and welcome to On the Waterfront with me. I'm Melinda Moulton, your host and my guests today are Elise Grieves and Shane Rogers, who are the co-directors of the New Leaders Council Vermont and graduates of the first ever Vermont New Leaders Council Institute of 2019. Elise and Shane, thank you for joining me today. Good morning Melinda, thank you for having us on. Thanks Melinda, can't wait. Yeah, this is really exciting. So I want to talk to you a little bit about the two of you and what brought you to the work of your social justice and the really proactive activism work that you have been doing in your young lives. And so I'm going to start with you Elise. To share with me a little bit you were with Rights and Democracy. We were involved in the fabulous Women's March that shut down the interstate back in 2017.  Absolutely. It took me 70 years to have a moment like that. So talk a little bit, Elise. We'll start with you about what brought you to this work, who inspired you, what keeps you going every day after day? Yeah, that's a great question. So, you know, when I talk about my personal story, I often start with the fact that I was born and raised in Hardwick, Vermont, which is a small town in the Northeast Kingdom. And I grew up in a working class family. And I realized as I got older, I was the first person in my family to graduate from college, that a lot of the issues and the rhetoric that is happening or was happening at a national level, especially around like the Occupy movement at that time when I was in college really helped open my eyes to see that a lot of the experiences that I had as a child, a lot of the tensions and stress around money and the injustice of that, and just the scope of economic injustice across the state and across the country really lit a fire in me. And I remember it was one of the first times that I really felt that was actually seeing Senator Bernie Sanders speak at UVM when I was a sophomore. And that for me, that was during Occupy again. And I feel like that really changed the trajectory of what I wanted to do with my life and what kind of change I wanted to make. And so I got a degree to be a social studies teacher in high school, thinking that that would be sort of my path to making that change. And after college, I got a job with the Organization Rights and Democracy, as you mentioned, Melinda, where I worked for four years as an organizer. I started out there as a canvasser around getting paid sick days for every Bremont-er and also raising the wage to $15 an hour. And so that for me, just knocking on doors all over the state, connecting with folks who have real lived experience of the issues that we're fighting for and building and developing them to come and give testimony in front of the legislature and come to organizing meetings and sort of organize their neighbors around these issues was incredibly powerful. And as you mentioned as well, I can't really talk about my leadership trajectory without talking about Melinda Mullen and the Women's March on Montpelier. I remember distinctly, and I think about this sometimes, you know, there are a lot of people in my life, especially, you know, in college and in my work in Rights and Democracy that I felt were really invested in my leadership. And I think that that's really important that folks have mentors and people who are lifting them up and supporting them. And I distinctly remember one of the first Women's March meetings. I had already kind of applied for the permit because it was in November and, you know, we needed to get that stuff squared away. And I remember Melinda saying, well, I really think, you know, whoever took the initiative to apply for the permit should sort of be our point person and then sort of lead the charge on this. And so that's, you know, how that happened. And I have Melinda to thank, you know, I think in a lot of ways for my growth in that experience and also just, yeah, putting on the one of the coolest events in Vermont's history. So that's me. And I'll pass it over to Shane. Shane, tell us your story, my friend. Well, I wish I was as impressive as Elise Screeb. But the one thing that I have going for me is that I do get to work with her just about every day. But I actually grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. And I have decided to make Vermont my home over these past seven years here with my partner. And similar to Elise, I grew up in a working class family. I helped my dad work construction in the summers over high school. I worked my summers throughout college to be able to, you know, have the money that I needed to exist in college. And during college was really, I really like dove into activism, you know, I started around the Occupy movement, but also there was a U.S. on cut movement where we really dove in about corporations not paying their fair share and how honestly, if they just paid their taxes, we wouldn't really have much of the financial problems that were, were paying. And that was my first taste in college in Dayton, Ohio, of bringing together a community of folks that I, you know, weren't interacting with every day. We had about 30 folks show up on tax day outside of the post office. And it was really wonderful to be in that community. And from there, it inspired me to jump into organizing full time after college. I had also pursued a degree in journalism. So as, you know, wayward kids do after college, I meandered my way back to Cleveland where I was bartending full time and writing part time and went down to Washington DC to write and really had that like light bulb moment of, you know, do I really want to be part of the impartial press or do I want to be using these skills towards building something that I can be proud of. And food had crept into my life in this way that of course I would land in Vermont in the Northeast Kingdom at Green Mountain Farm to school because there's no better place to be. And it was up there that I think I came into my own getting involved with organizing. That's where I met Elise was helping on a state representative campaign and really organizing the community in Newport. And I love Vermont for the fact that everything feels very accessible when you get down to it. But as I started diving in more and more, you could just see these inequities popping up. And I think that's what led me here to this moment, right? To working with Elise through New Leaders Council is as I moved out of the Northeast Kingdom, I was really looking for a place to get involved and where I could put my talent outside of work and roadblock after roadblock were being popped up. And then as New Leaders Council popped up, it really promised a community of young folks who were maybe experiencing the same thing and are on their journey. And going through that first institute was an eye-opener. We instantly almost all fell in love with each other as friends and knew that we could rely on each other. And when the opportunity came up to help direct it into the next year and the year after, it was a real gift to be able to work with Elise in helping the stewards of the organization to where it is now. And I'll just say, you know, if it wasn't for NLC Vermont, I don't know if I would have that community, but also those skills to do the work that I'm also doing outside of it, just different organizing throughout it and to really trying to build this useful base of leadership and really highlighting that you don't need to come from money or traditional realms of leadership to step into a role. And to be honest, that's not where the solutions are going to come from anyway, as I think we all know. Wow. The two of you, what a force you make. And still mostly Elise, Melinda. Oh, I don't know about that. I think that's not true. So you came together when you were in the class, when you were in the first ever institute in 2019, which is only a couple years ago. And that's where you met. Was there a, was there, there must have been a Vermont New Leaders Council for you to be part of, who was leading it back then? Was it to give me a little bit about, tell me a little bit about the history of the organization and how you got the role of being the co-directors. And what was it when you first took the class? Yeah. So, yes, the organization, our cohort, which was the first one through in 2019. And so before that, Eric Covey, who you might know Melinda, but he had previously co-directed and helped found the main chapter of New Leaders Council. And he came back to Vermont doing some organizing work and decided that Vermont was kind of an ideal place to have this type of organization that's lifting up young people into positions of leadership and giving them the skills to lead in their communities. And so he built it from the ground up really by himself, which is absolutely incredible. And yeah, we were part of the first institute. And essentially the transition, so it's apparently very rare we hear from our colleagues at the national level for first-time cohort graduates to take over as co-directors. But Shane and I were just really excited when this opportunity popped up because I think that we shared a vision of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to build. And here we are. And I think one of the most exciting things to us too was that vision was shared among our cohort. And we may be like the directors right now, but without our cohort and without the board filled with other cohort members and other folks from the community, I don't see wouldn't be what it is today. It wouldn't be training one of the most like diverse classes throughout Vermont and really providing these skills. So it still amazes me having some of these meetings when you're talking with folks and all these visions just coming together and like shooting off in the same direction. It's pretty wonderful to be able to live through those ideals. Well, to believe it's really a movement. I mean, the new leaders council is really a movement. I mean, I'm going to try to get this right where you're basically saying it's time for our generation of young people to step up into leadership roles and to start guiding our world in a direction that focuses on all the really important things that are going to keep humanity alive and equitable and fair and honest and healthy and strong and facing the light of justice and equality. I mean, that's what that's what you're doing as a now it's a national organization. So let's talk about that. Talk to me a little bit about the national organization, how many states is in, how many people go through the training every year and then we'll move in a little bit to the local to the localism of your organization, the two of you are running. Sure. I think one of the most unique parts about NLC is that it is a national organization. So we have this chapter here in Vermont, but there's 50 other chapters around the country that are doing similar work. But what I think is most important every chapter is rooted in their community and they are meeting the needs of their community for how leadership needs to show up and how young folks need to be trained. So there's thousands of people who are going through the Institute each year. Each chapter has anywhere from 12 to 15 people. There is a common curriculum, but one of the coolest things about it is that we get to intersperse folks from Vermont to help guide how we are learning, how fellows they're interacting and really help them ground the work that they're doing, which you know mostly is most important I think because it gives them space to carve out to think about these things and all these high demanding time crunches that we have, but it gives them to ground their work right in Vermont to make sure that Vermont is the type of state that we all know it can be and that we all have to work towards it. So let's talk a little bit to our viewers about the program and by the way to my viewers out there I want to take you to the website. You're going to go to the national website and you'll notice on that website there is a donate button and this organization is run by donations from all of us. No donation is too small. It is the new leaders council.org and you go to that website. It's a fabulous website that really explains what this organization does in bringing young leaders into the fold. So let's talk about to our viewers about the program and how would our viewers get involved in the program? What is the program like? Could you share a little bit about that with our viewers? Absolutely. So at its core, New Leaders Council is a training program. Our hallmark is actually what we call the Institute and so that's a six-month pretty intensive training program that runs from January to June each year and our fellows, they're usually like 12 to 16 folks who are brought together during this institute for both hard skills training and also one of my favorite pieces of New Leaders Council to really build deep connections and relationships with other folks in their cohort that are going to be there to support them in other aspects of their life and the work that they're doing in their communities after the cohort is wrapped up and that's certainly something that we see with different cohorts every year and really our goal is to bring people together. Shane mentioned this before but from outside of traditional realms of leadership and really our goal is to challenge what the idea of a leader is and what that can look like and to challenge one another to really stir progressive change and connect around our common values and at the end of the day really build collective power to create this change that we want to see in our communities and so we've really been working through the Institute and again through the connections that folks make we want to energize the fellows that we work with to really evaluate and reimagine systems and structures that are in place and so we really encourage you know like a lot of people that come into New Leaders Council have like an issue that they love and are incredibly passionate about and I think that having sort of like this melting pot of issues and backgrounds and even you know as far as sectors of where people work and what sort of work they're doing is incredibly helpful for this conversation about how we can be changing systems and how we're all impacted by one another. So I have a question about age. I have a question about how our viewers if they would want to get involved in the organization and do the training program how would they get involved? How do they participate? The best way to participate especially for younger folks right like think like 23, 24 all the way up to like 35, 36, 37 and those age ranges are squishy anyway because we're not sitting here trying to be prescriptive of who considers themselves a young leader or not but we have a nomination process so there are people in the community that can nominate people that they think would be really good fit for this. You can nominate yourself and submit an application and the process works like you know how you would imagine it right you answer some questions you go through some interviews and talk with us and then really the background and the board helps to decide you know what this cohort is going to look like but I think most importantly about that is that while not everybody is going to get into the cohort we're really not trying to set up this like competitive cutthroat type of environment and we really want this to be about building communities and just because someone may not get into the cohort one year we want them to have that positive experience so they can come back and keep applying and what we are hoping is that with our process that we can really continue to build a community throughout Vermont. So tell me a little bit about after you go through the program what do you stay you must stay in touch with all of these new leaders there must be a program to because it's a six month program and then they leave the program and go back into their into their worlds with all of this knowledge to be able to create the change the two of you ended up actually leading this organization that was where you landed after your training. So tell me a little bit tell me some of the stories about people who have graduated from the program and some of the things that they are doing. Yeah so one aspect of the program is what we call a capstone project which is a really cool and really unique opportunity for folks who go through the program and fellows to carve out some space and time in their lives and through the program to really think about a project right that they want to plan or something that they want to put in place and really get those details nailed down with support from their colleagues and other fellows in the program and so certainly that and the teamwork that comes out of that and the support that they offer each other is certainly like one way that folks remain connected and continue to do great work even if it's not related to new leaders council after the program. For example we had a fellow from last year and actually somebody on our board whose capstone project right was like to apply to grad school and so that process looked like interviewing other folks who had experience doing those applications in the cohort and getting support and accountability from peers and then he actually is going to grad school now he starts in the fall which is very exciting so that's one example of what folks take from the program and I'll also say that we as a board are made up of all we are all graduates of the program from across cohorts and so joining the board is also another really great way to stay connected and as Shane mentioned earlier we really want to be incorporating right like a collective vision and thoughts and insight and feedback from from everybody who goes through the program I mean NLC really is the people that that make it and that are involved and so we want to create space for that so we certainly encourage people joining the board and staying connected in that way as well and I'm going to have to add here so like oh leaf going through our year her capstone was uh you know discover the career that she wanted to be pursuing for the next couple years and lo and behold she's like what two years into a new job and I think why I say that is because NLC gives us some time to carve out space right like that that's one of the biggest goals we have someone in this cohort who is thinking about a career change we have people who want to run for office we have people who want to start animal shelters and all of this is towards like kind of building this like progressive ecology of good in our community and with the demands of today with always being connected we don't always give ourselves a moment to take a step back and say what do I want what is this grounded in what ideals do I want to pursue and we really want NLC Vermont to be that place for folks and we want that to then be taken into the community for those ideals to live through their work in nonprofits or for profits and through their other boards as well we want to emulate what it means to actually be a progressive community-minded organization and to be held up to that not only that expectation but to really shine through that expectation as well I sort of feel that it's kind of like the next the next iteration it's the next generation of of socially responsible humanity coming through the lens of of the youth yeah right I mean what at what point right like we have there's going to be a transfer of power they're happy and we're dying off and if you want to put it like that I guess we can't put like there has to be that transfer of power and we need folks that aren't coming from those traditional realms of power structures to be able to actually have creative ideas and have the space to explore them and NLC Vermont provides some of that platform it's not the it's not the end all be all pollution but it is definitely one of those steps in the right direction and we hope other organizations will you know emulate it but also work towards what we're working towards too and that's why we build these relationships in the community with our cohort and with the other different organizations too so for my viewers out there is there um if they want to nominate someone nominate themselves um is there is there a cost to this program yeah so the institute is actually offered for free um so that is one of the ways that new leaders council really shows up um in an equitable way across the country for folks to access it um there is a $35 application fee um application fees uh can be uh waived if that presents a barrier to applying um and you can just reach out to Shane and I about that um and applications actually open on Saturday on May 1st um so a little bit earlier this year um and so that's exciting if if folks are interested in applying um nominations are free it's totally free to nominate somebody um and you know as someone who was nominated for the cohort I can tell you that uh it feels really good to be nominated and to have someone showing up to say you know this person I believe in you and I think that you'd be a good fit for this program and um so you know go ahead go ahead go ahead Shane go ahead I just and I would say as someone who wasn't nominated we encourage folks to to jump in and apply themselves to if you if you're seeking this out and this is for all of Vermont this isn't a Chintenden County thing we have we have fellows from all over the state and we really want to build that collective identity as well and the way to do that is to go to the website which is newleaderscounsel.org right and you'll find a place to apply uh you'll note that it's in Vermont I have to note that and also you can make a donation and I'm going to say this again because the program is free except for that $35 application fee so for any of my viewers out there that want to support this incredible organization that is helping to to bring uh young people into leadership to move our world towards a cleaner environment more social justice equity racial justice this is a place where this can happen and so if you care about those issues making a small donation to the new leaders council um would be a wonderful thing to do no donation is too small so I want to know from the two of you what um what are the hopes for your future for the future of this organization and also if you could share with me before we leave each other what is the lesson that you've learned from the last uh 18 months of dealing with COVID what is what is something that's that's come into your heart that you've learned from and then also share with me a little bit about the future that you see for the next four or five 10 years for the new leaders council she's putting us on record at least so she can look back to this and see what what ends up coming to fruition yeah I mean uh I guess looking looking forward um for new leaders council um one of the things that feels really important to me is um increasing our reach and and not for the sake of like saying that we've hit every place in Vermont um but because there are young people um there are needs in communities all across the state and so it feels important to me that we're getting into those communities and that people are are taking the skills that they learn and and coming back and doing the work to make it you know a stronger better place for everybody so Elise what did you what did you what did you what have you what is the one thing that you've that you've discovered about yourself through the last 18 months of dealing with the COVID pandemic and you're right yeah I would say like the last 18 months have been um certainly some of the most important uh in my entire life um and I've been a really incredible time of introspection and and some true grounding for me um and so the word that I always think of um is like gratitude um I have really learned um how to be grateful for the time that I have and the the opportunities that I have um and the life that I live um and that is certainly um not something that I that I take for granted so gratitude is definitely what I'm taking away from this experience well we have very a lot of gratitude for you I want you to know that so Shane what about you what do you see for the future of this organization the next few years and what what is the where are you landing um going through this period of COVID as a as a human being I think for NLC Vermont I I really hope and I'm striving to make sure that you know Lou Leaders Council Vermont continues to be that beacon of holding up non-traditional leadership as not only needed but absolutely necessary towards the building the fabric of a community and to allow all voices to be heard and not just those either with the most money or the most clout but really making sure that solutions are based in the community and that folks that have the capacity and the ability are able to step up into leadership roles while breaking down barriers to make sure that everybody can and I see this every year with the fellows and their ideas that come in and it it's really inspiring to know that there's a couple cohorts that are out there like actively hammering away at it and as this grows it's only going to get louder and the the noise is only going to get more as uh people continue to move forward and you know with the pandemic I think it's really only driven this point home that our solutions are based right here in our community and yes there are absolutely important conversations to have nationally and internationally and there are really big issues at hand here but if I've seen anything through COVID and being as lucky as I am to be in the position I still am to see that the community is needed more than ever and if our most vulnerable are left to hang out to dry we all are left to hang out to dry and I really hope to continue to not only hold that but embrace that in my life in NLC and beyond as well. Well we've come to the end of my program and I just want to tell you that you know there's times um where I have felt deep despair about um you know the state of our world and it's moments like this where I'm just like you know what we're going to be okay because of people like you and so for that I want to thank you Elise Grieves and Shane Rogers who are the co-directors of New Leaders Council Vermont. I encourage everyone to go to the website at newleaderscouncil.org and learn about this organization and just as two of you thank you thank you for your leadership and I and I'm so excited to see um to see what happens next and we'll get you back on the show again uh in a year or so so you can tell us how things are going. I want to thank you so much for your time. Thank you Melinda. Thank you Melinda. Thank you. Bye bye.


Hi everyone, Shawn with jaspyscasebreaks.com and jaspys.com for personal breaks doing a quick personal break of Sword and shield booster packs ten of them for Ignacio. He's already picked out his packs Here they are now. Let's go ahead and open them up. Let's see what we've got for them. Good luck Yeah, it's gonna be nice, Ignacio. Bowman Chrome And last pack Good luck, Ignacio Energy, Poker Kid, Heatmore, Stunfisk, Sizzlapid, Snom, Mowile, Gossiflure, Goldeen, Energy Retrieval, Foil, and Tertone Enter, Energy, High Proportion, Team Yelgrunt, Hitmonly, Diglett, Scruppy, Hoot Hoot, Score Bunny, Pikachu, Cuffant, Foil, and Pultigas. Energy, Stunfisk, Pokémon Center Lady, Seeking, Pinkerchin, Vulpix, Nicket, Baltoi, Chinchao, Scruppy, Foil, and Boltund, Hollow, Energy, Rotom Bike, Drizzile, Disharp, Silicobra, Yamper, Grookey, Cuffant, Baltoi, Drizzile, and Sentiskorch. Energy, Stunfisk, High Proportion, Team Yelgrunt, Meowth, Score Bunny, Sinesty, Maractus, Pikachu, Gasly, Foil, and Claydoll, White Sox Yankee of Seattle. Energy, Poki Gear, Sudowoodoo, Eldegoss, Joltik, Silicobra, Blitbug, Goldeen, Yamper, Metal Saucer, Foil, Snorlax V, Full Art, Energy, Energy Switch, Bisharp, Solazil, Ponita, Cottney, Score Bunny, Silicobra, Yamper, Cinderace, Foil, and Rose Raid, Energy, Energy Search, Quick Ball, Galvantula, Scruppy, Clobapus, Wooloo, Sobble, Pinkerchin, Turtonator, Foil, and Dreadnought, Energy, Dugtrio, Pokemon Center Lady, Energy Retrieval, Grookey, Cuffant, Baltoi, Chinchao, Sizzlypeed, Shellder, Foil, and Rillaboom, Energy, Air Balloon, Pokikid, Heatmore, Blitbug, Rhyhorn, Mincino, Chinchao, Krogunk, Cottney, Foil, and Cinderace, Hollow. So there's your packs. Thanks Ignacio. That was 10 Sword and Shield Booster Packs for Ignacio, available for personal breaks on jaspys.com. I'm Sean, jaspyscasebreaks.com and jaspys.com. We'll see you next time.


proudly we hail from New York City where the American stage begins here is another program with a cast of outstanding players and featuring Norman Rose as the narrator and Lawson's Irby as James Emmer. Public service time has been made available by the station for your Army and your Air Force to bring you this story as proudly we hail the Medal of Honor. Our story is entitled Medal of Honor. A salute to the highest military award for bravery which the United States of America can give. Our first act curtain will rise after this important message. An important message for the young men of our country. If you think you can hold down a man's job there's a man's job waiting for you in your country's rapidly expanding United States Army. Go to your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station and get all the facts today. The Medal of Honor. When a man wins this symbol of bronze breathed in green enamel and held by a white-starred ribbon of blue silk he has found a place in history as one of America's most gallant heroes but it was not always so for the Medal of Honor has had a stormy career. The idea for the Medal of Honor was advanced nearly a century ago back in 1861 but the committee rooms in Congress heard months of heated argument before the idea was finally adopted. Gentlemen, gentlemen if you please. I know there's become a controversial subject here in Washington. I hope we might discuss the matter quietly. Now General Townsend, it's utterly preposterous to give an American soldier a medal. He doesn't fight for a trinket to put on his uniform. He fights for his country. The medal is more than a trinket Mr. Congressman. An indication that a man's country appreciates his extraordinary gallantry. How about the certificate of merit? We've had that for the last 15 years. Isn't that sufficient appreciation? The certificate of merit was a step in the right direction yes but it's only a document. Piece of paper. The soldier doesn't wear a piece of paper on his uniform so he can tell everybody read this. It says I'm a hero. Because the soldier doesn't like to talk about his honor, let's supply him with a token of that honor which he can wear without words. General Townsend, we have already given promotions in rank to our heroes and more money. Isn't that enough of a token? Sir if you look all through history you'll never find a soldier has any objection to more money. But when promotions are handed out the way they've been handed out lately an increase in rank means absolutely nothing. Sorry gentlemen if I seem to describe present company too accurate. General Townsend, I hope you don't think you have a new idea here with your Medal of Honor. It seems to me I recall that George Washington gave out a medal called the Purple Heart. Isn't that so? The Purple Heart was given out only three times senator and that was 75 years ago. Well what about the ungrade medal? Again only three times that was 85 years ago. Before that there was a special medal to George Washington another one to Light Horse Harry Lee, one to General Horatio Gecks. It was so big he couldn't wear it. And that's all. Didn't do a little research. Yes I've been doing a little research. I've been doing a lot of observing. How's that? As you know several officers from the European armies have come over here offer their services to our government this national crisis. Yes. Well in almost every case they display some very fine looking European medals on their chest. I've noticed that our young aspirants to military glory are pretty envious. General, if European soldiers wear medals that's just one more reason why Americans should not wear medals. It seems to me the idea for which we fought in the Revolution was to make a complete break with Europe and all its titles and trappings and its pomp and circumstance. Maybe we never did break with all the European ideas and institutions. I say if monarchy's developed medals which their soldiers wore with pride while serving the monarchy maybe we should borrow a page from their book develop a medal which our soldiers can wear with pride while serving democracy. Yes Mrs. Dupre. Winfield Scott does not agree with you. I know because I just talked to him but I agree with you. Thank you Mrs. Dupre. Maybe we're unwise in disagreeing with the general in chief of the army. I do not think we are unwise at all because I happen to know how deeply honored the soldiers of Napoleon felt when he awarded them the Legion of Honor. Mostly I think because they knew it was not just an award for generals. Soldiers of any rank could win it. That's the way it must be with America's Medal of Honor Mrs. Dupre was be given to the man who was highest in bravery although he may be lowest in rank. I say this because I know that when all other defenses of a government fail that government survival depends on the lengths of personal bravery which the men in uniform were willing to go in order to save it from destruction. A few months later the Medal of Honor found another champion on the 17th of February 1862. Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts spoke from the floor of the Senate. And therefore my resolution provides for the presentation of Medal of Honor to the men of the army and volunteer forces who shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action and other soldier-like qualities. Thank you. Senator Wilson. Yeah. The Secretary of War sitting in the way of the Senate. He'd like to speak with you. Well thank you. Pardon me gentlemen pardon me. Now where's the Secretary. Oh yeah. Good afternoon Senator Wilson. How do you do. I think your resolution is a very good one. Thank you Secretary Stanton. I think you should be especially interested in these designs. What are these designs for the new Navy Medal. You were sent to me by James Pollock Director of the Mint in Philadelphia. His letter says that this design would also be suitable for an army medal. George he's right. Now this anchor here the Navy could be easily changed to say an eagle standing on two cross cannon for the army. That's right. Who designed these Frenchmen with a German name Schusser and the dyes will be made by a German with a French name. OK. Well that's typical of America. Yes it was typical of America because generation after generation our great strength has always come from our mixing of the talents from many nations. Well President Lincoln made the resolution a law in July. Secretary Stanton ordered 2000 medals in November and by 1863 the United States Army at last had a medal of honor. Next everybody wondered who would be the first to win it. Obviously the heroic exploits in the then current conflict were uppermost in people's minds and new and exciting incidents were described in each day's newspaper. The most daring of these escapades was hatched in the mind of a civilian secret agent named James J. Andrews. For four months he'd been planning out the details of his adventure and when everything was ready he went to an army camp near Shelbyville Tennessee and called for volunteers. May I have your attention please. I'm James J. Andrews. 21 of you have answered my call for volunteers. I told you the mission was extremely dangerous. It is. My plan is to sabotage the western and Atlantic railroad. Please attention please. Now as you can see on this map the railroad runs from Marietta Georgia up here to Chattanooga Tennessee and it's a vital supply line for the Confederate forces in Tennessee. Now if we can tear the railroad apart to any effective degree the state of Tennessee will be isolated from its southern supply base and General Mitchell can move in from here and take Chattanooga. Is that clear? The idea is clear Andrews but how do we do it? What's your name? Parrot. Jacob Parrot. You sure you want to do this? Yes sir. All right. On the night of April 7th all of you will disguise yourselves as civilians and go to Chattanooga. One at a time and not in groups. Is that clear? Then you'll get on the train and go down to Marietta Georgia. You'll arrive there April the 11th. The next day you'll go back to the station. One at a time and buy tickets on the northbound train. Buy tickets from Marietta to Big Shanty. My Big Shanty that's only a little place. There's no telegraph office there. They won't be able to get help. Then why don't we get off at Big Shanty on the way down? Because we're taking over that train and when we take it over I want it to be headed north. Big Shanty, Big Shanty next. This train will stop in Big Shanty. 20 minutes for breakfast. Big Shanty. All right Parrot. Now this is it. Pass the word along. The passengers and the trainmen will get off on the right side of the train. We get off on the left. Walk up the gravel path to the baggage car up at the head of the train and take over. Is that clear? Yes sir. All right. Now tell the others. I'll meet you in the engine path. Quiet Benzier. I can't help it Andrews. The gravel. Here's the baggage car. Parrot, keep the big doors unlocked on this side. Looks like it. Wait till I see if it'll slide open. Make it slow. Not so noisy. All right that's far enough. Now Parrot, you and Benzier give these fellas a lift. Put most of them in the baggage car and then a few of you can take over the engine. I'll be back in a minute. Yes sir. All right. Off you go. Next. All right. Next. Here you two help the rest of them get in the car. Benzier, let's take over the cab. Come on. All right. Come on. Let's go. Maybe the engineer and the fireman aren't out of the cab yet. Oh sure. They'll be out.  I hope you're right. Okay. Climb up. I'll give you a push.  All right. Hey. What's going on here? Who are you? We thought you'd gone to breakfast. What are you doing in my cab? I'll show you what we're doing. Take care of the fireman, Benzier. I got you out of here. Sorry, but you're the one who's getting out. Need any help, Benzier? No, I think I'm doing all right. They're even both out of the cab. All right. Here. Give me a hand. That's one of them.  You better get out of here in a hurry. Yeah. You ready on the throttle? Yeah, I'm ready. How about the bell rope? Buffum was supposed to cut that. All right then. Let's get out of here. Can't get away for Andrews. Where'd he go? Up ahead to make sure the switch is open. Oh, here comes now. Hey, Paris, give me your hand. Pull me up, will you? All right. Thank you. Switch open. Yeah. Let her go. Open her up wide, Benzier. Take her north about six miles and then stop. All right. We'll tear down all the telegraph wires. Do all the damage we can. Try to cross ties on the tracks behind us and start north again. Just clear. Looks like we're right on schedule. We've got three times to tear up the telegraph wires and barricade the tracks. Now we've already passed Calhoun. Looks like a clear track all the way to Chattanooga. Andrews. Oh, what's the matter, Paris? I was back in the last passenger car watching the tracks behind us. Yes. Every time we hit a straight away we can see it. See what? There's a Confederate train following us. What? He must have broken through all the barricades. How far back are they? Well, hard to tell. I'd say about two miles. It looks to me like they're getting closer all the time. Now listen, Paris. Yes, sir? Take some more of the men back there with you. Uncouple the last passenger car and let it go. When they run into that, it'll stop them. Yes, sir. But if it doesn't stop them, uncouple another car. We've got to stop that Confederate train. Lawson's Irby featured in the role of James Andrews in the proudly-we-hail production Medal of Honor will return in just a moment for the second act. You young men of America know that the United States Army has been expanding. However, that expansion must continue and your health is needed. It's needed right now. You yourself can get ahead in the Army because there are many opportunities for advancement if you have initiative, courage, and leadership ability. So visit your local United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station and enlist in the United States Army today. You are listening to proudly-we-hail. Now we present the second act of Medal of Honor. As the stolen engine roars north toward Chattanooga, secret agent Andrews hurries through the swaying wooden cars toward the rear of the train. I thought Andrews was coming back. All right, bubba. I said I'd be here and I'm here. Can't be on both ends of the train at the same time. Well, right now, Andrews, the rear end is the most important end. What is left of the rear end?  Three. You want any good? No. They just slow down, pick them up, keep coming. See them back there? Let's say they're about a mile and a half away. Yeah. That engine is pushing free of our passenger cars and it's still going faster than we are. Now, wait a minute. Let's see. This is our last passenger car, isn't it? Yeah. All right. Come up ahead with me. What for? Come on, I'll tell you on the way. First get everybody into the baggy up. Hurry up. All right, everybody in? Yep. And now what? Uncouple that last passenger car. Help me with this, bubba. Got it there? Yeah. There she goes. That's it. I'll slow them down for a minute or two. Now then, remember we filed up some crust ties here in the baggage car? Yeah. All right. Throw a half of them out on the track, one at a time. Half of them. That's right. And the other half, pile them right here in the middle of the baggage car. Oh, no, not Indian TV. You'll find out in a minute. Now, you see that pile of papers over there? Yeah. Put them underneath here and set them on fire. Set the whole thing on fire. The whole baggage car? That's exactly what I mean.  All right. Here's some matches. Go ahead. Let's get it burning. Well, what about the men? They'll all into the engine. They'll be a little crowded. That's the only thing we can do. All right. The paper's starting to burn now. Get into the engine, all of it. Loosen all that. We go over along this burning baggage car loose and try to let go of it. So it'll finally stop right in the middle of that bridge. I don't know whether we can hang onto the car that long and throw the whole thing about the burst into flames. I told you to get into the engine, parrot. Yes, sir. Now, I know the whole thing's about to burst into flames. But we've got to hang onto that baggage car until we get to the bridge. Look at that. They're pushing the blazing baggage car across the bridge without even stopping. Wait a minute. They've got to cross all right, but they are stopping. Somebody's running ahead of the train. I was afraid of that. Afraid of what? We passed a siding back there, and this means they'll dump all of our cars on the siding and come after us, faster than ever. Fencing or can't this engine go any faster? We're not pulling any cars. Sure, we could go faster all right. But what? All right, man, this is as far as we go. Now you better scatter into the woods and try to keep out of sight. I'm afraid they'll be looking for us in a very few minutes. Within the next few days, Andrews and all of his 21 volunteers were captured. Andrews and seven more were court-martialed, condemned and executed. The other 14 were sent to prison. The following October, eight of these escaped from prison, and the remaining six were finally paroled by the Confederates on the 17th of March, 1863. One week later in Washington, B.C., they found themselves being escorted through the outer office of the Secretary of War, past a whole room full of military and civil dignitaries who'd been told to wait until a very important ceremony was completed in the Secretary's inner chambers. Mason, Redick, and Pittinger, would you please step into the Secretary's office? Thank you. Thank you. I beg your pardon, but I have an appointment with the Secretary of War. Can I go in now? I'm afraid not, General. Secretary Stanton has informed me that all appointments must wait. But this is a matter which must... I'm sorry, General. Those are the Secretary's orders. Oh, here's the Secretary now. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Miss Browning. She's right, General. I'll have to see you later. Come in, gentlemen, and close the door. Gentlemen, this is the Secretary of the Treasury, Simon P. Chase. And this is the Vice President, Andrew Johnson. Now, then, Private Jacob Parrott. Yes, sir? I know that all of you men have been through a very harrowing experience. We regret that this happened to you. And we realize that your suffering came as a direct result of your voluntary desire to serve your country. Gentlemen, at last your country has devised a way of showing its appreciation to men such as you. And you six men will have the distinction of being the first to receive this token of your country's appreciation. So, as authorized by the recent act of the Congress of the United States and in recognition of the fine courage you displayed in the service of your country, I now present you with the first of its kind. Private Jacob Parrott, the Medal of Honor. Thank you, sir. And by the way, gentlemen, after all of you have received your medals, President Lincoln would like to see you in the White House. During the following months, medals were awarded to the rest of the Andrews volunteers, and the country was proud of its newest popular heroes. But during the next 15 years, the Medal of Honor was to become almost too popular. Non-military organizations began to wear imitations of it as membership badges. The Commerce authorized special medals for all the soldiers who came from their cities. Generals ordered decorations for whole companies of their men. And eventually, the Civil War veterans themselves began submitting requests by the hundreds for official medals of honor, making their claims years after the war, and with no sound documentation that the heroic deed was ever performed. Finally, in 1876, Brigadier General Alfred A. Terry sputtered and exploded. I hereby disapprove the following recommendations for medals, and am returning the entire list for a vision. Looks to me as if the company commanders have recommended every man who behaved ordinarily well. In my opinion, medals of honor are not intended for good conduct, for conspicuous acts of gallantry. In 1897, Secretary of War R. A. Alcher ruled out the undeserving by saying... We require incontestable evidence of the deed for the testimony of eyewitnesses under oath. And in 1904, Brigadier General George L. Gillespie protected the medal in another way. Because the medal of honor has been so often imitated, we have now officially changed its design. Today, I patented that design at a serial number 197369. I shall transfer this patent to the Secretary of War of the United States of America and his successors. Then, in 1917, the War Department appointed a board of investigation to ascertain whether any medals of honor had been awarded for any cause other than distinguished conduct involving actual conflict with an enemy. As a result of this investigation of the 2,625 medals, which had been awarded up to this time, 911 names were stricken from the list. This was a radical move, but it returned the nation's highest military award to the position it was meant to hold. Additional decorations, such as the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star and others, were now created to honor the various degrees of courage and heroism. But the Medal of Honor was at last restored to its proper place at the top of America's pyramid of honor. The Medal of Honor is to be awarded only to an officer or enlisted man of the armed forces who shall, in actual conflict with an enemy, distinguish himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. But who can say that every hero who has deserved a Medal of Honor has received one? Men who lay down their lives for their country cannot tell a board of review just what it was they did before they died. And units that are wiped out in battle cannot provide eyewitnesses to initiate recommendations for awards. No. The most that can be said is that the Army has made certain that the Medal will not be awarded to those who do not deserve it. And thus the Army guarantees that the Medal will not be cheapened and that the deeds of those who have won the Medal will not be forgotten. But neither the Army nor any power on Earth can be certain that it knows of all the men who have deserved the Medal. That is why the Medal of Honor is pinned to the flag which drapes the coffin of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Our thanks to Norman Rose as narrator and to Lawson Zerbe for a fine performance as James Andrews. Here's a special message for the young men of our country. The United States Army, the senior service of our armed forces is expanding rapidly and needs your help. By enlisting in the United States Army you'll not only get the finest training in the world but you'll have the special pride that goes with wearing a United States Army uniform. If you have the qualifications the Army will train you in such interesting career fields as radio, radar, electronics, mechanics, meteorology and many others. You can get full details by visiting your local United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station today. This has been another program on Proudly We Hail presented transcribed in cooperation with this station by the United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Service. This program featured Lawson Zerbe and Norman Rose. This is Kenneth Banghart speaking and inviting you to tune in the same station next week for another interesting story on Proudly We Hail.


Mindfulness is a little bit paradoxical. It's not about bringing a high level of intellect into every situation. Actually, mindfulness means we embrace every experience, not through our heads, but rather through our hearts.


Radio's own show, Behind the Mic. The switch of your dial radio brings you tragedy, comedy, entertainment, information, education, a whole world at your command. But there are stories behind radio. Stories behind your favorite program and favorite personalities and radio people you never hear of. Stories as amusing, dramatic, and as interesting as any make-believe stories you hear on the air. And that's what we give you. The human interest, the glamour, the tragedy, the comedy, and information that are behind the mic. And now presenting a man whose name has been a symbol of the best in radio since the beginning of broadcasting, Graham McNamee. Thank you, Gilbert Martin, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience. This afternoon we present one of radio's most versatile character actors, Alan Drake, who will explain how he does his characterizations, the sound effect of the week, a sketch of the actor's club, NBC's second floor, the story of how a well-known radio singer achieved success after a grueling struggle, and finally, a salute to one of radio's really famous programs, the ever-ready hour. We have had as a previous guest one of the most versatile actors in radio exhibiting his ability to take various roles. But so far we have never presented an actor and dialectician who would tell us about the technique of portraying his characters. And that is what we present this afternoon. Another one of radio's all-round actors, Alan Drake. Come in, Alan. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, character actors in radio or characters in radio, and there are a great many, are created solely by voice placement and change in the voice and by accent, et cetera. So to just get a glimpse of how some are created, suppose we take an imaginary trip and we'll start off over in England. Now, to get over in England, you simply put in a bit of an accent like this and add a little bit of a lilt and you'll find yourself right in the very heart of London, you see? Now, of course, it didn't take very long to get there. It doesn't nowadays, not with shipping facilities and so forth. Now, there are many types in London. We haven't got time for them all, but I'll illustrate one or two. For instance, there's the silly-ass type that everybody knows.  Do you see? You make it rather silly.  You see, it is rather silly, isn't it? Yes, but it's all together too silly to stay around very long. And then, of course, we come down to what I term the snob type. It's very nasty. Oh, dear, it's too nasty to stay around at all. So, we slip over across into the Whitechapel section. And as we get over into there, we find ourselves in with a lot of limies. Now, a limie is commonly known in America as a cockney. It's a bloke that puts on his hitches and leaves them whole, furry, haunt her. It talks with a funny little talk in his voice like this, you know? I can't tell you how to do it. I suppose you've got to be English. But anyway, that's the way it is. But we've stuck around there long enough.  And as we get up into Ireland, the voice changes over like this and the bloke changes over and now you find yourself right in the heart of the land of the lakes of Calarney and the Blarney Stone. Of course, there are many different types in Ireland. We haven't got time for all of those. There's one or two that you know, I'm sure.   He's a very peaceful man. He's never looking for trouble. What?  Everybody knows him. Now, to get another type. Thank you, that was very nice of you. Just one of our men laughing. Another type, you lower the voice and make it rather rough and spread on the brogue as thick as you possibly can. Step back from the microphone and yell, hey, pull over to the curb. What do you think you're going? And you have a good old radio cop. Now, I don't know why they play in that way, but they always do. They go out of radio. So we leave him, forgive him a sucker, and we get up into Dublin. And there you find that the language is more a matter of lilt than it is a matter of brogue. And it's sweet music to the ear to listen to. Well, we can't stay there all the time. So we go back to America and we take a boat over and we land up in New England and as we do and we take a train across New England, we run into a lot of nice old New England folks and finally find ourselves out west out in death valley days with the old range of type. And the men that make up that God's glorious country. And if you take the roughness out and make a little authority, you've got a police chief. Now, of course, the police are always tied up with the gangsters looking after them. Show you how to get a gangster. You bring up the voice natural like this and then you put a bit of fog in. And they get plenty of money. So if they get foggy like I'd say, come on, stick your hands around. Beautiful to holds. Another guy says, come on. So we take a train and we start down south. And as you start down south, you get just a little of the southern in there. You see what I mean? And now we come to an old plantation and over there in the corner, sitting on the cabin steps, is Paul Pappett. And he just tired of living, that's all. He says he wouldn't die. And another body says, you don't want to feel that way, Henry. The life is beautiful. But not for me. The head man type, you know. He's the body that dresses himself all up to make a hit with the girls, you know what I mean? You walk in the ballroom and everybody call him Mr. He's somebody. He said, boy, step one side and let me pass. Then last but not least, you got old lazybones himself, you know. He's just too tired to work. His feet never move unless he hears music and... And there's my music now. You hear that feet? Feet feet up, they're going away from here. Yes, sir. That's the fastest trip around the world I ever made. Thank you, Alan Drake. Effect of the Week. From time to time, behind the mic presents some sound effect, which was used on a program with the past week and tells exactly how it was done. Those of you who have listened to this part of our program realize that practically all sound effects are not produced by the actual objects they are supposed to represent. On the Alka Seltzer program, for instance, a sound is used to represent two tablets of the sponsor's product being dropped into a glass of water and fizzing. You know what makes this effect so remarkable is that it consists of dropping two tablets of the sponsor's product into a glass of water and letting it fizz, like this. Those of you who seem to think that the road to success for a singer in radio is an easy one, listen to this story. It's the actual experience of a popular radio singer. Our story begins in 1929 with the Atwater Kent Hours National Auditions, with the ten best men and women amateur singers in the country competing over the air for two $5,000 first prizes and smaller prizes as well. Our singer today is one of them. Now that this year's audition is completed, the lucky girl to be a judge the $5,000 prize winner is none other than Miss. Our singer after winning the Atwater Kent National Auditions went back to college in Ohio to finish her education. And then in 1930 she came back to New York. She lived at an inexpensive women's club and then she went to inquire about singing lessons from a very well-known teacher. Signorina, I think you have a fine voice. I am sure that within the next two years you will be in the metropolitan. You don't really think so. Oh, without a doubt. Now I think three lessons a week will be sufficient at first. Yes, Signor. I haven't very much money and I must live on what I have. Will the lessons be very expensive? Oh, no, no, no. For you I will make a special rate of $15 a lesson. Meanwhile, our singer full of hope goes out to conquer the world. As an Atwater Kent winner, she sings four times on the women's radio review an NBC sustaining program. She gets a few opportunities to sing as church soloist and in church choirs. But as time goes on and expenses pile up, she writes, Dear Dad, although I'm very hopeful things haven't turned out quite as well as we expected. I hate to ask it, but I wonder if you could please send me a small check. 1933. She wins the McDowell Scholarship financing a professional debut. 1934. Dear Dad, I still haven't managed to get as far as we hoped. At times I feel terribly discouraged. But I can't let down the people who have believed in me if I could only really crash radio. 1935. Dear Dad, I know you will be glad to hear that I've been awarded a Juilliard Scholarship, which will give me free coaching and singing and languages by some of the best teachers in those fields. In 1936, still trying to crash radio in a big way, Alfred Wallenstein hires her for a program called Musical Impressions, which pays all of $20 a week. She also gets a job singing in the chorus of the Chrysler program. 1937. Ray Block, orchestra leader and chorus master hears her on the Chrysler program and offers her a job with his group, The Swing 14, on the Philip Morris program. But she's ill at the time and she can't take the job. Four weeks later, one of the girls of the group who also sings solo goes to Cincinnati. Because of the floods, she can't return to New York in time for the broadcast. Our singer gets a telephone call. Hello? Yes? Oh, she is. Oh, yes. I'll be glad to substitute. But she was so good that instead of merely substituting for one broadcast, she was kept on the show and was later given solo parts. And so eight years after she had won the Atwater Kent audition, success finally started to pile up. She was given two sustaining programs on her own in addition to the Philip Morris commercial. She has just signed up as a starred singer with another commercial program. I wonder if you've guessed who our singer is. Well, she's Genevieve Rowe. And I think her career illustrates how much sheer nerve, persistence, and ability it takes to sometimes hit the heights in radio. And now Genevieve, you've sung snatches of songs for us. I wonder if you'd sing something in its entirety? I'd like to sing a favorite of mine. The Last Rose of Summer. Back in the fabulous 20s from Ohio. Thank you, Genevieve Rowe. That was beautiful. The actors and actresses who appear on programs. The second floor of the RCA building, home of the national broadcasting company, is almost a kind of a club. It is on this floor that the NBC directors and members of the casting department have their offices. It is in front of the second floor information desk that almost any time of the day you can find large crowds of radio talent congregated waiting to see directors gossiping and discussing business. Let's wander through this second floor and we'll give you a cross-section of what might be overheard. Mr. Graham, did you hear Georgia make a tourney program last night? No, I didn't hear it, Frank. Well, he did one of the worst jobs I ever heard. He projected too much, fluffed two lines, and really I never heard a worst portrayal in my life. Why, hello, Bill. Oh, hello, George. Say great job you did on Mr. District Attorney last night. I was just telling Graham that you did one of the best jobs. Mr. Whitney, can I speak to you a moment? Sorry, but I'm on my way to rehearsal now. What are you casting for your new program? Auditioning tomorrow. Call me and I'll be glad to see you. Thanks, Mr. Whitney. Well, I say, Charles, old boy, this is already embarrassing, you know, but I left in a hurry this morning to come up here to see Billy Hillparchan. He intends to give me a big build-up on the network and I left my wallet at home. I wondered if you could let me have a 10, you know, just till tomorrow. I played in stock with her years ago and look where she is now. And my dear, she can't act at all. Listen, Joe, there's a part on the Wittina Playhouse that'd be perfect for you. You'd be terrific in it. Why don't you go after it? I'd be a great support of a refined gangster. Thanks a lot for the tip, Billy. Who do I see? Herb Wolf does the casting. I told him about you. Hey, Donald, I've got a part in my script for a cuckoo clock. Can you do it? Certainly. Listen. Well, I can do a different kind of a cuckoo too. Maybe you would prefer this one. No, no, I like the first one better. Oh, this one? Yeah, that's the one. Say, if you can work in a sea lion sometime, I'd appreciate it.  The heart of the second floor is the desk behind which presides a member of the NBC guest relations staff. He phones the directors for the actors, takes messages, gives information and passes the time of day with everyone. Let's wander over there. Second floor desk, lighten speaking. All right, I'll see if he's here. Mr. Johnson, call for Mr. Johnson. I'm Johnson. Are you here to make an appointment for an audition? No, but we'll see you now. Any messages for me? Well, messages are in that folder. I think Radio Registry called you. Are there any tickets left here for Arnold's album? Well, let me see, Mr. Nussbaum, Nussbaum. Ah, here they are, Mr. Nussbaum. No, no, album, please. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, here they are. Can you tell me how to get tickets for a Tuscany broadcast? Mr., there's only one way to get that. Tear off the top of an NBC announcer and send it in. And there you have a pretty good cross-section of what goes on on NBC's second floor. Behind the Mic salutes a program you loved. We in radio believe that radio has a tradition of which it may well be proud, a tradition of good programs that linger fondly in our memory.  This afternoon, we salute one of Radio's most famous old programs, The Everettie Hour, which was on the air from July 1923 to December 1930.  This was the true story of the experiences of one Red Christiansen at the time of the Everettie Hour, a taxi driver, but a man who had been a sailor and who had been cast away on the barren Gallipagus Island. Originally, this was an hour program, but, or behind the mic, we have condensed it to 11 or 12 minutes, giving you some of the highlights of the story. A salute to the Everettie Hour. And here's Red Christiansen. He's here to tell you his story himself. Red, come in. The story begins when I signed up on a bark Alexander in November 1906, leaving Newcastle, New South Wales. Australia. She was loaded with a cargo of coal bound eastward across the Pacific to Panama. She carried a captain, mate, second mate, cook and 16 of us men. The captain had made the same trip before in 70 days. Louis the cook had rations for twice as long. After being out a few weeks, I came up one morning with my turn for watch. We weren't moving, no wind, sails empty. To make a long story short, we had drifted out of the ship's lanes and no one came up to help us fight our way back. We began to realize we were an adult. We drifted this way for over five months and we had food for a voyage of only 140 days. On April the 10th, the captain ordered us all out. Men, we're still drifting. I don't know more than you do when a speller wind will get us out of this. It's over five months now since we sailed from Newcastle. Maybe you've noticed rations slightly, lately. Well, we got to make them still lighter. We're on less than half rations from now on so as we can stay with the ship. That's all.  And so another month dragged by. Then May 8th came, six months since we had sailed. It was all called after again. The captain looked sick and old. He wasn't a young man, but he was white and shaky this day. Boys, I got you all here now. I want to put the case to you. You got just two pails of water and mildly little food. I don't see no signs of the weather changing. Don't look like the wind is ever going to blow. Off here to the northwest, there's some islands. Galapagos, they call them. It's a long pull, 400, maybe 500 miles. I don't know nothing about them. Inhabited or not. I think we can make them in the boats. Who wants to stay by the ship and who wants to labor and try for the islands? Oh, let's get out of this. I know you're sticking it out there. They will pick up there, maybe. The boats are the boats. All right, men, the boats it is. There were two boats. The captain and one, the maid and the other. I was in the captain's boat. The third night out, we lost the maid's boat. The third day, the food gave out. The fourth day, the water was gone. We dipped our hands in the sea and sucked the water off our fingers. This kept up for 11 days and 11 nights. Around the dawn of the 12th day, the cook said something. Boys, boys, this supper's near over. What do you mean cooked near over? There's land ahead. That ain't land. That's clouds. You're seeing things, Louie. That's... No, it ain't. It ain't haze. It ain't clouds. It's land. It's land. When it got a little lighter, we seen it really was land. The minute we hit land, we scattered hunting for water. But there was no water, except the little water and pools on the rocks where the waves had been breaking. It was salty, but we drank off the top. When we went back to look for our boat on the beach, we saw that the tide had come up and smashed it to bits. Compass and everything was smashed and washed away. And there we was, with nothing to eat, no water, just the island. The island itself was just a big lump of jagged lava torn up by some volcanic years ago. There wasn't anything worth eating that should go on it, and no spring could break through it. Them lava rocks were just like sponges. Only the edges of the pores were sharp as if they were made out of glass. Shoes didn't last any longer time on that kind of ground. In a few hours, we were just the same as barefoot. The second day, the captain called us to the top of the bluff. The old man pointed, and we looked down, and we see a big turtle asleep in the sand, a big fella four or five feet long. That's mighty good eatin'. Here, Red, you and Jeff get down there and turn that turtle over on his back. Jesus! That baby's five feet long, and we's an inch. Look at him flip us. They're two feet long. What'll he do when we tackle him? Come on, turn him over, Red. He can't hurt you if you got him on his back. So we done it. The old man yells to cut the turtle's throat, and we did. When the blood spurted out, Fred Jeff was so thirsty that he got right down and drank it. And he says to us, say, that's sweet. After that, we all drank it, all of us. There was nothing else to think. Well, after we got the turtle on his back, we cut off his undershell and ate the raw meat. How much we lived on this fair, raw turtle meat and blood? Well, a little brackish water once in a while. After getting rested and something in our stomachs, we felt better. Then we started talking. Men, no ship will come near us where we are. You're right. What'll we do, Captain? Well, we'll work along the coast and find an anchorage where a ship might come. And that's what we started to do. One day we tackled a seal. We ripped off his skin and say it made the swellest shoes. Our feet was all cut and hurt, but never after that, we tried eating the seal meat, but it was all for tough and fishy. We could eat the tails at a big lizard's toe, and we did. But raw turtle was our best bet. We couldn't cook anything. Nobody had a watch to make a burning glass, so we never had a fire. Poor Fred Jeff got worse. We had to go slow for him. One day he lay down on a little beach. We all stood around him, Captain, and all. There wasn't nothing we could do. Jeff knew it. He looked up at us. Boys, I've done for. Fred, lay down. If you get out of this, Fred, promise you'll see my father. I will, Fred. I will. We didn't have nothing to dig with. We carried him back a piece and piled lava rocks over him so the birds wouldn't touch him. The captain said a prayer. Fred was my shipmate on four voyages. Night was the worst time. All day we were pretty busy, moving slowly on the rocks and getting seals and turtles. Kept our minds occupied. Night was the worst. One night we was all together, stretched out, and somebody said, For the love of Pete, start a song, somebody. Let's sing. Be it ever so. No, I tell you not that. Oh, fellas, please, I'm cracking. You don't have to tell me. My mind's cracking here. If you want to help me say what's left of it, don't sing that song. Any other all right, but, oh, sweet home here, in this place, don't sing it. Don't. Don't. We went through two months of this, creeping along the shore. Then one day we got to the top of a high rock that went straight down to the water. And the land made it so as that a pretty bay, as ever you saw. If any ship was to ever come to pick us up, this was a port where she might make for us. Here was a place for us to wait. If you'll pardon my saying so, we were all sort of inhabited, living the way we was. Louis the cook hadn't roughed this as much as some of us. He was old and he still had some clothes on. Two flannel shirts, in fact. He'd got heart and usual. So Louis thought he'd take off his top shirt. When he pulled it off, something fell on the ground. The captain saw it. What's that, Louis? I don't know. The captain picked up what fell and what he supposed it was. A match. Where did that come from, Louis? I don't know. The captain sort of inspected Louis. Well, sir, that cook had had a box of matches squashed flat in his underneath shirt pocket for two months and a half. I know he's living on raw turtleneck. Can you beat it? But from then on we had cooked turtleneck. One day we just finished eating when suddenly the old cook yelled out, Ship ahoy, ship ahoy! We all looked up. There, coming on to East Point, was a sail. Then I rushed to the beach. And we sailed for home that night. Yes, Red, I remember when you first met Dr. Beebe and told him your story. This is Graham McNamee saying, good afternoon all. Behind the Mic is written by Mort Lewis. Original music, composed and conducted by Ernie Watson. This is the National Broadcasting Company.


Hi everybody it's Sam at Mixed Up Craft, thank you for watching today. So a while ago Creative Craft approached me and asked if I wanted to join their affiliate program, so I said yes. So they have kindly sent me some product which they wanted me to share. So between the eighth, so today and the 14th of April, it is a week long of celebrations for Creative Craft turning 16 so that's why I've got this birthday chocolate here as well and they're going to be having a variety of great big brand launches, there's going to be club membership deals, prizes to be won every day as well as exclusive offers and you get free postage and packaging throughout so that's really good anyway.  So they have sent me this canvas shopping bag which is always handy, nice to use and then this lovely bar of chocolate which I'm yeah looking forward to trying, it looks like, let's have a little look, Creative Craft, everyone's a winner, I imagine they're going to probably be giving these away throughout this week as well in terms of competition so let's just get into this, I'm not too too precious, yeah you can see if I rub over it it says what's that there, I think that's a pattern and then that says oh sod it let's just have a look, oh golden ticket everyone's a winner, oh my god that's so cool I actually have a golden ticket, let's have a little look, maybe this is, I haven't even looked at this guys this is like so does that mean anything? Everyone's a winner, handmade from Finest Quality Belgian milk chocolate, that's all it says, anyway I've got myself a golden ticket, everyone's a winner, right let's just see, I'm intrigued to just see what is on the front of this chocolate bar quickly, my hands are clean, yeah happy birthday, there we go, that's cool, I really do like that, thanks guys, love it, so yeah and I've got that ticket as well but yeah, right let's pop all that away, that won't be long till that gets devoured but that can go back in the fridge and I will just keep that wrapped up nicely there, okay so they sent me these punches which I will show you in a minute because I've already used them and I've made some cards, so I've got three punches here, two floral petal flower ones and this leaf there as well so these are flowers, craft punch, really nice ones and they punch beautifully so I know some punches can be quite stiff, these ones aren't, you've got your little cover there which just flips up and then that will hold in your die cuts and it just clicks, she says, there we go, back into place again so let's take that one out as well and I will show you those in a second but they are really nice, punches are great, I do love when I can just grab a punch, quickly you know use it and you're done so I'm going to get rid of those bits now and then this one here is a card making kit so this is the creating craft get the nation crafting card kit and this is your instructions, you've got this top sheet here all step by step you've got inspiration so let me show you in a bit more detail what's inside, this is actually really good and the images are really really nice, beautiful, you've got the torso there dress makers torso, I love this one here which is this lady with that really gorgeous dress I want that dress, you've got another one there the teacup which reminded me of my teacup and saucer that I done not too long ago the birds more fashionable style cards for guys because I think yeah this one I'm not so keen on I'm not into those kind of photographs of sports things it just reminds me of like 1990s cards and I've just this personal preference it's just something I've never been into others love it just like other people may not love these other styles so is there's something for everybody I love everything apart from that so and on the back here you've got more inspirations as well complete step by step tells you how to do everything but me as with most kits I change it and I you know I do my own thing so for those of you that aren't familiar haven't seen these kind of things before you basically just get pages and pages of toppers so and this is a topper for example so you will die they're already pretty die cut they're just kind of um tacked in there you just take them out and yeah start making your cards so I'll just briefly show you some of the ones we've got here this is this dress one isn't it gorgeous let me there aren't they stunning beautiful beautiful images there's two cards there now this will make 25 cards I believe let me find it was on here it tells you here oh 24 these are your decoupage style ones so you have your main base topper then you have your framed toppers to go on top then smaller frame to go in again and again and again and I'll show you the result that you get with that style this is one of those I guess more modern style ones which I like I think that's a nice image I like the colors that they've used and again that's got that decoupage element to it which a lot of them do these are the ones I actually was really quite surprised with I like them because it just looks like that teacup there's the butterfly there's the saucer all the flowers coming out of it so I'm going to make one of these ones up with you in a moment because I think they look lovely and you got one there you got the bears this is what I mean there's something for everyone those more kind of watercolor images I think they're still okay I probably personally wouldn't use the gold frame I would probably matte it and do something differently but I will certainly be using those images and I know um I know some fishermen so that will definitely get used and even that nice sports car so I do like them these are the ones for me maybe not what I might do that one's not so bad actually because of the sunset in the background I might even kind of fussy cut that will do something with it but I never really waste anything so I will find a way then these are all your backgrounds so they will match everything so there's the background to match the teacups there is a lot more but I've already made cards you'll see them in a moment so you can see there there's your toppers and then these will be you know what you use to make the backgrounds that's that one so that goes with that dress that's the other dress one these are the ones for those kind of guide cards you can see there and so on and so forth and then you get all your envelopes so there you're large eight by six six by eight you've got six by six you've got six by four yeah and then these are your card bases really good quality it's about 300 gsm all folds in half so these are your little three by and four by six card bases so like I said you can make 24 cards out of all of this there's your plain ones and then you've got these ones with this decorative edge you've got plain edged ones you've got larger with that decorative edge I've messed them up a little bit there you go you've got that one there and then you've got your real large ones here it's a plain and then like the scalloped edge and then with that edge there as well so that is what you get tons and tons of stuff this will keep you busy for quite a while but also you could probably make up all of these cards in an afternoon you know so it is something yeah it's good so I'm going to show you I'm going to keep that this one out here oh no not that one let's have a little look there we go so let's pop all this to one side I'm just going to show you what I've already done so these are the cards that I made with other toppers that were in that pack and I really enjoyed making these they've turned out beautifully so this is this one here which is the other teacup one and look at all that dimension and just look how lovely it's come together so I have matted it on some silver card stock of my own and then also some of this green card here which I also used in this card here so it's the same background so you can just see how you can mix them in and I decided to almost make that whole topper the card so that is I just thought was really really cute I'll show you that in more detail in a second I added this gorgeous bow because I just thought it needed a bow and then those little flat that pearls but isn't that gorgeous really really pretty I'm really into the teacups at the minute I think they look beautiful so there was that one love that and then this is one of those dressmaker's torsos and you can see all the levels there now I've not followed what they've given as inspiration I've done my own because that's just what I like to do you can see there I've added that one I've put a little diamond to there another huge bow and then that is actually there is a bow in the image underneath can you see it so you don't have to add that but I thought that would look quite nice with a a natural material though so that's that one there so again I've got all the envelopes ready for these to go which is good this one I really love so you can see how they've done this one you just die I just punched these out you know they're already pre-cut I've had a little doily behind there and then this lovely big ribbon at the bottom and again I've just used the silver mats behind there and then used the card corner punched the two opposite edges and corners and again really nice honestly these take me this took five minutes if you know it was literally the time consuming part was adding the double sided tape to the back and cutting the silver mat and there and tying the bow they're really really quick so for that reason kits can be very good when they're all with the pre-die cut then I decided I thought I'm going to turn this one into an easel card and this one here is using one of those flower punches so this one here punched really nice through this very thick card stock and I just added a little flat bat pearls onto that and then this here I've added onto some foam dimension to make the stopper and you can see there I've got the happy birthday and that is all raised up as well and then the whole thing folds flat and that will fit into my envelope and that's a six by six card so I've done that one and then that was that one there and you can see that's the other flower punch which is this one here along with the little leaf there underneath initially I just put the green flower on and then I thought oh well I put the leaf behind it so maybe what I might do is change these flowers to a pinky color just so you can appreciate the leaf behind it but you get the idea and I put one down there as well but I just love that image a beautiful watercolor scene I think it looks lovely so that is what you can do with these so I think sometimes people get them and maybe they see the inspiration or the style and think actually I don't really like that because I think that sometimes and then I think to myself well actually there's there is no rule you don't have to keep it that way so I'm going to totally change this up and do something different so this is how they come so this is the birthday celebrations paper topper papercraft topper and you just go along and you can see they all pop out really easily if you do get any little kind of pieces I'll show you in a second from where it was attached you can just kind of carefully snip them away or you can use a nail file on them as well now this piece here you can keep as well so I'm just going to trim that off because that's like a decorative matching strip and then you can discard all of this now you don't need that unless you need to use it for anything okay so here you will see this is now you know the signs of a good quality one where there is hardly any bits so just probably hardly even see it just there this little bit there's a tiny little bit you can see it against my hand ever so slightly just kind of sticking out you can just snip it off so you do see any but also you can grab and I don't have one at hand just a nail file and just just brush over it but there's hardly any on that so I'm not even going to worry then they supply you with foam adhesive so you've got these little squares so I'm just going to take that out and you also get some double-sided tape as well it's a perfect if you're a beginner and you have very few supplies you know kits are good because they usually you know give you all that stuff so then I'm just going to break down these little pads you don't need many just pop a few there's actually another little bit to punch out there there we go that's to make your little handle more visible and then pop one down here take off your backing I've kind of got back into Decoupage and it's only really been since I've been buying the Dovecraft Decoupage kits even before I joined the design team I purchased some of them and I yeah I just kind of fell in love with them again I really do like doing it but I change it I I kind of yeah mix it up a little bit okay and then you get the next one so you all start with the biggest die-cut piece so that was that one and then this is the next size down so again just take off the backing and you're just mirroring it over the same image that's underneath but each time there's less and less of the image that you're sticking down so the image underneath you can see had this piece the one I've just stuck on top top doesn't have that piece now again the next piece you're always working down so you will end up with the smallest piece left um actually oh yeah so there's that one good job I nearly missed that so that's you can see that's the next one then it would be this one this one and then finally that butterfly and I might add my own big butterfly as well because I think that would look quite good rather than a bow on this one we'll see so and then again you're just kind of playing around take some time line it all up and I really like mine lifted obviously you have to then bear in mind postage these ones will probably get hand given or my friends kind of raid my card stash whenever they come around and visit and they will take these and usually hand deliver them anyway so there we go and then the butterfly will go over that one there and what I might do actually is just fold him in half not put foam on him but add some a little bit of glue and I'm just going to rest it in the middle there like so if I bring that up now so you can see where the butterflies lifted and you can see just all that dimension and what a beautiful pretty card that is now parts of me is thinking I'm going to fussy cut all of this out not have with love and have this which is sending lots of love on your birthday because I would rather have that on the top so I am I'm going to fussy cut this out but you don't have to do that you could now stick that right down onto your card blank but because they've sent this beautiful decorative paper I think I'm going to have a landscape card yeah they're both the same image with this one side and then the teacup here that's my idea anyway so I will speed this next bit up but you can watch me fussy cut there you have it look at that that's a beautiful topping out because I love that we've got this real flat kind of background of the actual you know flowers drawn on and then the rest is all lifted off so now we can bring in the background I'm going to use yeah I want to use that red because that really stands out okay what I'm going to do is I can't make my mind off and some of my mind up and some of you might be like oh no what are you doing I'm going to stick this and offset it on that cream one because my idea is so although I've lost a sentiment you'll see the cream against the ribbon and then the red against the cream there and I just think that works so again it's just yeah something that you can do change it up make it work for you I prefer that couldn't actually make my mind up between the two so use both of them so again I'm just popping some of the tape they give you as well as this glue just because it's sticking on fabric and then I'm just going to make sure that's nice and lined up there like so and then what I might do is with this strip here that matches and some of these punches just show you how nicely they punch out and then just open the back there and just give them a little bit of shape just on my mat I'm only going to use three because it's good to have an odd number just pop a little bit of glue there and just kind of tack them down so again let me just recap the card so I think this might be my favorite just love that teacup love the colors that one there also love that one as well just really really pretty this one lovely lovely and then pretty easel card and this little one here as well which again I love that scene and all the dimension that's on there so that's one two three four five six cards I could probably get even more than the 24 that they say that you can get so I think it's a really nice kit I've enjoyed it and I will finish off everything I become one of those people that I need to get the kits done and dusted so that you know that's it everything's finished and then these little punches which I really like really handy good to have on your desk I've got a little tray actually they will sit in so it's just handy when you just need to finish off a little embellishment so that is what I have here plus my chocolate which I'm going to eat thank you very much creating craft and then just to recap so you get free pmp all of this week from the 8th to the 14th started at 8 a.m this morning exclusive offers prizes to be won every day so head on over there because they've got stuff going on on the website club member deals big brand launch big brand world launches so www.createandcraft.com so I think that's everything I will share the links to this kit in the video description below so you can go check it out along with the punches give this video a thumbs up if you've enjoyed the cards that I've shared with you today and giving you some inspiration and I'll be back soon with another tutorial thanks for watching bye


Second ever weigh-in on camera. I already feel like I'm coming in a little leaner. Let's see. Last weigh-in was 206.8. We're about a week in and there you have it. 203.2. So we're about three and a half pounds down. That's a win, everybody. That's a win. Now the goal is to be losing about a pound to a pound and a half a week. However, first couple of weeks of weight loss you are going to be shedding a lot of water weight along with fat. So I'm assuming that I probably did lose my one pound of fat and also dropped another three pounds of water weight. I'm also very sick too. I don't know if you guys can hear it or not. But I'm still going to be recording nonetheless because I like what I do and I'm going to be doing a full day of eating video. Stay tuned for breakfast. It's 12 o'clock noon time. I'm not intermittent fasting. I just was bedridden all morning and I finally got the energy to come here and make this video. So I'll see you guys at meal numero uno. All right, guys. And as stated earlier, here is meal number one. So what I got here is I got six servings of egg whites with two whole eggs and one slice of alvita cheese. I expertly mixed with salsa and a little bit of hot sauce. And then I got two slices of multigrain toast. And I am going to put up the calories on the screen right now. But guess what? All of this under 500 calories. Just so you know. All right, guys. So there you have meal number one. 497 calories. Just like I said, under 500. So as you guys can see there, I didn't actually keep the salsa or the hot sauce because I just figured the calories are so little on that. But here we are. So 53 grams of protein for breakfast. 37 grams of carb. Got a little bit of fiber in there too, which is always good. And relatively low fat. 16 grams of fat is a win in my book. So there you have it. Meal number one. Quite possibly the best tasting yogurt ever. It's toasted coconut vanilla. Dandan lightened fit. 80 calories. 12 grams of protein. Where is the nutrition label? There's zero grams of fat in this thing. But man, that doesn't seem like enough. If only I had fruit. Yeah, that's not going to happen. Boom. All right. There we go, guys. Honeycrisp apple and some yogurt. That is snack number one.  I play The Witcher because of the TV show. I actually had this game before, but I never really played it because I thought it was kind of lame. So yeah, now that I watched the TV show, I'm like, you know what? I think this game is actually pretty cool or like this series, this idea of like a monster hunter. So yeah, it's actually really lit. I highly recommend that game. So for now, we got food, we got games and going to get some rest and beat this cold or whatever the heck it is. All right, guys, we're back for the last meal. This is my sick meal here. Chicken noodle soup homemade with two ounces of chicken. Yes, I took the chicken out and weighed it. Five ounces of cooked chicken tenderloin and one serving size of Uncle Ben's 90 second basmati rice with a little bit of soy sauce. And there you have it. Oh yeah, and I like my food spicy. You know what I mean? I like to feel the burn. I like to suffer as I eat through this. I put some lemon in here to help cure me. And I've been knocking out this power to zero. The blue one is the best. And if anybody tells you differently, and they're lying, especially my girlfriend who thinks the orange one is the best. So there's meal number three, I guess. And I'm going to put the macros on the screen now so you guys can see the damage that has been done. All right, so this is going to be showing meals number two and meals number three. So I got my yogurt. I got my apple. I don't think I actually looked at the specific macros. But as you can see, guys, it's actually pretty easy to track everything. You just got to plug it right in. And then you just hit the nutrition button. And it'll show you 128 grams of protein, 142 carb and 41 grams of fat. All right, YouTube. So I just wanted to give you guys a quick peek at what goes into my gym bag. I know this is a full day of eating video, but I figured, yeah, might as well show you guys while I have your attention too. You guys can see what I take to the gym. So first and foremost, Airpod pros love these things. I'm actually going to do a review video about them and how I like them. Let's see here. Second thing, please excuse me because I'm trying to pull this with one hand. Second thing is a good gym jacket. So this is made by Nike. It zips all the way up to the neck has this little hood here. And I like that it has this beak makes me like think I'm from Assassin's Creed or something. So it's sick. It's Nike. It's really, really good. Now, next essential that I have is the gym belt essential for every leg day and certain shoulder workouts as well. It's just really good. People think that this is for back support. But what it actually is is it's not the back of it that works. It's the front of it that works. It keeps your core tight.  So there you go. Next thing that I have in here is a little chalk. I love chalk, dude, especially for the deadlifts. This is probably only for the deadlifts. It's in a sock.   As you can see, she tried real hard to draw this one. That's really nice, babe. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, let's see. Let's see. Wrist straps. Wrist straps. Essential. Essential. Now, what else is in here? This one here is actually a little insider secret. This is some whiskey. This is actually how I get all my gains. But don't tell anybody. Yep. And cool. Yeah, there you have it, everybody. This is Christopher Sliman's gym essentials. Now, I'm going to go work out. I'm probably not going to film because I'm doing this one solo. And then I will get right back to you guys with dinner. See you later. Oh, my God. This has to be the best pizza place ever. Here is where the magic happens. It's called build your own pizza. Nello's. Where's, where's, oh yeah. Oh, yeah. We're going to order this bad boy up. Calculate the macros on this and wrap up the day of eating. So, stay tuned, everybody. I will make you proud, hopefully. There it is. Bacon, black olives, peperoni, and garlic. And garlic. This is going to be legendary. Legendary. Macros are going to be on the screen, guys. And thank you for tuning into another week of full day of eating. And I'll see you guys on the next episode. All right. And that wraps it up. So, as you guys can see, I couldn't really find everything specifically for Nello's. We got the 10 inch pizza. Actually, I think we got the 12 inch pizza, but I didn't eat the whole thing. So, I just kept it at that serving size. Sauce, I just put one serving size too randomly. The cheese, I kind of guesstimated bacon. I think I overestimated the bacon. Peperoni and black olives. Then I also actually went to the gym and had a protein shake before that I forgot to film. So, my bad guys. But here it is. End of the day. We wanted 195 grams of protein. We got 194. We wanted 260 grams of carbs and we fell very short. 204. But it was hard to eat. I wasn't really feeling well. And for fat, we went up over by one gram. So, all in all, successful day and still was under my calorie goal. Thank you, guys.