This Person I Met
Season 2
by Kayla Fu
Welcome back to This Person I Met! I’ve known Ari for quite a while now, but a few years ago, they moved to Indiana, while I stayed back here in Michigan. Ari is an amazing person and incredible artist, and has known that art is what they want to pursue since elementary school, which is something obviously quite unique. They have spent years creating a fictional world, complete with vibrant characters and a complex plot and a fully fleshed out map, all of which you can see on their Instagram: @arikyouu. Ari has also started their own small business (arikyouu.etsy.com), selling handmade items that all relate to their world and characters. They have also won a Gold Scholastic Key in art, and a Silver Scholastic Key in writing! My sister, Kayla, who is an artist herself and one of Ari’s biggest fans, also joined us for this interview!
Welcome back to This Person I Met! If there’s anything I’ve learned while doing this podcast, it’s that preconceptions are almost always wrong, and this interview was no exception. Cindy Zheng, an advanced lung cancer patient for the past decade, was nothing like I’d imagined. Despite the brutal truths about her cancer, which steals the lives of over 130,000 people in the US, and only has a survival rate of 5%, she had an easy smile and laugh, and radiated positivity and joy. By the way, all the music in this episode is played by Cindy herself!
Welcome back to This Person I Met! This episode will be part two of our conversation with Ms. Anna Krushelnitskaya, a teacher, translator, blogger, and author. She has written three books, including one called Cold War Casual, a compilation of interviews translated from Russian to English, regarding the effects of the events of the Cold War. This fascinating book will be referred to several times throughout this conversation.Our interview with her was half a year ago, but still, the Russo-Ukranian war barrels on, stealing lives and homes. There is still no end in sight, but Ms. Krushelnitskaya's voice echoed the sentiments of the whole world. In this episode, she generously shares her opinions on the current war, government propaganda, her personal experiences as a Russian living in the US during this time, and more. As always, thank you for your support, and we hope you enjoy!
Welcome back to This Person I Met! Did you know that out of the more than 650,000 ex-offenders in the US who are released from prison every year, almost 44 percent return to prison within their first year out, and approximately two-thirds will likely be rearrested within three years of release? These statistics shocked us, but we were able to find answers to our questions in this final episode with Mr. Adam Grant, as he talks about his organization, A Brighter Way, and his own leadership role in it. Six months have passed since our interviews with Mr. Grant, and since then, his words have echoed in our minds often. There are so many people, like Mr. Grant, who do everything they can to make positive changes in the world, no matter how difficult. In our podcast, we want to at least raise awareness in our community of these marginalized groups of people. If you can, please get to know A Brighter Way and lend a helping hand in any way you can.
Welcome back to This Person I Met! We are so honored to have Mr. Grant back for a second interview sharing his loving relationship with his wife, Katie. If you were with us for the first episode, you know that Mr. Grant served a jail sentence for 27 years for an armed bank robbery. And now he is the director of "A Brighter Way," an organization in Washtenaw County, serving to help people who were formerly incarcerated. Today, we invite you to join us to hear this uniquely beautiful and heart-warming love story of Mr. and Mrs. Grant. Mrs. Grant was invited to this interview, but was unable to attend due to other circumstances. However, she asked Mr. Grant to bring both Zach and I key chains and dozens of stickers, each bearing positive messages. "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny compared to what lies within us," one reads. "Each of us is more than the worst thing we've done," another says. In our next and final episode with Mr. Adam Grant, we will get to share what we have learned about his organization "A Brighter Way", and its impact in our society. Please stay tuned, and as always, thank you for your support!
Last summer, as we were planning our podcast for the new school year, an organization called “A Brighter Way” caught our attention. This organization provides help to individuals who were formerly incarcerated in Washtenaw County. As our podcast grew, we became more and more interested in underrepresented communities, and a few months later, we finally had the courage to contact their director, Mr. Adam Grant. Mr. Grant was incredibly warm and accepted our invitation to be interviewed right away. One interview turned into two, and we were absolutely fascinated and humbled to learn everything about his incredible life journey. The next three episodes will be dedicated to him and his organization, “A Brighter Way." There were so many shocking details in this episode, and one of them was his 53-page long love letter to his wife. Mr. Grant generously accepted our invitation to share his unique love story while incarcerated, which you'll hear in the next episode! As always, thank you for your support, and please stay tuned!
November 8th, 2022, We met Ms. Anna Krushelnitskaya in the Ann Arbor Public Library. It was the election day. Ann Arbor Public Library was full of voters casting ballots for all the issues and concerns in people’s minds- inflation, abortion rights, student debt, you name it. On the other side of the globe, in Ukraine, Nov 8th was another day in the war. Fierce fighting continued in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions; President Zelensky declared not to surrender a single centimeter of the land, and four million Ukrainian people lost power that cold winter evening. Half a year ago, in the same room, we interviewed Melania, a Huron student who came from Ukraine. During an hour-long conversation, Melania told us a lot about her experience in Ukraine and what she knew about the war. The heaviness of the conversation stunned us, and we were saddened, puzzled, and somewhat haunted by the cruelty of the war’s reality. We were eager to seek a second voice, a different perspective to talk about this war because so much we don’t know about the history, the land, and the people from both sides. Luckily, we found the right person to talk to, Ms.Krushelnitskaya. She is a writer, translator, and scholar on Soviet topics. We were honored that Ms. Krushelnitskay accepted our interview invitation.
Each year, about 13.6 million units of whole blood are donated in the U.S. Another 53.5 million units are collected in the form of plasma — a liquid element in human blood containing vital antibodies and proteins. Through some privately owned manufacturers, American donors provide 94% of the plasma used around the world. The reason is simple: unlike whole blood donors, the majority of plasma donors in the US receive compensation. For a growing low-income population, giving plasma is more than a good deed to save lives. It has become an economic coping strategy. Ms. Analidis Ochoa, a doctoral candidate from the University of Michigan is with us today to share her findings about the industry, its regulations, and its potential impacts on the vulnerable and under-represented community in the US.
Thanks for coming back for the 2nd part of Mr. Zach Damon’s story. I first learned about cerebral palsy through reading a book in elementary school, called Out of my Mind. The main character was a little girl who was born with the disorder and was also incredibly bright, most likely a genius. The book has stuck with me all these years, although it was fiction. Our guest today Mr. Zach Damon is a prime, real-life example of a brilliant mind in the disabled community. In the last episode, Mr. Damon talked about how he carried his dream throughout his teen years and became a professional broadcaster working through our local cable channel and social media outlets. Today, he shares what it takes behind the scene to make any show happen.
To start our new season, we invited a very special guest. He is a broadcaster, actor, public speaker, media project manager, supervisor, director, filmmaker, and producer. He hosts “Ann Arbor Tonight”, Michigan's first late-night live audience, televised show. Born with Cerebral Palsy, he is also a lifelong activist for the local disability community. It was a little nerve-wracking to talk with someone with so much experience in something we’re just starting at. But talking to our guest turned out to be super easy because with him being there, there was never a dull moment. So, let’s roll out the red carpet for our guest today, Mr. Zach Damon.