 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Aloha and welcome to Hawaii together. I'm Kili Akina, and although I'm a trustee in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and President of the Grassroot Institute, the comments you hear from me and my guest today are ours exclusively alone in our private capacities, and that's going to make for a very interesting conversation. I am delighted today to be able to talk with my dear friend J. Fidel about the genius of Think Tech. It really is a genius thing. Think Tech exists in a space called Hawaii where there's very little civil discourse taking place around many, many issues, and Think Tech is there, it's independent, it brings parties from all viewpoints together, and it lets viewers understand issues with depth that is usually not there and with clarity that is rare. And I'm delighted to have the founder and president of Think Tech with me today because we're going to get behind the scenes and really understand what's going on at Think Tech. Please welcome to the show, his show, J. Fidel. Thank you, Kili. J, always good to chat with you. Thanks for having me on your show, Kili. I'm delighted, delighted. It's just great to reflect back on our friendship that has grown over these few years that I've been involved in Think Tech as a volunteer. I can't think of another place that allows us to get into the issues the way we do here. Congratulations on what you're doing. Thank you for that. Yeah. Just some quick things right at the outset. How many hours of original content does Think Tech produce every week from these studios here in Honolulu? Six shows a day, half an hour a show. That's pretty good. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, but that's 30 half hour shows every week. That's incredible. And what you've done is empowered various hosts to put on their own show. You give them a studio, you give them a set up, you give them publicity, give them a technical crew, and they come and bring interesting guests and content every week. How many of these shows are there every week? Roughly, well. Or all together, how many shows? All together there are 50 shows. I made a list for you. 50 shows. I'm not going to repeat the list now, but here's the list. Give us a sample if it's so many than some of your hosts. More Across the Sea, Mark Schluft, it's about legal things, about Asia. Making leadership work, we just did one last hour with Michael Troy, who is a senior in the Marriott organization in Waikiki. That was quite interesting. So you've got law, you've got business? We have one called Opera in Hawaii. We cover opera. There are three operas. How about the arts? Who does that for you? I host it. I host some of these. Shrink Rap is about mental health with Steve Katz. Talk story with your friend, John Wahey. He comes around. That's great. Don't remember Governor Wahey. John, he doesn't always agree with you, but it's great to have the two of you. And that's one of the great things about ThinkTech. You hear from me my views on politics and the economy and so forth. You bring other people on to refute me. That's wonderful. And that means that you truly are independent. Yeah, and I really like the idea of offering a platform to people to come and express themselves and them bringing guests to express themselves. The whole thing is sort of citizen journalism. You mentioned Governor John Wahey and if you're listening now, aloha, Governor John. But that brings up a very interesting point. I don't know of another platform that hosts such diversity on ideas concerning the Hawaiian movement. You've got my program and I've been involved in the Hawaiian movement very prominently. You've got Governor John Wahey who's had different views for mine. And you've also got another program about calling, I think it's entitled, Hawaii is my mainland. Mainland, two words, mainland. And that's the perspective of a younger native Hawaiian. And so how do you do this? How do you bring together and give equal opportunity to different points of view? That's a really good question. It just happens. It happens. People approach us. We approach them. We see what they read and think and write and we want them to express themselves here. And it all comes together somehow and we have a waiting list, you know, of a lot of people who would like to be on our system. You must have a certain conviction or sense of what the public really wants to hear. I guess we must. You know, first, are you, am I interested, is Carol Manly interested, is our staff interested in hearing, you know, this person speak and bring guests in. Is this topic a topic that fits, you know, in our view of what the public wants? And ultimately, it does reflect that view, it does, it does, it says a broad-based kind of discussion, a full-fledged conversation from one side of the, you know, table to the other about what issues are pending in this community. So it's worked out pretty well. If you ask me specifically, you know, what our original strategy was to bring all these people in, well, it just happened. Well, as you're going down the list of shows that you have, it demonstrates the breadth of coverage you get here. Everything from politics to law to the arts to technology. You want more, I can read all the 50 names. Sure, we have to do some of the regional issues you deal with. Asia in review. We talk about things going on in Asia and China. That's a fascinating program. Asia Pacific Business Strategies, book worlds with a real publisher, editor person, Roger Jelenick. I love that people watch television to talk about books. Yeah. Really? But how else would you learn from the author what went through his mind to write the books? Great stuff. We have Business in Hawaii with a Reg Baker, an accountant. We have a lot of shows about energy, four or five of them. And they keep on evolving and the whole energy community really comes through this system and they express themselves about what's going on. We had Eleanor Schema on the show a couple of weeks ago. How about that? And by the way, at our Christmas gathering on December 7th, Connie Lau is going to be speaking. How do you like that? December 7th, 2017. Yeah. I hope you'll be there. President, CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries. And I intend to be there. I look forward to that. Yeah. You're going to do an oldie for us, as I remember. Well, I certainly am glad to be part of the program, but what is even more exciting is the room will be filled with hosts of ThinkTech, some guests of ThinkTech, sponsors and other community members who support the ThinkTech movement. Yes. And I have to tell you that based upon previous parties when you brought people together, there's a certain electricity. We come together for the entertainment. We come together for the food. We come together for the booze. We come together for all of these fun things and the holiday season, no less. But there's this real excitement to talk about ideas and some of the shows that have taken place during the year and some of the conversations that have gone beyond the studio. Yes. That's what I see ThinkTech doing, bringing a community together that discusses issues. Yes. And they have all kinds of different views and they know a lot of people in the community. You know, it's like representative government in reverse, you know, it's like you reach out and they come in and now we hear from the people about all kinds of things. So the result is the conversation is very rich and the production values are better and better. So it's really like TV. Well, I have to tell you, when newcomers come to Hawaii, I frequently invite them to peruse the offerings of ThinkTech. I don't think there's a faster way to get to know what people here in Hawaii are thinking, what movers and shakers are thinking, what issues matter and what sides are actually speaking out on various issues. Yes. Here's some more. Hawaii in uniform, we have a couple of military shows, I think that's such a large military and military retired population. That's important. Yes. Very important. We have Stan, the energy man, I mentioned we have a lot of energy shows. We have the Prince of Investment. It's about investing for everyone. Everyone should do some investing. Let's see. A condo insider, did I mention that one? It's about condominiums. There's all kinds of wrinkles about condominiums and people don't know about condominiums. Well, they should give us an inside view of a condominium board meeting. They do. That's great to hear. They do on a regular basis. I mean, what's happening is we're reaching out and every show has an arc, but a lot of these have been around for a long time. You've been around ThinkTech for a long time and some of the others too. I've been around ThinkTech since it was radio. That's true. That's true. We were broadcasting in dual modes, radio and video at the same time for a while. That's something. Certainly, there's a lot of entertainment on ThinkTech. It's fun to watch the conversations. It's interesting to look at the diversity of topics and so forth. But more than that, there's education. If somebody wants to understand the issues, ThinkTech is the place to come, would you? More and more, we've been thinking about that. But it's a question of immediacy too. I mean, back when we would have these shows called something like Speaking Chinese 101, and that's education. But that's really not what we're about. We're about what's happening in China right now and all the cultural changes that are happening there and the business changes, the commercial changes, gee, what's going on with social media. And that, to me, is more important than having some kind of classical study. Well, your content is immediate. It's spontaneous. It's what's right on the hearts and in the minds of the experts. And the reason it's that way is because you don't take time to edit. It's live. That's the thing. With bloopers as well. Have you ever put together a blooper's reel? We could. You know, once in a while, I didn't mention, but we have another show which goes on OC16. And it's a very important show for us. We're doing episode 345 now to do the math. This is a weekly show. It plays every day and it refreshes once a week with a new show. It's like the moving company. And we go hither and yon, including the Neighbor Islands. We love to cover the Neighbor Islands. We've had three, four visits to Neighbor Islands to cover events and, you know, facilities on the Neighbor Islands in the past few weeks. Certainly. And lest our viewers think that this is just an infomercial or a love fest between Jaffe and me, which it is, of course, because I truly hope you'll support Think Tech. Let's talk a little bit about what's really going on in Hawaii. In terms of journalism, what's the context? Why is it necessary to have this independent forum, this media? Because we've got a lot of journalism. We've got lots of television programs, lots of magazines, and we've got lots of, I'm sorry, I've got one newspaper, but anyway, what is the need for something that plays some role in the world of journalism? Well, it's such an important question, really. I mean, we really have had enough of car accidents, crimes, weather and sports. Well, I watch that at five o'clock every night. Yeah. And that's not what it's about. It's about adult education. It's about integrating with the community and learning what's going on around you. It's about taking positions on important issues, participating in the social and civic fabric of the state. And recognizing what's going on in the country and overseas, it's really important that people become aware. So we're offering public awareness, and we're trying to raise public awareness and a platform where people can come and participate in a discussion to raise public awareness. So why is that important? Because Hawaii needs to be aware. We're 2,500 miles from the nearest land. We could easily become a backwater any day, and we will become a backwater if we don't stay aware. So we want everyone to know what's going on about everything, and we want Hawaii to be a place of excellence and awareness. One of the ways you bring that about is through discussion, conversation. But it's talk. What's the value of talk today? I'm going to throw you this challenging question here. What Think Tech puts on maybe 30 hours of talk. Is that an old fashioned medium? Not at all. Our talk goes by video. Our talk goes on YouTube. Our talk goes on Peg Media and Mainland. Our talk goes on OC16. Our talk goes on iTunes as podcasts. Our talk is all around the place. Would you rather sit in the corner and read a book, honestly? You want to learn things, see people engage, see them bounce off each other, see them share their thoughts. That'll teach you stuff a lot faster, honestly. We're going to go to a break, but you've got 60 seconds in which to look at the camera and tell them something exciting about it, the way they can support Think Tech Hawaii now before the end of the year. Yeah, we're having a program called Give Thanks for Think Tech. And we're trying to get our hosts and guests to go out into the community to do outreach and provide some funding for us because we're a nonprofit. We're a 501C3 non-profit, been that way since 2001. And we could use additional money for our operations or our equipment for our trips to the neighbor islands, which you consider very important. So if you want to help us out, even a little is okay. You can go to our website, thinktechawaii.com and right there at the top, it'll direct you to our funding fundraiser program. Give thanks for Think Tech through the month of November. It's only for the month of November, so we hope you'll come around, make a contribution. $20 is fine, $100 is better, and $10 million is even better. Absolutely. But try to help us out. Well, we'll be back right after this break. My guest today is Jay Fidel, the founder and president of Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Kayleigh Eakina. You're watching Hawaii Together with Kayleigh Eakina. We'll be right back after this short break. Aloha. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Aloha, I'm Winston Welch, volunteer host of Out and About on Think Tech Hawaii. But Think Tech is important to me and our community because it's a forum where we can discuss issues, topics, people, events, and organizations that are important to us here in the state, in our city, in our nation, in our world. We've got a lot of interesting great guests here, and this is the place where you can come and see them. For the first time, Think Tech Hawaii is participating in an online web-based fundraising campaign to raise at least $40,000. Give thanks to Think Tech is what we're calling it, and we're running it only during the month of November. And you, of course, are integral to this in helping out. Please donate what you can so that Think Tech Hawaii can continue to raise public awareness and promote civic engagement through three programming like mine. I've already made my donation and look forward to yours. Please send your tax-deductible contribution by going to the website thanksforthinktech.causevox.com. On behalf of the community enriched by Think Tech Hawaii's 30 plus weekly shows, mahalo for your generosity. Welcome back to Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Keeley Akina. I call my show Hawaii Together because I truly believe that apart from each other and in opposition to each other, there's very little that we can do. But together, there's nothing we can't do. And that's the future of Hawaii for those of us who will work together. And that's something we do on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. My guest today, Jay Fidel, is a convener. I like that word convener because he convenes people, ideas, context, and resources such as the technology with which to broadcast the conversation between all of these people. So the great convener is here with us today, the founder and president of Think Tech Hawaii. Jay, welcome back. Thank you. We've had some really great conversations together on there and off there. No boundaries. It's all fair game. All kinds of stuff. Yeah, everything that happens in this community is all fair game. That's to take positions and even argue the points. And we need to do that because we each have to establish our own position on these things so we can vote intelligently and speak in public and take positions with others. What are some of the interesting conversations that have taken place on the platform of Think Tech? Sure, we talked about all the hot button issues in the state. Rail, of course. Rail, of course. Many, many guests on rail from all sides of it. Here, you've exposed the costs of rail, the flaws in the accounting, the weaseling, if there has been any. See how carefully I said that. Thank you for that. But I mean, we'll cover it. And everybody can speak about it. And some people really hate it. Other people, you know, they defend it and feel that it's necessary in the long term. There are all kinds of issues, financial issues around. Such as the unfunded liabilities of our state. That has been a topic that has received a lot of attention here. Yeah, I mean, and we've got to cover that. Because ultimately that could bring us down if we don't watch out for that. I mean, it's gotten worse in our time. So we have to talk about the infrastructure. We have to talk about the schools. We have to talk about public health. We have to talk about what I call insular drift. The islands drifting away from each other. Having separate personas where they don't want to talk about, talk to anybody else from another island, you know. We've got to get back together as a state, like it was way back when. There are also some. The super ferry. Oh, yes. We've talked a lot about the super ferry. And I don't understand why we don't have one, actually. But there you go. So these are the kinds of things. You know what it is? You've got to remember what happens. I mean, the core of public awareness is to remember what happened. The worst thing is to have to relive history, you know. That's right. And you've talked a lot about things that others would consider sacred cows. I remember long before I was elected a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, talk about what was going on at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs took place here. And you allowed my program to come on. You brought on Governor John Waihei and others. And you know, it's not everywhere. You can gingerly deal with topics that tend to be very, very hot and too hot to handle elsewhere. No, I don't think anything is too hot to handle. I mean, TMT, we've got to talk about TMT. It's what's happened. It's not just that TMT has been blocked. It's the whole undermining of progress involved in TMT. And we'll talk about that again, because it'll probably happen again. But the idea is to simply stand by and let these things happen, things that are really unconscionable. Isn't fair to the future. It isn't fair to our children. It isn't fair to where Hawaii has to go to avoid being a backwater. These are critical issues. Homelessness is another one. Oh, gee whiz. No solution yet. No solution yet. A lot of talk, but no solution. So we're trying to find it. We're trying to find out how people feel. Not about the problem so much as about the solution. How do you get there? How do you pay the price? Because nobody wants to pay the price. We talk about taxes. You know, the funny thing is these issues are the same kinds of issues that you talk about that you write about. So I think we're on the same path, actually, with you, Colleen. I think you're talking about my work with the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. And I've been glad, in that capacity, to cosponsor functions. We've done some live events. And Think Tech has done some very interesting live events with panels that brought people together with a broad variety of views. You know, they often say in journalism, the medium is the message. The medium is the message. Which is interesting, because some media don't get it. Because they look exactly the same as they looked 25 years ago. They might be brighter. They might be distributed a little more smartly and so forth. But Think Tech has constantly evolved. It's evolved so much so that I can't even imagine what it might evolve into. What do you have in mind when you think of the evolution of Think Tech? Right now, currently, Think Tech is broadcast through live streaming broadcasts on the internet across the world. It's made in a studio that allows quick access to new information and ideas. It also is broadcast on cable channels and so forth. What do you expect in the future? More of the same, much more of the same. We talked about how there's 30 half hour shows here every week. I'd like to make that much more like to double that. We have a 24 hour stream where we broadcast our earliest shows all night long and on the weekends. I'd like to have more live late at night and early in the morning, as well as a 24 hour stream overnight. I'd like to have more outreach, more travel to the neighbor islands. My concern is we have to talk with them. We have to find out what's going on. We have to be together with them and more outreach to the mainland and to Asia and everywhere in the world. We have Skype. We had a Skype show two weeks ago with a young student in college, he was studying business in college in Varanasi, India, near the Nepalese border, a few hundred kilometers from the Nepalese border. And it was like he was here in the studio. We can outreach with our equipment, both our Skype equipment and our live camera equipment, anywhere in the state, anywhere in the world. I don't want to do more of that outreach. I want to have our respondents everywhere. And you've allowed our program to do live broadcasting from China, from Mexico, from Europe, and so forth. And the key thing about all of this is that it's with accessible technology. iPhones, Skype, notepads, and your broadcast studio. But your broadcast studio here, as we sit and our audience can't really see all of the equipment right now, is really quite impressive. It's incredible in terms of the amount of investment that has gone into the studio. Talk to me a little bit about the nuts and bolts. What does it take to keep this operation running? Think Tecawaii, is it bankrolled by a billionaire who wanted to get into journalism? We have underwriters who regularly support us every year with underwriting contributions, which we greatly appreciate. There's a number of them. They are listed on our website. They're our friends for which we are eternally grateful because they keep us going, keep us alive, help us operate. And of course, other people give us money. For example, in the Thanks for Think Tec fundraising campaign right now on Causevox, is where it is, causevox.com. So that's how we operate. And over the years, we've accumulated a lot of equipment, a number of cameras, which we need, the furniture of a studio. We have all the lighting. We have some switching equipment that allows us to create these videos and do a pretty good job on color and sound. And we have our external equipment where we can go and do live streaming from the field. But you know what? With a point I would make in response to that question is you find that equipment is important. But you reach a point where you realize that you have to use the equipment most efficiently. So we have a great staff. They're very competent. They know how to do that. And we are developing software. You know, you look around the studio and see the equipment, what you don't see is the software. That's right. And you're constantly innovating, but you talk about equipment and say that it's not the equipment, it's the people. That's what makes Think Tec work. What are some of the opportunities for our viewers if they should want to get involved with the excitement of Think Tec on a personal level? I know one of them, and why don't you start with this one, is to become a host. And I think there's a waiting list, isn't there? It's gone from your begging people to come on board and be involved to now they beg you to come on board. I commend you. I mean, that's a great evolution. Well, we entertain any reasonable request. We got to put it on the calendar or find a place for it. We used to have our shows once a week. Now we have each show usually starts off every two weeks. And we're always open for that. And we would like to expand our coverage, expand the expertise that we have here. So yeah, they can come around. Also, we love to have kids. We love to have students come as guests and also as interns. And we'll teach them everything. We have effectively a syllabus of things to teach them. We don't hold back. We teach them everything we do. Well, talk a bit about your internship and your employment opportunities that you have here. Okay, we have eight staff, okay? And they're all part-time, but they work together really well. And we have interns that come during the summer and we really enjoy them. And we'll be going out with another internship program in a couple of months. And if people are interested, they can just get ahold of you at... Yeah, they can get ahold of us. I'm at Jay at Fidel.com. All right, Jay at Fidel.com. Yeah, two Ls. Let's go into the last 45 seconds. Turn to the camera and again, remind people about give thanks for ThinkTech. Okay, well, we work really hard and we have achieved a lot, I think. And we're gonna continue to do that. But in order to do that, in order to do it right, we need to raise money. And so if you wanna help us out, if you believe in what we do, then check out our website, thinktecawai.com. And on there in the top, there's a link to our CauseVox page where you can make a contribution on thanks for ThinkTech. And I hope that some people do that. Even a small gift is appreciated. We want to have a lot of support from the community. We want to be connected to the community. Well, you are, and you do have that support. Jay, thank you so much for starting ThinkTech Hawaii and keeping it going. And thanks to Carol Mun Lee, your partner in ThinkTech as well. My guest today, Jay Fiedel, president and founder of ThinkTech Hawaii. You're watching Kauai Together with Kaylee Eakina. Until next time, aloha.