The Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation

all things tech. But on July eighth, twenty twenty, fans around the world were shocked to learn that Grant him Ahara, a roboticist and popular science and tech communicator and television host, had passed away suddenly. Grant became famous as part of the Build team on the television series MythBusters, in which he would help put various myths and beliefs to the test, often by devising intricate and complicated gadgets in order to

do so. He was active in fandom circles and had previously been in the series battle Bots, first as a competitor on one team of battle Bots, and then later on as a judge in a later season. Grant's passing was shocking, and immediately there was an outpouring of grief and love from his friends, his family, and his fans. I remember feeling gutted when I heard about it, and I had only had the grief is meeting with him once,

many many years earlier. His family and friends would take that grief and that love and they would focus on that love that they had for Grant. They wanted to do something to honor his memory, and so together they would create the Grant Immahara Steam Foundation. So today I want to talk a little bit about Grant's life and his work in tech, and talk a little bit about Steam, and then we'll have an interview with Don Be's, a longtime friend of Grant and the one of the directors

for the foundation. He's the president of the Grant Imahara Steam Foundation. Grant grew up in Los Angeles, California, and his mom says that as a kid, he gravitated towards toys that let him build things like Lego sets, and once he got hold of a screwdriver, he also took to taking things apart in order to learn how they worked,

which is a pretty familiar story. Whenever I talked to anyone who is an engineer, the idea that you want to learn how something works, you take it apart, and if you're lucky, you can keep it working when you put it back together again. But often it just becomes a learning experience that and part of your education. Well, when he was a young boy, the first Star Wars film came out, that is, Star Wars A New Hope, or Episode four as we think of it these days.

Grant credited that movie as being the jumping off point for his love of robots. He felt drawn towards the characters the droids C three PO and R two D two and thought, that's what I want to do. I want to make robots. Well. Grant attended college at the University of Southern California, and he majored in electrical engineering, or E as the cool engineers call it. By his junior year, he was no longer feeling really certain about

his chosen major. He felt that the discipline didn't really give him enough space to be, you know, creative, and he found the studies rather unfulfilling and a bit daunting.

And he was given the advice by a counselor to speak with a professor of cinema at USC, a man named Tom Holman, and Holman has an incredibly impressive list of credentials, not the least of which is the invention of the sound system called t X. And just as a quick tangent, I'm not going to go on about this for very long, but th h X is really interesting. It's it's not about a sound format. It's not like you record sound in a th h X format and that's what makes it special. Instead, it's more of an

approach to quality control and sound reproduction. So a th h X certified system is on that can play sound back so that the reproduce sound you get when you're watching a movie is as close to the original intentions of the mixing engineers as it can possibly be. In other words, it's a means for theaters and filmmakers to create the most faithful recreation of sounds possible for the purposes of telling a story the way the filmmakers wanted to.

So you want that explosion to have a particular reverberation and base to it. You want the music to come through in a specific way to help elevate the emotions of the audience. You want that dialogue to be crisp

so that people can understand what's being said. All of these things play a part in it, and it meant making theaters more uniform in the sense that they would be able to replicate the stuff faithfully, and audiences who would go in to watch a movie would be given the opportunity to see it the way everyone wanted them to, whereas otherwise, you know, your mileage may vary, kind of like if signals coming in poorly over cable or or broadcast TV, You'll be able to see and hear stuff,

but it probably won't be the way that the creators of that content had intended. Well. Holman had Immahara work as sort of an assistant, which meant Grant had the chance to sit in on Holman's classes, and effectively he got to take courses that his major would otherwise have prevented him from taking because he was already in his junior year of electrical engineering. So at that stage you don't have as much freedom to take whatever courses you want.

You're kind of locked in. This gave him a chance to work around that. Holman became a mentor to Grant, and that relationship would oppress upon Grant the importance of mentors in general, and he encounter several more. In his early career. Emmahara heard about the intern program over at Lucasfilm and he met with Holman to ask him if he might write a letter of recommendation, because as you can imagine, Lucasfilm is a pretty competitive spot when it

comes to internships. They only have a few and a lot of people really seek them out because that's a heck of a spot to have on your resume. Well, Holman said, I'm not going to write you a letter of recommendation, just have them call me. And apparently with his recommendation over the phone, Grant landed a spot in that intern program, and it's safe to say that Emmahara really found his calling there. He also got a chance later on to dress up as one of the robot

heroes he loved. He got to be C three p O. Plus he got to work on a remote controlled operated R two D two that a full size R two D two that was used for promotional appearances. Grant really took the lead in updating the electronics in that uh that remote control are two because when it had originally been built, it was built on nineteen eighties era technology. Gret was able to update that into nineties technology and slim things down a bit and give it a little

more of a robust versatility. And then Grantam Mahara would later make a move over to work at Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects studio, and he would work on films like Jurassic Park, The Lost World. He worked on Galaxy Quest, one of my favorite science fiction films of all time. I mean it's a comedy, but it's a science fiction comedy and if you haven't seen Galaxy Quest, you owe it to yourself to check out that movie.

He worked on Ai, a very ambitious project that originally started out as a Stanley Kubrick project, and then morphed over to Steven Spielberg after Kubrick passed away. He also worked on the Star Wars prequels and the Matrix sequels, and around that same time, Grant began to build robots for the robot competition show battle Bots. In case you have never seen this show, first of all, you're missing out.

This show was wildly entertaining, but it features teams of roboticists who compete in an arena combat competition and they pit their remote controlled robots against others from other teams. The robot that Emmahara worked on specifically was named dead Blow, and it featured a very low slung body on four wheels. It had a sort of wedge mounted in the front as almost like a ramp, and behind the wedge was an eight pounds sledgehammer arm that could slam down to

smash opponents. Later that weapon would be modified into a CEO two powered pick acts. It competed in the middle weight division of the competition. They had lightweights, middle weights, and heavyweights, and dead Blow always did pretty well, though it never quite made it to number one, And as the series went on and the competitors began to design robots with uh particularly effective means of defeating opponents, dead Blow started to kind of lag behind a little bit.

But Grant also became really close friends with a lot of the other competitors at battle pots, and there are stories of teams that would approach Grant to ask him for advice about how they should best operate their their robots and how the remote controls even worked, and time and again, if you ask them about it. You'll hear about how Grant was happy to walk people through how

the systems worked and how best to optimize them. I mean, he was competing against some of these same teams, but he loved to talk shop and he loved to teach what he had learned, so he started to become kind of a mentor to some of the other battle Boats participants along the way. A couple of other guys who are also in the special effects industry and who also competed in battle Bots were Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage.

Immahara would get to know them a lot better when he would join the show MythBusters after the show's first season. Adam Savage would go on to say that Immahara made an incredible contribution to that show, and he added that Emmahara was the only one of the hosts who had an academic background in engineering, so he really also gave

MythBusters a sense of legitimacy. That way, Grant would end up building a lot of stuff for MythBusters in the the efforts to test various claims and determine whether they were busted that is, you know, not really possible, or if they were plausible or confirmed, and he also got a chance to live out the fantasy of being in

multiple different kinds of stunts and crazy situations. I'm sure some of them were daunting, but the thing that really struck me as a fan of MythBusters was that Grant always seemed really excited and jazzed to do something truly insane as part of that show, and it was something that always found really really entertaining in the producers decided to phase out the Build Team, of which Grant was part of that and uh they focused solely on Hyneman

and Savage for the remaining seasons of MythBusters, but Imahara kept working on various projects, including a show called White Rabbit for Netflix, where he joined his former Build team Comrades to do a season of that show. He also designed and built the robot that is the second Banana sidekick for Craig Ferguson's Late show and that was still on and that was also known as Jeff Peterson the Robot. One of my favorite on screen characters one Craig and

And and Jeff the Robot. Their interactions together are some of the funniest ones I've seen on Late night television. If you've never noticed or seen that, I recommend going to YouTube and just searching for like Craig and Jeff that's geo Ff compilations, because they are They made me cry.

I laughed so hard. Grant also worked with Disney Imagineering on various projects, including he built an animatronic baby Yoda figure from the Mandalorian and it was meant to be a device that you could take two different children's hospitals, which dang, hit y'all, that's just I mean, that's just awesome and inspirational. He also would take time to volunteer

at high school robotics organization. He lent his expertise and his knowledge to help kids who were just getting into mechanical and electrical engineering, and he encouraged their work and taught them how to do things, and again that mentor mentality was really coming in strong. His impact continues to

be felt throughout the worlds of engineering and entertainment. If you do a search of his name, you will find countless examples of amazing stories about his exploits, the impressions he did, his projects, and his genuine love of other people. The foundation named in honor of Grant Immahara will focus on providing resources for STEAM education. STEAM stands for science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and mathematics. Uh, it's great that it's STEAM rather than STEM.

STEM is very important. STEM is is science, technology, engineering, and math, but it doesn't have the art component there. But Grant found a lot of satisfaction by applying his knowledge in those other fields, specifically within the arts, and I think a lot of people that that really resonates. So STEAM is a wonderful kind of approach to this.

And there is no doubt about it that there are too many schools and school systems around the world, but particularly in the United States, where there is a real need for more STEAM resources and education. Coming up, we've got my interview with Don Be's, the president and director of the Grant Imahara Steam Foundation. But first let's take a quick break. Don. First of all, thank you so much for giving us your time and and being on the show. I am really please to have you on.

I am an advocate for STEAM education in general, and to have this chance to talk about something a cause so near and dear to my heart means a lot to me, and I'm certain it means a lot to my listeners as well. So thank you for your time, thanks for having me, thanks for reaching out to us

and asking for the interview. That's great. Absolutely, I was also one of the Well I can't say that I was one of the first, because I know that the reaction upon the announcement of the foundation was positive because I was seeing it in real time, But I was determined to be an early supporter, and so I did. I was one of those early donators to the foundation. I was so excited to see such passion. Well, it's

thank you. I mean, my contribution is tiny in comparison, but it is, Uh, it is something that I'm really excited to talk about. But before we get into that, I was hoping that maybe you could tell us about how you met Grant and how your friendship formed and and sort of the things that you observed about Grant Amhara to kind of understand the inspiration behind doing something as as momentous as as building a foundation. So Grant actually has a really interesting story as to how he

wound up at Lucasfilm which is where we met. Um. He was a student at USC and UM he was in he was an engineering student, an electrical engineering student, and I guess roughly his junior year he decided he didn't want to do it anymore. He just was bored with it. And um so he was trying to jump over to the cinema studies, I believe, and he couldn't do that. So somebody had suggested to him to, uh talk to Tom Holman. Who Tom Holman is the man

who invented t X sound system. Um and it was red con but everyone was calling it th h X stood for Tom Holman's Experiment, but that's not true. But um so anyway, uh and Tom was a professor at USC. So he went in and I heard the story from Grant.

I've also heard the story more recently from Tom. But essentially he went in and and said to Tom, you need an intern and and so he offered to start cleaning up Tom's office, and one thing led to another, and Tom started giving him jobs to do and this and that, and then then the internship possibility popped up for Grant at at Lucasfilm because they had every year, I think they had two sets of interns, you know, like a spring spring and a fall semester or something

like that. And uh so he uh, he said I wanted to I want to do the internship at Becasfilm. Could you write me a letter of recommendation? And Tom said, she just said, we'll just have him call me. It'll be fine, and so he called. They one thing let to another in course, and uh. Grant was an intern at the thh X division of Lucasfilm. And so that's

actually where I met Grant. I was in between doing film work, I was also doing I was also the Lucasfilm Archives, so I took care of all the props and models and costumes and everything from Star Wars and Indiana Jones and Willow and even Howard the Duck. So I knew people because of the work at the ranch, Skywalker Ranch and I l M. I knew a lot of a lot of people and we would have lunch together,

you know, do different people. I got to be friends with different people, and and that's how I met him. He came to lunch one day with some friends and um and a matter of fact, the first actually the first time I met him was at the thh X office and he was hanging on to someone's leg and she was dragging him along the ground and I'm like, what what a little nutcase, this guy. So that was my first impression of ground. But he we met, like I said, at lunch, and he just started kind of

hanging out with him. He was only I think he's twenty two. He's turning twenty three that year. When we met in like ninety three, and I was doing a huge project at the archives at that point. We're getting a huge a lot of the models and archival stuff ready for an exhibition in Japan, and uh so people are coming over and looking at it and checking it out a lot. And he would come over the archives and kind of hang out with us a little bit.

And then when I found out he was an electrical engineer. Um, one of the other side jobs I had was operating rt D two for personal appearances, and and our two was always in need of some sort of upgrade. You know, he's dealing with seventies early eighties technology at that point. So um, I, you know, I asked, Granted, says, you want to come and help me fix up our two, and he said of course, and and uh and that's how we bonded, you know, that's how we really first met.

So yeah, I hear that there's no there's no experience that brings people closer together than working over a droid late late into the evening hours. Uh, that's that's incredible. How would you how would you describe Grant to someone who had never met him? Well, at that point, well he was I mean he's he always was generous. I mean, but uh, you know he continued that. But he was,

especially at that point. He was really young, really enthusiastic, Uh, incredibly knowledgeable, especially for someone that young, willing to you know, take on any kind of problem and try to solve it. He was really good at like reverse engineering something. So you know, it's like, you, this is the problem we have, how do we get here? And he would figure it

out and come back to stuff. So, uh, he made a really good fit with a lot of us that you know, we're working in industrial light and magic as well, because that's a lot of a lot of people there did this similar things. So he was just uh, incredibly clever. Um. Never really in a bad mood. Um. I mean I I got to witness a few you know, temper tantrums here and there, but they were always well deserved. But but he yeah, he was always really friendly. Uh, love

to laugh, love to have a good time. He was like he had he could do killer impersonations. It was. He had a great impersonation of George Lucas. And he's the one that created the whole Jamie Hyneman where you put your hands up, you know, by your by your mouth and pretend to be have his mustache as your fingers. That was Grant that came up with that. Uh so, yeah,

he was always doing impersonations and um yeah. So yeah, just really really talented, friendly, nice guy really and and what that was what was great about when he ultimately uh found the success with MythBusters. I mean everything he was doing he was successful, and but the MythBusters just elevated into this level is global uh fame, and you know, he was one of those people that really deserved it.

You know he really, um he you know, you wish that kind of thing on those kinds of people and and and there's so many people out there that deserved that kind of recognition and don't get it. And he was so fortunate to be in the right place in right time to get it and and definitely deserved it. And it never went to his head. You know, he was I hear from people that you know, met him years later, because of course I knew him before he

was famous. Uh, but I, you know, met him, met people that just said he was always took the time, you know, would would remember people. Uh. He never acted like a celebrity, So that was great to hear that. He continued, you know, being pretty much the same person his entire life. It's funny. I I briefly met him at a dragon Con many years ago. Was the very first time that the MythBusters build team were guests at

the dragon Con convention. And uh, my introduction to MythBusters was when I went to a farmer's market and two different people stopped me. Uh. At the time, I was wearing glasses and they saw me to say, do you do you have you as anyone ever told you? You look kind of like that guy from the MythBusters. And I hadn't seen the show yet. I didn't know what they were talking about. And I said, no, no one

has ever told me that. And then the second person said that, I said, well, okay, literally five minutes ago someone told me that. Well, dragon Con one of the biggest things there is cosplay, something that Grant loved and um, and so I thought it would be funny. I've been going to Dragon Constance I was a little kid. My father's a science fiction author, and I thought it would be really funny as as a costume that I would

dress up as Jamie from MythBusters. So I got I went and got a military beret, I did the Oxford shirt, I did khakis and uh, and the MythBusters crew were in the Hall of Fame section they were doing autographs, and so I made it a point to walk by to say hello. I was a big fan, and Grant looked up and gave the best laugh and then he said he pointed to me and said, you can't put me to work. I'm on vacation and uh, and it was just a wonderful moment. And also he hung out

by all the battle butts. There's a battlebuts competition at Dragon Con, and he was still just ready to to look at how people were designing their robots and operating them.

And as you say, it winted too that he had a genuine love for technology, for curiosity, and something that I personally found very inspirational is that he was so good at communicating that because I've I've met a lot of engineers who are brilliant and they're great problem solvers, but they don't always have the skill to communicate that in a way that's accessible. And I feel like Grant

definitely had that. I felt he shined on MythBusters when he was explaining his thought process for a design of a build and the and the approach to trying to test a myth. So to me, uh, he is was one of the great communicators of technology and engineering and science and the fact that he had that love for it just made that even more genuine and exciting. It's one of those rare qualities that you see in people

who are in that position. Uh. You know, I uh really admired that of him and considered him, uh, quite the role model for people who want to take that kind of approach to trying to to explain topics that are in science and tech. And I imagine that that was a large part of the inspiration as well for the friends and family who came together when conversations first started about forming the Grandamahara Steam Foundation. Is them I

on the right track here, Yeah, pretty much. I mean, you know, when just going back to what you were talking about with his ability to communicate that way. What was what was always amazing. You know, there's a stereotype of the the science or electronic or engineering nor the I T. Guy. You know that that kind of like socially in that kind of person. And that's what made really made Grants uh different from everybody else is that he didn't have that. He he was you know, his

personality was great. He was affable, he was he was friendly, was completely approachable. You never felt intimidated by him or anything like that. Yet he knew so much I mean, and and his ability to explain what he was doing and and and make it fun on the show. One of the things since we started the foundation, we've got all this amazing, amazing emails and and and responses on social media and everything about how much he inspired people,

which which is inspiring. You know that that he was such a role model and and I think that's one of the things that that kind of led us to do this. Well, first of all, we wanted to do something. I mean, you know, obviously all of us are were heartbroken when he passed away, and um and the ability to try to do something in his honor just seems so right, you know. Um, so his mother and another friend. Um Uh, we're the ones that started talking about and

then they asked the select group of people. Um uh. And I was fortunate, both myself, myself and my wife, who knew Grant for as long as I have, UM, we're fortunate enough to be asked to be part of it. And and it was really you know, for me personally, it's kind of it's a way to help uh mourn, you know it. It's it lessens the pain a little bit by knowing that we're doing something in his honor. And then the positive feedback we've gotten because of it, UM is h is really good. You know, is is

really again heartwarming to to hear. UM. So uh yeah, well, you know, it just it just seemed the right thing to do. And then when we got together our first meeting got together, there's seven of us. There's grands mother of course, who's wonderful, wonderful ma sing lady, so strong in in this and and so so um touched, incredibly touched by by the the outpouring of love and affection

for her son. Um. And then uh, there's Ijuana, who's actually a former girlfriend of Grants that they he stayed in touch with and stayed friends with all these years, myself and my wife and Ed ed Chin and his wife Kaya Elliott Ed and Koya well Ed was Grant's roommate UM at USC and so they've known each other for close to thirty twenty five years or something like that. UM and Uh and and then quite Uh Ed and Quaiya met Um I think at Skywalker Ranch because Koi

is a sound editor at Skywalker Ranch. And then Fon Davis who Faun worked with us at Industrial Light and Magic. A matter of fact, Fawn and Grant got hired on very the first project Grant got hired on at I l M. Faun was hired on and fun Works and Stills works in the special effects industry is one studio down Funco Studios down in Los Angeles. So the seven of us got together and we're, you know, we were just really trying to form what exactly it was that

we should do. Um And because the love of robotics that Grant had um he in the early two thousands, Uh mentored a team, a robotics team in Richmond, California, and and we kind of used that as a springboard as to like, let's let's honor and and start being

able to help. It was it was actually a a team team a school that's you know, um of unrepresented, underrepresented youth um and and he made such a positive impression on those people and those kids that one of the kids that he mentored is still now runs the program. And uh so UM again using that Grant's love of of course science, technology and math. Uh was it was

natural for STEM. But but the other thing that we really felt strong about adding was the a the arts, the steam and steam and because Grant was such a huge supporter of of arts, as you mentioned the couseplay stuff, obviously the film work and television work that he did. He loved making things that were artistic in addition to technical, you know. So so that was kind of that was that you know, we that was it just seemed all right,

I guess is the best way to say. You know, it just seemed the right thing to do, and it's so important to me. Uh So. My own background was with a liberal arts degree in English literature with a focus on Renaissance and Shakespearean studies. And now I talk about technology, so so I I definitely have a deep respect for the arts as well as for the the

STEM that we normally hear about. So when I saw that it was the Steam Foundation not the STEM Foundation, um that also was I found it not surprising but encouraging because I also feel that when you incorporate arts into the other, uh, the other disciplines, you get really special outcomes as a result. Uh you mentioned the robotics. I assume that the foundation is it's going to be

playing a role in the first robotics competitions. First Robotics I believe Dean Cayman founded that many years ago, and it's a big thing here in Atlanta where I'm at. We have the the Georgia Tech robo Jackets as a participants in that because the Yellow Jackets are there. I was a u g A graduate, so I'm not allowed

into those rooms. Um. Good old rivalries die hard. But what's what what sort of involvement does the foundation have with the or water The plans for the involvement of the Foundation with the robotics competitions, well, one of the things we're actually to be honest, we're still working out stuff. We we've literally formed the paperwork in August and we officially launched it on the twenty three October, which was

grants fiftieth birthday. Um. Until that point, we had no money um and so uh the donations actually literally started pouring in from that moment on. It was a really amazing to watch that we crashed the website and all that sort of stuff. It was really amazing to watch that that happened. Um. And what was also amazing is the reach. You know, it is literally from around the world. Um, so it wasn't just limited to United States or Australia, which is where Mythbuses was also was was created. Um

so Uh. So we're working out exactly how we're going to do things. One thing is is mentorship. Because of the donations that we did get in the very first donation that we're a scholarship funding whatever you'd want to call it, that we're gonna be doing is with the Richmond team uh in that grant mentor and so we're able to actually fund them a fund a bunch of home kits for them, home tool kits for them. So

that's the first thing that we're gonna do. We We've discussed everything from mentorships to scholarships to our own individual programs. So um, we're we're still working all that out. Um, but we you know, at this point, nothing is off the table, you know. We we've gotten had questions about like how how would we incorporate arts and music. Perhaps even a lot of people don't know Grant was actually

an excellent piano player. Uh so um so uh yeah, so you know, we're we're we're looking and we're open for ideas essentially at this point. Uh um, We're you know, next year will be uh, We're gonna be doing a huge fundraiser that will be everyone will know about because it will be we'll be hitting pr really hard with that one. Uh. But uh, with that, with that influx of money, hopefully then we'll be able to to expand out to to do other kinds of supports for schools

and and individual programs. Well. With that in mind, um, I guess a good segue would be to ask you, don what does steam mean to you? How is how has the various disciplines in in the under the steam umbrella, How has that affect your career path? For example? You know, I didn't realize it into more recently that I was I'm really into engineering. Um uh that um, kind of the things that I've done all my life and my

career have been engineering in some form or another. Uh, certainly I wouldn't call myself an engineer, you know, I wouldn't want to insult the people that have trained in those careers. But but you know, it is all of a matter of unfolding and figuring out how the best solutions for different things. And I'm fascinated about how things work and I've always been that way, So that that

drive for the curiosity. But the other thing that my time in the film industry has also taught me is that, like you were discussing earlier than important element of art because um, you know you could. I think a good um example is like the Apollo program. A huge fan of the Space program and the Apollo program. You see the lunar module. Now that thing was designed by engineers. There was no art in that thing. I mean, it's it's beautiful in its functionality, but it certainly doesn't look

like a spaceship. You know it was you could tell his designed by engineers. And then you look at the stuff like SpaceX is doing and it's like, Okay, that's the art mixed in with the technology. And and like I said, never get rid of the lunar module. I love the lunar module, but I think it's a prime example of how how the two UH should work together, or in that case didn't work together. UM. And so so the the the idea of science and technology and art and engineering. In my mind, math I was never

good at. But but the first the first four letters UM I used constantly all the time in my career. And and I love, I love every aspect of that. And and I really having kids now that are growing up, but UH, watching what was what was working for them, it was always a practical, uh, instant instituting all those practically, So it's not you're just not studying one. You're seeing how one affects the other and it connects all together.

So I think that's a real important thing that I think more education should should, uh you know, have more of. Is the integration of of all those things together. I completely agree with you. I'm also the son of two retired teachers, so obviously this this subject matter is really important to me. We'll be right back with more from my interview with Don Bees, the president of the grant

Imahara Steam Foundation. After this short break. One thing, Amahara one thing Grant was really really really good at was inspiring that that curiosity right to He made it exciting to want to know how something was going to work or how he was going to tackle a particular challenge. And I find that that is an approach that resonates

so well with younger people. Uh this, you know, talking about how that curiosity, that excitement is a cool thing and and it engages students, I feel far more than if you were just to memorize formula, you know, all the different uh formula for physics, understanding how to apply that in a way that's practical and fun, and you can actually see the result of that application and no, oh,

I understand why it did the thing it did. I find that that for me anyway, always cemented the concepts much better in my mind, rather than just you know, vomiting out a series of different formula for the you know, nine points per second per second or something along those lines.

And uh, that's something that I'm seeing in the in the promotional material for the foundation, there's an amazing video um that Honestly, as soon as I watched it, that's where I was like, Okay, well, I have to donate to this because that video was so well done UM and anyone who hasn't seen it needs to go to the Grand Omahara Steam Foundation page and watch it, because I feel like that encapsulated that whole philosophy, that ethos

of curiosity being this incredible motivating force. UM. So I'm very excited to see what comes down the line with the foundation UH and and I can't wait to learn more about it, UM and to see the results, to see to see how people are benefiting from it through mentorship, or through scholarship, or through being able to do UH class work that has been either developed by or for

or funded by or or however it manifests UM. And honestly, all the stuff I've seen so far just shows the the amount of passion, which speaks a lot about Grant's impact on everyone else's lives. When you see that that it has motivated you and the other founders to go to these extraordinary steps to create the foundation and then moreover inspired thousands of people to already contribute and to

UH to follow along. UM. It says a lot about his character and the impact he had on on all the people around him, whether he whether they were close friends or just people who had seen him on television. Uh so this is one of those things that um uh, I'm really really truly excited about. And uh and I say that as someone who only met him the one time. And that's one of the biggest regrets I have is that I didn't really get a chance to to talk with them or to to spend more time with him.

But everyone I know who did um had nothing but the best things to say. So you kind of touched on it. But um, what has been the general reaction among the founders to the response that you've seen from from people who who have just who have learned and started to support the foundation already? I think amazing? Is he we just we like that first day, we were just like astounded. Uh that the the I think we might. I certainly expected, you know, some positive reaction, but not

as positive as we've gotten. Grant. I like that I knew Grant for it, met him ninety three. He started He left I l M I think roughfubly two thousand five for MythBusters and then was on MythBusters until two thirteen or something like that. But then he moved down to Los Angeles, and um, so I didn't get to see him that much anymore, and we we hardly talked in more recent years. Uh, just about a month before he passed away, we happened to be texting back and forth.

So he had just finished, Uh, he had done the Baby Yoda and then he had he had just finished an R two D two and that was an rt D two project that I was part of when they started, had started twenty years before. UM. I never did mine, but he, uh, he was able to finish his. And so you know the grant I knew, and and we were more apart, distant apart, UM, and so I never really saw the impact that I never had any gauge or any sense of what what he did two four people,

what is what he meant to people? And and to see this coming in um when when we announced it, UM was so touching, as is the best way I could describe it. I just you know, all of us were just heartwarm that that that he made such an impression on people. UM. I know his mother in particular has been so so touched and so overwhelmed by by the response. UM. And UM, yeah, it's it it you know, I think the the other thing about you know, his

passing is in and the need for the foundation. I personally feel like I don't want anyone, I really want to continue his memory. I really want to continue he because of that, seeing that response and people has really inspired me to want to, um keep it going and and and of course that's the biggest challenge because you know, we're not him, you know, but how can we keep it going? What? What cool things can we do that would he would be proud of that, He would the

way he would do something. So that's I think are going to be our biggest challenge moving forward. Well, I think part of the response maybe that, uh this was this was a way for lots of people also to process his passing, because I know that for many people and myself included, Uh it was it was a real um, a real shock and turning. Having having a means to honor somebody and to make a positive change or positive impact on the world in their name is such. It's

such a grand thing to do. Uh It's such a wonderful expression in a way to give people that means of processing this and to feel good about the process. Um. It was like when I saw it, I was immediately

attracted to it. I thought that this was such a brilliant approach and such a wonderful cause to to you know, further education and to to recognize that there are a lot of communities out there that are in need of that support, that we need to have this kind of uh educational support for underrepresented populations in in particular, that to me is really important because we've seen the gap between the halves and the have nots, particularly right now as we're in the middle of a of a pandemic

and we're seeing the struggles that various communities have of whether to to access to things like digital education and distance learning. UM, you know, there are a lot of communities that are really struggling with that. So to have have another way of saying, this is a way for us to kind of support systems and support learning and encourage learning, and to remember that that really the the goal here is to inspire, which leads to bigger and

better things. I think all of that is really phenomenal and UH really something to be proud of. UH. And the only other question I have for you, then, Don is for listeners out there who maybe are just learning about this, how might they get involved with the foundation? So you could go to the website. We have an info email that you can click on. I will respond.

Usually it's me that will respond. Um At at the moment we've had we've had quite a few people that had responded and asked, UM, how they could help, you know, they can't might not be able to donate, but they would love to help in some way. How we're going to roll out any kind of mentorships or volunteer stat is still to be determined. Again, we're open to ideas if people have ideas. A few people have suggested some stuff that that sounds good, that will probably we will

be discussing amongst the board. Um. Obviously there's a lot of uh, there's geographic things to consider. You know, people are writing literally from all over the world. Um so um, but um, we're keeping a database of everything everybody that's that's writing into us as we as we develop and discover which programs and how we're gonna be able to utilize the talents that people are writing, and we'll be reaching out fantastic. Don I wish you and and everyone

at the Foundation the absolute best, Uh, I am. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next, and who knows maybe you'll be getting more emails from me, uh, because I would love to be part of it. Absolutely. Yes, you've been You've been so kind with the ones that we've said already and UH and and thank you again for being on the show. I greatly appreciate it, and and I look forward to lots of more conversations about about steam education and UH and ways to inspire well.

Thank you, and thank you. I really appreciate you having having me on. Thank you. It was a pleasure to speak with Don Bees about Grant's impact and the goals of the Grant Imahara Steam Foundation. Grant's own life points to the importance and impact of mentorship, and the foundation aims to continue that important work and to expand upon it. If you would like to learn more and get involved, visit Grant Emma Horror Foundation dot org and watch that video because holy cow, it is so well done. It

is inspirational and loving. It's a little sad, obviously, but it ends on a note of hope that I think is phenomenal, and it really just gets me excited to see what the foundation is able to do down the line. And I really hope that I can play a small part in that if you guys have any suggestions for topics I should cover on future episodes of tech Stuff, whether it's a specific technology, a company, a trend in tech, whatever it may be, reach out. The best way to

do that is over on Twitter. The handle is tech stuff H s W and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows