Episode 233
#233 - Interview with author Aly Vredenburgh
In this conversation, author and researcher Aly Vredenburgh. Joins me for a raw, wide-reaching look at what’s driving Gen Z’s mental health crisis. Looking into why most of the explanations we’re hearing. Rather realising there not even scratching the surface.
Aly breaks down how housing, burnout, toxic individualism, social media, environmental collapse. Even our outdated education systems all converge to create a perfect storm. This continious disconnection, anxiety, and loneliness. We also get into economic survival, systemic failures. How AI’s impact on jobs, and the erosion of creative spaces. Focusing on how it is affecting young people today in ways that can't be solved with self-help alone.
This episode is about more than problems. More about rethinking what mental health support should actually look like. Seeing why compassion, community, and honest policy are the only way forward. Aly’s book, Out of Focus and upcoming documentary Crisis Generation. Are more than projects, they’re a call to fix the systems making us sick.
Where to Find the Guest?
🌐 Website: https://outoffocusbook.com
🎧 Work: Out of Focus: Why Gen Z’s Mental Health Crisis is More Complex Than You Think is available now
📲 Social: Follow Aly @alyvredenburgh
Transcript
Lost in the Groove Podcast
When people ask me, like, what is my generation, quote-unquote, I don't really know how to respond to people. Because reality is, like, I'm not really technically Gen I'm born 99. You know, maybe was born, like, 97, 98, 99. You like, you're kind
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know like you're kind of
::Aly\
No, you're Gen Z. You're Gen Z. I'm Gen Z.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, but I'm kind of not because it's weird.
::Aly\
ah You don't feel it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
on changed as like we hit the: ::Aly\
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So it is like a weird place to be like, what generation are you if you're in that weird bubble?
::Aly\
Yeah, and it yeah, I feel you. I'm right on the cusp too. So I was raised, my brother is a millennial, but I was raised more like him, like him. So I think that's why i I tend to get along with people who are older than me.
::Aly\
But definitely, it's our generation's weird, for sure.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is. And it's like, um it's like almost where you have a cultural shift. Because, you know, when you were like talking about like having siblings that are millennials, like my siblings are also millennials.
::Aly\
Because, when you were talking about siblings that are millennials, siblings are also sister actually is almost like, I still technically generation X.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
My sister actually is almost like, I think still technically Generation X.
::Aly\
She was born 78. You know, so when you have that bunch divide, it also opens your eyes a bit to, I guess, the struggles.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like she was born in 78. You know, so when you have like that much of divide, it kind of also opens up your eyes a little bit to, I guess, the different struggles and things that your own family members or like you said, like people that are older, they have to have to go through compared to what you have to go through.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So experiencing that kind of opens things up a little bit in understanding.
::Aly\
Totally. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So how has that experience been for you? Because you seem like somebody that likes to culturally diverse with other types of people from different generations, from different social backgrounds, from different places.
::Aly\
Yeah, well, I guess jumping right into it then. um Should we introduce me or we just jumping right into it?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So kind of the thing with like the podcast, we just, it's basically just conversation based. um I don't really and don't really believe in introductions.
::Aly\
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I feel kind of like the best way to get to know people is when you start to spark the interest and fascination. You know, especially like I think also a career and the type of work that you've done is very much like there's so many different ways of...
::Aly\
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
so yeah i just like want to be able to explore and figure out where we can go and kind of learn along the way
::Aly\
hi
::Aly\
Awesome, well I'm here for it. Yeah, well, I would say there's definitely a difference between generations, like even all of the memes about boomers.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Aly\
I think it's really interesting to think about the boomers, Gen X, I think there's like Gen Y, I don't know. um But our parents, like for Gen Z parents and a little bit millennial parents,
::Aly\
They had really interesting upbringings because their parents had survived the Great Depression. And so i think that kind of shaped a lot of the way people viewed the economy, success, what it means to be an American, like what it means for meritocracy and just the idea of you know, surviving in this very weird world that we live in And our parents were very driven towards success.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
And overall, the idea of having the perfect American family was really shaped around having that high paying job, the house, the the white picket fence, the golden retriever.
::Aly\
And i think it's interesting for our generation
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Classic American.
::Aly\
I know.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
and it's interesting for our generation because who it's like impossible for us to have that because they've made real estate a business instead of a necessity for people.
::Aly\
And so many of are our parents' generation are profiting off of real estate and doing so well on it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah to You know what?
::Aly\
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you You touched on something that's so true, which is around um generationial generational families, particularly when you go from the silent generation to you go on to boomers.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
a lot of people experienced, particularly even from the boomer generation, where many of these people grew up in the 60s, where mental health was taboo. You didn't talk about mental health, you didn't discuss mental health.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So a lot of people, especially now, like millennials, They were raised by parents that had borderline you know borderline personality did disorders.
::Aly\
you know
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They had narcissistic personality. They had Munchausen's. They had a plethora of diseases that were never checked. So what happens is you have a bunch of people running around like lunatics and maniacs, screaming on top of their lungs.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
This is what I've especially had conversations with people where... are Politics, medical, generation, all of this can get messy. But when we look at each other, depending if we could be gen Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z, you name it, like even from the silent generation, just to talk and see the mistakes and problems that we've done before, what we're now doing to correct them.
::Aly\
Yeah, but I don't think we're doing a great job of correcting them right now.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No, no, no.
::Aly\
I think what we're doing right now is trying to repeat old mistakes, which is really just terrifying to watch. But yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is.
::Aly\
it ah It is really interesting, um the difference between the generations and what you're saying about a lot of our parents having unchecked mental illness.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is.
::Aly\
There's definitely some truth to that. I think, you know, i don't like the word narcissism. I think it's thrown around too much. And I think everyone wants to label each other as narcissists and sociopaths.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Right. Yeah. and
::Aly\
And I think it's, yeah, totally.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I was just bringing that ah up as a point because it's kind of like, you know, it's like everybody's talking me like, well, what about because in short, it's complex, right?
::Aly\
short, right?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
These are all very complex things that especially when you're dealing with psychology, you're talking about mental health and how the mind works like it goes in so many different directions from case to case, from individual to individual.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Right. Yeah.
::Aly\
Yeah, absolutely. say narcissism is a really interesting topic, and I do cover it in my chapter in my book. which I've got right here, I write about individualism. And we have this culture of individualism that I think is really hurting us as a society. And individualism keeps becoming more and more, it has more and more of a stronghold over our society. And with the way social media has been shaped and the way that we've shaped our culture around individualism, it's made us become less connected.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::Aly\
And while our parents certainly had mental illness, especially anxiety, I think so many of them had undiagnosed anxiety. um I will say that what we can look at with data is that mental illness is getting worse and significantly worse and the way that a lot of researchers and scientists are able to kind of know that is by suicide rates.
::Aly\
skyrocketed starting at about: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It was a very big recession, but yeah.
::Aly\
at the same time. Yeah. And at the same time, that was when the Kardashians launched when um ah like Snapchat, Instagram, all these different apps.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
YouTube came out. Yeah.
::Aly\
Yeah. They started launching around that time, but it's interesting because really up until then the only predominant social media was Facebook and MySpace, which had still, still
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah well
::Aly\
you know, barely there, and they weren't the same as they are now.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Aly\
They've really kind of changed the way they operate because, you know, they used to operate more for social connection and getting people to you know, chat online and and post their weird photos and videos.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No. Yeah.
::Aly\
I'm sure you have a lot of those from childhood. I do um
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Aly\
But now it's all about what they can what profit they can make off of us and how much time they can get us to be on these apps.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
when When you're talking about this, I think about when I was a child and I had a brother that lived overseas. And I remember as a child where we – I grew up in upstate New York. I lived about 90 miles outside of this city.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
e proper internet until about: ::Aly\
have proper in it until about: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And if you wanted to call overseas, we had phone cards. you know You'd call up a number and you get a certain amount of minutes and you'd call out of the country. you You were very limited of like the access to people around you.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And like to the point where I knew my brother from photos that were mailed to us, you know like that package that would come in. That's what i was trying to get at earlier is I'm one of those people that grew up in a time where I saw this stuff.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I remember when Snapchat came out. you know i remember like, what is this? Everybody was like buzzing around like, what's Snapchat? And to this day, I don't know what the hell Snapchat is. And I'm like 26.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know I don't use it. I don't know what it is. But like that change you're talking about is so... imminent It's so real.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You could see somebody on Bulgaria right now on a live on TikTok. Right now.
::Aly\
Yeah, we have a lot of access to information. That's just not normal. But what I will say is like, over and over again.
::Aly\
um so many different researchers and people that have power and influence talk about social media being this big um cause of the mental health crisis.
::Aly\
And it's actually something that I don't completely agree with and talk about in my book because the way I see it is that social media is actually a mirror.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay.
::Aly\
It's a mirror to our society's culture. And what's interesting is like if social media was just people posting science videos and like crafting and like how to build stuff and like math.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay.
::Aly\
we wouldn't be where we are right now. People would be a lot smarter. They'd be a lot, you know, it wouldn't, people wouldn't be on these apps for so long. But the thing is, is they've really intelligently figured out what are we interested in, what's going to keep our attention, what is going to make them profits off of us. And it's the things that we, you know like, like sex, money, celebrity, those things are what people like. And in turn,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Instant gratification. Yeah.
::Aly\
Yeah. And and so while I think social media has contributed to maybe this crisis of inattention and, you know, these issues with ADHD, I don't think it's contributed to the larger problems of depression and anxiety in the way that people think.
::Aly\
I think that they've operated as a mirror of the greater culture that's been happening and shifting since industrialization. and I think that what it's doing is it's holding up a mirror to us of all of the worst things about our humanity is basically on social media. It's like all the worst parts of us and the best parts too, but it's basically that's how it's operating and that culture That's really at the heart of what we need to address because if we used our phones and technology as the tools that they are, these amazing tools, we we could be just fine, but it's it's the way that we're using them and the way that we're finding pleasure with them and entertainment with them that's really become a problem. and
::Aly\
Even if you look at old movies um and and we look at TV shows from around the time that the suicide rates started going up, that was the same culture we're seeing now.
::Aly\
It's just we're getting a whole lot more of it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, I think, you know, what i'm I'm going to point this out because ah definitely i come from the community, so I can definitely put an insight on this as a person that was raised in a somewhat religious cult community.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And i also happen to be gay on top of that and then leaving religion on top of all of that. I know that what has generally happened among us, what we call the OTD community, which is just stands for off the derach, which means off the path.
::Aly\
uh
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There's a lot of suicide around those people in particular because when you're raised in a society that tells you you can't be who you want to be, And let me point this out, and I'm not trying to like start any conspiracies.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The government is very well aware of what these groups are doing.
::Aly\
huh
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're very well aware, and they don't do anything. They just let this stuff happen. And this goes on every single day in New York. So you end up in these situations where you see the amount of people that are suffering mentally. You see the suicide rates and things. And like you're right. It's not just social media. It's a lot of other...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Things that go on in this country that's causing those numbers to escalate.
::Aly\
Thank you.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But I think what I want to touch on this to what you're talking about individuality, because I think you bring you bring up an excellent point on regards that is where we view individuality as a single blade sword.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But in reality, it comes with two blades in each side. am I wrong?
::Aly\
Yeah, it can be very helpful for us and hurtful. depends on how and why.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
How did you come to um how did you ah did you come to that conclusion and how were you able to be able to find the research? and like Was it just like a moment that happened for you? did you have an experience with somebody that you're just like, huh, there's something to develop individuality that I need to dig deeper in to figure out what's going on here?
::Aly\
Well, I think that the harm of individuality comes um in the way that we treat each other and in the ways we operate as an economy.
::Aly\
So a lot of our people people that we really look up to, like, um I mean, some people look up to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk because they're billionaires.
::Aly\
ah They're not necessarily people I look up to. um But they, you know, a lot of people really look up to these billionaires, but they didn't, like, get to where they are by being nice to people or by um helping other people out or,
::Aly\
you know they got to where they are because they cut people down, they stole, they lied, they cheated, and then they they became who they are. and And so what I would say is that a lot of our businesses and corporations operate with this individualism mindset of what what can I make? what what you know And then all of these different employees that are struggling and you know making a thousand times less than you know their managers or whatever.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
hundred percent
::Aly\
So it's just, there is this... issue with how we view each other, especially economically. But then socially as well, there's definitely this issue of, you know, what can this person do for me?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
And what do I get out of going to this? There's this culture of what do, what, how is this situation or person going to benefit me And there's not a lot of how can i benefit these people?
::Aly\
How can I do good? How can I be kind? How can i make this world a better place? It's a lot of me, me, me happening. and so yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. Wow.
::Aly\
know something? hard able to process these things.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know something? It's hard to hear because you don't want to be able to process these things, but you're so right.
::Aly\
But you're right. I can't.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, I can even say for myself when I've recently like started putting myself out there in regards to dating, and when I meet these guys, I get i literally get the same reaction each time.
::Aly\
And when meet these guys, can't remember who get the same reaction each time.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're like...
::Aly\
I'm like, you're so open, you're not judgmental, you're not scared to talk have a normal conversation different opinions.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You're so open, you're not judgmental, like you're not scared to talk and have a normal conversation, like difference of opinions.
::Aly\
And to me, that's just normal.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah To me, that's just normal.
::Aly\
That's just me. I've been like this for years.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's just me. I've been like this for years.
::Aly\
I sometimes have to get out of and realize that this is not something that's easy everybody.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know And I sometimes have to get out of my head and realize that this is not something that's easy for everyone.
::Aly\
Not everybody is comfortable being able to be in a relationship
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Not everybody is easy is comfortable being able to be in a relationship where... Don't get that immediate gratification. You don't get that immediate like I want you. I need you. I'm going to have you now.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i I think that like I think you're right. There's a lot of warpage in the way that we socially ah like socially interact. And I don't want to be one of those people like let's blame the pandemic.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But I was in New York during the pandemic. And I can tell you personally, i feel like it has a lot to do what we're dealing with right now.
::Aly\
It has a lot to do with right now.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It just took a situation that was already starting to topple and break and made 20,000 times worse.
::Aly\
It just took a situation that was already starting to topple the break made it 20,000 times worse.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And nobody wants to stand there and say, hey, we have an issue problem.
::Aly\
nobody wants to stand there and say, hey, we have an issue or problems.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's like, everything's normal.
::Aly\
It's normal.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Everything's great.
::Aly\
It's great. I moved on.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, we've moved on.
::Aly\
I'm like, hey, hey, let's slow down
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm like, hey, hey, let's slow down over here. it's like only been five years.
::Aly\
It's only been five
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What have we done in five years to kind of reciprocate back all of this stuff?
::Aly\
many businesses, how artists and individuals have lost their lives completely because of what happened five years ago?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
How many businesses, how many artists and individuals that have lost their lives completely because of what happened five years ago?
::Aly\
And it talks about those independent artists. It talks about those underground people that are either dead because suicide or suffering mentally. They're longer here and a just to survive.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and Nobody talks about those independent artists.
::Aly\
It's helped us quite a
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Nobody talks about those underground people that are either dead because of suicide or suffering mentally or no longer care, are now working a crummy into job just to survive. I've spoken to quite a few, and it's sad and it's sickening. and It's like somebody's got to talk for them.
::Aly\
Well, I will say I am definitely trying to be the person to talk for them. i lost my best friend during the pandemic.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. I'm
::Aly\
And so I that was a huge motivator for me.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um sorry.
::Aly\
Thank you to to write this book. And it's probably the strongest motivator because losing her was the hardest thing I've ever been through.
::Aly\
And I'm now working on a documentary and trying to push so hard to get the message out there that there is this crisis happening. It's been happening for a long time.
::Aly\
But yeah, the pandemic definitely made it worse. And I think the reason why the pandemic made it so bad was because of the loneliness and isolation, which is also another topic I really dive into in our and my book, is that we are in a loneliness epidemic.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's so true.
::Aly\
Yeah, it's...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's so true.
::Aly\
i mean over half of our generation is lonely. So many of us are lonely. And I think that ties back to how we treat each other, our culture, and because we're really burned out.
::Aly\
So many of us are burned out in the way that our economy is structured, because it doesn't matter if we go to college now, it's really difficult to get a job. um a lot of us are stuck with student debt.
::Aly\
It doesn't matter if we want to own a home, we probably won't because of are the way that housing is nowadays. And so many of us are struggling with this isolation.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
And then on top of that, we're struggling with a lot of pollutants and toxins that are really plaguing our system that, again, no one wants to talk about.
::Aly\
And then, of course, we have a president saying, drill, baby, drill, and let's cut down the forests.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No.
::Aly\
And, you know, it's like all of these things are happening. and no one's talking about the impact of how these things are really going to affect our mental health.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i What you bring up is also really important because I think a lot of the times we we tend to not stick in our backyard, okay?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And me strictly, like, I'm very, like, the type of person where i'm apolitical, but I'm very, like, libertarian in the sense of we're – let's stay in our backyard, okay? Let's stay local. Let's stay in our communities.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, we live in all sorts of places in this amazing country and all sorts of states offer different opportunities. And there's a lot of communities doing different things. Like I mentioned, you know, you want to talk about like there's an underground scene in Atlanta.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Georgia has a very large music underground scene. You have all of these communities that exist. What we have forgotten is is that we have literally stripped ourselves away from zero opportunity to identify as our own, okay?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
As a country, as a people, and as a society. So you're right. This has been a long, everlasting thing that people have been talking about we've been talking about in the nineteen sixty s Go on YouTube right now and go through all the documentaries and all the research that was on a mental health and crisis. They talk about the exact same stuff. It's because we're so focused on the outside world.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
All right. When I was in the UK and have a friend that lives in the UK, do you know what British people care about? Britain. Britain, because they live in Britain.
::Aly\
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Do you know how times you're here in the United States and I'm hearing conversations about countries in the Ukraine and that it is, I'm like, my heart goes out to these people. And if I meet these people, like, I want to talk to you and I want to hear what's going on.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But we have other things we got to deal with. You know, we got a mental health crisis that we we have to deal with. We have right now a situation where we need to figure out education in this country too. and we're talking about We talked about the beginning of generations.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Do really want keep educating kids like this? Because I remember my education as a kid. It was hell. It felt like I was being trained to be a factory worker. Okay.
::Aly\
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's took me years. Now I've like put myself in vocational school where i'm going to be putting myself through a trade to get myself to be independent. They don't teach you any of this stuff.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, like I'm,
::Aly\
you
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
My God, it explains so well why we have some of the worst mental health anywhere else on this planet. And even though we are a first world country, which is crazy, being a first world country and then also having terrible mental health.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What? 100%.
::Aly\
Yeah. Well, there's really important things that we need to change in order to help improve mental health.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
hundred percent
::Aly\
And I talk about them in my book. I outline six ah really important things systemically that we have to change. And then I also talk about different ways that parents and um educators and lawmakers can also go out and make changes. And then what we can do individually as well.
::Aly\
But what I'll say is that I think I think the important thing is that as a nation, we really, what you're saying is true, we need to do better. we really do need to do better educationally. I mean, yeah, that was...
::Aly\
An important topic um that I specifically talk about in terms of creativity. We are in a creativity crisis and there's this researcher named Dr. Kim who actually studied like 200,000 people and found, you know, since the nineteen ninety s
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
how
::Aly\
we've just had this decline in creativity. And what you said what you said about like our education just being crap, it really, it was hell, it was crap because they're forcing us to do all this testing and they're not giving us the space to be creative, to learn in ways that aren't necessarily just, you know, like everyone learns differently.
::Aly\
We need that creative space to learn.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
And, um you know, even California, we have like very, very little funding for the arts, very little funding. And most, most of our states do not have like any funding for the arts.
::Aly\
And we've put so much emphasis on the math and science and like these common core subjects, I think, because people really valued the idea of college and like getting kids into college and It went from, you know, STAR testing to the SAT t and the ACT and all of these different tests.
::Aly\
But, I mean, if you look at the research, tests really don't show any actual person's capacity to do really good work.
::Aly\
It is not an indicator.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No. No, and you know, what you're saying is true because my dad was an immigrant to this country, and my dad, he was very much blue-collar. He worked in trade, and he was very against college.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, he was especially when he was alive. He used to always tell me that, like, don't do college. You want to be successful. Do something that you're passionate about, something you're creative.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
if you could, you know, you say would do something with your hands, you know, like a trade, like. Because in the end of the day. if and I'm saying this as an artist, if I don't have that creativity flowing, don't feel alive.
::Aly\
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Just don't.
::Aly\
Yeah, well, the arts have been shown repeatedly to have positive outcomes on mental health. They're incredibly important and protective for mental health.
::Aly\
And the fact that we've just eliminated them from our school systems and aren't valuing them as as a nation because, i mean, we could value it in the workplaces. We can value it in all different spaces, but we don't.
::Aly\
And it's it's harming us. It's one of the things that's harming us.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, especially especially where if you take kids, right, you put them in these schools and they have the same curriculum every single day for eight hours for, I don't know, 12 years or whatever the... But why not allow the kids kind of figure out what classes they want to take instead of forcing them into the exact same classes year after year you know I get it. Kids don't always you know know how to be able to make their own decisions and stuff, but they're the ones that are spending the eight hours there.
::Aly\
Yeah, well, I think there's something to be said about what you said about training us to be factory workers. I think that's exactly what what schools were designed to do.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
remember who Remember who set up this education system, the Rockefellers?
::Aly\
like i yeah
::Aly\
there's There's definitely something to be said about that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
But going off all of that, I think something really important to talk about in terms of mental health is just basic needs being met. And i love i love Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I think it's a great um theory.
::Aly\
And it's basically this idea that we have these very basic needs that we need to meet just to have good mental health. And some of those things are just really basic things like clean water, clean air, shelter, food, connection.
::Aly\
And so many of us do not get even our basic needs met. And what's interesting and really kind of scary is that, for example, the government lists our poverty threshold at $16,000 a year.
::Aly\
But I don't know a single person that could have their basic needs met at $16,000 a year. that's impossible
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, I mean I live here in South Florida, and realistically, which is crazy, you have to be making like about $50,000 here. Yeah. Right. Right. here
::Aly\
That's exactly what I write about in my book. So even for the cheapest apartment in the studio apartment in Arkansas, you can maybe rent an apartment for about $577, let's say.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
right
::Aly\
um you Even making $20,000 a year, you wouldn't be making your basic needs. And so the basic minimum to survive would be more like $57,000, which is really now what I argue should be the poverty threshold, because that's really here in America what you need to make to barely get by.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah And you know what? I'm going to be one of those libertarians that is going to throw it out there. A lot of it is due to we don't make a lot of things here.
::Aly\
Okay, here's the craziest thing too, because I come from the automotive side. We do manufacture a lot parts here in the United States.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We import more than we export. We just we. And OK, here's the craziest thing, too, because I come from the automotive side.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
they do We do manufacture a lot of parts here in the United States. The issue is that a lot of those parts are not being sold here. They're being exported outside of the U.S. So what you're left with is – and this is a really great benefit, especially I have American Car. where You have now um independent ah businesses.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We'll work with aftermarket companies that are based here in the United States that are making things which you can purchase, which is great. There's tons of them. There's American Muscle.
::Aly\
Thank you.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There's CJ Pony parts. There's a couple of other businesses. I love that kind of stuff because it it kind of is like, you know what? And I'm being serious. Like, even if I'm on a hard budget, it's like, you know what? For like an extra 50 bucks, I'm going to go with this brand. Because like, I know that in a way, and like I don't know. This is how I feel personally.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Being able to support that American company knows that least like I'm hey helping somebody else out to be able to survive in this country. You know what I'm saying?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's kind of like my attitude towards it when it comes to things like that.
::Aly\
I mean, it's interesting. i think another important thing to talk about is the idea of ai because that's actually going to be replacing a lot of jobs.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
Right now, I think, I forget the exact number, but I'm pretty sure AI has already replaced like at least a million jobs, a really high number of jobs. And if you think about what that's gonna do to um our job market, which is already failing so many people, so many people are struggling with not being able to get a job, um that alone is another thing that is gonna have a huge impact that a lot of people are not talking about and not finding solutions for. So, um yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you That is an excellent point. And i can touch on, particularly in the automotive industry, what has happened now is the need for technicians that know how to work on electronics is exponential. I mean, there is right now we're close to 78,000 need.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
in need um And what is happening now is that there's been development using AI and augmentation and virtual reality to help technicians be able to better diagnose vehicles, particularly like any guys that work on cars out there.
::Aly\
condition angle believe temperature
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know what I'm talking about, where you get those weird leaks or things that are breaking. It allows you to basically like look at a car and look at it as if it's a skeleton. And using artificial intelligence, you're able to literally zoom in into specific areas and see exactly what is going on in real time.
::Aly\
aspect
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So you're 100% correct with regards to AI, where it is going to take millions of jobs.
::Aly\
and words a
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But again, like the idea with societies where we need to adapt. And the same way we're like the automotive industry, like, again, you're talking about the automotive industry needs close to 70,000 people. And on top of that, they need out of that 70,000, most of them knowing how to work in electronics, because there's going to come a time where you're going to need that AI.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And that's going to be implemented to make like, you're not going to need so many people doing the same things. you're going to need one person doing a lot of the same job. got to be able to implement in advance. You know what I'm saying? Like getting stuck in a rut or staying in the past, I feel is like one of the reasons why we struggle a lot of the times.
::Aly\
Yeah, we absolutely do need to innovate and come up with solutions. um One solution i been considering is the idea of a tax on these big corporations that are replacing employees with these um AI bots because each AI bot essentially replaces an employee, which means that that is making the company so much money that that employee would have made.
::Aly\
And it also takes away a person from making that income. And so if that basically each bot is taxed um as if they were a person, um that would also help kind of at least contribute a bit to the economy.
::Aly\
But it's there's a lot happening that's really scary and happening so quickly too that it's hard to even begin to figure out what to do.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
But there there is a lot of ways we can innovate. And one of the things um that was really impactful to me in graduate school was um this idea of social entrepreneurship, which is this idea of doing business for good.
::Aly\
And so it's sort of like a win-win situation where entrepreneurs can go out, they can make a business and make their money, but they can also have this business that exists to do good, which means not only is the entrepreneur benefiting, but society is also benefiting.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. and you know something, you touched on something really true because when you have those entrepreneurs that really think outside of the box and create those really great ideas that can benefit a community.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
By the way, those can be, for example, um they have some local communities where you have like a voluntary center where they're struggling. And they have some members that are really like crafty and really creative. So somebody can figure out a way of like either creating like a website or platform where other people can share and get involved in the community and help out.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um Somebody was showing me, like I know this is like from one of the big organizations, like they had where they implemented this game. that um you could basically like fill up a bowl of rice and it helps give rice to like third world countries and different things.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I get what you're saying. like There are like really great entrepreneurs that can think up of ideas of helping out communities. um And there there's plenty of people out there that are willing to do it, but takes lot of hours.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It takes a lot of blood, tears. it takes a lot of blood sweat and tears
::Aly\
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and Sometimes there's not just enough financial support. So, you know, you're you left pulling the money out of your own pockets in order to do those things.
::Aly\
yeah
::Aly\
hey You're exactly right. That's actually, so I'm working on my next book. um And one of the things I'm touching on is social entrepreneurship, because I think it's such a pathway towards really positive change.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Wow. Wow.
::Aly\
And the thing is, is that if we want more social entrepreneurs, we've got to support them, we've got to give them the tools and resources to make this accessible. And some of that is just changing like legislation, because there is some ambiguity and in terms of starting up these businesses because a lot of times they operate as nonprofits and as corporations and so so some of them are benefit corporations some of them are like I forget the name of it but like you know there's co-ops or there's different things that exist that are kind of like social enterprises but because there isn't good legal
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::Aly\
legislation around these things that there's ambiguity so even something as simple as making the less ambiguity around what social entrepreneurship is could be a big help but then again we also need to help finance these different organizations and so that goes into yeah yeah exactly so what you're saying is exactly right
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Benefits. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
By the way, you're um I wanted to touch on that. I know that you don't have that much. um i don't know if you have that much experience, like particularly the electronic industry, but the electronic industry also here in the United States, this is one of the reasons why, like
::Aly\
giving you an example.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
If you had more benefits and things that were implemented in some of these industries, you'd have more and more of these things made here. like The reason I'm saying this, too, is it it benefits communities as well.
::Aly\
I'm in Pennsylvania.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
right If you have – and I'll give you an example. like I come from New York, so we have this in, for example, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has a lot of free farming. So a lot of these farms live near local areas.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So these local communities work co coincide with these farms. So happens is when you're driving through PA and you pass, there's these local farmers selling things.
::Aly\
There's these farmers selling things. They have like
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They have like local farmer markets. you know They have um communal events and things because they're all living and working alongside each other. Without one, the other one can't survive.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So it's like almost like a mutual share of hand. It's like, hey, we need to survive and hey, you need to survive. So let's work together to make this possible.
::Aly\
Yeah, absolutely.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Right.
::Aly\
Working together is super important. It's funny you bring up farmers just because I interviewed a farmer for my documentary. And, yeah, a lot of farmers are not doing well.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Really?
::Aly\
They're really not doing well. um And the rate of suicide in farmers is really high.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
not.
::Aly\
It's, like, one of the highest um industries.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They need community.
::Aly\
um
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
People don't understand this. that That's what a lot of farmers are missing is they've been so bought up by Purdue.
::Aly\
Well, yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm gonna say it, Purdue and Oscar Mayer and Taylor Farms, whatever the crap you wanna call it.
::Aly\
Yeah, yeah.
::Aly\
Monsanto. yeah Yeah, unfortunately, and the way our government subsidizes these really big, um you know, big farms, it's really hurting small farms.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's terrible.
::Aly\
And small farms are so important and so incredibly, like, they're feeding us. and And this farmer that we interviewed was telling us, you know, he put out, you know,
::Aly\
thousands of pounds of almonds to our communities, but he ended up losing money that year. So while everyone's eating and benefiting off of what he grew, all this work he did, he did not make a single dime off of it. and And yet all of these companies that ended up with the product, of course, did profit.
::Aly\
And so there really comes to question, like, what are we doing to the very people that are are feeding us? It's... it's I have so much empathy for farmers after that interview because it's just really, really tough out there.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is. You know, and ah I'll tell you, like, as somebody that grew up in New York, the thing that a lot of people do not understand in the city is there are a lot of hardworking people that live in upstate.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Really hard. work And it's really sad. Like now they're taking away their homes. They've made it so expensive, like going 120 miles outside of the city now can cost like six hundred thousand dollars for a house.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
that that That was never heard of before.
::Aly\
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean they've just made the taxes so crazy and expensive. Like – you know what the the issue is? Is that like I've noticed this too. It's not even like state government.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's the people that the state government is representing in these places.
::Aly\
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know like I live here in Florida, and one thing that's kind of letting me leave here too is, like no offense to DeSantis, the man is business hungry. He doesn't give a rat's ass about a single individual that lives here, regardless if you're a senior citizen.
::Aly\
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
or i mean, the medical sucks here. i mean, it's crazy expensive. They charge way too much for insurance. It's way too expensive to live here. like I get it. There's other parts of Florida, but in the end of the day, you know what? You want to blame the U.S. government. I want to blame the state government here in Florida because all of this that they're doing is completely avoidable, right?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
This is something like ah you totally, like we see eye to eye on this is where avoidable situations and completely blindly going in that direction. It's like, do you really think benefit benefiting businesses year on year is going to actually help anybody?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I don't. Sorry, large corporation businesses. Let me emphasize. I don't. don't.
::Aly\
Yeah, well, unfortunately, i don't i don't believe there are very many good politicians out there, and the reason why is because of the way we finance and have people elected to begin with.
::Aly\
The way our...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Politicians should be volunteers volunteers. They should not be employees.
::Aly\
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's my personal opinion.
::Aly\
first First off, absolutely that. But also, you have to raise, like, I mean, even for a local, small local campaign, like here in my city, I think I was talking to someone and um in campaigns and they were telling me, oh, even for a small little local city council election,
::Aly\
You've got to raise $50,000 or something like that. um That's insane. And no normal good-hearted person is going to necessarily know how to raise that kind of money.
::Aly\
And then the other part of that is a lot of times these... politicians are funded by these big corporations because those are the people with the money and then that in turn influences their decisions because whoever pays them is who they're going to have to listen to and so yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
who
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and Look at Snap. Look at Snap.
::Aly\
hence
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, you imagine the American Heart Association arguing that soft drinks should be a part of the Snap program? I'm like, listen, i i just i don't have any words, all right?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You have the American Heart Association.
::Aly\
Thank you.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
publicly promoting soft beverages to be a part of like the nutrition package for people that, you know, have difficulty with finances or not bringing enough money. I'm like, are we seriously having this conversation?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What's next American Heart Association? Are you going to tell us that Chick-fil-A sauces are 100% good for and you should have them every single day with your breakfast? Like what? Like seriously, like if we're going in that direction, we should go there.
::Aly\
Yeah, well, I mean, literally the amount of money that goes towards lobbying alone, all of that money alone could help solve a lot of our world problems.
::Aly\
That right there.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
know
::Aly\
All of the money that went just into the presidential presidential election this last could have that could have gone, all of that money could have gone towards really, really important issues that could have been solved.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
And yet we funnel insane amounts of money that go into marketing and whatever the hell else it goes into. And it's not really helping. It's just helping us get sociopaths elected.
::Aly\
And it's terrifying.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Aly\
It's absolutely terrifying that that we have all these millions of dollars towards that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
but
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No, and you're you're totally right. i'm i'm I'm very much realist, and I'm very much the type of person that believes, like, we have reached a point where we've had to have now where...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
we've a campaign We've never had this before in human history. where We've had to reach as a point as our government that to have some good, we had to get such craziness that comes with a few people in the cabinet that are doing some good changes.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, are actually doing something. Because you've had in the past so many people are like, yeah, we're... Nothing's ever done. It's the same bullshit every four years. Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Clinton.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i did The list just goes on. It's just bullshit after bullshit after bullshit. It's like finally after like 50 odd years, it's like we get like maybe like six people. Yay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i mean, I'm kind of happy. it's like, this really how slow progress really is?
::Aly\
Yeah, I mean, progress really is quite slow, and and it is unfortunate, and there's this sociological concept called the pendulum swing, where when good starts to happen, there is this pendulum swing back towards eliminating the progress that has been made, and it's unfortunate, but I do think that...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Aly\
I do think good is slowly happening. It's just, it's goingnna I don't think it'll happen in our lifetimes.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Now, this is going to take years. I mean it's crazy because the last real person and again, people have to remember and and this is how I remember this.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Don't think of it as presidency. It's cabinet, because remember, whoever comes in, they bring a whole slew of people that comes along with them. Like the last person that we had like was JFK.
::Aly\
JFK. was like the last person.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
JFK was like the last person. But the problem was like in his own cabinet.
::Aly\
The problem was like in his own cabinet.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He had people that wanted him dead.
::Aly\
had people that wanted him in.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Guess what?
::Aly\
Guess what?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They succeeded.
::Aly\
They succeeded.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They got him killed.
::Aly\
They got him killed.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, to your point, it's like that pendulum.
::Aly\
You know? your point, it's like that pendulum.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's where you can bring in the chaos because that's what it is.
::Aly\
It's where if you bring in the because that's it is.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's chaos.
::Aly\
It's chaos.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We're going to collapse and break everything along with it.
::Aly\
We're going to collapse break everything along with it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Bring some of the good Trojans, you know, the good Trojan soldiers.
::Aly\
Bring some of the good Trojans, the good Trojan soldiers.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Along the good Trojan soldiers come those not so great, not so great soldiers that ah just want blood rust, war, chaos and money.
::Aly\
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The of the world, bae. Man, it sucks.
::Aly\
Yeah. It does suck. It really does.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But, you know, I want to bring this up. And, you know, regardless of difference of opinions, um I remember growing up in New York when we had ah the pollution in our water supply. Do you remember? ah do you know what i'm talking about?
::Aly\
Well, so that's actually, we still have pollution in our water supply.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
But yeah, I mean, there was, when we were growing up, this is something I wrote about, is that there was lead in at least 70% of school drinking fountains. That was from a Harvard study.
::Aly\
They found lead, like unhealthy levels in school drinking fountains, which is directly tied to ADHD, depression, um behavioral issues. And that was in just school drinking fountains across the nation.
::Aly\
All of these kids drinking lead.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So it's really – it's crazy and bizarre because I remember as a kid when this stuff started coming out into the open. And they used to play us the videos in school because it got to a point where – They literally had ads, don't drink tap.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like there was this thing in New York for a long time where we did not drink drink tap. We used just go buy, go to Costco. That's what my dad used to do, which is buy cases and cases and cases and cases of water.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know And keep in mind, like when my parents had me, they were like, you know, when they're like 30, like my mom was already like 40 and my dad was already in his 40s. They lived in New York already for like 20, 30 years.
::Aly\
Yeah. Mm
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And then now this hits and they're so terrified that like for years, it's like, don't drink tap water.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And the government hit this for years, particularly in New York.
::Aly\
yep
::Aly\
here
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like they hit it so well. like i They knew what they were doing and they kept going. I mean, you know, like it it's government obvious, but it's just like, Wow.
::Aly\
like, Wow.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Wow.
::Aly\
It's terrifying. Well, I mean, I think they also downplay a lot of ah lot of things that are harming us in our health and our mental health, including pollution. um And that's one thing I talk about that people don't think about. Like, whether you're an environmentalist or not, what we are doing to the environment is directly harming our mental health.
::Aly\
These oil drilling, coal mining... the the The toxins from our cars like nitrous oxide, um there's these VOCs, there's issues with um just all of these different pollutants, including like things like Febreze.
::Aly\
I mean, there's our detergents. There's so many things that have these harmful chemicals in them that hurt our environment and they also hurt us.
::Aly\
that are really, really severely downplayed. i actually, it was funny, I, yesterday I was, um I run a therapeutic art program at a high school and it's wonderful.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, wow.
::Aly\
And the teacher before me, yeah, i I love it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's amazing.
::Aly\
It's the best thing ever. But the teacher before me, she, in her classroom, which I share with her, um she has like a bunch of different Febrezes in the room. And she was telling me, you know, I do this because the room smells so horrible.
::Aly\
And It's kind of the only option. And I i explained to her, you know, i I don't mean to like give you a TED talk right now, but these, the chemicals, the fragrance in Febreze has endocrine disruptors. And those disruptors, not only do they contribute to obesity, but they also contribute to different mental health struggles like ADHD, depression, anxiety, and so many of these different things that are just everyday normal things that we don't even think about.
::Aly\
are really, really harming us, including just standing out in the and like in the street where all these cars are passing by. And then obviously it's good we have catalytic converters, but it's not it's not enough.
::Aly\
There's still so much pollution that happens.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah Well, tear to your point, by the way, regarding catalytic converters, the biggest problem is is that the most modern advancement of catalytic converters, which are the less polluters, are usually cars that were made in the past, I think, about five or six years.
::Aly\
point, by way, regarding catalytic converters, biggest problem that the most modern advancement catalytic converters, which are polluters, usually were made the past.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So pre-pandemic, like: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But also to your point is you have countries like India and you have countries where China, where they tit don't take in it. any account with any of these pollution regulations. So they've got mass polluter cars.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They've got coal mines through the wazoo and all this crap. And it's like, look, I'm one of those. i think we should do nuclear power. Okay.
::Aly\
Yep, i agree with you.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They've done that in France with the small state. They're called stage three nuclear plants. They're very, very small. They're like literally the size of a bus station. I'm dead serious. Like that's how big they are. And they could power that like literally a whole like two or three of them could power the whole city of Paris.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We could do that here. Like, man, the amount of blackouts people go through in rural areas, like just make a freak.
::Aly\
okay
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And they're not going to blow up like here. Like they're not going to blow up like they didn't, you know, like Foucault. she I always mess this crap The Fukushima? I say that correctly?
::Aly\
I'm blanking on it now too, but no, i I know exactly what you're talking about.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I don't remember how to say it.
::Aly\
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Aly\
it's It's scary.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's so much cleaner.
::Aly\
No one wants a nuclear winter, right? We don't want some crazy explosions, but I think they are relatively rare and there are so many precautions. um
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yes.
::Aly\
There are new forms of power coming out. Even solar power power, it has its problems, but it's still wind power, solar power. power there There are better options than what we are doing with with oil. And I mean, our oil reserves,
::Aly\
we only have so much oil and then we're going to run out. People don't think about that either, but there's only so much oil we can take from the earth before it's gone. And i I don't know the exact number, but I think it's like, if we keep going at the rate we are, like we'll be out of oil in the next 50, 60 years.
::Aly\
So it's like, yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you're To your point regarding like, yeah we're okay, we're talking specifically about oil refinement because the reality is is that if you look at even in the car industry, the best type of fuel that they make is so refined.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And now they're figuring out, um particularly now with ah electric hybrids. So these are vehicles that use electric motors as well as gasoline motors combined to create power.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, again, like i was saying this earlier, like people don't understand, like even the automotive industry is moving more to a more hybrid, more electric system. Like that is what our future future is.
::Aly\
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Our future is hybrid and electric. If you don't like hybrid and electric, I hate to tell you this, you're not going to like our future.
::Aly\
ye
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That is where we're headed. And it's because oil refinement can go as far as it can. OK, this is the this is reality can go as far as it can before it becomes.
::Aly\
Yep.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You can't do anything with anymore and.
::Aly\
Right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, why else would you make a C8 Corvette with electric motors and an engine like that?
::Aly\
Thank
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I've seen that vehicle. That thing is freaking crazy. It goes 2.9 seconds, goes 60 miles an hour. It's because, like, the people that work in Chevrolet, those technicians, those engineers realized this is our future if we're going to be making fast cars.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Um... And again, like touching on with the environment, you're like having an excellent point. It's we need to move forward in our future. Like we want to be able to build spacecraft out like outside of our atmosphere. Right. We want to figure out different ways of um propulsion and being able to create engines like.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We did this 100 years ago, let's try something new, let's advance as ah as a society, you know, like I believe in advancement.
::Aly\
okay
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's that's my philosophy.
::Aly\
Well, I believe in advancement too, and I talk all about it in my book, which is called Out of Focus, Why Gen Z's Mental Health Crisis is More Complex Than You Think.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's beautiful cover.
::Aly\
And Thank you so much. Yeah, i I put a lot of heart into this. And a lot of time, it took me about a year to write. And i I really hope that if when people hear this, if they hear me, they care about what's happening to young people right now. They care about all of these young adults, all of these people who are struggling with their mental health, that do it in silence, that need help.
::Aly\
I think that One of the most important things we can do as a nation is learn more compassion, more empathy, and more kindness for one another.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Thank you.
::Aly\
um And there's this guy, he's called the kindness guy, you can find him on Instagram. He defines kindness as the act of making someone feel less alone.
::Aly\
And I love that definition. I had never heard of it until i had been introduced to him. And why I love that is because so many of us feel alone.
::Aly\
So many of us. And that's just half half of people that are willing to admit it in a survey.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. Yeah.
::Aly\
It could be even more. And the the thing is, is that by doing these acts of kindness for people, by making them feel seen, making them feel like they belong, that could be the difference between someone being here and not being here.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Aly\
And so what I really, really want people to know is how important it is that we go out in this world, we stop with this me, me, me crap.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Aly\
we start looking at each other as humans, as people. We stop this us versus them, this polarization where we don't view others who have slightly different opinions or maybe very different opinions than us, but that we don't view them as human.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, that's okay. you
::Aly\
It becomes such a problem. And so really, really what I want people to to feel and to know by listening to me is that we need to do better. We need to be kind.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, very much so. And
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i can say that when you lose somebody that you love, that's very close to you, that means a lot to you,
::Aly\
Yep.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That leaves a hole inside of you that can never be replaced.
::Aly\
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And i think it's i think it's heroic, and I think it shows a level of self-will and courage being able to push through that. you know In your case, it's writing. Other people can be music or painting.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um Or making a film, you know? yeah all All sorts of places and connections and avenues. But um I really think that does define you as an artist.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know what I mean? Yeah.
::Aly\
Thank you.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
My pleasure.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Ali, before I forget, um i know you have your book. I know you have social media and I know you have a website. ah Where can these wonderful people find you?
::Aly\
yeah
::Aly\
They can find find me at outoffocusbook.com. My Instagram is my name, Ali Vradenberg, which is hard to spell. So the best thing to do is to find my website, outofocusbook.com, and you can find website Instagram.
::Aly\
going your and then also website.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay.
::Aly\
that's time help Ali's work and prep I we've an
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm going to leave um your handle and then also your website for anybody that has a hard time spelling you can be able to find Allie's work and um incredible book. Because, I mean, hello. I mean, we've we've talked for an hour. And again, regardless of differences and stuff, it's like we're – we all got to, like you said, get out of that me, me, me, me. me It's like – In order to survive, we have to be able to have intelligent conversations. We have to be able to be open and communicate because in the end of the day, like, I think we have more in common than we have not in common.
::Aly\
I agree with that. And I think the important thing is that at the end of the day, we all find love and care for everybody because we all do matter and we all do. we should feel like we belong.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
100%. Thank you so much, Ali, for coming on. It's been an absolute pleasure. um To anybody out there, if you want to check out more of the pod, you can find us at Lost in the Groove pod everywhere and anywhere you listen to the podcast.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
All right. Catch you on the next one. Peace out.
