Welcome to Dare to Dream. This is Debbie Dashinger and excited to be here with you yet again today, as always. This is the place to be for the number one transformation conversation. You can get Dare to Dream on so many outlets, I just ask you to be sure to leave a five star review and tell us your thoughts because what you do is you drive other people who are needing this level of conversation in their life to the show. You can subscribe and it will come right in your inbox every time one of the show launches. Also you can subscribe to my newsletter, DebbieDashinger.com, as well the show is on YouTube, Deb on the radio, BBS radio, Spreaker, iTunes, Tune in, Stitcher, Libsyn, Learn Out Loud, yada yada, you get it. You could just Google Dare to Dream with Debbie Dashinger and find us in so many different locations, countries and states, states of mind as well. So today, a little bit later, I'm going to be featuring Rachel Kahn and I'm so excited to have her here. Super duper treat for you guys, let me tell you. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll talk a little bit about what's up today. What's up today? So Rachel Kahn is a poet, performer, ceremonialist and an initiated sova to co-init priestess training program. She's like, you got the Hebrew right girl. Her poetry has been featured on Morning Becomes Eclectic on NPR and as the weather on the podcast Phenom, Welcome to Night Vale. She was awarded the 2017 Outstanding Instructor of the Year at UCLA Extension Writers Program. And I want to thank a couple of people for this show because without them this wouldn't be a show. First of all, Dr. Dane here in Access Consciousness and as well, Thinkific, the popular software platform. I just want to say I don't have anyone sponsor this show whose product or services I do not use. It's really important. This is not just them vetting me, by the way, I also vet them. 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Because that's the thing today. So go to drdanehere.com, it's h-e-e-r.com or accessconsciousness.com. They have courses all around the world and products from every point from free all the way up and you can really change your life quickly. I've been doing it for many years. I couldn't speak more highly about it. So thinkificthnk.cc slash deb and Dr. Dane here, which is Dr. D-a-i-n-h-e-e-r.com or accessconsciousness.com. You'll be happy you did. Debbie Dashinger, I'm a media visibility strategist out in the world and I help you to create a fierce and unique presence through coaching, to write your book, taking your book to a guaranteed international bestseller and getting you booked and scheduled on media interviews. I'm a certified coach and I help my clients stop living in the shadows so they stand out and fulfill their purpose. I offer a visibility strategy session as an introduction to show you all the places and spaces you're missing right now that you could be shining your light and you don't know. Super easy. So you can sign up. Get a day to dream radio at gmail.com for your visibility strategy session. So the today, you know, I've been going a lot to GAPE. I found out they moved right near me. They're out of Culver City and they're walking distance a 10, 15 minute walk from me. GAPE, Dr. Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, who's been on the show many times. And I just love, I love being there. It's like the most beautiful way to start a day in a morning meditation and then these beautiful services. So this was a lot of the conversation I just want to share because I was taking notes like crazy when Michael was speaking and it just really resonated with me and I wanted to share it with you. And here's the message holding on, letting go. So what is beyond holding on coming out of your comfort zone? Everything. Everything is there. So you are invited to the unprecedented. Are you available? Are you available for more love, peace, joy, prosperity? Here's the truth. God has not failed you yet. Or what I've been calling God, God as goodness has not failed you yet. So what is after holding on? It is the beyond which is everything. Life is a celebration. It is happening all around you, the children, the birds, the photos, the air.  And if you can let go, the darkness will fade. So what I'm asking you to do is to surrender. Surrender and let go of the tip of the iceberg. Go within and begin to see there is so much more than you could ever imagine. And look at what you have the evidence of more. Give thanks. Give thanks. Open the way for better. Quit your complaining. You have evidence. There's more where that came from. There's more coming. Stop holding on. Let go. There's more. So Rachel Cann is here. She's performed her poetry with artists and leaders such as Dukah Hip Hop Orchestra, Mary Ann Williamson, Sage Francis, Saul Williams, and Rizelle. Riz Cann is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in numerous books. And she's performed her poetry at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, Agape, and the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. Her accolades include the James Kirkwood Fiction Awards, Writers' Digest Short Story Awards, for the Camera Film Festival, and Landlocked Film Festival, L.A. Weekly Awards, Backstage, West Garland Awards, Critic Picks, and both the Audio and Video Award for the International Slam Idol. You can find her at rachelkan.com. Rachel, welcome to Dear the Dream. It's so awesome to have you here. Hi, Debbie. I'm so glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. So just so the audience knows, I met you. I actually saw you as in the audience at this amazing event that you and I have both been at called the Greater Good Party at Mutual Friends House, and they have people come up and they do offerings of their gifts. And I remember my best friend got me there, Zuzia, and said, oh, you got to see this. Like, trust me, it'll blow your mind.  It blew my mind. And you got up and did your poetry, and I don't even want to say much because people will get to experience it. We are going to offer them some of your poetry because how could we not? So I want to start by just asking you to share with the people who are watching this and listening to this, what's the work that you do out in the world? What are the gifts you come bearing that you share with us? It's such a good question. I have to say, too, that I was so inspired by what you just shared from Michael Beckwith from The Rev at Agape about holding on and letting go, and I have a perfect poem to share for you when the time comes, but this is one of my favorite topics, because holding on is a fist.  If you're holding on, you can't. So I just was so excited by what you said. So my work in the world, I do, as you can tell from when I listen to my bio, it just makes me think, wow, thank God, I'm still alive. I've been around a while. There's not so many things, you know, just like what I mostly think when I hear like, I'm still alive. Thank God. God, God is goodness. I love that. My work in the world, I'm mostly known as a performance poet. But as you mentioned, I do ceremonial work. I also lead dance experiences. I lead meditations and I lead, they're Shabbat services, but they're very open. That's Sabbath for people who don't know that word. Therefore, everything I do is inclusive and for all people, except sometimes I do women-only event, which is anyone female identifying for when we need a safe space sometimes. But really, I really like to keep things very, very inclusive. To me, that's the revolution. So in all these different places, whether I'm on stage doing a poem or I'm working in a ritual setting or I'm doing a Zumba class I'm teaching or I'm leading a meditation or I'm leading Shabbat or I'm doing one-on-one healing work, which is another thing I do. It's always the same thing. My work is to call people to their authenticity, remove blocks, clean and clear trauma. If I can, help people clean and clear their trauma, you know, because I'm really just there to help. So stepping into authenticity and removing the things that block us from being ourselves. Tell me about, I have a couple of questions based on that, Shabbat, the inclusive Shabbat. Where is that? What does that look like? Thank you for asking. So different things, but one of the main temples that I'm working with that is like really my family. It's called Mishkantafilo. It's in Venice, California. So it's like a very old conservative temple right on Main Street, just like a little bit east of Rose for people who know what I'm talking about, but basically right where Santa Monica and Venice meet. And so once a month right now with my community there, Rabbi Gabriel Botnick, who's the Rabbi of Mishkant, his amazing wife, Rose, who's about to get ordained, and my beloved co-creators Rabbi Aviva Funky and her husband Yosef Funky and Brock Pollock, the musician, who created a Shabbat service called Naor, which means bring the light now. And what we're trying to do is create authentic spiritual experiences. I grew up with no religion. My parents are very atheist, intellectual, in a very positive way. They did not introduce dogma into my life on any level. It was very important to them that the intellect was honored. I'm saying past tense, they're alive and kicking and wonderful. I'm just talking about that. My childhood, for my mother, it was very much about not exposing her daughters or her son to patriarchal models. She had no interest in putting us in a religious setting where women were kept separate, you know, anything like that. And, you know, I'm hard pressed to find a religion that's not patriarchal, to be honest. I struggle with this stuff in Judaism all the time and it's everywhere. It's not just Judaism. God knows. It's Christianity. It's everywhere. You think you can get away from it. Oh, and especially in the West, we kind of sometimes can have this little bubble we're in of our, you know, kind of, oh, this is this beautiful practice, this exotic practice from elsewhere, whatever we might be grabbing.  So, just to kind of qualify, like, this is something I wrestle with still with my Judaism, but Naor is once a month. It is an evening and morning service. It's very rare that they're on the same weekend. But this week, which I think this, I don't know when this gets posted, but this Friday, which is January 11th, when, I don't know, and this tomorrow will be our Naor. It's once a month. And then Saturday morning will be the morning service. But basically, we're sitting in a circle, the lights are low, we're chanting and praying, and we're trying to create an authentic experience that you can actually feel, not be like, what's going on? What is everybody saying? Why are they standing up and sitting down now? How am I supposed to be acting? That is not spiritual. It's super stressful. It's like, and it reflects my experience in so many different religious settings. Again, not, it's, you know. But we're just trying to be like, what can we do to bring authenticity and a truly spiritual experience to something that can get stuck in a ritual? Ritual is such this loaded powerful thing because it can become rote and, you know, a pattern that's like dug in and it's like, how do we come awake in that moment and like have, again, I want to have authentic experiences. Let me ask you, so because this is evergreen, it's not just now. It's going to be out there forevermore. Amen. And our women, uh, what, what is the website for people who might be interested? I mean, I'm interested. So what, what is that? Yeah, please come. Come. So it's realizedparadise.com is an easy way to get to all things, Rachel. So the note or info is all there. And if you forget that, you can also just go to my name, Rachel Pan, R-A-C-H-E-L-K-A N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-C dot com. Great. Yeah. And tell me about, I just want to get these pieces so I have the full, like, uh, full part. Yeah, there's so, I know, it's, there's so many. Right? But it's cool.  I get it. Me too. Um, so the dance part. What, I mean, that, I really can feel that's beyond Zumba. I almost have a feel it's a static dance or something. What, what is that for you? Well, okay. So the super nutshell version is dance was my first language. I started dancing at three, like training and, um, I also had very compromised hearing. I was almost completely deaf from a series of ear infections until I was five and a minor surgery corrected it. So I really do feel that dance was my first language, you know, I grew up in a small town with a very small kind of dance world. There was no, like, modern dance class or contemporary dance. I didn't, like, that wasn't a thing. I was aware of when I was young really, I knew it was like, I knew about Martha Graham and Agnes DeMille and like that there was stuff like that, but there was no classes around. It was very like ballet, jazz, tap, recital studio.  I just wrote a piece about it. Um, I'll share that stuff too. I'm writing this, these new little columns called inspirations. They're just little teeny short bursts of inspiration. They're super, again, just contact me if you're wondering where they are. Maybe if you Google inspirational pop up, but anyone can reach out to me, but I just wrote about this. So I was a very serious Russian ballet student. And I was like 17 and I met the, the peak of my career, you know, my dance journey of Russian ballet.  This was not sugar plum fairy, but you know, and so I saw a video. I'm still in high school, you know, I, and I saw a video after the performance of, I was like watching a scene from wall to the flowers and I was really like in the zone. I mean, I'm, I'm dancing at my best. I'm like, it's great. I'm anorexic. I'm sick. I'm like all green. What could be better? You know what I mean? It's just really prime. So, but I mean, really, I'm dancing my best and I look at myself. I'm watching the video of normal, well, normally abnormal 17 year old insecure, strange, awkward, all the things. And I'm watching the video and like some moment of clarity clicked in where I could separate from all my egoic BS and whatever. And like really clinically kind of watch this video. And I was like, okay, this is, this is obviously outside guidance because I was not smart enough, you know, but I was watching the video and like, okay, there you are dancing at your very best. Like your peak Russian ballet best. I looked like a goofball. Like I'm just kind of a goofy person. I mean, just my face, my body, but like certain people have, you get it, goofiness is part of their, you know, whole, I also have deeply serious and all the things, but goofy's in there. I just could not really see a place for that for all of me in Russian ballet. I could not be my full self. I couldn't be in the zone in the flow in my peak and it be okay. I could see it. It was goofy looking. And I was like, you know what? I'm not going to put my, I could, I was like, I can, this is me in five years, probably on coke, still anorexic, like trying to be, do anything to stay skinny, still anorexic in a wheelchair, maybe by 35 or 40, if I keep doing this to my body. For what? Like maybe I could get myself in a cord of ballet where they'd always be like, stop sticking out, stop being so you. And I was like, you know what? I want a bagel. And that was it. Like whole fat. Light. All of it. Maybe some salmon. I don't know. Let's be crazy. This is Pearl by the way, people's tears. Hi Pearl. So thank God, you know, I'm stainless all that clarity, but I was starting to see that. And thank God, also a place I was studying in New York in the summers was a Glefsky Ballet and they were connected to a program called American Theater Dance Workshop that was working on kind of keeping great Broadway choreography alive by actually making people knew it, not just that it was recorded somewhere and teaching people. This is the original Jerome Robbins dance from West Side Story. This is the original Oklahoma, you know, Agnes DeMille, many a new day, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so they kind of, I think, could see my inner goofball was not going to have the best run of it in ballet.  Who knows how kind and gentle they were being like it was, they gently. So anyway, I got into musical, it changed my life. I got into musical theater, I began dancing very seriously. I became very seriously involved with theater. And as that started to happen, just like we kind of talked about the patriarchy can be so exhausting. And a lot of musicals just, I wasn't interested, but like I started to find really juicy plays that were not music related. Plus I was terrified of singing, which might come up later. So I could dance to be the dance core and even something to be like, let's put her in the tenor section or maybe you could like mouth it like it was bad, you know. So then I started doing just regular plays. They called straight plays, but I hate that term, just not a musical, a play without music. Then I got really into that. Then about ten years go by and then I'm getting kind of fat. It's time to start exercising. I have an ex, I stopped dancing and never exercised. So I'm using the term fat, but I wasn't done, who cares what size, I was out of shape. I wasn't using my body at all. I just stopped. When I stopped dancing, I stopped worrying about it. And it caught up to me. So I started working out. I just went to the local YMCA and started taking classes and I just worked out every day and it was, that's when I started really understanding energy and trauma and how we can hold on to things that might not add up according to science and math because I was working out so hard every single day, changed my diet. It took a year before the weight started to come off. A year. Like people, yeah, even my friends would be like, kind of feel bad because they knew how hard I was working and they would see there was no change. Maybe you get tested, there was nothing wrong with me. I think it's just, we protect ourselves in different ways. And we can use soul packing peanuts and so it just took a long time before things released. And so finally things started to rearrange in my body, metabolically. And one of my teachers, again, I was so blessed to be encouraged by somebody. She was like, you need to be teaching fitness. And I was like, I am not a fitness person. What are you talking about? And she was like, I need you to teach fitness. I need for you to do it. I want you to be my sub when I can't teach. I want you to teach. She just, her name is Ashley Mary, and she just was a very, I'm so blessed to have had people in my life encouraged me to do things I could not see for myself. Think if I had held on to ballet, I'd be dead.  But I didn't even know who I would be. It was scary. I let go. My hand was open. All these things could pour. I never knew I could do. I never thought about talking on stage. Oh, God. So let me go there, because this is amazing. And what I love about this story is it's what I teach from stage, it's what I teach clients. It is that your mess is ultimately your message, your wound becomes your gift to the world, right? That click you were talking about is where the light goes on and you receive a wisdom for yourself that changes your life, and then you can disseminate that out to the world for the others who need to hear it and see it through your filter. And I also, by the way, really resonate because my background, I was an actress and a singer. I'm from New York. I did all that stuff as well. Not the Russian ballet. Thank God. Thank God. They wasn't at me either, right? Debbie Daschinger, dare to dream, definitely different. So I would have stood out two and one in my bagel. I want to talk about. So here you get led into this world of performance and writing and your accolades around writing are very impressive. Thank you. I want to know because of what ends up coming out of you that I find to be magnificent. What's your process in writing? Does something come to you and it has to be expressed? Is it something you have to sit down and do daily? Like how does that happen for you? Such a good question. Thank you for asking. So really quick as we enter into the story, I just have to give a shout out to one other person, which is, she's still one of my besties, her name's Amy Steinberg. And she's the one who even saw that I should be writing poetry. So in a super nutshell, because you're going to love this story, I was living in New York at an audition for Jesus Christ Superstar Ensemble. We met and fell in friend love instantly. She's an incredible rock star singer, like beyond. She's actually a musical director for a spiritual center down in San Diego now. She saw this in me and literally nagged me for a year to write poetry. I was like, I don't want to do spoken. I don't want to write. Why do I? Why? No, it doesn't appeal. She's like, no. She's like, you have a weird way with words, like the way you say things. So again, somebody else seeing something in me, I could not see. I didn't have a personal draw towards, she did it all. Though my practice has changed and morphed over the years, because at first when I finally after a year started, it was very much like tapping a vein. There was a lot of stuff that I had never said and it was not an easy flow, but it would flow. I could kind of just not have a structure or a practice around it. Something might pop in, not, you know, and then, you know, life happens. And through like a series of things that were painful and griefs and traumas for me, I felt very blocked. I couldn't write. I literally, I couldn't perform. I would have such bad performance anxiety and social anxiety. It was hard for me to even go to a show and then to do the show would be so hard. And I couldn't write anything. I wasn't being authentic. I literally felt painted into a corner so small that I couldn't even fit. Let alone write. So my practice has morphed and changed as my needs have morphed and changed. But I teach, like you mentioned, I teach writing. And so what I can share is the things that kind of always help. I do think it's good to have some sort of a practice to me. It sounds kind of paradoxical, but what I have found that is the most effective healing consistent is actually community, even though writing is such a solitary activity, I don't care if you make a writer's group with your friends or you join a workshop or it's online, it's in person, better in person because we're not around another other people enough. But it really, it's the accountability, believe it or not, when at the end of the day, when everything else falls away, and it doesn't matter, we're grown up, it doesn't matter if I get an A or an F, it doesn't matter if I actually do the assignments. I'm already done with college, but there's something about that circle of people or that one other person, and you said on Wednesday, we're going to get together and share poems. Again, whether it's a writing group, it's one friend, it's a workshop, it might be sort of a false deadline because no one's going to grade you, you're not going to get fired, nothing bad is going to happen. It's only soul, it's your integrity, it's your heart, and other things work, too. And different things work for different people at different times, but if I can say one thing, even when we are at our lowest points, all of us, and it's hard for us to love ourselves or even care about ourselves or come through for ourselves, sometimes, even if it's just the shame of bailing, that's all you can reach for in a moment. Not that shame should be a motivator, but sometimes you're so low, all you can do is want to show up for the other people that you said you'd be there, and 10 weeks of that, you wrote 10 pieces, where you could have been sitting around feeling really not so great. That's awesome. Oh, my God. And you're getting the healing of getting to be with other humans. Yeah. Yeah, accountability is really aces for pulling people forward and making us produce, want to produce, getting the creative people. Especially when it's something you want, but we also have fear around because it means so much to us. Like, someone might want to write and also be terrified because... That's interesting. I've never heard it said like that, something you really want, but you have fear about. That is so interesting. It's all... Isn't it always so? Because when you care about something, it's a big deal.  And like, they will get it. And then someone desperate comes. But it's all they did was care. It's kind of heartbreaking, you know? It's like, so it's that same thing that level of care can make us so cautious that we become paralyzed. Well, in the time we have left, I want to make sure we at least get one of Rachel's poems in. I'm going to offer you guys here in the short break a free gift for you. If you would like information for yourself, your being, your book, your business, get the report called publicity, how to become the go to expert and be interviewed on media. It is my gift to you. Go to Debbie dashinger.com and you can receive that now in your inbox. And don't forget about thinkificthnk.cc slash deb. If you need to be on an online platform and start selling programs to make passive income. Ta-da, right? Give you the lifestyle you want. And Dr. Dane here next is consciousness for the level of energy healing. That you deserve. So if you're tuning in after we've started, this is Debbie dashinger, dare to dream podcast, video, radio. And I'm interviewing Rachel Cam, K-A-N-N, find her at Rachel K-A-N-N dot com. And yeah, I want to start here, Rachel, and I want to be really mindful of time because this is so important that people, I feel like it's such a gift. So if you would choose a poem to share with us, I would be delighted. As soon as you started talking, really, I was thinking about Reverend Michael's speaking at Agape. I knew this was the poem I had to do. So I hope, I hope I will remember it because I hadn't practiced it. But it's like, you've got to trust this when it comes through. So this is the one that I feel like sharing with you. OK. Hey, you.  I see you. Your incendiary gelatinous mess of yes, this glows right through you. Throbbing in fabulous thoracic, Iambic pentameter. You're perfect. It's simply resistance that precipitates this inner turbulence. Loosen your grip on what is and let in the quantum eternal existence. Let the expired empire tumble. Let the old obsolete edifice crumble. Let the facade fall because it's all coming down anyway.  Let the pain come when it does. And when that primal yell wells up inside you. Let loose. Crack your sternum wishbone open. Set that hungry soul of yours free. See the earthling thing. That's just the dance we're currently dancing. And even when you can get that intellectually, it's the owning it in our wishbone souls part that gets us all edgy. We came to move forward through the wind as it whistles past us. We came to feel the sandpaper tongues of kittens on our wrists. We came to kiss. We came to listen to Otis Redding. We came for the forgetting and the remembering and the forgetting and the remembering and the forgetting and the remembering. We came to get down. The tree drops its pomegranate and it slams to the earth splits open. Holy abundance of seeds. Each seed brimming with tree. Each tree teeming with pomegranate. Each pomegranate infinite potential. Life spiraling milky way in all of its infinite wisdom. Knowledge falling like wonder, glory, thunderbolts spilling with the filling of destiny like rain. And round we go again. That feels like being in magic. Thank you. Thank you so much. How do you memorize those? I've thought that when I've heard you longer ones and I've sat back and went, all right, I've done monologues. I've done whole shows. But this woman is like poems coming out of her. How do you memorize those? It's like my most popular question. And the answer is it's hard. It's hard work. The thing is that people often, like, what's a trick? Can you teach me a trick? And it's like, no. It's a muscle, isn't it? Down we put a dress and we plug it in. Yeah, it's the work. It's the actual hard work that forms the grooves in your brain so you can remember it. However, I want to share something I just read this morning in a New York Times article that just came out, I think today, which is that drawing things, they now have like this scientific proof, like this new study, that drawing things helps you remember them no matter what, no matter who you are, no matter what kind of thinker you are. And there's this, you can read the article, again, if someone's really curious and they can't email me, I'll send it to you. But there's this technique. I don't personally use it, but I'll share this since you asked and for your readers, I mean, viewers and listeners, that this idea, you might know this from acting. I just learned it recently and it was in the article too that if you, in your mind, go from place to place inside the piece, you will remember it. So like if I was working on memorizing that poem, I just did. And I said, okay, I'm going to do this in my childhood home because that's a space I know inside and out. So in my mind, in the first part of the poem, say the first 10 lines, I'm in the kitchen and then I walked to my old bedroom. And then somebody had just told me about this technique and they were talking about it in the article about drawing, that it's very true because you're just incorporating all the different parts of your brain. And when you add a spatial element, I guess, like drawing and visualizing things in space, that it locks things in your memory. So there's a tip for your peeps. All I do is just like, I read it over and over. I say it over and over. When I'm walking pearl, the poodle you guys saw before, I do the poem over and over. And so it's another way to keep yourself honest.  I'm going to be like, this isn't, it's a good kind of yes monitor on yourself. There's something, there's a quote from your book called A Prayer on behalf of the Broken Heart. And the quote is, your very being is a map of eternity. What do you mean by that? How is our being a map of eternity? Thank you so much for asking me about this. No one has ever asked me about that. That is Torah, which is, you know, what a lot of people call the Old Testament. We don't think of it as the old version and there's a new book. We just call it the Torah, same book. So one of, I'm very interested in, I'm sure you'll be shocked to know the mystical elements of things. Right? So many people who are listening and watching have probably heard of the idea of the tree of life. And so without going into a whole thing about it, super, super nutshell, the tree of life is energy centers called sfirot. It's a very reductive and not perfectly correct to say this, but it's somewhat comparable to chakras, just so I know a lot of people are more familiar, so I know what I'm talking about. But so they, instead of going just in a straight line, they'll be like one here and then two and then one. It's a whole thing. Again, if people are interested, contact me. But the tree of life and these energy centers are a map of the universe and the map of one human. So when I'm saying your very being is a map, I'm literally giving over the teachings of some of my ancient rabbis, my ancient teachers. This specific teaching of the tree of life, being a map of the human, comes from a teacher named, the Arizol is one of the names, he's known as his name is Rabbi Isaac Luria. So like a lot of people are familiar with Zohar as like the mystical part of Kabbalah. I have them in my house. So that is one kind of Kabbalah. And the word Kabbalah just means not just. And again, I'm kind of reducing, but to receive, receiving of wisdom. Again, you got to open your hands. It's all related to this. It's like receiving. So you had the Zohar, but then after the Zohar, there's other strains of Kabbalah. So Rabbi Isaac Luria, who's also known as the Arizol, came after the Zohar and fought in Israel. He was teaching. And so that I'm so happy to, you know, credit him right now. That's where that, that's what that literally is. He's saying the human body is a tree of life. The tree of life is the universe. So that it's basically holographic. Nice. Thank you. That's wonderful. Thank you. I've never thought to put all that together. Who would only some not like me. That's the thing. What I try to do a lot with my writing is that there's something like that, that you could be an atheist. You could hate religion. You could hate God. You could have no framework. And that line is still meaningful. You don't have to know anything. But perhaps if you're somebody who might be familiar with that stuff, it might ring your bell.  So I'm always working in my writing on things operating on different levels. Because again, it's just like the spiritual services. I never want to do something that leaves people out of the conversation. Bring them in. How beautiful. I could say they're, you know, you are the etch time, you are Sefirot of the universe and Flatline. You know what I mean? So I'm saying it in a way that I'm often, I'm interested in code. I'm interested in code switching. I'm interested in allusion and illusion. Allusion with an A and illusion with an I. I'm interested in how my most important thing in life, like we were saying, I need to connect with other people. So words are one of the bridges we use. So I'm interested in how to do that and be true to my unique path, mystically and spiritually, religiously, et cetera, and still be completely inclusive. I know it's possible. Without going general and vague, because then you just have elevator music. This is another thing. Like it's very paradoxical. People can feel like, oh, I want to write something or create something that's very universal so that everyone can relate to it. And they end up doing something general. It's paradoxical that the specific becomes the universal.  So let's make it a little boy. It's totally different for me.  And I can totally relate and understand. But when we're creating things ourselves, we have this feeling like we have to make sure. And but what you do then is you just create something general that is bland. And no one actually is super moved by it. They're just not offended either. I was like, that's why John Irving is one of my favorite authors.  They're, for me, completely real and unique. I find him fascinating. I don't know what it's like to live in his head. It's like to be one of his fans and readers. And I love stuff like that that pulls you in because the specific creates a world.  I can't really connect. But as soon as you get really zoomed in on a lot of details, it becomes so rich and palatable in a world that you can step into too. So I love that. And and by the way, that also makes me think that's us too. Right. The more with with the teaching of what you do around authenticity and being different and embracing that and all of that and making that a celebration is really the more specific you are about this is who I am. Like fully embodied, you know, no apologies. Yeah. I am my hashtag. I'm on I don't know if you guys know what Marco Polo is, but I had it's so fun. Marco Polo is this app and it's videos and you can create a group. It's totally private. Nobody can see it, but whomever is in the group. And I've got two other beautiful women and myself. And we have the very deeply spiritual, but also, you know, growing and changing. And we've been doing these videos like every day we get on and leave each other videos. And they're everything from hilarious to, you know, sometimes there's tears to like really pulling back the curtain to something we found out or working on. But it's a lot of support. And I said, this is the year of hashtags. So this is the year of hashtag me first. I have been so good as an empath, as a clear sentient, as someone who really understands others needs and the sensitivity of the world to really be there for people. And what that has done is, you know, naturally it's lovely to be a giver, but it's also caused me to show up in some situations considering somebody else before my own needs, which means that I've gotten sacrificed. I've chosen to self-sacrifice at the level. And that's not a choice anymore that I'm willing to step into. So this is my hashtag of love this year and also me first. I can't have the love without the me first. And so it's really about what do I want? What do I need? What is this definitely different being? Want to experience and do and be and put out in the world and who do I want to be with them? What does that look like? And I am like 100% in that journey, which is about discovering and sometimes being called out when I go off course. But yeah, I'm just thinking about everything you said about the soul and that even in the context of being authentic, how important that is to embody all of that. You're saying such powerful things that I also am an empath and I'm also a clear sentient. So I totally get what you're saying. And sometimes when you've been so thinking about other people, you have to figure out what it is you even want or like. Like you said, what do I want to do? What do I like? What is my preference?  You two, you know, and so it's like getting back in touch with yourself. But the thing is, what's so fascinating about it is that and we all know this as soon as I say it, you'll be like, I know because when we are around people who are not being authentic, we know it, but we don't know why because that's our private reason. It's very unnerving. So it's like we're like saying, oh, I want to be myself, but I don't want to make other people uncomfortable. But guess what? Not being yourself is making them more uncomfortable and distrustful. Because I know when I'm around someone who's not being authentic, my heart is open because I'm like, there's probably a very sensitive wounded reason for this that is not dark and nefarious or trying to trick me or do something. But it might be that. I just don't know. I can't, we know it. It's like, you can't quite tell why someone's not being theirself with you. And so you're like, it's hard to trust and know. So it's actually, it's so exhausting to try to be someone you're not. It's like, or just kind of do all that. And when we're little, when we're children, it can feel and be sometimes a matter of life or death. But now we're grownups. If somebody can't accept who we are, it's going to be okay. It might be painful. It doesn't mean going around being selfish and rude and stomping on it. This is nothing to do with it because you know what? That's not your authentic self. Your authentic self doesn't want to go stomp all over people and hurt people. So when you say me first, me first is not me first. You second. It's all of us me first. Is that, is it's without me? There is no right. I know you get, I'm like telling you, but I know you. Also to your point, you mentioned earlier that you used to have social anxiety and. You used to, I still have it all the time. Me too, Rachel, by the way. I don't have, I don't have the social anxiety anymore. But even though I know I'm built to be on stage, I know it. I do it. It's part of who I am. It's part of what my soul came here to do. I still have mischievous come up. It's like, whatever. But that said, I am fascinated by this conversation because it's making me think that for me, when I used to, and God, it was big. I used to have so much social anxiety. It was because I didn't know how to show up authentically. I didn't know how to pull back the curtain and step up and be, just fully be, right? I was so busy navigating and figuring out what do you want? What am I coming off? How do I sound like a camera being outside of myself? And that made me very anxious to be watching myself engaging with other people while judging myself and trying to monitor and beat her and change myself. It's crazy to talk about, but that's the way I was for so long. I mean, I feel very, I understand very well, and I don't feel like I'm fully past it. Like, this is the thing, thank God, that I found the shamanic path. Because, and please hear me not call myself a shaman. I don't call myself a shaman. But I am a person who walks the shamanic path. That's my learning path.  That's me, you know, not this is, but this is me. So God, I hope one day I never have social anxiety again. But it's definitely not like I was saying, like, at that point, I literally like couldn't, I could have social anxiety in a room by myself. It wasn't even just anxiety. Like I couldn't stand being around myself. I was literally, I couldn't breathe, you know. But I still have, I still feel awkward all the time. Like, you know, I just sometimes feel just like, like very awkward in this human body and just kind of navigating in the flesh suit. And I feel very large. I don't mean like I'm heavy or skinny. It's nothing like that. I just kind of feel big and like a bowl in a china shop a lot.  But you, that doesn't mean you can't know what everyone's triggers are. You can't go silent. Yeah. Like I said, outrageous and hurtful and confrontational. God forbid, it's nothing like that. 100%. But at the same time, you can't just be silent because someone else will be offended that you're not talking anyway. Yes. So you won't be yourself. And that's a big part of the me first that I started last year, which, you know, like I attract for me the most amazing clients for me is just, like I adore these people. And I had a client last year can honestly say did not adore, like really had some problems and was putting stuff in my space that was, you know, patient, patient, patient, patient. And I got to the place was like, I am either going to hurt myself trying to constantly accommodate this incredibly neurotic human, or I'm going to speak my peace. And I opted to speak my peace knowing full well, I had to detach from the outcome. This person can leave me as a client. Like bless you. So many things she could speak about me in a space in which people know very untoward and turn people off to me, you know, be bad press. There was so many things that could have gone down. But I was like that holding on. And I had to do this and say, here's the truth. Yeah. Here is the truth. You need to understand what it is to be me right now receiving you and the impact it's having. And I got to tell you took a couple of weeks for this person to call back with apologies for being so difficult. And I've done it in my personal life too, with people like, you know, I'm a lover. I'm a total lover. I'm a total, you know, life path number two, collaboration, cooperation, partnership. That's me. But people sometimes like, I got to be real and say what's here because hurting myself is no longer an option. Not to accommodate something in your space. You don't even probably know what you're doing. Right. So yeah, that's part of me. First two is like me having a voice, me having a presence, me having an energy, me knowing that I get to have this space and more if I want it, you know, everything, it's all in everything. So that's going to leave me. We have to wind up. And I can talk for 10 hours. It's going to be the best. The Rachel. And they're working so quick about that. Yes. Back with that authenticity thing. I have no, I've been working on this and myself. How many, how many decades can I be working on this stuff? Guess what forever? Because you peel back layer. There's more work to do. Where's more work? It's not like, oh, good. I figured it out. Now I don't, I'm just floating on a cloud happy. No, you just go, oh good. You're on the work path. Keep digging because you never get to the bottom. So with this thing about when somebody's doing something and it's not working for you and do you tell them or do you hurt yourself? What I have found too lately, I just can't do that anymore because when I am not again authentic in that way, I don't want to have a confrontation, whatever it is, I start shutting down actually. And so then I am acting weird. I, they don't know why because I haven't been clear. So now I'm being passive aggressive for lack of a better term, but I'm hurt. So a shield goes up where I may have been very open in the moment before. They don't know they hurt me. And so then I go, great, whatever, because that's my way of taking care. And I can't even that. It's just like, I don't have time to do that to myself. But also now we've already started building that web of confusion me and this person. And now it's like, I can't do it anymore. That exactly that. And I just for an interesting point of view to conclude this, I have the few times I've needed to do that. It's not often, but the few times it's been really essential. I've had people come back to me and say, thank you.  So I never knew what was going on. I've had people leave me over this and I never understood. Thank you for loving me and trusting us enough to share. And I just want to say this too. It's not just about this is going on. I need to say this. It's also about the way I say it and the way we say it to each other. There has to be a level of care and love that comes first that has precedence that knows that the synergy that gets created when I go there, I'm willing to go to this really big place, this vulnerable place with another that I am inviting them in to also receive and share as well. So it's just this incredible healing space. Imagine if we could all communicate at that level. So Rachel, what is your daily ritual or practice? What is your go to that keeps you? I do meditate every single day. Even if it's only a few minutes, I still really need to do that. Cool. And this is, oh sorry, there's more. Even if everything else falls away, even if it's just 60 seconds sometimes because I can't even stand to be in my head very long. And I tell them, I'm too busy. I don't know that, you know, all the stuff we tell ourselves. Yeah. This is Dare to Dream. What are your next Dare to Dream? My dream for this year is that I will be truly seen and known on a level that is launched so that concerns about money, stability, like basic needs are not prohibitive to me feeling okay or being creatively abundant and getting my art out to the world.   So I'm going to do something a little interesting. I'm going to close us out and then I'm going to have Rachel close us out with a poem because I got to hear another one. Yeah. So here's how I'm going to close this out. I'm going to close us out also with a quote from an excerpt of The Ballad of Odd Lily. Please. Rachel can. This is so perfect, right? There are no accidents. We are gathered here today as the village of Oddballs, the tribe of glorious monsters. We are the fat-sold inhabitants of this fabulous planet. We do not fit the constraints of the tiny-minded. There is no more time for self-diminishment to alleviate the discomfort of others. We sing full-throated and laugh loudly. We are not threatened by human moonbeams shining their respective light. In fact, we'd ignite it for them. We delight in it. We thrive in it. Me, personally, this oddball, I'd rather be in gathering. This just might be go-time. Dearly beloved, we are reunited and it feels so good. And who knew our conversation like, hallelujah, that is so perfect, right? Hallelujah. I mean, that was so good, Debbie.  I loved hearing you say that so much. I'm so grateful to you for bringing my poems to me. I don't think about that poem. I didn't think about my poems.  I get to hear my words in your beautiful presentation. Any time, sister. Any time. I mean that. That was a joy to say those words, meaningful. And in the next weeks on Dare to Dream, I am featuring Anna Raimondi. Do you know her? My God, she's a medium from beyond. She's been out in People Magazine and all sorts of stuff. You got to check her out. And Vicki Gay, these are amazing, powerful women and voices. You want to tune in to hear this number one transformation conversation in the coming weeks on Dare to Dream with Debbie Dashinger. Just remember, the inspirational YouTube video is youtube.com slash debon the radio. And get your free publicity report, how to become the go-to expert. Be interviewed on media now. Go to debbydashinger.com. And finally, the online platform to sell your programs. Make passive income, thnk.cc slash deb. Share this radio show, video show, this link with your friends. And thanks for joining on Dare to Dream and Rachel, my darling. Would you please take us out with one of your poems? It will be my great honor. And because you mentioned it, I'm going to do the love letter to your branches and roots, the tree poem. It's a love letter. Know this. You are wonderful wild. Do not deny it. Contort a Kimbo. Reach your glorious limbs skyward. No more mourning your exclusion from the orchard. You were never meant to be regimented. Thank heaven. The predatory parasites who hijacked your canopy, clawing toward your inner sugar, have all been evicted. They could never truly penetrate. Never claw to the center of you. They tried to prune your shine. You bloomed through it. Their attempts to graft you proved fruitless. They carved their tags into your trunk, underestimated your fortitude. How could they predict you'd claim your scars and splendor?  You are steadfast and untameable. Your branches and leaves unfurl face up, receiving the radiant waves and outrageous abundance. Today it begins. Awaken under cover of cold snap. Your glow is a holy permission slip. Your very being is a map of eternity. You are steadfast and untameable. Know this. To dance, you must let the wind whip your branches. To sing, permit the breeze to whistle through you. You are inviolable, fairly spilling with potential. Come to blossom. Come to fruit. Poetry might drop. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. For sharing all of who you are with us and what a journey this interview has been. I look forward to when I see you next and hopefully it will be beyond the greater good party, dear Rachel. I'm just so taken with you and I'm so glad you're not a Russian ballet star today. And gift us with this depth and wisdom and beauty that you share. So thank you so much. Thank you so, so much too. I'm so receiving you and so grateful for your message and your light. And I truly am just reflecting you to yourself. So if you're taken with me, you're taken with you. You too. You well, sister. You too.


Finally all done and dusty must be glad to be a breath of city player. Yeah, it's been a while getting over the line obviously About 10 days ago I found out I was gonna get a contract So it's good to finally sign the contract and hopefully I can get in the squad as soon as possible Is it helped that you've been on trial he kind of know the place already? I guess well Obviously the boys made me settling fairly quickly to be honest You know everyone Curtis Ellis like the younger boys and then you got reason people out like have you settle settling So yeah, it's been good. I would say I've been here for three weeks now. So know the place and I'm enjoying it. And will it be nice not to be known as a trialist anymore? Yeah, obviously everyone's been saying a child, but I think they worked out quick enough Who was and also I'm on Twitter. So I gave a bit of an indication stuff. So yeah, but hopefully See my name on that board And you certainly gave the fans obviously when you're down as trialist when you're playing in the front But you gave fans an idea of you are obviously scoring in the Sunland game been involved in the other friendlies What was that like certainly the home games at least? Yeah, obviously, um, it's my first time playing first team football really at a good level So I'm great for the gaffer to give me a chance against Sunderland and Newcastle, and I'll see echo so And I'll see that celebration that I did at Sunderland But it was just like the great feeling obviously infinite of the cup and getting my first senior goal Enjoyed it and obviously say you're on Twitter. You'll have seen the fans reaction They've probably heard the fans reactions in the in the stadium that must be positive It seems to be in a lot of encouragement behind you in the in the last few weeks that you've been here Yeah, I see them. I feel like I can just be myself and I like So any glimpses that glimpses that I've showed what I can do, but I know I've got more to give and I know I've got Gotta show the fans more and I know that you know, I believe in my ability and I can back myself And I'm confident and hopefully I can just go out there and show what I can do And obviously I say you've been here a few weeks on trial being here around the squad Obviously you'll have seen the likes of Daniel Piper some of a Mario Patrick in that sort of age group yourself Obviously, they're bursting into the first team now You will see them as a bit of an example to set in a bit of an inspiration. You can kind of follow them Yeah, definitely. I'm getting a flat whip down Piper's anyway So me and him will obviously get on well and a Mario speak to a Mario Obviously play for Kidderminster, which is not far from me. So he's going from the same roots really and Hopefully, obviously it was good for him to get a goal Firstly league debut and I'm proud of him. Obviously it's good good for him and hopefully can kick on And does that encourage you coming to Bradford? We can have a track record certainly last 12 18 months It's all promoting younger players into the first team That must give you belief that you can maybe follow, you know follow that lady Definitely, I think I don't think the gaffer would have saw me if he didn't see that I could I could push for the first team this season So that's given me confidence and Hopefully, obviously the likes of Amari and Dan Piper, Dan Devine, Ellie's been on the bench Obviously, I hope I can get in the squad as soon as possible and make an impact


This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. Aloha, and talk story with John Wahee. Welcome back. Welcome back, everybody. We've got a great show for you today. I have as my special guest the new Lieutenant Governor of the State of Hawaii, Dr. Josh Green. Thank you, Gov. Welcome back, Josh. It's always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you. What's it like? You've been Lieutenant Governor now for two months, roughly a little over. It's headed towards two months, and it's exciting. It's a series of moments with extraordinary people, seeing things from a new perspective, to have the executive branch perspective where I can bring a lot of additional people together is just a blessing. It's fabulous. And to be able to use the perspective I've had for years as a doctor and senator, I hope we'll make it better for the Gov. How long were you a senator? I was a senator for 10 years and a rep for four. You were in the legislature for 14 years, so you obviously know the building and many of the players in the building. I know them. I've been really gratified. They've been warm with me. We've had hearings already about the budgets and other priorities, which I'm sure we'll touch on today. So it's a lot of old friends, and I see them evolving, too. So it's an interesting time because we've got the Gov coming into his second term. You have the new Lieutenant Governor with different ideas and a lot of relationships on both sides. So tell me, you're from Maui? Big Island. Yes. I'm sorry. How can I make this? I'm from the Big Island. Why Maui? I had just slipped up. Okay. Did you have your family moved down here and all of that, or are you traveling back and forth like one of the former Lieutenant Governors, who is from Maui? Right.  I go back once a month to give back a little bit. We have aunties and uncles all over Big Island in Captain Cook and... Yeah, I know. Believe me. Everywhere we went, there was a relative of yours. Fantastic. So it's better, though, because I used to have to travel every single weekend. And I just thought it was better that I commit my time here full-time, where the office is, so we didn't have to spend extra resources. I didn't think that that was going to be a workable responsibility after 14 years of that for people. And I thought, also, that I should settle it down for my family, because my kids are 12 and 8, and you know how that was. Well, they're beautiful children, by the way. Beautiful children. Congratulations.  So are you doing anything for this administration, for the EGAA administration, with regard to health care? I mean, is that something that you'll keep your hand in? Yes. So, brilliant question, actually. So, the Gov's already said a few times that he wants me to work on the health professional shortage, which means not just doctors, but nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, everyone. So it's going to be part of my responsibility to make sure we make Hawaii as appealing a place as possible to bring health care providers here, to grow more of our own, so they stay, to make sure their loans are more affordable, and to really beef up our programs. You know, this whole thing about student loans, which is a problem here in the whole country, as a matter of fact, I mean, what's the solution? I mean, it's really tough for people to, I don't know what medical school costs now, but it must be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's a quarter of a million dollars for argument's sake, and that's a safe number. When I went to medical school, which was from 93 to 97, it cost me $140,000. And I give you that for perspective, because I got my loans forgiven through the National Health Court. That's what brought me to Hawaii. Right, right. Well, we couldn't even succeed with a program like that without helping it more. So I will be looking at- So there's no forgiveness program for student loans anymore? No, there is. In the medical? They just have to be bigger. And what we have is we've got a couple things. We still got the National Health Court for, like, rural areas and shortage areas, and we also have the Hawaii Health Court, which pays just about 10 to 15 positions a year loans back. I'd like to see that 10-fold bigger. So we can do that. If we spent $5 million a year in the state, we would get $5 million a federal match, and we could essentially have everyone get their loans repaid if they worked in Hawaii as primary care people. What a great idea. What a great idea. You know, when I was in college, it used to be that you could get at least 50 percent of your loans paid back just by doing community service, but that was open to everybody. I'd like to see that, you know, that's way above my pay grade right now, but you're speaking to my heart. Nationally, I'd love to see a national program where if people have debt for college, we forgive it if they do national service. Yeah, some kind of, in fact, wasn't that how you came to Hawaii? I would have never come to Hawaii. I might have never even visited Hawaii had I not had that opportunity. Who knows? I love it here. It's home. We met a beautiful young lady and married her. That's the best strategy for retention, but yeah, my loans were repaid because I worked in Kau for four years, and I'd like to see us do that across the state. I'd like to see us make sure that people can have debt-free loans if at all possible, if they come and serve, take care of individuals on Medicare or Medicaid. These are possibilities for the program. I'll roll out with the governor's blessing, and it really could change the landscape for us in Hawaii. When I went to law school at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law, before it was called the Richardson School of Law, and when Chief Justice Richardson was still around the school, but some time ago, the tuition for each semester was $500. Oh my God. It's in the thousand now, so I can imagine what it's like for medical students. If people want to give back and be in primary care, it's difficult because they'll carry that quarter of a million dollar debt, plus they have to find a home, and they have to maybe have even college education loans back to pay back. There are many problems. It's a bigger and more complex problem than just doing loan repayment, but that is probably the most effective piece of the puzzle. I had a meeting even with one of our prominent banks this morning, and they're willing to help us with this as long as we can somehow secure loans. Lots of things in the works, and as Lieutenant Governor, this is how I'm approaching it, just diving in. Once one of the main causes for the medical personnel shortage, are we losing doctors? I know, I know. This is going to sound a little anti-democrat, but anyway, I was told that I'm a big supporter of Obamacare and so forth, and actually the Hawaii system, but I was told that the increase in regulations have caused a lot of our senior doctors to just decide that they'd much rather retire. Is that a problem? It is, but it's probably a more complex, multifaceted problem than that. That probably was the thing that put them over the edge, that put them on the top. You can imagine a doc gets stage 60, they've maybe saved up enough money, and they're just making a decision, how many more years do I stay in practice, and then that tips them over the edge, which means that we should do administrative simplification, we should go... We could do something, right? Yeah, and Dr. Whithy at Japson works hard on this. The Dean of the Med School has been very good about this, Dean Hedges, and to have Gov put me as one of the point people on this will be helpful, because I do understand it quite thoroughly. It seems like the other side of the coin, though, is that all this technological innovation in the practice of medicine has made it, in a way, very efficient. I notice I see some of the younger docs who are into that sort of thing, and their medical records are much more accessible and all of this, but even they say writing so many reports and it's just overwhelming. It's a transition. Everybody has to get used to new systems. The next generation of docs will have their iPhone and they'll record something, it'll become a note, and it'll be easier, but we're in the middle. That's my doc, one of my docs right now. He's looking at his iPhone and reading my records, and I'm thinking, wow, this is really cool. Eventually, it'll pay dividends, but until then, it could give a lot of the older docs heartburn. We're just balancing this, but part of my responsibility will be to get more young docs to come to Hawaii, and I'll do it. What about nursing? What's the problem with nursing? Nursing, same thing. Nurse practitioners we want more of. Nurses we want more of. We may not have an overt shortage of nurses, but our system hasn't fully fit with all of our needs. We have more seniors that need home care. We need more advanced practice nurses, and these are hard positions to recruit for, too, because Hawaii for docs, nurses, and so on, the reimbursement salaries are lower than the national average, yet our cost of living is higher. People are committed to Hawaii. They love Hawaii. They will stay in Hawaii, but it's a very dynamic economic system, and sometimes they end up being cheaper to bring nurses from the mainland, which just breaks my heart, because why would we do that if we have home nurses who are not working? Yeah, because they're such great jobs. I mean, maybe it's hard work, but right now, it seems to be well-paying jobs, at least nursing. They're rewarding jobs. A lot of nurses will work overtime. That's necessary, because it's easier to keep people who already know their unit on the shift, and there's a lot of good money there, but it's tiring, and it's hard, hard work, so I give my kudos to every nurse out there, and certainly every doc. It is hard work. It's hard work, and they deserve all of it. I know back when I was in office, we had a nursing shortage, and our solution back then was just increase the number of nursing classes, but that was a much simpler time. We didn't have the many different categories of nurses that you apparently have today. Well, even sometimes those straightforward solutions are to your credit, because that's a smart one, and we're always looking for our nursing trainers, and sooner we bump up against capacity at some point. We can only have so many classrooms. That's the problem at Jabsum for training more docs. They would love to increase by 10, 20, 30 docs per year, but the space is finite, so we just have to continue to do all that we can in every different area. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're taking the grabbing hold of this initiative, and the governor and you are working to do this. And also, I've got to bring talk to you about the homelessness problem in Hawaii, or the houselessness problem in some cases. And because I understand that you've been taking that on as one of your major points of attention. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about it. You bet. So I've asked the governor, and we're working through the final details to have me be, if not the point person, one of the point people for all of homelessness in Hawaii, especially the part where there are individuals who are chronically homeless with addiction and mental illness issues. Which crosses over to the help initiative. That's why it's a natural for me, right? So that's where, and I've said this a couple of times in different venues, a very small percentage of our people, about 3.6%, consumes 61% of our Medicaid resources. Wow. Which, yes, exactly. So 13,000 of our citizens consume 61%, or $1.2 billion of our Medicaid resource. And as we get a better hold of that, and when homeless individuals have to go to the ER and stay overnight when they could instead get a clinic visit, it costs thousands and thousands of dollars. And so I will be fixing that, and that's one of the things the governor has tasked me with. Also, as he unveils more details at the state of the state, we will see exactly the full scope of the problem and what I can help with. Because I'm starting free clinics around. We started one in... Aren't you already doing that on your own? I mean, if I were, one of the more interesting things about your candidacy was you were not only talking about government programs, you were actually out there in the private sector doing, what, free clinics and things where people who were having drug problems and the rest. Tell us a little bit about that. So I just figure when you elect me, you just get me. Yeah, right. And so I'm going to keep doing those things. Just I'm mindful of the boundaries, but when there are private sector individuals that are committed to helping us, and if the government can do something good, like Mayor Caldwell and Councilman Joey Manahan and others in the council did great work, careful Kunaga, to get that facility going. That's helping us on homelessness and we'll add some health care to that. We'll add some housing to that. So the government put up resources and I can bring private sector docs to volunteer and help. And, you know, it's helping Queen's Hospital and Straub and I'll peek in periodically and put my own stethoscope on and volunteer just because I like it. And when you see solutions like this work and save taxpayers money and increase services. Why not? Right. Well, we're going to take a short break now and we'll be back. And I actually want to go out, dig a little deeper in the homeless situation and what you think we can do about it. So we are going to take a short break, hang around folks, the best is yet to come. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii Ana all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Hey, Aloha. Standard energy man here on Think Tech Hawaii where community matters. This is the place to come to think about all things energy. We talk about energy for the grid, energy for vehicles, energy and transportation, energy and maritime, energy and aviation. We have all kinds of things on our show, but we always focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii because it's my favorite thing. That's what I like to do. But we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii, things that should be a big changer for Hawaii. And we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Standard Energy Man and take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii. Aloha. Welcome back to Talk Story with John Wahee and our special guest this afternoon, Dr. Josh Green, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Hawaii. For those of you that would like to join in on the conversation, we do have a call in number. Our hotline is<PHONE_NUMBER>. That is<PHONE_NUMBER>. We're going to join Dr. Green and talk a little bit about the homelessness problem in the state of Hawaii. So, in fact, let me just toss it out there. Yes. What do you see as the issues? I mean, what is it that you're going to try and get your hands around as the, well, you know, your office has something that the average bureaucrat or the district rep or senator may not have, and that is the moral suasion of being elected by the entire state of Hawaii. So, how do you see grappling with all of this? Well, that was the real blessing, right, was to get the support of the whole state and to be engaged on a statewide crisis, which is homelessness, gives me a sense that I'm allowed to dive into this problem. And, of course, with the governor's blessing, as you've experienced both the lieutenant governor and governor. So, for me, the crisis is this. They've been doing a very good job decreasing the numbers of homeless. So, Scott Morshiggy, Gov, they've done a lot that's made a difference. And so, we've seen a decline in the last couple years of the total number of homeless that are out unsheltered on the street. Right. You know, say, 6,000 or 7,000 at least. And then you have another 3,000 or 4,000 individuals that are hidden. And these are the guys who are using all the medical care benefits and the rest, right? Yes, and that's the problem, right? So, I was health chair and then human services chair and the legislature. So, I've been responsible for those budgets and I know exactly what's going on. Good relationships across the board with the governor's team, Pankaj Benot, the director, director of health as well, Scott's team. So, here's the challenge. A lot of the individuals who are chronically homeless, that's about 20%. People who are for more than six months on the street unsheltered, probably on drugs or have mental illness. That combination is about 20% or 1,500 people. Those 1,500 people are hurt and they're struggling. And every time they get into trouble, they call an ambulance, it's $1,050. They go to the ER, $1,600. Now, you're almost at three grand. They stay at the hospital and it goes over $4,000 for each visit. We had one gentleman that went to the hospital named Gary, told us to share his story, went 241 times in one year. Whoa! Spent $1.2 million. And all we had to do- We could have got him paid his rent and he would have had a place. Well, to give people perspective, the good program that the mayor just started down on Kowili Street, that hygiene center, the budget's $1 million for a year. That guy that I mentioned spent $1.2 million himself. So what we do is we get roofs over people's heads, their costs drop 43%. That 1,500 individuals, some will accept help, some won't, but we begin to chop away at the problem. And we get everybody who will accept it services in the model I've been describing, which we call H4, which is hygiene. Mayor's taking care of that with the council. I guess people are to realize that it's more than just having shelter. I mean, it's also services. It's also jobs that they can do. There's so many factors. Well, the good news is we're on it because you're right. If you don't have services around it, it doesn't work.  So two years ago, I said that housing is healthcare. And what I meant was you put housing over somebody, their health improves. Right now, if you're homeless, your lifespan is 51. If you have a house, you have a roof over your head, your lifespan is 81.  Also, you cost an average of $82,000 per person per year. And you're not earning. No, and the police are engaged or you just need all these services and you need help. So the goal is to do housing first. That's the ultimate goal, which is to get everyone housing irrespective of the stuff they're struggling with. Well, there's protection. Shelter, basic need. Shelter and a social worker. But when I said healthcare could be dealt with through housing, I meant it. And so what we did was the Department of Human Services got a waiver and it amazingly got approved by the federal government. It's called an 1115 waiver. And it means that you can now use some Medicaid resources which are already spending and we're spending efficiently. You can use those on supportive housing services. So now we will use Medicaid to help people get into housing and it will decrease their costs very dramatically. In fact, it pays for itself instantaneously because the costs are so high. And that's how we'll do it. I see, you know, all you need to do is drive up Punchbowl right past Queen's Hospital, which by the way, you lived in that area. So you know what I'm talking about? Absolutely. And see all the people who came out of the hospital and just sleep on the street next door. Yes. And you can't help but, I can't help but think that it's inevitable that they're gonna be back in the hospital. In the next three days. So the thing to do is we're changing a lot of our approaches. One is we're going to allow, as we go forward, we want the medics to be able to take individuals instead of to a high cost space, just for a quick little nothing, take them to a program like the H4 or the other shelters where they can get basic healthcare, wound care maybe, a warm meal, and we can begin to get them housing. So we do that instead, it costs nothing. Penny's on the dollar. How do you get people to, and I'm gonna ask this question in a sense, for many people out there that may be listening, but also from an abundance of ignorance, okay? Because it reflects my, how do you get people to that, for example, may have some mental problems to take their meds? And how does this all work when you're dealing with the relationship between somebody who is on the street and medicine or healthcare? Well, you now ask a very, very complex question, but the short answer is, you can only do so much for some people because we do have a law now that is about community treatment. If someone's hurting and they're a danger to themselves or others, you can force them into community treatment, but that's not really what we're about. We try to get people to go in voluntarily. Right, of their own will, right? So those people will go in, you get them less expensive services, exact same services, but in a better setting, it's good for everybody, good for them, good for the system. For individuals that are having mental illness or addiction, if you can get them to care, which you can do, but we need to have community advocates and they should have legal representation. We're working with ACLU and Josh Wish and others on this. If you can get them into care, there's now better medication. This is the doctor talking. Longer acting medication where by injection, long acting, anti-psychotic medication, and people's mentation in their mind clears up. That lasts three or four weeks. And then once someone's doing a little better, they're more likely to take their meds. Then you can move them over to something a little bit more personalized. Exactly, and so you gotta go that way. You have to be gentle, but as the chairman of the Human Services and Health Committee over the years, I will tell you this. Look, I'm left a center. Everyone knows it, right? But the families themselves were saying, please do whatever you can. It's not a violation of my child's civil rights to be 40 years old, homeless, and very mentally ill on the street. In fact, the violation of their civil rights is to not get them the care they need. Right, to ignore them, you know, well, Deliston, you know, unfortunately, the idea that somebody ought to have control over their bodies and their life, which we all believe in, was used, I think, in maybe the early 80s as a way of justifying cutbacks. So what we were really talking about was we don't want to keep paying for these characters, so we'll call them human beings and put them on the street and then leave them without care. Yeah, that was intellectually dishonest from the Reagan administration, and then you were able to be part of a different revolution, which I think helped people, which was with the Clintons, and I think that that was very relevant. I don't want to disparage President Reagan, but that was a bad philosophy of healthcare. But it was done under the idea that humans ought to have a way of choosing anyway, it's so exciting to know that you, as Lieutenant Governor, and as a doctor, I've probably taken on the toughest area of the homeless crisis that exists, you know? Yeah, well, I'll run to it like you can't believe, and it's really kind of a joy for me because I've always wondered, what do you do when you suddenly have a large capacity to bring people together, to ask people to all chip in, whether it's government, private sector, colleagues, I think that overall, what we will see will be people will bind together, I'm bringing church groups together with government, I'm bringing benefactors and philanthropists together with doctors. Well, see, that's your skill, and that's what's needed in Hawaii, and that's part of our history, which, by the way, takes me to something I think that I was really interested in, and it's not all the Lieutenant Governor rushing out there to take on these tough problems, but aren't you already developing a program to give assistance to people who are in the private sector, non-profits and the like, teaching them how to go after grants? Yes, we're gonna. I think that's a fantastic innovation. Thank you, well, it was a great idea brought to us from a good friend, and basically to have an innovation center where in the Lieutenant Governor's office, what we will do is we will embed a person, we'll fund their position with friends that want to help with this program, not taxpayer money, and will you? Why not taxpayer money? That's what the taxpayers should be doing, but okay, okay, I'm not gonna knock it, I'm not gonna second get, but the idea, so you got private funds to do it. I will, yes, because I'm keeping my budget modest, and I don't wanna ask for more money, just out of a kind of a spirit of being frugal. In this case, and I understand, because I just was over there in the Senate asking the hard questions about how we're spending money. So, for now, we'll do this, we'll embed a grant leader, we'll work with nonprofits, we'll work with private sector, we'll work with our government agencies, we'll apply for grants, and we'll use the strength of the Lieutenant Governor's office to hopefully judge what would be in the best interest of our state. We will push those resources back into the communities, whether it's federal grants or other private. But you are actually helping giving technical assistance to people who want to do good for our community, and that's a Josh initiative. Thanks, well, I wanna do it because I see it as a way to really expand our capacity to help people, because it's been pretty robust already, but there are some finite challenges, which is, how do you get really a lot of people help? And if we start a lot of programs that way, it won't be a big taxpayer burden, but hopefully it'll be the right initiatives. Well, I tell you, everybody, well, who do they call?  Yeah, they call me on my cell.  No, I mean, to take advantage of this program, should they? That's gonna be my deputy chief of staff, Jeremy Lakin, is gonna be running that program, and as we apply for these grants, we want full partners so that we won't always get them, but when we do, we'll have more capacity to help people, the only rule in my office is whatever program we're doing gotta help people, then it's met the standard of the LG's office. Well, fantastic. Josh, Doc, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for joining me this afternoon. Thank you, Guff. We'll look forward to seeing all of you two weeks from today at another talk story with John Waihe Aloha.


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