[00:00:00] Ellington Brown: Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Browne!! 

[00:00:16] Rita Burke: As on SpeakUP! International, we seek to inspire, educate, and inform. And today we have Jason Brownee! with us, whose story is certainly going to help us meet those goals. Jason is currently in Pennsylvania, and he's a masterful storyteller and seasoned speaker.

Jason has collaborated with industries such as Facebook, Microsoft, Rotary International. Jason recently captivated audiences with a TEDx talk on privilege. He is also a soon to be author, and as we say on SpeakUP! International, we prefer it, if our guests tell their own stories. And so I'm going to introduce Jason Browne to our audience so that he could tell his story.

Welcome Jason! 

[00:01:21] Jason Browne: Welcome. Thank you so very much, Rita. Thank you so very much, Elton. I appreciate the wonderful intro and I'm so happy to be here and I can't wait to dive into all the wonderful things that we're going to chat about today. 

[00:01:32] Ellington Brown: All right, we are on, let's start near the beginning.

What was the inspiration behind pursuing a career in radio and public speaking? 

[00:01:44] Jason Browne: The, I, when I was a kid, I didn't know that this was going to be a thing. When I was growing up, my father was in actually a DJ in Philadelphia. Elton, you might've heard him. He was on WDASFM. He Yes!, and his name is Maurice Brownee.

And he's right now. Yeah! And he actually just hopped back into radio just recently on the 90 point station, the Temple station. And so growing up, He was heavily involved in radio and he did the show on Sunday. Often he'd be the late night guy. He'd be the welcome to the late night here on WDAS FM.

I'm Maurice Brownee! that was my father, right? So growing up, I didn't really, I didn't, I wasn't allowed to stay up that late. But I was influenced by that. I was influenced by the fact that my father was very comfortable in front of a microphone. He was asked to speak at events. He was asked to take pictures at events.

My mom was a music teacher. And the public school system in Philadelphia for 35 years. And so I was surrounded by these folks who, whose professions were in front of others. My mom was also a choir director at a church. And so my journey into radio and while I was journeying into radio and as a public speaker, it didn't, I didn't think that I wanted to do those things as a child, but I was exposed to it.

As I got older, I realized that I had a craving to communicate with others in a really unique way. And sitting in behind a desk wasn't doing it. So I hopped in the radio, I hopped on the stage, I found a microphone and they didn't steal it out of my hands. And ever since then, I've just been speaking on stages as much as I can.

[00:03:26] Rita Burke: Sounds to me as if public speaking and storytelling are carved in your DNA based on what you've just told us. Now, our audience, help our listeners to understand what makes your leadership style unique. 

[00:03:49] Jason Browne: My leadership style. So leadership. It's interesting that we started off with a public speaking point of view, and then we happened to leadership.

So there's a leadership aspect when it there's a public speaking aspect when it comes to leadership. And there are other aspects of leadership as well. But let me start with the public speaking side and then start branching out from there. So as a leader, as a thought leader, as a leader in the community service space with Rotary International and other community service organizations, I use the microphone and the stage.

And once upon a time radio to be the vehicle through which I communicate not only my hopes for other people to get involved, but also to helpfully inspire folks to make differences in their own communities. . But leadership is more than just hope though. Leadership is more than just inspiring.

Well, a lot of times people would be like, Jason, you're a public speaker. What do you do? Motivational speaking. I'm like that's an motivation is embedded in there, but if I'm truly a leader on stage in front of a microphone, I can't just rely on motivation and inspiration alone. There has to be a level of connection and resource exchange and support.

For there to be a deeper. Connection to leadership. And that's what I really keep. That's that is one of the, one of the aspects that makes my leadership style different, at least on stage is when I connect with people, when I talk on stage, I am not just a speaking head. I am a resource to you. I will work with you.

If you need me to help you out in any way, I will be there and I will find, I will do my best to find out other folks that can help you accomplish whatever it is that you would clean accomplish. If you and I are not working in the same organization and I'm only there for a weekend for conference. I'm still a resource to you.

And that is, I am a servant to you, even though I am on stage speaking to you. And that is my leadership style when it comes to being on stage. 

[00:05:51] Ellington Brown: I think your leadership style is very relaxing. And I can see how people would be very inclined to tap into the avenues that you have, that you provide as a resource.

As a speaker, I know that storytelling is a, it's a big thing. So can you tell me the methods that you use to address maybe sensitive topics using storytelling? 

[00:06:26] Jason Browne: I mean, I think that's sensitive topics are what I love to play around with. In fact, if I get a boring topic to speak about, I try to find a controversial angle just talk about it.

It's storytelling is the door that opens up controversial or tense conversation. Because there's usually a story behind whatever the controversy or is. So the more that you can actually, let's just say eating popcorn with peanut butter. I don't know why I chose that, but let's just say eating popcorn with peanut butter is very controversial.

And I have to speak about eating popcorn or peanut butter for whatever reason. I don't know why, but I might try it later. But if I have to bring that up, I will tell a story about. Where this originated from. I will tell a story about the times that I was a kid and I had popcorn for the first time, or, Oh, I actually have a story about this.

There was one time there was one time I went over to my friend's house and he gave me waffles, right? Like I was at his house and he's one of my best friends and his mom was making his breakfast and he, and his mom made waffles and he put peanut butter on the waffles and then put syrup on top. I'd never had this before.

And I was like are you sure you know what you're doing? But you realize that's peanut butter, right? That's not like butter. That's not, that's peanut butter. And he's yeah, try it. And I was like, it's not going to be delicious and it was so good! So good! That I didn't mean for me to hop into that story, but that is a way of introducing an area of being like now from there, I can explore and expand of being like that one moment with my friend allowed me To gain insight to a perspective I did not have, and then start playing with an idea, storytelling is the gateway to familiarizing yourself with an audience so that you can bring up controversial topics in a way that will hopefully be received by some folks. I'm not trying to say that you won't offend anybody or you won't you'll skirt all of the roadblocks and the bumpy road along the way, but what you will do smooth it out some, and you'll bring more people onto the road that you're trying to create as you tell your story and talk about these sorts of topics.

[00:08:33] Rita Burke: In your bio, you talk about quality banter, and banter is a word that I grew up hearing the older folks using a lot. It's not a word that you hear much anymore. So what exactly do you mean by quality banter? 

[00:08:55] Jason Browne: Quality banter. Just to call it out, right? So one of the things that's that we're not doing is bantering a whole lot.

For instance, I wanted to, as soon as Elton was like, Hey, Jason he acknowledged visual visibly. Y y'all can't see it. Y'all can, you didn't even hear he was super quiet. But as soon as I mentioned my father being on the radio, his arms went up and he was cheering. I wanted to, yeah. The banter about that, about where did you hear my father?

What was the situation like? And so there's a certain amount of, and there's some formality with a podcast that sometimes doesn't allow for that to be the case. And so I'm not, it's not a criticism, just an observation of calling it out of what banter is and what banter is not.

Banter is a two way conversation with a level of authenticity in my mind that allows an audience or allows for the community to which you're talking with or with or around or in front of to understand how human you are. So one of the things I just did this morning, I was asked to do an interview with a young girl who just got a scholarship in the interview was for the scholarship organization, and they wanted to capture some video about and tell the story of the scholarship recipients and the impact that it's had on their life.

I they handed me a list of questions and I immediately threw it out of the window. I would, I just literally was like, no, thanks. And I put it down now that maybe ruffled some feathers, but what I did when I walked in the room, instead of asking just those questions. I immediately hop into just having a normal conversation with the person that I'm interviewing.

I immediately just go, Hey what did you have for, I think I asked them, what is your favorite restaurant in town? And so we started talking for the first 15 minutes of this interview about the food that we love, right? It might sound like small talk, but it's. The banter back and forth allows for there to be a connection made from that conversation.

I was then able to pick up small cues from them and dig into really important questions that we were able to emerge by the end of it. By the end of it, I accidentally, maybe not accidentally, but I asked questions on my dug deep enough where she was. Getting emotional about parts of her story and she was like, I didn't, I'm not one to normally do this.

I'm not normally cry about this topic. But this is surprising to me, but it was because of the connection made. It wasn't just the question. It wasn't just me asking the right order. It was the connection between two people and having a human relationship through words and storytelling that allowed for something deeper to happen.

So when I say banter, the piece that connects us when we're exchanging information and not just focusing on the facts. 

[00:11:38] Rita Burke: So it's a human to human connection which is so engaging and so beautiful and you're connecting at all levels. Thank you so much. 

[00:11:48] Jason Browne: Absolutely. 

[00:11:51] Ellington Brown: Okay, so you're on the stage, you're bantering, you've got people laughing, you've got them now in the palm of your hand, they'll do anything you say, which is nice though, when you actually, when you look at the, look at it, what is that key message that you give to people?

Your audience, and it doesn't matter the audience per se, because all of them, there is this common denominator. So what key messages do you normally leave with your audiences? 

[00:12:32] Jason Browne: This is, the first answer is depends on the audience, but I can answer this question a little bit stronger.

The thing that one of the, one of the tactics that I use that I leave the audience with is that first, first of all, I have to do something to let them remember this. I can talk about all the solutions in the universe, but if they don't remember them or it's not engaging or something, then there's everything that I just said goes out of the window.

So one of the first things I think about is how do I get if they're in the palm of my hand, or even if they're not, how do I get an audience member to remember this conversation, this level of banter? It starts almost from there. I use a lot of repetition. I'll use a lot of engagement. If I am able to on TEDx in my TEDx talk, I couldn't engage with the audience, but normally what I would do is engage with the audience to, to maybe go off script a little bit, go into the crowd, have a conversation, right?

Like that kind of thing. Remember being memorable is super key. Once I know, once I feel like I've locked down the idea of getting into, of being something that's remembered, then my job is to leave these folks with at least one takeaway. I can't only say one takeaway because that one takeaway might not resonate with everybody.

So what I do is I usually come up to three to five takeaways that I think might resonate with different audiences within the audience to which I'm speaking. So I will maybe maybe my the whole story about the peanut butter and the popcorn, right? Maybe the first takeaway is. Make sure you get over Redenbacher popcorn.

Like you gotta give that's the popcorn you need. And then I make sure that you know what? I know a lot of people like the creamy peanut butter, but you got to get the chunky peanut butter. That's the second piece, right? And then, you go through it and the three, four or five, maybe they only take away the fact that you only want chunky peanut butter.

Okay. If that, if one, if you remember, if you are a member of the talk, And two, you remember only getting chunky peanut butter. Hey, I am happy. I can walk away. I am completely content with the conversation. Last but not least about this. I've had people come up to me years after giving a particular talk, and I've only given some of these talks once.

And I love giving talks, like customizing a talk for an audience. I've had people come up to me and. And when I, since I do call and response chant at me, the thing that I asked them to chant, I'll be walking by them at a conference. And they'll be like shake the pot. And I'm like, I don't even know out of context.

I'm like, I didn't even know they were talking to me. And then they're like, Oh, that you remember the con you remember the speech from two years ago. About this thing that I mentioned. So being memorable which happens through engagement, happens through repetition, and then having, understanding your audience to design key takeaways, knowing that not everybody's going to take them all away and hopefully they'll just take away one, 

[00:15:35] Ellington Brown: Rita. It doesn't, that's, that reminds me of a saying that you're. Favorite lady says Maya Angelou about, people only remember that we don't remember the speech. They just remember how you 

[00:15:53] Rita Burke: make them feel. 

[00:15:56] Ellington Brown: So hey, I do want some of that popcorn and I am definitely going to try that. My mouth is watering, I'm telling you.

I'm sorry, I had to inject that in there. But see, this is banter. This is the banter part, right? This 

[00:16:15] Rita Burke: is banter. Maybe we should change the name from SpeakUP! International to bantering with our sisters and brothers. I like that. But we're speaking with Jason SpeakUP!. And as in SpeakUP! International, we seek to inform, inspire, and educate.

Jason, do you know that I have read a book on TED Talks, the best TED Talks, and what makes them marvelously good talks? And one of the, one of the key aspects of effective talks It's to make it memorable. And you just touched on that spot and throughout the book, he keeps throwing that word in there.

Memorable memorable. So we connect and I thank you. Now, is there ever a time in your life when you had to say enough?

[00:17:16] Jason Browne: And enough, like on stage as a leader, enough, like at a restaurant, like where you were, you tell 

[00:17:22] Rita Burke: us, you tell us that story. 

[00:17:26] Jason Browne: Where I've had enough. So Okay, I can speak a little bit about my, my attempt to follow the traditional job path. And I'll start from there. So I worked for Penn State for 15 years.

 When I was in IT and you normally wouldn't think of a public speaker being in IT. And that was part of my problem is that I, Wanted to do, wanted to connect more. I wanted to challenge people more. I wanted to be more of a leader and being behind a desk, helping people fix their computer issues, or even designing server servers in the background wasn't cutting it.

I realized that there was luckily Penn State myself, both came to a mutual this is not working for us, but it was a time where I realized that this path that I've designed so far in my life. From a comfortable job, from a comfortable 401k, from a comfortable benefits point of view, all the, I had the stuff that I was taught that I was supposed to have when I went to college, when I was younger, from a traditional life standpoint, but the feeling that I had it.

On the inside, the passions that I really wanted to do in my life were not being fulfilled. I would always shortcut them because I was like I guess I don't have time to do that. I guess I don't have time to go to that conference. I guess I don't have. And I realized that I've had enough of that.

tHat's, there's, life is too short to allow at least myself, I can only speak for me. Allow myself to not go after some of these really cool things in life, even if I fail and I've realized that I can no longer do the things that are super, super safe. If I'm not pushing myself, if I'm not challenging myself, if I don't have a hint or a glint of possible failure about the thing that I am doing, then I am not doing something correctly.

Does that stress me out sometimes? Absolutely! Absolutely! But. It is necessary, at least for me to feel good about what I'm doing. And it feels good to see the results of those things when I do manifest well. And I learned so much when I do fail that I cannot go back to just doing the same thing. If I have to, it can't be for very long because then I got to come right back.

So that's pretty much that's pretty much it. I just had enough of that side of my life. I had to keep pushing forward. 

[00:20:19] Ellington Brown: I, I definitely can understand. Something I found out today that was hilarious. And also what's the word? Embarrassing. And that I. I give workshops.

I love giving workshops. That's, I really like, preparing the slides, reducing them down to the, I maybe had 20, now I'm down to nine because I just want, I just need enough, just enough to, carry me. But yet, and so I wanna be in contact with the audience. And I stayed up last night till 2.

30, because I'm supposed to get this thing this afternoon, this evening. And then I found out, no, it, someone told me it wasn't today, it was, 

It's next week, but that was, and so my whole world dropped because I thought, Oh, I spent all of this time, doing this, I quickly, said, Oh, this is good because now it's out of the way.

I don't have to deal with it. But then when I did talk to the person who's putting this on. Yes, it's today. Don't listen to the other person. So now I'm like stuck in the middle. I don't even know if I'm coming or if I'm going, and I don't know why you mean, I don't even know why I'm telling you this.

Maybe because of that popcorn and peanut butter. Maybe that's why it's because 

[00:21:59] Rita Burke: of the bantering thing, because you want to banter. 

The bathroom thing. Wait, Elton, is the presentation today or no? 

[00:22:09] Ellington Brown: I guess the presentation is today. But the thing is that, expectations. It's all about expectations.

And what you, what I think Doesn't necessarily mean that it's right and you always need some type of validation, even though I received it and the person that told me it wasn't today was wrong, it's a, you really have to stand firm when you know, what the truth is. And it was a lesson learned today. It was absolutely a lesson learned today.

And now that I've Oh, 

[00:22:59] Jason Browne: No, but I, but you're the, you've mentioned so many different aspects of, and pieces that touch this conversation of one deep down inside, you planned everything correctly. You got everything set up and then someone threw a curve ball through rock through your window and then it broke.

And then you're like, Wait a minute. Window wasn't supposed to break. I'm on my game. And so the fact that you're like, You staying firm to what you believe in there are certain times in which that is super valuable, right? So you can't you trust yourself. You trust the your ability one's abilities like for me.

Let me speak about me I Trust my own abilities I trust my presence on stage with a microphone to know that if someone is telling me that something is off I'm gonna go I check in with myself first and then I'll say, okay, let me hear what you have to say after that. And I'll take your information and I'll process that.

But I trust me to be able to handle that because that's the, that's what I do. However, staying firm about something. However, that level of staying firm still, I accept, I accepted that. Is not steel. I accept that can still be malleable, but it's not something that I allow to crumble instantly.

Conversely, like if there are aspects of conversation, going back to controversial topics or aspects of our own lives and our perspectives, staying firm and staying strong on the beliefs that we have may be a bad thing. It may be preventing us from connecting with other people as a public speaker, as a leader, staying firm in the beliefs that you have.

Maybe it's just a judgment call of another human being at your board or in your boardroom or an employee that is down the office and has done something incorrect. The assumption that you believe your firm and right is flawed, is potentially flawed. And I think there's an interesting balance between knowing when to say, Hey, I need to be receptive to the additional information coming in.

And I need to adjust. I need to be comfortable and I need to even know it's hard for me to do it. I can adjust. And at the same time, there's also times in which it's like, Hey, thank you for that information. I appreciate your feedback or your wrong meeting time, but that's incorrect. I'm good. Have a nice day.

But as a strong leader, you have to know when to do one or the other. And it's not always clear. So I thought it was right on brand with what we're talking. 

[00:25:35] Ellington Brown: Speaking of that talking. I know that you've worked with companies like Facebook, Microsoft, what was that like? 

[00:25:48] Jason Browne: So here's a, so I don't always tell this part of my background, however, so one of the great things about writing your own bio is that you can write things in a way to make yourself sound really good.

So here's how I worked with Microsoft and Facebook. I played video games. I was a content creator, a streamer for Microsoft when they had a company called mixer and through Facebook, as they still have Facebook gaming. The popular version of this is called Twitch, which there's a lot of popularity there.

We made a good amount of money doing these activities. And I was in front of a camera and a microphone extensively. And we worked with the staff in order to make things happen. We helped design programs, all the above, all that is true. But the thing that I don't always add to Facebook and Microsoft is this idea of I was playing video games technically, and if only I did what I said, I play video games for Facebook and Microsoft.

Everyone would be like, that's ridiculous. Why did you even put that there? And so I just wanted to comment before I actually answer your question that there is a wonderful flexibility because I'm not lying. I did work with Facebook. There is a wonderful flexibility and a marketing component to each leader and each public speaker that you have to sometimes dig a little deeper than without lying, dig a little bit deeper and tell a story that.

Makes you sound like you can walk into a room and captivate an audience. And so don't lie, but also don't hold back about your accomplishments in a way that makes you be any less of a speaker than you are. So That's my preface. Now I can answer the question. Now working with Mike, when I was working with Microsoft, when they had mixer, honestly, that was one of the best times that I ever got a paycheck from an organization because they, I was working with their creative teams.

And I still can message some of those folks to this day, the company, that part of Microsoft collapsed and they don't have that anymore, but there were such wonderful people. And the amount of people that I met along the way that the other gamers, the other streamers, the folks who were in the tech side of the Microsoft streaming teams, some of the best folks, some of the best folks I've ever worked with And they respect.

And the great thing that I still remember feeling. And when I talked to my other gamer friends, I still remember the way they, the feeling of being able to collaborate with people who respected you. Again, I'm talking about video game streaming here. And I'm talking about some of these really smart people that understand these highly technical things on the backend.

And I can walk into a room with them and just banter back and forth and have a conversation. And they respect me as a content creator. They respect me as a tech person. They respect me as a human being. And I, we can work together and talk about money all at the same time. That is a rare occurrence.

It broke my heart when that part of Microsoft went away. However, it was a wonderful experience. And I wouldn't change that part of my career for the world. That was a great time working with that group. 

[00:29:04] Rita Burke: And in your last response to Elton's question, you mentioned the term captivating your audience, and that helps me to pivot right now to your TEDx talk.

Walk us through that experience, please. 

[00:29:25] Jason Browne: So the TEDx talk was the TEDx talk was something that I crave. I was like, out of, I, in my mind, this is no disrespect to any public speaker. This is just my own personal view. I did not consider myself. I second guess myself as a public speaker because I did not have a TEDx talk.

 So I worked hard to apply, to do the research, to connect with organizations around the United States. To make sure that I landed the gig, I contacted folks who run TEDx's. I got other, I got coaching tips from folks who have given TEDx talks.

I reached out deep into my network to find out all the people that have touched even the outer circle of what a TEDx talk was to gain insight of how I can land one myself. Luckily, I did actually. I'm a little surprised that I was able to do so quickly. Now, the reason why I think that I was able, so let me back up real quick.

What I here's how I went about finding the TEDx talk. If you go to the TEDx web page, they have a map. Basically, I search an eight hour radius for my location. I looked up every single TEDx talk. Didn't matter when, didn't matter the timing. I looked up every single TEDx event that was happening in my eight hour driving radius.

I applied to All of them or reached out to all of them. So there was that I then proceeded to really hone in on my, the proposal that every group has a different application. The piece that was probably the piece that got me into having the talk was the hook of my talk. And I firmly believe that anyone else who's working to get a TEDx talk and you don't already have an in, you have to work on the hook of the talk.

As one of your key component, you can be the smartest person in the world and you could have the greatest ideas on the planet. But if you have no hook to capture people's attention, when they're going through these applications, not going to happen. So the hook of my TEDx talk was you might have more privilege than me, and that's okay.

In fact, I think that's a good thing. I tested it out in front of people. I tested it out on my friends. I tested it out with waiters. I tested it out with people at the grocery store. I tested it out with people that I just met randomly. I would test this hook on everybody too. It was fine tuned enough that they would say, wait, that you're not going to tell me anymore.

If they say that after I get my hook, bam, got them. So that's what I led all of these pieces with. And from there. It was exactly what I expected working on this talk, refining this talk, memorizing the talk. I read the book, same book you probably read, which was about how to make sure that your TEDx talk was done well, I revised it a bunch of times I came up with this I wasn't allowed to.

Engage the audience to do a call and response. So I had to find new ways of engaging the audience that, that were more passive. I didn't really want to have a lot of slides cause I hate slides. So what I did, I found an animator to animate some of the things that I wanted to bring. I couldn't use props, all of these, there were problems all along the way.

But I was like, I am steadfast. I will find a solution at the very end of it all. When I gave my talk, it was the first time I've been nervous getting on stage, mostly just because they they bring you up to the right of the edge of the stage and then they make you stand there for 10 minutes before they bring you out, just bring me, why have me stand there?

Why you're stressing me out. Let me go on. So my heart's beaten, like it hasn't been in a very long time. And then the one thing that my coach told me, because you most often times you get a coach, and this is one thing as a public speaker, I hope everybody remembers this, if you're hesitant or scared about public speaking, it was very helpful.

She said, while you're standing there, when your heart is racing, when you're not sure about what you want, like how this is going to go when you're nervous, repeat the first line of your talk over and over. And over just to first because you already know the talk, but you might lose the first just repeat the first line over and over again.

That's what I did. Hopped on stage nailed it. And ever since then, it's been one of those things that I was proud to accomplish, even though there were roadblocks and bumps along the way. I was happy that we finally brought it across the finish line.

[00:33:45] Ellington Brown: Three dots downtown. That is one. That's one name.

What were your contributions to the local community besides peanut butter and popcorn? Listen, 

[00:34:02] Jason Browne: okay, I'm opening up a peanut butter and popcorn restaurant tomorrow.

So three dots downtown. Actually, I was just responding to a few slack messages about it is a Arts and innovation center. I'll actually start this story with in an unexpected spot. This was one of those moments that. I was recognized externally and validated for being a voice in the community, and it felt really good.

So there's a woman in our town who's in charge of a really big foundation, and she was helping start this new organization called Three Dots Downtown, Arts and Innovation, and who knows what this is going to be. It's going to be a little amorphous, and bringing the community together. And she asked me to be a part of it.

She asked me to be on the board and I didn't really have a great, I didn't know her that well, but she brought me to lunch and it was like, you're the type of person you are, the kind of person that need, that I would hope is a part of the future of this organization, which that rarely happens.

To me, usually I'm like in this, I'm in a conversation. Someone's Hey, you want to do this? I'm like, yeah, sure. And then it ends up happening, but to have somebody who I respect, even from a distance, reach out to me and be a part of that felt really good. So to all the leaders out there, if you have the folks in your community that you know, that are talented, please reach out to them and ask them to be a part of something so they can feel like they validate their place in the community.

So that's a long intro. The Three Dots Downtown is a place that has artists as musicians has a program called the Awesome Foundation, which gives a thousand dollars to entrepreneurs in the community to do something. That helps transform the community in some positive way, a group of people get together, they look at applications and they give thousand dollars out to all these different folks around the community to hopefully help improve, not to make it all happen, but to kickstart an idea.

If you have one, and we've been able to bring folks from all across the the state of Pennsylvania and form the one little nugget in a college town that is we call it the, where culture is generated, where culture is cultivated. I don't know if we're actually doing that or we're just tapping into something that the community has always needed or has almost been forgotten, but in our little space, we bring the community together in really unique ways.

And I can't wait to see what happens next. And hopefully I can tap on the next person to come on in just like somebody did with me.

[00:36:42] Rita Burke: My next question is one word, and I want you to respond, however you want to respond. And it is privilege, talk about it.

[00:36:54] Jason Browne: Privilege is a word that people are generally afraid of. And out of context, people often immediately jumped to white privilege as a point of contention. However, out of con like within a social setting or on stage, you might say, it's a privilege to be here with you all today. This location, the timing, the audience, the place, all kind of shape, how we initially respond to the word privilege, which actually is fairly well connected to the definition that I provide for it.

Privilege is the, to me, how I define it is the probability of earned and unearned advantage granted to an individual. Privilege is one of those things that impacts every human being on this planet. The person that has quote unquote, the least still has some sort of privilege in some respect, somebody who has everything in the world has some privilege and some respect.

And my hope for the world is that if we were able to begin to think about, the privileges that we do have and tap into those for ourselves in our community, that we can begin to transform those two things in a way that we might not have thought of before. And the other day I was talking to, I was on, I was talking to an individual who's in the educational space, and she speaks a lot about DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion.

And you can notice how I don't use diversity, equity, inclusion in my explanation of what privileges and in that conversation, even her working in the space, she's I had not thought about privilege in some of the ways that we were discussing today, Jason, someone who's in the space thinking about privilege all the time, there's still avenues and rocks to uncover and find something underneath.

And that is my hope that with my TEDx talk, with this upcoming book that I'm working on. That we can have conversations about privilege and ways to transform ourselves and our community for the better.

[00:39:22] Ellington Brown: Folks, I guess it's my turn.

You are working on a book. You're a speaker. You've made that quite clear. So how do you hope these two things are going to help with shaping social change?

[00:39:45] Jason Browne: I don't, this is a short answer. Elton is, I have no idea. I have hopes. 

[00:39:54] Ellington Brown: That's an honest answer. 

[00:39:56] Jason Browne: I don't. I don't. It's one of those things you never know what the impact that anything has in the world. I know that as a kid, I thought that some of the ideas that I had were the best ideas on the planet, like peanut butter and popcorn.

And those things may not be the greatest ideas ever, And they may not connect with folks, or it might not be the right timing or the right place, all the factors. My hope though, is. That my hope though, is that in the midst of us struggling to find common ground for between folks in the United States, between political parties, between racial groups, between ethnic groups, between countries, between universities, between schools, between families, between churches, whatever it is, it seems to my fear is that there's an increase in difficulty in bridging some of those gaps and creating conversations.

My hope is that this topic of privilege and reshaping our approach to it will hopefully open some of these doors and recreate the opportunity to have some of these conversations and not be so insulated with what we think to be true going back to what we talked about earlier. My hope is that we begin to see.

Aspects of diversity, aspects of equity, aspects of inclusion, aspects of these things as not in the way that the news might paint these pictures, not in the way even that these fields have defined it in recent history. I think there's a deeper aspect to all of these things and more integrated than just these words that ruffle people's feathers and get people uncomfortable.

There's something. deeper there. And if we can tap into that, I'm hoping that we can improve ourselves and that we can improve the people around us and the communities around us for the better. It might only be one person. It might only be a handful of people might only be in one situation in the middle of one town in the middle of Australia at this one little spot in Sydney or could be at an entire university at Penn State.

I have no idea. But I hope it at least creates some conversation in some places that haven't had those conversations before. 

[00:42:39] Rita Burke: I hear you. I understand you. I feel you. And thanks for offering that other perspective to the word privilege. Now, what would you say is your most rewarding accomplishment so far?

[00:43:02] Jason Browne: Rewarding accomplishment. Rewarding accomplishment so far. This question is interesting because who, I'm wondering who's being rewarded. So if I'll answer it two ways. I felt like I've rewarded. And I felt like others had rewards. I would say that my most rewarding to myself accomplishment so far of doing something that I stepped out into my own and took a leap was the TEDx talk.

It's extremely terrifying to be like, Hey world, I'm doing something. Look at me while I do it. It's so Unnerving and super vulnerable to be in that spot. I may have come across like I'm super comfortable about it, but it's still nerve wracking. So when I was able to do that and I look back and a couple little things that I messed up on that nobody else will notice except for me.

I still feel like that was a, the amount of self confidence that I gained as a result of that was significant, was highly significant. One of the time that I can say that it would help reward me was when I got to host an international convention for rotary in Houston in 2022 an auditorium for four days with tens of thousands it's about 11, 000 people on average throughout the days in a big room, and I'm the host.

A feeling validated and accomplished of saying, I, I can do this. I can, I actually can do this for me. That was a very rewarding two rewarding moments for me, for somebody else, for something else, as far as a reward goes,

I would say that. And this is going to be unexpected

the, when I was doing video game streaming, there was one per and there was one random day I used to stream all the time. There was one random day that I was, being silly, playing video games, making jokes that were probably inappropriate and just having fun with the audience that I have making music and all the other things.

And I thought nothing of it. I think I randomly went live that day and I was just having fun. Six months later, I get a message from a friend. I get a message from one of the folks that are in the community. Saying that was that random day that they saw that I was being ridiculous, which I always was.

But that particular day was the day that they found my channel, they found my stream and they watched, that was the same day that they were having very dark thoughts about their own life. And that. And because of the environment that was created, because of the way that I embraced them coming into the chat, we were having fun, that changed their entire perspective, and they were able to pull themselves out of that space, as far as a reward to, I don't even feel like that's a reward.

I feel like that's just a meaningful moment. of a meaningful moment in my list of things that I've done, and it probably came from the time that I was least conscious of the action that I was doing. So that to me was a reminder. It's not about me that moment was one of the most, hopefully still meaningful moment to somebody else.

And that's probably that it's not about me. It was not even rewarding. It's just a meaningful moment to another human being.

[00:46:42] Ellington Brown: Okay, so let's talk about some of your personal interests. All right, you and I have something in common. We both like Star Trek. I love Star Trek. I can almost repeat the older seasons. I could probably say all of the lines. I've watched it that many times. Basketball, kayaking. Now I did kayaking In Australia.

And when you brought up Australia, I instantly thought of Rue Burgers and I went, Oh, I'm now I want to go back. I want a Roo Burger. I need a Rue Burger! So good! Anyway, 

[00:47:29] Jason Browne: What is a Roo Burger? I don't know what a Roo Burger is. Oh, I've been to Australia! 

[00:47:33] Ellington Brown: Kangaroo burger! They take so it makes sense And you gotta have if you have not had one You gotta have a Roo burger if you ever get to go back to go back there again Roo burger, okay, right after right when you get off the plane root burger.

No, Anyway, so tell me about it. Tell me about your personal interests. You love Star Trek. Tell me about, let's start with Star Trek. What about Star Trek? Captain Kirk? I don't know. 

[00:48:09] Jason Browne: Okay. Okay. All right. So first I got to tell you why I like Star Trek and then I'll hop into the specifics of which Star Trek's that I like and all this other stuff.

Oh, 

okay. Talk about this all day. You opened up a door, you opened up a door, my friend. So basically when I was a kid growing up, that was Star Trek, and I guess Star Trek. And what was it? The twilight zone were two of my dad's favorite TV shows, right? Two of my favorite dads. So the moments in which I would connect with my dad, the most were while he was watching Star Trek, even to this day, when I'm hanging out at home.

Him and I will sit down, we'll watch like a movie or something, then it'll eventually creep over to Star Trek or the Twilight Zone, right? And the really wonderful thing is that my father enjoyed talking about the episodes too. So we would be discussing some of these aspects of, that was it, was that the right thing to do?

Was that the, is them, the choice they made on Planet Z is that the right thing? Who was in the wrong? It's such a fascinating. way of teaching and also playing around with morality and making the right choices as a human being. Like it's such a good show. And my father loved the show also because there was a good amount of diversity in the show as well.

If there were. I'll put out them there were, if there were no black people in Star Trek, my father would have never watched it, but there were same reason why he enjoyed Star Trek the next generation. If Warf was not on and Jordi LaForge were not on the bridge, then he wouldn't have watched the show.

And so there was a, even in that there was this like, Jason, these are the things that these are the lessons that I hope to impart to you when you watch a show, when you're doing something. How many black folks are around, not like in a in a mean way, but just be aware of the things that exist in your spaces.

And so Star Trek to me, while I love the science fiction, it's just so much deeper of a place of understanding of teachings from my father of just like this connection point. But from a science fiction point of view, Elton I love the original Star Trek. Yeah. Yeah. I love Star Trek. Star Trek next generation, those two guaranteed.

Okay. After that, it gets a little shaky for a little bit, but I will say that Voyager, not such a big fan. DS nine, deep space nine. Is it is a solid substitute if I can't have the next generation or the first one, right? It's all right. It's all right. After that, there's a lot of years go by Star Trek.

The movies came out years go by, but I love science fiction to this day. And I just finished reading The Three Body Problem, which is a show on Netflix. And that has fed my, ever since then, I read, I digest, I take in the science fiction, and all because of Star Trek. 

[00:50:58] Ellington Brown: I just finished swallowing that, that series that's on Netflix.

So good.! 

[00:51:06] Jason Browne: So good! 

[00:51:07] Ellington Brown: So good. Wow. And maybe that's the next thing. Maybe there should be a podcast. I'm sure there is, but we're, when you talk about Star Trek and anything science fiction, they just go for it because I could do that for like maybe 20 hours and then I would have to stop because I need to refuel by getting, watching more, TV shows or, reading books so that I come back at any rate, speaking of hours, we could, Rita and I could talk to you for hours and hours.

You make it so easy for us to have these conversations through bat, through bantering, so we got to talk about your career inspiration and the beginnings, we got to talk to you about how you use storyteller telling to make come across, make your situations come alive. Your key messages and motivations for doing TED Talk, your community engagement, contributions through the three dot downtown organization power, engagement through personal events and workshops, you've done it all.

I don't know what's left for you to do, except for maybe go into early retirement. 

I don't know, 

[00:52:35] Ellington Brown: start your own radio show. All I know is that we've enjoyed having you here with us, having this conversation, and I'm sure our audience are, they're going to, they're going to love you, they're actually going to really love you and want to listen, and probably listen to this.

Podcast more than once. So thank you so much. And I just hope you have an excellent weekend. Excellent weekend. And nope. Oh, and crunchy peanut butter. 

[00:53:06] Jason Browne: Peanut butter popcorn! Real quick, Elton, if I may it's been a pleasure to Rita it as well. The one, One little ask that I asked for folks to do is if you can go to the TEDx talk look, search for Jason Brownee, TEDx possibilities of privilege.

Just take a listen to it and leave a comment, share it with a friend. Do one of those two things would make the, make my world. If that would be mean the world to me. So that is my one ask. And I thank you for that. 

[00:53:31] Ellington Brown: Okay. So do you have, do you know the exact my God URL for so why don't you drop it to me?

And then what will happen is when I put together the description. It'll be there so that people can get to it. They don't have to go. What is it again? Or I got to go to Google actually type something. No, it'll be right there for them to grab it and run with it. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you so much. This has been so good. So good. 

[00:54:05] Rita Burke: It certainly was a privilege to speak with you. Thank you for the opportunity to banter about topics that are important to all three of us. Really appreciate that! 

[00:54:19] Jason Browne: It's a privilege to be here. Appreciate you! 

[00:54:22] Ellington Brown: Thank you for listening to SpeakUP! International. If you wish to contact Mr. Jason Browne, please be prepared to submit your name, your email address, and the reason why you wish to contact Mr. Browne at https://www.thejasonbrowne.com/. 

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