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#9 – Los Angeles Fire Department: COVID, Riots, and Fires Update | Cpt. Adam VanGerpen

This weeks guest on FireFighter Kingdom is Cpt. Adam VanGerpen is a Fire Captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) and also currently 2nd Vice President with United Firefighters of Los Angeles, Local 112.

Robert Sanchez: Okay. So, we’re back with Firefighter Kingdom. This is Robert Sanchez. I’m here with Vince Trujillo. Vince Trujillo, once again, we have a special guest and we have the pleasure to have on an LA fire firefighter captain, Adam Van Gerpen. What are you up to, Adam? How are you doing, brother?

Adam Van Gerpen: Doing well. Thank you.

Robert Sanchez: Good, man. I just want to thank you sincerely, man, for being on our podcast, man and it’s actually an honor to have you and someone from LA and not only that, Adam, you’re a true friend of mine and we’ve been friends for a while and I always tell everybody this story where you guys actually put a firetruck on a flatbed and brought it down to Albuquerque to help us out. One of our elections, man. I mean, I don’t know of any other locals that’s actually done that, man and it’s not close. So, I appreciate-

Adam Van Gerpen: The mayor campaign and I came out there with a 68 Crown and Frankie Lima was out there and yeah. We’ve always had a tight bond with our Albuquerque brothers and sisters.

Robert Sanchez: And we always have, man and I appreciate that, man. That’s definitely one for the record books. We took pictures of that and it was a great time. We had a dinner and we had some drinks, man. So, it’s always a fun time and you know what? Honest, every time we go down to LA, you guys treat us like a million dollars and I appreciate it.

Adam Van Gerpen: Oh, yeah. Even when we take you in the arts district and little hole in the wall Italian places.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, but that was pretty good though, I must say. So, yeah. So again, I’m happy for you to be here. We have some important topics to talk about that’s interesting to the public and also just tell me about yourself. I know you’re a captain LA fighter and tell me a little about your fire career. How’d you get started or were you one of those kids that wanted to be a firefighter since you were small or did you run into it or how’d that work out?

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. Well, I just listened to one of your previous podcasts and my dad actually grew up as a Seattle firefighter and so, that’s where I first had my interest. Then I went in the Marine Corps as a firefighter. So, I had a guaranteed contract to be a firefighter in the Marine Corps. So, when I got out, I was airport firefighter and got hired by Burbank Airport Fire, which Frankie Lima was also very instrumental and working with the IFF, you give them a good contract as well. So, I’ve been with LA City Fire for 20 years now and I’m on my third term on the Executive Board and before that, I got started as the editor of our UFLAC Union Newspaper. So, yeah. About 20, 24 years, 26 years, if you count the Marine Corps Burbank Airport. So-

Robert Sanchez: Dang dude, that’s totally awesome. That’s quite a career, man. I had the unique opportunity to actually go to your guys’ academy, kind of tour, doing our fire ups 101 over there and so, that’s a great academy. It’s huge and it used to be an old firefighter or a Marine armory. Is that correct or-

Adam Van Gerpen: It was a Marine Naval Reserve Center. So, that’s our training center at Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center, named after one of our firefighters who passed away at the fire there-

Robert Sanchez: Right, that’s nice man. So, I mean saying that your dad came from Seattle Fire. I know we talked to, you listened to our podcast with Dennis Lawson’s, that’s the one you listened to?

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. So, yeah. We have a picture of me and Dennis there. Now you have Vince Trujillo, my partner in crime here. He actually did good graphics and good editing with all that. So, he’s doing a great job for us. So-

Adam Van Gerpen: Perfect.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. So, I mean in your opinion what do you think LA Fire is, I mean it’s unique in a lot of ways, man. I was looking, you guys have a lot of urban area. You guys have a lot of wild land area or a lot of forest, right? I mean, so you guys have it all. So I mean, you guys do a lot of, it looks like rope rescues, wild land firefighting, structure firefighting. I mean, you guys have it all, right? It’s a unique city for your fire department.

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. We really do. We cover about 500 square miles with our 106 stations. We have about 3,600 firefighters with over 1000 on duty every day and yeah. We cover the Harbor. So, we have fireboats, we have scuba divers, we have a helicopter, some brand new state of the art helicopters that can do hoist rescue as well as putting out the brush fires, which keeps them very busy. Air ambulance and then we have paramedic assessment engines and assessment trucks, life forces and we have tactical medics and we have just almost everything that’s available to us and including several pilot programs where we have some nurse practitioners on riding out on ambulances with our medics and telemedicine, but it does encompass law. We have some state OES rigs that go out and fight fires all over the state and have the brush capabilities and we have high rise and we have a FEMA Search And Rescue Team, California Task Force One. So, we do a little bit of everything.

Robert Sanchez: Nice. I mean, that’s totally unique. I mean, you guys are actually one of the best equipped fire departments in the nation, I would say and actually best trained, just what I was looking at and this is what I’ve known from talking to you guys. So, it’s actually a great job your guys’ departments have done through the years. So, we were talking, I was talking to you on the phone the other day. Shoot man, with this day and age with everything going on, with all those protests down there. LA’s on TV quite a bit, all those protestors and rioters, man. I was just watching your guys’ firetrucks go through some of those areas and I’ll say, “Dang, I feel sorry for you guys, man.” Not only do we have to fight fire and worry about all the elements of fire and collapse and getting burned and back draft and roll over and all that type of stuff, you guys are actually having to worry about the protestors and your safety and throwing things at you guys and putting things in front of the fire truck. I mean, what’s all that like over there?

Adam Van Gerpen: Actually, our Emergency Management Department works in conjunction with the fire department. So, we had activated the Emergency Center previous to this happening. So, we had a lot of resources in place just in anticipation that it did get into a civil unrest. So, we had a lot of resources in place and we formed up with what we call Tactical Task Forces and we had command posts set up so that we would pretty much have roving engines in tactical areas that could respond with a police escort and I guess in and out of those situations and for hours, we did have a lot of the protests, but they were mostly peaceful protests and then a few of the looters would come in and that was over a couple of specific days, but we’re able to respond in there with escorts and a couple of those nights we were very busy going from fire to fire, but it was actually managed very well as far as getting the number of resources in there and the comms were set up and we were working with the city officials and unified in command as well.

Robert Sanchez: Right. Well, it doesn’t surprise me. You guys did a great job and you’re prepared. I mean, during your response to the protests or I mean, was there ever a time where it got rough with the protesters or they’re pretty much peaceful towards the firefighters?

Adam Van Gerpen: I mean, for the most part, I mean, whenever you go into a situation where there’s a little bit unruly crowd, it’s unpredictable. So, there was a lot of looting going around the firefighters and we didn’t really know what to expect going into any situation. That’s why we did have escorts and romaine tactical task forces just in anticipation of that. So, as far as them actually going after firefighters, we really didn’t have much of that.

Robert Sanchez: Well, that’s good, man and you probably wouldn’t. I was thinking about this earlier, you probably wouldn’t fight a structure fire in a normal way during the protest because you’re going from one to another. It’s like, you probably wouldn’t do the whole ICS system and actually getting ready to do attack, going to the front and have red teams. That’s pretty much defensive mode at that point, right?

Adam Van Gerpen: We were mostly defensive operations and then when the bulk of the fire would get knocked down, we would leave maybe a company in place and then they would respond into the next fire.

Robert Sanchez: Okay. So, exposures and-

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. I would say and we had pre-deployed companies into those tactical areas and they had their own comm channels. So, they were able to, from a centralized fire station, which they set up a command post at a fire station and then they were able to dispatch out from there and so, they would just allocate resources depending on the size of the fire. Some of them were small. Some of them were complete loss, just fire through the roof.

Robert Sanchez: Sure. I mean, yeah. So, I mean how difficult can it be? I mean, you guys, you don’t only have protests or you don’t have rioters, but then we have COVID-19 on top of everything. I mean, it’s like if it rains, it pours type of thing. I was like how’s your department doing with the COVID stuff? I mean, you guys handling it pretty well or how-

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. Again, I mean we have people who’ve been assigned to the COVID test the entire time and one of the unique things that we did was when we were asked to assist with the COVID testing, we jumped in with the city and they had some requests for us and just given the nature of what’s going on and the urgency of it, we had our firefighters assisted with the COVID testing. So, at one time I believe we had up to six locations. So, we have four primary and then we added a few more throughout the city. Now we’re only testing at one facility that’s been transitioned into civilians, but initially the ask was there for firefighters to step in and our firefighters stepped up and then as far as the precautions, I mean we have lots of new protocols. Our county came up with EMS response protocols directly related to COVID and we’re taking universal and role, we’re taking COVID precautions on every single call. So-

Robert Sanchez: Nice. So like I said, when it rains, it pours, man. You guys have that on top of everything. So, how about any firefighters out there got infected with COVID or been?

Adam Van Gerpen: We have had firefighters infected. I don’t think it was at the rate that they initially anticipated and the majority of them have returned to duty. So, we did come up with a lot of policies and when somebody does get infected, they trace it back and the entire fire station is deaconed and notifications are made and then we have procedures for them to come back once they’re asymptomatic and get the test that they can come back, but I think one of the big things with having multiple things going on is the behavioral health side of it and so, that’s where we really activated our peer support team and they’ve been really reaching out to all the families and the firefighters that have been affected and so, our peer support team has been on full alert and we’ve been really active in getting out to the fire stations and having them come down to our union hall as well.

Robert Sanchez: Nice, very nice. I’m glad and you’ve seen on the news that your guys’ infection rates’ rising there with all the beaches and the nightclubs and all that stuff. It looks like they’re going to shut things down again or-

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. We did have another spike from what they’re saying and we did have a few fire stations had some spikes. So, yeah. I believe they are going to, at least over the holiday weekend they are going to start shutting down some of the bars and beaches and restaurants and stuff. So, yeah. They’ll start taking more precautions, but we’re pretty much continuing how we have been. We have gowns and masks and eye protection, N95 on every patient and then different special protocols if we do have active or positive COVID patients. So, working well with the hospitals as well and accommodating that. So-

Robert Sanchez: Right. Well I mean, sounds like you guys have it together and I guess the main way to beat the pandemic or certain situations like the protests, you’re saying, is be prepared and then just follow your plan, I guess. So, it looks like you guys are doing that.

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. I mean, well this is uncharted territory for everybody. So, a lot of these plans had to come up, but they had this set up by APs and working with DHS and setting up new medical protocols and just setting up testing procedures and like in the Marine Corps, fire departments‘ similar, improvise, adapt and overcome. So, we were able to do a lot of that and it’s just all the training with the ICS system and activating our DUCs and everything. Just really I think it’s been as managed as well as it can be. So-

Robert Sanchez: Sure. Sure, man. I mean, everything you guys have going on there in LA, so how are the 12 firefighters there at out of Station Nine? Dang, those guys had a tough year, man, for sure.

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. Thanks for asking about our firefighters that were injured there. So, Fire Station Nine is one of the busiest fire stations in the country. They’re running sometimes over 100 calls a day just out of that station and so, they’re a very tight group of firefighters already and everybody saw them on TV when they’re coming out of the area with the explosion and so, it was pretty unheard of. I talked to a fire chief that was working there and we do green sales planning for may day situations, but you don’t plan for your entire aid division of the fire to be down and when the explosion happened, that’s essentially what happened is we had 11 firefighters went down and had to be transported to burn center with another one coming up with an injury that after he made sure his crew was safe, came out with, but yeah. It was pretty unheard of for us and a lot of lessons learned. I mean, as far as tactics and strategy, everything that we trained for and everything was done that could have been done. Everything was done right at the fire. It was just the substance that was in there, which is still under investigation and that’s something that was not anticipated happened. So-

Robert Sanchez: Right. Yeah. Well, when I saw that video, man, it almost brought tears to my eyes, man. I just, I mean because I know a lot of you guys are in LA and that’s just crazy, man. We’ve all been in fires or stuff like that, but we all think we’re going to go to a simple structure fire or whatever the case may be, a car fire and we’re going to come home, but I mean to imagine that that’s going to happen to you, I mean being the heroes that they are, the way they came down that ladder and I mean, your training I guess definitely takes place, the great PPE you guys purchase them and it’s amazing that they’re alive and God bless them and the families-

Adam Van Gerpen: It really does and like you said, that training, that intuition, there’s a series of events that the captain that was inside hearing a loud noise and then feeling something’s not right, telling the crew to start backing out. So, they were making their way out when the explosion happened. The captain up on the roof, the fact that everybody, many of us have been to fires and been on the roof and you see firefighters that aren’t breathing air. They don’t have all their gloves on. They’re not wearing full PPEs and on this fire, they all had their masks on, they had their gloves on, they were breathing on air and the turnouts definitely saved their lives. We had some of the brand new state of the art turnouts, but the ones that we do have, we had a mixture of different protective equipment, but it saved their lives and just having that intuition, like something’s not right, because when they arrived on scene, it was a normal, light smoke showing and it was just a normal routine fire, but they had some intuition that something could go wrong and they started backing up and I think they did it just in time.

Robert Sanchez: Right and I mean, just what you mentioned, I was thinking that when I was watching the video, I mean lucky they’re on their PPE because like you said, I hate to say it, we’re always supposed to be wearing our PPE, but sometimes we’re wearing our helmet and our coat, not our pants or our pants and our helmet, not our jacket. I mean, it happens sometimes and then we have that routine fire we always go to, smoke showing, just do the routine thing, but I mean, they had all their gear on, man. That just goes to show how professional they are, for sure.

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah and then like you say, you saw that on TV and it was very graphic visual on TV and so, that’s one thing that we’ve also noticed is that a lot of our families, the fire family, firefighters from all around the country, all around the world saw that and it was a very graphic image of how dangerous a job can be and I’ve explained to you before how my dad was Seattle firefighter and then a married pain fire in Seattle and I was home all week from the Marine Corps and I was going to that fire. I knew my dad was working. That was the first time I ever thought the time that my dad had been on that something actually could have happened to him while he was at work. So, a lot of families, they think we’re just going to hang out with our buddies, with our brothers and sisters and they don’t think wow, this is actually a dangerous job.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah. So, I mean the fire at Station Nine where they got injured or burned, that was Smoking Tokes, right? The business that they were responding to? Smoke Tokes?

Adam Van Gerpen: Yes.

Robert Sanchez: And so, it was the butane honey oil, whatever that they’re starting to use now, the cannabis places, that’s what came out, right? I mean, that’s what they’re thinking might have-

Adam Van Gerpen: Well, right now they’re still working on the final report and it actually became, ATF got involved and it’s a federal investigation now as well. So, I mean that entire row was marijuana grow operations and supplies for that. So, as far as the exact chemical compounds that were in there and the exact cause of the explosion, we don’t know the specific chemicals that cause it and the quantities, but that’s what’s being researched right now and just as a precaution because that was all almost marijuana row, whereas it’s all supplies for the cannabis and we have a large number of grow operations that are professional, clean, well-regulated and they welcome us into their facilities and they’ll show us all around and they get all the approval from our Fire Marshall and Fire Prevention Bureau.

Adam Van Gerpen: So, those aren’t the ones that we’re concerned about. The ones that we’re concerned about are the ones that they don’t label the chemicals that are in there and it’s the illegal operations that we’re concerned with, whether it’s the quantities that they have, whether it’s the labeling, if they’re misrepresenting what business they are, those are the ones that we have to really look out for and we’ve been talking with Ryan Rice from CPF, President there, we’re already starting to looking at some legislation that might help to bring out some change from this. We’ve changed some of our department policy and we’ve really started doing a more thorough search to find some of these types of facilities and we’ll have to wait and see what the results from the investigation show.

Robert Sanchez: Right. I mean, I guess with all the cannabis stores going up throughout the country, I assume the ones who aren’t following the law or the right precaution, I mean that could be a danger to firefighters, man. That butane or that honey oil, I could see that being a problem. I mean, if that’s what happened when the report comes out, I mean that’s a huge problem across the United States that we have to worry about and one more thing, right?

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. It is one more thing and that’s why we really had to look at some of the outside indicators of the building and now, as you know, from this explosion, even a couple months before this Boyd fire, maybe up to six months, we had another very similar explosion downtown Los Angeles and it was listed as a different type of a facility also. So, it is something that we’re developing some new training bulletins and alerts and really trying to get the word out to keep an eye out for some of these things that can cause a danger to our firefighters.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, for sure. That’s definitely one more thing that we’re going to have to worry about and so, as far as the 12 firefighters that were injured, they’re out of Station Nine, I mean you guys have some charity going for them, right? To help them out.

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. So, last year we started a UFLAC Fire Foundation. It’s through our Local 112 Los Angeles City Firefighters and so, our board is the nonprofit. Basically we give directly back to our firefighters and so, we set up a burn fund through the UFLAC Fire Foundation and so, it’s a place where people can go and donate and that money goes directly to our firefighters that were injured and burned. So, that’s at UFLAC.org/charitable and the link is on our website as well. UFLAC.org and we also have a UFLAC Fire Foundation. So, that’s UFLACFireFoundation.org as well.

Robert Sanchez: Okay, man. So, thank you for that. Well, we’ll go ahead and we’ll put that in our podcast link so everybody can get some more people, put it on there and I got $100 and man, I’ll get today.

Adam Van Gerpen: Oh, I appreciate it.

Robert Sanchez: That’s not much, but we’ll get it started and so, hopefully we can reach as many people as we can out there and challenge them to donate at least $100 to you guys’ charity there, helping out these burn victims and everything goes out to all their family, man, and I just couldn’t even believe. I can’t even imagine what they’re going through and I hope they’re well. Sorry, are they all out of the hospital or you might’ve mentioned that-

Adam Van Gerpen: Well, we have one. They’re all out of the hospital, but they will be, with the exception of one member who still is in, at USC Burn Center. All the rest were at Grossman Burn Center and many of them are still going to have multiple surgeries and still have a real long recovery just with multiple skin grafts and just the ongoing treatment that they’re going to need to be off. So, we’ve also been, as we’ve been talking a little bit about, behavioral health and peer support, and we’ve done some debriefings for over 400 firefighters that were on and around and worked around the members that were involved. So, that’s been just huge.

Adam Van Gerpen: Another unique thing about LA City is we have four doctors now that work on behavioral health. So, two with the LAFD Administration and then our union just hired our second doctor that works for the union and we were going to be opening up a new fire station that we’ve turned into UFLAC Center of Health And Wellness. So, we’re going to be having a grand opening in the next couple of months with that. So, peer support has been huge and our doctors are just professional, work well with firefighters, easy to talk to and doing some real groundbreaking stuff as far as recognizing and helping our members with some of the behavioral help.

Robert Sanchez: Very nice man. Sounds like a huge undertaking, excuse me, but you guys are the best. So, I’m sure you’ll be able to accomplish it, man. That’s great. So, just in our community segment, man, we have a segment here and I think it works great because we have Vince Trujillo, my partner here that makes everything happen for us and he likes to ask questions that the community would ask. I mean, because you and I are firefighters and sometimes we use lingo that everybody might not understand, but so Vince Trujillo, how are you brother?

Vince Trujillo: Hey, good man.

Robert Sanchez: Good.

Vince Trujillo: I’m just enjoying listening to you guys talk and hearing about a little bit more about LA Fire. I mean, I get to hear, great thing about this podcast where we get to hear about fire service all around the country. So, I’m enjoying this. I’m learning things I didn’t [crosstalk 00:26:59]. I never learned. We just had an arson investigator on the last one. Now I get to hear about LA Fire. So, yeah. Thanks so much, Adam, for joining us today. I know that we had a little bit of a hiccup to getting you on, but internet and Zoom, it’s COVID era. So, we got all the technical issues we’ve got to deal with on top of it all. So, thanks. Thanks for your service over there and what you guys do in LA and hearing about all the different types of calls that you have to respond to, Robert just mentioned. I was just astounded. You’ve got some of the stuff, you’ve got some mountain stuff, you got wild land, you got urban and then you got your water. So, your harbor and then you have rescue and all this other stuff. Now with COVID, riots, the fires, everything you’re responding to, what are you guys seeing the most of right now or what’s the biggest mix of things that you’re seeing right now, if you can keep track of that even?

Adam Van Gerpen: Well, I mean I think with fire departments all around the country, our biggest number of response is still for EMS. So, that is our number one call is EMS and yeah. We’re fortunate that we have a medic on almost every resource. So, we have assessment engines as well as paramedic ambulance at almost every fire station. So, we’re not 100% there yet, but that is the largest majority of our calls and as far as tracking them and we do, like you said, we have a little bit of everything. We have scuba divers, we have airport firefighters, we have our urban search and rescue. They do confined space and trench rescue and we even have a hoist that we can lift horses up with our helicopters. Yeah. So, we had done some trials where we’ve had medics on dirt bikes going out to do rescues at mounted horse patrols and so, we have telemedicine now where we can talk with a doctor on a video and communicate. We have nurse practitioners riding on ambulances that can do sutures and write prescriptions. So, we really have a lot of capabilities and always trying to stay on top of it.

Robert Sanchez: Sure. Adam, tell him about your tow truck. You actually have a tow truck that responds to calls, correct?

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. Yes. So, we wouldn’t call it a tow truck. We call it a heavy rescue and what it does is it can pretty much lift just about anything. So, when I was in the Marine Corps, I had a 45 ton crane license and this has the capabilities to lift up other cranes. We use it also for any auto extrication where we don’t have the proper equipment or enough equipment to get in. They can do those rescues. They can go over the side and hoist up vehicles. So, yeah. We have a couple of those heavy rescues. I don’t think they like it being called a tow truck, but it looks like a big tow truck.

Robert Sanchez: Right. I mean, but in actuality it’s a huge, like the way to describe it, I guess for the public understands, it looks like a semi tow truck, right? That would tow semi-trucks. It’s not like a –

Adam Van Gerpen: It looks like one that would tow a semi.

Robert Sanchez: Right. Well, it is funny. Of all that stuff you’re just saying about motorcycles and horseback rescue and all of this stuff, it’s almost like you guys should have your own Bay Watch, except I don’t know if you guys look, if there’s a good looking… Is there enough good looking firefighters to have their own Baywatch Fire Service thing?

Adam Van Gerpen: I don’t know. I’m trying to keep up with Albuquerque, but-

Robert Sanchez: That’s funny, but yeah. It sounds like it should be a series in of itself. So, given the fact that there’s all of these different things going on, I’m sure there’s thousands of stories every single year.

Adam Van Gerpen: 10th district Vice President right there.

Robert Sanchez: What’s up Frankie? You’re on the podcast.

Frankie Lima: What’s up [crosstalk 00:31:10]? I’m listening to you guys. You’re doing a great job.

Robert Sanchez: All right. Thanks. Yeah. So, introduce Frankie or is he already gone? He’s gone, okay-

Adam Van Gerpen: Little pop up? Frankie’s like a submarine. He goes underground and then when he has to send out something important, he pops to the surface and sends out his signals.

Robert Sanchez: And that’s our Vice President, Frankie Lima. Go, you’re live on our podcast. Frankie, Firefighter Kingdom.

Vince Trujillo: How’s it going, man?

Robert Sanchez: Shout out to you, brother.

Frankie Lima: Yeah. I just want to shout out to Firefighter Kingdom, New Mexico Professional Firefighters Association. The 10th district is alive and strong in solidarity from Guam, Hawaii, California, Arizona, all the way to New Mexico. We have your back. Keep fighting strong. Thank you.

Robert Sanchez: Thank you, Frankie.

Vince Trujillo: Thank you.

Adam Van Gerpen: A little pop pop and right now we’re sitting in Ventura County, a local hall where Frank has a 10th district field office, as well as an office at our union hall, but I don’t think the 10th district has ever been stronger. I mean, we’re in tight with Albuquerque brothers and sisters and we go out there to support them and they come out here to support us and I think we’ve gone out to Phoenix and one of our firefighters lives out there in Phoenix area-

Robert Sanchez: Good Year.

Adam Van Gerpen: What’s that? Yeah. Well, Good Year is where we have our district representative, but our firefighter who was injured lives out there in Prescott or Prescott, as they say, but we had our 10th district firefighters went out there and checking on his house and did a bunch of maintenance around his house for him because he’s been burned and laid up and so, I don’t remember the 10th district ever being as strong as it is right now.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. Yeah. That all I had. Last thing since you had so many, LA’s got different calls you can respond to you, I mean you’ve got thousands of stories probably, just give me and the public just a quick one or two, really 32nd minute stories of one of the funniest or weirdest things that didn’t have involved in some life threatening thing and give us a little levity maybe in this time of extreme strife we’re going through, if you can, if that’s legally able to be said.

Adam Van Gerpen: Okay. Yeah, let’s see. Well, they say firefighters don’t rescue kittens, but we had a tiny little baby kitten that got stuck. It crawled into the fire station, got caught up underneath the duels and it took about a half hour extrication to get this thing out of there. We heard it meowing at three in the morning and people were like, “You got to be kidding me. You rescued a cat?” It’s like well, yeah and then we posted online and got the thing adopted also, but it’s hard to pick. It’s hard to pick just a couple of stories because we really-

Vince Trujillo: Just from what I hear what Robert talks about are people locally. I mean, there’s so many crazy stories. Just one. Did anything involve a horse or motorcycle or someone being stupid out there? I mean, that’s usually a general trend-

Adam Van Gerpen: I said, we do have a hoist for a horse and I’ve actually been, I’ve had a couple of those where they’ve got stuck in the mud and the only way really to get them out is to hoist them out with a helicopter. So, we actually have a hoist that’s made just for horses to pull them out. So, I think probably some of our animal rescues, those are usually the ones that they get a lot of public attention and it’s nice to reunite them with their owners and have good outcomes with that. So, we had a dog, got hit by a car and walked into our fire station. The doors opened up for us to go on a call and it walked in and sat down and he just knew where to go and we posted on our social media and we found its owner and got it to the vet and got it all taken care of. So, somebody called us one time for a bird in a tree and it was their parrot, but it went all the way to the top of a 100 foot tree and we’re like, “Well, what do you want us to do?”

Vince Trujillo: Yeah. Thanks so much for that. I appreciate you giving me a little glimpse into that. I’ll turn it over back to Robert. Thanks again for everything you do and as we’re signing out, don’t forget to give your link one more time to your charity, your foundation for a burn victims.

Robert Sanchez: And what about our podcast? So, we’re on iTunes or we’re on iTunes, Spotify-

Vince Trujillo: Yeah. We’re on all the big ones. So, we’re on iTunes. We’re on Spotify. So, if you want to subscribe, you can listen to Apple Podcast. You can listen on iTunes, that is, the same thing. You can listen to Spotify. We’re also on Google Play, Stitcher. Any of those platforms you can basically find us and go to our website, FirefighterKingdom.com, and you can actually link to all of our channels and even including our YouTube channel, which will be coming up soon too.

Robert Sanchez: Nice.

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. Well, we’d just like to thank Firefighter Kingdom for having me on and 10th District Vice President, Frank Lima, and we’re just proud to be here in Albuquerque and Rob and all the other guys out there from Albuquerque, I mean, we do have a very unique bond for some reason and it started before I got on the board, I know, but we’ve always been tight with you guys and so, definitely appreciate being on and yeah. Our website is UFLAC.org/charitable. It’s also on our UFLACFireFoundation.org and the LAFD, we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. So, we’re on all those platforms as well. So, we’ll be sure and share you as well.

Robert Sanchez: All right brother. I appreciate it, man. Once we get this edited and we get it to you, man, if you don’t mind putting it on your social media, that’d be great.

Adam Van Gerpen: Yeah. We’ll get it out there and maybe we’ll see you at that fishing tournament you have coming up soon.

Robert Sanchez: Sure. Yeah. We’ll see, man. You know how this COVID thing is putting a damper in things, but I’ll get you guys some information, but tell Freddy, man. Give him a shout out that Thomas said hi.

Adam Van Gerpen: All right. Will do.

Robert Sanchez: So, thank you, Adam. Signing off from Firefighter Kingdom. You have Robert Sanchez, Vince Trujillo. Thank you. Have a good day.

Adam Van Gerpen: Thank you, you too.

The post #9 – Los Angeles Fire Department: COVID, Riots, and Fires Update | Cpt. Adam VanGerpen appeared first on The FireFighter Kingdom Podcast.

from FireFighter Kingdom https://ift.tt/30o6ca6

#FFK

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carolineaquino73 · 8 years

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AoS rewatch - eps 1x1 and 1x2

There are 5 1/2 weeks before a new episode of Agents of SHIELD comes out. UGH! I’ve decided to do a rewatch of the entire series. It means 2 or 3 episodes a day until AoS is back. That’s doable, right? Please note that my comments in here make reference to the series through ep 4x15. (”Self Control”). If you are just discovering the show for the first time now, I highly recommend the Agents of SHIELD Afterbuzz TV Aftershow podcast (you can find it on iTunes). Or you can watch vids of their podcast on youtube. Playlist here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6THzna6gLcdGEfEO3ZH08YB6B_g7sqQW

The had great comments on the show and helpful info about connections to the Marvel comics for those of us less knowledgable.

Once again - please don’t read my post if you haven’t watched the series the series all the way up through season 4 episode 15!

I don’t think I’m going to necessarily write in-depth reviews of each ep, but just some thoughts and observations based on what I remember thinking the first time around (I’ve always watched Agents of SHIELD in real time - I watched the pilot the night it premiered) plus noticing things that will come back later.

Agents of SHIELD rewatch ep 1x1 “Pilot”

Ward seems to be a straight up super spy. He is on a mission solo, riding a motorcycle, speaks French, and a terrific fighter (handles several guys at once with ease).

Maria Hill talks about the Battle of NY and mentions some of the Avengers.

Awesome entrance by Coulson. “Welcome to level 7. Sorry, that corner was really dark and I couldn’t help myself.” Full disclosure - I had seen NONE of the Marvel films before I started watching this show. I knew Joss Whedon was a co-creator and Ming-Na Wen was in the cast. That was all I needed to know to decide I had to check it out. I completely fell in love with Phil Coulson (and Clark Gregg) in this ep.

“Tahiti. He really doesn’t know, does he?” “He can never know.” And so began all the theories about Coulson being an LMD or a clone. I’m pretty sure no one correctly guessed what was really going on.

I doubt the creators knew exactly how they would end up writing Coulson and May’s history together, but it is interesting to watch this after 81 episodes. Coulson approached May roughly 5 years after Bahrain and her divorce. (Since it was ep 2x17 “Melinda” where we get a flashback to right before Bahrain and it was 7 years ago.) She has been working in Administration this whole time.

I loved Fitzsimmons from the first time they appeared on screen!

I wasn’t in love with Skye in season 1. In this first ep I didn’t particularly love her, but also didn’t hate her. She and Ward were the least interesting characters (to me).

Fitz calls his little scanners the dwarves and they are named after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Marvel is owned by Disney, so I find that especially cute.

Project Centipede is using extremis - a reference to Iron Man 3.

I loved J. August Richard’s performance as Mike Peterson.

Agents of SHIELD rewatch ep 1x2 “0-8-4”

Skye: “And an 0-8-4 is...” Coulson: “An object of unknown origin. Kinda like you.” Aha - you sneaky writers!!!

I’m not sure how most people felt about the small references to the MCU in these episodes, but once I had seen some of the films, I enjoyed it. And the references weren’t too big so that the tiny percentage of viewers who hadn’t seen the movies (like me) wouldn’t be too lost. Coulson mentions that the last 0-8-4 they investigated turned out to be pretty interesting. (”A hammer.”) He mentions to Skye that he was stabbed through the heart with a scepter.

I never counted how many times Coulson says, “It’s a magical place” but he has mentioned it in 1x1 and 1x2 so far.

The first mention of Fitz liking monkeys.

Right before Coulson introduces himself to the professor, Fitz and Simmons are taking a selfie in front of the temple. That photo makes an appearance in 2x16 (when Fitz is packing to leave “the real SHIELD” taking over.

We learn that May earned the nickame “The Cavalry” after a mission in Bahrain and she hates that nickname.

I like flirty Coulson with Commandante Camilla Reyes. “You look good.” “I work out.”

The 084 is fueled by Tesseract technology (Captain America: First Avenger).

Ward tells the rest of the team that May is the Cavalry.

More Badass!May - dislocates her wrist so she can get free and help the rest.

The team that was fighting earlier is now bonding!

The tag scene was super fun. Nick Fury!!!

#agents of shield #agents of shield rewatch #startingfromepisode1

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brentrogers · 5 years

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Podcast: Is Creativity Enhanced By Mental Illness?

Are people with mental illness more creative? Jackie believes there may be a link between the two, while Gabe thinks it’s just a bunch of hoopla. Get ready — they’ve both done their research and are ready to back their claims. Tune in to hear a lively (and friendly) debate on whether the science is valid, the difference between inspiration and creativity, as well as their own opinions and experiences on mental illness and creativity.

What’s your take? Join us on this Not Crazy podcast to see whose side you’re on, or if you’re somewhere in the middle.

(Transcript Available Below)

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

About The Not Crazy Podcast Hosts

Gabe Howard is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar disorder. He is the author of the popular book, Mental Illness is an Asshole and other Observations, available from Amazon; signed copies are also available directly from Gabe Howard. To learn more, please visit his website, gabehoward.com.

Jackie Zimmerman has been in the patient advocacy game for over a decade and has established herself as an authority on chronic illness, patient-centric healthcare, and patient community building. She lives with multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, and depression.

You can find her online at JackieZimmerman.co, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Computer Generated Transcript for “Mental Illness-Creativity” Episode

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript has been computer generated and therefore may contain inaccuracies and grammar errors. Thank you.

Announcer: You’re listening to Not Crazy, a Psych Central podcast. And here are your hosts, Jackie Zimmerman and Gabe Howard.

Gabe: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Not Crazy podcast. Jackie, how are you?

Jackie: Oh, I’m doing awesome. How are you, Gabe?

Gabe: I am fantastic. Today we are going to. I don’t know if we want to use debate, argue, discuss creativity and genius when it comes to mental illness.

Jackie: This is a topic that I candidly have not thought a ton about. But when I started researching it, I found some really interesting stuff and I don’t know if it actually supports the concept that creativity and mental illness go hand-in-hand or if it just sort of says like. Not really, but congrats on being creative.

Gabe: I live in the bipolar space, so I have I have severe and persistent mental illness. And, you know, I’m not playing the suffering Olympics with you, but you just have depression. You know, like I’m considered mental illness. You’re considered mental health. I don’t know who comes up with these categories, but in the severe and persistent mental illness space, this idea that, hey, yeah, you’re really, really sick you have a 15 percent suicide rate. You’ve sat in the corner and prayed for your death. But, hey, you’re probably a creative genius. Really gets discussed a lot.

Jackie: It does, and in what I read, to your point of like, I’m kind of like just depressed and anxious and you’re super bipolar. What I’ve read is that in terms of the conversation of creativity and mental illness, slash mental health, people who are living with bipolar seem to be on the top of this conversation. You are the top of the list where if we’re looking for a correlation between mental illness and creativity, it appears that those who are living with bipolar really win because they’re the super creative ones.

Gabe: This is where I wish our show was kind of like a morning zoo show and we had sound effects so that I could just slam a button that was like AAAYNNGHH. The best thing I can say is it’s just bullshit. It’s bullshit in every imaginable way. But I can never convince people of this. And one of the reasons that I can’t convince people of this is full disclosure. There’s a ton of studies that say that I’m wrong. There just are. There are a ton of studies that say that I’m wrong. People are like, Gabe, you love science. So why won’t you admit that you’re wrong?

Jackie: I don’t know that you’re wrong because, I didn’t read the studies, I read the abstract of the studies. Let’s be real here. Who’s got time to read studies? But the studies that I’m reading, aka abstracts that I’m reading are saying not so much that having a mental illness makes you more creative. I don’t think that that’s what they’re saying. And I don’t necessarily agree with that either. What the studies are saying is that the people who live with bipolar and schizophrenia and depression and anxiety seem to be drawn to creative careers more frequently. So there’s this one from 2013. It was published by the Journal of Psychiatric Research. And it said that people who make their living either through scientific or creative occupations were more likely to have bipolar or a relative with the condition. When I see that, I don’t see them going, hey, oh, you’re bipolar. Check once you get that diagnosis, now you’re super fucking creative. No, they’re just saying, like you probably have a draw to writing or art or something of the like. And more people living with mental illness tend to go that route.

Gabe: One, I have no idea. But here is why I have no idea this is all based on self-reporting. So it is really just obnoxious. It is absolutely, unequivocally obnoxious to think that defense attorneys can’t have bipolar disorder.

Jackie: No, I don’t think that’s what these are saying though, they’re not saying people who live with mental illness cannot do anything other than be wildly creative.

Gabe: I agree that they’re not saying that, but what they are saying is that people with bipolar disorder are drawn to creative fields. But the way that they know that is they interviewed all the people in creative fields and they said, Hey, do you have bipolar disorder? And in the creative fields, in the liberal fields, people felt more empowered to say yes. Then they went over to things like doctor, lawyer, or fighter jet pilot. And they asked all of them if they had bipolar disorder. And all of them said no because they can’t self-disclose. These are more conservative fields where people will not tolerate their mental illness. They could lose their jobs, their careers, their income, their money, their health insurance. So, frankly, they all lied. They just all straight up lied.

Jackie: Ok, well, what about this, another study and I don’t know the year of it because I didn’t write it down, so feel free to Google this shit. Was it a screened 700,000 Swedish teenagers for intelligence and they found it that those who were exceptionally creative were also four times more likely to have bipolar. And so my question for you with this study is this isn’t self-reported necessarily. And they were screening for intelligence, which to me I’m going to assume probably incorrectly that it’s some kind of like assessment test, especially if they’re teenagers. Right? Maybe like math, science. The whole jazz doesn’t say

Gabe: Math, science, history

Jackie: What kind of test it was.

Gabe: Started the big bang.

Jackie: I have no idea what that was.

Gabe: Aww, anyway, continue.

Jackie: Did you just show your age?

Gabe: No, that show just went off the air, literally.

Jackie: Well, what’s it?

Gabe: It was The Big Bang Theory.

Jackie: Oh, that show sucks, anyway.

Gabe: That

Jackie: So.

Gabe: That is horrible, but I’d like to point out that was also not an accurate representation of physicists. But people think that it is just like they think that a lot of these studies are accurate representations of what it’s like to live with bipolar disorder. I’m not trying to shit on your study. I’m really not. And I’m not trying to I’m not trying to shit on people who are creative, but to give the credit to your creativity to something awful. Why? Bipolar disorder is just shitty. Mental illness is just shitty. There’s not like this back end thing. You’re creative because you’re creative. You’re awesome because you’re awesome. Could you imagine if somebody said this: people with cancer are much more likely to be excellent engineers. What? What? Why? That doesn’t make any sense. That is nonsense. People with cancer are much more likely to have cancer.

Jackie: Well, I can see how if you’re attributing the creativity to the mental illness, that sucks, right? That doesn’t feel good. However, I don’t think that anybody is saying their creativity is exclusively because of their mental illness. Maybe it’s increased. Maybe it’s more vivid or more vibrant or, you know, you can tap into it better. I have a fine arts degree. I am not creative at all, like at all.

Gabe: You’re literally a graphic artist, right

Jackie: I am, but

Gabe: I mean, that, that’s awesome. That’s you’re an uncreative graphic artist.

Jackie: Well, what I’ve always said is I I’m really good at practical design, layouts, typography. I’m really good at seeing something for needing it to make sense and to relay information. In my classes, they were like, make whatever you want. Make it super fun. I really struggled. I would not a creative person. I struggle to tap into my creativity. If there was a way to turn that button on, I would gladly do it.

Gabe: What you were talking about was inspiration, not creativity. Yeah, I think creativity exists in a completely separate part of the brain now going through bipolar disorder, going through schizophrenia, going through major depression or I don’t know, going through any tragedy, just a trauma or an earthquake or the death of a loved one, that can inspire you. There are people who have written incredible books based on something very traumatic that happened to them and that did inspire the book. But their creativity existed beforehand and then they got inspiration from the negative event. So do people with bipolar disorder have a greater source of information? Can they write about things that are more interesting to the general public? I agree completely. But did bipolar disorder create their creativity? No, they were just creative. If they did not have bipolar disorder or any other mental illness, they would be just as creative. They just wouldn’t have that thing to inspire them.

Jackie: I don’t know if I agree with your assumption that people who are creative just have it and then they get inspired to use it. I’m inspired all the time. I don’t have the follow-through in terms of the creativity. And I’m a writer. I write things. People pay me to write things. I don’t think that that’s creativity. I think they go write about this. So I don’t know that I necessarily agree that like everybody or even just creatives in general are just waiting for that thing to turn them on to write about. But I don’t know. Again, I don’t live with these conditions. But my assumption, again, based on science, based on what we know, the amount of ideas that flood your mind or maybe like having delusions like those things could cause creativity. Right.

Gabe: I think they could inspire you to write about the things that you experienced when you were delusional. Your base premise and creativity, I think that’s yours. And one of the things that you said that was very interesting there is that you are a writer and you are creative, but you don’t sit down to write. You haven’t gotten it done. That has nothing to do with inspiration or creativity. That has to do with organization and time management. And I think in general, people with severe and persistent mental illness are very disorganized. And you’ve described before your anxiety, your anxiety is so high that rather than write something or create something or do the dishes, you’re in a corner trying to eliminate your anxiety. So I do understand that we’re kind of in a semantic argument. But here’s the problem that I have, Jackie, like, very sincerely. I just don’t like it when people are good at something. In fact, people are great at something. People are amazing and awesome and they just don’t take the credit for it.

Jackie: Are they not taking the credit? Or is it the people having these conversations are not allowing them to take the credit?

Gabe: I don’t really care who’s doing it. If you are an amazing writer. That’s because you are an amazing writer. It’s not because bipolar, schizophrenia, major depression, anxiety helped you become an amazing writer. I just think that’s bullshit. These illnesses are literally trying to kill us. I just have a problem with something that is trying to kill me and cost me marriages and friendships and connections, also shows up at the awards ceremony because I did something creative. It’s a bit like having a parent who beats you that then takes credit for your college degree. It’s like you beat him. You’re an abusive parent. Go away. He got a college degree in spite of you, not because of you.

Jackie: I agree with you if they’re saying the only reason why you’re good at art is because you’re bipolar, that sucks. It took all these things away from you. You’ve had to fight all the stuff, blah, blah, blah. But everything you just said. But what if you’re also a phenomenal painter and you say the silver lining to being bipolar and having all this shitty stuff is that it’s enabled me to be an amazing painter.

Gabe: First off, how people choose to live their own lives and manage their own experiences. That really is up to them. I do believe very strongly that people have their own right to tell their own story in the way that makes the most sense to them. That said, I think they’re wrong. I think they’re wrong on it, like in an opinion level, in the same way that I think that you’re wrong for liking pineapple on pizza.

Jackie: I do not like pineapple on pizza. For the record.

Gabe: But if you did, I would not tell you that you were wrong. Because

Jackie: Oh, you are wrong. I’m sorry. You’re wrong. If you like pineapple on pizza, you’re wrong.

Gabe: You understand what I’m saying, right? Like, I’m not trying to make it illegal to put pineapple on pizza. Unlike my co-host, Jackie apparently has very strong feelings about pineapple on pizza, which I do share. I’m just trying to make a point. But I think about like things that have inspired me. One of the best episodes of a podcast I ever did had to do with my father in law’s death and grief and how this rippled through me and my family. It was a powerful episode. It was a popular episode. I still to this day get a lot of pats on the back for being willing to so openly talk about death. This does not make death good. It just doesn’t. A bad thing inspired me. It is true. But I’m not going to give my father in law’s death credits for all of that success that came from me and how I chose to process it. It doesn’t retroactively make that death a good thing. We should all not go around killing our loved ones so that we can be inspired to do the grief podcast or write the grief blog or give the grief eulogy. I just I think this may be something positive that comes out of a negative. But make no mistake, you made the positive.

Jackie: Ok. But I’m not even so sure this is an argument of semantics anymore. I think this is an argument of perspective and I’m going to use a controversial example, which is religion. Oh, here we go. The reasoning is, so when you’re very, very sick, if you are somebody who believes in God or a higher being or whatever it’s called, I am not that person, obviously, because I don’t know what it’s called. But let’s say you’re a believer in God and you say it’s OK. Right? This is all in God’s hands. I’m gonna pray, he’s going to handle it. I’m gonna be all right. This is his plan. And I am going to live my life how he wants me to, because that’s how this goes. And you’re me who does not have that same faith and looks at the situation you’re in. We’re obviously talking about something bad happening. And I almost wish I had that faith, because then I would have the reassurance. It’s gonna get better. I would have the reassurance that somebody is looking out for me. I have often said I thought it would be easier to be a person of faith when I was really sick because then I could kind of like wash my hands of it and be like, it’s cool. Somebody else is driving this train. To me, that’s perspective.

Gabe: We’ll be back in a minute after these messages.

Jackie: And we’re back talking about creativity in mental illness.

Gabe: I am often offered supplements and coaching programs and CBD oil all to treat my bipolar disorder. Now I know many people who have well, frankly, fallen for this scam. They have ignored their psychiatrist advice. They no longer go to therapy. They are no longer taking any formal or researched or scientifically proven medications. And instead they treat their bipolar disorder 100 percent through this coaching program or website or whatever. And they are so happy. They are just so happy. I mean, they’re like, oh, my God, I got off the medicine. I’m doing an all natural cleanse. And for a while they’re living great. But I worry so desperately about them because. Yeah, for a while they’re doing great. I’m not denying that they’re not doing great. They may do great for three months, six months, a year, a year and a half. But in the case of bipolar disorder, it’s cyclical. It’s cyclical. Sometimes you will be manic. Sometimes you will be depressed. Sometimes you will be somewhere else on the spectrum. And maybe for that year, they’re right in the middle and everything’s fine. But because they’re not controlling the symptoms, they will hit up mania or fall down to depression. It’s just a matter of time. It’s just a waiting game. But for that year, their perspective and their reality is that they’re doing fantastic and they’re doing better than everybody else that’s relying on big pharma or these unnatural poisons you put in your body. I understand that they’re happy now, but I want them to be happy forever. I want to be happy forever. So I don’t know. You’re right. It is controversial. I don’t want to fall down a rabbit hole of defending or bashing religion. But just because something gives you comfort doesn’t mean that it’s right.

Jackie: No, but again, like I think your example of taking medication is a little bit different here, because I think anybody who is sick in any way, shape or form all of us. I think it’s human nature to want to find meaning in it, you know. And I think that the meaning could be because of your religion. It could be because of your art. It could be because of the career you have. You want to correlate a meaning to it because otherwise it’s just shit for the sake of shit. Otherwise, everything just sucks for no reason. And most of us cannot handle that mentally, we can’t process that, of why this shit is happening for no other reason. And maybe people do say I am super creative and it’s because of my bipolar disorder. I can’t tell that person that they’re wrong if they’re seeing the meaning in that, and that’s how they get through their day and their life and they continue to be happy and healthy and productive people. How can you tell them their wrong?

Gabe: I think that truth matters. And I think that facts matter.

Jackie: It is their truth and the facts support it.

Gabe: I disagree with the findings because of the self-reporting nature, which I understand is such a slippery slope, because there’s people out there that say, Gabe, how do you know you have bipolar disorder? Because there is no definitive test. It’s all self-reporting. And so I hear what you’re saying. And you’re right. You’re right. I know people who are just incredibly happy and they firmly believe that the earth is flat. But I just I feel so bad for them. I do. The earth is not flat. It is not flat. It’s not flat. It’s not flat. It’s not flat.

Jackie: But we know that because of the facts that support that.

Gabe: But I think these facts are suspect. You’re right. I can’t say that they’re wrong, but I do think that they’re suspect. My fear is, is that somebody who’s newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder or depression or just any sort of serious mental illness will think that they need to find a creative endeavor, because that’s where they’re most likely to excel statistically. But I know all kinds of people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depression who are engineers and lawyers and doctors and they don’t have a creative bone in their body. And I also worry about pigeonholing. And what I mean by that is I do not consider myself to be creative at all. I have not a creative bone in my body. Jackie, you can back this up. I tried to design a logo for something and you were like these colors. Remember what you said to me?

Jackie: No.

Gabe: I just, it was very harsh, but it was ugly. What I created was ugly. And I say to people, look, I have bipolar disorder and I’m not creative at all. And they say, yes, you are. You have a podcast. Well, well, OK. Yes, you are. You’re funny. OK, well, but isn’t everybody funny sometimes?

Jackie: No.

Gabe: Isn’t everybody creative in some way?

Jackie: No.

Gabe: I mean, I think we’re just always looking for that link. So no matter what, we find a way to make somebody with mental illness into a person who is also creative.

Jackie: I disagree because in the research and also in the world generally, the term creative is somebody who is a writer. They are a painter. They are a fine artist. They do some kind of categorically artistic thing. It’s not so much like how do you approach your day? Is it creatively? We’re talking literally about the fine arts. And that’s as a career choice. I still maintain that the data just says people with mental illness tend to lean more towards that way. At no point does it say if you’re bipolar, you should be creative, and if you’re not, you’re doing it wrong. And I don’t think that it implies that everybody should be creative, whether you have a mental illness or not. It’s simply stating a lot of people tend to go that route. It’s not saying you can’t do anything else or you won’t be good at anything else.

Gabe: That’s the message that I just want to make sure gets out there. I know what the data says and I do appreciate data. There’s just a part of me that just worries so much. And this is my question to you, Jackie. Now, honestly, how do you feel about somebody who gives the credit for their creativity or their intelligence or their genius to an illness that is trying to kill them and that has caused them suffering? How do you feel about somebody giving a positive quality to such a negative thing?

Jackie: I would say that scientifically we know that the placebo effect is real. And if that person in this instance is using something like their illness as their placebo, as the catalyst as the result, it’s real for them. And if they feel more creative because of their mental illness, then that’s why they are more creative. It’s all how what you believe in the human mind is annoyingly powerful. And again, in this situation, if the placebo is their illness. Right? And they are like, I’m so creative. Before I was diagnosed, I was not creative at all. And now I’m a genius painter, then that’s true for them.

Gabe: Jackie, I completely agree that perception becomes reality. And if your reality is positive and good, then who the hell am I to mess with it? I do sincerely believe that. I just want everybody living with a mental health issue, serious and persistent mental illness to live their best life. And however you arrange that in your mind. I couldn’t be more behind.

Jackie: Yeah, I think that we can both get on the same page for that one.

Gabe: Amen. Listen up, everybody, creatives, non creatives, agree with Jackie, agree with Gabe. No matter what, we all need to be on the same page when it comes to subscribing to our podcast. Please leave us as many stars as you feel comfortable with and use your words and write us a review. Share us on social media. Email us to a friend. Tell everybody about us. And here’s a little trick. If you email [email protected], we will send you Not Crazy stickers if you PayPal us a dollar. It’s the best deal going. That’s Not Crazy stickers for a dollar at [email protected]. Email us for instructions. Please stay tuned after the credits for an outtake because it turns out Gabe and Jackie have more to say.

Jackie: We will see you next Monday.

Podcast: Is Creativity Enhanced By Mental Illness? syndicated from

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amazingpaperart · 6 years

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Edit Your Life Ep. 136: Dreaming Big + Making Change [with Amy McGrath]

his week’s episode is sponsored by Warby Parker, retailer of designer prescription eyewear at revolutionary prices. Go to warbyparker.com/eyl to order your free Home Try-Ons. (No code necessary.)

On November 6, Americans will have the opportunity to vote for a record number of women running for public office. One who burst onto the scene last year is former fighter pilot and mother of three Amy McGrath, the Democratic candidate for Kentucky’s 6th US House district. In Episode 136 of Edit Your Life, we rebroadcast Christine’s November 2017 interview with Amy. In this wide-ranging, personal conversation, Christine and Amy talk about finding and using your voice, how best to support kids, the pivotal moment that prompted Amy to run for Congress, and how she’s juggling the demands of family life while on the campaign trail.

Click “play” above to listen. If the player isn’t visible, listen directly at SoundCloud.com, or use a podcast app on your phone or tablet. Not sure how? Click here for directions.

Resources mentioned in this episode

Minimalist Parenting (our book)

Amy McGrath’s “Told Me” campaign announcement video

Photo of Amy + Christine (behind Christine’s smile she is FREAKING OUT INSIDE)

Amy McGrath For Congress website (her history, key issues, etc.)

Should you feel inspired to donate to Amy McGrath’s campaign!

Organizations working to support new/women candidates: Emily’s List, She Should Run, Emerge America, Run for Something

Amy McGrath’s Chelsea Handler interview

Lizzie Fletcher for Congress (Texas)

Violet’s note

Related Edit Your Life episode: Editing In Passion Projects

Question Of The Week

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from Parent Hacks http://parenthacks.com/2018/10/dreaming-change-mcgrath.html via Blogger http://babylifepower.blogspot.com/2018/10/edit-your-life-ep-136-dreaming-big.html

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