Hello folks. Hi, everyone. Hi, Danny. Hello, Nadia. Such a pleasure to have you. I'm so excited to be able to interview Nadia as you heard, Chief People Officer at Figma. I think that if Dylan hadn't had a great experience at Slush a few years ago being interviewed here, I would have had more difficulty convincing you to come. It's very easy. But no, it's really great to have you. And it's been such a pleasure to work with Figma for over a decade now. So, needless to say, we're not going to be talking about the great acquisition that has been announced with Adobe, which definitely made the news. But I think what it pointed out was how outstanding Figma is, and that the product, the primary product design, but now FigJam as well, that you folks have developed, is created by outstanding people. And so it is perfect to have you because you are absolutely one of the most important secret ingredients at Figma. So how many folks are you at this point? We will be almost a thousand in just a few weeks. So about 975 right now. Fantastic. And how many do you know by their name? How many do I know by name? So I started when we were about 150 people in March 2020. I think I got to about 500 or 600 before I stopped remembering everybody's name. When you look at org charts all day long and you approve every single offer that goes out the door, you get to know every single person that works at the company. So it's wonderful. Okay, so folks, I don't know if you find this quite unusual, but to know five to six hundred names of your colleagues and recognize them is not something that I hear every day. And it's truly something that many of your colleagues have noticed. So I want to get to the roots of that. And I do know that you use this superpower in previous lives. Yes. So can we talk about Starbucks? Yes. So my memory happens to be my superpower. It's also a little bit of a curse. I think my husband would wish that I didn't remember quite as much as I do. But back in college I worked at Starbucks. I was desperate to be a barista. I worked at 4.30 in the morning every day before going to school. And I really wanted to, I think this is like when I actually started building community, had regular customers every single day. I would see them pull into the parking lot. And I would try to make their drink before they even got into the store. So by the time they came to the store, they just had to pay. Their drink was ready to go. So not only did I remember all of their names, I remembered all of their beverages too. And so how did you perform from a tip standpoint? Pretty well. Starbucks has a shared tipping system, but I can say that my tips contributed heavily to the shared tipping system of the store. So clearly customer service is something you understand very well. How important is it, not particularly for your function, but when you think of the folks that you have guided into Figma, how important is that trait in people? Well, for us it's one of our values is build community. And so I think for me, from a very young age, customer service, being friendly, being open, learning from people was core to who I was. And so at Figma, it's also core to who we are, both internally building community for our figmates, but also externally with our users. We have a user base that absolutely loves us and adores us, but that we also love and adore. We listen to their feedback. We listen to what they have to say and we build for them. Similarly, internally, what our employees have to say, what our figmates have to say really helps shape the policies and processes that we make as well. Super. So if you could just walk us through what is a chief people officer and how does that relate to community? How does that relate to what you're trying to do? So what is a chief people officer? I started in this role about three months ago. So prior to this role, I was leading our recruiting team from March 2020 until about September, August. People at Figma oversees all of recruiting, all of traditional HR, so your people partners, your processes, but also overseas workplace and IT engagement. So for me, when I think about what my role is at Figma, it's how do I make working at Figma meaningful for everybody that works at the company? How do I make someone's career better? How do I make sure that they're leaving Figma better than they started and we do see people leave, not everybody stays forever, but really how do we make it meaningful for every person as a career decision? Because it is. Where you spend your career is such a big decision for people. And so one of the aspects that I've really appreciated about you is how you handle difficult decisions on people and, you know, on how Figma is in a rare situation where you're still aggressively hiring, but of course most companies out there are having to lay off a substantial amount of their folks. So how do you approach difficult conversations? How have you learned how to do that? Do you prepare the person and or do you immediately launch into difficult, what are some of the recommendations that you would have on that? It depends on the person and the situation. I wish there was a one-size-fits-all for everything, but that would that would make life too easy. I think it's really it's who are you talking to and what are you talking about? We have been very lucky that we are still hiring aggressively and we haven't had to go through layoffs, but it doesn't mean that we don't have difficult conversations around what's happening in the business. And so, you know, I approach every conversation that I have thinking about the person first and thinking about what is their biggest concern and trying to quell that and then have the conversation. But does it serve a purpose to have small talk before difficult conversations or how to yeah, just give us a sense of that because you've it depends. I'm not one for small talk usually, which is maybe a surprise as a chief people officer. I love people, but I like to get to the heart of the issue and so I think that I think it was Brené Brown who says clear is kind and so I think as you're approaching conversations that might be difficult, the sooner you can get to the point, the clearer you are, the kinder that is to the other person in the room. And when you talk about your team and all of the interviewing that they do and supporting the excess interviewing for the respective teams, how do you help them get to the heart of the matter and really understand the folks that they're interviewing? Yeah. Are there some tips there? So I will just say that is a huge shout out to our entire team. I'm the person that gets to be up here, but we cannot do this alone and our motto is always be recruiting at Figma. And so they I think the way that I think about helping them and maybe one of the tricks that people think that they should do, but maybe shouldn't is a lot of people like to ask, what do you do for fun? What do you do outside of work? And that might be a great icebreaker, but it's also a question that can really open up the conversation for a lot of bias. And so I try to steer our employees to focus on the conversation around what do they do at Figma, what excites them about working at Figma and how can this person come in and help instead of things that don't really apply to work. And when you actually get Figma, it's talking about what makes them excited to work at the company. Most of them just light up. And so that's I think the best way to connect with someone when they are interviewing with us for a role. I mean, one of the amazing things that you did, which I don't think is evident to folks is that I really first met you. Sorry, I should have offered you some water. I'm not doing a good job here. I first met you over Zoom because it was the deepest depths of COVID. And so a lot of the work that you did, including meeting all these people was was virtual, which only makes you knowing other names even more crazy. But yeah, have you incorporated the Zoom interview versus a face-to-face interview in the whole process? Were there learnings there that you folks use going forward and companies should use? Yeah. Well, when I think about, it's interesting, we went overnight from everything was in person. At Figma, we had 99% of our employees were in San Francisco, in the office five days a week. When I started two weeks after the pandemic hit, we were all virtual overnight. We had to figure out how to interview. We had to figure out how to have our company meetings. We had to figure out how to do everything. I've really seen a lot of our teams. The standard process used to be a recruiter phone call, a hiring manager phone call, and then an onsite interview where the candidate would come onsite. Now, almost all of that has actually moved to Zoom instead of a phone call. And it depends on both the candidate and the person. Zoom can be exhausting. Looking at yourself can be exhausting all day. I highly recommend hide self-view. If you have not hidden self-view yet, it helps a lot. But we've actually seen a number of our recruiters find that it's more personal. They get to knowing the candidate even better by doing that first call over Zoom instead of a phone call. Also, my team loves what's happening all of their candidates, which when I was doing this a very, very long time ago, we didn't do, but they're all texting with their candidates and trying to make everybody feel like this is casual and comfortable and that they can ask for help. Really taking down the barriers of interviewing because interviewing can be scary. That's what we've been focused on in the last couple of years. Yeah, definitely in my job. I mean, we've talked about it. I view myself as a glorified recruiter. And what we have found when interviewing founders is that the folks who can shine in this screen size is really amazing. So the folks that we've been able to interview and calibrate versus others and somehow are able to tell their story over this form factor tells you that there's something special about them. But now you have multiple offices. So you have London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco, Berlin, and not an office yet, but our first person in Singapore. Wow. So let's talk about culture and community is so essential. How have you ensured that that travels and how unique does it get to? How does it maintain its presence on a global basis, but also on a local basis? Yeah, this was one of my biggest focus areas when I started. So when I joined, we had one person in London, but we had decided to send someone from San Francisco to London to help seed that office. That was a really important decision for us. And I highly recommend that if you're opening up a global office and you've had an in-person culture before, to have your culture carriers go to your new offices. And so she went to London and helped build the team from scratch. We also had the two recruiters that were helping us build the London office come to San Francisco for a week and try to soak up as much as they could as well. And so as we've thought about building the rest of our offices in these global environments, we're probably going to do the same thing for Singapore. We hope to have a few people from our different offices go. But I just spent a few days in London with our team. And I was talking to our workplace manager and we were talking about how one of the things that she loves so much is that we have this global culture, but then she has the ability to plan things locally as well for what works for the London office. The London office is about 100 people right now. And it's very different. It's a very different culture than San Francisco, the working culture. They do a lot more of organized personal events than we might in San Francisco. Our Tokyo office is now just 16 people. As you're getting an office starting, you have to do more to build that culture and to help seed it so that they know also what are Figma's values. And so through our onboarding process, we embed the company-wide values in the company culture. But then locally we let them decide as well, what is Figma Tokyo? But it's been amazing to see that we have these both similarities across all of these regions, but also these individual cultures starting to slowly get created as well. And I would be curious to know when you joined how difficult it was to hire versus now. And the concept of an employer brand and how you worked at Quora, which had this moment of being a phenomenal brand as well. So how much do you proactively think about that? And how do you measure success on that? When I started, it's hard to imagine a time when Figma wasn't this global brand that it is today. But when I started, it wasn't. And so it was also right in the depth of early COVID. And so companies in 2020 were doing layoffs. It was not easy to recruit back then, because I think people wanted, they were seeing what was happening in the global environment. They wanted stability. We were, what, right when I joined, we raised our series D, I think, in 2020. And we weren't this super, super-known entity. But we did a pretty good job, I think, recruiting. Now we have a brand that is so much more known. But I think what's amazing about an employer brand is, one, it's tied to the overall brand. It is what is our Figma brand first and foremost. But then the employer brand is really what do your employees say about working? It's not something that you get to create and write out of thin air as a comms person. It is what does a Figma say about what it is like to work there? So I think about it a lot, because it matters to me how people describe what it is like to work at Figma. I want it to be, again, that meaningful experience. And so, you know, obviously we look at, in terms of measuring it, we look at our acceptance rates, we look at inbound traffic, how are we seeing applications go up over time? When we enter a new market in particular, it's especially important. When I think about going into Paris and Berlin, it was really hard, because our brand recognition was fairly low. So we had to build the Figma brand, and then we had to build the employer brand as well. And in many cases, like in the case of Quora or Google, the engineering culture and the engineers are placed on a pedestal in relative terms to the rest of the organization, which creates a sense of first class and second class citizens, which can actually be helpful if you're trying to build a certain type of company. That is not the case with Figma. And so is it something that you check in with and have to combat, or is it naturally not a situation where you have these different fiefdoms trying to make the importance of their group more significant? I think it's been fairly natural. And I think potentially some of it comes from the fact that we were building a tool for designers. And so how could you say that one group was more important when we were actually trying to serve this up? I wasn't there the earliest days, but that is like a hypothesis that I have. But I think we have, again, when one of your values is build community, you can't actually then put some people on a pedestal and others not. And the way that, we really, I'm a little bit cheesy as my team knows. And we talk a lot about one team, one dream. We can't do anything that we do at Figma without every single person on the team.  And I think that community mentality has meant that we don't have these wars of we're more important, you're more important. And the other aspect is, which I respect you tremendously for, not just you, but the whole company, is you've been quite vocal on societal issues and have taken stands, for instance, with abortion and relocation. Can you talk about how to get to that decision, how to implement it, how to plan for reaction? Yeah. Well, so we have the privilege of having, I believe, today, now nine employee resource groups. And so we partner incredibly closely with our employee resource groups in a bottoms up approach, as well as a tops down approach. What is an employee resource group? An employee resource group is an employee run group. They have help of someone full time at Figma as well, focused on communities that are generally underrepresented in the technology industry. So we have our LGBTQ pride group. We have parents, which they go by second shift, which I love that name. We have our black community at Figma, women. We have our neurodiversity. So we have a number of ERGs. And they actually also help us figure out when it is that we need to take a stance. But most recently, we had a midterm election in the United States, which was just about a week ago. And we try to keep politics generally in a specific channel as an opt in. But we've also realized that so many things are about personal identity, and it's not about politics. But voting is something that I think everybody can agree on is really important and is a privilege and a right that we all have. And so for the midterm election, both Dylan and I really emphasize with the employee base, exercise your right to vote, have your voice heard. And so it's a combination of having our employees help us and having the leadership team get together and decide when it is that we want to take a stance on something. And how often do you get the pulse of what's going on? Like how do you measure how well you understand what the feeling within Figma is? Yeah. So officially, twice a year, we have an experience survey that runs a full big old survey that we send out. Then we have a pulse survey that is actually happening right now to test engagement and understand how are people feeling. But we have so many informal touch points and so many amazing through our ERGs, through our communities, different ways for Figma's to have their voice heard. We're a very transparent culture, very open, very public. Our Slack channels, which we have our AMAs, are always lively. And so we feel like we have generally a pretty good pulse on a regular basis. And what's unusual about you is that you've scaled from the... There's a lot of unusual things about me. And I'm going to get to some of them. But that you can scale from very early startup all the way to this big role. So one of the questions I was going to ask you, how would you implement this pulse? How early should... As early as possible. As early as... And how about these employee resource groups? As early as your employees have passion to do it. Community, working at a company is amazing. It's even more amazing when you have a friend or a buddy. I always... I think we know that people are generally happier at work if they have at least one friend. But if they have two, they're really, really happy. And so as early as you possibly can. Okay. So I've heard from folks in your group that there are certain times that Nadja should not be spoken to. Can we talk a bit about what that is all about? What those times might be. Well, first of all, I'm always approachable. I am always around for my team. They know where to find me and they're not shy at all. But... Big but. But big but. But if I'm a big sports fan, American... Well, some European sports, a lot of American sports, if my team is in the playoffs and if they lose a big game, I tend not to be in the best mood after. So generally, people give me a little bit of space to recover. Okay. And that last days or weeks? When I was younger, it lasted days. Yes. Now that I'm a little bit more mature and I'm growing into what it is to be an adult human being, maybe a few hours, maybe a day if it's really bad. And finally, your team for the World Cup? My team for the World Cup. I mean, I guess I have to... You don't have to say, you know... I'm rooting for Messi. Okay. I want, you know, it's his last World Cup. I would love to see him go out on top. So that's what I'm rooting for. Excellent. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you, Danny. Thank you, everyone.


What's going on, everyone? Sam here with Layton's sports cards. We're ripping. 20, 22, Penini, clearly Donner's football hobby, eight blocks, half case break, number five. Pick your team style. Read off a list of our names in our teams. Andrew P. I with the Jets, Andrew P. E with the Cardinals, Austin B. Panthers, Billy W. Titans, Chad F. Raiders, Colin S. Jags, Dallas P. Broncos, Dolphins, Daniel C. Patriots, David L. Niners, Edward P. Cowboys, Raven, Suki M. with the Commanders, Hung Chi, C. Bills, Jason W. Falcons, Jason K. with the Packers, Colts, Chiefs, Chargers, Saints, Jason W. with the Browns, John A. with the Steelers, John B. Rams, Giants, Jorge R. Bucks, Eagles, Levi R. with the Lions, Manny V. Texans, Matt Z. with the Vikings, Matthew S. Bengels, Nolan S. Seahawks, and Robert R. with the Bears. Good luck here, everybody. Let's get rocking and rolling. Cardinals now gone in six. I believe we're down to just the Browns and Panthers. Just the Browns and Panthers on number six, guys. Thank you again. Let me drop you that link really quick before we get started. Panthers. There's Browns. Need a piercer? All right, let's see if we can do that. That'd be pretty cool.  For every auto from the Texas. There's Bree Saul to 75 on the orange. Nice one there, Jets. Good way to start it. Austin and Christian Watson. Kyle, oh boy. Oh boy, now we really got to get the band button ready to go. Oh boy. Oh boy. Redemption. It's gonna be Jameson Williams. Clearly rated rookie auto. Going to the Lions. Nice J-mo. J-mo got a little too... You and Matt talking it. That's funny. J-mo. Nice one there. Got a little too excited on the prize picks. Jalen Tolber and Bree Saul. Luckily it's only six games for Jameson Williams. But I like to live life dangerously, Kyle. Do you? Like to live life on the edge. There's nice. Throwback. Dak Prescott. Was that 16, I wanna say? 2016. Optic. Very cool. Nice one there. Cowboys. Those retro rated rookies, man. Brock Purdy on the back as well. I too like to live dangerously. That is Alec Pierce. Two of 10 on the gold. Nice one there for the Colts. Two of 10 on the rookies. Nice one Colts. Garrett Wilson and K-Bon Tibidoo. What's up, Mark? Happy Friday to you too, my friend. Hope you're having a good one. Nick Willis. Red, one off Jersey, number six of 49. Grats on that. Titans. K-Bon Tibidoo and K-P. Can he pick it? Rookie for the Steelers. Got our auto in here. That's gonna be K-Bon Tibidoo. 13 of 49 going out to the Giants. Nice one there, G-Men. There's Damian Pierce though. And Alec Pierce. Got my house. Russ, nice one there. Shorter printed insert this year as well. For the Broncos. My house, Russell Wilson. Romeo Dobbs, Isaiah Spiller as 12. Here's Goldfoil, Romeo Dobbs. Delish Jones, Jr. And a Notchison. See if we can pull out our marvels out of this case. That'd be pretty cool. Statistically it should be in this case. My 12, Russ, my house is 12 bath rooms. Yeah. That's what they should put in it, honestly. My house, and then it has 12 bathrooms. That'd be pretty funny. Blue, Pierre Strong, Jr. 84 of 99 for the Patriots. James Cook, and Traylon Burks. For the Titans. Saan Haskins, gonna be a rated rookie auto going out to Tennessee. Nice one there, Titans. Tennessee picking up the, going that one, Jag's gone in 12, Eagle's gone in 10. Tyler Algier, Drake London. Let's go, Carl. That's worth it. That is worth it. Right there. Here's my home, it's the 92. Saan Haskins and Desmond Ritter. And I know, you don't even have to tell me, but I know you're the one who traded the optic blaster to get the Ladybug tattoo. There's Goldfoil, two attack of I.Lo. Tray McBride and David Bell. Nice, a couple of John Jones color. There you go. Why not, honestly. Okay guys, let me drop you the link to the Panthers and Browns again. Teardrop, Panthers and Browns. I do not, William. I do not speak Welch. I'd love to. Yeah, we got a decent amount of people on YouTube right now, Manny. Jonathan Taylor, 2175, which are most of the conversations going on. Nice one there for the Colts. Traylon Burks rookie and Tyler Algier rookie. Wahoos was here earlier and a couple of people in Switch. Feeling sane in here. $30 tattoo, $30 blaster. Yeah, there you go. Can't argue with that. Nice one here, Tyler Algier. Hollow Foil, rated rookie autumn. Nice one there. Hassan Haskins and Drake London. What's the first time that question's ever been asked in chat, Vaughn, which one? Champions of Jerry Rice, Super Bowl champions. Nice one there, Niners. Doesn't rate a rookie again, Tray McBride. TJ Goldfoil for the Steelers. It's like Juan Thornton and David Bell. All right, we are halfway through everybody. Oh, the Welch. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair. If you speak Welch, I do not speak Welch. I will be fair. I do not speak Welch. Be cool if I spoke Welch, but I don't, unfortunately. Xamir White, rated rookie autumn for the Raiders. Chris does, actually. Danny Gregg and Wandaille Robinson. Highlights, Tamar Chase. Sauce Gardener and Tray Lundbergs. Here I was thinking that was gonna be like a great arm marvels. Nope, upside down, Russell Wilson. I'm sorry. Ridiculous. Drake London, Goldfoil, rated rookie. James Cook and Tyler Alger. There's Debo, purple to 175. Yeah, the backwards Russell Wilson, SSB. Drake London and Hassan Haskins. Probably, I would say so. Oh boy. Now we gotta get this band button ready. Now we really gotta get the band button ready. Oh boy. Oh boy. What's up, Jason? Probably not talking to myself. There you go. I'm gonna ban you. Hey, what's up, SpamBot? I'm gonna ban you on YouTube, man, so you have to go back to Twitch. You have to go back to Twitch. I'm gonna ban you back to Twitch. Red, there's some Ritter. Nice one there. 19 of 49 on the color match for the Falcons. John Mechie and Brian Robinson, Jr. Oh, thanks. Happy birthday to Chris, everybody. Chris turning three years old today. Aidan Hutchinson, rated rookie auto for the Lions. Nice one there, Detroit. Jermaine Johnson, Chris Olava. You speaking from experience there, Traff? Doesn't even sell them. There's Bresaul. Nice one there for the Jets. Jordan Davis and Matt Corral. Kevon Thibodeau, Goldfoil. Bass and bass. What's up? Yeah, everybody. That's all it takes. I was just mentioning birthday once and it just, everybody goes nuts.  Hey, happy actual birthday, William. Happy actual birthday. And then it's just like, it's like a daycare in here. It's like a daycare. Legitimately like a daycare. Hey, there's Derek Henry through 175. Purple for the Titans. There's Kenny Pickett and Damian Pierce. Chief's gone in 13. Again, guys, just the Panthers and Browns. There's Calvin Austin, Rated Rookie Auto. Going to the Steelers. I would too, Zach. I would too. Nice one there. Alec Pierce, Romeo Dobbs. I'm the only mature one here. John and Taylor, there's my house, Aaron Rodgers. Nice one there for the Packers. Isaiah Spiller and Vila Jones, expensive daycare, yes. Happy birthday in Welch. There's a Jermaine Johnson. Aidan Hutchinson, Derek Stingley. After this break, I will Google translate it. Just for you, William. Take care for kids' expensive facts. As I've been told. Purple, scary Terry to 175 for the Commanders. Kenny Pickett, Damian Pierce, rookie. Unless the internet's lying to me. Ryan Robinson, Jr. Base, Rated Rookie Auto for the Commanders. Nice one there. Washington, Alec Pierce and Romeo Dobbs. Loading up on those Pierce rookies. Oh, yeah. There's Rande Barber. That's sick, 2002. Don Russ Throwback for the Bucks. Spiller and Vila Jones. Base, base, gold, nine of 10. Warren Moon, going to the Titans. Nice one there. There's by way of the Titans, or Titans by way of the Oilers. Aidan Hutchinson and Derek Stingley. Still a quick recap here, everybody. Pretty solid break overall, I would say. We had the Warren Moon to 10. Alec Pierce to 10. Ryan Robinson, Jr. Calvin Austin, Aidan Hutchinson. Xamir White, Hassan Haskins. Tyler Algier. Kavon Thibodeau to 49. And Jameson Williams. That'll do it for the break, guys. Thanks again for the fill. Next up, number six.


From Hollywood it's time now for Bob Bailey as Johnny dollar Johnny. I've got it for you Lou Tang good What did you find out that prices on the Tokyo grain market did break suddenly about three weeks ago three weeks? Uh-huh reason over supply the price has been holding since at about 60% of the peak of 40% drop big enough to cause the damage What damage the sinking of the Molly K a double cross a frame-up murder. It's as clear as crystal Lou Come see me later tonight. Tell me all about it. All right, all right any rate come on Tell me about something about a certain night at Paris, maybe I Think I'd like that very much Johnny. Wait for me, Lou. I'll be there later. You can count on it Tonight and every weekday night Bob Bailey in the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar From special investigator Johnny dollar location San Francisco to the home office Marine and maritime casually limited Hartford, Connecticut Assignment the Molly K matter expense account final page Item 9 770 long-distance calls to Hartford in New York I was pretty sure before I called but I had to check on it. It checked Item 10 80 cents taxi from my hotel to the waterfront office of Inspector Dan McKay Harbor police That's a funny deal Johnny. I can't figure Captain Brawley has climbed up tight won't answer any more questions Doesn't want a lawyer won't even talk funny deal not when you consider the fact that he's innocent what? What do you say? No, I argued the opposite. I was wrong. What is it Johnny? Just plain stubbornness No, but that's what it is with Captain Brawley. Maybe that's the tip off his stubborn bullheadedness the human elements You mentioned how you're figuring it if Brawley were in a money jam He'd never scheme and connive at planning a thing like that of sinking his own ship He's too stubborn and besides he wasn't in a jam. I'm sure of it Well, no, wait a minute. He had a hundred thousand dollar mortgage to meet I finagle some information out of the bank the Brawley shipping company has a free balance of nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars And cash assets look here Johnny. You look I started out with a motive and I built a pretty strong case on it Even you agreed Everything pointed toward Captain Brawley. Sure because somebody was helping things point toward him. What do you mean? It wasn't just the ship itself that was insured. I'm still lost Johnny. Keep talking. All right. Look That cargo of grain was also insured by the owner with another company not mine and for top market value full price Yeah, well keep talking. All right The Tokyo grain market broke just four days before the Molly K was due to sale the first time The shipper stood to lose nearly half his investment if the grain reached Yokohama at that time Well, it didn't reach there. It's lying out there on the bottom of the Pacific Net result instead of taking a loss because of price the shipper gets full price from the insurance company. It ends up Dan Yeah, it sure does The shipper I think Captain Brawley suspected him too. That's what kept the old captain on the prod his ship gone under Suspicion for the sinking yet not wanting to hurt his daughter. He was caught right in the middle But keep on holding him to make it look like we still think he's the guilty party Well, it's that girl of his I feel sorry for Ellen. She's the one caught in the middle I know and it's gonna be rough on her when she finds out and Gauge to a killer who's been using her to smash your own father great setup Well, I get up all up now. We'll pick up this Dean Sutton and bring him in But you know something it'll be awful hard to pin it on him need evidence something definite Look, why don't you let me have a go at him first? That's out of the question. Sure Of course if you should happen to find him before we do well, yeah, I might just do that Dan in fact I've kind of got a hunch. I will It was a hunch but it might be a good one I left Dan's office and walked east along the waterfront following the long curve of the Embarcadero with its miles of docks and wars The night had settled down over the bay in the city and with it a dark damp blanket of fog even heavier than the night before and Because of that and other reasons I felt cold and lonesome and alone. I turned off the Embarcadero and walked out pier 29 I Was about 30 yards from the Brawley warehouse when I was suddenly brought up short On the water below me tied to a wharf pounding was a light cabin cruiser rocking gently with a swell It had no business being there Peer 29 was a commercial birth. My hunch was right I moved quietly to the edge of the wharf and stood watching the little cruiser for several minutes There was no sign of life. No sound Finally, I climbed over the dark rail down the wharf ladder and stepped onto the deck Still no sound no movement I moved over to the companion way door leading down below decks and reached out my hand for the latch Then I stopped short caught suddenly by a sharp feeling of danger It wasn't a sense of being watched. It was deeper more subtle more vague I tried to shake it off reach again for the latch then the boat shifted slightly in the dim glow from the wharf light overhead Moved across the hatchway door Inches in front of my face. I saw the glint of bare copper wires All set to make contact if the door was open One more move and I'd have been blown sky-high That boat was booby trapped There was a light burning in the office of the Brawley shipping company I knocked on the door drew my gun then I stepped back and waited. I leveled the gun on the door Johnny are you alone Ellen? Yes, of course. Come on. Let's get inside. What is it Johnny? Have you seen Dean Sutton tonight? I tried to find him, but I couldn't my father's been arrested charged with murder. Yeah, I know honey I came here to go over the company records to see if I could find something that might help him anything Look look at this mess somebody's been here files dumped in the middle of the floor papers all over the place Yeah, it looks like they're planning to start a bonfire Say tell me something Ellen. Does Dean Sutton own a boat? Yes Light cabin cruiser named the Piper. Why it's tied up at the wharf. He's around here somewhere. Well, what of it? What do you mean? Your father didn't sink the Molly K Dean Sutton did it. He wasn't even on board. He didn't have to be He hired an explosive expert named Benny Wong to do the job He got your father to take Benny on a stuart. That's the man. They're accusing father of murder Dean is the one who did it using your father's gun. Why to collect the insurance on that cargo of grain. Oh Look, I know it's a rough deal honey, and I know how you feel But I guess your best bet is to chalk it up to experience at least your father's in the clear now Think I sensed it Johnny But something was wrong with Dean badly wrong.   I Kept stroking her hair breathing in the scent of her perfume perfume The same perfume that had hung in the air of the room where Benny Wong was killed The pieces shifted fell into place again. The puzzle was finally solved, but too late Because I could feel the muzzle of the gun she was pressing against my side easy now Johnny turn around slow and get your hands up That's the idea. I Stay that way I'm a dead shot Johnny You doubt it ask Benny Wong right under my nose right from the start How wrong can a guy be? He's wrong as you were Johnny. It had to be you There was no chance for Dean to steal your father's gun and then return it Not unless you were in on it with him. It was my idea Dean's too weak to plan a thing like that He has to be propped up and pushed and you are just the girl to do it. You ought to know. Yeah, I do now It's too bad. I Like the way you kiss Any chance of working something out Johnny? For you too honest, so that's it The next step is to get rid of Dean and you've already got the trap set not yet, but I'll think of something I'm clever Johnny Don't you think so? I Heard footsteps coming along the wharf Dean Sutton I had only seconds to think of something so I took a chance edge back against the wall inched over closer to the door That's far enough. Don't push your luck There's Dean coming now. He went after some gasoline We're going to build a nice warm fire and you're going to have a ringside seat Come on in Dean. We've got a visitor Dollar, what do you know? So you walk right into it just like a good chance paid off He walked between his blocked Ellen's line of fire and I jumped him I grabbed him around the neck I held him as a shield dragged him back out through the door out to the walk I was trying to get clear of the light before Ellen could blast me with that gun and I made it But Dean broke loose and came in between He slipped and snagged it up against the dock The railing broke split and show and we went over the side We struggled back up to the surface. Dean's hands were clenched on my throat and I couldn't break his grip Ellen started frowning for the warp above us not knowing who she'd hit and not kill him I took a deep breath and dragged Dean under the surface But his hands were still on my throat and I couldn't break loose and lungs were bursting my strength was going fast I brought up my knee He fell away from me. I was free free to fight my way back up to the surface. I Swam around in circles getting my breath watching for Dean, but he didn't come up He didn't come up for two days When I climbed up the ladder under the wharf Ellen was nowhere in sight I heard somebody running toward me Saw the flashing red light back at the land end of the pier and I knew why she'd left Dan McKay and his boys Over here Dan. Are you all right Johnny? Yeah, I'm all right. Do you see Ellen Broly? Well, some girl went up the wharf there toward that cruiser that boats got a booby trap on it. Come on, Dan What's she doing here? She was in on a tool Dean's on the water drowned. I look there She is climbing down off the war. Ellen stop. She's on the cruiser. No Bits booby trap They had it rigged for me and she No She didn't know about it That wasn't meant for me They were both pulling a double cross Dean set that trap for her End of expense account except hotel and plane fare back home total five hundred and forty seven dollars and sixty cents Well, it looks like the company pays off on this one Dave the ship owner was innocent, but you'll make it back I really feel sorry for captain Brawley He commanded his own quarter deck for 25 years strong and proud and unafraid He had a wife once named Molly Kay and a ship named Molly Kay and he had a daughter too And now the sea has taken all of them away from him left him cast up on the beach a broken old man better beaten Alone yours truly Johnny dollar Here's our star Bob Bailey to tell you about next week's story Thanks next week the case of a man who didn't exist except for one thing He suddenly showed up Join us won't you yours truly Johnny dollar yours truly Johnny dollar is transcribed in Hollywood Written by Les Crutchfield the entire production is under the direction of Jack Johnstone Heard in this week's cast were Virginia Greg Peter leads Barney Phillips Victor Perrin James McCallion and high ever back Be sure to join us on Monday night same time and station for another exciting story of yours truly Johnny dollar Roy Rowan speaking


On Monday, February 26th, Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College hosted their Better Together event for Black History Month. Students, faculty, and community members gathered on campus to celebrate diversity in the region. The event also featured music and literature celebrating Black history. We had a wonderful event. This is our inaugural event that we have partnered with West Logan Christian Academy to be able to put this on. They had some very talented kids who who stood up and spoke, done songs, poetry, different things. Mr. Jimmerson done the I Have a Dream speech. It was very well receptive. Everyone was talking about how amazing it was as they were leaving the auditorium. All I could hear was just praise of what a great service that it was and how honoring it was for Black History Month. Find love in every connection at Appalachian Wireless. Even if you want to connect, with no credit check, no contracts, and most features are postpaid. Talking about forward pay. This month give $50 off select pre-paid devices. It's forward pay because we are you. We are Appalachian Wireless. Several awards were also given to those who exemplify what being a good human means. One of those recipients was Anitra Ellis, who also helped organize the event. It's an honor to receive the Good Human Award. The Good Human Award is something that we started at West Logan and when it was just a homeschool ministry to help keep kids motivated to do the right thing as far as kindness, respect, integrity. So we have a lot of good people in our community that do those things on a daily basis and so we just wanted to recognize them today. I thought it was an excellent event especially for the first year. A lot of different people came out from our community to support it and I look for it to grow even bigger and bigger each year. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Cullum.