#94. Listen First, Speak Second: David Frank's Mission to Heal Political Divides

Ever wonder how we might bridge the seemingly unbridgeable divides in our society? David Frank's journey from East Coast political science graduate to Humboldt County media advocate offers a roadmap worth exploring.

Growing up in a household where defending your opinions and understanding opposing perspectives was expected at the dinner table, Frank developed skills that would serve him throughout life. "My parents always expected us to be able to converse intelligently and defend our opinions and then kind of pivot to understand people that disagreed with us," he explains. This foundation in civil discourse shaped his approach to media and community engagement.

After arriving in Humboldt County in 2004 as a caregiver for a friend, Frank quickly put down roots, bartending at Plaza Grill and Abruzzi for over a decade before joining Internews, an international media nonprofit. His passion for policy analysis and community dialogue led him to host shows on KMUD and Access Humboldt, including "You Are Here" and "Redwood Wonk," where he explores local manifestations of national issues.

What makes Frank's perspective particularly valuable is his commitment to being a bridge-builder. As a former delegate to the California Democratic Party, he positioned himself as an observer of the schism between establishment and progressive wings, using his media platform to share insights with the community. Rather than stoking division, he focuses on creating spaces where people can listen to each other and work toward solutions.

Frank identifies three critical issues facing Humboldt County: healthcare access, climate-related concerns (including wildfire and insurance challenges), and broadband connectivity in rural areas. He advocates for community forums that bring together academics, policymakers, and residents to address these challenges collaboratively. "We can solve problems locally, we address problems locally, we lead by example as citizens here in our own community," he asserts.

Ready to join the conversation about building a more connected community? Follow Frank's shows and initiatives as he continues his mission to fight "the good fight" through civil discourse and community engagement. The path to healing our divisions might just start with a conversation in your own backyard.

Chapters

• 1:00 David Frank's Origin Story
• 9:28 Political Background and Media Journey
• 19:12 Redwood Wonk and Access Humboldt
• 25:02 Building Dialogue in Local Communities
• 34:35 The Quiz Show: Personal Reflections
• 46:33 Community Dialogues and Future Plans

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:30

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors and those out to see, it's Scott Hammond, and I'm with the 100% humble podcast with my new best friend, the man, the myth, the legend. I practice this all morning. Right on. David Frank. Hi, David.

SPEAKER_01: 0:45

Oh, Scott. Thanks for having me in here. This is a fantastic chance for us to uh get to know each other a little bit better.

SPEAKER_00: 0:51

I I'm looking forward to that. You know, um I practice that all morning. I've never done quite an intro like that. So consider yourself uh introduced. I'm feeling it. This is fantastic. Tell it so tell us the uh tell us the David story.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05

That's a softball and a half. Um okay. Well, I as you said you rehearsed it. I wasn't sure exactly how I was gonna dive right into this, and I just said I think it makes sense to say um originally uh although I was born um in New York City, I I lived most of my first few years in the Boston area. Um first grade, moved to uh New Jersey, Princeton area, stayed there through college, uh went to Rutgers University, which is just about 12 miles from where I'm from. Good school. It was great school. Is it I is it Ivy League? No, it's a state school. Okay. So interestingly, uh Princeton's right there too. They're about 12 miles apart. So there's this triangle. Correct, yeah. And so like my whole uh youth riding bikes uh uh up to 100 miles was in that whole area there. Um so yeah, so that's where I started off. I studied um, you know, political science and philosophy at Rutgers. Um one of the things I think is worth mentioning is in my life, I always as a kid uh would take, you know, any job that I could get to kind of you know, basically hustle, make a little bit of money, ingratiate myself to uh friends and neighbors. So like cleaning houses, babysitting, uh cutting firewood, working at a pet store, lifeguarding, helping people move, uh handing out political flyers. Um probably missing uh, you know, a dozen different things I did as a kid for for money, shovel snow, landscaping, you know, all sorts of things. Wow. Um so you know, my parents uh put a you know that work ethic in um with us and was raised Catholic. Um so there was a degree of you know morality at the kitchen table. Sure. Um one of the things that I think is interesting too is I heard that uh Maria Shriver, that she as when she was growing up, her father, Sergeant Shriver, used to put an article on the stairs when they got home from school and changed out of their school clothes, and they needed to be prepared to speak about that article. Wow. Something similar happened in my house, although I didn't know it uh that there was this parallel, uh, where my parents always expected us to be able to converse intelligently and defend our opinions and then kind of pivot to understand people that disagreed with us. So I mentioned this because it has set me up for life, really. Yeah to have that uh besides being a middle child anyway, um, just kind of always trying to learn people's perspectives, give them that steel man version of their argument instead of like a straw man where you break people down to like own them or you know, you know, prove them wrong or dumb or something. Right. Um I was always trying to build people up and get to the you know a a better understanding of where people were coming from. So um fast forward, I'd done tremendously diverse set of jobs too. Wasn't sure what I was gonna do. Um so for example, I worked at a survey research firm in Princeton for a while. Um I I worked um at that was called mathematical policy research. I worked at uh loose and technologies uh as a financial analyst there. Um so between survey research and financial analysis, those were a couple interesting careers uh paths. Um never really exactly knew what the future would hold. Um I always thought I was gonna go to law school. I like so I applied uh a few times. I took, sorry, I took the test, the admission test a few times, scored very well, but just didn't end up happening for whatever reason. Um yeah. And then so when I was between jobs at one point. Oh, and I worked for a law firm uh for a while, a big law firm in New Jersey, like a top, I think, five firm um legal assistant for a while, got to see super fun litigation, which is like toxic torts. Uh so I got to figure I got to learn that's not something I want to do, um, where you devote your whole, you know, all your being for months on end. And then people settle out of court and then no one could talk about it. Go away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was like, I'm not doing that. Um anyway, so when I was between jobs, a friend of mine um he became blind in an accident.

SPEAKER_02: 5:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 5:10

And um he his family paid for him to move out here. And they offered me, hey, you can you're between jobs. Why don't you just go spend some time out in California for a while? Um, basically Humboldt. Cooking in here in Humboldt, yeah. Oh, wow. Cooking, cleaning, kind of like being a friend. And that worked out pretty well for a while. How'd you get to Humboldt?

SPEAKER_00: 5:28

Just like that.

SPEAKER_01: 5:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:29

Also a caregiver.

SPEAKER_01: 5:31

Yeah. Uh I I uh loaded some things into a Honda Civic, um, gave away, sold the rest, put put uh some books in storage, and then uh made a go of it and uh loved it here. Loved it here. And uh within about a month of me uh getting here, I also connected actually my first meal with other people besides my friends from New Jersey uh was Thanksgiving of 04 after the election. And um they said, so what do you do? And I was like, Well, I have done anything and everything, and I'll I'll sure I'll hit the ground running. But beyond that, I also have bartended and catered in people's homes since I was 18 years old. And um, and so they said, Oh, we could hook you up with a bartending gig here. So I actually m met up with the folks um that own Plaza Grill and Abruzzi, the bigger company. Bill Chino. Bill Chino, exactly. And Chris Smith. Yeah. Don't forget Chris. Yeah. And they were awesome to me. They took me under their wing right away. Um, and I worked for them for over 10 years.

SPEAKER_00: 6:29

Aaron Powell I see Chris at church on occasion and always hug him and he he loves me.

SPEAKER_01: 6:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:34

Good people. Really good people. Nobody's funnier. When they were when they were funny and on their game, yeah. Up in the office at Tux Inc., yeah. I've never, never seen guys that just organically just have a hoot. Yeah. Totally hilarious.

SPEAKER_01: 6:47

Yeah. It's a big it was a good family to be uh welcomed into. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:50

Funny, I was just, you know, as you reflect on what people say, you you're kind of thinking your own version. I go, didn't have a job till I was like in high school. Uh totally not Catholic. Totally, you might say ne'er to well, and kind of kind of opposites. Yeah. Uh politically affiliated, we'll get there. Yeah. Very apolitical and very uninterested in in uh um in being uh informed. You know, that whole a thing, that whole thing uh I need to be informed and up to date. We'll get to that.

SPEAKER_01: 7:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:19

Uh tell me more. So that's what brought you to Humboldt. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:22

Cool. Um so you since you mentioned it, I'll just add this into the mix. Um, you know, studying political science and philosophy, social political theory. I also was interested in applied um, you know, uh political kind of analysis, polling, uh, because survey research from when I worked at Mathematica got me into I I guess a really interesting quote that I came across was one of our um uh census economists, econometric specialists, I think it was called like I forget his exact title, but uh he said, hey, it's the same math that when you hit a baseball, it goes out of a stadium. When you try to get a satellite up into orbit, uh the stars that pop out of a supernova, uh that same math is in polling. Wow. And so if uh if you if you follow APOR, the Association of Public Opinion Research, you follow their methodologies, um, there are scientifically valid um outcomes that you can either predict or describe. So um, you know, as you age and you get mature and you see you start to uh well be a little bit have a little bit more scrutiny about what media presents, right? You realize that you're it you're on your own to do your own research and uh you know assess things and and kind of double and triple check your assumptions because uh it's not easy to navigate um consensus building uh that happens in our political system.

SPEAKER_00: 8:45

I got three things I want to say. But first, I'm gonna say this. If you're just joining us, my new best friend David Frank becoming my new best friend and uh talking about his origin story, and uh we're gonna talk about uh your media uh journey. And then uh we're gonna retrograde just real quick to prop fifty is it fifty that Gavin Newsom was on TV on last night? That's right. That uh redistricting, we're not gonna redistrict. We're gonna oppose Trump's redistrict thing. I I see? Yeah. There you go. But so i are are would you be behind something like that?

SPEAKER_01: 9:21

Are we diving into that? You want to do that for right now?

SPEAKER_00: 9:24

Yeah, yeah. I want to go I want to go to the media first. But I I just see that last night, so I'm I know one prop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:31

I so I follow this stuff way too closely, and I and I kind of uh assess how deeply people want to go on any given political issue anywhere in the world. Because I people have a lot of opinions. Uh one of my friends used to say opinions are like noses, everybody has one. And you know, so the question is assessing where people are at, where you meet them where they are.

SPEAKER_00: 9:51

And so uh dad had a different version of that saying.

SPEAKER_01: 9:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet he did. Hey oh. Uh so we can talk about profit later, I guess that's who it said. But but it's an interesting one because it it challenges um assumptions about what ought to be and what is. Aaron Ross Powell Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 10:08

The other thing I really like about you already is that you remind me of my wife Joni, who's a listener and is is more moderate and accepting and listening to other opinions and processing and trying to get uh whatever truth looks like. You know, and and like you said, I think getting media that tells the truth is pretty challenging. I think I'm told BBC is pretty good, right?

SPEAKER_01: 10:30

I love BBC. I um I watch uh Deutsche Vela, the German news, BBC, uh uh I think it's called AF-24. It's the French news. Um I used to watch uh a little bit of Japanese news, but it it's not as uh relevant to my life. So I I and how much time do we really have? Aaron Ross Powell But BBC is kind of the king of uh uh international news, right? Yeah, BBC gets a ton of credit um for that, uh for its role. But I have to say, like just you know, in the last couple of years, I watch the German news more than I watch the British news, um, all things being equal. Aaron Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:06

So uh let's let's jump into media. So the then you uh were part of public access and you have your own K-MUD and then you have the Humboldt Wonk Show. Uh tell us about the the arc of that that's all come about.

SPEAKER_01: 11:17

Aaron Ross Powell So this is an interesting uh origin story. I never had any intention of um necessarily getting into media, but uh bartending um and catering in people's homes, you get the opportunity to hear a lot and listen a lot, especially in New Jersey, uh where I where I first started that those uh jobs. Um just a tremendous exposure to to uh really interesting ideas and thoughts and opinions and access ultimately. Because who who hires private bartenders in their house, right? It's not like you know, typically it's a select group, right? Um so so yeah, so I had uh tremendous experience there um listening and and navigating conversations where kind of, you know, as a chameleon, so to speak, fitting in with just about anybody. Um so I always that was always in the back of my mind. Here in um in Humboldt, I started working for well, I guess this is worth mentioning. Um I didn't have like a professional career while I was here in the beginning. I was bartending and catering. But I was encouraged by my my father for kind of, you know, as he was basically on his deathbed, like, hey, you gotta you can't just like go camping and hang out and level up here, but you gotta go back to like adding adding to the world because you've got gifts and add add to the world. It's a responsibility. Good father word. It was it was cool. Yeah. So so I looked all over, you know, um DC, New York, Seattle, Portland, LA. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do. And then something came up here, thankfully, uh at Internews, which I hadn't heard of that organization before. It's a media international media nonprofit, and it was a really good fit. Um I started working there. And over the course of I ended up working there for just over 10 years until very recently. Um but uh over the course of that period, I was exposed to friends of mine that worked down at Kmud. Um and they had said, like, hey, you gotta you gotta try to you you you'd be great to host a show. You should have a show. Aaron Powell Is that how you met Eric? Uh yeah. Yeah, I met Eric through them. Yes, exactly. Aaron Powell Because he was on the air as well down there, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um all things reconsidered on like I forget which day of the month. That's a it doesn't matter. Like I don't know his schedule. But yeah, so I I I met him there. But basically I did a pilot show where I um took Noam Chomsky's like manufacturing consent and and said, if I had a show, it would be about how you know media has its own uh profit-driven motivations and there's agenda setting and there's uh this overton window of things that are polite to talk about in society, versus um if you really want to uh affect policy in a way that is transformative, maybe local media would be the most appropriate place. Community media would be the most appropriate place because you can do face-to-face things like this. Right. And you don't have a a reason to fight, um, you have a reason to reconcile. Motivations are a little bit more clear. Yeah, yeah. So so then so they they gave me like a pilot show and they're like, this is great, you have a show. Uh so I've been doing that for 10 years almost. Wow. Um and then so that kind of um led to one of my colleagues at internews um as uh she's a delegate to the Democratic Party, and she mentioned that, hey, there's this intriguing relationship inside the Democratic Party. Uh about two out of three voters in California are Democrats. So they have a oversized influence on just about everything in the state. And within that team, this schism exists between establishment people that are, you know, more uh traditional corporate interests, so to speak, um, versus like this sort of newer rising force for change, the Bernie Sanders wing, this progressive wing, and like covering that. Like if you just pay attention to this schism, um, you'll learn a lot about what's happening here. There's news there. Exactly. So so yeah, so that so almost simultaneously I got involved in community media and also being a fly on the wall in the Democratic Party. Uh Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 15:27

So that your world's your world's and your interests crashed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:30

In a good way. Yeah. And these are hobbies, right? Like I'm not out to, you know, do at the time I thought this was just a a pastime, but but you know, something I'm really interested in. Aaron Powell Perfect stuff storm. Worlds collide. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:41

In a good way. So here we go. So did you go to SAC a lot?

SPEAKER_01: 15:45

No, no. This was all um I started, so I ended up getting asked to become a delegate. Um I said, I'm a non-party affiliated person. I I you know I have a deep criticisms of of the entirety of both parties. And uh probably you don't want me to be a member of your party. Um but she's yeah, my friend said, no, you're you're you're a good fit. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: You're the right answer.

SPEAKER_00: 16:09

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: You should do it.

SPEAKER_01: 16:10

You should do it.

SPEAKER_00: 16:11

Yeah. So what does a delegate do? Let's back it up to say what's the role of a delegate from Humboldt County Aaron Powell.

SPEAKER_01: 16:18

Basically, so there's about 3,000 delegates to the party at the state level, approximately. Um about a third are you know elected officials, about a third are um appointed by those elected officials, and about a third get elected by the community. Aaron Powell That's you. That's me. Yeah. Uh except that was my me for two terms. Uh so two two-year terms I got elected as a member of the community. But this past year, um, the slate I was on was marginalized, um, and we could get into that. But uh, we lost in fair and square. And um, but I was appointed by um our assembly member, Chris Rogers. I had developed a relationship with him. Um just based on my involvement with fairly newly elected, right? Yeah, he just got elected. Yeah. He's from where? So Mendo or Sunday. Um yeah. He's from uh I think he's actually maybe he's from Oh my God. Um so my friend is actually from Ukaya, who I met him through. Um Chris is, I think, Healdsburg. Oh no, he was mayor of Santa Rosa. He was City Council of Santa Rosa. Shout out to Chris. Shout out to Chris. Yeah, he'll see this. Yeah. He and I've spoken to him recently. I before he even appointed me. Um he's like, Oh, you're super into the policy thing and like you want to make things better. Like I got you. Like we're we're we're you know, we we're on the same page. So yeah, the my I requested. I said, hey, I lost the election, but I still want to be involved. And so he appointed me. Wow.

unknown: 17:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 17:44

But so what do they do? Um so delegates go to conventions and they are involved in the bylaws and policy. Policy, the platform, um, endorsements, which which candidates the party's going to support with their funds and their efforts. Um my take on it was just to be in the room and see how the sausage gets made, um, what's being talked about and when and how it's going to affect our community, and like through the radio show on K-MUD, um be able to share what I learn and see with the community and like maybe bring in experts uh to talk about the things that are going on.

SPEAKER_00: 18:17

Aaron Powell So do you have is is there any sort of um uh conflict of interest to you could talk about the stuff that they talk uh within reason in the media? Because you're a media person?

SPEAKER_01: 18:29

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah. So um so you um I I got hung up on the word conflict of interest. So what I would say is you always have to w walk a tightrope. Yeah. Because there's confidentiality in in all sorts of like you know, when I worked at interviews, I was in human resources. It's almost all confidential. Totally. Um So the idea is that you just kind of have to navigate the water as best you can. And um yeah, you're in the room sometimes when people are saying things like, This is what we're planning on doing, it doesn't leave this room. Um but for the most part, um I'm I'm able to stay ahead of that just through um being a good faith actor.

SPEAKER_00: 19:04

Good. And that you are. I uh So tell me more. So th then you have the show on Access TV. Yeah, how old is Humboldt Gronk?

SPEAKER_01: 19:12

Uh so it's called Redwood Wonk. I'm sorry, that's okay. And wonk is just a word that means nerd.

SPEAKER_00: 19:18

It is it is Yeah, it's like it's like a policy nerd. So here comes AI. Yeah. Humboldt wonk show. Redwood wonk. It was called Redwood Wonk, yeah. So okay, so AI, you're fired. So what else does it say? Born in Mexico. No, I'm kidding. Um I thought you were serious when you said that at first. I'm like, no, it was not Mexican. No, Jersey is not Mexican. Tell me more about uh the show. I've I've seen you guys a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 19:42

Yeah. Okay. So we didn't talk much about Access Humble. The way I got involved with Access Humble was um Internews as an international media nonprofit. Um, one of the tools that they use in communities is called the information ecosystem assessment. And basically you interview people and you figure out, hey, where do you get your information from? What if there was something you don't have access to, what would that be? And how would we possibly get it to you? And it's uh it's more complicated than that. But the idea is that you're just taking the pulse of a community. So because Internews was founded in Arcata in California about 40 or so years ago, um, there was an arrangement that was made between X as Humboldt mo more recently to use that tool right before COVID. Um, like, hey, what's with the information that people are getting in here in Eureka and and um you know what are some of the gaps and that's that kind of thing. Aaron Powell So Eureka or the county totally. It was Eureka only.

SPEAKER_00: 20:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 20:42

Yeah. Yeah. Valuable tool, I bet. Aaron Powell, it was pretty cool. Yeah. They were using that as part of their strategic planning for the future, basically. That was what it was. Um because one of the one of my former colleagues at Internews um brought this tool to the table for for Axis uh Humble. Um and so that got me like in the loop with the Access Humble community. And then um first I was invited to host a show called North Coast Journal Preview. Yeah, shout out to Thad and Jennifer. Like, you know, is Thad leaving? Is that what I heard? He did, yeah. He's gone. Yeah, he's working for like a uh a First Amendment um firm whose name's escaping me. But he's really, he's really I think he's working with some Pulitzer Prize winners. Aaron Powell Hey, do you think I could get Jennifer on the show?

SPEAKER_00: 21:27

I don't know. You could ask. He said no once. Oh. You know what no means to a salesperson? No means maybe later.

SPEAKER_01: 21:33

Aaron Powell means not yet. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I I mean I love the two of them. They're they're just uh I worked with them. We did over 200 shows together.

SPEAKER_00: 21:41

So you were part of the the the dialogue or were we just I was the host. You were the host.

SPEAKER_01: 21:45

So you were intro and then we would cover what basically I said where we talk about what's covered, being covered in this week's North Coast Journal. Um so it kept me really up on local news, which was great because I needed that. Um I pay attention to international news, I pay attention to national news, even somewhat state news at the time, but very little local, and then they got me really dialed in. So that that was very helpful, that experience. And the relationships I think are lifelong because they're both amazing people. Um and so then they also asked me once to the the organization said, Hey, why don't you um help co-host uh Eric Kirk's show, uh Redwood Wonk, which is national news. And so that was ongoing already. That was up and running. Yeah. Um I don't know his name. There was a there was a host, Rogers uh from ByCoastal Media. I forgot his first name. Um but uh yeah, so that person couldn't do it anymore, and I and I took over temporarily, and that was probably like I don't know, 200 shows ago. I stepped away. I stepped away recently um and have only put my toe back in the water to go back, but I'm part of that production team too. And that's a weekly show. Aaron Powell It's a great ri reporte. Me and Eric, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we brought in um because you you and Jen. And Eric. We brought in um uh Matthew Dowd from Matthew in the Middle from Time Standard. I don't know if you know that. Matthew Owen. Owen, sorry.

SPEAKER_00: 23:10

Yeah. That's right. Owen's on the show now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:12

Hey Matt Owen, what's up?

SPEAKER_00: 23:13

Yeah. He's been on the show.

SPEAKER_01: 23:14

Yeah. He's a good dude. And they've been uh him and Eric have been holding things down and doing a fantastic job. And uh they've been really uh accommodating in my uh delay and trying to get back into it.

SPEAKER_00: 23:24

Aaron Powell And Matt's kind of uh like a singular sense of humor. I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:28

It's hysterical. So we did one show together, just the two of us, uh, when I got back after I broke my ankle. And um he is hysterical. It's to the point where like it's very different than Eric. Because Eric's a lawyer and progressive and has a strong opinion about just about everything and very knowledgeable, um, but like it's pretty serious to a certain extent. I don't see Eric laughing a lot of the time. Right. He doesn't really laugh. But Matt, on the other hand, everything like because laughter's the best medicine, right? If I think so. If the world is uh a cluster or foobar in some way, um you gotta satire is the antidote.

SPEAKER_00: 24:05

That's right. A chortle, a gaffaw. Yeah. Uh a tee hee-hee.

SPEAKER_01: 24:09

Yeah. Which is cool because some of this stuff is dry or boring, or how does it how does it affect my life? Um so I I've always like tried to s help boil things down for folks in a way that's somewhat enjoyable. But but you know, Matt takes to the next level. He's actually highly entertaining.

SPEAKER_00: 24:26

So you made segue to my first ever really good question. Are you ready? Let's hear it. So if you're like me and you're you're going national news is way above my pay grade, state news is I'm out of my lane, but I but I know that I affect things locally. I because I live here. I I hang out with people here. I love I love people here. That's my community.

SPEAKER_02: 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:49

How do I uh appropriately process uh the bigger picture and and bring it in home and bring it down home? And and that's my two dollar question. How can I how can I bring that concern, that love, that care, that energy that I would like to fix DC or I'd like to fix Gaza but and I can't? How do I bring that here on on the daily? Yeah, or how how do you do that?

SPEAKER_01: 25:15

Good question. So there's there's a two-parter for me. One is like how I would say uh you know, directed towards other people and their activities and what interests them. And then there's me, because I have my own sort of path and my own um interest and to a lack of a lack of a better way to say it, you know, um passions, right? So like I actually love this stuff. So I for me, uh it's very different than how I would you know make recommendations to other folks. But um firstly, just kind of big picture. This is you know, we're not talking about the future yet, but this is where I intend to spend a lot of energy um going forward for the next year or two, which is in humbled or in the top. In humbled. No, in humbled, like w answering that question. So in other words, I don't know for sure that I have all the answers. Of course I don't. Um, but like I want to learn and I want to learn with everybody around here because we gotta do it. Um there's just so much division, right? And so much one of the things I used to say is um um that uh apathy is rational. So if you see something that is just affecting your health or or worse, right? Like just just bringing you down in in the media, um, people stop looking. And I think that's a rational self-preservation mechanism. And so that makes sense to me. Um but then you know, when you do decide you want to make a difference, I think local makes the most sense. And so let's just say, like, you know, as a delegate, I as a placeholder, I thought, well, there's some there's three things I think worth paying attention to right now when I just run into people in the street, learning more about healthcare, their interactions with healthcare, um, learning uh about their interactions with, say, you know, climate, wildfire, insurance. That's like the insurance. That's a big thing for a lot of people. Like when you talk to you know certain folks, they're like, I don't really have the first interest in the world about climate. But then you say, well, what about um power and water and fire and insurance and insurance? Yeah, yeah. So so it brings it down to to the to the base level. And then finally, um just I think um you know broadband media to remote rural areas and getting everybody connected. Um, because I think that there's this gap of uh not everybody realizes that not everybody can work remotely, you know, take classes online, get medical information through telemed, um, all the things and and a million things more. Aaron Powell That we take for granted.

SPEAKER_00: 27:50

Aaron Powell Is there still a big gap? There really is. Yeah. Like it's not just an Appalachia. Aaron Powell No, it's here. Yeah. Yeah. I would imagine. Yeah. I mean Trinity Valley. You know, I'm a Trinity, I would assume that's tough.

SPEAKER_01: 28:03

Yeah. And uh without getting super into the weeds on it, just to say like this and others, right? There are things like this that hit home. Um and we're we're not going down this road, but certainly during COVID, people suddenly everything was on our front door. And and we were intimately connected with decisions made in Sacramento and decisions made in Washington, D.C. But it really to me reverts back to how do we engage your original question? And that is we can, I think we solve problems locally, we address problems locally, we lead by example as citizens here in our own community, and then we see how that um bumps up against larger forces, whether it's um information, uh you know, resources, money, power, however we're bumping into the things that are constraining our own um ability to thrive as individuals, families, and communities. Aaron Powell To your point, we've got to start talking. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 29:00

Because we're not gonna do any of that until we got a dialogue absolutely. A civil, respectful, beyond that listening dialogue. 100 percent. Yeah. And I I I wonder what format that'll take.

SPEAKER_01: 29:13

And this is my jam, right? This is what I'm throwing myself into it. Yeah. So I was recently with family members I hadn't seen in a while, and and I just I don't know how it came up, you know, good talking about good times in the old country. Uh you know, I played football as a kid, uh varsity for three years. I wrestled some as a kid. And I, you know, I I can take it, whatever it is, like uh you pick yourself back up. You know, I I was in scouts and I backpacked and climbed mountains. You had a big brother that beat on you. Big brother keeps you honest, right? Having three brothers, actually, you know, that triangulation of uh hardening your outer shell, strengthening your inner core, all that stuff. Mental toughness. Absolutely. Oh well, my dad was a jump school instructor in special forces, too. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well that's right. You said that once. Yeah. So that actually really helps a lot. Yeah. You know, that whole army of one thing. Trevor Burrus, Jr. He was a badass. Totally. Yeah. Absolutely. 100%. And and um I often say, like, my friends would say, oh, these are the strictest parents in the in the community. But like I looking backwards, I benefited from it in a big way, kept me from, you know, getting outside of my bounds or bridges and understanding, you know, core core values, integrity, um, hard work, and that that kind of stuff. But anyway, so back to like media, how this is going to play out. Um I don't mind being in the middle of it. Um Um and and s trying to get to the bottom of things where people are going to disagree with me um you know harshly and and and worse. Now I I know that uh I'm not asking for trouble. There's a lot of trouble out there, but I am asking to engage with people who are different motivation.

SPEAKER_00: 30:47

Yeah. Whereas Matthew's been in the middle for a long time. Matt Owen, hey, what's up, Matt? Yeah. And he's uh probably got a lot of heat. He's he's shared as much. Yeah. Writing for the time standard and then for who did did he was he loco or is he still?

SPEAKER_01: 30:59

Oh, I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 31:00

I think he writes for I should know that Matt, sorry.

SPEAKER_01: 31:03

Yeah.

unknown: 31:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 31:04

But but so you asked, like, well, like what what what is it gonna take? Um and and I think that we do need we do need community forums where we um have some g basic guidelines about what civil discourse looks like and um good faith conversations about you know on my show. My show is called uh You Are Here, where we talk about where we are, where we want to be, and how we get there. K Mud Show. Kmud Show.

SPEAKER_00: 31:30

So this is call in or just live.

SPEAKER_01: 31:32

People call in, yeah. It's uh it's it's part of the one-hour format there uh for public affairs shows that you do have a call-in component, and so it varies depending on the particular week. Through Zoom as well. Yeah. So we do it by we do it by Zoom. We we you know, people call in um besides our guests, or or like sometimes we'll have more than one guest and we'll give people the number so they can call in and be part of it too. Um if you sometimes they're prerecorded, so you can't do that. But but yeah, I I think something, you know, community media is the is a great starting place. And then I think we need to like step it up a a notch too to take advantage of we've got some really brilliant people in our community. We've got hardworking people, thoughtful people. Sure. Um but we've also got like this uh sort of you know younger wave of folks who just wonder how everything got so broken. Um and so when you're in the middle of it, you know, I'm I'm I just turned 54. So I I I think things evolve very slowly. And so I try to take I usually take the long view, but I I know a lot of younger folks, they're they're just, you know, they're not willing to wait. Yeah. Uh or at least that's their current, you know, rightfully so. Maybe all young people think this until you get a little bit older. And I so I think that that's you know, uh we should channel that energy a little bit um to to kind of get more, more voices um on the phone. I like that. Yeah. It's just I think we'll we'll all benefit from it.

SPEAKER_00: 32:53

I had a 21-year-old come in the other night, my son Micah. Hey dad, my generation's broke, man. I I can't escape the stuff I'm reading on on my on this device. Yeah. And he goes, and you know, he he he cusses a lot. So he said, it's really messed up. So he goes, he goes, I'm thinking about Jesus again. I go, okay, what do you mean? He goes, Yeah, where can I start reading besides Genesis? I said, well, try Romans or John or first John. He goes, okay, Dad. I said, you know, and I thought, what I've been telling you this for 21 years, bro.

SPEAKER_01: 33:32

So anyway, well we need the ballast, not to not to interrupt you, but we need we need ballast and however we get it. Um because uh in a in a you know there's storms.

SPEAKER_00: 33:43

Oh, uh maybe we're just getting started. I mean, that's scary thought, but okay. Yeah. Uh hey, let's do the quiz show and take a break on this um and find out a little bit more about your impromptu skills. All right.

SPEAKER_01: 33:56

And I even hold on before you hit it, I even asked you if there was any that you're like, no, there's not.

SPEAKER_00: 34:00

No, no, I I lied. But it's okay. Let's go. We're friends. Let's go for it. All right. So, question number one. Oh, by the way, the big prize. Sponsor of the show, Dutch Brothers. Dutch Brothers Coffee, invented in Grants Pass, Oregon, probably in the 70s, by a couple of guys that were Dutch. And they were brothers. Could you figure? I believe they're on every corner of the street, I think, in Medford. And we have three locations. Jill is local manager. She's fabulous. We love her. And um go get you at Dutch Brothers, but you haven't won yours yet, so we'll we'll see about you. Let's do it. Let's set that right here. So keep an eye on it. Are you ready? Question number one David Frank for all the Dutch in the world. What's your best day? What happened on your one of your best days in your life? Interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 34:49

Um let me start off by saying, you know, when you turn on the an LG TV, it says life's good. Uh-huh. Um, there have been obviously dark days, um, but overall, um really lucky. And I and I thank my parents uh for for all of it. Um even though life was very hard. Are they still living? Yeah. Oh, my dad passed, but my mom's still living. I just visited her. That's why I said yes so fast.

SPEAKER_02: 35:13

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_01: 35:14

Um but so best day. Oh my goodness. Um Wow. I mean, I guess I I wish I wish it wasn't so trite um necessarily. But trite, it could be trite here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:30

But it's a trite-friendly zone.

SPEAKER_01: 35:33

Yeah. I um so working at Internews, um, one of the roles that I had, I I got hired, like say uh whatever the exact day was, like November 26th of uh 2012. And then um the following week, uh I was hosting their orientation. So a group of about 20 people fly in from all over the world, and we do the training. And and um my boss at the time said, you know, make it make it your own. Um, you're the these are your people now. And I'd been there like a bit, I was a temp for a little bit, but basically I was there a week. And they're just like, you know, these are your people now. Do it. This is your family, do it. So I so I just put together a program for the week where we went to different restaurants, we went to different bars, we hiked the coast, we hiked the Redwoods. That's great. And and um, so that's over, you know, people come on say a Sunday and they leave on a Saturday. So, so the approximately, right? So that Friday night um with some brilliant people from all over the world, very kind and thoughtful folks. Um I basically knew um after spending a week with them that this works, right? If you get, if you get um thoughtful people together um in the workplace and in private and in, you know, in in the woods, um, you could actually forge uh bonds, the cohort of bonds. Right. And um, and to me, uh the the fact that the company trusted me after a week to do my own thing. Of course they did. Um but then also like fast forward, it perpetuated for the entirety of the time I was there almost until COVID.

SPEAKER_00: 37:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 37:12

And um, and so this is a long way of saying. Um, we had an event in DC called the Gig, the Global Internews Gathering. And they asked me to MC an event. And so I looked through the list of all the attendees, and I don't remember the exact number, but and then I compared that list to the all the cohorts that have ever been through Arcata for their orientation training. And it ended up being like, I think, you know, 75% of the people in the room. That's cool. We've broken bread here, we've had heart to hearts, we've hiked. And and and so I was like, that that I think that feeling that day was like, this is, you know, nice. There's a world community here.

SPEAKER_00: 37:51

Connection, relationship.

SPEAKER_01: 37:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:53

Yeah. I love that. Good answer. Question number two. Worst day of your life.

SPEAKER_01: 37:59

Uh worst day. Um so there's the again, uh there's probably a bunch, but uh, you know, you don't you never want to lose your first job. Right. Uh so uh Oh, you lost one too? I yeah. Weird. Uh the the job that I lost that really like hit me pretty hard, I think, was um at school at college at Rutgers. Um I kind of was, I don't know, too big for my britches or something. And just kind of like showed up at work one day, I don't know, like 10 minutes late or something. And the boss was not happy. Wow. And I was, I guess, a little too smug, a little too dismissive. Like, what's the big deal? It's 10 minutes. That's cool, man. They're like That's good. Yeah. And I knew better, right? Because I was raised not to be that person. Um but then they were like, Yeah, you can just go. You can go home now, you're done. Yeah, we'll have a check for you. And I was like, What? Wait, what? Wait, this is happening? Like, this has never happened to me before. Rejection, man.

SPEAKER_00: 39:00

It's hard.

SPEAKER_01: 39:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:01

It's hard, man. Uh days of tears. Um question number three. Oops. I'll do three. There. I should ring three bells every time there's a three number three question. So um who are you and what do you want? It's a double question. Who are you? And David, what do you want?

SPEAKER_01: 39:26

Um so I am a advocacy advocate, facilitator, confidant, friend, and um source of strength and empathy, I think. Trying to be. Nice. Um, and and what do I want? Um, I want to be able to build bridges where I don't see them and step up and identify the vacuums of leadership that we've got. Because I'm not patting myself on the back that I'm a leader or that I even know what needs to be done or how to do it. But someone's got to do better. And I just don't see it anywhere, uh, anytime, uh, for the most part. And and I and I'm overstating that case because there's great people out there. Yeah. But uh but just realistically, like if we had um like we talked about a couple minutes ago, if we had a place where we could um uh in good faith, uh adjudicate the things that need it. Um so like like for example, when we talk to uh Frankie Myers, the vice chair of the Euroc tribe, he describes how in his community no one gets left behind ever. Um so restorative justice, uh the idea is that uh, you know, uh true leadership is figuring out how to accommodate all those obstacles on behalf of you know everyone. And I know that's like ridiculous. It's like this is utopian, but it's not utopian. It's if you set it up right, you at least have a chance.

SPEAKER_00: 41:05

Got a shot at it.

SPEAKER_01: 41:06

Yeah. So I'd like to be that guy that kind of helps us figure out how we start, you know, get there.

SPEAKER_00: 41:12

Love it. That great answers. Last question for all the coffee on this card. What do you find fulfilling? And what do you find sucks your soul dry and soul crushing?

SPEAKER_01: 41:28

This one's a little easier than the others. Yeah. Uh I wanted to add on a good easy note. Yeah. So fulfilling, I absolutely love um hiking and backpacking. And you know, being here in California, we've got the Sierras. Oh, yeah. And, you know, not just Yosemite, but the whole, the whole range. Um and and then also even the Pacific Rush Trail that goes up into our community here. I was gonna ask about that.

SPEAKER_00: 41:48

Have you done the trail?

SPEAKER_01: 41:50

Um just different segments of it. So we've got the Trinity Alps here, um, real close. Uh and you know, not to differentiate between, say, you know, Sequoia or or or Trinity or Russians or marbles, like any, you know, point is um I love that it's just one foot after the next. Um there's no, there's nothing. It's you and and your goal. And it's the top, right? So like the day I went to the uh the high Sierra Trail to the Sierra Divide, where you get to the middle and then you you know you're you're halfway to the other side, like getting to the top of the Trevor Burrus, where's that at? Where is is it? Um it's down in Sequoia. Um so it's close to um Mount Whitney. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 42:33

So it's the halfway point between East and West. Oh, east and west. Okay. It's not halfway between the trail and the Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01: 42:41

Yeah. So so like that's to me, that like I absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_00: 42:45

The Sierra Divide.

SPEAKER_01: 42:46

Yeah. Just get get into the you know, you pass this uh rock formation called Valhalla. Um so so you you know, you just you're there and there's just it's it's like uh what's the word? You become one with the universe and you've got nowhere to hide, so to speak. Good ones. Absolutely love that. I'm working on that one.

unknown: 43:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 43:05

And so what was the other one, the negative?

SPEAKER_00: 43:06

Yeah. What's what crushes your soul?

SPEAKER_01: 43:08

So I've had this experience recently. Um you too? Yeah. So so whether it's um, you know, I learn from my friends um around the world about the different conflicts that they face and how do they even talk about it. And and so I try to share some of that with friends here. And so whatever problem it happens to be, um, I'm just gonna pick one, right? So just talking about um, say, for example, like the ice raids that are sweeping through um communities. And for whatever reason, like we don't have to get into any of the specifics other than to say, I think we need to do better than we're doing if if we have goals, if we have policy goals about normalizing people's status here, we ought to treat it holistically as opposed to more um in a martial way, um, force, blunt force. Um, you know, people used to say if if every if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. I think that's what appears to be happening. Um, so what really gets to me is trying to start these conversations and realizing what crushes my soul is that we just can't even agree on what's A, what's B, what's C, right? So you try to use logic and reasoning where it's like, you know, if A, then B, if B then C. It's A, so C, right? That's like that's like logic. It's like a basic one on one. Try to get people to start talking about how we can come to terms with complex things. The problem with that, what's crushing to my soul is that we don't agree on A or B or C. There's no there's no logic, there's no rationality when we can't even like look at the same word and understand what it means, or look at the same phenomena and understand what it is. Um, we're just, you know, we're we're devolving when it comes to civility and discourse.

SPEAKER_00: 45:00

It's kind of weird. I mean, it almost has a component of a real what I would call darkness to it.

SPEAKER_01: 45:06

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 45:07

It's just it's like that's this is not how it should or was will was or no um yeah, bizarre and weird. Well, on that positive note, um, by the way, you've won a Dutch Brothers card. Right on there. Well done. This you could take this with you. This is free.

SPEAKER_01: 45:25

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 45:26

You're going, yeah, thanks so much. That's cool. Now I got good coffee coming my way. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Yeah. Say hi to Jill. The um no, uh good, good, good answers. Um, that one almost made me want to be your friend for a minute. It's like, hey, I'm a connecting, encouraging guy. I'm going, yeah, kind of that's kind of my kind of people. All right on. Yeah, no. That's I lovely answers. Um let me check the time real quick. Okay. Anything you specifically wanted to come on the show and talk about for a sec that maybe you had in mind that talking point? I've I've actually never asked that, so I'm I'm trusting you to come up with like one really uh anything particular on your mind today?

SPEAKER_01: 46:04

Um well, I think we touched upon it, and and it's like what I what my next steps are, you know, for the you know, enhancing these dialogues, enhancing these conversations, and really trying to get out in front of it. I I'm kind of gonna put a little plug-in for um I had conversations with uh with some people both at Cal Poly Humboldt and um you know within the the state legislature and bounced off them um that I really think would be a great idea to start um you know community dialogues where we can say, for example, these are things that you guys are working on up at Cal Poly Humboldt and CR, College of the Redwoods, these are things you guys are working on. Yeah. Faculty and students, why don't you share some of that with the community? So we we just I like the idea of giving them that's great, giving them, you know, a platform to develop their their skills. And uh, you know, everybody benefits, whether it's whether it's you as a person or whether it's you know your employer or the people that your job or your company are actually interacting with. If you get practice explaining to people, you know, public speaking, presenting, you know, what with your project or your thesis or your passion, um, it's mutually beneficial to everyone involved. And as a as a consequence, people like that are very busy and maybe aren't gonna investigate what's this stuff on their own. They have a they can just check in and be like, oh, what what is happening at the community, you know, whether again, Cal Poly or CR or even in the assembly or the Senate, uh, what's going on in in Sacramento that you guys are working on, but then bring it home to people, right? So use this solutions journalism framework to then say, um, well, we've got this issue that we're trying to work out. We've got needs, interests, vision. How is Sacramento either blocking it or helping us? How is the academia either blocking it or helping us? And uh and I think that that's to me, that's like a it's an enrichment project. That's something that I'm got my eye on trying to try to have a video component to that?

SPEAKER_00: 48:06

Absolutely. Aaron Powell And a web component. So I think the three H's, you know, homelessness, housing, and health. I mean, those are Yeah. I mean, those are maybe too low-hanging. No, no. Maybe those are too obvious. But yeah, I I love that. And let's let's open up the dialogue. They're critically important that we deal with them. Yeah. How could we support Betty Chin?

SPEAKER_01: 48:25

Exactly. I just mentioned her name um when I was in Rhode Island actually recently. Um I said, you know, I I I interviewed Betty Chin and I asked her about like why, you know, if because what you're doing is so successful, you're such a positive role model that people come from all over the world. Many, you know, people come from LA and San Francisco to learn what you're doing and how you're doing it because her success rate, you know, it's been a while since I interviewed her, but in effect, it's like nine out of ten people. And she basically says, She's amazing. You just, you know, you refrain from drugs, alcohol, violence, and you work. You show up at work. You go to work. She finds a job with different um, you know, com companies in the community who commit to this project and they give you get a living wage. And she says, you know, at the at the end of three months, you'll have saved enough money to get your own apartment. I think it's like nine out of ten people successfully go through her program. They go from the street to their feet. Like 90%. Wow. And so I asked, like, how why is it that, you know, we have so much homelessness here still, and that people around the world haven't really embraced exactly what you're doing. But she said the number one problem is that it's really hard to find people that are capable of being the kind of the coordinators who it's easy to be someone's friend. It's hard to be their chaperone on a journey from the street to the feet. Yeah. And and just to to have that perfectly balanced set of supports and encouragement. And we don't pay for stuff like that usually. Yeah. Like that that that's training people to have that role would would be an amazing uh This is just one example. Just one example.

SPEAKER_00: 50:12

She's a sweetheart, yeah. Goes on three or four hours of sleep every night. I go, aren't you ever in danger? She goes, No, I'm not. She's like, never been accosted or anything. Right. It's like I'm going, okay, cool. Hey, so as we wrap here, what would you like us to say at your uh celebration of life? When when you go, uh the words said the inscription on your tombstone. Uh how do you how do you think that plays, or how would you like it to play?

SPEAKER_01: 50:36

So I I had never thought of this before. But but I have to preface this by saying, um, my father used to tell me all the time that he thought on his tombstone it should say, Lord, I was born unto this earth, met its people, and damn was I disappointed. And so that was his way of saying, like, man, you all are just like and he would also say uh You people. He would also say, uh, if uh if you guys are the future leaders of America, I'm buying Russian war bonds. Nice. This is a long time ago. Um as a way, you know, it's it's it's obviously tongue-in-cheek, you know, it's it's it's comical, but uh but I I I'd like to I'd like to be um the one one of the people who uh is able to um diminish that that sense of discouragement, disappointment. Disappointment, despair. Yeah. Um I you you hear in our country that despair is so pervasive that it's devastated uh, you know, the majority of the rural communities in our country. Um the fact that no one really is uh very limited amount of attention is being paid to like how do we marshal the forces to hit this head on uh collaboratively. I don't know what the what the pithy phrase would be, but but the idea is that like, you know, just being recognized for standing up and and fighting the good fight. So so at the end of my show, I say, uh the end of my show, you are here. I say, um, you know, you are the government, basically. Good. Um fight the good fight. And and that's that's good enough for me. He was fight he fought the good fight.

SPEAKER_00: 52:22

Good word. Love it. Hey, thanks for being here. This was fun.

SPEAKER_02: 52:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:26

I love your heart, man. You got a great heart. Well, right on, I appreciate that. Yeah. I don't and I'm and I'm really good about reading people. Until I get into the hiring situation, you always hire the weird. You go, they look so good months ago. Um don't know what happened. Don't know what happened. And uh AI was fairly uh accurate until it wasn't. So uh good job, AI. Good deal. And uh Nick Flores, shout out to uh Growing Pains with Nick, the producer, he's amazing. And hey, if you want to uh subscribe, if you want to donate, there's a little thing on my Buzz Sprout site. If you want to uh sponsor, uh I'm looking for sponsors. If you want to uh make a nice comment, um you're more than welcome. And uh we'll be back next week with somebody that's a hundred percent Humboldt. And uh this is Scott Hammond. Thank you, David Frank. Appreciate you being here. Right on. This is this was fun. Thanks for having me, Scott. Y Y'all come back now. You hear? You hear?