AND HERE’S MODI
AND HERE’S MODI is an inside look at the man behind the microphone. Hosted by comedian, Modi (@modi_live), AHM features a raw and unfiltered side of the comedian rarely seen on stage. He always finds the funny as he navigates the worlds of comedy, trending topics, his personal life and spirituality. AHM is co-hosted by Periel Aschenbrand (@perielaschenbrand) and Leo Veiga (@leo_veiga_).
AND HERE’S MODI
Aaron Smolyar - The CLEO Initiative
Episode 136: Modi and Periel are joined by Aaron Smolyar of The CLEO Initiative (Computer Literacy Education Outreach), an organization that assists seniors with navigating today’s tech-reliant world. Check out their website here.
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Welcome to and here's Modi. Hi everybody, and welcome to and here's Modi. We are in the studio today, me, periel, and a very, very, very, very, very, very special guest, aaron Smulyar Smulyar Smuliar Smuliar. Those of you who aren't watching this, I can't say that it's an 18-year-old student from Penn, you, penn. I found him online, sent it to you, you got him to come here. He is the founder of a program called Chloe Cleo Cleo. No, the whole time I haven't been getting it right and, of course, now I'm not going to get it right. Chloe Cleo Cleo. Yeah, cleo. No, the whole time I haven't been getting it right.
Speaker 1:And of course, now I'm not going to get it right either, cleo, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Cleo initiative Cleo.
Speaker 1:The Cleo initiative, and when I saw it, I was on a flight and I perked up. I couldn't believe this is happening. This is what I'm talking about. You, in broad strokes, you go in to old age homes and you help seniors with their devices, with their phones, iPads, whatever technology.
Speaker 3:So Clio stands for Computer Literacy Education, Outreach Computer Literacy Education.
Speaker 1:Outreach, yeah, computer literacy education. Outreach Computer literacy education outreach yeah.
Speaker 1:And you guys go into this old age homes and senior living I don't know what the right way to say it is, I was just thinking and people who just are challenged with. And let me tell you something I have always said that because you know. Now I'm at a point where I do like I speak to Hillels and all kinds of youth groups, as you know, just because it's easier to bring me as a speaker rather than to hire me as a comedian, and cheaper. So the young kids ask me like you know, hey, what's like? How do you know what your goal in life is?
Speaker 1:So I always tell millennials and Gen Zs your purpose in life is to help older people with their technology. Anything you do above that is your gravy, is your entrance into the world to come, but your main purpose on earth is to help. I always kept saying that and then all of a sudden I see your it was a news piece about you guys and I was blown away and I said I have to meet this kid and that's really Moshiach Energy what you do, thanks. So tell the speakers into the microphone, to the speakers, to the listeners, about this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean, it just started at my high school. Me and a couple of buddies were sophomores and we were just looking like you know, right now the thing to do is like start something in high school, like it'll look good on your resume, but a lot of people do things that they don't really sort of like follow through with or care about. And we we wanted to. You know, we were ambitious, we wanted to do something good that you know would actually really have an impact. So we were basically just talking about different ideas and uh, something that like happened one day. We basically just had a conversation joking about like different, like sort of funny ways in which our own like grandparents struggled with their technology and uh, so we were like, you know, our school already it sort of was all this perfect situation where our school was already uh had a good relationship with the retirement home right next door, like it's like independent living for seniors, and uh, so we, we we thought you know, why don't we just try go, maybe like once a month, bring up some of our friends, get some community service hours, help them with their devices we didn't really think too much about it. Hours, help them with their devices. We didn't really think too much about it.
Speaker 3:And then we started to go and we sort of realized that, you know, we were actually kind of becoming friends with the seniors and like becoming closer and, you know, learning their names, and they would tell us about their grandkids and we would help them get in touch with their grandkids.
Speaker 3:Sometimes they'd like struggle to, you know, find the like their contact or something, how to call them, so stuff like that, emails, and so, yeah, I mean, eventually we realized that there was, you know, because, if you think about it, every, every kid who is, you know, under the age of like anyone under the age of like 30, has helped an older family member, even, maybe not even 30, maybe 50, has helped an older family member with their device.
Speaker 3:So we thought it was just a good way for us to put to use like all the skills we learned through like mindlessly scrolling on our phones, right and so yeah, so then, you know, we started doing once a week and then from there, you know, we kind of realized we were onto something big like that. There was something here that really could be made bigger and we realized, so there's a mom at our school who knew a local news station reporter and they did a story for us on the local news. And then eventually some avid viewer of the local news sent an email to Steve Hartman or his team at CBS and Steve Hartman came and did a story and then it was really sort of started to get the ball rolling, like, uh, we got up to like 15 different schools doing the same thing. So we're basically just helping kids do the same thing that we did at their schools.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Yeah, so you're going in, you're going into an old, to a retirement home, to a place where seniors are living. I mean, I've done that as a comedian. Okay, I've gone to, I've performed on 108th street. That sums at home. I never figured I got there. There were no chairs because everybody was brought in in a wheelchair and I did, I did a show for them. It was great. And there's people who go in and they sing yeah to seniors, to seniors.
Speaker 1:you're going in and you're doing like you're bringing light into this. First of all, just to sit with you and to speak to an 18 year old, just to not have to hear stories that they're hearing from their own friends, that's already next level of Moshiach energy. And then you're helping them Like they might even. What do you think the retaining percent of what they're like if you teach them something? How much do they retain it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it's low. It's low, but it's like a weekly thing I would say.
Speaker 1:it takes like I mean we Give me an example. What's one person you know? You've helped them figure out how to send something or do something.
Speaker 3:For something on the phone. You know it's usually pretty simple. They do user-friendly stuff. But if it's something like a printer or like a TV, like those things are so arcane they don't update them. Even the newest printers are like horrible to use. So there was a guy, I guess, in our should I say the name?
Speaker 1:Is that allowed? Say his first name?
Speaker 3:Irving.
Speaker 2:Ron, is that allowed Say?
Speaker 3:his first name, irving Ron. So we went to his house many times to help with the same issue and, to be fair, it wasn't his fault. We had to go online, and that's like a skill that they lack.
Speaker 2:They don't know how to go online. What was Ron's issue, though?
Speaker 3:It was something to do with the printer, yeah, so we came a few times and had to debug that and it was. It was. I'll tell you a funny story.
Speaker 1:So we, I ordered a printer, I like a printer, I like, I like, I like a printer. Uh-huh, I like, I like to go to the boat with a boarding card to the, to the airport. I, I like, I print out my set list. I print out my set list. And so I have a printer and I ordered. I was broke, I ordered one and it arrived and Leo looks at it and he was going out to meet with friends, my husband's much younger, he's a millennial, and so I he said to me bye and good luck with that. Right, and just in spite of him, I put it together and I sent him a video of me. A video of me like saying I love you and can't get the printer to work. But it was like you had to go into your, I had to download an app and then the app walked me through it.
Speaker 1:There's no way. It's horrible. I walk around all the time. Whenever we go to the airport, whenever we go to order something online or something, I go. My parents would never be able to do this, my parents would never be able to do this. My parents would never be able to do this, like they'd never in the airport in this, in that I had a crazy story. I was at the airport in Israel and they have a kosher McDonald's and I wanted a McDonald's burger and I went to the machine to do it and I haven't done that in. Leo does all of that. I was at a and Leo saw me and we were already stressed because we had some issue with booking or something and I was ready to put my fist through this. And he comes over, he's like no, you ordered a meal plan, so there's this drink. I know you don't want a drink, you just want a burger. And he's like and he's done. And you just yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 2:I saw one of the clips that you guys had. This woman had 122,000 emails and she thought she had to delete them one at a time.
Speaker 1:So the same thing with me. I don't answer my emails, I don't answer my. I have an email and we have the one for work, and one of the best things that happened to me is I just I don't have to answer emails. My husband handles all of that, and so I had over a hundred. I had more than that.
Speaker 2:But he was also surprised to learn that you're supposed to answer emails like when you get them, Like he was like how do you keep up with all of these thousands?
Speaker 1:I used to I used to before. But anyway, you're sitting with, you're sitting with with these people who were thrusted into this world. Sure it's keep in mind in their life, in their lifetime. If you're 90 or 80, this computer, this phone thing is such a small percentage of your life. When it happened and all of a sudden, boom, everything is on this. Everybody. Go go to the, go to the website, go to this, where they used to have a salesperson that they spoke to and they had somebody. You know, my mom just had her mortgage not her mortgage, her life and her, my mother's house insurance. She's been with the same people for 47 years and all of a sudden they went paperless and sent her an email and she missed one payment and then she lost something with the umbrella.
Speaker 2:It was a whole thing, but like it's so challenging, did you see the expression on aaron's face when you said to call a salesperson like that is like landing on the moon well, I've had to start dealing with calling, like with cleo, because we are all like official now.
Speaker 3:So so I had I'm trying to deal with the IRS right now, which I've never done before and like I called them and I was like hey, you know, I filled out this paperwork online. I think I made a mistake, how do I fix it? And they're like oh yeah, you need to call this other number. But I was sitting on the, I was waiting for them for like 15 minutes, like not 15, like they said 15 minutes. On the thing. It said like wait time 15 minutes, but it was really like 30, 45 minutes. I was sitting there. And then finally they're like call this other number, I call the other number. They're like if you need help with this, call the irs. So you know, in the end I haven't called them back because I don't know like I need to strategize you have to call the irs back.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you a few things. Be okay with the IRS.
Speaker 2:They don't call though you guys don't call each other.
Speaker 1:No, the IRS has a phone number you can call. I've spoken to them.
Speaker 2:I'm talking in general, like your friends, you guys don't call each other.
Speaker 1:You have a website, you guys go to you guys don't know if I'm calling people.
Speaker 3:Well, if it's like something I need right now, I'd call, but you don't even call each other right.
Speaker 2:Like every, most communication is through tech.
Speaker 3:Oh, for sure Most. But if it's like, if it's like something that needs to be resolved right now, I would do it.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's get back to the. So you really found a way to help, to help. You know you don't even see too young to understand how much this is going to help you. Miracles will come into your life later on. You won't. It's not like the cause and effect isn't right away. So you're doing this mitzvah, you're doing a mitzvah. You're doing a straight up mitzvah, creating Moshiach energy, even just by sitting with these people. If one thing they can figure out, it's a miracle. If just they had an afternoon with somebody young, looking into somebody's young eyes and seeing their world, and it's such an amazing thing you're doing. You'll see the miracles later on. It might not be coming right away, you know, but you'll see them. And what's like the most amazing story you have of like of your interactions with these seniors? What's like the best story?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the nicest thing, the nice thing well, it's just the only reason we kept going is because we knew it was really like this great thing and we saw that it really had like an outsized impact, given whatever work it took. But something that really was sort of shocking was it was our first year volunteering and we had gotten up to like 30, 45 volunteers and, uh, we come in this is our last volunteering session before we go off to before we were going off to winter break for a few weeks, coming back after New Year's and they're like surprised we got there, like no volunteering today, like get everyone here. So all like 30 came and all the seniors like pulled together money to get us all gift cards and they came out and they gave like speeches on like how much it was impactful to them, and so that was really like a moment where you know because a lot of times you know they don't show like how that they're grateful like in the moment, like, but I don't know, that was a very special it's very nice.
Speaker 1:They give you that. That money is energy. You're giving them energy. They just gave you some energy back. It's what. It's what that is. Yeah and um and um and so that's unbelievable. So I just want to wrap up, even though we're only a few minutes in. Just tell us how people can help you. How can somebody like that just says this is amazing, how can we help you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so if you are a kid in high school or we even do some colleges now and you want to start a chapter, then you can go to our website, cleoinitiativeorg, and it's sort of pretty self-explanatory but there's like a get started page and it walks you through exactly how to get in touch with us, how to get started and you can start your own chapter. Otherwise, if you know anyone who might be interested, just shoot them the link to the website or the podcast. And also we take donations on the page if anyone would be interested in giving them. So there's just it's pretty right. As you get on the page it says donate.
Speaker 3:So you could give us a donation that just helps us.
Speaker 1:Are you already a nonprofit organization? Yeah, we are, so you're doing good. Yeah, you figured that out. Yeah, good for you.
Speaker 3:It's been a few years, but yeah, it was definitely difficult to figure out all the technical stuff. Lots of, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's amazing that you guys started like a formal nonprofit. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:I'm so proud to have you on the podcast. I can't even tell you. It's literally. You see an 18-year-old Moshiach energy Unbelievable.
Speaker 3:Well, we had a lot of help. I mean, for example, like to get all these incorporation things done. It's expensive. So like a member of our Fort Myers Florida Jewish community like basically paid for us to get incorporated and she is like involved in the synagogue and stuff like that, so she Mashiach energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're learning. At 18, you are understanding what Mashiach energy is, which brings me to the next thing about your life, when we talked about before the podcast began. You go to the Chabad house of UPenn I do.
Speaker 3:How is it? It's good. I mean, I go, you know, every couple weeks and I think I'm lucky to be at a school where there's such a big Jewish community. I think it's somewhere around 15% of the school. So people sometimes say, like pejoratively, jew Penn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went to be Jew to be you.
Speaker 3:Okay, there you go. It's not like a new thing.
Speaker 1:Juton Massachusetts, juton, massachusetts. Yeah, so you go to the Chabad house of U Penn. Yep, yeah, and so you, who's the rabbi?
Speaker 3:So Rabbi Levy is our rabbi.
Speaker 1:Levy is his first name. What's his last name?
Speaker 3:I don't know Wow.
Speaker 1:It's just.
Speaker 1:Rabbi Levi that's just who he is. So the Chabad rabbis, it's like this the young ones go by their first name Rabbi Mendy, rabbi Zalman, and the older ones go by their last name Rabbi Hanachov, chalovsky, hanachov, chalovsky, Chalovsky, and so and so. But that the rabbi at your school is your link to the rebbe. Do you know about the rebbe? Sure, yeah, so that's his. His whole purpose there is obviously to make you feel welcome. Let you know that you're a jew and and and he's probably blown away by what you do with this. Chloe, right, he's blown away, right, he must be blown away.
Speaker 1:I don't even know if he knows You've got to be kidding me. I don't know You've got to be kidding me.
Speaker 3:I'm just there for the conversation. The little mosh pit the little vodka shots, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but he's a very important. No, not that.
Speaker 3:What Not the vodka shots? He's 18.
Speaker 1:Oh, no vodka shots, that's right. No vodka shots, absolutely not. No, having what's it called the grape juice, that hideous grape juice.
Speaker 2:Manischewitz.
Speaker 1:Manischewitz grape juice. Yes, okay, I'm getting Rabbi Levy in trouble, you're getting me in trouble, you're in trouble. No, um, you it the Chabad house. I went to be you to the Chabad house. I was there every week. I it was Rabbi Posner, last name where's Rabbi Posner these days?
Speaker 2:he's there, he's still there, rabbi Posner we have to have him on the show.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I'm ready. He's. He's such a huge thing in my life I I have to prepare, okay. I have to prepare Speaking of preparing.
Speaker 2:This is also Aaron's first podcast ever.
Speaker 1:Thank God this is your first. I'm so glad this is your first podcast, so okay. So just to end up that, so you have a Chabad house that you go to at UPenn and utilize that and learn about the Rebbe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, are you Chabadnik? Are you Chabad?
Speaker 1:Yes, is this shirt black?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Everybody is Chabad Okay.
Speaker 3:Some people just don't know they are I see, yeah, you're Chabad too, you're also Chabad.
Speaker 1:The work you're doing is a Chabad work, chabad's good. I'm an emissary of the Lubavitch Rebbe. There you go. I can tell you that I'm like Rabbi Levi Mashiach.
Speaker 3:Mashiach energy Absolutely Makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you looking like?
Speaker 2:that, for I'm digesting that we're all Chabad. I didn't know we were all Chabad, yeah.
Speaker 1:When you send all that stuff to Israel and all you do all the volunteer work and you did Chabad. That's what that is. That's what that's about helping others Please.
Speaker 2:It's a different episode. It's a different episode.
Speaker 3:My sister she's. She's very close with the MIT Chabad.
Speaker 1:Wow, I don't know. Only thing now missing is Harvard. You have UPenn, mit and Harvard. Those are the three presidents that got fired.
Speaker 2:Okay, we have Harvard, my niece was at Harvard.
Speaker 1:What's the vibe on the anti-Semites scene at Penn? What's going on now?
Speaker 3:It's much quieter than before. I got there, for sure, my parents were worried just because Penn was a focal point, but after the whole thing with the president, liz McGill and it's just quieted down. So you know, the current like the current administration under the interim president is just very anti, like any political demonstration. I mean there's been demonstrations but they've like walked around campus.
Speaker 2:Not right, but you feel like, as a jewish student on campus, like you can be jewish, yeah yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3:I I think it's definitely not what my parents, like, were worried about, for sure, like there's yeah, you know, people walk around it's very encouraging to meet people walk around pen with the yamakas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, their stars out and they're, bring them home pins and all that and the vibe is a little easier now it's easier I there's also people walking around with keffiyeh, but it's like which? Is okay.
Speaker 3:It's like a mutual like it's just peaceful demonstration. That's how it should be.
Speaker 1:It's just how it should be. There's nothing I love more than seeing a keffiyeh or Not a keffiyeh, so much but the hijabs women.
Speaker 2:Much of it was the the hijabs women with hijabs in in my audience makes me so happy. It's I love seeing like the palestinian flag with the israeli flag and a little dove together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's, that's that's I mean ultimately right it's gonna have to come to that right. I mean, there's no like it's gonna have to come to a resolution eventually.
Speaker 1:Yes, it has to come and everybody has to feel like they won. That's the main thing.
Speaker 2:Everybody loses and everybody wins. Right, that's the nature of compromise. You have to give up a little bit. Everybody has to move a little bit towards each other.
Speaker 3:Okay yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:No problem.
Speaker 3:I took APUSus history great compromiser, uh clay I think was his name and he was big during the founding and he basically brought the two sides I mean the parties were different then but he was like, this guy was like, look, let's just find a middle ground and move on, when everyone was being very you know I mean it's not a new thing to like be stuck in your ideology and like you can't compromise but yeah, so a lot of legislation was passed because he was able to. You know, compromise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you are at a very storied school, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, obviously the incoming president went to exactly pen. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 3:about. Well, I think you know, pen definitely distances themselves from, from trump. Uh, I do, I would say so. I, I mean, you know there's no buildings named after him. I don't know if he donated, so you know that could be, but I, I mean, I don't know if I could say that for certain, but well, there's definitely no buildings named after him. I don't know if they're really distancing themselves from him or if he's distancing himself from them.
Speaker 1:I mean, hard to say.
Speaker 3:But there's definitely not a lot of affiliation, although, like in the debate, he was like oh, you know Wharton, like I'm from Wharton, like I'm from Wharton. During the debate there were like three or four references to Penn. Yeah, the presidential debate and I was in like a watch party and everyone went crazy. And then, yeah, I mean yeah. So it's nice to be like somewhere that's very relevant and current and yeah.
Speaker 2:And Elon Musk.
Speaker 3:Elon Musk? Yeah, he lived a few doors down basically from where I live when he was an RA of my building, like in the 90s or something.
Speaker 1:Could you imagine Elon Musk as your RA? Hey guys, let's just plug everything at once and see what happens. Yes, I can't imagine going to school with Elon Musk.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm sure he's, do you have?
Speaker 1:any Elon Musk-y guys in your Like, you can tell these are the next Elon Musks in your school.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I could say Like, yeah, I don't know, elon Musk is a very unique guy, so hard to predict. I'm sure Elon Musk, if you looked at Elon Musk when he was at Penn, you wouldn't be able to say he was the next Elon Musk. I'm sure he stuck out.
Speaker 1:I'm sure he stuck out. I'm sure he was something unique. Someone said that's going to be something unique.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway, back to Clio. Sure Back to Clio. Where do you see it going?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I don't see a reason why it couldn't be in any high school. You know like there's so many high schools but there's also so many seniors and there's you know a million different directions. We can take it where we can do like house calls or something Like right now we're just doing something very simple, something that we can manage, which is like a high school visits retirement home or senior living, something like right now we're just doing something very simple, something that we can manage, which is like a high school visits a retirement home or senior living, something like that. Um, but you know, I think we'll we'll take it as we go. Um, but right now we're just looking to expand and um make a big impact with the with this idea.
Speaker 3:I think like it's easy to tell when an idea is really good because it there's no resistance to like spreading that idea. Like there's no, no one's losing in this situation. You don't have to sell anyone on Clio People. You know kids need something to do for their resume realistically and seniors need help with their devices.
Speaker 1:It's so funny to say that the kids need this for their resume. I mean, they do.
Speaker 3:I'm not. I'm a realist here.
Speaker 1:Right, but you understand that this is more than just.
Speaker 3:Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:This is a very spiritual thing you're doing, definitely It's're doing.
Speaker 3:It's not, it's not, it's, you know, it's not uh but I I think that that is something that even like that's something that you realize after you start doing it like what's?
Speaker 1:like an amazing story you had, like a one-on-one connection with with one of the seniors, like some story that they told you that blew you away, and like it was life-changing I mean they're they always just, they always just are so willing to put themselves out because, like, a lot of them are pretty lonely, you know.
Speaker 3:So you know everything from like family members like passed away and it's something like that's one of the reasons why we try to limit to high school, because you know, if you have like little kids, like it's just, it's, it sometimes can be a bit emotionally mature, like you need to be emotionally mature.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:So you know, we had people who we we volunteered with helping them and then they would pass away, like over the course of the time that we were there, you know. So it's just, it can be very, very like. So you got back and they weren't there the following week. Yeah, you know, like uh, one day one of the people who would regularly come was like he wasn't there and there's a picture of him on the on the piano, you know, and a little like in memoriam, and it's very, it's very.
Speaker 1:You know it can be very tough, but I think it like it because as a high school, as a high school student, you haven't dealt with they haven't dealt with death. Your parents, your grandparents, are still alive. Your parents are still well, unless there was some kind of like super traumatic thing in someone's house and all of a sudden, you're dealing with death.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so you know it. You know there was a lot of stories Like there was one lady who she would come often and her friend would come and you know one of them stopped coming because she had complications in the surgery she passed away. The other one started coming and bringing the other, the, the friend's dog, because someone needed to take care of her dog.
Speaker 3:So the dog was passed to the friend and so you know yeah, it's a lot of you know it it takes like sometimes you have to step back and sort of like yeah.
Speaker 2:And now that everyone in like your world knows that you do this, or it's like everybody's grandparents, including your own, like, call you like this, or it's like everybody's grandparents, including your own, like, calling you like.
Speaker 3:Aaron, that's funny. Yeah, uh, not really. I mean my grandparents it was. You know I helped them a lot before, but uh, yeah, I think they, people, people are more likely to call their own, their own grandkids. But we, you know we but we get emails from people's grandparents, people we don't know who email us off our website, which is good for them, and they're like yeah, I'm struggling with technology, can you help us? And it's tough because you can't. How do you approach a senior who needs help when you have to find a school and be like find us kids to run this program? It's very hard to organize.
Speaker 2:That's great, though I mean. That's really the key, then, right.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Obviously these people can't get on a Zoom call with you.
Speaker 3:Right, and that's the that's. That's one.
Speaker 2:you know it's hard to connect digitally with them, so I want, I just retirement center, senior living needs to get like linked up with like local high schools.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it's a brilliant model. We definitely. Yeah, that's something that we're we're thinking about how to implement like a way to actually do some kind of algorithmic like. We have, you know, a map full of people who have reached out to us in some kind of pairing or some way to you way to reach out. I mean it's manual right now. So a lot of times when a senior will reach out to us at a certain senior living place, we'll say get us in touch with your admin.
Speaker 3:Social worker people Like the administration and then we'll try to see what we can do. That's great. It's very difficult to do it the other way, from this starting with a senior facility and moving to a high school, because you know you need someone who has, like, the motivation to really take on the effort.
Speaker 2:It's easier to start with a high school and then sort of figure it out, send them to the…. I mean there's been very few that I know, these senior living places that have said no, you know they all would love… and so who's the… what's the first point of contact at like a high school that you guys talk to Like who do you need at these high schools to then facilitate that connection?
Speaker 3:We're mostly. We mostly start with a kid who wants to start the club.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's cool.
Speaker 3:And it's really just because we we, we work with whoever wants to work with us. So it's just right. Now we don't have a great outreach program. It's a lot of you know, most of the publicity we have came from that story on CBS and then they re-aired it like a month ago and we got a huge second wave and you know. So now we're up to we were at 15 before this, then this aired. Now we're working with like 40 schools.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow yeah.
Speaker 3:So we're, we're, we're slowly building it, we're fine. We're thinking of ways to encourage kids who are already involved to like show this to their friends and maybe like, if a chapter is fully established and they start volunteering, to give them like a little like $10, like referral bonus just for helping us expand, and stuff like that. You know, we're just trying to think of ways to keep it going, you know, because that's the hardest. That's the hardest part of the equation is finding the people to to run the program at the schools.
Speaker 2:That's amazing I have a high school kid for you who is gonna love to do this. No, no, not mine. You know what else you could give them instead of a $10 referral? What you could give them an a and h provision gift card an a andH provision gift card.
Speaker 1:An A&H provision gift card? A&h is one of the sponsors of our podcast. Why not A&H provisions? They are Seth would love this. Are you crazy? Seth would love this. They are the top glycosher meats and they are collaborators with us. They are partners with us and I hope you find good partners for yours and you can get their amazing hot dogs and all their meats on kosherdogsnet 30% off with promo code MODY for your first purchase. And Weitz and Luxembourg, the law firm that not only does well, they do good, they're super philanthropic, they're friends and they help the podcast as well. Arthur Luxemburg I'm going to introduce you directly to him.
Speaker 2:He would love this.
Speaker 1:He would love this. I told him about you last night. I had dinner with him last night and he's his friend sponsored the podcast and he's going to. This is right up his alley, this is right up his alley. He's going to love this and help you guys out for sure. So, thanks to Whites on Luxembourg and WhitesLoxcom. Great, that's it. What else is happening there? Do you have a girlfriend out in Penn?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:I'm looking, you're looking. Yes, what are you looking for in a girlfriend?
Speaker 2:Get Aliza on the phone.
Speaker 1:I don't need Aliza, I can handle his matchmaking situation.
Speaker 3:I'm looking for someone who lives in my area. That's very, that's not a big look. No, no, I just I don't know when you go on dates with girls.
Speaker 1:18 year olds now go on dates with girls. What's the conversation? What's up?
Speaker 2:I feel like it's just it's. You know, it's easy to tell like wait, sorry, this is really interesting. How do you?
Speaker 3:meet. Like you guys aren't on apps dating, right, not no, some people. So even like at 18, you guys are meeting well, it's like not really for dating, it's more for people like hooking up whatever okay yeah, okay, and what's uh, and what's the conversation?
Speaker 1:What do you guys talk about? Now, when you got?
Speaker 3:Just I don't know it. Just there's no like one thing.
Speaker 1:So you know, I was at an event for single young Jewish singles thing and somebody asked me like what's a good joke? What should we talk about on these dates? I always talk again. Everything goes back to the Rebbe, the Lubavitcher. Rebbe said when two people meet, the first thing they should talk about is how to help somebody else. So on your dates, when you go out with these girls you, obviously, but find out what she is interested in.
Speaker 1:You can tell a lot about a person by what they want to help with, you know. So obviously you're killing it Like I started. Cleo, what do you have? You're literally at that.
Speaker 3:You're literally at that. That must be a great talk. Yeah, you got that crazy.
Speaker 1:You know, there's this camp called Camp Hask. It's this camp upstate that helps kids. It's a camp, a full-blown summer camp for kids with all kinds of disabilities and struggles that you can't imagine. Some of them need three counselors a kid and the kids that work with them are next level of Moshiach energy. And I always say, if you're ever on a date on a Shidduch date or whatever date with a kid who worked at Camp Hask, don't let this go. This is you, don't let this. Make sure you hold on to it Somebody that meets you. You have to understand you began Cleo, cleo, cleo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:Don't do that, that's not nice, you're killing it, but that's when you're on these dates and you really want to. Don't ask her like where do you see yourself? What corporation do you want to work at? Or religious kids? Are you going to cover your arms? Are you going to cover your head? Are you going to cover your that? What are you going to do in the morning? Are you going to play with the water right by your bed? How you're that? What are you going to do in the morning? And you're going to play with the water right by your bed? Ask him how are you going to help the world? How are you going to create mashiach energy? Just ask that. In your next date, ask a girl how are you going to create mashiach energy? And just see if her head blows off and goes up. What the hell are you talking about? And you say I was on modi's podcast and he told me he told me to do it.
Speaker 3:I don't it.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know, I think I would lead with that baby first.
Speaker 2:What?
Speaker 1:Because I was on Moni's podcast, sorry, by the way. Let me ask you a question. I've been learning so much about Gen Z's. Now, right, that's what you are. You guys don't watch comedy specials.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've seen a couple.
Speaker 1:You have fully Fully, from beginning to end. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which ones, which ones Wait?
Speaker 3:I haven't seen one in a while, but… Wait, when I… Okay, so I was learning this, by the way, when I… I think a couple years ago I watched one of Bo Burnham's comedy shows.
Speaker 1:Okay, it was on Netflix, Puppets right.
Speaker 3:Puppets. He does like music, he does like songs and stuff.
Speaker 1:So I've learned this recently Young people are not watching comedy specials, they just watch clips. Yeah, yeah yeah, they don't even know that there's like a special. They just think that the guy comes on does this one-minute joke and comes off. They don't understand. That's a part of a special, it's so….
Speaker 3:Well, everything you know, the funniest… Some of the funniest things I've ever seen….
Speaker 1:Yeah, are my clips Like… Yep, okay, what?
Speaker 3:else, where…, where…, where… Like 30 second nonsense videos. There's like an idea called brain rot. Yeah when it's like these videos that are so dumb.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's like making your brain rot Because you guys grew up with phones. Yeah.
Speaker 3:How old were?
Speaker 2:you when you got a phone.
Speaker 3:I was nine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's insane.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because, they didn't know when he was nine that it's really bad to give little kids phones like that. Now we know we're 10 years, nine years out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like my son's 11. Like all the messaging is under no circumstances are you to let this child?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, they told you that. Now, oh my God, of course, what's the age supposed to give the kid a phone?
Speaker 2:A smartphone should not be before, like really high school, like they don't want which is what year?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know like 15?
Speaker 2:15. Like social media is like a hard absolutely not. It is the most dangerous thing.
Speaker 1:And so you got it at nine.
Speaker 3:Right. I had to do a lot of convincing. I pulled out the. We have AT&T and they had some kind of deal where it's like, if you add another line, I was like, look, you're going to save so much money by getting me a phone.
Speaker 2:Even at nine years old, at nine years old.
Speaker 1:You're negotiating with your parents. Hilarious Good for you.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I mean it was fine, I think, look, I think I end up okay, but I still have problems sometimes, like with just not being on my phone. You know, I mean it's hard for all of us. So one thing that helped me a lot was I grew up going to summer camp, okay, and where, if I have to go New Hampshire, it's called Camp Sunapee. It's a Russian Jewish, jewish camp, yeah, and you know, for two, two, four weeks to sometimes two, or you could go for four. You have no phone in the middle of the summer and you're, you know, in nature and it was very healthy, I think. And now this summer I'm going back with my best friend to run the camp as, like the, the leaders of the whole, the whole.
Speaker 1:And a counselor.
Speaker 3:No, like the like the whole, the whole camp like.
Speaker 3:I'm leading the camp as, like the, the leaders of the whole, the whole counselor, no, like the, like the whole the whole camp. Like I'm leading the camp with my best friend. Yeah, so excited. Yeah, this is my it's gonna be my 10th summer, but yeah, it's gonna be really good and uh, yeah, I think that was honestly the real value of the camp was that I had a few weeks every year with no phone, and I think most people don't have that right now. I can't.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. I remember, you know, like when the kids went to camp back in the day was just to see nature. Now it's like you have a respite from your phone.
Speaker 3:It's not. It wasn't even no phone. It was like no outside information period. Like if a counselor is caught like giving their phone to a camper, they're fired Like it's not. It wasn't even no phone. It was like no outside information period. Like if a counselor is caught like giving their phone to a camper, they're fired like it's a it's it's like on lockdown. The only access you have to the outside world is every day, like parents and people can send emails, and once a day they print the emails and give them out and that's all. That's the only contact there is with the outside world.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God. So I went to camp in 1979 to 80, whatever five years after that would be 83, 84. And the big thing was like packages when you get a package.
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 1:Every day in the afternoon you went and they put the packages out and if you saw one with your name, you were in heaven, yes, heaven. And then you had the phone call Modi, your mother is on the phone and you ran to the headquarter bunk. I went to Camp Scatico and you went to the headquarter and you answered the phone.
Speaker 2:How old were you when you? Went the headquarter and you answered the phone. How old were you when you went?
Speaker 1:I was nine to 14. Wow, five years at Camp Scatico when is that? In the Berkshires? And it was. That was like. And my parents were like no, this is good, you have to go for nature, you have to be in nature. I'm like what? And he goes are you guys going to nature? No, we're going to Paris and there's this thing called visiting day. I don't know if we're going to be on this visiting day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's the same with us. We actually have well the same with us that parents take the opportunity to go on vacation, but, uh, we have, uh, no phones, no phone calls. Yeah, so, like a parent, you know, through this sign up process, the parents have our phone numbers and we're instructed like, if you get a text message from a parent, don't answer. You keep your phones, though you have your phone like counselors counselors okay.
Speaker 3:So yeah, no phones. And I know, and I've experienced it's really weird, I experienced it as a camper and then experienced it as a counselor as well that when a kid hasn't heard the sound of their mom's voice for two weeks or for a week and a half, and they're really homesick and they like somehow get through and convince someone to let them have a phone call, they just break down in tears because they're so homesick. And it happened to me once when I got pretty sick. So I was in the nurse's cabin by myself for like three, four days and bad summer, and they didn't let me have my phone still. So I was just sitting there like playing cards with myself. Like you know, I had, I think, a roommate who was a few years younger than me, but it was not ideal, and they let me call my mom and I was completely normal. And then I pick up the phone and I'm like I just break down because I haven't heard her voice. I'm so like miserable.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's amazing, first of all. So now we're learning a whole other element to you you not only are you able to counsel seniors people in their in their last, like chapter of their lives, you're also a counselor to, to, to young kids in camp yeah, that came first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, camp was the? Definitely, I mean, it was very special they. We also have a like an Israel camp that uh is like American counselors can volunteer to be counselors in the Israel camp and it's for it's uh, you know, it's Darot yeah yeah, it's for Darot kids, yeah and uh. So it's all run by the same kind of it's in Darot, that's where it's.
Speaker 2:It's in Tel.
Speaker 3:Aviv. But they take kids from Sderot but they don't want to do it there, just for like, naturally, like the idea is to get them out of Sderot for some time, for a little time. Yeah, like no, you know, so they don't have to deal with, like all the sirens and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So come to this camp.
Speaker 2:No, they go to Tel Aviv, in Tel Aviv, and American counselors go to Tel Aviv from this camp, go to Tel Aviv to be the counselors to the kids from Sterot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the gain there is that they meet American kids, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, it's like we just basically do a replica of our camp in the US for them and we do like English classes for them, and so the last year we were not able to do it, and so we flew them out to come to our camp. Oh wow or not all of them. We flew like a subset of like 20 kids 20 kids is a lot.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, but it was a whole fundraising thing.
Speaker 3:And then we got them out to come to our camp and they got to see like where this all came from, where their camp is.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, can you?
Speaker 3:imagine 20 kids from Sterot getting flown out to some camp in New Hampshire Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Many of them had never been out of the country.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. And then they just turned on.
Speaker 2:I'm sure many of them had never been out of Sterot before.
Speaker 1:To not hear sirens, to not hear Israeli news, to not hear Hebrew. It's just, you know. It's just. Wow, you keep blowing me away. First it was Chloe, then it was the Chabad on campus that you're a part of. Now you're teaching kids, You're also a counselor to kids and adults. And this Israeli thinker what else? What else are you hiding from us? There's nothing else. There's nothing else.
Speaker 2:Well, the.
Speaker 1:Where do you see yourself, I can imagine In five years. Are you in law school? Are you in? What's the deal?
Speaker 3:I don't know. I mean, that's like I I feel strongly that I'll figure it out, but I don't have an answer to that question okay, that's also an answer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are your parents like? Just what like in general yeah, like what do they do?
Speaker 3:are they I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1:They're like my son. Began chloe period, cleo now you're doing it. No, I don't, I'm really at this point, how am I going to remember this? Yeah, cleo.
Speaker 2:Cleopatra.
Speaker 1:Cleopatra, perfect Cleopatra. That's good, okay. So do they walk around saying my son here? Did you see this video of my son? I don't think they do. My mother would tell everybody what.
Speaker 3:They're. You know they're proud, they're very proud, but they don't, you know they don't. They're not. They don't like to show off. You know they're modest.
Speaker 2:Where are they? They're in.
Speaker 3:Fort Myers. Dad's a doctor, mom's a nurse. They met in Tel Aviv University, stop, yeah, and then. But they're, you know, they're very happy. I have two siblings and we all are doing very well, so they have no, they have no complaints.
Speaker 2:So well, they did a good job. They did a great job.
Speaker 3:Are you kidding me? I couldn't have asked for better parents.
Speaker 1:Oh yes. I hope your son gives you a thumb up.
Speaker 2:I know, I was just thinking that Is your son going to give you a thumbs up? I think so.
Speaker 1:Oh, your son's going to be like they didn't give me a phone until 15. But, believe me, that was the least of my problems. Let me show you here's my mom, and then you come roaring in I think um, I think my son knows he's got a pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's so cool.
Speaker 1:Her son's like super cool, uh-huh yeah, he's like cool in a different, like you're cool in the way you're in your, in your world, like, and this whole thing is amazing. And her son's going to be cool. He's creative.
Speaker 2:His mind thinks differently yeah, he's, he's Mashiach, energy too.
Speaker 3:He really is how old is he?
Speaker 2:he's 11.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right 11 year olds are pretty cool he's pretty magical.
Speaker 2:wait a second, you, the Luigi Mangione kid, the one who killed the CEO.
Speaker 3:Yeah, not Mashiach Energy.
Speaker 2:You're doing very well for your first podcast.
Speaker 3:You're killing it. I mean, yeah, that's the talk of Penn.
Speaker 1:By the way, pick up your head a little bit and cover here.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I have a green jacket that looks exactly like it and I was wearing it the other day, and then I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and I realized that's why I took it off.
Speaker 2:Because I looked a little bit like.
Speaker 1:You're not, luigi.
Speaker 2:I'm not.
Speaker 1:With the eyebrows are killing it. You have the yeah, Look into the camera, Pick up, pick up. So there's no like that, like this Okay, and then cover here like that, ladies and gentlemen, luigi, yeah, I hope Luigi no but God forbid you're.
Speaker 2:You're not going to, not gonna, but wait.
Speaker 3:This is the talk, like everybody on campus is talking about this because he went to your school yes, yeah, I mean it was funny because the day before it came out that it was him there was another big thing that was blowing up that, like you know, there was some drama about frats and everyone was talking about it. It was something really dumb. And then it came, and then this thing came out the next day and it was like the next thing. Like everyone was like nothing can get crazier than this thing, which in retrospect was really not that interesting. And then this luigi thing came out. That was like totally insane, because he's well, first of all, I'm studying basically like almost computer science. It's called ai is the major name, but it's like it's basically computer science with like some modifications.
Speaker 3:And he studied computer science at Penn. He had the same professors. He, you know, took the same classes. He was a TA for you know the class I'm taking next semester, the head, like he was, you know, in the same frat as I'm in. I'm in a club called hack for impact. We do like just build little projects for like nonprofits basically, and he was not in the club, but he Impact. We just build little projects for non-profits, basically, and he was not in the club, but he was in the same frat as a bunch of the.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of comedians I know that are in a club called Hack for Impact. A lot of comedians I know are in that club too. But go ahead. Thank you, Keep going.
Speaker 3:So that's, there are people freaking out On side chat. People are very like they admire. They're very Under the word. They, yeah, they're, they're, they're saying a lot of like, very nice things. They're like oh, I love Luigi so cute.
Speaker 2:Are you serious? Yeah, yeah, more well, no people, people online all over the internet.
Speaker 3:Are like that yeah, they were there. They like, yeah, it's all over the internet.
Speaker 1:Are like that they are doting over. Yeah, they're not just there, it's all over the place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I feel like also, now that this initial thing has settled, we understand that this is a terrible, insane thing. For, as awful as the healthcare system is, murdering somebody who has a family in broad daylight is not the way to handle that right well, it wasn't broad daylight, it was still dark, but it but.
Speaker 1:But he. It's not good, but the fact that it was the ceo of, like the biggest, the biggest or health nightmare health corporation and um, and, and he happens to be an attractive killer right, that helped. Also. If he was ugly, no one would care that's true. That's true, you're right about it's a big thing, um and so but, but it's, it's not. It's crazy. It shows you that the world's crazy. It shows that everybody's on on luigi's side is like. It shows that the world's not well it's unhinged and you know I just you really.
Speaker 2:I have been really um upset since october about with you, know everybody else what's going on in the world and really looking at like your generation being like we are fucked. But meeting you and hearing everything about what you and all of your friends are doing really gives me a lot of hope Wow.
Speaker 1:What a great way to bring this in. I am telling you right now I'm looking at you and I see pure Moshiach energy and I don't meet college kids that you know when I do shows I don't meet them afterwards and all that, but they're in there. They're in my shows. I'm shocked that there's an hour worth of comedy to be told. It's really. I can't thank you enough. You brought me hope today, my pleasure.
Speaker 3:I loved being here.
Speaker 1:And, please, I'm going to give you a yarmulke to bring to Rabbi Levy and find out his last name and you'll text it to me and that's it. And if you ever need anything from us, we'll let you know.
Speaker 2:I'm going to put you together with Arthur and we're going to take you to see, like comedy shows, I feel like, yeah, so is it difficult to get in and out from Penn to New York City?
Speaker 3:I just took the Amtrak. I mean Philadelphia is right, so it was like an hour and a half Amtrak.
Speaker 2:Hour and a little bit.
Speaker 3:The only thing is he's in the middle of finals, right now Busy with school a little bit, but you know there's always time.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for coming to the podcast and I just want to say this because by the time we air this, we will be after, but you have three-shatteringly huge shows coming up next week, this upcoming week, yeah yeah, my finals are also coming up, there you go.
Speaker 3:I have three finals next week, but I'm looking forward to mine. Are you looking forward to your finals? I'm looking forward to the moment the last final ends.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, I'm focusing on looking forward to being in the final in these Gotham finals. They're just big episodes of my life. These big three shows at the Beacon Theater, 3,000 people and just the hour, and change is amazing and people are excited, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:It's what a great Friday the Shabbos, before the shows to meet you and um, and that's it. Besides the beacon shows that are already going to be after this, modilivecom, we have shows in um. Okay, we have. We're in Austin and Houston on the 22nd, on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd. Houston on the 22nd, on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd. Go to Motilivecom and find out which shows are for you in there and get tickets and be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show. Also, florida the 6th, and we'll be in Fort Lauderdale and then Tampa on the 13th and then back to Fort Lauderdale for the 16th, 17th and 18th. And then there's shows in March LA, la. Get your tickets before they're gone. March 20th and all the other shows around that. Everything's available on ModiLivecom. Get your tickets and then also what's your Instagram?
Speaker 3:Aaron Smolyar.
Speaker 1:A-A-R-O-N-S-M-O-L-Y-A-R. One word Hit him up if you have a single daughter and Cleopatra, and Cleopatra, cleo.
Speaker 3:Cleo. Yes, it's in my bio.
Speaker 1:Link in bio. Link in bio and help him out, and that's unbelievable Moshiach Energy. Thank you so much for coming. No problem, it's been great. Everybody thanks for listening.