Chat Up America Introduction: Ep 1

Chat Up America focuses around interviewing people who want to make an impact/ or do good in their community. Mainstream media has a bad habit of getting us worked up but provides little solutions to the problems. How and why are we affected? Our host, Andy Caldwell along with his guest host, Tim Helms, share a brief back-story on the goal as they kick off this show for people who are looking for a compass and beacon of hope amidst the new challenges we face.
Topics discussed:  Lockdown, social impact from 2020 and is it Uptown or Downtown Charlotte?

Transcript

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Welcome to Chat Up America with your host, Andy Caldwell. Welcome, everybody. Hope you're doing good out there. Thanks for joining us. My name is Andy Caldwell of the Chat Up America podcast. And joining with me is my good friend Tim Helmes. Tim, how are you doing, buddy? I'm doing good, brother. How are you? I'm fine, man. A little nervous, but what are we what are we doing here? We've talked about having a podcast years ago before the covid season hit. The Cauvin seems like we're expecting it. And then the election and then the world is turned upside down and here we are. So what do you think so far? Excited about the first episode? Yeah, this is really cool. Well, thanks for joining me, man. I'm I'm excited about this. This is our first episode, and we're delighted that you have downloaded our our first episode. And I hope you will continue to join us as we journey forward or jump out in deep waters and trying out, you know, sharing good stories. And and so, yeah, we wanted to give a quick back story on what we're doing here and talking, you know, we could at least give a back story and why how we got here. You know, and I did come up and talk to Tim a few weeks ago and kind of volunt told him that he's going to be on the show with me. I like how you said that, you know what you're getting yourself into. And but, yeah, just you know, it all started back in second grade. I'm just plain you know, it all started back when the gap with Voxer, that's when it started. That's where, yeah, we would do some production for a local school where they would go out to Wendie Gap in North Carolina and have some great time of fellowship and swimming. And what else would we do there. Singing Getting God's word. It's a Christian event. Yeah, zip line. That's Christian to zip line and all that. But we produce videos together. And so that's where we started building a good relationship and figured out, hey, you do video production as well. So that's that's my background. Know. But yeah, everyone knows unless you're hiding in a cave or in a coma for the last 12 months, you know, you brought up a good point. Wouldn't that be weird? What if someone did? They're like, how do we explain this? Yeah. Hey, you know, I'm feeling good and I'm ready to get out of the hospital. What? Why are you wearing a mask? We're we're in a car or what are these people. Yeah. Where do these people looking at me because I'm not wearing my mask, man. I must be bad off and you know. Yeah. So with the journey of going through the pandemic with everybody, with their friends and family and, you know, I was trying to think what what would be my first couple of words of 20/20 leading in twenty, twenty one. It was like I think of like words like Suckerpunch. I think of other words like the upside down for you, stranger things fans out there. And, you know, it's just like it was one for the history books the last 12 to 14 months. What kind of things or story surface for you, Tim, as you look back just really quick and kind of saying, you know what, I feel like I'm in a bad dream. It's just not ending. It's not going to end well. It's been like like everyone, I'm sure. But the the spectrum of emotions and just how I felt, it's like when if I even thought of this the other day, like when it when it first started, I saw something, it was a picture or something or someone was talking about it. I can't hear what that was. But that feeling of when we heard about that, we need to flatten the curve. So she's going to be like a two week or a two month kind of a thing. And I remember the feeling of that and then thinking of some of the good that had come out of it, you know, like just the opportunity to take a pause. And people were kind of talking about those types of things. Right. And then you flash forward. I mean, we've been doing that, you know, this whole time. We would never have thought of that then. But we did have a couple of cool things. One was last Easter, like we never would have done this had it not been for the pandemic. But last Easter, we had a little church service for our neighborhood on our front porch, and people came and brought their lawn chairs and kind of sat, you know, six feet apart or whatever and spread out in front. But I did think, you know, had it not been for this pandemic, we never would have even considered that. So that was kind of some things like that that have emerged have been kind of cool to see how God used it, right. Yeah. Tough, tough year overall for sure. Yeah. Don't get me started on. You know, we're just going to Maska for two weeks and then, you know, they'll do an update. We live in North Carolina. For those of you who are out of state or don't know us too well yet, we live out around the Charlotte metro area. So we have a. Some state officials will be nice about it. It's like we're in a never ending pandemic, you know, it's like, OK, what they just came up with another update we're given this recorded in February 2021 is like, all right, we are the cases are going down and the vaccinations are getting out. And but we still have a long way to go. And it's like, oh, my goodness, I was looking at the Twitter feed and I was like, oh, my goodness, here comes, you know, so it's like we're not going to we're going to be wearing masks if we turn 80. But hopefully not. But it's just it's just it's just weird. As you can tell, you know, 20/20 was really a year of, you know, covid-19 and then the election came up and then all chaos broke loose or it was already there. It just we just kind of rediscovered how how, you know, fragile we are as a country and becoming so divisive. And, yeah, it was just just a weird position to be in. And that's what kind of started down this track and, you know, where you can say something to him. Just that in all of that, because it's like it's heartbreaking, that it's so divisive, that it's so polarizing and I I I'm a huge proponent and love the the idea of the free marketplace of ideas where people are free to share. And yet we can disagree, but it doesn't have anything to do with. Hate or in, you know what I mean, it's like these relationships. Even sometimes are put on hold because of a difference of opinion on stuff, and I know they're important matters, but still just as a society and I really kind of crave getting back to being able to have good, hearty, open, honest debate and, you know, talk about stuff but don't but not letting those things interfere with relationships. You know, it's just an interesting time. And I've kind of grieved over that, to be honest with you. Yeah. And, you know, it was a perfect storm. You know, you have you know, if you're sitting on the outside as an enemy of America and you're watching all this unfold, you're like, oh, my goodness, let's just let the Americans implode on each let them destroy themselves. And that's almost where it got to a point. And whatever whatever political side of the aisle that you are on, you know, just to say like discussions on Facebook. Yeah. Everyone knows that you shouldn't really try to you're never going to win an argument. Right. I've been there. I'm guilty of that. Hurts of feelings. But I've learned tough, tough lessons on that. Oh, yeah. And we we we got to learn to listen. But it got to the point where I would say, hey, the sky is blue. We'll know that you need a fact check that that's, you know, whether you're a bigot or that came from a you know where I would say we lean on the conservative side, but I want to, you know, do my research and, you know, use common sense like, no, that's that's not you got that from that website. It's not it's not legit. In fact, checkers, you know, some kids from, you know, 20 somethings who were majored in social media or something, you know, said, well, that's not I know I'm not a doctor, but this is this is not true. So I was like, OK, you can't even share that. Right? And I get that. But like you said, I want to have relationships to be able that what happened to getting face to face with people and having a conversation. And that's what we want to do on the show, Tim, is is to, you know, help one another learn the art of this, the lost art actually of conversation that I could come and have a beer with you or sit down and break bread and it maybe just have discussion online, but it's not as personal, but be able to engage in dialog with one another. We might agree to disagree, but not to the point to where. What about what about Islam? You know what. Well, what about this? What about it's like, no, you're not listening to me. I need to do a better job as a human being to listen to others, whatever background you come from, you know, and that's what we've lost, I think, as a as a nation. And that is it is causing us to go down a dark path, a dangerous path, if you will. I mean, we unpack that a little bit, but, yeah, that's that's kind of my sense. There's like a certain accountability that you feel and experience when you're with another person in person as opposed to hiding behind the keyboard. Just and it's like as a society, we've lost all sense of that civility and those the the art of conversation that we, you know, those of us our age for sure, grew up with because we didn't have any of the other stuff. So we learned how to actually, you know, have manners and respect and all that kind of stuff. But once the online portals became available and people just kind of threw some of that out the window and said, hey, this is easy, you can say what you want. Yeah, I remember Facebook friends saying, how can people say things? You know, how would you type something? You're faceless, you're not impersonal, you know, and and people don't know how to properly read, quote unquote, body language when you're typing. But why would you say something like that if you if you would say that to him, face to face your expression, your inflection, everything? None of that comes through. We experience that in texting to, you know, like, oh, sorry. I know I didn't mean it that way. I just didn't mean it in all caps. I didn't mean I was I was driving. Yeah. I didn't. So it so it gets so tricky like that. But yeah. Right. I think we've gone to another level to where I just finished the book. I don't know if I told you earlier as we're preparing for this show or episode. Jonathan Zittrain s book called The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. It's basically just takes you on a journey, how computer started and the growth and the merging of technology and the Internet and it and how it plays into our social lives. He wrote this book like ten years ago, and I'm like, dude, you are prophetic as it relates to the post-election post, January six, the riot, the rioting that happened, unfortunately, at Capitol Hill in DC. But just how? We would say now big tech is, you know. Is trying to what would you say, cancel, if you will, the whole cancel culture thing, trying to cancel conservatives or people they disagree with or feel like they're pushing the wrong agenda. And so Jonathan talks about it. Zittrain talks about in his book that, you know, sometimes a punishment doesn't fit the crime, i.e., you know, oh, well, you know, there was a riot. There are people protesting. Nothing was burned down. Unfortunately, a couple of people died. But there are even some stories fabricated from that point. We're not going to get in. All that's not my point. What I'm saying is the you know, now there are people, state officials or big tech organizations trying to cancel out people who might have been associated just walking or participating in the rally or the protest that day. If you committed a crime that day or participated in their protests, doesn't necessarily mean that you get your freedom of speech canceled or whatever if you're liberal or conservative. And that's why I think if you do your research and really listen and see what the major media outlets are doing or whoever you listen to or read about and current events, the punishment doesn't fit the crime. And a lot of cases as a trend continue, say our outrage has become disproportionate to the social norm. You know, we've forgotten how to express ourselves in conversation. So we start to point fingers. We start slandering one another and threatening one another. And so it's got to stop, you know, because if we and that's our goal here on the shows to bring on people who are making a difference in the community, we're not going to sit there and try to, you know, be political analysts. We might try to do that. But I thought that's what we were doing. That's that's why I'm here. Well, never mind. I guess we're going to do that. We won't camp out on that, but we're going to try to to bring in some positive some hope. If you feel like you've been displaced after 2020, the election, or if you've been stuck in lock down for wherever you come from in the world or whatever state you're in and and you just feel like you lost your voice as far as what you believe in. You know, if you still a lover of the Constitution, United States of America, and you you believe in the freedom of speech, then this will hopefully be a place for you to bring on people and guests to share about what they're doing, their sphere of influence and how they're making an impact, or how how has the last 12 months impacted them and what are they doing about it? The people, you know, the boots on the ground, the people, the grassroots level, if that makes sense. Yeah, I look forward to it. Look forward to hearing from people and getting into their lives and and hearing what they're doing and even disagreeing, you know, just talking it through and. Right. And bringing awareness to to all of those issues will be a great experience. And now a word from our sponsor, voice modulator two thousand. Are you having a difficult time understanding people who mask up during the lockdown? Are you frustrated that the waitress misunderstood your lunch order? Oh, no, no, no, no. I wanted the dressing on the side. Tired of misdiagnose treatment from your doctor appointment? I thought you said appointment. The VMT thousand is programed to translate your muffled voice. Two thousand comes equipped with five languages English, Espanol, Deutche, Elvish and Cleon. Here's an example to go home. PVM 2000. Robot voice translates involved I on call one five five five eight six seven five three oh nine. That's five five five eight six seven five three oh nine. And order your pvm two thousand four ninety nine dollars. That's right. For only ninety nine dollars you'll never be misunderstood again. It's Plan A.. Thousand theoretically works only on people who wear out the three mask and this ad is not real, at least for now. Tim, I've got a question for you. Yes. Now, you live north of Charlotte and I live in the south of Charlotte, metro area, you call it uptown Charlotte or downtown Charlotte Andy. I was born in Presbyterian Hospital on 7th Street in downtown Charlotte. OK. All right. And I do remember, like I think it was about the time when the city started thinking about getting the Hornets. Were you here then? Like, do you remember all that? Yeah. Mm hmm. And before the Bobcats. Yeah, they kind of at that time, someone kind of hypothesized that by calling it downtown, that was negative because it had a negative connotation. And in order to attract things like the Charlotte Hornets, we're going to start calling it uptown. So I just by have I still call it downtown? I think everyone else calls it uptown. I don't know who. OK, what do you call what do you call it. It's weird. I call it uptown. I think people just it kind of grew on me, you know, I moved here when it was already being called uptown. Now I was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. So I said, we're going to downtown Atlanta. But it just it's funny how, you know, the habit of saying uptown and trying to explain with business associates who come into town, you know, hey, I'll pick up the airport, we'll go uptown. And sometimes I like what you do here. Where are we going? You know, and then I we're going to downtown or uptown, you know, I was like, yeah, I feel I feel like a goofball because, you know, why should I stay here uptown or downtown? What's appropriate? I have an area called something other than downtown. Like I've been there. I don't have the underground, don't they. Yeah, I hadn't heard that little five point. They have, you know, just a bunch of areas in the suburbs and whatnot, but I don't know if people will call it something other different downtown or like south in here. So I think, yeah, some area where I heard something different. Battle. No. Yeah. Oh yeah. I guess if you talk to the younger folks than you know than we are, they'll say different names, parts of the city and whatnot. But anyway, I just wanted to ask just to give a little background on some of the folks out there listening and what in the world are they talking about? The Queen City. So just real quick, I feel like I wanted to unpack a little bit more about, you know, why we feel like chat up America is important, at least for me in my heart, and talking to friends, business colleagues or people at church, people, my softball team. And, you know, I love playing softball even as a old guy. But just see it's get more dangerous. Yeah, it is getting dangerous. And that's why my wife keeps telling me, take the ibuprofen and you know, they're under lockdown an election. And just if you're if you try to listen, put your ear to the ground. Tim, I feel like people want to. Know that things are in control, you know, with regardless to where you are in the political aisle. Again, I just feel like what we hear in the media and all the fear mongering, all the bad news, obviously. Yeah, you could turn off the TV, this and that. But a lot of the things that we could, you know, put at a distance with their arm, you know, are kind of crept in to our household wearing a mask, going to the store and having to do all these covid protocols. And I get that. I think my daughter has the record. My oldest daughter has the record of having to quarantine the most because she's been exposed to other friends or students or athletes who've had come down with with, um, covid-19. It's just those extra layers of stress that we have to deal with and people react differently. You know, the lockdowns, cause I think the stats are that suicide rates have gone up, depression, drug abuse, you name it. And it's unfortunate, but we don't hear about it. We don't hear about the people being impacted by that. And it's frustrating. And so and that's why I think it's important for us to pull those who are wandering in the wilderness, if you will, have lost their way. I felt like I did that. It's like where where am I put my trust in and my hope same time. How can I take action in a sense? And maybe this could be one way. I don't know. But you have any thoughts on that on your a.m.. Yeah, same thing. Just echoing it. It, it, it's like the focus has been on the in the realm of what to do or what not to do and not so much on the ramifications of both of those sides. So, yeah, not even not much stats about it or anything. We just hear people talking and sharing and you know, we each have our stories and those that we're connected with. Yeah. So to me, it's been a that has been a struggle. It's been a. I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, I think it's it's what I say is the death by a thousand cuts, you know, it's just one thing after another that that pulls away from who we are as Americans. I mean, it's the subtle things, you know, like I can't go and watch my girls play soccer and the athletic division is decided to implement that, you know, visiting teams, parents cannot participate or spectate at the games. And that's you know, it's like this is ludicrous. It's a nice day outside. And there's no scientific data that shows that that I, you know, don't get me started on that body. Well, that is I think that has been a big issue for a lot of people, including myself, I think is the is trying to parse out what really is the science. And of course, everybody's willing to do whatever it takes. You know, if there's a reason to do it, but if there's really no reason to do it and it's just some kind of a quasi political thing or I don't even know what else it could be, you know what I'm saying? I don't I don't think there's any financial ramifications involved. I mean, I don't know. It could be if it causes our finances. I mean, financial burden. Exactly. So. So all of that. Yeah. I felt that pain bad. Just wanting to be like, man, if if we need to do it, definitely we want to, but if not, free it up. So that's been a tough thing too. I know a lot of people struggle with that. Yeah, I was I was telling my buddy the other day, man, one of my biggest struggles is doing something that doesn't make sense, like wearing a mask outside. And no one's around me is just like, I don't do it unless you go to the game. And once I sit down, I take the mask off when I'm, you know, at a ballgame. But to me, it's like this is ludicrous. It just my gut tells me this. There's no science behind this. This is just a political thing and power people overreaching to tell me what I need to do. Now, that's not America. We're not wired to do this. You're listening to Chat Up America. We hear Chat Up America. We want to focus on interviewing people who are making an impact in their communities so that that's our goal. You know, mainstream media has a bad habit of getting worked up and provides little solutions. When you get all worked up and, you know, you just walk away all frustrated, kind of like I did was like, man, this is this is look, this is getting out of hand and it's becoming divisive, is causing friends and family and strangers being divisive to one another versus listening to to each other. And so our goal is to bring value to this show. And we want to focus stories of, you know, from common folks like us and discovering stories of ordinary people making an impact in their communities. So Chat Up America as a reminder is a journey to rediscover the art of conversation with people from all walks of life. And we want you to be part of that journey with us. So if you feel displaced or discouraged, you're in good company. Trust me, our goal is to exist as a platform for people to express their thoughts and beliefs without fear being canceled or threatened. What are we get canceled for before we even people, even though we exist him, that would be kind of crazy, he says. And so be kind of cool. But it's like we were canceled. Yeah, cancel with Goddess. Hey, you take a lot of pressure off like, oh, that was fun while it lasted. It fun for like an hour. An hour. But seriously. Yeah. Whether you are conservative, progressive, black, white, brown, Christian, atheist, Muslim, Hindu, gay or trans, bring your voice, email us a team chat up at America, dot us and leave your feedback, your critique. We want to adapt and to share things that you want to hear or discuss or debate that that's our goal. And so we may agree to disagree, but we'll always listen to you and maybe you'll be on the show. You never know what a well pleasure that would be. We want to share stories that may be unimportant to the mainstream media, but obviously important to us and to our listeners. You know, if you have a controversial topic or story to discuss and we want to hear about it. So we appreciate you listening and hope you subscribe and share our podcast. As I said earlier. Any last thoughts, Tim? I enjoyed it, brother. Looking forward to it. I hope to have great conversations and can't wait to just see where this goes. Thank you. Definitely. And thanks again, everyone, for listening. Thank you for listening to Chat Up America. Keep in touch and send any questions or feedback to team chat up and chat up America U.S..