Welcome everyone to another edition of crisis conversations live from the better life lab. I'm Bridget Schulte, director of the better life lab, and today we're going to be talking about probably one of the most enormous crises facing us right now in the middle of this pandemic economic downturn and racial justice reckoning, and that is childcare, childcare crisis. Every day about more than 12 million children need a safe high quality environment. While their parents work, we have a majority of children who's who are being raised in families where all available parents work. We have something like 41 million people who are working and rely on child childcare who have lost it in the pandemic. We're also talking about schools beginning to reopen but online childcare remains closed. There's pressure on people to go back to work or businesses to to to continue trying to get back to some kind of semblance of an economy going, and there is no childcare for people 0 to 18. So we're going to be talking about that today we're going to be talking about what how we got here about the crisis, but also the very fact that the before the crisis childcare was in a crisis. We've got a system that does not work for everyone parents are paying too much early educators and caregivers are not earning enough providers are making razor thin margins. There's not enough high quality childcare to go around, even though we know how critical it is for children and families and in the future of our country. So today I'm going to we have a fantastic lineup I'm so excited to have all these panelists here let me briefly introduce them then we're going to dive right in. We've got Marla Shekman she's an entrepreneur and mother of two who's been struggling to launch her startup with no childcare. We've also got Adriana Garcia she's a mother of four from Portland, Oregon and she's currently on emergency paid leave, but she's getting a fraction of what her paycheck of her paycheck as a salon worker. And this is the summer she was hoping to kind of start kind of her career and social justice and because she doesn't have childcare. She's stuck and not able to do that. We've also got Alicia Hardy she's a policy analyst on childcare and early education for the Center for Law and Social Policy. And she wrote a really wonderful piece including about how to include parent voices and policy solutions, as well as some of her own struggles, trying to do this high level remote work and dealing with with her own childcare issues. We've got Caitlin Collins she's a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and author of the truly marvelous book called making motherhood work, how women manage careers and caregiving and if you haven't read it you should it's it's must read reading. We've got Renee Boynton Jarrett she's a professor of pediatrics at Boston University. She's a social epidemiologist and the founding director of the vital village community engagement network, which focuses on the role of early life adversities as life course social determinants of health. And last but not certainly not least we've got Maria Kansy and she's the Dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown, who researches the dynamics between public policies and family well being. So welcome to all of the panelists welcome to all the participants we're looking forward to your questions and stories in the chat. And let's start off with Marla. You know it's let's start with the actual stories of what parents are facing on the ground Marla you're trying to launch a startup. How you, how has that been going in the pandemic, trying to also figure out how to raise children. Yeah, so first I just want to say that I find it really odd that I'm on this podcast as though there's something special about me because there's absolutely nothing special about the situation that I'm in. It's, you know, the same issue that countless women are facing so on the one hand that's comforting on the other hand that's really disturbing. I've been working on launching a business for about two years I've been working on a previous model of my business, and I was pregnant last year had a baby in October. And then I gave myself maternity leave because nobody else was going to do it for me right. When I, when I picked back up in January. I said I was going to hit the ground running going to get my developer on board everything's going to happen by February we had our plans and then come March. Boom. My childcare is gone. And I had to go back to being full time mom. Now mom of two, which I didn't plan to do and it was just, you know, exhausting and a major shock to my system and one of those moms who wants to work and I didn't plan to be a stay at home mom. Well, I enjoy my work I didn't, you know, I didn't.  So that's really, that's really what I have been facing this like wanting to work not being able to work struggle, and I've just finally been able to get something shipped, you know, so to speak get something out there I've talked to my developer again but it's, it's been fits and spurts working between 11am 11pm and 1am. Wow. When I can, you know, and, you know, you've got a partner you've got a husband, you know, can you talk about how is it that it fell onto your shoulders because that's one of the things that a lot of the surveys are showing is that a lot of the home childcare is sort of defaulting to women. Yeah.  Right. But that being said, he has been fortunate enough to be able to take off a couple of hours every day through an emergency leave policy that they have. And that's been helpful but you know it's, it's not enough. Well, at this point, Adriana, let me bring you in and talk about your story. You know, you've been working at a salon. You've had a lot of difficulty. It sounds like when we talked before, trying to get the emergency paid leave. You've got four kids that you're that you're juggling.   When you're on mute Adriana. Thank you. Oh, there we go. Hi. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me to just like Marla I feel very honored to be here just representing all the parents that are going through similar similar stories. Yeah, same same situation. I've worked in social justice for about seven years. Took a little break went to school finished just had little jobs here and there for flexibility so I could stay with the kiddos and you know my husband and I could juggle. We don't have any family. At the time I was a student so we could not afford to care. My husband is obviously the main provider and so with that, you know, I was able to find little flexible jobs and it was really helpful because we could juggle the kids on on our own and so, you know, covert hitting just obviously turned our world upside down. So having childcare, all the sports and camps that our kiddos depended on to help them you know just cope and be kids and we don't have that anymore so I have a house full of little anxious children and you know it's very very hard it's very hard. It's not knowing what programs are out there with support we have and employers, you know, sometimes pushing back that just makes it even harder. So it's just been, you know, and just like Marla same way I'm 100% strong feminist we share roles 5050 always. But you know my husband is a main provider so it's had to default for me to have to put everything on hold all the plans that we had for this year. And it's been really really hard. Yeah. So, Alicia, if I could, if I could turn to you. You know, can you help put these stories in context, both Adriana and Marla, you know they're in partnerships where you know someone else is the primary breadwinner but in so many families, women are the, you know, either they're the primary or co breadwinner. And many other families don't have these kinds of options. You know, can you help put these stories in this in a larger perspective about what families are experiencing during this, you know during the pandemic and, you know, and really looking at this through an equity lens like you've been writing about. And again, thank you for having me on the show as well and many of the things that Marla and Adriana said really resonated with me and my personal experience who I'm also working from home with my two kids and my husband works outside of the home so I'm here full time working with two kids. And so I definitely understand that and to really understand the impacts of Coronavirus currently on the childcare system for families and workers in childcare providers, we have to really look at the context of what was happening before in the racial equity and equity that existed in terms of low income families and so we see that childcare is widely expensive for all families across the board and that families in 30 states in the District of Columbia pay more for a center based childcare than they do for public tuition at a four year university in this. I just put a put an exclamation point on that that's an amazing statistic. Yeah, it's, you're talking about at a time when families haven't had 18 years to save up for for college tuition it hits them right out of the box. Absolutely and that affordability issue is for all families but when we look at families who earn low incomes that affordability piece is even worse for them and again we layer on the equity lens in terms of racial equity and families within communities of color paying even higher costs. Yeah, so the threshold for affordability is 7% that's what the US Department of Health and Human Services says, but families and low 7% like what it absolutely I do. Yes, absolutely 7% of income as being contributed to childcare is like the threshold so families should know more spend no more than 7% on their income towards childcare, but we see that low income families are paying on average 30% contributing 30% of their income towards childcare So every $100 that a family earns 30 is going towards childcare and this is your affordability when you look at race in the context of race black families and other communities of color paying even higher costs so black families are most likely to be able to afford childcare and are paying five times as much contributing 35% of their income towards childcare So that affordability issue is huge and then we're not even looking at access and understanding what that 50% of Americans live in childcare deserts and Latinx and Native American families are most likely to live in childcare deserts and what that truly means for families because even if you can afford childcare if you can access it that creates a whole another level of issue. When you talk about a childcare desert and you're saying like half of all families live in childcare deserts that. So, can you talk a little bit about what does that mean when you live in a childcare.  What does that mean? Yeah, the first families that live in childcare deserts that means these families, the number of families in children that need access to childcare out numbers the amount of licensed providers and slots that are available in their community. And so this is something that's impacting all Americans but again when you look at income in that intersection of income and race families within communities of color having even more difficulty accessing childcare. In general, it's just not there it's just absolutely communities. Absolutely. And then on the, you know, the other thing that you've also written about so we've talked about the parents and how unaffordable it is for them but you've also written about caregivers you know we really rely. You know 90 over 90% of all the early ed teachers and caregivers are women. Absolutely. Absolutely women of color, many immigrant women, and yet they all earn poverty wages, you know, like about the what a parking lot attendant does, you know, and so that's another part of the equity equation how do you make this affordable for parents but also give living wages to people who work in the system. And I think that's really important because the high costs of childcare that burden and the high costs are passed on to families but also providers and childcare workers who as you stated are overwhelmingly women and women of color, and who on average make $11 and 42 since an hour so far. In some states we're paying people who walk our dogs and care for our animals more than we pay for the pay the people who are caring for our children, the nation's future. The undervaluing and underpaying of the childcare labor force does have to do exactly with what you said that is composed of majority women and in particular women of color and the undervaluing of women, and again particularly women of color black Latin next Asian American women in this country and that they don't see them as valuable enough to pay livable wages and have them, allow them to have access to other benefits such as health care medical care, especially with all the health issues that are being going on with the COVID-19 pandemic. Right. And now this is a workforce where many of them are out of work because so many childcare centers and and family homes are shut down. Absolutely. Let's turn, Caitlin, let me turn to you at this point. You know, you've just done such marvelous amazing research not only looking at the situation for for mothers and women and equity here in the United States but also across the world. And I think one of the things that is both the hopeful and depressing when I read your work is that it doesn't have to be this way, and that you've seen how it can be different. Can you talk about why it doesn't have to be this way, and what we could learn from other countries. The United States has the most family hostile public policy of any country in the western industrialized world. The United States has no universal childcare universal healthcare right no universal basic income no guaranteed vacation and sick days. These things compound to make the lives of families in the United States, much much harder day to day than another Western industrialized countries, and we don't have to invent a system from scratch there are other systems elsewhere in the world that are working well. I did interviews with families in Scandinavia, for example, and Sweden has a universal childcare system that costs the wealthiest families in the country $160 a month for full time childcare for their children for their children. What. $160 a month for full time childcare. That's the maximum amount allowed for a family. And as Alicia mentioned the cost here in the US is astronomical the average family is paying roughly $9600 a year on average to send a child to a daycare facility zero to four. In Scandinavia that's $2,000 a year max for the wealthiest families in the country on average 3% of their income. This is the system available to all families across the socioeconomic spectrum for immigrant families, you know native origin families and we again don't have to invent a system from scratch we can look elsewhere to draw best practices on how to implement a system like this here in the United States. You know, one of the things that struck me is when you interviewed mothers and you've asked sort of how they feel and what they expect, you know the sort of the stress level or the exhaustion level. What has struck you when when you think about the sort of the different experiences that women have with childcare and these different systems. The moms were unique in blaming themselves for their work family conflict, they felt uniquely stressed exhausted overwhelmed and guilt written as as one participant said earlier today. And it doesn't surprise me that moms told me this because the United States says that families are a personal and private responsibility, right that caregiving should happen in the home and its parents jobs turned the market to meet that need. One of the reasons is that this exacerbates deep seated inequalities between different sorts of families and moms in Europe, moms in Germany, moms in Italy, moms in Sweden felt that they had a right to support from men from employers and from the government. American moms don't expect help from anyone, and they uniquely carry the vast majority of this burden on their shoulders in ways that I think is deeply problematic and again perpetuating inequalities that we've seen for centuries now. You know, so, Maria, I'd like to turn to you at this point you've done so much work on sort of looking at whole systems, and to Caitlin's point that that we think of family as a private issue that you know matter and that government doesn't doesn't it shouldn't be involved, which is so crazy when you think that we have public education that starts at five five to 18 that somehow a social good but zero to five it's not. Let's talk about how do we get here, why it matters, and how do we get out of here, what do we do, how do we move forward in the pandemic but also in the, in the big picture. Well, thanks for it. I mean, I would say that education is actually the exception to the role in the United States. I think Nancy full grain Marcia Marcia Myers others have have used this phrase that in the US we see children as pets. And I think this is really a useful kind of way to think about it. You can have a child. The purpose of a child is to bring you pleasure the way maybe having a pet might, you're responsible for their care and feeding and their behavior and within remarkably broad boundaries. We don't tell parents how to raise their children. And we don't really give parents help, unless they can prove that they're unable to provide so it's really very what we would call residual. So you know we might provide food stamps or we might provide healthcare we might provide housing, if parents can prove that they're unable to do what we otherwise define as their responsibility. And I think it would be a really different switch and this goes back to what Caitlin said, if we started to see children as a critical investment in our future. If we started to see that we need a generation that will take care of us when we're old, that will pay taxes to pay off the debt that we're accumulating right now. And if that were like an investment, then you would begin to see parents as currently paying a much greater share than their share in making this investment. Instead of it being, you know, public help for this private responsibility. It becomes offsetting some of that private burden that parents are taking to raise the next generation and that really recast things and I just said that in the US, we have that approach for public education from, you know, K through we don't say there's a public school down the street, if you're not, if you're too poor to afford private school. Yeah, right. We say there's public school down the street for everybody, but we don't take that approach to care work for the youngest children. And that would really require a big change though it is a big change that I think people are starting to embrace in the current context where a broader set of people are seeing just how unworkable the current system is. Absolutely. Renee, let me turn to you at this point and you and I met when I was moderating the panel after the release of a wonderful documentary called No Small Matter all about how investing just as Maria was saying investing in children investing in early care and education is really critical for our future. So, share some of that, why is that, you know, why should we be thinking about it as an investment rather than, you know, the children are pets to bring us joy why is that important, and what are you seeing particularly now in the pandemic and the work that you're doing. So much, you know what the data is 100% clear that are high quality early childhood development investments in high quality early childhood development have a clear rate of return on investment of 7 to 10%. So if you just want to translate it into the importance and the efficiency of investing early instead of preparing later, there is huge rate of return on investment boosts earnings by over 25% in adulthood health outcomes that are far reaching our leading causes of chronic illness, stroke, diabetes, obesity, all of these factors parenting in adulthood are all significantly impacted by access to consistent high quality early childhood developmental experiences and the achievement gap that we spend so much trying to correct a later on, it also helps to shrink that so health care is over $3 billion per year, we spend primarily in tertiary care. And we know that investment or what do you mean by tertiary care by tertiary care I mean care for chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, stroke, chronic illnesses, but we actually know by investing in an equitable high quality early childhood developmental experiences, you could actually prevent many of those complications that occur at earlier and younger ages for a large percentage of the population. And as has so presently state estimates that 30 to 50% of child care providers and child care centers could permanently close their doors due to COVID-19. And at the same time we see this existing evidence of the benefits of early child care. And as has been shared by everyone today on this podcast, this has been a systemic structural disinvestment in early child care. 1.5 million child care workers, 40% of them are women of color with the vast majority of women, over 15% of them live at poverty or below the poverty line. And as has been shared, they make about $11 and a half hour, 85% don't have health care, 85%. And in light of COVID-19, the majority of them do not have plans for protective protective equipment, or the appropriate disinfectant and cleaning equipment. So there is a reckoning that is happening right now around a huge question. Are we going to respect and honor and protect the dignity of our child care providers as essential workers and the dignity of the children in their care. And this is not a field that has been invested in in a sustainable way. There are systemic structural inequities that are being grossly widened and grossly exposing the fragility of this system in light of COVID-19. But we must make fundamentally different decisions. This is not an easy or simple fix. We really have to decide as a society, do we want to invest in supporting the promise and potential of every child, and do we want to invest in child care providers for the very essential and invaluable work that they are doing for our society in terms of its health and well being for the future. You know, we're getting some questions from from the chat and one of the questions which I think is a really important one to address is why is it so expensive. Why is it so expensive for parents and why are caregivers earning such little money.  Why, why is it so expensive and why are we calling it a broken system. Well, I mean, I think this is a really good example of a place where it's very expensive because it's very intensive work and we've basically rendered it invisible up till now by having it done at home. And I think, you know, we know this, we know this. I think one example of a context where we learned this was in the context of welfare reform. So, when low income moms were required in a lot of places to go back to work, for example, in Wisconsin, where there was some of the strictest work requirements, the cost of childcare that was provided was substantially higher than the cost of the welfare check. Yeah, so we've, we know that it's very. You're, you're in such a bind at that point.  So I'd like to ask each of you kind of as we as we kind of move to a close is, what can parents do now what can the system do now, just to get through this, this really house on fire kind of crisis. And then what do we really need to do long term how do we get to that Marshall plan for, for a really great childcare system Caitlin let me start with you, how do parents survive now what needs to happen now, and then what do we really need to do long term. I think that men need to participate more in childcare and child rearing men have a right and a responsibility to equally participate in family life to support not only partners but also their children. Longer term, we need to think of children as a public good as all the participants today have suggested investing in children early has concrete benefits not only for children but for their parents for businesses and for the national economy. So the path forward is clear this is needed. And I think parents need to stop blaming themselves of course though it's understandable that they do. And we need to expect more from our from our government and I think we need to vote someone in who thinks of a national childcare system as essential moving forward. Marla when when Caitlin was talking about mother guilt, I saw you nodding your head. You know you also there was a question also about what businesses can do. So what are your short term, you know, what do you need what needs to happen short term and then what would you like to see long term and particularly what can businesses do to be a role to play a role here in solving this. Yeah, so I'm my business at the beginning before I transitioned to focusing on pandemic childcare was on childcare at places of business. And I think one of the biggest things that employers can do is recognize that many of their employees are parents, and they need care. And in order to continue having positive interactions with their staff and having, you know, good employee retention policies and, you know, it just, it's an easy benefit. And it's an easy fix to something that will take a lot of stress off of a parent's life and it's not a zero sum game it's not. And, you know, if you, you know, men, challenging men to step up or fathers to step up is not the only solution because really it's about removing the barriers, if, if the barriers are removed to having access to care, then both partners will happily participate in that I think that's something that I've seen in my husband's workplace where he works, he actually works for one of the few federal government branches he works for NASA that has childcare on site at their, their center. That's very rare. I mean, it's, you know, there's a lot of engineers there who happen to be male, and many of them are fathers bringing their kids into work.  So it's just one example of when you remove the barriers. Everybody will step up, and it's not, you know, this whole stigma that it has to be a woman. So, Adriana, what do you need to get through the you know the next couple months you're on the emergency leave that's going to run out at some point. You know what do you need short term and then, you know, to get through the pandemic and what are your thoughts about about where we need to go as a country. I mean, I completely agree with Caitlin and Marla. I think we need to start a movement and we need to make this normalize that this is an issue that every single parent is going through I've talked to multiple parents. You know, we just got the news that school is officially going to be online until at least November here in Portland. And so, we're freaking out, you know, I'm supposed to have a kindergarten or starting in September and what's normal about me teaching him at home. I'm not a teacher. I did not go to school to be teacher. And you know, I just, it is crucial to our mental health, you know, I'm struggling with a lot of medical issues now due to the stress and so it is crucial that we bring this to light and bring awareness that this is normal that we're all struggling in our homes, that there's no option. And that way, something happens, you know, we have to talk about it and we have to raise awareness that this is not okay.  So we should take care of our daycare workers, our teachers, all these people that we trust our babies with for hours and hours. So we're not investing in them and paying them what they should be paid.  Yeah, those are all big issues that if we don't tackle those first there's, we can't we can't deal with this. So Alicia, let me go to you short term long term what what what two parents need to do what needs to happen now and then what do we need to do long term. Absolutely in the short term we need to continue to push for investments in childcare as we recently seen through the childcare is essential act and the childcare is Economic Recovery Act that we've recently passed in the house. Childcare needs investment we need to be able to take the burden of painting, paying for childcare off of families to increase wages for childcare workers and allow childcare providers to not operate on such thin margins. So that is what we really need to do in the short term but with that investment we need to be focused on equity and understanding that the solutions to create more accessibility and affordability across communities will look different for those communities and that equity does not mean sameness. And we really have to tailor those supports for those communities, but the only way we can do that is to allow people from within different communities and at the table when we're creating legislation. We're developing policy when we're looking at resources so that the those who are creating the policy solutions are reflective of the community tools being impacted by this inequity. And in terms of long term we have to really, really look at a funding structure that long term will treat again as we've all said childcare as the public good that it is now and always has been because we talk about economics growth and stability childcare creates economic growth and stability childcare is racial justice and racial equity childcare is essential and foundational to a strong America a strong economy strong families strong women mothers and strong children and so that's something we have to do. So, so Maria, your thoughts, you know, short term long term what you know, what are these, what are these parents who are struggling what kind of what's a lifeline we can throw them and then and then what, what can we really hope for in the long term. I think a lot of panelists have have covered the main points I'll try to say one thing that I think is a positive. I'll put a half a half glass full on this, which is, I think one of the things that coven 19 and the challenges has done is to surface this issue to clarify how essential child care is to clarify how essential care work is. And the challenge I think we have is to take advantage of that opportunity, take advantage of this moment to try to find solutions that are actually across the board that will improve equity that are not piecemeal that do not say what can we do for those parents who can't do what we expect to fill in the gap, but rather accept the kind of fundamental nature that most workers have, you know, most parents are also workers and many workers are also parents. Right. We acknowledge that not as kind of a sideline problem, but as a structural fact of the modern world and we need to address it. I love that.  Listen, we have a gap between what we understand from science and our existing policies. We know early childhood between the ages of zero and five are critical time for brain development for social emotional development. It truly sets the foundation for health, well being and life chances later on in life. We have a public education system that begins at kindergarten in some states right and most states and in some that's at age six so we really have to reckon with why we are reluctant to have a policy that matches what we understand about what children need to thrive and survive. We have to reckon with a historical and systemic structural racism, sexism and ableism that has shaped the way in which childcare has been regarded. And until we are really truly able to change our mindset to utilize science and evidence to design policies that make sense and to reckon with some of these very systemic practices that go unquestioned and unchecked. We will not, we are putting the childcare providers at risk, we are putting our children at risk, we are putting our futures, all of our futures at risk. And, and because there is a delay in the most significant effects, we think it's okay. Well, with that, thank you all for participating today to have this very important conversation. Hopefully this is one of many that the entire country will be really reckoning with these and grappling with these issues in a very active way. So thank you so much to the panelists. Thank you so much to the participants for all of the questions and the comments and the chat box. I would like to thank the New America Events Team, the Better Life Lab team, David Shulman, our producer. Next week we're going to be talking about family caregivers. So in the meantime, wash your hands, wear a mask, stay safe, and we'll see you next week.


The pandemic's changed all of us in a lot of ways in terms of how we work, kind of what we value in life. Here in the United States we lost 1.1 million people due to COVID. Studies indicate maybe about 900,000 of those individuals would have been in the workforce but now they're gone. So in a lot of ways there's that, there's also retirements, we had a lot of people that exited the workforce earlier than they would have otherwise because they're viewing life through a different lens. And they've said, you know, this isn't worth it or I want to do something different with my time. And they've completely exited whereas they probably would still be working right now. Also childcare and elder care continues to be a significant issue in our country which unfortunately and culturally in our country that falls largely to women. And until we figure that out we're going to have a large segment of the workforce that is inaccessible to us as employers. And then we have a demographics issue. We've long talked about the enrollment cliff of 2025 but that affects the workforce too. And so what we're also seeing as we move forward in time, we've had less participation and just new workforce over time and that's expected to continue to decline. So you take all that together and we have more openings and higher education than we have people to fill them. The biggest reason that the individuals who participated reported living is pay, which is not a surprise in the least given the current economic environment and what some other employers especially outside of education are doing to lure top talent. But overall the biggest predictor or the biggest driver of retention in higher education is job satisfaction and well-being. And there's a lot that goes into that but ultimately if someone is satisfied with their work, if they're recognized for their contributions, if they are regularly received praise, they have a boss that actually invests in them and is looking out for their overall well-being. We've got a good culture that encourages overall well-being. These are all things that help create a space that people are more likely to stay in as well. But flexibility and remote work continues to be a big driver as well and we have a significant misalignment with that in higher education. And as for where people are going when they're looking outside of higher education, the response tells us overall people are looking to stay in our higher education but when it comes to our IT friends, which is what we're here to talk about primarily, a significant number of them that's about 78% are looking at that for-profit community outside of the non-profit higher education world. So that's actually not too much of a surprise given what we were also dealing with pre-pandemic with IT positions and some of our top talent being pulled away. Well, I mean, first and foremost, continue to advocate for salary increases and regular pay increases that are meaningful. As a CIO or as a Chief Technology Officer, typically you're going to be more senior in the organization, have a seat at the table, have the year of HR and the president talk about these things. The fact of the matter is that pay continues to be a big driver but we can also do more to offer options in the way of remote and hybrid work, which helps with that flexibility piece. Furthermore, we've got to be mindful of the workload and what we're asking people to do and how our culture impacts people's overall well-being and ultimately their job satisfaction as well. And also simple things like looking for ways to recognize employees for their attention, asking them some of the simple questions of like, how are things going? How can I help you? Are the things about your job that energize you or maybe that drag you down? And also having a concern or enter into conversations with your teams or what is it you would like to do? I like to say, what do you want to be when you grow up? But it's basically the same thing. If it's not where you currently are, what is it you would like to be and how do we help you get there? Because ultimately these are things that all contribute to the culture of our organization, our teams, and help drive overall job satisfaction and well-being.


Hello again. So somebody on YouTube remarks, well, day one to six seemed to be like messing around with a header. And day seven, it's like all done. Actually, you're not far wrong. I mean, there was a lot of setup for it. But actually, the styles that got onto the page were done pretty quickly. It was just a lot of flex box. And I'm not actually that interested. There wasn't actually a bunch of challenges in there. So it didn't really make much sense to kind of record entries for that. But as you might recall, we've done all the accessibility stuff at least for the static version. And the next step is to now go into progressive enhancement mode. And that's exactly what I've been doing. And I will show you exactly what's what, really. So if you look at the screen, you remember that before when we clicked on a link, it would take us to a new page. Well, it still does that. But now it goes and actually hot swaps the content for us. So it's a lot cleaner, if you like. It's a lot sort of up here. I don't know what the, it's good, I think. It's nice. It's nicer than reloading the page. And that's working out really well for me. Here's one other thing that people were saying in the comments. They were saying, why is so obsessed with clipping it rather than just overlaying a block? And here's why. When we go to the live stream section, what the yellow strip, just below location, watch what that does. See how it slides down and reveals that content, the live now and the up next. And also when I leave that section, let's say go to the code of conduct, it slides up. And so for that to actually work, the photo in the master has to be clipped. If I don't clip it, then it basically, it would just, that whole effect wouldn't work. So that's why I wanted it so that it could slide out the content from underneath. So that's basically it now. In terms of the actual code that underpins this, let me show you around a little bit. It's all in the cds.js right now. And there are some challenges, shall we put it, with the fact that I'm not supporting, say, just Chrome. So I can't use const and let and a bunch of ES2015 type stuff. I didn't really want to transpile it. I'd rather, I think, just because there's not that much code, I think I'd rather just write the ES5 myself and be done with that. It's not like it's, you know, it's a bit of a shame. And it does cause me a couple of challenges in a couple of places, but oh well. So when you click on a link, I hijack all clicks with document.it event listener.  And it's something that we can get away with, I guess. And we've got, we basically call this on click and the target, we start there. And basically I work my way back up to find the nearest anchor. There is element.closest, which you'll find if you Google for it, but it's not supported everywhere yet. I think it was edge that didn't support it. So I have to basically write a little do while. Do while, it's in there. Do while's are the funniest, cause I only ever use one probably every six to 12 months. But when I need it, oh, it's the best little construct ever. Find the nearest anchor. And then basically decide if it's an internal link as it's got slash devsum in its href. Great, I basically go to that and we'll talk about that in a moment. And then if it's YouTube, I tell the video handler to begin playback. And I'll talk about the video handler probably in the next entry cause I'm still working on that's still refining that a little bit. Not quite sure where that's at in my own mind. Anyway, for anything that's not internal, we'll basically just do what it's supposed to do. It just won't prevent default. But if it's an internal link, we prevent default and we go to that URL, which basically involves pushing state on and then calling this unchanged. And the unchanged is basically gonna be fired when we go to the URL or when the pop state happens. So all it's going to do is fairly, it puts the kind of this routing code right into the middle of it. It basically says, if I either actively tell it to go or if I passively find there's a pop state as in the URL changed, tell me about it and this unchanged will fire and we'll decide what to do. And if you've come across the supercharged router episode, that's exactly what we did there. And that's why I'm applying the same concepts in production because I know that they will work just fine. So what does the unchanged do? Well, it's actually all the way up here. It grabs the path, makes a new XHR and loads it. And some people would say, why are you not using fetch? Well, fetch won't let you set a response type of document. There's a good reason for it. It's because you can fetch inside a service worker and service worker like every other worker doesn't have any notion of the DOM and therefore it doesn't support getting things back as documents. So I have to make a request as an XHR. I don't have a problem with that personally because XHRs are still completely valid. They're not deprecated. They don't return a promise, but that's okay. I can live with that.  We update the nav and then I'll show you the small player. Oh, there's a fun thing. Maybe I'll leave you a little hint at that at the end of this. Right, the onload. What we do is we hide and swap area contents. So that's the bit where everything kind of fades out. Let's head down there. Yeah, I'm basically going to watch the mass head graphic transition out. So the mass head graphic is the longest running of the fade out. So I basically apply this hide areas class to the body and underneath in the styles, let me show you the mass head style since we're here. Mass head in line. There we are. If the page is animatable and I have a separate class for switching on and off animations and I've told you to hide areas then the mass head graphic should turn to opacity zero and it should take half a second to do so. At the end of that, the transition end will fire and that's where everything kicks off because at this point we've got the new content. So we've loaded in hopefully all the content from the new page and we get the title and the new graphic and everything about the new page and we swap it in for the existing one. So everything that we are gonna swap out has been faded down. We swap everything out and then we basically wait a couple of frames and it's a slightly bizarre technique this one. Because the event could fire somewhere in the middle of the frame, you actually want to typically wait two frames. So you wait for the start of the next frame so that anything that's pending happens and then you wait another frame and then you actually do your actual animation. I would prefer it if we had some mechanism to say, let me know when this work is done, whatever the work is when it's been applied and rasterized and put to screen and then do my next step. But at the moment, the double rough is what I'm having to do and it's a bit there because I'm having to bind it because I can't use arrow functions. Yeah, I would like it if I could. Anyway, so at the end of that, so we basically fade out, swap the content, fade back in and then there's just a bit of tidy about toggling a couple of bits of area hidden. I'm gonna have to, when this is done, I'm gonna have to go back and do some of that accessibility checking again because I wanna make sure that we don't completely lose focus on the page because we have a feeling that in some contexts, we actually will and I probably want to take you to the header of the new page. That's what I understand is normal. Talking accessibility, bit of an update for you. I showed Rob Dodson the accessibility work that I did and he was like, yeah, that's all really good. The only thing you probably wouldn't do is that thing that you're really proud of, Paul, with the SFJAS thing where it said SFJAZZ, you don't really need to adjust what the screen reader is going to say. People who use screen readers apparently are fairly comfortable with the fact that content won't necessarily be announced correctly in all cases, but it's good enough and they're used to enough that it's not really a big deal. So he was saying you don't really need to go out of your way to kind of correct that stuff. On the other side of it, I was like, well, I'd rather it said SFJAZZ because that's what it is, but I kind of understand his point that you don't need to kind of go all the way to 10 out of 10 on making sure that everything sort of sounds absolutely perfect. That's not necessarily the sort of ideal or practical approach. But there you go, I said it was a journey like all of this stuff I'm going on. So that's essentially what we're doing right now for the hot swapping of sections, at least on desktop, it's nice and fast. Let me show you a timeline profile. And so you've got this animation out here. So you basically, this is the click handler here. And then we have an animation out with admittedly one long frame in there. Then this is the swap over section here. And psychologically, there's a break for people because you've faded out the content and there's a break where they're like, by doing that initial animation, you've acknowledged their action. So that's fine. So you're like, okay, you've responded instantly to my click. And then there's this sort of the swap over moment where we buy ourselves a little bit of time. So we can afford this gap in the middle is what I'm saying because it's not one continuous animation. And then the secondary animation where it's coming back in, again, very similar, couple of long frames, not disastrous but broadly very convenient. And I'll say convenient, broadly very performant. And the reason it's performant is because I'm sticking to opacity and transform, which if you've followed any of the supercharged videos is something that server and I talk about very often. So there you go. That's essentially what I've got for now from going page to page to page. We've enhanced, if the JavaScript fails or isn't running, we know that we'll be falling back to link to link to link to link. So that's not a big deal. So we've kind of progressively enhanced into something that hopefully should work. That's it for now. I will quickly show you the video stuff. Let me mute my screen there. So this is what we've got. And at the moment, if we go to a different section, it goes down to a small video in the corner. So you can continue watching. And if you go into say another thing with another video and you click on that, then it replaces it. And then blah, blah, blah.   More of that in the next video about the videos. Right, check out the code. Subscribe if you haven't already. Keep on commenting, keep on saying hello, keep on throwing in your ideas and suggestions. I do really appreciate them. They're often very good. It's lovely to read them all. So thank you for that. And I will catch you in the next entry. Toodaloo.


Hey guys, back again. So these are just, I like taking photographs and I had the opportunity to travel around a lot when I was working at Opera. So when I take photographs, you know, a lot of times I'll take a picture and I'll get something in mind, you know, when I see this through the viewfinder or I'll look at it later on the computer. I'll get something in mind and so what I try to do is, you know, a lot of times I'll put some pictures up and at the bottom you can see I try to put a caption to kind of give that picture, you know, a different kind of an angle. So it's probably hopefully not very long, so I'll just run through a few of these pictures and maybe, you know, just mention some of the stories. So this was actually taken in Munich and we were just waiting outside to go to a conference. We were on a car and we had a flat tire so we were standing there and it took this picture and it just, you know, I named it, I'll be watching you, kind of, I saw the tower in the background looking over, which looked like a church or an old church or something, looking over the cars. This was in Italy and this was a couple who is, it looks like they're about to kiss, but they weren't, they were actually, I saw them kissing and I was like, I need to capture this and they were, you know, just finishing the kiss. So it looks like, and it reminded me of the hallmark or the Archies cards that, you know, you used to get in India when we were teenagers. So I named it, they still do that. This was in Oslo. I was walking back from work. This is when I used to work for opera. So I was walking back from work and I saw this guy. So this was, you know, in Oslo, six months it's darkness. So this could be 3 p.m. or 1 p.m. and it'll look like this, it'll be dark. So I was walking down and this was one of the roads. I saw this guy. He was walking up the street as well. So I saw him and I kind of felt that this is kind of how I look when I'm walking back.  That guy was also walking back home. I was on my way. He was on his way. So I kind of found it interesting. So I took this picture. This was in Kiev to the Ukrainian Vladimir here. So this was, we were sitting in a restaurant in Kiev and these two women were chatting. And I just, I was just clicking pictures and I got the shot. And really, and the caption I used was, I think the spell worked. It looks like the girls, you know, telling which grandmother or something. I think the spell worked. This was again, I think in Ukraine, Lviv, saw this guy carrying an Angelina Jolie handbag and I clicked it. And it kind of very interesting because you can't see anyone else in the picture, but you can see Angelina Jolie kind of looking over. So I called it the voyeur. This is, I think in Russia. But yeah, there's a broken, this was the driver. He was driving around and the glass was broken. There was a crack on the glass, but he stuck a cross on it. And you know, he was driving around.  So I called it, where does the faith lie? This was back in Oslo at a club. They used to play live music. And there was this picture, which so they had, they had a lot of random stuff behind them. This was a bar where there was a resident band. And one of this was these pictures. And it was just a picture I saw again and again, and just kind of stuck to me, you know, it stayed in my mind.   This is again in Oslo, this was I think at 3am, I was, I just walked out of a club. I had a camera with me. I walked out of a club and they were just got this picture. And I didn't realize what I clicked. But when I looked at it, I called it some unlucky some or not, you can see this guy standing alone. There's a couple there and there's three guys. So it kind of just resonated with me in a summer lucky some or not. This was a friend, she was walking and I took this picture. And I called it the fly or the spider because all these railings on the side, they kind of look like a spider web, it could be a spider web or it could be her wings. There's kind of that's what made sense. This was in, in, I think in France. And this dog was sitting in the display, everyone was looking at them. And he really looked miserable. All the guy, all the couples and the girls standing out there, they were like, oh, so cute. But he looked miserable, right? And so I called it one of trade places. Everyone's just looking at him or her. This is, I think, by far the most interesting one. And I'm going to tell you a small story around it. I think Shwetang's already heard this maybe a million times. But this was in Kiev. I was there to talk at a university, give it, give a talk at an university. Kiev is the capital of Ukraine. So when we got there, you know, opera had this concept, you know, when you travel, we traveled cheap and, you know, we would fly economy and you'd see at a hotel which shouldn't be more than $100 a night. So we landed there. I looked at where I was going to stay and it said Hotel Kiev. I was like, okay, sounds fancy. You know, it's Kiev and it's Hotel Kiev. So we go to, we go to the city and it's in the center of the city, it's like, like Brigade Road or MG Road is, you know, the main shopping street at the end of the main shopping street, there's this big massive building and that set Hotel Kiev on the top. So I was like, wow, I'm staying in Hotel Kiev. It's like the the main hotel, it seems like. So we go there. I was with two colleagues of mine, a Ukrainian girl and a Russian guy.  So anyways, we go in there, we check in, we go up to our rooms and I open my laptop, I have to, this was over the weekend and we have a conference, I have to give my talk. So I wanted to prepare my talk, I needed the internet access. So I was sitting there and I was like, can't find Wi-Fi. So I go, go down to, to the reception and I'm like Wi-Fi and no one, no one talks English. So I'm like Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi. So, you know, she's like, that's a machine, which is a computer, right?  And I see a door across the lobby. So she's like, yeah, just go there. I was like, okay. So, so I go there, I have my laptop in my hand.    And I walk in, it's a black, it's dark, you know, lights around, it takes me about five minutes to realize, look around, I'm standing in a strip bar. I'm like, whoa, I needed Wi-Fi. I'm in a strip bar. I'm like, what just happened? And I go to the bar, there's a counter right next to me.  And luckily the girl behind the counter spoke English. Probably the only person I met in that hotel who knew English. So anyway, I sit down and I open my laptop and immediately she comes over, she's like, oh, you need Wi-Fi? I was like, yeah, she's like, here's the password. And I don't know what to say, I'm sitting there in the strip bar and I'm like, here, and I'm like looking over and I'm like, is it rude if I don't look there? And I'm like, and after a while I realize I'm like, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm in a strip bar, why am I looking at my computer? Switch my computer down. Right? So I start looking the other side.  And I, you know, take my phone, I message my friends, they're like, the Wi-Fi is in the strip bar. So and I'm not kidding. So come down. So I'm sitting on the couch and my friends walk in and they're like, oh, you were right. So eventually, you know, we have a few drinks and we're sitting there like, have to make this presentation. So open and it was the coolest thing to do, you know, you're a geek, the story you can tell, sitting in a strip bar. You do get some Greek credit for it. So I open my laptop, you know, and I'm working. And of course, you get all these funny glares from these women, you know, the girl, the couch next to me, the girl there, she's giving a lap, lap down to and she's like, what are you doing? And so anyway, I start working and I'm on Skype. And my friend back, you know, my colleagues back in Oslo, they're online. So I see this one guy, Roberto, a good friend of mine. So I Skype call him, I video call him.  He gets his headset and calls on. He's like, can't do, I can't see you. And I've got my headphones on. And I was like, okay, I was like, don't worry, don't worry. I slowly turned my laptop. He's like, what's going on? He's like, whoa, what the? Where are you? So I was like, believe it or not, I'm sitting in a strip club. He's like, lots of questions. First of all, why are you on the computer? I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, dude, really? I was like, yeah. So he's like, okay. Anyways, we switch, I switch off the Skype and I try making my presentation, you know, it works a little bit. But and this lady comes over and she's trying to talk to me now.  She's one of the, you know, not a lot of guys there. So she's bored and she says she comes over. She's like, this strip club, you data machine. Like, yeah, I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. So I was like, yeah. And she just smiled, you know, probably trying to make conversation didn't know more English. That's it. Anyways, we go back and next morning. So this is in the morning. We come back down and we're like, Wi-Fi, we have to, she's like, yeah, strip club. That's it. And believe me, we walk in, it's not a strip club anymore. It's a cafe. It's, there's no strippers, nothing. This is the morning and we walk in and yeah, of course, we're a bit disappointed. We're like, ah, we're like, oh, okay, we can make the presentation. So we sit down, start making a presentation. We get coffee, the same girl behind the counter, still there, you know, who speaks English. And she gives us coffee and we're like, okay, sit down. Now we work. And this is Sunday morning. I think around like 1130 or something. So we're sitting and working and believe me, all the strippers from last night walk in to practice. So this is them. So this is one of the strippers on the pole dance. This is practicing. No one else there, that no one, they're not in their dresses. They're just in there, you know, pajamas and whatnot. And they're practicing on the poles. So I had my camera and I had to take this picture. So I had my bag, my computer laptop bag. So I took out my camera while these girls were practicing. So you can see these are laptops at the bottom of the screen. These are our laptops we were working.  So yeah, just one of the interesting stories from Keef. That's all. Thanks a lot.


I'm Cherise Bell, PR Manager with the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department. Welcome to Destination Hometown. So this summer we have prime time in the parks. It's our summer teen program for children ages 13 to 17. It's an opportunity to provide a safe and fun environment for our kids during the summer months. On Fridays, we have three events this summer that our teens can come in for free and participate in some fun and great activities. On June 22nd, it's our first event at Greenview Park. We're going to have a pool party so kids get to come in and swim for free. On July 27th, we're partnering with the Columbia Police Department. Well, we will have a basketball game and challenge with our Parks and Recreation staff and our Columbia Police. And it'll be an opportunity for kids to see us go head to head and either rekindle that challenge that we had last year and see who is the best between Parks and Recreation Department and the Columbia Police. And then we will end the summer with my end of summer pool bash at Maxi Gregg Pool. All these activities will begin at 7 p.m. and goes until about 10 o'clock. So again, it's a great opportunity for our kids to have a safe and fun place to play and enjoy themselves during the summer months. So again, these activities are free and open to the public. We will have transportation available for our children at our recreation centers in the community. So for more information, please give us a call here at the administration office at 545-3100 or you can visit one of your local recreation centers or you can visit us at columbiasd.net.


In the Damua state, now eight people have been confirmed dead after a cano accident in Yola south local government area. A boat carrying 23 passengers had capsized in Njuwa lake at Rugange, a village in the Yola south local government area early on Friday, where the government confirmed one dead as such operations continued. Now eight people have been rescued and eight bodies found, eleven seven other people yet to be accounted for. The executive secretary of the Damua state emergency management agency Mohammed Sulayman gave the update when he accompanied the state deputy governor, Professor Khaled Tawwa Farrautwa, on the same place he visits the families of the victims. Because two bodies are here to be identified within an hour, are here to be recovered within an hour, and because they are our people, it is going to be noted to them that we are here to cement all the families because this lost its hours and not just one by giving each. We had gone to the dancing settlement before we began to see what would be here. Because it is all included in the beat and to bond together with the people. As you can see, the deputy governor represented the governor and from the outcome of what he has seen, definitely the state government is going to provide them with assistance, an immediate assistance for that matter because most of the victims seems to be people that contribute to the income of their families.


G'day. How are you going? I work on budget country and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land. Today, I'm not actually reviewing a boot, although I'm going to show you some of these boots. I'm going to talk about chrome excel and in particular natural chrome excel. So these are three of the boots I own made up in natural chrome excel or natty CXL. This is my oldest pair of natty CXLs, the Parkhurst Spaulding Boot. I've had them about 15 months now. This is my second oldest one here, the Oak Street Bootmakers Trench Boot. This one here is my most recent buy, only four months old, the Whites MP boot, a bit of a grail boot for me. They actually look quite different in colour, don't they? But they're all the same leather in the uppers and that's a Horween Leather Company's natural chrome excel. I'll talk about the differences and why they look different, but first let's talk about chrome excel generally. I'll go into more detail soon, but basically it's a combination tan leather that uses both chromium salts and vegetable matter re-tanning to give a supple yet tough leather. The key difference with other combination tan leathers is the hot stuffing process that chrome excel goes through to impregnate the leather with oils and waxes to give it the pull-up effect and the oily waxiness that packs this leather. Natural chrome excel is just the colouration or more accurately the lack of colouration. Because of the tanning and hot stuffing process, I understand that chrome excel is primarily dyed in the brown end of the spectrum. So you get black brown burgundy called colourate and this sort of undyed natural skin colour. There's a lot to unpack, so I'll take you through what chrome excel is, who all we Horween are and how you wear and care for your natural CXL boots. Horween is based in Chicago in the US and is a fifth generation family-owned company. It was founded by Isidore Horween in 1905 and the current president of the company Skip Horween is his great-grandson. Skip's own son Nick is the vice president and thus represents the fifth generation of Horweens who have owned and run the company. Believe it or not, chrome excel was initially developed by Horween for mechanical users. At the time in 1913, leather seals were preferred over rubber seals in engines and mechanical parts because leather broke down more slow and in steps than rubber. In fact, I remember in my early 20s working with my old MG car that still used leather seals, probably chrome excel in all of its hydraulic seals. Chrome excel was particularly well suited for seals because it was so imbued with oils and waxes in it that it self lubricated and took even longer to break down and get hard. I'm told that a mechanic or even a driver can actually feel or hear the seals starting to fail, which gives them a better heads up than a one-off catastrophic failure of rubber seals. During the First World War at least, and I think also during the Second World War, chrome excel was used extensively in military vehicles as seals in big trucks, jeeps and tanks. It is such a beautiful leather that it clearly became a choice for people who made shoes, bags and belts. It is the original pull-up leather which are leathers so infused with oils and waxes inside them that when you fold and flex them the oils move around inside to cause a shifting in tones and shades. Chrome excel is made in a Halloween proprietary process that includes a secret artisanal hot stuffing recipe of oils and waxes to create a very rich looking leather. It follows 89 separate processes over 28 days and some of those individual processes are done entirely by hand. Some of them go around the clock and the whole cycle uses all five floors of the Halloween factory. The base tannage is a chrome tannage and during that process it's then re-tanned with bark extracts. The chrome tannage makes it soft, supple and very durable while the veg re-tannage makes it feel tough and allows a really wicked patina. After re-tannage it's hot stuffed using steam mills to impregnate the height with a blend of oils and waxes. This secret blend includes the best greases such as food grade beef tallow and cosmetic grade beeswax. In fact once upon a time whale oil was used but that's been replaced a long time ago with another marine oil that's less at risk. The final step is hand finishing the hide with coats of aniline dye and neat foot oil which is the oil made from the shins of cattle. Neat is the old English word for cattle. The hot stuffing process is what makes the hide lighter and accrues that pull up effect due to the displacement of the oils impregnated during that process. Chromic cell is air dried to finish unlike most other leather tannages which allows the fibres to shrink back into itself which decreases the yield but gives the leather a tougher characteristic and a very tight break which I'll explain next. So what are the characteristics of Chromic Cell? It's an ever so slightly corrected full grain leather. Instead of being sanded or buffed like other top grain leathers it's actually corrected by being fixed in burnishing rather than sanding. That means you can still see the imperfections and pores and so on unlike a corrected top grain leather where all the marks and imperfections have been buffed off to make it really smooth. This and the Chromic Cell tanning process means that it features a natural grain under the aniline dyes. It has a bright luster and can be polished or left unpolished for a more matte finish. As I said earlier the oils and waxes inside the leather create the pull up effect creating shades of in the leather and it retains the softness and colour for decades. In fact it will age in patina beautifully and as it ages it will both darken and lighten scuff and soften to look vintage without being cracked and fragile. Because it is air dried as I explained just now and the fibres are denser it shows a very light break as it creases so that any creases from where are very soft rolls with very fine sugary breaks. You can see the lines of crystalline tracks instead of big deep gouges in the creases. Some people say there is a Chromic Cell lottery and you can get some examples with loose grain. I've seen pictures of some pretty bad examples but I've never had it in any of my boots. Chromic Cell is aniline dyed using soluble transparent dyes that are absorbed by the leather rather than painting the top of it with a pigment coat of colour. So what you get is a porous looking smooth effect that clearly shows the underlying texture of the whole hide. I think that's why with a natural honey brown base Chromic Cell is usually dyed black or in brown shades which takes us to natural Chromic Cell which is not dyed at all. Natural Chromic Cell is literally the skin after the tanning with no dye applied. When new and unexposed to the sun and elements it's a light honey coloured light brown colour. As it ages and as it's exposed to the elements it will darken and as it patinas it will turn into a deep mid brown that's tonally shaded in in different parts and it even sun tans. Well it's a natural skin I suppose. If you left your natural Chromic Cell boots in the sun by the end of a sunny day you will see an appreciable tanning or darkening of the skin. All of this combines to make natural Chromic Cell a really attractive leather that looks better and better as the patina gathers. So let's look at my three examples. I think the first thing you notice is how different they are in terms of colour. Let's look at my oldest NatiCXL the Parkhurst Spaulding. Nearly a year and a half old worn regularly but not frequently. They have darkened considerably from the other two models. You can see the shades in the patina rather than an even darker colour all around and I don't know if the camera will pick this up but there is a depth to that colouring you can look almost into the leather and see the surface and the oils underneath. The creasing is across the vamp and is definitely showing this is two mil thick leather but the break the actual little lines are still quite crystalline like fine crystals across the track rather than deep wrinkles and gouges. The next one is the Oak Street Bootmaker's Trench Boot. This is just under a year old again worn regularly but not frequently. I have a lot of boots in my rotation as you can see it's not as dark as the Parkhurst boots showing that the darkening processes age and wear related. I haven't worn these any less harder than the Parkhurst boots just less overall because it's six months less use. This is still closer to that honey colour it started out as even after a year. I do want to say though that the also two plus mil thick leather has stood up better over the 12 months than I remember the Parkhurst at 12 months. It's not as dark at that time and the creases and breaks well they're a lot finer in fact there are no creases just a very fine tight crystalline break across the vamp. It may be because Oak Street Bootmakers are Halloween's neighbours in Chicago or near-neighbours and they can you know walk over and choose their hides themselves or they may just be the luck of the draw in the batch or hide but this leather on this boot feels like a finer quality finish. In fact you can compare this to the even newer boot the White's MP Sherman boot. This leather is over two mils thick. I bought this about four months ago and when I first got it it was a pretty light honey colour similar to the trench boots when new. It has darkened slightly bear in mind it's only four months compared to the 12 months of the Oak Street trench boots but already it's almost as dark lighter than the Parkhurst but that's a year and a half old and look at the rolls and the break it's showing the roll at the vent not wrinkles and the breaks while still crystalline are not as fine as the Oak Street trench boots. Now definitely the Oak Street model has had the better leather out of the three. How does natural chrome excel wear? No different from brown or colour eight or black chrome excel they are comfortable there is a stretch in the leather so that it starts snug and the boots will relax. You don't have to be especially wary of it in care it will scuff and show it but itself repairs fairly well and if there is a much lighter scuff the heat of your thumb or the horsehair brush or a little conditioner will pretty much remove it. One thing though in my opinion they patina faster than dyed chrome excel perhaps with the exception of the trench boots look at the Parkhurst sportings you can't get patina like that in brown chrome excel within a couple of years unless you wear them particularly hard and frequently. In time all three boots will show their wear with elegance and darkened to a deep medium brown with the creases and scuffs that came with wearing them enjoyably in your life. How do you care for natural chrome excel? There are quite a few theories but I'll give you my thoughts chrome excel itself is a usually low maintenance leather because it itself is pumped full of restorative oils and waxes often a really good vigorous brushing with a good horsehair brush will restore the luster and give it a reasonable polish brushing it long and hard will heat up the oils and waxes inside the leather and you won't believe how it just wakes up the leather and reinvigorates it just from the brushing. I usually wipe these off after the third or fourth wear and give them a hard long vigorous brushing if you really want to condition them and I grant you as a boot collector it is a very therapeutic and almost meditation process if you want to condition them make sure that they do need it you can usually feel the waxes and oils are still alive in there or if they're really starting to dry out you can over condition your boots and not only will it darken the leather over but you can also in extreme cases weaken the fibers so that's the overall conditioning idea but let's go through the whole process now firstly I'm really not trigger happy with saddle soap I think sometimes boot hobbyists soap their boots a little far too often we can draw up the natural oils and waxes and actually dry out the leather more so that they then really need conditioning when they normally don't so when I talk dirty I mean you walk through mud or clay or sticky sand or they have stains from maybe grass or oils and paints or sometimes even just a deep city grind the secret I find is to wipe off the soap not to rinse it off and get the whole boot soaking now if you're a bit worried about saddle soap because it can dry out the leather you can use a spray on cleaner red wind makes one I'll put a link to it below but I'm used to using the RM Williams spray cleaner this has given me pretty good results in the past now a word of warning if you're using a pump spray cleaner like the red wing one or the RM Williams one as the droplets get onto the leather it will spot in dark splotches if you're not expecting this it can give you a bit of a heart attack but it's okay I promise just follow the instructions spray some on it will splotch and then clean with a damp cloth or spray it on the damp cloth and use that to clean the boots if you let them dry within an hour or so all that spotty darkening will have gone and the boots will definitely look cleaner once the boot is cleaned and dry make sure you let it dry and dry naturally not in front of a heater once it's dry then you can think about conditioning let me start with I would not use the condition natural chrome excel you can use needs for oil in fact since that's how Halloween finished chrome excel a lot of people recommend this on the other hand in my experience needs for oil can darken light leathers and if you want your natural chrome excels to darken naturally maybe leave out the needs for oil or any mink oil out of your care process for natural chrome excel if you want to darken them a little unnatural that's fine I think needs for oil or even mink oil would be okay for the darker chrome excels like brown and black you can also use sephir greasy cream that's also recommended I understand sephir will not darken leather and the greasy cream will replace the oils as they dry out I personally have never used sephir partly because it's hard to get in Australia and partly because it's pretty darn expensive my personal recommendation for natty cxl is vanishing shoe cream I find that it doesn't darken the leather but it will be absorbed quite deeply so it will replace the oils inside it does brush up to a luster not quite a shine which is what I like and it's super easy to apply I'll leave a link to where you can buy it in the description below so there you have it everything you need to know about natural chrome excel it really is one of my favorite leathers I tend towards the tans and browns in my selections anyway but the feel and comfort of chrome excel is something else never mind the distinctive smell that I love and in the natural colorway it's a living thing that you can see evolve with age hey as you close the video don't forget to click on like and subscribe it will help me to grow my channel thank you and it will help you to get recommendations from youtube similar to videos like mine until the next time take care and I'll see you then


Paul Huntingfoot, retiring chairperson of the CCFA working group. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. So let's start at the beginning. Can you tell me when and in what capacity you began work on this committee? So when I first started with the committee, the first role that I had was as raptor for the GSFA working group. I started on the GSFA basically right away coming into the committee, but more as a recorder of decisions as opposed to formulating processes to get to those decisions. The U.S. doesn't only chair the physical working group, we also chair the electronic working group, which is good because then that means when we get here we know what's going on. But that truly does mean that we work on it throughout the entire year. So we will leave the committee here with a mandate of what the electronic working group will be working on, and we give ourselves about a break of a month, and then we start formulating the documents to be circulated, and then that basically goes throughout the year. We have about a month and then we get back to it. It's all about coming to the meeting. Everything that we're doing is working towards coming towards the meeting, because that's where it all kind of comes alive. Before that, you're dealing with paper, you're double checking everything and doing a lot of detail type work, but we have people who help us sometimes back home, and I always feel like you're not really going to understand it until you come here and see it in action. This session of CCFA, one of the good things about this committee is there's so many opportunities for input for people to discuss it. We do multiple circulars with the electronic working group. That generates a report. Then we come to the meeting and before the plenary, we have a physical working group where we once again go through the issues and make sure that everyone understands them and has to provide their input so that when you come to plenary, it really is the results-oriented part. Checking a group like this is a tough role, and I imagine it gets even tougher when there are disagreements. How do you as chair approach those situations? The biggest part is to remain open to what is the particular issue that the person you're talking to who's having a disagreement as to how to approach it, what is the issue they're trying to get at to fix it, because we're all here for the same reason. We're all here to make sure food is safe, to make sure it's available. Since we have that common ground, how can we use that to get to that agreement? In your experience, what sort of commodities or topics create the biggest challenge? Anything that is a very traditional food, something that goes with the identity of a region. People have very strong feelings about it that they feel, you know, no, this is the way grandma used to make it, for instance, forever, so nothing can change. It must be exactly the same. But the problem is different areas have different ideas as to what that food should be. Even, you know, you could go from one county to another country, one city to another city, and it might be made differently, but everyone thinks that their way is the best way and the only way. So it's dealing with those type of very traditional foods, especially in Codex parlance, those with long-standing commodity standards that apply to it. That's often the biggest sticking point. Tell me about any standout moments in your time working with this working group? The first time I chaired the physical working group was a major milestone. I don't think I knew what I was getting myself into. Actually, even before that first time that I was repertoire, then I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I tend to be an optimist. I tend to think that we can get to solutions that may take time, but we can always get to consensus. Actually, we had two major topics at this meeting here. One being the wine additives, that the very first time I chaired the physical working group was when we started talking about that. So 10 years, and we reached consensus today, so only took 10 years. And what's the best thing about chairing this work? What were you miss? The best thing about being at the meeting, chairing the physical working group, things like that nature is it gives you a structure and a topic to interact with people that you'd never interact with otherwise. And so that's one of the really unique things about Codex compared to the other things that I do, that interactions with people from all over the globe, which is really quite exciting. I call it my Codex family, which would be all the delegates that have come often, or the observers that have come often. You really do build relationships. You're in a high intensity environment for almost two weeks. And it's not all just at the meeting. A lot of the negotiations, for example, that are done to get to that common ground might be over coffee at one of the breaks. So you do get to know people, and you do form relationships with them. And I kept those up, and I hope to continue to do so. This has been your last session as chair of the working group. What were you miss, and what tips do you have for your successor? So the most important thing for my successor to know would be the coffee break is your best friend, your most important tool. Anything you think is going to be difficult, schedule it right before the coffee break, start that discussion and say, OK, go out on the coffee break and come back with an answer. And what do you think the committee is going to be looking like in 15 years' time? 15 years from now or at some point in the far future. It's going to be the fact that there's going to be totally new foods that weren't accounted for in the GSFA. You know, there's all this work now going on with plant-based meats or bioengineered meats or things of that nature. It will be how do these new technologies fit into food safety and trade? And there will be a part for CCFA to play in that. And it'll be interesting though. There's still going to be a role for this committee. Thank you very much.