Episode 09 - Vehicles for Change

Awakened Exchanges

Simone Baptiste is the Director of Communications for Vehicles for Change
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Intro - 00:15
Ads - 05:39 - Please visit our sponsors Awakened Vapes, Genesis Pharms, and the Caramel Corn Company and help support this podcast!
Interview - 09:13
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Welcome back to Awakened Exchanges! I’m your host Jay Rich and this is our extra-special Thanksgiving day episode! This whole month we were focused on people who care for others, people that can show us how to be grateful all year round. First off, I just want to tease our holiday episodes that I can’t wait for. Just this past weekend I recorded the first of those episodes with Nick Hinton himself. If the name sounds familiar, that’s probably because you know him as “the conspiracy guy on Twitter.” He’s about to publish his second book and we talked about some very provocative theories about Saturn and our perception of the universe. That episode will air next week, on December 3rd, and it was an immensely fun conversation with a very interesting individual. I can’t overstate how excited I am for him and our other December guests! If everything goes as planned, we should have a hive-mind Christmas Eve with a former member of the Borg themselves!
I really wish that we could stop talking about Covid, but we had nearly 200,000 cases on Friday the 20th alone. We racked up a million new cases in 6 days last week. This is all coming as the nation prepares to close up shop and travel to their families for Thanksgiving. This could be the mother of all super-spreader events and could overwhelm hospitals for the rest of the holiday season. Personally, I’ll be having a virtual Thanksgiving because, although still symptom free, I’m still in my two week quarantine. I know that it’s not the same thing as being able to break bread together, or share the comfort food meals that we want, but it’s better than putting my high-risk parents at even higher risk. We’ve all endured a lot of hardships throughout 2020, not to mention the animosity stirred up by one of the most divided election seasons in history, but now is the time to come back together. We need to remember the fundamental truth that if we all did unto others, what we would have them do unto us, then everyone would be loved and cared for. This is the time of year when everyone needs extra love and support, and when even the best of us can get down at times. Taking a little extra time out of your day to give someone a kind word can be enough to change someone's outlook indefinitely. You never know when the seeds you plant will come to fruition, but the largest oaks still come from those tiny seeds. Take some time this season and plant some seeds of hope for others in need.
As for my interview this week, I had teased that I would be speaking to Ayanna DaCosta, the Director of Development for Vehicles for Change , but I ended up speaking with Simone Baptiste, their Director of Communications instead, and it was such a pleasant surprise. We had a wonderful conversation about a fascinating company that is making a real difference in people's lives. Their mission is to help end generational poverty and they do that not just through car donations, but also by giving training and second chances to formerly incarcerated individuals. I hope you find this conversation as captivating as I did, and maybe even motivating enough to get out there and help give back yourself this holiday season.

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