0:02 Welcome to Advance the Dream, our weekly community chat, where we celebrate legacy makers and family heroes who are actively advancing the dream in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We talk about health, challenges, highlights and heroes in an intergenerational fashion in hopes that his legacy of hope and equality continue to live on. This weekly series, powered by the Force for Health Network, is aired live on Facebook, YouTube, and linked in at 8 a.m. Pacific Time, 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
0:32 Then shared afterwards at advancedthedream.com. Now, let's meet our hosts, Force for Health Network co-founders, Dr. Robert Giglio and Lucy Howell, alongside our National Director, Joshua Williams, Jr., as we dive into this week's topic. Hello, welcome everybody. Today is Saturday, April 13th, and we are here at another event. weekly community chat called Advance the Dream, where we come together and we celebrate heroes, highlights, issues, and challenges that sit and surround this whole issue of health inequity, wealth inequities, and continue to want to work towards the legacy of what Martin Luther King's dream is all about.
1:22 So I'm here in Tucson, Arizona. I'm co-founder of Force for Health Network. We've got my partner, Dr. Robert Gillio in State College and our national coach, advisor, director of this wonderful initiative, Brand Channel Community Advanced Dream, Joshua Williams there in Gadsden, Florida. Good morning. So it is, you know, we're in the middle of National Minority Health Month. I think that there is lots of, you know, what I'm kind of bringing to the table here from an executive catch-up talk is I'm very excited and pleased and proud to announce that we were able to launch our Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona app.
2:11 Into the market this past week, which, I mean, with its propensity to affect African-American families more so than regular, right, to take a hyper, hyper focus, look at this particular disease and have a role in playing with them. trying to educate, empower and connect and unify the entire ecosystem in and around a particular disease. That's kind of, you know, it's okay. Part of being, you know, force for health heroes is being able to sit and take it in sometimes when it's what you're proud of.
2:47 So I'm sharing it, Rob. Learn it, live it, share it. That was my share and what something is that I'm very proud of as what we are doing to try and affect you know, minority health disparities. That's what I come into this week with. I pass the baton to you. Well, since we last talked, I ventured out to a Pennsylvania rural public health conference, and I realized that Pennsylvania is not as well represented in the rural health area for dealing with minority and disparity issues. Um, as I look around the room and if you have a sensitivity of who is there, um, you realize that there's African American, um, uh, minorities, but they're also in minority situation, um, Hispanic, uh, uh, community, um, refugee community, um, LGBTQ, uh, community that all are looking at minority health issues and access.
3:52 That I think are aggravated in a rural setting. With the density of population in a city, the barrier of transportation is much less with multiple choices. And connectivity, right? Oh, connectivity is, there was this next point I was going to make, is that that ability to aggregate, congregate, socialize, get the help you need, you can physically get there. easier than in a rural community, but in a rural community virtually, oh, about two-thirds of my state still is walking around looking at the clouds, holding up a phone, hoping something will connect and knowing in many places it doesn't.
4:37 And that really prevents solutions like this, telehealth and other things, begging for publication, omni-media types of ways of getting tools into the hands of those that are caring for people. And the necessity to advance the health literacy of people that are kind of on their own a lot more, taking care of their health issues, their family's health issues, than when you can go to the neighbor next door, the community health worker, or the clinic down the street. Yeah, I think that's an excellent point because the lines really do blur when it comes to our overall mission here.
5:15 It really is to help address the issues at play, whether it's from an individual decisioning or whether it's environmental or a combination of both. And whether you're in Africa, rural Pennsylvania, upstate, panhandle Florida, Or Yuma, Arizona, connectivity and access, transportation, and then the health of the rural hospital system in and of itself. It's an issue even for us. If you go back and look at the recordings we've made previously, and I'd encourage people, there's a dozen of them or so now.
5:51 And look how Mr. Josh looks in some of his videos. Look at how I look in some of mine. And it's been trying to find the best solution to get internet, Wi-Fi, or connectivity connected. at the location where we're broadcasting from, sometimes requiring driving to work or to school or sitting literally in the car with a fake background because the McDonald's or whatever had a better connectivity than the office I'm renting. So those kinds of things happen. And imagine a family of three with computers whose schools are all just assuming that work can be done online at their own, on their own devices.
6:30 Anyways, those are all excellent points. Let's kind of keep going to Josh. What's your opening executive thoughts this week? Well, Doc just hit it on the nail. I'm coming from an area that is, of course, suffering with extending its technology across the country. While being a student of technology and also studying at some of the most prestigious technology places, I still have a challenge with trying to do a simple request of access in the internet because of the locale. And that is something that's being faced tremendously in this area.
7:11 You know, it has so many systemic problems that stem from that, from the standpoint of not having the accurate access to technology. You then have to actually look at the standpoint of, what does that cause our people not to want to actually entertain technology is because of that lack of access. It's a systemic problem that's actually just continuing to exacerbate around the country as it relates, especially in these low-ridden areas where Internet is now. You wouldn't believe that some people here are still using dial-up modems.
7:49 In this day and time, you just think that you got to be really in a third world country in order to be doing it. No, we're right here in the USA. And we're just trying to see if we can continue to enhance that so that people won't feel threatened by technology and threatened by telehealth communication. They would embrace it and they will understand the importance of why it matters so much to actually have this information and to learn this information. You remind me of a workshop that we did right there in your backyard.
8:25 And it got the, you know, the support of the city and the county and the mayor, you know, to do this workshop for seniors. And you had some of your You Do Matter teams come in, right? And you took them through, you know, one of our courses that we co-developed together because there was such a gap, you know, not only does Now you have to have access, right, to even have telehealth. You have to be able to know how to connect this whole like concept of like why it's important for our seniors to be digitally connected.
8:57 Because I think there's a generational band, there's a geographical band, and then there is a cultural band all at play here. you know, in terms of like this connectivity. And so if we can just work together, that's why I love this whole concept. Today is all about family, right? Let's like embrace and celebrate, grab our family and like really ask ourselves, like, what are we doing, you know, to prepare and advance the dream within my family? You know, and if, you know, if it applies to you, great.
9:29 If it doesn't, maybe think about how it could work. right? As you look externally, we are a me, we, us type of initiative, right? More culturally empathetic. So that's how I see us kind of navigating some of this. I'm going to keep my eye out on the backstage so that when our next guest comes in, we'll go ahead and kind of transition over there and actually stay on time this week. But Rob, who I'm sorry, if you don't mind, I just want to follow up a little bit on what Josh was just saying with the smart phone.
10:07 The ability to have a teenager, young adult who's kind of grown up with one of these things in their hands become a digital health navigator is a course I'm working on right now. And I'm having a lot of fun putting together a much more advanced set of materials than has been previously in our Force for Health Network Academy. But I think the ability for a teenager with basic smartphone capabilities who then understands social terms of health and understands some of the issues about health and medical terminology can be the one that reaches out to someone like me, to their father or to their grandfather or to their neighbor to help overcome a barrier of access for someone to help them download something just to learn, to help them research the internet for an answer.
11:07 Should I, shouldn't I get a colonoscopy or what doctor can I call for access or to actually facilitate a telehealth visit or facilitate a home visit and a home inspection to make sure the gadgets all work. So it's very exciting to have this digital health navigator capability being made available now through the Forestry Health Network. Well, and I think that what I also love about the cadence of this community chat, you know, as we kind of continue to put issues and voices on a regular basis out there is there was clearly, clearly from the several meetings and experiences that we had this week, Clearly, in all parts of this country, we also are talking with leaders from the Dominican Republic and several countries across Africa.
12:02 And the Philippines, I mean, so this interesting gap of healthcare support. The baby boomers are just now hitting, right, the market that are going to need this, like, enhanced need of care. And all the folks that we're talking to is that they're scared. Like, this is what keeps us up. Last week, right, with Harry Rogers, Howard. Howard Rogers, yes. Howard, silly me, with the New Orleans Council on Aging. Right. I asked him that question. What keeps you up at night? He's like, we need workers. You don't have enough people to help take care of, you know, some of the people.
12:41 So there's that other pressure to want to connect our seniors at least so that they can, you know, Josh, I mean, this stemmed that smartphone, this all stemmed. Right. We're going to have your son on shortly, but let's talk about your dad. Right. When he fell. Oh, yeah. And your, your core problem at that point, your pain was just like, I wish he knew that dot, dot, dot. Right. You know, if he just held, it could have been a nine 11 call. I have a, in, in our family, my mother-in-law, you know, she had fallen.
13:14 She was living by herself. And, um, And it was a couple of things. It's a it's a it's a excellent tool. Like I said, I was fortunate enough where he had his. So he was able to dial out and actually tell me that he had fallen and couldn't get up. But it's so many people that don't. And they haven't had the experience of learning what how that phone could be utilized and how it could actually potentially save their life. Yeah, and we saw that also with, you know, the 80-year-olds, right, that took the ride with you through your Technology and Me series, which was awesome.
13:57 I love that, that we were able to revive that program originally that you guys had done like 10 years ago. Computer systems and human systems and comparing the two. And believe it or not, Lucy and Doc, you will be surprised at how they navigate to that potential understanding and learning. They want to know how the heart works. They wanted to know CPR. They wanted to know, you know, in a lot of situations where people are have children and grandchildren who may be suffering with drug abuse. They want to know how to actually, if a person stopped breathing, how to actually be able to bring them back.
14:42 Their engagement was so cute. And part of the structure, of course, that we use is the learn it, live it, share it, right? So every session, they had a chance to learn something and then they had a chance to live it interactively. tangibly, whatever it was, whether it was download an app or, you know, watch this video or complete this crossword or something. And then they had to share it. And that was one of like the joyful parts. We should go back and edit out all of the little presentations that they did.
15:13 Right. Yeah. It really would be good to do that. And I think what you're saying that Josh is important because we, we also have that capability then to say, all right, Now that you have access, it's kind of like now if you have your library card, go find a book on what you're interested in. And so they've got, once they're able to navigate, once you're able to access and then navigate a little bit, within our resources, we're trying to put all of human anatomy in up to 20 languages, if someone needs it that way, about how the heart works or street smarts about how to use that naloxone.
15:51 And you can think, problem for teenagers. It's a problem for seniors, especially with chronic pain issues or post-op. There's a lot of that medicine around. The one I'm interested in and that I'm having just some fun with, I don't know how well you can see this picture, but if you can make that out, you see the excitement of that child's face? If you look closely, there's the grandfather on the other end of the FaceTime at the bottom with an equally exciting face. And we'll talk about a whole mental health set of issues, a set of loneliness issues in people, especially during and after COVID, but especially as you age more, if you're more in a rural setting, especially, or if your kids have moved to places like Bogota, Columbia, or Peoria, Illinois, and you live in State College, you've got an issue.
16:47 And so it's magic. they have the child at age three, they literally push FaceTime, they push on a picture of grandma, and they have a nice conversation. And it's beneficial both ways. It's a simple piece of technology, but just for telecommunication, voice and or with the magic of, if you have internet, the magic of video pictures becomes a really nice way really nice tool that has certainly made a difference in my life. Well, it plays directly into another issue that's affecting, well, everybody, but particularly the senior space and the disconnected is the whole connectivity.
17:41 When I say connectivity, I don't mean like access to broadband. I mean, connectedness, you know, community isolation, loneliness. The Surgeon General's put out a couple of reports recently on that being at epidemic levels. So again, the importance to just connect. And just like you said, you know, my dad, you know, 78, just went up and went fishing for the day, drove three and a half hours up, you know, caught four fish, drove four hours back. time for dinner. And I'm glad that he can still do that.
18:18 But for his mental health, that's what he wanted to do. And I said, it would be interesting to see what the effects of fishing are because, you know, even in and around the South, right. You know, fishing is just one of those activities that is, can be very mentally health, you know, healing. And it's something that can be done by themselves and perhaps a, I just kind of see grandpa out there with the son. I can agree with your daddy. It is a relaxing time. And I've seen my grandmother and grandfather go out.
18:55 They'll spend all day out there sitting on a bucket fishing and won't catch anything. But they're just content. Exactly. Let me be clear about that sport. I live in the county where Jimmy Carter, the president of the United States, would fly up here to go trout fishing, all right? But Josh, what you're saying, one of the things my father taught me, it's about fishing. It's not called catching. It's called fishing. So the activity of fishing is relaxing and communicating with someone you care about.
19:29 It's almost like going to a baseball game when you were a Cubs fan when I was a kid. There was nothing to see, but you were with your family all day, all right? It's fishing and catching. But the number one rule for fishing, if you care about a fish dinner, maybe your father already knows this, Lucy, is know what time the fish store closes and make sure you stop there on your way home. He would never stoop so low. It's just interesting as we tie these kind of intergenerational, but also like just humanistic.
20:05 It's not really a, black thing or a white thing it's like putting our arms around our families and you know are our parents needing our support and are we in a position to be able to support them and um and kind of vice versa am I doing everything for myself and then my sons you know I've got a a video uh teed up that I was going to play after your son came but since there's uh since he's not in yet I wanted to go ahead and play this because it really does set the um foundation for this concept of social barriers.
20:37 And also it is Black Maternal Health Week. So that's kind of embedded inside of this National Minority Health Month. So let me play this and hopefully your son will be back and we can go ahead and break it. Thank you. Okay. so so do So, So once again, the wrong video, but that's okay. I let it play. I let it play because it still did go ahead and address the social determinants of health. So we're going to go ahead and watch what I wanted to watch next week. But again, just kind of an example of it's not all just personal choice and discipline, right?
23:57 When it comes to everybody being able to maximize the health of what it is and their situation right there. We just need to be more empathetic and aware of the issues at play there so we can work together. Now, I see your son in the backstage, but Joshua, as soon as I see your camera on and your mic on, then we will go ahead and move into our next segment of family reflections. But any comments? There you go. There we go. Let's go. And then and. And we lost Josh. So we'll go ahead and wait. Josh Williams is, like I said, fit family force and hugging and making sure that you're taking care of your own family up around and down is so core and key at the force for health.
24:53 And so anytime that we can celebrate family, we want to do so. So Josh has been very involved with the development of Advance the Dream and also on our senior force because of all of the issues that come to play with his dad. And now his son is, you know, starting to make strides and make his place in the media space. And he's like, I want to bring my son on and let's talk about, you know, um all of these important cool updates and why mentorship and access matters bring them on we'll introduce them backwards josh josh senior's got to join us come on I want to meet you I've been watching them on camera for uh years okay so without further ado we're bringing on joshua williams iii how you doing joshua I'm doing good how y'all doing today We're doing great.
25:48 So as we wait to get your dad back on board, you know, he brought up this picture earlier and I just love it because, you know, my kids are up and out of the house and I know Rob's are too. So it's just amazing how quickly our family year time of 18 years goes. And so tell us about yourself. You know, how old are you? And we got Papa coming back in. So let's go ahead and bring him back in. That's that internet stability that we were talking about earlier. It just happened to give out on me. Yeah, no worries.
26:24 We went ahead and did kind of a mini introduction, but why don't you do your introduction as to why you wanted to bring your son on for family reflections this week. Basically twofold because through all of this process, Josh has had an opportunity to to be exposed to the entertainment community through some recent movies and broadcast that he has done television wise. And just being a recent high school graduate and now beginning into the adulthood, of being a man is not for him to share and give back his experiences so that it will help someone else to prepare themselves.
27:13 And I'm hopeful that some of his colleagues, his friends could actually hear about some of the things that he actually went through and how to adjust to those things if they are interested in some of the things in which he's doing. He also has a new television series that's coming out in the next two weeks. He'll be headed to LA to do a red carpet event with them. uh in a couple of weeks uh but the show is coming out on the 25th and I'm quite sure he'll say some things about it and another reason that uh I wanted to bring him from the standpoint of uh being able to uh to actually share as being a young artist as it relates in this uh in this atmosphere uh uh he has been uh he is he is one of the ones being considered for a nomination for an academy of this movie.
28:10 So it's important that people understand what this is, what it's about, how it impacts families. And I want him to share from the standpoint of how it has affected him as it relates to how he has dealt with these situations and being able to share that information with other people as they begin to see and deal with similar situations. But this is my lion. My son, my only son, Joshua Williams III, better known as Joshua J. Williams. And thank you for that, Josh. And you know, the media, arts, and entertainment industry is just a huge, huge, huge industry with so many different levels of team-based type of careers and opportunities to get into it.
29:09 So we're excited to see you here, Joshua. Welcome to Advance the Dream. And so tell us, you know, to remind everybody, how old are you? Where are you living? What's going on with your life right now? it's nice to see y'all uh too but um uh I'm I'm good I'm good I'm 22 years old right now my birthday just passed it was uh in march 22 um I'm an actor uh I'm a director um also entrepreneur I have my own production company as well um and and and I'm really still a kid you know what I'm it's, it's a, it's a new journey for me.
29:49 And it's like adulthood stage. You know what I'm saying? I'm just trying to get my feet wet, trying to learn more things, trying to just, you know, become a better person as well. So that's, that's where I'm at right now. I'm just living. Hey, your dad, your dad, uh, uh, from time to time, I've known your dad for about, I don't know, 20 years or so. And, um, He's been bragging about John and off your whole life. I met you once long before you remember me. But your dad alluded to some challenges that you faced and you overcame or some barriers that you've mounted or whatever to get to where you are.
30:34 Give some lessons learned that you'd be saying back to your younger teenage self, encountering certain problems that maybe led you down a path to the successes you're having. What wisdoms can you share from your experience, sir? I think a lesson that I could share is just being able to know that not everything is promised. You just got to always just have your head on straight and really just think forward and not backwards. I think that was a really big thing for me. I always wanted to say to myself, well, what if I could have did this for this specific thing or something like that?
31:12 I think just thinking forward is always key. um thinking backwards is not getting you nowhere you know what I'm saying so I think that's that's really that was really like a real main vocal point for me and what I do in my profession um and I just I just advise you know everybody that's around my age just to you know just to live in the moment and just to learn from things that you may have have to overcome you know what I'm saying like I had I had some things in my life that um that I had to face um that I just had to learn from.
31:43 And that took me some time, you know, like that took me some time. I didn't just, like for instance, like me coming into the entertainment industry, I was about 13 years old. And as I was 13 years old, I was just, you know, just a real 13 year old, like just really excited, just really excited not knowing what the industry has in store for me. And I always wanted to be on top of that. And so when I realized, like, you know, just slow down, you know, like it's not, the entertainment industry isn't going anywhere.
32:14 I got all my life to do what I want to do, but I'm just the type of person to be able to say, I want to do this and I want to do that. But it all takes time. So I really just, you know, advise any young person or any older person, you know what I'm saying, to just live in the moment and in the present. That's really my main thing that I can offer, advice. I would love for you to go back to this picture. You just talked to your 16-year-old self, which is interesting. What do you recall about the times with your dad with You Do Matter?
32:51 Early mornings. Early, early mornings. Just being in those meetings and really meeting new people and meeting leaders and being able to be in conversations and talking about leadership and everything like that. Like, it's just, you know, real important things, uh, stop pop, real, real important things, um, that I recall. Um, but I mean, fun times with my dad, uh, my dad is a really helpful person. He loves being able to play a light on those who need light to be shed on. Um, and I think, you know, his main mission is to, to be able to help them be able to help the youth.
33:32 And I think that's always, that's always been a part of his mission. With his foundation, You Do Matter, I feel it's really important because I think the kind of relationship he has with the youth in New Orleans specifically is a really important one. People can be able to lead off in different directions that they don't need to be in. And I think he's changed a lot of lives as far as young Black men in the system that we live in. And with that being said, like, it's been nothing but love with my dad.
34:06 So, you know, he's doing his thing. I'm doing my thing. You see where I'm at now just by listening to him. But yeah, yeah. That's how it works. Sometimes. Don't say it's always like this. No. But what I wanted to do maybe is just for a lot of, you know, I'd love to just play the teaser, right, of the upcoming Amazon Prime deal that you're in. And then we can kind of come back after that and we can talk about like what your role was, what your experience was and things like that. Okay. Yeah, for sure.
34:42 Go ahead and pull that up. Ready to relinquish doubt and press your most actualized self. Are you ready? Wish your mama happy birthday before she goes to work. Happy birthday, man. Be safe. Call came in just before 6.30 a.m. Detective? You're gonna wanna see this. 25 fractures in all. Only bodies I've ever seen this broken were run over by trains. He's killed before. You don't start out this proficient at it. I think he knew his victims. Feels personal. This guy's left no eyewitnesses. Who could not be noticed?
36:07 The last thing we need right now is a serial killer. Well, that's what we got, sir. Are you scared, Chappie? Do you not understand what went on in here? No human is capable of that kind of evil. Don't you ever feel like you can't breathe? Your heart is just going to stop. You want to yell, but you know no one believes you. It's too late. It's coming. Fear was not an option. Fear was not an option. Fear was not an option. Fear was not an option. Fear was not an option. You believe in God? Yeah, of course.
37:08 Even with everything you've seen? No, I believe in the devil too. Wow, right? I mean, Amazon Prime, the whole read, shaping of the media landscape with streaming gives content creators. And, you know, it just kind of really changed what that industry looks like. So you're now coming out of something, a great experience. I wrote down Pam Greer, right? I come from LA, right? So all of my friends, like we're on Little House on the Prairie. And like, this isn't like, this is like what the space I know, but you're coming out of a cool, you know, experience.
37:59 So tell us about it. What was your big takeaways and your aha moments? I think, well, let me just say, just give a little rundown of what the show is about real quick. Yeah. Well, it follows a female detective, homicide detective in the LAPD force. And she comes across this gruesome case that she has to solve. And as she gains closer to the truth, something ominous and sinister happens. grabs grips her and her family um and it's it's really it's really a terrifying piece it's my first horror um and and I was just I was just excited to do it we shot it in Atlanta but it's set it's set in Los Angeles um and I had to spend like four months out there doing that and it was just all love it was all love doing it so um it's it's really exciting April 25th that's when it drops um but yeah like I mean how did you get that job Just just off audition.
38:58 My agency sent it to me. I was I was familiar with season one and I was very like I was very excited. I was like, I got it. I got to get this. So like my character, his name is Kelvin, son of the detective. And Kelvin is just a sweet, innocent kid who's just been dealt a bad hand. You know, he's just going through. where every teenager goes through anxiety, stress. He's dealing with his parents' recent divorce. He's also dealing with OCD without even knowing it. So a lot of things I had to tackle for it.
39:34 It's a character with a lot of layers. So I was really happy about that because I get to take on something that makes me go harder, really just giving my all towards the character. So That's Kelvin, but I mean, I got the role, did the audition, got the call back, sat down with the director and creator and some producers. They loved me from there and I was in Atlanta the next week. So. How exciting. Yeah, yeah. It was really cool. Are you a producer type? I mean, are you entrepreneurial in this space or do you just like to be in front of the camera or like what's your ultimate role in this space?
40:14 Well, for them specifically, I'm just starring in it alongside Pam Grier, Luke James and Debra Irende. But, yes, yes, I do have a production company called Melanin Pictures that I plan to produce short form content and, you know, commercials as well. And I love directing. So hopefully in the near future, I get to be directing some episodes for some television shows. I have that in development right now. You know, just being an episodic director is a big thing for me. I was shadow directing the directors that was on for this season.
40:49 They was, you know, teaching me some things, letting me, you know, watch when I'm not even supposed to be on some days. Like they was just, they was just really informing me and teaching me and letting me study from them. So yeah, I'm very grateful for that. But yeah, producing, directing, all of the whole nine, all of the whole nine. I love y'all. You know, part of what the, part of the Advance the Dream project that, and one element that we're working on with your dad is this whole concept of, you know, this legacy life bookmaker deal.
41:17 And like, you know, my mind just goes directly to, I would love to see like a youth empowered, you know, series of, you know, the capture of these, you know, stories of these lives that are going to come through. You know, our goal is to kind of create a mixed media type of book. So literally there's a hard copy that they can hold and cherish and stuff, but to have that complimented by a, you know, a video, a docu type of video, it's just probably one more little challenge and then it'd be interesting to, anyways, that's where my mind went with that because storytelling is what this is all about, right?
42:01 The storytelling, you know, there was an old guy named Spielberg. I don't know, is that name? He used to do directions and productions and things. But as part of his passion and spin out is he captured the Holocaust survivors' legacy stories. And later with a guy named Tom Hanks captured World War II veterans' stories. You know, I challenge you to potentially read Have a chat with your dad about what his vision is with Legacy Heroes. We have a beautiful interview capability for capturing oral and making a book because old folks like books, but younger folks need to see it in video.
42:45 One of the thoughts is I challenge you and your dad to figure out, because I'd be willing to help support at least part of that first entry to create a Lucy's Got a Vision of an Advance the Dream production show. All right. We're going to show like this, uh, uh, Joshua Williams, the second and third, um, produced a segment featuring three, four, five minutes, uh, with a legacy hero, um, be it someone's drama teacher from third grade or be it, be it someone who, uh, um, who was a, uh, ran a barber shop.
43:23 Who's all their kids went to college. Um, whose grandkids are now making movies. how do we compliment those legacy makers? Not just Martin Luther Kings out there, but the ones that live in our own backyards. That sounds amazing. That just reminds me of just shedding light on people that don't really have light at all. I was at a hospital and I worked at a hospital before and they have people like transporters. That's what I was, a transporter in a hospital. They really just transport everyone in the hospital, but they don't get really recognition for it.
44:03 It's like they have the ability to transport a patient from A to B. And it's like, that's really important. Or even like, you know, somebody that's picking up trash, like if trash just stayed on the ground, like what are we going to do? Like the world would just go to, go to, go to waste. So like, I think just shedding light on, you know, those, those small people, like not even small people, but like those, those people in general, like, I think it's really important. And I think that would be amazing.
44:27 I love that perspective. You know, as someone who worked in a hospital my whole life, The transport freed us up to do certain other tasks that require different skill sets. But then as a patient, when you're in that final stage, you're getting wheeled from a world-class facility down the hall to where a wonderful surgeon is going to do a procedure on you. That transport person is the last person you're talking to before you put to sleep almost. You can put your mind at ease. They can be comforting.
45:00 They can be praying with you. They can be whatever. A very important role. So I think your idea about shedding light on the roles of people that maybe don't hit the big screen and maybe don't even get the recognition in their own institutions where they work is brilliant. I love that. Yep, yep. That's what I was thinking. It is the core mission of the legacy book, whether it's part of the advanced dream series or it says, I learned more about my mom prepping for her eulogy. than I did my whole time that I knew her.
45:38 And I just thought that that was the saddest thing. And so we, as a society, do that at funerals. We need to celebrate life and the goodness of, you know, and the transfer of history. I mean, that's really, within the advance of dream, that's a hyper focus is this transfer of knowledge, right, to the younger generation by telling their stories. we're coming into the last 10 minutes of the show and we've kept you longer, but we asked you to stay if you can, because, you know, I pass the baton, you know, we always like to end with this kind of conversation of like, what does advance the dream mean to you?
46:15 And when you look at our tag, protect the gift, you know, how do you react to both of those? How are you kind of living towards either? Do you care? What's your kind of like feedback to advance the dream and protecting the gift? I mean, Advance the Dream is exactly what it says, you know, like that's that's what it's all about. I think I think for me, being able to to keep my dream alive, even though I don't really have anybody in my community that really was like was an actor for real. It's kind of it was kind of far fetched for me in that time.
46:46 You know, but I just wanted that to be a part of my philosophy and future. You know, so like I always kept my dream and my dad was one to say, like, you can do anything you put your mind to it. So, like, I think I think it is what it says. You know, it's very it's very impactful and it's very, like, important for people in my community to be able to be like, OK, I want if I have this dream, I want to be able to keep it and fulfill it. You know, so it is what it says. Do you feel like you are living it?
47:14 Not yet. Not yet, which is crazy. Not yet, but I mean, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. I'm starting to feel it. Amazon, they just recently told me that the show is going to be played in 240 countries. And I was like, whoa. So the whole world is going to see it, right? So I'm like, okay, cool, cool. But yeah, I'm starting to feel it. I'm starting to feel it. Once I do my press next week, I have like 38 interviews to do in one day. I'm starting to feel it. I'm starting to feel it. It's coming.
47:44 I challenge you to not necessarily put the value on, you know, the eyeballs for you to decide if you're advancing the dream or not. I mean, from my perspective, and just talking to you, you're a very, you know, for a 22 year old, I have a 21 year old and a 28 year old. So I come to this with perspective, you know, you've got a great head on your shoulders, you know, you know what you're doing, you've been committed. towards your trait and your art you've been persistent and patient your doors are starting to open but just knowing your voice is to me like the first part of advancing the dream you know my advanced dream pledge and I say this all the time is you know if I say if I hear something I say something so that's just kind of like how I live my life but don't sell yourself short you know you've been committing to saturdays with your dad for the last 18 years you know even that is a foundation of like building the man that you do matter,
48:42 Wanted you to be, right? Anyways, as we kind of close out, Rob, final thoughts or questions for Joshua? What a privilege to talk to you. I think you'll do great on your 38 interviews. Just be yourself and be yourself rather than to your producer's script. I think because you come through with such a natural honesty and enthusiasm. I challenge you, though, as you look at protecting the gift. I'm thinking, you know, as I listen to you and such, I've been looking through pictures of grandparents and parents and things as certain things are happening in my life.
49:29 And I realize I have zero recordings. no recollection whatsoever of the voice, let alone a moving picture of even my grandparents. And the opportunity you have with your skillset and the kind of platform your father can connect you with really could create a legacy so that the people in your life and the people in the lives, the gifts, we're protecting the gifts of the heritage of our families and our health. You really have the skillset. I really challenge you to... Show me what you would do with your grandfather with an interview.
50:05 Just don't even show it to me. Just do it. Just do it. Just believe, like you say on your shirt. In the moment, stay in the moment with your family, even as you get to very high places, probably with great income and access to wonderful things. Be present with that wonderful family of yours. You're blessed. You really are. Thank you so much. Yeah, I cherish those moments all the time. So I will. Thank you. Josh? Oh, yeah. Also, yeah. One thing I wanted to say, Lucy, was the fact that that picture that you had up there.
50:42 Was actually our first time we was in, we was at the groundbreaking of the Moya Foundation in DC. Oh, wow. We had our little, what we called a youth conference that weekend. And we had on our You Do Matter tags. We were in the hotel, we were all dressed in gold ties. I had about 50, 50 some kids up there in D.C. at that time. That was the one that Marquis Phillips, Dr. Marquis Phillips joined with us and attended. So it brings back, you know, when I started off, I was always teaching Josh and his sisters about computers and stuff of that nature because that was my background.
51:32 But not once did I actually get upset with them if that wasn't the route that they wanted to go in. So that's very important too, because nowadays we sometimes, oh, you're going to be a football player, you're going to be a baseball player, you're going to be the next Michael Jordan. No. I told them always that you can be whatever you want to be, but you got to be somebody. And that was the key. That was the reason why they had to get up on Saturday morning. Even if they didn't want to do technology, they had to do something.
52:01 So it's all about continuing to enhance their ability to want to learn and to seek information. If you want to be an actor, OK, he started when he was eight years old. That was the earliest the agency would take him at eight. So out of New Orleans. Yeah, yes, yes, exactly, exactly. I mean. If you're not in L.A. or New York, it's a different piece. That was in New Orleans, yes. As soon as he hit eight, he hit the ground rolling when he started entertaining in front of people. He developed that courage to not be shame-faced and stuff of that nature.
52:49 He's been pushing it ever since then. So so parents, you know, hey, just get behind your kid, support them like me and his mom did, trying to make sure that not only him, but his sisters actually had the opportunity to enjoy and enhance a part of life that wouldn't necessarily be available to them. So just support your kids and hey, just continue to edge them to be the best that they can be. And that's all we could ask. I'm I'm the reason why I left this image up so long because I'm just like taking it all in because you can almost just feel like this energy transfer.
53:33 Like I didn't know that that was when you guys were together as father and son at what is in the background, right? The memorial. Oh yeah. I mean, and the fact that, you know, how we've, kind of presented this because Rob and I are just, you know, we're facilitators. We're not necessarily, we're not taking the lead at all. We're trying to get people together, right, to have this regular conversation. And so, you know, your personal tie, you know, to the experience of what led that image to even be in existence, to even have this conversation and then to tie it back generationally to your son.
54:10 I just got kind of goosebumps all over, you know, my body type of moment. That's so awesome. Thank you for saying that. We probably should have even opened up the show with that, but I love it. That was wonderful. I think, Josh, the quote I like there that somehow we have to capture is the little video segment you just said that I think, if I remember the quote correctly, you just said, I told my kids it doesn't matter what you do, just so what you do matters. It's brilliant. I think it's great parenting advice.
54:46 Great parenting advice. And I think there's a whole lesson around that. And that summarizes a lot of what you've taught me about what I do, working with you. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Let's just do something that matters. Okay, just capturing it for us, right? And I just, you're right, because look at the little logo above you that you've just committed to your whole life, right? You do matter from high chair all the way to higher education. Higher education does not stop in your 20s, right?
55:22 We've got 80, 90 year old students along that pathway. So Now, that's the key, Lucy, to some people think when you talk higher education, you're talking about college. And that's not that's so far away from the truth. That's right. I wanted all my kids, Josh in particular. I had two daughters. They graduated in twenty twenty one and twenty two from college with bachelor's degrees. When Josh got out of high school, they had him to go to Canada. that summer to participate in another movie showing.
55:55 So he didn't get an opportunity to do that, but he knows how I feel about education. And, you know, I'm sure one day he'll recognize that and decide to go back once he gets a break in his schedule. You know, I don't know. And, you know, it totally depends because certain industries no longer require a six figure debt structure to, you know, succeed. And so your generation, Joshua, I think the sky's the limit on whatever you want to do, however you want to do it. If you want to go be a doctor, then you've got to go shift.
56:33 But in the media space, it's go get what you feel like you want your voice to represent for you. That's what I say. That's true. It's a matter of timing, too. Speaking of doctors, my mother didn't finish her college degree until after all three of her kids had theirs. She worked and motivated and helped pay for us to get our education before she could take the time to get her official degree. So it doesn't matter when in life you learn or what you learn, I think, but lifelong learning becomes very important as Lucy was just saying.
57:12 It's why I do these shows with you guys. I'm staying young. Learn it, live it, share it every day, right? Okay, wonderful. So I think that that's a wrap. That was a great show. It's so beautiful to look back at all of the types of guest speakers that we've brought in from, you know, executive reflections, youth reflections, senior reflections, collegiate reflections, and now you know, this family reflections. I love this kind of intergenerational tie as we all continue to advance the dream. So have a wonderful, wonderful weekend.
57:55 Remember to be kind. Remember to stay well. Remember to move, learn, serve, and earn every single day. Advance the dream and be a force for health. We'll see you next week. Thank you all.
Transcript is auto-generated from the broadcast captions and lightly cleaned; timestamps jump to the moment on YouTube.
Advance the Dream · Episode Recap ·