Some Future Day

Some Future Day - Episode 1: America's Mental Health Crisis | with Mayor Hillary Schieve

[00:00:00] Mayor Hillary Schieve: government is really antiquated when it comes to technology and innovation, and so that was one of the things that I really wanted to bring to the forefront is technology and innovation in my city. On this episode, Reno's mayor, Hillary Schieve joins me and exemplifies how she's been using emerging technologies, such as blockchain and NFTs, cryptocurrency and beyond to strengthen the fabric of her society.

[00:00:30] Marc Beckman: The conversation took a unexpected turn when Hilary became very personal and shared a story surrounding her recent campaign when a stalker connected a device to track her whereabouts on her car. Last

[00:00:45] Mayor Hillary Schieve: year they found a GPS tracker on my car. That's sort of a level. that we're at.

[00:00:50] Marc Beckman: Later, Shieve breaks down her commitment as president of the United States Conference of Mayors to help support mental health.

[00:01:00] and to combat addiction. Again, Shieve becomes very personal during our conversation and speaks about both her brother and her sister who lost their lives to these illnesses.

[00:01:14] Mayor Hillary Schieve: I shouldn't have to have my loved ones arrested to give them help for mental health. That is just insane. And that's what so many families are resorting to.

[00:01:25] Marc Beckman: I'd like to thank Hillary again for participating on some future day.

[00:01:30] It's a pleasure seeing an innovative risk taker like Hillary in action, implementing new ideas to improve our nation. Thank you, Hillary, for participating and being so honest.

[00:01:44]

[00:01:52]

[00:01:52] Marc Beckman: Mayor Schieve, thank you so much for joining me today on some future day.

[00:01:58] I'm excited to talk about technology with you in particular because you've been such a leader, really at the forefront as it relates to innovation. And one thing that's noteworthy is the work you've done with Reno surrounding blockchain technology, specifically biggest little blockchain, which I believe you enacted in June of 2022.

[00:02:22] So do you want to tell a little bit about what. Biggest little blockchain is and why you thought that was an important project.

[00:02:30] Mayor Hillary Schieve: thank you so much for having me, first of all, my friend. It's always nice to be with you and get to chat technology because, I think we both share, , similar passions and have so many similar ideas when it comes to technology. I don't know if we're the leader. I, I think there's a lot of cities doing great innovation.

[00:02:50] I just think that it's been really important for me and my city especially. We were so predominantly gaming here in Reno, Nevada, and I wanted to be incredibly diverse and technology and innovation is something I've always been really passionate about, and I think that I. government is really antiquated when it comes to technology and innovation, and so I have a sort of a different perspective probably 'cause a, I'm really not a politician.

[00:03:19] I sort of got into this out of, the love for my community, but also a business owner that was, frustrated by a lot of red tape that you see in government. And so that was one of the things that I really wanted to bring to the forefront is technology and innovation in my city. And now more than ever, as we look at future technology, it's changing fast, but it's incredibly dynamic and exciting.

[00:03:42] And so we've had a lot of conversation around and I'm fascinated by it. Obviously blockchain technology, smart contracts. I'm a fan of Chain Link. just all the different ways in which we should be using technology and government. I think is really important.

[00:04:03] First of all, I would also say this, you have to have like-minded people in your space. I'm sure you, you know that too, mark. When you have like-minded people, you can be, much more, I guess, creative and you can bounce ideas off of each other. So I'm super lucky that I have a team that supports me because sometimes I think when we look at future technology, whether it's AI or blockchain or smart contracts, if you don't have buy-in, it's really hard to make something happen, especially I think in government.

[00:04:34] But I'm surrounded by some very talented people that also share in what does the future look like in streamlining the process in government, whether it's from AI to blockchain. But one of the things that we did, is put our historic. properties and registry on the blockchain. And so those are some of the ways that we think it can be an extremely useful technology.

[00:05:01] And I'll also say, you know, you know this, a lot of this technology is so new that sometimes you're just trying things to see what works. And I always say when you stop trying is when you fail. And so my team also has that mindset where we've, we've looked at different platforms and technologies, but I also would caution in the sense that sometimes our infrastructure when it in government, is not to where it needs to be to implement everything the way that you want it.

[00:05:32] Right? So we also have, I think we have a little bit more challenges than just like being a startup or being a company that can just say, okay, let's go. And then the other thing I, I would say is when you roll out something like this, and it's not really mainstream sometimes, You want to be able to convey, especially to your community, your constituents, why, uh, this is positive.

[00:05:56] And then sometimes that can also be a pushback because they're not used to it. So, and also it is important to have transparency, but also we're on sort of the educating side of the technology because it is still so new and the way that we implement it. So we also have to think about that. It's not like we can just make the decision as a company and be like, Hey, let's go.

[00:06:18] When it comes to government, you wanna be transparent. You wanna also have accessibility when it comes to those that, um, also don't have technology in place, but also, you know, to our disabled community. you have a lot that you have to think about and implement so that they can understand why you're using it and what it's really good for.

[00:06:39] Marc Beckman: So let's talk about it for a second. So, with biggest little blockchain, you were permanently embedding files of reno's historic properties on the blockchain, but it was consumer facing so that all of Reno's constituents. And beyond that, anyone, me, as a New Yorker, can see these historic properties. So, let's give an example, like which property is the most historic property that you, permanently embedded into the blockchain?

[00:07:07] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, I don't know which is the most historic, but what I love about it is that, you know when, when I sat down in the seat, when we wanna look at, especially like looking at preservation, whether it's windows or cause a lot of people may not understand how, you know, that has to fall under certain shippo guidelines when it comes to preservation.

[00:07:33] But also you need to understand and know the history. And whenever I sat down in the seat, um, whether it was historic properties or why did we put a policy in place in the eighties or in the seventies, or, there wasn't a lot of information or data and quite honestly, a lot of our data was on paper.

[00:07:53] It was really scary. So really to go back and have any idea about what sort of took place when did it come onto the historic registry? Those kinds of things are really important. So now with the blockchain, you know, we can put all that information and people can also put their information, especially the homeowners, but also gather the history of the data and put that on there.

[00:08:16] So I think especially for historic properties, it makes so much sense so that we can go back and say, Hey, you know, in the 1930s, this home, quite honestly hosted, a historical fight for instance. Um, you know, just those kinds of things. And so I think having that kind of information can be incredibly powerful as we move forward when we look at how we plan a city or what, what the historical resources and manipulation has been.

[00:08:50] Marc Beckman: So do you think that this technology blockchain can replace the county clerk office eventually? Like I would imagine that the county clerk office is similar to New York City in Reno, a bit antiquated, and also prone to human error. Is that a benefit that you see with regards to filing all of these historic properties on chain?

[00:09:13] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, we we're not the county, so, uh, they do obviously different things, but I think to your point, at the county level, and as you know, a lot of voter registration is over there. And, and I ha what's interesting is I haven't heard a lot about blockchain technology being implemented when it comes to our election process.

[00:09:33] and I'm so surprised because as you know, I think it could be, Incredibly beneficial. And now more than ever when people are questioning the integrity of elections, um, and things like that, I'm surprised that there hasn't been a complete overhaul and just a different infrastructure sort of, uh, vision put in place across this country.

[00:09:57] 'cause I think it can be incredibly helpful. but I think there's so many things we can do. Like you and I have talked about how many people are unbanked and don't trust, you know, their banks, and things like that. And it makes so much sense. Um,

[00:10:11] Marc Beckman: on the voting side, it's really interesting because I hear a lot of pushback, particularly from, you know, the older generations tend to get categorized as Luddites and they might not be able to file their vote on chain, but you and I know it's as simple as just pressing a button on their phone.

[00:10:30] So is that something that you might encourage for Reno and, um, as president of the US Conference of Mayors, perhaps eventually all cities to get on board with the idea of, one vote permanently embedded immutable on the blockchain for the entire community?

[00:10:49] Mayor Hillary Schieve: I think it would be fantastic. It's just that we've got to get out of this. Sort of antiquated way of thinking. I think that's really what I see mainly in government that sort of hinders the process to move forward. And I would also say this, politicians hate to be the first one to come out there. They hate to take risks.

[00:11:09] Uh, they hate to be wrong. Right? And I think you have to, have a bigger vision and be okay with, Hey, this might not work today, but in the future, this is going to work. you and I both know this is where it's going.

[00:11:25] Marc Beckman: Yeah. Why do you think there's like that pushback? I was gonna actually ask you this, um, in the future, but in like later on, but you keep coming back to it. Like, why do, why is there such resistance from to new ideas and innovation from politicians?

[00:11:39] Mayor Hillary Schieve: well, a couple of things, I think. We don't have enough politicians that come from probably the private side, the entrepreneurial side, the technology side. And I, I get it, they're busy building companies and doing amazing, innovative things, but that's where I do think that government really should open up the door and bring them to the table.

[00:12:01] I think government has a really hard time with pulling in, experts. that's the one thing that's very challenging about government, um, is that it doesn't like to fail. Politicians don't like to fail. they have a very hard time coming out and saying, you know, I'm sorry that didn't work. and I think people forget they're human.

[00:12:24] Marc Beckman: You really rarely hear that. I mean, name a local, state, or federal politician that has said We tried something new. We gave it our best shot. We learned from it. We'll grow from it. But it didn't work. Nobody ever admits that.

[00:12:38] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Right. Well,

[00:12:39] because

[00:12:40] Marc Beckman: we

[00:12:40] have, there are

[00:12:40] Mayor Hillary Schieve: culture in our country of failure, right. And I actually think that we teach that failure's a bad thing. I don't think that should be the case. I actually think we should fail often if we really want to continue to be innovative and, and get something right.

[00:12:55] Marc Beckman: I feel like I've learned, I've gone to, I've done a lot of schooling, right. Including, you know, undergrad and law school. But I feel like some of the biggest educational experiences personally are from failures that I've had in my life.

[00:13:10] Mayor Hillary Schieve: I, I think it's so true actually. That's where you learn to pivot you. I think you get some of your biggest strength from failure. but I also, you know, my, in my last life I was a figure skater and so I sort of have that, sports mentality where you fall, you get right back up again. And I didn't get in this to continue to like move into higher office.

[00:13:31] I. I got into this because I was born and raised in, in my city, and it was predominantly gaming. I wanted to have, I wanted to live in a city that I could, see myself retiring here instead of moving away. So I wanted to see a lot of arts and culture and technology and innovation. And I often tell this story that growing up people would say, where are you from?

[00:13:54] And I'd say Lake Tahoe. I didn't want them to know that I was from Reno.

[00:14:00] Marc Beckman: so maybe it's your mentality, right? Like, I understand that you lived in Colorado Springs and trained to go to the Olympics, and you put, it sounds, from what I've read, um, and what I've heard, like you really put a lot of yourself into that process. I don't think that's something you can learn.

[00:14:19] I feel like that's something that you're, you know, people are built with resilience, with dedication, with commitment, and it sounds like that's something that you have. The other thing is that, These days, it's brutal being a politician. I mean, let's face it, you have even experienced personally some terrible things.

[00:14:36] Like, I remember another thing that you did where you stepped out early in your, early days of being mayor. you stepped out and raised the flag in honor of the LGBTQIA plus community and, um, even received some negative pushback for that. so is it, it's like an unforgiving job now. Like who, who wants to be a politician?

[00:15:00] Mayor Hillary Schieve: It's definitely changed a lot in the last, um, several years. I will say that obviously, I mean, everywhere you look, you turn on the TV and it's incredibly divisive. I would say you're a hundred percent right. There's a lot of people that tell me, oh, I would never go into politics. I could never ever do that.

[00:15:21] I can't put myself out there. And, and it is, it's very, very challenging and. you and I have had conversations about this, and matter of fact, um, last year they found a G p S tracker on my car. That's sort of the level that we're at. And of course, people see that and realize, oh, you know, my privacy could be at stake, my safety could be at stake.

[00:15:46] So people are seeing how politics has become so divisive, and that's, um, unfortunate.

[00:15:55] Marc Beckman: Has that case with the, with the, um, tracker that somebody put on your car. Can you talk about that? Has that been resolved yet, or,

[00:16:05] Mayor Hillary Schieve: No. So it's still in the, in the court system. Um, you know, we, we don't know at this point who put the tracker on our, on my car, so we'll just, we'll, that's gonna go through the court system and we'll see what happens through there. I will tell you this, the legislature in the state of Nevada, that was not an illegal practice, and the legislature at this last session did make it illegal, which I'm really grateful for because stalking and harassment, um, should not happen to anyone at all.

[00:16:34] So I'm, I'm glad to see that. So, and protecting, quite honestly, a lot of women out there that, um, have been victims of stalking.

[00:16:45] Marc Beckman: So, where's the morality though, right? Like it's, it's almost disappointing that the legislation has to be passed to protect even the mayor of Reno. and this all happened, if I recall properly during the last election, correct? Like your last election,

[00:17:02] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, unfortunately, sometimes I think we don't know they're an issue until they're an issue.

[00:17:07] Right.

[00:17:08] Marc Beckman: did you find out about it? How did you

[00:17:10] find out the device was attached to your

[00:17:12] car?

[00:17:13] Mayor Hillary Schieve: my car was leaking oil and I called the girlfriend and said, I need to bring my car in. And she called me back. I brought my car in. She called me back about 20 minutes later and said, you're not gonna believe what I found on your, under your car.

[00:17:29] And when she told me, I literally, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I, I was, quite honestly, I was shocked. and obviously, you know, massive amounts of anxiety just sort of come over you because why would someone, I think what you think in your head, why would someone need to track you if they didn't wanna harm you physically? I. To know your, to know your whereabouts. So obviously that's incredibly distressing for anyone, not just

[00:17:55] the the mayor, just, you know, any woman. And I think you, you know, today we're seeing it with like eye tags and things like that. It's becoming, um, where people think that it's quite honestly okay. And I think different states, um, are looking at it more and more.

[00:18:14] But Nevada was one of those states that, uh, we didn't have a law on the books and now we do. So I'm very, uh, proud of that and hope that it, it helps, um, other women that are being stalked and harassed.

[00:18:27] Marc Beckman: Why do you think politicians can't find common ground with such a sensible idea? Like I, I remember recently one of our Supreme Court justices had some, um, uh, protestors in front of, I think it was his house for days on end with his children, young children in the house. And then I think it was the same Supreme Court Justice where someone was arrested that went there and stated that they were there to kill the Supreme Court justice.

[00:18:59] But yet we don't see bipartisanship coming together with such a simple concept. These people are serving and they should be protected, and we should respect people that are, are serving the public. Why, why can't politicians come together now on such a simple concept?

[00:19:15] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, we should respect everyone regardless whether they're in office or not. I, and I have a hard time with that one mark, because as you know, I'm a nonpartisan. Um, I just don't believe in supporting bad policy because your party tells you to. So I have a really hard time with understanding why we can't all work together regardless of what party you're supporting, especially when it comes to people issues.

[00:19:43] Um, I, I just, I struggle with that on so many levels because I guess I am, I see it every single day with people that I work with. They can't seem to break away from that ideology of their party, and that has caused this country to be divided on so many levels. And I just, I don't know. That one is so hard for me because I just don't see politics as black and white.

[00:20:20] Marc Beckman: Well, it's interesting. I, I see like, when you talk about people issues, I, I agree with you and I see that often there's a, something, there's like a, a void with regards to the public commentary surrounding our southern border. you don't really hear many people talking about the fact that there are young children that are coming over the border and are now homeless and, um, subject to violence and, you know, people aren't really waving the flag about protecting the children.

[00:20:49] It seems like the child crossing the border has actually become a political football. So, um, there is simple. Like I, I, I, I want to get into your key pillar of mental health, but it kind of connects with regards to the southern border. Like why can't the politicians agree that the issue of the southern border is more than political?

[00:21:13] Like, why did it have to become a political issue? Why couldn't we just look at the people

[00:21:18] Mayor Hillary Schieve: And it's such a humanitarian crisis. 'cause you hear about these children that have been taken away from their parents. Some of them don't even know where their parents are. I mean, it is incredibly devastating and tragic. You know, one of the things, mark, that I have seen a lot in the last, um, four or five years is this level of conspiracy theory and almost, you know, you're not really seeing two parties anymore.

[00:21:44] You're not seeing, you know, The D's or the R's, like, I think it's like four parties now, quite honestly. And so it's a whole other level of concern, but I see a lot of conspiracy levels. I see it right here at our local level, at the, the national level. And some of 'em are incredibly dangerous. Incredibly dangerous.

[00:22:08] So you add that whole other element of confusion and what is truth, what isn't truth? And then, you know, that's also an interesting topic. We'll have to tackle that next time of, what's true on the internet, what isn't. That's where I

[00:22:24] do also think blockchain technology is gonna be great, right?

[00:22:28] Marc Beckman: For sure, but some facts are facts, right? Like the fact is that we have tons of fentanyl crossing the southern border. The fact is that we have hundreds of thousands of deaths as a result of it. So

[00:22:42] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:22:44] Marc Beckman: Like, you know, I mean,

[00:22:45] and why can't politicians come together on that topic?

[00:22:48] Mayor Hillary Schieve: here's the other thing that I think that happens at the different levels. Politicians can also be incredibly removed to actually what is happening. I think at the local level, that is where we should be paying attention the most. And typically at the local level, people are engaged. They live in their own communities, they're from their own communities, right?

[00:23:12] I think especially mayors, 'cause like you might, most people don't know who their county commissioners are, but they certainly know their mayors. Right? That's one of the reasons why, um, I feel so compelled to tackle what I think is the number one crisis in America, and that's mental health and addiction.

[00:23:27] And to your point, what are we doing at, at the border level? And those are conversations that mayors are bringing up. To our federal government to say, what does this look like? Because we're seeing massive amounts of fentanyl coming in that is like a weapon of mass destruction. I mean, think about the hundreds of thousands of people that this can kill, and wouldn't we be arming ourselves like we were going to war and fighting it at every level, but we're not.

[00:23:56] And so that's where mayors are really sounding the alarm. I was in Washington all last week meeting, with, you know, my representatives. we met with McCarthy, we met with Schumer, we met with Pelosi, Raskin, just so many legislators And I just think that that level can be so removed in a sense, um, from what's happening at the local level.

[00:24:24] And so mayors were in Washington sounding the alarm of what we think is the number one crisis in America. To your point, it's a humanitarian crisis as well. But here's what I would say, if you're gonna serve in any form of government, you honestly should have to start at the local level and then maybe work your way up.

[00:24:43] because

[00:24:44] I

[00:24:44] Marc Beckman: you think local, local politicians could be more impactful with an issue

[00:24:48] perhaps like fentanyl?

[00:24:50] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, I think too, I see local politicians whenever they move into, like, let's say Mayor Pete Buttigieg totally gets cities, gets the red tape that we constantly face. So when you have people like that, There, they understand the issue so much better, and it works so much better. But you take someone that has never, um, served an office before, sometimes it can be really challenging if they haven't really been at the local level.

[00:25:19] And that's where, at the local level, we can impact people every single day with the decisions that we make, even much bigger than what happens at the federal level.

[00:25:29] Marc Beckman: So the statistics from your recent, um, US Conference of Mayor's survey, was pretty remarkable. It's eye popping as it relates to this topic. In fact, 97% of the mayors that were surveyed, say that requests from mental health services have increased 88. Percent said that they don't have adequate access to mental health resources needed within their city.

[00:25:54] and then it seems like substance abuse might be one of the key foundational elements that's causing all of this mental health issues and homelessness. Um, it says that the main cause is substance abuse and its increased need for services. 85% of the, the mayors said that they require new services or more services relating to substance abuse.

[00:26:16] Those numbers are like shockingly alarming.

[00:26:19] Mayor Hillary Schieve: They are. And a lot of people are saying, oh, you know, this is a result of the pandemic. But absolutely not. We were in crisis mode before the pandemic. And the pandemic obviously has exacerbated it, but we were in crisis before. Right. And you know, I keep saying we've gotta stop treating, um, our jails is mental health hospitals.

[00:26:41] Our ERs are where you fix broken bones, not broken brains. Um, people are dying on our streets. It is a humanitarian crisis and we're allowing them to die on our streets. The policies that we put in place have completely failed. And you know, this thought of actually having to put someone in a hospital in treating them long term has not been, um, acceptable.

[00:27:05] But we also have to actually look at the reality of that, that. People are being incredibly abused on our streets and are dying because of that kind of thought. And I think cities, as Vasa been told, you know, the way to solve homelessness is through a housing first model. It's actually going to take many, many different approaches.

[00:27:29] And government does a really good job of being reactive instead of proactive. I mean, it's gonna have to start, you know, with, um, education to children from that level then to, you know, treating people long-term. you know, wraparound services for housing is going to be really, really critical. Uh, so there's just a lot of things that are incredibly broken.

[00:27:54] And then we also are going to see this massive healthcare shortage, with people in that field. So we've gotta figure out how do we incentivize, uh, more nurses and doctors to go into mental health, but. Every city that I have visited has a major crisis on their hands. And so that's why, you know, we feel so compelled as mayors, uh, we're on, we're at ground zero.

[00:28:19] We are where it impacts, uh, our first responders so greatly. And then it impacts, our jails, our ERs. And it's just something that is so alarming on, on so many levels, but it's not going to be one solution. 'cause everyone's like, you know, how do you tackle this? Well, everything is very complex and I would say we do not have the infrastructure in place.

[00:28:45] And that's why mayors are really going to be at the forefront and doing everything we can to work with our federal government to get the resources into our cities because they stay at the state level. And that is not helpful where the number one crisis is, which is in our cities.

[00:29:01] Marc Beckman: Well, I know that you visited, uh, the White House in January and, um, tackled or, or at least approached some of these issues surrounding mental health and shortly thereafter, you, you said, quote, the scale of the mental health crisis in America demands a comprehensive plan to get people the help they need.

[00:29:24] And American mayors are grateful that the president. Understands, we must use every tool available. So here we are, you know, approaching August, has the White House been able to move the needle a little bit? Have you been able to, actually work in conjunction with the executive branch in a positive way and, and get access or close that gap between the federal government and a local government so that some of your issues could be addressed and, and, and, um, solved?

[00:29:55] Mayor Hillary Schieve: I would say this. The good thing about President Biden is that he, he does understand, the trauma and grief he's had, you know, a very traumatic sort of life of loss, um, and, and understands, you know, that level. We just met with Tom Perez, from the White House, who was fantastic. So I am hopeful, um, and they are telling us that they're going to roll out a comprehensive mental health initiative.

[00:30:26] the good news is that one of my representatives, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, has a bill that's going to be coming forward. We don't know what that bill looks like yet, but we met with her and she, um, is not going to bring anything forward until, she works with mayors to, address it. and then McCarthy said the same thing, we wanna work with mayors.

[00:30:48] So I feel like they are listening, but I also think that mayors do have to come up with what we're seeing at Ground zero so that it does make an impact. Because if you don't understand what's happening at the local level, then that, um, is not going to help us with any bill. They've got to understand where it's happening directly to us.

[00:31:12] I just got off the phone actually this morning with Mayor Karen Bass and from LA she talked a lot about how also the incarceration piece plays such a big tie in that, you know, when they're released from jail, they, um, should be directed right into treatment. and that, you know, there's like, They can be sort of through the court system that they can go, you know, to treatment for like 30 days.

[00:31:46] But it needs to be much longer than that. But not only that, anyone knows that treatment is very hard to access. I mean, it is so hard to access. Even if you have money, treatment is very hard to access. and so just think about, most people don't have insurance, health insurance, right? And it's just there.

[00:32:07] We do not have the model in place when it comes to addiction and recovery.

[00:32:11] Marc Beckman: I thought you did something as mayor that was really innovative as it re relies to, as it, um, relates to this topic. it's my understanding that maybe in the middle of the pandemic or or shortly thereafter, you port, you purchased, um, a digital, access to a, a membership to something called Talkspace for every single person in Reno.

[00:32:34] Is that, is that right?

[00:32:36] So

[00:32:37] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yes, I, I did. It's, um, online therapy. It's been used by Demi Lovato and Michael Phelps, and I was going through, um, some grief of my own. I had just lost my sister and my brother, and obviously we're going through a pandemic and cities were unrest at the time. So I was sort of, everything in my life was falling apart.

[00:33:01] And I was also hearing from, you know, people in my community that were struck, struggling with mental health that had never struggled with mental health before. so I was thinking. Okay, let me see if I can, you know, go and find someone that I can talk to to deal with my own grief. And I started calling around, obviously I didn't tell him I was the mayor because, you know, I didn't a, I didn't want any special treatment, but also there's a huge stigma of reaching out and saying, Hey, I'm struggling.

[00:33:29] but during that process, it was unbelievable to me. People would say, oh, we could get you in six to eight weeks, or, you know, the, the time lag was like, wow. Well what if I was in crisis right now and a lot of people are in crisis and I could not get services. So what I decided was I

[00:33:48] thought,

[00:33:49] Marc Beckman: Six to eight weeks is like suicide.

[00:33:52] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Right? For some

[00:33:53] Marc Beckman: no joke. Like Absolutely.

[00:33:56] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Right. So I thought, how do we think differently? How do we think outside the box? And I thought, first of all we're, it's in a time where people are very apprehensive to meet in person, which was also problematic. And I thought, well, and you know, I'm a big believer in technology and I

[00:34:15] thought, you know, let's use technology to be able to get people the services that they need and everyone who, who wants services.

[00:34:25] so it was really interesting 'cause about 5,000 residents used it. And even if, I always say, even if we save one life, it was well worth it. 'cause you can't put a price on life. But my, the, the bigger reason I think that it was successful is there again, was the proactive repro approach instead of a reactive approach.

[00:34:44] Right? That's where if you can prevent someone from coming home and you know, beating their child, or if you can prevent someone from relapsing because we got them services on the front end. This is kind of, The idea that I'm talking about, we have to continue to start looking at what are the proactive approaches.

[00:35:04] 'cause the reactive is incredibly costly and it's costly, obviously money-wise, but also Lifewise.

[00:35:12] Marc Beckman: So that, that idea of getting after the issue, right, which could be mental health, it could be drug abuse, getting after that issue could start at a ver at a very early age. Even, perhaps at the elementary school level. You can teach, you could provide certain safety nets, maybe even have these private public partnerships like you enacted with Talkspace and move people into a place where you can, actually help them before there is an issue.

[00:35:41] And then save taxpayer. Payers money on the back end because you have less, um, people in hospitals, less people in jails, less people on the street, and in turn, hopefully less people dead. Right?

[00:35:53] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Right, right. You're exactly right. Like I, I think, and here it's also hard because, the mayor's office, is, it's a different jurisdiction than, our county, which is under the school district, right? So we're different jurisdictions. So sometimes that can be challenging to work with your, your public school systems.

[00:36:14] But what I would say is I think it should be mandatory that every school has counselors on site so that children have accessibility to counseling immediately and when they need it, I think it should be, You know, just like a, you know, a walk-in clinic, like an emergency er, why don't we, um, look at it in that sense?

[00:36:38] 'cause we continue to separate mental health from health and that's where I think, again, being early and often in the schools with assistance, especially on the mental health side, and I, you know, I'm a believer in social emotional learning. I think that those initiatives are really important for ch for young children.

[00:36:58] Marc Beckman: What's the statistic, Hillary, I heard, I think I heard this morning, is it 55% of teenagers in the United States are depressed now?

[00:37:07] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah. So they just came out with some data and what's really alarming is that 49% of Americans ages 18 to 24 are experiencing anxiety and depression. And one out of five people have been diagnosed, um, or have some sort of mental. Health issue. So, but think about that. 49% of 18 to 24, and I'm sure, mark, you and I would agree, those are babies.

[00:37:36] 18 to 24, you know, they're young kids, right?

[00:37:40] Marc Beckman: Yeah.

[00:37:41] Mayor Hillary Schieve: So that means that half of those kids are suffering. And think about that. What does that look like? Because typically what we see is when you're struggling with anxiety and depression and you don't know how to deal with it, how many of them will turn to, to drug use? And I would say especially being so young, they also don't have, you know, probably insurance or, you know, these are probably kids that are just starting their life right outta college or, you know, maybe working in a trade or just, you know, working a, a job, right? And not knowing how to obtain resources.

[00:38:23] It's hard enough for an adult. Let alone to get resources, let

[00:38:27] Marc Beckman: what do you think caused that I mean, ha half the, you're saying half of our, the youth in our country are either depressed or have anxiety. What do, what do you think is the cause of that?

[00:38:38] Mayor Hillary Schieve: I think drugs play a big factor. I also say, and I'm such a big proponent of it, but technology I think has been really concerning the amount as we're sitting here talking about, you know, technology and innovation. But I think like with, with everything, it has to be balanced. But the amount of, of screen time, I think, and just you're, they're exposed.

[00:39:04] So much. I mean, I remember the days when, and you remember this, if we were gonna do a research paper, you've gotta go to the library.

[00:39:12] Marc Beckman: Sure.

[00:39:13] Mayor Hillary Schieve: That's not, that's not the way it is today. So I think they have accessibility to so much information, which can be a blessing and a curse. But I would also say, I think what I see, 'cause I also work with a lot of young people in my private businesses, that a lot of them tell me that they get anxiety over social media and the acceptance, the need to feel accepted by their peers when they post something to see how many likes do I get?

[00:39:44] how many of my friends respond positively or, or negatively on that side? A lot of them tell me they get bullied online and it causes them to have severe anxiety and depression. I hear that a lot, especially if they're connected to, Social media in a

[00:40:03] Marc Beckman: there's a downside

[00:40:04] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:05] Marc Beckman: to technology,

[00:40:06] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Right. Well, I think with anything, anything, whether it's, you know, food or exercise, uh, anything that you have just too, too much of is probably not a, a great thing.

[00:40:21] Right. And so, technology has been wonderful, but also it has to be used in, in the right way. And I think this younger generation they've grown up with a, a phone right in their hand. And so they've just been sort of programmed. And also, I, I think, you know, the algorithm in some social media, has been showing that it also can keep you extremely.

[00:40:47] Engaged, which could, you know, then bring into addiction the other day. I gotta tell you, I saw this, and I'm sure you have seen this so many times, and even your listeners have seen this. I was at a restaurant and I literally saw a family of five

[00:41:03] and there were three

[00:41:03] children

[00:41:04] and a, a, a mother and a father, and all of 'em were on their phones.

[00:41:10] All of them were on their phones. Not connecting with one another at all in any way. And taking that time to be sort of grateful and living in the moment and feeling connected to our family, which is so important. that was not the case at all. I, I was just, it's, it's when you look at that and you just say it's really troublesome and it's sad.

[00:41:33] Marc Beckman: So, so your recent visit to Capitol Hill was really way more important. It wasn't just a publicity stunt or, or a press tour. I mean, I read, I read today somewhere that I was kind of surprised to see this actually, but I read that Congressman McCarthy, someone you met with, has the highest favorable rating.

[00:41:53] Um, it was a rasmus in poll, the highest favorable rating out of all Congress people. and I'm curious, when you met with him, what topics did you cover? Can you share that with us? And, and, um, how did he react and is there a call to action?

[00:42:08] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah. I, I was so pleasantly surprised at how the mayors, um, how receptive they were to mayors. And he was great. He actually said, Hey, I wanna work with mayors. We, we'd like to get something done. Remember, he represents California, they have a massive crisis there. So he seems to be, you know, very connected.

[00:42:31] What's, you know, happening. so I think that that is really good. And he was very receptive to working with mayors and said, please follow up. And so that's why we're looking at that bill from Senator Catherine Cortez Mastro from my state to, once we see it and the mayors, um, can sign off and say, we think that this is going in the right direction, then we will take that and continue to say, please, let's make this about people and not party.

[00:43:01] And I, I just, I was really impressed with his level of concern and I think. because being from California and there is it, the problem there is so severe that I'm sure that he has a level of awareness.

[00:43:17] Marc Beckman: are the mayors asking for more funding? What is it specifically that you're trying to get from the federal government?

[00:43:25] Mayor Hillary Schieve: So not necessarily more funding, it's actually the way that it's allocated. So typically the federal government will take it right to, um, the states and then the states are so disconnected of what's happening every single day in politics and every single day on our streets. And it's just sort of the system that's been set up.

[00:43:48] And then in my state, the legislature meets every two years. So that's also, um, very problematic. So it kind of, the allocation. Usually goes to states and counties and the cities never see it where the resources are so desperately needed. So we talk about allocation that is going to be critical, and then working, um, you know, some legislation to work directly with counties and cities because typically counties have the health and human services side of addressing that.

[00:44:22] And then you typically see cities building the housing, but that's great. You can build housing, but if you don't have the services that need to go with it for people to be successful in housing, then there's a, a very, very big disconnect. So that money, quite honestly needs to be allocated right directly, to cities because mayors are very used to, doing things.

[00:44:45] so quickly that, I mean, we don't have a, we don't have the option to just sit on it. These are people's lives that we deal with every single day. And for example, what you just talked about, the Caress Act dollars, which I was able to leverage to get memberships for Talkspace. That was a perfect example.

[00:45:04] That's where money was coming directly to cities, and that's where we can act

[00:45:09] Marc Beckman: the federal government.

[00:45:11] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Right. And

[00:45:12] we

[00:45:12] Marc Beckman: So there's precedent.

[00:45:13] Mayor Hillary Schieve: that.

[00:45:14] Right.

[00:45:15] Marc Beckman: so so is that issue, you mentioned meeting with the Senate Majority Leader. So it's, um, people are taking it serious and obviously the Senate majority leader is my senator here in New York. And it's interesting because he lives in my hometown of New York City where we have so many issues that you highlighted today as it relates to homelessness, drug use on the streets, mental illnesses, ubiquitous in New York City.

[00:45:42] he lives here in New York City. So I'm curious, was he particularly receptive to, um, these ideas? Did he understand as a New Yorker how important it is, to have immediate impact like this?

[00:45:55] Mayor Hillary Schieve: You know, I, I don't know. 'cause we didn't get into, the level of issues that we need to have. Um, he was on a very tight timeframe, so it was a very quick meeting. I would ask that, you know, people from your city, your state, start asking the tough questions. Do they understand?

[00:46:16] and also are they really, are they living here? Are they living in Washington? Like, where are they really living? Because sometimes I think they also forget to breathe the air. Not saying it's him per se, I'm saying that people in Congress, they forget to breathe the air that they represent and that can be very problematic.

[00:46:37] So I know that he has been helpful in the past with a lot of initiatives in cities and with mayors. So I can't really speak to, you know, our meeting with Schumer is very, very quick. But the good news is, is that he does have a track record of working well with cities and mayors, and that is important.

[00:46:55] Pelosi has a great record of working with mayors. I don't ever

[00:46:59] Marc Beckman: You met with Pelosi too,

[00:47:01] Mayor Hillary Schieve:

[00:47:01] she was wonderful and gave us a lot of time, but I don't ever remember a time where she has ever declined a meeting, um, with, with any mayor.

[00:47:09] She has been, had an open door, to mayors, quite regularly, to be honest with you.

[00:47:15] Marc Beckman: Do you think cities are like reaching this, this tipping point where political affiliations might not matter anymore? Like it's interesting here in New York City, mayor Adams has been very vocal about the fact that perhaps the New York City, um, Resources can no longer handle our asylum seekers' needs.

[00:47:36] Um, we have as a city allowed for, we've welcomed honestly almost a hundred thousand asylum seekers since last spring. just this weekend in a hundred degree, degree weather. Many of them were forced to sleep on the streets of Manhattan outside the Roosevelt Hotel because there's no more housing. And Mayor Adams is, asking the federal government to come now, including the president.

[00:48:02] He's calling on them to come to New York City and see what the issue is looking for help on to, to, you know, really see what's going on here. Do you think, and obviously Adams is, is a Democrat, do you think perhaps, we've reached the tipping point. We have to put politics aside so that we could be hands on and effective as a, as a nation.

[00:48:22] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah, 100%. But unfortunately that's not what, what's happening. You've seen that situation be incredibly political and I think Mayor Adams is right saying, I need everyone to get. Here to, you know, I, in my city, they need to come and see it firsthand, right? So he's really sounding the alarm and he, he is not wrong.

[00:48:46] but then you also have the other side that anytime you do one, one thing, then you're completely criticized on both sides. So it makes it really difficult to get something done and something passed. That's what's really tragic about it. it's easy to be a, you know, a Monday morning quarterback all the time when you're on the other side of the aisle.

[00:49:08] And that's where, you know, I, we just need more nonpartisans to get elected, I think. I don't know. But it becomes, like you said, this political football that is failing, humanity. And that's what's, it's so, it's so sad.

[00:49:25] Marc Beckman: do you feel like our politicians, particularly in the bigger cities where we see a lot of these problems, are just reluctant to be innovative and try new ideas? And we're almost in like this vicious cycle. We, we bring new politicians in to find new ideas. They don't try anything new.

[00:49:43] I think we're seeing this in Chicago right now with gun violence, for example, where they voted the old mayor out, they brought in this new mayor, and gun violence might even be higher now. So is what, what's the problem? Like why, why aren't people voting for fresh ideas and, and newness and, and why won't these politicians enact innovative ideas when the same things have been failing?

[00:50:05] It sounds like for

[00:50:07] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Mm-hmm.

[00:50:07] Marc Beckman: now.

[00:50:08] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah, I think it's just sort of the cycle of politics, which is really unfortunate. And then I would also say this like change takes a lot of time. And I just don't think that, you know, you put one person in there and they're going to change it. And that, that's the other thing is the process is very, very broken.

[00:50:27] Like, let's say for me, a lot of people might think, and it, it, there's different structures in different cities. So I, I can't really speak to every city, but I can tell you there is a, a level of, of this structure where, the mayor doesn't have executive power, right? You have to go out there and get four votes, um, often.

[00:50:48] And so if, if you don't have enough votes to get it passed, it's, it can be very, very hard to do something. So then let's say you have Democrats that sit on your body and you have Republicans that sit on your body and they're at, at end, uh, you know, at odds. That can be very challenging to get something done.

[00:51:06] So sometimes when you think you elect someone, people might not understand that, you just don't have the power to change something. And that's really challenging. Now, governors, you know, they have that executive power, so they're a little bit different in the structure and which politics, um, plays a role.

[00:51:24] So it just all depends. And I would say that we're dealing with a system that isn't incredibly antiquated. you know, look at people that serve in the federal government. They have been there for years and years. I do believe in, in term limits.

[00:51:38] Marc Beckman: I think I read that 70% of the people serving in our federal government right now are older than 70 years old.

[00:51:48] Mayor Hillary Schieve: yeah, I, I think why is that happening? And, and that would also tell me that's someone that wants to be in politics for a very, very long time. I don't think that's helpful. I think it's stale. I think, you know, let other people get involved, put a different set of eyes on politics and, and solutions. I actually, I, I, I'm a believer in, in term limits for a reason.

[00:52:14] Now I get it. There's some people that have great institutional knowledge and they're, you know, a fighter and they're getting things done. But I just, again, a

[00:52:23] balance of

[00:52:23] Marc Beckman: it, is it the institutional knowledge or is it really the purse strings? Like on the Republican side? the Senate minority leader, um, seems to really have access to raising funds and in turn, I. Maybe even works as a puppeteer to a certain extent because he's really allocating financial resources during the election season towards, um, sitting senators or, or people that he wants to take the seat.

[00:52:49] So is it a money issue, a fundraising issue, or is it really, um, because they're, they're in their heart of hearts. They want to be politicians and do the right thing to help people.

[00:53:00] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, that's another conversation I have to tell you. Like I would say we desperately need election reform. 100%. I mean, it is insane how much money that we raise for elections. Even in my election, I had to raise a half a million dollars. That is outrageous. I've said everyone should get $5,000 and that's it.

[00:53:23] Then you gotta get on the ground and, you know, knock on doors and then look at how much money is raised in these presidential elections. It is insane. I mean, that's where I also look at the rules on the, you know, the people that are in federal office. Like look at the rules and, and address those. I mean, that's problematic whenever, you know, that you can serve that long and the amounts of money that you, um, need to go out there and raise, election reform, honestly, it is so overdue.

[00:53:54] It's, it's actually gross.

[00:53:56] Marc Beckman: With the federal election coming up in, in 2024, there are a lot of different issues, and it seems like right now, unemployment is low, but the cost of living because of inflation is ridiculously high for the basics, right? For food, for gasoline. I see. The gas prices in some areas are going up again.

[00:54:16] In California it's above right. You know, your neighbor, it's above $5. so I'm curious, do you think the, the public is more concerned about issues like mental health or are they more concerned about their bank account?

[00:54:28] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, I think it de depends, but I think a lot of people are struggling. I think a lot of people, they're, they're struggling on both sides. Uh, think about that financially. If you're struggling and you're trying to put food on your table for your family and, you know, Work can be such a grind. I mean, as Americans, I think we like work, work, work, work, work like it, you know, it's just not healthy mentally.

[00:54:56] And especially again, if you're struggling financially to put food on the table for, you know, the people that you have to provide for, then your mental health can come into play and those things, right? So it's all sort of like encompassing, but also, you know, we've seen where wages have stayed, relatively low and that has been problematic for people to be able to afford and, and provide.

[00:55:20] And then, there's the people that I talk about this a lot, that show up for us every single day. And here they are, like at this poverty level, and they would never qualify for a subsidy, but they would never even qualify for a mortgage, right? And, I would say we're becoming where we have the haves and have nots.

[00:55:37] These, you know, it's these two

[00:55:39] extremes.

[00:55:40] Marc Beckman: class,

[00:55:41] Mayor Hillary Schieve: That's right. And it, it's these two, two extremes that I think are incredibly concerning.

[00:55:47] Marc Beckman: Well, you've done something innovative also, with regards to tech and job growth in your market. Um, with Elon Musk, I, I know that there's a huge, project, if you want to call it a project, the Tesla Gigafactory, which is, is massive. It's a lithium ion battery factory, which supplies battery packs for all Teslas.

[00:56:09] I think you already have about 10 thou 10,000 or so jobs there. But it's interesting because apparently the factory is poised upon completion to have the biggest footprint of all factories in the world, right? In Reno. So it's pretty amazing that you're focused on, you know, social issues like mental health, wellness, drug addiction, homelessness, but also bringing jobs to the area.

[00:56:34] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, economic vitality is so important for a city, obviously on, on every level, and we want to attract and maintain people here. That's why it's important to have great jobs. And I I also think what, what it's really done for us is other cities have said, Hey, what's happening in Reno? And. Have said, you know, let's go check it out.

[00:57:01] So it kind of had what we call the Tesla effect, where other companies have said, you know, there's a great tax structure, um, climate. We also, we do have a, a very good, I, I think, um, a, a actually a pretty good political climate. Um, even though we, we, you and I have kind of gotten into the issues, but Nevada's a smaller state, so you have a lot of accessibility, to, you know, things that you need when it comes to economic development, or certainly like my office, I, you know, anyone reaches out through, uh, economic development and goed through the state.

[00:57:38] I'm always available because I wanna attract and maintain great quality jobs for the people that live here with, with high paying. Opportunities. And that's something we also shifted from too. When Tesla came in. We had a lot of people in the space that said, not just jobs, but we have to have high paying jobs so that people can maintain a great quality of life.

[00:58:02] And you see in other cities, especially in California, where their police officers, their teachers are living outside their cities. That doesn't make any sense to me. I want to attract and maintain the people that work here and make our city run every single day and make it thrive. So we've also tried to focus on, um, much higher, um, wage opportunities for residents.

[00:58:25] Marc Beckman: What about, um, the rebranding that Elon Musk is going through? I gotta ask you with regards to Twitter becoming X, have you been paying attention to that at all?

[00:58:34] Mayor Hillary Schieve: That's so funny you mentioned that, mark. 'cause I was thinking about that today. 'cause I, I looked at my phone last night and you know, the ex was on there. I, I think I'm missing my bird.

[00:58:45] Marc Beckman: Same thing that happened

[00:58:46] to me too.

[00:58:47] Mayor Hillary Schieve: feel like I'm missing my bird.

[00:58:49] Marc Beckman: Yeah.

[00:58:50] Mayor Hillary Schieve: it felt, the bird felt maybe a little bit more natural and, you know, 'cause you're, you're the guru at branding and, and I think you're so, off the hook, talented.

[00:59:01] So, you know, I think the bird felt a little more natural. The X feels a little bit more like, stop. I don't know.

[00:59:10] Marc Beckman: Well, I think it's gonna be interesting what he's doing as it relates to moving revenues, um, directly to the user versus the traditional advertising model. so we'll see. And maybe there's a way for Reno to capitalize on those types of, of, um, opportunities as well.

[00:59:29] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah.

[00:59:30] Marc Beckman: it could be interesting to see

[00:59:32] Um,

[00:59:32] Mayor Hillary Schieve: happens moving forward.

[00:59:34] Marc Beckman: I'm curious, why is the topic of mental health so critical for you as president now and, what would you like to see? Like, how could you measure success as it relates to that? Like

[00:59:49] Mayor Hillary Schieve: well for me it's personal because it's something that was in my family my whole life that we never talked about. It was the, you know, dark secret, you know, with the stigma that was happening, and I think this is happening to so many families, but we haven't been talking about it.

[01:00:09] 'cause the stigma has been so great. But I, I lost my sister a couple of years ago to, to breast cancer and she had stage one breast cancer, so she never, ever should have died from breast cancer. But what happened was, um, you know, she was getting treatment. She had a double mastectomy and. She became incredibly depressed and she had already struggled with a lot of depression in her life, but she had been managing it really well after a lot of, you know, that's a whole other thing that you go through.

[01:00:44] Anyone that knows it, you know, anything about depression, it's hard to, that's a tough one to struggle with. But after she had the double mastectomy, she became incredibly depressed, paralyzing depression, and we didn't know it. And I actually had a friend reach out to me, that knew she wasn't, continuing on with chemotherapy.

[01:01:06] And she said, I'm very worried about your sister. 'cause she hasn't been going. So she had been lying to us. And I called her and I said, what is going on? I'm so concerned. And she just broke down. And she said, Hilary, I've been so paralyzed by my depression. I would much rather have cancer than depression any day.

[01:01:24] And so I brought her to my house 'cause I said, I need to take care of you. I will make sure you get to your appointments. I will do everything in my power, to make sure that we're fighting this. And I had taken her to the doctor. We had some tests done and they told me that she only had three months to live.

[01:01:42] It was literally too late. She died three months later after I brought her home and started taking care of her. so, you know, it's very, very personal, obviously. And then, uh, about six weeks later, my brother, you know, he had struggled with drug use on and off his whole life. And we went to check on him 'cause he had a lot of grief and devastation from my sister's death.

[01:02:09] 'cause they were very, very, very close. And he, um, did not answer the door. And when we went in to find him, he was, he was dead. And so that kind of, you know, that was a lot to handle, a lot of

[01:02:24] grief and death in a short period of time. And then Grady, my sister's, um, fiance, they'd been together for 12 years and he'd been sober for 15 years.

[01:02:35] So they were really, really good together. And he, had called me several times. We had many conversations and he said he was really struggling with her death. And, you know, he felt like a piece of him had just been missing. And I could tell he was starting to drink again and was, I was becoming very concerned.

[01:02:56] And one night he called me and he said, I really, really need help. And I said, okay, I need you to meet me at, um, the behavioral health hospital. Let's get you some help. And he never showed up. And the next day, um, I sent some police over there to do a welfare check and they found him dead. So it was a lot of.

[01:03:17] You know, this happening at once, but, you know, and I watched for years, my family struggle with, you know, my sister trying to figure out what medications are going to work. Um, she had tried to commit suicide a few times, and so I just think it's something that, like I said, I struggled with on so many levels in my family watching this sort of happen, and I've been super blessed and fortunate that, I, you know, I don't suffer from any of those things and so I can't change it for them, but I can change it for others moving forward.

[01:03:52] But we also see it, you know, every single day now on our streets. And again, the stigma has really paralyzed us from talking about it. But I think there's a lot of families that are suffering in silence out there that shouldn't have to. And I kept trying to keep it very quiet, obviously. 'cause my life is very public and I didn't want anyone to know, 'cause I didn't want anyone to think, you know, that I wasn't capable of doing this job.

[01:04:17] But now I've, I've found a different way of looking at it. And also, I didn't wanna ever shame them or, make them feel ashamed of their life, because my life was so public. So I tried to hide a lot of their struggles as well. But, you know, now I, I feel so compelled because I've had so much thought on this.

[01:04:39] And like I said, watching people die on our streets from mental illness because they're not getting the treatment. That they so desperately need or, uh, you know, addiction and recovery treatment. It was very, very hard to find services for my brother. Matter of fact, I always say this, I shouldn't have to have my loved ones arrested to get them help for mental health.

[01:05:01] That is just insane and that's what so many families are resorting to, which quite honestly is a recipe for disaster when you have to send in your police departments instead of pian, you know, physicians and clinicians to deal with a health crisis. It's the only health crisis that we send in police officers to, or, you know, that is, that's totally unacceptable.

[01:05:26] Marc Beckman: It's, um, such a poignant story. Thank you so much for sharing it and being, um, so open. It seems like we're, we rely too much, maybe it's even called the system because of this, but the system has lost, um, the personal human touch, compassion and empathy and, um, you know, really it's humanity and love that we're, we're missing and, and how do we bring that as people to the streets?

[01:05:59] It doesn't sound like the government alone is suited or equipped with, enough personnel and resources, financial, um, budgets, et cetera. It seems like we really need to, um, change as a society and find a way to, um, just be more human

[01:06:19] right.

[01:06:20] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah, I think you're totally right and government isn't gonna have all the answers. There's a lot of things government does not do well, so we need to bring in the people. Like we were talking about, you know, the experts, earlier when we were talking about technology and innovation, and that's where we need to continue to open our doors in government to listen to the experts, to listen to the clinicians that are working in this space, to listen to the people that it's affecting every day and suffering from anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia.

[01:06:53] You know, like you've gotta have everyone at the table. And I also think there's some great foundations out there doing some really important work. So I think to your point, mark, you, you just made such a great point. It has to be probably a whole country's approach, not just a, a government approach.

[01:07:12] 'cause again, I, I struggle with having government be the solution. cause there's a lot that we don't do well. But I think it's gotta be a whole country's compassionate approach. But I also come from tough, tough love. I also have to, you know, address that because I also think, you know, if you're gonna continue to be destructive and, you know, shooting up on our streets, it's unacceptable.

[01:07:38] I'm sorry, not here. People need to also live amongst each other in our cities and, and be awarded the same, you know, safety and. Vibrancy. Right. And so I, I just have a very, very tough time with it. But I, I come from a very, um, personal experience.

[01:07:59] Marc Beckman: Well, there are some, some places right now including New York areas, cities in California that are, um, really almost enabling. You can argue for drug use. Um, you talk about needles and all, um, there are places right here in New York City, uh, it's common for me to see, um, where there are like safe areas to shoot up and collect needles and, and use drugs.

[01:08:25] And I wonder if, um, we've gone a little bit too far with that type of a thing.

[01:08:30] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah. I think we have

[01:08:32] to give them treat.

[01:08:34] Marc Beckman: crazy?

[01:08:35] Mayor Hillary Schieve: I, to me, I think it's crazy. That's just where I come from. I think it's crazy. I think, you know what we shouldn't be saying, Hey, here, if you wanna shoot up, you can go do it. There. I don't think that that is, is acceptable. 'cause then I think we're saying it's just okay to do drugs.

[01:08:52] That's fine. Just keep doing

[01:08:53] drugs.

[01:08:53] No,

[01:08:54] Marc Beckman: saying that,

[01:08:55] Mayor Hillary Schieve: yeah,

[01:08:55] we've gotta get

[01:08:56] them into treatment.

[01:08:57] Marc Beckman: City subway that, that provide for that.

[01:09:00] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Yeah. See, I I, to me, I don't, I don't believe in that. I think have, we have, um, probably not enabled my brother's addiction for so long. He would be with us today. I have a really tough time with that thought. What we need is, um, we need access to treatment.

[01:09:19] Treatment. Hey, you're, you're going to treatment. that's what we're, you know, that we should be telling them. But we don't, we don't have enough accessibility. So again, that is troublesome, but we've got to be treating people are sick. I mean, literally sick and dying, and we're doing nothing. I mean, uh, there's a man laying on the street.

[01:09:42] I talk about this story all the time. He's screaming and yelling. We run over, we say, what's wrong with you? And he said, it's, you know, my side hurts. My side hurts. What do we do? We put him in an ambulance. We take him to the er and they say, oh, it's his appendix. What do we do? We operate on him. Great. Good to go.

[01:10:01] Next week, same man lying on the street, screaming and screaming. We say, what's wrong with you? He can't tell you because he's suffering from schizophrenia. You know what we do with that man? We walk right over him. We let him stay there and die. crazy

[01:10:17] Marc Beckman: It really is. It really is. And it's becoming, I think, scarier for on the drug front because there are, you know, fentanyl is, you know, it's like almost instant death. I think I shared with you a personal story my. Cousin died of fentanyl, this, this past Christmas. Um, but now there are new overdoses. 20% of the drug overdoses in New York City are as a result of this thing called tran.

[01:10:47] It's, it's, um, Xylazine, I think is the name of it, which is, um, not a controlled substance. It's a drug that doesn't work when, um, if it's mixed with fentanyl or cocaine or heroin. Um, Narcan doesn't work to counter effect. Its, its, um, potency and people are just dying all over the place. And now we see these types of drugs, um, entering the cities and, and impacting culture too.

[01:11:12] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Mm-hmm. Exactly. And I'm so sorry for your family's loss. I think most families have experienced,

[01:11:19] some level. It's just, It's

[01:11:22] so tragic. It's so, and not only that, it's not just him. It's everyone else in the family that ends up, it ruins their lives as well.

[01:11:34] You know, you never. you never. move on. I always say, you just move forward.

[01:11:38] Right? Like that kind of pain and grief is so unimaginable. That's another reason we don't wanna talk about it, because people just don't even want to fathom what that feels like, what it looks like in their, in their own surroundings. And that's why it is important to keep talking about it because of that stigma and because of, I think so many people are suffering in silence. /

[01:11:59] Marc Beckman: Hillary. The, um, the US Conference of Mayors was founded by a mayor in Detroit named Frank Murphy, who eventually became a Supreme Court Justice. Incredible story. but

[01:12:12] between Frank Murphy and Hillary Shey, there have only been a few female presidents.

[01:12:20] Mayor Hillary Schieve: mm-hmm.

[01:12:20] Marc Beckman: many were there exactly?

[01:12:22] Mayor Hillary Schieve: There has only been eight female presidents in the 91 year history of the conference of mayors. So we are trying to change that, but we also need more. Females to run for office. So if you have any female listeners, we need you. And, uh, I need future mayors. You are, you're my future.

[01:12:44] Marc Beckman: Maybe, maybe those, um, women can be, can bring the love and compassion that society needs for a lot of the topics that we're touching on.

[01:12:52] Mayor Hillary Schieve: absolutely. And I think the younger generation is doing such a better job of actually talking about mental health and a talk, talking about social issues. If you notice, younger people are, I think, much more engaged than I think, than we were, uh, on that front. I mean, today it's very common to have to, honestly, when I'm speaking to younger folks, like they talk about mental health, I'm really proud of them.

[01:13:23] They're raising that alarm amongst their peers. They're just doing a better job with that, and I think that's going to be helpful in the future, but, We definitely need, uh, more female, future leaders. I think that's important to continue to tell them that they can do anything. It's only about 20% of mayors in the country are female right now, so it tells you.

[01:13:47] And then when you go higher up an office, you know, obviously to Congress and Senate, it's much lower. It's probably, you know, 15, 18% of, women that want to, um, you know, are elected officials. So, I try to do everything I can to encourage, um, you know, these future, future mayors to get ready and run for office.

[01:14:12] Marc Beckman: But what about you? Like this is your last term as mayor. I think what, you have about three years left. Am I

[01:14:18] right? So will you, do you aspire, similar to Frank Murphy who went from his being mayor of Detroit to all the way up to the Supreme Court, do you aspire to, um, higher levels of office to

[01:14:34] Mayor Hillary Schieve: No.

[01:14:35] Marc Beckman: people the right way?

[01:14:36] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Right. I think you can also be incredibly effective outside of office. Sometimes you can be more effective. So I don't think I have to be elected to, get something done or make a difference. So I'm gonna continue to work on mental health initiatives and, entrepreneurial initiative initiatives. As you know, mark, I I love to, I love to do those sort of other things, so I'll help where I possibly can, but I also, I don't have this desire to stay in politics, um, you know, forever.

[01:15:12] I, you know, I really, it was out of my passion for, for my city that I, I got involved and also, Wanting to just see something incredibly different from my city, from what it looked like when I grew up here. And, and I actually think, you know, for me it was about connecting with people. I love being around people and you know, just building a community.

[01:15:38] I think those things are important. So I'm gonna, um, stay very connected to mental health and, uh, to people and not parties. Let's just put it that way.

[01:15:48] Marc Beckman: one thing that's important is like, you're such a remarkable person. You really are. It's incredible what you've done with regards to early on in your life trying to make the o to be an Olympiad ice skater, to creating your own fashion businesses, to becoming the mayor of Reno and being elected now for a third term to driving all the way up to be president of the US Conference of Mayors to tell such like incredible self, you know, stories about your family and, and, um, and everything.

[01:16:17] Like, it's incredible. But something else that's really remarkable is, is another part of your family. Um, your sister donated her kidney to you. You, you're, you're actually walking around with your sister's kidney, and I think a lot of people don't understand what that means. And do you have a minute just to talk about what it's like to be the recipient of an organ?

[01:16:38] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Well, first of all, you're so kind, mark. And also we're friends. So, and I think I walk around with a lot of imposter syndrome. Most of us do. Right. I, I'm just very honest about that. Um, so your, your words are very, very kind. But yeah,

[01:16:55] I mean, I was, I was very, very well thank you. Um, but I, I was very, very fortunate.

[01:17:02] I, um, came down with Glomerin nephritis and for those, um, listening that don't know what that is, it's continual scarring of the kidneys. And oftentimes it can actually happen from a strep throat infection. And so, and how many of us have had strep throat? A lot of us. Um, but probably people don't realize, uh, how severe it can be.

[01:17:23] Well, it happened to attack my kidneys and, um, put me into kidney failure. And this is at, at a time whenever I was, um, Figure skating for, you know, a career. And, um, it, you know, stopped my skating career because I became so sick and the doctors told me that I would need a kidney transplant. And so that completely changed the trajectory of my life.

[01:17:50] And probably, you know, how I look at life, I always say, some people complain about being in traffic. I am just happy to be in traffic, right? So you learn a new found appreciation because when your life is so focused on, you know, training as athletes and your focus is just on, you know, winning, um, more gold medals and hopefully one day you make it to the Olympics and when all that changes, um, I think you just, you you think differently and you think, why me?

[01:18:20] And you go through all of that. But for me, I've just looked at it like, what a gift that I've received from my sister. 'cause she said to me, Hillary, I remember when I told her she was a match that um, her antigen match was enough to give me a kidney. she said, Hilary, I am so grateful that I can do this for you because this is not cancer.

[01:18:45] This is something that I can give you a, a cure too. And so I thought that was incredibly, um, just compassionate and thoughtful and just, yeah, she's a wonderful sister. I'm super, super lucky that, um, she has given me such a gift. So also that's another aspect of my life where I've spent time being an activist for organ donation and how important it is to talk about organ donation.

[01:19:14] A lot of people don't do that again. Uh, you know, people don't like to talk about death and the things that are, um, you know, uh, Uncomfortable conversations. So I would say that if there's another thing that I could tell your listeners, talk about organ donation with your family, because it's not the medical, person that you're going to deal with that actually can give that permission.

[01:19:38] It's got to come from a family member. So all I would say is talk about that with your family, if you would, would like to be an organ donor. And I think what better thing could we do in life by giving the gift of life to someone else when ours ends? Quite honestly, whether it's your eyes or your skin, by the way.

[01:19:59] 'cause people don't realize, you know, your skin is your largest organ and skin is important too, but your eyes and your corneas, I mean, that was the one thing I was so, so grateful that in the end of my sister's life we were able to donate her corneas. And so it gives me. Just such great comfort to know that someone else is getting the gift of sight, um, through, through her circumstance.

[01:20:26] Marc Beckman: Amazing. Well, thank you again so much for being so generous with your time and so sincere. I only wish you the best of luck with everything.

[01:20:36] Mayor Hillary Schieve: Oh, well thank you Mark. Thank you so much. It has truly been my pleasure to be with you and it's always wonderful to see you. And like I said, I'm very jealous. You have a great tan going and we've gotta see each other soon.

[01:20:51] ​