AlphaA is poised to become the Squarespace of Blockchain. Right now, if you want to utilize the Blockchain, you're gonna have to hire an expensive development team to create the coding for you. This is gonna cost you a lot of time and a tremendous amount of money and resources before you even begin your project. And we'll let's see if the founder of AlphaA is on a mission to remove this friction and make this process much easier. If you guys can remember, Squarespace came into the market and now to create a website just takes you a couple clicks and some templates. AlphaA is looking to do the same thing through Blockchain technology. Welcome to the podcast on today's show. We're talking to AlphaA founder, Manu. Thanks so much for joining us. My pleasure. For people who don't know, what does your company do? So we do Blockchain for real assets. Essentially. Heavy. Yeah. It's just a very simple concept. But essentially what we are doing is allowing NFTs to be used as certificates of authenticity to solve for provenance, transactional history, resale royalties and all that good stuff. We started with the art market. We've been in this world for almost 10 years now. And now we're moving on to even simpler problems like POS integrations with luxury brands, for handbags, watches, all the good things. So the idea is, let's say you walk into Chanel, you buy a purse instead of receiving that little warranty card that would come inside the bag. And NFTs minted on the dot from their POS system that has the serial number of the bag, the color of the bag, the model of the bag, your name, where you are in the world. And that is now your certificate of authenticity and holds all the resale value of the item itself. That's awesome.  For a SaaS platform, 100%. Okay. And so the reason I wanted to talk to you is for multiple reasons. But one, it's very personal. This is a new, it's a whole new world, right? And so I think people, let's say most people today understand what the blockchain may be. And then how do we bring that to the daily consumer? Just like the everyday company, how do we bring in people like me? And the way to do that is to do it through SaaS where you guys sort of take care of the hard stuff. And so you used to be, have to build your own website using HTML. Then other companies started WordPress started, which is now like awful in Squarespace. And so you don't need to be a coder to have a website and you can have a website in a matter of minutes. And so what you're doing is kind of enabling people to play in the blockchain, leveraging all that amazing technology, but you're the layer on top of it. And so you take care of what I would call like the hard stuff. I'm gonna hire you. That's it, right? Yeah, you just explained to us in like layman's terms. But the thing is, we even have a lot of these conversations on the podcast where there's people calling, it's interesting that they're like, it's web 2.5, where the human being who doesn't have a wallet, let's say like your average street artist, who doesn't have a wallet to your point earlier, it's like, are you really gonna explain MetaMass to them?  Or are they gonna be left to do it? And then how do they transfer the money? So it's like a huge learning curve today. Yeah. So Coinbase kind of like started with these native layers, right? What they did was nobody wants to know what's going on inside the hood. They just wanna go and use the technology. They wanna know it works. They wanna know it works. And so, think of us as, as you put it very well, SaaS platform, think of us as Shopify for NFTs. So what we did is we got rid of the MetaMass wallet and rebuilt our own native layer, which allows us to provide a framework that makes it super simple for anyone to go in and mint a NFT associated to a physical or digital asset. So as I brought here, this is an example of one of our QR codes. It's a little bit bigger than our usual QR code because this is something we put together for an event. But through the QR code, you can then connect the physical and the digital item, which means that, for example, your beautiful mural here, let's say you wanna NFT the whole mural. You can attach a QR code to it and you can then add a bunch of utility to it too. So that could be if you own the NFT, you own the right to another mural in another location, or you can then kind of like hold meetings around people that are other owners of similar murals by the same artist, and you can kind of like unlock the whole potential of Web3. I kind of resent that term, Web2.5, because it's Web3, but it's Web3 for everyone, which is the direction of where the world is going. You don't have to be a crypto expert to be able to understand that blockchain technology is amazing for asset ownership, right? Like just think of the term blockchain. The way the technology is built is that there are blocks of information connected by chains, which means that you can contain the entire asset lifecycle within that one thing, which is the NFT. And that's a game changer for everything. You're gonna start seeing NFTs attached to cars. You're gonna start seeing NFTs attached to houses, to apartments, which means at the end of the day, you'll be able to walk into an apartment and purchase something by scanning a QR code and bypass that escrow process that can take up to three months and maybe close in three minutes. As a real estate developer, it would complicate or it would make my life a lot easier. And so today it's like, escrow process is annoying. That's one thing. Once an asset is up and running and generating income, if there was, let's say every investor is an NFT holder, it's basically income would come in and instead of it going through an accountant or me sending checks to people or me literally typing in your account number, routing number, and then wire for like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 investors, it would just automatically do that. And we pay those people to do it today.  And it feels like I'm using a fax machine.  You're also paying an accountant. You're also paying for QuickBooks. Maybe your investors are getting charged wire fees. The whole thing is like bananas. It's annoying. You have deals that open, right? That don't close because the documentation was incomplete. If you can have a process that is automated and technological that just goes through all the checks and balances, that doesn't happen anymore. When you first started, did you raise capital or did you bootstrap it at the beginning? Or people were like, you're crazy. What are you talking about? Oh my God. We're like, you're so early. You're right. It's been a journey. It's been a journey. Like our capital raising journey, I was telling a prospective new employee the other day that we've only raised $1.5 million to date. And we've been around for almost 10 years. And I would tell you this one little story. When we first started the company, we put together kind of like our first pitch deck.  He's like, I really believe in what you're doing. I don't think you need 500K. That's what we were raising at the time. I think you need a million dollars. So we went through the process. We kind of like went through the due diligence and spent all this time actually physically moved to New York, most expensive city in the world. Where were you from? From where? Rio. I was spending some time in Rio. And then the money never came through. We got 200K in the space of two years. Oh no. That could have broken any company. Like because you make plans and contingencies for a new box. Like I've broken you mentally too. Yeah, yeah, but we found a way. We're like, okay, so the way is B2B. Like we gotta find bigger tickets. We don't have time to go after small tickets. It takes a road of money to make a B2C engine grow. We didn't know that the technology was blockchain yet, but we knew that we wanted to create more information, a more transparent universe for the creative world. And so the ethos of the company is still absolutely the same, to create opportunity, to create access to capital, which is what blockchain technology can do. And it's one of the things that I've been talking to a lot of the legislative side with. I got brought in by some of the Silicon Valley funds into the state and federal committee for blockchain. So I've been consulting with Senator Booker, Senator Gillibrand, the officer of the governor. And the things we want them to know is that this technology doesn't see color. It doesn't see sex. It doesn't see who is behind the screen. That's an interesting angle. Wow, okay. It's real opportunity. It's access to- That's totally true. Yeah, it's totally true. I've never heard that. We'll be right back to the episode after this quick break. Warby Parker offers everything you need for happier eyes. And you can shop with them online or in stores. Check out Warby Parker's home try-on program for yourself. Order five pairs of glasses to try at home for free. It ships free to you and includes a prepaid return shipping label. Try five pairs of glasses at home for free at warbyparker.com slash ship it. This episode is also brought to you by Fight Camp. They offer thousands of classes with new workouts added each week. So you'll always find something new. You can get a killer workout done in as little as 20 minutes. And don't worry if you don't have any boxing experience because Fight Camp has your back. They've created programs specifically designed to teach you the basics of boxing and kickboxing so you can build a strong foundation. Fight Camp even comes with all the gear you need to start boxing from home, including a freestanding punching bag, boxing gloves, quick hand wraps, and smart punch trackers that provide real-time data during your workout. So head on over to joinfightcamp.com slash start up to storefront and get free shipping with your first order. Now back to the episode. I'll tell you what I wanna do. So this is like another reason I wanted to have you on. So this is you giving me free information. And I think we can actually partner on this. So this is interesting. So we own a building downtown or like Lincoln Heights right by Dodger Stadium. And it's got a obviously it's got a huge exterior wall. And so on one side of it is basically this massive exterior wall that there's a bunch of street arts that normally tag, right? And so as a developer, before we start any building, I usually reach out to whoever has a tag on the building being like, hey, we're acquiring this asset. We may or may not remove your art. Ideally we keep it. Sometimes the city makes us like paint a portion of it. But in the event that we do, I'm just reaching out to you now and hopefully we can collaborate, maybe put your art on the inside or just whatever we do something interesting. In that, I've made a lot of friends in the street art space, which is cool cause they're like, thank you for reaching out. And I'm like, just being a human, no need to thank me. But now I'm like, this is interesting. How do we get street artists who I would put in a community that's so distant from the web three community, right? And so what I wanna do is do this thing where big picture I wanna create an art walk. And so there are four city walls and I own one of them. And so the four, I wanna make the whole thing like a very Berlin dope farmers market activation and artists all around.  But it's got more of like, it's next to the railroad. And so to me, it's more like, it's got a vibe. It's got a vibe. And it's the best view of downtown LA. Like I think no one, no one knows about because you wouldn't go there because there's a railroad and it did ends. I know where exactly what you're talking about though cause I liked that river path a few times, yeah. It's around there. And so the whole concept is I wanna use my wall and I want to do it out words. Like we invite different artists on a quarterly basis to bring their art. We create an NFT. The NFT funds it, right? And so we do some marketing. We do this thing. We basically put a year of a year plan together saying like James Peter Henry is doing this quarter. This artist is doing this quarter. This Peruvian guy is doing this one, right? These Mexican-American street artists are doing this group and like this is their vibe and we do it on our wall but they get the residuals also, right? And so in this, you become like the SaaS platform that allows it so I don't have to hire this dev team and keep up, right? That's exactly what we're here for. So we'd set you up with an institutional profile which is available for companies, galleries, museums, et cetera. Right now we're doing something very similar for a few Burning Man artists. We're doing funding for High By Cozo. We're doing funding for Laura Kimpton. And for Laura Kimpton, it's even more complex cause we actually built a 3D version. Is she with like Kimpton hotels or is that? No, no, she does the giant letters. Believe, love. Sorry, okay.  And her story is amazing. She struggled with mental health, most of her childhood cause she was in an undiagnosed dyslexic. So she had serious learning disabilities and was called a moron in class and all those things that kids do unknowingly, right? And so after she dedicated her entire practice to words once she was, no, finally diagnosed cause words are so powerful. And we paired her with a company called Blue Fever who is developing a safe internet space for teens. And we put together an NFT for both of the companies benefiting Mental Health America. So it's a digital version that- So you're matchmaking, you're doing this too. We do that too. That's pretty deep, yeah. That's more of like a passion project as well. The NFT for good side of the business is so important. And there's so much capability to fund. As you said, you could fund a wall. You could fund a giant installation. You could fund, and you can build in such core utility features that maybe the person that buys your NFT that's gonna be funding the production of that wall also joins your street art club. So they're invited once a month to come to the art walk. They get like a free drink. They get whatever you wanna build into that community. They get a voting decision on who the next artist should be. They get to meet their peers, which is what everybody just wants to belong, right? There's a great quote from Mark Andreessen from the beginning of the 90s talking about what Netscape did. And so the whole point is the internet grew at a pace that nobody had ever seen before, and it made no sense. And so Mark Andreessen was like, people just wanna belong. They just wanna be part of something that is bigger than themselves. And that's what Netscape did. They allowed people to communicate, no matter where they were in the world, whatever system that they were operating. And so we're seeing something very similar right now happening in the web three space, not the web 2.5 space. And the web three space will be complete once everyone has access to the technology. Once you don't need a developer to go and build out whatever it is for you to mint a smart contract. Once you can just click on the alpha platform, pay 10 bucks a month for 10 tokens, which is what we charge for the emerging plan and just start minting your own tokens, doing your own projects, connecting with your own community, providing physical giveaways as well. As I said, this is the token for our DAO. It's a physical bracelet. And so the token for your art wall could also be a small scale poster. And maybe every time someone funds one of the projects, they get a miniature. Yeah, yeah, we're playing with all that. We can put that together together. Yeah, I need help. What's the hard part that you've seen? Is it the people thinking about the utility? Is it people following through? What has been the part where it's a draw? Like as a business, right? So let's go back to, there's a hard part of executing any project, any NFT project, whether it's Board Ape or whether it's this new person emerging. But then as a business, you're kind of, you specifically are really tied to their success. Yeah, so as I said, we're Shopify, right? Which means we do want our clients to go well, but we're providing an infrastructure and we're providing the best infrastructure possible. We're providing these event pages. We're providing shareable links. We're providing embedded products that you can throw onto your website. But I think the biggest challenge right now is interchange our upper ability. Like as a company, and what does that mean? Let's take a step backwards, right? Like blockchain, there are several different chains that are around. There's Ethereum, which is a very popular one. There's Solana, Avalanche, EOS, you name it. No one ever says Cardano. Never. No, just on Twitter.    You guys are built on Ethereum, I would imagine. No, we hate proof of work. I think proof of work is the dumbest thing to work on right now because there's been several other solutions that have been proven that are just way more energy efficient. And as a company that is very ESG focused, I could not spend 66,000 times more energy to mint. That's the ratio, by the way. Interesting. Solana to Ethereum or EOS to Ethereum, 66,000 times. Wow. So that's why we can mint for a dollar because we're on proof of stake. And what we're working on is we're chain agnostic. We just wanna be on proof of stake because we just think it makes more sense for everyone. It makes more sense for the planet. And we're working on converters so that you can actually import and export across several different platforms. And I think that is one of the biggest challenges of the industry right now. You have private blockchains, you have people that are just on one of the marketplaces, but how can you actually have all the smart contracts communicating within each other and actually have the rules of engagement being followed? And then obviously there's an issue of fraud around the marketplaces.  And that's one of the reasons why we decided to be a closed-ended system. So that, think of us as like a blue checkmark on Instagram. A Alpha smart contract can only be issued by the artist or by the brand or by the creator of whatever piece that is. And so we're being very cautious but we're gonna start allowing exports soon onto secondary marketplaces. And that is one of the biggest challenges that we see right now. On the business side, there's endless fundraising, hiring, et cetera. How did you figure out, or maybe you're still figuring out like what market to focus on? Like who your customer, so you said it's B2B, but within that? Collectibles. Always collectibles. So then you fashion- Fashion is top of mind right now. Fashion for us is a market that people have not cracked yet. And walk me through it. So you're like, okay, who do you talk to at like? At the head of digital transformation. So speak to brands like Chanel, Gucci. Do they get it? Do they all have it? Yeah, they're comments. They know the problem from obviously fraud. Yeah, I'll give you some numbers, okay? There's a brand that's fresh because we might or we might not be working with them. But Chanel, their resale market on the real real we did some analysis in terms of numbers. And one skew, so the flap bag, which is one bag, one vendor on the real real, that could increase their annual revenue in 5% if they started charging resale royalties. That's a quarter of a billion dollars that is transacted on one skew, one vendor. So we estimate that the resale market could actually bring 20 to 30% additional revenue for brands. And the luxury market holds its value. So that's a smart pitch though, right? So how did you, at some point you were like, oh, I see the value is in the resale. Let's, so it's not, it's not blockchain to them. It's like legitimately growing their revenue numbers in a significant way. Their biggest issue is authenticity. Yeah. Like art, right? And even the real real has a bit of a. Yeah. So I'm sure you see it walking around the streets of New York City. Of course. The knockoffs. If you end the paper certificate and move it into a digital NFT, that's the authenticity problems over. Because even if you attach the NFT to a fake, then the real one has no sales value. So the scarcity is there. You're actually defining scarcity for the first time in the fashion market, which is something that has not been done successfully over the years. That's amazing. So are you raising? What are you doing? We are raising. Yeah. What are you, are an A round here? How much are you raising? I would say A round. What are we doing? No, no, no, no, no, no. We were in the middle of an A round when this whole crypto winter number two hit. We decided to pull that quickly and we're like, we're not gonna do a price round right now. Market dynamics are not there. It's not terrible. And so we're just doing a quick close and a save. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts then about the future of crypto. Like we are in a crypto winter two, as you put it. And I'm curious about how long you think that will last for and what would be the instigator for coming out of it again? For sure. So I'm an economist, by the way. And so market. So you love this recession that we're about to implode upon.  Like it's always sucks to be in a recession, right? And I've been in so many like in my young age. Yeah. Yeah, we're all in same boat. As a developer, I'm dealing with this every day, like interest rates today, I think got announced until it's going up again. But you'll find some good buying opportunities soon. So I bought two buildings during COVID. That was amazing, right? Because it's like the debt markets, this is like on a 2.97% interest rate this building right here. And so it's like, but now every day, it's like six, six and a half, seven for commercial development. And that's only going to go up. And so I think by November, the world will know. And then I think by February, we'll feel it. Well, the Fed's going to stop at some point. You think so? I think so. I hope so. I think it's going to be next year. Jay Powell's all about the light touches as opposed to going too far. Look, I just think it is not going to stop until February. That's where I'm placing my bet, March. I go March. Yeah, but these cycles are usually two years, right? Exactly. That's how long it takes. So if you haven't have cash to weather the store, you're good. And you have to be opportunistic. Like in 2020, we ended up doing an equity crowdfunding raise and raise 120K in a month and a half because I was scared. Like I had all my investors calling me up saying, the world's going to end, COVID, blah, blah. And it ended up being the biggest period of growth for us. Totally. We blew up during COVID. And so it's kind of like blood on the streets. Yeah. Going buy some stock. Like there's so many interesting opportunities right now in the market. Even Solana, I picked up some Solana recently. Nice. I haven't been a big crypto investor, like I have to say. Like this was the first period that I actually started buying crypto. What made you want to be on the sidelines? And then where were you like, oh, this is the right time? One, I wasn't really sure of what the utility behind the coins was. Now I have a clarity around that. Like you know that if you, Solana, I'm really bullish on Solana. I think they're doing all the right things. The development is super easy. And there's going to be a lot of projects that are coming out of it. They're way cleaner. They're already on open sea and on most of the market places. So there will be liquidity behind that. And it's just a better way of doing things, right? Then you know, Bitcoin has proved itself a store of value. It's a way to transfer funds across different geographies. Like even if you do see kind of like tightening and monetary conditions, you see governments getting into little fights, which makes it usually harder for you to move capital around. You just move your Bitcoin wherever you go. And so there's a few things that made me kind of like change a little bit my mindset. But you know, there's great opportunities right now in blue chip tech.  Sure. Well, right on. Well, listen, tell everyone where they can find you. Find me. All the good stuff. Personally, I'm on Instagram, ManuCV. But the easiest way is through the company. It's alpha with 2A. So alphaA.io. AlphaA.io. I love it. Right on. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. Well, thank you for having me. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Thank you. Hey, it's Owen and Oscar here. We just want to say thank you so much for making it to the end of the episode. If you want to see the full, uncut, unhinged, unedited episode, go check out our paid model on Apple Podcasts. We can't wait to see you again next week. And maybe Oscar will stay in my arms.


well hello and welcome to vlogmas what is it day 16 i think um i just went to work and now i have a maple grove and i'm at the shops at arbor lakes this gives me so much anxiety it took me like five minutes to park like i know that's like not a lot but when people are acting stupid it's it feels like longer it felt like 50 minutes not five minutes so anyway um i need to go to world market because um they sent me a coupon for a ten dollars off of a thirty dollar purchase and i actually need to get some trays i was going to get them at target but um if i can find them there i'll get them and then behind me also is trader joes which now i haven't said this on the vlog yet but i think i might be hosting another holiday gathering on actual christmas day so that's kind of still like up in the air so i'm gonna go to trader joes and get some more crackers and some more chicken because i'm basically gonna make the same thing if um we end up doing this but i'm not sure things will be decided probably like wednesday or thursday of this upcoming week uh what's happening on christmas day so anyway i just want to be prepared and i just wish me luck because this whole situation makes me super anxious and i absolutely hate grocery shopping when there's a lot of people out it could oh and by the way just for reference it is one twenty seven in the afternoon so it's like the worst time to go to a grocery store but whatever i need to get two things so hopefully i can get in and get out and i don't need a cart this time uh carts drive me a little bit crazy so whatever all right but uh i'm gonna stop rambling now and i'm gonna go get my shop on okay bye well hey i am back from all the shopping and i just went to noodles and company because i'm going to eat and i think while i'm eating i'm gonna call my mom and dad and see how life is going my dad i feel like i don't need this on i don't know why i do that i do that every time um my dad actually had eye surgery he had two different he had like a surgery and then like a procedure all done on what was it wednesday thursday i'm not sure but anyway um i talked to him like the day before and i haven't talked to him since everything was going on because he's had lots of doctor's appointments and whatnot so yay that's going on so i'm sure you guys are curious of what i got but i got a bottle of water because water is delicious and my meal of choice is penne rosa with parmesan and if you guys are like noodles and company fanatics you will know that penne rosa is typically like it's like spicy or it's like on their spicy menu for me i don't feel like it's that spicy i mean some people make it like hella spicy like let's be real here but most of time it's pretty mild so i can stomach it like seriously something's up with my bra straps like they just like fall down all the time so this is what i got it's delicious and it's healthy they're spinach look they're spinach so i'm gonna eat this oh update okay so i went to world market that's all behind me went in for platters and came out with a lot more stuff because of course like everything's on sale and i hit a coupon so it's fine it's fine but um they were actually quite busy and then i went to trader joe's and trader joe's was not as busy as i thought it would be like i mean there was people but it wasn't like crowded you know what i mean like it wasn't as bad as it has been in the past so that was the like pleasant surprise because the parking lot was crazy and i was like trying to leave and there was like four people like trying to get my spot and my spot was like total crap you guys like it was not even a good spot so i'm like dude like everybody needs to like calm down i'm in a jet i'm gonna head home after i eat this but i'm gonna chat with the parentals while i'm eating and see how things are going and um yeah i didn't want to be rude and i would have normally just sat inside of noodles and ate there but i didn't want to be rude if i wanted to like chat on the phone you know what i mean like throw it on speaker and just sit here for a little bit well anyway all right well i am gonna talk to the parents see how things are going and um next time you see me i will probably be home with a doodle dog so yeah lots of fun things happening this weekend and a lot of things i need to take care of so yippie yippie skippy and i'm home i have unloaded the vehicle and loaded up the dishwasher with all of my things i got like a little cake stand thing too and um yeah i'm gonna wash the well i'm not gonna wash the dishes the dishwasher is gonna wash the dishes for me and i got some candlesticks and i'm gonna do something i think a little bit different it's like it's like a such a mess over here now it's like all alcohol um on my table i think i'm gonna do something a little bit different because i don't know what it is but it involves the candlesticks i have an idea but i think i'm gonna mess with that like later on um so anyway some people were asking me what kind of beer i got like on my instagram post and this is my brother's favorite beer it's the northeast grain belt good times and yeah that's what i got oh also i got this uh yesterday that i didn't talk about but it's from those erin kondren sticker books it's the new one so let me do a quick flip through with you guys i just did this on instagram so if you follow whoops my instagram stories you would have already seen this but there is december november october which is really pretty we got september august which this one might be my favorite because super cute right and then we've got july june may whoops oh my gosh can't do this right april march which is super cute we got february and then january so yeah that's what i got yesterday but i forgot to show it in the well actually no i didn't show it in the vlog because i did a q and a yesterday p s i have like not downloaded the footage and it was really freaking long so i'm sure it's a lot of footage to go through that i don't really want to go through right now so yeah but i have a few things to do here i need to clean up some stuff um i got some pigs ears yesterday because i went to pet smart and i got doils food and stuff but he doesn't like them which is weird so i don't know i think i'm gonna talk to i have a neighbor that's like across the street that has a baker dog i have a like a next door neighbor that has a really really really tiny dog like way smaller than doile like a quarter of his size so i don't think there's any way that that dog can handle the pigs ears like doile looks ridiculous eating the pigs ears so i can't even imagine so i think next time i'm outside and that guy's outside um which actually happens quite a bit because it seems like we walk our dogs at the same time i'll ask him if his dogs if his dog likes pigs ears and if it does which most dogs do doily usually does too but he's sometimes he's just kind of finicky like i bought them they're right there that bag right there and um i was like oh he'll like him nope he just kind of like ran around with it for a while and like licked it and like chewed on it a little bit and then just like let it go i'm like that's really strange because normally he like guards it for a while but i gave him like all night last night and he just he was just not into it like i took it away and showed him i was taking it away and he didn't even care he was like whatever it was just it was strange so i'm like okay he's obviously not into it so you know uh i've opened it so i can't really return it so i think it's just better to pass it along to somebody that might be able to use it so that's what's gonna happen with that i got an update from my mom today my dad is doing good with his eyeballs i don't know if i've talked about this in the vlog my dad had eye surgery he was supposed to have eye surgery like not surgery but like a procedure done a while back and then he didn't get it done and then the other day he got the surgery and the procedure like it's really it's like a strange thing he's doing good but sleeping has been challenging and it's going okay so that's good but it's getting better every day so i think that's you know a positive and uh hopefully after all this is done and my dad stops being a pirate because he can't see um that maybe he'll be able to have like use of his eyeball again hold on we're gonna turn we're gonna turn this on whoa there we go and uh yeah that's that's what's happening here doyle's already upstairs doing his upstairs things which means he's either sitting on the heat vent or sitting on one of the beds and let's be honest they're both his because that's just how he does things around these parts but i think i'm just gonna hang out i have a ton of stuff to do tomorrow i'm actually gonna make myself a list um i have a list here of all the things i need to go and buy still and i'm not sure if i'm gonna do that monday or if i want to just go like tomorrow night because i just want to avoid the crowds and like it's like it gets so people outside and i'm like i don't know oh i will show you this so i'm like super scatterbrained today you guys so like i apologize for the content that you're watching on this video and any of my videos for uh future reference um so i bought these little pine cone ball things to go with my like tablescape well that's not working out so and they're actually ornaments so i think what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna put these on this and have like the two balls on it and like do something with it i don't know what but i'm gonna do something and then i like the glass ones because they're not like holiday i was looking at ones that were like i don't know they just looked more holidayish to me and i was like i didn't want to like pigeonhole myself into like having that out all the time so i think the glass is a good one because it's really neutral and i can use them year around and i don't really have to worry about it so i think that's that's a good idea right but like i said i think i'm gonna hang out for a little while and um make a list of all the things i need to do tomorrow or at least accomplish during this upcoming week as well my brother is coming at least on friday he might be actually coming on thursday night but i'm not really sure yet so um i think that's just gonna kind of depend on his work schedule and things like that so he's pretty sure that he's off on friday like totally off so um but he actually might just come on friday but come like in the afternoon and then be here when i get home because i have a bunch of not a bunch but i have some baking and some other prep work that i have to do on friday night so um we're just gonna probably hang out here together and then um Heidi and the kids are coming over on saturday so that'll be exciting but yeah so i just need to make a list because if i make a list and i cross stuff off the list it makes me feel better okay it just makes me feel better guys so i'm gonna work on that and just hang out for a little while and then i'll just check in so see you a little bit whoa so it is several hours later i am just hanging out like mid yawn huh i gotta do the dishes which means put a dishwasher pack in the dishwasher hey gotta do that oh my ear itches because it's not totally full but it's pretty darn full and i gotta get some of that washed for tomorrow's most difficult part turning it on gotta say but it is time to go for the evening it is late and i don't think i've shown so i haven't sown doil nor have i shown doil on the vlog yet my gosh i'm losing it that's when you know it's time to geogo oh goodness well let's turn the crickets off for you guys all right do you want to see what the dog goes up to there he is basking in the glory he is basically like a little sticky bun though hi bud you want to say hello to your friends they all love you so much he's not having it today it sounds like oh well oh well oh he's moving he's moving hold on he's moving he knows i came up here because we need to go outside and then he can sleep all night long oh my goodness doiled dog oh my goodness doiled dog such a rough life buddy such a rough life but we are gonna say goodbye so goodbye i will see you tomorrow for more adventures and the mission for tomorrow is get all the things done just you i just need to do all the things so i started making a list and i'm gonna finish that list tomorrow and i think i think i'm not actually gonna go shopping tomorrow like i planned i think i'm going to just get more things done and then um go shopping and stuff like after work you know during the week this week so i think that'll that'll be fine fun fact he doesn't really like his butt being touched so i like to touch it i'm such a mean human oh well hey are you ready to go you want to go outside do you want to go outside yeah all right so doile and i are gonna go and i will see you guys tomorrow for more fun vlogmas and uh clean dishes because my dishes are going now so we i accomplished something for the day all right i will see you guys tomorrow bye


Aloha and welcome. Welcome to Global Connections. I'm your host, Carlos Juarez. And joining me today is a colleague here at the University of the Americas, Fregla, in Solula, Mexico, Alicia Luis Navarro. Alicia, thank you for joining us here on Global Connections. On the contrary, thank you for the invitation. Yes, and we're talking about a very timely, very important topic, and it deals with the Central American migrant crisis that we have in recent years, in recent months, and it's been accelerated. We're going to look at some different aspects. Often we see the focus on just, I don't know, the border, security, relations, those are certainly important. But there's another dimension that the preacher of research has worked and touched on having to deal more with either psych or social aspects, having to deal with mental health and healthcare of the communities there and so it's a complex set of issues. And what we want to do is unravel some of it for us to help us better understand this crisis. We do have a crisis on the border, but it's not one that, I believe anyhow, it requires a big wall, but it requires a better understanding of the human and the humanitarian aspect, perhaps the psych or social aspect. And so joining me today, recently here at the University, tell us briefly just about your own background, because you're a professor here of psychology, but you've been working now on projects and profits related to migrant communities. Tell us briefly about your own background and your areas of teaching and research. I spent about 15 years in New York City where I completed my graduate studies and I wrote into the understanding first, in general, identity of migrants. But after I studied more into subject, I understood there's many more elements that relate to how migrants not only deal with struggles but how do you identify the perfect mental unscrupulous. It's through their journey, but also on assimilating into a different culture and place. So that's how I started to get more into the study of a current project that I'm launching on the mental health of sentimental migrants as they go through transitions through Mexico on their way to the United States. So again, this topic, of course, is very timely today about migration, but it's a topic that has so many aspects. There's an economic dimension that obviously both pushes and pulled migrants to come, the political aspect in terms of the relations, and even, frankly, the single narrative, that story of why many of them have a lot to do with their own conditions at home, the difficult, both violence and insecurity, lack of opportunity.  The story of these migrants themselves, the challenges they face, a long, long journey because they're talking about Central Americans who venture all the way through Mexico, and make it to the border in the hopes, in many cases, that trying to seek asylum is a challenge because many of them are not easily admitted. They don't have the capacity perhaps to demonstrate that. So we'll talk a little bit about that. But as well, to help us understand it and maybe put it in front of the context, let's take a look. We have a map or two. If you can turn to the first map, it shows us a look at, I believe, just basically some of the border crossings, and this has got some data telling us about what percentage of, or what numbers are crossing there. What's interesting is that it shows us here how the crossing has dropped about eight sentences to that. So it seems to me that I was a little bit more on to the play on. It's a little bit ironic to consider the importance nowadays of building and strengthening the military and building the civil war when the crossing is not so much the main concern. So we see all across the border, there's two countries which is only one of the largest. Yeah, I think about 2,000 U.S. miles. So the largest border between two countries is such a different level of development. We have the U.S. as the first world-developed economy. Mexico, of course, is a country in transition, but in general, a much lower level of development. So there's a constant pull towards that. But as you know, it's very important the crisis is really what has been manufactured in recent days by our president because 20 years ago, we had a much massive flow. It had slowed down. However, the nature of the crisis today has reflected more in the type of development coming. Many families, many women with children, and that presents different challenges. Absolutely. I think that what shifted the focus was what happened massively to your current policy. We'll tell you a little bit about that. This is a new policy that was basically implemented by the Trump administration, essentially that has the effect of separating many of the families, right? I mean, in the late term, what happens is that if one person crosses a non-documentary migrant crosses the border, I mean, it's sustained by border trolls. This person is explaining this process and it's subject to deportation. We need deportation. What happens is now that it's not only economic, young migrants seeking economic opportunities. It's entire families fleeing violence in the Central United States. So at the border, supposedly, the illegal migrants would have to get to the stage and anyone else accompanying this person needs to be put in as an detention center until it's decided what. So basically, by enforcing this zero tolerance, what it means is that suddenly the parent has to be separated and put into a cage. That will be the minors who are accompanying them get separated and it's such a problem. We have seen those images of the detention centers and the conditions of which children are adopted. So very traumatic and obviously things that have a profound impact on their future development not to mention that it was a policy obviously put in place without a lot of forethought because the separation wasn't able to reconnect many families. It's been a desperate effort to try to make them... I mean, there's still people who are in the mingle. Parents have been deported. Their mothers back in their birth are somewhere in a detention center. And there's something that's just that far away, right? New York, Wisconsin, all over the country. Without an ability to tell the parents. I think that one of the issues that it makes to be highlighted there is the lack of interest in terms of representation and information and if we need to provide a translator we want the word signing in some cases. Like, yes, there's kind of all of the deportation that people will sign. Without knowing the deportations of, my kid is not coming. Sign here and guess what?  This is dramatic. The next slide here shows us some data, right? Some information about... Tell us what it was right here. We're talking about this diplomatic experience. For some people it would be the culmination of a very long, struggling journey. It's safe to say. There's people who are playing this, what is called the Northern Triangle, which is comprised of the main three Central American countries, Guatemala, Honduras, and Salvador. The environment is equal to what people have experienced in Iraq and some of the other African countries that are facing civil wars. This region is really the source now of many of the newer immigrants. In many cases families with children and essentially fleeing very difficult violence circumstances back home. Perhaps for another show we can talk about really the root causes of a lot of this. Also stem back from U.S. policies in Central America from the 1970s and 80s, where many refugees came were finding themselves settling in particularly in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles. But a lot of them, whether they were incarcerated, they were then deported. We hear a lot about the MS-13 and others. They learned their trade in the prisons of the U.S. and they were very quickly deported. But I guess my point there is a connection there that we can't deny and need to understand fully. As you said, that's material for a whole potential that the historical relations of intervention of the U.S. and Central American countries who try to prevent communism in the 1980s, not into the insurance violence environment. And of course, again, the other is the actual human story, because these are migrants who are obviously trekking across all of Mexico a very long, long, large country. It takes them, they talk a little bit about the story of what is involved, how long does it take to complete? Yeah. For a migrant coming from Honduras, it would take about four to five days of a journey. Talking through the other Central American countries and landing in Mexico. What's interesting is that in around 2014, the U.S. supported a policy of protecting the southern border of Mexico. So, at some point, the highlight of talking through this train is what's called the BEAST. Which is this long journey that many of them get on top of the train. They're dangerous. They have to be active and fall off. But also, it's a process where they're constantly abused and taken advantage of. There are networks and criminals. It's just like they're carrying a target. You either are affected to just robbery, assault, rape, and extortion. You describe four to five days. That's probably the average. Some of this may take longer. We've seen this recent episode on the caravans. In some ways, it represents an effort to get power in numbers. If they go to groups, they can try to provide funding. Next section, they last three years. There's some very large figures of Central American migrants who were assaulted either in groups and were killed and left abandoned. Or systematically just dropped and they didn't predict. So it seems like this is the time in which people started to organize to say our visibility will keep us safe. Yeah, the power in numbers is essential. And what we see in this time, maybe to the third map we have of Visual Europe, they give you the routes that they will take going through next. We can see several. Of course, many will make the law on track all the way to Tukuan on the border with California. Others will stop and maybe go towards Texas, towards New Mexico, Arizona. And indeed, as we know, there are, of course, fences, other supporters. And that has been strengthened in the last 10, 15 years. But it has also meant now migrants are often moving to some more dangerous areas, more in-law. Yeah. It's probably to know how it would be also their reaction of the Mexican population. And how it would work to trade in the media. And also, messages continue from the current administration and the policies of being bombarded or invaded. When you say the Mexican, I mean, here there's a lot of different aspects of that. Some of it is that many of these often suffer discrimination with the Mexican themselves. It's a scary and heartbreaking sentiment that kind of merges of xenophobia to the American moment. So in this way, some people who were shedding, this is one that there was really the incident as people were getting to a final and to childhood. That just started to go to different aspects. But that also is like a risk. Yeah, I know. But again, it's a human story. I mean, on one hand, instead of billions of things on our wall, we could probably invest millions in helping both the countries themselves develop and address the issues. But even perhaps, for those who seek asylum, a process that might be more ideal managed back in the home site that would help facilitate that. Again, there's no easy answer to who we sometimes think the problem is just solved by a simple figure of building a wall. Clearly, what we need instead are social workers, judges, lawyers, an ability to process what is essentially a human story, a human tragedy. We can move on to the next slide. We'll turn to the next slide. And what are we seeing here? This next one shows us... Just a sense of trying to... Here, what we see here is basically some people who are crowding into a truck. So as they make the journey, they're coming off and they're walking or they're being rife. And this recent trend of the caravan has brought them in big clusters. However, along the way, we see this suddenly getting broken off or separated. There are cases where, you know, young kids that come from the same rural camps at one point... One of them might be able to get on the back of a truck where they're sitting. So they try to keep these contact. But that already took place in some of their cases where few of these things, the most vulnerable people, would be left to the right on the truck. Not quite. There's some mothers that carry small children and they manage to get a stroller along the way. The stroller is important not going to be there. So there's really some, you know, carrying the burden of this along the way. Physical and emotional drain for mothers. So that's some things that are perfect for them. It's a painful process and a story, again, that has such a heart-breaking human side to it. Let's do this because we have a few other things you want to talk to. But we're going to take a very short break right now and come back after a minute. We're talking here with Dr. Patrice Navarro. He's a psychology professor here at the University of the Americas, in Camilo, Pesla, Mexico. And she's been doing some work on understanding some of the challenges, some of the human side of the migration crisis that we see these days. So we're going to come back with more on the story. Please join us here on Global Connections. Hey, loha. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii, airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii, live from the studios. I'll bring you guests. I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe, your co-workers safe, your family safe, to keep our community safe. We want to teach you about those things in our industry that may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me on Security Matters. Aloha. Aloha and welcome to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Keisha King. You can catch me every Wednesday. Alive at five. I'll see you there. I'm Jay Fidel of Think Tech. Our flagship energy show among the six energy shows we have is Hawaii, the state of clean energy. It plays every Wednesday at 4 p.m. Come around and see us. Learn about energy. Keep current on energy. ThinkTechHawaii.com. Aloha and welcome back. Welcome to Global Connections. I'm your host, Paolo Quadis here. joined today by Patricia Ruiz Navarro. She's a psychology professor here in Mexico who works on rate division related to migrants, the crisis that we're seeing unfold now. Many Central Americans that are seeking the crime on me yet. And it's a changing nature of the different patterns of folks. We see today more families with children and the whole separation that we've seen the crisis unfold. And Patricia, of course, you come both from, you know, originally from Mexico, but you have many years here in the U.S. for your studies. You're doctorate in social psychology from City University in New York. Masters in from the New School for Social Research. And that experience, understanding the community is also in New York, for example, a long time because the process of migration, of course, it's been around forever, quite literally. And the complex interdependence of the U.S. and Mexico and Central America, where we have a large source of, on one hand, traditionally migrant workers and there's still on many who continue that pattern. But in recent years, we've seen the changing dynamic of many families now coming with children.  It's been a long, long journey. We've been describing going through Mexico, very difficult, gangs, violence, and so on. They get to the border and it's not a piece of cake. Let's talk a little bit about what happens when they arrive there and what are some of the challenges. Well, I think it's very important to highlight that and stress is what refugees mean for economic migration, which traditionally people from Latin America will go and the pilot will be living with people. How much will they continue to do their time for their country? Yes. Nowadays, particularly, but honestly, I think that's very important. So the way that and forgive me if I use this analogy, but what happens of these refugees from the Middle East who are seeking asylum in Europe, they form to the category of refugees. This vaccination is not only requesting with a committee to find later opportunities. It is the same property violence but in the book the laws are very precise and very rigid when it comes to the criteria of who fights for asylum. Violence for coming from overnight crime is not considered a considered the following the category of self-reinforced violence. Therefore, it's very rare that some of the cases go through and are accepted as fine too. So out of the number of cases that are revised per year in the U.S., 60% are rejected. When it comes to people from Central America, 70% are rejected. So that becomes a very alarming when you realize that a lot of these people are not aware that they are even now experiencing one thing at the border. Some of them they don't even have the whole paper that requires access. It seems to be able to make that. If you say it's just violence from the local gang then it's a real violence person that a brother killed and the family harassed but unfortunately it's not the same as a war situation where the state is imposing that. And many of these countries had that in the past and the 70s and 80s had a lot of more formal civil wars or insurgencies. So that presents a challenge. You have people coming all the way and making a check only to find out they're rejected and then they're stepping in because they don't have the money to go back. They don't want to go back because of the reality. So it's a real difficult dilemma for them and interestingly even as they come through Mexico there's been a challenge to the Mexican government here. Some think of how they try to reach out to some of them and offer them opportunity in Mexico but the reality for many is that they're not looking to get to come to Mexico because of the long network of immigration from Central America into the U.S. many of them have family and have other connections but particularly there I think the real humanitarian is that what we've seen now is not just the traditional government that's you know struggling to understand but the way that the U.S. administration and the Trump administration is trying to kind of counterbalance that that's the real policy that is asking the Mexican government to hold them while they're in process but that is what they're looking for and of course for Mexico I mean especially those that have made it all they think they want to there's a situation there now where these shelters are overwhelmed don't have to have to be created a lot of tension there a lot more even violence in some of those border cities in Mexico are already violent places now added to them there's still bit more about this policy because it hasn't been completely clarified but the U.S. government has been pressuring Mexico to sort of serve as a sort of you know building a country that will hold them while they're in process but the challenge is that it's not easy for them to have access to legal rights and information or this corporate of lawyers there's a part that specializes in immigration and to attend to the cases of income and remind on top of the long list of people who are already in the U.S. it is overwhelming and not just to mention the immigration lawyers as described but even within the U.S. the capacity of the official processes literally as I recall Erigan in Tijuana the immigrants themselves have an informal network where they just have a sign up sheet where you put your name down very sort of immersed on its own and yet the time is a very slow time literally months for you to be called because it can only cause there's a small number every day again there's no simply the attitude whether it's in Mexico or the U.S. got it trying to address it I think that what would be a true true country front to contain and the problem would be something that has been discussed in Europe when it comes to board and sharing yes kind of like touristy are like fair failure countries that have to be just transition so European countries are finding ways to show up on distribution and I think that in the sense the U.S. cannot just say no this is not a problem until it's a potential current I'm not just fighting so some people have been sent back to Mexico to wait for their so the turn in Mexico administration has been very clear that they would not accept in 118 which is a lot of a very large location of money on the competition and three years ago was on a massive scale and as you know there was an effort to try and address those countries that are the transit countries mainly Turkey where the European Union has effectively given Turkey a fair amount of money to help help them there I don't see that happening in the U.S. side and really the U.S. wants to address this and maybe you know stop that low probably in the role if Mexico doesn't have a balance to figure out what should it do it's not a big problem and yet like it or not the problem is in Mexico as well with a large large number of governments in the U.S. maybe you finish a city dialogue on this what are some of the challenges in terms of social impact human development especially the young children people are heartbreaking but long term it also has a profound impact on their ability to develop a human development there's this whole idea of attachment the first two three years of life it is so important to have a primary caregiver who says that it's hard to understand when that child is removed from the parents there's a way to get a sense of how to understand the situation so that has already had impact on personality it's it's a traumatic experience it affects the capacity to lay on to build trust and relationships but also the trauma of I don't know at what point I'm going to need from a parent or say it's kind of the limit I mean the situations with kids in the attention center are something from who can I mean it's physical psychological emotional development of concerns that are already looking to by child providers again the challenge is just overwhelming on so many levels and it's a changing pattern of the type of immigrants the separation policies in the U.S. that has created this different type of problem and the challenge that many of these coming are not likely to get in under asylum refugee status because the circumstance while it is very real and violent it doesn't qualify for the criteria that it's a different kind of violence which is quite tragic again no easy solutions but obviously we have to understand the range of complexities and hope for the best and only by putting spotlight on these things and understanding the implications what it means to separate families it requires hopefully the pressure on government leaders to do something better not an easy solution to say the focus on the government to build a wall and there is a need to have the sources of it and I go back to this you know this problem will never be solved unless the conditions back in these host countries the home countries that their money comes they can solve issues of violence there and then development and opportunity it will never be solved the relationship has been in terms of the flow if it's been there for decades it's not going to go away I would maintain that ultimately it's got to be there has to be a process of legal immigration the economy requires it and yet we don't have a debt worker program it does exist for Canada so many come from Mexico and other countries short term employment legally but for the we don't see that in the cards now and that's ultimately the only solution debt worker program and maybe better information so that these families better be for them to understand if that's not happening or if they've got to make the case back home but easier said than done well it's a challenge and if you can help enlighten us about some of these emotional powerful forces and issues as a professor of psychology you have an understanding of this migration issue more from the human side in fact it has the development and the different types of immigrants you see now well I want to thank you this opportunity to talk a little bit more about this important topic for our listeners again to understand that migration is a complex issue social, political, economic so many variables and now we've got also with the cases in Central America you've got this country a transit in between Mexico different places and that's you know well that's the challenge we have we're going to stop on that and we continue to have to have a chance to talk more about different aspects of migration issue because it's going to be with us in time thank you our listeners for joining us I'm here with Dr.


The first team I'm looking at is New Orleans. The Saints are 4-0 against the Bucks since Tom Brady arrived in Tampa, including a shot-out last year. Jamies took care of the ball last week and Michael Thomas looked great in his return. Meanwhile, Tampa lost Chris Godwin to an injury, so if you ask me, it looks like we're leaning towards the Saints making it 5-0 against Brady. Miami got off to a good start by beating the Patriots, and I think they keep it up this week against the Ravens. Yes, Baltimore has a very good team, but so does Miami. The Dolphins beat them 22-10 last year and since then, they have only improved with the addition of Tyree Kale and the leap of Jaylen Waddle. Plus, since a 5-0-1 start last season, the Ravens have only won back-to-back games once. Tail-mine or pick your own upsets right now on the Fandals Sportsbook app.


One of NASA's major goals for the 1980s in aerodynamic research has been to explore the nature of the air that passes over surfaces of an airplane's wings and fuselage. The smooth flow of smoke from this burning cigarette is a good example of laminar airflow. When an airplane wing is built perfectly smooth, without joints, gaps and rivet holes, the same type of undisturbed airflow over the wing results. If the airflow hits debris on the wing as small as six thousandths of an inch, even bugs, turbulence results, and the scrubbing action of the air causes drag. Maintaining laminar airflow can reduce aerodynamic drag from 25 to 40%, resulting in greater fuel efficiency. A research team working out of the A.M. Dryden Flight Research Facility in California applied a jet-star business-sized aircraft with two specially adapted wing sections as seen in this model. The test sections are designed to artificially induce laminar flow over the wings. The idea is that airflow can be held laminar over a very smooth wing section if air is sucked through regularly spaced pores or swats in the wing. Both wing sections have systems that keep the wing clean of bugs, ice, and other contaminants. The primary focus of this study is to fly the jet-star in typical commercial airline routes across the country in order to cool both systems' worthiness under real conditions. Pilot John Mattis There's really just a general exposure of all of the country in the airline environment. Get it out of the test area and put it to work. Scientists at the Langley Research Facility in Hampton, Virginia are also studying laminar flow. They use a lear jet that has a modern wing design incorporating smooth surfaces through which chemicals are applied, allowing researchers to see natural laminar and turbulent airflow patterns as they occur during different flight conditions. A promise in breakthrough is a new, different crystal chemical that changes color according to aerodynamic effects. Never has continuous transition between laminar and turbulent flows been seen before. Since the late 1930s, it was believed that laminar flow couldn't exist on airplane wings. The smoothness of plane wings today makes the difference. Richard Wagner talks about going a step further and applying laminar flow to supersonic applications. We intend to flight test an F-106 and look to see how much laminar flow we can get on the wings and on the vertical pale. Many people believe that laminar flow control at supersonic speeds could be the answer to an economical supersonic transport. Laminar flow for many years ignored as a way to reduce drag in aerodynamic research. Now, a promising approach to greater efficiency in flight.