In this cave by the restless sea we are met to call from out the past stories strange and weird. Bellkeeper, hold the bell so all may know we are gathered again in the weird circle. Past phantoms of a world gone by speak again the immortal tale Mad Mountain. A place waits for one of Moncton's race when that one full-on shall lie graveless under open sky. That shall be a certain sign of the end of Moncton's line. From mortal ken from light of day Moncton's race shall pass away. Ada, this is the end. Absolutely the end. Nine o'clock and not a word from him. Oh mother, stop fretting. Alfred will come. I know he will. But when? When? The engagement dinner was at seven if you'll remember. But what difference does it make? Ada Elmsley. I do believe you're still in love with Alfred Moncton. Of course I am. After all the terrible humiliation he's put us to, how could you be? How could any self-respecting woman? And to think you broke off your engagement with William Sealy, the nicest boy in the whole county. Oh what gossip the servants will make. Mother please. In two minutes it'll be all over the village. Alfred Moncton didn't arrive, not even a word of apology. I can hear them now. Oh the humiliation. Mother please sit down and be quiet. I will not be quiet.  I hope you'll never see him again. Mother, how could you say such a thing? Because it's true. You know as well as I do there's something very strange going on in Wincott Abbey. Something nobody understands. You've been listening to village gossip again. I've been using my own good eyes and ears. Do you know why Alfred Moncton keeps himself cooped up in that ancient abbey day after day after day? Never receiving anybody, making a hermit of himself? You exaggerate. He's a scholar. He studies most of the time. That's the lamest explanation I ever heard. How you could ever be in love with such an eccentric man is beyond me. And to have him deliberately. Oh I don't care. He has a million pounds a year. I'm not allowing you to marry him. Oh we've gone over this so many times. If I don't marry him it'll only be because Alfred doesn't want me himself. Ada, look, a carriage on the drive. Well, it's about time. Is it Mr. Moncton? I don't know. Ada, don't see him. Send him away. Alfred, look, he's coming in. Alfred! Ada, come back. For my sake, don't see him. Alfred, you did come. Oh, I knew you would. Forgive me Ada. Something's happened. I can't tell you what. I've got to go away. Oh, Alfred, no. Maybe I'll come back. But I can't have you waiting for me, Ada. You mean our engagement's broken? Yes. But why? Why, Alfred? I can't tell you now. But when will you return? I don't know. It may be a long time. Forgive me, Ada. Forget me. Oh no. How could I? How could I do that? Alfred, I'll wait. Time doesn't matter. I'll wait for you. I do love you, Ada. I do. Somehow I'll come back again, I promise. Living or dead, somehow I'll come back to you. Well, William Sealy. Imagine seeing you here in Naples, of all places. And after so long too. Has it been so long, John? Not many years. Five, I think, since eating. It seems long. What have you been doing with yourself? Last I heard you and Ada Elmsley were engaged. What happened? Oh, I'm afraid we just broke it off. And I've been wandering over Europe, one place to another.  No, just wander last, I think. At least that's what brought me here to the Garden of the Vila Real. And a lucky thing too. Let's drink a toast, shall we? I said, oh, something the matter? No, no, not really. It's just that fellow over there staring at me as if I were his long-last brother. It's rather a-nerving. Well, who I say? Do you know him? No, I don't think so. Do you? Well, only by reputation. He's a character around these parts. Really? What's his name? Moncton, I think, Alfred Moncton. Oh, I say you do know him? Well, only slightly. I haven't seen him since I was very young when he lived in the same county. Of course, I remember now. Moncton has Winkard Abbey, I believe. Yes, and also Ada Elmsley. Oh, I say. Oh, you mean they're married? No, just engaged. I wonder what he's doing here. Have a little slightest notion. Well, look there. He's written a note. He's given it to the waiter. Yes. Yes, I noticed. And the waiter's coming to our table. Mr. William Sealy? Yes, the gentleman just leaving. The one over there asked me to give you this. Thank you. You're welcome, sir. I wonder what Moncton wants with you. We'll soon see. Hell, let's read it. If you are the William Sealy from Wilkinshire County, England, will you do me the honour of calling at my flat this evening just before midnight? My need of a friend and confidant is urgent, I shall be ever grateful for your compliance. My address is below. Alfred Moncton. Oh, that man gives me the creeps. Are you going? Yes. I think I will. He's tormented with some terrible fear. You can see that on his face. Maybe I can help him for Ada's sake. Still, I wonder what it could be. Are the Williams Sealy from Wilkinshire? I knew it. Come in. Come in. No idea. You were left England, Moncton. Three months ago. Well, thank you a million times for coming tonight. What's the matter? Are you here? Please sit down. Would you have some wine? Oh, I'm sorry. I forget. I have no wine here. Wait a moment. Do you mind sitting in strong light? No, not at all. It's easier for me to talk in strong light. Here, the reading lamp. Some candles. My hand's shaking. Would you like them for me? Of course. Thank you. How's that? It's much better. Light makes me calmer. Sealy, can I trust you? I want to tell you why I'm here and what I'm looking for. It's hard to believe, but I'd like to hear you say that you'll tell nobody the secret. Of course I promise, Moncton. Thank you. I can trust you. I know I can. Sealy, you were engaged to Ada Elmsley once. Yes, but she broke it off soon after she met you, old man. Yes, I know she told me. I'm sorry, Sealy. But we love each other very much. Though I can never marry her. Never. But why? Come, I'll show you. Here in this room. What is it? There's nothing here. Wait till your eyes grow accustomed to the darkness. Come here a moment. Moncton, it's an empty coffin. I take it with me wherever I go. Every moment of my life is built around this casket, Sealy. Because I'm searching for the body of a dead man. Whose body? Stephen Moncton. My uncle. The coffin's for him. Come. Let's go back to the life. Sit down. Sit down. I'll tell you all about it. Are you sure you want to? More than anything in the world. I can't live with this thing much longer. I'm a haunted man. Haunted by fears and a curse. Listen, one evening last February, I was standing alone in one of the deserted rooms of the western turret at Wincord Abbey, looking at the sunset. Suddenly, I felt a sensation stealing over me. I could feel my very soul creeping out of my body. And yet I wasn't unconscious. For a long time, I stood there by the window, and then I began to see the form take shape. It seemed to creep from the shadows, advancing slowly, faintly luminous, until it stood beside me. What was it? The apparition of Stephen Moncton, his ghost. That was how I knew he was dead. Did you have a strong regard for him? Not at all. I should have been ashamed of him. He disgraced us wherever he went. Did you see him frequently? Only three times in my whole life. Then why are you so concerned? You'll learn in a moment. From an article in a French newspaper, I found out how he died. My uncle fought a fatal duel with the Count Saint-Laure, somewhere outside the Neapolitan states. The place of the duel was kept secret. Only the seconds knew where it was fought. But this I know. Wherever it was, Stephen Moncton was left unburied on the ground where he fell. I must find the place where he lies. I must! I must! I don't understand, Moncton. Why is it so important to you? Forgive me, I'm sorry. I tell the story so badly. Listen, did you never hear of the curious old prophecy about our family that's still preserved among the traditions of Wincord Abbey? Yes, I believe I did, but it was a long time ago. Well, it's been passed along from a remote time, and I myself found the verses of the prophecy. That's why I secluded myself, looking for it. Where did you find it? On the blank leaf of an Abbey manuscript. The verses say, When in Wincord vault a place waits for one of Moncton's race, When that one forlorn shall lie graveless under open sky, That shall be a certain sign of the end of Moncton's line. From mortal ken, from light of day, Moncton's race shall pass away. You see the terrible thing it says. What does it say exactly?  I am the last Moncton, and every member of the family lies in the vault of Wincord Abbey, except one. The prophecy dooms me to death, even if I find him. Now you know the story and why I can never marry Ada, but I love him with all my heart, and I shall go back to her someday, dead or alive. Are you afraid of dying because of this superstition? No, not of dying, Celia. I'm afraid of living, of being tormented if I do live. If I set out tomorrow to look for my uncle's body, where do I go first? Where? Oh, Celia, what am I to do? You know how to help me. This misery has made me unable to help myself. I'll help you, Moncton, whatever way I can. It seems to me... Well, it seems to me logical to suppose that the jewel was fought somewhere near the Neapolitan frontier. So, if I were looking for the place, I'd follow the frontier to the lonely mountains, asking every native if he had seen two carriages in the road last February. Surely then you'd come across some clue. You're right, Celia. It's an inspiration. Come with me. Please come with me and help me find the dead man. Will you, Celia? All right, Moncton. I'll help you. But tell me one thing. Why did you say you're afraid of living, of being tormented if you do? Because I'm never alone, living this strong light in my eyes. What do you mean?  Forever since the day he was murdered, waking or sleeping day and night, Stephen Moncton's ghost is with me wherever I go, screaming for me to bury the unburied dead. Burry the unburied dead, Alfred Moncton. Burry the unburied dead. Celia, would you take the reins for a while? What's the matter, Moncton? You look tired. It's nothing. The search just seems so hopeless. Where do we ever find him? Where do we ever find him? Oh, you must have patience. It's only been a week and the frontier hills aren't far from here. How's the carpent riding? The canvas covers it well. He's still with us. Always with us. The ghost, do you mean? Yes. Just yonder by the roadside. Suspended. Moving ahead. Waiting for his burial.  Look, there's an old woman on the road. Oh, yes. Stopped the wagon. Well, there. Excuse me, senora. Do you live here on the frontier? Si. Si, senor. Do you remember about three months ago seeing two carriages take this road? No, senor. Then perhaps you had talk of a duel that was fought near here. By two men named Moncton and the Count Saint Lo. No, senor. But wait. Now, I remember during February where two richly adored carriages did pass my house late in the afternoon. Which way did they go? They were headed for the hills and very fast. Thank you so much. Celia, what luck. Let's go. Quickly. Moncton, calm yourself. All day you've been tense and I know your feverish. I'm all right, I tell you. If we hurry, we can make the hills by sundown. Let me have the reins. Get up there!  Moncton, don't drive so fast.  Look, we're in the foothills. Surely this is the place. This must be the place. I know, but it's growing dark on the road stretchers. Hold on there, Moncton. Look, what's there on the road? A man with a lantern. He's motioning for us to stop. Whoa! Whoa! Senor, you'll take on this road at your own risk. Who are you? A sandal from the village of Sambastia. What's the matter with the road? A cave in? Nothing so simple, senor. The road of pass and ancient monastery fallen into ruins. It is a my duty to warn you that the road surrounding it is haunted. Haunted by what? By a witch that screams in the night. The people here will not go near the wood, so frightened are they. Seeley, we found the place. We found it. But we must go on, senor. We're not afraid. Thank you for warning us. You go at your own risk then. And to guard the protect you. Get up there! Look, Moncton, there on the moonlight, the ruins of the monstrous... Oh, there! This is the place, Seeley. I know it is. Jump down. Let's search it quickly. Listen to that. You're here in two now. Stephen Moncton pleading for me to bury the unburied dead. Where is it coming from? Yonder, on the hill. Come! Do you see his ghost? The waivers on the moonlight. Beckons from the doorway of the monastery. Seeley, we found the place at last! At last! Come on! Here's the door, Moncton. Here. Help me push it in. The roof is fallen in. Moncton, wait. Look, Yonder. A slab of stone on the moonlight. Looking up to the sky. The body of Stephen Moncton. He looks alive. His shirt is wet with blood. So he would remain forever. Left here, uncovered to the sky. When we place him in the vaulted wind, could Abbey his body will crumble and he'll be dust again. Come. It's a long way to England. Let us fetch the coffin. There's the ship, Seeley. There's the flower. Yes, and that looks like our captain. Captain King? Hello, there. May we see you a moment, sir?  Remember, Seeley. Christ is no object. You talk to him. Well, what can I do for you, my lads? They told us at the consul's office that you'll ship the flora, Seeley, for England. Right, you are. On the way home again. Well, we're rather anxious to get to England ourselves, Captain. Will you take us? We'll pay whatever you ask. Well, now, can always use a few extra shekels. But I say, what's in that box on your wagon? It's an antique statue, a treasure of art, Captain. We're taking it back with us. Well, now, I think we can arrange passage all right. About 50 pounds for the lot of you. Yes, I think that's agreeable. And breeze in the sails tonight, Captain? Right, you are, Mr. Seeley. She's blowing straight for England and quick tilled. Mr. Mountain coming up for a breath of air. I'm afraid he's not the world's best sailor, Captain. He's staying close in the cabin. Great Scott, what's that? Sounds like the very devil-awailing in the night. Yes, so it does. Excuse me, Captain, I think I'll go below. Jonesy, hear that wail like a blooming banshee? Aye, sir. Find out where it came from. Muckton, your ghost is haunting the ship. I know Seeley. I heard him, too. But what can we do? You'll find out there's a dead man in the casket. Those sailors are dangerously superstitious. But what can I do? He screams to be buried in Winkard Abbey Sealin. He'll haunt me till I lay his body there. I thought this way. Mr. Mountain, open the door. Seeley, come in, Captain. There's something wrong among the men. They're silent and afraid. One of the Maltese boys is saying there's a dead body in that packing case there. Is he right? No, Captain. It's only a harmless, marvellous statue. Well, I wish one of you'd contradict the boy then. The men are a parcel of fools who believe in ghosts. There might be trouble if this keeps up. We'll speak to the men, Captain. They'll do it soon. For another hour, I'll see you through Gibraltar straight and in the open sea. Good night. Good night, sir. Sealin, did you hear that? In the open sea, then England. But the crew, the captain's right. No, no, no, wait. Believe me, it's best to wait. Look, the sun's coming up and the ghost will be silent until nightfall. Then we'll be inside of England and it'll be done, Sealin. It'll be done. How much farther to England? The port's just over the horizon, Mr. Sealin. However, take a look at that black cloud. I'm not lighting it. But what is it, a squaw? The likes of which you'll never see again, I'll wait ya. Blast those demons. The tempers are up because Mr. Mountain's stubborn silence. Get a move on ya there, you men. Better get below, Mr. Sealin. The beginning to row. Sealin, what is it? The ship's in danger. I know it is. I've come to fetch you, Mountain. They're cutting away the form as the ship sprung a leaf. No, I can't leave him here. What difference does the body make now? The men are already taking to the boats. No, I can't go. I can't.  I'd rather die, Sealin.  What are you doing? There's no time. We can take him out into one of the boats. I must get him to England. I must. Sealin, behave your own way, Sealin. Mine is gone when this common sink's in the sea. I've got to stay. I've got to take it back to Wunkid Abbey. You go before it's too late. Sealin! From the bottom of the sea, Alfred Mountain, walk to the land of England and bury the unburied dead. Walk with the brine of the sea in your eyes and the body of an unburied mountain in your arms. Walk to the walls of Wunkid Abbey where peace is and death. Burry the unburied dead Alfred Mountain at Wind Carabbey, at Wind Carabbey and give my ghost eternal peace. Burry the unburied mountain dead. What's the matter? Come with me quickly. Alfred Mountain's returned to England. You can help him if you only come quickly. Alfred! Oh, what's happened, William? It's nearly dawn. Where is Alfred? We were shipwrecked tonight in the Channel. A merchant ship picked up most of the crew, and he was on board. I thought he had drowned, but somehow in some incredible way he got ashore. But where is he now? On his way to Wind Carabbey. Oh, please, come quickly. We can meet him there. I have a carriage waiting. Wait. I'll get a wrap. Oh, William, I knew Alfred would come back someday. I knew he would. We'll wait for him at the Abbey vault. Why at the vault? Because he was carrying the corpse of Stephen Monk and his arms. Come now. William, look. The vault door's wide open. He's there. Alfred's there. Ada, wait a minute. Don't look in there. Why if he's here? We'll bring it together then. Look. Wet footprints on the floor. I'll pull from their narrow places. The lid's open. What's it mean? He said he'd come back. Look. The letters on this one say Stephen Monkton. Below the family crest. What's that inside it? What's left of the corpse? A pile of sea-soaked clothes and bones. Oh, hot. Please come away. No, no. The other one. Don't look in there. But I must. I didn't know I... I thought he was alive. But he was drowned in the channel.  He had to come back to Wincord County. Even death could not stop him. Oh. And I'll tell you. Now, the last of the Monkton's is tormented no longer. He rests in peace. Come here. Look. The sun is coming up. From the time-worn pages of the past, we have brought you the story Mad Monkton. Hellkeeper.


You are listening to the Make Change Happen podcast from IIED, the International Institute for Environment and Development. In today's episode, shared vulnerabilities, connecting climate change and health in cities, guest host Anna Walnicki from our Human Settlements team is joined by colleagues from India, Sierra Leone and the UK to discuss ways climate change and health practitioners can collaborate and learn together. Hi, my name is Anna Walnicki. I'm a senior researcher here at IIED and I'm going to be your host today. So, historically, communities working on public health crises, including pandemics, and communities responding to the risk of climate change and disasters in cities have had little interaction. More recently, they've been caused for closer engagement, often because of the impact that changes in climate and disasters have on public health in urban areas. The need for closer collaboration has become more urgent in the current context of the COVID-19 crisis. There is a growing realisation that connecting both communities could lead to more resilient and equitable cities. So, to discuss this today, we have three guests from the field of urban risk, climate change and public health, and I'll invite them to introduce themselves now. Hi, everyone. My name is Sarah McIver. I'm a climate change researcher at IIED. I've about eight years experience working in climate and disaster resilience, working mainly with community-based organisations, with civil society, with governments and with UN agencies, from the local to the national to the international level. Annie? Yes, hi. I'm Annie Wilkinson. I'm a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, where I've been working on epidemic diseases and epidemic control for about 10 years, and more recently, I've been working on urban health, and I'm an anthropologist, so I mostly think about the social dimensions of disease, transmission and control. And Aditya, you've only recently joined us. Would you like to introduce yourself? Hi, I'm Aditya Bahadur. I work at the International Institute for Environmental Development. I've been working at the intersection of urban development, climate change and disaster risk for almost 15 years now. I'm joining the podcast today from my home in Delhi, where I've been now sequestered for about four months as Delhi is fast becoming the epicentre of COVID in India, and India is fast climbing the rankings of the countries most affected by COVID anywhere in the world. So really pertinent to what we're talking about today. Thanks, Aditya. And we'll also be hearing from Joseph McCarthy, who's the Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre, also known as SWIRC, and he'll be joining us for some reflections later in the podcast. But before we get into the conversation, we thought it might be useful to think about why we're having this conversation right now. And so Anmal Arora, who's a climate change researcher that has been working on a paper on this theme of Aditya here at IID. Anmal is joining us from India today, and he's just going to set out a little bit about how COVID-19 is connected to climate risk and public health in cities, particularly in climate vulnerable countries. Anmal, over to you. Thank you, Anna. So I think the idea behind this paper and essentially this podcast came from an informal conversation between Aditya and myself, where we were thinking about these mega cities, London, New York, Mumbai, the places that had been celebrated as the drivers of global economic growth, and how they've simply been sort of down on their knees in the sense that their health systems have virtually been crippled because of COVID-19. And we started asking ourselves questions like, is there something about the design of these cities that makes them disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of pandemics, as well as climate change? What sort of similarities exist? And some interesting ideas emerged. For instance, it's quite obvious that both pandemics, as well as climate change, have huge human as well as economic costs. Going forward, we also see that there is evidence emerging that global environmental change is in fact bringing human and animal populations closer, which means that the probability of such pandemics is only going to increase in the future. Climate change is linked with migration. And in some cases, it also traps people in environmentally hazardous areas. Now with COVID-19, we've seen a lot of internal displacement, especially in global south in places like India. As Aditya mentioned, many of us have been sort of trapped in our homes, and this is unprecedented. We know that COVID-19 has impacted women more than men and some of the other social categories. And climate change tends to operate in similar ways. So in many ways, we see that there are certain similarities that are emerging. And perhaps there is ground for these communities to sort of start coordinating a little more closely. And that is essentially how this sort of idea for people came about. Thanks, Amal. That was really useful in setting this scene. We're going to begin our conversation with a panelist today by thinking about the potential of coalitions and partnerships. Now, I know that the climate change community have been promoting coalitions and partnerships in cities for some time. And I know that Sarah and Aditya have some examples of this, which will come to you very shortly. But I wanted to first ask Annie for her thoughts on how different actors and coalitions have been responding to pandemics and public health challenges in cities to date. Thanks. Yeah, I think this is an area where epidemic response and the public health community that respond to epidemics have quite a lot to learn. Yeah, I mean, first of all, recognizing these links between climate and disease, that's one thing. And then the other is recognizing that cities and urban settings are increasingly where these links are, you know, where climate and disease are meeting and we're seeing lots of outbreaks, an increasing number of outbreaks that have these kind of urban dimensions. But I think despite all of that, urban settings and urbanization is a bit of a blind spot for epidemic response. And it's kind of odd because historically, actually public health has been kind of rooted in lots of urban issues. So kind of think of cholera epidemics and the sanitary movements and all of that. But more recently, this epidemic response kind of architecture, I guess, has become quite dislocated maybe from some of that. And you kind of see outbreak response teams that are typically based in kind of ministries of health or in kind of special emergency operation centers and not really kind of integrated into the border health system or into, you know, city contexts and city governments. And the whole model really has been on kind of getting getting in quick and kind of shutting in epidemic down, identifying trains of transmission and all of that. And that typically is again, get quite top down, quite authoritarian. It has this kind of emergency thinking that dominates it. So it doesn't really lend itself to collaborative, you know, coalition based approaches. And so, yeah, I mean, I just think that it's not that there aren't aspects of there aren't, you know, there aren't people in public health that are doing all of this. Actually, if you think about HIV, there's been a huge amount of kind of thinking about kind of local legitimacy and engaging and with local communities and all the kind of coalition stuff. But I think when it comes to this kind of emergency disease response and pandemics and epidemics, yeah, they haven't been doing it very well. And in particular, these kind of urban, the urban systems are a bit of a blind spot for public health. So, Aditya, have you, have you got any reflections on more holistic responses that have come from the climate change community that have responded to some of the challenges that they have been working on in cities and urban areas? Yeah, I mean, I firstly, I totally agree with what Annie said. And what's absolutely clear to me is that protracted and complex crises like the types that we're talking about cannot be solved without developing partnerships with a range of organizations and actors that all come with different skill sets to solve a problem. Experts working on tackling climate and disaster risk have understood this now for quite a long time. And there are large numbers of examples of projects that seek to build urban resilience by engaging with a wide number of actors. I'll give you a personal example from about 10 years ago, I was engaged in a project to build resilience in a city that was something from flooding.  But even within the small project, there was a university, there was a chambers of commerce, there was a municipal corporation, there were political leaders, there were community-based organizations, there were vulnerable communities themselves, there were civil society organizations and NGOs all coming together to tackle one single problem of flooding in this town. So that's just one illustration of a large number of projects that seek to develop partnerships to deal with change. And therefore I feel that those trying to manage epidemics need to learn from this because as Annie rightly said, up till now we've seen a fairly top-down linear response to epidemics. And again, like emerging examples from places like Dharavi, which is Mumbai's largest slum and one of the largest slums in Asia, it was slated to be a massive COVID hotspot because there were some early cases of COVID a few months ago. But now two months down the line, there are only a handful of cases in Dharavi, whereas Bombay has a large number of cases or Mumbai that's called now has a large number of cases. And this is because informal medical practitioners, informal sanitation workers, local organizations have all been embraced by the government in trying to tackle this problem in Dharavi, which has been the reason for its success. So yes, absolutely. Partnerships and collaboration is absolutely key to solving this problem. Thanks Aditya. Sarah, is there anything specific that you wanted to bring in on this point? Thanks Anna. From the climate change side, there is certainly recognition of some of the links with climate and health. I think one of the main things that a lot of the fear is about thinking about the rise in temperatures across the planet and what that means for the likes of malaria moving into new areas in which it wasn't before, where often a colder temperature meant that there wasn't so much transmission of malaria. Also, the increase in precipitation, heavier rainfall across cities, across urban areas, that increased risk of flooding that results in that. And as a result then that sort of potential for more cholera outbreaks and what that means. So there is recognition from the climate change side, but there still needs to be much more done and sort of bringing in the health experts and sort of thinking about planning together. Climate change side, there's often developing the climate action plans referred to as these nationally determined contributions and that lists a number of sectors. So we'll talk about plans for agriculture, for forestry, for water management, but health is still a key gap. I want to share an example from my own experience from previously from working in Indonesia on sort of effective coalitions and effective partnerships from the disaster and resilience side. So basically Indonesia, they call themselves the supermarket of disasters. They have everything. They have tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, flooding, typhoons, volcanoes, basically every disaster, every natural hazard imaginable. So what they've done basically is a lot of, they've tried to shift from the immediate response following a disaster into much more about the preparation, the mitigation, trying to minimize the hazard altogether. They've also recognized the importance of building partnerships in country. And so in order to do that, the disaster management agency, so a department within government, is working with the UN in order to organize these monthly meetings, where they bring all the actors together, that actors from civil society, actors from across government, from UN agencies, everyone that's working sort of to minimize risk in country. And they update each other. They share learning. But what that's done, because it's happening so regularly on a monthly basis, it's been able to improve trust building, improve relationships, and move from just sharing lessons to actually coordinating together so that when a disaster does strike, which is quite inevitable in Indonesia, straight away, they've got an immediate real-time response. And they can match the skill sets that are needed to what is required to deal with that disaster. So just to summarize then basically, building the trust and relationships in country can really help to bring these actors together in a strong coalition. I just wanted to pick up on something that Aditya said. And I think it's really interesting to hear about the examples from India. And of course, there is a huge amount of kind of local kind of collective action that is happening and sometimes joined up with authorities for COVID and sometimes not. I mean, on just another comment on the public health side of things, I think there has long been recognition of the need for kind of community engagement and so engaging with local leaders and traditional healers and stuff. But it has been quite rural, really. And I think when it comes to epidemics in urban areas, there is a little bit, you know, it's just kind of not clear, like how do you adapt kind of all of these kind of community engagement processes that have been honed quite well for rural areas, for urban settings. And I think, you know, whether it's Zika in Latin America or Yellow Fever in Angola or the West African and more recent DRC Ebola outbreaks, like they had really significant kind of urban dimensions to them. And it was just really quite a challenge. It wasn't clear who were the actors, and particularly in places like informal settlements, like who were the trusted local leaders? What are the governance structures? So I think that's, I just wanted to kind of make that point that those are the things where I think the public health and epidemic response community is kind of missing. Yeah, Annie, I mean, I fully understand what you're saying, because like 10 years ago, when the climate change and disasters community was starting to express an earnest interest in urban areas, we grappled with the same problems. Participatory methods that had been tested and tried in rural areas were kind of being mindlessly transplanted in the urban areas and were not quite working. So it's been a 10-year learning period for us. And I imagine that the epidemics community also is probably at the start of that learning period. So we're already getting at the value of taking a more connected and integrated approach to climate change, public health and pandemic responses. Now, I'd like to encourage us to think a bit about who should be involved in such responses in urban contexts. Aditya, just coming back to you, I know that the climate change community have extensive examples of working with city level governments and other urban stakeholders. I was wondering if you could tell us a bit more about the specific opportunities of working with actors at the city level. Sure. Anna, I think what is key to a comprehensive and systematic response to such crises is sustained political attention. And these issues need to be a priority for politicians and city leaders. And therefore, I really feel that transnational networks of city leaders have shown a lot of value over the last couple of decades. And I've really been pivotal in ensuring that issues of climate and disaster-risk in cities receive the kind of sustained political attention that they need. You know, organizations like the mayor's covenant, local governments for sustainability, the United Cities and local governments, the Asian cities, the resilience network, and C40 all provide potentially replicable models for those who are attempting to manage COVID-19 and who would like to ensure that issues of tackling epidemics stay in the political spotlight going forward. Taking just one example, C40 started 15 years ago by Ken Livingston, the mayor of London, who convened a bunch of his counterparts from 18 cities. And now 15 years later, it's grown into a network of 96 cities that contain something like 10% of all humanity. And by encouraging peer-to-peer learning between these cities, the cities in the network have taken something like 10,000 actions to tackle climate change over time. And in a recent evaluation, it was found that 70% of the cities that are part of C40 reported taking an action based on learning from another city. Most of this work has not been in times of crisis. So this transnational network of city leaders has demonstrated that it's possible to keep attention going even when no emergency is breaking. And I suspect there's a valuable learning here for those attempting to manage COVID and who'd like to ensure that this issue receives the kind of attention even once the curves have been flattened in cities across the world. Annie, would you agree? Yeah, no, I would. And I think it's really interesting to kind of reflect on the public health, I guess, experience or side of things. And I think it's probably helpful to make this a distinction between when we're talking about kind of public health more generally, and the more kind of everyday disease control kind of hygiene sanitation and health systems are huge, you know, huge broad range of things. And then, you know, epidemic response and pandemics, which is outbreaks of disease, which are exceptional or unusual. And I've been talking mostly actually about the kind of epidemic response side of things. But I think one of the challenges which links a bit to the kind of climate change example is that to be able to kind of mitigate the risks of epidemics and pandemics, we need to be kind of building stronger health systems and addressing kind of basic public health systems and to do all of that, you know, outside of epidemic context. And I think that's the thing that we I mean, it's not that we're not doing it. Obviously, there's a huge amount of kind of health system strengthening work going on. But but I think oftentimes not enough and not significantly linked to thinking about, yeah, mitigating mitigating pandemic risk. And actually just so I think a big question actually is how do you encourage kind of action in normal times, which lessens the risk of pandemics. And that's not just in the health sector, but it's like really importantly actually in the non health sector as well. I think those kind of considerations are not are not made enough. And yeah, and in general, I think we've been quite poor at investing in things that contribute to prepare this. So we talk a lot about prepared this in epidemic response and stuff. But we tend to talk of it in quite a narrow way. So it's mostly drugs and vaccines and not actually enough of this, you know, basic public health and border kind of resilience issues, which could involve all of this kind of climate stuff that you're talking about. So Annie, can I just ask you, I'm really worried, you know, we've seen over the last few months, as the crisis has been breaking across cities, we've seen, you know, city leaders really taking an active role, we've seen press conferences taking place every evening, we've seen mayors, you know, who are really at the forefront leading this fight. Are you worried like me, that once the curve start to be flattened, things will go back to business as usual, and people will start focusing on other issues, and this will again take the backseat till the next crisis. Well, it's a tough question. I am worried. I guess I've done some of my previous research has been looking in Sierra Leone and the impacts of the Ebola epidemic there.  We can't go back to how it was before. And it is, I think it's fair to say that, you know, the country was not transformed after that. It did suffer a huge economic crisis at the same time as the Ebola outbreak. So, I mean, we're currently in this point where everyone is kind of looking at the way we have organized society and saying we need to change. But yeah, I guess worried or a healthy kind of skepticism of like, we need to, words are not enough. And how we actually translate that interaction, I'm not sure. But I do also think that kind of epidemics are huge learning experiences. So, I think the kind of scale of COVID and what it really has kind of revealed, and the way that's brought so many kind of people along with it, and to see how kind of health and non health issues are kind of so interrelated. I don't know. I have hoped that maybe through that learning, there is potential for change. I completely, I agree, Annie, and just to say that, you know, the health sector is not, it's not alone. This is very much the climate sector feels the same. And that, that recognition, you know, that this has to be, you know, if we are to tackle these crises, whether it's a pandemic, a health pandemic, or the climate crisis, it has to involve all of us. It has to come out, not just the technical experts, it has to be everyone, all the public working together to really, to really manage that. You mentioned some of the actions that are needed. And I think maybe to share some, maybe key ingredients, especially for kind of the city leaders, you know, something like a resilience program or plan that kind of is long term and an overarching that helps to bring all the sectors together, you know, having sort of allowing some authority and autonomy to these city leaders, like through decentralization, so that they can actually make and implement some of the decisions in that planning, you know, that they have that full autonomy to do so. And the financial resources to support the implementation as well. So just sort of maybe some ways in which we can kind of help to bring health and climate out of the silos. Quickly, I just want to share an example of some of the work that we do in IED. Basically, in IED, we provide support to the least developed countries on climate, a group of 47 countries across Africa, Asia, Pacific and the Caribbean. They've recognized this, they've recognized that, you know, that a lot of, a lot of key work that's done by experts, they kind of sometimes fly in and fly out of the country, and that's not necessarily the most sustainable approach. So what they've done is they've launched their own initiative called the LDC Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience. The acronym is LifeAR, you know, we love our acronyms in this, but basically that initiative, it aims to strengthen in-country systems, including healthcare systems and capabilities to respond in real time immediately to both slow onset, you know, and rapid shocks and stresses, whether they're pandemics, whether they're climate related. They're trying out these new approaches. They're encouraging the international community to help them and keeping the learning in country and sharing that learning so that it doesn't get lost. And the LDC group are, you know, hoping to share that new way of working with city leaders and local governments across the world, including in the global north as well. That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing that. So at this point, I think we could usefully turn to Joseph McCarthy, who is Executive Director of SLURC in Sierra Leone. We know that they've been working with the city government in Freetown and other urban actors on climate change and Ebola. So Joseph, what are the challenges and benefits of working at the city level for an organization like SLURC? Thanks so much, Anna. Essentially, we have chose to focus on cities because firstly, cities are areas of population concentration, especially in the case of Sierra Leone. Like Freetown concentrates about 40% of the total urban population within the country. And therefore, cities are expected to provide a lot of opportunities. But also, these are some of the areas where we have the worst living conditions for human existence. So we think that it is important to focus on cities because of the huge disparities in health, well-being, as well as the level of risk it presents to the residents. So we have been working in the city for nearly four years. So basically, if I was to talk about the challenges, I think the first challenge should be about how do we, because our area of focus has been informal settlements. But actually, within the trust of informal settlements to the kinds of work that we do, especially research has been a lot difficult. And this is so because most of them expect financial reward whenever we engage them. And they think it should be about giving them money just like some NGOs do. And the point is, for most of these communities, a lot of research has been done in the past decades. But there is very little to show for it. And so it's really difficult to get communities to be convinced that these particular kinds of work that we do would really go to benefit them. And another difficulty has been so much about how do we really engage policymakers to really utilize some of the outputs that we produce, but also to be able to engage them. Because for many, everything's based decision making has not been part of their culture. And so this is a major problem that we continue to grapple with. The other aspect is that it is really difficult for us to really engage even the media houses to convey some of our output, because most of them seem to be a lot interested in political news. And another difficulty as an institution is that we really don't have many people who really can be described as grounded researchers. It is very difficult to hire the right kind of staff that we really want. So it has been very difficult. But at the same time, there are a lot of benefits in working in the city. Firstly, it creates easier visibility of our work in the sense that people get to know us, whether or not they like it, they get to know about us. And it also produces or provides us an opportunity to interface with a range of other actors, both locally and globally, but also provides us the opportunity to interface and interact with a number of policymakers, a number of politicians as well. And it's so much important to us because it allows us to build our own professional as well as economic career, because my background is urban planning and development. And so therefore, working in the city allows me to foster that particular kind of agenda. We're going to move on now to think a little bit about data. In the past months, we've seen governments rely on big data to make decisions and policies in response to COVID-19. And there have been some clear successes in some contexts and major challenges in others. Before asking for Annie's reflections on this, I'd like to ask Aditya about the potential to use data more innovatively in the management of climate and disaster risks in cities. Sure. So I first want to state that I'm not a big data evangelist. Like you, Anna, and you, Annie, I did my studies at IDS, which is the hall of participatory development. So I really don't think that big data is a silver bullet. And given my background in logical and sociological research methods, I approach big data as a skeptic. With that qualifier, I really feel strongly that big data generated through sort of innovative ICT devices can effectively complement existing ways of understanding the impacts of climate change in cities. Let me give you one very quick, tangible example. Other areas are microclimates and air temperature can vary from block to block. And therefore it's very difficult in cities to do temperature readings, which then has implications for how you prepare for heat waves. So that's a big sort of black hole that we really haven't been able to fill yet. There's one innovative approach that's trying to overcome this. What they're doing is they've developed an app through which the crowdsource battery temperature data from half a million cell phones spread across cities in the United States. They've then developed an algorithm through calibrating it in the real world that converts battery temperature data into air temperature data. So through this app, they're now collecting razor sharp air temperature readings from cities across the United States, which then has big ramifications for how cities prepare for heat waves that are going to become more and more frequent as climate change progresses. That's just one small example of a big data application that can really change the game when it comes to reducing risk from a major climate hazard in cities. Yet we have seen that those who are making policies and decisions with regard to reducing risk in cities have been really slow to adopt these innovative approaches. Therefore, I really feel that our community of practice, that is the people who are trying to reduce risk in cities can learn something from the people who are tackling epidemics because they've really been successful in pushing these big data solutions from contact tracing to developing algorithms to determine how lockdowns of different cities and municipalities need to be. They really got policy makers to take big data for decision making seriously and I think there's a learning in there for the people who are trying to deal with climate change with all the qualifications that I discussed at the beginning of this. Yeah, I think there is obviously a huge potential to a big data. I'm not a big data denialist, but I do think that I guess all forms of data need to be contextualized and I think that we need to be careful about how much we trust some of this kind of big data and what signals it's reading and all of that. I guess I'd like to highlight two of the other kind of data or information areas that I think are really, really important. One, if we're talking about urban settings and particularly the informal urban settlements that a lot of us and IID obviously have done a lot of work on, we know there's a huge amount of missing data and I think that's really come up in really been highlighted by COVID actually because we've just actually have really limited information on the numbers of kind of people living in a particular settlement and so the numbers of people that could be at risk. We don't know enough about kind of their livelihoods and the prevalence of particular diseases, all of these kind of comorbid infections that could make the disease worse, diabetes and hypertension and all those things. So I think it's just, there's a real need for improved kind of local data and a lot of that is obviously done like lots of the federations collecting their own data and that's brilliant and I think that needs, we need more of that. The other area where I have been doing a lot of kind of standing on stoke boxes with colleagues at IDS is about social science and kind of social and contextual insights. So we've been running this thing with the social science and humanitarian action platform which is a network really of social scientists and it aims to mobilise kind of social science knowledge and analysis in epidemic response. So really just kind of saying that this deep kind of granular knowledge about local places, politics, practices and cultures is also really really important and often not valued or recognised and also not always available actually enough in an outbreak kind of situation. So that's about the kind of inclusion of social science and social scientists, it's also about the inclusion of local communities and their views and their perspectives. Those would be my kind of data priorities. That sounds great Anna and sort of linked to that in a way is sort of from the climate side there's a lot of big models that are used to sort of try and plan scenarios as to how the climate's going to change but these are quite large scale you know the really like high resolution that doesn't really get down to the local level you know and that's what's needed for to help kind of local farmers and local government planners and you know to make decisions and so there's a gap there and basically what's needed is that sort of like bring you know the scientific knowledge as well as the local and indigenous knowledge coming together to join the dots to share their knowledge together equally as ideas and to help kind of like address those gaps. This is something that is recognised in the Paris Agreement on Climate the importance of indigenous knowledge so I do see an opportunity there moving forward that hopefully we connect those together. Thanks so what I'm taking from this is that we need data to be generated on a number of different scales particularly at the local level and in informal settlements where there's a huge gap still and although big data is incredibly useful to make policy decisions in a pandemic and also in response to climate change context is is very very important when it comes to implementation. We've covered a lot of ground we've identified some really relevant synergies between the climate change and pandemic communities it very much feels like this is the beginning of a discussion or a conversation that's increasingly relevant for cities particularly in the global south. Before thanking you all I'm going to end with a question that we always finish with in this podcast series. What is the one change that you think could really make a difference in cities in the global south and I'm going to start with you Annie. Thanks so mine is obviously health orientated and well epidemic orientated so I am linking really to what I just said that I'd like to see more interdisciplinary and inclusive approaches to the way that we manage epidemics so both mitigate and and respond to them. I think we've seen a lot of progress on that but I think yeah more social science and in that I would include more urban researchers and stakeholders and more participation of local residents and communities in recognizing their diverse forms of expertise. Thanks Annie Sarah. Thanks Anna. I would say I'd like to see kind of not only inclusive but also the empowerment at local level in particular so those those who are closest to the issue often know it best and so appreciating that and appreciating sort of the skills that are there and empowering those local leaders to take action to make decisions to implement their plans and to really really empower and build that at the local level is what I'd yeah I'd like to see more of both from responding to climate challenges as well as pandemics. Aditya over to you. What's really clear to me is that you know the same sorts of people who are vulnerable to epidemics are also broadly those people who will be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and actions to deal with climate change can have a positive impact on future epidemics as well. So for me it's really important that there's an institution at the city level that is able to join the dots and make decisions across sectors and look at the city as a complex system holistically to deal with these multiple threats. There are some emerging examples of this. The New York Mayor's Office of Resiliency is one such institution that looks at these different threats holistically to come up with a strategic solution and I think that's why we've seen that New York has gone from being the epicenter of this global pandemic to flattening the curve fairly quickly. Yeah that's a really really relevant example there. Thanks teacher. Anmore the one change you'd like to see that really make a difference. That's a tough one. Anna look post climate shocks the window of a window of opportunity shuts rather quickly. I mean to put it simply we just move on and what I'd like to really see is leaders, political or otherwise championing this cause over a long term. Thank you and we're going to give the last word to Joseph. Let's look over in Freetown. Joseph the last word goes to you. I think one major change I would like to see is about really getting the different actors the different institutions the different individuals working on the urban to work collaboratively on the kinds of issues that we have chosen to really address as a city the kinds of issues that people living in informal settlements are very much concerned about. It can be in the area of health like we have a few projects that focuses on those it can be in the area of resilience into our vulnerability issues especially in terms of the kinds of disaster risks that we have been confronted very recently and so it's about avoiding or moving away from the culture of working in silence because no one organization no one individual has all the answers to the kinds of challenges that the city face. That's great thank you so much. You can find out more about this podcast episode and IID's work in this area including the initiatives and organizations discussed on our website at www.iiid.org slash podcast. We greatly value our listeners opinion so please leave us your feedback and comments at soundcloud.com slash the IID that's soundcloud.com slash T-H-E-I-I-E-D there you can also listen to our previous podcast and the May Change Happens series. The podcast is produced by our in-house communications team. For more information about IID and our work please visit our website at www.iiid.org


So how's your ride along going so far today? Yeah, it's good. The truck's not even starting. As it works out, you can try jump starting and hopefully that'll take care of it. We'll see! Alright. Hopefully that's all it is. Hopefully, right? Yeah, because I thought I was going to put the cold in so you can start it. There's too many things to look at at one time. I'm texting and driving. Oh no!  He backed into my sleep or with the trailer. I have worked with some amazing drivers over the years, and even though I will only be able to experience a small part of it, I want to better understand the challenges that are in dirt while living a life on the road. I was in the Army. I lived in Texas for like 20 years. Yeah? Yeah. Where in Texas? I was stationed in El Paso. How did you like El Paso? It was nice. Yeah? Yeah, I really liked it. What happened earlier?  I parked at Costco making a delivery that was bought at 9 o'clock, and I was backed into the door, and then there was another driver backing into the door next to me, and he backed into my sleeper. He backed like what part of his truck hit the sleeper? The trailer. He backed into my sleeper with the trailer. He was backing up, and he hit my sleeper over on the driver's side. With like the backside of the trailer? Yes, with the right side over here.  Well, I guess I don't know whether he was nervous or... Did you talk to him? I know, huh? He's like, wait a second. We'll be right back. All right. Yeah, I did talk to him because when he hit the truck, I got out, and I don't even think he... Well, he pretended he didn't know he didn't do it, but it's like, dude, you were right next to me. I know you did it. And I could see the paint on your trailer, the way you just scraped it off my truck. But then the damage, I don't know what it's going to cost right now. Like a few thousand, you think? Yeah, it'll be easy. Because the whole door? Like right back here, see where he says, at least tonight, right here? Yeah, yeah. But right behind that, where it says certified clean air, right there, and then the little part back there, and then on the bottom. So like multiple panels? Yes. Oh, yeah, so he... Do they just replace? Yeah, they can be replaced. Yeah, they just replace, they just take them off and replace the parts. There's damage. That's the good thing about... In fact, that's like the hood. Yeah. The hood comes in like three separate pieces. Oh, that's nice. So... So it could be cheaper. Yeah, so if you just need like one half of the hood, it just replaced that one panel over there. Aren't there windshields like that? Well... They're like two pieces. And the freight liners? Yeah, they have two separate windshields. I don't think I like that. And then the internationals and the Vobos, they have just like one big windshield, but the freight liners have two. Is it cheaper then? Yeah, because you can replace just... As you said, you can replace one half, and you can replace that half. But so it's... So being an independent contractor, do you have to... Or are you owner-operator? Or is it one and the same? It makes me the same. Yeah. We're always changing the terminology. Yeah, that's all they do, but you're an independent contractor or an operator. They're the same thing. How does it work if you have like a chip in your windshield? Like... Well, yeah. I have... Like maintenance funds? No, you have... I have glass coverage, just like you have for your car. And we pay, I think it's like... Two dollars is something a week. And you can get up to... I think it's three windshields a year. So that's like... Say if I had a bunch of little chips here, if I wanted to get it changed, I'd talk to the glass guy over here in the yard, call the insurance company, they give me a number for it, and I give it to him, and he changes it, and he calls them up, and he gets paid. Just like they do at the car wash. When I get my car washed, and they like inspect my windshield. Yeah, when they... Leave it alone, it's fine. Yeah, so... And it comes in handy. This is called... It comes in real handy. It's cheaper than buying a new windshield out of pocket, you know, all the time. How much are they? It all depends on... What are you putting it in? Well, dude, I can't back up, so you don't have to. See, that's the one thing, that's a no-no. What? You never back up. Really? No, you don't. Even if you're bobtailed, doesn't matter? Nope, don't back up. Really? I don't back up. I don't back up. Because... What do you do if they can't get by? Well, you don't have to wait. Oh, I tell you the truth. You know, because if I back up... Yeah? Because sometimes you can't see, even if it's a car behind you, you can't see it. And if I back up and I back into him, then it's my fault, and then he's going about his business, and I gotta sit there and deal with that. You were being the nice one, and then it backfired? Yep. How long have you been an independent contractor with us? Fourteen years. So you started company then?  I started company three years, I drove company for three years, and then I got my own truck, and been an independent contractor ever since. What do you think has kept you at night all these years? Seventeen years. Well, when I started here, I was like, I'm only going to do this for a few years, and then I'm done. Was it the first company you drove with? No, I drove with a couple of other companies, but they were just like small companies. And when I started here, I was like... What's that mean? That's just... Hired. It's the... Idol. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a high exhaust tip. It's just like when it regains, when it regains, you have a real high exhaust tip. That's all it is. It's saying the temperature is hot? Yes. In other words, don't stand next to the exhaust because it can burn. We're not flammable right now, though? Nah, nah, we're not. Spontaneously combust? Nah. We don't know what happened to them on their riddle. And then it's a new truck. They have all kinds of glitches, so therefore...  When I started here 17 years ago, I was just... I'm going to do this for four or five years, just to... get on my feet, and then I'm done with it. But that's what a lot of guys say. Really? Yes. That's what a lot of guys say. I'm just going to do this for a little while. And then what happens? It's so amazing that you can't leave. But then you know, that's like me. I don't mind driving. I like to drive. It doesn't bother me.  You got your own independence, your freedom, and it's like nobody's bothering you. Well, we do have a lot of guys, okay, a fair amount of guys, and some gals that come off the road, and they go into the office, and it does not last very long. Nah. I don't know how I've gotten Steve to stay in the office for as long as I have. I'm just kidding. You're trying to get rid of me, Steve. I'm just kidding. I'm not going anywhere. You've got to force me. Like Chris McCarroll. Yeah. I rode along with him, obviously. He had a few different positions over the road, and I think he lasted like a year and a half, maybe, in the office, maybe a year, and then he's like, no, I need to get back out on the road. I don't think I could, you know, be there in the office all day, every day. Yeah. I'm so used to doing this, you know, and nobody's looking over my shoulder, and nobody's telling me what to do. Hmm. So, but... That might be the biggest adjustment. I mean, I can't speak from experience, but you usually run only to L.A. and back. Yeah. Back when I was in operations, I remember you would go to El Paso. Yeah, I used to ride El Paso and back. And you would do the discount tire loads? Yes. And you would tell me, oh, is it a workout? Like, this is good for me, because this is my workout, because it was a driver-unload? Yeah, it was a driver-unload. Every day, five days a week. In the summertime even? Yep. Like, so sweaty? Over a thousand tires a day. Oh my gosh. That's weird. The exhaust beep. Yeah, I've been seeing that a lot. The sun is just... Every time I get into a different truck, it's beeping about something. And then it goes off. It's like very... I don't know. Like, this one here, this truck only has a thousand miles on it, a thousand, two hundred miles on it. But it hasn't even broken in yet. Yeah. It's going to have all kind of... because I can smell the heat from the motor. Really? Yeah. I can't... Oh, yeah, here you go. I smell like new Carson plastic. No, you can smell. That's where the heat's up. You can smell the heat from the engine and all that stuff. That's because I've been doing this for a while. You're like, I can detect the scent. Yeah. Some of these guys, they leave the keys in the truck like... What's happened over there? That's been some time. Really? Oh, no. It's like a little Chinese restaurant or something. I think she really wants to nod to it or something. But it's a different... Well, there's a driver coming from the vet and he's not going to be able to take it over here. So I'm going to drop my trailer tonight in Ontario that he's going to drop his trailer in Fontana and I'm going to pick it up and bring it back here. Yeah. Yeah. Leave back here for tomorrow morning. Tell him. Tell him. I don't know who the driver is.  I'm going to have questions for you. I'm going to test your knowledge at this point. Just awarding a cheese. Complicated. No, I'm not. This is crazy. I see somebody probably with me like, are there cheese on top of that? Eating a giant plate of enchiladas. This is not normal for her. You know today is a special day. There's no cheese. Only because Steve is here. Only because Steve is here. Not you. Whoa. This is a graphic. This is a graphic. This is not you and the points are right there. Next. Whoa. Look at the parking lot at Burger King. That must be giving away free stuff. It's not that good. Isn't that good? Burger King? And I'm not aware. No, I don't like Burger King. Do you eat fast food? It depends. It's like every now and then I grab a hamburger but I'm like, yeah.  Yeah, I have strawberries in my fridge. I have a protein shake. Protein shake in my fridge and actually with apples. Are they like the prepared protein shakes or did you like blend it at home and then put it in the fridge? Yeah, but I used the protein powder with peanut butter. Nice. Steve? You got to try to take care of yourself. It's hard, you know. Didn't you tell me that you started working out again? Yes, I went back to the gym. Yeah. I went back to the gym then about, was it in September? September of last year, I quit smoking? I didn't know you smoked. I don't anymore. Nice work. I'm so proud. September of last year? Yeah, September of last year. What was the trick? I just quit. And then what, did you pick up like eating carrots or anything? No, I just went back to the gym. I started eating more fruits and vegetables and... Did you gain weight? I've heard that people gain weight when they stop smoking.  But I just started going back to the gym and I started eating more fruits and vegetables and... Could you like, would you tell people get carrot sticks and when you want a cigarette, just put a carrot stick in your fingers and it's the same? I just used a chew gum. Oh, that's good. I'm really obsessed with chewing gum, so... Steve told me that I'm not allowed to chew gum and we record these because I like chomp on it really aggressively. Is it like, well, because... Okay, I've never smoked a cigarette before, so I... Yes, I don't know, but I don't know about the urge. But it's kind of like when you have idle time, so some people will just have a snack. Yeah. If they didn't smoke, so instead of having a snack, you would just grab a cigarette. Yeah. Same thing.  Really? Yeah.  Yeah. That's good. I'm proud of you. I always try to keep like almonds or peanuts in the truck or something like that.  Like a few calories. Yeah. Is your wife healthy? Yes. Yeah. Does she go to the gym a lot? She goes to the gym and then they have a gym at her job also. Oh, really? Yeah. Where does she work? She works in Tempe. Oh. She works for a trucking company? No, no, no. She works for... They do like the Medicaid, Medicare and all that stuff. Oh, that's cool. Is it a big company? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So... Like healthcare-ish? Yeah. And then, because they work a lot with the state of Arizona. She commutes to Tempe. Every day. Oh my heavens, that's far. I pay her well. So... Does she want to move over there and you're like, no. No. I'm not moving over there. I wouldn't want to live in Tempe in there. But she works over by Tempe Town Lake. Okay. Yeah, right there. She works right there. It's a nice area. There's a lot of stuff there. She probably has a whole lot of lunch options. Oh, yeah. There's a lot to do over there. But she probably brings her own lunch. Yeah, she does. It's like what I talked to her yesterday. She's like, hey, what do you do? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. She goes, hey, what are you doing? She's, I'm making my lunch for the next couple of days. Yeah.  I hate Brussels sprouts and broccoli and all that stuff. My kind of lady. Do you think that it was hard on your relationship when you first started going over the road? Well, when I first started going over the road, I was single. Oh, okay. Yeah, I was single. How old is your daughter? You only have one daughter? Two. Two. How old are they? The one that lives here, she is 26. Because she went to ASU? Yes. And she's done now? Yep. And then the youngest one, she's 24. Wow. So they're adults. Where does the 24-year-old live? In Las Cruces. Oh, okay. That's a lot. I remember when your daughter here started going to ASU. Yeah. I remember when you took her to the orientation. Yeah. Yeah, I remember you telling you about it. That is crazy that it was that long ago. It's Lolo's chicken and waffles. Lolo's. We're not going there. It's not healthy. It's not on your diet plan. So you had one daughter. No, you had both daughters. By the time you started driving. Yes. I got into this industry. Yes. Was it hard to be away from them?   For most of it, you were... Yeah. And my oldest daughter, she would always, she would, because when I first started driving, I used to go everywhere. And she would keep a map in her room. And then when I called, she was like, where are you? And she would put like her little pens in. Oh, that's so cute. For that night, you give to guys that are just joining the industry, or guys that are thinking about joining the industry, kind of two sets of people. Well, it's like, you know, it's a stressful business.  It's got to be patient and, you know, just take it as it comes. Every week's not going to be a good week. Every day's just keep calm and just do the best you can. Truck on. Yeah. Just be patient. Yeah. And be patient, you know, and as long as you're patient, you'll be okay. Yeah. Just learn patience. Would you say, like, are there any personality types that you would recommend not to get into trekking? Well, it all depends. Because some people, you know, they get into it and they learn. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Or they have a heart attack. Every day is something new out here. Yeah. Every day is something new. You got to deal with traffic.  And every day is something new. I think a lot of people have a perception that it's a job where you don't have to engage with others that often. But you are. There's a difference as much as a waitress would. No. But still, there's a lot of different personality types too. Yeah, because you can go somewhere and that person is having a bad day. Yeah. And they take it out on you. Yeah. And you have nothing to do with it. But it's like, wow. It could be like that anywhere. I feel like learning how to deal with different personality types and learning how to deal with others that are not having the best day ever. Yeah. So, if you're in any single job that you have, it's just good to have it in life. I'll offer training. For the most part, it's easy, you know? Yeah.   Yeah. You know? What do you do when you're driving? Listen to serious exam. Music too? Yeah. Yeah. Listen to music, you know, talk radio. You know, see what's going on sports. Yeah. What about podcasts? No. What? Tour and kinds. Oh. Sometimes church podcasts, sometimes like stuff about weightlifting or food. Okay. A lot of times, I just put on some old-school music and just drive down the road and just dance on. Yeah. Yeah. Something that gives you power. Are there good speakers in here? In this one, I don't know, but mine does. Yeah. Did you change fancy? So. Does it have Bluetooth so it doesn't have to? Yes. Yes, it does. It has Bluetooth and all that in there, so. Do our our trucks have an auxiliary cord, right? They should, yeah. Like just the company ones? Yeah. They should. Yeah, they should all have one. If not, there's one right there. Yeah. Yes, sir? If Tiffany decided she wanted to drive a truck, would you be her trainer? Of course. Good driver. The question is do I trust him? No, you don't. She has lots of faces. Have you seen the video yet where she drives the simulator? Are you sure you trust him? No, I haven't seen the video. Have you driven the simulator? Yeah. Yeah, that thing that thing is wild.  Yeah. You're not expecting it like, yeah, the truck vibrates.  Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's not like when I'm actually behind the wheel and but no, that thing makes you feel kind of weird. Yeah. So when you're ready Did you get that face expression? Are you ready? My chair is shaking. I'm not ready. You're not ready for this. Really? I need to put my cell phone away. No texting and driving, Tiffany. That is bad. Do you want to see a break? So this is your clutch. You don't need that. We're going to automatic. Okay, good. So can you I'm just testing. Okay. So you ready? Hold on. I feel like my posture is not good. Oh, my seatbelts not on. Didn't you learn that in the last video? Yeah. You're here. I'm here to move your seat. Everybody, she wants her seat belt in the last video. Just so you know, I would never let that happen. Are you too straight up? No, it's good. That's good. I drive like an old lady. So right here and when you're ready to go hit that yellow and red. My trailer? Yep. And then push the yellow. Now you're ready. I'm not in drive. Yes, I am. Yep. I didn't put it in drive. I did. Oh. So right here, you're going to come up right here. You're going to make the right hand turn. Is that illegal? No, no, no. You want to follow both. So the truckers want to be in the outside lane because this would be the radio. Don't worry. There's not jams. Just trying to put on the best at 90 station.  What do you mean the simulator doesn't have hands and bump on it? Well then I just need to feel it out. Like how heavy is my load? Like can I stop quickly? Yeah, you're on the floor. You're fully loaded.  Yeah, you're fully loaded. So keep going up to this line and you're literally... Is there traffic in this line? Yeah, you're on the floor. You're fully loaded. Yeah, you're fully loaded. So keep going up to this line because there's traffic in this game. Oh yeah. Okay. Well then I need to put my turn signals. So when you get right here you're going to look down this way to see the ice. Look at that. I feel like I'm driving.  You're going to back your mirror on that side. Is it? I can't tell. Is it stuck? No, you're good. So you see traffic coming right here. The chair is responsive. Oh my gosh, this is so weird. You have to keep going until you can see sight right here. Like all of the lanes? Hold on, I think a grandma's walking on the sidewalk. Yeah, it's her. Is it good? Yeah, you want to turn your wheel now to the right. Already? Yeah, keep turning it. Now aim for this sidewalk. Like all the way right? Yeah. Now turn it back to the left a little. Keep going. Right, left. The trailer has a night logo. What was that? Jerk? I'm in all of the lanes until then. I'm taking up like three lanes. There's too many things to look at at one time. Oh, my turn signal's been on for an hour. That's fine. Where am I going? What's my route plan? Whatever you want. What city am I in right now? Red light was optional. I feel like I'm at Chuck E. Cheese. It's fine. Excuse me, I'm just going to Yeah, right. Are you kidding me? Oh, my gosh. This is making me want to vomit. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I can't. Oh, my gosh. Ew. It's like moving the chair. Oh, I'm getting sick. I want to crash. Can I see what will happen? Yeah. Go to the barn. Oh, I think she's already got two. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, I think she's already got two violations. Hold on. I'm texting and driving. Oh, no. Which way? Oh, it just put it just magically put me back on there. That's a really cold riker in your safety department. I'm trying to go, bro. If you've liked this episode, please subscribe to our channel and turn on post notifications.


In this lecture I shall be talking about basically covariances and some of their properties but then before that in order to introduce covariances I will start with some of the basics of statistics okay. Suppose x is a random variable taking values let us just say x1 to x1, x2, x3 etc infinitely many with probabilities p1, p2, p3 etc where naturally 0 is less than or summation p i is equal to 1 to infinity is equal to 1 then the mean of random variable mean of x which is denoted by expected value of x and this is equal to summation i is equal to 1 to infinity xi multiplied by p i this I suppose all of you know it okay then the variance of x which is expected value of this this is equal to so basically summation i is equal to 1 to infinity p i into xi-1. Here please look at it you should write here a value of x a value of x is xi-the mean-the mean the whole square the whole square expectation means this one multiplied by the corresponding probability so this one multiplied by the corresponding probability p i i is equal to 1 to infinity this is for discrete random variables but for continuous random variables here x is a random variable with probability density function probability density function say f then mean mean of x which is same as expected value of x which is equal to integral x fx dx integration over suppose x is a positive random variable that means for minus infinity to 0 the density is anyway 0 from 0 to infinity it is going to be positive okay so even if it is a positive random variable or even if it is not taking some values in this interval minus infinity plus infinity one can always write minus infinity plus infinity because the place where the random variable is not taking the values the corresponding density will be anyway 0 so I can always write minus infinity plus infinity then again the variance variance of x is equal to the formula is the same thing this is equal to integral x-okay now there are some nice properties what are the properties first this is whether you have a discrete random variable or you have a continuous random variable the properties that I am going to write they are always true what are the properties let me write down properties like this expected value of ax plus b is equal to this means we have a new random variable y which I am defining as a times the random variable x plus b where a and b are constants so the mean of this random variable e is a times the mean of the old random variable x plus b okay now to variance of ax plus b is equal to a square variance of x variance of ax plus b is equal to a square that means the b does not have any impact whatever b you take it does not matter it will be a square variance of x okay now now let us have this covariance so for covariance you need to have two random variables x and y okay and you also need to have a joint probability density function so there are two random variables x and y x and y are two random variables and you have the joint probability density function f x y then the covariance of x y is equal to basically expected value of this is equal to let me explain note that these small x's and small y's these are the values taken by the variable and the variables are represented by the capital letters capital X and capital Y and this thing expectation of x it is a constant value expectation of y this is a constant value so covariance of x y is expected value of x minus expectation of x into y minus expectation of y so this is like this this the product of x minus expectation of x into y minus expectation of y and you should write the density function because expectation you are taking and with respect to x and with respect to y dx dy and this is over the whole thing and you can have similar definition for discrete random variables also which I am not writing now well what will be covariance of x with x this will be right and this will be which is nothing but variance of x this is nothing but variance of x and there are some more formulas what are the formulas say covariance of let us just say x plus y with z is nothing but covariance of xz plus covariance of yz is this true why just apply this one expected value of x plus y minus so x plus y minus expected now expectation of x plus y is expectation of x plus expectation of y so minus is this and multiplied by z minus expectation of z so this is nothing but expectation of you see x minus expectation of x into z minus expectation of z then y minus expectation of y into z minus expectation of z so x with z and y with z expectation of plus expectation of so covariance of x plus y with z is equal to covariance of xz plus covariance of yz covariance of x with a constant what is that covariance of x with a constant is 0 again you apply the formula x- expectation of x constant is a constant is a the mean is also a-a is equal to 0 so multiplication of that thing is 0 so you are going to get 0 so covariance of x with a is 0 and covariance of ax plus b with cy plus d this will be first before that covariance of ax with y is equal to a times covariance x with y again you apply the formula ax means ax-a into expectation of x so a is going to come out so x- expectation of x into y-y expectation of y so covariance and a has come out so a times covariance xy and covariance of ax plus b with cy plus d is equal to a c covariance xy a times c covariance xy now suppose we have three variables let us just say we have three variables x1 x2 x3 okay and suppose x2 is equal to 2x1-1 x2 is equal to 2x1-1 okay now what is now this matrix let us just see covariance x1 x1 covariance x1 x2 covariance x1 x3 covariance x2 x1 covariance x2 x2 covariance x3 covariance x1 x1 is variance x1 covariance of x1 with x2 x2 is 2x1-1 so this will be two times variance x1 x1 with x1 is variance x1 x1 with x2 x2 is 2x1-1 so this with x1 so one times two times variance x1 and covariance x1 x3 let me just write it like this whatever it is there now covariance of x2 with x1 that is two times right and x2 with x2 this is four variance x1 and x2 with x3 x2 is 2x1-1 this will be two covariance and anyway there is a third row now what can you say about the first two rows dependent so what will happen to the determinant 0 the determinant value will be 0 so because of just this relationship what is what is happening whatever may be your covariance matrix if two variables are linearly related the rank of the matrix is going to be decreased and it will not have full rank it won't have full rank that you can very clearly see and the determinant will become 0 okay and the determinant will become 0 and I am not writing these things this is this will be covariance x1 x3 and what will be this this is two times this will be variance x3 it is not really important I am only interested in the first two rows I am only interested in the first two rows so if two variables have linear relationship it is going to affect the whole of the covariance matrix have you understood it now it is going to affect the whole of the covariance matrix so that as you can see the rank here these two are linearly dependent rows these two are linearly dependent rows so that the determinant is going to become 0. So you are forced to reduce you are forced to do feature selection in this case to make the determinant non-zero have you understood what I wanted to say if you get a matrix covariance matrix with determinant at 0 okay somehow you should find out which one is doing it or which one is making it so that that particular linear combination or whatever it is somehow you want to remove it so that you will make it the determinant non-zero somehow you have to find the largest minor for which determinant is non-zero largest minor you need to find out I hope you are understanding the terminology that I am using you understand the word minor you are supposed to find the largest minor and that will actually tell you the number of independent variables or it will actually tell you how much rank at most you can make it so you should remove the rest of the things somehow you should find them to be you should find those things and you should just remove them because those variables are going to act as noise any question please given this covariance matrix we can say which two variable are related feature which two features are related look at this one this variance x3 this is somehow not taking any part here so somehow x3 you should take it out you see you look at this 2 by 2 matrix this row you multiply by 2 you are going to get this look at this with this again this row you have to multiply it by 2 you will get it look at this with this this row you multiply by 2 you are going to get this this sort of thing you would not get if you are looking at this 4 variance x1 2 covariance x1 x3 2 covariance x1 x3 so you are supposed to get just to variance I mean covariance I mean this one you have non zero determinant probably this this this this also has non zero determinant are you understanding this this this this non zero determinant this this this this also non zero determinant but you have here zero determinant because this is this row if you multiply it by 2 you are going to get this so since these two are these two rows are dependent so here some variable should be removed on the other hand this this this this is non zero determinant this this this is also non zero determinant so here you should keep one variable and from here you should remove one variable so naturally the variable that you are going to keep is x3 the variable that you will be removing is something from here non linearly related no no no no no see all these things they are linear have I written anything for non linear if it is non linear have I made any statement about what may be happening no so about non linear relationship I am not I do not want to make any statement on this I am we are only looking at linearly linear case that dependency or independence they are also linearly independent or linearly dependent okay these vectors are said to be linearly independent that is the definition that we read similarly they are said to be linearly dependent if they are not linearly independent so I am not looking at the non linear part of it and if it is non linear how to go about doing it at least I mean I cannot make any statement using these things that is a real serious problem which people are really aware of it but they are not been able to find solutions acceptable to everyone okay they have not been able to find solutions acceptable to everyone I am only talking about linear case yeah now any doubt I can say that you find the largest minor or that largest square matrix with non zero determinant with non zero determinant saying it is easy but then you have to look at all those combinations which may be difficult okay but then the principle I I hope you have understood it if your variance covariance matrix has the value determinant as zero determinant value as zero somehow you should find out those variables which are causing this zero and you should remove them okay but how are you going to do it that I think the principles are clear to you but then you should act how are you going to implement it which are I mean you would like to implement it in such a way that it is feasible to implement it I mean you do not want to do an exhaustive search then which will make your life miserable that I think one should try to find out some methods for this it is not real I mean there are some things I think they are already existing in the literature the movement you have your covariance matrix has determinant zero okay there are some papers which you can find the literature about how to go about removing those features so that you would like to make it non-zero so this one I think I will stop here