker 1: do with that? And so there's uh. You know, we've
Speaker 1: been able to see some athletes do amazing things and
Speaker 1: be able to reinvest and get smarter about their money,
Speaker 1: but we've seen a lot who have no idea what
Speaker 1: they're doing, and after that retirement, within five years, statistically
Speaker 1: they're broke. We have to change that. I agree with that.
Speaker 1: I think the goal of almost all social policy and
Speaker 1: economic policy should be empowerment. Yes, we should be. We
Speaker 1: should empower other people to live their best lives so
Speaker 1: that it may not be what you would do, it
Speaker 1: doesn't shouldn't be. We have a more interesting society if
Speaker 1: we don't make our own decisions, but you have to
Speaker 1: be empowered to make them. And I really appreciate what
Speaker 1: you've done on that. I think it's important that we
Speaker 1: as African Americans in our country, our system had been
Speaker 1: so broken for us to be broken and separated apart,
Speaker 1: that we have to learn to come back together and
Speaker 1: we have to learn to invest in each other, and
Speaker 1: we have to be edgy catd um and educate each other.
Speaker 1: And so that's a part of the change that I
Speaker 1: want to be a part of. That's my new endeavor
Speaker 1: for sure. More after this, if you ask any casual
Speaker 1: sports fan, what are some of the main storylines and
Speaker 1: all kinds of athletics over the last year or two,
Speaker 1: one of them would certainly have to be the freedom
Speaker 1: with which athletes have become to discuss the mental and
Speaker 1: emotional tensions and stress they feel, particularly those who are
Speaker 1: in dangerous sports. But we've seen that from Simone Bile
Speaker 1: through Naomi Osaka, Jamie Anderson that games, and and of
Speaker 1: course MICHAELA. Schiffern has been unusually and I think appealingly
Speaker 1: straightforward about how she just sort of blocked out on
Speaker 1: her first events. And the thing I really liked about
Speaker 1: her is she said, I feel that I still feel
Speaker 1: like I failed, and I'm so touched that people are
Speaker 1: so nice to me, but I don't feel like I
Speaker 1: earned it. I mean that she's sort of caught in
Speaker 1: mid term with the challenges all people involved in great
Speaker 1: endeavor's face. But almost all great contests are at bottom
Speaker 1: head game that is. I mean, you know, you had
Speaker 1: certain advantages playing basketball, you were taller than most people,
Speaker 1: but there was some other people who were pretty tall.
Speaker 1: I mean, if if given a fair distribution of effort
Speaker 1: and ability contests are mental battles, I think, So, what's
Speaker 1: your take on it. Is it a positive thing that
Speaker 1: we're getting more open about mental health? And how do
Speaker 1: you talk about these things in a way that doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily make the paralysis worse. I believe it's it's a
Speaker 1: real topic that people who feel that they need help
Speaker 1: should have access to that and not be looked at negatively.
Speaker 1: I do believe that there are things in life that
Speaker 1: we can do to even help with mental health, and
Speaker 1: that is giving people the tools to deal with it.
Speaker 1: I remember a long time ago, I used to work
Speaker 1: with volunteers, probably the better work because I didn't get paid,
Speaker 1: but I worked with or volunteered to help UM Foster Boys,
Speaker 1: and I was working with the boys a lot, and
Speaker 1: I found that one on one UM talking to the
Speaker 1: boys and creating that relationship was amazing, Like I loved
Speaker 1: each of them and just had so much fun hanging
Speaker 1: out with them. But I also realized when we got
Speaker 1: together there were times where if you date one was antagonized,
Speaker 1: or if they were challenged, they would become very aggressive,
Speaker 1: possibly fight. Like it was just a change, and I
Speaker 1: was interested to understand, like the chemical imbalance at times
Speaker 1: that would happen, it's because they didn't really understand how
Speaker 1: to deal with their emotions. And so I believe that
Speaker 1: that's a real thing and things maybe we need to
Speaker 1: look for in children younger that may have behavioral issues
Speaker 1: sometimes or maybe seem sad more than others. Are paying
Speaker 1: a little bit more attention to the emotions of children
Speaker 1: and then finding ways to get them help. Now as
Speaker 1: we move more into the teens and the you know,
Speaker 1: young adults, yeah, I believe. I believe it's real. Listen,
Speaker 1: we are older looking at them go through social media
Speaker 1: and you know, cyber bullying and a pandemic, and problems
Speaker 1: being canceled in college, opportunities being canceled. Like, they are
Speaker 1: going through a lot. It's very heavy for them, and
Speaker 1: no one could have prepared them for all of these
Speaker 1: negative things that are happening to them all at one time.
Speaker 1: Then you add on that the possibility of not being
Speaker 1: financially secure or even knowing where your next meal is
Speaker 1: going to come from. I'm not sure you can't afford
Speaker 1: to have certain clothes or you know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of elements that these young people are dealing with, um
Speaker 1: that maybe some of us are we passed that threshold
Speaker 1: where we're not even thinking about that. But if I
Speaker 1: take myself back to my nineteen year old self and
Speaker 1: not knowing, you know, having five dollars to buy a burrito,
Speaker 1: and half my burrito I ate in the morning, and
Speaker 1: then my other half I ate, you know, before practice,
Speaker 1: just to have enough food. I remember those days. I
Speaker 1: couldn't imagine you adding me trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to where I'm gonna find my mill while I was
Speaker 1: at college or in high school, and a pandemic, you know,
Speaker 1: and some people in some close quarters dealing with COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: So I could think that there are a million things
Speaker 1: right now that young people are dealing with that they
Speaker 1: cannot process the way we as adults can step back
Speaker 1: and go, well, listen, we have to be thankful that
Speaker 1: we we can afford to be here. We have to
Speaker 1: be thankful that we have a house in the space.
Speaker 1: You know. There's so many things that we look at
Speaker 1: and we're just like, well, you've got to be thankful.
Speaker 1: But it's tougher for them. And I think it's important
Speaker 1: for us to have the conversations. It's more real again,
Speaker 1: giving us clarity in so many areas. Mental health is
Speaker 1: something that we have to be aware of and we
Speaker 1: have to check in on people and see how they're doing.
Speaker 1: We are also a country that we believe in being first,
Speaker 1: you know, we we are a country that drives people.
Speaker 1: We were it's like second place is not acceptable. And
Speaker 1: we have that mentality in our workplace. We have that
Speaker 1: mentality in our sports, we have that mentality. You know,
Speaker 1: even you and country, our country as a leadership that
Speaker 1: you know, we will not be second place. That's tough
Speaker 1: to live up to. That's a lot of pressure. And
Speaker 1: then let me just add social media. Social media for
Speaker 1: what it does to these young people and what they
Speaker 1: see and all of these again material things and how
Speaker 1: people are living makes them feel less than because they
Speaker 1: don't have it and they don't have the access to it.
Speaker 1: So I believe it is real. It's just more to
Speaker 1: the forefront because this millennial generation, if you will, and
Speaker 1: even this younger generation, they are dealing with things that
Speaker 1: we did not have to deal with and they are
Speaker 1: not capable all the time of being able to process
Speaker 1: it and then go, hey, let me take a moment
Speaker 1: to meditate, let me be happy with myself, let me
Speaker 1: stop and learn to love myself. Let me be thankful
Speaker 1: for the blessings I have you. You have become a
Speaker 1: wise woman. Thank you wisdom. I pray for wisdom. You
Speaker 1: probably always were now, but I always pray for wisdom
Speaker 1: and discernment, you know, to just to to be able
Speaker 1: to understand. I think my spiritual gift is my ability
Speaker 1: to speak. That's what God's blessed me with. Maybe someday
Speaker 1: you'll coach the Olympic team. All right, Mr President, I
Speaker 1: really thank you for having me. It's an honor again
Speaker 1: to you know, be in your presence to talk to
Speaker 1: you than you and I know that it's you probably
Speaker 1: hear this all the time, but some of you presidents
Speaker 1: have such a voice that rings in our minds and
Speaker 1: our hearts, that gives us hope and stability and calm
Speaker 1: even during the storm. So it's great to hear your voice.
Speaker 1: God bless you. Tell ms Hillary, I said, hello, and
Speaker 1: thank you please as well. Thanks. Why am I telling you?
Speaker 1: This is a production of our Heart Radio, the Clinton
Speaker 1: Foundation and at Will Medium. Our executive producers are Craigmanascian
Speaker 1: and Will Malnadi. Our production team includes Mitch Bluestein, Jamison Katsufas,
Speaker 1: Tom Galton, Sir Harrowitz, and Jake Young, with production support
Speaker 1: from Liz Raftoree and Josh Farnham. Original music by What White.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to John Sykes, John Davidson on hell Orina,
Speaker 1: Corey Ganstley, Kevin Thurm, Oscar Flores, and all our dedicated
Speaker 1: staff and partners at the Clinton Foundation. Hi, this is
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton. I hope you're enjoying whin I telling you this.
Speaker 1: I started the Clinton Foundation on the belief that everyone
Speaker 1: deserves a chance to succeed, Everyone has a responsibility to act,
Speaker 1: and we all do better when we work together. In
Speaker 1: the more than twenty years since the Foundation first opened
Speaker 1: its doors in Harlem, we've brought people together across traditional
Speaker 1: divides to address some of the most complex and pressing
Speaker 1: challenges of our time. The need for cooperation has never
Speaker 1: been more urgent than it is now. The COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: pandemic has ripped the cover off long standing in equities
Speaker 1: and vulnerabilities across our global community and here at home.
Speaker 1: The existential threat of climate change grows every day and
Speaker 1: all around the world. The forces of division are tugging
Speaker 1: at the fabric of our common humanity. That's why this
Speaker 1: year we're relaunching the Clinton Global Initiatives Annual Meeting in
Speaker 1: New York in September, bringing together heads of state and
Speaker 1: other government officials, leaders of NGOs and philanthropic organizations, prominent
Speaker 1: voices and business, labor and finance and youth leaders, and
Speaker 1: grassroots activists to drive progress on inclusive economic growth and recovery,
Speaker 1: climate resilience, and health equity. While the challenges we face
Speaker 1: our steep, our work has always been about what we
Speaker 1: can do, not what we can't do, and by bringing
Speaker 1: diverse partners together to take action and achieve real results,
Speaker 1: we can create a culture of possibility in a world
Speaker 1: hungary for hope. I hope you will take a moment
Speaker 1: to share your thoughts and ideas with us and learn
Speaker 1: more about our work by is a ning www dot
Speaker 1: Clinton Foundation dot org, slash podcast. Thank you, m HM.