"(Our Radio Covers) Rural Conversations With National Reach," with Jared Ewy, on Storytelling, Human Connections, Caring for Others, and Making Better Conversations.

Jared Ewy: [00:00:00] Yes. Oh, here we go. It says, and we're

Zhou Fang: transcribing. Here we go. It, yeah, it's recording. Um, hello everyone. Welcome back to the Intersection, a podcast program about intersectionality and all the stories that come with it. Of course, behind every story, we have a real person and someone has been working on their own journey, and today we are bringing a new story, a new guest.

And I'm particularly thrilled about this conversation today because I've known this person for. Probably 10 years at this point, at least. Um, and we've lost touch over the years because we've all changed works, jobs, et cetera. But, uh, we got back in touch this year because I saw the things he's been doing and I got very excited.

And his name is Jared Iwi. Um, he [00:01:00] is a radio host. And also a comedian at times, I believe, and most importantly, a storyteller. Um, and I want to invite Jared to introduce himself. Welcome Jared.

Jared Ewy: Well, thank you for that introduction. Yeah, I, my name is Jared and you, you nailed the professions. It's been, uh, kind of a, a calling of the herd of things that I do, and I'm 51, so if you're any younger than that out there and you're wondering what you want to do or what are you doing, it's like Joe said, it is a journey and I, I, uh, here I find myself.

As a radio host again, and which I thought was done, but I'm, I'm happy where I'm at. And then like you said, storytelling, it all has come back around full circle. It's like I needed a second take. [00:02:00]

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm. Mm.

Jared Ewy: And here I am.

Zhou Fang: Well, tell us more. What's the second? What do you mean a second take?

Jared Ewy: Well, so. When I was in my twenties, I just randomly fell into radio.

I'd actually, I'd actually, what kind of, what kind of rating is this podcast? Are we G-rated or pg or,

Zhou Fang: uh, it, it's freestyle.

Jared Ewy: It's a freestyle. Okay. Well, lemme just tell you something interesting. So my life turned on an affair I had with a teacher when I was in high school. And so I was gonna go to a business college in Michigan, Hillsdale College.

My very conservative grandmother wanted me to go there and not really having any direction of my own. I thought Perfect. It was a smaller division two school. I was gonna go there, do business school and play football. And then I ended up in this when I was a senior in high school, I ended up in this affair with this my teacher.

[00:03:00] And she, uh. Kind of just changed who I was and wanted me to go to this other school in Durango, Colorado for Lewis College. And so I was like, somehow, somehow the beautiful young teacher, uh, she overwrote my grandmother and I decided to follow her suggestion. And, uh, so I ended up in Durango to play football.

'cause I didn't really know what I wanted to do academically. And I realized what I got there quite quickly. There's a, a lot of advantages to growing up in a small town like I did, but one of the disadvantages is it gives you a false sense of your own skills.

Zhou Fang: Mm.

Jared Ewy: Because I thought I was good at football because like I played a lot, but the truth was they didn't have anyone else.

Mm-hmm. And so imbued with this false confidence, I strode into. Division two NCAA college football and got murdered. I mean, just [00:04:00] you talk about, you know, sometimes you'll say metaphorically, oh, I got beat down at work today. This was a literal physical beating down, albeit necessary so that I didn't wander through life thinking that I was some kind of special physical specimen.

But I did the first year of football and learned quickly that perhaps. You know, starting every game on a football team is less significant when there's only 11 guys that are on the team. Mm-hmm. They just didn't have another option. So then it was good for me and I was about to quit school and, um, and if this becomes not interesting, Joe, just ring a bell or something and, but anyway, so I, um, I'm about to quit school and I call my mom.

I was like, I, I don't know what I'm doing here anymore. And at, she didn't know why I'd gone to Fort Lewis College. She didn't know about the teacher or any of that, but, uh. [00:05:00] So she's like, no, no, I don't want you to quit school. And I was like, what am I supposed to do? And she's like, she loved this show called Northern Exposure, which is still a pretty, it's still in the, in the cultural kid.

And, and she, she goes, there's this DJ in Northern Exposure, his name is Chris. And I always thought you'd be a great dj. And I was like, well, whatever. And I, you know, just said the pleasant thing to my mom and went about class wondering exactly what I was doing. I get into class and on the bulletin board there's this little like hand note like torn out of a notebook and it just says, looking for an intern at KDGO AM 1240, I don't need your gray matter.

I need your work ethic, John. And so I was like, oh, right. I guess I could do that. I mean, compared to getting beaten up by guys twice my size, this sounds pretty easy. Mm-hmm. And so I went down there to this radio station. And he showed me the ropes and how to record things and how to be [00:06:00] on the air. And then he got fired, uh, two months later for doing too much cocaine.

And uh, that was my welcome to the radio world. And then the wildest thing, the guy who came in after, uh. Was desperate for someone to hire and mm-hmm. He assumed that I had more experience and he said, and he, so he hired me and I was like, I, I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm actually scared to turn on the microphone, but again, comparing it to getting my soul throttled by a 245 pound person who was actually gonna football, I was like, I could do this.

And so I, everybody, I just, that became my job all through college and then right outta college, I got hired to do. This is okay. This is where the journey changes. This gets crazy.

Zhou Fang: Okay.

Jared Ewy: Uh, it gets crazier. Joe, do you wanna pause to take a break? Do you have any questions? Do we need to, do you need to get a, some water?

Zhou Fang: No.

Jared Ewy: Okay.

Zhou Fang: Keep going. I want to hear the changes.

Jared Ewy: This gets [00:07:00] crazy. So I, I get hired in a nearby town near Durango. It's Farmington, New Mexico. It's a different state, but it's about an hour away. And it, but it's a different universe altogether. Tarango is kind of this liberal group hug university town Farmington is an oil town.

It is a roughneck oil town. Uh, there's the Navajo reservation is there, there's a, there's a lot of tension between cultures and I'm a, I didn't realize how sheltered I was growing up in a mountain town in northern Colorado.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: So they hire me to do the morning show with another guy. And it's a classic rock station.

So this is music that's been around for a while and their fans are serious. Acolytes of 38, special and bad company, and foreigner, and I don't know these groups. Also, I'm 22 and extremely cocky and people. Hate me. I mean, [00:08:00] they, I've never been, I've never been hated, never, even when guys were, you know, assaulting me on the football field, there was a love, but I, it got so bad that someone, and this is not me casting commentary on anyone's lifestyle, but in 1997 in Farmington, New Mexico, it was a big deal.

The rumor gets around that I'm gay and, uh. At first, I'm like, okay, fine. Uh, because I'd learned a lot in the four years since I've been to college. My freshman roommate, my, my first year he committed suicide. Uh, yeah, because he, he was trying to come outta the closet and didn't know how, and I, it taught me a lot.

I spent some time with what was then just L-G-B-T-Q and, um, no, it was GLBT at the time, and, uh, okay. Learned a lot. 'cause I didn't know. I didn't know what I could have done, you know, and I was pretty wrecked. So [00:09:00] by the time a few years later that all of Farmington, new Mexico's spreading the rumor that I'm gay, I'm not of course bothered by that.

Although the people I work with are worried because it's that kind of, to, to those people, it's a, it's a crime, you know? Mm-hmm. It's, it's, it got so bad. I was at a Walmart. And I was about toce, a fundraiser for children at a Walmart. And you think, okay, this is a safe, warm space where the community will come together.

And I, there's a woman trying to hang a banner and I was like, listen, I'm a little taller. Let me hang that. And so I get up on a ladder, I'm hanging the banner and somebody says, don't fall off Gabo. I guess that's like Rambo, but I don't know. And another woman says. Oh yeah. He said, don't fall off. He lit on that broom game.

And I'm like, okay. And I'm like, geez, Pete people and this elderly woman who could be America's grandmother, whose hobby could be [00:10:00] sewing buttons on the clothing of four children says, oh, well if he does, he'll fall on that broom. And I bet he likes it. Oh my God. And my morning show partner was there and he was like, we need to address this.

Like this is. This is a big problem.

Zhou Fang: Yeah, he's a,

Jared Ewy: so I met with my boss and my morning show partner, and we had to figure out a way that because they liked me, they, they saw potential in me for whatever reason. Uh, and plus I was young and I partied a lot, and I was fun in a dangerous way. And, and, uh, and so, um.

My morning show partner said, you know, you need to start telling stories on the air. Like, I think people need to know who you are. Huh. And there was a couple things going on at the time I was pursuing my now wife, Sarah, and I, I talked to her. I was like, I'm gonna just talk about, [00:11:00] you know, I'm gonna talk about us.

And she's like, okay. You know, don't, don't get me outed in that you're the dangerous, you know, homophobic Farmington community. Um. And, and people started picking up, but there's this turn, there is this turn show that happens accidentally and it changes everything. So I'm trying to rehab. Unfortunately, I, I shouldn't, no one should have to rehab their image for people who are apparently afraid of, of, of gay people.

But I had to, for my job and apparently for my physical wellbeing. End. That's sad, that's sad commentary.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: Uh, but this thing happens where I am, it's, it's the morning and we're giving away tickets to Night Ranger and at, they're, they've been around a long time. They've come to Farmington to do a concert.

So, and let me just do apologize to the world. We're doing a wet t-shirt contest. [00:12:00] For men and women, uh, and how we're doing it is my morning show partners on the roof of the building and we're dropping water balloons on the contestants, uh, therefore revealing whatever the, the moisture may unveil. And my morning show partners on the roof and in radio.

When you're live outside the studio, you have someone in the studio playing music and operating the the board, and you're out there monitoring. So you know when you're supposed to go live to say what's going on. Like, Hey, this is Joe, I'm out here at the car dealership. We have free pizza, whatever. Right?

So on this particular day, my morning show partner's on the roof having a blast dropping water balloons on local citizens, and his monitor stops working so he doesn't know. He doesn't know when I'm about to turn on his microphone.

Zhou Fang: Hmm.

Jared Ewy: And I don't know that he doesn't know this.

Zhou Fang: Hmm.

Jared Ewy: And at the very same time, he's very mad 'cause his monitor's not working, which means he's cussing and [00:13:00] I'm in the studio, unbeknownst to the fact that nothing's working and he doesn't know and he's cussing.

So I get out of a Phil Collin song and I say, Hey, it's Big Dog 96 9 1 0 6 7 Farmington's Classic Rock. Now let's go talk to Todd on the roof as we continue our wet t-shirt contest for the night Ranger tickets. So I turn on his microphone and all I hear is, here's the cussing part. Fucking motherfucker.

Why doesn't this fucking thing work? Now when you get into commercial radio, like that's the golden rule, don't cuss, don't use the cuss words or you'll get fired. And I his cussing, we were the most, we were the number one station in the four corners blasts. For thousands of square miles, like through businesses, into the ears of innocence, into schools like every and JC Petty, the Walmart where I just got gay bashed and I'm like, oh my God.

Like what? What am I gonna do? I turn off his microphone 'cause he still doesn't know what he's just done. I quickly hit a song [00:14:00] and, uh. As the song, there's a thing in radio there, there's the ramp, like the intro to a song. Mm-hmm. And I got my microphone on and I know I have to say something, but I don't know what, and so I don't know what it is.

I say until later and we'll get to that because I go back home to Durango and I'm thinking I'm screwed. Like, you know, somebody probably called my boss. I mean, if these people want, you know, they wanna destroy me 'cause they think I'm gay. Like they, this is the opportunity they needed. So I go home and uh, I see my, of all people, my communications PR professor, Dr.

Jim Meyer from Fort Lewis, and he's like, Jared, that was incredible. And I was like, what was incredible? He goes, we were all listening. We were at the Durango Diner eating breakfast, listening to Big Dog 96 9. And then we hear Todd Cus and we're like, oh my God, what's gonna happen? We're all like leaning in and you, you're, you can we, you can hear your, you breathing and we're all like, oh my God, what's he gonna do?

And I just said, I said. I'm so sorry about breathing heavy right now. I might hyperventilate, I might, might not. [00:15:00] I might go next door to borrow a cold shower at the apartment complex, but whatever happens, I want to thank you for not snitching on whatever happened right now. He goes, that was it, like, that was you, like it was the, it was the you that we all know on the radio.

It wasn't you like trying to be a classic rock dj. It wasn't. And and from there it like turned everything around for me. Like people, it's, it's funny, like if you're trying to do something on social media, if you're trying to get a following. You have to have people, you have to make people care about you.

Mm-hmm. Care about your story. Mm-hmm. In that moment, people, those few people who heard that or whomever, they started to care about me, like there was this vulnerability that made them, uh. Wanna know what would happen next. Mm-hmm. And the next day we got in to the, and there was all these calls and messages.

None, nobody was angry. There was one trucker who thanked us for brightening his day. There was a family like, oh, there's [00:16:00] people in the car, but we know it was an accident and we hope you're there tomorrow. And it showed me like, oh, there's people out there that do care. Like, I gotta focus on those people.

Like those are the people in my head when I'm talking.

Zhou Fang: Yeah.

Jared Ewy: Uh, you know, not worry about the haters. And I turned everything around. Wow. And then from then on, like people would tune in more and more. So just to find out what was the next thing with me, how was it going with my now wife, Sarah? Like what was mm-hmm.

It kicked, it was amazing. It changed everything.

Zhou Fang: You are the OG influencer? Uh,

Jared Ewy: yeah, probably. Hopefully it was a positive influence, but yeah.

Zhou Fang: Wow, that's such an incredible story that, I mean, there are so many things we can comment on, like, you know, the bullying you experienced for no reason at all, like. To, just to think about environment in the nineties is quite different from the, I mean, bullying is everywhere, of course.

Yeah. [00:17:00] Um, but if it sounded very blatant, it's just like out in the public.

Jared Ewy: Yeah. It was weird. I mean, I even came from a very small, very conservative town, uh, and I was shocked by it.

Zhou Fang: Yeah.

Jared Ewy: But it also just goes to show if people, people are afraid of the unknown, people don't like change, and I didn't too young and dumb, but in that position.

When you're introduced to, to a community and they've been used to a certain personality or certain way of, you have to give them the oppor opportunity to get to know you. Now, this is not, not me at all, excusing your behavior. Like it was ridiculous. Mm-hmm.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm. But yeah,

Jared Ewy: certainly was a, it was a long, painful learning process.

Zhou Fang: I mean, a lot about storytelling is the empathy part, right? It's not to justify people's behavior, but at least there is, there could be some explanation behind it. Yeah. And that it gives that story a little bit more kind of humanity.

Jared Ewy: Yeah.

Zhou Fang: Just so that those people are not [00:18:00] necessarily villain, they are not necessarily horrible people.

They did terrible things at the same time. Uh, I think they all deserve humanity and hopefully after the things you've said on the radio and stories you continue to tell, they also perceive you as a human as well. Then perhaps they are behavior towards you. Might also have changed. I don't know that, but I think it's possible.

Jared Ewy: It is true because even people who knew me very well started to avoid me because I would race back from farming to Durango to, because I wanted to hear what people thought about the show.

Zhou Fang: Mm.

Jared Ewy: But they didn't like what they were hearing. It wasn't the person they knew it was me trying to be what I thought they wanted me to be.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: And after I started being more vulnerable and just myself

Zhou Fang: mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: Then they felt more comfortable around this new. Supposedly professional Jared who was making his way in radio right? Instead of like, oh God, I [00:19:00] gotta avoid him. 'cause he is gonna show up and wanna know if that joke, he said during the weather forecast was funny and it wasn't.

And I'm gonna have to figure out a way to tell him it was without, you know, him figuring it out that I didn't think it actually was interesting. But it, yeah, a big change there.

Zhou Fang: Hmm. Yeah, I, it's really like a incredible story just 'cause you mentioned right, when people started to get to know you and when you showed a little vulnerability, even when you didn't know that you did on the radio, people started to change their attitude and behavior towards you.

Yeah. And I, I think that just shows how powerful, um, you know. Uh, an authentic story can do. Plus you said you started to tell your own stories in real life, so that I'm guessing, you know. Before people started to get to know you, you were just a voice behind the microphone.

Jared Ewy: That's

Zhou Fang: right. Like people cannot see you, right?

[00:20:00] Like, who are you? You are a voice. So they don't really see you as a person. So if you are not real, then people can say whatever they want. Yeah. But then over time you become this real person and they're like, oh shit. Like. Real, like he has feelings, you know?

Jared Ewy: Well, and one thing I didn't do, and I didn't really explain this in the beginning, but I was replacing kind of a legacy, uh, legacy DJ who they were used to hearing, and he also knew the music better and respected the community, knew the community more.

I didn't have any of that. And the problem was I didn't take time to realize I didn't have any of that. I mean, it's your classic not understanding what you don't understand. Uh. And I just skated in. Now, it did create for some fun, dangerous situation and uh, you know, the just awesome morning show moments as I fled places for my life.

But that was huge for me. I was like, wait a second. When you go into someone's room, which [00:21:00] effectively I was going into their room as a community, get to know them.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Jared Ewy: Show that you care about their space.

And I gotta say, it's funny, like you and I, we've both been in marketing and, and, and worked together on projects and it was so valuable when I was hired in the domain space@name.com. Mm-hmm. I didn't know much about domain names, but I wasn't concerned about that. 'cause I knew at, from my experience, that one of the more valuable parts of that professional journey was asking people what I should know.

Both online and in real life. Mm-hmm. And even sharing that, you know, I was making videos of like, you know, the new guy learns about domains kind of stuff.

Zhou Fang: Right.

Jared Ewy: Uh, and it, it makes people feel more comfortable.

Zhou Fang: Yeah, I think again, it's the realness, right? It's what we, yeah. We, we, we tend to overuse the word authenticity because [00:22:00] most of us don't really understand what it means.

Mm-hmm. But I think in this case, it does show, like, actually show what authenticity can do.

Jared Ewy: Yeah.

Zhou Fang: Um, like in the, in terms of you can say marketing. Yeah, right. Like, I work for business and yeah, storytelling and just to make connections to people and to build communities. I think that's really powerful. Um, so thank you for that.

And yeah.

Jared Ewy: Well, that was a long one. I'm sorry if anybody's still here. Thank you. Uh, we're, we're gonna send you a, a plant from Joe's house. You'll get a prize. This will in your

Zhou Fang: background. Yeah. I have a nursery.

Jared Ewy: Yeah, you do.

Zhou Fang: Not quite, not quite. Um, but happy to. And maybe, uh, yeah, you might get a

Jared Ewy: clipping. Not a full, you're gonna get a clipping.

Okay. I can't give away all our plants.

Zhou Fang: Um, but, um, so that was the nineties. And then you move on to marketing for different industries. And then I know the last. Few years you continued to, [00:23:00] I don't know, upgrade or evolve. Evolve or revamp your own career and yeah. Now, recently I learned that you, like you said, a full circle or a second take.

Jared Ewy: Yeah.

Zhou Fang: Is that you went back to doing radio. Can you share a little bit like what happened before that? Like what made you decide to go back to radio and tell, tell? 'cause I, I roughly know what your new radio station is about, but I'd like for you to introduce it to the audience.

Jared Ewy: Yeah, certainly. Well, I'll start with what that is and then just kind of that, that cycle that got me back here.

But yeah, so now I'm hosting a show. It's called Yonder Radio, and you can see it@yonderradio.com. It's a podcast and we're syndicating it on stations around the country, but it is a show that, well, as the tagline is Rural Conversations with National Reach, and [00:24:00] this came about, there's probably about three.

Three times I've really gotten a beat down, the football beat down, and then a couple others. And then the, the, the middle beat down led to me proposing this idea to a nonprofit about five years ago. And I just went to him and I said, I see you do news. What this country needs right now is, you know, NPR and is likely gonna get defunded in the next few years, and we need to start creating content.

For everyone. But that talks about rural areas because America is losing its rural areas. Mm-hmm. Uh, they're losing their rural media. They're literally losing critical thinking. You know, people in rural areas like where I grew up, I mean, it's this vast expansive mountains and, and cattle and people just working their butt off and they're just getting what there is being delivered to them news-wise.

And a lot of that now is Facebook and the algorithm churning them in whichever direction. Hmm. I was, you [00:25:00] know, adamant, like with my experience of what stories can do, I pitched to them, we need to be telling their story. We need to make them know that, that we care about them and we wanna share their story.

Well, they said, that's a great idea. We've been thinking about that anyway. And now, five years later, wow. It's finally come to fruition.

Zhou Fang: Wow.

Jared Ewy: And it's, it's amazing, Joe, like I. I've done a lot of stuff just on my, by myself. I'm, you know, a solopreneur kind of guy. Yeah. But I am the host and there are probably 10 different reporters that contribute and there's a producer and an editor.

It's, it's mind blowing. Like I will go to great lengths to maintain, to build and then maintain the success of this show. 'cause I think it's very important and I think it's a good, good program.

Zhou Fang: That's incredible because how, like how many radio stations say in today's environment can still have a full team, not even a full team.

Yeah. Like a three people team, right?

Jared Ewy: Oh yeah. I mean, even in the nineties [00:26:00] they were firing everybody. Uh, you know, I couldn't believe every day when I'd show up that the, the, my key still works. Uh, you know, I had friends that were showing up. You know, number one in Seattle, for example, and they'd show up and they couldn't get in the building anymore.

It was brutal.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: So it is, it really is a unicorn. But also I think it's ironically with all the digital media and AI and a lot of kind of mysterious things that people worry about, this is that salt of the earth.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: Uh, connection that I, that. I think we can provide. That's just what I wanna do.

You know, I just know me as this, like I was a bored country kid. I told my mom, I didn't have any friends. She showed me how to make a sock puppet like I'm someone because of lack of connection. I appreciate it.

Zhou Fang: Hmm. Okay. Because of lack of connection. I appreciate,

Jared Ewy: yeah.

Zhou Fang: I mean. Can you tell us more? Because I feel you are connected to a lot of people.

Jared Ewy: Well, you know, [00:27:00] just growing up it was, we were very isolated. Mm-hmm.

Zhou Fang: And,

Jared Ewy: you know, it was tough. It was, we were in at, lived at 9,000 feet in a wood heated home with no plumbing. And you know, my dad was, he did all he could, but he was also very young and outnumbered and just, we were broke and he was angry and, you know, it was, we, the only business in town was the bar where.

We, we were raised in a bar like I, I, I was, I got served my first beer when I was five. Like what? I, I worked behind the bar as a dishwasher, starting up like when I was seven, and I worked at the Cookhouse Bar in Krill in Gould, Colorado. Which I think is now called the Holland Coyote. But I mean, until I went to Fort Lewis College, so you know, from like six to 18 I was there and I, bringing that back to connection, I was, I was a pretty gregarious young guy, but there was really no one around and.

[00:28:00] That the being at the Cookhouse with all the local rednecks showing up every night to, you know, I realized the importance of connect, the importance of connection. I realized the importance even as a little kid of paying attention to someone's story and how valuable that was. Not just for the moment, but.

For the future of that relationship. I realized my dad, like he would come in after a day, he was a logger and he'd come in and cover with oil and gas and chainsaw. Dustin, he probably lost more money than he'd made and mm-hmm. But he would come, burst in and it was like the Kool-Aid man coming through the wall and that what he could do with, in elevating the room.

I was like, whoa, you got game. Uh. So I think a lot of it comes down to that, just those, it was such a microcosm in, in a vast landscape of loneliness and I got to be there.

Zhou Fang: Wow. Um, that's profound. And I, I gotta say, um, I always thought, you know, I might be the youngest in [00:29:00] my peer group, uh, who got like served.

Alcohol. Like the youngest age? Yeah. I was 14. I was 13.

Jared Ewy: Oh

Zhou Fang: gosh. Um. And then you are like, and I was like, oh, you broke my wreck.

Jared Ewy: Oh my God. Yeah.

Zhou Fang: Um, but of course, okay, disclaimer, we do not encourage underage drinking. Okay. Do not do it. Yeah.

Jared Ewy: Don't, don't we? Yeah. Jean and I already did it, and it, it wasn't great.

Um, we, it seemed cooler than it actually was.

Zhou Fang: Oh, it's not that cool. So kids please do not do underage drinking, but I think the thing that you said, right, like because of lack of connection, you appreciate it. I think a lot of us just don't come to their realization. The more we're isolated, the more isolated we become.

Jared Ewy: Mm-hmm.

Zhou Fang: Because of the. I don't know. Shame or self-awareness [00:30:00] or lack of courage, or fear of rejection, for example. Or people are in their shell for too long and they just give up. I mean, for various reasons, we become extremely isolated and lonely. So I think it's really refreshing to hear you say. Because I know how it feels to not have connection.

I really appreciate it and I really want to create more connection. I think that's really, that's powerful. That's really cool.

Jared Ewy: Yeah, I was really struck too, just by how lonely my mom was. She came from Chicago from a very kind of a, not a very connected family, but a connected social family, uh, that, you know, had done well.

And then she was just alone in the woods. And I did, that really struck me, like I always just wanted her to laugh or. You know, I was always trying to just bring warmth to her existence. And, um, I just, I miss those moments. She died pretty young and

Zhou Fang: mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: And that's just something that's always stuck with me.

Those, those times. And I, you know, [00:31:00] like my sister sent me some video and we grew up in a, it was a very unpredictable household. We did not know when my dad was gonna pop off. We didn't know. It was like everybody just stay on your toes. Mm-hmm. And for whatever reason that. Lend itself to people being very empathetic.

We always are. We feel the saddest person in the room. Mm-hmm. And, and sometimes we spend a lot of energy on people who didn't appreciate it, but we, we care for people. Mm-hmm. And, uh, that has played a role, a big role in my life. And I think in. Success too. Mm-hmm. Because I have had whatever insight into, I don't knowing, not knowing anything specific.

Not like, you know, psychic or empathic, but just understanding that people have something to say. Mm-hmm. And I, you can talk to me and I'll listen and I'll ask investigative questions.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: And, and it'll, it'll turn into a thing. My kids, my kids are [00:32:00] constantly, like we we're skiing and we get on the gondola.

Everybody talks to me. I don't know why. And, and you know, and my kids are like rolling their eyes. 'cause total strangers are revealing themselves to us. And like, they just want, they just want

Zhou Fang: quiet. Okay. Not physical. Okay. Just pretty clarified.

Jared Ewy: Uh, that depends. It depends. You know, I've, ever since that teacher and I hooked up, I've been a little bit, uh, no, but the, uh, but, but yeah.

So there's, I just, people wanna talk and they wanna connect. I just need to use that less now 'cause my kids are getting annoyed.

Zhou Fang: I mean, it's a gift. I mean, your kid. Okay. Kids learn to share. Okay. Share your dad with the world because he's a gift. Um, which, you know, like I'm, I'm

Jared Ewy: gonna, I'm gonna, you gotta send a clip of that so I can play it to the children.

But anyway, yes,

Zhou Fang: sure. I will say that again. And ask your children to just be chill about it. Um, and also, I just [00:33:00] a side note, your kids are teenagers now, right? They're older.

Jared Ewy: Uh, almost everybody's a teen. I got a college kid and then a junior, and then a sixth grader who's on the verge of 13.

Zhou Fang: I mean, I, I know they are very proud of you.

I, they probably don't say it enough, but I think they are.

Jared Ewy: Yeah. You know, uh, and I'm proud of them. It's funny, I, in, I'm writing a book and the title is called How to Hug Your Kids. Mm-hmm. And it's not necessarily about that, but it's just the journey. Uh, of my life. Uh, and I think it's gonna be good people.

And I know it sounds annoying when somebody says, journey of my life. You just want yourself underwater. 'cause it's about to be a long, boring conversation, but I think it's gonna be pretty solid. And I, I, I'm proud of them too. And I didn't really grow up where, uh, where we express that. Uh, and you know, it was just when my dad was around, you just stayed out of his way.

So. It's taken me a while to figure that out, and I don't have my parents around anymore, so I don't have like [00:34:00] people to look to, to, uh. Know, figure that out. But it, I have realized like I need to be better at letting them know mm-hmm. That they're, they're awesome.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: And I feel that way, which is so much like my dad.

It's so much like my dad. 'cause he was such the great entertainer. He was this hero in the community as a firefighter and a rescue guy and stuff. Uh mm-hmm. But at home, we didn't get that. Mm-hmm. And I always to remind myself, like when I go out, I'm on stage or I'm on the radio, like I gotta take. Some of that's gotta come home too.

You know, you gotta, you gotta take that glowing orb, take that little warm fuzzy home with you.

Zhou Fang: I agree. I feel like, again, talking about authenticity, if we cannot show up in our life and to our loved ones, the way we show up to community and work, then that's a disconnect.

Jared Ewy: Yeah.

Zhou Fang: Um, so I also want to just mention, you know, um, I think it is relevant to your.

Uh, radio work and storytelling [00:35:00] is, um, we don't, especially in today's kind of atmosphere, uh, we man don't show emotions.

Jared Ewy: Mm-hmm.

Zhou Fang: Um, not as much as. You know, we are humans, we have emotions, and a lot of man, including, you know, growing up in China, most of the man in my life, they,

Jared Ewy: yeah,

Zhou Fang: they rarely showed emotions.

So I really want to just point out that, um. 'cause you mentioned, you know, people can talk to you. I will listen, I'll help people process. And the fact that you also show people how real you are with your true emotions, I think it's an important message for today's maybe, maybe more so to young man. Um,

Jared Ewy: yeah.

Zhou Fang: You know, emotion is important

Jared Ewy: and we are seeing, I think a little bit, we took some steps forward in the importance of [00:36:00] vulnerability. Uh, and I think we're kind of seeing a swing backwards. I think this mix of COVID and our boys getting on and all our kids being online too much and getting their dopamine fixed from Instagram, they, they are being programmed to be whatever the algorithm wants them to be.

And a lot of boys that I've seen with my guys are seeing a ma a lot of macho bullshit. Uh, and it, you know, it's, it's tough being, it's tough being a teenager in this world and. And I, I really want, I look out for the kids that way. I used to ask my boys like, what are you watching? Like, who, who are your favorite people on social?

Mm-hmm. Because I wanted them to experience that. I wanted them to be there, but also I, 'cause I wanted them to learn responsibility.

Zhou Fang: Yeah.

Jared Ewy: And, you know, a lot of what was good, but a lot of it was that tinged with, you know, that Andrew take bullshit. That's just a, just a pussy secretion. Uh, otherwise,

Zhou Fang: yeah.

Jared Ewy: A silky smooth surface [00:37:00] to adulthood.

You got all these warts popping up trying to get attention with in all the worst ways.

Zhou Fang: Yeah, I agree. I think we really need to be careful with how. Are we teaching? How are we setting an example for the next generation? Um, so I want to bring back to the radio a little bit. Mm-hmm. Because you did say this is what you want to do, you know, to bring rural conversations with national rich.

To the public, basically. Yes. So yonder radio. And tell us maybe, you know, it took you five years to come to fruition and now you have a full team. Yeah. And how are things going and what are your plans? And so what are your, you know, hopes and dreams for the station?

Jared Ewy: Well, I, I. It's funny. Okay, I'll get to that.

What are your hopes and dreams for this station? I'm gonna hold that in my head right here. This is an [00:38:00] important nugget, but it's interesting. I, I have, I come to you, I gotta scoot. I mean, the sun is, I got the sun. I'm scooting, I'm scooting like a dog with some anal kind issues across the floor to the other side here.

And now I've got the Jesus sun behind my head. But, uh, okay. So it's exciting because I'm coming to you at this moment Azure with uh. For lack of a better comparison, uh, guns blazing, uh, because I've been, been able to wrap all the package into one thing I'm doing. I do, I have a couple clients. One is this Ability Connection in Colorado.

They help, uh, they're, you know, they help people, uh, from birth to end of life with disabilities and other needs, and so. I get to tell their story. That's what I told them I would do. I'm gonna tell your story and then I get to do that for the radio show. I'm gonna tell these stories. Mm-hmm. And then, you know, I've had success with the Moth NPR R'S Moth, um, [00:39:00] and it's telling stories.

And so that's what it is like all these time. It's been so long since my morning show partner. Threw out a bouquet of cuss words on the roof of Big Dog, 96 nines building in Farmington, New Mexico. Mm-hmm. And that's when I first really fully realized, oh my God, just be you. Just be, just be you and, and tell the story of the world around you because people seem to like you being the filter for reality.

So all that's finally come to fruition in, in this kind of trifecta of my skills or attempts thereof. And so the radio show

Zhou Fang: mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: It really culminates all the radio experience. It, it, oh, this is really, actually, thanks to the great question, Joe, because it, what I want to do with this. Is a, it takes this culmination of, of the radio experience and it takes the culmination of understanding others because I'm working with a lot of younger people, these Gen Z reporters who are so passionate and so [00:40:00] educated, and I need to understand, you know, in my understanding them.

It makes for better conversation.

Zhou Fang: Yeah.

Jared Ewy: Uh, so to, I wanna make this radio show one where yes, we're telling stories, but it's also a conversational bath where if you're riding along listening to the radio, you feel like you're part of it, you're in that conversation. Uh, and, and it's, you know, not a, not like a laugh track fest, but it's just like real people relating.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: And in the success I've had on the stage or whatever, that's what it's been. I just wanna take that. I wanna really turn the, turn it inside out. There's this phrase I use a lot, like externalize the internal. It's funny when you do that, when you do that, you'll often find that everybody's internal is pretty close to what yours is and they were just hoping somebody could think you crow.

Zhou Fang: Yes.

Jared Ewy: They were just hoping somebody could, um, somehow translate what they're feeling.

Zhou Fang: I've been saying that. Thank you for saying [00:41:00] that so elegantly. Mm-hmm. And just so you know, cons. External, the internal. Ugh. That's so cool. Externalizing internal. Externalized during internal. I

Jared Ewy: love it. That actually came from name.com when I worked with you in domains.

Bill Mushkin, who is the founder of name.com, back in its scrappy startup days. He brought me on just after I wrote a Haiku as my cover letter and a Limerick as my resume. And, uh, 'cause I, I was just looking for cool, scrappy companies and I saw that company and so I, I didn't think a typical resume would do it.

So I sensed some poems and he brought me in and I said, what do you want me to do? And he said that, and I. I turned to jelly. Like I was, like, he could have asked me to like stop a bullet for him and I would've, because he put into words what I wanted to do.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm.

Jared Ewy: So I just had to play a cool in that moment and pretend that's what I would've said.

Mm. But he gave me those words and proudly I carry [00:42:00] them around on my mantle because it is, I

Zhou Fang: love that.

Jared Ewy: It is so important, uh, not just in. In, in telling stories and being authentic, but just even if you're applying for a job, you gotta let people know that you understand that what. What they're doing is important, what they feel is important and you're gonna help tell that.

Zhou Fang: Mm-hmm. And also to other point, you know, you externalize the internal and then that's when you realize we are all very similar. We're more similar than we are different. So I think that's just so very well put. Thank you. Um,

Jared Ewy: well,

Zhou Fang: there's a

Jared Ewy: lot of money. There's a whole industry. I'm making us think that we're different and we're not.

Zhou Fang: Oh yeah. I mean, but it goes back to storytelling, right? Mm-hmm. It's like you have to go back to the why.

Jared Ewy: Yeah.

Zhou Fang: Like, sure, there is money out there, there is a vanity, there is a fame, there is a ego. Um, there is. You know, showing to the world how capable you are. [00:43:00] And we all have that kind of drive, but at the end of the day, we go back to the YI think.

Mm-hmm. And, and I mean, I'm, so, I, I cannot wait for when you receive like a national award.

Jared Ewy: I'll be on the show. I'll be right here.

Zhou Fang: Yes. Yes. I, yes.

Jared Ewy: Listening to your, your beautiful thoughts. I just love, I just love hearing you. Uh, just your cognition just, just floats out, like butterflies being released on a, at a wedding.

Sorry. No,

Zhou Fang: I'm saying your show.

Jared Ewy: No, I'm just saying I'm, I'm complimenting you right now. Just chill. Take it.

Zhou Fang: No, thank you.

Jared Ewy: Yeah.

Zhou Fang: Okay. I'm taking it. Thank you very much. Yes,

Jared Ewy: there's butterflies that are coming out of you right now, and I thought that would be exciting.

Zhou Fang: Oh my. I hope that's not when I die. Okay.

Jared Ewy: Well, that would be kind of cool.

Zhou Fang: Oh, I mean, sure. Okay,

Jared Ewy: fine. Yeah, you would be fondly remembered. I mean, it probably would be rather disquieting for those that attend it, but eventually your legend would grow.

Zhou Fang: Um, yeah. This [00:44:00] is so wonderful. Thank you so much. And, um, I know we are near, near the end of our conversation and, uh, I want to invite you to maybe, you know, share how, how do people find your program and how can, you know, follow your work.

I know you are not on social media, but perhaps how can people follow your work? And also, I don't know if you are receiving kind of like a, like a story inquiries or whatever for, you know, rural

Jared Ewy: Yeah. For daily yonder. Well, I, you also, you could go to yonder radio.com, that's where the show is. And I am, if you, if you go to Instagram and type in Jared Iwi, I'm there like, uh, I have a couple different personas.

Um. Okay. One of them is very popular. I don't know if you've seen it, but I, I do this thing where I fix the universe. Just, just go to at Jared Iwi and you'll see it. I, I align this, I align the lines on manhole [00:45:00] covers, and I tell the story about how I'm doing it.

Zhou Fang: Wow. I love that. Okay, I have to follow you this.

Jared Ewy: So I just posted one of these videos a week ago and it already has 5 million views and, uh,

Zhou Fang: what

Jared Ewy: also somebody needs to show me how to monetize that, but, uh, yeah. So it's thing Denver

Zhou Fang: out there,

Jared Ewy: a Denver TV station's gonna, they're gonna do a story on it next week, so I gotta, you know,

Zhou Fang: so no kidding. You are the OG influencer.

Jared Ewy: I might be, I don't know, but, uh. Okay. I don't know if I, I don't know about og. Yeah, I don't know. I, it's, thank you for saying that. I, I think a lot of what I was doing was influencing, before it was called influencing and

Zhou Fang: definitely is, and in a very po I know people have mixed feelings about influencers.

Yeah. But when I say, you know, you are the OG influencer, I mean like absolutely. A positive way. You know how Absolutely. Yeah.

Jared Ewy: If I call myself a thought leader or an influencer, just, I don't care who you are. If you're [00:46:00] near me, smack me, just shake me because, you know, I don't need to, I don't need that. But, uh, and you don't need that either.

You know, we all just need each other. And some of us have different strengths, and mine might be, uh, you know, the ability to translate the things you wanna share with the world.

Zhou Fang: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, storytelling. It has so much power, so much power that we don't know it has until you, we hear a story and then oftentimes we are without realizing it.

You know, you can see tears in people's eyes, you can see people like blush or even have these, you know, goosebumps. And that's the power of storytelling. And we just need to pay attention to those moments and pay attention to the real life stories. Um, you know, people like you and I are trying to do as storytellers, and I think that's just, I don't know, I think I get very passionate about it, so I'm very excited for younger radio, so thank you.

Jared Ewy: [00:47:00] I think it's gonna be cool. It is, yeah. It's, uh, it's a good base. They're very good people, very smart people, uh, that are passionate like me, and it's exciting. Now my, I got, I I, my laptop is old and it's gonna die soon. I, let's wrap up. I wanna do extract something from you.

Zhou Fang: Oh,

Jared Ewy: because I'm in Winter Park, Colorado right now.

Zhou Fang: Is it

Jared Ewy: beautiful? Currently we're ab It's beautiful, but we have no snow. Fire danger is abundant. We'll have, we are 40 days ahead. Ahead of where of this temperature? Like this. Temperature shouldn't happen until near June.

Zhou Fang: Wow.

Jared Ewy: For me, I've always been very concerned about climate change, and my question for you, Joe, is how am I supposed to adhere to your abundance when I'm worried about everything burning down?

Zhou Fang: Um, but I'm

Jared Ewy: just worried about climate change and, and then, and a nation that is distracted by everything else.

Zhou Fang: Yeah, that's a, a very good question back at me, and it's a very [00:48:00] big one. Um, I don't have the power to solve climate change, of course.

Jared Ewy: Damnit,

Zhou Fang: um, I, apologies. Yeah. Um. Uh, I mean, I see that in Portland too.

You know, our spring here is way too early. We didn't really have a real winter. Um, our snow cap in the mountains are also very thin. We're all very concerned about the, um, this fire, fire season this year. Um, so, so I definitely share. Your concern, and it's very, very real. And I see the beautiful sunshine, and I know, you know, it might look nice right now, but it's, it's actually a dangerous sign.

Um, so to your question, you know, when everything pretty much is on fire, how can we still practice the abundance mindset?

Jared Ewy: That's what I want. That's what I want. That's why I'm here.

Zhou Fang: Meaningfully, right? Yeah. Not just to say, oh, just be optimistic. Oh, let's manifest [00:49:00] it.

Jared Ewy: Okay.

Zhou Fang: Um, for me, the abundance mindset.

It's only possible if we practice it through action. Um, and I think I learned a lot from, um, activist and very smart people, and great people. Like, for example, Jane Goodall, right? Mm-hmm. Like may her in peace. And, um, she's really one of those people who I, I never got to meet, but really taught me a lot about hope in action.

And I think a large part of abundance is how do we approach hope? Um, because part of hope is also our imagination, ability to imagine and ability to dream and without hope and dreaming. We won't be able to achieve abundance. And when [00:50:00] I talk about dreaming, it's not just about daydreaming, it's to dream.

Um, based on the realities to dream, based on the action we are able to have, um. Wherever we are and whatever resource we have. So I think to respond to your question, and I know this is not the only possible response out there, and people have their own, um, thoughts and, uh, response to it, but I think in this moment, I, I would like to say, you know, in order to practice the abundance mindset, we really need to, um.

Practice. Active Hope. Active hope is act right?

Jared Ewy: Yeah. No, I, yeah, it's action, isn't it?

Zhou Fang: Yeah. Um, so like, say. We see the real kind of signs of climate change in our neighborhood, then what we can do [00:51:00] to counter that. And a lot of people say it doesn't matter, it's so trivial, but it matters. I think on the individual level it absolutely matters.

And for our community it also matters. And you know, people always say. Um, and then borrow it from the book Cloud Atlas, right? Like people in this book, uh, it's a novel and we can share a link, whatever, but in this book, this person question this other person and say, um, why would you care? Everything you do is just a drop in the ocean.

Jared Ewy: Mm-hmm.

Zhou Fang: And this person responds with what is the ocean without all the drops. Um,

Jared Ewy: wow. Okay.

Zhou Fang: So that really stuck with me. And, um, so I, you know, in short, I really do think. In today's world, how, [00:52:00] however critical things are, how dire, how, how, like no matter how dire things are, and people can get desperate and we can have this bear from time to time and that's okay, but I think my, maybe my encouragement is that let's not do well in.

Despair and let's turn that. Scare and turn that despair into, um, active hope is to act to it and to bring our action to something that's tangible in our community and in our personal lives. And I think that's one way to still practice the abundance mindset, given everything that's going on in climate change and climate crisis and other, you know, human made crisis in our lives here.

Jared Ewy: Well, well said. I'm glad I waited till the end for this [00:53:00] incredible, thoughtful finale.

Zhou Fang: But that,

Jared Ewy: and again, if everybody's still here after me paddling on with all my stories, you get a plant clipping from Joe's house. Uh. I'm gonna leave you to the administrative part of that. Uh,

Zhou Fang: who's covered, who is covering the shipping cost?

Jared Ewy: I, well, send me a bill. Send me a bill. I I'm working a couple jobs right now so I could figure it out.

Zhou Fang: Oh yeah. Look at that. Okay. Um. I do not want to steal your thunder, and I really want to encourage people to check out yonder radio.com and to follow Jared on Instagram because of all the awesome things he's doing, and I would love for us to have another conversation like this one because I'd like to know how things are going.

Jared Ewy: Well, thank you so much. I, I will, yeah. So just follow me. Uh, Jared, my name is very unique. I'm the only Jared Iwi, I think in the world, so J-A-R-E-D-E-W-I. [00:54:00] And, uh, I, there's some, there's some interesting things. I think there's some interesting things, but, uh. I'm just out here telling stories and you know, like you were talking about, don't dwell and despair.

Turn it into action. What I've learned over the last 30 some years of trying to be a professional in all kinds of directions, often the wrong ones, is people who truly cared about me, told me what they knew I did well and what would work, and now I'm there in it with storytelling and amplifying others.

Zhou Fang: Thank you so much. Yeah. I am very grateful for our conversation today. And I know this is not gonna be the last one, but we are gonna have another cool chat very soon. Um, so with that, I'm going to stop recording here. Thank you so well, thank you

Jared Ewy: so much, Joe. And you should, you should meet her 'cause when she talks, butterflies come out of her thought for butterflies.