WEBVTT - Interview Only w/ Vanan Murugesan - The Importance Of Community-Based Journalism 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.040 This episode of the Chuck Podcast is brought to you 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:04.440 by Ethos and what Ethos does is it helps you 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:06.880 find life insurance. Let me tell you why life insurance 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:09.360 bailed me out. My father died when I was sixteen. 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:11.680 We didn't have a lot of money when it happened, 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.640 and we were in a pretty tough financial spot after 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.520 it happened. I'm an only child. Suddenly my mother's single, 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.360 single mother. She had a job, suddenly lost a job, 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.799 looking for another job, and we were struggling. You know, 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.720 my dad didn't leave us in the best financial situation, 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.080 but he did make one purchase. 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Application times may vary 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:47.440 and rates may vary well. In I continuing coverage and 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.600 Yes Local News Day on April ninth, circle your calendar's 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:55.240 local news Day in April ninth. One of my goals has 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:59.840 been to essentially profile, if you will, a different types 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:04.000 of local news startups that are out there, and obviously 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:06.400 part of the goal of Local News Day in April 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.680 ninth is to create more awareness out there. And there 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:13.440 are a lot of local news startups in your neighborhood 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.320 that you may have not heard about. Some of them 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.839 are very community specific, maybe for a smaller community that's 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.040 a part of your area. Maybe it's geographic, maybe it's ethnic, 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.880 but these startups are everywhere. And in fact, the profile 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.120 of the organization I want to showcase today is the 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.520 Sahan Journal. It's based in Minnesota, and we have the 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:41.040 publisher here with us, Vanan Muru Gayson. He's not the 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:45.080 original founder. He actually just he has essentially taken it 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.600 over and expanded it from its original intent. It is 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.960 a news organization that has been vital to the immigrant 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.280 community in Minneapolis in particular. But it's not just about 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:01.120 one community. You know, what's been interesting about Minneapolis over 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.080 the last couple of decades and what's given it some 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.280 amazing cultural features, if you will, that make it even 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.440 more unique place to visit today than it was thirty 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:15.080 years ago when Prince was walking the city the city streets, 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.880 is that it has a lot of new communities, the 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:22.040 Somali community among community, in addition to sort of maybe 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.200 more familiar immigrant communities that many of you have out 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.799 there and they're just doing gangbusters. And this is a 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:34.720 story of a local news outlet filling the vacuum for 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.200 a community that was just completely underserved. We know that 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:41.640 there are geographic news deserts, but sometimes there are community 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.400 news deserts. And I think what the Sohan Journal was 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.360 able to essentially a gap they were able to fill, 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:53.680 is for a community a news organization that doesn't just 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.600 meet them subject on the subject matters that they care about, 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.360 but also on the platforms that they use. And I 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:04.200 think this is something a lot of traditional newsrooms don't realize. 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.760 The various ways immigrant communities get their information. They're in 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.280 a lot different apps than the apps you see, whether 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.920 it's WhatsApp being a big one, even telegram, and so 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.120 the work that the Sahan Journal has done there I 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.919 think will serve as as something of for some of 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.640 you out there in this space. There's going to be 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:25.440 a lot to learn. So, without further ado, let me 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.640 bring Vonon into the conversation. Vonon, Welcome to the podcast. 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.320 Thank you Chuck for having me. It's a pleasure to 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:35.040 be here today. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.200 Well, before we get started, tell me how did I 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:40.680 do In the introduction to the news organization, and please 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.520 fill in some gaps. What did I miss? How would 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.160 you if you're in an elevator with me and we're 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.679 riding up fifteen flights, how are you describing it to somebody? 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:51.760 Oh, fifteen flights? Well that's quite generous. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.599 A few here, yeah, I'm assuming we have five minutes, right. 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:58.280 Well, thank you, Thanks for opportunity. 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.200 It's so great that yoursel reading you know, local news stap, 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.240 but also looking to uplift the different types of news 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.760 outlets that are working in this space, and in particular, 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.280 I'm here to talk a little bit about immigrants serving newsrooms, 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:14.479 and so I'll try to talk a little bit about 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.200 SAHAN and so also maybe it gives your audience a 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.680 little bit of context around how immigrant newsrooms work. So 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.320 SAHAN was started twenty nineteen. You are right, I am 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.360 not the founder. The founder is actually his name is 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.719 Muktari brought him. He's a traditional journalist, really really good journalists. 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:33.400 He worked for the Star Tribune and he worked for 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.000 the MPR for Minnesota Public Radio News and at that 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:42.799 time he noticed something that you know, was not something 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.520 that he wasn't able to cover. You know, Minnesota has 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.599 one of the best local news scenes in the country. 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:49.320 As you know, that very true. 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.760 Look, it's funny you bring up Minnesota Public Radio, probably 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.760 one of the strongest affiliates of the NPR system that 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:56.360 there is. 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:03.240 Exactly particularly exactly exactly, and and yet he felt working 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.200 for both of these organizations, he felt there were still 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.039 important stories that were being missed that was important to 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.960 be covered, and the stories around the immigrant communities. You know, 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.080 he was somewhat disappointed at that time where he was 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.880 packed as the Somali journalist and he would cover Somali 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:22.640 issues and whatnot. And you know, at that time, unfortunately 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.280 and even in some places in some instances today, issues 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.440 from immigrants are talked around from a crime perspective or 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:32.480 things that of negative in nature. 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:34.920 Right, he grew very frustrated. And now this is the man. 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:39.479 Mind you. His wife was pregnant with his third maybe 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:40.920 fourth child, I think the third child. 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.320 He quit his job in the cold month of December 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.040 because he just couldn't take it anymore. And so he 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.880 started Sahan Journal because he felt like some of these 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.719 important stories were not showing up. And that's why newsrooms 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:57.600 like SAHAN exist in Minnesota today. And I just want 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.320 to I think it's important to also mention and this 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:07.560 is not a Minnesota thing. It's you know, it exists 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:09.640 all around the state, all around the country. 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.600 I'm sorry, right, Oh, I mean I could tell I 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:14.600 know growing up in so I grew up in Miami, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.400 I grew up in South Florida. And one of the 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:23.720 hallmarks of the last ten years of local media is 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.920 how micro and community oriented it is. If you want 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:32.200 to talk to the Caribbean communities, there's actually individual you 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:34.600 need to talk to, this Instagram influencer, and you need 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.160 to talk to this person here. The demand in these 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.520 immigrant communities for somebody that looks like them, that understands 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:46.120 their life telling them today's news is through the roof. 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.679 I get it, and I think that this is why 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.840 I think this is. You guys are the best example 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.960 of I think one that's getting traction and creating a 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:56.960 revenue stream and all of this, because I think that's 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:01.200 the more difficult part is how do these become finanially sustainable? Right, 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.200 And this is all part of what we're working on 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:04.040 with Local news Day. 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:06.480 You know, I chucked, I'm going to use this line, 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:08.520 and I'm not sure how to resonate with you in 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:10.600 your audience. But I've said this before in the past, 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.600 I feel the impulse behind the creation and the need 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.440 behind immigrant newsrooms is very much the same impulse that 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:21.040 built kind of like Fox News where it is right now. 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.440 It's basically a community that for the most part has 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:32.760 felt either unseen or where traditional media their realities were 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:37.280 not reflected there in traditional legacy media. Now I would say, 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.840 obviously there is, That's where the point of similarity would end, 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.280 and how we would use that moment would be different. 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.600 But I you know, I'm not a journalist, I'm not 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:49.959 a I'm not a trained journalist, and I've always. 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:54.880 A mechanical engineer. Yeah, but you certainly are a numbers 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.320 guy and a mechanical engineer. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.959 I did m my MBA. But I'm also a consumer. 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.880 I love business models, and I'm a consumer of news content, 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.160 and I've always observed news from a not just from 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.360 a reader. But hey, what's going on over here? And 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:11.679 I you know the fact that the first of all, 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.240 things have changed dramatically and I would say improved quite 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.199 a bit since since twenty twenty and since Shan has 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:21.000 been since created. But for the most part, people felt 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:26.040 their reality was not reflected in how traditional news media 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.560 portrayed it right, and so it was very important for 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.559 Sahan when we were when we were founded to make 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.880 sure that, yes, we are speaking to the facts, but 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.600 we are also making sure that people's lives are reflected 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:40.360 accurately in that space. 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.120 Yeah, now I get what you're saying, and I think 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.120 I can tell you my experience that meet the Press is, 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.560 particularly with immigrant audiences, is that a lot of I 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.440 had a lot of first gen viewers for generation viewers, 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.800 and they and they would tell me and it would frankly, 0:09:58.440 --> 0:09:59.920 it's the same thing I do when I'm in a 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.040 foreign country, even for a week, which is I want 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.959 to assimilate and understand what's going on locally as quickly 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.000 as I possibly can. What's the best way to do it? 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.280 A lot of times it is through the news, and 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:13.880 you know, maybe there's a language barrier, and so maybe 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.960 I'm finding anything that's in my language that still reflects 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.400 what's going on in the community, or maybe you'll find 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.880 your expat community in a specific city. But the thing 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.080 is is that you know the sort of I think 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:30.400 the ignorance sometimes that we portray about like how we 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.400 behave when we move to a new area, we quickly 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.679 want to assimilate. Is how anybody behaves when they move 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.400 to a new area, which is they're constantly looking, but 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.120 they want to understand the place they're living in. And so, 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.320 you know, I know, the first thing I'd be doing 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:46.880 if I lived in Malaysia would be to find the 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.480 Sunday whatever the equivalent of the political programs are, just 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.440 so I understood the lay of the land, I understood 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:53.240 the politics. 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:53.480 Of the area. 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.120 Frankly, it's a survival. It's for survival. You're not doing 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:58.920 it because you want to know. You're doing it because 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.920 how do I navigate this new community? Let me learn 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.840 the politics and economics of the new community exactly exactly. 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:08.800 And yeah, so in a nutshell, that's how that's what 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.400 SAHAN was was was was created. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:16.960 You know, since then, you know, I have colleagues and I. 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.600 Know the leaders of MP, of minist of public radio 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.520 and Stout Tribune and whatnot, and things have dramatically changed 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:23.040 since then. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.280 But I would say, just the thing though SAHAN, our. 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:31.520 Coverage is one focused on issues that impact immigrants and 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.479 communities of color, right, And I like to use this analogy, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.719 So start Tribune and MPR, they're like, you know your 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.720 targets you know, or you know, I don't know what's the. 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.600 Grocery department store, but you're what you're saying is they 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.800 have a little bit for everybody, and everybody can find 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.680 something in a target that is meant for them. But 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.520 maybe that target doesn't have everything they're looking for, but 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.559 they have a couple of things they at least acknowledge 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:03.439 my existence exactly exactly. 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.560 But if you want something very specific, and I use 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:08.720 grocery stores because I cook and eat a lot, But 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.520 if I want that bock CHOI vegetable, right, and even 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.080 though target sells it for whatever thing, I'm going to 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.920 go to that Asian stall two miles away just because 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.120 I know it's legit for whatever it is. 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.880 Right, And then you think that they're more likely to 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:24.680 find the smart, the better growers or back choi and 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:25.200 they know where to. 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.080 Get exactly exactly exactly. They're going to care a little 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.080 bit more. They care, They care much more. Frankly, for 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.320 that matter, they care much more. And they could also 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.000 provide insights that that the target may not have, right, 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.200 and that's not targets business podul. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:39.840 They shouldn't care. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.120 They cut care for everything, right, and so that's why 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.120 Sahan exists. We exist within this ecosphere if you care 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.920 about immigrants, and if you care about issues that the 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.320 main papers may not have the resources or time to cover, 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.320 which it does happen right there on the daily cycle. 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:57.040 That's why you come to Sahan. 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.680 Because you come to Sahan because you're curious, you're interested, 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.199 and you seek to understand issues more than just the 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:04.000 surface level. 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:07.120 Well, let's talk about Sohan specifically, because you are doing 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.760 something that on paper wouldn't be easy to do, because 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:12.920 you're basically saying, look, we're going to cover all of 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.000 these underserved immigrant communities. And then while they have some 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.880 things in common, they actually don't have a lot in common. Right, 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:25.319 a Somali community versus among community versus a first generation 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.040 Mexican American community, right, like it is? It is not 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:35.560 so that actually I wonder how difficult that is. That's 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.200 your north star. But you're basically you know that that's 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:44.160 a pretty wide breadth of coverage. So, yeah, give me 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:48.120 a specific how does it? You know, what when do 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.960 you decide, Hey, this community needs we need a we 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:52.720 need a full time reporter for this community. 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:59.640 Yeah, yeah, well we well, thank you Chuck Fall putting 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.199 my problems in a nutshell essentially, but thank you for that. 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.520 Thank you, and part of our goal here, right, we're 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:07.640 trying to figure out how to solve how many of 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.120 these problems can we solve individually, and how many of 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.720 these problems are we going to have to build a 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:14.719 collective network for. I mean, I know I have a 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:18.200 vision of a of a collective network that can where 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:20.720 you get to keep your independence, but maybe there is 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.360 ways to share some expenses, right, and that's you know, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.840 to make all of us a little more affordable. 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.680 Exactly exactly, So let me try to answer a question. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.000 So a couple of things. So you know, Sahan is 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:33.880 six years old. So some of the things that you 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:35.800 bring up, we're still trying to crack the code, right, 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.560 you're trying to solve it, right, So a few things. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.400 I think there was a deliberate, very deliberate decision that 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.200 was made when we were started. We published in English, 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.400 and that was deliberate because our mission is not to 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.440 just serve one pocket of immigrants, right, Like, as you mentioned, 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:56.520 we have a whole host of communities. We primarily suff 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.480 East Africans, Amongs of Hispanic, but it was also equally 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.120 important for us to show all Minnesotas, so the non 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.520 immigrants to a more equitable state. And that only works 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.920 if we have non immigrants of non immigrants reading our 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.480 work as well. Now, and we don't really bucket our 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:21.240 stories into Somali among Hispanic. We we do traditional beats healthcare, education, 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.480 social justice, you know, uh, police reforms uh sorry uh, 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:34.080 and security and crime, criminal justice and stuff like that. 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.240 And you know, sometimes those stories relate to a Somoli 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.800 community modern than among community. As you can imagine, some 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.680 of the fraud coverage that we were covering right right 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.880 would would center on a particular community, So we don't 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:52.360 necessarily cover them by community. But about topic issues, now, 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.560 one of the things that we've noticed is that people 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.560 are not jumping from let's say I'm among person. I'm 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:04.000 not necessarily going to jump to the Hispanic main story 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.600 or a Mong story, sorry, a Somali story. And that's 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.720 something that we're trying to work through right now. But 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:12.840 for you, for the fact is that's one of the 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:17.480 challenges that we have. So we don't we we try 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.880 to cover things that matter to a particular community regardless 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.040 of their regardless of their background. Now, this is what 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.520 I would say though, and this is a little bit 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:29.960 of like a business model where you if you serve 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.400 the outlier case, you tend to also serve the general 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.080 public when it comes to education. Right, we wrote a 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.160 beautiful story. We've written step one. Our education reporter is 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:46.400 absolutely amazing and everywhere I'm blessed that everywhere I go 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.560 people talk about the reporters more than and the ones 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.120 that I've inherited from this job, so they're really good. 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.840 But when you talk about the education needs of the 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:59.920 current community or the Somali community, and it is uplift 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.960 it and regardless of your background, when you read it 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.080 and you're trying to improve the school system and you 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.880 care about the immigrant that particular community, you do uplift 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.679 your education system for your own child as well. And 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:15.840 so that's one of the things that we've learned that 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:21.120 we've seen where you know, the majority non immigrant population 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:27.200 in Minnesota still use our news content as their source 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.600 of not just information, but to advocate for their own 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:35.000 child's education system. I can't tell you the amount of 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.399 moms that I've bumped into who use our education stories 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:43.000 in their mom's chat group, right, because we are at 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.640 the end of the day, it is a meltic body, 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.040 is a multi racial society, and what's best for this 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.080 child is also good for my genile And so it's 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.000 not as binary as you think as one would think, 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.760 you know, which is what I walked into. But I 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:58.760 you know, I learned quite a number of things as 0:17:59.160 --> 0:17:59.920 into my new role. 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:02.680 You know, it's interesting you said that, you guys, are 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.560 you always publish in English? Do you think you're leaving 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:11.960 any readers on the it is? I mean, does the 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.080 effort to publish in multiple languages? I mean, is that 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.439 a how much of that is a financial decision? And 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.120 how much of it is Look, I know, like I said, 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:21.879 had grown up in Miami. When I grew up in 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.359 Miami in the seventies and eighties, I knew many I 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.280 had many friends whose parents insisted that English bespoke in 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.159 the house, even though they were Spanish first parents, because 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.560 they wanted their kids to assimilate to America. So I 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.280 know there's a lot of immigrant parents who are here 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.879 with their kids and they're like, no, no, no, no, you've got 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.760 to we want you to assimilate into American cultures. So 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.280 we'll do this. So I understand that five there, but 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.600 I'm curious if you looking at the numbers, if you've 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.199 ever contemplated, well maybe we should or I don't know. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:01.960 It is an ongoing conversation. And let me let me clarify. Yes, 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.720 we do publish in English, and last year we started 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.239 Sahan and Espaniels and then you can imagine what that is, right, 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.000 and so we do have translations in Hispanic, and we 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:17.639 chose Hispanic because they are the largest immigrant population within Minnesota. 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.680 It is okay, it is, I mean, Somali is very 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:22.399 close to second. 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.960 But but this is state wide versus city. If you 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.440 just did this in Minneapolis proper, would it be Somali 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:29.159 over Latino. 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:29.639 Yeah? 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.360 Yeah, the numbers I mentioned was statewide. Yeah yeah, absolutely right, 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.960 yeah yeah. And so here I'm not going to throw 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.120 anyone under the bus here, but I got to tell 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.280 you the founder and our editor in chief, they are 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.960 really picky if they feel like they cannot get the 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:48.000 translation right. They were not going to do it at 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.359 all because they felt like it would insult that population, 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:52.119 that community. 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.119 That is also true, and they're looking forward to how 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.800 Ai blows this exactly. 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.000 So and if you if you want to think about 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.880 AI explosion and technology. This we're talking about the last 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.200 twelve months. But before I, when I came on board, 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:07.640 it was that was what I heard, like, we can't 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.080 do if we can't do this right, which means actually 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:15.520 have actually having a human translator translated from a cultural 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.919 context chunk. Don't forget, I'm not talking about word usage here, 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:20.280 but it's a word for a word. 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.120 It's crazy. No, no, no, no, that's always much much 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:25.200 harder to connect. 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:25.720 Exactly. 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.040 So our our editor in chief was man and and 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.399 founders Somali. They were like, Nope, not going to do it, 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:34.919 not going to do it, because it's it's too expensive 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:36.879 to have a human translator. 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:41.120 Right now. I've always wondered when I came on board, 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:41.480 you know. 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:46.280 And now he's two things that we've that I've I've 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:50.880 seen a we've seen a lot of articles where it's 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.679 published in English and then the comment section is in 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:56.960 the native town like someone's yep. 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.480 Because it's as server posted on our somewhere. 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:00.640 Yeah, exactly. 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.000 And so the the the assumption that we're pulling is 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:06.480 that people are just reading it, but then they're communicating 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.119 to the community about the content in their own language. 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.720 Right, So that's perfectly normal. Yeah, perfectly normal. 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.960 And I've seen that in my own life. But then 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.640 now I'm seeing now news from like, huh, that's interesting. 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:25.359 This episode of the Chuck Podcast is brought to you 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:27.720 by Soul. So if you love that end of the 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.360