Refusal To Revival With Steph Compton

Can one person’s choices ripple across a neighborhood, a coastline, even a culture? Steph Compton—organizer, zero-waste advocate, and movement lover—joins us to trace a path from Texas family roots and Interfusion Festival dance floors to door-to-door environmental wins and the everyday courage of saying “no” to single-use plastics.

We get practical fast. Steph breaks down composting as a climate lever anyone can pull, how methane forms when food waste hits landfills, and where to drop scraps so they become soil or feed. She makes a clear case that plastic is oil in disguise, recycling isn’t the rescue we hoped for, and the real shift comes from reuse systems: bring-your-own containers, returnable takeout programs that track and wash, and the long-forgotten milkman model reborn with modern logistics. Along the way, a raw memory from an Ecuadorian beach—waves draping plastic bags around her ankles—turns into a spontaneous cleanup that kids joined on the spot, proof that visible action sparks participation.

This conversation also honors the inner work. We talk co-regulation, breath, and why people who feel safe and connected are more likely to engage in sustainable habits. Steph’s “1% reduction challenge” is both humble and ambitious: skip one tank of gas a year, refuse one disposable item a week, choose one returnable container service. Multiply that by millions and the math moves. We weave in mushrooms, movement arts, and the joy of small wins—because lasting change needs both systems and spirit.

If you care about practical sustainability, plastic-free living, composting for climate change, and building community resilience, you’ll leave with steps you can use today and stories you won’t forget. Listen, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and tell us: what’s your 1% this week? Subscribe, rate, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Thanks for tuning in to Respecting Perspectives!

Transcript

Cold Open: Philly, John, and Vibes

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You're a Maryland boy. Right. So I love speaking with a Philly accent. Joan. Yo, let me get that joint from outer there. Got to. It's like Baltimore and Philly like have like a similar sound, but there's like there's some like twangs on some things that like there's some twangs on some things, you know? And then it just like turns it into a whole different, a whole different thing. Yeah. Like John.

SPEAKER_05 0:29

John.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

John.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

John.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

What do you think of John? What is a John?

SPEAKER_05 0:33

John. That thing over there.

unknown 0:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:35

Or a person place a thing.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Person place a thing. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 0:38

That John over there. Who's John?

Meet Steph Compton: Roots and Early Life

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Right? Who's John? You're a shout out to the book. Oh shoot. Okay, you know what? Shout out. Let me just shout out. I've always wanted to shout out John. Shout out John Rush, my cousin John. John Rush. He's from Philly. He's from Philly. And that's my young bull right there. Yeah, what up, John? Yeah. I'm like, John, go get the John. Double John. So, dude, so we start just kind of like out the blue. Great. And then we'll find a spot like actually, here's how we start.

unknown 1:12

Three, two, one.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Okay, listen, I have somebody with me right now that is just so perfectly perfect. And we're having such a fun time. Um, I met this young lady uh through interfusion, and um she really inspired me. You know, I would definitely have to say, yeah, she's an inspirational life force. Okay, that's number one. Okay. I would say that she's also a renaissance woman. If I mean, if I were to just put it out there, and I would definitely have to say that she is very community driven, like in drive all the time, clear windshields, just rear view mirror set up exactly where it needs to be, so that way you can just peek into the rear view. See all the people, see all the people that you're changing. Too good. I have Miss Steph. Should we say should we say your last name? Your your last name. You know my last name? Or is it Compton? Straight out of. Straight out of yo, I got Steph C, Steph Compton in the house. Straight out of. Yo, tell them who you are, where you're from, give them a little give them a little, a little bio, you know.

SPEAKER_05 2:46

So a lot of folks confuse my Facebook name, Steph Comp. It's Steph Comp, Steph Comp. But uh, how are they to know any better? Are they to know any different? So Facebook has trained my my friends for the last decade. But and I still get like invitations, you know, official invitations that say Steph Comp.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Oh shoot. Okay, they're like it's Facebook official.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

Even though I remind people all the time it's Compton because that's a cool name.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Yeah, of course. Of course.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

My cousin had a baby, baby had a onesie straight out of Compton.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Oh, we would love it. Straight out of remember the whole straight out of movement?

SPEAKER_05 3:25

There was a movement? Yeah. It was like everything is straight out.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Everything was straight out of. Yeah. You could be straight out anywhere. Yeah, exactly. You know?

unknown 3:32

Straight out.

Family, Support, and Gratitude

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Love that. Love that. Okay, so what uh give me a little bit about your early life and like childhood. Intensity. What was, yeah, what was your childhood like?

SPEAKER_05 3:42

So what was my childhood like? It was pretty, it was pretty decent. It was pretty like pretty picture perfect, I would say, for the first decade. You know, mom and dad, house, love. Definitely knew right away I was loved. That's good. Felt it. Not everyone gets that, and that's heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

And you're right.

SPEAKER_05 4:05

Anyhow, we're talking about me.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:07

I haven't had heartbreak yet. No, that's not true.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

You'll know when it happens. Hey, you'll know when it happens.

SPEAKER_05 4:13

Oh, I do know. I do know it very well. But uh, yeah, I grew up in Grand Prairie, Texas.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

That's where Selena Gomez is from.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Oh, shout out, Selena. Oh, she's she's gonna be on this show at some point.

SPEAKER_05 4:25

Sweet. Right on as you uh branch out. Um, what else do you want to know about growing up in Texas?

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Let's see here. Give me one of your favorite memories as a child.

SPEAKER_05 4:35

Oh, my grandma, my nanny. She's the best human there ever was.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Um do me a favor. Look up, look up right now at that camera. Say hi, nanny. Hey Nan. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Hi, nanny.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

That's it.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

That was sweet. Thanks for that. Uh-huh. Um camping, uh, going to the lake house. We had a family lake house. All everybody went. Uncles, aunts, cousins.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Enjoyed time with each other.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

Yeah. And that's another thing not everybody gets. Not everyone gets time with family. And like, not just mom and dad, but like grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, cousin, babies. Not everyone grows up with the experience of tending to a baby.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Isn't it? Isn't it wild? I mean, and then there's part of you too that doesn't want to feel like, you know, you don't want to feel shame in like your family being there.

SPEAKER_05 5:30

Right. And like nowadays now, now, and not not as an adult, right? Because an adult, you got this. You don't need this.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh, but I think what what what I'm thinking of is like, you know, you really we're we're lucky to have like the family that we have. And I think even if you have like one uncle or you have like, you know, one or two people that are really close to you that you can have conversations with, you know, um, I mean, we have all those people, but do do we do we really like communicate with them and let them all know like that that we really do care about them and that they mean something to us? So I think that we should all take some time and uh you know reach out to your family.

SPEAKER_05 6:21

Yeah. Yeah. I reflect on like how they were there for me after the first decade. First decade was great. Second decade, that was stressful.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

So why describe if you could describe it in Oh, I got to experience like a single family household then.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

I mean it's hard. And lucky enough to have more members in my household, in my family, not my household, but my family. Okay. Do you hold it down? You know, help out mom when she needed help with me.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

How old were you after like after that first decade? Or sorry, where were you living after that first decade?

SPEAKER_05 6:57

Uh Grand Prairie and Arlington. So they're like neighbor cities. You know how we have the the DMV out here? So in in the Grand Prairie, that's what's known as the DFW. Oh, is it? So the two cities in between Dallas and Fort Worth. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Okay. Okay, I'll remember that.

SPEAKER_05 7:13

Grand Prairie and Arlington are in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

If I drop that, it may it kind of lets them know that I'm I'm kind of familiar. With the DFW? Yeah. DFW.

unknown 7:20

Gotcha. Shout out.

Zero-Waste Queen: Environmental Awakening

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Shout out to the DFW. Yeah, exactly. Um, let's see here. Why don't you tell me what was, I know we haven't really gotten into this, but I really feel like the audience kind of needs to know your role in the environment itself. And I mean the fact that, right? And and you know what? Let me do a reintroduction. Okay. All right. All right. I got the zero waste queen in the house right now, okay? That okay, wait, wait, who else we got? Wait, what's that? Who's that? Mother Nature in the house. Okay. Yeah, so I own it. So, yeah, yeah. So wait a second. So, what was the first moment that you realized that you wanted to really make an impact on the environment and and know that like that was something that you really wanted to put a lot, you wanted to put your life into focusing on.

SPEAKER_05 8:25

Oh, I found that in my late 20s.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 8:29

Uh, like searching for happiness, searching for something. I was searching for something, and I wasn't finding it in community at the time. And I was living in Austin. Okay. At the time, late 20s, mid to late 20s were in Austin. You just said, Well, you just been uh and um that's when I first learned about the environment as far as like the impacts of fracking and what it has on the the natural environment.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

What is fracking, if you can tell me?

SPEAKER_05 9:05

Um fracking is nothing new. It's been around, it's the way that we have drilled for oil in the past. Um, but nowadays we're using it for natural gas. And so fracking for natural gas, man, it sounds so good talking about Oh, you hate me.

Fracking 101 and Finding a Voice

SPEAKER_02 9:24

I'm using a plant. I'm using a plant you know she noticed it and she thought it in her head and she didn't say anything, but she was going to after the second. I will she should. I will let you know how I feel about that. I lost my mug. I lost it at we were just this weekend. Sorry I interrupted you too. I didn't mean it.

SPEAKER_05 9:40

Everyone tries to do their best. We're all doing our best.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

I need to work better on like I need to bring like a single or a uh a multi-use like canister in here.

SPEAKER_05 9:50

Well, ultimately, though, what it comes down to, AWOL, who's gonna do the dishes? The revolution is in dishwashing.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Yeah. Oh my gosh, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 10:02

If you're reusing the same cup everywhere all the time, then it needs to be washed all the time.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

It does. It does. That's such a good point. So we need uh we need more dishwashers.

SPEAKER_05 10:12

Yeah. Well, or I mean your hands are the dishwasher.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Oh we need more hands. Washing dishes. Just think, you had an extra hand, you'd be washing, would you be washing double the dishes?

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Probably.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Because I'm so committed. You would I could I can I could see you now.

SPEAKER_05 10:34

Like I could just see you like when we met, when we met at Interfusion, I was you helped me go get the dishes.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:41

From the the 17th floor and bring them down to the first floor where they needed to go for a different time and place.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

She had, yeah, dude. That was she had the sweet. She was sweet. That was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Yep. No, but interfusion. Actually, let's talk a little bit about interfusion. Okay. Let's, I mean, cuz how cool is it? It's pretty cool, isn't it? I mean, explain it to somebody. If you were to like explain it to like somebody who would never To those that are listening, you want to go to this.

SPEAKER_05 11:11

Yeah. It's every Tell them why. In January. Okay. It usually happens around MLK weekend. Usually. Um, why does it happen? Okay, so Interfusion is workshop dense, expert dense. Full of really cool people that know things that you don't. And maybe you have interest in some of the things they learn and want to know more about it. It's definitely for improving oneself and improving one's connection to themselves and to community.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

That was a great way of describing interfusion.

SPEAKER_05 11:48

Through dance.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Through dance.

Door-to-Door Organizing and Lobbying

SPEAKER_05 11:50

Through multiple types of dances. I uh I've picked up Zook since then. Man, I love Zook. Oh shoot. I've heard of I've heard of okay, okay. Tell me, tell me more. So there's a lead and there's a follow. Okay. And I've been learning recently through the people that I've met there. I've been going to Tribe. Tribe Baltimore is is here in Baltimore. They've been here for a year now. It's called the School for Movement Arts. And that's where I go move my body. I move. So important.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Yeah. I don't know. Dude.

SPEAKER_05 12:21

I've done a lot of lying around before.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

I think we all have. Yeah. We all been lying, you know, you lie around. And then you start to, you're lying there and you're looking at the ceiling and you're like, well, you know, the world's just not going to change itself.

SPEAKER_05 12:36

It's not. It's not. And you have to get out there.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

So my my And you have to never lose that. You can't, you can't, because there will be times where like they're like, hey, it ain't changing. Or it's changing in ways that you didn't even think. Right. So now you're like, oh wait, we gotta pivot a little bit. You know, like you're I feel like you're it's actually always changing. Might not be in the favor of you.

SPEAKER_05 13:02

If you're not changing, then you're debt.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yeah. You know, think about that.

SPEAKER_05 13:07

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

What was the thing we were just talking about before that?

SPEAKER_05 13:10

Which thing?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

We were talking about interfusion.

SPEAKER_05 13:12

Uh-huh. Before that.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Um, okay, you know what?

SPEAKER_05 13:15

Now let's let's How I found the environment?

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah, how you yeah, yep. Yeah. Yeah. I really want to hear about this.

SPEAKER_05 13:22

I was in Texas. I was learning about natural gas, fracking.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Fracking.

SPEAKER_05 13:27

Fracking. Don't frack your mother. Don't frack your mother. And they're fracking mother nature everywhere. Violation of her consent left and right.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Oh, and right. Damn, dude.

SPEAKER_05 13:38

So when I learned about that, I started working for Texas Campaign for the Environment. Shout out longest running uh grassroots organization. Getting shit done for Mother Nature. S D. Which we are all of Mother Nature.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:57

You're right. We are nature. I'm a mom.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yes, Andrew. Oh no.

SPEAKER_05 14:06

You're a mom.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

You know? All right. I'll take that. I got one on the belt. We got another match on the belt, baby. Thank you. Fist pump to that. Okay. Fracking.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

You were texting campaign for the environment. Taught me how to use my voice. I started uh knocking on doors. Hello. Hello. Let's talk about the environment. I would open the door for you for sure. Well, I had really good success at it.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Yeah, you guys you just had a nice smile on your face and you were just I was getting you were just like you were probably like waving yourself off or you just it was hot.

SPEAKER_05 14:41

It was hot. Texas.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Oh in Tex oh my gosh, knocking on doors in Texas. That that's like a whole nother level.

SPEAKER_05 14:48

Right. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Dedication.

SPEAKER_05 14:51

Oh yeah. Right. Which is more of a reason why you should open the door.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Like this, really. And the rain. And just the no's. All the no's that you hear.

SPEAKER_05 15:00

Oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Yeah, exactly. But then they make the yeses, you know, that much better.

SPEAKER_05 15:07

Yes. I could write a book about it probably. I should. You should.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Hey, text uh note to S-I-R-I, just so she doesn't come on. Write this book.

SPEAKER_05 15:20

Yeah, write this book. About finding your voice.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Okay, so when you were door to door, tell me, give me a little bit about that experience and like what maybe what did you learn through it?

SPEAKER_05 15:32

Um I learned how to be succinct. I learned how to communicate quickly. Because you gotta get through what's the thing that this person's gonna give this person, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Yeah, with all this other clutter that's they're gonna be able to do it. Yeah, what's relevant?

SPEAKER_05 15:47

Like, what is the thing that makes them want to learn hear more?

SPEAKER_02 15:51

And that's different for everybody.

SPEAKER_05 15:53

So you gotta you gotta adjust quickly, but using the same type message over and over again. Uh they train you. I was trained on like how to like keep it moving and how to not uh convince anyone, and you're there to find the people that already agree because they're out there.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Oh, you're not trying to convince anyone, you're you're already trying to find the people who've already been convinced.

Interfusion Festival and Movement Arts

SPEAKER_05 16:19

They already agree that the environment is a priority, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

But what lengths will they go?

SPEAKER_05 16:26

Right. So I was getting people to write checks, give me their credit card.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Okay, because they because they supported the member. That that's gonna go somewhere, you know. Seriously.

SPEAKER_05 16:38

I round my receipt.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Yeah, but even like how can you prove to those people that like the money is going to have newsletter.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

We got follow-up.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Follow, of course.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

Yeah. Of course. We got stuff done.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

We we influenced corporate policy.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

And what was some of the money, what would some of the money go to? Well, like what were some of the things that were, do you know what some of the things were it's for lobbying?

SPEAKER_05 17:04

Going and talking to lawmakers directly and saying, hey, we've got 20,000 people that have given me a check because they believe in this.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

So would it cost money to actually meet with the lobbyist?

SPEAKER_05 17:16

So they would give us, no, but someone's gotta do it. Someone's gotta wake up and put on their suit.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

So you're paying like a lawyer or like a grassroots politics. Grassroots lobbying, someone that's of the people, someone that you can trust. Gotcha. That has that has say in Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:32

Well, and they make the time. Anyone can go to the Capitol and talk to your lawmaker.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:37

But you gotta know how to talk to them.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah, you gotta know how to talk.

SPEAKER_05 17:40

And you gotta know how to take how to navigate through their nose. Their o's.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 17:48

And that and anyone can do that, but we all got jobs.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:53

We all have to and that's why we don't participate in democracy. We're so distracted taking care of ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah, right. That we don't have to.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Yeah, that's really important. Taking care of yourself first before you can even you have to fit you know, you have to understand yourself before you can even get to learn to understand what's going on around you. You know? Um, what do you think the challenge in in understanding yourself is? Like you would think, like, oh, it's me. I know me, 100%.

SPEAKER_05 18:26

Well, one of these days when I was knocking on doors, okay, this little boy in Texas opens the door. I'm like, I'm here to talk about it. Excuse me, who are you? I'm here to talk about the environment. And he's like, What's that?

SPEAKER_02 18:42

What is you're bringing you using big words here, honey?

SPEAKER_05 18:46

I was like, you know, the air you breathe.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Right.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

The water you swim in, you fish in.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 18:54

And then he's like, who cares?

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Is that what he did?

SPEAKER_05 18:59

He didn't know any better.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

But also these day.

SPEAKER_05 19:03

What if, you know, that's the sentiment of mom and dad, right? Who cares?

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Oh, because they they got it. They got it.

SPEAKER_05 19:10

Yeah, who cares? I mean, no, they weren't interested in talking to me.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

I mean, whatever. That's fine. Yeah. They're probably busy. Right. Everybody's everybody's busy.

SPEAKER_05 19:19

But like, people people don't know we're nature. You know, people want to go live in space.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:28

We're not made to live there. We're one of nature. One of this one unique.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

I feel like like living in space that would really just be like temporarily until like they can actually get, you know, to somewhere that that is, you know, I guess inhabitable. But I feel like it's inhabitable right now. Yeah, I feel like it's that's a that's a long way down the the future, you know?

unknown 19:56

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 19:57

How long is that? I feel like our lifetime we'll see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

We'll see somebody living on a different planet.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

Sorry, I should let you finish talking.

Beauty, Breath, and Co‑Regulation

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Yeah, not in space, yeah, on a different planet. No. No. Yeah. Like on like lit, you know, actually set up in like a little little fort on a different planet. Like, I mean, on Mars. I mean, when are they gonna put people on Mars?

SPEAKER_05 20:24

I'm not interested.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Yeah. Yeah, we're not going. I'm cool with I'm cool with here, right? Yeah, this is I'll I'll take this. I'll stay here and this is where all the beauty is. Good good point.

SPEAKER_05 20:35

They got nothing out there.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Beauty, what is what does beauty mean to you? I've been I've been that's been on my mind.

SPEAKER_05 20:43

Man, Mother Nature just gives it to us all the time. And I feel bad for folks that have never traveled outside of their city and gone to a forest. We got beauty here in our backyard. Yeah. Everywhere. I appreciate the man. I had this moment earlier this spring when everything was just coming out in bloom. Right now, you know what's blooming? The irises. They're white, they're yellow, they're purple.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Right? I know it's so cool to know like these different times when these things take the time to smell the roses.

SPEAKER_05 21:15

That's beauty.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Hey, wait a second. You know what? Let's just stop real quick.

SPEAKER_05 21:21

Don't have roses in face.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Pretend this is a rose. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That is so rosy. If I were to describe this smell, it would just be like a whole dozen.

SPEAKER_05 21:43

We just took three deep breaths together, bro.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Get on our level. I hope you are on our level right now, okay? Because that's what this is about.

SPEAKER_05 21:53

That's called co-regulating.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Is it? What taking a breath together?

SPEAKER_05 21:58

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

Co-regulators. I can see it now.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

Co-regulators. Uh mound up.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

We got like a cartoon idea.

SPEAKER_05 22:10

So many.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Yeah, just we need we need to take honestly. I take good notes in my phone, but it's more like organizing the notes. Like, how can I use them? How can I revisit them at the perfect time to where you know what I want to do lines up with this idea. And like, I think it's important for us to really think about like when we're, you know, with like social media and whatnot, and we want to try and like make a message, you know. I think it's important that you're like you're very intentional with what you're saying, you know, and that like it comes from a very organic place, you know, and I feel like we can really spread a lot of of goodness and like you know, the things that need to be known throughout uh you know life in order to help us like live like the longest life.

unknown 23:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

And remember, I was telling you about the blue zones.

SPEAKER_05 23:16

I've watched that since then.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Did you watch?

SPEAKER_05 23:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

How cool is that?

SPEAKER_05 23:20

Yeah. I gotta say, I haven't always been a keen on the idea of living to 100.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 23:26

Because I'm just like, this place sucks. My don't cry. I cry you're laughing.

Inner Peace for World Peace

SPEAKER_01 23:38

I'm laughing. I'm crying, laughing.

SPEAKER_05 23:42

I mean, you know what I mean? Like, and here I am, Mother Nature saying, I understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:48

I just talked about how beautiful this place is, but like society, culturally, societally, societally. Societally. In this day and age, this place is troublesome. And like, even so, I've got my friends. I'm auntie to so many. And I've got my friends, eight-year-old, nine-year-old, who already says things like, How do I get out of here? I don't like this universe. What is I want the other one?

SPEAKER_02 24:17

You want a different thing.

SPEAKER_05 24:18

I'm like girl, you're too young for thinking like that.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

I know. Gosh. So do you think that you had like thoughts like that, maybe even just like sporadic when you were really young? That maybe you don't remember. Not sorry, not remember, but like didn't put an emphasis on. I mean, I feel like we all deal with each generation deals with their own type of suffering and uh let's see here, uh um distraction that like may seem like it's helping life, but like it it really does kind of like hinder it uh in a way, you know. Um, but it it is intentionally used to like do good, but then it ended up being something that can be used differently.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

You know, so I think it's important uh to understand though that yeah, that every generation has that. So, you know, with them, they think of it the way that they're asking that question too is they don't they're just repeating something that they heard. I think at at that age, they they they don't understand the skin with her mother every now and then.

SPEAKER_05 25:29

I'm like, does she still think that way? And she's like, Yeah, girl, that's her soul.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

That's right. Well, you know what? You never know. What if, like, you know, that that drive behind them kind of like makes them like want to do something about it.

SPEAKER_05 25:44

Yeah, I hope so. I'm here to support that as auntie.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

In order to even understand it, or even to make it better, you have to understand it's like it the the craziness that it is in order to like know how to like untie it.

Composting as Climate Action

SPEAKER_05 25:59

Right. Oh and it can be done. I believe. I believe if she believes, I believe. Ugh, this place sucks, but I I need like a lot of help. We just need help.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

You're right. We do need help. So what can what can people do?

SPEAKER_05 26:18

So like there's this woman that I met at Interfusion, Nikki Baptiste.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Nikki Batiste shout.

SPEAKER_05 26:26

She's got a program, she calls it um Inner Peace for World Peace.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

I like it.

SPEAKER_05 26:34

I love it. Dig it because when I think about the world and what the world needs, healing of its people.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Healing.

SPEAKER_05 26:47

And uh no one else can do that for us but us. So inner peace for rollpiece, like you have to find that inner peace for you first before we all get it.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Yeah. I know, right? That's the crazy thing too. Like we're all just guessing. You know, it's not n not nothing really concrete.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

So I think we should be grateful for the fact though that it's like it's like that. It's squishy. You know? Because y there's gotta be more squishy. I mean, dude, okay, you ready? We're not there's eight billion people on the planet. We're not having a problem living. Like, n now. Okay, now I feel like that's one of the reasons why some people kind of lose, you know, the the drive behind it, because they think of how many different people there are on earth, and if they don't do it, then somebody else is going to do it.

SPEAKER_05 28:07

But that's when you realize that you are somebody else.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 28:13

I am somebody that can do something.

Refuse Single Use: Practical Reuse

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Yeah, it makes you think of like everybody that there is out there, and like I guess if you know how to take care of yourself and you know how to take care of uh it'll help you learn how to take care of other people.

SPEAKER_05 28:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

You know?

SPEAKER_05 28:36

Because if you know what you need in a certain moment, then you know how to anticipate someone else's needs when they show up in need of something.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Um let's segue a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I had some cool questions for you here. Um what was the most what is the mis What is I got this, I got this. I believe you. What is the most misunderstood thing about mother nature aspect?

SPEAKER_05 29:13

I hear what I hear what you're saying. What is the most misunderstood thing about human nature?

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Yeah. Human nature.

SPEAKER_05 29:19

Human nature is that we are nature. So I just recently started listening to a book called uh Polysecure. You heard of it? I'm not sure who's it's about like trauma and attachment and consensual consensual something that's in there.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:42

It's about ethical nominatomy, like Ooh, that's even better. There you go. What I love about this book so far, what I love about this book so far is uh this therapist also addresses how the cognitive dissonance of humans in nature. Right. Because we're talking about relationship to self, relationship to others, what makes us secure, what makes us safe in our lives, the feelings of feeling safe and secure. And the way that we grow up, our families, the relationships that we have, the trauma that we experience, independent of family.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Makes us safe and secure secure.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

Yeah. And um, but one of the things about sense of belonging is there are some people I would identify with this that they don't feel safe and secure in a place where the environment is just not being taken care of.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Oh man, it's just not. It's just not.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Yeah, it it brings that that that that um that feeling of just like like not not being able to like thrive or not and also like not feeling like you can do anything about it.

SPEAKER_05 30:57

I mean, what do you what how do you feel about the climate like the state of the world and man?

SPEAKER_02 31:04

That's such a deep question because it's like you you hear these things. They're like they're like birds that are chirping.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

I can hear them right now.

Ocean Plastic Story and Community Ripple

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Exactly. And it's like which ones do I want to listen to, and then which ones do I need to listen to? Okay, because there's always like that, there's always like that left and right side, you know, that's kind of like things are, you know, things are great, things are awesome, like no matter what you do, like it's gonna be like that. Then there's this side where it's like, you know, kind of kind of feeds you like the what ifs. You know, like what if this happens, and you know, this might happen, or like what if, you know, and I do think that we have with the amount of technology that we have, we we shouldn't be having such confusion, you know, between we're confused because we're not connected. Yeah, exactly. We're not connected to and and and this thing's supposed to isn't this thing supposed to connect us? Isn't that what this is for?

SPEAKER_05 32:29

Well, it's got a good lens, it might be able to help you identify some things. Do you ever go what? Do you ever go hiking?

SPEAKER_02 32:35

I love hiking.

SPEAKER_05 32:36

Do you uh do mushroom hunting?

SPEAKER_02 32:39

You know what? I've went mushroom hunting once or twice in my day.

SPEAKER_05 32:42

Yeah?

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 32:43

What well, I mean, like, what have you been able to find?

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Um, just like lion's mane. Ooh, like yeah, and things like that. Uh turkey tail.

SPEAKER_05 32:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Definitely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:54

Um, you can't really eat, but you can like make stuff with it.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Yeah, yeah. Good point.

SPEAKER_05 32:58

Um, and that's what they teach you they, as in if you go to like a mushroom city art festival or something.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Oh, yes. Speak about oh yeah, oh dude, good job. Cheers, cheers. Yo, shouts out to Mushroom City Art Festival. I just want to say that Steph has said nothing but amazing things about this place. And I'm excited for everyone else to see it. Okay, infomercial stuff.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

Every year in October, but uh yeah. And it's free.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Is it?

SPEAKER_05 33:27

Yeah, it's free.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

F R double easy.

SPEAKER_05 33:30

Come on, mushrooms and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

Yeah, when is it again? I don't know if there's a date yet. But you said you said something. It's always in October. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 33:39

It's always like first weekend of October.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Okay, gotcha. Um, that's a good thought. Um, okay, save it in my calendar.

SPEAKER_05 33:46

Great.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Yeah, okay. Um, let's see here. What is let's let me let me take you out in the left field here. Do it. Okay, just right now. We're aiming in this direction. All right. What's the most rewarding experience? Okay, this one right here. I'm looking. Yeah. What's the most rewarding experience that you've ever experienced?

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Ever.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Ever. Forever.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

That's a Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

I gotta think of something now. Okay, I got it.

SPEAKER_05 34:25

Um let's talk about okay, let's talk about what I've learned from digging in the trash. Mmm. Okay. And uh composting.

unknown 34:36

Comp.

Recycling Limits and Oil Reality

SPEAKER_05 34:38

Step composting and there's so many ways we can play with that.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Right? Post it. She's posting up on the corner.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

Um post it.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

But um with a bag.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

How much we don't know about um about it? What do you know about composting?

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Uh real quick, real quick, like we get back to it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I know that it's basically kind of like recycling for like living matter.

SPEAKER_05 35:09

Yeah. Yeah. We call it sometimes we call it re-earthing. Taking the things that came from the earth and putting them back into the earth. You know, that is one of the single um single actions an individual could take to combat climate change.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

One action. We just just one.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

One. Just one thing. Tell tell everyone? Just one thing. You could try composting. I can tell you here in Baltimore City, if you go to the farmers' markets, yeah. There's the year-round market on Saturdays at Waverly. Every Saturday you can you can drop it off.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Oh, can you?

SPEAKER_05 35:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

And what happens with it?

SPEAKER_05 35:50

Uh I believe. I believe so you can only dump food waste there. Because there's lots of types of compost.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 36:00

But just the just the food scraps. Because I believe it's going to a farm. I believe they're feeding animals with it.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 36:06

So you wouldn't want to put um paper. Paper is totally compostable.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 36:12

But you're not going to put it in food compost to animals. That's not part of their diet.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Yeah. Good point.

SPEAKER_05 36:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Yeah, because it depends on where it's going.

SPEAKER_05 36:22

That kid combat, you know, greenhouse gases. What's a greenhouse gas? Carbon. What is it? Other things. I'm not a scientist, but You look like one. We're learning about it all the time. Um, and food waste is one of the biggest things that's contributing to what is a greenhouse gas, things that are um making it hot.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

What's another way? What's another one thing that people can do?

SPEAKER_05 36:48

Oh, let's talk about refuse. I've refused a couple of things since I've been here. Oh. Because it's my habit.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 36:56

So I would like to encourage everyone to refuse single use anything.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 37:03

Single use is the downfall.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

I'll reuse this cup a few times.

SPEAKER_05 37:07

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

I swear.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

I mean, you could.

Reuse Systems and Returnable Containers

SPEAKER_02 37:09

I will.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

But every time you use it, you're just exposing yourself to the toxins that are in it.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_05 37:16

And then when we throw it away, whether you choose to recycle it or not, right? You could put it in the recycling bin. Will it make it there or not? Who knows? Because what if it's Oh, then I'll do that?

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Yeah, I'll just put it in a recycling bin.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

Well, you could do you could do that.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

And I'm not saying that's not how I I don't want to, I don't want to have to throw anything in the in the bin. I wanna be using use it. You want to use it.

SPEAKER_05 37:40

Yeah, so let's get you some reusables up in here.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Yeah, good thing. Good thought. I have plenty of.

SPEAKER_05 37:46

You got a five-gallon jug of water?

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Yeah, that's what we need to do. Yeah. That's what we need to do.

SPEAKER_05 37:50

Get a five-gallon, get some cups. You know, you don't have to wash the dishes every day.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:56

You gotta have enough cups to get by in a day.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

A day.

SPEAKER_05 37:59

For your guests.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Yeah. For you. Yeah, it's easy too.

SPEAKER_05 38:02

You could pay someone to wash your dishes.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

No, I don't need to. No, dude. Ah, you can do it. That's too easy.

SPEAKER_05 38:08

High five.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Get out of here, dude. Bro. Come on. Little Dawn.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

Loves Mother Nature.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Little Dawn. Oh, dude. Let me tell you. People will attest. I pick up trash. Yeah. I I pick up trash. And as I walk from work, and you know what? There's there's a part of me for the longest time was like, don't pick this up. Somebody's trying, somebody's watching you. Somebody's watching you. And then and then like it became.

SPEAKER_05 38:29

If you think someone's watching you, okay, back to biggest experience or something.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Most rewarding.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

Most rewarding experience. I was traveling. I was in South America. I was on the beach in um, let's see, Peru, Ecuador. I was in Ecuador. On the beach in Ecuador, not enjoying my time at all. You know why? Why? With every wave. I was getting a new plastic bag around my ankle.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Oh, dude.

SPEAKER_05 38:54

Disgusting. Could not enjoy my time.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Really? It was that bad?

SPEAKER_05 39:00

Have you ever been swimming in the ocean with plastic all around you?

SPEAKER_02 39:02

It's I I have, but like not that like it was. I mean, I've been to a f a few places. I I can't remember one that like stands.

SPEAKER_05 39:11

So anyhow, I start spearing this, these plastic fish with a stick, getting this plastic. I'm just getting it. And all of these children are watching me, and now they're like, they're doing it with me.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

They're doing see? Good point.

SPEAKER_05 39:28

It was that okay, that's the best thing ever. I had to think about it. I wasn't ready to answer it, but we started talking about stuff and we landed. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

The paper bag marauder. Plastic made a plastic bag marauder.

SPEAKER_05 39:40

And getting those kids to do it with me.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

I know, right?

SPEAKER_05 39:43

15 minutes of doing that. We got so what's great about picking up trash, I've learned I've done it so many times.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:49

Picking up trash. Trash is oftentimes you pick up more trash that can hold the trash you're picking up.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Oh, good point.

SPEAKER_05 39:55

Like a plastic bag, an ice bag. Then you can start putting all the other stuff in there. So we just had bags of bags of bags of bags.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Bags of bags. Bag lady. Nice. Yeah. Love that.

SPEAKER_05 40:06

I am a bag lady in my bag.

Species Loss, Mushrooms, and Possibility

SPEAKER_02 40:08

In yeah, you've been in your bag too. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Uh okay, let's see here. What is what do you think like the number one environmental issue that we should should be thinking about other than maybe other than climate change, I guess you could say?

SPEAKER_05 40:31

So we'll keep talking about single use.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Yeah, let's stick around.

SPEAKER_05 40:35

Because here's what I know. I know like that plastic cup you got right there.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:41

What is plastic made out of?

SPEAKER_02 40:43

Yeah, what is dude? Okay, take a second and reach under your chair and vote on the survey that what is a plastic? Okay. We'll we'll we'll we'll s we'll display the the results next episode.

SPEAKER_05 41:01

Uh oil! Mother effin' oil. So uh yeah, and it's oil, really?

unknown 41:09

Oil.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

So what I can be so many things.

SPEAKER_05 41:12

Here's what I know. Here's what I know from my circles that I'm that I circle in.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

Your circle's circle.

SPEAKER_05 41:18

Um, where we talk about reuse and those systems and how we want them to be the new norm. So um sorry. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Because that was holy distracting. Who didn't shut that door? Don't they know we're trying to have a conversation? Oh, all good. That was like me walking in here.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Good job.

SPEAKER_05 41:58

Take your water.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Okay, so reuse.

SPEAKER_05 42:01

More reuse needs to be the norm.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

So, um wait a second. Say that again.

SPEAKER_05 42:06

Reuse.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 42:09

Refuse a single use. How do we get okay? So what I know is that plastic makes up all of our sing a lot of our single-use containers of food and beverage. We eat how many times a day?

SPEAKER_02 42:23

I mean, it depends on who you are. I got some friends that eat like six times a day.

SPEAKER_05 42:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Right. But I eat maybe like three, two.

SPEAKER_05 42:30

And how many of those meals, you know, are on the go? Or how many of those meals did you make? It doesn't matter. Whether you cooked it yourself, or you had to go to the store and get it, or you went to a restaurant and got it. There's packaging all along the way.

SPEAKER_03 42:44

Right?

SPEAKER_05 42:45

So we need the packaging to eat. Yeah. To get food to us. In the way that we live our lives right now.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_05 42:55

But like once upon a time, you get your milk from a milkman, drop it off, you're done with it, you finish that bottle. They're not bringing you a cow, they're bringing you the milk.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

That's a good point, right?

SPEAKER_05 43:09

That they they they would not everyone can afford to have a cow in their backyard.

The 1% Reduction Challenge

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Yeah. But they can't afford to uh pay for like a delivery. Yeah. And also too, I think you the point you were talking about was like recycling with the with the milk.

SPEAKER_05 43:23

Recycling.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

I'm yeah, I mean reusing the milk uh jugs.

SPEAKER_05 43:28

Yeah, there you go. Recycling is just trash.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:31

Now, not to put recycling down. Uh-huh. I was calling it trash.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:38

But it really is. Well, we know that for a fact, nine percent of plastics are getting recycled.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Nine percent?

SPEAKER_05 43:45

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Of how many percent?

SPEAKER_05 43:48

Plastic uh out of a hundred? Let's just talk about like a billion dot bottles a year.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Yeah, a billion.

SPEAKER_05 43:55

Is that what it is? That's an underestimate.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

A billion bottles.

SPEAKER_05 44:00

But like, how do we get into like reuse like the the milkman model? Like, we use it, it goes back, it gets clean, it gets sanitized, it gets refilled. So, and these these circles that I'm in, there's all of these cool players that are bringing up these really cool services for our life to switch back to reduce our carbon footprint. Because all of these single-use items take oil. And oil is what's killing us.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

Oh, and that's what's actually being burned. Oh, shoot. So it's a double, it's a double whammy.

SPEAKER_05 44:40

Oh, yeah. Oh also, like recyclable products, like all those chemicals that go into recycling and making it a recycled plastic, are like super toxic. There's more chemical harmful chemicals involved in the recycling process than just from the first part of making plastic. So toxic no matter what, even more toxic when it's recycled. Even more toxic. So I cringe when I see like clothes made out of recycled plastic.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 45:08

We talk about a water bottle that's made out of recycled plastic. It's just do we we talk about how much plastic is in the body right now? Did you know?

SPEAKER_02 45:18

Four credit cards.

SPEAKER_05 45:20

Is that it?

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Uh, I don't think it's four credit cards. I think it's um like throughout your life.

SPEAKER_05 45:26

Well, right now I was talking about well, it depends on what bot what part of the body we're talking about. The lungs, the testes, the brain.

unknown 45:34

Testies.

SPEAKER_05 45:36

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

Yeah, not good.

SPEAKER_05 45:39

We're plastic people.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

I know, right? And then some of the fish that are in the water now have like they have that in there?

SPEAKER_04 45:45

They're plastic fish.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

So let me ask you, I mean, uh, I know you went over a few different ways to um, is there anything else refuse?

SPEAKER_04 45:56

Refuse. Refuse single use.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Refuse.

SPEAKER_04 45:59

We can.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

So what if somebody's going to a restaurant okay, and they're taking food out, they're getting food from the restaurant.

SPEAKER_05 46:06

Well, you gotta bring your own container.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

You gotta you you you think they'll listen to you? I mean, I feel I feel like it's hard enough just to get like them to ring me up.

SPEAKER_05 46:17

I know.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

As opposed to like give them a container to like put my food in.

SPEAKER_05 46:23

These cool services that start showing up.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 46:26

There's like these cool service providers, like Curry Zero.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 46:31

And then there's some other one. There's one in DC called to go green.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_05 46:35

Yeah, you can get it in reusable takeout containers.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 46:38

And then when you're done, they track you. You have like a couple weeks to return the container before they charge you for it. And then they wash it and give it back to the restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Yeah, that's a good thought. Um, I could see some, I could see that being a good business model uh in the future.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

You know, um taking an opportunity and kind of really uh, you know, making making something of it.

SPEAKER_05 47:03

So yeah, you'll learn if you start to refuse single-use items, you'll notice the places where it's really hard to do that.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

And wait, I I just got a I just got a page for my Neuralink here. And um it said that well, 150 species die a day. All right. So listen, we're not trying to be all doom and gloom here. All right, we're trying to teach you, trying to sometimes you gotta teach tough love.

SPEAKER_04 47:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

And that's the best way to uh that's the best way to do it. 150 species die a day. We're killing species off before we even get to figure out what they are.

SPEAKER_05 47:47

Oh, yeah. I know you I know you wanted to say that, but like some of them mushrooms out there. I know, guys could be curing cancer, could be curing our lives.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

Right? Shout out to Paul. Paul's damn shout out to Paul's Damage with the seven out there. Yeah, throw up your sevens. Seven, baby. So, no, guys like him and like movies like Miracul or Ma Miraculous Mushrooms, I think that's what it's called. Something like that. Magnificent mushrooms, I think. Um I I don't know the exact name, but it's all about his his aunt or his mom. His mom. His mom. He cured his mom. He cured his mom of cancer just through like just regular yeah, just regular uh yeah, yeah, just regular mushrooms that that you can find all over the place.

SPEAKER_05 48:34

But we're destroying the planet faster than we can identify some of these species. And they're gone forever.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Right? Gone before we can and what if we found out that that thing like could do something really good for us.

SPEAKER_05 48:47

I mean, it's the reason we speak to each other.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:50

That's what we learned of that magic mushroom movie.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Mm. Communication.

SPEAKER_05 48:55

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 48:56

Yeah, you see, you did you have I ever told you about the stoned ape theory?

SPEAKER_05 49:01

The what?

SPEAKER_02 49:02

The stoned ape theory.

SPEAKER_05 49:03

Stoned ape theory.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

So it's basically like back in the day, and this was um written by um what is his darn name? Uh he's a my he's a mycologist, like the biggest one of the bigger mycologists from back in the day.

SPEAKER_04 49:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

Not pulsamits. Not pulse damage, but um keep going. Okay, okay, okay. So what he did was he wrote a book and it's about how there were animals, there were monkeys that would follow cattle, and they would eat the the poop. Because that's all they were leaving, you know, and then like some would die.

SPEAKER_05 49:46

Because what's waste of another animal is food for another.

Message to Younger Self

SPEAKER_02 49:49

Exactly. So they would eat the the poop and there would be mushrooms in it. Okay. Well, as these monkeys ate these things, they started to get effects from it.

SPEAKER_05 50:09

Tripping.

SPEAKER_02 50:09

They were tripping. And when you're doing that, when when you're tripping, I've never done it myself, but when you're doing it, okay, it makes you your senses.

SPEAKER_05 50:20

Ah, right.

SPEAKER_02 50:21

You know, they get heightened. And so then they were like climbing up in trees and like they were started to use tools, they started to use language, and it was that small shift that then created that 10,000 years of um uh you know, thriving and just um uh what's the word that I'm looking for? Um, you know, going from like not organized to like very organized evolution.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 50:57

So that's where the evolution came from. It was monkeys eating mushrooms. Right. I'm telling you, that's one of the like the the the the the theories that I've heard that like really kind of like makes a lot of sense, yeah. You know, yeah, um, and it really like makes you can make connect some dots, yeah. You know, it's pretty cool. So um, yeah. Uh let's see here. What else do we want to talk about? Yeah, what else do you want to talk about? I mean, I feel like we went through a lot of information. You know what? Oh, I I got a I got a segment here.

SPEAKER_05 51:35

Well, what is it? Yeah. I mean, because I could talk all day.

SPEAKER_02 51:40

I know, I know. You can our next guest is here. So I think we want to end in like five or we want to end in ten. Okay, ten minutes. Is that okay with you?

SPEAKER_04 51:49

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

Okay.

Closing: Trash to Treasure

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Um I have some questions that I'm gonna ask you. Okay, but before that, do you think there's anything that you want to um you know that you want to say?

SPEAKER_05 52:04

Okay, there's one thing you can do.

unknown 52:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 52:07

So check out the commons. Because what I know is that just one percent will save the world. Okay. If we reduce our consumption habits by just one percent. Yeah, I like the one percent. Just one percent. If everyone just did their one percent, okay, it would be enough. It would be enough. So one percent could look like let's say uh you buy gas on a weekly basis. Okay, what if one week, just one week you didn't buy gas. And instead that week you get creative with what you're gonna do. That's enough of a one that's one that's what 1% looks like. Yeah. Buying one less gas tank in a year.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 53:00

Which, if everyone did that, that would offset more emissions than the entire US military industrial complex.

SPEAKER_02 53:10

Really?

SPEAKER_05 53:11

They're the biggest users.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Okay, wait, let's let's talk about that real quick. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Let's talk about the 1%.

SPEAKER_05 53:25

The good 1%, the 1% that you can do.

SPEAKER_02 53:28

Yeah, what's the 1% that people can do in order to make reduce, reduce, and refuse?

SPEAKER_05 53:36

Yeah. Just reduce, reduce your consumption and your consumption of resources.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

Okay, so reduce that so go to your fridge right now, take that red magic marker, and write reduce on that bad boy. Okay? Thank you for doing that for both from both of us. Yeah, you're cool if you do, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 54:00

Mother Nature.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

Yeah, Mother Nature will yeah, thinks you're cool. Nice. Um, okay, let's see here. Um, I want to ask you a few questions. I got okay, now this is rapid fire.

SPEAKER_05 54:12

So the rapid fire part?

SPEAKER_02 54:13

Yeah, we're gonna go right. We're going right into it. I'm ready. We're getting rapid fire into rapid fire.

SPEAKER_05 54:17

I'm gonna go so rapid.

SPEAKER_02 54:18

Okay. Are you Kay, you ready?

SPEAKER_05 54:21

Ready.

SPEAKER_02 54:21

Okay. How would life be different if we could all read each other's thoughts?

SPEAKER_05 54:26

Oh God, that's how we anticipate each other's needs and just like show up for each other.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

Right? Wow. You would already know.

SPEAKER_05 54:33

No guesswork?

unknown 54:34

No.

SPEAKER_05 54:35

Fuck.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Yeah, just straight to the point. Yeah, man. Love that. That was easy. Right. Easy. Um, okay. Do you think crying is a good thing or a bad thing?

SPEAKER_05 54:43

Absolutely, it's a good thing. You gotta get it out.

SPEAKER_02 54:46

Get it out.

SPEAKER_05 54:48

Good or bad. You know, you cry I cry whether it's a an emotion. An emotion.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

I cry. Is that the right words?

SPEAKER_05 54:58

What's the no?

SPEAKER_02 54:59

It's I swear. Because I swear.

SPEAKER_05 55:01

Oh, by the by the moon in the sky.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

Sorry, I mixed my words up, but I'll be there.

SPEAKER_05 55:08

I'll be there.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

Are you ready? That's the one. What would be the best thing about becoming an adult?

SPEAKER_05 55:24

Because I'm not one already.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

No, but when you become one, okay.

SPEAKER_05 55:28

Let me think about it for what I thought it would be. Yeah. Uh uh independent. Oh making my own decisions, guys.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

Traveling. You get to travel, you get to go anywhere. Yeah. And you're not, and you don't have to sleep in your own bed.

SPEAKER_05 55:44

Yeah. Traveling, doing making my own decisions.

SPEAKER_02 55:49

Okay, what's the weirdest combination of foods you've ever eaten?

SPEAKER_05 55:54

I will eat anything.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

Anything on the table.

SPEAKER_05 55:58

Uh, except for meat. I don't eat meat anymore. Not because I don't like to eat. Not because I love to eat a little bit. How long's it been? How long have you been? It's been like 10 years. What? For the environment because it's so unsustainable. Ugh.

SPEAKER_02 56:10

You're too good. You're too good, dude. You're too good to mother. You're too good to nature, dude. She needs it. Uh-uh. You know, I tried for a little bit and it didn't. It was just really. Well, we'll talk about that. We'll have a whole episode on that. Okay, great. Okay. What's the best combination of two cereals?

SPEAKER_05 56:28

Ooh, let's think about what comes to mind. Let's see something chocolatey, something peanut butter.

SPEAKER_02 56:33

Count chocolate and the PB.

SPEAKER_05 56:36

What is that?

SPEAKER_02 56:36

PB swizzles.

SPEAKER_05 56:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:38

Yeah, you said it. It's something like that.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

I forget what they're called. All right. What's the worst candy you've ever eaten?

SPEAKER_05 56:49

The worst?

SPEAKER_02 56:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 56:52

So it used to be licorice, but now I like it. I had a salty licorice? Whoa. Oh. That's advanced.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

Luckily you got it. Luckily you got out of there. I'm glad you got it out of there a lot.

SPEAKER_05 57:06

It's an advanced candy flavor for I don't know who.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

Okay, you ready? What was the last movie you cried at? You cried to?

SPEAKER_05 57:16

Oh man. I cried at all of them. The last one I saw. The last one I saw was I didn't cry in. Um okay. What's the last movie I saw? I cried. You know, the ones about the documentaries about you know, actually, when I saw the blue zones, I cried at that. Did you?

SPEAKER_02 57:37

Nice. Good cry. Yeah, it was a good cry. Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay, uh this is a good one. What's one word you know you can't spell?

SPEAKER_05 57:49

Kaleidoscope, because I just tried it the other day.

SPEAKER_02 57:52

Did you?

SPEAKER_05 57:52

Yeah, I messed it up.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

C O L L I O C O L A I.

SPEAKER_05 57:58

It starts with a K.

SPEAKER_02 58:03

Never mind. K-A-L-A-K-A-L-A-I. E I. E I. D E S C O P. D-O-S-C-O-P. Now I know. Jesus.

SPEAKER_05 58:15

Now you know.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

If you don't know, now you know. Okay. You have to delete every single photo you've ever taken except one. You don't have to show up, but which which one would it be? Describe it.

SPEAKER_05 58:28

Oh, heaven on earth. I found it in Ometepe, Nicaragua.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

Oh, cool.

unknown 58:35

Omatepe.

SPEAKER_02 58:38

Okay, if you could ask your family pet one question, what would it be? Butch? Butch, we're speaking to you.

SPEAKER_05 58:51

What was it like living with dad? Because like he was my dog, but then my dad moved and took the dog with him. Oh really? Yeah. Huh. And then he came back, but like, what was it like while you were with dad? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

Good question. What's the best part of a s'more?

SPEAKER_05 59:13

The cooked marshmallow.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Oh, the mallow. Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_05 59:19

And how then it melts the chocolate? How is it even onto the graham cracker?

SPEAKER_02 59:25

Onto the graham cracker. Okay, I got one more question for you.

SPEAKER_05 59:28

What is it?

SPEAKER_02 59:30

Pineapple or coconut? Ooh.

SPEAKER_05 59:34

It depends on the sample. I'm gonna have to go with pineapple.

SPEAKER_02 59:39

Are you? Yeah. Okay, wow. It's so juicy. Juicy, juicy.

SPEAKER_05 59:43

And then when it's grilled, uh hot and juicy. Coconut is flaky. I don't know. It depends. I guess I've had a five the coconut juice, is what comes to mind. Oh, more than the fruit. Yeah, that is pretty juicy because. It's all coconut water juice.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

It's water juice.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:04

But I stand by my decision.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:05

Definitely.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:06

Pineapple.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:07

Yeah. Okay. One more for pineapple on the board here. Um, okay, and one last thing here.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:17

Who what who is this? What is hello?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

Yeah, who does be?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:23

What?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

Oh, this is Steph's younger self. Yo. How old? Okay. However old you want her to be. To get the message across.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:39

Okay. Yeah, she wants to tell you something. Yeah, she loves you. Here you go.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:47

Hello? Okay, check it. Stop waiting. Stop waiting on others to do that thing you want to do. You can buy the movie ticket and go by yourself. Yeah. You'll probably actually enjoy it more. Mm-hmm. So yeah, stop waiting on others. And uh your life is pretty, pretty good right now. Don't worry about that either. Just keep going. Just keep going. Knowing that's all gonna work out. Don't worry about no don't worry about no men. That one dude. Forget all about him.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:29

That one. There's always that one guy.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:31

And if you wanted to have children, I mean there aren't any here right now, but you gotta decide if that's what you really want. Cool. Well, it was good talking to you too. Totally weird.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

Tell her you love her.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:48

Oh, I love you so much. You're so cool. Honestly, everyone talks about how cool you are. So just like, don't forget that part.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Yo. All right, Miss Cool. I'll catch you on the flip side. All right, love you. Peace. All right. That was weird. Wasn't it? Dude, I wouldn't have to go. Right? In a in a not even. It's the linger.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:16

Yeah. Not even.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:18

Um, let's see here. So, gosh, we went over so much, and and I just uh I can't thank you enough for just being present and really being passionate about what you talk about and what you do, and you don't just talk about it, you know, you bees about it. Yeah. All right. I mean bees in the trap over here with the C's, okay? But uh hey, what is one message of inspiration that you can leave the world with?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:53

What did we say earlier? We had a really good thing we said earlier.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

You know, I think we said a lot of good things earlier. Um, make this from the heart though. Like what what you know, because you uh you got some good stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:10

Life is life is life is full of trash. But what is trash?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:25

Treasure. What are you gonna do with all this opportunity you have around here? There's so much of it. There's all this treasure. What are we gonna do with it?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:34

Alright.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:36

That's yeah, I think that's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:37

Okay. Alright, sending out through the airwaves. This is the conclusion of Miss Steph Comp's episode. And uh want to thank y'all for listening and tuning in for this episode of the Respecting Perspectives Podcast. Give them the peace.

unknown 1:04:03

Peace.