COVID-19 in San Diego wastewater starting to increase

S1: Data indicates another wave of COVID infections could be coming.
S2: If that starts to shoot back up , I wouldn't be surprised to see some action from local and state officials.
S1: I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Takeaways from the hearings of Supreme Court nominee KRG Brown Jackson.
S3: Somehow , her qualifications seem to still be met with skepticism. Despite these truly exceptional credentials.
S1: A look at how the pandemic is changing lives in San Diego and will tell you about the annual Black Voices Reading Series. That's ahead on Midday Edition. As San Diego continues to scale back COVID safety protocols , a familiar warning sign is emerging that may point to a coming surge in cases. Recent readings from wastewater treatment plants in the region have shown an uptick in the amount of viral load levels , an early indicator that transmission of the virus could be rising. Joining me now with more is KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman. Matt , welcome back to the program.
S2: Hey , good to be here.
S1:
S2: And long story short , you know , that goes down the tubes. It goes to a wastewater treatment plant. There's three of them in San Diego County , the South Bay treatment plant , and Zeena and Point Loma. And for the better part of a year , health officials and scientists have been looking at the poo and measuring the amount of COVID that's in it. And we saw we've been coming down off a huge Omicron spike that we saw early in the winter , but we have started going back up. Now , the numbers are small , like it went from like 1 million parts to 2 million parts. And keep in mind , we were well in the 30 million during the al-Muqrin search.
S1:
S2: What we're hearing from those who run the project over at UC San Diego is that about 80% of the new samples that they're finding are this be a two Omicron variant. Now , people may be familiar with that. That's likely what's driving surges that we're seeing in Europe. And , you know , traditionally , except for about one time , every time that Europe has had a surge , us here in the U.S. , we get one shortly after.
S1:
S2: You know , I'm not exactly sure if it's I mean , they have matched up data and been able to say , you know , when we saw increases in the wastewater , there were increases in cases. This is going to be it's sort of first big test now that we're here in this new normal. Yet the governor's talked about using early indicators like wastewater to try and figure out where we need to maybe scale up. So we'll see if if if these increases continue , if there's any action on the behalf of county officials or even state officials.
S1:
S2: She was quoted in a Union-Tribune article basically saying that , you know , this likely represents that a surge is coming. So health officials are definitely paying attention to this. We know that the program , the wastewater program , they do share data with with the state government. So definitely keeping an eye on this.
S1:
S2: So hypothetically , we could be seeing cases starting to increase in the next couple of weeks. Now , what will be interesting to see is if that COVID still keeps rising in the sewage , and then if we start to see rising cases here , and then if there will be any of these public health interventions again.
S1:
S2: Just a lot of people keep reposting this story saying , well , what do you expect when we open everything up ? Cases are bound to go up. And that may be true , but we sort of don't know what's going to happen. Like I mentioned earlier , we typically have seen case surges with new variants after they've happened in other places. So that's definitely something that could be coming. But what what health officials are telling me is that it would be sort of surprising to see another surge so quickly having us just really coming off of that big homegrown surge.
S1:
S2: Now , keep in mind , this is some early data that we're seeing. About 2000 copies per liter. It was 47 million copies per liter at the peak of the current surge. So we're still relatively low. But if that starts to shoot back up , I wouldn't be surprised to see some action from local and state officials.
S1: And before you go , I wanted to ask a quick question about the expected approval of a second booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine for patients 50 and up.
S2: We know that in terms of a sort of a second booster dose , that's something that. Compromise patients have been getting , you know , unclear if they've had any major issues there. But we know , you know , long story short , that immunity and some of the protections from these vaccines wanes over time. I mean , boosters are very effective tool to boost that immunity. Something to note that's interesting. I know this is about the second booster dose , but in terms of that first booster dose , San Diego County , we're not faring very well when you compare it to the state of those who are eligible. Only about 43% have actually gotten their booster dose done or actually opted for that. Now , compare that at the top of the list with San Francisco County. They're well above 75%.
S1: I've been speaking with KPBS health reporter Matt Hoffman. Matt , thank you so much.
S2: Thanks , Jade.
S1: Last week , Supreme Court nominee Judge Clayton G. Brown Jackson faced multiple days of questioning from the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Her nomination as the first black woman to the nation's highest court has given hope for many black women and women of color. But the at times disrespectful tone and irrelevant questions during the hearings also illustrated how exhausting rising to such heights can be. The hearings included many tense exchanges with senators , often with frequent interruptions of the nominee. Here's a brief clip of just one of those exchanges here with Senator Lindsey Graham.
S3: Who had been here between zero and 24 months , which is two years. Yeah , no , but what.
S1: I'm joined by American University law professor Leah Epperson , who , aside from her legal expertise , was also a college classmate of Judge Jackson at Harvard University. Professor Epperson , welcome to Midday Edition.
S3: Thank you so much for having me.
S1: What was your initial reaction to Judge Clayton G.
S3: And if one is looking for someone to to serve on the highest court of the land , she truly has an incredible , unwavering dedication to the rule of law. She has credentials that are unimpeachable and in some ways really far and above what we often see in nomination processes.
S1: So no questioning about her , her qualifications here at all.
S3: So one does not have to look far to learn about the fact that she has more years of judicial experience than four of the current justices combined. One doesn't have to look far to see that her legal experience is broad , that she's been a trial judge , an appellate judge. She has practiced as a private practice lawyer. She has authored nearly 600 opinions as a judge. All of that is there really for anyone to to see. And she has been very forthcoming with these documents. So all of that has been provided. And yet somehow her qualifications seem to still be met with skepticism , despite these truly exceptional credentials. So I think that's what you see in some of the questioning , the questioning by some of the senators that really has nothing to do with her record as a judge. Nothing really to do with her qualifications. It was kind of this dizzying array of questions that were in some ways political theater and quite frankly , a lot of them about issues of race and crime that were not asked of other nominees. So I think that's also where you see a distinction between what was being asked of Judge Jackson that we have not seen in the past.
S1:
S3: Disappointed in the sense that I do believe it was. What we saw was a lot of political theater rather than true questions about judicial methodology , about overall qualifications and record. The tenor of the questions that were asked were really not in the vein of what we think of as this amazing system of checks and balances that is a part of our democracy. And certainly , if one were to look historically , there have been justices who have sailed through such a process who were , one may think of as as figures today that might have garnered more skepticism or criticism or attention or challenge. But as we know , Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia sailed right through those judiciary confirmation hearings , as did Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So I think what we are seeing is a particularly special , challenging and indeed polarizing moment in our history. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , I'm curious to know , you know , when you look at the the skepticism around Judge Brown Jackson's gleaming record and experience , and we watched as she was interrupted during the hearings.
S3: And to be perfectly honest , I think I mean , it's it's probably familiar to so many black women in industries and in places where there are few of us. But I think for so many black. Women watching this process , these confirmation hearings , there is something very familiar to the process and in some ways almost a feeling very acutely the jabs , if you will , of some of the lines of attacks of the senators. So she has such a wide swath of support that shows she is fair , that she has the temperament to be an incredible judge , that she has a record of nine years of doing this , and yet she is still questioned in a way with such vitriol that really has nothing to do. Again , with her record as a judge in these nine years , it's sort of there are a couple of things that the judge that the senators seemed to sort of cherry pick and then questions about things that really had nothing to do with really immaterial to her qualifications , the questions about her , her faith or her religion , questions about the books that were maybe part of a library at a school in which she serves on the board. I mean , all of these questions really have nothing to do with how she would serve as a Supreme Court justice. And I do believe that there was a line of questioning in many instances that we would not have seen if it were not a black woman sitting in that seat. Hmm.
S1: You know , in an emotional moment in the hearings , California Senator Alex Padilla asked Judge Brown Jackson what she would say to young Americans who have doubts about achieving the same great heights she has. Judge Jackson recounted an experience she had in her first semester at Harvard University.
S3: I was really questioning , do I belong here ? Can I can I make it in this environment ? And I was walking through the yard in the evening , and a black woman I did not know was passing me on the sidewalk. And she looked at me and I guess she knew how I was feeling. And she leaned over as we crossed and said. Persevere.
S1:
S3: I was I was one year behind Judge Jackson at Harvard , but I was there in that space and experiencing those things. And it was , I think , such an incredible moment to have Judge Jackson sitting before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in these hearings to be the first black woman to sit on the highest court of the land. And to hear those words , I think , will that that piece that you played , it holds so much because what Judge Jackson is saying , in spite of this , in the face of everything that that she might have been feeling as a as a college freshman , but truly in the face of everything that she experienced in that moment , in those 20 hours of hearings , she was saying , we persevere and we encourage one another to persevere. So for her to say we persevere , she's both speaking of her own experience. And I think also as as Senator Padilla was suggesting , this is her message to others , because don't have anyone tell you this is not something that is achievable or attainable. We persevere and we can succeed. And there she sits in the chair , poised to be the first black woman from the United States Supreme Court in 233 years.
S1: I've been speaking with Professor Lia Epperson , law professor at American University. Professor , thank you so much for joining us.
S3: Thank you so much for having me , Jane. This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH with Jade Heineman. Two years ago today , San Diego was in the early days of an unprecedented shutdown. The governor told everyone in California to shelter in place , with few exceptions , as the COVID 19 pandemic took hold. In the time since , many people's lives have changed dramatically. Families lost loved ones. Millions lost jobs. Some lost their place to live. Essential workers from hospitals to grocery stores became the lifeblood of the community. Businesses shuttered classrooms became computer screens and bedrooms , and kitchens became offices. Now , as some San Diegans take off their masks and return to a life that looks more like it did before the pandemic , we each have our own pandemic story to tell. KPBS Midday Edition producer Amylin Mohib spoke to four San Diegans about how their lives changed during the pandemic. Here are their stories. While people were stuck in their homes in the early days of the pandemic , cheering for essential workers became a worldwide phenomenon for Bankers Hill resident Marcy Colleen , what began as a way to think doctors and nurses ended up helping her form lasting bonds with her neighbors. At that time , we could hear the cheering going on downtown , and every night it felt like it got a little bit closer to Bankers Hill , and I could not wait until it finally made it up to Bankers Hill so that I could go out and cheer as well. And I think we waited until it got to about three or four blocks away , and I couldn't contain it any more. And my husband and I went outside. We took a cowbell with us and we started cheering. And several of our neighbors came out , too , with pots and pans and clapping and hooting and hollering. And this went on every single night at 8 p.m.. We even have some neighbors on our block who work at the hospital , and we would sometimes cheer them home as they would be pulling into their driveways in every single month. It seemed like we got a little bit closer. We would take a few steps closer to each other as we were cheering. And one night we just chatted afterward , introduced ourselves. Of course , standing six feet apart. And eventually we started texting each other , sharing phone numbers. And when most of the mandates were kind of lifted in June of 2021 , we decided that we were going to finally stop cheering. We have been cheering every single night from April 2020 until June 21 , and we decided that we are going to mark the occasion with going out to dinner together and we all went out to dinner in Liberty Station and it was a great way to just kind of meet each other. And since then we've celebrated every single person's birthday in the driveway. We've had pumpkin carving parties at Halloween. We've toasted midnight on New Year's Eve , and every single day now , when I go out for my morning run , I'm waving , I'm stopping , I'm talking to my neighbors because we actually came together during the pandemic , and it's a really good feeling. In February 2021 , I did lose my dad to COVID and just having my neighbors around me , I don't know many people in San Diego and just having that feeling of belonging somewhere and still going out and cheering every single night , I felt like I was not only doing that for the essential workers and everybody we've lost , but now my dad was included in that and it was a really special time to be able to have people close to you.
S2: When up.
S3: Until that point , I didn't really feel like I belonged. Not all essential workers were being cheered and celebrated. In the early days of the pandemic , Tiffany Castro Tremblay worked in a grocery store , and the experience of being on the receiving end of the public's panic and anger took a toll on her. I remember the first day that school was canceled. Things were shut down and people were panic buying. I remember the lines were all the way to the back of the store and the attitudes of the store that day were pretty grim. It's actually kind of mind blowing to think about how much has happened in the last two years. But I remember everything from the George Floyd protests and how we had to be rushed out of the store for that. But in general , looking back , I think I just remember how fearful everyone was. I would have to say over these last two years , I feel pretty like war torn. And so I think for me , these last two years has taught me how to be prepared when someone in front of you becomes unhinged for whatever reason. I've seen people get vicious over not having the right creamer or having to wait an extra minute in line when we are very short staffed during the pandemic. There are a lot of changes besides what was happening. The plan was always for me to go back to grad school. You train to become a marriage and family therapist. And so I started grad school right in the middle of 2020 , and unfortunately , my mother also passed around that same time. So it was quite an uphill battle , not only being immersed in the world of COVID and working retail , but also grieving and diving back into school. I think learning and training to be in the mental health field while COVID was happening was such a strange and unique experience because on one hand , I'm training on how to care for people who just have , you know , really rough circumstances in their life that they want to navigate through or who are recovering from trauma. And in my other job , I am face to face with people who are experiencing trauma or who are handing out trauma to other people , unfortunately , while they're shopping for their groceries. And when I say that , I mean like fights in the store , like physical fights in the store over someone wearing a mask or not wearing a mask , verbal abuse from customers directed at US workers or even just at the person behind them. I think for me it accumulated. It was just too much to handle. It got exhausting. So I realized I had to get out of retail and I decided to work with kids and I haven't looked back. Students from kindergarten through college struggled with the transition to virtual classrooms for one , former San Diego State art student used to working with his hands. At first , the computer screen was an unwelcome barrier.
S2: My name is Chris Elfman and I'm from San Isidro. As a San Diego State ceramics student , it was difficult to transition from going every day to do what I love in the studio , to not having access to the studio. After the pandemic hit for us , we transitioned from playing and working with actual clay to practically not working with any clay or any materials because we couldn't finish the work. And the whole point of the program was to help you turn a bowl of clay into a piece of art. So for us , most of the time , we simply discussed ceramics theory , art theory. And at first I was angry , but then I was relieved because we had Mary Kelly , who was our professor there at San Diego State. And while she wasn't able to provide us with the resources we needed to continue our work at home , she was at least that shoulder we could lean on. And most days when we would tune in to the Zoom call for ceramics , we would just talk , we would just check on each other , and we would make sure that we were at least getting our feelings out and and hearing each other out. Because for a lot of us , the pandemic caused us to not be able to do what we love. We loved being in the ceramics studio. We love talking to each other and working with each other , and we couldn't do that anymore. So what ended up happening was we ended up forming this different kind of bond virtually.
S3: From the challenges of working from home to losing a job. San Diegan Scott Morgan says the early days of the pandemic were very stressful , but once they were back on track , he and his wife found a way to support local businesses while sharing their passion for craft beer and wine.
S2: Around mid-March , my job had told me that I needed to work from home. And it's funny , I still have the email. It said , You know , we should all be back in office in about two weeks , so expect to be back in the office by the end of March. And here we are two years later and now I'm permanently working from home. And some people may have found that to be a blessing in disguise. But I've always been a proponent of liking to separate work and home. And so working from home was kind of difficult for me , just being the fact that , you know , the walls start closing in on you , you get cabin fever. But also in addition to that , my wife lost her job right away when the pandemic hit. So immediately , as much as we were blessed to not be sick or know anyone who was sick , we had that stress of her losing her job right away. We were only a year into our first mortgage , so we were first time condo owners and only a year. And here she is having to find a new job already. So that was stressful. But then when she found her new job , she had to work weekends , which was something that was added stress after about a year and a half of living through , you know , our different schedules and everything else that went along with being kind of lockdown , she was able to find a different job and got back to that Monday through Friday work life. And that really helped with balancing out us being able to work around the same time and now that we have weekends back together. What can we do to leverage this this benefit to make something positive out of this whole situation ? So we really want to support our local businesses in San Diego. We really have a passion for craft beer and craft wine. And so it was pretty obvious what we needed to do , which was like , let's just make a hobby out of and let's just , you know , I knew how to do a little bit of podcasting in terms of writing it , but I really had to teach myself the audio editing and all that , you know , back behind the scenes that went with it. The podcast is called Frequent Flyers. It really helped , you know , bring positive light to a dire situation for both ourselves and the local craft culture in San Diego.
S3: To see photographs of Marcy and her neighbors , a self portrait of Tiffany , some of Christian's ceramic artwork , and Scott in his home podcasting space. You can go to our Web site. That story was produced by Amylin Rehab. There were nearly 1 million unfilled I.T. jobs in the U.S. last year , according to federal employment data. That's a problem for tech companies , but an opportunity for IT professionals in Mexico. KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis explains how Tijuana is becoming more than just a manufacturing hub.
S4: Maritza Diaz is the founder and CEO of I Tijuana , a company that connects American businesses with Mexican tech workers. Her clients are mostly companies based in San Diego. And all of them seem to be having the same problem.
S5: Every time I ask my potential customers , what is your biggest problem is no longer the cost. The previous problem is just able to hire. They don't care where and how they want to hire because of all of this acceleration , particularly here in California , when we compete with the big tech of Googles and Facebooks and A.W. s , it's almost impossible for me to small companies to hire because every software engineer wants to go work in the big tech.
S4: Diaz says everyone is struggling to hire software developers right now , particularly small to medium sized companies who keep losing talent to tech giants like Google , Facebook and Amazon. She views it as an opportunity for Tijuana. Traditionally , the tech sector has relied on countries like India and China to fill the labor gap. But companies no longer need to go that far.
S5: For us being in San Diego and this beautiful area , when Tijuana is only 20 to 30 minutes down the road , it does not make any sense to go to India or to go to China or the Philippines or anywhere but here.
S4: Tijuana offers several advantages. Developers , they are highly trained. Their salaries are half of what companies would pay in the U.S. and they avoid the logistical hurdles that come with hiring people half a world away in Tijuana starting in 2019 and has already produced roughly 700 engineering jobs. Two of those went to Rachel Reyes and Andrea Patino.
S3: I think there's a lot of opportunities in Tijuana.
S4: That was Reyes , who started as a trainee and now develops mobile apps for a biomedical company. Bertino collaborates with developers based in San Diego on a daily basis.
S6: So when you actually start working with people from the USA or from India or for different places , you start to learn from them and they start to learn from you. So it's a really fun thing to do , collaborate with different cultures and different environments.
S4: They're both aware that they're getting paid a lot less than what developers make in California. But they also say Tijuana's cost of living is much lower. So for them , it kind of evens out. Plus , Patino says that their education is way more affordable.
S6: I've heard the stories of people taking gears and gears to pay their student loans. Mexico is way more accessible. We don't pay nearly as much as the US tossing university , but I do think they do a great job at teaching us.
S4: Diaz doesn't see the U.S. labor shortage getting any better in the short term. She thinks Tijuana has the potential to become Mexico's next big tech hub for a couple of reasons. First , the sheer number of openings means that visas for skilled labor are no longer a viable option. The H-1B visa program is capped at 65,000 , which is not nearly enough to fill the gap. Plus , companies can save a lot of money by hiring in Mexico.
S5: When you bring the worker here to the U.S. , you're now paying us salaries , right ? I don't see any reason why companies need to apply for visas like that when they can actually drive 30 minutes and be there and have hundreds of engineers in Tijuana. Tijuana is a sister site of San Diego , so there's no reason to bring them here. They're already here.
S4: For young Tijuana says , this means having an opportunity in tech without having to leave their hometown.
S6: So I think you can go way back. So I think there's definitely a lot of room for improvement. But the potential is there. So I think with the right focus and the bright border , we can get it to grow into the next big tech hub.
S3: Joining me is KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis. Gustavo , welcome. Hello.
S4: Hello. Maureen , thank you for having me.
S3: So the Mexican I.T. workers hired by U.S. companies don't relocate. They do their jobs based in Tijuana.
S4: Yeah , exactly. They live and work in Tijuana right now , mostly in their homes , but they're setting up offices over there and they can work remotely. Right. They do most of the work by computers , especially with some of the programming work that they do. It's all in the cloud. So they're interacting and collaborating with people in San Diego all the time , but their work is all in Mexico.
S3: Can you give us an idea of the range of I.T. jobs that are being filled by workers in Tijuana ? Yeah.
S4: Yeah. So the sources I spoke with are mostly in the biotech industry. And the founder of Tijuana , which is this company that that's producing a lot of these jobs , worked at Thermo Fisher here in San Diego. So she's very much of that biotech life sciences world. And in terms of specific jobs , right now , it's mostly software engineers , developers and testers. Like I said , they work right alongside teams based in San Diego and even India. And the type of products that they work on are things like mobile apps for health devices and even the wearable health devices themselves , the software that goes into things like patches for people with diabetes to monitor their sugar levels.
S3:
S4: These are skilled jobs that require a special labor visa. The one visa that most tech companies use right now is the H-1B visa. It is basically a lottery at this point because the visas capped at 65,000 each year. They reach that number like within a month of it being opened every year. Right now , it is a little bit easier to get skilled Mexican and Canadian workers because of the US trade deal. They have their own version of a skilled visa. But if you're talking about bringing workers from Mexico , for some companies that make way more sense to just keep them in Mexico and pay them Mexican salaries instead of the American ones. Because if you bring in foreign workers with those visas , you do have to pay what everyone else is making here in the country.
S3: I was wondering what the pros and cons are of IT professionals working remotely from Tijuana. You just told us a couple of the pros.
S4: I generally speaking , when you are offshore , this kind of work to it mostly goes to India , China , Southeast Asia. Some of the bigger hurdles are just logistics of having your workforce in other time zones. Culturally , they I mean , they all code and speak English , but it's a different business culture. The pro of bringing that to Mexico is that you maintain the lower cost of paying non-American wages , but you cut down on some of those logistical hurdles of having to work remote time zones or just the cultural differences between Chinese and American workers.
S3:
S4: Right. There aren't enough skilled laborers in the country. We're not producing enough. And the reason is hard. It's hard for those jobs to be filled is because schools aren't really producing as many as are needed right now.
S3: You say the I.T. workers in Tijuana hired by U.S. companies , are not paid U.S. salaries.
S4: And this is for entry level jobs. I'm not sure how it scales when people climb up the corporate ladder and get jobs like senior developers and things like that. But at least for the entry levels , there are some American companies that pay as much as 100,000 a year for people right out of college in Mexico. That's probably going to be a little less than 50,000 a year. And it's worth keeping in mind that Tijuana's cost of living is significantly lower than California's. And Mexicans , generally speaking , don't take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans to get their degrees. But comparing the Mexican salary of tech workers to Mexican salaries of other workers in Tijuana , they're getting a pretty good deal out of it. So they're pretty stoked to be in the industry.
S3:
S4: I mean , the country has the country I mean , Mexico has invested a lot in STEM. So they're able to produce a lot more. Tijuana has a couple of different universities and vocational training programs that just produce more engineers.
S3: Because there's such a pool of I.T. talent in Tijuana.
S4: In fact , the city of Guadalajara is known as Mexico's big tech hub , and they have an established reputation in the industry. And like I said before , the country as a whole has invested in step STEM programs. Outside of California , I mean , Chinese companies have a lot of investment in Mexico. Right. My grandma , who's lives in Mexico City , has a wireless phone , which I've had to learn how to use so I can teach her how to use it. So in Guadalajara , in Mexico , there is a lot of interest in Tijuana , not so much yet. In Tijuana , it's a nascent tech scene , tech hub , which they think it can grow because of its proximity to the border and just the cost.
S3: I've been speaking with KPBS border reporter Gustavo Solis. Gustavo , thank you.
S4: Well , thank you , Maureen. I appreciate you having me on.
S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. San Diego Repertory Theatre kicks off its second annual Black Voices Reading Series tonight with the first of four plays. The series seeks out work that highlights a diverse range of black stories and playwrights and creates opportunities for discussion around the issues raised in the plays. KPBS arts reporter Beth ACCOMANDO speaks with playwright Marti Goble about Food Day.
S7: Marty , you are part of San Diego Rep's Black Voices Reading Program , and you're going to be presenting a play called Food Day. So start us off by telling us what the stories about.
S3: Food Day is about a family that does a lot of their communication and bantering and checking in over the family dining room table. So the play Food Day is a play in five courses. You have breakfast , lunch , appetizers , dinner and a snack with the family as they talk about a big decision that is going to affect them all that is moving from the Midwest to San Francisco so that the mother can work with maximum security inmates and teach them how to cook.
S2: If I was in jail , I wouldn't be trying to eat fast food and soup and burnt bacon for real ribs or something. Lasagna.
S3: I want fresh fruit. Lots of fresh fruit.
S2: Ice cream. Do I still crave it ? You don't know. You know what your mind would tell you ? It was missing. Cravings are elusive.
S3: In that room.
S2: Where people.
S3: Answering to their cravings after thinking about it for a long. Time.
S2: Time. Lots of thinking about this. One.
S1: One. Day.
S3: Day. Food.
S2: Food.
S7:
S3: We had different traditions , but the tradition of gathering was in place and we continue that with our kids. I grew up having Sunday dinner at my grandmother's every Sunday and learning how to make those foods and sharing those foods. Yes , definitely in the fabric of our family culture.
S7:
S3: And it's fascinating to see the words filtered through , you know , all of these varied instruments whom I have not met.
S7:
S3: I think they are incredibly helpful. And the questions that that come up when different brains are on the same project. Yeah.
S7: And you are also an actress as well as a playwright.
S3: The last thing that I took on in the theater world was playwriting. Yeah.
S7:
S3: And then all of a sudden I had all of these Post-it notes and I thought I could put this together and share some of my family humor with others.
S7:
S3: And food again is a great binder , not just for my family , but for everyone. And I really wanted the talking about food to lead to bigger universal truths. On on tasting in danger and on trying new things and understanding your palate and all of that. So yeah , food had to be involved.
S7: Now this is just a reading. So it's just there's not going to be any production design or any , you know , props and things like that.
S3: And then during the intermission they would be able to go up into the kitchen and poke around and try some of the foods that were in there. I want to make it a full , full body experience for everybody.
S7: And you have also overseen a theater group uprooted.
S3: Is that as my with my tenure as artistic director of Uprooted and the first one being that I can do a lot of things , but it is very nice to have in an infrastructure and a team that can help with all of those things because it's very easy to fall into a pattern of doing everything yourself. And that's not , in the long run helpful for any organization. I also learned that there's a great deal that you can do to produce theater , and I think sometimes we get lost in possible budgets or what we see , you know , produced on the bigger stages. And it's it was a huge lesson to me to know that the best story is often just an act. Speaking in a very simple costume and engaging with a group of people. So , yeah. A good story is a good story.
S7:
S3: I would consider it almost like a radio show. So , you know , back in the day , families would sit around the radio and just listen to some actors go through a tale or a section of their life. And I think with all of the pieces , that's something that you should be able to do. Just sit back and and listen to some good storytelling.
S7:
S3: Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
S7: That's awesome. Well , I look forward to hearing your play. And thank you very much for talking about Food Day.
S3: Thank you , Beth. Have a good day.
S1: That was Beth ACCOMANDO speaking with Marti Gobel. The series kicks off online tonight with Global Food Day , available next Monday.