Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have very special guests. Nina Lynn is in the building. It's an honor to have you. For you guys that aren't familiar with Nina Lynn. She is a seasoned executive that founded the Wonder Seed Foundation, a nonprofit that helps at risk you heal from their trauma. Nina formed a bipartisan education committee and took her advocacy to Capitol Hill, championing meaningful
education reform and legislation. Nina is now running for Congress.
So I am you.
Are officially the first person I think we've had on the show that's running for Congress, which is a big deal. So yeah, thank you.
For having me. Yes, it's such a pleasure to be here with you.
Thank you. I was fascinated about wunder Seed. I've been fascinated since the day we met. So it's nice to be able to have you here. And you drove a couple hours to be here too, so it's very nice to have you here. But in addition to having you here, to find out your backstory, I would love to know what you're cooking for me for breakfast today.
I'm gonna plug the foundation. So we're having wonder seed wantons today.
Okay, Wonder seed wantons, okay.
And this is a staple that you know of my childhood, and it was an ingredient the ingredients that sort of my mother put together and created comfort food for us to snack on.
Okay. And what are the ingredients of the wonder seed wanton?
So today we have ground turkey that we are going to saute in the pan along with a little bit of sugar, green onions. And the secret ingredient to any Vietnamese dish is what's called fish sauce, okay. And so it's it's what we use as a seasoning instead of salt, okay.
Okay. Is it like a soy sauce or no.
It's I guess it's in the same family, I would say, But yeah, it's a seasoning that you can actually use with soy sauce in some dishes that maybe another day I'll come back and we can.
Ok we can do.
That, okay.
And then you have Lonton's egg and what are those other ingredients.
So we have once we start to step the long time, we have what's called glass noodles, which is another staple in the Vietnamese cuisine, and also black mushrooms.
And you boiled those before, right, we.
Boiled those before, okay, five minutes each, okay. And so now we're just going to prepare. The main ingredient is the meat. Okay, So we're going to put in a little bit of sugar.
I like sugar. We're starting off right, sugar and meat.
And the secret ingredient, which is the fish sauce.
Okay, I want to hear give me the bowl for the fish sauce. I just want to like dip my finger in it because curiosity. You're done with this.
Right, yes, and now we're just gonna Oh it is really good.
It's salty.
Yeah, so we're using that instead of salt, okay.
And then the egg. The egg, okay, this is different. And what does the egg do is it to stick it all together.
It's it adds taste and it adds a little bit of it just is something that my mother just added, okay, and it is something that we continue to use. So it doesn't necessarily stick it together, but it's it just adds more of a taste to it.
Okay. And just so you know. I think I already told you off camera this dish is amazing. I'm going home to claim it as my own.
You should and whoever else is watching this, guys, this is something that's special and anyone that's ever tasted this can't just eat one.
Oh, I believe it. I love one times. I love anything that comes in a wrapper. What is the water for? I'm just curious.
Now the water is going to we're going to we'll use that for the one times the one time stick together exactly, Okay, got it exactly?
And then so right now you're buying the meat, and then all right, cool. And then I just want to say, for all y'all listeners out there, I did go. I was a little The only reason why I think I went to Asian Market on this dish was because of the glass noodles and the black mushrooms, and that was the only thing where I was like, I don't know if they sell this in a regular store or if I'm gonna roll the dice, but I will say this whole dish was completely affordable. Guys. This is like under
twenty bucks really affordable. And I'm just based on how much I got for that I'm assuming this could feed a family of four. Is it like appetizer? Is it meal?
What is it? There's snacks, there's snacks. Okay, it's a snack that I would consider it an appetizer, but so many times I've just eaten it as a meal.
Okay. And then can you eat these cold?
You can eat them cold?
Really?
And yes?
Okay, so your mom would make them and they'd be like in the fridge. You just go and help yourself.
Yes. And it's interesting because even while it's when you go in, it's in the fridge and it's been sitting for a while, it's still crispy.
Okay, ooh I like that. Yes, okay, so you heard it here first. Nina's making all of the ingredients for us.
And by the way, this is special because I don't get to do this often. It's a few years.
Yeah, when was the last time you made this?
Adolescence?
I had a lescens Yes, oh my gosh, back in the day. So how does it making it?
I love to cook when I can, because I think that cooking is first of all, healing for a meditative for the person that's cooking, and the joy comes from being able to share something that you've created and you put so much care into and watching someone enjoy it it's the best part.
I'm sure I'm gonna enjoy it. So you have, You're gonna have a lot of fun today.
I hope I'm not talking this up right now.
I'm pretty sure you aren't. Okay. I can look at all these ingredients and know it's going to be a great time.
You know.
What I love also is that we've never had this dish on the show. That's also very exciting. You can only imagine how many times I've been ramen.
You have never had this dish because this comes from a Tonya's special. It comes from my mom.
Yes, and it's Vietnamese, right, It's.
A Vanemy's dish. And so this traditionally can be cooked with pork, ground pork. I don't really eat ground pork, so we're substituting it with turkey and stead so you can use chicken, ground pork turkey.
Okay, Okay, I didn't know that. So take me back to adolescent times. Take me all the way back to that kitchen memory of your mom making this dish. What does your household look like? Mom? Dad? Together? Take me back.
I knew what I was getting into when I came on the show. Listen this dish as I'm cooking it and stirring and sautag. It takes me back to a household that was working class. My mother was primarily a single mom, and I say that because I did have a stepdad who wasn't really present. He suffered with severe alcoholism, okay, And so I grew up in a violent childhood. And so my mother was primarily the natriarch, the center of gravity in our home, the stabilizing force in our home.
And she even with all So she worked as a single mom, as a nurse, as of course a caretaker, because which is her essence, and being the extraordinary woman that she is, she held down our home. And we grew up in a working class family, and every dollar mattered, but you wouldn't. You could never tell on the kitchen table because she was such. She was mindful and strategic and smart about how.
She spent money.
So when we sat and had dinner, you could never tell that we were struggling, right, and every meal that we had was we felt it was rich.
And so.
Part of the way that she showed her love was through food.
I love that. Yeah, Now did you know growing up though, that the funds were tight or did she do that in other areas? In addition too, did you not want for anything? For sorta?
She That's a good question because as a young kid, you don't know that you're wanting for something. And it wasn't until my adolescence that I realized her journey and I realized her struggle and her dedication and commitment and sacrifice that she made for her children and her family
and to hold the family together. So as the child, no, I didn't in terms of material things, I wasn't aware because quite frankly, we were my days of childhood, which I don't really talk about, but they were in flight or flight. It was when we would hear the car pull up in the driveway, all of us would retreat to our rooms because when my stepfather would come home, we didn't know what it was going to look like.
It was unpredictable. It could be he could go off at a drop of a hat, so we didn't know what to expect. So that was like the environment that I grew up in. And to have such a mother that you know that she counterbalanced that.
So she counterbalanced that. This is where it gets difficult. I guess this next question is she's like this pillar of strength, and this is your siblings are with her? Or your siblings with her your stepdad? Or are they with your biological dad?
Taking it back a little further, and this is another example of her, the extraordinary woman that she is. She's I'm first generation immigrants. So she came here from a war torn country with three young kids in her arms. Wow, yes, alone, Like she left the family and said, no, I'm not gonna stay here. I'm going to go and give my children a better life. And so she took that journey on her own and came here and started with nothing and built built a life, an extraordinary life.
And she did that by herself with three kids. With three kids, how old was she, do you know? Like in her twenties and her twenties, geez, Louise. Okay, now we get the full scope of who this woman is.
And I couldn't even imagine, Geez that journey. Yeah, and I think I'm pretty resilient. In fact, I know I am. Oh yeah, But imagining her journey is, like I said, it's extraordinary. And so coming here three kids on her own. I'm just a babe in her arm literally, and oh she.
Had like a baby, a baby's.
So I had no memory of it. And she remarries because my father, who I had never met past before, he died in the war, so I never met him.
Okay, And so she's also dealing with grief too, Yes.
Yeah, exactly, in so many ways. Yeah, in so many ways.
She's also like flight, fight or flight two in a sense to write, I would is that what you would consider fight.
It deep into it. But I think much and I think I get this from her. There's three versions. So when you deal with trauma, there's a fight, flight, or flee. And she's a fighter and so am I. And not to say that those that flee or freeze that there's no judgment in that. It's just it is what it is. But with the two of us, it's it's all about the fight.
So I thought, we're dealing with trauma. It's when they say fight or flight, that means when the person is faced with something heavy, they choose one or the other. I didn't know that there. It means like their typical response would lean towards one or the other. Say, every time you deal with a trump traumatic or a big situation, you choose to fight or is it like in that moment, you choose one or the options.
That's a really good question, and I think in most circumstances many it's usually one that you're that you default to. Now, that doesn't mean that it doesn't cause an arrested development,
right or what an arrested development? So the wonderstate our theory of change is that unaddressed trauma equals emotional dysregulation, and emotional dysregulation is the root cause of a lot of the issues that we have in our society, and meaning that from a neuroscience perspective, when you do not deal with trauma, it can cause an arrested development in
the executive decision making part of the brain. And that part of the brain is critical thinking, it's emotional regulation, it's your relationship skills, your communication skills, your cognitive abilities to remember, retain information, process information. And so that that's what we call unaddressed trauma is when that happens, and arrested development happens.
And arrested development means that get locked into that age and they can't proceed at a normal level. What does that mean that's.
A great question. So yes, it gets emotionally, you get locked in to you emotionally, I would say, let me just back up. Not necessarily locked in, but it causes a slower evolution, okay, and in some cases, in more severe cases, it does lock you in emotionally, okay. And so when you you know, and it comes out in so many ways. It comes out in how you show up in relationships, whether it's in a personal romantic relationship
or a friendship, or even in work. And it also affects how you are able to thrive or not in school, in work. And so we have a lot of our young folks that they when they go and they get a job, they can't keep that job, or they can't excel in a job or grow in any position because they can't deal with stress, right, because of that emotional arrested development. And so what we do is we help to stimulate all of our curriculum. The technology that we
use helps to stimulate that part of the brain. Okay, so you can think of it as brain training.
And then how long, And I know we're dropping all over. I didn't mean to fast forward a wonder seed. Wait before we get into wonder seed. Let's back up a little bit. We're going to go back to the fight, flight or flee. Your answer to that question was that basically they typically go to one one response over the other. Can you give me a quick definition of fight flight or fee or flee?
Sorry, If one is going to respond with fight you, that means that you know that you will act out outward towards the issue or confront the issue. And that doesn't necessarily mean it's always healthy. Right. I have a lot of young kids that they fight and they get defensive, but and that leads them down a path that's worse. And then you have those that are that freeze. And when you freeze you that means that you suppress a lot of issues. You suppress a lot of fear, anxiety, depression, trauma,
and then it comes out in other ways. It comes out in substance, abuse, comes out in acting out, going down the wrong path, violence.
Et cetera. Is that the flea one that's.
That's that would be flea and that would be no, that would.
Be freeze freeze. Oh, there's freeze. There's a thing called fight flight. Oh, fight flight or freeze? Okay, Okay, I'm messing up the language. Okay, so that's freeze. Okay, So the freeze is when they probably find other ways to cope, right, that's what you're saying exactly. And then now flight, what's flight.
That you just run from? It? You avoid, So it goes into avoidance avoidant behavior sometimes.
Now, could I be wrong, but it's fight always have to be like a physical or a verbal altercation? Or can it be like a problem solving problem shooting because you're dealing with the problem head on, no feelings, right.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, so there's two versions of.
That, okay, okay, Yeah, So I take it you and your mom was the the version of I'm going to take on this confrontation and I'm going to problem solve. Is that what you're saying, Because I look at you, you have a crazy resume. I look at your mom, crazy resume. It has to be a problem solving in that fight.
Wasn't always that way it is now, and I grew into that. But when I was a young adolescent, I was angry, Okay, I was I was rebellious, and it was all about fight, as I mentioned earlier, not necessarily the healthiest way. And so as I grew and became more emotionally intelligent. It came, it became more problem solving, solution focused.
So how did you get How did you and your mom evolve into emotional intelligence? Did you guys have to read books or study or analyze yourselves therapy? I'm sorry, yeah, I'm just I'm genuinely curious.
I think that some of us are born like IQ EQ, right, because emotional intelligence is EQ. Some of us are born with higher levels of EQ, IQ, et cetera. But the beauty of EQ is that you can actually learn it and you can grow it. And I believe that I was always I always had a certain insight into behavior and the human psychology and deep empathy. I think that came from just being an EmPATH of just understanding and feeling other people's traumas and dramas. And I think most
of it comes from my own journey, right. The deepening of my empathy comes from my own journey about the things that I went through and what my family went through, and being able to say, Okay, I can relate to that, yeah, and so what do I do with that? And the rule that I've always been taught is the golden.
Rule what's that that.
You treat others the way that you want to be treated?
Yeah, I love that rule, but I live and die by that rule.
Right, And so if you know that someone is in pain or if someone is acting out, the most important thing is to understand that it's not about you that don't take it personally. And once you step outside of that, you can actually see what the root cause of what their issues are and to be able to deal with that person in a way that you're not emotionally connected.
Oh okay, it's brilliant. So I want to get you closer to me. I see you brown them? Or what's the next step in your dish? You're getting calls to sit in next to me?
Yeah, so I just put in the green onions.
Okay, it looks beautiful. And is this where you make the.
This is so this is where I'm going to make the one time. So I'm going to now start to stuff.
Okay, hair, let's switch plates. I'll take your red meat plate here? Do you need this yet? It all right? So back to your story. Okay, did you have did you were you torn as an adolescent in regards to your stepfather? Because you do have the EmPATH in you. Were you torn because you knew that he was battling some demons? Or did you just put him in the unsaved category?
You have the best questions. Oh my gosh. So the answer to that is, as an adolescent, I didn't know any better. My brain is still developing. I'm all I'm concerned about. Is this man that's hurting my mother. That's what I see, and I see him as danger like away from that. So it wasn't until my years of learning and understanding and growing and evolving was to see him as someone that was in deep pain. But in my mind, still in my mind, that doesn't give you permission to her others.
Nope, especially not my mama. That's right now. And he was physically violent with her. He was okay, wow, she's juggling a lot. And then you have older siblings. I take it you're the youngest because you were the baby.
So I was the middle child.
You were the middle and you were the baby.
Oh, the middle child. So my mother did have another daughter in her second marriage who was my absolute best friend and I absolutely adored her, and unfortunately she's no longer with us, and so that that was part of my journey and part of my mother's journey, and as a mother myself, I can never imagine losing a child.
Did you use her in your older adult life or younger.
My young adult life? Oh my gosh, I'm like all in the stories.
Sorry, go ahead, like these ones are fat. You got to put a little sprinkle on there. I guess maybe I should have got you bigger wanton.
I think so, I think so. But it's okay, Well we'll make it. Maybe it, We'll make some wanting. This is what not do. I'm going to be creative here.
Go for it. I want a big one.
Solution focus, right, a solution focus?
So at what point, so you're going you are dealing with your sister, the loss of your sister. Your mom is coping, is your At what point does your mom and your step father separate?
Teenage years?
Okay, yes, you were relieved at that point, of course. Okay, of course. And your older siblings during this whole upbringing that you're going through, do you find solace in them?
Yes? My brother and I are very close. Okay, he doesn't live here, he lives in a different state, but he and I are very close. We're very different, but very close. And my older sister also transitioned about a year after my younger sister, or sorry, a year before my younger sister. That's a lot, Yeah, it's a lot.
Okay, I want to ask, but I think I'm gonna skip the curiosity there just for a second. That's a lot, to be honest, that's a lot. I'm assuming this isn't because of disease, right.
Yeah, no, we can skip that part. Okay, but yeah, it was, it was, and it's again we all have our journey and the beauty of it is that they their passing was not in vain.
Is this where wonder seat starts to take place?
Oh?
I thought maybe this was because you can start to see the pivotal you can start to see the what do you?
But the spirit spiritual journey began.
The spiritual journey began after these that's.
Right, the spiritual journey began, the spiritual awakening again.
Okay, okay. And at this point, are you in college or are you?
Do?
You know what you're gonna you're pursuing.
So studying of all things political science?
Okay.
I never thought that I would be where I am today, which is the irony of it all.
Okay.
So I went through that path and then I ended up for love. I ended up in Chicago, okay. And Chicago brought about my son.
Okay.
Yeah, the birth of my son, okay. And so that was the beginning of this journey that has taken me, that's led me to wonder seed.
Okay.
Yes, So after having your son, that's when wonder seed starts to formalize in your mind.
Not until eighteen years later.
Eighteen years later, Yes, Now, I know you have a background in the entertainment business. I didn't mention it. But during prior to one Seed, is that where you were in entertainment? Or are you? Can you fill me in this gap?
I could fill you in, but I'm not feeling in the one times.
No, what do you need?
They're falling apart.
You got this okay, Okay, I'm hungry.
I can't wait to try it.
Okay, Okay, I'm not doing this.
You got this?
Okay, let's talk.
Okay. So I'm trying to I'm trying to inch towards wonder seed. So how does wonder seed come about?
So wonder seed is the third iteration of my lifetime. So I had this rich life in the entertainment industry. Behind the scenes, we had a couple three shows on air. We had a boutique music and management company which with notable artists that you've probably heard of. And at this time life was good. I was married, my son was so happy. He grew up with the great life which is and so life happened, went through a divorce, and it was devastating for him, and it was his it
was his version of trauma. And I, as much as I thought I knew, I had no idea that it would affect him the way that it did. And so he went to seeing our home life turned upside down was devastating to him because the three of us were tight, We're really close, and and he it was hard on him. And during this time he decided because I was an emotional wreck. I was I was going battling with my best friend in an entire world. And he decided that he wanted to go to prep school for his last year.
And I thought, wow, that's a great idea because it's an empowering decision, is his decision, and I will supp and he'll be away from the drama y And so he goes to the East Coast and mind you. He was a d one guy, the type of kid that would leave drugs, leave parties when other kids were doing drugs. Just a gentle giant, just a good soul, and protect other kids that were being bullied. That's the type of kid that he was. So he goes away, gets a
career ending injury. Home life turned upside down, and some kid down there, he's in an incredibly vulnerable state, and some kid down there say, hey, try this. He tried marijuana and he liked it, and he came back to California and at the time, miracle marijuana was just becoming legal, and you had a lot of these shady pop up meals, prescription meals that popped up everywhere. And he went and got a prescription and went to a dispensary and someone
introduced him to a thing called dab. And if nothing else that parents are aware of this drug. It is a highly concentrated version of THHC, artificial with other chemicals, a host of other chemicals, unregulated, and it sent him into a state of psychosis. And so it literally broke his brain. And I was in a rabbit hole with him for about two and a half years trying to figure out how does psychoactive drugs i e. Marijuana affect the developing brain. There wasn't a lot of studies on it.
And so with that said, we have this potency of eighty percent. So when you and I were kids, the potency was probably seven eight percent. So you can think about that, right, think about that number, eighty percent. And so I went on this journey and there wasn't a lot lot of studies at the time. Insurance companies were They didn't view marijuana as an addictive drug, saw it
as something that was benign. And thank god it's changed now, I think now because since the opening of a lot of these shops and the type of chemicals that they're putting into the product, it's flooded. Our systems are our site, cycle site, Oh my gosh. Our hospitals, our treatment homes are jails with young primarily young adolescent men and that that are mimicking signs of delusions erratic behavior. So yes, and my gosh, it's so hot.
I'm sorry. We could take a do you want to take a second? Okay, yeah, go for it. All right, guys, we are officially back. There was a lot more cooking than Nina had to do and prepping with these wantons. I even got in it and started making some wantons. So I'm gonna claim all the great wantons. Nah, I can't do that. I can't do that. But let's go ahead and try these. Let's go ahead. I took a little nibble of the meat. I'm dying to try one. Go ahead, let's go memory lane. Here we go, nice
and crispy. These fried in like seconds. I felt like, right, they fried.
Really two minutes? Oh my god, it takes me back so good.
You know, are delicious?
Have you got? I'm sure they're hearing the crunch right then.
And I get the rice noodles now, So I asked, you know, if the meat and everything stays so great, why do we have the rice noodles if they're plain? And I get it because it balances out the taste and the texture. And I'm still trying to figure out the black mushroom or the.
Press black mushroom also known as fun Guy super healthy for you.
I'm reading my whole wan tong, and yes, we will be fighting behind the scenes over the last bed bup.
You can't just have one.
If I had these in my fridge, they will last exactly about two hours now, I would be going back.
And forth and we spoke about it. It's really good. It's just as good cold so.
Late it does, let me tell you, outstanding, superb. One of the top dishes on eating while broke is the wonder Seed. Wanton. All right, we started talking about we're gonna, we're gonna come back into the conversation on kind of the foundation of what was a foundation to you starting Wonder Seed, and we know that your son's what happened with your son played probably a more pivotal role, it sounds like into it was.
The very inspiration Wow, that drove me to create an underseed. And the reason why is because when as I was going through my journey to try to find a solution, I was told that there wasn't one, and so I found one. I created one. And I wanted to find a solution that was preventative and could help other families and other young young folks to deal with their emotional dysregulation.
So it was my son's emotional dysregulation that caused him to go down this path to experiment with drugs, and so my goal was to find an alternative that was that was able to speak the language of our youth, and that has a lot to do with technology. So technology is the center of how we disperse our programs.
So we use immersive environments so VR based programming that is quite frankly and inspired by an innovation lab that's ran by one of my board members, a brilliant clinical psychology, a psychiatrist by the name of doctor Albert skip Rousseau, and he is the executive director for the Institute of Creative Technologies at USC and it was his technology that inspired this journey, and so he was using medical VR.
He's like the godfather and grandfather of medical VR. So I say I say godfather because he would prefer godfather because he wants he doesn't want to tell his age. But he was the one, the visionary that started medical VR way back in the early nineties.
Yes before it became a popular.
Exactly, And so he was contracted with the military to treat PTSD and in vets through exposure therapy. And so basically I looked at that technology and we created something pretty spectacular from it, and it's we have seen our programming just changed lives. And so I grew wonder seed from humble beginnings where I was told, no one's going to understand this technology, no one knows who you are,
You're not going to get funded. And so now we are in three different cities in three different states.
Wow. And you were able to get the funding all on your own. Absolutely wow. Yes, and you got the Godfather on your board.
That's right, Which that's you know, that's right.
I love that your protests to think preventative versus looking at the I guess the end goal. You said, Okay, we're going to take a step. What was the call? In Christianity? We say the sin behind the sin? That's what I learned interested. But I love that you took
that route and created such impactful organization. The night we met, you had said something that really stuck out, which was and you're gonna have to tell the numbers because I will butcher them, but you talked about how much money can be saved in America right now if we treated preventative trauma or trauma, preventative treatment of trauma. Can you talk about that just for just a second.
Yeah, So mental health is the root cause, as I mentioned, to a lot of the issues that we deal with. So in every dollar that we invest in mental health, we get eleven dollars back, right, and we see that we will see billions of dollars annually back through our medical system, our healthcare system, our workforce pipeline, our economy
as a whole, including our justice system. And so when you have all of these systems that are being flooded in every sector, and if we address the root cause in advance, that we're able to mitigate a lot of those issues and costs.
Yeah, yeah, I thought that was really interesting. I was like, WHOA, that's deep. That's deep. People don't think about it like that because we're always treating the problem and not the going back to what I said, like the root cause of the problem. So I thought that was fascinating. Now I would like to eventually at some point get down to Orange County and try a VR set because I
have questions around wonder seat. But because of time, I want to talk about what transpire to get you to take us into pursuing congress.
So about three years ago, one of my board members came to me. He was hiring executive positions and he saw the discrepancy between black and brown resumes and white and Asian resumes and he asked, what is this, And of course, wonder seat is all about the root cause and understanding that the lack of higher education from our minority kids has a lot to do with access. It has a lot to do or lack of access with trauma,
unaddressed trauma, and so just all around socioeconomic issues. And so we as just me being me, and this is something that is really close to my heart and understanding and knowing that education is foundational to everything, whether it is a life meaning full, a purposeful life with dignity, a meaningful job, a mental health, physical health, et cetera. It all starts with having a strong foundation of education.
And so I helped to create a co found an education subcommittee for think Tank that's based in Chicago, and we dropped it a federal education bill that is really comprehensive.
It covers everything from adequacy funding to addressing each and every child's needs and also empowering our teachers because the teachers are in the front line and education is only as good as the teachers right teach it and making sure that everything from facilities to modern technology to emotional intelligence, all of these things to be addressed and making sure
that there's funding for that. And I advocated this bill on our hill on the capital deal, with our friends and on both sides, because my committee is bipartisan, and we really got close to a balanced solution, and the
House philipped and things stalled. And knowing that this administration that's in, that's whose eyes are about dismantling the Department in Education, and so that was so a mentor of mine, that is the former congressman that also sits on the board with me, that has a rich history, rich roots in education, asked me to run. And so I initially I said no, absolutely not. And then fast forward, the new administration came in and we knew what was going to happen and that they had their eyes set on
destroying the Department of Education. And he asked again, and I said, I'm at a different place in my life and let me consider it. And so I went on a listening tour. So I opened up a a committee, and I went on a listening tour and I spoke to everyone, just the people on the ground. I spoke to veterans, I spoke to students, I spoke to teachers. I spoke with mothers and grandmothers, and just everyday people. And I spoke to all parties, Democrats, Republicans, independents, and
they were all singing the same song. The tune was a little different, but the lyrics were the same. And when it was when I had an interaction with a grandmother's Latina grandmother. She wasn't much older than you and I. She was a young grandmother's two grandchildren young and one of them had a disability, and she was pat provide that she wouldn't have insurance for the kids, and she was crying. And I found myself holding this woman and
I got emotional. And when I spoke to her and I helped to explain, listen, this is a moment in time, and yes it's precarious moment, and yes it's a dark moment, but it's an opportunity for us to really create something better than what we had, and we need to keep hope alive because without that there is nothing. And that really resonated with her, and I saw her compose herself and she was like, you're right, and thank you for
giving me hope. And it was that moment that I said, yes, I'm going to do this.
That's beautiful. I'm glad you did. You're a go getter. You've set your mind on under seed, you've set your mind on You're a fighter.
Thank you.
I like to see you in the.
Seat, Thank you, thank you. We have to get back to people policy.
And then, now that you're in the seat, what is probably some of the hardest things you've had to deal with?
If when we're time traveling January twenty seven, I would say that because there's a lot that could happen between now and then. There's a lot that's happened in the last eight months, especially with this big, beautiful bill of betrayal, and so there's a lot to be said.
I like how you're warded that, but there's a.
Lot to be said or and a lot to be seen between now and then. But what I would hope to see is our country getting back to the middle, because that's where most of us are, and I feel that our voices have been hijacked.
Yep.
And as much as some people don't want to hear it, in order for sustainability of our nation, for healing, and for smart policies to really make a difference, we need bipartisanship to make it happen. Yeah, and my hope is that some of my colleagues quote unquote soon to be colleagues in Congress between now and then, have the courage to stand up for what's right and because quite frankly, if you are more interested in keeping the job than doing the job, you shouldn't be there.
That's like the best clothes out right there. That's true. That's true. I appreciate you taking time out of your day and your hectic schedule to come and cook wantons and to share with us some of your backstory and letting us get to know who you are and who Nina Lynn is as a young person to where you are now. And I love everything you're doing for the community.
Thank you, and I really am honored to be here with you, and I'm happy that we have this moment that we're sharing together. And I think that you're pretty fabulous and I can't wait to see what your next steps are.
I know this much. I'm going home and to finish making recites wantons. Thanks for tuning in, y'all. I will be eating my way out, piece out, and then where can everybody keep up with Nina.
Lynn Wonder Seed Foundation, So Wonderseafoundation, dot org. Please check us out, contribute to the work, help empower us, empower our youth, and then find me on my social media your handle so Nina lynn CA forty. You'll find me on Instagram, Blue Sky, Twitter.
TikTok, Facebook, and it's Nina l I n h.
C A as in California forty.
Okay, Nina l I and h c A forty. That's right, that's right, got your there first. Peace out guys, thanks for tuning in peace