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Feminists Around the World: Nzambi Matee · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've Never Told you production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome to Feminists around the World, where we celebrate activists, advocates,
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  Speaker 2: all those who are creating differences and making so much change,
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  Speaker 2: and we want to get flowers while they're still with us. Annie,
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  Speaker 2: As in fact, we actually got a shout out from
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  Speaker 2: someone that we may have to come back to and
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: hopefully maybe we can do an interview. I'll tell you
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  Speaker 2: off Mike, but yeah, we got someone who actually caught us.
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  Speaker 2: They're like, I saw my name and I was like.
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  Speaker 3: What, Oh, that's cool.
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  Speaker 2: I meant to tell you this off Mike, but I
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  Speaker 2: just remembered it as we're talking about it. Because that's
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  Speaker 2: one of the things that we want to do is
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  Speaker 2: celebrate who they are and what they've been doing while
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  Speaker 2: they're still with us, and not wait till it's too late.
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  Speaker 2: Ever happened way too much where people do not get
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  Speaker 2: their flowers when they deserve it. We want them to
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  Speaker 2: know we appreciate them. And that's kind of the point
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  Speaker 2: of the segment in itself. And today we are talking
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  Speaker 2: about an amazing activist, an entrepreneur who's been working to
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  Speaker 2: change waste into something sustainable, and that activist and entrepreneur
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  Speaker 2: is in zombie. Mati from Nairobi. Mati is an engineer,
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  Speaker 2: an innovator, and environmentalist and so much more. She has
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  Speaker 2: already accomplished so much within her thirty one years and
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  Speaker 2: continues to change the world with her innovative ideas.
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  Speaker 3: And apparently she's got a lot of them. This is
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  Speaker 3: just one of them.
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  Speaker 2: All the people who know her or have interviewed her
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  Speaker 2: are like, yeah, she's got ideas.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm really excited to find out if there's more
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  Speaker 3: that we see. But yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So. After being trained in engineering in biochemistry, Mati worked
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  Speaker 2: as an engineer in the Kenyan oil industry, but soon
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  Speaker 2: left her job in twenty seventeen to start her new venture.
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  Speaker 2: She told interviewers quote, in twenty seventeen, I decided to
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  Speaker 2: quit my formal job as a data analyst in order
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  Speaker 2: to focus on sustainability and waste management. Using material engineering
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  Speaker 2: and science background, I was like, how can we figure
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  Speaker 2: it out a way to convert this plastic waste into
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  Speaker 2: something useful. It was from here when I decided to
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  Speaker 2: enter building space, because building is a basic human need.
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  Speaker 2: Fast forward. That's how we ended up converting plastic into
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  Speaker 2: building blocks.
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  Speaker 1: And with that she founded the company Jingay Makers, which
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  Speaker 1: has become an innovative solution to the plastic that has
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  Speaker 1: been wasted and no longer in use. From their site
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  Speaker 1: Jingay dot co dotke quote, Jingay constitutes a community focused
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  Speaker 1: enterprise driving to cater to the requisite for sustainable and
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  Speaker 1: economically viable alternative building materials within Kenya and the broader continent.
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  Speaker 1: Our inaugural creations are innovations formulated from recycled plastics utilized
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  Speaker 1: to fabricate plastic paid blocks, plastic paving tiles, and plastic
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  Speaker 1: manhole covers. Our Assembly conceptualize the inception of a plastics
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  Speaker 1: accumulation enterprise which was intended to categorize and vent plastic
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  Speaker 1: waste to other recycling corporations. The realization that we were
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  Speaker 1: amassing waste more rapidly than it could be absorbed by
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  Speaker 1: the recycling entities led to a reevaluation and alteration of
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  Speaker 1: our original concept. Consequently, a resolution was reached to augment
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  Speaker 1: the value of these plastics. Thus the idea to create
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  Speaker 1: alternative construction products was conceived.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it goes on talking about their mission, saying
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  Speaker 2: our mission is to devise innovative solutions for the development
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  Speaker 2: of esthetic, pleasing and sustainable alternative construction products, carrying not
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  Speaker 2: only to Kenya, but also extending our reach across the
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  Speaker 2: African continent. Our objective is the supply sustainable and cost
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  Speaker 2: effective alternative building materials while simultaneously generating employment opportunities for
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  Speaker 2: the youth and women. We are committed to fostering a
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  Speaker 2: culture of cycling and upcycling within Kenya and throughout Africa,
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  Speaker 2: contributing to environmental preservation and stateability. And they explain how
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  Speaker 2: it's done, saying, we accumulate the plastic waste and utilizing
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  Speaker 2: the state of the art technologies, we process it amalgamating
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  Speaker 2: the recycled plastic with sand to formulate a mixture. This
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  Speaker 2: concoction is then molded to fabricate our diverse products. Jinay
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  Speaker 2: Makers has carved a unique position as a pioneering manufacturer
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  Speaker 2: in delivering aesthetically pleasing, economically accessible, and environmentally sustainable alternative
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  Speaker 2: plastic building materials, and.
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  Speaker 1: In different interviews she has explained why she has dedicated
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  Speaker 1: her life to doing this quote, plastic waste is not
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  Speaker 1: just a Kenya problem. But it's a worldwide problem. Here
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  Speaker 1: in Nairobi, we generate about five hundred metric tons of
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  Speaker 1: plastic waste every single day, and only a fraction of
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  Speaker 1: that is recycled. We decided what more can we do
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  Speaker 1: instead of just sitting in the sidelines and complaining. Essentially,
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  Speaker 1: companies have to pay to dispose the waste, so we
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  Speaker 1: solve their problem. That waste essentially comes for free.
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  Speaker 2: And she explains that she feels plastic is misused and misunderstood. Quote,
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  Speaker 2: it is absurd that we still have this problem of
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  Speaker 2: providing decent shelter, a basic human need. Plastic is a
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  Speaker 2: material that is misused and misunderstood. The potential is enormous,
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  Speaker 2: but this afterlife can be disastrous. We thought of this
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  Speaker 2: amazing material, but we didn't think of the repercussions. We
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  Speaker 2: didn't think about the afterlife, especially of single use plastics.
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  Speaker 2: And in twenty twenty, she was named Young Champion of
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  Speaker 2: the Earth Winner at the United Nations Environment Program or
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  Speaker 2: un EP, and she was able to get funding and
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  Speaker 2: mentoring through the program.
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  Speaker 1: And here's a bit from the un EP website about
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  Speaker 1: her work. Quote. Through trial and error, she and her
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  Speaker 1: team learned that some plastics bind together better than others.
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  Speaker 1: Her project was given a boost when Mattee won a
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  Speaker 1: scholarship to attend a social entrepreneurship training program in the
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  Speaker 1: United States of America. With her Pavor samples packed in
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  Speaker 1: her luggage. She used the material labs in the University
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  Speaker 1: of Colorado, Boulder to further test and refine the ratios
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  Speaker 1: of sand to plastic.
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  Speaker 2: Right, and here's a quote from lifegate dot com about
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  Speaker 2: the process of the plastic waste recycling her company does.
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  Speaker 2: Quote in Zombie explains that several stages to Jingay's mechanical
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  Speaker 2: plastic waste recycling. She said, the first stage involves preprocessing,
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  Speaker 2: which includes the sourcing and collection of plastic waste. The
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  Speaker 2: waste is clean, shredded, and separated into different plastic types. Secondly,
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  Speaker 2: the processing stage involves the mixing of waste plastic with
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  Speaker 2: sand and glass. However, it isn't at this process when
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  Speaker 2: they add color in the process. Meanwhile, the final stage
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  Speaker 2: involves a hydraulic press, which includes breaking the mixture into
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  Speaker 2: different shapes and sizes depending on whatever block you're making.
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  Speaker 2: And then the materials are moved to the cooling bath
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  Speaker 2: where they reduce the temperatures to room temperature, and once
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  Speaker 2: the blocks are cool, they are ready to be laid.
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  Speaker 2: And Zombie said the paving blocks are stronger and cheaper
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  Speaker 2: than concrete blocks, and that's what the company specializes in
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  Speaker 2: making high quality sustainable pavers and construction breaks from use plastic.
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  Speaker 1: These bricks, though, were not her original intention. In euronews
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  Speaker 1: dot com, they write quote, creating building blocks out of
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  Speaker 1: plastic wasn't in in Zombie's business plan. She was initially
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  Speaker 1: going to open a plastics collection company that would sort
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  Speaker 1: and sell plastic waste to other recycling companies. How their
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  Speaker 1: in Zombie realized Jingay was collecting waste faster than the
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  Speaker 1: recycling companies could uptake, so she decided to use her
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  Speaker 1: engineering background and pivot to create sustainable, alternative construction products.
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  Speaker 1: Now Jingay has become a trailblazer in the industry and
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  Speaker 1: her work is reaching beyond just the sustainability part. From
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  Speaker 1: lifegate dot com article, they quote Matie saying our company
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  Speaker 1: employees marginalized individuals, especially women in youth. Jingay Makers is
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  Speaker 1: empowering communities and offering hope for a better future. This
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  Speaker 1: combination of environmental and social sustainability makes Jingay Makers stand
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  Speaker 1: out as a true pioneer in the world of social entrepreneurship.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, she has become an inspiration for so many and
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  Speaker 2: as of twenty twenty three, her company has done so
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  Speaker 2: well that the demand is exceeding the supply and according
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  Speaker 2: to that eunews dot com, their work keeps expanding and
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  Speaker 2: helping so many quote. Jingay also plans to help the
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  Speaker 2: community by promoting upcycling, recycling culture and providing jobs for
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  Speaker 2: young people across the African continent. I'm happy to say
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  Speaker 2: we have one hundred and twenty three families benefiting from
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  Speaker 2: this process, and Zombie says. Looking long term, the young
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  Speaker 2: entrepreneur plans to use her skills to train the next generation.
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  Speaker 2: She hopes this kind of recycling, turning plastic waste into
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  Speaker 2: viral resources is a model every country will eventually adopt.
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  Speaker 2: And honestly, I was looking at their site.
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  Speaker 3: They look good. I want some of those.
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  Speaker 2: I want some of those who put into my property
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  Speaker 2: because they look like nice and they've done a really
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  Speaker 2: great job. Of course, this is just one of the
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  Speaker 2: things that she is doing and she's being recognized for.
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  Speaker 2: Her award came in twenty twenty I can't imagine that's
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  Speaker 2: the last award, but I haven't found anything else. I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure we'll be hearing more about the company what they're doing.
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  Speaker 3: I hope we do.
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  Speaker 2: I hope becomes global because it needs to be accessible.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, this is such an important thing and I
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of friends who are involved in stuff
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  Speaker 1: like this, So this is an exciting topic to go over,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm glad people are looking into it because it's yeah,
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  Speaker 1: impacting all of us. Well, if you have any more
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: resources listeners that we could use to come back to
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: this topic or this person, please let us know. If
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: you have any suggestions for this segment, Please let us know.
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  Speaker 1: You can email us at Steffania Momstuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
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• 9:44
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• 9:46
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• 9:50
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