The Brady Bunch of Autism
Join Navah and Matt Asner as they discuss topics relating to the world of autism and family. Navah and Matt have six children. 3 who are autistic. They are the founders of the Ed Asner Family Center. A center that provides arts and vocational enrichments and counseling services and support groups to special needs individuals and their families.
The Brady Bunch of Autism
We're growing our family-centered autism community one episode at a time
Step into the chaotic, loving world of Matt Asner and Navah Paskowitz-Asner as they bring you the sixth episode of The Brady Bunch of Autism from their home base at the Ed Asner Family Center. The couple brims with excitement, sharing that their academy for adults with autism has reached full capacity for the first time – a milestone achievement in their mission to provide meaningful support beyond high school years.
Television takes center stage as Matt and Navah offer thoughtful commentary on recent shows featuring authentic neurodivergent representation. They dissect HBO's "The Pit," praising its nuanced portrayal of a character who, while never explicitly labeled autistic, displays genuine neurodivergent traits that resonate with real-life experiences. Their discussion of "Love on the Spectrum" becomes particularly moving when they reflect on Connor and Georgie's relationship, describing one interaction as "one of the most pure and beautiful moments I think I've ever seen on TV" – a connection they hope their own children might experience someday.
The conversation shifts to their upcoming poker tournament fundraiser on June 14th, where they've thoughtfully reduced ticket prices while still offering an outstanding experience with celebrity guests and cuisine from Ma's Italian Kitchen. Listeners get a special treat as the hosts introduce Asher from their academy's podcasting class, showcasing his "Music Junkies" podcast and demonstrating the real-world skills their participants develop. The episode closes with a heartwarming introduction to Gizmo, the Pekingese who serves as both Matt's emotional support companion and the Center's unofficial mascot – a small dog who knows he's "working" when at the Center but can let loose at home.
Whether you're a family touched by autism, an advocate, or someone seeking connection through shared experiences, this episode offers the perfect blend of practical information, authentic representation, and heartfelt storytelling. Subscribe to join this extraordinary Brady Bunch on their continuing journey of education, advocacy, and community.
www.teafc.org From Our Family To Yours
Welcome to the Brady Bunch of Autism, your source for family parenting and all things. Autism and special needs created by our family for your family live from the Ed Asner Family Center and now your hosts, Nava and Matt Asner.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Ed Asner Family Center's Brady Bunch of Autism.
Speaker 3:Welcome everyone this is our sixth show, episode number six. I, the Ed Asner Family Center's Brady Bunch of Autism. Welcome everyone.
Speaker 2:This is our sixth show, episode number six. I'm Matt Asner and I'm Nava Paskowitz-Asner, and we're coming to you live from the Ed Asner Family Center.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:In Van Nuys, california. So what's new?
Speaker 3:Nava. Well, we're in the midst of the academy still. We just started our spring semester. We're at capacity for the first time in the academy's career.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 3:And I'm very, very proud of that. We're just moving all along, moving right along.
Speaker 2:Great and we've got some exciting new partners in the pipeline and stuff is hopping and we're kind of firing on all cylinders right.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Talk about that on another show semester.
Speaker 3:So if you're interested in, our unique job training program for adults over 18.
Speaker 2:Um reach out to me n-a-v-a-h at t-e-a-f-corg all right, so we're a little late in getting this episode out to people.
Speaker 3:Um, we've been very the most brady bunch of autism thing of all. We've been very busy, the family's been crazy.
Speaker 2:We had Mother's Day, which we'll talk about in a little bit, and yeah, it's been busy. One thing we've been doing a lot of, though, is watching things catching up on our television. That's not really why we're late doing the podcast, but we have been catching up on this is something that Matt really enjoys doing, I do, I love my television.
Speaker 3:He loves coming home and relaxing and watching.
Speaker 2:One thing that I'm watching right now that I'm excited about, is Survivor, because there is an autistic contestant on Survivor.
Speaker 3:I've never watched the show.
Speaker 2:And I don't know what's gonna happen. It's on tonight, but I or no, it was on a couple nights ago. I haven't seen it yet. Um, and I I think what's going to happen is you know, she's really a very honest person.
Speaker 1:You're yawning she's really very on no it's the final seven right and she's a very honest person, right, so.
Speaker 2:So she believes in the people that she's made this alliance with, right, and I think she's going to get her heart broken is what's going to happen, and it's going to happen probably in the next episode. What do you think?
Speaker 3:You think that you weren't even listening to me?
Speaker 2:No, I wasn't, okay, well, let's talk about the other thing we watched together, Okay, which was and if you haven't seen it yet you have to watch it it's called the Pit.
Speaker 3:No, that was exciting.
Speaker 2:On HBO.
Speaker 3:That was one where we binged it.
Speaker 2:And I had initially avoided this because it's very graphic If you are afraid of blood or gore it's extremely graphic.
Speaker 3:There's a very graphic birthing scene.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah. It is quite graphic, quite graphic.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, you know I.
Speaker 3:I know a lot of people who have said oh. I started watching it and then I just couldn't handle it.
Speaker 2:Well, I resisted it because I just thought, oh, it's just ER basically yeah, or another doctor. You know it's just ER basically, or another doctor, you know it's Noah Wiley, it's ER, it's just ER, right? I think it's completely. Oh my God, was I wrong.
Speaker 3:And my dad actually worked in an emergency room. Yeah, and it is the most real version of any doctor show I have ever seen.
Speaker 2:Well, and with that comes something very special, which is one of the doctors and this is an interesting setup because one of the doctors has an autistic sister- yes. And it plays a part in who she is as a person, but more than our dog is he's snoring Underneath our feet and he's snoring really loud. You can probably hear him if you listen hard. So she is an autistic. She has an autistic sister, but the great thing is they don't really say anything about this. But you can certainly tell that this woman is neurodivergent herself.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean, she is really on the spectrum, you can tell. They never say it, but there's so many things that she does that are just so. Textbook autism.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing. How many families have someone who is?
Speaker 3:autistic.
Speaker 2:And the other sibling you meet and you think, okay, well, there you go. Other sibling you meet and you think, okay, well, there you go. Yeah, um, but uh, the, uh, the part of the doctor is played expertly by taylor deeden, dearden, taylor, dearden, um, who is also uh brian, uh, cranston's daughter, right, um, and uh boy, does she, I, she really hits a home run with this, yeah.
Speaker 3:I thought every single character was equally great, but she was my favorite of all the characters. But the show was just phenomenal from beginning to end. Kind of the controversial interns and I can't remember her name, but our number three went to middle school with her Isa Briones.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:And I recognized her and I kept saying to her I know that face, such a beautiful girl. And she went to school with Maxie.
Speaker 2:And she's very good. Everyone is so good at this. Yeah, she was amazing, and Noah Wiley is the executive producer of this, and he also wrote a lot of the episodes.
Speaker 3:And you can tell how personal this story is for him. There's a couple parts in it that he says were directly from his own personal experience, like when his I think it was his either his grandmother or his grandfather died yeah. And that experience where the kids are in the room with the parent. Oh my God, it's just really I know it really just Grateful.
Speaker 2:And he, you know, his mother is an ER nurse. Yeah, and you know, the interesting thing about this is, you know he did ER for how many years Seven, eight years, something like that and I don't think she ever said to him boy, that's really, that's very real. I don't think she ever said that to him. And this time she actually said to him that's very real and I don't know if I can even watch that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of people have written to them and have given the same kind of review. And you know, like I said, my dad was an ER doctor. When we were traveling around, and he was a missionary doctor, I was his nurse. So I had to get my hands bloody and get into it because there were no other doctors around for hundreds of miles. So my dad just grabbed the first kid he could see and say, hey, you're my nurse, and it's that. Those episodes were as real as I mean they were. Just it was sometimes really hard to watch. I mean I know I cry very easily, but some of the episodes were very, very difficult and I love that. They did have that autism factor and they talked about how she picked up roots and moved to the pit Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Because her sister had an opportunity to get into a great residential and day program and it was just like really wonderful that they had all those different elements and our good friend Kobe Bird was also in it.
Speaker 1:Is in one of the episodes.
Speaker 3:all those, different elements, and our good friend Kobe bird was also in it, and I think there was another young woman who I'll look up her name as we're talking. She played her sister who played her sister, and it was just wonderful to see people from the community also involved and just a really good show. If you haven't seen it, go. Go watch the pit.
Speaker 2:It's fantastic and you should watch it and let us know what you think of it. Drop it on the line. Let us know what you think, let us know if you agree with us about Taylor Didden's performance, because it is very special, very special. You know we were talking about. We were talking about Emergency Room and you were telling me that you were your dad's nurse, and it reminded me of an interview I did for Hiroshima. Um and I'm getting off the track here, but I always do that Um, I interviewed this man who was a uh, who was a prisoner of war with the Japanese.
Speaker 2:Um, a prisoner of war with the Japanese. He was a contractor and was actually taken prisoner by the Japanese when he was a contractor. So he never actually was a soldier in the war, he was just a contractor in the war and he was very tall and big. And so they made him the camp anesthesiologist. And do you know why? Why, because he was the biggest man in the camp and so when they needed to operate on people, he had to sit on them. Oh my God, because they actually had no anesthesia.
Speaker 3:Kind of interesting, right, because they were doing like yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, they needed him because he was heavy and he was like six, eight, six, seven Amputations. Interesting story. Interesting story, amazing guy.
Speaker 2:I was honored to sit with him for an hour and a half or so and hear his story, um. So the other thing we watched I digress, the other thing we watched um was love on the spectrum. We binged it. It was a binge. I think we watched it in two nights. Right, I think so, and I thought it was the best season ever. I agree, and for the main there's a couple of main reasons. I mean, everyone kind of comes, everyone's dealing with something pretty heavy in this season and I'm not going to.
Speaker 2:I don't want to ruin it for anyone. Everyone's dealing with something pretty heavy in this season and I'm not going to. I don't want to ruin it for anyone. But there is a moment with Connor. Where are you okay? Yeah there's a there's a moment with connor and his um the girl that his demi goddess the girl that he sees. I can't remember her name. Um, oh, what is her name? Georgie, georgie.
Speaker 2:Thank you yeah there's a moment with connor and georgie that I think is one of the most pure and beautiful moments I think I've ever seen on TV.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's become many, many a meme-y.
Speaker 2:Really A meme-y. Yeah, meme-y, that's Nava's word for meme.
Speaker 3:Meme. It's become many a meme.
Speaker 2:A meme-y. I like meme-y, I think meme-y is good Because everyone's comparing their relationship.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean it's you know.
Speaker 2:I think you know there are goals there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, you have this situation where he is discovering the beauty of love and you see it happening and it's pretty incredible. Yeah, it's profound, it's beautiful, it's so gorgeous.
Speaker 3:And her, his, his, almost panic at one point because he's like out of control.
Speaker 1:He doesn't know. He's overwhelmed. He's overwhelmed.
Speaker 3:And she puts her hand up on his cheek and she's like it's okay.
Speaker 2:It's okay, just so sweet. I love Georgie, I absolutely love Georgie. And I love him too, and just so, gentle and wonderful and it's just you think, as a parent, you're thinking, my God, you know, I hope that our kids who are on the spectrum have a situation that is that gentle and loving and beautiful.
Speaker 3:It was just so great to see that, exactly those going on from that is that the delight and the joy and the nervousness of his mom and his sister who didn't want to, you know, they didn't want to overdo it, they don't want him to think they're like too excited or he kept, you know, saying to them you better, not do this, you better. And the mom and the sister are so nervous that they're going um when they first meet georgie.
Speaker 3:That was wonderful too, but I think there's a lot of new characters I I still love and I thought it was so real when danny talked to um the young man because adan, adan, yeah, um, because you know he spoke his truth and he wasn't ready for something.
Speaker 3:But Dani, as a beautiful, young, healthy, young woman, spoke her truth too, and I was so proud of her. We've known Dani since she was a little tiny girl and that she's a grown woman saying this is what I want for my relationship, and I applaud and I am so proud of her self-advocacy that she's able to do that, because that's what we want our kids to do right, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:We want our kids to advocate for themselves and to speak up. She was amazing.
Speaker 3:But the new crew were amazing. The young woman from Boston who wants to go the tea princess, it's a tea-rific day. I love her. I hope to meet her one day, I hope that she comes and visits the center and we wanted to welcome any and all of those folks to our center. I know our friends Abby and David have been here many times, and obviously Danny, but you're always welcome at the center.
Speaker 2:Maybe we'll start having guests.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And we'll have people on and we'll arrange that. Yeah, I think I know how to do it. So pretty soon we're going to have guests, maybe in the next episode, two episodes from now.
Speaker 3:Well, we also one of the things that we're going to do every not every episode, but as money as we can can is we're going to give little tidbits into our academy, into our day program. So, um, in our next segment we're going to meet an amazing young man who has started at the academy and is in our podcasting one-on-one um class and that is Asher.
Speaker 2:We still have one thing to talk about, though.
Speaker 3:I know, but we're going to.
Speaker 2:But you're just kind of setting it up.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, good.
Speaker 3:I'm throwing things at Matt's head.
Speaker 2:No, don't throw things at me.
Speaker 3:You're lucky, we made it to 10 years.
Speaker 2:Wow, it's almost 11.
Speaker 3:Oh, really yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess I'm in it for the long haul. No, I mean, you know it's interesting because you know you mentioned, like that we mentioned love on the spectrum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are goals, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know we are definitely 10 years into our marriage. You know we are definitely 10 years into our marriage, but I think we still look at each other with love.
Speaker 3:I do Okay, I think we still do.
Speaker 2:I think you do. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, let's move on from that.
Speaker 2:Okay, now I feel like I've been crushed.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, You're so needy.
Speaker 2:Of course I'm needy. I'm a man.
Speaker 3:Not all men are needy.
Speaker 2:Most men are.
Speaker 3:Really. Yeah, I have eight brothers, I don't know anything about men.
Speaker 2:They just show you in different ways that they're needy. So Mother's Day.
Speaker 3:I had a wonderful mother.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, let me just say that I think you are the greatest mother. Thank you, and um I speak for I have the greatest I speak from experience because I had the greatest mother oh no, no I had the greatest.
Speaker 1:Well, we both did your we both did.
Speaker 3:Your mom was much nicer than my mom. God rest my mom's soul. But we both had really wonderful, wonderful mothers.
Speaker 2:Well, they were both characters, yes, and they were both creative and artistic.
Speaker 3:My mom was a little more outspoken.
Speaker 2:Your mom was a little more outspoken. Your mom was a little more colorful she. She spoke her mind if you've seen surf wise, you know what I'm talking about spoke her mind, that's for sure but you, you are a person, you're a mom, you are a mom through and through, and I I mean everything you do. You do with a mom's sensibility, even what you do at the center.
Speaker 3:Well, I feel like all of the participants are my kids. Yeah, and I know the staff thinks of me as their mom too. But you can see that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that takes a very special thing, so congratulations on that. Thank you, I had a wonderful.
Speaker 3:Mother's Day, I got to do everything I wanted to do and we had a wonderful dinner at the incredible Ma's Italian Kitchen in Burbank, california. And let's talk a little bit about Ma, about Ma's yes, the amazing Michelle La.
Speaker 4:I'm not going to help you, I'm not going to help you.
Speaker 2:I can say it myself, though.
Speaker 3:I've been practicing Michelle.
Speaker 2:It's Michelle Le Chasseur. No, it is Lou, it's Lou. No, it's not, it's not, it's not.
Speaker 3:Okay, all you French speakers, please help us.
Speaker 2:And Michelle is the owner of Mazatown.
Speaker 3:Kitchen yes, the most incredible Italian food.
Speaker 2:And we're honoring Michelle and our poker tournament which is coming up on June 14th, and there are still tickets available. You can get them at teafcorg and there are still tickets available. You can get them at teafcorg. And you look up the poker, you know the poker ad and you click on it and then order a ticket and you know we actually slashed prices this year because LA's hurting and we need to help as much as we can, but we also need to raise money. So we ended up deciding to slash prices and we did.
Speaker 3:And where in California can you get an incredible dinner from Ma's Italian kitchen and an open bar for a hundred dollars? Non-player ticket.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. Yeah, I mean that's it's crazy. And if you want to play, what is, how much is it to play?
Speaker 3:um, you should know that it's 200 a player or 175.
Speaker 2:Just don't quote it 175, I think, I don't know. Go to the website, you'll find it.
Speaker 2:Anyway, it's, it's a bargain yes, because you get all the food and drink and you're and you're shoulder to shoulder with celebrities and the great thing about our poker tournament is you go to a table, you sit at a table and all of a sudden, there's a celebrity over there. There's a person over there that's been in this, there's a person in there that's been in that. Uh, pretty incredible. And um, we, uh, this is our 13th year doing this. Um and uh, it happens at radford studio center in studio city. This is our fourth year there and uh, it's fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. Uh, even if you don't play poker, if you just want to come hang out and drink and eat and just hang out and see wonderful people, that is how you do it. It's, it's a great thing. Get your tickets.
Speaker 3:And we have an incredible auction. There's lots to do, yeah, there's lots to do. There's more non-players than players and people. Really, you know it's, I think, the most incredibly like fun event we do every year.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we have a podcasting class and you mentioned this earlier, um and each week we're going to feature um. One of our participants podcasts and it's going to be either an excerpt or the whole thing. They also do ads during the podcast and um. It's a great way for them to show their creative flair.
Speaker 3:And they're all really excited to be a part of our podcast.
Speaker 2:They are.
Speaker 3:It's kind of like they're getting their feet wet into the world of podcasting and we're just really excited for our community to get a little peek into the academy. So our first participant podcaster is Asher. Actually, it's our second.
Speaker 1:Is it yeah who?
Speaker 3:was our first. Oh, zoe, frankel Zoe.
Speaker 2:Asher was our first one.
Speaker 3:Okay, so Zoe Asher S is going to come up right now and Max is our podcasting instructor, and Max and Asher are going to be.
Speaker 2:Entertaining you.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:With the topic of the day, which is Asher's topic. So Asher and Max take it away.
Speaker 5:Hey everyone, this is Asher and my co-hoax, max, and welcome to Music Junkies. Today we'll be discussing some musicians, bands and why we love them and, for instance, what does the band do, how popular they are, etc. Etc. Now, without with all that out of the way, let's begin.
Speaker 4:Awesome, awesome thanks for having me man. Yeah, no problem at all, appreciate it. Yeah, we've been talking about wanting to do sort of a show about music for a while.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, just glad we finally have the time of day, for sure, man.
Speaker 4:Yeah, both avid music listeners.
Speaker 5:Yes, I'm a musician myself. I work on music outside of the center all the time you play also right. Well, I used to. I took drumming for I believe it was like a year or so and I played piano a lot during my elementary school years, but since then I've kind of stopped Gotcha.
Speaker 4:Gotcha. That's cool though. So let's talk about I, I guess some of our favorite bands first. Sure, sure would you like to go first? Sure I would love to. Um, so for me, I went through like a lot of different, sort of evolving tastes in music as I was younger and stuff like that. I was introduced to a lot of music from my parents, um, but as I got older it's funny because it's like I kind of went on my own route of liking bands and sort of finding my own taste and stuff, and then, as I get older, I find myself like returning so much like the music that my parents showed me, and a lot of my favorite bands are stuff that's not really of my generation, it's more of my parents generation now. But I also do have a ton of modern artists that I love and look up to and stuff. But right now I would say that my favorite band is probably Interpol. I love them. I love sort of what they do with the style they do, sort of a post-punk sort of down of downtown.
Speaker 4:New York city, sort of emo ish Uh.
Speaker 5:I've also noticed it's almost like there's a little bit of kind of goth influence in this singing especially 100% that sort of style of singing I'm crazy about.
Speaker 4:I think it's so great, I think it's very expressive, um something that I think goes missing a lot in like modern music, particularly like top 40 stuff is like, I think, with autotune and like all these sort of you know, tools that musicians have now that they didn't have in the past it's like like sure you're, you know, recording might not be like perfect melody, wise, you, you know, you might not be hitting the exact note every take, but it's like I think there was a that relied or caused artists to have to sort of rely a little bit more on the emotion of the performance and the delivery of it, and then stuff like that, and like bands like Interpol or bands that are, you know, producing things in a sort of more traditional way, um way, still sort of have that and Paul Banks is the lead singer of Interpol, like you were saying does sort of lean into that goth vibe and it's so awesome.
Speaker 5:I mean, you wouldn't necessarily think that kind of having a bit of a droning voice would sort of work when it comes to music like that, but it really just kind of goes together like peanut butter and jelly it totally does. As for myself, I was sort of indoctrinated into a whole bunch of music as a kid. I mainly had a lot of classic rock, slash, alternative and like sort of the first kind of rumblings of heavy metal with like Led Zeppelin and the who and ZZ.
Speaker 4:Top and everything Like the really prototypical bands.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and then on my mom's side I sort of got into the soul music a lot of acoustic guitars, anything from Sheryl Crow to Simon Garfunkel and such, and as of recently, ever since getting Spotify, I've kind of gone on various musical journeys myself and I can sort of go all over the spectrum when it comes to listening to music. It's, in my opinion, as long as it has a catchy rhythm or, you know, a catchy tune, or they're incorporating their use of instruments in very experimental, slash, strange ways that sort of pique my attention. I'll listen to it, I agree.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about it. I think when I was younger I would kind of like sort of put myself into one genre in my listening a lot more and sort of be like this is what I listen to.
Speaker 4:But it's like I think, as you sort of listen more and more and sort of delve deeper into music and you know, just get deeper into it and deeper into the, just the expression of it, really, it's like that's really the metric. It's like when I listened to it does it excite me? You know, I don't really care about the genre, I don't really care about, you know, all these sort of pieces that you might care about when you're younger, and it kind of just becomes like am I feeling something when I'm hearing it?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean it's for me at least. I've noticed that, especially in my family. It's like my immediate family. My father will go a bit harsh when it comes to music. I'd say probably Led Zeppelin is sort of the, or Husker, du are kind of the two bands that would be the most intense that he'd listen to. But I've kind of pivoted off of that and I'm a massive metal fan myself, so that's awesome. Yeah, I can listen to a lot of screamo and some people say it's just noise. But I don't know. It's just a way to get out your aggression without you know doing anything to hurt somebody or saying anything that would offend somebody. It's more like you're kind of able to put your heart and soul into what you're singing. So you end up becoming a very humble and sort of wholesome person in real life because you're able to get a lot of stuff off your chest when you're in front of a crowd.
Speaker 4:For sure, I totally, I totally love that. I'm, I'm, I'm into metal music too, I'm into hardcore music and, like you know stuff that. Yeah, like some people, I think, tend to write more distorted music or louder music off as noise or whatever. If it's too loud, you're too old, you know what.
Speaker 5:I mean that sort of vibe.
Speaker 4:But like, yeah, I think for the same reasons, it's like it's a totally, it's still a worthwhile and like important version of musical expression, in that it is about channeling, you know, aggression and channeling frustration and stuff like that. And yeah, it's like that is also like a totally valid and worthwhile usage of music as artistic expression yeah, I think I actually remember doing a little bit of research specifically on metal music.
Speaker 5:It's there's a lot of things that are kind of they share a lot of similarities with classic music and that, especially when it comes to symphonic metal, in the orchestral score, they've take that a lot 100 from classical music. And I've also learned that a lot of people such as myself that like metal are actually some of the more kind of calm and sort of wholesome types of people, because it's, yeah, we get our energy out by listening to some heavy music.
Speaker 4:That could have some taboo subjects or whatnot, but it's we use that sort of as a way to kind of cope with the crazy world that we live in, right, totally, absolutely and also like on a musical level, like more on a melodic or like sort of a technical level with music like metal is also so awesome because it's it's tech, it's very technically extremely intricate.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean it's difficult to play, it's, it's kind of a measure of somebody's skill. Yeah, in a way, you know, which is super cool, like I mean for me when I was a kid, like and listening to, like the metallica records and stuff like that, that was, and being like a young kid wanting to learn how to play the guitar yeah, that was so like kirk Hammett was like the pinnacle.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean. Like he was like. Oh my God, I wish I could learn how to play like him one day and stuff like that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean it just goes to show you that, like, whenever you get into any field, especially music, it's it just takes practice and it's just it's not only the people that play guitars, play the bass or play the drums, it's also the singers, especially if they don't want to ruin their voice by death growling or anything.
Speaker 4:It's there's a very specific way of being able to sing without causing your vocal cords in repairable damage or something yeah, and that takes like crazy training and stuff like that, to be able to do particularly what the metal guys do with all that you know, yeah, like the death, death growling and all those like real or even like the super high sort of screechy things that guys do nowadays.
Speaker 5:I still find it so hard to believe that, like a lot of these, musicians don't get laryngitis from being able to sort of wail for extended periods of time, but it's sort of an artwork, an art form at the end of the day.
Speaker 5:So you know it's. I'm always kind of looking to see what's next on the agenda and I'd say Spotify has really helped me out. It's just I can listen to so much stuff and I write a lot about it on like blogs. I've been blogging for a very, very long time. That's cool. I just I don't know. I find it's just an infinite rabbit hole that you can just dive into and never get out of 100%.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I totally, totally agree with that. I think that, uh, um, particularly like in in the modern day, with with Spotify and sort of music being so accessible, now it's, it's really sort of taken on a new form in terms of, like, the experience of listening to music. I actually even feel as is like. Like for me personally, it's like I think music becoming so readily available all the time and I think I sort of have like a weird relationship to listening to music just because I'm I'm a musician. I write I have.
Speaker 4:Like you know, it's like I remember when I was working at a restaurant one time my boss, my head chef, you know um, he would come downstairs and I would be like working on prepping something and I would be doing it in silence Like not listening to anything. He's like dude. You have the speaker down here.
Speaker 4:While you're working and I would just be like dude sometimes, like it's like I. For me it's not always relaxing or helping me focus, like cause for me with music. This is just a personal thing. I just feel like, um, like some people listen to music when they work or do homework and stuff like that, of course.
Speaker 4:I've never been like that, Like I could never do that because it always made me. It was always too distracting for me. Like it would honestly, like my attention would shift off of whatever I was supposed to be doing and I would be listening to the music too, much Like it, just my brain doesn't work like that.
Speaker 5:It's kind of the opposite for me. I've sort of learned from experience on kind of how to multitask. But say I'm in the kitchen cooking something, I won't be listening to death metal or something to get me super pumped up. It's usually raining blood, yeah, yeah, raining blood while you're, I don't know, preparing a steak or something, while you're making like deviled eggs yeah, that's what I'm super like. I know. For me it's more. I'll be listening to something. That's usually an instrumental rock piece or occasionally lo-fi and chill, just something to kind of get you in the mood. Yeah, since I live alone, I can kind of play what I want, but that's nice. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 4:You know it's different from everybody, but yeah, I mean it sets the time, certain things like that. Like if it's like cooking, I'm fine it's not like I'm gonna be like I literally can't do this like stuff where it requires like more sort of like pointed you know, I don't know pointed sort of informational focus or something like that If it's more task-oriented, physical task-oriented. I can do it. It's just like something for me that's always been a struggle is trying to write an essay while I'm listening to music, Not my thing.
Speaker 5:No, you've got to use so many parts of your brain to do various things. Well, it appears that our time has come to a close. It's been a pleasure having you on, max. Thank you and and hope you guys really enjoyed this. I hope you have a lovely day, night or whatever time zone you're in. Until next time peace.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2:All right, asher and Max. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:That was awesome Very awesome and Asher is, as I said, one of our participants from our Academy program and if you're interested in the Academy or any of our programs, don't forget to reach out to Blanca B-L-A-N-C-A Blanca at TEAFCorg.
Speaker 2:So I just want to say something. I don't think I've ever talked about this on the podcast, but almost three years ago you gave me an incredible birthday present.
Speaker 3:Aw, that you absolutely hated at first. I didn't want it, never. No.
Speaker 2:I didn't want it and I was happy with just the cat and the dog that we have. You know, I was happy with that and the dog that we have is very energetic.
Speaker 3:We have two cats, by the way. We have two cats that are here, I was happy with one cat.
Speaker 2:I was happy with both cats.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:But? And the panda?
Speaker 3:And the panda, panda's a little Giant sheep dog, a little rambunctious yeah.
Speaker 2:But I wasn't expecting or.
Speaker 3:Anticipating.
Speaker 2:Anticipating another dog in our lives, but we did bring one in. Nava got me an incredible little Pekingese for my birthday and we named it Gizmo because it looked like he looked like gizmo from the movie gremlins, he looked like a magui and um I uh. The second I saw him I fell in love, and that love has just grown and grown and grown and I literally I mean he comes to work with me every day yeah and and we're sitting here doing this podcast, and he came in and he sat on a chair next to me for a little bit and now he's under our feet.
Speaker 3:I'm going to take a picture and you can post it, but he is just, I don't know.
Speaker 2:you know he has become my emotional support dog.
Speaker 3:Absolutely I mean he's everyone's emotional support dog. Oh, that's the thing.
Speaker 2:If you come to the center, you will notice that he is there and he is a part of what we do here and you know, I think the participants are just happy to see him. And he is amazing. He's two and a half years old and he acts like a dog. That's well beyond his years and he's very mature. He knows he's working. He knows he's here at the center performing a job, Because when he gets home it's a different story, Right.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh. Well, I think that as soon as he gets home and he sees Panda, he knows that he can let loose.
Speaker 2:And go crazy.
Speaker 3:And he really is the aggressor of the two. I mean Panda's, a giant sheepdog and Gizmo's a tiny little guy. He's the alpha. And he's definitely the alpha. But no, we've even used him in some therapy appointments when we've had some kids that are a little nervous. He's just a soothing, wonderful, constant kind of companion slash. He's our not our guard dog, he's our support dog. He's our. What is it called when the football team has a mascot?
Speaker 2:He's our mascot. He's the center mascot, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And just a great dog wonderful dog. I thought I'd mention him just to get all kind of bubbly.
Speaker 3:Well, we want to thank you guys for being a part of our show and a part of our community, and we are so happy to be a part of your lives and come into your home or office or car. Next week we're going to be talking about one of our new job training partnership sites and we'll announce it next week. Yeah, well, let's, let's do that.
Speaker 2:That's a good idea.
Speaker 3:So thank you guys again for being a part of our show and we just wanted to say have a wonderful week until we see you next. And Matt, have a wonderful week. Keep drinking water even though you don't.
Speaker 2:Thank you, nava, you too.
Speaker 3:Drink water, drink plenty of water, I always drink water and shalom aloha, Shalom aloha everyone.
Speaker 1:We'll see you guys next week Okay. Bye-bye.
