Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting you. This week, here's Ryan Gorman. Thanks so much for joining us here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have some important conversations lined up for you. In a bit, we'll check in with Weather Channel meteorologists Race Stagick to get a better understanding of why so much of the country has experienced record heat this summer and what's in store for us for the remainder
of twenty twenty three. Also, i'll talk to doctor Jean Tweeny, author of Generations, the Real Differences between Gen Z Millennials, gen X Boomers, and Silence, to get a sense of some of the generational divides our country is currently facing. But right now, to get things started, I'm joined by former combat veteran and artillery gunner Kelsey Sharon, author of the new book Brass and Unity, One woman's journey through the hell of Afghanistan and back.
Kelsey, thank you so much for a ticket a few minutes to come on the show, and of course thank you for your service as well. Now let's go back to the beginning of your story as an eighteen year old, What was it that led you to want to serve? Well, thanks for having me I start to be here. I joined the army when I was eighteen years old, fresh out of college. I didn't like college, it wasn't for me, and somebody influenced me. I had this amazing female that
I met a stranger, and she left a mark on me. I didn't come from a military background. I knew that the wars were going on, and I just felt a call to go serve my country. So you end up in Afghanistan? What was that like? The moment you step foot on Afghan soil and you see this country that you probably never thought much about before all of this, barely even knew it existed. Let's be honest with ourselves. Did any of us really right? No much about it before we went.
You know, for me, it was hot. It was like walking into a blow dryer. That was the first shock to the system. I knew we were going. I was very aware of it, but ultimately I just wanted to go serve my country. I wanted the women of Afghanistan to have the same education and freedoms and that we had. And let's be honest, I had a very naive idea if, if anything, that that would be achievable. But I knew that I was willing to risk it and go and do my best to help these people. I gotta say, I was
riding your bio and you're tough. I mean, you were a competitive taekwondo champion, you have a second degree black belt. But you're out there doing house to house insurgent patrol. What was going through your mind as you're in this foreign land doing such a dangerous job as something like that, you know that was not a job I was prepared to go and do. I'm I'm
a trained artillery gunner. I run the m for the seven to one five five millimeter how it served that shoots up to forty kilometers with one hundred pound rounds. I was not trained to go do door to door, but like every like every soldier at the beginning, a rifleman first. So I was borrowed by the British to go be their female CFP culture support team. And my job was once we kick those doors in, was to go find the
women and children, put them in a separate room. And due to the religious laws, I'm a female, so I was able to remove their burk as properly, to be able to search them efficiently. And what about the fact that you were in that role serving with all men. What kind of challenge was that. Like, you know, I'm gonna say something that might sound at a little weird, but you know, for me, I was very lucky. I was one of the few women that I got lucky with
those guys. I've always worked with men, That's always been part of my life. I know how to hold my own the best to the best of my ability, and I always knew as long as you showed up, did your job and you did it well, the respect will come. So I did. I actually had a good experience. I was very fortunate that the British welcomes me in with open arms. The Americans for great to me, most of the Canadians as well. I do have obviously very different perspective and
a lot of people. I know that there has been a lot of issues with women in the militarians and assault. I was not one of those, so I was fortunate enough to come out of it without that issue. But I will tell you, of course, you have to prove yourself a little bit more. You got to go a little harder. You really got to dig a little deeper. But I was ready for the challenge. I was looking forward to the challenge, and I was ready to show up for the
men, the less and the right of me. I'm joined by former combat veteran and artillery gunner Kelsey Sharon, author of the new book Brass and Unity, One woman's journey through the Hell of Afghanistan and back. You mentioned your interactions with Afghani women when you were doing these house to house insurgent patrols. What do you remember what stands out to you about some of those interactions.
You know, depending on where we were, Oh, we learned really quickly how in those rural areas, how that country really works, and how those women were being treated. And for me, that was the most heartbreaking part about it was the women over there, We're not being treated like we treat our women. They're seen as less then, they're seen as a property. They're seen as the ownership their own to buy somebody, if you will.
And that was really heartbreaking because to me, that means that the next generation of girls. You know, when we understand when you uplift girls and you educate girls, you change the world. But when you stifle that, you know these girls were never going to have a future. And now with the Akimplot the way it was, those girls are not going to have a future anytime soon. And then of course you saw the worst of what humanity has
to offer. You saw death and destruction, the killing of those who you were serving with, and you're very open and honest about all of that in this book. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. You know, war is war is war, and it is gross, and it's grewsome and it is what you would think it would be. And ultimately, when I was with
the British, we went through an operation and we sustained loss. Like so many other American and British and Canadian soldiers, we were losing people and that had a mark less and mark less an impact on me, which ultimately end up having me diagnosed with pustraumatic stress disorder and I was medically released from the
military in two eleven. Another thing I thought was interesting about your book Brass and Unity, One Woman's Journey through the Hell of Afghanistan and Back, is that it seemed like you were trying to offer those who haven't served and haven't been in those situations a kind of senses to what that's like because the fact of the matter is a very small percentage of Americans Canadians do that job.
You know, the best way I say it is, you know, trauma is your trauma, and everybody has a cup inside of them and whether that cuts the shot glass size or a full gulf, you know, things are going to affect you differently. We're all different people going through a human experience. But what I will say is if you read this book and you want to understand how veterans or first responders or anybody who has trauma other feeling what
they're going through. I did my best to try to illustrate that so that it could bridge a gap. I'm always about connecting. I'm always about building community and unity. It's built into my name for a reason, and I want the rest of the world to understand so they don't look at us as broken. People who have PTFD and are violence were not with people that went through trauma that just need a little extra help and a little extra support. And if you give that to us, we can thrive and be the people
that we deserve to be. Now without giving away the book, here you did find a way out of that place you were in a way to deal with that PTSD, and you did it in a very unique way. Tell us about that. Yeah, absolutely, you know, I've been really fortunate to have a good community and a lot of support around me. But what it came down to was my doctor suggestion for art therapy. Art therapy is a great tool at our disposal, and anybody can do it with anything.
You know, you can create anything. But it is such a great way to get outside of yourself. It's such a great way to move yourself forwards. But if you couple that with journaling, with eating healthy, with grounding, with moving your body, you know, physical fitness. We understand it's four times more effective than an antidepressant. So we've got to get up and move. But we need a community sometimes to help each other get moving.
And so this book illustrates different ways of healing, whether through you know, psychedelic asystem therapy, journaling, art therapy, grounding, fitness, community. We need all of these things to thrive, not just as veterans, but as human beings as well. And out of all of this you end up creating this jewelry business that's doing an awful lot to help veterans. Tell us about that. Yeah, absolutely, you know. I started this art therapy
led into this business that started in two thousand and sixteen. You guys can find it all at brass Immunity dot com. We donate twenty percent of the net proceeds to veteran organizations all over the world and try and uplift this community and the people that are doing the hard work. They are the vehicle to put the money in the hands of these organizations. And I'm telling you right
now, some of these bracelets they change live. We have the Buddy Check bracelets, which is suicide prevention tool and it comes in a pack of two and it prompts you to have a hard conversation with someone you love and it starts the mental health conversation. We say, you buy a pass, you call a buddy, and you save a life. Chelsea Sharon, author of Brass and Unity, One Woman's Journey through the Hell of Afghanis Stand and back. Kelsey, thank you so much for your service and also for coming on
the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me and illustrating and helping veterans and the rest of the world understand what we go through to thank you absolutely. Thanks again. I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities and I want to bring in our next guest. We're joined by Weather
Channel meteorologist Ray Stage. Ray, It's always great to talk to you, and I wanted to have you on because the weather has been a big topic of conversation this summer, with these extreme temperatures that so much of the country has been experiencing. So what exactly did we see in June and July when it comes to record setting heat across the US. Yeah, well, let's
start with that. I mean, let's go into July and talk about the warmest month on record, and that may not only be for the US, that could end up being globally and globally one of the warmest, one of the warmest Julys on record is you know, records going back one hundred and twenty something years, basically giving you an idea of this heat isn't just shared by US and most of all in the south central and southwestern part of the
US, but also across the globe. Temperatures have been a little bit above normal and in areas like Arizona, I mean, you had a stretch of a leave in July where pretty much the whole month there were certain parts that were over one hundred degrees. Yeah, Phoenix, for example, their streak of one hundred and ten plus ended and it ended at thirty one days in a row of one hundred and ten degrees are hotter. Now the old record. Listen to this. This what makes this more amazing is eighteen days in
a row. So they almost doubled the streak of how many days of one ten plus in a row that they had, and that was last done in nineteen seventy four. They've had fifty plus one hundred degree days so far this summer, and it continues to be warm in the Southwest under this big heat ridge. So the Four Corners basically Arizona through New Mexico and even into Texas. I mean, it's been days and days of heat advisories and excessive heat
and warnings. And let's not forget about South Florida. Down in South Florida, the first ever issued excessive heat warning for Miami Dade County was issued in the month of July. Now, the criteria a little different for the counties in South Florida. Between you know, Broward and Miami Dade, but you know you're really splitting hairs. And multiple days and weeks of heat advisories in South Florida where you think, well, it's hot and humid every day,
this just gives you an idea. This was at a different level. So we've seen these temperatures in some parts of the country over a hundred degrees, some over one hundred ten degrees, over one hundred twenty degrees. But then we also see something called the heat index. What is that, Well, let's give the analogy of let's compare it to what the winter time. The opposite is, and that's wind chill. So the wind shows on your exposed skin. When the wind blows, it actually is pulling heat away from your
skin, so it's not allowing your body to stay warm. Now, when we talk about the heat index, that factors in the temperature and then the humidity, and what humidity is is moisture and water vapor in the air. And what that does is that it kind of sticks to your skin and it
doesn't allow your body to cool. So it gives you that sensation of well, if the air tempers and one hundred and your DW point is high in the mid upper seventies, for example, there's a lot more water vapor in the air, so that thickness of the air is just allowing that hot air to stick closer to your body and not allow your body to cool. And that's why we get these uncomfortable temperatures. And it's not always about well the
air temperatures one hundred. You know, you put one hundred over DW point of forty, like the dry heat we talk about in the deserts of the Southwest, it doesn't feel as bad if you put one hundred over a seventy or seventy five degree due point, which is going to make it feel like one ten or hotter. So that's why heat index is really the more important number in the summertime. And like you mentioned before, we've also seen this
extreme heat overseas. Europe has had some record temperatures as well, right, Yeah, there's been record temperatures and as I'd mentioned, globally, we could be talking about maybe one of the warmest summers on a record too. So you know, the heat's not just shared here. There's places on the other side of the equator where it's supposed to be winter where there are some temperatures two that are a little bit above average, so you know, it tries
to balance itself out. But I don't hear of too many places across the world having anything extremely below normal. Although the northern tier of the US, believe it or not, hasn't had a terrible summer. I mean they haven't, right, yeah, yeah, I mean, let's take New York City. I mean, officially, we have to define a heat wave for New York City, for example, three days in a row of ninety degree temperatures. They haven't had that. Last week they got close. They had two
ninety degree days in a row. The third day was eighty nine. So officially, New York City hasn't even had a heat wave, so to say so to the northern tier of the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the Upper Lake States, it's been rather I guess I could call it moderate in terms of temperatures. So you know, we'll see what that does for the rest of the summer and as we get into the fall months.
But right now, you know, the south center US and at Central and South Florida have really been under the gun for some of the heat This summer. We're joined by Weather Channel meteorologist Ray Stage. What we have seen in the northeast, in particular a lot of severe storms. What has been the cause of that? Well, and a lot of times when people ask me that question, I say, well, you know, when we get in a pattern, often the pattern continues to repeat itself until something can break it
down. And really it's the same reason why we've had the heat just staying in the same spot. There hasn't been anything to move that dome of high pressure, so there hasn't been anything, not average to really move the jet
stream and to keep those fronts from coming into the northeast. New England added moisture in and you know, we've had some pretty catastrophic flood events coming out of Vermont specifically, and even southeastern New York State in Orange County, pretty close to where I grew up, got hit pretty hard with some terrible rainfall. And it looks like though that pattern in the northeast New England has kind of lessened just a bit, just as some of the heat is lessened in
the southern US. So some subtle changes have been made over the past week or two weeks. But we'll see if those changes become more dramatic for the better or for the worse. You mentioned the word dome, and that's another term and it feels like kind of a new term that we've heard a lot about, this heat dome over a certain part of the US. What exactly does that mean? Well, and the heat dome is basically high pressure is
how high the atmosphere is actually stacked up. Not getting into the science, it basically means that that warm airs rising higher than or it's higher up in the atmosphere. Then you know, we could say that it normally is and then it really hasn't moved much. So when you've got all that warm air, all that warm air a loft, that's why it's been hot and dry,
because warm air a loft does not allow for thunderstorms to form. All the thunderstorms now have been kind of on the edges of where the dome of high pressure has been, so it kind of builds up from the edge and then into the centers where the warmest areas and the highest up in the atmosphere that warm area. So that's kind of like why we call it a dome.
And you know, finally when we break that down that's when you know we'd see some of this ico way, which I mentioned some of it has, but still a widespread heat advisories across parts of the south central and even parts of the southeast. Another thing that I'm sure many people have heard about this al nino that we're experiencing. Just for a refresher, what exactly is an al nino? Yeah, well, and el Nino is actually a warming
and above average sea surface temperatures in the Pacific. Alt nino would be the opposite of cooling, and you would think that, you know, well, how does that affect the global weather patterns? Well, believe it or not, everybody knows how vast the oceans are, and you know, when you get these warmings or these coolings of the Pacific water, it actually affects the pattern and jet stream patterns all cross the globe. So that's why it's something
that we talk about quite a bit. And going into now what looks to be the heart of hurricane season with an alnino, we'll see. We just certainly know that temperatures above average in the Atlantic, but out in the Pacific we do have above average temperatures too, which is what is typical of an Alnino summer, and then the water temperatures that we've seen. I believe there was a part of southern Florida that almost or maybe it did reach one hundred
degree water temperatures. That's basically because you have this hot air that's just been sitting over that region for so long. Yes, where that was measured that one oh one was actually in a shallow body of water and with a dark bottom on it too, so it did help accelerate that temperature a little bit more. But still it doesn't matter because there's still temperatures that are well but
average even in the mid nineties. They're regardless of whether that was an anomaly or not, it was confirmed that that's what the reading was, just over one hundred degrees. What have we seen in terms of drought conditions across the country, and also we hear a lot about wildfires out west with this kind of heat. Is that more of a risk or have we not seen that unfold like maybe we would have thought, Well, we did do a pretty
good job on the drought in the west over the wintertime. That hasn't translated into the summer months so far. The wildfire seasons off to a slower start, but as we know that all the wildfires have been up in Canada where
they do have higher drought conditions than we do here in the US. So the short as is we've done better through the winter now into the early part of the summer starting to get a little abnormally dry, and that trend seems to be continuing with a lack of any significant monsoon in the southwestern US. And then final question for you not to skip too far ahead, but what does all of this this record heat that we've been dealing with, what does
it mean for fall and winter? Are we expecting you still warm temperatures well into fall in certain parts of the US and potentially winter or could things change well traditionally in Elninio winter would be in that for most of the US. But again, when we talk about warmer temperatures, it's going to be above average, I mean, is it going to be one degree above average or five degrees? I mean, that's going to mean all the difference, especially
when we talk about East coast snowstorms. I mean, that's what everybody gets concerned about in the winter time for the most part. You know, if it's supposed to be thirty degrees and it's thirty one. It's still going to so I think it'll all play out whether or not it's going to be a typical El Nino or something a typical, which is what we're seeing so far
this year. Weather Channel meteorologists Ray Stagic with a breakdown of what we've been experiencing across the country with this summer heat and what to expect moving forward. Ray really appreciate the time, Thanks so much, No problem. All right, I'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeart Radio Communities, and I want to bring in our final guest. We're joined by doctor Gene Tweiney, author of Generations, the Real Differences between Gen Z Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and
Silence. Doctor Tweiney, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to come on the show. And let's start with the basics here. What exactly do those different generational labels represent. Yeah, so I start with the Silent generation, those born nineteen twenty five to nineteen forty five. Then we have the Boomers nineteen forty six to nineteen sixty four, Generation X nineteen sixty five nineteen seventy nine, Millennials nineteen eighty to nineteen ninety four and Generation Z nineteen
ninety five to twenty twelve. And so out of these generations, which ones are the largest in terms of population, So the Boomers that's where they get their name because there are so many babies born during that period, although Millennials are also a very big generation and are taking over in terms of population size. So when you look at these different generations and how they seem to interact
with each other these days, where do we find the biggest divides? You know, in terms of politics and in terms of a lot of issues around free speech and cancel culture. There's a pretty pronounced break between Gen xers and
boomers on one side, and millennials and Gen Z on the other. So a lot of things that we've heard about over the last five to seven years, where managers are editors and these papers want to have more issues discussed, it's often the younger millennial employees to say, no, you know, we don't want that speaker to come to campus, or we don't want that outset to be published. Any idea what could be driving that those differences, especially
between those four generations Gen Z, Millennials, gen X and boomers. What is the conflict here. What's the driver behind what we're seeing in terms of these differences. Well, the traditional theory of generations just about experiencing major events, things like wars or pandemics. But if you really think about what has the biggest impact on day to day life and the long term, it's technical knowledging. That's what is really different about living now versus living fifty years ago
or twenty years ago. So that's really had the biggest impact on the values in life course of these generations, and it also gives them their different person expect is because Millennials grew up with the Internet and Gen X didn't. Just from a technological standpoint, when you take a look at the difference between Boomers and Gen Z for example, or even millennials, look the internets and social
media that really came into existence. I'm a millennial during my lifetime. Gen Z they're born right into it, and Gen X and Boomers they've been adjusting to all of it. So how have we seen in the past generations work to try to understand each other during those kinds of major changes. Yeah, that was really my goal in this book was understanding to help people understand their own generation and the generations that they are working with are in their family.
And there's so many myths and rumors about generations that I really wanted to go to the stores and try to find the real differences, mostly through these big national surveys that have asked people all kinds of questions, because then we're not guessing, we're really seeing how the generations differ from each other. We're joined now by doctor Jean Tweeney, author of Generations the Real Differences between gen Z,
Millennials, gen X, Boomers, and Silence. We hear a lot about Boomers, millennials and gen Z. Does gen X sometimes get lost in the mix? They do? So gen X is the middle child of generations, you know, parsons. They're mediating between two bigger generations on either side of them, the boomers and the millennials. And also they're like a middle child, and that they often get forgotten. But I think a lot of gen xers like that. Gen xer myself and a lot of my friends will
say, no, we like that. We're going to fly under the radar. The two youngest generations, gen Z and millennials, so you would think would understand each other best because they're closer in age range. How do they get along and how similarly do they view the war old. Yeah, so that's the shift a lot of people are having to make of. You know, didn't seem that long ago when it was the money. Also were the young adults, but now that's gen Z and those are two generations that are
pretty different. So Millennials, especially when they were young, very optimistic, self confident, and gen Z is not. They are not as self confident, many many more are depressed and anxious. They are you know, taking some of that dissatisfaction and pessimism and in voting more. But the mental health peace and that shift from optimism to pessimism makes those those generations pretty different. A narrative that we hear a lot about millennials and gen Z that they're lazy,
they're spoiled, they're entitled. Is that something you dive into in this book and take a look at. Well, you know, there's a little bit of truth to that in that, especially for millennials, they really topped out on a lot of these measures around say, you know, thinking that you're special and having high self esteem and self confidence that start a fall part with gen Z. So it doesn't fit Gen Z as much. And then you look at work attitudes, it does show up that started with Gen X
and then grew with millennials of more work life balance. So I think it's a matter of perspective because a lot of Silent generation and boomers would say, no, you know, it's work ethic, it's work, work, work, But then younger generations say, okay, but you know, is that really well how we want to spend our lives and maybe we should also try
to have more balance. We're joined by doctor Gene Twingey, author of Generations The Real differences between Gen Z, Millennials, gen X, Boomers and silence, respect respect for boomers from our younger generations, respect for Gen Z and millennials from those in the boomer generation, the silent generation. Do you find
that something that is lacking? Yeah, I think we have a really big issue these days with generational conflict, and it's heightened by a lot of the negativity on social media and online, a lot of finger pointing and blaming. It's it's really counterproductive. I also think it's inaccurate because as you look at cultural change, that's what shapes generations, and it's affecting all of us.
You know, we're all living with the changes wrought by technology, and probably you know, those conflicts are a little misguided too, because not all changes negative. There are some great things about living right now, you know, certainly playing it downsides, but to argue in terms of the conveniences that we live with, that we're living at the greatest time in history because of the
technological advances that we've seen. Do you think it's more difficult for generations like from Boomers to Gen Z to understand and each other compared to previous generations and those gaps. Yeah, I do think so, And I think I think
it's it's partially because generations get their information from different sources these days. You know, it used to be we had three channels and one evening newscast on each channel and that was it, right, you know, and then we got cable and then the Internet and then social media, and now now you know, we have to try to just agree on facts. Now. I do want to note your book also takes a look at some ways these different
generations can bringe those gaps, can come to understand each other better. Tell us about that. Yeah, I think I think that really is the key of trying to understand somebody else's perspective. Hard to do, but really really powerful. And there's always been a desire among older generations to understand the younger generation and oh, you know the young ones coming up, like what are they like? Was shaped them? But it has to go both ways.
If there's a tendency for younger generations to say, oh, you know, you're older, you don't know anything, you don't know what it's like to be young now. But a lot of wisdom in older generations, a lot of good perspectives there too, so understanding in both directions. Doctor Jean Tweiney, author of Generations, The Real Differences between Gen Z Millennials, gen X Boomers, and Silence. Doctor Tweiney, thank you so much for taking a
few minutes to come on the show. Really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. All Right, that's going to do it for this edition of iHeartRadio Communities. I want to thank all of our guests and of course all of you for listening. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you again real soon.