Speaker 1: Pushkin Solvable listeners, I want to introduce you to Ronald
Speaker 1: Young Junior. You might be familiar with his name from
Speaker 1: other work in podcasting, leading shows like Time Well Spent
Speaker 1: and Leaving the Theater. He's a sometimes guest contributor around
Speaker 1: NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. We are really excited to
Speaker 1: make it official that Ronald is going to be the
Speaker 1: newest host of Solvable. Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm so so excited to be here so publicly on
Speaker 1: the team. Believe it or not, Hosting Solvable is not
Speaker 1: my main job. My main job is being CEO of
Speaker 1: Pushkin and Pushkin. Over the last year in Lockdown has
Speaker 1: like doubled in size. We have almost fifty people now
Speaker 1: and it's exciting. There's a lot going on, but it's
Speaker 1: sort of crowded out the time that I like to
Speaker 1: spend preparing and figuring out guests. And also, I'm not
Speaker 1: really a host. I don't know if you noticed that
Speaker 1: I think trained. I'm an untrained to host. I have
Speaker 1: certain host qualities, mainly that I'm really interested in talking
Speaker 1: to the guests on the show, and I have a
Speaker 1: lot of drive to learn, But I don't have that
Speaker 1: quality of hostliness which I hear in your voice, and
Speaker 1: I really want to know how that's done. Well. First
Speaker 1: of all, I don't know if that's that's the message
Speaker 1: I want to be saying, Like we got host Steven
Speaker 1: Kosterson coming on host Oar show. No, I don't mean though,
Speaker 1: you know, I've always found it easy to talk to people.
Speaker 1: I've always found it easy to connect with folks and
Speaker 1: ask questions that I'm curious about, and mostly because as
Speaker 1: a child I was always encouraged to ask questions, whether
Speaker 1: it was to friends, the families, to teachers, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what helps with being a good host and
Speaker 1: with conducting good interviews, which you do a great job of.
Speaker 1: Well thank you, Ronald, But yeah, no, I think that
Speaker 1: just that basic quality of curiosity. You know, if you
Speaker 1: if you don't want to know, you can't read someone
Speaker 1: else's questions. I mean, the producers on the show do
Speaker 1: suggest a lot of great questions for us, but ultimately
Speaker 1: you ask the ones that are your questions, that are
Speaker 1: the things you want to know. Yes, it's funny because,
Speaker 1: like you know, working with the Solvable team, it certainly
Speaker 1: is a team effort. But I think what makes a
Speaker 1: good host, And what makes a good interviewer is the
Speaker 1: ability to read the conversation and to know when it
Speaker 1: needs to take a turn, when it's about the pivot,
Speaker 1: or when your curiosity might push the interviewee a little
Speaker 1: deeper into their subject matter and even make them more
Speaker 1: comfortable and ready to answer more questions as they go.
Speaker 1: So and I really enjoy doing that. So this is
Speaker 1: a very exciting role for me. You do do something,
Speaker 1: I mean, since we're on this topic, you know, I
Speaker 1: do think being a really good host goes beyond just
Speaker 1: the flow of the conversation asking the right questions. There's
Speaker 1: something about creating this environment, this kind of comfort, and
Speaker 1: even this sense of place. And here is what I
Speaker 1: don't feel that I really know how to do. But
Speaker 1: I hear in your voice, you know, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the people who are just really good hosts of shows,
Speaker 1: Terry Gross, you know, you just feel like you're at
Speaker 1: her place. Yeah, like you're in her world, and you know,
Speaker 1: and the guest is coming into her world, and you
Speaker 1: feel as a listener, you're made to feel welcome and
Speaker 1: comfortable there. How do you do that, Ronald? You know,
Speaker 1: I wish I could say there was a trick. I
Speaker 1: wish I could tell you, hey, do this thing and
Speaker 1: this will this will work. But for me, it's just
Speaker 1: it's hospitality. It's really being genuinely interested in what they
Speaker 1: have to say. It's paying attention to them, not necessarily
Speaker 1: thinking so far ahead that you can't be president in
Speaker 1: the conversation, creating that warm sense of environment. It really
Speaker 1: comes from like a genuine place inside people. And I
Speaker 1: think most people that talk to you will tell you
Speaker 1: that this is who I am all the time. So
Speaker 1: it makes it easier for me to just bring this
Speaker 1: with me to a hostly role, whereas some people I
Speaker 1: think are very good at being a host, and then
Speaker 1: you know in the rest of their lives are not
Speaker 1: nearly as hospitable or friendly. And I can't say anything
Speaker 1: about Terry Gross, but I know that good host is
Speaker 1: being able to create that sense of hospitality in the
Speaker 1: conversation that they're having in that moment. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think of the great hosts of my childhood, Dick Cabot,
Speaker 1: who was on TV obviously long before your time, but
Speaker 1: back in the days before cable when there are only
Speaker 1: a few channels every night, Dick Cabot was having these
Speaker 1: interesting people on his show, and he's charming, he's charmed
Speaker 1: by the gas and a lot of what he's trying
Speaker 1: to do is, of course, just inject wisecracks. I've got
Speaker 1: a clip here that's a good example of that. It's
Speaker 1: Cabot talking to the comedian Don Rickles. I know it's
Speaker 1: hard for you to be serious, but it is. I
Speaker 1: think people don't admit that deep down inside. If I
Speaker 1: may be serious for a moment, that you do something
Speaker 1: on the stage that all of us would like to
Speaker 1: do if we had no class. The other host I
Speaker 1: think about all the time as I grew up listening
Speaker 1: the radio growing up in Chicago, the Studs Turcle here,
Speaker 1: just as one example is Studs Turkle interviewing Muhammad Ali
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five. Why do you think it is?
Speaker 1: And Ohish in this particular theater, so many different people
Speaker 1: are why were they rooting for you the outsider? Well,
Speaker 1: I think the mass is root for me because they're scuffling.
Speaker 1: They've been a persecuted and they figure them about the
Speaker 1: haigh taxes and whatever. They've underdogs. People are basically underdogs
Speaker 1: as the whole. And the things that I say from
Speaker 1: black mind people and the freedom involved people and the
Speaker 1: way I speak out in the title that they have
Speaker 1: and the and I don't let this stop me from
Speaker 1: recognizing everyday man, I think this is what they're wanting,
Speaker 1: whether they'd be black or white. The mass of people
Speaker 1: are hard working people. The amazing thing about Studs Tircle,
Speaker 1: I mean Studs Turcle. He was so good at talking
Speaker 1: to anybody, you know, on a day to day He
Speaker 1: would have you know, a janitor, and then he would
Speaker 1: have you know, an opera singer, and then he would
Speaker 1: have you know, a former vice president or politician, and
Speaker 1: he just part of what was great about him was
Speaker 1: he would talk to everybody the same way. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a sense of empathy that comes with
Speaker 1: no matter who's in the room. It should be able
Speaker 1: to be extended to anyone who's sitting opposite from you,
Speaker 1: whether they be the janitor or the president of the
Speaker 1: United States. The other thing is not being afraid to
Speaker 1: ask even a question that may not sound as smart
Speaker 1: as you think it does. I think Larry King once said, um,
Speaker 1: he was on a was on he was talking to
Speaker 1: Jesse Thorne, my friend Herbie Cohen, who wrote, you could
Speaker 1: negotiate anything. We grew up together. He says to me, Larry,
Speaker 1: A secret of your success because you're dumb, and dumb
Speaker 1: is the great road to success because you're not afraid
Speaker 1: to say I don't know, tell me help me. That's
Speaker 1: a lot of my interviews. Help help me. That you're
Speaker 1: you're a brain surg You've got brain surgery tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: Think about it tonight when you go in, do you
Speaker 1: check your hands if they're steady? And so then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you have this very poignant moment because
Speaker 1: Larry King asked a question that it's like, wow, I
Speaker 1: would have and even me, I was sitting there, I
Speaker 1: was like, Ronald, do you do I do that? I
Speaker 1: was like, I want to make sure that I do that.
Speaker 1: But having that empathy allows you to just be in
Speaker 1: the seat across from you, like I said, whether it's
Speaker 1: the janitor or the president of the United States. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So for this show, you know, we do interviews with
Speaker 1: a particular kind of focus. How is problem solving and
Speaker 1: how are people who have ideas about solving problems making
Speaker 1: the world better incapable of making the world better? And
Speaker 1: that's the thing that that can be a big range
Speaker 1: of stuff. Yeah, if you look out there, Let's say
Speaker 1: you're your house is near the water, and you look
Speaker 1: out there and you're just like, the water seems to
Speaker 1: be creeping closer and closer. And if you're only thinking
Speaker 1: about what's going to happen when the water reaches your
Speaker 1: house and all the horrible things that can happen as
Speaker 1: the water continues to rise and the flooding. When you
Speaker 1: start to think about all that, it kind of changes
Speaker 1: your posture versus if you think, how do we stop
Speaker 1: the water, how do we get the people out? How
Speaker 1: do we keep my house dry? And I think in
Speaker 1: terms of this podcast, I like that it's it's pivoting
Speaker 1: from us talking so much about what the issue is,
Speaker 1: because in most cases we know what the issue is.
Speaker 1: What we really need to know is what's the best
Speaker 1: way forward. How can we like either neutralize whatever this
Speaker 1: problem is or at least adjust our lives so that
Speaker 1: the problem isn't what it is. Do we need to
Speaker 1: build a bridge, maybe we need to build our houses higher,
Speaker 1: whatever that means in order to get out of the water.
Speaker 1: I think it gives a bit of optimism to the
Speaker 1: world that I think is one necessary right now. It
Speaker 1: is optimistic. I mean, it's looking at things that are
Speaker 1: in many cases terrible. But the show always makes me
Speaker 1: feel really good because the people we interview believe in
Speaker 1: positive change in a very practical way. I mean not
Speaker 1: just in a I have faith way, but I've looked
Speaker 1: at this and I'm working on ameliorating this thing. Yes
Speaker 1: it is. Yes, That's what makes me feel good about listening.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of doomscrolling over the last year. We
Speaker 1: talked about doomscrolling, which is when you're just looking at
Speaker 1: your phone, just looking at all the headlines that have
Speaker 1: to do with COVID, all the horrible things that are
Speaker 1: happening with the election, all the horrible things that are
Speaker 1: happening with the presidents or politics in general. We're just doomscrolling.
Speaker 1: It feels good for someone to come with you with
Speaker 1: a problem and a solution, or at least a proposed solution,
Speaker 1: or saying we're working towards a solution for this problem.
Speaker 1: It makes me look at the problem as temporary rather
Speaker 1: than as something that's going to grow and overtake us.
Speaker 1: And that just makes me feel really good. When you
Speaker 1: step back and get the big picture of what's been
Speaker 1: happening globally over the last forty years been tremendous human
Speaker 1: progress and almost everything that counts. There are billions fewer
Speaker 1: people living in extreme poverty, that is, you know, living
Speaker 1: less than two dollars a day. Hunger has become fundamentally
Speaker 1: a problem in conflict zones or where you have political breakdown.
Speaker 1: You don't have areas of the world that are subject
Speaker 1: to famine as kind of natural disaster. There are people
Speaker 1: dying of various communical bold diseases. You know, despite the
Speaker 1: pandemic this year, number is getting better. And I've tried
Speaker 1: to find interviewees who recognize the progress we've made and
Speaker 1: are focused on accelerating it or talking about how we
Speaker 1: can extend it to other areas. I mean, it's going
Speaker 1: to put us all in a different mindset to say
Speaker 1: that how can we make it even better. I think
Speaker 1: that's the spirit of the show and it's continuing in
Speaker 1: the right direction of optimism. Ronald, our listeners are going
Speaker 1: to get to know you over the coming weeks and months,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to make it a little more personal
Speaker 1: and ask you about yourself. And you know, we've frame
Speaker 1: it to the extent you want around problem solving, but
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about your career and you
Speaker 1: know what problems you've had to face. So shortly after
Speaker 1: Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, they had that incident where
Speaker 1: George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. I remember I was on
Speaker 1: Facebook and I was getting into arguments all the time
Speaker 1: with folks about racism, about you know, the rights of
Speaker 1: people to take the shortcut through the alley without being shot,
Speaker 1: like to think about I was thinking through all tho scenarios,
Speaker 1: and I was getting into these arguments over and over again.
Speaker 1: And there were several different Facebook discussions in which I
Speaker 1: would post this long post. People would jump into comments.
Speaker 1: I would argue with them in the comments. We'd go
Speaker 1: back and forth, and then people would say, Ronald, you're
Speaker 1: being rude, You're belittling people. This isn't right. Why do
Speaker 1: you talk like this? And I'm like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I don't think you guys can hear my voice. Like
Speaker 1: you guys, you're just seeing my words and you're not
Speaker 1: You're not hearing my voice. So I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe it would be easier to have these discussions if
Speaker 1: people could hear me. So as a result of that,
Speaker 1: I started a web show called ten Minutes with Ronald
Speaker 1: where I talked about it. She's like this, I talked
Speaker 1: about it. She's like, raise, I'll tell you. And I
Speaker 1: did old Facebook Live with Facebook Live or start. It's
Speaker 1: not talking about issues of police brutality, politics, all that
Speaker 1: talk about even movies that I liked. We talked about
Speaker 1: all of that, and people really responded positively to that
Speaker 1: because instead of reading my words, they could hear me.
Speaker 1: That led to me starting my podcast Time Well Spent,
Speaker 1: and it really it kind of pushed me down this
Speaker 1: path of really being able to push these types of
Speaker 1: transformative conversations that people are having in the comment section
Speaker 1: on the internet with no empathy, with no tone, like
Speaker 1: one whole. And I think that's one thing. We're striving
Speaker 1: towards a world of communication where everything is written and
Speaker 1: everything is in text form, and people think that that's effective,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, there are scenarios in which that is effective.
Speaker 1: But body language and tone are important. They're very, very important,
Speaker 1: and when we take those out of a conversation, all
Speaker 1: you're left with is the words, and in your mind,
Speaker 1: your imagination places the tone and the body language in
Speaker 1: the words. So even if Jacob you said me an
Speaker 1: email for Pushkin, that's like Ronald, have a nice day,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, don't talk to me like that.
Speaker 1: They'll tell me what you might have said it, like, hey,
Speaker 1: ro I don't have a nice day. But I couldn't
Speaker 1: see that. So I think this isn't necessarily a problem
Speaker 1: that I've solved, But at least for myself, what I'm
Speaker 1: working on solving is being able to present myself in
Speaker 1: a way where people could hear me see that I'm smiling,
Speaker 1: see that I'm upset, see that I'm sad, all of
Speaker 1: that through my tone based on the media that I'm
Speaker 1: putting forth, whether that being podcast form, video form, or
Speaker 1: whatever other form. But most of the work that I
Speaker 1: do is all has to do with being able to
Speaker 1: tell people's stories, talk to people on a personal level,
Speaker 1: talk to people one on one, or at least, you know,
Speaker 1: give them a piece of work from a podcast. The
Speaker 1: other thing what was interested to ask you is what
Speaker 1: you think the biggest or most interesting problems are right now?
Speaker 1: You know, we will have a meeting every week and
Speaker 1: try to come up with ideas and guests for the show,
Speaker 1: and I'm interested in what you're interested in, because inevitably
Speaker 1: what the host cares about is going to drive a
Speaker 1: lot of who we hear from unsolvable. I honestly, for me,
Speaker 1: the biggest problem that I'll always loop back to will
Speaker 1: always be around racism, and it's hard to get away
Speaker 1: from it because the more I read about history, the
Speaker 1: more I look at the history of the United States
Speaker 1: from the founding to now, and the more I think
Speaker 1: about all of the stories that have been told over
Speaker 1: the years, some that have been forgotten, some that have
Speaker 1: just recently been brought to light, it makes me realize
Speaker 1: that we've really missed the mark on really bringing the
Speaker 1: country together in a way that is actually meaningful and intentional.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't know how to solve it,
Speaker 1: because I think for a lot of people, they just
Speaker 1: think racism is solved by diversifying a room. Racism is
Speaker 1: solved by, you know, acknowledging some of the hurt and
Speaker 1: racism is solved by those things. But to me, I
Speaker 1: think it's a multifaceted solution. I think this is another
Speaker 1: one of those thematic problems that has like many problems
Speaker 1: underneath that each need to be solved before we can
Speaker 1: really get to a place of harmony in the country
Speaker 1: and in the world. And it doesn't necessarily keep me
Speaker 1: up at night anymore. I mean, depending on what night,
Speaker 1: maybe it does, but it doesn't necessarily keep me up
Speaker 1: all the time. But it's something that I constantly think about,
Speaker 1: where I say, I know we're not there yet. I
Speaker 1: think we're heading in the right direction. A lot of
Speaker 1: people are acknowledging it. But I don't necessarily want to
Speaker 1: pivot this show to be in like solve racism right now,
Speaker 1: because I don't think it's that simple. But it is
Speaker 1: something that I think, like, what are the aspects of
Speaker 1: which we could be doing a better job and pushing
Speaker 1: even more forward beyond kind of the obvious initiatives or
Speaker 1: the splashy initiatives that we do. So yeah, that's kind
Speaker 1: of what I think about a lot. And I would
Speaker 1: love to hear from the listeners. I would love to
Speaker 1: know what problems keep y'all up at night. What are
Speaker 1: you guys thinking about? What would you like to see solved?
Speaker 1: Go to Twitter at pushkin pods hashtag solvable and tell
Speaker 1: us the type of problems that you'd love to hear
Speaker 1: us talk about solving I'm really glad you said that, Ronald,
Speaker 1: because we've always thought of this is a really participatory show.
Speaker 1: You know, we usually and by asking our guest what
Speaker 1: listeners can do if they want to get involved in
Speaker 1: solving the problem we're talking about. And you have your
Speaker 1: list of problems you're interested in. I have my list
Speaker 1: of problems I've been interested in. We get a ton
Speaker 1: of great ideas from our producers, but we really want
Speaker 1: to know what listeners think we should be doing, both
Speaker 1: specific guests and specific problems. And I'm really glad you're here.
Speaker 1: I'm excited now to be someone who's listening to the
Speaker 1: show with what you're going to do with it. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys bringing me on. I'm really excited to
Speaker 1: be a part of the team, and I'm excited to
Speaker 1: see where we go, Like I mean, this is gonna
Speaker 1: be We're we're gonna have a good year, all right,
Speaker 1: there's that optimism. Thank you, Ronald, Thank you, Jacob. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Solvable Senior producer is Jostin Fry. Booking by
Speaker 1: Lisa Dodd, Research by David Jah. Our Managing producer is
Speaker 1: Sasha Matthias and Meil LaBelle is the executive producer. If
Speaker 1: you like the show, please remember to share, rate, and review.
Speaker 1: It really helps us get the word out. You can
Speaker 1: find Pushkin podcasts wherever you listen, including on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: app and Apple podcast. I'm Jacob Weisberg and I'm Ronald
Speaker 1: Young Jr. Talk to you more next week.