In The Booth with Shawn Booth
You may know Shawn Booth from The Bachelorette, you may know him as a fitness guy who owns a gym in Nashville, or you may just know his dog, Walter.
Tune in as Shawn sits down with people from all walks of life: artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, military personnel, badass moms, fitness professionals, and everything in between. You'll hear motivational stories, healthy habits that lead to success, relationship tips, and more.
However you know him, you'll get to know the real Shawn and his guests right here on In The Booth.
In The Booth with Shawn Booth
Taking Down the Brick Wall (w/ JW)
Join us for a compelling conversation with JW, an unhoused gentleman I met outside my gym in downtown Nashville. The episode begins with my personal frustrations as a business owner dealing with safety and cleanliness concerns outside the gym, only to be challenged by JW's perspective on empathy and understanding for those living on the streets. Can we truly balance the needs of both communities? This eye-opening discussion aims to break down stereotypes and foster a more compassionate approach.
The conversation extends to dismantling societal prejudices and urging a call for greater awareness and connection. JW shares insights into the mental freedom that comes from living without a conventional schedule, juxtaposed with the need for simple solutions like secure storage for belongings. We stress the importance of small acts of communication and standing up for one's beliefs as steps toward a more empathetic society. Tune in to listen to our vision for a more connected, aware community, and how you can play a part in making it a reality.
we are back in the booth and I'm sean booth and thank you guys for tuning in. We got a fun episode today. I got a very special guest to my left, which I'll intro here in a minute. So whether you're listening from st louis, missouri, we got a couple guys in here from St Louis Area code was a 314. 314., 314. Or you're listening from Syracuse, new York, or Austin, texas. Thank you guys for tuning in. We appreciate the love, we appreciate the support and I'm excited for this next hour, as I have a guest to my left and I just want to kind of set the scene up here to how we got here in these seats.
Speaker 2:As you know, I own a gym right downtown.
Speaker 2:It's actually right down the road here from the studio and a few Fridays ago a gentleman walked up to me and asked to talk and we sat down and we had a good conversation for about an hour and I don't know if you remember your first question you were asking me how I felt about the homeless outside of the gym that we're using an outlet.
Speaker 2:So there's an outlet right outside the gym that has had a lot of people from Nashville, homeless in particular, coming and hanging out and we kind of were going back and forth a little bit about it and you were telling me your side of things, I was telling you my side of things as a business owner. And then we just sat down and had a great conversation and I ultimately asked you what you want to do. And you said you wanted to do a podcast one day. And I said, well, I actually have a podcast, so do you want? Said well, I actually have a podcast, so do you want to come on my show and have a conversation Because you're providing a lot of insight to me? You said let's do it. We got you here in the building. Everybody give it up for JW.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you, thank you. I really want to thank you for real, just having a heart to see what you saw when you saw that plug and those people congregating which could be a nuisance to what you got going on or what you potentially could have going on. Instead, you still saw, you had a heart to see the need of what was going on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Your thing was your investment there, but who knows what they think was Right. You know what I'm saying and we all live by a phone today, and if you don't have it charged, you might as well toss it in the closest creek you run across.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Because it's going to do nothing for you if it don't have a charge. You can't even do AI if it don't have a charge. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So I'm glad that you saw the need and it was striking to me that maybe a person who have not had the experiences of living on the street right, uh, most people who don't have the experience of living on the streets, they really don't have the flavor for the best decision when it comes to dealing with people that are living on the streets right and that's um, it's kind of a tricky situation because, you know, to be completely honest, I have been like I need to get this damn outlet out of here because of the negative things that it brings.
Speaker 2:Like, um, you know, we have a very heavy female populated gym and so for our members to go outside, they're working out right there, running through, uh, you know, sometimes 5, 10, 15 people who are hooting and hollering at them or saying negative things to them, um, obviously makes them feel uncomfortable, or that you have, uh, a bunch of trash out there. So it's like I was like, ah, this is not a good thing. But also I understand, because this is their life, this is my life, and it's divided by one brick wall. And then you came across to talk to me and I got to see your side of that brick wall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we get a chance to take down that wall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Just look across and see what's actually there. Yeah, Exactly, just look across and see what's actually there, and you know I want to be honest with you. I've seen your place is like right across from the Greyhound bus station. I've seen just as many guys from Greyhound hooping and hollering.
Speaker 2:Oh, exactly Right, right yeah, because I put them all together.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying that in defense but, putting them all together is not a fair shake, right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:And you know, some of the access trash there, I would probably say 100% belongs to those who are kind of jacking around needing to use the plug. Right. I don't need to use the plug, Right. My first thoughts when I had approached you. To be honest, I wanted to see if you were interested in seeing how it could work. Right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I had to ask some particular questions to get around to see if you were interested in how it could work. Right, because if you were like 100% done with it, you don't care if it could work.
Speaker 3:It's done, yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So I kind of wanted to see where you were with it, yeah, and I was glad to find that, you know, you had an ear for it and a heart for it and say, hey, you know, this ain't all about me, right? This ain't all about me, right, you know? Yeah, and my job became to let the population, those who are using this plug, know that it was not all about them. You know what I'm saying, and I think when you have two parties that understand it's not all about them, you have a better place.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah, all about them. You have a better place, right, yeah, yeah, and I think it's uh, like you said, unfair for me to put everybody, group everybody together, because you know there are a lot of people from the greyhound who just come in for a few nights or whatever it is, and then you have the people who live here right right in downtown or, uh, near the greyounds, and so it's definitely two different parties. Being there for six years, I have seen everything imaginable from the Greyhounds or whoever's outside. We have seen people get shot. We have seen just the other day a guy was for lack of better words masturbating right on next to that outlet.
Speaker 2:Um, we've had a lady come into the turf when I'm coaching class with a knife, just walk straight down. We've had people steal my general manager's uh, belonging. So it's like every day we feel like they're like I saw a guy chase another guy with an axe and there's cops there and ambulance. So it's like you never know what you're gonna expect. So when you approach me, I was like, okay, I didn't know what to expect, but I'm glad you did. And here we are. So, um, wanted to kind of get your background for the listeners and your story and how you ended up here in Nashville.
Speaker 1:I've come to Nashville from St Louis, missouri. I've come to Nashville for reasons I'm learning daily. If I knew the whole answer of why I've come to Nashville, I would probably give it to you, but I don't even know of why I've come to Nashville. I would probably give it to you, but I don't even know it. I can say well, there's been some things I've learned. There's been some things I've been able to do. There's been some people I've been able to help. And those things help reveal my purpose of coming to Nashville. And I know that there's a greater purpose than that for me being in Nashville. I just had not walked into that purpose yet.
Speaker 1:I have a background in education, believe it or not. I spent a lot of years working in youth development, in the community of youth development. I worked a lot in community development. I worked a lot with not-for-profit organizations. I feel a need just to always be in a place mentally and physically, to know that you don't live in a space by yourself and you're always looking to help another. St Louis been there a lot of years. Things have changed. It's becoming a better place and a worse place for others. It just became an old place for me. So I come to Nashville. I knew nothing about Nashville, I didn't even know two streets that crossed, and that kind of sums up the story of my life. I go places where I know nothing.
Speaker 2:Right or anybody.
Speaker 1:Or anybody. And it's so funny because I get a chance to talk to persons and they be like well, I'm going to go over here because my uncle I say, well, you ever try going someplace, you never knew anybody. It gives you a chance and an opportunity that going home and going around familiar faces and going places because you're familiar with people, those scenarios can't supply that Going there and knowing nobody, you're talking about everything you come up with.
Speaker 2:You came up with so is that more of like a fresh start or more of a trying to run? I guess those two kind of go hand in hand. If you want to leave a place that you're familiar with.
Speaker 1:I embrace the whole idea of life being a journey. Your journey takes you where your journey takes you. Your journey may take you out of conflict and another person can say you ran, but your journey didn't cause for you to run into that battle. We have to know that we are journey oriented and stop, you know, being controlled by so many different sources out there that I won't name.
Speaker 2:Right, you can name them, go ahead.
Speaker 1:You can name them, but I do want to start here, for you and for your listening audience. We want to do away with the term homeless. Right, it's so outdated. The term homeless is a character, now it's a creature. If you were to go home, if you were to say hey, honey, I'm bringing this homeless man home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Speaker 2:And they say, no, you're not yeah.
Speaker 1:If you're having Thanksgiving dinner with him, it won't be in here. You know what I'm saying, and it's not that people are being mean. Society has created homeless as a character, and it's not a character, it's a condition, and so I try to encourage people to not use homeless and simply use the term unhoused, because it speaks to the condition and not the person.
Speaker 2:Nashville is your home. These streets over here could be your home right, it's just you don't live in a house.
Speaker 1:Right. So, that's unhoused is the politically correct term.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:I don't know, that politics is involved in this, but Right, politics is involved in everything.
Speaker 2:It's always involved in everything. Yeah, always involved. Okay, yeah, and now was that something that you decided on your own that you didn't want to live in a house, because I've always wondered how someone could get to that point.
Speaker 1:Because I've always wondered how someone could get to that point. Well, you know a lot of. They say all roads lead to Rome, but I know there's a lot of roads that lead away from Rome as well. But in reference to people who find themselves homeless, I don't feel like I chose it, I feel like it chose me. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:And sometimes homelessness can be the result of some decisions a person made and so, inadvertently, they may have chose homelessness without knowing that homelessness was on the menu of listed choices.
Speaker 1:And then you have some persons who have gone through bad relationships with family and loved ones and it seemed best that if they were to just leave the environment or leave the house, somehow that solves things. And so there's a lot of reasons. I've heard a lot of reasons why people become homeless, and it ain't all because some guy just couldn't get it right, just became so outright that nobody wanted to deal with him. Another reason for homelessness in a lot of the cities is when, a few years back, when Mr Ronald Reagan was president, his administration thought it was best to cut down on the budget and they closed all the mental health hospitals that were holding persons on a long-term basis in terms of cases and working with them, and had committed to work with them pretty much the rest of their life. He done away with all those places and just gave everybody a check, and that's where we are today.
Speaker 2:And you say that there's decisions obviously everybody makes. Is there something? You look back at your life, something that happened, if you were to pinpoint one thing and you say homelessness kind of chose you. But if you're looking at your past, is there something that you may have done that was like oh, that was the breaking point and that's what led you to that direction?
Speaker 1:now, uh, I want to be 100 honest and say that, uh, sometimes, well, all times we can have, we can make decisions that will make that the result. One decision I made was, you know what? I'm not interested in working just to be able to live behind this door and not having enough to do nothing else on the other side of the door, outside going to work. That didn't register as the best life I can live. It just didn't.
Speaker 2:You know, I feel like a lot of people can agree with that.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, it's some things you have to think about, you know, and say, hey, which one is me, a, b, c or D? I'm not the person that just wanted work, just to have a place to go. I don't know if that's called living. You know, I've done more living on the streets than I've done living in an apartment. If that makes sense to you, yeah, let's dive into that a little bit.
Speaker 2:So living on an apartment, If that makes sense to anybody. Yeah, let's dive into that a little bit. So living on the streets do you remember the first night where you were on the streets?
Speaker 1:Oh, I can't 100% say I remember the first night, but I can 100% say that every night, sleep on the streets is dangerous and I share that with persons that I've never seen on the streets before, that may seem like they just arrived, and I'll let them know that sleeping on the streets is dangerous arrived and I'll let them know that sleeping on the streets is dangerous and that, to scare them more, so to make them aware, don't let your guards down. You know people sleep on the streets, wake up without their ID, without their phone. You know what I'm saying. And whatever that was in their pocket that fell out, or whatever, just kind of take legs and walks off. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:and and whatever that was in their pocket that fell out, or whatever, just kind of take legs and walks off, you know yeah, because I think we talked about this too, how it's never really a comfortable or easy night's rest because it's always dangerous and you've always got to, kind of I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, that's exactly it. It is the wiser choice out of all the other options is to be that way. Now sometime, um, life can catch up with you to where you just so dead tired, to where you just kind of pan out like you know you didn't work five doubles, you know in a row, and that you just can't help, you know. And then sometimes you have to go to a safer place than the streets. You know what I'm saying. Maybe spend whatever monies you have to get a hotel room that night Right, just to not put yourself out there in a vulnerable situation in a vulnerable way.
Speaker 2:And so when you're on the street, are you changing where you sleep on a nightly basis, or you have a spot that's?
Speaker 1:yours. Well, you know, one of the things I really don't subscribe to is persons that are taking ownership over things that don't belong to them. I really don't subscribe to that and I really don't encourage people to do that. And it's like hey, man, that corner belongs to whoever comes and walk down it and whoever decides to stand on it or whoever decides to sit on it or whoever decides to lay on it. Right, you know? But of course, if this was a spot you stayed in and laid in often enough, you wouldn't say, hey, this is a spot I stay in and lay in often, and you know not the hey, I own this spot, and none of that kind of craziness.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know I want to and maybe you would have got around to bringing it up, but since you didn't, I will. What do you think about when you see unhoused persons or people just holding signs saying what they need in life?
Speaker 2:yeah, what do you?
Speaker 1:think about that it's.
Speaker 2:That's a good question, um, I think obviously the initial thought is damn, that sucks, like you feel bad. The next thought is, oh, I want to help them, like, do I have anything here to help them? And then the next thought immediately after that, um, which might be the wrong thought, is they're probably just going to use my money for drugs or something or something not good and they're gonna be up in the same spot, right. And then you see people you're like you don't know what to believe, um, so, yeah, I go through all these thoughts when I'm sitting right next to somebody who doesn't have a home and, um, somebody who doesn't have a home and, um, I don't know what I can do to help them.
Speaker 2:And I I, you know most of the time I feel like a lot of people. I just sit there and then drive on by, you know, and I don't know if that's necessarily the right thing. I want to help, but I have a hard time, I guess, justifying if it is for the right reasons, if they're doing that. Let's ask easton same question if you see somebody on the streets holding a sign and you're sitting there at a stoplight, what do you do?
Speaker 1:what do you think and what do you do?
Speaker 3:I mean, I would say I echo the same things that you said, but you also see a lot of people who like, especially on social media. You'll see someone who like is standing on the street with a sign and then gets a bunch of money and they follow her till the end of the day and then she goes and gets in a pretty nice car and drives back to her house and so it's like there's there's the fact that you don't know what they're going to use it for good or bad or you don't know if they're going to get it back in their car and they just like basically took a bunch of money. What I usually do is I always just try, whenever I'm in that situation I have something, I usually try to give something other than money. So, like in the summer, I usually have like extra, like bottles of water in my car. So, like in the summer, I'll be like here I don't have cash or anything, but here's like a bottle of water.
Speaker 2:if I have like granola bars or like a bag of chips or something, I'll usually give that yeah, because I know I mean yeah you can't go buy drugs with a bottle of water, or you can't yeah, I've done that in the past too and then I get a bunch of people coming to the gym and then they'll walk into my class and it's just like, do you have any money? And then I'm like I'm sorry, I don't, because I you know because. But then there's people who come and they ask for water and I give them water.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I'll do that. But then you run into well, then they or other people then start coming and asking for more. It's like I'm also paying for this water and I have to like I try and help out when I can. I guess I don't know what the right thing to do is.
Speaker 1:Okay, I thank you for your honesty on that. I've asked that question before to some people and a lot of times they'll start saying goofy stuff that they thought they've done in the past, but not even sure if they've actually done it. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Right Just to, you know, not feel so awkward. One of the things that I will, one of the topics I will discuss on the podcast that's soon to come, real Talk with JW is how to help. First off, help starts with a question. It don't start with a gift. It starts with a question. And when you walk up and give a person a gift without asking the question, and when you walk up and give a person a gift without asking the question, without asking the question, then who's wrong, you or them?
Speaker 1:And now, if we start reacting that way in this population of unhoused persons, a person that are economically struggling, if they start to just say, hey, we're living in a gift-giving society, we expect them to start thinking and reacting and living. Right, because you're not interested in their condition. Why? Because you didn't even ask here. You know what I'm saying. And there's times where a person may have some things on the side that you may say oh man, this is interesting. Oh, you're trying to get back to Montana. Hey, man, where you live at in Montana, they probably can't even name a city in Montana. Right, you know, if they can name a city, they couldn't name two streets that crossed in Montana. I mean so to help. If you're interested enough to help, you should be.
Speaker 1:Help starts with time. You got to invest your time before you invest your money in helping somebody, and if you invest just your money in helping somebody, it's not going to work. It may not work as often as it works, and 50-50 is nowhere. You know what I'm saying, and so those would be my answers to if a person was to ask me how can you help a person who's out there kind of struggling? However their struggle goes, sit down and talk to them. Find out how you can help. It may be something simple, it may be something you even been through, it may be something a relative I've been through, something you're familiar with, but if you never sit down and talk to him, it kind of stays. Everybody kind of stay on their side of the street, right? What do you think?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, I agree with you. Um, and I just think of people writing on signs where they just and I feel like the sign game has changed because of social media now everybody's like has to be super witty or try and get attention for their sign because you know, you see funny signs down the road and the signs like not gonna lie, I just want to go get a fucking beer, you know help me out saving for a hooker.
Speaker 1:Yes same stuff like that right well, the thing of it is is, you know, uh, I had a thought or two pertaining to that. I was like, and so I would ask persons who would potentially give to some of these people and a lot of times these are tourists coming into the city and sometimes there's some regulars that may live outside of it don't come into the city a lot, at any rate I would say, hey, how ridiculous of a sign do he need to hold up to say, hey, I'm struggling, can use a few bucks. What must you say? I will kidnap your grandmama and turn her into a ninja or some ridiculous stuff. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:How graphic do we have to be to talk about getting a penis reduction and saving for this and saving for that? Yeah, you know what I'm saying. I'm thinking when you take dignity. When a man loses dignity, he has nothing. It can't be replaced. You know what I'm saying? If he can, it's going to be very hard to replace it, and to hold up a sign saying something I don't agree with or something I don't feel from the inside out is losing a shred of dignity every time I do that.
Speaker 2:So you do hold up signs.
Speaker 1:I do not hold up a sign.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. The sign is what you see. If you see something you want to help, you will.
Speaker 1:If you see something you don't want to help you ain't Right. Personally, I have put some thought into this. There are some persons who are living on the streets that know the streets very well. You are in a city where there's tons of tourists who couldn't tell you nothing but the street where the hotel is at and can't tell you the streets that it take to get back to it Exactly Now, if you can't figure out how to make the two ends meet, it's like supply and demand. You have something this person need, and that's directions, and the person that need directions say you have something they need, and that's a knowledge of how to get there. You know what I'm saying. I try to encourage, uh persons that, as opposed to holding up goofy signs and stuff, just see how you can be of assistance to somebody, yeah, provide some value for them yeah, and that way you won't lose dignity.
Speaker 1:It's holding up saying stuff that you know you wouldn't say to your grandmother.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah, and so then that's got to be a struggle then to find ways to get money, and every day you're waking up.
Speaker 1:And you got to eat.
Speaker 2:And you got to eat.
Speaker 1:You got to survive yeah.
Speaker 2:And that was my next question A day-to-day, how does it look for you? What are you doing when you wake up? Is it thinking about how you're gonna get your next meal? Is it thinking about how you're gonna get some money?
Speaker 1:well, uh, for me it's how closer can I get to doing the things I need to do? How closer can I get today to producing my podcast? How closer can I get today, you know, to meeting some goals? It's more than just well. Today I hope to be able to eat. You know you have persons that are like that, but you have persons who are not inspired. You have persons who may feel hopeless. I used to share with people. To be hopeless and homeless is two different things. A lot of people think everybody that's unhoused is hopeless or feeling hopeless. There are persons who feel uninspired and there are persons who feel hopeless. And then there are persons that feel hopeful and they are inspired. I happen to be one of those, but everybody kind of just groups everybody together. I don't worry about what I'm going to eat today.
Speaker 1:You, don't you know I may worry about the fact I ain't ate at the end of the day, but I don't put a lot of nah.
Speaker 2:It just kind of comes along throughout the day. No, I believe in.
Speaker 1:God, if he going to feed the birds and everything up in the air, I'm pretty sure he got a hand on me. So then, what does a meal look like for you? What's the last thing you ate? Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Maybe a hot dog or something, Not today though Not today.
Speaker 1:Okay, so maybe you'll respond to that need after the podcast is over. Yeah, yeah, for sure Not to put him on the spot Right? No, 100%. They want to come back next week and say where did you give him? Yeah, exactly. Well, I had a pit of a junkie my wife put in the bag. I didn't get around to yesterday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll go to the buffet after this. Okay, so then you can go a couple days without any food.
Speaker 1:No, I could never go a couple days without any food. I could never go a couple days without any sleep. Persons who do those things are usually on meth or some other drug. That somehow makes that the answer. I don't know what the question is, but somehow that becomes the answer is hang out all night for about three, four days and don't bother eating. That's called some guy ran into a few bucks and having a good time. That's what I would call that one.
Speaker 2:Okay time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what.
Speaker 2:I would call that one.
Speaker 1:But hey, man, nashville is one of those cities where it has a reputation of taking care of people, and so that's for a lot of people who may find themselves unhoused come to Nashville. And then there are some persons who find themselves unhoused and say, hey, that's not the worst situation to be in in Nashville. I can do this until things get better or whatever. And so as Nashville is growing, you know, economically and with all the businesses and whatnot, the population of what it attracts is growing as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm real curious on how it's going to answer that question. Yeah, you know, I've seen efforts where they were helping people, where they put them all in a hotel and helping them slowly but surely get a place or whatever. But the list kind of went according to those with income. If you're homeless and on the street, that should qualify you. How can income qualify you for a place if you're homeless and living on the street? Exactly Because personally homeless and living on the street the only income you got is what the government gave you. And if the government gave it to you, why you gotta tell them they giving it to you? They sure already know they can put your name in there and say, hey, we're giving them that, so why not give them this place to stay with it? But to go through the whole ordeal, having to prove that you ain't got no money, I never quite understood that. One right, you know, uh, but anyway, yeah, yeah. Another topic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, yeah, I can talk about that all day. Um, well, you also mentioned too that there are a lot of tourists that are on the streets, so you probably see them all the time, and obviously on the weekends I mean a lot of nights that are on the streets, so you probably see them all the time and obviously on the weekends I mean a lot of nights. Here in nashville, we're so close to broadway people are drinking up and down the streets and I I mentioned this to you when we spoke. I said, hey, what did you ever hear anything about that riley strain kid? Because that was major news, that was global news. And then, all of a sudden, there were, um, a lot of people saying, well, the quote-unquote homeless people know, or something happened where we think that he got attacked, beaten up under the bridge, saw a homeless man wearing his clothes, whatever, and that was a huge story. So when you were out on the streets, when that was going on, did you ever hear anything about Riley Strain? You heard about the situation.
Speaker 1:I'm familiar with the situation only with what the media has shared.
Speaker 2:And for those that don't know, riley Strain was the kid who went drinking with his fraternity brothers on Broadway and then he ended up missing and they found him in the river a couple weeks later.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah, go on. Uh, I started to hear stories about, oh we think, some homeless person. What's so crazy is, uh, where he was found in the river was, uh, right, was right near an area where there is a ministry People up in Nashville they come and they set up, they spread and share up and set up with clothes and food and stuff for the unhoused population and it was kind of right where they had found the body at. And so, you know, people were starting to get weird thoughts and say it had to have been part of this deal over here or somebody out of this deal over here or somebody should know something.
Speaker 1:You know, being on the streets, homeless people do they see a lot of things. They do, they see a lot of things. They do they see a lot of things and you know, sometimes if you say everything that you see, it will involve you. Go tell the police everything you know and you become instantly involved. Now, what person living on the streets wants to be involved with the police? They're kind of oppressing the population on the streets because they're politicians, nobody wants them around and so they're nowhere near embracing them. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree with that statement. But so you're saying that you could literally talk to anybody or tell anybody your life story, no matter who you are and you're somehow involved if you tell them everything you see?
Speaker 1:Well, you see a situation on the streets and stuff. Yeah, because you become a witness, right, you know what I'm saying. And now you're a witness and we need you to be part of this, and this person is struggling, living on the streets. And they don't want Nobody is saying hey we want you to be a witness and we're going to take care of you for a couple weeks.
Speaker 2:It's like well, what are you going to do for me? Why am I going to help you if you're not helping me?
Speaker 1:And it's not like this person is being difficult and operating with no morals. I mean, the first law of preservation started with self. He got to worry about himself first. Right Before I started worrying about what happened over there, I got to worry about what could happen to me. You know what I'm saying. I see people sleeping on the sidewalks all the time and man, I've done it a time or two, I don't make a practice out of it, and here's why I've seen cars jump curbs all the time. You know, for whatever reasons, lose control. Maybe the guy's drunk, whatever, whatever, maybe he misjudged the turn. I've seen cars, especially over in the area where we're talking about, over near the gym. I've seen so many accidents at that street corner it's so funny, we do too.
Speaker 1:All right, yeah and imagine if you had some unhoused person laying their sleep and then this car comes jumping over the curve. Yeah, you, you know there's a Vidox that's kind of with, you know, with a little shrubbery and stuff. That's in the middle of the street right across from your gym. I've seen cars drive clean up and over it and keep going like that Vidox, that big cement. Vidox was part of the traffic signal or something Right, because they just jumped in and kept going like they was in an part of the traffic signal or something Right, because they just jumped in and kept going like they was in an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard, right, and I'm like man for real, right. And so how safe do you think a person feels Right? So leave it on the street?
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right. So then you're saying that the unhoused population isn't really going to speak up or say things, if they see something, because they're not getting helped.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a if. This person first off, let's be smart about this this person is living on the streets, right? If I say this about anybody and I'm vulnerable and he knows where I live because I'm living on the streets, right, what protection do I have Exactly? Why am I going to involve myself and put my livelihood and I'm not just talking about me, but why would a person put their livelihood on the line, right, who are already struggling? Now I got to put my livelihood on the line.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:For the sake of somebody that ain't about to look my way, let alone help me. Yeah, For the sake for somebody that ain't even bothered to look my way, let alone help me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Unless they needed something from you like information, yeah, right, but a lot of times when we, when I say things like that, people don't think that far into the idea of okay, I can see that, I can see that. Yeah, that, I can see that. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Uh, so it's for many reasons that a person may see and not see things yeah, oh did you see that guy hit that guy?
Speaker 1:no, I didn't see that, because I don't want that guy coming at me next yeah, right so why am I gonna turn around and say I saw that and put myself you know what I'm saying? I don't have a bodyguard or anything.
Speaker 2:Do you think it's unfair for people to assume that the unhoused population had something to do with somebody like Riley Straner people going missing? Do you think it's just an easy target, or do you think?
Speaker 1:It was an easy target for the media. It sold papers, it sold advertisement and all kinds of stuff. It didn't do anything healthy for the unhoused population. Even after it was said and done, the foul play we thought it could have been, turns out it wasn't, and they still never said hey, we kind of shined a bad light over on this crew over here and we want to just kind of say that ain't cool and we want to make amends and apologize. Nobody, none of that. I wonder why you have any ideas.
Speaker 2:That's crazy how it works yeah.
Speaker 1:You know. And so how trusting should this unhoused population be with how society's working for them? Yeah, they see it. They see the way the wheels turn. Yeah, they see the way the wheels turn against them when they have no reason to. Exactly, you know what I'm saying. And it was just easy to point the finger and say had to be some homeless guy. Yeah, they watching this guy and I've learned that I didn't know there was so many cameras on so many buildings. They watched this guy walk four, five blocks and didn't miss a step he made and nobody jumped out and said hi to this man. Yeah, why would you conclude that this had to have been the fate? Right? You know what I'm saying. So people living on the streets have to deal with those type of stereotypes and those type of opinions that people have. They don't want to look a person in the eye and speak, because if I look up in the eye and speak, he's going to ask me for something.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes, hey, I have nothing. So if you say you have nothing, I understand that, no problem, I have nothing and you have nothing. But what if a person thinks I have something, but I really don't have nothing? Just be honest. And and you have nothing. What does a person think I have, but I really don't have nothing? Just be honest and say you have nothing. Why are you making it hard on yourself to go through all that anguish and unnecessary energy you're losing by saying, hey, man, today I'm just as poor as you might feel. And be honest, you know what.
Speaker 1:I'm saying as poor as you might feel. You know and be honest. You know what I'm saying yeah. And I think people take. I've seen people take offense when persons may ask them for something and they may not have it and it may look pretty shiny, might have got out of a shiny car, whether they was riding or driving, but the fact of the matter is, you know, to be honest, hey, man, you misjudged me today. Man, I have nothing If you judge me to have something not good.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You misjudged me today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like there's just a lot of judging, obviously on both sides, and, um, what would you say? You know one thing or a few things, uh, the pros and the benefits of being unhoused versus the house population, something that you look at and you're like, oh, I'm not jealous of that. Well, I think living on the streets is is a lot better because of this.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not jealous of the guy that got evicted, you know what I'm saying. I'm not jealous of the guy after he paid this bill. He has enough for one can of beer and a bus pass to go do it all over again. I'm not jealous of him, you know what I'm saying. And I'm not jealous of the guy that's written a place from a slum landlord that won't fix nothing and the place is flooded and right. I'm surely not jealous of him. And so I'm just saying that there are some situations that I don't regret not being there.
Speaker 2:And when I asked you to do the podcast and then I thought about it, I'm like do you even know what day it is? And he said no. And I said do you know what month it is? He said I think. I'm like okay, I'm jealous of that.
Speaker 1:I don't keep a calendar in my head of events. I keep track of a schedule that I may have. I think you and I made a schedule and it just 100% slipped my mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I said all right, if you want to do this, meet me here next week at 1 o'clock. And then you didn't come. But then you came the next two Mondays at the same time.
Speaker 1:I was like alright, let's do this. The thing of it is, a lot of people may say, hey, you look good for your age, I just turned 60. But you know, your memory is the first thing to go. That starts going. You won't if I don't write it down. It don't exist. You know, we could talk about something and five minutes from now I wouldn't have a clue what we talked about. And you know what? I really don't even want one, because I learned to just roll with the times. When you start losing your hair, you know, start cutting it a lot shorter. You know, yeah, that's what makes more sense than going to get some weave and some implants and all these other things People will be glad to sell you.
Speaker 2:And you came in here you got two bags. I said what do you have in the back? And you said what I need to get through today.
Speaker 1:That is absolutely correct. You know some loose papers that I've put a few notes on. You know a change of underclothes, a pair of socks and the other bag I usually have. You know, if I you know if they're passing out a sack, lunch or something, I may grab some things out of it and hold it in that bag and whatever you kind of come across. I had a couple of baseball caps given to me so I put them in that bag.
Speaker 1:The thing of it is one of the struggles for a person living on the street and a lot of people have. Even the people who are committed to helping people who live on the streets don't have a clue. The main thing a person needs that's living on the street, is storage. Yeah, pushing carts, dragging suitcases and all this other business because they have no place to store it. Now, if a person have no place to store their things, how can they make an appointment and keep it without having to take all their things with them? Who's going to welcome you to fill out an application? And I'm sitting there with a shopping cart full of my stuff out there. Now, these people may not discriminate against the fact that I'm unhoused, you know, and don't have a permit, and we'll talk about that in a second. But if I show up with a shopping cart full of all my belongings in it, I'm pretty sure the application is going in the trash. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's probably a good assumption. Yeah, that's the reality. If I was a bad man, I was probably bad on that, and you could be the best guy for the job.
Speaker 1:And it won't even matter, and it won't matter.
Speaker 2:So is that all of your belongings right here, everything you have?
Speaker 1:That's everything I have In a backpack, in a grocery bag. It's not that I need me to cut you off, not that I hadn't. I've owned probably enough stuff to fill up both of those couches, both of your couches in this studio. And over a period of time you lose stuff. You put it in storage. Things happen, you get behind your storage and they auction off all your stuff, so everything there is gone, right. And then you know, uh, you're down to what you can stash behind a bush or or a person's uh place or garage that you may meet. Then all of a sudden you stop seeing that person. They move and you know the first thing a person loses that live on the streets. The first number two things, number one things uh they lose is id telephone. Everybody started off with one, basically right, but not everybody ended up with one.
Speaker 2:When you say losing, or is it stolen from other people?
Speaker 1:Well.
Speaker 2:Because you said, a lot of people wake up and they don't have it anymore.
Speaker 1:Well, if I find it on the ground. I didn't steal it from you.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So that's technically not stealing.
Speaker 2:An ID? For what purpose?
Speaker 1:An ID for the purpose of being able to prove your age, prove you are who you say you are be able to prove that you're a citizen for sake of a job, for sake of qualifying and showing eligibility for whatever you're trying to apply for to move ahead in life. So you got to. You got a hundred percent standstill if you have no ID. Yeah, and that's, yeah, that's the hopeful. Right, and if you have no ID and no phone, you know, just lay down and take it out of your car.
Speaker 2:No, you made a good comment too.
Speaker 1:You're saying when you don't have a phone, you don't have all these problems that most people do well, but I would just speak into if you don't have your id or a phone, right, you, you, you just laying there, uh. But for me, I hadn't had a phone in almost five months and it's been five of the best months of my life. I don't know what radiation is coming out of those devices, but not sitting there staring at it, and everything I think about and everything I do is centered around it. I feel so relieved.
Speaker 1:Not that I had gone through that for the last five months, it was not by my choice. I didn't have a phone, but I didn't say, hey, this is something that has to be fixed right now, right now, right now. I didn't feel that I just let it go. Things were still kind of clicking and rolling without it. You know, it showed me how to appreciate what was in front of me and the people that were in front of me. See, a phone connects us with people that are not in front of us. They're across the world, across the country, all this other kind of crazy business and it distracts us from dealing with what's in front of us to deal with, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2:What do you think? I agree with you. I wish I didn't have to have my phone.
Speaker 1:But there's a place for it and there's a need for it, you know, uh, but then I can look back and I'm, you know, not going back to the dinosaur days, but you know, 20, 30 years ago, before cell phones were even out there, people did just fine and that's a lot.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think about stuff like that all the time too, where it's, like you know, sending somebody an address or if they don't have, like people, figured it out how to get there years ago without a phone and now it's drop me your location. Yeah, yeah, and there's so many things now that we're just so, we're such prisoners to this we're so dependent it's so dependent, that's the word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's slash prisoner to it yeah, we're dependent prisoners, if it's a such title yeah, well, there is now, and, I think, one of the main things. The reason why I think about that is because, uh, we just had a, a baby, eight months ago well, congratulations yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:and the amount of information that's out there and the amount of people trying to tell you how to raise your kid and what's best, and I'm just like there's so much information, and people have been fine for years and years and years and years without any of this stuff, like every. Our parents figured it out, their parents figured it out, their parents before all this technology figured it out. It's now just an overload of information. So I have to remind myself that too.
Speaker 1:You know. But yeah, the other thing I want to kind of look at with the unhoused population is, you know, we all one step from being a part of it. We one paycheck away, two housing notes away from it, and I thank for a lot of people. That scares them and they feel the closer I'm to that type of situation whether it's being around people that are homeless makes me that much closer to it and so they may feel a need to create a border or a wedge. That may not be healthy in terms of what's best for all, because it may make this person feel, you know, awkward and you feel awkward about it. It's just not a good deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. Yeah, we're getting close to time here wrapping it up, but want to end on you. You know what you hope to accomplish going forward in life, your goals where you see yourself well, my goal is to attract all your listeners to listen to my podcast. Real talk with jw you to get the podcast going first. I got to get it.
Speaker 1:Well, you know you invite me to come here as part of the start Right. Everything has to start somewhere somehow and for most of us who have started things before, the hardest part is just getting started. Everything else just kind of works its way out Right and just like with your gym.
Speaker 1:I bet the hardest part was just Getting started Without seeing a wall, a building a floor and still moving forward, as if all those things you see and know that they're there.
Speaker 1:And I'm looking forward to it, man. One of my biggest goals, man, I want to be a part of just raising people's awareness, helping people to heighten their awareness. I think we live in a real dumbed-down society to where all we know is just all we know and all we know is just what those who are in power tell us, and we don't seek anything further than that, and I don't think that's creating a healthier society for us. So if we're going to look after our kids, grandkids and great-great-grandkids, we got to start trying to push back and bring some normalcy back into our society. Where we can look at each other and speak and not feel awkward, where we feel okay, asking for hey, man, you from here, you local, how do I get down the street? Where we feel comfortable doing the simple things. Again, I like that, that's what I feel most committed to, and if a nice house, come with it, so yeah, exactly I that.
Speaker 2:And then one thing if you had one sentence to describe yourself or say you know, I like asking people if you had a tombstone one day right, we're all going to pass what would you want that to say about you?
Speaker 1:Well, here lies a guy that stood up more than he said that.
Speaker 2:All right, I like it. Alright, we'll end it on that. I appreciate you coming in well, I thank you for the invite.
Speaker 1:I thank you for the invite and I thank you for sharing your audience with me. I hope we all can get together and do this again real soon yeah, I would love to do that.
Speaker 2:I usually tell people where to find people on social media, and you can find JW outside of BC Gym over here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can find me outside of BC Gym, that's right, and I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Speaker 2:All right, thank you. We got team on three.
