Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine

I know what you are thinking...we took another week off? What can I say, we needed a vacation but we promise no more breaks for awhile. We had a ton to catch up on this episode including what we all thought of the democratic debates, the earthquakes in California, and what the Jeffrey Epstein arrest means.

So join us as we get back on track this week for the latest episode. Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine is a proud member of The Reporters family of podcasts. Join us every Monday on every major podcasting platform.

Everybody knows college tuition is expensive right? But are the loan companies and the government to blame? Instead of complaining about the loan companies and whether the government should cancel out loans maybe we should start with schools like our own Ohio State University who paid out $58 Million in bonuses to 98 employees. Maybe we should look at the $200 million the athletic department brought in last year in addition to their $200 million in expenses.

It is easy to point the finger at everybody but why is nobody talking about why on earth 98 employees for a state school should get $58 million in bonuses when that money could go to lowering tuition for all of the students. To put it into perspective, the $58 million in bonuses would pay for over 2000 OSU student's $26,000 tuition plus room & board for 2018.
The $200 million in revenue for the OSU athletic department could go a long way to help lower tuition as well couldn't it? I am not naive, I love OSU football. But every one of us needs to ask the question if a national championship program is worth our children and ourselves being over $100,000 in school loan debt. Hell, that will be close to $200,000 by the time my 5 year-old daughter is in college. That is like buying a new flat screen tv and then not being able to afford to fix the roof or pay your electric bill.

All of this is symptomatic of a bigger problem...the uber wealthy in this country are taking everything for themselves and protecting that advantage by making it easier for their children and at the same time making it harder for the people who need help the most. Just look to the USC cheating scandal and politicians doing favors for their wealthy donor's kids.

We gotta look in the mirror as a country and ask ourselves why we are letting the wealthy in this country make money off the backs of the people who haven't even gotten started in life yet? Why aren't every one of us demanding our state and federal representatives look into this and put a cap on state schools salaries or perhaps something along those lines.

Tough subject to tackle but who else than America's Counselor to be the one who takes it head on. Joining me in the studio as always is the Armchair QB himself Bill Reed as well as our special guests Murph "The Magic Tone" and Stelz.

Gray Matters Radio is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts. Listen to all our episodes every Monday as well as all major podcast platforms.

I know I am guilty of it but in case you haven't been paying attention, Millennials are everyone's favorite punching bag. By simply asking people what their opinions of Millennials are and you will get many negative answers ranging from entitled, impatient, emotional, sensitive, unrealistic, etc. But what is interesting is that while people acknowledge the negatives first, they will also end that they really are that smart and their grasp of technology is second to none.

The truth is that Millennials are a pain in the ass but they are also really intelligent and the future of this country. Just like they have no choice but to adapt to the real world, we have to adapt to them and try to figure out how to develop them and bring out all of their strengths. Who cares who is to blame for them being the way that they are, all I care about is when its time to turn the country over to them....they are ready.

Joining me in the studio as always is the Armchair QB Bill Reed to help keep my ego in check and keep me firmly in the gray. Join us every Monday for new episodes only on The Reporters Network. Gray Matters With Michael DeVine is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts

Let's be honest here, most of Corporate America really doesn't care about consumers or their workers more than they really have to. We wonder why customer service is so bad and why so many workers don't really seem to care about their jobs but all you have to look at is the leadership of that company. Mysteriously the companies in America that make great products, have great customer service, and the people actually like their jobs are companies that treat their people like they matter and understand they have to treat the customer with respect.

Shocking concept I know but with the likes of companies like Boeing, Monsanto, and Ford being in the news for killing their customers you have to wonder if corporate america will ever change.

They will never change....that is unless we make them change. The American worker and consumer has all the power in the world to make leadership change...we just have to actually do it.

So for tonight's episode, join America's counselor and his co-host the Armchair QB Bill Reed discuss the basic steps every American can take to make their employers and major companies start to care.

Gray Matters Radio with Michael DeVine is a member of the The Reporters family of podcasts. Join us every week only on The Reporters Network

One thing that I always teach my clients is that if we are to solve a problem we must first truly understand what is causing the problem. Because without that understanding we really have no idea where to focus our efforts and what solutions we should apply.

No where is that more important than when an airplane crashes and in the case of the Boeing 737-Max, when 2 airplanes have crashed. If you listen to the news, every reporter has become an aeronautical engineer overnight and has chosen to scapegoat the billion dollar behemoth Boeing Corp. Now I know its easy to scapegoat them considering the infamous 737-Max's history of small seats, awful legroom, non-existent bathrooms, and now plane crashes. But as a pilot myself, it would be reckless to just look at Boeing because while surely sharing part of the blame for these crashes, there are other factors that we must look at.

These crashes were less about plane crashes but more a systematic problem within corporate America and the calculated risk of gambling with the safety of consumers with the profits of the shareholders. With competition and pressure from Wall Street, every CEO in corporate America is forced to make calculated risks to maximize profits often at the expense of the safety of its consumers.

For this very special episode of Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine, we invite The Professor Richard DeVine back into The Gray to help us understand how corporate America balances profits with risk and what it means for the future of this country. If companies are pushing the boundaries with safety in the name of profits, what does it tell us about the very government they are paying off to make laws that clearly cater to them?

We can't deny that money corrupts and the history of businesses often making questionable decisions in the name of profits have been resoundingly consistent for the past 100 years. Now more than ever, we must take a step back from the political rhetoric and ask ourselves what is the the role of government in protecting its citizens from basic human nature? If we have laws to protect ourselves from human nature than why of all places where human nature is most susceptible to corruption do we think businesses can police themselves?

These are all huge questions that we only begin to scratch the surface of in this important episode of Gray Matters Radio. As always I am joined in the studio by The Armchair QB Bill Reed to help me stay firmly in The Gray. Gray Matters Radio is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts.

It seems like every time there is a school shooting, the country turns on itself and begins arguing about gun control, crisis actors, statistics about whether they really are getting worse, etc. As a counselor but more importantly as a parent, these shootings scare the crap out of me. But I think what scares me equally as much is the fact that we can't talk about this as a country without it becoming a fight and in the process we dehumanize the victims and never get anywhere near a solution.

I mean, how can we find a solution if we can't even agree if the shooting happened to begin with? Its crazy but that is where we are at and I for one am not going to sit back and not try to do something to change the discussion about school shootings. So for the latest installment of Gray Matters, we attempt to change the discussion and focus on what it feels like as a parent right now with all of these incidents and attempt to understand whether shootings are perhaps the symptoms of a greater problem with society itself. We pose the idea that maybe rising suicide, depression, and substance abuse rates might all be different symptoms of the same problem.

So join us for this very important episode of Gray Matters Radio. As always I am joined by my co-host, The Armchair QB Bill Reed. Gray Matters Radio is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts. You can catch new episodes of Gray Matters every Monday.

I am not going to lie but this was an episode that I have been wanting to do for a long time but was scared to do because of the acrimony on the topic of autism between researchers and anti-vaxxers. But I also realize that as a counselor who works extensively with clients and families of people on the Autism Spectrum that this disorder is not going away and in fact is getting worse and we need all hands on deck to solve this thing. 

If trying to understand a disorder that only now are we beginning to truly understand is difficult in and of itself, we are not doing ourselves any favors when the very people who are affected by it and trying to cure it are at a war with each other. When I say that we need all hands on deck...I mean that we need all hands on deck for this. We cannot be splitting our energy, resources, and focus on fighting with each other because all that does is make it more difficult to figure this disorder out. When I say that we are putting ourselves years behind by fighting...I literally mean we are putting ourselves years behind in fighting this.

For far too long researchers have been treating anti-vaxxers like they are idiots and for far too long anti-vaxxers have unfairly labeled researchers as paid shills for the pharmaceutical industry. The dynamics in how each side talks to each other just make the problem worse and frankly I am tired of it and have decided to take on the role of bringing each side together.

How do we do that? We begin by putting down our facts and data and instead we listen to each other and try to understand why each side feels what they do and moreover how this disorder is affecting families and why researchers in infectious disease research do what they do. If we can all walk away from this show feeling like we are all in this together and want the same thing...to help cure childhood illnesses and prevent them from happening. If we can walk away feeling like we are all good people and are doing things for the right reasons albeit with different ideas and theories about vaccines and Autism, then we have done our job.

To help us discuss this topic we invite our good friend Dan Evans who is an infectious disease researcher specializing in antibiotic resistance. As always I am joined in the studio with The Armchair QB Bill Reed to help keep me in line and firmly in The Gray. Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts. Catch this episode as well as all of episodes every week on your favorite podcast platform.

We couldn't leave Colorado without one last stop before we went home. So we were lucky enough to be invited to stop by @710labs to take a tour and to talk with Garret Groce and Derek Arrington about 710's products and how the current state of federal marijuana laws affects them. What did we learn? You will have to listen Monday to find out but we will say that it's far time that we start treating OG's in this country like OG's. If you are for farmers...if you are for electricians...if you are for small businesses then you are for 710 labs and the marijuana industry.

Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts. Catch this episode as well as all of episodes every Monday.

Silverthorne has been great to us but at some point we have to go home and this episode is our farewell. We start off by welcoming future Olympian Kaitlyn Adams into the Gray where she lays down the gauntlet by boldly declaring she will be in the 2022 Winter Olympics & her intention to destroy the label of "being good for a girl". Next up in our finale is our good friend Linzee Vito who talks about competitiveness being a necessity in every family. Last but not least, Mike and Dom invite Silverthorne Railjam organizers Kevin Sayler & Teddy Goggin back into The Gray to give their final thoughts about the event and to discuss what to expect for next year.

Gray Matters Radio with Michael DeVine is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts. Listen to new episodes of Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine every Monday.

The longer we are in Silverthorne, the more we begin to realize how special of a place it really is. This episode is a best of compilation of the Silverthorne Rail Jam featuring the residents and organizers of the town of Silverthorne.

We get things started when event organizers Kevin Sayler & Zach Griffon dropped by the studio to talk about the rail jam, what the sport of snowboarding means to them, and why Z Griff carries a samurai sword with him. Next up we have event organizer and USASA free style ski coach Teddy Goggin stop by to talk about year 2 of the event and the psychology behind coaching future olympic athletes. Then we have event coordinator for the city of Silverthorne Sydney Schwab stop by to discuss why the town has gotten behind the rail jam and how the importance of community guides many of the events for the town of Silverthorne. Last but not least we close things off with a post event interview with Kevin Sayler and Teddy Goggin discussing their thoughts about the event and even bigger plans for next year.

Gray Matters Radio with Michael DeVine is a proud member of The Reporters Network family of podcasts. Listen to new episodes of Gray Matters Radio With Michael DeVine every Monday.