Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues in facting you this week.
Here's many Munyos.
And welcome to another edition of Iheartradios Communities. As you heard, I am Manny Munyo's mentorship being a guide for our communities, our nations, our world's future leaders something many of us might know about, few actually undertake. But how impactful can it be to mentor someone for both sides of the equation.
Let's talk about it as we bring in doctor William Keyes, former White House Policy Advisor, founder of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, and his book is titled The Stories They Hear Expecting Greatness as a Key to Success, Doctor Keys, I appreciate the time.
Thank you, Manny. It's great to be with you.
Let me start off with the institute because mentorship, the book, all of it seems to be a culmination of your life's work. Am I right about that?
You could say that certainly the last twenty two years of it.
Talk to me about the Institute for Responsible Citizenship? What is it? Where did the idea to created come from?
Twenty two years ago I created a program for some of the best and brightest African American male college students in the country. And I did that in response to a real frustration that I had that the most ignored demographic in America was talented young black men. You know, you think probably surprising when I say that, but if you think about it, in so many cases, folks will look at hardworking, talented, ambitious young black men and say, you know, that's great, but they're going to be fine.
I want to help the kids who really need help. And you know, that's well meaning, it's thoughtful, except for the fact that those young men who are hard work working, talented and ambitious, they need help too. And if they're going to go as far as their talents might take them, they're going to end up in positions where they are competing with people who are receiving a ton of support.
And in many cases we wonder why they flame out and don't achieve what they may have is because we're expecting them on their own to compete against other peoples, in some cases, other people's entire communities. It's just not a fair competition. So I thought, what if we actually support some of these young men and give them, you know, some of the tools that can help them be extraordinarily successful,
and let's see what will happen. And in twenty two years, you know, we select twelve young men each year, and in twenty two years we worked with almost three hundred young men. And those young men include a member of the New York State Supreme Court. They include surgeons at great hospitals like Johns Hopkins Baltimore. They're on the Philadelphia City Council, the Baltimore School Board. They're professors at top universities like Dupe Brandied University of Tennessee. They are entrepreneurs
who are hiring people. They're doing all kinds of amazing things. So the proof that's really in the putting if we support people who have great potential that can pay great dividends. And man, if you don't, I want to say one other things. It probably sounds like I'm talking about an investment in three hundred people, which it is, but that's not really our objective. Our objective is that we're supporting three hundred people who will impact the lives of millions
of people. So the investment in the young man who is a surgeon at Johns Hopkins, it's not just about him. It's about all of those patients he will treat over the course of a career, and their families and the people that they will influence. So that's what the of what the Institute is all about. That's what we're doing. We're seeing amazing results, and we've written this book because we want to say, Okay, here's what has led to these phenomenal results. And if you want to see these
results yourself, maybe you can. You can learn about what we've done and it could be instructive for you.
And these amazing African American young men clearly with all the tools to succeed, but might not have been able to reach their potential without that helping handle, without that guidance.
Yes, So that's a really good point that I also want to make, which is the subtitle is expecting Greatness to keep to success. And after the book was written and we had that subtitle on the cover, it occurred to me that success is not really my objective. Because most of these young men get selected for the Institute because they're already demonstrating that they're going to be successful. My goal is not to help them be successful. My
goal is to help them become difference makers. That's different.
We're speaking here on Black History Month. Why do you think that African American young men, who are already, as you mentioned, showing all the potential in the world, are still such an underserved demographic in our society.
In nineteen ten, WB du Boys wrote about how he was trying to develop a system of higher education for Negros and he would go to philanthropists to ask for support, and they would say, the boys, that's great, but the kind of people who could take advantage of a higher
education should be able to take care of themselves. And when I read that, I pounded my desk and I said, I'll be damned, I'm dealing with the same thing more than a century later, where you know, we're just making the assumption that talented young black men and women, frankly ought to be able to just go it on their own. And those same philanthropists who will say that about young black men and women will also go out and create merit scholarship programs back in those days for talented young
white men. So why that's it that talented young black folks ought to be able to go it on their own, but then they wanted to provide all kinds of structures to provide support for talented young white people for them to be successful.
Yeah, I got people get upset with me sometimes when I say that I've never walked a foot in the shoes of a black man in this country because I haven't lived what they've lived, nor do I face the obstacles that they potentially faced. Did you have a mentor that got you to the point where you are in life?
I think they're a serious of mentors. There's no one person who comes to mind. You know. I am the product of a family with two loving parents and grandparents who were educated, and you know, I grew up in a very small town Washington, North Carolina, where I was surrounded by people who you know, whether they you know, worked at the gas station or they were the principal of the school. We were all a cohesive community. We all supported each other and it was just a remarkable
life that I live. And in some ways, you know, I tried to create that or recreate that within the institute where these young men are supportive of each other. But mentorship is really important. But being around people who expect greatness, going back to that subtitle, who expect greatness
from you is really important. You know, I talked to young people about how you know, they will, you know, go to go to class and you know, they turn in their first project for class and they didn't really put their whole heart into it, and they did a mediocre job. And then the professor hands back their project and some on the back and says how great that is. And the typical response would be for that student to say, oh wow, I got over Yeah. The reality is you
didn't get over it. You got pumped. Because that's the moment when you should say, wait a minute, that professor thinks that's my best work. Just like what people are expecting that your mediocre work is your best work. You're going to start producing mediocre work on a regular basis, and then guess what, you end up living a pretty mediocre life.
A few more minutes here with doctor William Key's, former White House policy advisor, founder of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, and the author of the Stories. They hear expecting greatness as the keys to success. How how difficult it is when people, especially young African American men, with all the potential, have limiting beliefs. They have self doubt about just how far they could go. And how do you help them overcome that?
While you know, what a great question. The title of this book, the stories say here, that's how we do it. You know, at the institute, folks ask what is it that's so special about what we do? When you think about all the components of it, whether it's internships or or the academic seminars or meetings with high powered people, there are lots of folks who do those things. I think the thing that really makes the difference is the
conversations we have around the dinner table. You talk about the self doubt, that's where we deal with that at the dinner table, where we're sitting there with twelve junior twelve seniors, and we're having these real conversations about their lives, where we communicate the values and the expectations that lead to these young men becoming you know, the successful people they are. It's with those conversations I can invite all of your listeners to come sit at the dinner table
with us. But what I decided was that I would put those conversations, those stories into a book that they could read. So whether they are you know, a Scout troop leader or a youth pastor or a teacher or a professor or whatever. When they work with young people, they would see some of the things that we talk about that have led Listen, if I were a basketball coach, everybody will and we want a championship. Everybody will want to know, Okay, what is it that you do to
help your team be successful? Well, I think what we're doing is far more important, and so therefore we wanted to put those stories in a book so that people could see what it is that we talk about.
Every successful person I've always spoken to tells me that they've learned more from their failures than from their successes. That being said, it can be quite difficult to overcome repeated failures. How do you deal with that?
Well, one of the things I do from the very beginning is to make sure these young men know that I am not a perfect person, and I tell them that they are fortunate that they have someone in their life who has failed. You know, I've had a lot of successes in life, but I've also had a lot
of failures. And I tell them, you do not want to have a mentor you know who is pretending to you that he's never failed at anything, because if you do you are going to fail at something, you don't want to go to someone who's not going to understand it. You're going to want to come to someone like me, who's going to say, so, that's what it is that you're so worried about. Okay, that's the problem, and how we're going to overcome it, because this is not going
to stop you. So failure is a part of it. You know. The only way you don't fail is if you don't try anything difficult. And part of what is preparing these young men to do so well is that we're challenging them to do difficult things. We're putting them in a very, very very rigorous environment where when they apply to Harvard Law School, I am gonna be able to say we put them through a really really rigorous, rigorous program and they thrived in this environment.
I have every.
Confidence they will thrive at Harvard Law School. And so what's a result. In May? I went up to see our thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth alum alumni graduate from Harvard Law School. And remember we're only an organization of fewer than three hundred people. So I think the proofose in the pudding. You put people through tough, rigorous challenges, and when they succeed at them, there is no more self doubt. You asked about self doubt. There's no more self doubt,
there's no more worry. They still face tough challenges, but they're able to go face those challenges with the confidence that I can do the work that is going to enable me to succeed.
What is their culture, their life experience as young African American men in the United States, How does that play into this whole equation of success greatness?
Yeah?
Yeah, So first of all, you know, other than the fact that all of our scholars are African American men, it is quite a diverse group. They come from all over the country, from all different backgrounds, you know, all types of family backgrounds, their ambitions are different, so they're pretty pretty different. But you know, to your point, you know, one of the common factors is that they are young men of color who in so many cases are treated
certain ways simply because of the way they look. Yes, And we talked about that very very you know, very directly, and say, okay, that's the reality. Now what do we do about it? And I think that's a pretty important part of what the Institute is about where these young men will say, this is the first time I've ever been in a room, you know, with young men like myself where we're able to have these kinds of conversations.
And you know, we talk about the institute being a safe space, and I say, not like the safe space that you have back on your college campus where people just want to be safe from here in youse say something that they disagree with right now. This is a real safe space where we're going to have real conversations.
And let me just tell you something. I walk away from a lot of those those dinner time conversations with tears in my eyes just thinking about, you know, what some of these young men have had to overcome in their lives, what they're dealing with, but even more so, tears of pride with what these young men are achieving and what they're committed to achieving for reasons that are bigger than just themselves.
Doctor William Keys, former White House Policy Advisor, founder the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, and the author of the Stories They Hear Expecting Greatness as the Key to Success. Doctor Keys, thank you so much for sharing your time, your expertise. Best of love, Wick with the.
Book and the Institute thank you so much.
A deadly fire destroyed much of Lehaina, Hawaii, leaving more than one hundred people dead. Wildfires across southern California, killing at least twenty nine leaving several communities there in ashes. These types of events happen much more than most of us realize, and the effects from these brush fires wildfires could be long lasting for the survivors and it's more than just environmental. Let's talk about it as we bring
in doctor Peter Popadaclos. He is a professor of anaesthesiology, surgery, neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Rochester and an expert on all of these issues caused by the fires. Doctor Papadocus, I appreciate the time, Yes.
Nanny, I have researched this quite extensively, and these wildfires have released many toxins, both in smoke and in the ash that are very toxic and can cause cam answers, heart disease, lung diseases, and we're going to be seeing a lot of healthcare issues going into the future.
Well, let's talk about that a little bit. Do we know how often these wildfires brush fires significant enough to actually cause harm to the residents in the areas.
The largest variable in terms of massive amounts of toxins from wildfires is when structures are involved. And I think both in Hawaii and in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles alone, ten thousand structures burned. And when a structure burns, it contains many modern things like electronics, lithium lighting fixtures, paints, hydrocarbons that are in the house that are released with the fire.
And people think maybe that well, they escape the fire, so they're not at risk of any eventual health effects. But if they go back and survey the you know, what is left of their homes or anything like that, that alone could be damaging to the health.
No, that is absolutely correct. That's why government agencies, the EPA, state and local agencies should educate the population. You need to handle the area like a toxic waste dump. And in Maui they actually did that. People were wearing very good ventilatory support devices, they were in protective suits, and all this ash and stuff needs to be removed and then placed in specific landfills that it will not leach into the water table or affect other areas.
You've compared some of the health effects that you've seen in survivors of some of these fires to what you saw in veterans coming back from Afghanistan, for example, Pemple who were near burn pits in those areas.
That is correct, The burn pits are actually a very good model. Unfortunately, we learned from over three point five million service people and untold numbers of local residents in those areas were affected. People were not using protection when they were burning, and a lot of the stuff they were burning was electronics, batteries, you know, vehicle parts, paint,
you know, just stuffed from that they were burning. And the Veterans Administration and Northwell Health in New York City has been following these veterans and they are developing cancers above the normal population. They're developing all kinds of other diseases, blood diseases, digestive diseases because of the toxic materials. Even light bulbs. Modern light bulbs contain mercury, which we know is poisonous.
So there's a difference between the potential immediate health impacts of somebody who might be exposed to a wildfire or house fire or whatever and the long term effects that you're going to see emerge over time.
Yes, And I think one of the models that we have is not only the burn pits, but just think of the events of September eleventh and all the first responders and how they've developed all kinds of diseases and have passed away from exposure.
At ground zero, You would think the first responders would be the most aware of the potential dangers of even being inside of an area, you know, after the fire, just while.
It's while the remains are there. You would think they'd know the potential health effects and be able to protect themselves. But we haven't seen that, have we No, And.
I think we need the environmental protection agents to work with for first responder agents, you know, first responders, to educate them on what protection they should have. How to deal with this problem. We need to develop protocols and guidelines for the cleanup people, not just the first roup,
but the clean up people prior to construction. Warn people that maybe you shouldn't have a vegetable garden in Los Angeles, you know where if you rebuild a house, because maybe in those vegetables you grow, you'll find concentrations of murky rooms with it. We need to study the area. We need to do long term studies looking at this, warning people,
educating people. I think the key factor is educating, and you know, the media needs to get out there and say, you know, the fire is over, but these are all the terrible things that can occur over time. You need to be filed by your doctor because if just like the nine to eleven experience and the burn pit experience, if we catch cancers early, cure is better than catching them late. These people should be monitored in a very robust health monitoring system.
We're speaking with doctor Peter Papadaccas. He is a professor of anesthesiology, surgery, neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Rochester and one of the nation's foremost experts on the effects of fires on health. We often hear people talking about the mental aspects of losing their home, seeing things burned down like happen in Lehina or Los Angeles or elsewhere. We don't often hear these health effects addressed. Why is that.
Because again people don't understand the effects. But let me project something. We know from nine to eleven that the first responders between nine and twenty percent of people that were at that scene develop post traumatic stress syndrome. Okay, so then you look at the Los Angeles fire or the Maui fire. Just think of children in a car with their pet parents fleeing the fire, surrounded by flames on either side of the road. Okay, after it is over,
there is no safe space. Because the first responders from nine to eleven got to go home to their homes surrounded by mementos, things that they enjoyed. These people in Los Angeles and Maui do not have that sort of mental protection. So I predict that there will be a much higher incidence post traumatic stress syndrome this in those two populations, in Maui and in Los Angeles.
Yeah, when you talk about southern California alone, where tens of thousands of structures, homes, you know, schools, office buildings were destroyed, that's going to be a recurring nightmare for so many of those residents.
Correct, and especially the children. I think they evacuated your school, you know, you were in a bus going through flames on either side. Then when you got the safety, you found out that your home, with your toys, with your whatever is gone. You know that is going to scar children that's just like being in a catastrophic war area. The level of destruction that occurs.
Is our healthcare system doctor prepared not only to address the potential surgeon chronic long term health issues, but even the mental health issues you were just talking about.
I think with appropriate preparation we can be. But I can tell you right now, at this point in time, with multiple health care crisises and things going on, we don't have as robust infrastructure to take care of these people as we'd want to. A matter of fact, I think in Los Angeles the hospitals were overwhelmed with the amount of people with respiratory issues that presented themselves. So
we need planning. You know, these wildfires are increasing in propensity, you know, maybe because of environmental issues, construction issues, what have you. So we need to have preparation in place along with monitoring these people and preventive health counseling for these kids. There should be widespread counseling available for all these children that were affected by these fires, both in Hawaii and in I don't see that robust response. I don't see anyone talking about it.
The chronic illness trends how soon after exposure either to the smoke of the fire itself or the remnants in the ash. If you go back and survey something like this, do you begin seeing some of these health effects.
Yeah, you're going to see in the first few days, you're going to see a very large rat rise in respiratory diseases. But you're also going to see an increase in cardiovascular disease. Heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes have all been identified in the literature as occurring within the first few
days of the acute smoke period. The cancers and some of the other diseases will take time to develop over a few decades, just this being the experience that we have from nine to eleven, and then it took twenty years for some first responders to start developing very rare cancers in dying. And these were in the nine to eleven situation. I think we had the forewarning and a lot of the professional organizations, the fire department, police department,
demanded that their first responders be observed for diseases. I don't know what happens to the population of Maui, Los Angeles and first responders from out of area. Who's going to be following them?
Yeah, we're talking about two extreme examples here right, what happened in Lahina, what happened in southern California, and structure fires. More than anything, there are a lot of other parts of the country that get regular brush fires, you know, environmental fires and things like that, wildfires on a regular basis. What is the potential health threat from those when there aren't as many structures, but people still might be affected by the smoke itself.
We learned our lessons with the large wildfires in Canada that covered a good chunk of northern United States and smoke. There was a massive increase in asthma attacks, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases just from that smoke, and that smoke for many hundreds of miles away. So in a local fire, the people that are for most in danger are the
people with long term respiratory diseases. Our elderly, you know, people with asthma, people with bronchitis, bronchiectuses, and other respiratory diseases are going to be affected by the smoke other.
Than obviously staying inside. In areas that might be affected by smoke from brushfires, wildfires, et cetera, what would be the best advice for you for people who maybe are in those categories, who might have ASIMAR or something else at risk and they need to go outside. I mean it's almost taboo to wear masks these days after the pandemic, But is that a good protection? How would you advise they protect themselves.
I think you hit the nail on the head is you need protection, and the protection is researchable and available online by appropriate respirators. They look more like gas masks, very similar to the masks that people wear in construction, you know, with the two filters on either side. Sure, if I have a patient, and I write about this, and I've written textbooks on respiratory diseases, is those people should make the effort to have that equipment available if
they plus having an air filter in your house. If you're patient at risk, you should have these resources available to you.
And even if you're not somebody at risk. The air in our house generally isn't very healthy to begin with, despite what we might think, is it.
I can tell you I don't have any of those diseases, but after years of researching this stuff, I have a very robust air filtering system in my house.
Yeah, there's no question about it. Doctor Peter Papadacus, Professor of Anesthesiology, Surgery, Neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Rochester, one of the most renowned experts on the health effects long term and short term of being around fire's, exposure to smoke and things along those lines. Doctor, thank you very much for the time your expertise. I appreciate it. Thank you, and that'll do it for another edition of Iheartradios Communities. I'm Manny Muno's Until next time, Z