#112. Solomon Everta on Eureka Books, Omnibus, and the Stories That Build Community

Scott Hammond sits down with Solomon Everta for a conversation rooted in Old Town Eureka, local business, mutual aid, and the kind of community life that only makes sense when you’ve actually lived here awhile. Solomon talks about coming to Humboldt from East Bay, finding his footing through work and activism, and eventually becoming the owner of Eureka Books.

They get into the recent expansion into Omnibus on Snug Alley, why independent bookstores still matter, and how a bookstore can be more than retail. For Solomon, it’s about stories, yes, but also about listening, relationships, and giving people a place to feel part of something. He reflects on Food Not Bombs in Arcata, the reality of poverty and housing insecurity, downtown parking debates, worker ownership, and why Humboldt needs more community-minded thinking and less hierarchy.

This episode also wanders through local history,  the North Coast arts scene, parenting, and the weirdly urban pleasures of downtown Eureka life. It’s a thoughtful, local conversation with someone who sees books not as escape from community, but as one way back into it.

Transcript

Welcome And The Name Mixup

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt Podcast with my new best friend and special guest, Simon Averta. Hey, I'm Simon Solomon. You did the thing. Yeah, I did. Oh man. I never do that until they just did it. Hi, Solomon. How's it going? Hey, going great. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Good. Your name is not Simon, it's Solomon.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Yeah. That happens, though. It's interesting. Do you get that? I have lots of lots of things, and especially spelling the Solomon with an A at the end, which is incorrect. It's all O's. It's all O's, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Solomon, not Solomon. Solomon. It is with O's, yes. I get Steve Hammond. I don't know. I I guess I look like a Steve. So tell us the Solomon story.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Oh my. Well, I grew up in the Bay Area in East Bay. So shout out to Oakland, Fremont, Hayward. Nice. And um moved a couple times there, but uh had a single mom and go see my dads on the weekends and grew up in the Bay Area and then uh went to school there. Went to college up at um Cal State Hayward, which is now Cal State East Bay, for one year, but dropped out because of understanding my position and the economic structure as being not able to afford to go to college. So I dropped out. And after a year or two, then uh uh the my partner at the time uh went up to Humboldt. And so we moved up here. And my cousin was living up here, which was great. Aaron Powell Connections. Yeah, yeah. I guess came and see my cousin. I was like, this place is amazing, as you know, and we all know. Yep. And uh yeah, now it's like 35 years later, and um and here I am still.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

So you stuck around.

Los Bagels And Food Not Bombs

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Yeah. Well, I I jumped right in and I got um I got a job at Los Bagels. So that's a way to get in the community. Aaron Powell That's right. I remember you worked there for a bit. Oh yeah, for like a 10 years over a 20-year span. Were you management? I did eventually I was before I left, uh I was managing and then I came back for a little snitch and so I did a couple things like that. But I I thought I was tell everyone I've done everything at that store and cleaned almost every surface in the Arcada store. Yeah. But yeah, it's a great place to meet people and understand and really understand the community.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Yeah. So it was fantastic just being a part of Arcade there.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

And Dennis Peter and Johnny, was he part of that?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Yeah. So John bought into this the store later. But yeah, uh, Dennis and Peter and then Paul was an original owner that was uh with them.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Um so I learned a lot. You know, I was in my twenties and just learning how to be, how to work a job, yeah, how to interact with people, but also I got really involved in with uh Food Not Bombs, which uh was a mutual aid organization that's serving food to whoever's hungry on the plaza. And um we were soon after sued by the city of Arcata for that, I think for violating the health code, which was actually because we were violating the sanctity of the the uh marketplace there and making it kind of not look so great. So we were sued by the city, which um which was bad. And they and they won? So we settled uh eventually. Oh after many years of and going to court and had a lot of uh interesting things were happened there.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

So I know they kind of disappeared. I now that I think of it, yeah. It just kind of faded.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

But well, we settled, and then um a later group of people who took up Funat Bombs that I think they're still serving. They were serving during the pandemic, actually, too. And um and part of the settlement agreement was that the city provided the um the D Street Community Center as a location so that the food can be prepared in a commercial kitchen. Okay. So that's that's kind of how that worked out. Um City of Arcana, way to go. Yeah. Well the premise of food not bombs is like, you know, it's if it's uh you know, we don't need a permit to share food. You know, if people are hungry and the government's not taking care of things and the private sector is definitely not taking care of it, uh then. What are you gonna do? Then you got to just gotta step up and take care of each other.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

And so we had Dave Reid here from uh uh and uh Carly from uh the food food bank. Oh, yeah, right. Food for people and said there's no reason for anybody to become hungry in this country. Shouldn't happen. For sure. It's not needed, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Well, that's one of the things uh, you know, is thinking about what to, you know, what were the things that I wanted to say about, you know, who I am and what my where I'm coming from. And and really it's that there's enough wealth in this country, especially to but in the world in general, for everybody to have food, everybody to have shelter, everybody to have education and meaningful connections. And you know, the way that our economy works is just messed up. And it's it's capitalism and it's not okay.

Owning Eureka Books And Omnibus

SPEAKER_03 5:10

It's there's a lot of not okay about it. That's true. It's funny, I was um I really like John Mark Comer, the author, and he's written a book called the um The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And then he wrote uh practicing the uh the art of of um anyway. The point that I wanted to make is that if you could take all the mini storage units in the nation, it wouldn't be enough to house everyone. Right. What opulence is that's crazy. Instead, we we store our crap. Anyway, let's go let's go right to so you're the owner of two businesses in Eureka. So let's talk about that. And then I want to come back in retro on your journey. So uh tell us about your businesses.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Yeah, well, it's it's one business, but I have two locations now, basically. So that's uh Eureka Books, which has uh been there since 1987. Um so we're coming up on our 40th anniversary next year, which will be fantastic. And um we just opened an expansion into another spot which is called Omnibus, and it's at uh it's on Snug Alley. Just you can see it from the front of Eureka Books, which is fantastic. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: There's my other store. There's my other store. We tell people a lot because people coming in looking for graphic novels, manga, art supplies, and things like that, which have informally been at the Eureka Books. We say, uh, just moved them across the street. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So that would be things like uh like greeting cards, things of that nature too? Or greeting cards still at the main shop, um, but at the at the new shop is more of the stuff. Those like kind of art uh supplies and then that those like uh comic books and and graphic novel type things. Yeah. And then now we have some role-playing games too, and we're working a little bit with Dandars um to have to we sell some of the products that we can only get from them because they're uh what is that? I should know that. Dandars? Yeah. Oh, it's a gaming store that was right next to um that's right. That's right. Right next to Northtown. Yeah, my bad. And so um so we had actually already been working with Dan uh from Dandars to get him to supply us with some of those role-playing game products. Um that's really a big thing, you know, in the community too. It's like Dungeons and Dragons and those type of things. Aaron Ross Powell So partnership. Yeah. So we we we kind of split the profits with him on some of those products that we have in the store. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

I love it. Yeah, but they're opening, they've got a temporary location at the Jacoby storehouse right now, and they're kind of figuring out how that's gonna work until they get to go into their new spa, which is fantastic for them and Northtown. They're gonna be in where the former Hatchet House is. Right.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Formerly Arcada Auto Parts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Formerly Pacific Outfitters.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

Yeah, all of them. All these things. Yeah. Formerly Safeway. I don't know what it was. Um so for those of you that don't know or want to recall, um, on my birthday, January 2nd, 2026, was a giant fire in downtown Arcata. And fortunately, there were heroes that still in America in Humboldt County that stopped that crap because it could have really I mean, everybody's assessment that could have been really bad. Yeah, yeah. And they kept it to a half block, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

And Northtown Books, a fellow book seller, was uh gutted. I did when we walk by, Joni looks and she goes, Do you see the there's books? They're books are all and she's getting, you know, because she's a book lover and reader, and she was just distraught. It was difficult to go over there.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah. It was very emotional for me.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

I bet. Did you know the Northtown guys?

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Yeah. And we're all in the industry there. You know, uh we don't all hang out in a secret cabal, but um we do see each other once in a while.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

The book cabal. Yeah, it's come on in. We're having a ball. Yeah. That's funny. I like it. The um yeah, they're gonna go in f uh like fairly soon? Are they working on it already? Are they installing They're working on it? Yeah. I think it'll take them a few months to shelves and all the stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

I think toward the end of summer, so it'll be great. They'll be ready for the holiday season and just uh have a chance to kind of get settled in there. It's gonna be fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 8:59

And they've got a parking lot. I mean, come on. It's gonna be great. So have books made a comeback like like vinyl?

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Absolutely. And I think this is one of the things that is the most misunderstood element of the book selling business is that as far as we're concerned, you know, independent, small independent bookstores have like have been going strong, especially in Humboldt. And um, you know, Book Lager down the street is a couple years older than us, and Northtown's been there even longer.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

And this community loves books. And we've you know, of course we have to, you know, adapt and change. And we s we sell audiobooks through Libro.fm where people can select our bookstore and do that. People can buy books online from bookshop.org and and select our store and we get a little share of that. And so pick them up at the store type of thing. And they c well no, they get and they get them shipped straight to the shop. Bookshop.org. And then other things, you know, just we sell on online uh venues. We have like five places where we sell online. Wow. And so every morning I come in and I look at the list and pull the books and ship them out. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So you have uh multiple multiple streams of uh gosh. We have so many things and that's the books flow. Yeah, yeah. Because we do different ways of of getting people f helping people find what they what they need.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

So we have nine kids, uh many of which are homeschooled. And Jesse, uh shout out to Jesse in Seoul, South Korea. He used to we used to go to the Bakinleville library and he would literally bring in two boxes. Yeah. And um who's the sweetheart librarian? She was so cool. And she would just feed Jesse books like Mishnah and and all the stuff. And he wound up at you know UP and then Davis for a doctorate and voracious consumer books, kind of like his mom. Yeah. And me, I watch Gilligan's Island and Seinfeld. You know, and do podcasts. I it's it's different, but it's I actually read actually I read books and I wrote a book. Hey. Oh, hey, how fortuitous that we had the everyday dad here. Um not the point of my uh my show, but um yeah, that's an adventure publishing a book. Oh yeah, it's a whole writing wasn't that hard. The the editing was crazy hard to get it right. And the marketing was well, freaking impossible. Because it's just too hard. It's like unless you're magic.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

But you know, there's something about the and the industry that's interesting because now you can anybody can publish a book. You know, it so all kinds of maybe not so great things are coming out there. And and there's a reason you have editors and there's people that help you polish your product and make it something that people that will actually help people and actually get across a message you want to get across. Yeah. And it's it's a it's a challenge because it's a lot of work. People think it's just an easy thing, you know. But it's but yeah, you know because you did it is that is that it's like it's a journey. And I and of course we talk to all the local authors and we we accept all the books from uh from local authors that bring them in. We put them on consignment and we say, like, hey man, we sell it, you get your 60 percent of the cover price, and let's do this. That's pretty good. That's great commission. The thing though I'd tell most people though is like for don't go on Amazon, don't use Amazon. I mean, to to publish your book. It they they rip you off. The product is horrible. The books are just not high quality. Like just even at least work with Ingram uh to do it instead. But there are other options too. And you know, we have local folks like uh um Jim Height. He you know got found a little publisher and they they helped him out, and his book is looks fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

You know, see Jim in years. What a great guy.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Oh, yeah. Hi, Jim Hite.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Hey, Jim Height. Does he come in to see a customer?

SPEAKER_02 12:38

He's well, he moved out of the area, so he's gone, right? Yeah, yeah. So Where'd he go? You know, um somewhere with less moisture.

Fatherhood And College Dreams

SPEAKER_03 12:46

I think was the Wait, that could be Solomon, that could be anywhere. Yeah, right. Hey, if you're just joining us, I'm here with my special guest and new best friend, Solomon Averta. And um, we're just having some fun here talking about stuff. So uh so some of your journey then. So you're East Bay. Yeah. And you and I share a journey because I was raised by my mom in San Diego in the East Bay of the other bay. And uh I I understand single parents and what they do now. Then my father lived up the coast in Oceanside, who uh after he got sober when I was thirteen, we became fast friends till he died in 04. So um yeah, single parent.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yeah, well, I had a similar well, not my dad was, you know, my dad was always see us on the weekends, but when I was 14, I went and lived with my dad. And I was like, it kind of like there's something that had to I had to do, you know. And then I was like, you know, I'm gonna go live with dad. And my mom was like, What? But it was like it's important.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

She said, go for it.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Yeah, yeah. I mean, well, it's important for a young man to understand his father and be close to him and have some time in his high school years. So that was a time for us to get a little closer.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: There's a lot of brokenness about guys that, you know, have deadbeat dads. They just left. And so there's not that they never f complete the math. And I think it's just hard. There's anyway, don't want to go down that road too far, but hey.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yeah. We, you know, I was able to make that connection with him and and find him. Um yeah. But it's an important important thing for young men. It's like I I take you know, as you know, you know, parenting is really kind of one of the main things that's drives me is just like being the good parent. I mean, really enjoyed being a parent of how many kids? Two kids. Nice. My daughter is up at Humboldt and doing uh second year, and my son is a junior at uh Eureka High School. Very cool. Doing soccer. He just took his SAT and got a really good score. I won't embarrass him by saying how high it was. It's pretty amazing. Good job. And uh but yeah, he's gonna go look at some colleges. And I'm it's just kind of like that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

And you're on that journey with them. That's what it's all about. So cool. My dad drove me up to Humboldt from Nashville City, California, San Diego. It's like, what do you want to do, Scott? I go, I don't I don't know. I think this looks like a pretty good school. Let's go. And he, you know, a couple journeys. Yeah. And finally brought up all my crap and stayed at the Colony Inn and when it was a real dumb. I remember the Colony Inn. It really sucked, man. It was anyway, uh, sketchy, but um, hey, got to go to school.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yeah. Well, my my son is gonna go on a trip with with my ex-wife, his mom, and in a couple weeks, and they're gonna go down and look at colleges. And that's like that's really what it's all about, is just making a good, a good environment, a good place for people. What's he looking at? Well, he's looking at uh San Luis Obispo and and and uh Berkeley. And then I was like, just go stop by Stanford, why not? Hey, you got the SATs, bro? You've got the SATs, bro. And he's just a great, super intelligent kid. He wants to study architecture. So like after we go to the gym in the morning, we go like four days a week and we hit the gym and we're driving around. I'm like, okay, look at that, look at that fence. Like, that's way too much. Like, that's an ugly fence. Like you could do that with a hedge, you know. Like we're having all these conversations about I'm just like trying to be like, think about these things. You know, it's like it's about you know, we make choices as a community about the way we want our want the community to be and the way that that it looks and the way that we interact with each other. And it's important for us to kind of make those decisions consciously and not just be reactive, you know. It's good. So I'm trying to instill that in him before he leaves. I've got a little bit of time left.

Stories, Abundance, And Shared Needs

SPEAKER_03 16:17

It's hard because you're yeah, you always have that investment until the until you don't. Um I think Slow's a great school. My my son Jesse, the one which I referenced, he he applied at San Luis, but didn't have the SATs in the architecture school, which is tough tough thing to get into. But I I love that community in so many ways because it's got weather, it's got a downtown, it's got good culture. Yeah. It's alive. My sister-in-law has Pizza Republic up by the airport. Okay. All right, Pizza Republic. Slow. And then uh they used to own the uh village old village grill in Arroyo Grande. Nice. Great burgers. Okay. Am I doing shout-outs now? I guess that's what we're doing. I guess that's what we're doing. So uh I'll I'll give you the uh the quiz is coming, but uh I'll give you the deeper Zen quiz first. Who are you, Solomon and and what do you want? Oh, yeah. I think you just said a community thing that's pretty meaningful, uh, you know, in terms of downloading to your son about being intentional, community intentional. But what's your what's your answer to that if somebody said who are you and what do you want?

SPEAKER_02 17:21

So uh I'm kind of I have a general philosophy that that stories are relationships. And that the stories we tell then determine what kind of relationships we have. And so I'm a curator of stories, uh literally at the bookstore. Yeah, all the stories there. But it's also about the the interactions we have each day with other people that we come into contact with. And to have some honest storytelling about what's going on instead of just trying to making up this, you know, imaginary thing about how we think things are, but really deal with like how can we make a better story where everybody's taken care of. Like I said, we have enough to for everybody to have all the basic needs met and then a little more so that we can go and learn and educate ourselves and get be better at continuing this on to help the next people that come with with us.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

We all have responsibility. Aaron Powell It's a universe of abundance thought. Oh, for sure. It's not a scarcity thing here.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Yeah. And it's you know, that's one of the things is like growing up poor for me was a challenge because like I ingrained in that myself, like, oh, I can't afford to go to college. I've dropped out of college like like three times because I was like, I can't afford this, isn't it? Oh, it's not gonna work. And then, you know, in my marriage, there's like a lot of like, oh, we can't afford this or that or whatever. And and it was just like, you know what? Once I got divorced, and then it was like I found this abundance that I was like, huh, I have everything I need. I can make my dreams come true. So when the bookstore came open and was available for sale, it's just like, yes, I can do that.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

What year was that?

SPEAKER_02 18:55

So four years ago, actually, April 1st um was his happy anniversary. Yeah, we just had it. So four years ago is when I I bought the store from Jack Irvine, who was very generous to like help help me get started. He's actually sold me the building too, so I own the building. So that's like the, you know, these secure, you know, all the things start happening once you like let yourself into an abundance mindset where you can believe that things can happen. And the thing is, though, is we have to support each other in those in those things. We have to stop telling the story of that there's not enough for everybody. Right. That that we can't make these things happen. It's like we really can.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

I must overcome you so I can hit my goals.

unknown 19:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

No. Yeah. No, that's true. I love it, man. It's um it's a it is a mindset shift.

unknown 19:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

And I think a lot of people, you know, are living in a lot of uh, you know, fear uh about what's gonna happen to them because we have a society where like we don't have health care. It's like where children don't have health care. This is ridiculous. Right. Uh like I I get upset about it. And everybody, you know, everybody who interacts with me on a personal basis knows like I'm really easygoing and kind of just able to like kind of let things go, do a lot of listening. But when you get me worked up on this stuff, man, it's like I'm angry. Kind of pissed. Yeah. Yeah, okay. It's like, come on. Like you we can't say every child should just be able to go to the doctor and get served until they're 18 or what, 16 or whatever. Get an education. Right. Or get education-free food, healthcare. It's like, come on, like we we have enough resources. It's that there's this small group of people who's hoarding, hoarding the wealth because they live in this fear mindset where they're afraid that they just need to keep getting more because there's never going to be enough.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

And that's what we need to change, is we need to we need to get away from this like capitalist kind of attitude of where like the only way to get ahead is by taking advantage of other people, capitalizing on on the other people's inability to stand up for themselves.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

Yeah. And I think of a sad quote. Um I think it's Andrew Carnegie that said um on his deathbed, he goes, What what do you need? Are you okay? He goes, I just need to make another million. And I'm going to be cool. It's like, what are you saying, bro? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It greed's a funny weird thing, huh? It's like um very limiting.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

So we need to tell a different story.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

You know, and I think that's that's the thing that why the arts are so important. And why I felt like when we had a lot more more artists on the like city council in Eureka, like things started to kind of really get cool here. You know, we had more murals, we have more activities and events happening, and there's people that are to be currently? Well, yeah, like we currently, yeah, now we have two on there, I think. But yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

And that they make things happen. It's really interesting. They've got the housing thing going, they're the giant Taj Mahals going six, five feels like ten stories, but it's five and a half or whatever, uh, by McCraigney's son. And it's um so that's happening, the the the metro transportation centers all but happening.

Parking Fights And Downtown Housing

SPEAKER_02 21:59

Yeah, and and and part of this is because we're taking we're taking a different perspective on what's the what's the role of government and what's the important way that that government can can step in to encourage these things, and also looking at it from a lot of these projects are are really being spear-headed by the Wii Ot tribe. And when you start to think in a tribal nature in the in a tribal nation, has a different attitude. You go down to like Bear River and you go and like, look, there's like a rec center and uh you know all this community stuff there. I have to take my kid to go for his soccer practice down there because they They've got the great facility because they put the money back into the community that comes from that comes from the casino or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Aaron Powell They have a lot, yeah. Are you concerned about parking with I I don't mean to go off on this, uh but with the high-rise with the with the housing that's going in, are you concerned about there's not commensurate parking, or is there? We're not doing any underground or above ground. It's just gonna we're gonna absorb all that.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Yeah. So um as you may know, I was very involved in the No on Measure F campaign, and so which was and which was we can go into all the details of his Rob Arkley thing, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

So that he put that on the ballot to and it was kind of like trying to use the parking as his wedge issue to try to be. But you know, despite the being outspent, I don't know, 10 to 1, 100 to 1, what were we? We we defeated that that that measure because the parking issue is is like sure, we need to like think about how to get people circulating more and maybe have a more proactive parking plan plan and transportation plan to get people down there. But you know, you look at studies and you look at how uh how people interact with with parking and what happens when you have more people living in the area, it's actually the benefit to the to the community. I'm super excited about it. I'm not I'm I don't have any problem with with with what with that.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

And you would have skin in the game as a businessman and you don't have you don't actually have tons of parking right in front of your store. I have no parking in front of my store.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Like I'm actually in my in front of my store, the the sidewalk goes out and takes whatever parking spot would be there.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Not not tons of parking. No parking. Yeah. Um so so you believe the the studies, the fact that we're not overly impacted with uh parking currently. So and that's what um forgot who said that. One of my guests. So she said, hey, yeah, you know, if we believe the Caltrans guys or the city guys, we're our parking is not that impacted currently. Yeah. And it wouldn't be with a couple more buildings.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

I have to walk a couple blocks to get to my car. I live above the bookstore, which is totally fun. But um so like I don't have a parking spot. I'm like a couple of blocks away, and it's like, oh boy, I have to walk a couple blocks. Right. It's like, okay, it's fine.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

I parked by Dick Taylor chocolates and start my morning down there. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

When it's busy, I have to walk three blocks. You know, like it's like very much a lot of parking. I'm like, this is not a problem. You know, and it it's it's a great urban experience. And like this is one of the things that was weird for me was because like I grew up in a very urban area in in Oakland and and Hayward and Fremont. And and coming up here, I thought I was going into like really rural, which in a lot of ways, Humboldt County is very rural, but in downtown Eureka and downtown Arcada, not so much. It's urban, you know? And it's like and we have, you know, the challenges of being an urban place, but we also have like the really serendipitous things that happen like I open my window up, I can hear the speakeasy, I can walk down and go to get a ramen. It's just like it's a really cool place to be.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah.

Old Town History And Lost Eureka

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Yeah. I think my landlord actually has an apartment upstairs, maybe two doors down from you or somewhere. It's right above the speakeasy in that area. Yeah. I think it faces they they really like it. They um said they taught uh Licky at Gabriels how to make a decent Mai Thai. Nice. Now now he's yeah, now he's he's very apt apt, I guess. But great. No, yeah. So let's talk about historic Old Town Eureka. Sure. Um you obviously you're located there and you've probably read about it because you own a bookstore and you probably have books about it. But um I I don't know if there's a lot to add to that narrative, but for those that don't know, it's we're quite old. And and Old Town was pretty different back in the day. Absolutely. You know, between Coffee Jack and different people that uh the women of the night and the the the lumbermen that would sp spend their hard-earned money um on a weekend of uh whatever that was. Yeah. Um any other insights as to want to talk about Old Town?

SPEAKER_02 26:29

Yeah, well, um I I did uh an art project that you can find at losteure.com and it's and it's a project called Lost Eureka, and it's um what I did was like did research in the newspapers from 1889 from Eureka. And and so I learned a lot about the way it used to be down here. Um the project is is fantastic stories that have some slight corroboration from these newspaper articles that are in the uh that are in the the the Standard and the Times, the two separate papers that became one later. And now it's one half of a paper. Yeah, really.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Love you, John Richmond, but uh you're it's kind of small. We needed some work on that.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

But um yeah, and so like lots so there's fantastic stories uh that are slightly corroborated by the uh newspaper articles of the time. So it's funny. It was a real fun project to do, is to like really kind of become familiar with the things of how what Eureka was like in that time period, and just seeing like there used to be like they didn't have TV, they didn't have radio. Like they like in order to have a good time, you would go out and you would go to one of the many halls that were available. And they'd have people playing music or singing and it was like a thing, or they have children performing it was just or theater, and it was traveling theater people would come through and would would like guy would come like on the stagecoach, you know, and and then hang out in Eureka for a few weeks, do the shows and do like, I'm gonna do a Shakespeare soliloquy, I'm gonna do some poetry, and that's like and that's what they would do.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

You'd go and you'd go out and see the show. You know, I you make me think of the bathrooms in at the Seagrill. They have framed up newspapers from the 50s. And yeah, here we go. Yeah, they had maybe they had a little TV then, but it was all these acts at these bars and these different dance halls, and and it's fascinating. It was a like the Friday afternoon paper with all the stuff to do. And it's like, oh, cool. Oh, we should go see her. She's pretty cool. She looks like you know, she's singing all the hits. So anyway, yeah, different world.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Well, it we're really bust. I mean, as you know, we have an abundance of artists in Humboldt County, especially in Eureka, is just full of artists. And we have like great theater, and we have these like amazing spaces like Synapsis, which is like an amazing, beautiful um space where you know, these aerial performances and and these type of theater performances that they do. And it's like we have to turn off the Netflix. Let me look at the camera. Turn off the Netflix, turn off your phone. He's getting really heated on this. Yeah. And go go to your local theater, NCRT, D Street neighborhood, and the Synapsis, and go to the bar and go see his show. And I mean, these are it's important, you know? Go see comedy at Savage Savage Henry. All these great places that we have. Like there's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

Who likes music out at the brewery? And yeah. Um you know who has music that's fun is uh Moonstone uh Crossing Winery. They do uh Sunday night, quite fun. Yeah. Little outdoor venue, pretty cool. Yeah. Or indoors they do, they do it up there that are really fun. Yeah, no, great word. You're right. Get get get out. And then read read a uh freaking book.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Hey, well, there you go. There's a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

There's that. Did you make that one up?

SPEAKER_02 29:39

Is that your bumper sticker? No, that's yeah, that's the north uh the North Down classic. Yeah. Did did you do you sell the lot of books?

A Perfect Day In Humboldt

SPEAKER_03 29:47

There aren't a lot of cars in Humboldt. That bumper sticker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. I was I told I told my friend Ron about that. I was driving. I go, look at that bumper sticker. He goes, yeah, that's kind of pretentious. He goes, I don't really like that. I go, okay, fair. Um so uh let's do the quiz. You ready? Ready. All right, here we go. Following this, we'll do the AI um experience. Oh god. Oh yeah. Let's see. Oh well, let's see what we have here. Okay. Hey. Ladies and gentlemen, the quiz for Solomon. Question number one. Um you could do anything you want in a day in Humboldt with whoever you want, and money's not an object. What do you how are you going to spend that 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. window? What would you do uh in Humboldt County, which is right here in California? It's right. Look at that place. Yeah, anywhere within the borders.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, it's funny because it's like I I've watched your show before, Scott. Have you seen it? I knew this question was coming. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

You don't look that surprised.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

He didn't have a puzzled look at all. So you know, and I it's like I don't necessarily want to work every day, but I really enjoy like working, hanging out with people and actually talking to people. And I think it's funny because people come in the shop and just talk to me. And we just, you know, and I I'll just hang out and talk with you for a while. That's really cool. Books or whatever's going on. That'd be a nice little part of my day. But mostly I'd want to try to spend some time with my kids, probably go play some disc golf in Cooper Gulch.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Oh, fun.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

That'd be that's a that's something we do when we have the time. Probably go up with my Spent too long. I'd like to do that again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:23

I go yeah, disc golf's great. You kind of chat, you have plenty of time. I played in 1977 in San Diego, Belboa Park. There we go. One of the first disc golf parks, probably on the West Coast or whatever. Um sorry. No, yeah. Your day, not mine.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

So disc golf. Disc golf with the kids, have a little lunch, probably, you know, go get some ramen at at Kokoro. Is it the one in Opera LA? Opera Alley. Just out my window. I can look down and see it there. You like the ramen? Yeah, yeah. We do the ramen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

They're tasty.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Yeah. We like the yeah, there's a yeah. The miso ramen has a little pork in it, though. It's fantastic. Sounds good. And um, yeah, probably then spend some time with my my lady and we'd probably go up to Trinidad. I love Trinidad head. Probably hike the head and take a look out there, look for some whales. That's Shiny's favorite. Yeah, the head. Yeah, it's my ladies' birthday, and we're gonna go and see go on the paddle and hopefully see some whales. Oh, that'd be fun. So that I put that in my day. So so next next Monday or whatever it is, it's gonna be my perfect day for it. It's starting to get whale time, right? Yeah, there's been they've been seeing them out there. So I was like, all right, that's an easy birthday gift for you.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

This is your day, but we we actually go to to um on Scenic Drive there over uh Huda Point and pull up the van, have a picnic, and sometimes the Tharby Wells. Yes. Pretty cool. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

All right. So what do you do after that? Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Well, um yeah. So I I'd I'd find some time to do some creative work, do some writing, and do some and read a book. Wow. I would then we'll read a book and relax. Yeah. Nice. Probably go out to go out to maybe Ramones on Harrison. That's one thing we like to do, and go play play a game with friends. Oh, and then maybe get together with my my dude friends and play some Dungeons and Dragons. I think that's what a day this would be. That's a full day, man. I love it. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Yeah, Joni took Aunt Dana, uh, her sister yesterday, uh Ramones and Harrison. Oh, yeah. Shout out to Barrett, Brian. I I'm I said it was fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Anyhow, yeah, that's like something like I say, the in a way this is like an urban experience. It's like you could go do that. You go to Ramones, it's like you might as well be in Portland or Seattle.

Seeing Homelessness Up Close

SPEAKER_03 33:35

That probably are, you know, besides staff at people that with patients and they're stressed out. And here you are presented with a a magnificent menu. Oh, yeah. Delicious, it's great. Their coffee is great. They roast and grind their own. Yeah. All right. Question number two. What uh what eviscerates you emotionally and just takes it uh the wind out of your sails? What what sucks the life out of you in life?

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Um one of the most difficult parts about being in Old Town, which was getting a little shock, was just the seeing seeing the desperation of the folks that are living on the street on a daily basis. It's so frustrating to me, as I'll say it again, is there's enough for all of us to have everything we need.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

We need to figure this out. And I appreciate the work that the council is doing to make us be like a home, you know, get the awards for for b for for housing, because we're we need to get to address the situation and and we can do this, you know. Like there's no reason for people to be making money off of other people's desperation and and and and we we've got to figure this out.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

There's a way. Yeah, it just eats me up. It's always has been. That's why I was involved in Funat Bombs in the early 90s, and now I kind of work behind the scenes a little bit to try to help with some of these things to make them happen.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

Trevor Burrus, Jr. It's such a tough problem. It's got so many layers to it. There's you know, after talking to Betty Chen and she who's amazing. Yeah. You know, I she she blew blew my mind. She was really amazing. Yeah. I sleep four hours a night, Scott. And I go and do it again. I go, are you ever in danger? She goes, never. No, I I never be in danger. Right. I go, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Yeah. And that's the thing is I don't feel like I'm ever in danger with my neighbors that are that happen to live on the streets, and I see them all the time. I know a lot of them, but it's just like yeah, that that really bugs me, you know, that that we can't we can't get through that because I think it's it's eminently reachable.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Okay. Question number three. What gives you life and like perks you up and blows your mind and wind in your sales, all that stuff?

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Yeah. Um the main thing is seeing my kids get excited about something and really like want to follow, follow up on something, but also just when I can be a person who is assisting and helping someone be the best version of themselves, that's when I'm just feel like I'm really doing this life thing right. You know, and whether that's my kids, whether that's helping you have this great podcast right now, or thank you, or having or helping my staff, my amazing staff at the bookstore to really kind of find their agency within their work and find some way that they can be in in control of how their work experience happens and and and find their their truth and how they can, you know, have this life be beneficial for them.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

I love it. Practicing the way uh John Mark Comer talks about apprenticeship.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

It's a it's that apprenticeship headspace and you're you're the mentor.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Apparently so. But I learned I learned so much from them, of course. And yeah, and and and it's just a it's a privilege to be in the space where I can I can help them.

Humboldt Challenges And Opportunities

SPEAKER_03 36:44

That's a great attitude. I love that. Uh last question. Um what do you think the challenges are for Humboldt? Oh, I gotta ring the bell. There we go. Botus question number four. What's our biggest challenges and biggest opportunities to uh uh prosper? I'll use that word. I think that's a a good enough word to cover not getting rich, but having a full life. Yeah. As a community.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

So um I think there's a lot of outside forces that that impact us, just things that are happening on a national scale or even on a state scale, that that in order to find some kind of resilience in the face of of those impacts of the way that that you know a new administration can come in and just tank the the wind power uh factories, you know, it's just like it's kind of on hold, isn't it? It's on hold, yeah. So it's like maybe it'll come back when administration changes, but it's like we don't have any control over that thing. And I think, you know, we're blessed with so much uh natural abundance. It's great, you know, water source from the Mad River for these for our city here. And it's just a matter of like putting in systems in place that really instills like our ability to keep this place uh cool. And I think the thing we have examples though of how we can do that. And I've been taking a great just one of the best examples of how we do things right is how these the Klamath dams have come down. It's amazing and get emotional, like thinking about it, because this is what needs to happen is that we need to start managing this land that we live on using principles of the First Nations that were here and understanding, getting the the lessons from them, let them lead, whether it's like in housing with the housing that we're seeing in Eureka or the state bringing down the Klamath Dams there, or whether it's introducing fire into the landscape to help prevent uh major wildfires. Let the native communities lead on this thing. And us people who are not native, I'm part native, but my non-native part of me needs to like let the native people lead on these things. They have institutional knowledge that is tens of thousands of years old. We need to get out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Yeah. Love it. Yeah. Wildfire, there's there's one.

unknown 39:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Well, hey. I worked for the Forest Service for 10 years also in the fireman. Yeah. So we kind of bagels and forests. That's my those are my two bigs. Bagels, forests, and now books. Yeah. So I got these three things that were kind of things I'm like, when when do I get to be an artist? Maybe later. Kids are growing. They're going to be gone at some point. Yeah, it's a transition time for sure. This next year is going to be really big for me as far as what happens next.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

Oh, yeah. No, it's um I remember saying goodbye to Jesse at uh UOP in Pacific in Stockton and went out to dinner with the friends. And I go, Hey, can I take you back to the dorms or say goodbye? He goes, No, we'll say goodbye right here. Yeah. And hugged him and I got in the car and I'm driving up the five to go back to Sack, and I just start losing it, man. Just tears. And I'm going, dang it. You know, I just I went with it. I just wept and prayed and gave him to God and you know, Godspeed. And he's done fine. They just moved from uh Netherlands, where she worked for um Jesse's wife Yunjun worked for uh Nike, which uh now there's a shit show at the top. Oh my to um to Samsung, where she's from in Seoul, South Korea. I see. Uh-huh. Uh and they they're part of the the the folks that run that country.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Yeah, they're it's sure. He goes, it's kind of a paradox. He goes, it's um very pro-American, pro-Trump, pro every big supporters of America know English. They don't speak it. And they don't, they don't, they don't try. They it's not like the Netherlands, the Dutch are better at English than we are.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Right.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

And uh and he's traveled internationally. I mean, the guy's traveler, and he he goes, I'm lost. I can't wait I can't order the freaking soup.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

So you better learn the language, buddy.

Testing An AI Take On Eureka

SPEAKER_03 41:01

Yes, he's he's in language school. He's he that's he goes, my full-time job? Yeah, Korean. Yeah. I go, good, good. Can't come this year, Dad. Next year. I'll I'll I can get you around next year, but this year, yeah. It's not gonna happen anyway. So hey, so let's go to the AI section.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Oh, okay. Love it here.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

All right. Well, let's see what it says here. I I it's so general, but it's pretty good. Eureka Books is a beloved independent bookstore located in the historic old town district of Eureka, true, California. True. True or false? True. I think I have a new format going here. This is gonna be great. Uh bookstore serves as a cultural hub for residents and visitors alike. Absolutely. Fostering a community-centered, uh community spirit centered around the love of literature. Yeah. Pretty close. I like that. Um, well, Eureka, old town eureka is well known for its well-preserved 19th century architecture, bustling waterfront, and rich cultural heritage. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:55

And there's some dick tailor chocolate down there somewhere. Come on. Um, about Eureka Books. Established in the 20th century. Yes. True. Exact founding date, not publicly documented. Is that true? What did Jack Irvine? When did he open that?

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Carlos Beneman opened it. Uh Carlos and Marilyn Beneman opened in 1987. And then they moved into the Eureka then the building there in like 1988 or 89. Where did they start? They were like a couple blocks away. Oh, really? Um, yeah. I think maybe it was on Fifth Street or something. But yeah, it was very briefly. It was just to kind of get started.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

It's grown from a small local bookstore to a key player in the community's cultural landscape. That's pretty general, but I'll take it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. That's a go. Um more than just a retail space, it functions as a community gathering spot. It regularly hosts book signings, readings, workshops, children's story hours. Is that all true?

SPEAKER_02 42:50

We do not have children's story hours or or readings because the space is too impactful.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

Come on, AI, man. You're you're doing LSD.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Here they're gonna fall off the here.

SPEAKER_03 42:59

Okay. Close enough. Um I'm sorry, this this is fair fairly elemental, but it's fun. Um Eureka Books embodies the spirit of old town Eureka, historic, community-oriented, and culturally rich.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:13

It supports authors and nurtures readers of all ages and contributes to the preservation of the town's unique identity through the power of books. The power of books. All right. Yeah, maybe maybe the power's not in the books, it's in us.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

As we read the books. But the stories. Love the books. Love the stories.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

I l I love the idea that that life is learned that in Toastmasters that you can I mean Jesus did it with parables, but you you and I do it when we tell a story. Can I can I tell you a quick story? Of course. Just kidding. I probably could come up with one too, and I would. It would be amazing. But yeah, it's the whole I think we live in stories. And um I'll never forget my dad uh was in a sales meeting. We were we worked for the Tri-City newspaper. Remember the shopper? Oh, yeah. Remember Newsprint? I do. I do. And I said, you know, I'm so excited. Come on in and tell us all about this rich heritage of salesmanship and that you were amazing insurance sales guy. And by the way, I never wanted to be my dad and the DR, the DNA, just it's too much, folks. I just caved in 13 years ago at 53. Nice. Anyway, I'm glad the best thing I've ever done. Um, besides Mary Joni. So He came into the sales meeting and sat around. And I go, Dad, you know, you got the floor. You know, i time's not a problem. Just go unload on us. And he sat there, kind of a smart ass smug, and he goes, You know, if you folks are in sales for the money, you're about half paid.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

And I go I go, what is there more?

SPEAKER_03 45:03

And he goes, I'm done here. Rob is my middle night. Rob he goes, I'm done, Rob. And I go, yeah, okay, great. And so we called the meeting. And I that has echoed in my brain for probably 30 years ago. If you're in life or sales or anything or business for the money, you're maybe about half paid. And you said it earlier with relationships and the human connection and hanging out with folks. It seems like you're really good at that.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

I try.

SPEAKER_03 45:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

That's about showing up. Showing up and listening. You know? I think we gotta we've gotta listen. Yeah, I'm working on that still. Yeah, the the uh the big part of the story is the person that's listening.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

You know? Hey. Amen. Maybe the main part. Some of the best salespeople are great listeners. That's how that's how you win. My friend Brian, he I we go, he'd listened to you right into a sale.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Oh no, that's I people come in and I like I'm training new staff and I say, like, uh have them tell you. Like, you don't sell them the thing. You gotta understand who they are, what they what they need. Yeah. They're everybody's looking for something. Yeah. They're coming into the bookstore, whether it's gonna be for a specific specific book. They don't know what book they want, gonna want. But maybe they're not there for a book at this time. Maybe this time they're here just to have the experience of being in a bookstore. Wow. Having somebody have a genuine interaction with them and realize this is my community and this is where I want to be. They'll be back and they'll buy a book eventually. I don't need them to buy it that time. Aaron Powell Ah, the bookstore long game. That's right, baby.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

I like the long game. I've yeah, I'm all about the long game.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

Aaron Powell But because what we're we're building and what what the the mission of the store isn't to make to sell books to make money, it's to it's to build community and to make and to make this space be, you know. I love it. Yeah, to make those connections.

SPEAKER_03 46:50

I take that with seriously in my business. We do a a recognition called Humboldt Heroes. The fact why I'm sitting here is I interviewed with this nice man over here. Hey, come on into his podcast, uh Growing Pains with Nick Flores, live in Humboldt County. How many episodes are you in, too? Nick? 200 and change. 200 and change. Yeah. And these are not short form like mine, hour, 48 minutes. Give me a break. He's doing two and three and four hour shows. Yeah. And uh where's that going with that? So yeah, Humboldt Heroes, platform for blessing to be part of a community and in this case, say thank you to veterans.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:28

Small thing. And somebody said, Hey, do you want to grow it? I go, What do you mean? Can we could scale it, you know, do it big. I go, why would you want to wreck it? Yeah. It's cool when it's 30 or 40 people on the sidewalk for 20 minutes. And it's it's organic and low scale, and there you go. So uh I'll I'll wind up with two things. One is I want to know your legacy and your your wrap-up and how we want to bury you and what we want to say and what's on your tombstone. You already see that coming. You probably thought about that. But what you haven't thought about is this question. My real creative zinger. Okay. Bring it. Um what do you see as our remember the SWOT anachronym, uh, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats? Right. What do you what's the arc of how you see Eureka, but Humboldt, in terms of where we've been, where we're at, where we're going. And if you had your way and your magic wand to wave, uh how would you what what direction would you point us in in terms of good community solutions? Uh you uh you've didacted on a number of them, but um what what's better what's what was our problem? What is our problem and what would do we need to do going forward? And in in terms of headspace or action or I don't want to feed you the answer, but I'll uh let you talk. And thanks for coming, by the way.

Worker Ownership And Economic Democracy

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Yeah, no, I I get it. I think a lot of the work right now that I'm understanding is to help people make a shift in their mind from this individualistic kind of approach to things and looking more at a community sense. And so in order to make that happen, like for example, I'm working on trying to get my business, Eureka Books, to be at the point where some of my staff can buy in and become part owners of the store.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

I think that every workplace this is broad, but every workplace should be owned by a majority of the staff. Or majority of staff should own the business. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Kind of an e-sop model. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: ESOPs are okay, but I prefer worker-owned worker cooperatives. And so that they're actually owned. Different model? Owned and owned and managed by the staff.

SPEAKER_03 49:37

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So compare and contrast real quick.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Like a Winco. Trevor Burrus, that's just owning. Yeah, they own, but the actual management then is done, not done by the staff. And so you still get these hierarchical situations where there are somebody up at the top making decisions like I do now. But for the record, but that's what I'm doing is building agency among the staff so that when we can kind of work that out, that they can take some of that ownership and be own the own the place to live. So not only in workplace, because what it is is that the workplace is the only place that where we are are like okay with like not having democracy. We have kings, every little fiefdom of all these all these businesses where this one guy comes and says what it what the way things are going to be, and then you just have to do it, even if it's stupid. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Some of us are evil kings. And this is the problem is that we have so many benevolent kings that that we go, oh well, it's okay. But like let's get down to the democracy of the situation and have ownership in a way that there is some actual democracy that's involved in how decisions are made in your workplace. Maybe how decisions are made in you can then you can apply this to healthcare. You can apply it to housing. You know, we have people who are just they make tons of money off of housing because we have the system where people rent and st and so you're just subject to this landlord who has the dominion over all of these properties and sets up the system so that it continues to funnel money up towards them. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 51:11

My head's going immediately to seven dollar gas prices. There you go. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah. We could talk about that, but I I I interrupted that.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

So I think looking for more ways to create more democracy in our in our daily interactions, whether that's work, whether it's healthcare, whether it's housing, whether it's in the arts and how because right now in the arts or in how how public service occurs, there's been a shift to from public service being something that the government does is the government comes in when there's a situation that needs something that that an individual or business can't manage. And instead we've created this entire giant nonprofit uh complex, you know, where the money funneled from, you know, is donated from these rich people. And then so the nonprofits react by doing things that the rich people like, and there's no accountability because it's not a government that's that's making these programs happen. It's it's it's a board of directors that is not elected. And so even though they're doing great things, there's a less lack of democracy in the process that occurs. So for me, I look at every system and I say, how can I include and make more democracy in that? And the air that I have the influence over is in my workplace and my business. So I'm trying to do do that work. So if you work in healthcare or you own a lot of properties, how do you how can you make a situation where like you go, I'm gonna make a system where I get paid for the work that I'm doing in making this property better and transition this to that the people who live there become actual eventual owners. Maybe they pay a little bit of their rent, goes tink, dink, dink, and it adds in so that they can get some equity in there and get out of this the thing stuck where we have this haves and have nots in the in the system. You create a system where there's some democracy and then you start to see where there needs to be economic democracy. This is what Martin Luther King Jr. was like ready to make the next step before he got assassinated was he was saying, we got we we need civil rights, but we all and civil democracy, but we also need economic democracies, which work.

SPEAKER_03 53:17

So that's so marriages too. Families, probably the the principle applies, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:23

How are we going to do this better as a family? Right. And you and and so you have to have those interactions and have the story of our family is that we come together and we we talk things through and we decide together as a family because when we listen to all everybody member of the family, then we can, you know, and that's how you build your children up to be like, hey, if you're able to take responsibility and go like, hey, how often do we need to clean the toilet? Yeah. Let's talk, man. Yeah. What do you think? What do you think? Annually? Yeah, right. Like yours? Like yours, yeah. Exactly. And then, you know. Quarterly? Because they'll come around to the answer, you know, they'll be like, I get it, Dad.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:02

You know?

SPEAKER_03 54:02

Yeah, I like that. Yeah, and I don't think it's gonna happen quick. I think those are all incremental steps. So don't despise the day of small beginnings. It's a good thing to get started.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

We you know, I I continually I gotta remind myself to have the beginner's mind and be like, I'm just I'm at the beginning of this and I'm gonna be present in the moment. And that's like when I was younger, I would have a lot of like hopes that things would be my ideal. But I think that's a that's a false trap that people run into. It's a it's a very Western way of looking at things, of saying that that that there's this ideal form that I want to get to, or there's some salvation, or there's some afterlife that I'm gonna go and find. And instead, we need to be present in this moment and we need to be present with people around us and have that relationship. And have and then tell those stories between us.

SPEAKER_03 54:47

Yeah. That's cool. So answer your question? I think it does. Yeah, it does. I mean, there's a million ways to answer that question, but it starts uh it starts, it's it's scalable. So all of us are part of something or some community, and we can do that.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

Aaron Ross Powell Look for the ways that we can make build more egalitarian systems rather than hierarchical systems. That's that's that's what I would suggest. And it seems like it's not it could apply in any community, but I think that we have a lot of individualism here that that makes it difficult to overcome that to say like how do we act in community? Right. And so I think like great things like Synapsis and um you know other groups that are just like you know, the food not bombs, you know, that that that really brings people in to work together rather than than like some great man has some great idea about whatever.

SPEAKER_03 55:38

Right. And have a uh exit strategy for the team to take over.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Or again or team members of the we've got a lot of people, you know, my age or older, who are gonna be like, really, it's time for them to move on from their businesses. And if you can think about how can I make this so that it spreads out the democracy rather than just like keeping it again to the one other person.

Mortality, Memory, And Farewell

SPEAKER_03 56:01

Yeah. I see I think of some business people locally that are making that that effort and that I I sense they make that that uh uh that move into the future. Uh let's talk about your death. I'm ready. Speaking of which sorry. Weird transition, uh no offense. The um what would you like us to say at your uh what would you like folks to say or talk about when they talk about you at your uh celebration of life? And what do you what are you thinking is going on in the tombstone? What would you like to be remembered for, Sullivan?

SPEAKER_02 56:36

Sure. Well, it's interesting is I I I I was part of this uh classics book group uh that's been meeting for like 36 or 7 years now. Amazing group of people. Um uh started out with uh um God, Joe Threw, Dixtal, and uh Lance Hardy. So I'm thinking of Lance Hardy. I don't know if you know him, but he has a name. Yeah. Yeah, he had a thing where what was part of his deal was like, you know, um write your own tombstone and write your own epitaph. Cool. And um Lance is just a very, very smart man. In your own O-Bit. What's that? In your O-Bit? Yeah, yeah. Right? Write your own thing. And it's interesting because like uh I'm 54, so I'm getting starting to, you know, get my ARP things in the mail. Right. Turn it in a quarter here, huh? I went, got my hips x-rayed a couple weeks ago, and I found I have arthritis and probably gonna have to get a replacement hip eventually someday.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

Yeah, right? I got two the same day at Stanford. You get two? 13 years ago at 54. Yeah, see? I think it's crazy, dude.

SPEAKER_02 57:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:43

But it's the best surgery ever.

SPEAKER_02 57:44

That's what I keep hearing.

SPEAKER_03 57:45

Quickest recovery and Coots Institute, Providence, you could get it done.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

I I think that it's weird. I don't know, it's very much a tangent, but like I think a lot about like hip replacements and stuff like that. Like as I was looking at it and seeing how it like how it occurs. And I was just like, Oh, dude. This is amazing. This is like this is taking part of my body away and putting this other part in. It's a trip. And uh, what it really was for me was like I I'm beginning to like have this story about like an as an allegory for like like the transgender experience and like how like your body is not the way you want it to be. And so you do something to make it be the way you want to do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:22

You put a new hip in. It's just it's kind of the same thing. It's a trip. I'm I don't I can't wait to watch the the procedure on YouTube. It's too too gross. Yeah, it's a little much. So what are we gonna say? Your your thing, your deal. Back to my question.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Well, so I've been thinking a lot about, you know, like, gosh, how am I gonna, you know, get out of here? And so um, and and I keep coming back to just being present in the moment. I kind of don't think about that. So I'm gonna give you a very dissatisfying answer. I'll just say, like, like, it doesn't concern me. It's none of your business yet. This is the thing. It was like when I got married, like it was kind of like the wedding is not for you, it's for the community. Love it. My death will be not for me, but for my community to remember me in the way that they see that they choose most fit. And so the so the real goal for me is for the for me to be remembered honestly and not any kind of fake thing that people are saying about me, but rather to live my life in the way that I live up to what they think they the of me.

SPEAKER_03 59:27

Great answer. Honest. I love that. Thanks for coming. Appreciate it. Appreciate you. It's funny, I I was just reflecting as we were talking, is every guest I get to know is like almost almost friends. Yeah, we get very intimate. There's a little connection. I love that. Thanks for doing that. Hey, if you're uh wanting to subscribe to us, uh 100% Humboldt Podcast, uh, we're online, we're on all the platforms, we're access Humboldt, we're uh on YouTube, we're in the air, and we'd love you to like us, uh love us, donate to us, make all kinds of uh nice comments. And thanks for coming today, Solomon. Thank you. Thanks for 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond and Solomon Neverda. See ya.