Hello and welcome to the rugged rockhound. It has been a while It's been winter as you can see by the snow around I don't know how well you can see the mountains off in the distance, but there's definitely snow over there But down here in the valley There's relatively little snow and it's cold. It's about 35 degrees out here So I managed to find a small break in my schooling when I was it that I was able to come out and the state actually warmed up enough For this to be possible So I'm taking advantage and coming out this one time. I probably won't be able to get out rockhounding again until April But we'll see. Anyway, we're out here on a road called agate road and if you head back that way along the road, it'll take you to the abandoned town of Cisco and if you go that way about 40 miles you'll be hitting Colorado and we're just down from interstate I 40 and The road's probably called agate for a good reason, right? So we're gonna check out this wash right here This looks a lot like yellow cat the area we did the the cliffs up there So there's probably agate coming out of those but more importantly I'm hoping if we can get down below this unit We might be able to get into the petrified wood layer and hopefully maybe find some petrified wood if we go down All right, this is looking like the stuff we saw at yellow cat look at that It's got the red right in the middle and we also found the stuff that kind of looks like wood But I think it's the a bearite That's been replaced Because because see how the fibrous nature goes like that. So that's not what that's the the bearite that's being replaced You sure you don't want that one right there Isn't that the right size for your vehicle too? Yeah And this kind of a orange brown purple Jasper finally we're seeing a lot of Jasper a little bit of agate here Oh, that's that's pretty early on in there Usually we're getting these little teeny seams of red And once again finding where that Place bear right here.  Oh good Yeah, it's kind of a bubbly a little bit of Custodon either Definitely get a lot of Jasper along this Jasper tends to be kind of the brown tan Sometimes red colors Get them all over the place though Now that looks more like petrified wood That might be petrified wood Tim I think I found our first piece of petrified wood Because it's got the squiggly and it looks so different from the other stuff Yep found our first piece found a big piece of the Bear replaced Yeah, it's definitely not very because it's not heavy enough so it's been replaced You can see the ends of some of the crystals there not well formed, but It's a pretty big piece. It's pretty cool. That's pretty nice looking right there. It's all fractured though Color of it kind of reminds me of Sunstone decent color though. Oh Yeah Sometimes wishes comes true sometimes they don't have a little bit of color It's got some red in it Well quite a bit and right in the middle. We've got a little bit of yellowish to purple All right Or a replace beret It's a nice looking stream. Oh, huh? Yeah, that's pretty. I'll keep that. Oh did Tim find his first piece? Let's take a look It's got all the stuff going through it. I really think that's bad you wonder Well, there's no other stuff that's on it like it It does look like it. It could just be layered agate In that shape. Uh, that's a possibility. Yep. I'd say that's a potential That's some potential wood right there Here's some more replaced beret, but it's much better color. It's I got some red in it Getting better. So we're falling the stream. We're up on top now. So Arch is National Park is way in the background there's the Mante Los Sal mountains and I Was trying to get into that river Gorge where it drops in I don't realize how far we were. So we're gonna get back on the road Fall the road down And then try to drop down in from there So we went ahead and came further down the road So we were way back over there just kind of exploring and now we're up here We're above the big wash that we want to get down into to look for wood and now we're seeing a lot more agate Take a look Getting some nice reds in here Looking much better Much better It's now it's everywhere This looks like that one area when we went in the agate and it was just the agate was everywhere Yeah, it's seriously like that other place. We went to where it was just agate everywhere Oh, yeah, it's got similar color to it with the black and then inside you got red and then the black colors But it's just everywhere It's a big chunks of it ugly color, but Big chunks that some of it looks like gypsum big pieces Now you can find one that's just exceptionally beautiful. This was better It's getting there getting some better color now and patterns that one Was pretty red and yellow with the red banding through it. It's really nice or that's There it is. Just like wouldn't we found over in yellow cat. Look at that. Oh, I like that It might be nice. It's got some red Showing through a little bit places So we entered the wash now. So we're parked up on the hill there and we just walked down here So there's agate all over the top And there's another would like a layer of agate down lower and now we're into the Navajo sandstone so the petrified forest member is below it and I don't think it's gonna cut down deep enough here to get to the wood That decent color.  Do you see any agate? Oh, we've got some quartz crystals growing on it That's nice. It's beautiful. Yeah, lots of red Usually some other things That's good See, that's nice The red coming through Okay, so we came down off of where we were looking for agate way up that way and now we're down by the historic Cisco pumpkin Pumping. I can't talk today pumping station along the Colorado River. So now we're down at the Colorado River and we're just gonna kind of hike around and look at stuff and Just have a good time Welcome to the Colorado River in January Your Cisco All right, we are back from the trip. It's actually been about a week or so since I've been back It's winter here. So we have to deal with winter weather And right now it's kind of dry and not too cold So I figured now would be a good time to go ahead and take a look at the stuff we found And we didn't find a whole lot on this trip, but we did find some nice stuff and it was a fun exploration Let's go ahead and take a closer look at these nicer pieces. All right I already I went ahead and put the macro lens on so it should be in focus when I put it right about here and Previously when I've used the macro lens when I move it around it jars it too much So I'm put it on a tripod and this should make a little easier to see stuff Take my glove off so I can Look at these. So this one I found is a nice little bit of botryoodle calcedoni and Really nice I wish there were bigger pieces like that nice This was a nice piece of that Eh jasper slash agate That I found a lot of the pieces were not of this quality And so we didn't keep a whole lot of them But this one was actually quite nice This is a piece of wood.  It kind of has the texture So I think it is one It's probably more likely a piece of wood than the other one, but Overall color is just not that great, but still it's a piece of petrified wood This was a larger piece of the bearite that's been replaced by agate So you kind of got some crystal terminations going on there. They just didn't turn out the best But yeah, there's so much bearite replaced by agate in that area And this one was my favorite find This is a large cobblestone that would have come out of A conglomerate layer out there And it's just a nice jasper Got all kinds of nice colors and patterns going through it Yeah, I liked this one a lot This was my find of the trip And tim's find of the trip was that piece of petrified wood And there you have it. That's what we found not a whole lot on this trip It was an exploration trip To an area that we just kind of Wanted to give it a try. It wasn't in any book. We just wanted to explore And as is the case with many explorations you sometimes don't find a lot But we still found some nice stuff. It's kind of a neat area and it was just fun to get out again Unfortunately, I've got a lot of school coming up now I'm going to be really really busy for the next 12 weeks. So it's going to be very difficult for me to get another video out Before may but If I do get the opportunity, I'll go ahead and get another video out Otherwise, I hope to see you in may and hope to get back to Making more of these videos hopefully once a week And remember there's treasure everywhere


and for business innovation for the slot like Tribune. Take it away. And I should say the folks who have created the unprecedented first step, the first for-profit news organization in America that has successfully convinced the IRS to convert it to nonprofit status. Congratulations. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. So as Julie mentioned, I am the publisher and owner of the Salt Lake Tribune. I hope next week to be the chairman of the board as we legally make the transition to a nonprofit. We put our application in this last winter. I expected a ruling with a lot of questions in February is what I was told. And we received a letter from the IRS last November accepting our application as is. So we spent the last three months working through the transition. And we're just right on the cusp now of legally now moving all of the assets into a nonprofit entity. But I'm so grateful to be able to share a little bit about our story with you today. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, of civic-minded individuals, as well as philanthropists. And as Julie mentioned, my day job, which I thought I'd be spending the vast majority of my time, is in investments, not too dissimilar to what you would find in private equity. And when the opportunity came up to acquire the Salt Lake Tribune, which four years ago was in financial turmoil due to some short-term decisions that the hedge fund owner had done to the paper, I realized that as I looked at our community going forward, that our community simply would not be able to function as it has been. And as we look at all the challenges and opportunities going forward to not have the paper of record for the last 150 years in the state of Utah. And so as we've gone down this journey, I do not have a background in journalism. I never expected to be a publisher five years ago. I went around the country, and I visited with a lot of the leaders, many of you here in the room, Alberto being one, the Lenfest Institute, and so many others. And I realized that the pathway that we needed to go down to, and again, it was all about long-term sustainability. The business model for local newspapers is completely broken, as the industry has been shifting from a print product to a digital product. And I think every newspaper and community needs to figure out what that right pathway is. And for us, like a lot of problems that was mentioned and challenges that was mentioned earlier this morning, problems are solved on the local level. We had to bring the stewardship back to the local community and have some leadership and to be able to solve this moving forward. This is something that we would not be able to do without the strong support of not only of our community leaders, but our citizens at large. And so we're very early on in this experiment. And so far, the community has been very, very supportive. We're very encouraged by what we're hearing. And really, really grateful for the position that we're in right now and very confident that we're going to be able to sustain this longer term. Well, I want to, again, thank everyone for being here. I also want to just give a shout out to my sisters in arms who've really been with us from the very beginning. Jennifer Preston at night, Terry Quinn from the Texas Tribune, and Annie Madonia from Lenfest. These women, and there are so many in the room, have taken steps forward. We may be the first print and legacy metropolitan daily to become a nonprofit. But there are many models out there that we're able to not put too fine a point on, to steal from, very generously. So I'm, like Paul, I don't come from the journalistic background. I've spent my life in nonprofits and public service and some work with foundations. And in some ways, I kind of see myself as the test case for a person that would pay more for the news that is so important to all the work that I've done in my life. And when Paul approached me and said, I have this idea to turn the paper into a nonprofit, it really just felt like a natural. And I had absolute confidence that the IRS would support our idea because newspapers are, as Alberto said, just clearly for the public good. The only difference with our model is that now that public good is shared between our institution and the community that we serve. The leadership of the paper, the way we interact with the community, our accountability to them has deepened by our becoming a not-for-profit. And our vision, and it's one I hope that we'll be able to share our success with you over the long term, is to really help create a new and sustainable model for institutions like ours that are the paper of record in their communities that are vital to the civil and civic. And I want to emphasize civil and civic discourse that we need in our state to become the state we want to be in the democracy we believe we are in the United States. Our model is really adaptable. When we approached the IRS, we said, everything we're doing now, we want to continue to be able to do. Sell advertising for as much and as long as we can. Sell subscriptions which aren't necessarily deductible because they are good in a service, but continue to receive the revenue from the community that values what we provide to allow philanthropists, national, for those of you in the room, national philanthropists as well as local philanthropists to support this model and to support the tool that journalism brings to our democracy. We're also doing more community engagement work and we'll look for ways to deepen our discourse with the community. The only thing we don't do now is endorse candidates, which from my point of view is really helpful because Paul's brother is running for governor. So if things weren't complicated enough, being able to give that up. But we certainly will continue to have a very strong opinion page. One of the nice things too that a nonprofit model allows us is to provide and amplify the diversity of voices that can be on that opinion page. So we're reaching deeper into the community to find a place for again, that civil civic dialogue. We're also creating a longer term solution called the Utah Journalism Foundation. This is an endowment. Our immediate goal is to raise about $60 million, 20 by the end of next year. And the earnings from that endowment will go to support not only the Salt Lake Tribune, but also emerging voices in our community. We're concerned about the rural communities in our states that are losing their local journalism. We're concerned about emerging voices like our really large and vibrant refugee community in Utah, our tribal nations, our large Latinx community. We wanna make sure that as people lose their local journalism, we're there to help support it. And I think that becoming a nonprofit opens up all kinds of really exciting, exciting opportunities for collaboration, for deepening our engagement with our members, for community ownership, community accountability, and incredible community journalism. We look forward to sharing our progress with each of you and thank you for all the cheering that you've been doing for us. It means a tremendous amount to us. So the way this is gonna go is I'm gonna ask a few questions and then we're gonna open it up in about 15 minutes. But I wanna start with you, Diane. You and Russ Muson have been real pioneers in forging the notion of philanthropic support for journalism as core part of your mission. How did you convince your other philanthropic partners to do it? How did you build the base of support in your local community so that this is business as usual and not just a one-off? It's become very complicated. In the old days, you could put an ad in the Anchorage Daily News and on the Channel 2 News and you'd reach the entire state pretty much. There is no way to really get information out very efficiently anymore. So it really requires if you're involved in issues like we are and homelessness is a very complicated issue and it's not easily understood and it's easily misunderstood. So this time around it actually was easy. I think we're gonna have seven or eight other partners who are gonna fund it and it's been very easy to get them to do so. First of all, we all wanna have impact with our philanthropic dollars. And there's something about a newspaper that is not social media, it's not radio, it's not TV. You can place a newspaper on the seat of a state legislator so that when they get in their chair, it's sitting there and the front page is about alcohol and it had a very direct impact, the reporting on policy. So if you're serious in philanthropy and you're trying to change public norms, change public policy, you can't do it without a media strategy and I think we have all figured out it's gotta be part of the plan. Amen. Thank you. And David, just as a follow up, last night, Mindy Mark has said something that really struck me which was that given the constraint resources she was dealing with, she had to create some priorities in what her reporters were focusing on and those priorities were accountability and investigative journalism. And this is a tension in the newsroom because part of your job is covering the school board hearings and covering the zoning hearings and reporting on who's running for what office and just if you could give a few minutes on how you balance those tensions or how you deal with those tensions in a constrained resource environment. As everything has shrunk, it's just gotten harder and there needs to be more horsepower for local reporting all the way around. Investigative reporting, accountability reporting, it's hard, it's time intensive, it's expensive. But we've also, we've found I think like pretty much every newsroom has found public, the community really values that kind of reporting. So we are trying everything we can to get support for that kind of reporting but that's not the only job we have, it's not the only thing that our community expects from us and that really is the rub. I mean it's covering institutions that are important day to day and for us it's just covering important breaking news is important for us online. That's a big part of our audience and so it's just trying to make smart choices every day and hopefully building more resources as we go along. Paul and Frazier, so getting the IRS to give you I guess preliminary approval because it's a five year test process means that you've got to prove two things that you have a governance that's an independent board of directors representative of the community you serve and it means that you have to build a broad and diverse base of support. How are you planning on doing both of those? Well if I can just highlight the second part of the question of building out a board. We're gonna be holding our first board meeting this Friday which I'm really excited about and as you talk about a diverse board for a newspaper just take a look who our core reader base is. It's white, it's highly educated, it's center left and you can almost draw a fairly narrow circle in terms of the geographic region in Salt Lake City of where most of our readers are from. So as you look at a broader diverse audience to me my priority in building out a board was to go young and when I mean young I mean very young as in the 20s more of a technological oriented group of individuals as well as begin to reach out to our diverse populations who I believe that the paper in the past few decades has not done a very good job in reaching out to and then we also have to maintain a presence of our existing readers which is the group that I just described. So as I'm collecting this group we've got individuals that are in their late 70s and we have individuals in their mid 20s with a wide variety of ideological backgrounds of coming at it with a variety of different understands of technological tools but all with a passion of journalism and wanting to solve this and wanting to broaden the reach of our audience in terms of how is journalism gonna look and what is our focus gonna be as we enter into 2021. So I'm really looking forward to this very, very diverse group of individuals and the challenges that I have given them to really look at broadening the appeal of our journalism to reach a much broader and a much younger audience that needs to be much more engaged in journalism. Great, and part two. Yeah, in terms of diversifying the funding source and to make sure that we don't have just one or two major funders. I mean that's the big public asset test. We launched a drip campaign and drip funder as a campaign right after we became a not-for-profit to explain to our readers, newsletter readers as well as paying subscribers what we were up to and what we asked them to do. And I'm really pleased that to date we've had almost 2000 people come forward with a donation not even tied to access to the paper but just saying go team and those grants have those gifts have ranged from a dollar to $10,000 and this was just in a very light touch. We're also establishing a major gift program and of course we're getting the support of our key local foundations. I think that the diversity of the size of gifts says something. I think we also surveyed our readers and asked them what, and people who weren't readers and asked them what life would be like without the Tribune and would they be willing to support it either by subscribing or by making a donation. And granted it was a group of people that we thought were enthusiastic but we heard that 80% said they really couldn't imagine life in Utah without the Tribune. That is astonishing to me and what we need to do is convert them now to supporters in a bigger sense but that's very, very, very, I think hopeful for our future. It's very promising. I think I probably have room for one or two last questions. I'm gonna go back to David and Diane. You have both been extraordinarily entrepreneurial and seeking out every possible local and national resource to build up and beef up your reporting at the Daily News. What is that meant for the newsroom? That must have created some sort of tensions or changes in how you actually do your job every day. There's just been so much evolution over the past few years that I think that has become just part of it, although kind of at every step, I think what we've at least tried to do is find a way to do these things that maintain our core values. It has to do with its local, it has to do with maintaining those journalistic values. It has the things evolved and I think that's what I'd say. Great. Should we open it up? Yes. Questions. We have Mike Brenner's question up here. Thank you and it's so nice to have a happy panel. Something good going on. So I guess my question is, is there a limit to this? Are there communities or newspapers where you feel that the non-profit model or the approaches that you're taking, is there sort of a minimum viable product limitation here? And if so, what is it? What are sort of the minimum requirements for a community or a paper to take this path? I have a thought about that and I know that there are many of you in the room represent community foundations. I think that the path that you all have taken to place funds to support local journalism in a non-profit like a community foundation is open to any newspaper, any media organization of any size. There's nothing that really would prohibit you from creating a contract with the local community foundation to do certain types of work. We're not saying that every organization should take the leap that we have. I think Paul's a really unique person who's willing to give up a tremendous asset and the power that comes with the voice of a newspaper to the community. I mean Paul, honestly, it's a remarkable thing for someone to do. And I don't know how many other Paul Huntsman's there are out in the country who would be willing to turn over an institution like this to the community it serves. But that doesn't mean that there's things along the way, along the continuum that couldn't be used by other communities and other papers. Hello, my name is Ira Perman. I'm with the Atwood Foundation in Anchorage, Alaska, a foundation that is built on the prior fortunes of the media. And first I'd like to applaud the four of you for being pioneers. You really are doing some remarkable work that is inspiring the field. Certainly the Rasmussen Foundation and the Daily News inspire the work that we do. I have a question for Fraser and Paul. You guys are the first ones to make this change to a not-for-profit, still as a print media. And you're looking for funding to make that work. In 1967, Congress put in effect the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides public funds for broadcast entities, 1,400 of them, I understand. Would you be interested in hearing ideas of expanding that to print media? Well, I'll just say that this is a unique comment. I don't know if all of you will understand. As it relates to Salt Lake City, Utah. So Salt Lake is home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormon Church. There was a story that just came out from the Washington Post about their balance sheet being over $100 billion. And so the question that I've received by many is, would you accept a contribution from the Mormon Church? And I often dovetail that as well. Would you accept a contribution, or would you allow the government to subsidize your work as well? And I've really thought a lot about that, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure really what the answer is on that. You know, considering and looking at how reckless some of our politicians have been as it relates to different organizations that they don't like that are funded, would I want to be tied into that or have our newspaper associated with that? I think that we can meet the funding obligations from among the community. There is so much money out there in the country that philanthropic funds that are trying to find their way to good causes. And then what I've seen that if you appeal to those individuals, those organizations, those foundations, there really is a willing appetite from members of the community that really want to support regardless of their ideology or background. They all want to see a strong and vibrant local newspaper. And so, again, I would be very hesitant to accept federal funds, but I think that the funds are there among local philanthropists. Thank you. We have a question back here. My question is for Paul. I'm Marcelle Epley, the president and CEO of the Long Beach Community Foundation. I'm here with Mark Yen, our board member, and David Summers from the Long Beach Post. And we've been exploring models in Long Beach. And one of the question marks kind of in my mind is in terms of your board. So I heard you say that you're having your first board meeting soon. Yes. Have you thought about the challenge between sort of the control of the board versus it was the publisher and the staff and the editors. And I don't know if you're relinquishing control or if it's a policy board. Like, what is the role of the board and how much do they really have access to into the day-to-day and the decisions of the newspaper? Sure, sure. So one of the first documents that we drafted was the bylaws of the newspaper. There's a very strict wall between the board and the newspaper itself. The role of the board is like, is not unlike any other nonprofit board. It's provide the resources to the newspaper to ensure that they can do their job. And so, you know, the newspaper and myself, we've had a very good working relationship. I've really looked at my role over the last three years is to ensure that the newspaper has resources to, you know, to do their job, to provide independent journalism to our community. And I really look at our board. You know, obviously we've got bylaws in place. And so, I'm not too concerned. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next year. Will there be, I think, the greater concern is when I go out and solicit seven-figure donations from members in the community and when there's stories that are about them. I expect to be getting calls from them. And so, you know, will that be a challenge? Sure. But I think that's just, you know, I just think that's the world that we're going to have to work through. And again, we're sort of transitioning into this era. But I'm not concerned with the board at all because, again, we've got very strict bylaws in terms of the board's role and responsibilities to ensure that we have resources. Dan, you wanted to add something. Sure.  We all fall into it from somewhere. I ran the Alaska Public Radio Network, which is a 26-station network, a news network, basically morning, noon, and night. And so I would say not all federal money is the same, not all government money is the same. Would we have taken direct support from the federal government for our news programming? No, we would not. Did we take money from the National Endowment for the Arts for Arts Program? Yes, we did. Did we take money from the Department of Commerce for equipment? We did. And in addition to that, with public radio underwriting, we had money from oil companies, from banks, from telephone companies, all of whom were covered by the news. And I don't believe it ever affected anything that appeared in the news. Who took the phone calls from the angry companies? I did. My friend Sheila Toomey, used to use work for you, taught me, one of your long-time great reporters, said, when they called, just say, I totally agree with you, reporters are scum. I couldn't agree with you. I am so sympathetic by what just happened. You know, you deal with it, but I think, did they cancel their underwriting? I can't remember anyone ever did. Occasionally, an advertiser will stop advertising. They almost always come back. Why? They want to be associated with us, because we're popular with the public, the public values us, and they know if their name appears at the end of the news, it's positive for them. So you just manage it. So I wouldn't say, at all, that I have a big issue with government funding. Julie, good luck. Hi, Laura, I'm from San Francisco. I had a question for Diane and David, and I just wanted to know if your coverage of alcohol and alcohol abuse has led to a change in the amount of money that has been awarded from the legislature, or made a difference in the laws or the public health initiatives that have, and has there been a different kind of support for programs for recovery or more education that is coming not from the news, but really actually in schools and public health organizations? Absolutely. So probably the biggest outcome we can show is that the age of people having their first drink is going up, and the incidence of binge drinking is going down. Can you attribute it all to the coverage? Of course not, but we definitely think it's a factor. In terms of funding, there was significant funding that came from the legislature for Recovery Alaska and its efforts. Everything about trauma-informed care. So a lot of people who have issues later on behavioral health experience trauma as children and getting that more embedded into healthcare provision. The new, we have legalized POT in the state, a significant amount of that money is going into after-school programs for kids to try and provide healthy alternatives. And I really think Recovery Alaska has been successful actually in changing the alcohol laws in the state of Alaska. So for example, there are very severe penalties for young people who drink. And I think that's one of the things that people who drank and were caught.   And it just happened because people were angry about some, it was a young person driving, killed a cop on the road, and it was an overreaction. What happened is the penalties were so severe. And it seemed counter-intuitive that law enforcement officials were reluctant to enforce the law because they didn't want to saddle a kid with an alcohol charge that was discoverable if they wanted to get into the military, go to college, get a scholarship, and so on. So it wasn't enforced. So we actually had a change to like a parking ticket. And you could get rid of the parking ticket if you attended an alcohol class. And so clearly, and the background of that was the coverage in the Anchorage Daily News. We did a similar project after that with the Fairbanks News Minor, which is now a non-profit following in your footsteps as well. So I think there is a direct relationship between awareness among policymakers and from that coverage. But just to add, that's really not something we set out to do. We really were kind of doing our own thing. There really wasn't coordination like that. We were doing a deep exploration of the problem. And I just really want to emphasize that that we were solely in control of the content. The funders didn't know what the content was before it was published. And if it had impact, that was great, but that really wasn't our objective. It was to show the problem and the community could react as it chose. So here are four portraits of civic leadership. And I want to give every one of you the last word before we end this session. But I also want to thank you all for your extraordinary leadership and energy and enthusiasm and leading the path forward. And so last words. If any news organizations or funders are considering what we're talking about, I would just... My advice would be that there has to be some level of trust going into it, but there then needs to be very clear agreement what the rules are, where the lines are that everybody understands entering into it. I'd agree. And I think the last thing David said, each of our organizations went into this relationship with different objectives, but they were complementary and I think the outcomes were good for both organizations. I'd say there are a lot of experts in this room. We've benefited from the help of the news revenue hub from our friends at Lenfest, from Facebook and Report for America. There's so many tools available to us that no matter where you find yourself in the spectrum of a for-profit to a not-for-profit, take advantage of the wonderful investments that have been made by some of the major foundations in this nation to uplift all of us. So this last week, I just watched the docudrama of George Washington and I was reminded of the fact that in an age of disruption and where change is happening at lightning speed, that the work of journalism has not changed since the time of George Washington and the way that we consume it, the way that we deliver it, will continue to evolve and change, but the hard work that journalists do has never changed from the foundation of our country and will not change. Thank you.


They can go 30 miles per hour. That's a lot of gasoline. Happy Saturday, YouTube! That is a lot of gasoline. Real quick, real quick. Behind the scenes of budgeting with envelopes. Dave Ramsey, if you want to give us a cut of your annual revenue, let us know because we are spreading the word. People are joining in. Notorious. For destruction in this house. The Holy Family isn't even safe in this place. Sorry, sorry, Joseph. Sorry, St. Joseph. Uh-oh! About destruction at the D'Amore household. Old Frisbee. Oh man. Organization in the shed. Putting the sleds away for the... Hummel said the winter. Like, yesterday's vlog remained a little too... Pie in the Sky, 30,000-foot view. More philosophical than practical. So, I'm doing a little follow-up today to yesterday's vlog. Go check it out. It was all about what to vlog. If you're stuck on...  I'm gonna show you some shots here today that will help you get ideas going. And next week, once again, I'm gonna show you how I actually do it. But, watch. Simple, right? Simple. Nothing too fancy about that shot. What am I conveying to you? What did I just film? I filmed my foot smashing a can. A beer can.  But rather than film the whole beer going down, which, you know, maybe you can do occasionally just show the smashing. And then, I use that moment of the smash to cue the music. So you... If you have picked up on this kudos to you, almost every single day, when I slam a door shut on the car, when I close the fridge in the office, those noises, those, you know, those noises, that is like the cue to get the music going again. And it basically just helps things move along so that I don't lose your guys' interest throughout a vlog. So I keep it as entertaining as possible. At least that's what I'm going for. So that was an example right there. Smash the beer can. Boom. Fire up the music. It's a little beyond my expertise. A little beyond my expertise. I'm gonna let somebody else... This is a little embarrassing. I don't know how to change a wiper blade. I mean, I probably could figure it out, but it's not worth my time. I'll just take it to the shop and they'll do it in like two seconds. So I'm gonna divert. But did you notice the B-roll shots that I had going over the last minute? So basically when you're talking to the camera, think in your mind, okay, what B-roll shots can I overlay on top of the talking to make the footage more engaging to watch? Does that make sense? So don't just talk, but think, okay, let's get, when you're thinking about vlogging, put in your mind, okay, I just talked for one minute straight. That means I want eight shots. No, let's say six shots. So one shot every 10 seconds that lasts for three to four seconds. All right? So that's what you, that's what you can do. All right. Good job. One and now do it one more time. Two and then one more. Sorry. One more. Yep. Watch me. Good job. In with the new. We got about five minutes left in the golden hour. Just trying to soak it up. Create some eye candy for you. What to film? Think about eye candy. Attractive shots that make your eyeball go. Whoa. That's what we're going for. Even though I'm just doing a simple task, water in the garden. That's all I'm doing here. But I want to try and make it as beautiful to watch as possible for you. That's all I'm doing. That's all I'm doing. So five minutes to go. I'm just trying to live life here and be careful. But you know, I'm a risk taker. About four years ago, I burned myself real bad. I'll tell you that story on the four year anniversary, which is coming up in about four weeks. It was insane. Well, I'm just living my life here, people trying to communicate it to you through a video every single day. Hopefully you're enjoying it just a little bit. Working on the house about an hour ago. And as you know, we're going to paint the house this spring slash summer. Dropped the can holding the paint thinner. Paint thinner is horribly. I would actually recommend never buying it ever, ever, ever. It's just way too toxic and way too serious. Well, I dropped the can. It splattered up, hit my leg and my arm. Not sure if you can see that there. Turn the light here. Boom. So basically I'm going to be fine. I washed it off really quickly. Applying cold ice to it so it doesn't blister. Don't mess with paint thinner. Remember I said that like a month ago. Well, and be careful. Love you guys. That was my day. What did you film today? All right. All right. We're going to wrap her up right now. Seek beauty, work hard. Love each other. Take risks, but calculated risks. Huh? Huh? I almost forgot the question of the day. I'm back. Have you ever burned yourself? It's not a fun question. It could be a little burn. It could be a big burn. I had a buddy actually in college who was just bad. You know, really full body burn. And he was one of the best runners in the entire nation. He almost made it to the Olympics in the 10K, but not quite. So, have you ever been burned? If you have been burned, you know, share your story below. I've been burned. I'm going to share that with you Okay, now we're done.


This video is sponsored by Surfshark VPN. Thanks Surfshark! Warning! This video will contain spoilers up to chapter 1031. You've been warned! Hello my name is Tachi and today I'd like to get into the discussion of a popular theory in relation to Luffy's Devil Fruit. The Gomu Gomu No Miis recently garnered some attention due to the reveal that it was once in the possession of the world government and information shared to us courtesy of Who's Who and in fact not too long ago we discussed the various different possibilities for Luffy's Awakened Devil Fruit form and if you haven't watched that video then I suggest you do so after this discussion. But something which we didn't address in that discussion relates to a wild idea I've briefly mentioned before about the possibility of Luffy having a gigantified form. So today I'd like to discuss and share with you the possibility of that theory coming true and in return I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter so please do leave a comment below. Also don't forget to like the video and please do subscribe and click that notification bell for future one piece videos. Luffy being able to turn into a giant is an idea that's been thought of to be a possibility since Ennius Lobby when Luffy used his gear third form to partially enlarge select body parts by biting into his thumb and blowing air into his bones and thus inflating his arm by transferring air into his body. So an obvious thought that spurred in people's minds was if Luffy is able to do this to a selected body part then what's stopping him from turning his entire body gigantic? Which is exactly the point of this video to discuss why seeing a giant Luffy form in the future could make a lot of sense. First of all the fact that Luffy's already achieved this to a certain degree through his use of his devil fruit certainly adds a lot of weight to this theory. Apart from his gear third form we also saw his nightmare Luffy form in Thriller Bark where Luffy this time enlarged his whole body albeit he was inadvertently helped by Moria himself. But Luffy's gear fourth forms, Boundman and Tankman in particular heavily resembles this whole body enlargement using the properties of just his devil fruit. So the thought of Luffy achieving this on a much much bigger scale gigantic scale in fact isn't impossible and is in fact maybe even likely. This could be explained to follow suit with what we've seen so far his identification being his gear fifth form or could even be the result of his awakened devil fruit. The point is in some way or another Luffy through use of his devil fruit properties of rubber could inflate himself to become so large that he rivals the size of Giants and based on the process of how we know Luffy to be able to achieve this then we could assume that Luffy's only limited by how much air he can pump into his body meaning that if he blows enough air he could reach whatever size he wants. So now that we have that logical component we can work with let's look at how it could also make sense in terms of the story. The importance of Giants has been seeded from very early in the story since our introduction to Dory and Broggy at Little Garden the impressive strength and mysterious history of Giants has been progressively developed throughout the series rather than being an homogenized race we now know Giants to be made up of various different species even including hybrid species such as the Wotans and also to have been an important part of historical events which shaped the world. We also know that their feats and strength owed to their large size has made them highly sought after by different groups but perhaps none more dedicated to acquiring this special race than the world government. Apart from just tricking gullible Giants to join their forces we know the world government to have actively engaged in the development of Giants by enlisting the expertise of brilliant scientific minds such as the likes of Vagapunk. Seriously Vagapunk is big brain. So big brain that he could bypass the portal between the One Piece world and our world to hack into your internet. So avoid the nightmare that is Vagapunk by countering him with your own Surfshark VPN. Surfshark is a VPN app which allows you to create a secure private network from your device to help you as you sale online on the internet. You don't want the world government snooping and prying into your internet activities.  You want to uncover mysteries that have been blocked in your country. Surfshark can bypass geo restrictions to allow you to view content that isn't available in your country. You don't want pesky CP9 agents masquerading their way into your online life. Surfshark can block ads, malware, trackers and phishing attempts to help keep you safe. Don't let internet woes get in the way of your dreams. You can become the internet king. And don't forget to use my code JOYGIRL for 83%. 83% plus an additional 4 months off for free. Surfshark also offers a 30-day guarantee so there is absolutely no risk in trying it out. So make sure you use my link in code below to get that giant discount and those gigantic online benefits. Now, getting back to giants in One Piece. Whilst we've known the source of the world government's interest in this race to be in order to gain the enormous strength that giants possess, this may be something that gets further developed and provide a deeper reasons for in the context of the possibility of Luffy's Jagannification. Because another element in One Piece that has progressively become the source of greater mystery and interest is the meaning of the straw hat. Whilst initially introduced as a symbol of the promise and friendship between Luffy and Shanks, that ragged straw hat delighted the fanbase with the reveal that was previously owned by the late pirate king, but even more greatly shocked us with the reveal of a giant straw hat being preserved at that marriage hall. And if this didn't raise enough eyebrows, we also recently had the reveal that the Gomu Gomu No Mi was a devil fruit which the world government considered important enough to warrant its private escort by the CP9. And when the then CP9 agent Who's Who failed to secure this, it actually resulted in his imprisonment at Impale Down, seemingly furthering the importance placed on this fruit. And of course, even more interestingly, it wasn't just the world government who wanted to secure the Gomu Gomu No Mi, because it also seems like Shanks and the red-haired pirates also actively went after that specific fruit. And well, given Shanks' own mysterious connections to essentially everything that seems to go on in One Piece, it does certainly add weight to the notion that this fruit is indeed special. And all of these tidbits of information put together could point out a very nice, if albeit quite speculative, conclusion that the former owner of the Gomu Gomu No Mi also wore a straw hat and unleashed an ultimate form of dragonification, perhaps the result of their awakened form, which also allowed them to enlarge external objects such as their straw hat. And this individual was a threatening opponent to the world government, perhaps even Joy Boy himself. And this is why the Gomu Gomu No Mi required such protection. And failing the securitization of the fruit, the world government has now deemed Luffy, the current possessor of the devil fruit with the potential to become a giant, as an individual who must be extinguished from the face of the earth. And the combination of giants and hats together is nothing new in the series, because we've seen many instances when gigantic beings wear hats, with the most interesting of the bunch perhaps being the Yeti Kool brothers, whose appearance from the shoulder up was always portrayed shadowed in the series, but interestingly enough, the Yeti Kool brothers also wore hats that closely resembled the shape of a certain straw hat worn by Luffy. And I'm not necessarily suggesting that the Yeti Kool brothers are intrinsically linked to all of this secrecy and Joy Boy, but Luffy's dragonification could become the trigger for so many of these mysteries surrounding giants to becoming unveiled. And not only does the idea of Luffy's dragonification fit well in terms of the story from a high level, looking at the world's history, but also works nicely with Luffy's own journey. For one, it would be a nice change of pace to see Luffy physically dominate an opponent through his size. Because whilst yes, we've seen him in large parts of himself, or even his whole body to a size much bigger than his normal human self, Luffy for majority of the series has been a very undersized character. Coming in at under 6 feet, which by the standards of the one-piece world, practically makes him a midget even when compared to other normal humans. A key element of many of Luffy's fights is that his opponents almost always tower over him. It adds to his growth throughout the series, as the underdog who continues to achieve impressive feats through his creative ingenious and ultimate willpower. But in saying that, it would also be a nice development if by the end of the series, Luffy is figured out a way for his physical dominance to match his tenacity. Also, Luffy's potential to become a giant could also make sense in the context of a possible arc being set in Elbaf. It's been widely speculated in the fanbase that the next island after Wano will be Elbaf, and though at the moment this does remain just speculation, Elbaf being the next arc would work nicely if Luffy were to require training with this new giant formability, and so he gains this knowledge and expertise… well, training with giants. It would also be a convenient way for us to learn about the history and lore of giants through Elbafian warriors explaining the giant race to a confused Luffy who's only recently unleashed his powers. Which does suggest that this would mean Luffy awakened his giant form at Wano, but even this could be said to not be a completely meritless crazy idea. There's the fact that Luffy has now had multiple power-ups and yet Kaido remains a threat, as well as the now increased possibility of Luffy awakening his devil fruit like his supernova rivals. So with all the power awakenings that we're seeing, Wano just might be the arc where Luffy will showcase his Gigantification ability and in doing so, this could complete the parallels between the power-ups of our monster trio which reflect their respective opponents in Thriller Bark adding to the mirroring effect between these two arcs. Because in Thriller Bark, Sanji was fighting an opponent with extremely tough skin and the ability to turn invisible and as we've just seen, Sanji's latent German modifications has been very recently awakened and thereby has also attained similar abilities to those of his Thriller Bark opponent. Zoro first encountered his Blackblade by acquiring a famed sword from a legendary samurai also in Thriller Bark, although he didn't even know sure so he was a Blackblade at the time, but in Wano, not only has he received another great sword from another legendary samurai, but it's also highly possible that we may even see him awaken Enmar and turn it into a Blackblade. So then Luffy's awakening? If we follow the pattern of Zoro and Sanji acquiring power-ups that could be linked to their Thriller Bark opponents and apply that to Luffy. Well, Oz was a literal giant and Moriah was able to significantly enlarge himself by absorbing shadows. And wouldn't it just nicely bring the arc parallel's full circle if we saw Luffy also gain Gigantification abilities to reflect his opponents back in Thriller Bark? But now that you've heard my thoughts, let me know yours by leaving a comment below. Don't forget to like and share the video and please do subscribe for more One Piece content. You can also join our Joyfleet Discord server for more One Piece fun and even become a patron member for more special roles and powers within that server. Also remember to use my code and link below for 83% of your Surfshark account plus a whole four months off for free. Thank you to our patrons who help support the channel. This is Joygirl and I'll see you again soon.