Today, you're going to learn a hack that's going to improve your communication skills massively. It's really easy to implement, really easy to learn, but most people don't know how to do it. And in my role of training thousands and thousands of facilitators over the last few years, this has been one of the key aspects of improving their facilitation skills by improving this one aspect of communication. And it's called active listening. What you're about to see is a video from our course called Facilitation Fundamentals. This is the workbook from it. And we're going to be showing you inside one piece of one lesson from that program. We're going to be looking at verbal active listening. I don't want to waste any more of your time. We're going to jump right into it, but really quick, if you're interested in facilitation, if you're interested in this entire topic, we've got a free community called the Facilitator Club. You can join it for free. No strings attached. Join hundreds of other facilitators from around the world, learning facilitation together, getting free lessons from us. Right below this video, you'll find a link to facilitatorclub.com. That's it. Go check that out. And now let's go to the video. Technique number two, be an active listener. Now, a lot of you are probably watching this video and going, listening, all I have to do is just look at someone. And when they talk, it just goes in and I'm listening. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's just listening. That's passive listening. There's a huge, huge difference between active and passive listening. Listening is just hearing what somebody is saying. But have you ever been at a party or have you ever just met someone? They've asked you a question. They say, Hey, how are you doing? And you start telling them how you're doing. And somehow you can tell they don't really care about the answer. They're just like, Okay, yeah, okay. And as soon as you finish talking, they just tell you something that you've triggered in their mind. So you tell them, Oh yeah, I'm doing okay. You know, I'm thinking of moving to Thailand and they're like, Thailand, right? I read a new story about Thailand. And after a while, you start feeling very tired and not interested in talking to this person. It's because this person's not actually listening to you. They're just trying to get you to trigger things in their minds. They're not listening. They're thinking about the next thing to say to you. This is okay in conversation, I suppose. And we're not trying to do a conversation improvement course here. But as a facilitator, it's absolutely not okay. As a facilitator, you're actually going to be using an extremely powerful skill, which requires conscious effort called active listening to bring people through a workshop. Let me read a definition for you because I did not invent this myself. And I think it's really important to give credit to the boys who came up with it in 1957. The boys being Carl Rogers, who we will be mentioning a lot in this program. And if you see the workbook, you're going to see Carl Rogers, that Carl Rogers life is represented in there. So Carl Rogers and Richard Farson coined the term active listening in 1957 before my time in a paper of the same title. Rogers and Farson write active listening is an important way to bring about changes in people. Despite the popular notion that listening is a passive approach, it isn't. Clinical and research evidence clearly shows that sensitive listening is a most effective agent for individual personality change and group development groups. It's the group thing that we're doing in this group. Listening brings about changes in people's attitudes towards themselves and others. It also brings about changes in their basic values and personal philosophy. People who've been listened to in this new and special way become more emotionally mature. Why didn't anyone listen to me as a child? More open to their experiences, less defensive. This is just describing all of my problems. More democratic and less authoritarian. That's good. That's good. You should listen to people. If you just listen to people, they would be better people in this world and bad things would not happen. And that's what we're training you to do. You're going to make bad things not happen in this world. If we can train eight billion facilitators with this course, then the world will be an amazing place. Have I gotten lost? Are we done here? Okay. Let's get back to active listening. There are two main types of active listening. Verbal and non-verbal. You probably guessed that one, non-verbal. So let's take a look at the verbal side of active listening. The idea here is that you're using your voice to reflect what the person is saying to you and to also confirm that you understand what they are saying. And there are five ways of doing this. Number one, paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is basically repeating or re-wording what somebody has said to you back to them the way you understood it. This very simply shows to the person who you're talking to that you've listened to and understood what they've said. And how you can actually say this back is, okay, so I think I'm hearing and then say it in your own words. Or I think what you're trying to say is, and then finish that with, is that accurate? This really, really clarifies to the person you're listening to that you have listened. Because if you're paraphrasing what they've said in your own words, the way you've understood it, then clearly you've heard what they've said and you've internalized it. This also allows them to correct you if you've misunderstood what they said. And it's a very, very simple way to get clarity in a conversation. You've heard what they said and they understand that you've heard what they said and understood what they said. So paraphrasing is a super powerful and super simple tool. I would also recommend using this in normal conversations with people instead of coming up with a response instead of just saying, oh yeah, this reminds me of this and this and this. You say, well, so while you're trying to say is that this, this and this and this, is that what you mean? That immediately gives the person the feeling you're listening to them. So paraphrasing is the first thing you can do when you're doing verbal active listening. Number two, mirroring. As an Irish person, this is very hard to say, but it will be written on screen. So you know what I said mirroring. So what if you paraphrase something to a participant in a workshop and they still feel frustrated and they still feel like you're not listening to them? Well, what you can do and don't use this very often, only use it if paraphrasing doesn't work. What you can do is actually literally repeat exactly what they said back to them. So if they said to you, I don't think the solution is going to work because the team hasn't got enough time to develop it. Then I would say, okay, you don't think the solution is going to work because the team doesn't have time to develop it. Literally the exact same thing back to them, just to confirm I've heard exactly what they said. And some people actually, I'm a little bit like this. I'm quite pedantic. I do need someone to mirror what I've said before I believe that they've actually heard me. So that's number two, mirroring. Number three, questioning. What happens if you're talking to someone and you're you're trying to do your active listening, but they're just not talking a lot back to you? Well, one thing you can do is questioning. You can help draw out the information from them so that you actually have more information from them that they feel like they're able to say things that you're listening to. Well, what you can do is just help them along by asking some simple questions. So if someone says something to you, but you don't feel like they've said enough, you can say, can you tell me more about that? Interesting. Can you go further? Or can you go deeper into that topic? Or you could say, what's another way of putting that? Just really looking for ways to help that person to speak more. And then once they've said what you consider to be everything for that topic, you can then paraphrase it back to them or mirror it back to them, just to clarify that you've really heard it and understood it. So that's number three and that's questioning. We're going to be going more into questioning and one of the further techniques in this section. But for active listening, it's really just about saying something like, okay, can you tell me a little bit more about that? Or can you talk a little bit more about that? Okay, interesting. Is there anything more you can say about that? Just really helping move them along if they're reluctant to speak. Because remember as a facilitator, you do need this information from the group so that the entire group can move forward. Number four, and this is a big one and most facilitators will never do this. It's called reflecting feelings. So when you're speaking to somebody, another really great way to show that you're deeply listening. And it's also a great way to show empathy that you really understand what they're feeling is by reflecting their feelings back to them. Things like saying, it seems like you're really worried about this. Or hearing what you've just said, it seems like there's a lot of anxiety around the development date. Or it sounds like this is something that's been frustrating you for a while. It seems like you're frustrated. This is just a very simple way to show them that you understand how they feel. So they're not going to be frustratedly trying to get things across in different words if you can really quickly show them that you understand the feelings that they have. It's going to help them feel seen and also help them move on in the workshop more easily. The fifth and final step in verbal active listening is to summarize. Now, this is not to be confused by paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is when you're repeating things back in your own words during a conversation just to make sure that the other person knows that you've understood them and also to make sure that you really have understood them. Summarizing is at the end of a conversation. It's a way to really close the door completely on the conversation for the whole group or for the individual you're working with. And the idea here is that you're saying, so here's what I've understood. The so is important. This is really the sort of finishing things up word. So here's what I've understood. This, this, this and this. Now, obviously later we're going to be talking about like writing these things down, but generally the fifth and final step of verbal active listening is really just summarizing the conversation that has happened. So everyone feels like, okay, the facilitator has understood, has spoken this understanding in a summary back to the group. Now everyone in the group understands so we can close the door and move on. Moving on is the key here. As a facilitator, your job is to keep the entire conversation moving, to keep the workshop moving. But if you can't close the door, people can't move on. So you have to summarize the conversation. So here's what I've understood. Is there anything I'm missing? That's something you can add to the end just to make sure. But that's really the perfect way to finish things up. Summarizing. So those are the steps involved in verbal active listening. Now, let's go to the slightly more difficult to quantify non-verbal. Let's do this. Great stuff. Verbal active listening. So I hope you enjoyed that video and I hope it gave you a good overview of verbal active listening. If you want to learn more about facilitation for free and join the world's best facilitation community, go to facilitatorclub.com or click the link down in the description. And I hope you liked this video. If you did, give it a like because it shows the video to more people on YouTube. Thank you so much. See you later.


Wallen Buffett is the king of all stock market investors, one of the richest men in the world and he's known as the Oracle of Omaha, the place where he stays in the United States. He's revered by stock market investors and punters across the world for his great insight and ability to pick businesses and stocks. But do you know what Buffett himself considers to be one of his smartest investments? No, it is not just any ordinary company, it's not something that produces something and therefore its stock price goes up. It is an insurance business that he bought some 55 years ago. And after that he bought more insurance businesses and put them together. And now Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, is one of the biggest insurance companies in the world. Now why would he buy an insurance business? Because on the face of it, insurance seems like a loss making business, right? Because people give premiums which are pretty low over a period of time and let's take the example of life insurance. They give us small premium and when they die, their family gets much, much more than the total amount of premium that they've paid and if it's life insurance then the payout is for everyone because everyone ultimately dies, right? The business itself does not change fundamentally whether it is car accident insurance, whether it is property insurance. Yes, the payouts might be lower but the payouts are also faster. So if insurance businesses have to pay out more than the premium they receive, how do they make their money? This is where the concept of insurance float comes in. Now each person who buys an insurance product might be paying a small amount of premium but when you add up hundreds and thousands even millions of people who are buying insurance products and paying premium then the total amount of money coming into an insurance business is huge. And remember this is a stable amount of funds which lasts for a very long time because payouts are not immediate, they take years to come. This huge amount of funds that an insurance business controls is called its float. Do understand that the total cost of a float is usually higher than the premium that comes in. That is over a large period of time but as Warren Buffett's company has shown that if the insurance underwriting or the fact that who are the people who will get an insurance product or an insurance claim is strictly monitored then you can actually make a small modest profit but that is not the reason why Buffett buys these insurance companies or has bought these insurance companies in the past since interest is in the float because it's bit like getting a loan for free in fact getting paid for taking a loan because let's say that you needed a million dollars that you wanted to invest in either buying a company or in a business or even in the stock market you would want to go and take a loan from somewhere and you'd have to pay a high interest rate. What happens when you have an insurance business people are paying you premium to keep that money with you and when you add up everyone you get a million dollars which is free for you to invest. Now most insurance companies tend to be conservative they invest in long-term bonds, stable bonds because they want to be sure that they can pay out. Warren Buffett uses that money to also invest in other businesses partly in government bonds but also in the stock markets to get a higher return so this is a huge investment company a holding company Baksha Hathaway owned partly by Warren Buffett and several other billionaire shareholders and big money rich shareholders who control some of the biggest funds free funds insurance float in the world. This is one of the fundamental conditions of success in capitalism to have access to funds. Capital big gets capital if you have money you're likely to make more money. Now I'm not undermining Warren Buffett's acumen his genius his ability to make money through picking correct stocks and betting on the correct businesses. Without his genius he wouldn't have been Warren Buffett but without the money that he's got the big capital that people handed over to him rich people handed over to him and the float he controls through the insurance business he would not have been Warren Buffett either. As I said those who have capital become even richer under capitalism free market conditions, engender, increase inequality because those who start with higher capital earn and accumulate more. Only government intervention progressive taxes, dole, unemployment benefit can actually stop capitalism from imploding under the weight of the inequality to engenders. The smartest capitalists like Warren Buffett actually know that capitalism can only survive if a little bit is taken from the billionaires from the richest people and then redistributed amongst the poor. Function of government is not something to get bigger it may be in an important way to take care of people who for one reason or another get left behind in a market system. Because without that capitalism cannot be stable.  Keep watching NewsClick, like our channel, subscribe to us, like this video and share it as well.


Hi everyone. It's Wednesday at 1 o'clock. If you're new to our live videos, my name's Dave, or David actually. And behind the camera is Jeff. What's going on everybody? And then typing is Tanya. Hi Tanya. So if you have any questions as we go through or ideas or suggestions, please just talk to these people. And at the look it over there the quick review this is. Whoa!  Gotta lock her up. Hello Jessica. Jessica does graphic design, web stuff and packaging. She's a great friend of ours. And mine and Jeff's. So we don't have, I don't know what we're going to do today. Which is kind of exciting. So we'll just walk around a bit. We'll just talk about some projects that are on the go. And then we'll do something. Cool. And see what happens. So why don't you just start walking? Somebody special said hi. Oh my mom? Yep. Hey mom. We went to meet Rebecca. We went to pick up some hardwood florida this morning. Oh for what? For a house. Hey Alexis and Peggy. Oh yeah, so that's pretty exciting. What color? What kind of shader are we going? It's like a desaturated light brown I'd say. Okay. Nice. Desaturated light brown. So these are some scorpions you bought on the internet. Katie, what's up? Look at this scorpion. The fat, where are you? This scorpion has its tail down. Let's see if we can get that tail up. Oh like curvy you mean? Yeah. Yeah. And your plans for that? We're going to be encasing these scorpions in blocks of resin. What? Do you know where that other scorpion is upstairs in your desk? No, the one with the curved tail. Here, here he is. Here. That looks perfect. This is the cout de gras as we call it. This one looks like, yeah, here, let's get in there. I want to ruin them. But that's what you want right there. Hello, hey duke. Duke, what's up? What's up? Hey Laura. Pickering? Oh yeah, these stink. They stink. I recently found out that Shawn Mendes is from. Hey Maria. Pickering. I'm from Ajax. And Laura's from Pickering. Oh yes, yeah. This thing. Yes, this is just like, oh. Gross. Anyways, look at this mold that we found. Yes. So this, this silicone mold is for soap making. So soap making has amazing rectangular silicone molds. So we're going to be putting this scorpion in this resin and just encasing it. Have a little sample of something to show. Oh, Laura's son went to the same school as Mr. Mendes. All right. So this is an example. Look at this beetle. Just going to get a close shot. See, so this beetle is encased in resin. Now you'll see there's a line. Because what you actually have to do, you have to do it in two pores. We've tried, you can do it in one pore if you, if you string it and box it. You have to suspend it in space. But that's really hard to do. And you'll still see the string too at the same. Yeah. Even if it's fishing wire, you know. So we're going to show you how to do it with those big scorpions and thick cast. Okay. In a soap making mold. You know it'd be interesting and we definitely don't have to do this. But we could do a version where the first pore is tinted like a color. Oh, it's a layer upon a ground. So it's like, yeah, like a ground or something. This is a two step process with these scorpions. The first step is our first quarter resin. Let it cure. Yeah. Set the scorpion on your second pore. Cool. So why don't we prepare the ground for two of these scorpions. We'll do one, we'll do one color and one clear. Cool. I like it. Hey, Belle from New Zealand. Yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, it's Nestier. Do they have scorpions in New Zealand? Well, I don't know either. I would assume, I know that they have nasty spiders in Australia. I would assume New Zealand's the same thing, but I probably shouldn't assume that because in New Zealand and Australia at times, don't get along. Is that true? Australia is in New Zealand. I don't know. I think so. Aussies and Kiwis. Is that right? I don't know. Let us know. No, Belle, you guys are good. Hey, Melissa in Texas. Getting after art within this manufacturer in Texas. Trisha, Trisha and Gypsy Beak.  Why did this creature get created? Yeah. Oh man. Oh man. So I think what I want, I want this to be. Curved up, eh? Oh, it's going to break. Oh, is it? Is it? Yeah, it's dried. So we'll do some research on how to get this curved up. We'll have to like rehydrate it. You know? Yeah, that was smart. You did that before with. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, let me take this one up too. Matthew, Susan, Alexis. Good to have you all here. Hi, everyone. We gave you business. Lisa. We don't have a plan for this live video. We just like to plan it. Yep. Join us tonight and here today. We're lost. We're lost here. Yeah. So. The scorpion. Now these scorpions just think it's a weird death smell. Cool. Thanks for your update, Belle. And New Zealand versus New Zealand are fine. We're good with Australians. Yeah, they get along. Yeah. It might not be the same Australian though. I said hi properly to my mom, right? Yes, you did. Yeah. Yes. Oh, Switzerland's here. Oh. Oh, Maria, you are bang on there. Yeah, I'm tired, but I'm good. I'm good. Are you tired, Jeff? Yeah, a little bit. Oh, no. It's all good. Okay, let's move on to see what else we'll do today. So these are all circles. You'll see because we made a circle calculator. Thanks to John and you folks. Yeah, where's John? I haven't seen John yet. So anyartresident.com slash circle and you can, if you want to do any of this different circle art. This is what we did with Dan Arkersie. I don't know if you want to show it yet. No, I'm going to, I'm going to resist these circles. Here's sneak peek. No, I'm not looking. He used those. Different molds and our metallic pearl, which really worked out well in mixed with the resin. That's how we got that textured look. It's so good. So these are, what we're doing is with this mold making material, we're trying to see how many times you can reuse and reuse and reuse the mold because that's kind of like the test for the quality of your silicone. It's how, how many times can you use it? So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I can't use it. So we're just going to keep making. So these are both copies of this King Tut character, which is kind of our test piece. Yes. And we're just experimenting with all sorts of things. So you've already done this in one mold, all of these duplicate. Oh, look at the, I didn't even see these ones. Nice. It's great. So we're just going to keep making them and making them and sell them all fails. Okay. So far we're five in plus the original, which made the mold. Okay. Sorry. Alexis just wants to point out that you've got lovely Wolverine here today. Oh, thank you. Yes. Here we go. Here we go. Wolverine. Get it out. Use your claws. The muscles. That too. So what's this one? Some glitter. Oh. Oh. To clean that one off. That looks like lots of bubbles in there. I like the color though. We have lots of glitter. It's so different. There you go. So you guys can see. It's on this one too. So you got lots of glitter. So gold glitter and kind of a bluey greeny. Lots of different shade on camera here. Pink Hill, North Carolina. Susan. Oh, and Susan's from New Brunswick. Susan. New Brunswick. I hope you're all doing okay out there. We're close to Toronto, but we're not in the shutdown zone, which is very nice. Let's not get into that. See what we have here. Hey Trisha, I tried to read that quickly, but I think Tanya will be able to answer your question for you. Oh, look it. There's feathers inside of that. Oh, interesting. Okay. All right. Let's take a look here guys, or I'll show you this one. We could pour two more of these, if you wanted to. So a lot of what, as Dave is saying we're doing here, is taking one mold that we made with this guy to start off with. Built the mold, and now doing all of these duplicates, just to see how many, you saw how Dave was pulling it out of the mold. Like you have to rigorously kind of pull it out, and yet it's still holding firm and you're able to duplicate that many, at least already, seven, and there will be more. We've done up to 20. Yeah? In our tests, we got up to 20. Wow. Now, these are something I'm probably still going to do. Again, we're always seeing what people are doing with our resin, and one thing people have been doing is they have some sprinkles. I don't have them all, but you can get Christmas sprinkles and paint on resin and then roll it in your sprinkles, and they're making these Christmas-y things. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. So it's decoration just for the glass itself? It's decoration for the glass. We're sprinkling little Christmas-y glitter stuff. Yeah. That's what people are doing, and all sorts of stuff. Oh, man. Very creative people out there. Yeah. Yeah. This is another mold. Trying to make these perfect rectangles, three-inch rectangles. That one's not perfect. So this is another mold, painted with cardboard and tape. Someone's asking us if we play Fortnite. Do you play Fortnite? No. I don't know anything about it. And then... Why? Should we play Fortnite? It's pretty big craze out there. I don't know. I used to play video games in the day. I don't have time for video games at all right now. Whoever's asking, just so you know, me and Jeff have young kids, and so we just can't play Fortnite. But I kind of wish I could explore and go into that world and see what's up with you. I know. So I'll show you what this is in a second. Hey, Shari from Ohio. And Duka, thanks for some of the info. You're awesome. It's great to have you on here. Oh, Rowe? Rowe? Rowe? Anyways, big fan. Big fan right here for you, Dave. Oh, so nice. So what we're making here is we're making a three-inch square mold so that we can put flowers in it and just get perfect flowers and use three-inch square blocks. Okay, cool. So you're building your own mold? I'm building my own mold, yes. For, yeah, a specific shape to put things in and encase them, right? We couldn't find a three-inch square mold anywhere in the world. So we just had to make one. Rowe. There we go. Rowe, spelled R-O-E. That's her name. Sorry, I just want to make sure we pronounce it right. So Rowe is here from Florida. Nice to have you. Oh, nice. Florida. I wish I could go to Florida. Oh, right. We have snow catching in the snow. Look at all the snow. It just happened here. This is our first big snowfall, I guess, of the year. It's not big, but chunks of snow. Okay. Officially winter. So you see what we're trying to do to get the point? So there you go. There's the mold that Dave made with a perfect square. And the good thing is, so Dave, this will have a clear finish, not a matte finish. Yeah. I'm just going to get some gloves. All right. So yeah, so this is good. So Dave poured it so that it was thick enough while you have it. You're using a built it with this cardboard here, but it's thick enough. So it's nice and sturdy, but it's a perfect square. And so now when it comes out, we can encase things in this because as we are saying, as maybe you are learning, a thick cast can go up to three inches. Yeah. And of a pour, which is very hard to find. So anyways, Dave has built it. So now we'll be able to encase some things in there. And yeah, we're going to do flowers for sure. Yeah. And so this is another mold that made in a milk carton. So this is more of a, hey, if you just need to find something quick at home, about a boom, grab a milk carton. But it's also what you're saying about having nice thick walls in your molds. This one is an example of thin walls. Okay. Oh, yeah. But I still want to do it because... Well, it's good. Then we can test that out. Yeah. And we'll let you guys know. I'm not sure if I'm going to get a nine or nine. Sorry. She misses Canada snow. She doesn't, maybe it doesn't get snow at Christmas. Snow at Christmas to give the ambiance is nice, right? Yeah and snow can be fun when you're, when you're grassed appropriately and playing in it. Yeah. No, Matthew. Resin does not taste yummy. So no, please do not ingest. Yeah. No, it tastes gross. Yeah. That's sticky. You don't normally eat it. No. It smells bad. It doesn't even smell. She doesn't even smell really. Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Bob the bee. And Tanya. Tanya the king or queen there? I like that little art resin with the king crown. Boom. Okay. So this is good to see. So as thin as that is, you're just really peeling it back though. No problem. Yeah. Nice. I mean, this is the, in my opinion, the perfect silicone for all of its properties. Wow. So there's two examples of boxes. This one, when you pour the resin in, there is a chance that it could bulk out like that, like bulge out. I got you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So now let's look in here. Perfect timing. Everything set up. So this pressure pot, pressure in it right now. Sorry. I'm just answering. Ro, we have made it. Dave actually made a river table not too long ago. Oh yeah.  So you did a pressure pot yesterday? Two days ago. Okay. Could have been yesterday. Could have been the day before. No, it was yesterday. It's probably still wet. That looks clear. Is it still wet? Should I touch it? Yeah. Just touch the sides. Do you push it in? No, it's hard. Is it? It looks like just. Still like just. Yeah. You don't want to pull that out then. That looks clear. Let's see the clear. So there's, is that thick cast then in there? Yeah. So that's thick cast in the pressure pot. Three inches. And then so. Three inches. This should be, have no, have this color. It should not be clear. And that's the thing when you get really thick. You can discolor it. Oh, I see. So if you're looking with a casting resin, you're going to, you might want to pour something really thick, but the higher, or the thicker you go, and it starts to yellow or just discolor. Cook. Cook. Actually cook. So what's in here? I don't know. I'm, I'm thoroughly, other people are impressed. This is, that is clear, man. So I think we pour this. Pull this out tomorrow. Last Wednesday. Report this. Whoa. So there's a strawberry. Oh. And look at the detail. I don't know if I can see anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Look at that. Did you guys, you made that strawberry mold? Well, we just put a strawberry. Is this the old mold or? Yeah. This is an old mold. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Put a strawberry in there and. Better boom. Yeah. Okay. What else? This is a diamond. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That looks gorgeous. This one is, this one's interesting though too, right? Cause this shows you just how crazy the details can be with a mold where you can just kind of put any, like a strawberry with tiny little seeds, but you get all of the detail of it on there. Sweet. So this was a mold that we did. I think it was last week because someone had a question about the molds sticking to copper. You say if you have a little copper statue or something you made out of copper, that you want to duplicate. So there's some copper in here. Oh, okay. Oh, I remember that. That was the last, yeah. Yeah. Maybe two weeks ago. Okay. Cool. Nice bell. Yeah, it looks good. These are, these molds, the molds are actually very impressive. We did a lot of research on different silicones and what they're made out of and what properties you want to look for. And we're happy with this one. Yeah. If we actually lined our walls with all the things and molds and have we made and tested with all the different things, we'll like, yeah, we'll fill this entire room. This one's a bit tricky. Yep. Donna's watching. Donna knows, yeah, we put all three of them in the pot last week. Yeah. So here we go. Oh, these, I guess the copper was in the pot. Maybe put three things in there. Are we squeezing them in there? Oh, yeah. They're in the pot for each other. Yeah.  I swear I need Johanna. Johanna. So Jeff, give us a sports update. Same old same. Football is now into week 12. When is the Super Bowl? I believe it's February. I want to say seventh, which is so we got a way to go. I believe it's February 7th. Yeah. If everything goes well, but that would be unless there's any kind of COVID delay, which more, there have been more cases coming up and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of cases coming up and stuff, but games are still going ahead. It might just be, like if we get to play off time and then some significant people are sick, then they might have to postpone things. I don't know it will be interesting. See what they do. Okay. People will complain if there's like a missing star in a playoff game and they lose, they'll be like, yep, there you go. Wasn't legit. Yeah, We are cooking. So goes on. Everybody's got the same issues. Okay. Wow, look at this. Okay. of cutting is possible. Okay. Because when you cut, that's when you can get seams in your resin. Do I have to do this right now? You can do whatever you want. Okay, I don't want to do this anymore. All right, moving on. Okay, moving on. I found this tray at Fortinos. Oh. Fortinos is a grocery store here. And I was like, wow, that's nice. I should put some resin on it. Should we do that? Yeah. Okay. So here's what we'll do today. We'll fill these two with some different weird stuff and we'll pour base coats for our scorpions. Oh, yes. Yes. Sorry for the name that I asked, but yes, this is our studio. This is our resin studio, and we are located in Waterdown. Oh, it's just okay. Yeah, I'll have to move it. Yes and no. I can't show it on camera. Yes. Isn't this amazing? There's a lot of painting and creating going on here. I love that. Yes, yeah, because it's so basically if it's a canvas or cloth, right, it'll sag in the middle and create pools of resin. So you want a nice solid board, avoids all that, you just do a pour, it'll level, you're good. Whatever you want. Let's, yeah, we can just pour the floor. Yeah, these are good. Why not? You guys want to see this? We'll pour some resin on here. Is there something else you want to do to this or something maybe? Or what are you thinking? I was going to add some paint to it. Yeah, okay, yeah, either, yeah, like here, whatever you do. There were paint markers or just acrylic or whatever. Because it's cool. Yeah, it feels like or, or do we do a coat of resin and then do kind of a layered butterfly where you have some 3D effects to it? Yeah. And just do a layer here and then but a boom. Okay, put some feathers and glitter on it. Would Gesso on canvas keep it from pooling? Yeah. Yeah, you could put some real butterflies on here. We could take all those butterflies we've been trying to do and then just as if they're off in the distance. Uh, well, this is what this is not 12 by 12, is it? Is it 12 by 12? Roughly? So, I love these mixing containers. We just got them from Uline. Yes. Everything from Uline. No, we're in just outside of Toronto. Water Down's in the GTA area. Yeah, it's considered part of Hamilton, I think. All right. It's considered part of Hamilton. It's right after Burlington, so Oakville, Burlington, Water Down. Nice. What's up? Dale from Grimsby? Oh, just in Grimsby. Where are you? This morning. Seriously? This morning I was in South or something. There you go, Dale. You're neighbors. It's so nice. It's, we got the escargot on one side and Lake Ontario on the other side. Oh, nice. Grimsby, beautiful place. Okay, there's 24 ounces of hardener. Yeah, so are we going to do some, is this thick cast going to go in here? No, I'm just, just because it's a thin coat. Oh, okay, okay. Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, so because it's thin, we can do art resin, but if it was, if we're going to fill about the whole mold, then you would, while you would want to use thick cast. Oh yeah, okay. Yeah, let's go look at the colors that we have. I'll do a blue. Let's see, blue. Oh, we don't have a neon. Yeah, they can do a, we got the pink neon, but they can definitely get some other different colors in there. Okay. Oh yeah, I could put some, or you can layer it. That takes a while. Layered colors. There's some colored sand, like, but this will just go right to the head, right? Oh yeah. Just sink. So organized in here. Hi, Inderjot. Who? Inderjot. Inderjot. Welcome. What else is there to talk about? Well, you tell me. I don't have anything. What else is exciting? How is, how are your kids with the first snowfall of the season? Oh, great. We're deboggling right away. Oh, no way. Yeah. Is there a hill by your place or? Yeah, what's that? Oh yeah, nice. There wasn't enough snow yet. Yeah, what about your kids? Are they in the snow? Yeah, built some snowmen the other day. Yes, I saw so many snowmen around. Yeah, that was nice. Yeah, we did a snowman too. Yeah, it was cool to see my oldest. He's five, and he was just like, he didn't want nobody to help him. He was, I'm doing my snowman, I will push, I will put the third ball on the top of my own. Let me be. What about a character? Did he do the full character? Okay, Inderjot. We get it, buddy. Hi, hi, hi. We're good. It's very nice to say hi. Hi. And everybody else who has been saying hi. Yeah, we could put some butterflies in there. Sorry, what were you saying, Dave? Butterflies in what? In King Tut? No, on the butterfly board. Like you put the, yeah. The real butterflies on there? Yeah. Oh, Gypsy Bay. Oh, man, you are on it. Yeah. Are we, we are supposed to be doing a contest, Dave? Actually, Oh, for a year's supply of resin. Yes. Well, we are going to do a competition. We are actually working at the Kinks right now. There will be a video filmed that will announce it and you will know all the details. And yes, there is a contest. Finally, it's been a while, Dave. Yeah. So we will have a contest coming up very soon. Okay, Ro, you are awesome. Thanks for saying that. It's very nice. Ro said that she's used a marine resin. Yes. And compared and there is no comparison. Well, the thing, a marine resin might be amazing for marine uses, right? But when you're making, when you're working with resins, you formulate it for the use that you need it for. Right. So for example, the company that we partnered with to make art resin, one of the things they did was on cruise ships in the ventilation, because they're out the ocean, you get rust in your ventilation on your cruise ship. But so to fix that, you put your epoxy resin on it, but you have it full of people and so there can't be any fumes because you're, you're resonating a ventilation system. Oh, yeah. So that's why art resin is non-toxic because it came actually from a formula that was used for that purpose. No fumes, right? Oh, that's interesting. But then you just say, okay, we want it to be really clear. Yeah. And then you say no, like really breaking clear and then they'll formulate it for that. So you kind of tweak it and kind of, yeah. So nothing against marine resins. If you're building a boat, then use the marine resin, right? Yeah. Because they consider like it has to be really hard, but it has to be a bit flexible. And so it can't crack, right? So. Interesting. Yeah. There you go. See. And then temperatures are important too, when you get. Yes. Like if you, like sitting in frozen water for it, you know. Yeah. Okay. That's right. Yeah. Sorry, go on. Well, also if you're doing it for marine, it's gotta, there can't be any leaching because of the aquatic life. So then marine resins are, I imagine they're fairly safe. Yeah. There you go. See, so there's a lot of resins out there and a lot of great ones and everybody's got a purpose and you just find the one that's right for you. Yeah, this is looking good. Should we take this out and look at it? Can we? Is it? Oh, it's pretty sticky. It's pretty sticky. I didn't pour it that yesterday. Yeah, I wouldn't touch it yet. Oh, it's too bad. Yeah, we'll show you guys next week. Remind us about that cube. That was the clear cube from the pressure pot. Okay, we are mixed up. The reason why I'm doing two, that's fine. These are experiments because I don't know if scorpions float or not. And we're going to put color in one. Okay. So this one I'm going to do clear. And for this one, I'm going to put this scorpion with the broken tail, double time broken tail. Look at that. Be careful with the scorpion. What, do you want one of the other ones or are you just going to? No, this is just a test. Okay. Donna says they're going to float. You think it'll float? Oh, it keeps, wow, we got a butterfly, butterfly sink. Scorpion pendant. Yeah, that's cool. Oh, good idea. I mean, you get a pendant right now. Let me just get some, look, I broke a leg off too. So sad. Poor guy. Seems to be floating. Yeah, it looks like it. Tilt on the edge here. What's your look for? Oh, pendants? Here's kind of pendants. They have holes in them, right? We had a case or a, what are those ones? Oh, that's small though. It's a decent one. Yeah, that one would probably fit the one with the broken tail. So I'm going to assume that this one's going to be done in two coats as well. Yeah. This guy's moving a lot. You have the same mold bill? Nice. Actually, yeah, thanks William. Dave and Rebecca have a lot of great artwork actually here. Yeah, and one interesting thing, and so if you're artists out there, we kind of stumbled across the idea of renting art for movies. And so it's a whole other way to make money as artists and movies are always looking for new art. Yeah, it's a renter art, right? Just put in the background, yeah. All right, how are we going to do this? Very careful, very careful Dave, careful. Maybe pick up not from the tail? I'm going to use this guy. I'm going to get some tweezers. Yeah, yeah. So this guy's still floating. He's not sinking. Yeah, there you go, Donna. Hollywood. Well, we're in Hamilton and there's a surprising amount of stuff being shot here. Lots of filming, eh? Yeah. Oh, what you doing? I'm grabbing this sucker. You're going to move him over? Okay. How do we know it's a hymn? Oh, good question. Oh, Dave's making a pendant. You know, I'm actually going to turn it upside down. Okay. It's okay. So one arm's scorpion. Oh, man, we're going to put it back on. It's okay.  What kind of creature is this? Well, why does this creature exist? Time to be encased in resin. I guess so. Okay, no stinger on this guy, but. Yeah, John, it's true. If you let it, the resin cure for about 45 minutes, then it's harder. So you could, it'll rest on top more so than sink at the top, yeah. Okay, this one. There's a lot of, you have two separate cops. We're going to mix up two different colors for our cane cut. And we're testing the longevity of the mold making material. Okay. This might turn it all right. This little pendant? I like that. I like how you got the, yeah, the arms around the loop. There you go. Scorpions are arachnids. Scorpions are like spiders? Yeah, I guess so. I didn't know that either. Yeah, I guess that would make sense because they're not reptiles. They're not bugs. They have eight legs. So I'm looking for boomerglow. Well, this is going well for something that was unplanned, I think. Yeah. I was like, maybe we shouldn't do it. I don't know what I'm going to do. This tray was $30 and I saw it and I said, I need to have that tray. I need to put resin on that tray. And it's happening live. Any news on ThickCast? So much news. Yeah. Yeah, the news is it's going to be great. It's, there just seems to be so many hurdles, like hurdle, hurdle, hurdle. And like, now there's like global plastic supply issues because of COVID. So, man, we're just making sure we're okay. You know? Yep. Make sure you're okay. The bonus is we've been practicing with it and doing lots of examples, which is great. So you'll see a lot of videos coming out that will showcase ThickCast in action. So that's good. And it's coming. It's coming. So here's this one is fluorescent yellow sand with acrylic ink. Okay. $250 for a tray like that. There you go. See, throw some resin on it. All of a sudden it goes from 30 to 300. Yep. This thing is pretty empty. So you want to see some of their work? Let's see. Well, Dave is an artist.  That's one of his pieces. I don't think we have any much art here. Oh, he's done it. He's done it. There's tons downstairs. He's done a book. Him and his daughter wrote a book and illustrated it all. Pretty crazy. That's how you do it. That's a nice blue. What are you gonna do? What are you doing now? So this is gouache, a cheap gouache. Guache paint. Okay. And here's some acrylic paint. And you can mix anything into our resin and just get different effects. So I'm putting some acrylic paint in that one. And this one I'm putting gouache, which is kind of a, I think gouache is a mix between watercolor and acrylic. Is it machine gouacheable? Machine gouacheable. Good one. Wash yourself, Jeff. That's good too. Yeah. Boom, boom. I don't know if our audience can take that kind of humor. Just bam, bam like that. They can handle it. I don't know. Just change around the way. Fatima says that you should wear a mask while you're working with resin. Oh, great. I'm glad you said that. Because I'm fine. I don't have to. It even says so on the bottle and we got a bottle labeled and approved by a toxicologist. So a toxicologist actually told us what we need to write on our label to be safe. So I'm fine. There's no VOCs. There's no fumes. We don't have any solvents in this product. Art resin is one of the more expensive resins because every single ingredient that goes in here has to be clear and has to be like pure ingredients. We don't add any fillers or solvents or anything. So I'm not wearing a mask. Jeff, does it smell in here? No, it doesn't smell. And we're in a good well ventilated area space too, right? So read your label properly. Yeah. Any resin you work with, please read your label properly. But that's why we can go live and show. Oops, I'm going to run here. Show them. Maybe because of the global pandemic. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I should wear a mask because of toxic fumes. Oh, good question. Good question. What one was the one that was cut? See this? To get them all that, I had to cut it. Now I need to tape that closed otherwise the resin will leak out. So to the tape drawer. To the tape drawer. Oh, I want to see your Christmas trees, Miriam. Yeah, go on, Dave. I don't have any other news. Oh, come on. Doug Ford's making another announcement today about Christmas, supposedly. Oh, really? Yeah. That's our local stuff there, gang. Just we're going to find out if we can spend Christmas with our families, I guess. Ford's going to tell us what to do. Come on. Not for David, Zach. No. No. No. I'm going to ask for this. Right, Mom? Everyone, listen to Andrea Zach. Ed and Andrea Zach. She'll tell you how it is. What are the molds, what are the molds made of is someone's late to the party? I think we have it all in the area. This is mold making material. And we've been working on finding a silicone for a long time. We've tested every silicone there is. So. Well, I'll just leave it for now. But yeah, it comes in two colors. One side is this blue color. And again, you don't need to wear a mask. Silicone is surprisingly safe. Like as we were creating our safety data sheets, it's really a very safe product. Nice. So you mix those two together equally, and then in about 40 minutes to an hour, depending on the temperature of your room, it's good to take out and use. Very good. And then I do believe they're asking me also what is this? What's in this mold? What are we making? Oh, what are we making? Oh, sorry. So we're doing tests with this silicone to see how many times we can reuse a mold. And so the original one is this king tut. And so we're just putting all different materials in and coming up with. I want to do more like this with objects. Yeah, like texture and stuff. And then this one we were learning how to forge a coin. Forge. Yeah, and these COVID times, it's important to know how to be a forgery. Yeah, it's just to get more money. Get more money. Make that money. Like literally make it. Imagine it's getting very hard to be a forgery. Like a Canadian man feels like it's plastic. Even as a clear part of it. I don't know how you can begin to forge that. You know what? Don't bother forging. Learn more about like break and entry, that type of thing. Something more like hands on, like rob a bank. Yes. Yes. This is great advice. This is great advice. Because I really think the kids today, their work ethic is just so high. They need to relax and feel more entitled. Sorry.  But hopefully we can figure out how to forge a coin. John's asking you if Tuck Tape leaves a sticky residue, do you find? Yes, Tuck Tape is the worst. There's so many pieces that I left Tuck Tape on too long that I'm going to just have to cut it right off and trim the edges on a table saw. So Tuck Tape is good if you take it off within a couple days of use. But then there is the trick of, you know, pull the blow dryer over it and that kind of melts the seal a bit and blow it off. But it's just a nightmare. Tuck Tape leaves the worst residue. Is there a change from the time you pour the color right in the time it finishes drying? Say that one more time. Sorry it's gone. Is there a change from the time you pour the resin to the time it finishes drying? I guess maybe the color change? Yeah. If it's clear and you have something too thick, then if you don't have the right epoxy resin, it'll cook and it'll start to look a bit like yellowy brown. So the main thing is to, if you had color, no, you're not going to see a color change. What I'm wondering is it or a change just from, yeah, a color change I guess from clear to some kind of a yellowing. But only if you care about it being really clear. But if you have color in the color isn't going to change from temperature. But I guess, yeah, I wonder if, I don't think they're asking this, but like if you put, if you're building a piece and then it would have, you put a colored tint out down and would it change color? No, I guess it would run a bit more. It might get a little thinner. Okay, I have lots left over. How's this one drying? We're just going to torch this one. We had to level out. So yeah, I just got to get some of the corners here. Okay. And then you had torch. You're right. This piece all of a sudden went from 30 bucks to who knows. Yep. A million maybe. Someone would pay a million. Oh yeah. Someone would. You just got to get a creative name on it. Just call it, this one's called the cure. Boom, million dollars. I torches now before I forget. And then we have a bit of yellow and blue left together. So I'll get a big canvas and we'll pour it and then we'll see how the colors interact and play together. Nice. Sounds good. And Miriam, I want to see your Christmas trees. I'm looking forward to seeing them. What are you talking about? I don't know. She said there's something like, check out her Christmas tree arch. How do we do that? I think she sent a link or other people were looking. So maybe we'll look back and Christmas tree arch. Good idea. So I'm just moving. This is Gary. Gary? Yep. What's up, Gary? And this is one armed Pete. Oh, one armed Pete. Yeah. Hang in there, buddy. Okay. So now let's get, I'm going to lay out some plastic on the floor. Do we have any plastic right here? Not doesn't look like all that. We usually have like a big old spare. Hang in there gang. We're just going to try and okay. Nice. All right. Things are about to get messy. We got tons of these. I mean, that big? Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Can you send the link right now in the comments? And then we can see them. And then, or at least everybody online can. And I think us personally, we always like to see art that people are creating here 100%. Thanks, Adeline. That sounds amazing. Actually, she's just creating fruit and stuff like that. Sounds cool. Creating fruit? I don't know. She's just describing where artwork was. It sounds cool. Oh, this is actually, these are two of my favorite colors together. I really like blue and yellow actually. So this is a good hand. This is actually a pretty cool tip. I would say that because we often just mix, pour, go with it, just kind of figure it out. And then whenever there's leftovers, Dave always will put it onto a canvas. We have another canvas that's, I guess almost done. I can call it done if we want to. You can always add to it, but this is something cool. Like if you have a canvas sitting around, you can just take your leftovers, put it on there and create something with it. Over time, you'll get some pretty cool stuff. But a boom. Thanks Miriam. We'll check it out. There you go, guys. Everybody else go check out Miriam's work. That's cool. I want to see it. I like, I am a sucker for Christmas. Anything. So I want to see it. But you, you excited for Christmas? Yes. Christmas is fun when you have kids. Yes. Yeah, totally. Just feed off their energy. And Andrea's hot. Really good. Christmas dinner. Does she? Oh, yes. What are the fixings? Well, my favorite part is we have to go to the Polish Hall and buy pierogies from them. So Polish Hall pierogies with turkey gravy and potatoes, sour cream, pickles. So where does, so where does the Polish come from for your family? That's my dad's side. Yeah. And like the whole family is your grandmother as well? Yeah, Polish. Wow. So yeah, schnitzel and pierogies, cabbage rolls, Ukrainian background. So yeah, pierogies and cabbage rolls were all a part of our, yeah, yeah. I love pierogies. My grandmother would make them like just every year. Just the regular potato, I guess. Cheese is good too. Yeah. Sauerkraut I like too. I got, I got into sauerkraut. Yeah, I did. I got into it. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. It can be delicious. And then sour cream, right? Yeah, you just got it. And then if you grill, if they like pan fry it with some bacon and onions. Well, I guess we're creating just a new fresh one again, right? Okay, let's see what's going to happen here. Oh yeah. Okay, let's see what's going to happen here. But David is saying this is probably just going to be a base coat now because there isn't that much. Other times, Dave would just put it down there and then let it, let it sit and then we'll add, we'll add, we'll add, but let's see where this goes. Okay. So is there a flag that's blue and yellow? That's a good question. Yeah. I can't think of one. Oh yeah, now I get the greens coming. What do you like, do you like abstract work, Dave? Or do you like to paint an image? Yeah. Nice. Do you like to bring in other elements or do you like to work with paints or doesn't matter? I've seen you work with quills. So yeah, nice. That's a good base. There you go, everybody. Sub-Cathy, welcome. Yeah, happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there in the States. Tomorrow, yeah, and there'll be three football games. I know someone on here, I forget your name, I apologize or whoever said it.  So good luck tomorrow. The Lions are facing, who are they facing? Somebody. They're facing somebody. Oh, look at this. Oh, wow, that is embarrassing, Dave. As we're talking about the Ukrainian, as I'm thinking about it, it's like, yeah, the Ukrainian flag is blue and yellow. Yeah. And Sweden, isn't Sweden blue like the yellow cross with the blue? Isn't it? Ikea. Yeah, because Ikea is definitely blue and yellow. Anyways, there you go, there's some detective work for you. Thanks for bearing with us or me. So, what do we got? My clothes got totally ruined. Scorpions look great. I got the torch out. We're almost done for the day. That was a good day. A good day. And I was saying, I don't feel like doing a live video. But that's kind of like what happens whenever you guys create, right? All of a sudden it's like, boom, okay, that's fun. Yeah. One thing that I like to do is you are your environment. So you create the space and then you create in the space. Okay, here we go. Want to get some bubble shots? Yes. Hold on. Okay, let's see some bubble popping. Wow, gone, gone, gone. Beauty. Nice. Yeah, I think you should take this and yeah, now like layer it. Do something cool. The next round. Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could even put actually after four hours or so we could put in some real butterflies now. Jeff, can you come hold this right here? Yeah, of course. I'm just going to spin it around. Okay. I don't want this to be overtaken with blue. Oh, I see. Just get a bunch of yellow kind of dominating scene here. Seconds day. Yep. Good day. All right. Good day. Thanks everyone for coming out and participating and chatting. I hope you're all doing well. Hang in there. It feels good to make something. Jeff, anything, dad? I think that's a great way to end it right there. It feels good to make something. Yeah. Bye everyone. I'll see you next week. I'll be here with Jeff. See ya.


Hi, welcome to Think Tech. We are raising public awareness about technology, energy, diversity, and globalism. This show is center stage. I'm your host, Donna Blanchard, proud managing director of Kumakuhua Theatre. And we are coming to you live from Pioneer Plaza in the heart of downtown Honolulu, very near Kumakuhua Theatre. I am excited. I'm pretty thrilled actually to introduce you to my guest today because I'm very anxious for this conversation. I have a lot of questions for this woman. Her name is Tali Ariyav. She is an instructor at HPU. She has also most recently been teaching a playwriting class at Kumakuhua Theatre and she has an amazing theatrical background. We are going to discuss now. Welcome, Tali. Hi. Hi. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for being here, truly. We met when we had a playwriting class at Kumakuhua Theatre and you had just arrived on the island a few days before. Yeah, that was I think the very end of August. Yeah, and you jumped in with both feet and took that class. It was a very intensive weekend. And then approached me later and said that you would like to teach with us and that is a thrilling prospect for us, especially when we have someone who has an international voice as you do. I'm so glad that you did that. Can we talk a little bit about what it is that has brought you here to Hawaii in this capacity? Of course. Initially, my husband brought me here. He had to change locations and open an office. He's an architect. So he's working for an architecture engineering firm and they opened a new office here in Honolulu to better serve their clients. So that was the first need. We moved from Guam where we lived for the last six years. And of course that also that's another reason for me to expand my teaching and writing experiences moving here. And you were in Guam because of his work as well? As well, yes. Well, that's wonderful. It's wonderful that you can be so flexible to go where he needs to go for his business, but also it's amazing for you. It is. We moved to Guam right after Iowa where I got my education.  Also, you know, to move from Guam to here to Honolulu is a big shocking move. Yes, I am very fortunate for sure. Yeah. What was the theater scene like in Guam? There is none. That's the thing that in order to be involved with theater in Guam you have to create that theater. And we worked very hard to create theater. We used the facility at the university. So that was the university theater. And I taught a playwriting class, playwriting workshop, where we created new work. And this new work was put on stage in this theater. And this is how actually we did theater. That was the way to do theater. Oh, wow. And how was that received? It was received very, very well. I mean, I think that there is a place for the old-fashioned theater, for the published theater, for Shakespeare, for Ipsen, for Strenberg. But what is theater is about for me is about new work. It's in about new voice, because this is the new voices that are going to bring us to the future. Interesting that you say that. I believe that a lot of people are suggesting that this time in our political lives here that Inesco's Rhinoceros is a good play to write. There are plays that can speak to any situation that we're currently in, because they not only speak with a clear voice on a given point of view, but also they can inherently, just because of the time when they're being reproduced, we bring that voice to the work. Yes, absolutely. You bring them to life again. And those life will always be different than they were before, because this is the beauty of theater. This is the magic of theater. One show is never like the other. One hour and a half is never like the other one, one hour and a half. And this is, so yeah, I definitely agree. And it's always about how the audience receives the work that you're putting out, a painting that has never changed over centuries. It's all about, art is about interpretation, the way I see it.  It's not yours anymore. You have to let it go. Even though you're going to go back to it and revise it and so on, you put it on stage, you have to let the director to do his magic and so on and so forth. Same thing goes with any other type of art, I feel. I mean, who owns art? That's the biggest question. Well, and I know there are some, we work with a lot of playwrights at Kumakawa Theatre. And I mean, rarely are we producing a work when the playwright is not present. And they like to be involved at various levels. And I think that, especially for a newer playwright, it's very hard to let that go. And the first time I directed a play, I didn't want, I had a very irrational feeling that I did not want the audience to walk in on opening night. I felt like I had this precious little baby, and I had to give it to anyone who could afford 20 bucks, you know? Absolutely. It's difficult. It's difficult. My first experience with, it was with my first play and my first director, who put it on stage for the first time, and it was an awful experience. It was a bad experience because of authority, who owns the play. And I think that I was very willing to give it away because I didn't trust myself enough. And my director was willing to take away the power. And that was the conflict right there, you know? Oh, yeah. So that was an interesting conflict. Yeah. Well, and I always tell actors, I just spoke to a class at UH last week and said, if I'm directing Hamlet, you are not auditioning for Hamlet. You are auditioning for Donovan Transversion of Hamlet, which could be very different than how you felt the last time you sat down and read it. Absolutely. So, let's talk about how you got into theater to begin with. You have some military background, yeah? Yeah. I was born and raised in Israel, and as an Israeli female, as every Israeli female, I went enjoying the forces when I was 18. Not as every Israeli female, I volunteered to be an officer. I felt that I could contribute more to my country and feel connected to the land and was healthy enough, fortunately. So you have to actually volunteer to do extra service. So that's what I did. And I served a total of four years in the military, in the army, artillery force. Oh. And that was, I mean, I was involved in theater in high school before, and I was involved in theater as a kid. But during this time, those four years of military, there was no theater involved, at least not officially. And right after that, I backpacked a little bit around the world, Brazil, where my father is from, and I came back to Israel, and I started my college. So in Israel, it's very typical that you start your college when you're 22, rather than, you know, 22 or 23, rather than 18, since you have to be in the military from 18. I think it's wonderful, not that it's perfunctory for everyone to go into the military, but I think it's really wonderful for people to start college at an age where they have some life experience.  I wasn't fully formed, you know. That's really young when we normally start school around here. Okay, so did you come from a family that went to theater regularly? No. Now, ordinary, very ordinary family. Nobody's at the theater. Nobody's even a writer back then. But my mother and father really supported me on my way. And the beginning, it was as an actor. I was trained as an actor in college. And before college, I was in a street theater troupe in Israel. We were very politically active. And we won, we also won first prize in a very prestigious theater, a street theater festival. And then that sent us to France, to Chalon. So I was involved in theater in and outside college. And also, I've been translating theater for a while. Since I speak the languages I speak, I was able to translate a few plays from Hebrew to English. And that's another fascinating process itself, the process of translation. You don't just translate a word by word, but you think about the whole concept of a culture moving under the wings of a different culture. And it's just fascinating to me. That must be, and you speak Hebrew, Arabic, Portuguese, and English. Yes. That is a whole amazing study to be able to look at, to have to look at a script from that angle. It must make you something of a historian as well. You do a lot of research and you learn, and I went to school. One of my master's degrees is in literary translation. Oh. So you do a lot of studying and workshopping until you get to the draft. And then one of the plays I translated, it was in Iowa. We put it on stage in the main theater in Iowa. And there were still issues, you know, even though I worked on this for over like a year. So because it's theater, you know, because you don't translate a novel from English to Hebrew. Not that I'm underestimating the difficulties of doing so, but when you translate to theater, you have to take into account your actors and the direction of the actors and the way you set the stage even though the writer in Hebrew, for example, explains one thing. It will never be translated the same in English. So you have to work knowing the culture here. You have to fill the blanks, so-called, to make it alive and to make it good, to make it... A disorbable, the way it's supposed to meant. Exactly, exactly. And I just want to say, Tali said, work shopping, not worshiping. Yeah, sorry. Let's go ahead and go to our break, just because I thank you very much for giving me that background. Of course, thank you for having me. Yeah, no, you're staying. We're going to come back and talk some more. I would like to talk more about what you bring from your background into the classes that you teach. The zones that you create for your students. Sounds good. We are going to be right back on center stage. Please stay put. Aloha, I'm Richard Emory. I'm the host of Condo Insider. You know, associations are really prominent here in the state of Hawaii, and they have a lot of complex issues with elected boards of directors repairing and maintaining the building, how to make it a quiet enjoyment to live there. So our show tackles the issues of living with an association by bringing in experts on various topics, from owners' rights to association living, to reserve studies, to pipe repair, to the new law regarding overtime. Aloha. I'm Kawe Lucas, host of Hawaii Is My Mainland, here on Think Tech Hawaii every Friday at 3 p.m. We address issues and importance for those of us who live here on the most isolated land mass on the planet. Please come join me Fridays at 3 p.m. Mahalo. Aloha, everyone. I hope you've been watching Think Tech Hawaii, but I'm here to invite you to watch me on Viva Hawaii every Monday at 3 p.m. I'm waiting for you. Mahalo. Hi, we're back, and we are live. This is center stage on the Think Tech Hawaii digital network. If you would ever like to join us in our downtown studio on Pioneer Plaza, you may do so. Just email J, that's J-A-Y, at ThinkTechHawaii.com, and he will hook you up. If you have ideas for people that you would really like to see in this show, you'd like to hear them talk about their artistic process, please let me know. You can tweet me at It's All About Donna, or you can find me on Facebook, Donna.Blanchard. We're back with Tali Ariyav, and for just a moment longer, I'd like to ask you mentioned on the break we were talking about the richness of the theater scene in Israel, which I didn't know anything about, and are there, you know, Kumakuhua theater, all of our works are theater of place, the place-based, they have to do with the cultures and the people in this geographic region. Is that a common thing in Israel? I know in some countries it is, but others, it's not around. I don't, I think that most, most of the places that I'm familiar with right now in Israel are place-based, but it's not because they tend to be just because, or because, you know, they need to belong to this criteria. It's because Israel is a country at war. That's what I'm trying to say. And when you are an artist who lives in a country at war, you have to respond to the war, or you will respond to the war no matter what. So the work, it splits between work that is more like entertain, so it's more like to escape from the pain and the war and the death, and a work that is more political work that actually aimed towards a change. To inform? Yes. Okay. Thank you for telling us about that. So when you, what was the first time you remember feeling, I want to write a play. I don't just want to do someone else's play. Wow. That's a good question. I think somewhere around college I had a crisis as an actor. I felt that I'm not enjoying my classes, and I felt that I don't want to do what I'm doing, that it's just like standing there. Again, this is the experience I went through. Nothing relates to being an actor at all. And I felt that, and I was always writing my whole life. I was always known to be the writer in the family. I always wrote like poetry and diaries. I always had a diary I was writing in. So I knew that I can express myself through writing before. So it wasn't the first time. But that was the first time that I wrote down and there was a dialogue, or I wrote down and there was a monologue of a woman. I remember the first dialogue, the first monologue I wrote was in college. I was studying, it was my maybe senior year, and I was writing about what does it mean to be a battered woman, to be beaten by society. And it was a long monologue, but I think it was related to one of the courses I took in Israeli theater. And I asked the professor if I can read it out loud. It was a huge class and I read it out loud. For me, that was the moment where I was like, okay, there's something here that is powerful that needs to be observed. And I kind of shied away from acting at this point. I will do an acting work, an acting job if it's really interesting or intriguing or it's a really great opportunity that I will never have again, but I will never do it if I don't have to. Yeah, I agree with you. I feel the same way. I'm very, very choosy about what I will select just because I'm going to put my mind and my heart and soul and body into something for six weeks to three months, some four months. It better be worth it for me. It better be something I really want to explore. Yeah, so you taught, you are wrapping up a class through Kumakuhua Theater and we'd like to thank Red Lotus, Red Lotus Dojo for hosting us, Branko Home. It's been wonderful to be able to use those classrooms while our theater has been busy. You're wrapping up a class and you were talking about one thing that is most important to you is creating a safe space for the playwrights. Why do you, that is not a word that I think is used probably often enough by artists and people teaching artists. Why do you feel that there has to be safety? Let me put it this way. What happens if there isn't safety when you're working with new playwrights? There's no work. No good work can come along if there's no safety in the classroom. And I keep my classes safe even when I teach English, composition. I taught classes before in Guam. I taught classes in Iowa. I'm teaching here now. It is important to create a safe space for the students to feel that they can share their work, that they can receive the feedback, that they can give feedback, that the feedback is not something that is meant to be taken as an insult or anything like that. It's something that's supposed to contribute to the work and take the work to the next level. And this is why they learn how to give feedback the right way. I teach them that the first few times. And if they are making a mistake, then we are correcting it together. I mean, there is a lot to it. There is no recipe for how to create safety. I mean, I wish I had it. Then I'll create safety right here if I could, or in my homeland. But I think that's one of the main things about playwriting workshop and acting workshop. We're doing a ritual at the end where we're ending and we know that the things that were left that we're leaving behind us are going to be left behind us. They're not going to leave the room. Yeah, I absolutely agree that's important. And I've worked with teachers who have had contracts. They've had something printed out to let people know this is how we help keep a safe space. How do you go about doing that? It's funny. In this case, I haven't had any printed copies. I do syllabi for the university because it's a request. And I think it's a very tiring document. Very, very much so. It's helpful. It can be helpful. In these specific classes we had, I just went through all the aspects. I don't want to say rules. They're not really rules. But all the things that we will do and we should do every single class, I said them out loud. And the students took some notes. So if it was like 10 minutes of free writing at the beginning of every session, no matter what, it starts exactly on time. And how we do those free, what does it mean to do free writing? So I'm explaining what does it mean. You follow an immediate experience, something that's going through your mind right very now. And I'm explaining that. And then we go through to some morning pages, which is something I told them to do for the rest of their life every day. So there's no way for me to track it down, but hopefully they will do it. But it's like three written pages every morning when you wake up. One, three? Three, yeah. I know, I know. It's good for you. They have to be written or can they be typed? I prefer handwritten. There's a difference. Yes.  Empty all the stuff that don't need to be there.  So wake up 15 minutes before time. So these techniques are ways to go around it. So we do that. And there is more of those. There's plenty of things that we do in our classes, in my classes. And that structures some discipline, that some structure practice for students to start their writing, to continue their writing from a week to a week and so on, and create safety. Yeah. It is amazing what comes out when you write. And I do believe there's a difference between typing and writing, how things come out of you. I've been in writing workshops and I have been, frankly, shocked by what I have put on the page that I don't know why, but it's a different mechanism. Do you know the science behind it? It's a different mechanism in our brain. Yeah. Yeah. I think that long writing has, you make the effort, the physical effort of writing. So therefore there will be more, you put more effort into it. Yeah. Also typing is related to your everyday activities, email, messaging, da, da, da, da. So if you do the writing by hand, then I think it's very unique activity. And you have to keep it unique too. That's true. Yeah. It's wonderful how that will tap different recesses of the brain. So we just have a few minutes left. I'd like to, if we could, talk about the structure of your class itself, because you're working with some of the people in your class had not written a play before? Yes. We have some veterans in there. I think all of them are veterans, but I start from fresh. I start from, you know, I start like this class is designed for people who never wrote before. Okay. So we go through all the stages, but this class, it went faster because they think there were a lot of writers that had an idea about what they want to write about, or they had a play that they started that they want to go back to, or they just were exploring the whole workshop, exploring scene, and then another scene, and then another scene, and then another scene, where eventually it's going to become to be one act. So this is how we came along. How you work through it? Yeah. Okay. And where do you want to go? What is, you're teaching at HPU. We should talk about that. What are you teaching at HPU? I teach English, analyzing argument classes. Interesting. Yeah. Writing and analyzing argument, I think is the official name of the course, and I'm teaching two courses of that. Okay. We have about a minute left. Where do you want to go next? Not necessarily geographically. Well, I would like to thank you so much for inviting me. I'm very flattered. I was very nervous before. I know you were. Are you feeling better now? I'm a nervous speaker in English. I feel better. And I want to also thank you for the work that you do in Kuma Kahua and for letting me teach the playwriting class. I hope to teach more in the future. You got it. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you for being a part of Kuma Kahua and what you're doing. And I really appreciate your energy. I appreciate the fact that you stepped foot on this island and you not only, you signed up for class right away, which is something that a lot of people feel like they don't need to keep learning.  Yeah. That's beautiful. That's inspiring. And that you said, I want to teach a class. And yep, you get to teach a class. Thank you. I'm really looking forward to the work that comes out of it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, me too. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much for being here. There are a few people in the studio I would like to thank also. I would like to thank Rich Pravis, our floor manager who's right over there. Thank you, Rich. I would like to thank our studio overlord, Zuri Bender, who is in my ear, and J. Feidele, who somehow manages to put all of this together. We hope to see you next week here on Center State. Bye.