Kari Byron - Crash Test World! Mythbusters!

Kari Byron Interview

 

[00:00:00] Jeff: Listeners. I’ll spoiler our country today on the show. We have a very special guest, Ms. Kari, Byron, how are you doing Ms. Byron?

Kari Byron: I’m doing well. How are you?

Jeff: I’m doing very well. I, it’s a great pleasure to talk to you. I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time, going back to a MythBusters.

Kari Byron: Well, thank you. I mean, that’s really the first time I was ever on TV.

So before that it would just been like you were a stalker or something.

Jeff: I mean, did, did you ever think when you were doing mythos that you would become a celebrity?

Kari Byron: No. I didn’t even know what after MythBusters started it wasn’t until our crew went to Comicon for the first time. And they booked us for a room so that me grant and Tori could come out and talk to the audience and.

The room over filled and they had to put us in a bigger room. And then the fire marshals came because it was overfilled. And we’re like, how big is this room? And we walked in and there was thousands and thousands and thousands of people. And the three of us were like, Oh my God, [00:01:00] people watch the show.

Holy

Jeff: crap. This is crazy.

Kari Byron: It was our first time. Experiencing that because when MythBusters started, we’re a really scrappy crew. We got, you know, couple of cameraman, some audio texts, we’re all just in a workshop in San Francisco. There’s no LA scene reality television. Isn’t what it is now. Like it felt like we were making really weird home movies.

So to know that the audience was out there, it almost made it more nerve wracking. We got home because all of a sudden, instead of just being like us messing around with the camera guy, all of a sudden, we’re like, Oh my God. Oh, those people are watching.

Jeff: So you felt like the full pressure of an audience.

Kari Byron: I got a little more nervous.

I am not inherently TV ready person. I was, it was trial by fire for sure.

Jeff: Were there ideas that you initially had to do on MythBusters that after you found the size of your audience were like new, what? That’s too small time for us now that small audience MythBusters we got do like the big stuff.

This is, [00:02:00] we had change, change up what we’re doing.

Kari Byron: We always just kind of. Did what was fun for us or what we could build. And usually if there was something really exciting to one of us, like if there was a zombie involved, Tori would get excited or something where electronics were involved, grant would get excited.

And I just, I was really into crashing cars and weaponry. So it just, you know, we, we just catered to the things that we found fascinating and went for it.

Jeff: So, I mean, when you first went to that comic con, what were the expectations for you? I mean, like, what were you thinking you were going to see when you stepped out?

Kari Byron: I had no idea. I really, I didn’t Comicon is such a wild beast. It is just this amazing place of costumes and people just get in their freak on and everybody just getting into whatever their geekdom is and going head first into it is a beautiful thing to see.

Jeff: It’s kind of funny because as an audience member you just assume that the people you watch on TV.

No, I guess somehow you think, you know, they know you’re watching them or [00:03:00] you kind of feel like they know they have a huge fan base. They have to know that there’s, everyone’s watching their show. It’s weird to think that on the opposite side, you’re thinking. Does anyone actually tuning into this?

Kari Byron: I mean, even when we started MythBusters, we talked off camera to a producer who was asking the questions, like, what did you think of that build?

And you’d just be telling them exactly what you think. You know, it wasn’t scripted. So I would say, Oh, I was having a really hard time fitting this piece together, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just talking to the producer. So I think it really changed. When they started asking us to talk directly into the camera, which instead of a warm face, that’s giving you feedback as all of a sudden, this cold dead eye.

And I mean, Adam’s the only one that was ever trained in any sort of acting whatsoever. So all of us kind of stumbled for a minute looking into the camera because you’re just, there’s no eyes. So at one point the producer realized that all of us were struggling with this because we are just a bunch of special effects and, you know, artists that they made a little smiley face.

Out of masking tape and [00:04:00] put it above the lens so we could pretend we were talking to the smiley face.

Jeff: That’s what I mean. I mean, the very definition of what your team was, your team was literally called the B team. And I guess what that name is an assumption, I guess maybe on some level that you wouldn’t be the star of the show, but in some way, but in a real way, after a while you guys kind of became.

As big as star and face of the show, the same way as the main team.

Kari Byron: What’s funny is because the B team kind of is an inside sports thing. We started out being called the build team because Tori and I, and this woman’s Scotty, who’s an amazing welder and a contest winner named Christine. We were hired not to be hosts.

We were hired to. Build the backgrounds. So Jamie and Adam come just like show up and do the fun stuff. And then we would clean up the build afterwards. So we were the ones that were doing the nuts and bolts and all the building, but then they realized they had [00:05:00] hired us to make more episodes and make them faster.

They realized it wasn’t. Any faster that way. So they thought, okay, well we’ll have them talk and that’ll actually fill out more time. So, cause you know, science takes a long time and our experiments take a lot of time and the build wasn’t necessarily the bulk of what they needed to film. So it was also something interesting, the audience, they like to see how the sausage was made.

Literally sometimes, you know, they love seeing all that stuff. So. We started to do little asides for the camera and we started to talk to the camera and then sooner or later they just pushed us in front of it. And within God within let us season they’re like, yeah, you guys are hosts. Now. All of us were just wait, what were, Oh, okay, sure.

This seems fun. Let’s do this. And then every single time we got renewed, we would think, Oh, this is the last season. Is it? Yeah, it is. It won’t go on very long. We didn’t realize this was going on for over a decade. Like I thought this was just, you know, my [00:06:00] first one, it just felt like another job. Like my first grown-up job.

Jeff: Well, I mean, I think it worked for people. Is that the chemistry between the you grant and Phillip from, I forget the name of the other gentlemen, Tory, sorry. Sorry, the Tory, if he’s ever, if he’s listening, I mentioned that the important, the most important two,

Kari Byron: very, very important, and one of my

Jeff: best friends, indeed.

I’m literally just kidding. But it, it really was the chemistry between the three of you, because I mean, the chemistry between the three of you was better and in many ways more entertaining then between Jamie and Adam,

Kari Byron: I mean, that’s a different kind of chemistry. That’s like a little more like, you know, OCC style.

Like they, they, they respected each other and they were both brilliant in their own way, but they weren’t buddies. Whereas me, Tory and grant went out to dinner together and had lunch together and. Fought like siblings when we spent so much time together, you know how, when you have those people that you go through crazy events with, like, you can go zip lining with them.

Like you have a [00:07:00] bond that’s really strong. We did that every day for like 12 years. So we were more family than a lot of my family because you know, we’re blowing things up and we’re building together. When we first started, we were working 13 hour days, six days a week, like on the regular, we spent birthdays there.

We, we, we abandoned our families

Jeff: or each

Kari Byron: other. And we, I mean, we literally were picking up and creating shit. Sometimes we

Jeff: don’t a whole

Kari Byron: day picking up cow manure and stirring it together. And just looking at each other like this, we will always

Jeff: remember. So, so when you weren’t filming and you guys were just doing your day-to-day interact with each other offset, did you guys find yourself thinking maybe I should test that theory right there.

You know, I wonder what would happen if I did this and just, you know, think, Hmm. Maybe we get paid to be testing this.

Kari Byron: I mean, we didn’t really talk about work when you got off of work because we were ed. Zoster. And [00:08:00] it was enough, mostly like Tori and I love Italian food. So we’d be, you know, a lot of one and Italian food.

You know, we’d be on set together way off in the desert. So we just, we’d just all go sit in some really dirt bag bar somewhere and have a drink and just relax. Like we did not talk about work if we could avoid it for the camera.

Jeff: Well, I think what was fantastic about you guys showing how the sausage was made, as you said, is that it really gave the viewers a respect for what you guys were actually doing.

And I think not everyone has enough respect for the difficulty of science and you guys made it showed us, you know, this is what it is, is how hard it is. And you know, this is how intricate it all is. And I think that was very important.

Kari Byron: I really wished you guys. As an audience could have, you know, how they have after dark big brother or whatever, you know, the behind the scenes.

Because if you could just see the researchers we had, especially in the beginning when nobody knew what MythBusters [00:09:00] was. And if you could have seen them calling places like a butcher shop and being like, no, I need. I need a stomach completely intact with all the bile and all the hoses attached and the maybe like, w wait, what do you mean?

We don’t sell it like that? They’re like, I know, but we need that. Could you do that for us? And just the confusion or, Hey, I’m trying to get a seven 47 so I can flip a bus requests that were coming through. And so at first, very, very difficult. And slowly people started used to the show and lucky for us that a lot of our fan base police, fire engineers.

Aeronautics, you know, explosive material experts. So the people that we work with were also the people that were into the show because they liked all the same stuff we did.

Jeff: Well, I mean, it was great cause you guys must have made some weird ass phone calls, requests, or things that you get people hanging up and you going, you know, that’s not funny, just like

Kari Byron: at first or we get vetted really hard, took

Jeff: it.

And I think [00:10:00] before the interview I did a lot of re  research, you know and. Talked about you in the show. And I actually didn’t even realize that Jamie and I didn’t like each other till Ashley a couple of days ago. And I did the research, I just assumed he did. And, and I didn’t know is that your background is actually when you went to university of San Francisco state university, your background actually was film and sculpting, not you know, cause I’m not sure a little surprised by that.

How, what is, what was the through line between sculpting filming and eventually your focus on science?

Kari Byron: It’s really special effects. All of us have a background in special effects and we’re somehow involved in that industry. I was trying to get into that industry and we’re all builders. So for the, what we, we didn’t realize we were really doing a science show.

We were using science as a narrative. You know, the scientific method is a narrative vehicle, which is perfect for telling a story. And it just became. More of a science show because it just worked out that way. We all used experts and a lot of academia to help us. As well as when the internet got better, [00:11:00] it was, it became a lot easier to find our mythology.

But I think that the whole gag of the show being that we were builders and not scientists made it an easier through line for the audience because we’re learning with them. We didn’t know when stuff was going to blow up. We didn’t miss no things were going to work or not. So when we were excited about things, We were genuinely excited.

I’m squealing and screaming because I didn’t know how it was going to end up. Whereas maybe if I had had a strong, scientific background, I would know that wasn’t going to explode and I would be very calm instead of so anxious. So I think that we taught science by learning it.

Jeff: That was incredible. And I, and I felt, I learned a lot by watching it.

And I think the other thing that I found was impressive about what you’ve done since is that you’ve really seem to have dedicated your entire life to furthering education for a lot of people. One of the things that you definitely Or promoting and I, and I [00:12:00] think it’s great is a steam and for the listeners of ours who don’t know his team is is four stands for fields of or to find science technology, to interpret it through engineering and arts and based on mathematics, why was, is steam something that you felt.

Important enough to dedicate yourself so fully to it.

Kari Byron: It’s more for me, it’s critical thinking. And I really believe that even if you’re going for a liberal arts education, you need to have the critical thinking and a science background just as, as a human being in this world, it’s important to have that sort of base knowledge.

So I, I. I definitely think it’s a evolving, constantly interesting industry where it’s a good opportunity to help people better themselves. And it’s a really great opportunity to have an interesting career. And I’ve met so many people within the field that encompass everything from creating food to making airplanes, you know, it’s it’s, it can be almost anything.

So [00:13:00] I personally just like the opportunities that esteem career is going to offer you. And

Jeff: I think that’s, like I said, that’s wonderful as my day job. I’m a English teacher at a therapeutic high school in Rhode Island and the importance of steam and trying to get our students to recognize the importance of things like math and science and English and reading.

I feel like sometimes when they make it to high school, they haven’t acquired that respect for those subjects. And I think what you’re doing with your show, Helps create that for them.

Kari Byron: I was just having a lot of fun doing what I did and it’s a great

Jeff: byproduct,

Kari Byron: had a positive message for the world.

Let’s not give too much credit here. Like I got to blow stuff up. I got to do cool things. I even learned how to build a still, so I’ve got a side career if I need it.

Jeff: But since then though, you really have. Done a great job of focusing on continuing that with science. Cause like I said, you’re currently [00:14:00] now working with a nonprofit organization known as product project in Florida.

And so for our listeners, what is project info? Yeah.

Kari Byron: Well project Explorer. I do a show called crash test world for and project Explorer is a nonprofit that has been around for about 17 years. They were streaming videos before. Or YouTube existed. It’s really about creating global citizenry through exploration.

So a kid in Kenya can see what it’s like to be a kid in Japan. You know, a kid in Kansas can see what it’s like to be a kid in Mexico. We get to see what the traditions and cultures are of other countries, their food, their their. Ways of life, the way they play. And it’s just, you know, it’s all about exploration, which is education.

So we do what’s called edutainment and crushed us world specifically is a show on this platform. It’s think of it. It’s a little like Netflix for education. If you think of it that way. And the show I do, I travel around the world. Well, before the pandemic, [00:15:00] around asking questions exploring different places like how arts preserved in a different culture, how we celebrate death.

 On our current season, we did one in New York. How to make a cities function. We did one on how do we live in peace in a place of great conflict. And we went to Israel. And, you know, we talk to mostly innovators and people who are coming up with great solutions. I mean, we went to a surf camp in Israel where everybody leaves the politics on the beach and in the water, everybody’s just catching a wave and it’s, you know, beautiful organizations that are donating surfboards to try to create peace.

I mean, there’s all sorts of ways to make the world a better place. And I am lucky enough to get, to give a signal boost to the people that are really trying to do that.

Jeff: Now is the title cross test world based on your book crest house girl that came out, was it two years ago? I think it was three years.

Kari Byron: Oh my God. I think it was a hundred years ago. It’s been a long year, but yeah, I did I wrote a book crashed us world, [00:16:00] or sorry, crashed us girl, which basically I wrote. The whole book on a dare because I was talking to an art. I was, I was sitting at a bar with Thomas Dolby. He was the singer from the eighties.

You might remember that did that song. She blinded me with some onions.

Jeff: Okay. With him,

Kari Byron: Homer Hickam, who wrote rocket boys which became October sky Emily from Emily’s lab on Netflix. Back then she was a science influencer. And it was just this really eclectic group of wonderful people. Reed Timmer, the dorms, and we were all just having a drink together.

And Homer was just like, you’ve got a lot of great stories. You should write a book like now that I’m not going to write a book, that’s crazy. That’s what you do. That’s so vulnerable and scary. That is way too scary for me and went home from that. And my daughter was having trouble in school and she was very young at the time.

[00:17:00] And I looked at her, I’m like, you know, superheroes aren’t about having super strength and, and, you know, being able to have laser beams from their eyes, their bravery comes from doing something. Scary and still doing it. Then I walked, the next room, went crap. I had to write a book. Now take the advice I give my daughter, which is that’s how your brain is.

We do something scary. So I. Wrote the book. And that kept me busy for a while in between TV shows. And then we started to do an untitled show for project Explorer, which then when we were trying to think of a title, we just thought crash test world. We’re really seeing the world through your eyes. So let’s, let’s, let’s take it after the book.

Jeff: And like, and, and I think that the TV show, he keeps saying TV shows, it’s not TV show. It’s a

Kari Byron: movie very soon. It’s going to be airing on discovery.

Jeff: I, I did. I noticed it’s at the end, supposed to be at the end of this year. Is that correct? Or is it going to be now after [00:18:00] 2021 hits?

Kari Byron: I have no idea.

Discovery channel has had a full season of that show since I premiered it in February in New York. So they’re just sitting on it. I’m not sure when they’re going to release it very, very soon, so feel free to Twitter them or Instagram them and ask them.

Jeff: Yeah. I mean, I about balls every I’ll give a weekly a text, I’d be like, where’s the damn shit.

Kari Byron: When can we see it? Portions of it because what a project Explorer does, which is very cool is that, you know, we have this highly produced half hour of content. That is a television show that you will see on TV. We break it up into pods of the different stories that we tell. And then they come with a free lesson plan for parents and teachers.

So if you want to learn about beekeeping and Detroit and have a full lesson plan on it, you can get a lesson plan. That’s tailored to lower school, middle school or high school. And all of the content is appropriate for all ages. It’s really family viewing, which is. Perfect for the [00:19:00] discovery brands, but also just it’s, it’s something that we always wanted to achieve with MythBusters and now with this, which is never to underestimate the intelligence and the sophistication of children and teenagers.

I usually speak to what I feel is between audience, but I’ve learned long ago. If you want to explain something to a 12 year old, explain it like they’re 35. And if you want to explain something to a 35 year old, explain it like the 12 and you’ll have a better follow through.

Jeff: Well, I, I totally agree when, when I teach my classes the one thing I have learned is that you talk to your students as if they’re adults for one they’re going to be eventually, so they should learn you know, how to respond and talk, be spoken to as an adult.

And I do think. They are more than willing. They’re more willing to listen to you when you do that. When you talk to them or I would say down to them or kind of send to them, I do think they should. They know that immediately they can read you better than adults. Can

Kari Byron: I think drives me more crazy than watching adults, baby, talk to children, especially kids who are about, you know, 10 or [00:20:00] 11 when they talked to them, like this drives me crazy.

Cause I know I’ve got an 11 year old and she looks at me like, are you kidding me with this right now?

Jeff: Yeah. I’ve gotten in trouble a couple of times at school. I, like I say, I teach at a high school, but it’s like a therapeutic school. So some of a couple of the adults. For some reason, because there are therapeutic kids feel a need to talk to them as if they’re younger and I’ve gotten into some trouble yelling at them about it.

it’s assaulted me there because they have, you know, usually there’s some emotional issues does not mean that they’re not their age. You know, there’s probably some levels. More aware of themselves and mature than a lot of other teenagers would be in that same situation.

Kari Byron: Kids now too are so well-informed, they are so sophisticated.

They know so much more than we ever did at their age. It’s good and bad in many, many ways, but I, yeah, you, you, you can never underestimate them.

Jeff: Now the videos that I saw on the product Explorer website, they’re cut into a five minute clips. Will the, the show when it hits discovery, be hour long programs are these 30 minute programs [00:21:00] that when we finally see them

Kari Byron: and it’s, nobody’s got time for an hour long program, these days that’s on the movie.

Come on.

Jeff: I assume with COVID everything pretty much has just stopped on the filming of the we’re working on a second season.

Kari Byron: I mean, we’re ready to go where we’re just, it’s, we’re kind of in a little bit of a holding pattern because some of the places we were supposed to go got shut down. Like we were, I mean, we were supposed to do something and like Pakistan and Turkey and places that we were Cambodia, we were like about to go and then.

Just things got a little too out of hand and we can’t travel and we can’t take that kind of risk. So second season we have a million ideas and we have where we will jump on the road very soon. Even if it’s reformatting to go to Minnesota in Portland, you know, we will, we will change. We will change for the culture.

Jeff: And in watching the show and correct me if I’m wrong, but it feels like the main theme of crash tests world is recognizing the similarities, [00:22:00] similarities across different cultures and understanding those differences. And so, because the culture maybe has some differences from yours, it once again, It feels like the difference is understanding why those differences exist and then try and by doing that grit, building our appreciation for those cultures

Kari Byron: correctly and different, we all want our families to be safe.

We all want to love, we want to play. We want to eat. Like we have all of the same. Based core. So when it comes down to it, we’re really more like than different. And I just find when you want to create a familiarity, you know, if you want to tell a big story, like you want to talk about the refugee crisis, you don’t shop.

Just jump in and talk about the refugee crisis. You find. One person going through it that you can relate to, and then you can see yourself in them. And then you will have empathy for me. My whole drive in this new show is about creating empathy in the world and helping us all [00:23:00] see how, like we really are.

Jeff: Th th it, in my opinion, a beautiful moment in one of the earlier episodes on of crush test world I’m going to probably pronounce everything correctly. So I’m gonna apologize ahead of time. I’m going to say you’re all wrong cookie cutter, or

Kari Byron: that I spent a long time trying to figure that out because it really is a generational thing.

It’s cusser

Jeff: cutter.

Kari Byron: Yeah, everyone here said Qatar. And when I got there, some people said cutter and then some people said cutter. So I practiced a bunch. It’s kind of a, it’s kind of in between, but I’m probably saying it wrong as well.

Jeff: Well, I’m going to apologize to any listeners that may exist in. Cut cut or whatever, I’m going to say it wrong.

And I don’t mean disrespect. Th there was a woman on, in the episode. Her name is going to say this one. 

Kari Byron: female.

Jeff: Shine shine, shine, shine, shine. And you guys you and China are discussing food habits. And it’s a very small moment in the show. And some people like [00:24:00] might only last a couple of seconds, but to me it actually meant a lot.

The, there was a comment about, she was showing you how to signify when you want more when you don’t want any more food and it was, how did you shook your cup as a way of saying no more food and you commented well, where I come from, that’s how we say. That’s when you know, that’s when we meet, when we, when we want more food, that’s what we do.

It’s just a minor difference, but it kind of shows that little. Things between culture. It may get miscon misconstrued as something, but when you learn about the culture and you spend some time with them, you do recognize and appreciate it for more these little things. And it helps. I think people understand,

Kari Byron: you might be insulting somebody with something that you think is so innocuous.

It’s so it’s beautiful to figure out other things. Culture is that way. I, and you know, what’s really funny about that particular one. Well, you’re talking about, we were drinking she kept calling it coffee, but it looked like tea because it was green and it was light in color. And I’m, you know, we were filming this at [00:25:00] night, so I’m thinking there’s no caffeine in this.

And I am just drinking more and more and more, cause it was delicious and it had this beautiful smell to it. And. Then we started talking about green coffee and the more you roast coffee, the less caffeine it has, which is why espresso one-to-one with a shot of, you know, Dunkin donuts. Coffee has the same amount of caffeine.

You know, like a shot, a shot of espresso, isn’t stronger like alcohol. And so I drank a ton of super highly caffeinated beverage right before bed. And I was just, I was bouncing off the wall.

Jeff: I could

Kari Byron: not sleep. I was like, Binge watching shows. I was reading. I was trying, I was exercising, just like, Oh my God, I just drank like a pot of coffee.

This is crazy.

Jeff: That’s when you should have filmed the next episode,

Kari Byron: my crew would appreciate that

Jeff: come off of

Kari Byron: day on their feet.

Jeff: And I think that don’t think [00:26:00] Cooper. I think it happened just like a moment later when Shaima is telling you. The hand in which he used to eat and which you don’t use it in other hand, once again, just these minor things.

I don’t even, I, I normally wouldn’t even thought of myself, I think. Holy crap. That’s an amazing insight. Once again, to a different culture that you made, you probably wouldn’t have thought about. And unless you saw the show,

Kari Byron: I was, it was, it was really a beautiful place to be. And it was really interesting to learn so much.

And I, I even just down to the bio that she wore. I thought I was going to put on, you know, the, the, I was in the middle of the desert. I thought it was going to be very hot and I put it on and was so surprised to actually feel cool because I didn’t, I always thought it was a religious thing, but it’s actually helps with the elements.

Because it creates a chimney effect when you wear that clothing that releases the heat out of it because the fabric shakes back and forth. So I got a little bit of science of clothing and found out more about them as a people. It was [00:27:00] beautiful.

Jeff: And like I said, it was, I really didn’t. I was able to watch all the episodes and I thought I said, I thought they were incredible.

There’s an episode called. Desert farming, which I thought was also very very entertaining and very informative. And I thought when I was watching desert farming is that as an, as an American, you look at our country, we are extremely arrogant about ourselves in a way, you know, we think we’re the most advanced.

No country in the world, all this stuff. And then you watch them like desert farming and you realize how just exceptional, the exceptional level of innovation that exists within a country like Qatar as well. And I was wondering like, what kind of, since you spent time there, what kind of stuff can the United States learn from the scientific achievements of cutter?

Kari Byron: You know what I think that we, as a world just can learn from the diversity of the world. I think that bringing lots of different people from lots of geo economic. [00:28:00] Backgrounds and, and actual, you know, different places on the map. We all come with such a different perspective. I think it comes down to diversity more than anything else.

I think somebody from Rhode Island and somebody from San Francisco could probably come up with some pretty good ideas just as you bring in any diversity, which, which is the reason I’m stumbling a little bit. Cause I think I’m tired, but the same way we all came from. Very different backgrounds. And so you know, different places.

And I think it was easier for us to come up with solutions because we approached every problem with such different mindsets. So I think it’s more about global diversity than anything else. And

Jeff: I think that’s one thing that you show demonstrated very well. And the other thing you showed your show demonstrated very well as well is the importance and the use of technology.

There was a another episode where translate for me. We discussed a new app called Tarjimly

Kari Byron: the peninsula.

Jeff: Yeah. And, and the idea is that it’s, it’s an entire app that kind of is designed to help people [00:29:00] come together. Because once again, It’s separate. It eliminates the language barrier that we have

Kari Byron: I’m translator in real time. So, you know, I took that app with me down to Chinatown with one of the founders, just to try to order, you know, talking to people that obviously speak English, but I asked them to speak Chinese to me and we used a translator.

They. Pings people all over the world that can translate between those two languages. And instead of trying to type something in that, you might not understand you get a person you’re like, ask him, this comes another side and then they say it right in real time.

Jeff: And I think that was incredible. And again, it isn’t just one more step to bring a large world closer together.

And I think once again, another important app and in choosing, introducing that to people who may not have seen the app is also a very important job that you’re providing as well. And I also, and one question I had when I was watching your show, is that do you think in the future. Society will be able to reconcile like the dual aspect of [00:30:00] technology, because there’s obviously a lot of benefits to some negatives as well.

Do you think at some point we’ll be able to figure out how to properly balance it in our lives?

Kari Byron: Oh, goodness. I sure hope so. I’ve got an 11 year old and the two of us are just, both of us had a moment today where like, we look at our phone too much. We look at the computer too much and we, we shut everything down and we went and we played cards for an hour.

We both had a moment of just. Why are we relating to each other? We’re stuck in the house together, turn off the TV, turn off all the electronics. Let’s go. And I taught her, you know, I told her a little bit of 21 in poker. Yeah. We played a little bit everything, but it was just, wow. I just had a very present moment.

I love this. I

Jeff: forgot

Kari Byron: some of the best times growing up or when the power goes out. I think sometimes we just need the power to go out for us.

Jeff: Yeah, you’re totally right. Cause I, I feel like social media, which the idea of that should be that we learned [00:31:00] and had the opportunity to talk to more people.

And then, and those wider widens our consciousness of what the world is. Like. I feel like in many ways, being on social media has eliminated on some level, our ability to interact with people who are actually around

Kari Byron: us, I think you’re right. But at the same time currently without social media, How much of a job, I would have want a travel show.

I’m having a hard time doing anything off of the zoom these days. So yes, I am a big proponent of both technology and anti-technology,

Jeff: and, and I th I said, I think that’s kind of the direction we were in within the next. A few decades, it’s something we do have to figure out and try to properly approach technology in a way that is positive and, you know, eliminate some of the negatives.

My, my, my last question for you. Cause I, I do appreciate your time with me is you’re also part of the grant in Mahara foundation. What are, what are his goals and how can our listeners help support it?

Kari Byron: I am a supporter of it, but I wouldn’t say I’m a part of it. There are people way above my pay grade that take care, take care of [00:32:00] that kind of stuff.

Grant was a beautiful, wonderful person, and he believes so much in. Helping people and helping kids. And so it hits a very, it’s very steam and STEM motivated. So the grant Emma heart foundation is raising money to help, to help kids. In their STEM futures. I talk about it. I start to get very misty-eyed cause I have pictures of all or my house and I I’m, I miss him.

It’s still very raw for me, but if you go watch the video on their foundation website, they do this beautiful animation that I dare you not to cry. If you have love for grants. Yeah, he’s a good dude. Be raising a bunch of money for very soon. All of the props for MythBusters, I believe are going to be auctioned off.

They’ve been in a museum up until now. So stand by for that. It’s, it’s we’re trying to source how to do it at the moment, but you know, you could own a little piece of MythBuster history and [00:33:00] with grants foundation.

Jeff: Is there any part that’s being put on the foundation that you’re going to like maybe on the download by yourself without your name being

Kari Byron: taught?

I don’t need any of that stuff. I stole everything I wanted. When I left, I filled my car up with all sorts of great

Jeff: things.

Kari Byron: I’m good. I’m good.

Jeff: Well, like I said, and it’s, it’s great that that foundation does exist because like I said, I was definitely one of those fans who, yeah, it was shocking, devastating when officer Graham passed and I think it was fantastic that. His name is being used for something that’s positive. And it sounds like it’s definitely is.

And I hope our listeners do the find the page and donate.

Kari Byron: Yeah, it just, just follow it for a while. Cause it’s, it’s going to do some exciting stuff and it’s it’s really a beautiful way to keep his memory alive. And his mother is very involved.

Jeff: Great. So for crash tests, world, where can, how can our view listeners support it before it actually becomes a discovery [00:34:00] TV show?

I don’t know. Maybe, maybe we can maybe push in the right direction. I mean, what, what can we do to help you help the foundation out and project explore out at this point?

Kari Byron: I know you can find it. I am very active on Instagram and Twitter. I am Kari, Byron at on Twitter and I’m the real Kari buyer.

Because I couldn’t get my own name

Jeff: on

Kari Byron: Instagram and you can find all the updates for crash test world and for anything I’m up to. And I’ve got links to, to grant on there as well, but project explorer.org, you can check out and get lesson plans because we’re all remote learning. If you’re a parent right now.

So you can, it might be a little bit of something family-oriented, that’s also educational.

Jeff: I will say, unfortunately, my school we’re actually, the kids are in the classrooms in my state. Oh, we already had our third COVID potential for us. Unfortunately. Yeah, thank you so much. I, I do need it. But yeah, so definitely follow the foundation and keep in mind, look for the real [00:35:00] Kerry bar into our listeners.

Apparently they may be fake. Harry Byron’s running around Twitter. There is

Kari Byron: a, is a very easy place to get ahold of me and Carrie Byron K a R I B Y R O N. It’s just my name.

Jeff: Well, thank you so much, Ms. Byron for talking with me, I greatly appreciate it. You are fantastic to talk to you and great entertaining.

Kari Byron: Oh, I’m glad I got to talk to you too and have a wonderful night.

Jeff: Thank you.