Speaker 1: Hey here, we are back for another episode of Ask
Speaker 1: Kevin Almost Anything.
Speaker 2: We've been having a lot of fun with.
Speaker 1: These and so we're happy that you're tuning in. I
Speaker 1: am here with the executive director of six degrees dot
Speaker 1: Org and my friends Stacy Houston High Stacy, Hey.
Speaker 3: KeV, good to be back.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing well, doing well.
Speaker 2: How are the girls?
Speaker 3: You know, they we are raising strong girls. They are
Speaker 3: they are bright and strong, and they are learning how
Speaker 3: to say no to everybody, including mom and dad.
Speaker 2: So awesome.
Speaker 1: We used to say to so Se well Sosi had
Speaker 1: the situation where she, you know, had an older brother
Speaker 1: so who was a very very strong personality and in
Speaker 1: his own right, and you know, it was really super
Speaker 1: important to both of us and certainly Kira to make
Speaker 1: sure that she found her strength and her voice.
Speaker 2: It whatever it was, it worked.
Speaker 1: Now that she's in her thirties, if she definitely tells
Speaker 1: it like it is. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: Kira kind of came up with, I think she sort
Speaker 1: of came up with it was she didn't she used
Speaker 1: to say use your power all the time. And you know,
Speaker 1: with Travis, he was so powerful that you know, and
Speaker 1: we didn't need to remind him, but associated it would be,
Speaker 1: you know, just a message that we would always you know,
Speaker 1: kind of.
Speaker 2: Pound a table on. It's okay, just use.
Speaker 1: Your power, tell us, tell us what's going on, tell it,
Speaker 1: tell you know, don't don't get run over by the
Speaker 1: by the little boys in your life, you know, and
Speaker 1: you know, I don't need to tell you. There's so
Speaker 1: many studies about you know, when girls stop raising their
Speaker 1: hands in class.
Speaker 2: And you know, all those all those things.
Speaker 1: You know, we certainly have to try to plight to
Speaker 1: guess that.
Speaker 3: You know, that would have been a good phrase and
Speaker 3: maybe we can incorporate it. I when Abby, my oldest,
Speaker 3: was about two, you know, she was starting to communicate,
Speaker 3: and you know, there would be other little kids in
Speaker 3: her daycare or something like that that we're hitting or
Speaker 3: biting or babe yell and be like you can't play
Speaker 3: with us. And we were like, oh my gosh, this
Speaker 3: is a lot for already, you know, two two and
Speaker 3: a half. And Abby's response would always be like they're
Speaker 3: just having a bad day, Like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: I guess this is great. But we were kind of like, Abby,
Speaker 3: you have to stick up for yourself too, you know,
Speaker 3: especially if someone's hitting you, I want you to say,
Speaker 3: you know, please don't, don't, don't touch my body or
Speaker 3: that sort of thing. And so now Abby is she
Speaker 3: just doesn't want to do what we want her to do.
Speaker 3: And we go to like take her and move her
Speaker 3: from one place to another, she will yell on the
Speaker 3: top of her lungs, don't touch my body. And it
Speaker 3: has been very awkward for my husband Danny being oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: we were on a road Oh yeah, we were on
Speaker 3: a road trip and he was in taking her to
Speaker 3: a bathroom break and I was waiting in the car
Speaker 3: with Eloise and he came out real flustered with her
Speaker 3: in his arms, and I'm like, that was quick? What
Speaker 3: was going on? And he goes, you need to take her.
Speaker 3: I'm like what He's like, I am trying to get
Speaker 3: her to go onto the toilet and she is yelling
Speaker 3: in a stall, don't touch my body on the top
Speaker 3: of her lungs. In a male restroom at like a
Speaker 3: rest stop.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, so that's.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, that that is something else.
Speaker 3: It's a balance, you know. You know, she's in that
Speaker 3: very impressional age. So she's she's learning it all. But no,
Speaker 3: it's it's a lot of fun. I digress.
Speaker 2: That's good. That is really good.
Speaker 1: Well, we have been receiving questions or comments, uh that
Speaker 1: have been related to animals, you know, animals people, the
Speaker 1: effect that animals and people have on their lives. I
Speaker 1: think probably because you know, a lot of people when
Speaker 1: they comment on my social media, they'll they'll mention animals.
Speaker 1: You know, we use a lot of animals in our
Speaker 1: in our social medium. So our first comment today is
Speaker 1: from Leanne speaks, and Leanne says, animals and music. It's
Speaker 1: definitely a common DENI the dator, right, I believed I
Speaker 1: could soothe my elderly dog in this way. Obviously I've
Speaker 1: seen you sharing your music with your animal family. But
Speaker 1: any surprising reactions, Well, yeah, I mean it's interesting that
Speaker 1: I don't know that until the pandemic, I really thought
Speaker 1: about the connection between animals and music.
Speaker 2: Let me think about that. I mean, I've written at
Speaker 2: least two songs about my dog or one of my dogs.
Speaker 1: I grew up in a household that didn't have any
Speaker 1: animals because my father didn't like dogs, and one of
Speaker 1: the reasons my mother loved them. But my father just
Speaker 1: wasn't really it to them. One of the reasons was
Speaker 1: that we had a He got a dog for my
Speaker 1: sister and the dog bit me. So I was the
Speaker 1: youngest of six and there was a probably about it
Speaker 1: was like an eight year age gap between my next
Speaker 1: oldest sister and me and this little dog. I think
Speaker 1: I probably was crawling over and trying to eat out
Speaker 1: of its bowl or something. You know, it, you know,
Speaker 1: bit me, and then whatever there was, I don't remember it.
Speaker 1: I'm not one of those people that ended up with
Speaker 1: a dog bite and then you know, was scarred for life,
Speaker 1: either emotionally or physically by those things, because there are
Speaker 1: those cases, and my father's like the dogs out of
Speaker 1: here and we're not getting to know a dog. The
Speaker 1: second I moved out of the house, I think probably
Speaker 1: Tommy I was about twenty. I mean I moved out
Speaker 1: when I was seventeen, but it only took me a
Speaker 1: few years to get to adopt the dog from a pound,
Speaker 1: and you know that started years and years and years
Speaker 1: of dogs, and between kir and I think we had
Speaker 1: a total of five or something.
Speaker 2: We don't have one now. And during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: I also have always loved horses. Even though I was
Speaker 1: a city kid, I felt a real connection with horses.
Speaker 2: We were speaking on one.
Speaker 1: Of these episodes about camp and that was like a
Speaker 1: super important camp experience for me, was connecting with horses.
Speaker 2: I liked the way.
Speaker 1: I could just feel their energy and I could feel
Speaker 1: they calmed me down. I like the way they smelled.
Speaker 1: I like the way they felt. I like to be
Speaker 1: on them, and as much as I like to ride them,
Speaker 1: I also like to just kind of connect with them
Speaker 1: and groom them and be in the stall and clean
Speaker 1: out the stalls, and you know, all those things were
Speaker 1: like I just felt the connection with So by the
Speaker 1: time I was old enough to get my own place
Speaker 1: and had enough money, I was looking for a place
Speaker 1: where I could keep horses. And I got horses probably
Speaker 1: in the eighties and have had big horses ever since.
Speaker 1: But during the pandemic, I don't know, for some reason,
Speaker 1: I decided that for our anniversary I should get Kira
Speaker 1: some goats, and so I went and got these miniature
Speaker 1: goats and they were there was two of them. They
Speaker 1: were super super cute. I put them in a stall
Speaker 1: them in the bar, and I didn't tell her about it.
Speaker 1: And I went down and said, I have surprise for
Speaker 1: you for our anniversary and took her in the stall
Speaker 1: and there were these two goats looking at her, and
Speaker 1: she loved them, felt a total connection with them.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Every day, for the first probably few months of their lives,
Speaker 1: in order to kind of socialize them to people, we
Speaker 1: kept them in a stall before we turned them out
Speaker 1: into the field, and every morning and every afternoon, I
Speaker 1: would go down and hang out with them. Sometimes in
Speaker 1: the morning it would be, you know, with a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee. Times in the afternoon I'd go down and
Speaker 1: you know, sit there and drink a beer and just
Speaker 1: hang out in the stall with these goats, and they
Speaker 1: would come over, and you know, I would pat them
Speaker 1: and they you know, just started to kind of like
Speaker 1: connect it with them. And not to drop a name,
Speaker 1: but Jimmy Fallon had sort of randomly sent me this
Speaker 1: instrument that was a three stringed instrument kind of like
Speaker 1: a almost like a doughbro if anybody's familiar with that,
Speaker 1: or you know, with kind of like a drone droning
Speaker 1: tone on it. And you know, I started playing it
Speaker 1: and one day I was like, well, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to play this thing of practicing it, I think I'll
Speaker 1: just go out and play it with the goats. And
Speaker 1: so i'd sit there and play this you know, funny
Speaker 1: kind of instrument, and.
Speaker 2: I don't know it just I'm not quite.
Speaker 1: Sure whether it was that I was a calming down
Speaker 1: because I was playing music, or if the actual music
Speaker 1: was having any sort of effect on them, or or
Speaker 1: if their energy was calming me down. But the whole
Speaker 1: thing just kind of felt right with songs and music.
Speaker 1: And then I started doing these silly goat songs. So,
Speaker 1: you know, I would post on you know, social media,
Speaker 1: different songs that I wanted to play, and I'd go
Speaker 1: down and sing to the goats. And that menagerie has
Speaker 1: expanded quite a bit since then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am. I knew a little bit about equestrian therapy,
Speaker 3: you know, and that can be utilized to really help
Speaker 3: comfort people in different types of ways and different types
Speaker 3: of therapies. I feel like goats are popping up in
Speaker 3: like yoga, Like everywhere, everything's like you know, goat yoga,
Speaker 3: and people just want to kind of be near animals
Speaker 3: in that sense. My mom had a stroke several years back.
Speaker 3: She since past, but when she was rehabilitating in like
Speaker 3: a therapy center, there would be a woman that would
Speaker 3: come through with like a therapy dog, And honestly, I
Speaker 3: think some of it was for you know her as
Speaker 3: like the person that was working in that space and
Speaker 3: trying to help others by sharing this passion that she
Speaker 3: had for her canine. But I saw a lot of
Speaker 3: people that didn't have a lot of visitors at all,
Speaker 3: you know, no one was kind of there seeing them
Speaker 3: day to day, and they really obviously took to getting
Speaker 3: to spend time with the animals and just pet them
Speaker 3: and kind of cuddle up with them. And no, I
Speaker 3: think there's a real power in animals and humans and
Speaker 3: that connection kind of understroken connection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they say that the horse's heartbeat is pretty similar
Speaker 1: two hours, and.
Speaker 2: Uh you know, I I.
Speaker 1: I've learned a lot about myself from from just kind
Speaker 1: of spending a little bit of time with animals. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, because they can so often pick up on
Speaker 1: you know, your your stress levels and and your energy.
Speaker 2: You know, I'll see people that will.
Speaker 1: Come and and hang out with our animals. We we
Speaker 1: now have a situation where uh you know, there's we
Speaker 1: have pigs and goats and chickens, and alpaca and miniature
Speaker 1: horses and they're all sort of in this place together.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times people's relationship to animals in
Speaker 1: you know, kind of petting suit situations are is often
Speaker 1: about food. And you know, of course an animal is
Speaker 1: going to be responsive to food, but we always try
Speaker 1: to you know, interact with them as much as possible
Speaker 1: where there's no food evolve. And what I've noticed is
Speaker 1: that they don't always need the food in order to
Speaker 1: be interested to see you. You know, they will if
Speaker 1: if you're I go out and just you know, sit down,
Speaker 1: they'll just come hang out for no other reason than
Speaker 1: you know. It's not like they come and you don't
Speaker 1: have any food and then they just split.
Speaker 2: They'll just they just want to hang out.
Speaker 1: And I certainly have found that very very therapeutic. And
Speaker 1: sometimes I just feel my heart rate coming down, my
Speaker 1: starting to be more in touch with my breath, or
Speaker 1: getting out out of.
Speaker 2: My head a little bit. You know.
Speaker 1: I think that one of the things that is it
Speaker 1: can be really good about pet ownership.
Speaker 2: Is that, you know, you you have to focus.
Speaker 1: On something other than yourself a little bit. Now I'm
Speaker 1: all about being self aware and you know, not bury
Speaker 1: your head in the sand in terms of the problems
Speaker 1: in the world or the or the problems in your
Speaker 1: own personal life. But sometimes it's good to step out
Speaker 1: of the of your own personal thoughts and your own
Speaker 1: personal head. I mean, that's kind of what meditation is, right,
Speaker 1: a way to kind of stop thinking a little bit.
Speaker 1: And if you were sometimes with an animal, you're thinking
Speaker 1: about that animal, you can, you know, just kind of
Speaker 1: turn the volume down on the thoughts that at least
Speaker 1: I can on the thoughts that are inside your habit.
Speaker 3: That's a good way to describe it, turn the volume down. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: a little bit of a reprieve.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: I mean I think that, you know, obviously we've had
Speaker 1: incredible you know, connections, and the kids have to to
Speaker 1: their dogs. Both of both of my children, you know,
Speaker 1: of course, are are pet owners, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times I'm like, no, don't get another pet. Oh no,
Speaker 1: what do you do when so much responsibility.
Speaker 2: Especially especially dogs. I mean, dogs are so.
Speaker 1: Much of your responsibility, and nobody everybody goes out and
Speaker 1: just kind of gets one because their puppies are cute,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of times they're they're not
Speaker 1: willing to put the time in or they're willing to
Speaker 1: to train them, train them. Yeah, it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: a it is a it's a it's a problem. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you you you really I've learned over the years,
Speaker 1: even though we've had quite a few dogs, there's some
Speaker 1: people would consider untrainable, but but we we put a.
Speaker 2: Lot of time and a lot of effort into them.
Speaker 1: And you know, the time that you spend and the
Speaker 1: effort that you you do, you know, really does payoff.
Speaker 1: I mean, it really does. It really does pay off.
Speaker 1: But you have to know that. I guess what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is I'm not not lobbying for you know, everybody
Speaker 1: running out and getting a pet, but because you have
Speaker 1: to know that you're going to be spending quite a
Speaker 1: few years. You know, it's not just that's just going
Speaker 1: to be the first few months or the first few years.
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a dog, We had an eighteen
Speaker 1: year old dog that was a that was a big
Speaker 1: chunk of our lives that we spent, you know with
Speaker 1: that with that animal and being responsible for that animal, walking, feeding, vetting,
Speaker 1: caring for training, picking picking up poop, you know, just
Speaker 1: buckets and buckets and poop add it all up.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a big it's a big it's a
Speaker 2: big thing.
Speaker 1: I do think that there is a there is I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's been studies done about the possibility of
Speaker 1: animals too to create a healing force of people's lives.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Thanks Leanne, that was a really good question.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, Leanne.
Speaker 3: All Right, you want to jump into question number two.
Speaker 1: Okay, here comes to question number two. This is from
Speaker 1: Ali Kenny. Hey, Kevin, I've been loving the podcast so far.
Speaker 1: Thank you that the episode with Thomas Rhett was great.
Speaker 1: I love hearing you talk about music. Speaking of music,
Speaker 1: the legendary Paul McCartney is a big supporter of meat
Speaker 1: free mondays. You should cover this on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Ps.
Speaker 1: I love the Bacon Brons and can't wait to see
Speaker 1: you guys again in November. Oh well that's very nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks Okay, So, yeah, that was a great episode with
Speaker 1: Thomas Rhett. I really enjoyed it. I mean, I love listen.
Speaker 1: One of the things I've loved about this podcast is
Speaker 1: that it hasn't just been actors. You know, it hasn't
Speaker 1: just been people from the from the movie business.
Speaker 2: Uh, there's been.
Speaker 1: Musicians and people in sports and uh you know, uh
Speaker 1: reality television.
Speaker 2: And you know we had deep Pop.
Speaker 1: Choper the other day. It was uh a doctor and
Speaker 1: a you know, spiritualist.
Speaker 2: And and and and it's been.
Speaker 1: Really that's been really kind of you know, really kind
Speaker 1: of fun and and and interesting. And I'm so I'm
Speaker 1: glad so getting with Thomas Rhett we're getting a jewel
Speaker 1: for instance, we've had when those of you know, two
Speaker 1: of the musicians that we've had.
Speaker 2: It's just fun to talk music.
Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated with, you know, people in terms of
Speaker 1: like their songwriting process and what they feel about life
Speaker 1: on the road and you know, trying to break out
Speaker 1: and keep things fresh from creative staying. So so thanks,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And you know,
Speaker 1: he's got this new record.
Speaker 2: I think it's called.
Speaker 1: Twenty right, it's like twenty twenty number ones or something
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 3: It's number ones.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, number one has it.
Speaker 2: Was like twenty of them.
Speaker 1: I mean it's great, it's amazing, and it's great.
Speaker 2: It's a great record.
Speaker 1: He's a great writer, great singer and really good dude.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad he was there with us. But now
Speaker 1: the second question that you mentioned is about Paul McCarty
Speaker 1: is meat free Monday. So I can tell you, you know,
Speaker 1: when I meet actors, I've worked with a lot of
Speaker 1: very very famous people and you know, the top top,
Speaker 1: top actors ever in our in our business, I've gotten
Speaker 1: the chance oftentimes to interact with and work with, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know actors, I love it. I think of
Speaker 1: them as sort of colleagues. And it's doesn't really you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really affect me that much or I don't
Speaker 1: get thrown that much from from I don't get starstruck.
Speaker 2: Let's put it that way.
Speaker 1: If I meet a musician that I grew up with,
Speaker 1: that's where I turned into the babbling, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of like starstruck dude. And so I have met Paul McCartney,
Speaker 1: and he is one of those guys that you know,
Speaker 1: we've only met kind of in passing, but he's the
Speaker 1: type of person that immediately sort of puts you at ease.
Speaker 1: I don't know how people do that, you know, who
Speaker 1: are that that well respected, that famous, that that type
Speaker 1: of a person that words like genius have been applied
Speaker 1: to you know so many times that a person that
Speaker 1: is had such a musical and impact on all of
Speaker 1: our lives when they're able to just make you feel
Speaker 1: like you're just you know, talking you know, to your
Speaker 1: dentist or whatever.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really it's really a nice it's a
Speaker 1: nice it's a nice skill.
Speaker 2: That he has in terms of that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I actually have to stop you real quick. Okay,
Speaker 3: So you have that same effect. I can't tell you
Speaker 3: the amount of times that we've you know, had people
Speaker 3: that have met you and have done work with us
Speaker 3: that are like Kevin is just you know, so easy
Speaker 3: to talk to and and it's kind of disarming. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, and I don't think. I think when people
Speaker 3: aren't used to being around famous people, you know, they say,
Speaker 3: don't meet your heroes, they're kind of nervous about that
Speaker 3: bubble bursting. But I think similarly, you have that effect.
Speaker 3: The first time I met you, I was super nervous
Speaker 3: because I was like, what what to expect. I was
Speaker 3: also coming to work for you, so it's like with
Speaker 3: being your first day on the job, right, And I
Speaker 3: remember you coming down from from the hotel with with Michael,
Speaker 3: and you said I'll just ride with you. And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: and you jumped into my prius and I'm thinking, I hope,
Speaker 3: do I need more insurance? But if I came to
Speaker 3: a corrass it with Kevin Vacon, like what does that mean?
Speaker 3: And but you immediately started asking questions about my family,
Speaker 3: you know, where I was from, if I had siblings,
Speaker 3: and and really taking like a like just an authentic
Speaker 3: approach of like getting to know somebody. And I do
Speaker 3: think that not everyone does that. I mean, having done
Speaker 3: this work for a good amount of time now almost
Speaker 3: a decade, tell you that this is not always the case,
Speaker 3: you know, and you so it's nice to hear that
Speaker 3: Sir Paul McCartney is also a real genuine dude or
Speaker 3: sir I guess, yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah he really, I mean he really is.
Speaker 1: I mean I I of course I would, you know,
Speaker 1: I love to someday spend more time.
Speaker 2: And you know, I mean the think about it is
Speaker 2: that I guess.
Speaker 1: You have to kind of judge, uh, you know how
Speaker 1: much somebody wants to share about you know, their work
Speaker 1: and and the things that they've done, because you know,
Speaker 1: you're you know, with someone like that, you can imagine
Speaker 1: that the just so many people say, you know, you
Speaker 1: just changed.
Speaker 2: My life with that song. And I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: at what point.
Speaker 1: Do you keep do you keep responding to that or
Speaker 1: do you still are you still open to hearing that
Speaker 1: type of thing? It's who knows. But I love the music.
Speaker 1: I love the music with the Beatles. I love the music.
Speaker 2: Beyond the Beatles.
Speaker 1: And uh, and I just think he's a super super cool.
Speaker 2: Guy and and and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope our paths cross again and me this mondays,
Speaker 1: So I am Are you a vegan station?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: No, no, I have dabbled in the vegan arts.
Speaker 2: You've dabbled right, okay, in the vegan arts. That's funny.
Speaker 2: What for? For how long were you?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 3: I decided that I was going to do you know,
Speaker 3: like many people, January approaches and you're like, I'm going
Speaker 3: to do I'm gonna eat clean, right, So I told
Speaker 3: my husband we were gonna eat clean for a month
Speaker 3: and just kind of like reset start the year off right.
Speaker 3: I guess what I didn't tell him is that we
Speaker 3: were going to be doing vegan, which he really protested
Speaker 3: pretty hard. Oh really, I think he's almose, adamant people
Speaker 3: He's like, I need meat to survive, like I and he,
Speaker 3: you know, was very cranky for about a week. But
Speaker 3: then he, I think reset a little bit and was like, okay,
Speaker 3: like we can eat some pretty delicious.
Speaker 1: Me I need my marriage more exactly.
Speaker 3: And it was then he also wasn't going to be
Speaker 3: in the kitchen cooking every single meal, so I'm like,
Speaker 3: you're eating what I'm cooking, or you can definitely cook
Speaker 3: for yourself, which she's not opposed to, but he's, you know,
Speaker 3: if I'm cooking, he's gonna prefer to eat that. So
Speaker 3: it was fine. We did it for thirty days. I
Speaker 3: did feel great. I'm not a big fan of like
Speaker 3: tofu and things like that kind it kind of almost
Speaker 3: gives me a headache. Yeah, Tempe is a little.
Speaker 2: Just kind of wheat wheat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't actually know. I don't know that's soybean
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, well don't quote me on this, folks. Vegan.
Speaker 3: I know we're clearly not vegans here, but I do
Speaker 3: like the idea of meat free, eating meat free a
Speaker 3: few times a week. You know, I like cheese, so
Speaker 3: it would be a hard thing for me to go
Speaker 3: completely vegan in that sense. But what about you? Have
Speaker 3: you ever tried it?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I well not vegan. I mean I was a vegetarian
Speaker 1: for a while. But you know what's funny about that,
Speaker 1: I have this, I have a little bit of a
Speaker 1: bone to pick here, so to speak. Shouldn't they're just
Speaker 1: if you're a vegetarian, it's in the word. You should
Speaker 1: just be eating vegetables. So I don't really see why
Speaker 1: vegetarians and vegans should be different. If you're eating cheese
Speaker 1: and eggs and occasionally fish, you're not a vegetarian.
Speaker 2: I don't understand that. People say, but I'm a vegetarian,
Speaker 2: but I eat.
Speaker 1: You know, whatever animal products. You know, it doesn't make
Speaker 1: any sense to me. So that being said, I was
Speaker 1: a vegetarian for quite a few years. I was one
Speaker 1: of those you know, I call it a bageltarian because
Speaker 1: basically you're vegetar Harriet, but you eat cheese and bagels
Speaker 1: all the time, and pizza and you know all those things.
Speaker 1: It was really because I was dating a girl who
Speaker 1: you know, wouldn't have wouldn't go out with me if
Speaker 1: I was gonna eat you.
Speaker 2: Know, bacon.
Speaker 3: Your last name, but I will not eat.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And and you know, I now I don't eat
Speaker 1: pigs anymore, and it's it's makes no sense at all.
Speaker 1: But I love my pigs so much, Jude and Johnny
Speaker 1: that the idea it just changed my mind about eating them.
Speaker 1: And somebody once said to me, say, well, you don't
Speaker 1: have to eat your pigs. You could eat other people's pigs,
Speaker 1: and I said, that's fine.
Speaker 2: I don't eat lamb.
Speaker 1: I don't like Okra, but that's just because I don't
Speaker 1: like Okra slimy.
Speaker 3: The Okra thing. I don't know it at all.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's not my thing.
Speaker 1: All right, when when you're coming over from dinner, we're
Speaker 1: not having oak or okay, you know. So I got
Speaker 1: a couple of things that I'm not that crazy about,
Speaker 1: not eating goats.
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe it's just that I don't know.
Speaker 1: Just the animals we have where I'm not eating.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: But I do certainly do have at least a day
Speaker 1: a week of meatlessness.
Speaker 2: I don't really know why.
Speaker 1: I mean, partly because I kind of feel like it's
Speaker 1: fun to experiment with different things to eat.
Speaker 2: I mean, I like to do that all the.
Speaker 1: Time, with with all different kinds of food, whether it's
Speaker 1: you know, trying I don't know, suh or you know,
Speaker 1: or something Indonesian or or you know, going to a
Speaker 1: you know, an African restaurant or or you know whatever,
Speaker 1: just trying different you know things. Yeah, I love food
Speaker 1: and I and I think it's interesting, you know, I
Speaker 1: just having some friends over. I actually think it's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting that people are starting to look closely at
Speaker 1: the food that they eat and the things that they
Speaker 1: put in their bodies. And hopefully we'll continue, as we
Speaker 1: were talking about on the podcast, to look at the
Speaker 1: source of the foods.
Speaker 2: That we're eating. I mean, it is a really.
Speaker 1: Sometimes frightening and overwhelming thing, but it is also great
Speaker 1: to kind of be, you know, aware of what it
Speaker 1: is that you.
Speaker 2: Know, you're willing to put in your body.
Speaker 1: But I have some friends coming over for dinner, and
Speaker 1: later on in the week and reached out to my
Speaker 1: buddy and I said, okay, just remind me what's the
Speaker 1: dietary thing. And he can't have anything that has any
Speaker 1: kind of nuts in it.
Speaker 3: And that's like a serious allergy.
Speaker 1: Though no it's a serious no, no, no, it's really bad.
Speaker 1: He's got the EPI pen and the whole thing ready
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, he's yeah, he said to me once
Speaker 1: you know, you know, it's not a real party until
Speaker 1: the EpiPen comes out. So he's a very funny guy.
Speaker 1: He's very used to this. But also no seafood and
Speaker 1: then I was like okay now, and then also gluten free,
Speaker 1: so so you know, it presents challenges, but that's that
Speaker 1: to me is what's really kind of fun about about
Speaker 1: food and stuff is when you go, okay, well, you know,
Speaker 1: working within these parameters, whether it's veganism or or you know,
Speaker 1: allergies or whatever, you can you know, experiment with new
Speaker 1: ways to create something delicious.
Speaker 2: And I'm up for the challenge.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that was a good That was a really good question,
Speaker 3: Ali Bacanism eating clean. There's a lot to unpack there.
Speaker 3: Let's jump in. Our next question is actually a caller
Speaker 3: in from Jack Thomas.
Speaker 4: Hey, Kevin, my name is Jack Thomas pronounced shib. I'm
Speaker 4: recording today because I want to ask what is your
Speaker 4: personal experience and your opinion on the link between creative education,
Speaker 4: mental health and creative careers. I'm an artist and former
Speaker 4: art educator who has watched art and music and theater
Speaker 4: programs be the first to go, or at least the
Speaker 4: first impacted when budget cuts happen. This seems to mostly
Speaker 4: affect districts that serve low income and BIPOP kids, speaking
Speaker 4: from personal experience here. Consequently, these kids, just like I did,
Speaker 4: often grow up with basically no support for creativity as
Speaker 4: a mental health lifeline, and they definitely do not think
Speaker 4: of creative fields when they think about viable career paths.
Speaker 3: Way too many of us get their way too, Lay.
Speaker 4: I really love the work that my friend David Greiner
Speaker 4: formerly A Bad Week, is doing with Brian Reynolds through
Speaker 4: their recently launched nonprofit Creative Ladder, but they can only
Speaker 4: do so much.
Speaker 5: They're just one ord.
Speaker 4: So what I'm asking is if you could send a
Speaker 4: message to public school systems and the US about the
Speaker 4: link between creative education, mental health, and career success, especially
Speaker 4: in creative fields.
Speaker 5: What would it be?
Speaker 1: Hey, Jack, thank you so much for this question. I
Speaker 1: am a very very strong supporter of the arts when
Speaker 1: it comes to mental health, and certainly starting with kids.
Speaker 1: I was incredibly lucky to be raised in a household
Speaker 1: where creative expression was put on a giant pedestal by
Speaker 1: my parents. They really didn't care what are great?
Speaker 2: Were like, they really didn't.
Speaker 1: Give us any kind of messaging to a fault in
Speaker 1: terms of like how.
Speaker 2: To make money.
Speaker 1: And they weren't big fans of sports. But uh, and
Speaker 1: I'm not putting down sports and education and and and money.
Speaker 1: But when it came to doing something creative, that was
Speaker 1: put on a pedestal, and it was make a make
Speaker 1: a drawing, sculpt something, create a costume, do a dance,
Speaker 1: write yourself a song, write a play, pick up an instrument,
Speaker 1: do anything of a of a of a creative nature.
Speaker 1: And it was so informative for me, and not only that,
Speaker 1: it was so important to.
Speaker 2: My own mental health. Uh. You know, I've often talked
Speaker 2: about it. I've talked about it on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Of getting into an acting class as a as a
Speaker 1: young kid and all of a sudden feeling safe and
Speaker 1: feeling like I had a place that I could express
Speaker 1: myself in a way that I really wasn't able to
Speaker 1: in school or on the street. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: a lot of it was wrapped up and being a
Speaker 1: boy and you know, trying to be tough all the
Speaker 1: time and survive, and all of a sudden in the
Speaker 1: acting classes, you know, I could just kind of be
Speaker 1: anything that I wanted to be. And in terms of
Speaker 1: music in the public school system at that time, if
Speaker 1: you wanted an instrument, you could get an instrument.
Speaker 2: They would have. This is in Philadelphia. You know.
Speaker 1: It would start, you know, as a as a little
Speaker 1: kid with a recorder and they just gave you this,
Speaker 1: you know, plastic recorder and you would play this little
Speaker 1: kind of flute thing and figure out putting your fingers
Speaker 1: on it and and learn a song. And then from
Speaker 1: that point on, if you wanted music lessons, if you
Speaker 1: wanted to be in the school band, it was it
Speaker 1: was always always there for you. And those programs are as,
Speaker 1: as you pointed out, the first to go when Cutts happened.
Speaker 1: Stacey and I with six degrees, have been involved in
Speaker 1: a couple of sort of creative and music based organizations,
Speaker 1: one of which was called Rock in the Future, which
Speaker 1: is in.
Speaker 2: Philadelphia, which is my hometown.
Speaker 1: And what they do is they provide places for you know,
Speaker 1: underserved communities and kids to make music, to play instruments,
Speaker 1: to record, to put bands together. You know, these things
Speaker 1: are happening in classical and in visual arts and all
Speaker 1: the all this.
Speaker 2: But you're right, it is.
Speaker 1: It is extremely important. And you know, I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: a lot tremendous amount of research and information about uh,
Speaker 1: you know, kids and and their own mental health and
Speaker 1: you know, around being able to have creative expression. But
Speaker 1: you know what I always like to just you know,
Speaker 1: kind of point the point, the example of which is
Speaker 1: when people are playing music, Uh, nobody's getting hurt. You know,
Speaker 1: no one's shooting each other, right, no one's you know,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you're not fighting.
Speaker 2: You know, you're you're, you're, you're you know.
Speaker 1: You're you're you're making music and and it's got to
Speaker 1: be it's got to be a positive thing.
Speaker 3: Do you thinks, Dave, oh, one hundred percent. And that's
Speaker 3: actually one of the core ways we know Rock to
Speaker 3: the Futures using it as a tool to reduce gun
Speaker 3: violence and to create outlets. We're also you know, when
Speaker 3: we interviewed the different students through these different network partners,
Speaker 3: they all said the same kind of underlying thing, which
Speaker 3: was that they felt like this created space for them
Speaker 3: to be safe, to have community. They felt like they
Speaker 3: were seen and listened to. There was a real belonging,
Speaker 3: which we know has a direct effect to someone's mental
Speaker 3: health and mental wellness. So, you know, looping back to
Speaker 3: Jack's really thoughtful submission, I think that the education systems
Speaker 3: need I think we as constituents of them, need to
Speaker 3: figure out a better way to ensure that kids have
Speaker 3: access to the arts, whether it's to music or performance.
Speaker 3: But these types of outlets are so critical in giving
Speaker 3: young people a way to express themselves and to have
Speaker 3: something of their own.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that great, That was a great question, and thank
Speaker 1: you Jack, Thanks thanks for that. Yeah, we're I want
Speaker 1: to look into this organization that she mentioned around the
Speaker 1: that I guess right, Ryan Reynolds maybe is in Bob
Speaker 1: with something, so we should check that out.
Speaker 2: That's how it's cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, definitely, we'll put the information in the in
Speaker 3: the notes. We're going to do one last quick question
Speaker 3: before we wrap up today's awesome episode, all right, and
Speaker 3: this one is from Lex Lumier. I hope I'm pronouncing
Speaker 3: your last name correctly. Lex, who's from the US Department
Speaker 3: of Arts and Culture.
Speaker 5: Hell loove Kevin. My name is Lex lamer I'm a
Speaker 5: citizen artist and cultural partner with the United States Department
Speaker 5: of Arts and Culture. February seventh of twenty twenty, I
Speaker 5: was volunteering for the Tim Tebow Night to Shine event
Speaker 5: at Houston First And this church is older than the
Speaker 5: state of Texas, so one hundred years ago, there would
Speaker 5: be no dancing and no music being played other than
Speaker 5: you know, the worship team. What I thought was really
Speaker 5: interesting is as the decorations were going up for this event,
Speaker 5: which is a really amazing event for special needs for
Speaker 5: them to have a prom on their own, so it's
Speaker 5: really sweet, and people were coming in. It was just
Speaker 5: a really nice time, and Your Footloose song came on
Speaker 5: from the film and this film was like, I really
Speaker 5: like this song, and I thought, this is amazing. Out
Speaker 5: of all places there are playing this song in this
Speaker 5: church that's posting a dance for people, because you know,
Speaker 5: one hundred years ago that would have happened. And I
Speaker 5: just wanted to ask you what you think about the
Speaker 5: openness and the inclusion of the arts into you know,
Speaker 5: churches and facilities of spiritual practice. You know what you
Speaker 5: think about that is just amazed and impressed at the
Speaker 5: same time.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks like so much for that that question.
Speaker 2: Uh, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: Let me let me You're tied a lot of things
Speaker 1: together that have actually been a part of my life. Coincidentally,
Speaker 1: the first one that you mentioned is Footloots, right where
Speaker 1: there's a there's a town and uh, and people are
Speaker 1: not allowed to dance and the and the the rules
Speaker 1: are set by this minister in the town and played
Speaker 1: by John Letgow and the you know, it's it's this this,
Speaker 1: this kind of creative expression is looked at as anti religion.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And It's been a while since I've seen the movie,
Speaker 1: but I think I used the Bible when I talked
Speaker 1: to the town council and say that there were I
Speaker 1: think there's a quote about in the Bible about leaping
Speaker 1: and dancing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm in the church. Has let me let me
Speaker 2: first frame this.
Speaker 1: By saying, I'm not what I would consider a spiritual person,
Speaker 1: and I don't go to church at this point in
Speaker 1: my life, but the church has always been a place
Speaker 1: where there has been art, I mean incredible art. You know,
Speaker 1: all in the beginning of the visual arts that that
Speaker 1: was all the art that was made was you know,
Speaker 1: iconography and the religious paintings of religious art.
Speaker 2: In fact, when.
Speaker 1: It's kind of moved away from there, you know, that
Speaker 1: was the blasphemous you know, time was when people started
Speaker 1: painting things that weren't religious. And music, uh for sure,
Speaker 1: and and dance, and in all kinds of religious practices
Speaker 1: there's music and dance and art, and so I think
Speaker 1: there is a there is a very powerful connection, and
Speaker 1: of course I would encourage that in places of worship
Speaker 1: that people experience art.
Speaker 2: And the other reason is because.
Speaker 1: If you are, you know, trying to get to cut
Speaker 1: a higher you know, kind of personal plane. And maybe
Speaker 1: this connects to the last the question we were talking
Speaker 1: about in terms of mental health. You know, music certainly,
Speaker 1: and dance as well, you know, can be calming and
Speaker 1: can take you to other kind of realms of consciousness.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, even staring at a picture of
Speaker 1: a beautiful portrait or a beautiful.
Speaker 2: Landscape or whatever.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that I think there's a a
Speaker 1: very strong connection.
Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more. And I come from I don't
Speaker 3: want to say the other side, but I probably would
Speaker 3: consider myself spiritual. But for me, when I'm like singing
Speaker 3: or to use sexist words like worshiping, I feel closeness
Speaker 3: to you know who. I believe my creator to be
Speaker 3: right more so than any other time. And I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people, like you said, with lots of
Speaker 3: different cultures, different religions around the world. That's actually what
Speaker 3: my degree is in my under undergrad degree is religious
Speaker 3: world studies. And so I always found it really fascinating
Speaker 3: to see the connections of different religions and groups of people.
Speaker 3: I found that there was way more in common than not.
Speaker 3: We tend to focus on than not the things that
Speaker 3: we don't have in common that drive a wedge instead
Speaker 3: of like the overwhelming majority of things that we are
Speaker 3: so similar in. So yeah, no, and I think I
Speaker 3: actually have spent some time in places in the world
Speaker 3: where you see this like convergence that I believe Lex
Speaker 3: was speaking to, where what seems to be these unlikely
Speaker 3: elements are coming together at this focal point and you
Speaker 3: feel like like you're standing in awe of something that's
Speaker 3: really cool that's happening. Yea, I think the world needs
Speaker 3: more of that. I think we need to have more
Speaker 3: opportunities to see these different elements, seemingly different elements, you know,
Speaker 3: come together. I think we'd be in a better place.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'll also tell you something else, Lex that you
Speaker 1: might find interesting, and that is that when I was
Speaker 1: a little boy. My father never went to church. He
Speaker 1: was raised a Quaker and had sort of, I don't know,
Speaker 1: sort of walked away from the Quaker meeting and it
Speaker 1: wasn't in his life. But my mother had found this
Speaker 1: church in our neighborhood that she was very involved with,
Speaker 1: and it was a Unitarian church, which is one of
Speaker 1: those religions where it's supposed to be very inclusive of
Speaker 1: all religions.
Speaker 2: And she would go all the time.
Speaker 1: And there was a minister at this Unitarian church who
Speaker 1: was I guess, I guess he would and nowadays call
Speaker 1: him a progressive kind of minister. And he loved theater.
Speaker 1: He really was obsessed with theater. So the very first
Speaker 1: acting that I ever did was in church because he
Speaker 1: would sometimes take little sections of plays I guess they were,
Speaker 1: and use them to kind of put a point across
Speaker 1: in his certainments. And sometimes there were parts for a
Speaker 1: young man or a child, I guess, because I was
Speaker 1: going to be very little, and so I would go
Speaker 1: and that was really where I first, you know, was
Speaker 1: you know, learned how to act and had to learn lines,
Speaker 1: and you know, got nervous and did all the stuff.
Speaker 2: Was h was at the at the.
Speaker 1: Unitarian Church of Philadelphia and in Centara City, Philadelphia, and
Speaker 1: so that was a definite connection of of the arts
Speaker 1: and the spiritual place.
Speaker 3: Of port a Star was born. You hear that story
Speaker 3: all the time. I feel like so many singers that
Speaker 3: you want to win Grammys, like they started in the church,
Speaker 3: absolutely because that's where they could sing, you know, their
Speaker 3: craft every Sunday. Yeah, that's a very very good question.
Speaker 1: Thanks Lex, Thank you Lex. That's a wrap, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: this was fun. Thank you, Stacy Sure and folks, I
Speaker 1: hope you're enjoying these Ask Kevin almost anything episodes. We're
Speaker 1: having a good time with them. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: keep the keep the questions coming. I really find this
Speaker 1: really fascinating. It's always it's always interesting because you guys
Speaker 1: out there are you know, kind of doing our jobs
Speaker 1: in a way, you know, try to highlight and find
Speaker 1: interesting causes and people who are or have great stories.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's uh, it's it's a lot of fun
Speaker 1: and it's a lot of fun to hang out with you.
Speaker 3: Stacey same, I'm enjoying it. Keep the questions coming. If
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