Hi, my name is Marilyn and I'm here today to present our work titled Structured Encryption and Dynamic Leakage Suppression. This is joint work with Seni Kamara and Tariq Murtaz. Why is data security and privacy important? It seems like almost every day in the news we hear of yet another data breach that compromises the personal data of millions of users. On this slide are just a few of the biggest data breaches in 2020 and 2021, each compromising millions of records and causing billions of dollars worth of damage. And there are so many more. One possible solution to this ever-increasing problem is to encrypt all client data before uploading it to any external untrusted server. However, once the data is uploaded encrypted form, it should still be usable by the client. For instance, the client might still want to run queries over their data and receive the correct responses from the server without having to download and decrypt all of their data. Is it possible to do this efficiently? This question is posed and studied in the field of encrypted search. There are three main aspects to any encrypted search scheme. The functionality of the scheme or how many different types of queries are supported by it. For instance, a scheme might support Boolean combinations of queries or range queries. The security of the scheme or how much meaningful information is revealed to the adversarial server and the efficiency of the scheme, which can be measured using metrics such as server-side storage or communication cost. There are several cryptographic primitives that can be used to construct an encrypted search scheme with varying trade-offs between these three aspects. For example, fully homomorphic encryption would allow the client to compute any function over the data with good security guarantees, but it is not very efficient. On the other hand, property preserving encryption also allows the client to compute many functions over the data and it is very efficient. However, it also reveals a large amount of information about the data to the server. In between the two, we have structured encryption, which offers reasonable functionality and efficiency while offering security that is in between that of fully homomorphic encryption and property preserving encryption. Structured encryption is a general primitive that allows the client to upload any encrypted data structure and run queries on the data structure. Structured encryption also allows for operations beyond queries, for example, ads or edits, which change the underlying data structure. And the security of a structured encryption scheme is often expressed with respect to a persistent adversary, which is an adversary who controls the server and observes the entire execution of the protocol and observes meaningful information during this execution about the data structure and the queries. And this information is referred to as leakage and leakage has been studied in many different ways over the years. One line of work asks the question of how much information is leaked, or is it possible to quantify the leakage in terms of the number of bits for various cryptographic primitives? Another line of work asks the question if the leaked information can be used to attack structured encryption schemes. And this was started in 2012. Yet another line of work asks the question if leakage can be eliminated completely. And this work is known as leakage suppression. And that is also the subject of our talk today. And before I continue with leakage suppression, I'd like to set up some preliminaries for terms that we will use in this talk. So common data structures that we will be talking about include an array RAM, which is a set of values in memory that can be read and written, and are usually indexed by the number of the position in the array. Another data type is a dictionary data type, which maps labels to values. And each label can be used to retrieve its corresponding value. Yet another data type is known as a multi map, which maps labels to tuples of values. And these tuples could be of varying lengths. So as you can see, label one is mapped to three values in a tuple, but label four is mapped to only one value in a tuple. And so that is a multi map structure. I would also like to introduce some leakage patterns that we'll be talking about throughout this talk. So given a client and say a multi map that's encrypted, so an EMM on the server, what is the query equality leakage? So the query equality leakage reveals to the server if two queries to the multi map are on the same label. So say the client issues the sequence of three queries, l one, then l four, then l one again. Even if the server doesn't know what the queries are, if the server can identify that the first and the third queries were for the same label, while the second one was not, then that scheme leaks the query equality. Another leakage pattern we'll be talking about is volume and that is how many values correspond to a query. So for instance, if the client queries label one and the server can see that three encrypted values were returned and then the client queries label four and the server can see that only one encrypted value was returned, then this scheme leaks the volume of the queries. Now when dynamic operations are introduced, which is operations that can change the underlying structure, so ads, edits, deletes, then there's different types of leakage that are also introduced which could reveal information to the server. So for instance, the operation identity, which is just simply which operation is the client running. So a dynamic scheme would support many different types of operations like queries, adding a new label, editing an existing label. And if the server can tell which operation is running currently, then that is referred to as the operation identity leakage. And similar to the query equality leakage, there's a notion of operation equality, which reveals to the server if two operations are performed on the same label. So if the client queries label one, then queries label four, and then edits label three, and the server is able to tell that the first and the third operations happened on the same label, then that leakage is referred to as the operation equality. So here's those are some data structures and leakages that we'll be talking about in the stock. And so we come back to the question of can leakage be eliminated completely? And over the years, there have been many works that look to answer this question for different components of leakage. So for the query equality pattern, there was a suppression framework that was introduced in 2018. And similarly, there was some work in volume hiding that was begun in 2019, and there have been many volume hiding schemes since. So why are these two patterns interesting? They are very common in structured encryption schemes. They show up in more complex schemes built out of simpler building blocks. And they are very difficult to hide with simple approaches without introducing large inefficiencies into the scheme. The query equality is one of the most common components of leakage. So can it be suppressed? A first idea is to use ORAM as a black box to suppress the query equality. What does this mean? That any data structure that is stored and queried by a client will have to be converted to an array and the corresponding accesses to the array. So for during setup, the data structure has to be flattened out to form an array. And then any subsequent query to the structure has to be converted into a series of ORAM reads and writes before the response can be returned to the client. However, this solution incurs overheads in storage communication and the number of round trips required for the interaction. Further, there could still be some leakage to the server, including the volume of a query, depending on the underlying data structure. In order to address this, a line of work on oblivious data structures began creating custom ORAM scheme tailored to specific data structures such as oblivious trees. So on one end, there was a general purpose solution which is inefficient and sometimes leaky. And on the other end, there are special purpose construction made for each data structure. So it is worth asking if there is a solution that provides something in between? Or can we suppress query equality for more general data structures more efficiently than black box ORAM simulation? This question was answered by the query equality suppression framework that was introduced in 2018. This framework was inspired by the seminal square root ORAM construction of Goldreich and Ostrowski. The authors noted that the square root ORAM could be seen as a zero leakage dictionary or the cache being used to suppress the query equality leakage of an array which is known as the main memory. And this could be viewed as a leakage suppression framework. And in fact, it could be generalized to more complex data structures than just arrays and therefore to higher order structure encryption schemes. And it turned out that this framework was more efficient than black box ORAM simulation and comparable in efficiency to custom made oblivious data structures. However, the framework only produced static scheme. So even if the input scheme to this suppression framework was dynamic, the output scheme would be static without any query equality leakage. And once again, it is natural to ask, is it possible to suppress the query equality leakage in a dynamic setting? Or even, is it possible to create a dynamic query equality suppressing framework? In our work, we show that this is indeed possible. However, there were several challenges to dynamic leakage suppression. The first of these was that due to our techniques and the use of cache based suppression from the static framework, operation equality had to be suppressed. For example, if an ad and an edit were on the same label of a multi map structure, then that would have to be hidden from the server. The second more complex challenge was that leakages are correlated in the dynamic setting. For instance, the operation identity leakage, which operation is occurring at the moment in conjunction with the volume leakage could reveal additional information about the query equality. So say the longest volume for a query was 100 results and then the server observes an ad operation and then later observes a query with 101 results. For some input and query distributions, it is possible for the server to infer the query equality using these additional leakages. So our approach was to start with a volume hiding scheme as input to the framework. So the volume leakage would already be suppressed and then we were able to suppress the operation identity and operation equality. However, volume hiding constructions at the time had limited dynamicity and could not support for dynamic operations. And therefore our framework had to upgrade the dynamicity of these underlying schemes. So what is the dynamic suppression framework do and how does it work? So once again, given a client and a server, say the client has a multi map with four labels and the four tuples corresponding to them. Our construction has an epoch length of lambda, which is equal to three and lambda controls two things during setup. One is that three dummy or empty entries are added into the multi map structure, which we will refer to as the main structure. And a cache of size three, which we can consider as a zero leakage dictionary is also initialized and it's empty when it starts. And both of these structures together form the encrypted data structure and are sent over to the server. So once the server holds the encrypted structure, the epoch begins. And so what is an epoch? An epoch consists of lambda operations on the structure and in this case, lambda is three. So up to three operations can occur in one epoch. So say the first operation is a query on the label L one. So the first thing the client does would be to read the cache and to check if L one is in the cache. It's not. And so the client now reads the location where L one is in the main structure. So it's in the fifth location. So the client receives the tuple corresponding to L one. The tuple corresponding to L one. And then the client writes the cache back to the server. But now during the right, the client updates L one and it's corresponding to pull into the cache. And say next the client wants to add label five, a completely new label to the multi map. Once again, the client reads the cache checks for the label in the cache. It does not exist. And so the client now queries a random location from the main multi map. So one of the dummy locations. And in this case, it reads the first dummy just at the first location. And then writes the cache back to the server. And this time the client adds the label five into the cache. And we noticed that the cache is collecting the updates to the main structure. And so the client now wants to edit the same label that it already queried. So how does that work? Once again, the client reads the cache. L one is in the cache. And so the client now reads a dummy from the main structure. And edits L one while writing back the cache. So at the end of these three operations, a query and add and an edit where the query and the edit were on the same label. The server sees that three random locations in the main structure have been read. And three entries have been written to the cache, but the server cannot see inside of the cache. And so one epoch is complete. And at the end of an epoch, we have a rebuild operation with a high level purpose of the rebuild is to regenerate the original state of the structure and the cache. So the rebuild will combine the updates into the main structure and empty out the cache so that once again, the epoch can start at zero. So once again, the cache will be empty. And the execution of the operations can start all over again. So how does the rebuild work? The rebuild is divided into three stages. So the first is extract and tag. Then this shot the sort and shuffle. And the update phase. So in the extract and tag phase, what happens? The main challenge is that the client must be must be able to collect all the correct updated entries for a new version of the multi map. While simultaneously not revealing to the server which of the labels were updated and not revealing to the server which how many labels were found in the cache and which they were. So the client initializes a RAM at the server side. And this RAM is just to be thought of as an array. And the client extracts each entry first from the cache and then from the main multi map and adds them to the RAM one by one. So this is now inside the RAM, each of these entries has been added to the RAM. And while they were added to the RAM, each of them is tagged with what we call a freshness value. And the freshness value indicates whether this particular label to prepare should be part of the new data structure. So is it a fresh value that should be considered in the next data structure? So just for illustration, these freshness values are showed here but you should think of it as being inside each of the corresponding entries. And we can see that only two of the entries have zero freshness or they are stale values. And that is a dummy that was found in the cache as well as the label one which was updated by the client in the last epoch. And so now we come to how do we separate out these stale zero freshness values from the other values without revealing to the server which is which. So for this we have a sort and shuffle phase. So the client and the server run an oblivious sort protocol based on the freshness values. And this enables the zero freshness labels to be sorted out from the remaining labels and the other labels are shuffled according to their freshness values. So the sort serves two purposes. One is to remove the zero freshness entries and the other is to shuffle up the non zero freshness entries. And once this step is complete the zero freshness entries can be truncated and discarded. And now once again the client uses the RAM the entries in the RAM to rebuild or to create a new structure which contains these updated fresh entries. So for each entry in the RAM the client uses like downloads it and then uses an update protocol to create a new encrypted multi-map on the server side. So each entry in the RAM is downloaded and then updated to this new structure. And then at the very end of this the new cache is initialized a new empty cache once again of size 3. And we can run the next epoch of size 3. The RAM is discarded and the rebuilding is complete. So once again to summarize the working of the dynamic query equality suppression framework the client runs lambda operations in one epoch and for each of these operations the server only sees a read of the cache, a read of a random location in the main structure and a write of the cache. And at the end of this epoch the client rebuilds the structure and to rebuild the structure it creates a RAM, uses the RAM to create a new updated structure and then discards the RAM. And all through this epoch the operation equality the query equality and the operation identity are suppressed and therefore are not revealed to the server. Finally on this slide we have some concrete efficiency numbers for a sequence of 64 add operations to a multi map containing 2 to the 16 values and we are comparing our framework applied to AVLH which is a volume hiding scheme to black box simulation using path or and the standard dynamic encrypted multi map scheme. And we are comparing on the measures of client state that is how much information the client has to store how much storage has to be used on the server side and how much communication happens for these lambda operations and the leakage and for our particular framework these numbers also include the rebuild. So if we compare our framework to black box simulation using ORAM we see that we are more efficient but we do have more leakage than ORAM. So at a high level we leak this total size of the structures the total number of labels values and the maximum tuple length and we leak the same parameters of the new structure so after rebuilding but we leak nothing during the operations or during the rebuild. So but if we compare our construction to standard EMMs we see that we are far off from optimal efficiency but our leakage profile is much better because standard EMMs always leak the volume and the query quality patterns. So once again here is a summary of our contributions. Thank you for your time and please see our paper for more details. Thank you.


Oh my goodness. What a start for him. Broly's already out the door unless that was a pretty fancy cop the route Okay, that was sick. How's it going everybody? Dots and I hear back with another round of Dragon Ball fighters rank matches this time playing a suggested team of DBS Broly UI Goku and Zee Broly and we are going up against a team with two Css so already it's looking like an L for me No, obviously jokes aside.  Let's pretend I didn't get that hit that'll make it less painful defense. We do get them We block the overhead. I'm looking for a dragon rush at this point reflect that not interested in it I don't know why I use that assist like that, but it's fine. We got the corner combo not gonna be able to do much more Doesn't up tech though. That was nice reflect keep him out Couldn't block that. All right, we reflected one too many times though. Oh nice challenge stops the command grab in its It early phases Yeah, another reflect. All right, we're definitely getting punished for the next one Who guard you wait your guard cancel the key, but how did you guard cancel a key blast? That was insane the amount of that guy had to just expect it. He expected it He was like I want to switch out to the Zamasu. That's my plan. I'm sticking to it. That was sick I'm gonna try to UI tech again. Oh, that was a combo. I was like I did not do that All right UI tech we're out of there easy switching for us to get reflected Okay, the recovery was a bit longer than expected. He's gonna get the bar back No dragon rush yet. That's surprising. He does have a second C assist to do it Still no dragon rush. He didn't want to switch. He never wanted it. Get Broly out here All right, I think we drag rush here just to keep the close to the corner and then of course we're Broly so oh Never mind. He did he stayed on the ground Grab this man again I beat him to the punch Nice we get an early kill. Thanks to the sea is a bro CSS beams are just so good I definitely way back when when CSS were introduced. I was so wrong about them I thought they were just you know averaged. They weren't as good as normal beam assist But the longer cooldown, I'm dead by the way. No never mind. He doesn't want to use spark Rock perfect attack just scares me. I mean even without spark. Look at this build up. Look at this absolute damage Can respect it? Speaking of that CSS beam hold on I think All right, you know what? We're gonna make a controversial decision I'm gonna use all three bars here even though this can't kill because I'm gonna trust in you I Goku Yes, see I trust he didn't uptake that earlier time in the set So I figured if he didn't uptake then he probably won't uptake here and it was worth it. Oh, no, why'd you hit me? Okay, that time I was mashing that time. I can't act surprised I can't act cute like I didn't start mashing that square button I started hammering the light button hoping it would get me out of there These reflects have been going very well for me and it is not going to stay that way Oh so quick couldn't get any armor out. Hopefully we live this I would love to spark I would love a spark right now sparking blast would hit spark nice. No Let's go didn't trust it. See this is for maximum damage Beautiful that should be it My name is Broly and I do damage if any other character was here. It wouldn't kill But and I mean I was expecting a lot. Oh, no, I trusted in the damage too much Admittedly I wasn't in limit break. I was acting. I was acting like I was in limit break All right, so we can still win this game. It's one touch, but it's one touch for both of us So the pressure is on I'm trying to rip this person out of the sky Got it. All right super Nash going to go right over the destructive We get game one touch and go there for a long time. Whoo I think the theme of this team was supposed to be to OP for my shirt like like the theme was obviously like Broly is the only one with a shirt on but his level three blows it off and Obviously, they're good characters DBS Broly probably the least good of them all here, but still plenty good enough Let's go ahead and to the one I think is the best though You could argue between Broly and UI, but let's be honest We want to see UI UI Goku is my number one character in the game and it's because he's too good They gave this man all the tools. He woke up.  I Am so bad at that combo. I always forget you got to hold it Beautiful though All right, I think here we definitely take the dragon rush Yeah, oh my goodness. You got to put some delay on that snap.  I don't know what how cell would start this. I Gotta play defense every time I get hit by a 6m. I try to mash I try to mash and see what happens that is okay We're gonna we're gonna UI tech here in level one because we'll probably get to safety anyway Yeah, yeah, definitely UI Goku the UI tech.  I haven't been hard knocked out. Oh, I got it and I got killed It's too. It's too good. It's too good. You could say that for a lot of things about UI Goku But that one is kind of great. Oh way too far away for the dragon rush, but perfectly fitted for Zamasu blades All right, whoo flight mid combo you got the Zamasu stuff I can respect this I'm a suit also a character that does a lot of damage Personally, I think people are a little sleep. Look at this. He's a TOD machine Please hit nice.  Honestly The EX Larry from downtown talk to him. That was a good first set I was definitely really focused that set for some reason. I was just I was fine I was trying to play some Dragon Ball. I think the thing is I really like all three of the characters on this team So when they're all in the same team, I just kind of shut up and play All right, we are back and it is actually just a one-for-one rematch with the same opponent So I'm more than okay very aggressive adjustments have been made All right, it's clear to see that this is not going to be the same game. I can respect that I'm gonna have to switch out to UI Goku though It's just gonna be that just gonna have to be that way. All right. No doesn't like up tech and gotta remember that That's also a fact. This is interesting. Usually we don't get to do this But now we have to we have to plan for our opponent. I didn't drag him much a lot and it's correct They did they did do that for that Broly grab though. So the Not mad at mash is not the right word for but the reaction type for stuff like that is going to be a lot better Let's just go into Broly. I don't know why I'm doing this per se. Oh, I'll take it Wow, that was that was awful to see that Zamasu assist came out at an awful angle. I'll take it though All right, we get this is too much damage to not go for snap. Obviously, we would have loved to run the Broly set play unfortunate, whoa nice reflect though No, yes Beautiful to see us this covers my horrible failure.  Oh No, the loser is coming back out. All right. We are using what could be the most annoying team and fighters to some people We got to make it look like it Broly time big damage. I want to build some bar. I Want to run the set play as well That should not have hit that was questionable, but I'll take it. Whoo to age the vertical reach All right, I'm making a read here. I regretted it that actually almost worked as like a mini like online reset Dragon rush I'm glad I didn't drag a rush now. We know he likes the back dash on vanish though Let's oh, I was gonna say let's use that. All right. Let's try to get you up. No, no Let's do it Broly. Let's read the back dash with just the standing medium He has to block it. Oh nice to age. He's he's dialing it up reaction time dialed up Beautiful gotta stop doing that. I'm just That guy can't I can't stop doing that though Right, I'm just gonna go for it same side. That was Chris He didn't up tech before why he doesn't like to uptake there I don't know why I'm not reading that seven bars He's got a lot to spend and this is a misu so he has more than enough ways to spend it if he drops this though I am trying to spam a super not gonna drop it. Yeah, that does kill. All right. All right I have faith the UI Goku. We got a decent amount of health Like I said, remember the read remember the vanish read if it comes up. We're going to need it What that was a hip that was usually a time where UI Goku would win that here we go read All right, we're reading it right here He's just There we go. We got the read he back dashed finally He just kept getting hit by oh Man, that was bad. I was running all like we were doing we were running suicides, bro Just up and down the field. I was like, please. I just I need to get this read All right, that was that was a big advantage of having these long run back kind of sense Obviously like it took me like what three games to realize he did that so that was the punish for that We'll see if he adjusts. I'm going to say Actually, I think it'll take a few more. That was only the first punner.  He's already out the door unless that was a pretty fancy caught the routes Okay That was sick Android 18 to struck though disc routes. I think that was that the new B&B or has that always been a B&B? That was great. I'm still thinking about that Yeah, ouch, dude, this has not been the game for me. The rushdown has been effective. I think we got a spark here I'm out. Oh, I did not expect to superdash that late. That was nice. That was nice We're not gonna be able to live this unless a severe drop happens doesn't look likely You know what ironically our chances are still we do have the best anchor left for the job We were talking about this team being good, but in the anchor position. There really is no contest This is a Broly show. I just wish we would stop getting hit so much He came close to tea if he would have landed that he probably would have to need us especially seeing that 18 combo He wanted it. See Notice how he's going for that raw perfect attack. There is a reason for that There is a reason he's going for the raw perfect attack That might drop just based on how slow I was, huh What are you that? Oh, please. Okay, nice. Oh thought I did that wrong, but we're good. We're good. We're good. We're good All right. All right. Oh this such a risk just because of who he like what he's shown us in this set of him reading those and Matt Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'll take it. I'm not gonna go for the rejump. I should have gone for the rejump Beautiful nice. This is all anchor Broly. Look it out. Look it up Broly just evens up a game It's not even a contest Broly just evens it up like that No tech for me though. No tech. That's dangerous. Can Zamasu get anything super good off this or All right, not just a level three. All right. All right. That's about what I expected That was the worst thing I expected I'm out of there. Oh, I gotta stop going for dragon rushes. It just does not work out for me I made while doing them wrong might be the move. I had not done them raw. That was good Whoo good game. We evened it up with Broly, but obviously not enough This has been a focus video This has been a silent video, but I will take it. All right. He's been attacking us too much lately. Yeah How many times am I gonna have to kick you in the face? I Just dropped it. Give me that. Oh, we didn't I should have too well Broly's normals are a little slow unless you go for that 2l option Good stuff in the corner now. I need to get out into UI Goku or something To get advantage of that UI Goku stuff. I wish I would have blocked that that was sick All right, we're going back this way. I thought we were a little closer. I think I was wrong though That was definitely an accident. I think he tried to read something there Beautiful you gotta up tech or I'm gonna take advantage. I'm gonna get that reset all day long These are the adjustments I need to make last game were the adjustments he needed to make now I gotta make some adjustments of my own Man, I messed up. Oh messed up bad got caught trying to jump away I wanted to buy time for that beam. All right, we're UI teching into a level one for sure Yeah, for sure. I mean this change is nothing for me. The plan remains the same UI tech into level one or maybe spark We'll decide when we get there. Let's see what happens safe and sound safe and sound Nice Beautiful can't ask for much better than this. Oh, no. All right. It's getting crunch time.  It's UI Goku wake up time I wonder if this kills No, it doesn't okay Oh, I did not expect the overhead This is fine. Even though Broly is the anchor character. We want okay Us that's plus you gotta hold that. I wonder if they're gonna change that if they nerf this character, too That would also be something I wonder if they change that being plus is a little I got hit by a key less And not just any key blast a Zamasu key blast That hurts That one hurt. All right. This is good. Actually we got Broly back in the anchor slot So as long as we can do some damage with DBS Broly, we might be able to get this beautiful I couldn't superdash though Oh, this is bad How bad how bad can I be with one character, bro? I'm just I was hoping that would connect and I just didn't let go of that hope I never let go. Oh Damage this was not the level of damage. I was hoping for I need a little more. I need a little more out of my life Okay, I I switched out the plan changed The perfect angle. I thought I thought it was angle for me. Was it for him? I can't even speak. I need to focus who needs to speak. I need to Focus why am I if I said I was gonna focus. Why did I level three get hit by it? Appreciate it. Okay. We're leaving What I wonder what he hit that was definitely not a spot that that would I thought he was blocking Well, we'll take it. That's two games, right? Please tell me that was two. I don't know if I can win a third We'll take it. Hopefully you enjoyed that one. If you did, let me know down below in the comments Sorry, it was more of a focus video But I enjoyed doing these as well from time to time if you did enjoy it Make sure to leave a like and subscribe while you're down there You can also check out more videos that should be on your screen right now if they catch your eye Other than that, I've been dr. Do it and I will see you in the next one


Under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, India has not only achieved remarkable success in the past decade but also paved the way for a promising and prosperous future we applaud and rejoice in India's accomplishments. Countries require exceptional leaders to advance and flourish, yet such leaders are rare to find. An exceptional leader must possess compassion, a deep dedication to the country, and a willingness to devote themselves entirely to the service of the country. A leader wields power not for his own sake but to affect substantial change with the unwavering support of the people. In my perspective, Prime Minister Modi embodies these qualities. The conferral of the order of Druk Gyalpo, Bhutan's highest award to Prime Minister Modi, symbolizes our deep appreciation towards the government of India, the people of India, and to Prime Minister Modi for always being there for Bhutan. Your Excellency, Tashi Dellele. Thank you very much.


Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for being here today. As we get closer to winter, I thought it was important to spend some time talking about the resources available to Vermonters to make their homes more energy efficient and help offset the higher energy costs for phasing. With inflation high and the high price of heating your home going up, it's critical we do our part to help Vermonters reduce their costs. Utilization and increasing efficiency in homes is a key component of that. We're joined today by Peter Walk on behalf of Efficiency Vermont. Tim Perron with Vermont Gas and Commissioner Sean Brown at the Department for Children and Families. Commissioner Kearney is here as well to answer any questions you might possibly have, but they manage the programs that help Vermonters make efficiency upgrades to lower costs and they'll be talking about them shortly. Our partnership with these organizations and others is important to help make sure Vermonters know the opportunities available to them. This year we've launched a website that includes many programs managed by different state departments and community partners all in one place. That can be found at www.vermont.gov slash button up VT. On the page you'll find dozens of links where folks can learn how to best conserve energy, get incentives to cover costs of efficiency upgrades, receive emergency assistance and more. Here's a few examples of what you'll find. Like getting up to 75% of your weatherization expenses covered, incentives to help cover the costs of replacing old inefficient wood stoves, rebates for energy efficient appliances, vouchers to cover up to 85% of the costs of installing pellet storage systems, fuel assistance programs helping some pay for part of their heating bills and more. Again, there are so many programs out there and it could be hard for people to navigate and find them all. www.vermont.gov slash button up Vermont puts them all in one place. I've always been a big fan of weatherization because it's a win-win. That's why I propose and work with the legislature to secure tens of millions of dollars for these efforts this past legislative session. Not only does it reduce costs for Vermonters helping make our state more affordable but it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. So with all that, I'll now turn it over to Peter Walk, a former member of my team who's doing a great job in efficiency Vermont to talk about all they're doing in this space. Peter? Good morning everybody. Thanks for, thank you Governor for having us here today. This is an important topic for us to all be considered as Vermonters are trying to figure out how to keep themselves comfortable, safe and warm during this heating season. With inflation the way it is, with geopolitics the way they are, the volatility of heating fuel costs has never been more of a concern for Vermonters. And we partner across the state with the partners you see behind us trying to figure out how to make it more affordable for Vermonters to save money on their fuel, to be warmer and more comfortable and have better health in their homes. As the Governor mentioned this is a huge opportunity for us to address greenhouse gas emissions in the state over about a third of our overall greenhouse gas emissions come from the heating and cooling of our homes. The button-up campaign which has been part of Vermont's ecosystem for many years is designed to bring awareness to the opportunities that Vermonters have to save money. We have many options through both Efficiency Vermont and Vermont Gas Systems lead programs. We have contractor lead programs. We have DIY programs. We can help with fuel switching to important technology like heat pumps and pellet stoves and other things. We have virtual services where you can have a virtual home energy visit to have an Efficiency Vermont expert walk you through what opportunities there are to save energy and save money in your home. I'm really excited about the incentive structure that the Governor talked about. If you're a moderate income Vermonter there's an opportunity for you to save up to 75% of the cost of weatherization up to $5,000. That is a huge opportunity to make what is a costly upfront expense able to be afforded over time. We also offer low and no income or no interest financing programs opportunities for to partner with different banking organizations around the state to make it possible to afford these types of significant investments that are intimidating, can be challenging, can be scary on the upfront and on top of an already busy and hectic day trying to work through the challenges of day to day life whetherization can seem daunting. But we were here to help give us a call. The answer is ask me how to help button up. The answer is to call either us or Vermont Gas and we can help you walk through the options that are available to you. I want to end on one note. The governor said that the weatherization is a win-win. I'd add a third win in that in that it saves money, lowers our greenhouse gases and it has significant health benefits and overall comfort for the members of the home. And so we're really working to try to make sure that all of those benefits are received by everybody and that we can find ways to fund weatherization in a way that really addresses those key benefits. I'm really excited about the opportunity to get, I believe the total was $80 million of extra money in this year that the governor proposed in the legislature appropriated. 45 of which is going to go through our weatherization agencies to low income and $35 million which is to go through Efficiency Vermont. We're really going to work hard to get that money out the door over the next few years and then there is the Inflation Act dollars that are there to follow the federal government as we work to figure out what the plan is for that to really keep those money flowing and most importantly send the signal to the market to the contractors out there doing this hard and important work that were here as a key partner that the state is here as a key partner through all of this work in order to make sure that they build the workforce necessary to carry out this important work in people's attics and basements and crawl spaces and all over the place. So with that I will hand it off to Tim Perrin from BGS. Thank you. Good afternoon everybody. Thank you Governor Scott for the opportunity to highlight the many benefits of comprehensive home weatherization. I'm Tim Perrin and I'm the Energy Efficiency and Innovation Manager for BGS also known as Vermont Gas. At BGS we're focused on ways to help Vermonters use their energy most efficiently which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut down on heating bills. We all love fall foliage and the first snow of the season but most of us don't love reaching to turn up the thermostat on that first cold day in October. Maybe it was this morning for many. Fortunately there are many ways Vermonters can take steps to weatherize their homes to improve efficiency and save money this heating season. Now is a great time to button up. BGS is a committed partner in this work. Three decades ago in 1992 BGS began assisting Vermonters to make their homes and businesses more efficient. Over the years our team has completed 43,000 energy efficiency improvements with our customers. Fast forward to 2022 and we're working with our partners like Efficiency Vermont, utilities and area organizations to make choosing more efficient equipment and weatherizing your home easier than ever. Weatherization works. Vermonters who weatherize benefit from lower monthly energy bills, improved housing affordability, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, boosted health outcomes and a more comfortable home. For many it can be difficult to fit these types of projects into the average household budget. Thanks to generous incentives weatherizing has never been easier or more affordable. As the governor mentioned opportunities for modern income households to tap into 75% of the project cost up to $5,000 for qualifying weatherization improvements. In addition to this, BGS partners with weatherization agencies to assist customers under 80% of area median income with incentives that can cover up to 100% of the project costs for qualifying weatherization upgrades for those who most need to make these improvements. BGS works with a local credit union to provide 0% financing for up to 5 years, spreading out the cost of improvements over time. We're also excited to now offer on-bill financing through the weatherization repayment assistance program as another great option. Applying is easy. Visit www.vgsvt.com to learn about rebates and programs available today. You can request an energy evaluation or more information from the website. The state's climate action plan finds we need to weatherize 120,000 Vermonters homes by 2030. At BGS, we want to help Vermont reach its goal and we look forward to working with our customers to button up ahead of the heating season. Again, my thanks to Governor Scott and our state and federal partners who have worked together to increase funding for weatherization. These dollars are a direct investment in our green house gas emissions. I'd now like to turn it over to DCF commissioner Sean Brown for some closing remarks. Thank you. I'd like to thank the governor for the opportunity to highlight some of the programs administered by DCF that support low income Vermonters meeting their energy needs, reducing their energy needs, and then assisting if they experience a crisis during the winter. We administered the low income home energy assistance program known as seasonal fuel. It provides a benefit to Vermonters, low income Vermonters, up to 185% of the federal poverty level, whether they heat electricity, oil, kerosene, wood pellets or wood. It provides a benefit and we provide about meat, about 35 to 40% of a home owner's energy need throughout the winter. We also administered through our partners with the community action agencies a crisis fuel program for households, low income households that experience a no heat situation, they run out of fuel. We can provide a minimum delivery of 125 gallons to help them out as well. Also we partner with the public utility commission, Vermont gas and green mountain power to administer a utility discount program. Green mountain power provides a 25% discount to low income Vermonters and Vermont gas provides a 20% discount. We administer those programs on behalf of those utilities. I encourage any Vermonter who has concerns, low income Vermonter who has concerns about meeting their energy needs to reach out to DCF, you can either apply for our programs through our website or call our benefit service center or visit one of our district state or also they can visit one of our partners community action agencies who can also assist them in applying. We also administer some crisis programs. So if someone experiences a no heat situation, their furnace stops working during the winter or they run out of fuel, they can visit a community action agency who we partner with to provide that service. If it's repairable, we will repair the furnace at no cost to the family. If it needs to be replaced, we will replace it at no cost to the family as well. And we will always strive to provide a much more energy efficient model. And that heating, if it's their primary heating source, it could be a wood stove. It could be a heat pump. It could be an oil furnace, a pellet furnace. We will repair or replace it with a more efficient model as we do that. We also administer to help households reduce their energy. We administer through our partners with community action agencies our weatherization program. And as Peter Walk indicated, we are really scaling up that work. We received a $45 million investment from the governor and the legislature as a part of the community climate action plan work to reduce greenhouse gases. So we're really scaling up that program. And low income homeowners would enjoy the benefit of that program at no cost.  And we do that with more energy efficient through weatherization, sealing cracks, service their equipment. If it's in good order, if it needs to be replaced, we'll replace it with more energy efficient models as well. And so it really reduces their energy need, makes their home more comfortable and many cases makes it more healthy. The air quality more healthy as well. And again, we partner with our community action agencies to administer that program. They experience an issue with their fuel tank and it becomes red tagged because it's no longer safe. We also provide a program that we will replace fuel tanks at no cost to household as well. And so visit community action agency once again to access those programs. And I'd also say, given the amount of work that's happening in this space, all of our community action agencies are hiring. This is a great opportunity for community action agencies to work with us. If you want to work with us, if you want to work with us, or if you want to change careers, we have all sorts of positions available and please reach out to us or our office of economic opportunity and we're happy to connect you with a provider in your area where you live and we will try to get you hooked up and on the job as quickly as possible. So thank you and I'll turn it over and I'm happy to take any questions at this point. Yes. If they are a low income or moderate and qualify, you can either be a homeowner or a renter to have received weatherization services so it is available to renters as well. Yes, we work with the landlord to ensure that that unit will stay affordable and accessible to low income families moving forward once we make that investment. They can switch the types of fuels they use. Some are going we have a pellet stove program to replace their pellet stove or the other wood stoves that are somewhat antiquated and efficient so that's one way. Even larger scale I think some have gone to pellet stoves and pellet systems biomass type of pellet systems so there are a number of different initiatives you can contemplate as you try and make your homes more efficient and less costly. Sure, something we launched during the pandemic when people didn't necessarily want somebody to come into their home and as an opportunity for I think we all go through this as in our own homes where we try to figure out where do I start? How do I begin this process? What should it look like? And it extends beyond heating fuel use, it extends to appliances and light bulbs and all these things and where should I start? I know my energy costs are high, where should I start? And that's a good place just to have a conversation with an expert about where to start and then that could lead to something like a home energy audit where somebody comes in and does a blower door test in your home and finds out where there are leaks and where ceiling needs to occur, where there are opportunities for either first time insulation or more insulation and an attic or a basement and other places like that. So the virtual home energy visit is just something to get started that could lead to other things down the road. I believe we do it via, I'm not sure what the platform is, but it's the same like Zoom, yeah. So the best thing to do is to give us a call at Efficiency Vermont, you can go to a website and start the process that way and we can get in touch and and set that up. Sure. So what we've actually been over the course of time, Vermont has been a leader in this space of thinking about how you think about what the benefits are to health and we've actually had I think of a pilot that was done in the Rutland area with the Rutland Regional Medical Center where they prescribed weatherization for folks who suffered from chronic respiratory diseases because they're warmer, their air is fresher, it deals with some of the moisture issues that causes concerns and so there are a number of benefits and that's an opportunity to, as we think about weatherization as an energy savings, as a greenhouse gas and as a health tool, those combined benefits are amazing in what they're capable of offering if and then rather than looking at them individually. Are you concerned about the, brought up the issue of meeting some folks to come in and do some of the weatherization work or the heating system work but are you concerned that that's across the board, I mean everything for drivers and fuel trucks to service? Yeah. As you are probably well aware the workforce challenges we face in the state of Vermont are across all sectors this one including whether it's weatherization itself or whether as you mentioned just delivery of fuels and technicians to come in and repair systems and so forth, electricians again it's across the board that's why I've been so focused on CTE, career technical education, trying to bring more of our youth into the trades because it is a lucrative career and we need more of them but it's again it isn't just the trades it's law enforcement, it's education it's healthcare across even state government throughout state government we have we have our challenges in terms of workforce needs. We do, there was another I don't know if that's passed yet but Senator Leahy was successful in I believe at least including some more money and does anyone know whether that passed? Yes it did so we have a base block grant from the federal government of approximately $21 million and Senator Leahy was able to insert a provision in the consult appropriations act that recently passed to continue funding the government about which will Vermont will receive about 5.6 or 5.7 million more dollars on top of that 21 which certainly goes a long way because we were anticipating an additional need and the governor had approved additional state funds as a contingency and so we won't need to draw down as much as much of those state funds to make sure we can maintain purchasing power in a line with prior years average. So last year will it be an office year? Well last year we certainly had a large yes with the ARPA funding and that was certainly a lifetime opportunity for Vermont and we were able to leverage those dollars throughout the spring and the summer to help Vermonters prepare so we normally provide the wood benefit in the fall which is not the best time to be trying to purchase dry firewood so we were able to issue out a substantial wood benefit for this upcoming winter this past spring so allow Vermonters time to buy greenwood or seasoned wood and let it dry throughout the summer and so we were able to help Vermonters that way and we were also first a set number of low income Vermonters we were able to provide a pre-season benefit of about 6,000 households of 125 gallon benefit. No I mean so and that's when I say the purchasing power we always look at our caseload that the dollars available and the cost of fuel to come up with a purchasing power calculation and so we were trying to keep it within that 35 to 40% range and we anticipate being able to do that this year although there is a significant volatility in the heating market at the moment. Triage the situation if it gets that big? Yeah we think we're in pretty good shape here in Vermont at this point in time it's not as though we're not concerned because we always remain on guard and concerned because we never know what's going to happen but at this point in time we feel as though we're pretty solid anything you want to add to that? It's a good question to ask but it's way premature the issue isn't whether there's enough commodity and the like to take care of our thermal needs the issue is what it's going to cost so we have what we need and we have access to more if it's needed I won't lie to you the region has certainly made headlines this fall because other states are concerned about this issue but it's important to remember that in Vermont a great deal of our power comes from the north from Hydro-Quebec so that's our electricity and a great deal of our natural gas as well all through Vermont gas systems from Canada again so in that sense we have a smaller slice of our energy than we have to worry about and in that area it's diversification that's really key and to the question you were asking earlier about what people can do if they set themselves up to where they have fuel diversity in their homes meaning a heat pump and say a propane source or something like that they then have the ability to switch from one to the other as needed and it publicates other policy questions about what we heat with in the state and why it's advisable to have diversity the other thing that really shouldn't be overlooked is personal behavior if you're concerned about your fuel costs say your gas for driving your car try to eliminate your trips if you're concerned about the warmth of your home consider the extra layer those are things that you can do to get into a rationing situation but I'd really like to emphasize that's way premature and not on our horizon right now I'm sure the governor mentioned these integrated wood stoves the greatest great people are saying there's a possibility risk case scenario of a blackout of these temporary blackouts in which case propane heaters etc electrically powered they might not work so well so should we be swapping out our wood stoves our old fashioned, op grid low tech wood stoves just for diversity in case of emergency I think some of those would be swapped out for pellet stoves it's just a different type of wood processing but I think that's part of the program that we had included do you use some sort of electric starter or whatever some do some are hand fed but yeah some of them do but it is important I mean it's an important question I've talked about this before we're not going to switch to complete electricity overnight and we have to make sure that we have the grid there to support that or micro grid or whatever we're going to have battery storage throughout the state to bring be able to bridge that gap in a lot of cases so this is something that we all have to contemplate and be honest and open and transparent and get to where we want to go I still believe that it's the right approach but again I think large scale battery storage micro grids is going to be some of the answer in the future anything else no governor that was a good answer okay do you want to add anything to that do you have any concerns well as you know I had concerns in the beginning I want to make sure that we have roadside safety is a concern edibles kids so forth that's a concern and I think that the cannabis control board is doing their part to make sure that it's everything is measured and that they are doing their part to be sure that it's rolled out effectively so so far so good I don't know again we'll see I know a lot of folks were counting on tremendous income as a result we'll see if that comes to bear or not the next election cycle should be we have two new federal representatives coming in there are going to be two around the list we have to be able to leverage senator lehi's seniority so are you concerned that maybe that federal law might dry up a little bit absolutely senator lehi has been seniority is a big part of what happens in washington and congress he has a lot of longevity there and a lot of power has been very, very helpful to our state so it would be foolish to think that we would be able to replicate that with a junior senator with no years of experience or longevity in the senate in particular so that's again we're grateful for all he's done but there will be a void in the future that's why we have to really think about how we appropriate money because some of the money that senator lehi was able to get appropriated to vermont won't be there possibly so we're going to have to tighten our belts a bit live within our means and do things like weatherization to cut down on the costs for vermonters it is not well the only part that is connected is the proceeds from wheels for warmth goes to the capstone and cboeo and brock and ruttland and they utilize that money, the proceeds for fuel assistance so it helps in that way but not directly connected which one it's been a successful program over the years it really is one of those it's all volunteer driven it accomplishes a number of different areas whether it's to take tires that are still usable and get more use out of them it provides good safe tires to those families who can't afford to buy new ones takes them out of the waste stream as well because they get recycled and then as I said before it provides fuel assistance to those in need so it's a great program we'll see how it goes but it's been over the last 12 or 13 years it's been successful and it's not just you can't measure it in monetary ways because it has some the ripple effect is so great but one of those that again all volunteer driven it's an effective program there are 1,555 as of last night fuel tank owners on the red tag replacement list have any tank owners to your knowledge and refuse fuel service if their tanks are not compliant and in general how's that working out? again when they are red tagged maybe Sean can explain this further but when they're red tagged I believe there is means for them to get a small allotment of fuel to keep them going but I'm not sure about that but there are programs within state government to help them replace those tanks because what happens is they have leaks and they or they look to be in dire straits and may cause contamination as well as loss of fuel which is costly at the homeowner so it's a good program to have but again the downside is folks need some help and replacing those tanks as well anything you want to add to that? that was great okay well thank you all very much appreciate it, thank you all very much


Hey, okay. I'm gonna attempt to do a live stream. I don't know how it's gonna work How handy this is gonna be I'm having a bit of a trouble with the internet this morning So we're gonna try this and see we're going to have a channel on a chat with Jerry Springer and This should be interesting I promised I would try to be civil so hopefully it will go as planned But you never really do know with the afterlife So let me just check my audio Hey, welcome to above-life channel by the way just double checking the audio Trying to see if the live stream stays up live but having some issues this morning with that Okay, it seems to be all right. I hope the audio stays. Okay. I apologize for that last time It didn't work so well. I'm having some technical things lately. I don't know. I Don't know see you think it would be a murky retrograde, but it is not a mercury mercury Retrograde I see in the chat. Good morning to you. Hello, Margaret Hello, Rebecca can hear you good. Thank you. All right So here we are on above-life channel with our weekly channeling and chat session Thanks for being here. Thank you to those of you who are popping in in the chat. Hi Drew. Nice to see you Hello to Denmark Hi. Yeah, okay, so I'm gonna do the best I can like I mentioned I've had a few little technical things this morning. You think it was a retrograde It is not and we're just gonna go for it and see what happens. So I was trying to think of someone to channel this morning and Jerry Springer apparently Left this earth just recently in April and so I thought why not for those of you who don't know Jerry Springer is like a very cheeky controversial Dramatic talk show host Most people we used to make fun of it, you know growing up that he wasn't he had like He was on for years on television and it and it started not quite as dramatic as I think it ended very much family drama and you know so-and-so sleeping with so-and-so and like you know some guy on there with like 50 kids or something from like his his neighbor and then her Best friend and then her three cousins and all that kind of stuff like really like dramatic stuff And so very family drama like so I thought why not start the week with that All right, so we're gonna have a channel With him. I I don't know what it's gonna be like. I haven't actually ever met him energetically or spiritually, but We'll just happen and see what comes through okay, we'll have some fun hopefully with it. All right So Jerry come on in He says oh nice to see you he's like nice to meet you it's like reaching his hand out to shake my hand Hi, I have a seat We're gonna have some conversation. I hope today. Nice to see you Lots of green energy around him. So green is like healing energy. So it feels like he's been either He's bringing through like a healthy awareness that I'm healthy. I'm healthy. He wants people to know that Actually small some smoke. So it looks like he may have been a smoker at one point in his life He said my dad was a heavy smoker. Okay And he said that's just what we did back in the 70s like, okay, okay fair enough fair enough so we all know you from the talk show circuit and Would love to hear how how did all that get started like what? What gave you I mean you've quite the reputation your talk show does and if you guys have questions Please chime in in the chat because I'm not sure what else to really talk to him But except for the drama of the talk show So if you guys have specific questions go ahead and pop them in the chat and we'll see what what comes up So how did that all start or unfold? He says well didn't I didn't anticipate it being something like like it turned out to be he says It got kind of crazy there he said and he said it got kind of crazy there at times He said one time I got stitches I had to get stitches in my head He said it's like you got hit with the corner of a chair or something and he said yeah He said it was quite dramatic. He said at times. Yeah. Yeah, I got kind of out of control He says I admit that I admit that he says about me for good TV. Didn't it? I'm like, yeah, I guess it did I want to know how much is real and how much was Amplified or improvised or fake it's like a little bit of a WWE vibe going on on the Jerry Springer show So I kind of want to know that but how did it start? Can you tell us about that? He says well, everyone had talk shows, you know He said, you know, he says, I don't know if you remember the Donahue show the Phil Donahue show He says like like back back in the day and He says, you know before the Maury povich before the Before Oprah he says even before Oprah and he says and Sally Jesse Raphael guys remember the with her red glasses Do you guys remember? He says It was kind of the thing to do so when I had the opportunity I did it and he's showing me like talking on the radio like a radio show host Maybe he was at some point or having interviews or something It came kind of from like a radio thing and I don't know if it's because of his voice or what the deal is But he's he's sharing like being like almost like an announcer kind of thing Like I'm seeing that the microphone and an announcer kind of thing like a radio I'm not sure if he actually had radio experience, but I'm kind of getting a little vibe like that So I'm gonna share that with you guys Are you okay to do transition? Well, okay, so we do have some ad questions here, too So sorry, I'm just I'm just super distracted. I'm like, hey all right, so Okay, so it started out everybody was doing talk shows you had the opportunity so you do the talk show Yes, yes, yes, okay and He said And then he says right away. He says the ratings weren't so good at first Ratings weren't so good. He's literally showing me. Oh you guys do you use he says the hard part is having like the skinheads on there and the like the racially charged groups and things he said that was he says that was dangerous. He says looking back that was That was maybe not the smartest thing to do. He said I Don't know if that Made things better or worse for people. He says there's quite a divide, you know He says back then that was more controversial than it is today. He says sorry to say sorry to say He says it seems like some of those things that seemed outrageous When we were first putting things on television having really controversial Conversations and things. Yeah, it was designed to Kenneth's, you know spur people on but he says There's a lot about oh boy. Okay. This isn't political.  I'm just gonna be clear on that and share that with you but he's saying that There's a lot around free speech for him personally that that And it's not that he was righteous or anything like that necessarily, but he's saying like to give to give To let people understand that there are really people out there that are so dramatically different than you are in your own living rooms watching television that You need to be aware of this. He says kind of to he says kind of to Bring it to people that didn't have these experiences to give people exposure to other types of groups people And he says it's not he says I'm not trying to present myself as a good guy. I'm not trying to do that I'm not trying to position myself as like the Oprah. I'm not trying to do that. There's no competition here like that There's no competition. I just I just really felt it was And he says and it's more than entertainment like for me He says it was it was more than entertainment for me. He said I know it turned out to be much more of a three-ring circus at times he says and The drama became something that was attached to the show and started to become Sort of the way that the show was marketed and he says but early on it wasn't intended as That it wasn't conceived as that the idea for it wasn't necessarily that it was much more to bring people together to give the audience exposure to just very different lifestyles and different ways of thinking and different types of things and he says no now that said It wasn't intended to be scholarly or educational. It was intended as exposure and So it wasn't a really about helping people He says well, I Wouldn't say that it That that was like I'm really confused by that piece you guys and he's not responding directly to that So was it about helping people not necessarily but also he says it wasn't just pure entertainment intentions either and he says It was really about exposure There's other things out there and there's other people out there in the world that have very vastly different feel Feelings and ideas and opinions about things than you do and he says and it's particularly in America There are so many different divides that Nobody was really talking about directly. He says so I can show you that and then it will shake you up and Get you think and he says I didn't have Necessarily a position that I was trying to hit through like how nowadays there are media outlets They're very aligned with certain political Stance and it wasn't intended as that he says it was not intended as that. Yes I was a person. I did have a political and you said a mayor. He was a mayor political Experience or background, but I didn't that wasn't the intent of the of the show. It wasn't intended as that So let's see what your questions are can you ask him his thoughts on the UK version of a show? Oh interesting. Yeah, we can do that. Oh Let's ask about let's do this. How did you really feel as a mayor? Did you feel like you were helping a lot of people? When you were a mayor He says, you know, there's a lot of bureaucracy I Kind of want to just leave it at that but I'm gonna say a little more. He has red energy around him So I don't know if he was a Republican Little bit of a red energy around him unless he was in a red state, which might be But he says there's a lot of bureaucracy He says it feels a bit like it kind of your job is two-fold It's like to be a public figure being the mayor is a public figure like you represent the city and the people and he says but but it's so it's kind of celebrity like a little bit just a little bit and he said but But trying to get things done or get business done or things accomplished was was a nightmare He says it was extremely difficult and everything seemed like you're pushing a boulder uphill He says it just it just did not it was just not easy He says to get things done and he says he was direct about things and he was vocal about his his discontent and how You know frustrated he was about the process and things and and everybody knew that and he said so in a way That's good because then there's a fairness about that You know what you're dealing with when you're dealing with me But he says but it just got really Tired some really tiresome All right, so Oh interesting. Okay. So there's a couple of very very interesting Questions here that I'm really loving in the chat. Thank you Jerry So we got a question about your life review, which I think is fascinating How um, how did your life review go? Can you talk about that? So for those of you who don't know Um when you transition into the afterlife, you have a period that you go through of life review And I most recently observed this was my grandmother when she passed. Um, she was in hospice care and pretty much unconscious For about four days at near the end of her life And I noticed her Actually was there to witness her life review as it was happening and and in her case she Was in and out So she was visiting the afterlife and then coming back into her body and visiting the afterlife and coming back into her body Having experiences because she had a lot of fear around death And so she needed to get used to the idea and to understand that it wasn't just a dream this afterlife heaven where you're with your loved ones It's real when you leave your body and your spirit. You're not confined. It's not Confrontational or challenging or anything like that So so jerry, how was it like for you? How was your transition? And then what was your life review like because we got both of those questions in the chat Ah, he says, yeah, it was kind of like a panel interview. He said I am gonna say I'm not I'm not gonna lie He says it was it was a little bit intimidating at first. He says, um I went into this room with this long conference table in it And it was like they were sitting in front of me and I was sitting on a chair And he says and there was a panel and he said it kind of felt like a big interview And he says I'm not I'm a people person I'm not I'm not shy at all really and so but it felt very business like he said very business like and He said so it was it was kind of the thing and he said I thought it was a dream actually said I thought it was a dream He says I was sick Um off and on in my life. I've been sick off and on and he said I've actually had other experiences near death Um types of experiences where I could have died. It looks like heart issues I'm gonna share that. Um Or something with the blood pressure Maybe losing consciousness at times every once in a while something some stuff was going on with the health Before he got sick and died, you know before that and so, um he's saying that It almost felt dreamlike dreamlike, you know, you have a dream.  They're just weird. He said it was kind of like that um So I answered their questions and they asked me questions and um, well, what did they ask you? I've never seen a life review like that. Um, they asked me what I thought about my life and um Who I was most concerned about when I when I was going to leave if um Without me around if I was concerned about anybody in particular and um He says I I got the feeling like it was like a get to know you that kind of thing And it gave me an opportunity for some reflection. He says but um, I felt like it was like a job interview It kind of felt like that he says Um, well, do you get the sense that you would have been hired? And he says, you know, I don't know I really don't know. I can't say he said I didn't feel like I had to prove my Myself, you know in order to get it into heaven or anything and he said in quite honestly quite quite frankly I didn't know that that's what was happening. I really didn't I didn't I couldn't There's no cognition of that, you know, there's no brain Involvement in that it's just you have this experience and it's unfolding. It's it's you're very authentic You're just naturally yourself and and he said so I was just myself and um I saw some images from my childhood as a boy growing up and um, he says and so I It was a bit nostalgic and uh, Kind of a sentimental feeling heartwarming kind of feeling so so what overall it felt good like I felt like um my life was Fully lived or or well well lived well brown did you might say? So I didn't feel like there was anything in in particular that was missing or would have been missing he says So what was your transition like he said it was tough He said I was in and out of consciousness In and out in and out. He says it would be tough if if you were watching me. He said The breathing part was the hardest he said I could see like I could open my eyes and see but I couldn't I couldn't speak Because every effort was on the breathing. He said trying to breathe And he said my heart was really a challenge at times and it looks like he almost died And then he came back and then he almost died and like there was this like up and down and in and out in and out kind of thing um And he says it's hard. It's really hard to watch your family go through that and He says now reflecting back I see that that's part of this agreement that you have as a spirit You know as a person with your family you have this agreement with people. He says I'd like people to know this You have this agreement. This is jerry springer talking about After afterlife and dying and his death and he says you have this agreement with the people that are in your life and they know At some level in some way. I don't know how he says I don't know how I can't explain this to you But that they're supposed to be there or be part of this experience with you and It's hard to feel like you're this burden and it's a struggle for them to watch you um But somewhere in in your heart, you know inside you, you know that this is right This is how it needs to be and so he says you quickly Realize that releasing the guilt of them watching you suffer Is important to the dying process to letting yourself be at peace and he says you have to find the peace In what you would he says hit your heart and he says but you would say Your spirit you have to find that peace within And then It's just left to the body the machinery of the body to breathe you into the afterlife. He says so It's it's hard to kind of witness that process or to be aware of this process happening and and you But I would like people to know that you focus on your role You might be the person that is that is just holding that space of for peace to come And that desire for peace that hope for peace for your your person who who is dying who's leaving The earth and he says so There is a a reason for all of that and he said I'd like people to understand that and to know that There is there is a reason for that and there's an agreement for that And he says and I can't explain to you what your agreements are or how that all works, but I know that there is And he says and at that point when you are letting go of life You recognize that the simplest things like that desire for the peace to come in and be present is Really the form of love that we've all been seeking this whole time this whole time That love and that acceptance also he says and to embrace that Is what is required in order for you to To fully transition, you know to move into the the afterlife that is um, quite beautiful Actually, isn't it? Yeah, thank you All right, so apparently there's a uk version of your show And he says uh He says uh Well, I guess it was a good idea He says it is purely for entertainment. He says it gets to a point where it's just entertainment It really is just entertainment and he says It kind of has a life of its own. It's not really about me. He says um It just has a life of its own he says and so If it provides a sense of relief for people or distraction during difficult times then Then I mean it is what it is you you need that. I mean look at the social media Look at look at all of the ways that that people Now nowadays are Are distracting themselves and not showing up to um life as it is unfolding. So I would uh I would challenge you to ask yourself that where are you spending your time and and is it really worth The value that you have To to be doing that That's that's what I would say. He says that's what I would say All right. Um, do you have any advice for us as people? Um, we alluded to like how crazy your show was And the crazy people that were on there and that kind of thing. Um, oh you have to tell us. Is that real or fake? Don't you guys want to know Was it real or fake? Do you guys want to know? I'm not trying to be disrespectful. Oh, no, no No offense taken. He says no offense taken. Um Um Some of my producers. Yes. I I will admit Most certainly, um fueled the fires he says Fueled the fires, you know or poke to the bear as you might say so, um People were encouraged to make sure it was good television. He said I will say that I will say that he says but to my knowledge There wasn't anything that was um, uh, uh, a lie Or nobody was encouraged to lie about their situation or scenario So but the theatrics of it. He says was encouraged I will say that he said, um So and I kind of I mean, I don't know. Did you guys think that too? Did you think it was just entertainment? I don't know. It was weird. I couldn't watch it. It would make me sick like to my stomach I get really stressed watching it. It didn't make me feel any kind of relief at all or distraction It just felt like drama trauma to me. It's how it felt um, yeah, I didn't like the fighting either. I see that in The comments too the fighting was kind of a challenge um As well What do you think about nowadays the landscape of Maybe the talk show environment or or or how that Informs us now maybe media how that informs us Do you have any any feelings on that or any kind of insight that you'd like to give us as an afterlife now? Person or as a a former person an afterlife spirit with that perspective You know, it seems like there have been a lot of gains in this movement of freedom of speech and expression and then And That also allows them for kind of crazy things to happen So for this contingent of people who have been Kind of held back or or pushed out of the mainstream or now flooding into the mainstream and kind of taking over He says and so it feels like there's this bombardment of this kind of craziness and these um extreme or wild thoughts or or perspectives and and he says um and Where the media and and Like television or radio Kind of comes into that and he says is Like you notice it with the news media particularly you've really noticed that and he says The positioning of things is also entertainment. He says it is really sensationalized and and I hope that people would understand that there is a degree of manipulation And theatrics in regards to that and how things are presented and he says that and it is unfair to Maybe put people in a situation where you know, there's going to be an explosive Experience there, you know to encourage the fighting verbal or physical Um, he says it it really seems like there's not money rules At this point now And he says but I would I would caution you to think that to I would caution you to believe that To to be careful what you believe about How that really plays out at the grocery store or in your communities and he says is it affecting it? Yes He says because people are really fed up and and frustrated and stressed and he says with things like the economy and politics and all that and he says but But in real life, you don't have to Of the industry of what is media and Believe it as the gospel and put it into play and practice in your daily life You don't have to do that.  It's not about you're being challenged to open your mind It's now you're being challenged to get angry and kind of to have this reaction You're not being challenged to think about it and have a conversation and decide what you believe now and how your beliefs might change instead The landscape is such that it's pushing you to have a reaction and a response where you're like getting like this dopamine hit or something And then you are addicted to the media, which means you'll consume more of it. Which is what helps the multimedia Companies and moguls and and the advertisers and the businesses that are relying on the income from that And from your belief system so they can sell things to you. He said it's a system of just economics is all it is It's not really about the good people trying to present something. He says it's really about The economy everything is about the money and he says so So for my show as well, yes That's a part of it and I will admit that a hundred percent that that's a part of it But it's bigger now. It's to put that on the main stage like it's bigger And it's more accepted like as a norm, but it's not real. It's not a reality it's It's not that it doesn't have to be that way. He says so Wow, okay, that's that's helpful. I think that's helpful All right, jerry, I'm gonna go I had to refill my coffee cup and get on with my monday It was really nice to have you and to chat with you just curious about things I don't know like I said, I don't really know much about you aside from the craziness of the show That I had seen off and on um You know in those days when you're home from school Or when you're sick and you're eating your chicken noodle soup and the crackers And drinking your sprite and on the couch and just watching television And that's like one of the only shows on and you're watching that instead of you know, the price is right Dating myself Before jerry was on it by the way like back in the day with the bob parker That was when I that was when I was watching it. So So thank you so much jerry for popping in and sharing your perspective I think it's it's timely that whole media news media and the landscape and social media and how we're influenced in things And how we're triggered really is what I would use the word triggered. He said influenced or manipulated by He's used the word reactive or reaction and I would use the word trigger, but but it's it makes sense, doesn't it? It's very it's interesting to think about things like this and and how we are It's up to us to really connect him with what our personal value system is and not to Be all angry because somebody else doesn't have that value system or tells us something different But to really just be in alignment with ourselves and then live our lives from that place. That's it Like that's it sounds so simple But I know it's hard to do because we're passionate empathic people and it's hard to decipher and discern What energy is coming from outside of you pushing on you and what is really just your stuff? and so I would encourage you if you have challenges with these things to Really tenderly take care of your heart space Relax your own personal self judgment your own personal self doubt your own personal self critic and that is not easy That is one thing I have and I am really hard on myself So I can relate to you empaths on this empaths by the way are people who are very sensitive in their heart space psychically sensitive Sensitive to energy of other people's emotions. You might be a people pleaser You might just want to keep the peace and avoid conflict if that's it sounds like you that's you're an empath Is what it's called or referred to as And so Taking care of your space is important. It's not about disconnecting from other people and like isolating yourself It's about recognizing what's not yours And you can do that in the context of recognizing that emotions are just information That's what I I talk to my clients about in my private intuitive psychic and coaching work that I do with people privately Emotions are information. They're not meant to derail you. They're meant to flow. That's why it's called emotion right and It can be overwhelming 100% and there can be things like anxiety and mental health issues Which is your thought patterns and processes getting overloaded and your heart trying to help it And really they kind of start to fight and then there's internal conflict and that takes you off your center You can't even drop into your spirit or your soul because the energy in your heart Is overflowing and it feels like a pop bottle shaking up. Does this sound familiar to anyone? The anxiety comes through and it's just too much and then we move into depression. So the anxiety depression there's no accident or coincidence that those are high right now on everybody's Charts there's people getting more medication now than ever for those things whether it be naturopathic or actual pharmaceutical Whatever your route no judgment But know that that's a part of taking care of yourself and not judging yourself so much Not judging yourself Not judging yourself when you're challenged It's just for you to consider what is right for you and I want you to think about that and literally touch your heart and think What is right for me? What is true for me? Nobody else can tell you what's true for you. Nobody else can tell you what's right for you That's you that gets to decide that and you don't have to be angry when somebody else tells you something That doesn't feel right because when you're angry about it.  You got lots of opportunities to practice so Oh so much love to all of you. Thank you so much for being here in the live chat I appreciate you very much here on above life channel. We do weekly Uh sessions here channeling and chats on mondays. I also have a podcast on youtube here Have had it for a couple years now my friends sunday morning coffee It's called there's a playlist for that so you can look it up and where I talk about a an intuitive life topic And I just have a meaningful sweet conversation Encouraging you to inspire your spirit and fill you with hope as always. That's what we do every week here with all this content To encourage you to live your life. This is your life and you get to live it just Live it if you're interested in my services, you can note to the description below and see what the current service offerings are I just had an inspiring psychic experience Group session last night, which went really well was a lot of fun kind of traditional old school psychic greetings. I did I did Yes, I did And we'll be doing that again on june 22nd 2023 So check that out in the link below and you can register for that service if you're interested I also have a couple of other services options for you to consider at different price points if you're interested in Working with me or getting support for me. I'd love to hear from you on this journey. Thanks for being here