 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Yeah, it's so interesting to talk to Prashant Doshi. We were chatting before the show and now we're on the air, and he is the Chief Evangelist. I'm going to let him explain what that is of Shreem, Shreem LLC. I'm going to let him explain what that is. Welcome back to the show, Doshi. It's so nice to have you here. Wonderful to be here, Jay. Thank you so much. Absolutely. And thank you. Thank you for your support and your philosophical support that you provide to Think Tech. And we need you more. I told you before, you have to come here because Hawaii needs you. Doshi, what do you think? Are you going to come back soon? Well, you had a big influence in a life decision that I made recently. I think I told you about that. You said almost exactly those words a number of months ago, and that fostered the decision that I need to be in Hawaii, this company is based in Hawaii. While it be global in nature, the hub is in Hawaii, and I want to see technology advanced in Hawaii and hope to play a small role in that. Yeah, don't forget. You know, Think Tech is about technology and energy. It's about diversification and in large parts about globalism. And so we see a great role for Hawaii, a global role going forward. We haven't got there yet, but I think we have all the elements. And if you came, you know, you could be the kind of catalyst, you know what I mean? That's what you are. You are a historical catalyst, Doshi. So, you know, there's a calling for you here, you know? And that is amongst one of the words that's been used to describe me. Sharon, one of the better words. I'm not going to ask about the others. So tell me what you're doing these days. You were telling me you were at Yale yesterday-today, talking about, oh gee, very important issues affecting our society. What are you doing at Yale? And why Yale? And don't you know that Yale is an inherent part of Hawaii because the missionaries all came from Yale. You know, that you just informed me about that. That's great to know. I was actually at seven universities in the last few days and all around New England. You know, as I think you might know, I'm from MIT, but that's the one university I didn't visit. I went to a bunch of them. And really trying to understand a number of things, what's going on in terms of the latest in terms of research and technology that can be applied to a variety of social problems around the world. As you know, mental health is a big issue. It's in suicide being one of its worst outcomes. It's something we're going to be working on. And I wanted to survey what the latest thought processes are amongst the universities and the approaches that are going on. What are you saying? Well, you know, I'll tell you-let me step back a second, right? You know, I think we were talking a little bit about the context of what's going on in the world. And let's just take America for a second. I don't think I've ever seen this country in my 44 years on this planet as divided as it currently is. We have, you know, major issues, the appointment of a Supreme Court judge, for instance, just being the most recent iteration of the nasty divide between two political parties. In fact, Jay, I got to tell you, I don't know anyone that's, you know, intelligent that actually can be represented well by either party. Most people are a mix of views that come from both sides. Yet we take these hard lines and waste our time and a lot of money and energy in focusing on the next election instead of focusing on things that actually matter. You know, climate change is a big one. In Hawaii, I think we have a real appreciation for that, not so much anymore, particularly in Washington, D.C. There was a great study that came out of the MIT Media Lab recently that said climate change is correlated with a poorer mental health. And, you know, that was a big surprise to me. If you think about it, and they talked about warming weather and the effects that it has on people and the degradation in mental health, and we're headed in one direction, warmer weather, so we can also predict that we're going to have further degradation in mental health. So I think, you know, that's one of the things that I recently learned about. Yeah, there's all these negative things happening, and I'm developing my own theory about this, is that if all these negative things are happening, all around you, and every way you look, it's negative and threatening, it begins to affect your state of mind. I mean, and it should. And when it affects your state of mind over a period of time, it erodes your good nature, it erodes your positive thoughts about it. It gives you mental health issues, is what I'm saying. And I think that's happening in this country. Undoubtedly, there was another study. I can't remember. I think it may have been out of a U.K. university. The Guardian had published it that said, watching the news is one of the greatest causes of stress in people's lives. There you go. No, I'm being very serious because of the things that we see. Of course, not quality programming like think tech Hawaii, which of course, you know. No, but this is, you know, it's a time where we're not focusing a lot on the core issues. You know, California right now has nearly 50% of the homeless population in the country, and there's no sign of abatement. We have, you know, the division between the rich and the poor is increasing. The digital divide is separating people left and right. Here we are, we can pontificate about things like blockchain or cryptocurrency, and we have people who don't have access to basic computer literacy in this country. We're not talking about a third world country. We're talking about our United States of America. And so, you know, I think it's high time as a country that we put aside a lot of our partisan views and approaches and get back to business. In the meantime, one of the areas you want to look at is China. Now take, you know, the advantage of not having a democratic society, one of the few advantages of being a totalitarian society, is that you can get things done. China is moving so far ahead so quickly in quantum computing and AI and blockchain. The number of patents and intellectual property pieces that are coming out of China far exceed what's happening in the U.S. The Chinese premier recognizes that there is a race for blockchain around the world. They look at blockchain as Internet 3.0, and most of our politicians couldn't even tell you what the heck blockchain is, and don't even know that there is actually a race. So... Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm with you now completely, and I see the U.S. as backing off a leadership role, which includes technology. And if you back off and isolate yourself, then all kinds of negative things happen. We haven't even started talking about, you know, the human flow. Remember that movie, Ai Wei Wei? Movie, 60 million people are in camps in this world right now, and there's no future for them. There's no plan, there's no hope. It's like the homeless in California. And you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, not even close. How are we ever going to resolve these things? That's my question. Well, you know, and just so it doesn't seem as if I'm beating up in my home country, the U.S., the U.K. is doing no better, right? If you look at... On any given day, can you decide, you know, whether you're in or you're out? Is Brexit occurring? Is it not occurring? Yeah. The confusion that's led by this division around the world between nationalism, things like nationalism and globalism, left and right, Democrat or Republican, Tory or liberal, these are divides that are separating us from our inherent humanity, which that context needs to exist if we're going to then solve problems and use things like technology to solve real-world problems and innovate, as we, you know, obviously continue to need to do. And that's where you come to you, because you're a technology person, because you're an entrepreneur and innovator, and because I know you have a larger plan, and to the extent you'd like to let us in on it, I wonder if you could tell us how you're organizing yourself to deal with these problems, because it's not only making money, it's preserving the world that we have grown accustomed to. Well, first of all, that's a great question that you asked. You know, I think I mentioned this on your last show. Our first story is the operating philosophy of Shreem, our company. We're putting, in addition to directly using technology to apply to social problems, we're donating 11% of our net profit back to the communities or the governments or the jurisdictions from which we make money. So that's our contribution. I think the CSR requirement in India, for example, is 2%. We're at 11%. So that's a statement that we're making. And in fact, and I won't mention the CEOs of some of the top three, now you probably know, top three to five large tech companies in the world that have personally, you know, reprimanded and chided over email and not taking leadership in, you know, technology is, if you operate a technology business well, it generally is going to operate at a higher margin than a bricks and mortar business. And that to me means you have an opportunity and a responsibility to give back, to use whether, you know, you're using employees time to contribute to these things or you're giving back a percentage of profit or whatever those mechanisms are. There are bricks and mortar companies, companies like Starbucks that are doing incredible things. Did you know, I don't know if you know this, Jay, if you're a barista or, you know, you're working in a Starbucks, you can get an online degree from Arizona State University paid for by Starbucks and the Howard Schultz Foundation. That's leadership. You know, that's taking a real stand. And what you're doing is leadership. I mean, I'm comparing it against a great piece I saw yesterday on PBS called The American Experience and it was the transcontinental railroad which was built largely with Chinese labor in the 1860s through 1869 when they drove the Golden Spike at Promontory Point. And of course, immediately after that the Grateful Nation sent them all back to China with the Chinese Exclusion Act. But beyond that though, what happened in the transcontinental railway was everybody was for himself and the amount of scoundrels who put that thing together, it was incredible and the amount of graft and corruption was incredible. That can't happen now. Thanks to people like you, you know, who do impact investing and who call CEOs up and try to straighten them out, we will have a better world. We just need more people like you, Doshi, that's all. You know, I do appreciate and thank you so much for your compliments but I think, you know, it's awareness, right? It's a consciousness. I think this is one of the huge strengths of Hawaii. When you're in Hawaii, you can't partly due to the isolation, one of the most geographically isolated places in the world, but also because of the confluence of cultures. We have, you know, the spirit of what has been brought forward by the native Hawaiian folks to the islands, combined with people from both east and west. It's a confluence of all these cultures and mix of ideas and quite literally living on an island that forces people to work together in ways that you rarely see in other parts of the world. So, even though you may be liberal or conservative or whatever it is that you are, there's a commonality that I believe is pervasive in Hawaii that you don't see in other places. And I think that approach, that context is one of the key things that is needed. You know, right now in Silicon Valley, I joke about this with a lot of folks, is how do you make a billion dollar company very easily? You go to Silicon Valley, you lose a lot of money and you tell your friends on Sand Hill to fund it. That's the way to make a lot. There you go. There is the essential recipe. Meanwhile, there, you know, technology, I think we talked about this last time as well, technology is something that can be developed anywhere. Innovation is occurring everywhere. And I think, you know, I personally believe because of the high cost of living. There are a lot of folks, you know, I had two friends of mine. They're married couple. One of them is working at a top law firm. The other guy won't mention the name of the company, but also working at a top tech company called me. They're combined making about, I don't know, three, four hundred thousand dollars and are not able to afford a home in Silicon Valley. Can you believe that? So when you take those top earners and they're calling me to say, hey, you have some extra consulting work or things we can do because, you know, we can't make it happen here. That's terrible. What is that, Jay? What does that say for the teacher, the fireman, you know, all the people that are needed as part of the, you know, socio-economic spectrum? Well, they're in trouble. They're in trouble. And as with the other threads we've identified here, they're going to be in greater trouble. So somebody has to look out for them. The same notion that Kagan wrote about in his book about the jungle grows back dealing with, you know, isolationism and its effects on the world also applies in this country. We have to take care of each other. We have to see everybody is our brother. We have to be a national gathering, all trying to take care of each other. And if we take that mindset, as you do, you know, then maybe it'll be better. We can deal with these threads and turn them into positive. Well, one of the other things, Jay, I want to speak to is something I'm very passionate about is I spoke in between since our last, you know, TV show that we had. I was in Monaco. There was a family office summit under Prince Albert II there. And I had the opportunity to speak. And the last statement that I made was the greatest thing that we could do as a humanity, as a culture, as a group of people on this planet to advance ourselves is to put, enable and power and put women in positions of power and influence in every field possible, whether that's politics, whether that's business, what have you. Now, this isn't just something that I believe in from a sort of philosophical point of view. We have an imbalance of yin and yang on the planet. We have an imbalance between the masculine and feminine principle. Now, let me give you some business thoughts. Studies have shown that a, an enterprise, a new business that has at least one woman co-founder performs 20% better than an all-male team. So there you have it. These are the hard facts that suggest that we need more women. And what do we have happening right now? I dare to say, you know, in this country it seems like to get elected to some position you have to have had on your tracker some abuse of the feminine principle. Oh, that's sad. No, I mean, it's quite surprising to me that we're not more, you know, vigilant about these things. But what can we do in our own field in business and in tech is get more women across the world into STEM and put them in positions of influence. Let's, you know, eliminate this glass ceiling of earnings and what kinds of roles women can be involved in because they completely, we need that balanced approach. It's part of a social quotient, I think. That's Prashant Doshi. He is the chief evangelist and you can see what I mean and what he means by chief evangelist of Shreem LLC, an impact investment organization. And we can take a short break. When we come back, we're going to talk about this inspirational trip to Jerusalem and Israel. We're going to find out why and what he saw and what he learned and what he wants to tell us about that. We'll be right back with Prashant Doshi. This is Think Tech Hawaii, Raising Public Awareness. When I was growing up, I was among the one in six American kids who struggled with hunger. But with the power of breakfast, the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more. Go to hungryis.org to find out what happened for kids in your neighborhood. It's what I can play, so any chance you play at all. You know, that's my life. I love music. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner. Inviting you to come visit with us on Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000-year odyssey where we explore and examine the plant that the muse has given us. And stay with us as we explore all of the facets of this planet on Wednesdays at noon. Please join us. Aloha. I went to school at NYU Law School and going back to Manhattan is such a trip for me. It's not just a nostalgia. It's seeing all these luscious apple-type things that are in Manhattan. It takes me back and it takes me to another level. But speaking of travel, Doshi, Israel is such a hot button these days and you decide you want to go there. Why did you want to go there? What was the cause? You know, I think you may know this, but I was present during 9-11 in New York City and I ended up running a part of the disaster relief efforts for the city, one of the two disaster relief centers. It was one of the most powerful times in my life. It took a tragedy, a crisis, and something bigger than what's happened in our history to enable us to collaborate in ways that I've not seen before. We saw, you know, people from all the variety of government agencies, nonprofits, private sector, you know, humanitarians, volunteers coming together in a way that was simply beautiful. It was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I've been away from New York for about 16, 17 years and I came back finally to New York. I'm here for the entire fall and it was, of course, during the anniversary of 9-11. And about a few weeks before 9-11, I felt very I was on the Upper East Side and I felt very inspired that I should go to Jerusalem. It was about three in the morning, you know, I'm up before three every morning and go take a walk to go see what's going on and I thought I needed to go to Jerusalem and I walked to the end of the block and I was on Jerusalem Street. So I said, okay, there it is. I need to go to Jerusalem. Let me just stop you there and say, I mean, some of the best ideas come to us when we're by ourselves and we're just ruminating about our lives and our place in the firmament. And there it is, there's the idea. And those are the ideas you have to act on. Those are the ideas that make for a really rich, nourishing life and I will remember this story, Doshi. So I went and, of course, this year it wasn't only 9-11, but it was the time of Rosh Hashanah. So this was my first trip to Israel and, of course, I didn't know what to expect but I had images in my mind of what Jerusalem might be and it was quite different than what I had been expecting. I mean, Jerusalem is incredibly, I thought this was going to be just all history and all very sacred and sanctimonious and what have you and it's a real city and it's a real place. I mean, there are real things going on. There are people at cafes and bars and living regularly. People are very similar everywhere and I went to the, I had the great opportunity of staying right outside of the old city and I went through the old city several times, different times of the day and spent a couple of times at the wall and that was one of the most one of the most powerful experiences of my life, deeply transformative. I had a set of inspirations that came from that experience and I don't think it will ever leave me. Can you talk about it in greater detail, please? Sure can. So, you know, one of the things that led up to was actually traversing the different parts of the old city. So I don't know if people know but there's a, you know, there's a Jewish quarter, there's a Christian quarter, there's a Muslim quarter and Armenian quarter as well. And, you know, most people don't traverse between the different sectors. But they're all within, you know, striking, I mean literally within, you know, a couple hundred meters of each other. And I went, of course, you know, through I guess I can sort of blend in with whatever group and went through all the different sectors of the old city and it was a very powerful experience and what I saw more than the differences were the commonality. Now, of course, you know, there are different socioeconomic segments throughout that city. But the commonalities are what strike you. There are people that are, you know, vending, they're selling their goods and where's people eating, people going to prayer, people going to school and doing their things, kids playing, you know, football or soccer wherever they are. And it was, you know, within this little space you know, less than a mile, the microcosm became the macrocosm. And so the experience with the wall, Jay, one of the things I'll tell you is I was originally planning to go to the Temple Mount. And of course, there are certain times that I can and I've been to mosques around the world. And after being at the wall a couple of times, I could not go to the Temple Mount. Why not? Well, I learned that the Temple Mount was the Jewish faith or Christian faith or basically anyone else to go up there, the Al Aqsa Mosque of course is up there, to go and pray their own prayer, pray their own faith. And that to me is the symbol of what's wrong with our world today. You have, I mean, it's an enormous complex up there. There's space quite literally for everyone. And I really do understand what the people of the Jewish faith or Christian faith and others are yearning for is a return to the Temple Mount. Let's put aside what structure is up there, but the fact that people can go up there of any faith, of all faiths around the world and do what they need to do and that they can't. That is the microcosm of the macrocosm. So I too said that I'm not going to go up there until everyone is allowed up there. And whether that happens in my life we Indians do believe that in reincarnation, if I have to come back I'll come back and I'll wait. So part of what I saw there is if we could solve, and by the way it's under Jordanian control and I officially tell the Jordanian government right now it's kind of time to step up to the plate here and open it up. They can change it in a stroke of a pen, yeah. They absolutely could. And I'm not taking sides here. I mean they're a complex set of issues there, but that Temple Mount really does symbolize everyone, Palestinians Jewish people Christian people, anyway, Hindus, Jains, whomever, everyone should be allowed up there because it's a glorious place that's important to people throughout the world. And so I see that microcosm being the macrocosm. If we can solve it there, frankly I believe that we can solve it everywhere. Were you afraid at all people, there is terrorism in Israel? It's on the streets. Sometimes people are attacked for no reason. Did you feel that, see that? Did you have any fear over it? Jay, I gotta tell you there are neighborhoods around this country that scare me a lot more than that. Thank you for that. And Jay, I make it a point to go through them because I'm up at 3 or 4 and I'm looking for what's happening from a social point of view and you find out what's really happening Picasso painted a picture I just saw her painting at Yale, it's there it's a cafe nuit, what happens at night in the cafe. And what you learn at night, at 2am, 3am you don't learn in any other part of the day. So no, I was not. I felt very inspired and I'm one of those people who believes when it's my time it's my time anyway. But I will say that I was actually quite impressed with how easy it was to get around Jerusalem and how comfortable, I mean it was like being in any other European city. So you know as you walk out of the old city and you're hanging out and you're going around I mean there were people right after Rosh Hashanah there were people parting their butts off until like 4 in the morning I was like wow this is very I mean it's a thriving city and there's a lot of great stuff happening there. I find that so interesting. The Israelis they somehow deal with the risk of losing their country, losing their lives and some sort of horrible attack and they party and they live normal lives and they're regular citizens all of them. Quite remarkable. And then a few miles away on the border you find these keepered seam where people live underground to avoid the regular shells and rockets and all that. So it's really dichotomy, it's a contradiction of sorts to see the parties in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Yeah, no, no you're absolutely right. I mean I think one of the things is that we as humanity kind of want to reach some sort of equilibrium on the day to day basis. You can't live in extreme fear and then still operate your regular day to day life in that way. One of the things I found was amazing is that I think people really identify themselves as Israelis. So you can have people from Palestinian or Jewish background that are friends that are going out that are doing the things that people do across the world. I think we have a very different view and I sort of discredit our press in America with painting pictures that really are not real. I would encourage anyone in any part of the world to make a visit to Jerusalem. I mean I think it's one of the places in the world that one should make a visit and I believe it's there are many buses and tour groups from literally around the world. There were women wearing their saris walking around. I mean it was just, it was impressive and I think the Israeli Defense Forces which consists of people from everywhere again do a brilliant job of making sure things are okay. You can't control everything but to the best possible. So I think it's absolutely worth a visit and definitely inspirational. I'm always impressed with the citizen quality of the army and you'll be riding a bus and there'll be a guy sitting right next to you holding a rifle and he'll be like 17 or 18 years old like you could pinch his cheeks he's a sweet young man and there he is holding the rifle on the bus with everybody. It's a disconnect. And well it happens in Paris too. You know, land in the Paris airport and if you can get your luggage on time and you get out there to the metro stop there are people walking around with rifles there too. So where will we live in? So what did you learn about how the Israelis and I know there are many constituencies in Israel but how do the Israelis feel about the US? How do they feel about Trump? How do they feel about the current isolationist policy? How do they feel about the capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem? Yeah, it's a very complex set of issues and I certainly don't want to claim to represent all Israelis but of the many conversations that I did have I will tell you I think first of all again I want to reiterate that I think they identify themselves as Israelis and so are able to get along in a way that might really surprise us here in the US. I think they get along better than a lot of our Democrats and Republicans do in D.C. So let's start there. I think they are quite one of the things is you would be surprised at how much better information people get from their press overseas than we do in the US. So whether it's the BBC or Al Jazeera the average Israeli is more about what's happening in American politics than the average American. Now think about it this makes some sense from the following which is they have to keep up on what's going on because they're under constant threat of some sort anyway. So they need to know which way the prevailing winds are going. But I was impressed at how educated folks were there. That's the impression that I was left worried about what's going on in America and I think there's a real concern about this divide that we have in America and how that might precipitate into what happens there. Yes. That is certainly I can imagine how that works because we're their protector in so many ways and if we can't function if we have a divide that threatens them for sure. Because we're almost out of time Doshi. So there you are walking on the east side of Manhattan at three o'clock in the morning and having this epiphany about going to Israel. You go to Israel during the high holidays which is really a wonderful time to go since the essence of the place you come back and I just want to know you're a guy who moves so fast who's doing so many things 200 miles an hour to just have an effect on you. Are you changed now? I want to know how you're changed Doshi by the trip you made as a result of your epiphany at three o'clock in the morning. You know, I really appreciate that question. First of all, I think about Jerusalem every day. So that time at the walk and walking around and seeing all the people and experiencing something different than I expected to change on me. Because we probably don't have enough time to discuss some of the insights that I further had we'll save that for another time but how I have been changed is I decided to focus even further. That I saw the importance the interconnectedness of all things and how critical it is not to work on so many things but to distill down a couple of things and make a much deeper impact in them. So that trip to Jerusalem not only is something spiritually hard but is changing the way is affecting the way that I approach the context of my entire life and what are some of the major topics or issues that I'm going to work on to try to make a difference in and to inspire other people to do so. And I will leave with this behavioral and mental health is absolutely one of them. Because I see it I was back at I was in Amherst this past weekend and was watching Anthony Bourdain and it brought tears to my eyes because he was one of the most intelligent kind of wonderful shows that I loved watching his take on the world. And of course he committed suicide. And so I think behavioral health is becoming an increasing problem in Hawaii with the native Hawaiian population, particularly the males with lack of hope and economic opportunity. So I think it's that's one of the definitive areas where we're going to bring high levels of technologies, everything from AI, AR and other technologies to bear and how can we use them to positively impact the area of behavioral and mental health. I'll leave you with that. I'll leave you with the notion that we have had a number of mental health shows here on Think Tech. Hope you get a chance to listen to them. Also I want to say it's so nice to know you, Noshi. It's really wonderful and I hope we get to talk like this before you actually physically return to Hawaii so we can explore more of these issues. That's Prashant Doshi. He's the chief evangelist of Shreem LLC and we are happy to know him. Thank you, Doshi. Hello.