Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in to six Degrees with
Speaker 1: Kevin Bacon. My guest today. Rachel Brosnahan, fabulous, fabulous actor.
Speaker 1: I mean I have been such a fan of hers
Speaker 1: from the first time that I saw her. I think
Speaker 1: she just has really phenomenal chops. And while we were
Speaker 1: unable to speak specifically about projects, given that we were
Speaker 1: in the middle of the strike, we were able to
Speaker 1: talk about process and about some of the things also
Speaker 1: that she just cares very very deeply about. She's a
Speaker 1: great person, incredible talent. I think you're going to enjoy
Speaker 1: our conversation, so Lena in, I'm glad you're Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being here with me today. Rachel Brosnahan,
Speaker 1: the fabulous Rachel Brosnahan, who, as you know, and I've
Speaker 1: told you, I'm just a giant fan of yours and
Speaker 1: of your beautiful, beautiful work on so many things, many
Speaker 1: of which, since we're still knee deep in our Screen
Speaker 1: Actors Guild strike, we're not actually allowed to address directly.
Speaker 1: I don't know, have you done any interviews like this
Speaker 1: where you try to avoid, like what you do with
Speaker 1: your entire life while you're doing.
Speaker 2: The interview I haven't, and so I've admittedly have been
Speaker 2: slightly nervous because I've been sort of in a quiet
Speaker 2: hole focused on the producing side of things over the
Speaker 2: last couple of months. And so this is my first
Speaker 2: rodeo trying not to talk about all the things we're
Speaker 2: not supposed to talk about.
Speaker 1: That being said, I have found a really interesting because,
Speaker 1: as you know, and I think, actually, I want to
Speaker 1: ask you about this. During this strike, it has hit
Speaker 1: me that such a big part of what I do
Speaker 1: is the promotional piece of it. Yeah, and it's the
Speaker 1: part that I never really wanted from the jump street.
Speaker 1: You know. It's I don't you know people say to
Speaker 1: you when you become an actor and you go to
Speaker 1: a photo session or you go to do an interview,
Speaker 1: and they go, well, you know, kid, that's just part
Speaker 1: of the job. And I think to myself, is it
Speaker 1: the I mean, is it really? Does it have to be?
Speaker 1: I do a lot of promoting of the of the
Speaker 1: stuff that I'm in. I'm a very good boy, you know,
Speaker 1: I show up and I don't turn things down, and
Speaker 1: you know, people count on that. But when they started
Speaker 1: to include a certain amount of promotion in the agreement
Speaker 1: in order to play the part. I think that's when
Speaker 1: I just kind of felt like I started pushing back
Speaker 1: on that a little bit. I don't know, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've struggled with this a lot because I became
Speaker 2: an actress, so I didn't know it to be myself
Speaker 2: all the time. I think I was born tired of myself,
Speaker 2: and I feel like I've always had what I've been
Speaker 2: told is kind of an old fashioned idea that the
Speaker 2: work can speak for itself. And really, like a lot
Speaker 2: of actors, I think started doing this because you know,
Speaker 2: I was in love with the work and wanted to
Speaker 2: do that kind of exploration of the human subconscious and
Speaker 2: blah blah all that, you know, all that actor stuff
Speaker 2: that has nothing to do with this side of it.
Speaker 3: And then.
Speaker 2: I'm a part of an interesting generation. And then I
Speaker 2: feel like there's a handful of people who started when
Speaker 2: I did, who kind of got away with disappearing and
Speaker 2: doing a lot less of that sort of thing, and
Speaker 2: especially as it relates to social media, and I feel
Speaker 2: like I've struggled with finding ways to do it in
Speaker 2: a way that feels organic and authentic and in a
Speaker 2: way that I feel comfortable being myself while still kind
Speaker 2: of not talking about myself so much that it overshadows
Speaker 2: the work or makes it difficult for people to see
Speaker 2: the characters I'm playing, over seeing the funny story that
Speaker 2: I told about my dog taking a shit, you know,
Speaker 2: on right on a late night So I.
Speaker 1: Told that same story, by the way, on the late
Speaker 1: night show. We've all got it, and I don't even
Speaker 1: have a dog.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think at the same time, I've also seen
Speaker 2: the value directly and obviously I'm here to talk about
Speaker 2: some of the nonprofit stuff that I do today with you,
Speaker 2: and I've found that that's where the real advantage to
Speaker 2: all that stuff lies. Is the more the followers you
Speaker 2: have or the you know, the more you kind of
Speaker 2: promote the projects. You're also able to promote some of
Speaker 2: this stuff at the same time. And this feels like
Speaker 2: one of the under talked about ways that that what
Speaker 2: we do has the abilit to make an impact. And
Speaker 2: and it's one of the things that I've loved so
Speaker 2: much about having a growing platform as the ability use
Speaker 2: it in this way. And so yeah, it's a I
Speaker 2: think it's a it's an ongoing battle of the mind
Speaker 2: and well with this stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I completely agree with you, and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know again, I I I really think that you can.
Speaker 1: You can make whatever decisions you make around it are
Speaker 1: are personal, I mean, and when it really comes down
Speaker 1: to it, you know, you want, like I'm okay talking
Speaker 1: about process when people really ask you about process of
Speaker 1: performance and stuff like that, and some people don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about that at all. I mean, I'm fine
Speaker 1: with it, but really what people want to know about
Speaker 1: mostly is is the personal, not not the process so much,
Speaker 1: but the personal. And when it comes to the personal,
Speaker 1: you know, I've often said that an interview is it
Speaker 1: has becomes its own acting exercise because it is a
Speaker 1: way to create the impression that you are revealing something
Speaker 1: you know deep or profound or very personal about yourself
Speaker 1: while not actually doing it. This is going to be
Speaker 1: this is a very cynical start to this episode. So
Speaker 1: that being said, tell me all about yourself and why
Speaker 1: you became an actor. Where are you from? I don't
Speaker 1: even know.
Speaker 2: I'm from just north of Chicago. I'm from Highland Park, Illinois. Okay, sure, yeah,
Speaker 2: where are you from? I don't think I know?
Speaker 1: This is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: Do you make it back often.
Speaker 1: I do, Yeah, I do. I have family still there.
Speaker 1: I got let's say, two sisters, my brother's got a
Speaker 1: place down and my nephew. Yeah. I mean I go down,
Speaker 1: not a ton, but I do go down. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: moved to New York when I was pretty pretty young.
Speaker 1: I moved to New York when I was seventeen, so
Speaker 1: I've been in New York, you know, most through this time. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I moved here when I was eighteen, so about the same.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But Hiland Parker is awesome. I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it was a great place to grow up.
Speaker 2: I feel like i've this is again one of those
Speaker 2: weird things and they're like, what was it that made
Speaker 2: you want to be an actor? And you have the
Speaker 2: kind of ready to go answer that feels interesting and
Speaker 2: engaging to audience somehow. But I think the truth is
Speaker 2: is that it was kind of a like a shy,
Speaker 2: sort of weird kid. And I love to read. And
Speaker 2: the part that I loved about reading was that I
Speaker 2: got to live inside these characters' heads and imagine what
Speaker 2: they were doing between the chapters, and it sort of
Speaker 2: created an addiction to trying to addiction, but also a
Speaker 2: profound curiosity I suppose about people.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: An interest in trying them on for size to further
Speaker 2: understand how their minds worked, and that led me to
Speaker 2: my famed role as Tree number three in my kindergartenersion
Speaker 2: of Little Red Riding Hoods. How are you very deep
Speaker 2: character work?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sure you're amazing. Okay, this is just classic.
Speaker 1: This is just classic New York. And I'm going to
Speaker 1: show this to you please before I move to the
Speaker 1: next room. But here we have the guys all my
Speaker 1: scaffolding who at this particular time of this particular day,
Speaker 1: have decided to work directly outside the window. Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: For those people who don't know, that's exactly what was happening.
Speaker 1: So here I am moving to another room. Said, you've
Speaker 1: said two things that I really really, really really relate to.
Speaker 1: And one is you mentioned that you wanted to be
Speaker 1: someone other than yourself, and that was so much a
Speaker 1: driving force for me and continues to be in terms
Speaker 1: of why I wanted to be an actor. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: you know, it sounds like like you. I just didn't
Speaker 1: think that who who I was was interesting and interestingly
Speaker 1: enough for anybody to want to see it or or
Speaker 1: watch it or be it. But if I could walk
Speaker 1: in this guy's shoes, it was going to be fun,
Speaker 1: fun as shit. And yeah, it sounds like you kind
Speaker 1: of had that that same sort of you know, at
Speaker 1: least launching pad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I, you know, I I was so
Speaker 2: interested in other people. And also, you know, I grew
Speaker 2: up in the suburbs of Chicago, which was great and
Speaker 2: idyllic in a lot of ways and came with its
Speaker 2: own side of challenges. And but you could read stories
Speaker 2: about people who went to the moon or had magical
Speaker 2: powers or you know, and then to get to try
Speaker 2: that stuff on size and live in a world that
Speaker 2: was so far beyond the one that you lived in.
Speaker 2: And then also the you know, the the deeper side
Speaker 2: of it, the you know, I think, no matter who
Speaker 2: you are and where you come from, there's so many
Speaker 2: things that you don't understand about the world around you
Speaker 2: and the people who operate in it. And the ability
Speaker 2: to try to think like them or to to you know, uh,
Speaker 2: interact with people who thought like them through a mechanism
Speaker 2: that wasn't your own, felt like it kind of eased
Speaker 2: the challenge of being alive, you know. And and then
Speaker 2: also was a heck of a lot of fun, for sure.
Speaker 1: And and were your parents in this in this or
Speaker 1: your family was anybody else in the in the arts
Speaker 1: in any kind of way?
Speaker 2: No, No, not in my immediate family. My my dad
Speaker 2: worked in children's book publishing, and my mom had come
Speaker 2: from a hotel and restaurant management, and we were a
Speaker 2: pretty sports oriented family, so I also grew up playing sports.
Speaker 2: But they were sorely disappointed. I was like, Mom, Dad,
Speaker 2: I want to be an actor.
Speaker 1: What sports did you play?
Speaker 2: I snowboarded and I wrestled.
Speaker 1: Oh wow? They were disappointed, though, I mean, what do
Speaker 1: you think they would have wanted you? Did they want
Speaker 1: you to be a snowboarder or.
Speaker 2: I think literally anything else? You know, they were I
Speaker 2: don't know if they were disappointed. They were just they were.
Speaker 3: Nervous, you know.
Speaker 2: They they're very practical people. Yeah, yeah, who were like,
Speaker 2: this is an impossible career. And I think they just
Speaker 2: didn't they didn't want me to be disappointed. And to
Speaker 2: be honest, you know, they had seen shamed performances Tree
Speaker 2: number three and I think we're a little like I
Speaker 2: don't know if she's got it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Okay, Wow, that's pretty harsh if they could
Speaker 1: tell from your tree performance that you didn't have the
Speaker 1: stuff I want to hear about what it's like to
Speaker 1: be a Were you a high school wrestler?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was briefly. I did two years, and then
Speaker 2: the wrestling season. I don't know about how this was
Speaker 2: when you were in school, but like our school plays
Speaker 2: and musicals changed seasons, so I think so that people
Speaker 2: who were doing other things like sports could have a
Speaker 2: shot at it every other year. And so I didn't
Speaker 2: make the musical my freshman year of high school, so
Speaker 2: I joined the wrestling team, and then my sophomore year
Speaker 2: I was able to do both. And then my junior
Speaker 2: year I had to choose between wrestling and a production
Speaker 2: of Cats, the Musing one, and I chose Cats.
Speaker 1: Well, who wouldn't choose cats? Come on, right, come on?
Speaker 1: Have you ever gotten a chance in your later work
Speaker 1: to I don't know you use the wrestling in any
Speaker 1: kind of way. Has it ever made any kind of
Speaker 1: connection to anything that you've ever done?
Speaker 2: Not yet, But I think that's all I want from
Speaker 2: this career is to find a way to bring high
Speaker 2: school wrestling back into play.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think women's high school wrestling is a
Speaker 1: very interesting subject. I mean I would think that that
Speaker 1: would there's got to be a story there, you know.
Speaker 2: Well, the cool thing about wrestling, at least at our
Speaker 2: high school, we didn't split the teams. It was I
Speaker 2: think there were only two women on the team my
Speaker 2: freshman year, and then it might have just been me
Speaker 2: my sophomore year. Because it's done by so you.
Speaker 1: Were wrestling, you were wrestling men.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's done my weight class, so it more EQUI well,
Speaker 2: I think especially when everyone is younger. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: that would necessarily be the case now, but when everyone's younger,
Speaker 2: you know, at those lower weight classes, I was wrestling
Speaker 2: like tall Bean Pully, young gentlemen, and so it felt
Speaker 2: like we were pretty easily matched. It was about different
Speaker 2: skill set. Somebody was faster, somebody was stronger, somebody you know,
Speaker 2: was better on offense or defense.
Speaker 1: And oh man, mind blown. I had no idea that
Speaker 1: they would that that would be possible, that they would have,
Speaker 1: you know, intersex wrestling. I mean, that's really that's really
Speaker 1: fit and that's amazing. I do think there's a movie there.
Speaker 1: I'm my ma, there is there there. Yeah, there might
Speaker 1: be I know, that you have done obviously have done
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of theater. So I'm guessing that you
Speaker 1: probably started in the besides cats. I mean when you
Speaker 1: became you know, professional, moved to New York, and and
Speaker 1: were you in college when you moved to New York?
Speaker 1: Where you did you come for for the life in
Speaker 1: the theater?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I came. I went to n y U. And so
Speaker 2: I moved to New York to go to school, and
Speaker 2: UH did a little bit of theater in Chicago during
Speaker 2: the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, did this
Speaker 2: really wonderful play at the Stuff and Wolf called up
Speaker 2: and that was that was my first experience in professional theater.
Speaker 2: And then UH graduated from college and made my Broadway
Speaker 2: debut in a very small role in this incredible ensemble
Speaker 2: at a play called the in a play called The
Speaker 2: Big Knife at the Roundabout. But it's so funny. I
Speaker 2: I did come from theater. I went to drama spolife,
Speaker 2: like the basis for that training is theater. And when
Speaker 2: I was younger and imagining what it was like to
Speaker 2: be an actor, I think all I ever wanted was
Speaker 2: to be in lay Mi is the musical but I
Speaker 2: can't sing or dance, and that was kind of the
Speaker 2: pinnacle of what I thought success in this industry would
Speaker 2: look like. And kind of stumbled into the film and
Speaker 2: TV thing, into small parts on television shows and in
Speaker 2: films when I was younger, when I kind of while
Speaker 2: I was in school. And so I feel like that's
Speaker 2: also say that I feel like still kind of an
Speaker 2: impost in the theater space. I've done applying approximately once
Speaker 2: every six years, and I love it and it it
Speaker 2: It's just the hardest thing in the world. But every
Speaker 2: time I made it, I'm just so in awe of
Speaker 2: the of the folks who kind of moved from show
Speaker 2: to show. I don't know how people do that schedule.
Speaker 2: It's so intensely vulnerable and exhilarating and fun and weird,
Speaker 2: but so so hard. So I'm still in all every
Speaker 2: time I get the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Listen, there was a time when I was young,
Speaker 1: when I first came up, that I was going from
Speaker 1: play to play to play to play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And.
Speaker 1: I have to say, I really do I miss the
Speaker 1: intensity of it. I miss the I mean, I kind
Speaker 1: of get a little bit of the immediacy of the
Speaker 1: audience experience with the I'm in a band, and when
Speaker 1: we go out and play a show, there's a thing
Speaker 1: that maybe that that reminds me of doing theater. And
Speaker 1: two things. Number one is that like I'm so comfortable
Speaker 1: on a set now on a movie set, that I
Speaker 1: don't get butterflies. Really. I mean, maybe my first day,
Speaker 1: in my first scene, if I'm doing make taking a
Speaker 1: big swing and nobody's seen the big swing yet, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean that maybe I get a little
Speaker 1: weird about putting that out there, but I pretty much
Speaker 1: feel like I'm in my living room. And when you
Speaker 1: do a play or do a show with the band,
Speaker 1: you're backstage, you know. You know, it's the same thing
Speaker 1: when they tell you it's a half an hour until
Speaker 1: the show and you start, you know, kind of getting
Speaker 1: dialed in and you think about it and right before
Speaker 1: you make your entrance, there's always this little bit of butterflies.
Speaker 1: And to get past that, I think is a very
Speaker 1: very important part of being a performer. I don't I
Speaker 1: can't really tell you how it makes you better, but
Speaker 1: I do think that it makes you better and challenges you.
Speaker 1: The other piece of it that I think I would
Speaker 1: really miss if I didn't have either theater or music.
Speaker 1: Is that feeling that you're sharing this one night with
Speaker 1: this one group of people, yeah, and that it's never
Speaker 1: going to be exactly the same and you can't there's
Speaker 1: no do overs, you know. It's it's that that just
Speaker 1: that excitement is kind of.
Speaker 2: Magical to me, that's exactly the word for it. It
Speaker 2: feels like there's this little magical bubble that you all
Speaker 2: kind of handshake enter into at the beginning of the night.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 2: There's the real there's a power and a fear and
Speaker 2: an exhilaration and knowing that not only is it the
Speaker 2: only time it'll ever be like that, but actually you
Speaker 2: could do anything. You could You won't, but but you
Speaker 2: could actually, like you could get out there and rip
Speaker 2: all your clothes off and jump into the audience. You know,
Speaker 2: no one's actually stopping you from from taking control of
Speaker 2: the space. And so it feels like one of the
Speaker 2: best parts about working in theater and being on stage
Speaker 2: is figuring out kind of how far you can stretch
Speaker 2: your own limits night tonight, Like where can you walk?
Speaker 2: Where can you walk up to the line of I'm
Speaker 2: going to do something insane in here right right and
Speaker 2: just sort of leave something on the stage and share
Speaker 2: that experience with an audience every night.
Speaker 1: It's how often do you switch things up if you're
Speaker 1: doing a play, like like, like, how often do you
Speaker 1: do you just kind of, I mean, adjust things with
Speaker 1: that within reason?
Speaker 2: Talking about doing something crazy, Yeah, I say that, and
Speaker 2: I and I don't know that I've ever been brave
Speaker 2: enough to really do something perceptibly crazy on stage, But
Speaker 2: there's still time. I I feel like you switch up
Speaker 2: things in a small way. Every day. You sort of
Speaker 2: do all that homework and you do all that rehearsal
Speaker 2: to get a foundation underneath you.
Speaker 3: But then.
Speaker 2: The more you do a play and you're saying the
Speaker 2: same things every night, and you're living with the same
Speaker 2: people every night, it feels like you start sometimes to
Speaker 2: hear different things, and you start to hear them differently.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I just did this play, The Sign in Sidney Brustine's Window,
Speaker 2: and it's this beautiful, unwieldy lay that it felt like
Speaker 2: we were wrestling with every night, and every night we
Speaker 2: heard totally different things. Certain sentences jumped out. I heard
Speaker 2: other things from other characters and I almost had never
Speaker 2: heard before. And then whether it was for one performance
Speaker 2: or for a week, it kind of reshaped the way
Speaker 2: we were tackling this play, or I was tackling the play.
Speaker 3: And it was.
Speaker 2: It was really fun and made it never get less
Speaker 2: scary in a way that feels, I guess that's the
Speaker 2: feeling that I'm hooked on. It feels like you're always
Speaker 2: kind of walking on a tightrope and you could fall,
Speaker 2: and sometimes you do, and then you have to figure
Speaker 2: out to pick yourself back up and do it again
Speaker 2: the next day with a healthy degree of humiliation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And you have had the fabulous Oscar Isaac
Speaker 1: there with you, and that he's I mean, I'm guessing
Speaker 1: although I don't know him, I'd never worked with him,
Speaker 1: but I'm guessing that he's someone who probably you know,
Speaker 1: is willing to kind of go with wherever things are going.
Speaker 1: You know that that is also kind of light on
Speaker 1: his feet in terms of what you guys, as you said,
Speaker 1: hearing a different line in a different way, or or
Speaker 1: changing something in a subtle way one night to the next.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I learned a lot from working with Oscar through this
Speaker 2: show and was pushed in directions that were sometimes uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: but in a healthy way and in a way that
Speaker 2: made the whole thing better. I think pressed each other
Speaker 2: in that way sometimes. And yeah, he's really courageous. He's
Speaker 2: really courageous in that he's constantly searching for ways to
Speaker 2: stay present and to embrace the present moment and all
Speaker 2: the stuff that comes along with it in a way
Speaker 2: that infuses into the work that day and every day.
Speaker 2: He's such a student of the medium and loves that
Speaker 2: part of it. And I was really really admire his
Speaker 2: kind of discipline and curiosity and how insatiable it is.
Speaker 2: And I feel like I learned a lot about what's
Speaker 2: possible and how I might like to work or like
Speaker 2: to challenge myself moving forward as I you know, eventually
Speaker 2: go into another play. For working together.
Speaker 1: I remember, as a young acting student, uh, I believe
Speaker 1: it was it was either me or one of my
Speaker 1: my kids in school did a scene from the Signe
Speaker 1: at Sydney Brusing's window. I think that really, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it was a there were kind
Speaker 1: of like it was sort of like a list of
Speaker 1: of scene study scenes, things that that that would you know,
Speaker 1: apply to two people having a scene together, which is
Speaker 1: basically what you need for a scene study class, right,
Speaker 1: something that takes place in a kitchen or a house
Speaker 1: or you know is and that is a you know,
Speaker 1: a medium length scene with some you know, emotion and
Speaker 1: stuff in order to for it to be a good
Speaker 1: scene study scene. And I'm it was either me or
Speaker 1: or somebody that I know. I can't remember it that well,
Speaker 1: but it was a tremendous success for you, So congratulations
Speaker 1: for that. And you guys went straight to Broadway with
Speaker 1: that right like it was at in Brooklyn for a
Speaker 1: little while, and I moved right away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was an incredible experience. We planned to do
Speaker 2: this six week run at BAM, and you know, certainly
Speaker 2: that was part of the appeal of jumping in at
Speaker 2: this play. I had just finished a number of years
Speaker 2: on a project that we can't talk about, but you know,
Speaker 2: I had just closed this huge chapter and to be
Speaker 2: able to move straight into this play that was so
Speaker 2: thoughtful and radical and full of so many big ideas
Speaker 2: and required a completely different way of working was really exciting.
Speaker 2: And then also that it would kind of come and
Speaker 2: then go almost as suddenly as it came was exciting.
Speaker 2: And then we had this tremendous opportunity and a really
Speaker 2: rare opportunity to take it straight from BAM to Broadway
Speaker 2: in under a month and reopen the play and bring
Speaker 2: it to more audiences, thanks largely to Jeremy o'harris, who's
Speaker 2: a fantastic play right and wearer of a thousand and
Speaker 2: a half other hats, producer, actor, wearer of beautiful clothes,
Speaker 2: and Jeremy became a huge champion for this and helped
Speaker 2: bring together a lot of other people who helped make
Speaker 2: it possible for us to keep going. And honestly, what
Speaker 2: an incredible gift to get to do something that you
Speaker 2: think is over. We didn't know we were transferring by
Speaker 2: the time the show closed. I often have this experience,
Speaker 2: whether it's in theater or in a film or on television,
Speaker 2: where you finish it and then suddenly you're like, HU,
Speaker 2: should I get it now? I understand that I didn't
Speaker 2: understand for all that time, And so we got to
Speaker 2: have that experience and then come back and get back
Speaker 2: into the rehearsal room for two days. But you know,
Speaker 2: even two days of getting to crack this thing back
Speaker 2: open with such a huge gift, and I feel like
Speaker 2: the show transformed in those three weeks that we had
Speaker 2: off and then became stronger and more cohesive and a
Speaker 2: little bit shorter. When that's really cool we brought it
Speaker 2: to Broadway.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know if you've ever been in an
Speaker 1: experience where you've had to go back and do a reshoot,
Speaker 1: either for a technical reason or for the you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, the one they want to change the
Speaker 1: ending of a a movie or a pilot or you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And I'm always like, oh shit, God,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. I already did it,
Speaker 1: and I want to do it again. I already did it.
Speaker 1: And then inevitably you go, oh yeah, there was that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I can you know it. It's it's I've
Speaker 1: never had to do that and had it be like worse,
Speaker 1: believe it or not. And it's a little scary when
Speaker 1: you think about it, because then you think to yourself, well, really,
Speaker 1: what I should do is go back and reshoot the
Speaker 1: entire movie, you know, and you just could, yeah, just
Speaker 1: do one, finish that one and then just I mean,
Speaker 1: there are people that do that. Who does reshoots like that?
Speaker 1: I think maybe I don't know. I'm sure they've heard
Speaker 1: about direct Woody Allen or so something like that does
Speaker 1: a lot.
Speaker 2: Of times, does things I forget it was somebody was
Speaker 2: saying to me, And I wish I could have ever
Speaker 2: a really well known director who used to shoot the
Speaker 2: beginning of a movie and then reshoot the first three
Speaker 2: days because you're trying to find your footing in those
Speaker 2: first couple of days. And yeah, you always felt like
Speaker 2: it was better the second time, rut. Yeah, but crippling
Speaker 2: insecurity or whatever it may be. I think I'm never
Speaker 2: going to complain about another shot and getting to take
Speaker 2: another swing at something. Yeah, and I agree, I feel
Speaker 2: like it's rarely ever been worse the second time.
Speaker 1: I often like to say that I discover, I discover
Speaker 1: the essence of my big scene in a film in
Speaker 1: the van on the way home. That's where Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that was it.
Speaker 3: That was it.
Speaker 1: By the way, you said you can't sing, and that's
Speaker 1: not true, because I just saw you sing about a
Speaker 1: two weeks ago or so. I saw you in a
Speaker 1: read like when yeah, I know, uh, Kira, my wife
Speaker 1: was in a reading that I saw of a new
Speaker 1: play with Rachel. And I bring this up because I'm
Speaker 1: so often and it's and I was, and I was
Speaker 1: really especially knocked out that day by you and her
Speaker 1: and everybody else in this cast. It's not it wasn't
Speaker 1: really a musical per se, but it was a play,
Speaker 1: very heavy play where people the family has a tradition
Speaker 1: of kind of performing folk songs together. So here's this
Speaker 1: group of actors that are brought together having never done
Speaker 1: this play as far as I know, and there is
Speaker 1: one rehearsal and everybody sits there lined up with the
Speaker 1: script in their laps, and you know, tries to deliver
Speaker 1: a theatrical experience. By the way I might mention that
Speaker 1: the rehearsal is that day, I don't even know if
Speaker 1: you could call it a rehearsal. And there was a
Speaker 1: musical director who had a piano there, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm watching this thing. The performances are magnetic,
Speaker 1: just timing amazing and harmony and people just singing their
Speaker 1: asses off. I you know it just actors sometimes just
Speaker 1: below my mind when when they when they have the
Speaker 1: ability to do that, and we talk about doing theater right,
Speaker 1: and you you do theater and you rehearse for four
Speaker 1: weeks or whatever it ends up being, uh, and then
Speaker 1: you have like two months of previews and you know,
Speaker 1: you still don't really feel that you're getting to it yet,
Speaker 1: and then you see something like this where people just
Speaker 1: come in and just do it. It's it's just it
Speaker 1: just blows my mind and you were magnificent.
Speaker 2: Thank you. But they say, I mean, they say you
Speaker 2: spend the entire rehearsal process trying to get back to
Speaker 2: that first reading, because in someways, right, the best part
Speaker 2: of something like that is that there are no stakes,
Speaker 2: There was no time to rehearse. There were some really
Speaker 2: beautiful singers who are just stunn including Cure by the way,
Speaker 2: she was amazing in this, who can pick up harmonies
Speaker 2: at the drop of the hat. And then there's folks
Speaker 2: like me who can you know, we're actors who can
Speaker 2: carry a tune, who need a little bit of this
Speaker 2: distance and probably a lot more time to get there.
Speaker 2: But you have nothing to lose. You know, there's no
Speaker 2: big audience, there's no reviews coming out. You just get
Speaker 2: to come into a room in front of a group
Speaker 2: of people who just love art and are there to
Speaker 2: hear something out loud and see if there's anything there,
Speaker 2: and you just get to throw down and then leave
Speaker 2: and walk to the subway and go get a shake
Speaker 2: shack or something and go on with the rest of
Speaker 2: your afternoon. And it's those experiences that make theaters so special.
Speaker 2: But you do you spend the next four weeks trying
Speaker 2: to get the magic back of was that one afternoon
Speaker 2: when nobody had anything to lose and we all just
Speaker 2: chucked it into the universe together.
Speaker 1: It was great. It's great. I just I don't know,
Speaker 1: I love love seeing that. And while I you know,
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled that there's great, you know, plays like Sign
Speaker 1: Sydney Bristine's Window to get a revival, I'm also really
Speaker 1: a big supporter of new theater and new voices and
Speaker 1: new playwrights and anyway, I hope something happens happens with that.
Speaker 4: If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
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Speaker 1: So, Rachel, you're here today highlight Covenant House, which is
Speaker 1: a nonprofit right that supports youth facing homelessness and survivors
Speaker 1: of sex trafficking. I want to bring on Bill Beadrosian now,
Speaker 1: who is the president and CEO of Covenant House International. Hey, Bill,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Hi Bill, So good to see you.
Speaker 1: What we do here is, obviously we shoot the breeze
Speaker 1: and about stuff, you know, acting, music, art, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: sports and uh. And then we highlight causes that are
Speaker 1: important to whoever our celebrity guest happens to be. And
Speaker 1: in this case, Rachel is on the board of the
Speaker 1: Covenant House correct and Bill uh runs it. So how
Speaker 1: did how did you get involved? Rachel? And and and Bill?
Speaker 1: How long have you been working there? Tell me tell
Speaker 1: me how this all came together.
Speaker 2: So I got involved actually through the theater community. About
Speaker 2: a little bit over ten years ago, I was making
Speaker 2: my Broadway debut in a show called The Big Knife.
Speaker 2: And at the time to Peythia Jenkins and Stephanie J. Block,
Speaker 2: who were two fantastic theater actors, had been involved with
Speaker 2: Covenant House, who they lovingly referred to as our Broadway neighbors,
Speaker 2: because the Covenant House is on forty first and tent
Speaker 2: at least that original one was right on the corner.
Speaker 2: And we did an event called a sleepout where a
Speaker 2: group of Broadway Community members spent a night in the
Speaker 2: courtyard in front of the Covenant House, sleeping in solidarity
Speaker 2: with the young people overcoming homelessness who call Covenant House home.
Speaker 2: And that night, to put it lightly, profoundly changed my life.
Speaker 2: I was sitting across the table at twenty three years
Speaker 2: old from a young man who was also twenty three
Speaker 2: and was talking to me about his experience and how
Speaker 2: he'd arrived at Covenant House in New York, and I
Speaker 2: was just struck that through a very small shift in circumstances,
Speaker 2: we could be so on other the opposite sides of
Speaker 2: the table. And at the end of that night, Kevin Ryan,
Speaker 2: who was then the president of Covenant House, asked us
Speaker 2: to make a commitment to coming back, to staying involved,
Speaker 2: to doing something to better the lives or be a
Speaker 2: part of the lives of young people overcoming homelessness. And
Speaker 2: so that began what's now an eleven year long relationship
Speaker 2: with Covenant House, and I joined the board after being
Speaker 2: invited by Kevin about five years ago. Sorry, pandemic time,
Speaker 2: it's all.
Speaker 1: Kind of a flat yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then Bill stepped in, and I've been so thrilled
Speaker 2: to be a part of this board under Bill's leadership.
Speaker 1: And so, Bill, how did you get involved?
Speaker 3: So I've been involved with Covenant House for about ten years.
Speaker 3: Covenant House is actually in thirty four cities across five countries,
Speaker 3: and so I was actually leading the effort out in
Speaker 3: California for many years before becoming the President CEO of
Speaker 3: Comany House International, and really kind of got into this
Speaker 3: work as a result of my family and my parents'
Speaker 3: commitment to working with young people my entire life, and
Speaker 3: so that's how I kind of found out through the
Speaker 3: foster care system what was going on with many of
Speaker 3: the young people and learned about how many young people
Speaker 3: were becoming almost out of foster care and just want
Speaker 3: to be part of the solution and kind of launched
Speaker 3: been now a thirty plus year career and working with
Speaker 3: foster youth and former foster youth.
Speaker 1: And young people who are vulnerable tell us because I
Speaker 1: think people would find this interesting your personal connection to
Speaker 1: the foster system and your parents that you mentioned your parents, youn.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so I actually have connections to both the
Speaker 3: communities you guys grow up And I was born and
Speaker 3: raised in Philadelphia, and my parents said, Yeah, my parents
Speaker 3: had me as teenagers, and so really kind of changed
Speaker 3: the trajectory of their lives and kind of how they
Speaker 3: viewed the world and how people perceive that. And so
Speaker 3: from a very young age they started thinking about helping
Speaker 3: other people who may have not experienced acceptance when they
Speaker 3: had life experiences that were different from others. And so
Speaker 3: even as a little kid, my mom and dad brought
Speaker 3: in other pregnant teen girls into our home, and so
Speaker 3: I got to kind of see just like what caring
Speaker 3: about community was and that there were people out there
Speaker 3: that maybe weren't it, even as fortunate as us, as
Speaker 3: poor as we were in Philadelphia. And then when we
Speaker 3: moved to the suburbs of Chicago when I was a teenager,
Speaker 3: my parents started fostering, and over a twenty year period,
Speaker 3: they ended up adopting eight of the many foster kids
Speaker 3: we had in the home, and so there ended up
Speaker 3: twelve of us total. Wow, with a range of about
Speaker 3: thirty years in between.
Speaker 1: Wow, your parents, that's amazing. Yeah, wait, so there were
Speaker 1: how many of you?
Speaker 3: Don't say that, you know, so there's twelve. Well no,
Speaker 3: most of them could probably are young enough to be
Speaker 3: my kids at some point, because I was a teenager
Speaker 3: when they started, uh fostering in the Chicago area.
Speaker 1: But yeah, all all my.
Speaker 3: Siblings were a pretty close knit group. And so we've
Speaker 3: dispersed around the country, most of us looking for warmth
Speaker 3: after spending a few winters in Chicago, and but we
Speaker 3: get together all the time. We go to games, big
Speaker 3: Philadelphia sports fans. We travel to see Eagles games and
Speaker 3: Phillies games and go words and just secondary all the
Speaker 3: kids who were born in Chicago are big, big bear
Speaker 3: stands and cum fans.
Speaker 1: That's funny. That's like a commercial that I saw recently.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, the people to the two sides of
Speaker 1: the family sitting on the couch and in the competing jerseys.
Speaker 1: Well that is boy talk about a personal talk about
Speaker 1: a personal connection. But that being said, Bill, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you you also could be growing up in that world
Speaker 1: and decide, Okay, well what do I want to do
Speaker 1: with my life? I just want to go I want
Speaker 1: to be a painter, or I want to or I
Speaker 1: want to make a whole boatload of money, or you know,
Speaker 1: I want to There's a lot of other things that
Speaker 1: that you know, you're you're a lot of a path
Speaker 1: that you could have taken. So I'm just curious what
Speaker 1: it is that I'm always curious when somebody just decides
Speaker 1: to devote their life to because it's not what I
Speaker 1: do to to the to the idea of trying to
Speaker 1: give back.
Speaker 3: Well, you're right, I actually, you know, out of college,
Speaker 3: I did want to make a boat load of money.
Speaker 3: I actually studied finance and I studied for my serious
Speaker 3: sevenths license to be a you know, a stockbrooker and
Speaker 3: work on the Chicago Board of Trade. And I sort of,
Speaker 3: you know, always felt kind of called to working with
Speaker 3: young people and loved being around young people. And I
Speaker 3: had kind of a come to Jesus quote unquote moment
Speaker 3: working on the Chicago Board of Trade for a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks and I had a helmeless guy actually asked
Speaker 3: me for some money, and I was on my giant
Speaker 3: Soul cell phone, you know those old cell phones we
Speaker 3: had in the mid nineties that were like as big
Speaker 3: as a forearm, trying to act cool. I probably was
Speaker 3: talking to my mob, I don't know, or something. Boy,
Speaker 3: no one else would talk to me. And the guy
Speaker 3: asked me for money, and I said, I just kind
Speaker 3: of ignored him, and he he goes, hey, asshole, I
Speaker 3: just asked he for some money. You got five thousand
Speaker 3: dollars suit on. You can't even give me a little money.
Speaker 3: First of all, my suit was probably from like TJ
Speaker 3: Max or something. It definitely was not a five thousand
Speaker 3: dollars suit. But I was like, I was stunned and
Speaker 3: like really jarred, and I turned around and looked at him,
Speaker 3: and I just stopped and just realized kind of like, man,
Speaker 3: this is a guy who needs something. Hundreds of people
Speaker 3: are just walking past and completely ignoring him, and like
Speaker 3: how sad that was, And just it really moved me
Speaker 3: to say, you know, one, I'm going to help this
Speaker 3: guy out, and then two like this is not what
Speaker 3: I should be doing with my life. And I actually
Speaker 3: just went back to graduate school in Chicago, got my
Speaker 3: masters in social work, and then started working in the
Speaker 3: foster care system out in Los Angeles, and largest foster
Speaker 3: care system in the world.
Speaker 1: Thought I could.
Speaker 3: Change the world then was not right, but did get
Speaker 3: a lot of experience and really started understanding how vulnerable
Speaker 3: young people coming out of foster care system were if
Speaker 3: they didn't have a support system. My expectation, my experience
Speaker 3: was there was families like mine who not only would
Speaker 3: love and care for kids, but they'd enable them to
Speaker 3: go to college or help them start businesses. And the
Speaker 3: truth was most of the kids that ended up in
Speaker 3: foster care were not landing in situations like my family,
Speaker 3: and so just really wanted to be a part of
Speaker 3: something like Covenant House that kind of creates that environment
Speaker 3: for young people that didn't have it to be able
Speaker 3: to thrive and pursue their dreams.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit to where we're at
Speaker 1: in terms of kids, teens and the biggest issues and
Speaker 1: the homeless situation for young people in this country right
Speaker 1: now and elsewhere.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think one of the most alarming
Speaker 3: statistics to me is that in the US alone in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, there will be four point two million
Speaker 3: young people who will have at least one night where
Speaker 3: they don't have a safe place to sleep. That means
Speaker 3: somebody we know, you know, a niece or a neighbor
Speaker 3: or a cousin is probably having something happened this year
Speaker 3: where they're not going to have a safe place to sleep.
Speaker 3: And it's really alarming to me. In a country that
Speaker 3: you know, purports ourselves to be so wealthy and have
Speaker 3: everything together, we've got some major problems if our young
Speaker 3: people don't have safe places to sleep. And when you
Speaker 3: look at who these young people are, Rachel's right, it
Speaker 3: could be any one of us that could be in
Speaker 3: this scenario. A lot of young people coming out of
Speaker 3: foster care juvenile justice systems that you know, we took
Speaker 3: into systems under the pretense of having to protect them
Speaker 3: or keep them safe, and then they turn eighteen and
Speaker 3: we're saying good luck. Meanwhile, most of us with our
Speaker 3: own kids are staying in our homes till they're twenty
Speaker 3: six or thirty years old, and we're trying to figure out, like,
Speaker 3: what do we do here? So it's just unrealistic expectations
Speaker 3: for what young people are going to be able to
Speaker 3: do after, you know, years of being in system care.
Speaker 3: The other thing that's so startling to me is that
Speaker 3: you know, forty percent of young people nationally the experience
Speaker 3: homelessness identify as LGBTQ. So you've got kids who are
Speaker 3: becoming homeless as the result of their identity and being
Speaker 3: rejected by their families or their communities because of their identity.
Speaker 3: And as a parent, that one's really hard for me
Speaker 3: to reconcile as well. I just can't imagine anything my
Speaker 3: kid would do or be or say that would you know,
Speaker 3: have me push them out of my house? And so
Speaker 3: I think we've got some real education and some real
Speaker 3: peer accountability that we need to start creating in our
Speaker 3: communities to say, hey, these are our kids and we
Speaker 3: got to take care of them.
Speaker 1: That is a really fascinating overlap between intolerance and struggle
Speaker 1: and homelessness. And I that I'm really shocked to hear
Speaker 1: that that's not a statistic I was aware of either
Speaker 1: one of those. That is really really, really fascinating. Can
Speaker 1: you tell me, sort of like on a day to
Speaker 1: day basis, what what the work of Covened House is doing?
Speaker 1: So just kind of explain if you were a kid
Speaker 1: or you know, what, what what how would it function?
Speaker 1: I mean, either one of you, I'm sure you've had experience,
Speaker 1: you know, being on the board, Rachel. So I'm just
Speaker 1: curious about, Uh, you know what is what's what's the day,
Speaker 1: what's the what's the day's work at Covenant House?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I I'll tell you the last ten
Speaker 3: years be that Covenant House has been one of the
Speaker 3: It has been the greatest joy in my life from
Speaker 3: having to be around these young people and hear their
Speaker 3: stories and just see how resilient they.
Speaker 1: Are and how hopeful they are.
Speaker 3: And what we're trying to do in these thirty five
Speaker 3: cities across the America is is just creating an experience
Speaker 3: for them where they get to feel unconditional love, acceptance,
Speaker 3: and then just people who pursue them in a way
Speaker 3: that they may not feel worthy of. And so I
Speaker 3: say that because where we start in most cities is
Speaker 3: doing street outreache, actually looking for young people, and even
Speaker 3: if we don't have beds for them, because we're full.
Speaker 3: In every city that we work in, we want to
Speaker 3: demonstrate to young people that they're worthy of being pursued,
Speaker 3: that there's people out there that care about them, and
Speaker 3: that we want to create connection for them so that
Speaker 3: they can have their basic needs and that and most importantly,
Speaker 3: we're trying to show them that they're loved and that
Speaker 3: they're worthy of love, and so once they come into
Speaker 3: our programs, we're really creating an environment that has kind
Speaker 3: of a full continue of support everything from short term
Speaker 3: housing to long term house housing, but the medical attention,
Speaker 3: mental health support, educational and employment support, and just engaging
Speaker 3: them also in the ways the things that bring them joy.
Speaker 3: And so like Rachel and her team, they've done kind
Speaker 3: of actor workshops with our young.
Speaker 1: People are cool come in that.
Speaker 3: Do game nights or playing basketball. I mean, one of
Speaker 3: the most beautiful thing I think about our Covenant House
Speaker 3: communities is that we ask people to volunteer and engage
Speaker 3: in a way that they're doing things they love to do,
Speaker 3: so that when they're doing it with our young people,
Speaker 3: they get to experience that joy and doing something new
Speaker 3: that they may have never ever experienced, that opens their
Speaker 3: eyes to you know, develop relationships with people and have
Speaker 3: a good time.
Speaker 2: Because this is one of the things I think we
Speaker 2: don't talk about a lot, especially as it relates to
Speaker 2: young people experiencing and overcoming homelessness, is that it looks
Speaker 2: like so much more than what we can imagine. You know,
Speaker 2: Bill was talking about these staggering numbers of young people
Speaker 2: who are going to experience some form of homelessness that
Speaker 2: could mean that they have housing instabilities for one night,
Speaker 2: or experience kind of bouncing around between family members but
Speaker 2: not exactly knowing where they're going to sleep at night
Speaker 2: for a month, you know. And at the same time,
Speaker 2: a lot of young people at Covenant House, and a
Speaker 2: lot of young people who arrive at Covenant House are
Speaker 2: trying to balance their lives in school and sometimes work responsibilities,
Speaker 2: and so young people who are arriving at Covenant House.
Speaker 2: And one of the things I've been so grateful for
Speaker 2: during my time there has been to learn about so
Speaker 2: many of these different stories, and they vary so far.
Speaker 2: These are our future lawyers and doctors and artists and teachers,
Speaker 2: and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters and friends
Speaker 2: of other people. And so one of the things that
Speaker 2: I feel like Covenant House does so successfully is, as
Speaker 2: Bill mentioned, you know, there's this continuum of care. There's
Speaker 2: so many different avenues for support, and so many different
Speaker 2: potential avenues for the direction that young people can head
Speaker 2: in with additional support after their time at Covenant House.
Speaker 2: You know, as Bill said, you know, I had been
Speaker 2: a part of some arts workshops with the young people there.
Speaker 2: But I've got friends who have come in and helped
Speaker 2: with job readiness, so preparing young people to do job
Speaker 2: interviews to find employment. Bill, I know that for a while,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if this is still a program that
Speaker 2: we've been doing, but the partnership with the US open
Speaker 2: or we were training young people to be security guards,
Speaker 2: for example, there was an avenue towards nursing programs towards
Speaker 2: obtaining a ged if that's necessary. Legal support. You know
Speaker 2: something that I didn't know before working with Covenant House
Speaker 2: is that a lot of young people, as you can imagine,
Speaker 2: especially if you're spending time on the street, may have
Speaker 2: run into legal trouble, even for things as small as
Speaker 2: jumping a turnstile, or may not have access to proper identification,
Speaker 2: to birth certificates or driver's licenses. And this is all
Speaker 2: support that Covenant House can offer. I feel like it
Speaker 2: is about meeting young people exactly where they're at and
Speaker 2: then asking them and acknowledging whatever their dreams are and
Speaker 2: figuring out how we can be a part of getting
Speaker 2: them between where they are and where they want to be.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's so fascinating and so helpful and built.
Speaker 2: I have.
Speaker 1: There is a two prong question. Number one is what
Speaker 1: would you say is the most pressing need right now
Speaker 1: for COVET in house and how can people get involved
Speaker 1: and help out?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think there's a couple things. I
Speaker 3: mean one is just like you've been surprised by some
Speaker 3: of the things you're here today, right, And I think
Speaker 3: that's part One of our biggest issues is people just
Speaker 3: don't know. People don't know how many young people in
Speaker 3: our country are at risk. You talk about four point
Speaker 3: two million that aren't going to have a safe place
Speaker 3: to sleep at least one night this year. We've really
Speaker 3: got to get the word out and people understand that, hey,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of young people are at risk here.
Speaker 3: And the truth is that if you experience homelessness as
Speaker 3: an adolescent, you're so much more likely to be one
Speaker 3: of those people who then end up being chronically homeless
Speaker 3: as an adult. And this is so preventable. There's just
Speaker 3: no reason that this should happen. We should be able
Speaker 3: to ensure that our young people have a safety net.
Speaker 3: So raising the awareness, we've got to change some laws
Speaker 3: to ensure that kids coming out of foster care and
Speaker 3: juvenile justice.
Speaker 1: And we're growing up in welfare.
Speaker 3: Don't have to fall through the cracks and end up
Speaker 3: in these really vulnerable situations. And then one of the
Speaker 3: other biggest drivers of homelessness that's starting to happen is
Speaker 3: just the lack of affordable housing, not just for young
Speaker 3: people but anybody. But in no major city in North
Speaker 3: America right now can you make a living wage and
Speaker 3: afford a market rate apartment. So we used to tell
Speaker 3: people like, well, just get a job and then you
Speaker 3: won't be homeless. The truth is you could be working
Speaker 3: fifty sixty hours a week and still not afford to
Speaker 3: be in an apartment. So we've got some real work
Speaker 3: to do to address that housing disparity. And you know,
Speaker 3: one of the things that I think, you know, Covenant
Speaker 3: House has taught me is that none of these young
Speaker 3: people deserved to be given up on. And even in
Speaker 3: the situations where you think like, well that's a hopeless situation,
Speaker 3: there is hopefulness and they have dreams. And there's a
Speaker 3: young man named Derek I just want to share about
Speaker 3: because he just is such an inspiration. I mean, he
Speaker 3: grew up on skid row in Los Angeles, So his
Speaker 3: whole life, people would drive by and be like, you know,
Speaker 3: that kid doesn't have a chance. Had to stop going
Speaker 3: to school of third and fourth grade because his mom
Speaker 3: was homeless and struggled with addiction. And this is a
Speaker 3: guy who came to Covenant House at the age of
Speaker 3: eighteen and got back into school and started thinking about
Speaker 3: what was possible for himself as a result of people
Speaker 3: believing in him. And what was remarkable to me is
Speaker 3: despite his mother's addiction and mental health issues and the
Speaker 3: way he grew up, she loved him and she always
Speaker 3: instilled in him a kind of a sense of gratitude.
Speaker 3: And so throughout Derek's journey at Covenant House, he always
Speaker 3: had this sense of joy and I guess just kind
Speaker 3: of this resilience that always inspired me. And Derek stayed
Speaker 3: with us for a couple of years, kind of worked
Speaker 3: through our housing programs and got into his own apartment,
Speaker 3: worked a couple jobs at a time to be able
Speaker 3: to afford this apartment. It was so amazing is a
Speaker 3: lot of the young men that he would meet at
Speaker 3: Covenant House would not have it as good as him.
Speaker 3: Kind of the year after they moved out and Derek
Speaker 3: would let them come to his house and crash at
Speaker 3: his house until he got them on their feet. But
Speaker 3: his way of getting them back on the feet was
Speaker 3: reconnecting with Covenant House and saying, hey, this is your family.
Speaker 3: If you have a challenge after you leave Covenant House,
Speaker 3: you got to go back. They're going to help you.
Speaker 3: It was just so amazing. He's been such a great
Speaker 3: ambassador for us. And I saw him a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago and could not have been more happy for
Speaker 3: him because he became the property manager of our first
Speaker 3: affordable housing site in Los Angeles, where he's going to
Speaker 3: live there and kind of maintain the culture and accountability
Speaker 3: for another twenty five young people that are going to
Speaker 3: come into their own apartments that are working, and he
Speaker 3: gets to set an example for them of just living
Speaker 3: in joy and living in purpose in a way that
Speaker 3: no one ever thought was possible for him as they
Speaker 3: drove by this little kid on skid row. And so
Speaker 3: I think it just speaks to the power of being
Speaker 3: enabled to invest in a young person, even when they're
Speaker 3: an adolescent, that there is so much purpose and possibility
Speaker 3: for them that we can be a part of. And
Speaker 3: it's been a joy for me to be a part
Speaker 3: of stories like Derek's and hundreds and hundreds of more
Speaker 3: that I've gotten to see over the last ten years.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I love that story. And if anybody wants
Speaker 1: to check out the work, it's Covenant House dot org.
Speaker 1: Is that correct, that's right, Covenanhouse dot or Covenant House
Speaker 1: dot org. Well, I want to thank Bill Badrosian for
Speaker 1: being here today and telling us about this amazing organization.
Speaker 1: I think that people will be really fascinated to see
Speaker 1: it here and look at all that good work that
Speaker 1: you're doing. And thank you so much for taking the time, Bill,
Speaker 1: and to the marvelous Rachel Brasnahan for being here with
Speaker 1: us today and sharing just hanging out with me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I could talk to you all day about the process,
Speaker 1: and as I said, I'm thrilled with you as a
Speaker 1: performer and I can't wait to see what you what
Speaker 1: you do next.
Speaker 2: Well, this is really cool. Thank you for taking the time,
Speaker 2: and you've also just been such a kind champion of
Speaker 2: mine for such a long time, even from Afar, So
Speaker 2: thank you and thank you for taking the time to
Speaker 2: highlight Covenant House and the important work that they do,
Speaker 2: and I also just want to very quickly at as
Speaker 2: far as ways that people who might be listening could
Speaker 2: get involved.
Speaker 1: She's a good board member, she's a good board member.
Speaker 3: Of great great board member.
Speaker 2: You said, you know, you mentioned you can go to
Speaker 2: Covenant House dot org to learn more about the organization.
Speaker 2: Follow Covenant House International or your local Covenant House. As
Speaker 2: Bill mentioned, Covenant House operates in thirty is it thirty
Speaker 2: five cities now built? Thirty four to thirty five cities
Speaker 2: across Yeah, across the US, Canada, Latin America. So you
Speaker 2: can follow your local Covenant House, your closest Covenant House
Speaker 2: and see how you might be able to get involved
Speaker 2: on a local level on Instagram, on Twitter, and there's
Speaker 2: also there are sleepout events that happen either one that
Speaker 2: you can create during what is this event called now,
Speaker 2: Bill the sleepout that happens all over the country.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a national sleepout.
Speaker 2: National sleepout. It's changed titles a couple times over the years.
Speaker 2: But you can start a sleepout event where you can
Speaker 2: sleep out with friends or family or colleague or community
Speaker 2: members to support young people overcoming homelessness. You can raise
Speaker 2: money and awareness through your own sleepout. You can join
Speaker 2: a sleepout if you happen to live near one that's happening.
Speaker 2: There are so many different ways to get involved, so
Speaker 2: keep track of these various Covenant Houses through these different channels,
Speaker 2: because we would love, we would love to have you
Speaker 2: join us.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for that, and thank you guys,
Speaker 1: and thank you everybody for listening, and we'll see you
Speaker 1: next time. Hey, everybody, thanks for listening to another episode
Speaker 1: of Six Degrees with Kevin Bacan. And if you want
Speaker 1: to learn more about Covenant House and all the amazing
Speaker 1: war that they are up to over there, just go
Speaker 1: to their website, which is Covenanthouse dot org. You can
Speaker 1: find all the links in our show notes, and hey,
Speaker 1: if you like what you hear, make sure you subscribe
Speaker 1: to the show and tune in through the rest of
Speaker 1: our episodes. You can find Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: I'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: M