Amber Nicole Cannan | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Jenny is here, of course at the news table. And actually,

0:04 Speaker 1: actually I'm gonna let you introduce our guests because you've

0:06 Speaker 1: gotten an ore more than I more than I have.

0:08 Speaker 1: So uh but it is for a second time on

0:10 Speaker 1: the show. Go ahead and introduce Amber.

0:13 Speaker 2: I know I put you on the Great Commissioner of

0:15 Speaker 2: the best city in the world.

0:18 Speaker 1: Hello, good morning Amber Nicole Cannon. I mean we should

0:21 Speaker 1: probably should probably throw her name in there.

0:23 Speaker 3: I was letting your finish for giggle far Oh.

0:25 Speaker 1: Okay, I gotcha.

0:27 Speaker 3: Do you like to use the phone or do you

0:28 Speaker 3: like Amber?

0:29 Speaker 4: I'm Amber Nicole. Yeah, like if people call me Amber,

0:33 Speaker 4: but it's it feels more like me to be Amber Nicole.

0:36 Speaker 3: Okay, I like that.

0:37 Speaker 1: Okay, I got that. And uh so you're the commissioner now.

0:41 Speaker 4: Well I'm I'm a one of the public works.

0:44 Speaker 1: Oh I was gonna say, Okay, I thought I thought

0:46 Speaker 1: you were here to arrest us for something.

0:47 Speaker 3: I'm wanting you for the bat signal.

0:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't know what was going on.

0:50 Speaker 4: No, No, I'm not involved in police force at all. Okay,

0:54 Speaker 4: I'm about roads and sidewalks. I really like accessible sidewalks

0:59 Speaker 4: and bike lanes. Bike lanes make me very happy. I'm

1:03 Speaker 4: also very interested apparently in city plumbing, water treatment, and

1:07 Speaker 4: school repairs, building repairs.

1:10 Speaker 1: Well, very good, very good. Now, how do you how

1:13 Speaker 1: because you and Jenny have collaborated recently right on something

1:17 Speaker 1: or some things.

1:18 Speaker 5: We've been very fortunate.

1:19 Speaker 1: Yes, what have you been doing?

1:22 Speaker 5: Well?

1:23 Speaker 4: So the reason, the thing that got me all involved

1:27 Speaker 4: in all this road and sidewalk and bike lanes stuff

1:30 Speaker 4: is I have disabilities, and my time in the city

1:35 Speaker 4: with disabilities was really challenging. So my visible disabilities right

1:39 Speaker 4: when I was in a wheelchair for a year and

1:42 Speaker 4: I had no energy to take care of anything. At

1:44 Speaker 4: that point, i'd go home crying regularly because I couldn't

1:47 Speaker 4: do the grocery shopping. But once I got out of

1:52 Speaker 4: the wheelchair, now I you know, people don't know I'm

1:54 Speaker 4: disabled if they just look at me. It's a lot

1:57 Speaker 4: easier for me to get around. So I have a

1:59 Speaker 4: little more energy. So I thought i'd put it into

2:01 Speaker 4: making the city a little bit more accessible. And so

2:05 Speaker 4: I do that mostly just by sitting in the monthly

2:08 Speaker 4: Department of Public Works meetings saying the words sidewalks and

2:11 Speaker 4: bike lanes. I think that's most of what I do,

2:15 Speaker 4: and they're doing a good job too. More so now

2:18 Speaker 4: like they have more people that are thinking about sidewalks

2:20 Speaker 4: and bike lanes and staff and people who are pushing

2:24 Speaker 4: towards that, but their funding keeps getting cut. Of course, sure,

2:27 Speaker 4: so they're struggling to keep the bike lanes and the

2:30 Speaker 4: roads in good shape, not to mention the sidewalks and

2:32 Speaker 4: the curb cuts and all those kinds of things.

2:34 Speaker 1: So what are some examples of things, Because obviously, you know,

2:37 Speaker 1: we have a lot of listeners locally in Manchester, but

2:39 Speaker 1: we also have people who listen online from other cities

2:42 Speaker 1: as well. But I think what you're talking about is

2:44 Speaker 1: relatable to anybody in any city, right, because this is

2:47 Speaker 1: a challenge absolutely anywhere everywhere, and probably well not just

2:52 Speaker 1: cities too, right, probably even more so in small towns

2:55 Speaker 1: in some ways, because they in smaller places, they probably

2:59 Speaker 1: think about this off even less. Right.

3:01 Speaker 4: Way, in small towns, right, you might have a really

3:03 Speaker 4: really small center right where there might be sidewalks for houses,

3:07 Speaker 4: but then because the houses are more spread out, becomes

3:09 Speaker 4: exponentially more expensive per capita, right to put a sidewalk

3:13 Speaker 4: in that. They're like, oh, no, one's going to use that,

3:15 Speaker 4: but then that one person does, but also they can't

3:18 Speaker 4: use it if you don't put it there, And people

3:20 Speaker 4: aren't going to want to walk on a busy road,

3:23 Speaker 4: especially in winter when the roads get even narrower. So

3:27 Speaker 4: I'm always pushing for like really stable flat sidewalks with

3:32 Speaker 4: our curve cuts and tactile strips. I'm looking at a

3:35 Speaker 4: picture behind you right now of something that looks like that.

3:37 Speaker 4: It's in pretty good shape, and plenty of crosswalks because

3:42 Speaker 4: and traffic calming measures. I'm a big fan of traffic

3:45 Speaker 4: calming measures, yes, because I walk a lot of places.

3:49 Speaker 4: My disabilities currently sometimes keep me from driving. So I

3:53 Speaker 4: want a city where people can walk safely. I want

3:56 Speaker 4: a city where kids can leave Central High School and

3:59 Speaker 4: walk to the Career Museum of Art after school. And

4:02 Speaker 4: right now, that's kind of iffy, you know what I mean? Like,

4:05 Speaker 4: maybe maybe I don't want to do that because there

4:08 Speaker 4: are cars literally parked on the sidewalk.

4:10 Speaker 1: When you say a traffic calming measure, I think I

4:13 Speaker 1: know what you mean. But for those who don't know,

4:14 Speaker 1: or maybe I'm wrong, I don't want to assume anything.

4:17 Speaker 1: What do you mean by that?

4:18 Speaker 4: Oh, there's so many good ones. My favorite one right now,

4:20 Speaker 4: at least because I have a favorite one right now,

4:23 Speaker 4: is bump outs.

4:23 Speaker 5: Okay.

4:24 Speaker 4: And what this does is it's when you know cars turning.

4:27 Speaker 4: If you watch the video behind you, you see they

4:29 Speaker 4: turn and there's plenty of space between them and the sidewalk.

4:33 Speaker 4: And what we can do is we can take that

4:34 Speaker 4: space back for pedestrians, shorten that crossing distance, and it

4:39 Speaker 4: shortens the amount of time people spend in the intersection,

4:42 Speaker 4: therefore reducing the times that they might get hits.

4:46 Speaker 1: Right.

4:47 Speaker 4: And actually, oh my gosh, this is so funny. Yesterday

4:49 Speaker 4: I did literally get hit. It was really really slow.

4:52 Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I was.

4:52 Speaker 4: I was in a crosswalk and the guy just didn't

4:55 Speaker 4: look right, and I was. I was in a bright

4:56 Speaker 4: pink jacket, I wasn't in brown, I was. I'm usually

4:59 Speaker 4: very brightly dressed, and and I was walking in front

5:03 Speaker 4: of this this gold suv thing, and because he parked,

5:06 Speaker 4: he stopped in the crosshoks. I'm like, okay, I guess

5:09 Speaker 4: I gotta stop in front of him. But he was

5:10 Speaker 4: looking and left under the you know, traffic coming on

5:13 Speaker 4: and not right at all. And so I'm in front

5:15 Speaker 4: of him and he bumps into me.

5:16 Speaker 5: It was real slow.

5:17 Speaker 4: It was real slow, so I, you know, pounded on

5:19 Speaker 4: his head like, hey, I'm walking here, and.

5:22 Speaker 1: Like in uh, Urban Cowboy or not? Is Urban Cowboy?

5:27 Speaker 2: No?

5:28 Speaker 1: No, not Urban Cowboy.

5:29 Speaker 3: One of the movies?

5:33 Speaker 1: What is uh?

5:34 Speaker 4: Anyway, it was it's a media reference that I'm not,

5:37 Speaker 4: you know, and.

5:40 Speaker 3: I'm walking here. Yeah, I can see it, but I

5:43 Speaker 3: can't see it.

5:44 Speaker 1: I'm embarrassed anyway, I'm sorry I derailed you.

5:47 Speaker 5: Go ahead, No, it's fine.

5:48 Speaker 4: I know the meme, not the movie, and I just

5:51 Speaker 4: I just kept walking like like and this is not

5:54 Speaker 4: the first time either, but so that's like super low speed.

5:57 Speaker 4: Like my thigh was just bummed. But you know, there

5:59 Speaker 4: are people that are dying in the city because of

6:03 Speaker 4: because of challenges with pedestrian and vehicle interactions.

6:07 Speaker 5: To say it.

6:08 Speaker 4: Lightly, so bumpouts are a great one. The other thing

6:12 Speaker 4: they can do is they can narrow the roads, and

6:15 Speaker 4: when you narrow the roads, the cars feel like they

6:18 Speaker 4: need to go slower to be safe, which is really great.

6:20 Speaker 4: So it reduces speeding. Other traffic calming measures bringing our

6:25 Speaker 4: two lane one ways to one lane so we don't

6:27 Speaker 4: get people like trying to race down them, and that

6:30 Speaker 4: has worked on like Maple streets.

6:33 Speaker 5: It's great.

6:34 Speaker 4: And then it added the bike lane, which has really

6:37 Speaker 4: made things a lot easier to get around if you

6:39 Speaker 4: use a wheelchair in the winter or a stroller, because

6:42 Speaker 4: our sidewalks don't always get plowed quickly, so they're using

6:45 Speaker 4: people in wheelchairs and using strollers are using the bike

6:48 Speaker 4: lanes in the winter because they do get plowed.

6:51 Speaker 2: Okay, but I don't like the bike lane being in

6:53 Speaker 2: the middle of the road.

6:53 Speaker 4: I agree, i'd like it protected, but it's a first step.

6:56 Speaker 4: I see it as a first step towards more biking infrastructure.

7:00 Speaker 1: But I do like, though, you know what you're referring

7:02 Speaker 1: to when you take the two lane one way and

7:04 Speaker 1: put it down to one lane, because there's aways people

7:06 Speaker 1: who are gonna complain, well, well, it isn't traffic gonna

7:08 Speaker 1: be slower, But it really isn't, and it is safer.

7:11 Speaker 1: It's it's better for everybody.

7:12 Speaker 4: It's so I've never seen traffic on any of the streets.

7:16 Speaker 4: There's never been more than like five cars.

7:18 Speaker 1: And exactly exactly.

7:20 Speaker 5: Do we really need two lanes for that?

7:22 Speaker 1: Oh, by the way, I found I'm sorry it was

7:23 Speaker 1: Midnight Cowboy and I actually I actually have the Cliffer.

7:26 Speaker 3: But East Galt should want to buy it's motion.

7:29 Speaker 1: I'm a old and dignified social registered Times you know

7:32 Speaker 1: what I mean.

7:33 Speaker 2: They can't be trip down a Times Square to pick

7:36 Speaker 2: up the merchandise.

7:37 Speaker 1: And I gotta have some kind of middleman.

7:40 Speaker 3: And that's world.

7:40 Speaker 1: Daniel Compson, you know what I mean.

7:45 Speaker 5: I'm walking?

7:45 Speaker 1: Are there?

7:49 Speaker 5: You go?

7:50 Speaker 2: And the funny thing about that was that was not

7:52 Speaker 2: part of the movie.

7:54 Speaker 3: It was legit something. I saw some outtake on it

7:58 Speaker 3: saying that that wasn't actually.

7:59 Speaker 2: Yeah, that was impended, that that really happened.

8:03 Speaker 3: The really pull up on him like that and that's

8:05 Speaker 3: what he did. And they kept it in the movie.

8:07 Speaker 4: Real life experience city dwelling right there sall city. We're

8:10 Speaker 4: a small city, but it still happens.

8:12 Speaker 1: Oh does.

8:15 Speaker 2: Are the things that the city can do or does

8:19 Speaker 2: to try? And I don't know if I should say

8:23 Speaker 2: educate people or stop people or from because what my

8:28 Speaker 2: pet peeve is is when you go to a handicapped

8:30 Speaker 2: space and somebody parks their car on the lines next

8:35 Speaker 2: to it, between the handicap car and the ramp. You're

8:38 Speaker 2: trying to use to get on the sidewalk. Oh, I'm

8:41 Speaker 2: just gonna be here in a minute. I'm aren't in

8:42 Speaker 2: for food. And it's like and I don't think people

8:45 Speaker 2: understand that when you do that, sometimes what happens is

8:49 Speaker 2: the person who is going to use that space goes home.

8:52 Speaker 4: Yeah, because they don't spend their money business.

8:54 Speaker 2: They have no idea how long that why they can't

8:56 Speaker 2: get out of their car and go anywhere because you've

8:58 Speaker 2: just cut off the ramp.

9:00 Speaker 4: And we need that ramp sometimes to get in and

9:02 Speaker 4: out of our cars, right, and like, you can't get

9:05 Speaker 4: out of the car if that space is blocked.

9:08 Speaker 5: It's just like, yeah, like.

9:10 Speaker 2: A wheelchair user and you need to put a ramp

9:12 Speaker 2: down to get your wheelchair out, there's no way to

9:14 Speaker 2: get out. That's that space is part of the handicap

9:17 Speaker 2: parking space. It's not beside it. It's not a no

9:20 Speaker 2: parking zone. It's literally part of the handicapped space to

9:25 Speaker 2: enable somebody to be able to pull out a ramp

9:27 Speaker 2: and fully uxit their vehicle and safely get up onto

9:30 Speaker 2: the sidewalk. Because you know what you can't do very

9:33 Speaker 2: well in a wheelchair, especially the heavy electric.

9:35 Speaker 3: Ones, is jump a curb herbs. You can't jump the curb,

9:38 Speaker 3: you can't step up on the curb. You need the ramp.

9:42 Speaker 2: So when you park your car on the ramp, you

9:44 Speaker 2: trap the handicapped individual.

9:47 Speaker 4: Either in the restaurants in their car right, Like, it's

9:51 Speaker 4: no good. And there were so many times when I

9:53 Speaker 4: was so I had a variety of devices to get around.

9:56 Speaker 4: Sometimes it was a wheelchair, sometimes it was like a

9:58 Speaker 4: peg leg because I still had one good foot. But

10:01 Speaker 4: the number of times where like the only task I

10:04 Speaker 4: could really do to contribute to my family life was

10:06 Speaker 4: do the grocery shopping. I couldn't get the groceries out

10:08 Speaker 4: of the car and into the house, but I could

10:09 Speaker 4: do the shopping, and if I timed it right right,

10:11 Speaker 4: I could bring them home. My husband my partner would

10:14 Speaker 4: come home, unload the car, and I'd have done something

10:16 Speaker 4: helpful for us at the time, And it felt huge

10:20 Speaker 4: right to be able to contribute that way. And when

10:22 Speaker 4: the spaces were blocked, either because someone was parked in

10:25 Speaker 4: the parallel lines or people are like, oh, I'm just

10:27 Speaker 4: picking someone up, I'm waiting for them to come in

10:29 Speaker 4: and out, but you don't have an accessible placard. Then

10:33 Speaker 4: you're not supposed to be in that spot. I understand

10:35 Speaker 4: that people can have temporary disabilities, like you know all

10:40 Speaker 4: the time, but then you have to go and get

10:41 Speaker 4: your your placard, go through the process, get the placard. Absolutely,

10:45 Speaker 4: maybe you should have one.

10:46 Speaker 3: There are temporary handicap placards. That's what they're for.

10:50 Speaker 4: That's what they're for. And then I would not be

10:53 Speaker 4: able to accomplish my one task for the day, and

10:55 Speaker 4: I would go into businesses and I would tell them

10:57 Speaker 4: I was like, hey, you know, like in parking lots,

11:00 Speaker 4: grocery stores, you know that have accessible space spaces set

11:03 Speaker 4: aside just for their premise. And I go in science

11:07 Speaker 4: to be like, hey, do you know that you have

11:08 Speaker 4: a lot of people doing this that you know it's

11:11 Speaker 4: keeping me from being able to come in here, and

11:12 Speaker 4: they tell me it wasn't a priority. Like yeah, talk

11:15 Speaker 4: about the trauma that people with disabilities experience, just literally

11:19 Speaker 4: being told they're not a priority or the afterthought.

11:22 Speaker 1: And by the way, too for for people who do that,

11:24 Speaker 1: who do park in a handicapped spot when they shouldn't,

11:27 Speaker 1: you know, even if they're just a sociopath and they

11:29 Speaker 1: don't care about anybody else they should at least care

11:32 Speaker 1: that they might get a what is it, a five

11:33 Speaker 1: hundred dollars fine if you get caught doing that.

11:36 Speaker 4: True, you can call the parking department, yes and tell

11:39 Speaker 4: people that are and tell them yes. And they they've

11:42 Speaker 4: told me that they do like those tickets because they

11:45 Speaker 4: are such big generators for the city. Yes, so you know,

11:49 Speaker 4: do call the parking department. Their their numbers on their

11:52 Speaker 4: website and they say when they when they can, they'll

11:55 Speaker 4: send someone out.

11:56 Speaker 1: I saw it happen once in real time. I was

11:58 Speaker 1: at the not well, there was when we were on

12:00 Speaker 1: Elm Stream, there was that, but I also saw even

12:03 Speaker 1: before that, like years ago. I think it was when

12:05 Speaker 1: we first moved to Manchester. I was getting the mail

12:07 Speaker 1: downtown because we have a post office box, and I

12:09 Speaker 1: saw some some entitled jerk just you know, he parked

12:13 Speaker 1: across from the y but in one of the handicap spots.

12:16 Speaker 2: You in one of only two handicapped spots in that area.

12:20 Speaker 3: It's not like there's a bunch in that area.

12:22 Speaker 1: It's literally two and he's and he's uh, and he got,

12:25 Speaker 1: you know, he got. He's on his way back to

12:27 Speaker 1: his car and the parking. Parking enforcement guy was waiting

12:31 Speaker 1: for him, and excellent gave him a ticket. Good And

12:33 Speaker 1: of course the guy's arguing with him. You know, well,

12:35 Speaker 1: you know, I was only in there for a few minutes.

12:37 Speaker 2: And that's not the point, dude, And that's always the excuse.

12:40 Speaker 2: It's only a few minutes. Your only a few minutes.

12:43 Speaker 2: Stop somebody else's life exactly.

12:46 Speaker 3: In their tracks.

12:47 Speaker 2: They can't do anything, they can't go anywhere, they can't

12:49 Speaker 2: accomplish what they're doing. You can accomplish what you're accomplishing

12:52 Speaker 2: from any other location.

12:54 Speaker 3: They can't.

12:55 Speaker 2: So we had some hals happens, and I've seen it

12:57 Speaker 2: happen and I've done it myself. We go home, we

13:00 Speaker 2: can't get what we need to get done done where

13:02 Speaker 2: we gener go home, And that is in and of itself,

13:07 Speaker 2: is a really depressing thing to have happened. It's in

13:11 Speaker 2: disability life. Your limitations are such that anything you can

13:15 Speaker 2: do independently is a very valued.

13:18 Speaker 4: Yes, I say it sent me home in tears on

13:21 Speaker 4: more than one occasion.

13:23 Speaker 2: I'm glad to know that you're doing this, that there's

13:26 Speaker 2: a voice, and I like the fact that you're you

13:29 Speaker 2: are a disabled person who is sitting at the table

13:32 Speaker 2: because I'm a firm believer and nothing about us without us. Yes,

13:35 Speaker 2: you know when they create laws about disavailable people, but

13:38 Speaker 2: they don't include us at the table when they're creating

13:41 Speaker 2: that law or that program or that thing, So they

13:43 Speaker 2: don't really consider our perspective.

13:45 Speaker 3: They consider what they think our perspective is right.

13:48 Speaker 4: And then on top of that, I'm going to add

13:50 Speaker 4: to that, not only should we be sitting at the table, okay,

13:53 Speaker 4: but maybe consider paying us for our lived expertise, because

13:57 Speaker 4: having us consult on projects about whether something is accessible

14:01 Speaker 4: or not is wonderful.

14:03 Speaker 5: We want to be there.

14:04 Speaker 4: But you need to also recognize that it is an

14:06 Speaker 4: expertise that you know, paying a consulting fee isn't out

14:11 Speaker 4: of the question, right That this is you need this

14:15 Speaker 4: information and we have this information right right?

14:19 Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, you need to.

14:20 Speaker 2: Have like a It really forms around a discussion of

14:23 Speaker 2: trying to get people to change the way they think

14:26 Speaker 2: instead of thinking of disability as something special, we have

14:30 Speaker 2: to do something special for you. We don't want anything special.

14:33 Speaker 2: We just want the same accessibility at everybody else house.

14:37 Speaker 2: I want to be able to walk through that business's door,

14:39 Speaker 2: just like you do, which means I have to be

14:41 Speaker 2: able to park, and I have to be able to

14:42 Speaker 2: get out of the car onto the sidewalk.

14:45 Speaker 3: To that door and then through the door and then

14:47 Speaker 3: through the door.

14:49 Speaker 4: Yes, so many things.

14:52 Speaker 2: You have a lot of hats though, you know a

14:54 Speaker 2: lot your commissioner, you work on these issues for the city.

14:58 Speaker 4: Yes, I'm a person with this abilities who's you know,

15:01 Speaker 4: constantly advocating whenever I can. I'm also the founder of Uncharted.

15:06 Speaker 4: It's a it's a nonprofit here in Manchester that teaches

15:11 Speaker 4: kids science, but we package it to look like art.

15:15 Speaker 4: We trick them into thinking it's art. And we're doing

15:17 Speaker 4: that from like because I've talked about it here with y'all,

15:20 Speaker 4: we're doing it from Franklin, New Hampshire, down to Lowell, Massachusetts.

15:23 Speaker 4: And I've got ten people working for me doing this.

15:26 Speaker 3: That is so awesome.

15:27 Speaker 4: It's honestly the best life ever.

15:31 Speaker 1: That's great.

15:32 Speaker 3: How do you make science look like art?

15:34 Speaker 4: Okay, So I think we mostly have an adult audience here,

15:38 Speaker 4: So I'm going to talk about a slime I'm inventing

15:40 Speaker 4: right now. So for the Sahegan Valley Rotary Club, they

15:45 Speaker 4: have a big Kentucky derby party at the at one

15:48 Speaker 4: of the casinos to raise funds, and they are constantly

15:51 Speaker 4: giving away funds.

15:52 Speaker 5: They gave us funds.

15:52 Speaker 4: They're really great, and they wanted a gift basket that

15:56 Speaker 4: people can raffle on, and so I'm going to invent

15:59 Speaker 4: a mint.

16:00 Speaker 5: Julip slime for them.

16:03 Speaker 4: So last night I was boiling down a handle of bourbon, yeah,

16:09 Speaker 4: to make the smell for the slime. I'm getting gold,

16:12 Speaker 4: I'm getting ice cubes, I'm getting horses. And that's a

16:14 Speaker 4: real simple one, right, But I'm doing science trying to

16:16 Speaker 4: figure out how do I put bourbon smell in a slime?

16:19 Speaker 4: An adult giveaway, but I've thought of those things for

16:23 Speaker 4: a lot of concepts for kids. Whether it's like what

16:26 Speaker 4: is ambergris right that comes out of whales and washes

16:30 Speaker 4: up on the shore and is found in perfumes. Is

16:33 Speaker 4: it their earwax? But we put it in perfumes.

16:37 Speaker 3: It's ear wax? It's yeah, wow, Yeah, it's.

16:42 Speaker 4: A good way to it's a good way to describe it.

16:46 Speaker 4: Or or like how does a whale feel in compared

16:49 Speaker 4: to a shirk? What's their skin like? And I can

16:52 Speaker 4: do that entirely with slime.

16:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she's uh, we've both been coffin. No allergies,

17:00 Speaker 1: We're not sick, it's just out.

17:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, my nose won't stop.

17:03 Speaker 1: The allergies brutal. It's I'm living on and musinacha.

17:08 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's my life too. Sometimes it mine's more in

17:11 Speaker 4: the fall. I'm fortunate like the spring. When I get

17:13 Speaker 4: the fall.

17:13 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh it's it's been awful. The magnolias are yeah,

17:17 Speaker 1: I mean everything's blooming all at once, and yeah this

17:20 Speaker 1: is this is particularly rough on this year for whatever reason.

17:23 Speaker 4: But the hyacinths were strong. I smelled them in my

17:25 Speaker 4: French porch. I've got a really great set of hyacinths

17:28 Speaker 4: I put in and they just they were pungent this week.

17:31 Speaker 1: So oh really, yeah, is high here?

17:33 Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a beautiful magnolia tree right out of

17:37 Speaker 2: my art space, right on the outside of the window.

17:40 Speaker 3: It's gorgeous, but it kills me.

17:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nice to look at, but.

17:43 Speaker 3: But I love looking at.

17:44 Speaker 4: Magnolias are some of the oldest trees around. They were

17:48 Speaker 4: around in dinosaurs were around.

17:49 Speaker 1: Really, yes, I didn't know that.

17:52 Speaker 4: Yeah, they're a really cool tree. Like in general, they're

17:54 Speaker 4: just a cool tree. So but that that kind of thing.

17:57 Speaker 4: So when we're talking about dinosaurs, you better believe and

18:00 Speaker 4: tell kids about magnolias. But we are all about, you know,

18:05 Speaker 4: using slime to educate with a variety of concepts. Or

18:08 Speaker 4: we can use paint and talk about negative and positive space,

18:11 Speaker 4: or we can talk about color play, right, warmth and cool.

18:15 Speaker 4: While that's art, that's also science. That's physics, and that's

18:17 Speaker 4: light waves and we can talk about that. We also

18:20 Speaker 4: use like zombies. Zombies is a lot of fun. So

18:24 Speaker 4: zombies wear their anatomy on the outside, right, So what

18:27 Speaker 4: a great way to get kids excited about learning anatomy,

18:30 Speaker 4: bones sestive system. And then also we can talk about

18:33 Speaker 4: why do rotting things smell bad? And what does zombie

18:38 Speaker 4: actually smell like? And we can put that smell into

18:41 Speaker 4: this lime for real, right, and we can put little

18:43 Speaker 4: decomposing parts and little worms and maggots, and the kids

18:47 Speaker 4: love it. Oh it's very gross, it's lovely. The kids

18:49 Speaker 4: gets so excited by it, and it's that excitement that

18:53 Speaker 4: makes sure that they internalize the concepts then hold on

18:56 Speaker 4: to it, you know, just the length of the class.

19:00 Speaker 1: What was the genesis of unchartered. Why do you like,

19:03 Speaker 1: how did you start this?

19:04 Speaker 5: Yeah?

19:05 Speaker 4: So I'm a biomedical artist, that's my My degree is

19:07 Speaker 4: in biomedical art, and so I work.

19:10 Speaker 3: Can you explain what biomedical art is?

19:12 Speaker 1: And that's an actual degree, biomedical art.

19:14 Speaker 3: I didn't know that was a degree.

19:16 Speaker 4: There's only two programs lest I checked in North America

19:19 Speaker 4: that graduate people with this degree.

19:21 Speaker 1: Wow.

19:21 Speaker 4: So I went to the Cleveland Institute of Art a

19:24 Speaker 4: team of Case Western Reserve University for the science courses,

19:28 Speaker 4: and it's a combination of art and science.

19:31 Speaker 5: Well, think about it.

19:32 Speaker 4: This, that's the way you have science books, right, somebody

19:35 Speaker 4: you had one either in school when you were like

19:37 Speaker 4: when you were in high school or whatever, and there

19:39 Speaker 4: were drawings in those books. Someone has to do them.

19:42 Speaker 1: Oh okay, now.

19:43 Speaker 4: It gets a little more Yeah, so it gets a

19:47 Speaker 4: little more complicated than that. Like my favorite is when

19:50 Speaker 4: you know there's a new technique or a new science,

19:52 Speaker 4: or a new protein that's discovered, and we need to

19:55 Speaker 4: have ways to demonstrate to people what that is and

19:58 Speaker 4: what that looks like, a new surgical procedure, a clinical

20:03 Speaker 4: trial that's being recruited for that kind of thing. So

20:06 Speaker 4: I did work in radio pharmaceutical clinical trials for a

20:09 Speaker 4: number of years, doing like informed consent and patient and

20:12 Speaker 4: physician recruitment ups and downs in the pharmaceutical industry, and

20:18 Speaker 4: it was honestly uncharted. Was an accident. People always just

20:21 Speaker 4: stare at me in disbelief, But it was an accident.

20:25 Speaker 4: I just started tutoring a young man who was gifted

20:27 Speaker 4: in science. I wanted to get better at art and

20:30 Speaker 4: I was between jobs right with the layoffs in the industry,

20:33 Speaker 4: and it went really well. So his mom asked if

20:35 Speaker 4: I wanted to teach a class after school at the

20:37 Speaker 4: school she worked at, and then and then Player's Charter

20:40 Speaker 4: School wanted the same thing. Within two weeks, I was

20:43 Speaker 4: in two schools, and then within six months I was

20:46 Speaker 4: in all the Title one schools in Manchester.

20:48 Speaker 1: Wow's so awesome.

20:49 Speaker 4: And here we are eight years later, and as of

20:52 Speaker 4: this month, we've been a nonprofit for one whole year,

20:55 Speaker 4: which means we can apply for grants and bring our

20:57 Speaker 4: programming to people for free, which is my favorite. I

21:02 Speaker 4: love the I hate billing people. I just want to

21:05 Speaker 4: give every way everything away for free. Unfortunately I have

21:08 Speaker 4: people I need to pay, and I kind of need

21:10 Speaker 4: to make money too, yes, sometimes, So yeah, we're being

21:16 Speaker 4: able to, Like we got grants from like the Bean

21:17 Speaker 4: Foundation and Citizens Bank and Saint Mary's and they've helped

21:21 Speaker 4: us both with our space expansion. So we're in a

21:23 Speaker 4: totally new space now. We went from my six hundred

21:27 Speaker 4: squarefoot garage to a twelve hundred square foot place at

21:31 Speaker 4: the corner of Elman Webster. Okay, and we've already filled

21:34 Speaker 4: it somehow, It's not that surprising, I guess when I

21:36 Speaker 4: think of all this stuff we have. But we take

21:38 Speaker 4: all our supplies, we pack them and we take them

21:40 Speaker 4: to the schools, to the classrooms so that students don't

21:44 Speaker 4: have to get transported, right, you don't have to go

21:46 Speaker 4: somewhere else to get these classes. We're in the schools

21:49 Speaker 4: where the kids are, and our favorite place to be

21:51 Speaker 4: is in our Title I schools where the kids don't

21:54 Speaker 4: always have everything everyone else does. So it's title one

21:57 Speaker 4: means the schools like half the schools on lunch assistance. Okay,

22:00 Speaker 4: these are the schools that need the programming, that need

22:04 Speaker 4: the homework help, that need to know that science is

22:07 Speaker 4: fun and creative. Yes, and so now we're on all

22:12 Speaker 4: the title in schools in Nashville as well. And we're

22:15 Speaker 4: also working with Franklin High School that just got they

22:17 Speaker 4: just got New Hampshire School of the Year because of

22:19 Speaker 4: the unique programs, and we're one of the programs. Huge

22:24 Speaker 4: congratulations to Franklin. Franklin High School and David over there,

22:28 Speaker 4: the principal, revolutionary, wonderful thought processes. I love everything going

22:33 Speaker 4: on there, and so we've been able to contribute there.

22:35 Speaker 4: And then we work like Housing in Urban Development and

22:37 Speaker 4: Lowell and we're gonna we just got a new grant

22:40 Speaker 4: with Positive Street Art where we're going to be doing

22:42 Speaker 4: mural work and teaching the kids how to make the murals.

22:44 Speaker 4: And then Positive Street Art is going to take the

22:46 Speaker 4: whole community and work through a big, big, bad, bad

22:49 Speaker 4: cool New York can I Okay, I'm always in the school,

22:54 Speaker 4: so I realized. But it's going to be really beautiful

22:56 Speaker 4: because we know that the work that they're constantly produces

22:59 Speaker 4: absolutely top tier. Yeah, and so we're getting to collaborate

23:02 Speaker 4: on that project.

23:03 Speaker 1: In terms of how you do this. Did you does

23:06 Speaker 1: something like this already exists elsewhere that you were able

23:09 Speaker 1: to sort of model or get ideas from, or did

23:11 Speaker 1: you have to come up with this whole concept on

23:14 Speaker 1: your own.

23:15 Speaker 5: I came up with it.

23:16 Speaker 1: Wow, that's all that's awesome.

23:19 Speaker 4: Like for me, art and science has always been something

23:22 Speaker 4: that's together. I don't see them necessarily separate. I was

23:26 Speaker 4: my mom homeschooled me growing up. She's an engineer, so

23:29 Speaker 4: she was able to give me all the science I

23:30 Speaker 4: possibly wanted. But I, you know, as she says it,

23:33 Speaker 4: I was outdrawing her in like first grade.

23:36 Speaker 5: Wow.

23:36 Speaker 4: She knew art was going to be a part of

23:37 Speaker 4: my life, Okay, And so I was just always able

23:40 Speaker 4: to combine them in my explorations. And so I've been

23:42 Speaker 4: able to take that and give it to other people. Okay,

23:46 Speaker 4: that my life experience is being homeschooled and arts and

23:49 Speaker 4: science educated and combine them in the ways that I

23:52 Speaker 4: see the world. And really modern education silos subjects in

23:56 Speaker 4: ways that didn't used to happen. You think of the

23:59 Speaker 4: rent of the Renaissance artist, right, and they were they

24:02 Speaker 4: were engineers, they were artists, they were oriitators, they were poets,

24:06 Speaker 4: they were they were building buildings, they were architects. Like

24:10 Speaker 4: the science and art was always together, it wasn't separate. Yeah,

24:15 Speaker 4: because art is ultimately a way to process what we

24:17 Speaker 4: know and what earned and then communicated to others.

24:20 Speaker 5: Right, So it's a more.

24:22 Speaker 4: Recent invention, and I think we should do away with

24:26 Speaker 4: the siloine like art and science always together.

24:28 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, interesting. Yeah, I'm curious about the homeschooling thing

24:35 Speaker 1: because there's a stigma. I don't think we talked about

24:37 Speaker 1: this last summer. Were now There's there's such a stigma

24:40 Speaker 1: attached to that. But you seem like an example of

24:44 Speaker 1: someone who clearly would would cut against the stigma because

24:47 Speaker 1: you're obviously very successful at what you're doing. It sounds

24:50 Speaker 1: like for you, homeschooling worked out pretty pretty well.

24:52 Speaker 4: So I was homeschooled, So I went to kindergarten because

24:55 Speaker 4: I went to kindergarten very early.

24:56 Speaker 5: I wanted to go to school.

24:57 Speaker 4: I was born at home, and so my mom, I'm

25:00 Speaker 4: someding to a private school kindergarten, and then I I

25:02 Speaker 4: But then we moved. So we were in the military,

25:04 Speaker 4: so I moved a lot growing up, Like we were

25:06 Speaker 4: living in Texas and New Mexico, Korea, Hawaii, like I

25:10 Speaker 4: was all over the place. So homeschooling made sense from

25:12 Speaker 4: a consistency stamp.

25:13 Speaker 1: Oh, so you weren't. So you weren't constantly being put

25:16 Speaker 1: into a school only to be taken out of it

25:18 Speaker 1: and then putting out another school.

25:20 Speaker 4: And okay, exactly, And so that allowed a lot of

25:22 Speaker 4: consistency with my education. Yeah, and my mom's an engineer

25:26 Speaker 4: and my dad, you know, has a physics degree, so

25:28 Speaker 4: they were able to educate in like subjects and allow

25:33 Speaker 4: me to explore, like I think I probably went to

25:35 Speaker 4: college level anatomy and physiology in third grade. Wow, so

25:38 Speaker 4: interested in it allowed me to explore and hyper fixate

25:42 Speaker 4: on the subjects.

25:44 Speaker 5: I was moved. What is your IQ?

25:46 Speaker 4: I've not been tested. I'm not I have family members

25:51 Speaker 4: who are.

25:51 Speaker 5: I have not been tested.

25:52 Speaker 3: Okay, I have not been tested.

25:54 Speaker 4: Ah, but yeah, I mean I so I in high school,

25:58 Speaker 4: I graduated thirty second and class at six hundred and

26:00 Speaker 4: twenty five.

26:01 Speaker 5: So I did alright for myself.

26:02 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, the homeschooling allowed that consistency. But

26:09 Speaker 4: you know, my parents also were very aware of that stigma.

26:12 Speaker 4: So they've worked with homeschooling groups. And I was constantly

26:14 Speaker 4: in sports teams, so I know that there's this idea

26:16 Speaker 4: that homeschoolers are antisocial or can't socialize and that hasn't

26:22 Speaker 4: been what I've noticed. I know there are homeschool but

26:24 Speaker 4: I would say that maybe people who struggle to socialize

26:27 Speaker 4: are choosing homeschooling, and so that's a skewed demographic because

26:30 Speaker 4: maybe they are struggling socially in school and so they're

26:33 Speaker 4: not learning, and so homeschooling might be the more appropriate

26:35 Speaker 4: choice for them, right that to help them build tools.

26:39 Speaker 4: I would not say it's for everyone.

26:41 Speaker 1: It's yeah, I was gonna say, because you might in

26:43 Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things, you might be the exception,

26:45 Speaker 1: not the rule.

26:46 Speaker 4: I you know, I've seen plenty. I've known plenty of

26:48 Speaker 4: people who homeschool who turned out.

26:50 Speaker 1: Just oh sure, me too, me too.

26:52 Speaker 4: Yeah, But I've also seen some people who maybe had

26:55 Speaker 4: some deficiencies in some subject areas because my parents didn't

26:57 Speaker 4: have the expertise to carry that through.

26:59 Speaker 1: Right.

27:00 Speaker 4: But you know, I think there's a lot more tools

27:02 Speaker 4: online now. They are a lot more acpable for people

27:04 Speaker 4: to be able to make up for any particular deficiencies

27:07 Speaker 4: in their education if they're choosing to home educate their kids.

27:10 Speaker 4: But I am also at the same time, while my

27:12 Speaker 4: parents chose that for me, I'm a huge proponent of

27:15 Speaker 4: making sure we fund our schools adequately and make sure

27:18 Speaker 4: that's available for everyone. Yes, because a lot of parents

27:23 Speaker 4: are working two and three jobs and they're not able

27:25 Speaker 4: to homesol.

27:25 Speaker 1: Right, So well that's the other part of it, too,

27:28 Speaker 1: is like how does anyone even afford it to be

27:30 Speaker 1: able to do it?

27:31 Speaker 4: You know, my mom didn't work or and then when

27:34 Speaker 4: she did work, she was self employed as a seamstress

27:37 Speaker 4: and she'd like make square dancing outfits. I remember, yeah, yeah, yeah,

27:43 Speaker 4: she's very good at sewing, so she made money that way.

27:47 Speaker 4: But yeah, my dad worked. You know, we lived in

27:51 Speaker 4: the military provided housing and my mom My mom took

27:56 Speaker 4: time off of her engineering career to educate us, and

27:58 Speaker 4: then we went on. We went onto small pate schools.

28:00 Speaker 4: I did for middle school, and then I was in

28:02 Speaker 4: a very large public high school, which is why I

28:04 Speaker 4: have a six hundred and twenty five person graduating class. Yeah,

28:08 Speaker 4: so you know, I ran the gamut of the varieties

28:11 Speaker 4: of education out there.

28:12 Speaker 1: Well, so now I'm curious, so when you went to

28:13 Speaker 1: that high school, was like, what was that like, because

28:16 Speaker 1: that's obviously a huge transition after all that homeschool Yeah.

28:19 Speaker 4: Fortunately I had this this smaller middle school in between.

28:23 Speaker 4: Oh okay, that that really helped. There was I look,

28:28 Speaker 4: I'm strange, I'm weird. Okay, the homeschooling, I love you.

28:33 Speaker 1: I was gonna say, that's why we like you.

28:34 Speaker 4: Homeschooling probably allowed that to flourish. And did I have

28:38 Speaker 4: some social difficulties, yes, but who doesn't in middle school

28:42 Speaker 4: and high school? Right, And for me, honestly, it came

28:47 Speaker 4: out of more. I'm a very black and white person,

28:50 Speaker 4: and I believe strongly in things that are right or wrong,

28:54 Speaker 4: and I will say them and stand up for them.

28:56 Speaker 4: And I look back on it now and maybe the

28:59 Speaker 4: people that were you know, I felt ostracized from I

29:02 Speaker 4: didn't really need to be friends with, right, so in

29:06 Speaker 4: the time, and I didn't feel that way, but.

29:09 Speaker 1: You get that, you get that with hindsight. But yeah,

29:12 Speaker 1: but at the time it's rough.

29:15 Speaker 4: Yes, And so you know, I was able to find

29:17 Speaker 4: my people in the arts community and and and and

29:20 Speaker 4: then science nerds too, so you know, I got through it.

29:25 Speaker 4: What else I don't know. I was very able to

29:28 Speaker 4: study on my own. So if I came across a

29:30 Speaker 4: teacher that wasn't great for me. I was able to

29:34 Speaker 4: get through it.

29:34 Speaker 2: When you entered Were you in an advanced grade then

29:39 Speaker 2: were your class Were you in the same age bracket

29:42 Speaker 2: is your classmates or were you advanced from them?

29:44 Speaker 4: Yes, I was in the same age bracket, and so yeah,

29:49 Speaker 4: school was easy for me. School was ultimately easy for me,

29:54 Speaker 4: except for math. I struggled in math, and I think

29:57 Speaker 4: if I could go back in time, I know I

29:59 Speaker 4: get I'd get like diagnosed with dyscalculia. Dyscalculia, which is

30:03 Speaker 4: like dyslexia but for numbers.

30:05 Speaker 1: Oh interesting, Yeah, I learned something because I didn't know that.

30:09 Speaker 1: I just always assumed that dyslexia covered both letters numbers. Yeah.

30:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, because I don't have any problems with letters. I'm

30:16 Speaker 4: an avid reader, fast reader even, Yeah, But the numbers

30:21 Speaker 4: just would move on the page. I would use bash

30:23 Speaker 4: paper and put each number on each square and try

30:26 Speaker 4: really hard to get through math that way, no kidding,

30:29 Speaker 4: and I could get the concepts, but then I could

30:30 Speaker 4: never just get the right answer. So I kept getting

30:32 Speaker 4: swapped into the advanced math class down to the regular

30:35 Speaker 4: math pass to the advanced like because I like, you

30:36 Speaker 4: get it, but you just can't make it happen on paper,

30:39 Speaker 4: you understand it.

30:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, So math.

30:42 Speaker 4: Was always a challenge for me, and and that really,

30:45 Speaker 4: you know, fed my understanding for un chartered because I'd

30:49 Speaker 4: see a lot of my friends who'd struggle in different

30:51 Speaker 4: subjects and be like, you're smart, why aren't you getting this?

30:54 Speaker 4: And ultimately, like when you presented it to them in

30:56 Speaker 4: a different way, like with the hands on learning method

30:59 Speaker 4: or related to a subject that they love, like art,

31:03 Speaker 4: they would get into it. They get excited by it.

31:06 Speaker 4: And I tutor my friends, you know, I'd I'd help

31:10 Speaker 4: them out in class all the time. And it when

31:13 Speaker 4: you look at my life as like a gamut, as

31:15 Speaker 4: a journey, it makes total sense with where I am today.

31:17 Speaker 5: Yeah.

31:18 Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's not where I thought i'd go. I'm thrilled,

31:21 Speaker 4: Don't get me wrong. I love my life, but yeah,

31:24 Speaker 4: founding a company that teaches science and packages it to

31:28 Speaker 4: look like art and then turning into a nonprofit so

31:30 Speaker 4: I'm sure that every kid can have access to it.

31:33 Speaker 5: Yeah, is it totally makes sense?

31:36 Speaker 1: Yeah? If you're just joining us, we're talking with Amber

31:39 Speaker 1: Nicole Cannon. Am I saying your last name? Credit?

31:41 Speaker 5: Absolutely?

31:42 Speaker 1: Okay? I just want to make sure it wasn't Cannon,

31:43 Speaker 1: and I'm just like blowing it. That's what I thought, Okay,

31:46 Speaker 1: because it's not spelled.

31:48 Speaker 4: Like people, it's c an and A and yeah yeah

31:53 Speaker 4: instead of oh and. Honestly, when I married into that name,

31:56 Speaker 4: I thought people would get it easier than they do.

31:58 Speaker 4: Oh no kidding really Yeah, yeah, that my my name

32:00 Speaker 4: before I got married with Suepan. So if you're into baseball,

32:03 Speaker 4: you might know the name s U P p A n.

32:06 Speaker 4: My dad's cousin was a picture for the Red Sox. Okay,

32:12 Speaker 4: the Red Sox don't like him because he didn't do

32:15 Speaker 4: super well there, and then he went on to the

32:16 Speaker 4: Cardinals and like won the world. Yeah he he looks

32:20 Speaker 4: like a Soupan like all the men in my family. Okay,

32:23 Speaker 4: definitely related. But I thought that name was just annoying

32:27 Speaker 4: to have to tell people how to spell time. So

32:29 Speaker 4: I went to Canon thinking it would be easier. But

32:31 Speaker 4: because of the A, I can't win whatever.

32:37 Speaker 5: Yeah, fine, I moved up in the alphabet.

32:39 Speaker 1: So that's that's true. That's true. Yeah, when yeah, people

32:45 Speaker 1: people struggle with my with my last name.

32:47 Speaker 4: People, Yeah, I keep wanting to put a second C

32:50 Speaker 4: in it. That's what I always want to do because

32:52 Speaker 4: it's Canarton, right.

32:55 Speaker 1: Well, so Canarton became my nickname in school because it's

32:59 Speaker 1: Connorton Conorton. But the first day of school, inevitably there

33:04 Speaker 1: would be or the first day of the semester, there

33:07 Speaker 1: would be teachers in high school who you know, they'd

33:09 Speaker 1: be doing roll call, and if they didn't already know me,

33:10 Speaker 1: they'd get to my name and they would be like

33:12 Speaker 1: Matthew Kinnarton. And so that kind of became my nickname

33:18 Speaker 1: in high school. Most of my friends called me that,

33:22 Speaker 1: but it's but there aren't many of us. There are

33:25 Speaker 1: not many Connorton's. And you know, the the spelling that

33:28 Speaker 1: makes more sense co o n n E r t

33:31 Speaker 1: o n for how it makes more sense for hout's

33:33 Speaker 1: pronounce that's some more common spelling.

33:35 Speaker 4: Really you have a special spelling as well.

33:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, c O n n A r t o n

33:39 Speaker 1: is very rare. There is another matt Connorton right here

33:41 Speaker 1: in New Hampshire, but he's my uncle, so that kind

33:43 Speaker 1: of doesn't count. But yeah, but people struggle with my name.

33:47 Speaker 1: But the good news about that is, like, if you know,

33:50 Speaker 1: like I'm not likely to run into a problem. You know,

33:52 Speaker 1: in terms of branding, like with the radio show.

33:55 Speaker 5: You know, yeah, that's great. You got to think about that.

33:58 Speaker 1: Like when I went to get matt con dot com.

34:01 Speaker 1: It was very it was easy.

34:02 Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, that's that's well. And that's what they

34:05 Speaker 4: say too. That's why famous people sometimes name their kids

34:08 Speaker 4: very uniquely, right, because they want to make sure they

34:10 Speaker 4: have a brand.

34:11 Speaker 1: Right, right, Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly.

34:14 Speaker 4: Your parents were just watching out for you.

34:16 Speaker 1: Yeah.

34:16 Speaker 4: I guess they need to be an entertainment.

34:21 Speaker 1: If you want to call it that.

34:22 Speaker 5: Sure, I'm entertained.

34:26 Speaker 1: So I chartered so and so this has grown fast, right,

34:29 Speaker 1: because how long? How long is this? I wanted to

34:31 Speaker 1: start it ten years ago?

34:32 Speaker 4: We've been doing it for eight years?

34:33 Speaker 1: Eight years? Okay.

34:35 Speaker 4: We had, of course that dip in during COVID everyone

34:39 Speaker 4: no one wanted a traveling teacher.

34:40 Speaker 5: I get it, it makes sense.

34:42 Speaker 4: I support that choice.

34:43 Speaker 1: Were you able to get work arounded at all doing remote.

34:45 Speaker 5: Things a little bit?

34:47 Speaker 3: Yeah?

34:47 Speaker 4: And actually we ended up with like student clients in

34:50 Speaker 4: like Colorado and California and Alabami like we were Virginia.

34:53 Speaker 5: It was it was kind of fun for that. It

34:55 Speaker 5: was not.

34:57 Speaker 4: A money maker. We kept it going for consistency for

35:01 Speaker 4: people's lives. They needed that kind of connection for their

35:05 Speaker 4: kids in after school kind of activities. And we've been

35:10 Speaker 4: holding steady now for the last three years at about

35:13 Speaker 4: like ten employees, which is really great. Where we grew

35:17 Speaker 4: though last year by twenty percent by becoming a nonprofit

35:20 Speaker 4: because we were able to apply for and give away

35:22 Speaker 4: that entire twenty percent. So that's like one hundred students

35:25 Speaker 4: that had programs expanded. They would have only had four

35:28 Speaker 4: weeks before, but now they got eight weeks.

35:29 Speaker 1: Oh, that's great.

35:30 Speaker 4: And one hundred kids that got programming for eight weeks

35:35 Speaker 4: that wouldn't have at all before. So that's a huge

35:38 Speaker 4: amount of growth. Plus last summer we were able to

35:40 Speaker 4: give away like I think it was eleven summer camps

35:43 Speaker 4: through the New Hampshire Council and Developmental Disabilities. They gave

35:47 Speaker 4: us funds to scholarship kids with five or four plans

35:51 Speaker 4: and i EPs to our summer camps. And that was

35:54 Speaker 4: a huge joy to just give away the summer camps

35:57 Speaker 4: entirely to this population.

35:58 Speaker 1: Oh, I can imagine and.

36:00 Speaker 4: Kids that sometimes you know, they need that smaller space

36:04 Speaker 4: to make sure their needs are addressed and that's one

36:06 Speaker 4: of the things we focus on in our summer camps

36:08 Speaker 4: is keeping it to fifteen students at a time to

36:09 Speaker 4: make sure we get that one on one time with

36:11 Speaker 4: each student.

36:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's good, super valuable.

36:14 Speaker 4: And the New Hampshire Council and Developmental Disabilities has also

36:18 Speaker 4: wanted me to make sure that everyone around the state

36:20 Speaker 4: knows that kids with IEPs and five or four plans

36:23 Speaker 4: in any summer camp can get a scholarship. And the

36:26 Speaker 4: includes are camps this year at the Sea Science Center.

36:29 Speaker 1: Oh yes, I'm familiar with the ce Science Center.

36:31 Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yep, so that's where our summer camps are.

36:34 Speaker 1: Oh okay, excellent. You should probably too explain what an

36:37 Speaker 1: IEP is for people who don't know.

36:39 Speaker 4: That's a great idea. It's an individual education plan. Okay,

36:43 Speaker 4: so if you learn differently than what they've decided is standard.

36:47 Speaker 4: Maybe you need to make sure you always get notes

36:50 Speaker 4: from someone already written down from you. Maybe you need

36:52 Speaker 4: to get your book in an audio format because reading

36:56 Speaker 4: is a struggle, or you need to be able to

36:58 Speaker 4: have the opportunity to get up and walk around the

37:00 Speaker 4: classroom for whatever reason because sitting is painful. That would

37:04 Speaker 4: go into an individual education plan. Some people need things

37:08 Speaker 4: like someone who assists them all day long, like a

37:11 Speaker 4: one on one para. And some people just need, you know,

37:15 Speaker 4: to be able to get up and move around the classroom.

37:17 Speaker 5: Make that simple.

37:18 Speaker 4: But the teachers need it to find so they make

37:20 Speaker 4: sure they are supporting you in the best way possible.

37:22 Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha, No, that that makes sense. That makes sense.

37:27 Speaker 1: What's kind of been? Is there anything that's really surprised

37:29 Speaker 1: you on this journey with unchartered? Is there anything that's

37:32 Speaker 1: really kind of you didn't expect? Oh, that's a good question,

37:37 Speaker 1: hopefully in a good way. Although you know, anything or

37:40 Speaker 1: maybe even even challenges that you didn't anticipate, So it

37:42 Speaker 1: could be something.

37:43 Speaker 4: I'll say, so the good thing. We'll go with the

37:47 Speaker 4: good one, and I'll talk about the challenge. Okay, the

37:49 Speaker 4: good one, Well, is it good? I don't know, it's

37:50 Speaker 4: kind of neutral. I did not expect to have to

37:52 Speaker 4: put my face on social media this much. Oh, just

37:56 Speaker 4: a little. Like it turns out like as we follow

37:58 Speaker 4: our trends, like the videos that do the best on

38:00 Speaker 4: Instagram where I'm talking about our programs is with my

38:02 Speaker 4: face of all things people want to see my face,

38:04 Speaker 4: which confuses me, and then the videos do ten percent better.

38:07 Speaker 4: Get this, videos do ten percent better if I wear

38:09 Speaker 4: false eyelashes.

38:11 Speaker 1: Interesting? Interesting?

38:13 Speaker 4: Yeah, so you know, will I do it?

38:15 Speaker 5: Yes?

38:15 Speaker 4: Am I a little sad by it? Yes, I'll do

38:18 Speaker 4: it to get the extra tension and get people. But

38:20 Speaker 4: our videos are great apparently, I'm sometimes funny, so you

38:24 Speaker 4: know they're worth a watch.

38:26 Speaker 1: Well, you got those school glasses too.

38:28 Speaker 5: I do like big glasses.

38:29 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, anything big and bold something that. Plus, when

38:33 Speaker 4: you put on glasses, people don't notice it if you

38:35 Speaker 4: didn't put on makeup unless it's all lashes.

38:37 Speaker 1: Interesting apparently, and they assume you know, there's a there's

38:40 Speaker 1: an authority with that.

38:41 Speaker 5: Right, I'm smart?

38:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm smart. Wasn't there a study that showed that

38:48 Speaker 1: there actually is? It's not just a stereotype. There actually

38:51 Speaker 1: is a People who are near sighted tend to be

38:54 Speaker 1: higher IQ.

38:55 Speaker 4: I want to say I heard that, but I can't

38:57 Speaker 4: verify it with a source.

38:58 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I and I may have just imagined

39:01 Speaker 1: it because I like it, because as you can see,

39:03 Speaker 1: I'm not I don't wear glasses, so it might just

39:05 Speaker 1: all be in my head.

39:06 Speaker 4: It could be I wouldn't be surprised if there's a correlation.

39:09 Speaker 4: Like people who have glasses discovered they needed glasses because

39:15 Speaker 4: they were like either paying more attention to school and

39:17 Speaker 4: couldn't see the board or reading something at a distance

39:19 Speaker 4: because they like reading.

39:21 Speaker 5: There you go, and so there.

39:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds like a reach.

39:24 Speaker 4: I'm not gonna lie, but well, you know, we don't

39:27 Speaker 4: want to. You know, Causation is not correlation.

39:29 Speaker 1: That's right.

39:29 Speaker 4: Correlation is not causation, right, right. You know we should

39:32 Speaker 4: see the data. We should see the data.

39:35 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, but but yeah, but to your point about

39:38 Speaker 1: social media, it is so important with anything that you're doing.

39:41 Speaker 1: It's critical.

39:42 Speaker 4: Oh and then if I dress up as a whale shark,

39:44 Speaker 4: that really wins everything.

39:45 Speaker 5: Really Yeah, okay, so I.

39:47 Speaker 4: Have a whale shark costume that I made. Yeah, it's uh,

39:52 Speaker 4: you know, whatever it takes to get science to yes,

39:54 Speaker 4: I'll do it, I will do it.

39:57 Speaker 1: Yeah.

39:57 Speaker 4: As far as challenges, so this is that's an interesting one,

40:01 Speaker 4: and it's all totally my fault.

40:02 Speaker 5: It's that.

40:04 Speaker 4: I like to do everything myself and I am learning

40:09 Speaker 4: and I usually have to learn the hard way to delegate, okay,

40:13 Speaker 4: and trust my team.

40:16 Speaker 1: That's a challenge for a lot of people in leadership positions.

40:19 Speaker 4: Yes, and teach them the skills they need to do

40:21 Speaker 4: what I'm doing, and then they end up doing it better.

40:24 Speaker 4: Only like so I do the videos right, it's me

40:27 Speaker 4: recording them, but Emory does the writing and posting of them,

40:31 Speaker 4: mel edits them for me.

40:32 Speaker 5: So I don't do any of that.

40:33 Speaker 4: Anymore, and it's doing better with letting them handle it.

40:38 Speaker 4: And the thing that I always the thing that always

40:41 Speaker 4: pushes me to delegate when I really should have been delegating,

40:44 Speaker 4: like six months ago. I'm usually at least six months

40:46 Speaker 4: late delegating anything is like the fact that I have

40:49 Speaker 4: disabilities that keep me from doing things the way and

40:53 Speaker 4: how I want to do them, and whether it's pain

40:58 Speaker 4: or because I need a surgery or or whatever, or

41:00 Speaker 4: I'm not gonna be able to go in the classroom.

41:02 Speaker 4: That forced me. That was our first big gross s

41:05 Speaker 4: burt that forced me to rely on my teachers to

41:08 Speaker 4: totally handle everything. I wasn't in the classroom and I

41:11 Speaker 4: was working on the business and we had giant growth.

41:14 Speaker 4: So like that's been my biggest surprise challenge. Side of

41:18 Speaker 4: things I don't know, like the lesson is I should

41:23 Speaker 4: delegate sooner.

41:24 Speaker 5: Probably.

41:24 Speaker 4: I don't know what the lesson is for everyone else,

41:27 Speaker 4: Like I hope it teaches other people things. But that's

41:32 Speaker 4: been my challenge.

41:33 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, now that makes sense. That makes sense. I

41:38 Speaker 1: do want to circle back before we run out of

41:40 Speaker 1: time too, about talking about disabilities, because I know that

41:45 Speaker 1: Jenny had to go answer the doorbell. I know, I

41:47 Speaker 1: know the doorbell does show up in the audio, so

41:49 Speaker 1: people hear it. It's kind of become a joke, a

41:52 Speaker 1: running a gag on the show. But because she tells

41:54 Speaker 1: everyone in the instructions, don't ring the doorbell, and they

41:56 Speaker 1: ring the doorbell. No, it's fine. But so you were

42:02 Speaker 1: talking about how it's uh people people have a misconception

42:08 Speaker 1: if they can't and I'm sure we're we're probably all

42:11 Speaker 1: guilty of it at one point or another. If if,

42:13 Speaker 1: if a disability isn't necessarily easily visible. Yeah, and so

42:18 Speaker 1: part of the struggle, because Jenny talks about this a lot,

42:21 Speaker 1: part of the struggle is that if someone doesn't see,

42:24 Speaker 1: if they can't see your disability, they assume that you

42:29 Speaker 1: don't have one. So maybe if you say you have

42:31 Speaker 1: a handicapped placard in your car. Then you park your

42:34 Speaker 1: car and they see you get out and you look

42:36 Speaker 1: like you're fine. You know, they might be thinking and

42:39 Speaker 1: they might or if they're even rude enough to say it,

42:43 Speaker 1: you know, but they might take that as, oh, she's fine,

42:46 Speaker 1: Why does she why does she have to take that space?

42:49 Speaker 1: Why does she have that that placard? And you know,

42:52 Speaker 1: because we were talking earlier to Jenny, use the word educate.

42:55 Speaker 1: How do you educate people? Like, you know, like when

42:57 Speaker 1: when people park in a handicapped spot when they should

43:00 Speaker 1: because they have no right to be there because they

43:02 Speaker 1: don't have a placard. I mean, how do you I mean,

43:06 Speaker 1: is that something you've run into specifically yourself, where people

43:10 Speaker 1: don't understand that just because it's not something they can see,

43:12 Speaker 1: that doesn't mean it's not there.

43:14 Speaker 4: Yeah, I have quite in different ways, but I and

43:19 Speaker 4: I think educate this is the solid word there. But

43:23 Speaker 4: I also think it's representation and that so we need

43:27 Speaker 4: to be sure that we're reaching out and accommodating people

43:30 Speaker 4: so that they can be in spaces two help us

43:35 Speaker 4: understand how normal disability is right. So, like I don't

43:39 Speaker 4: see a lot of teachers with disabilities, but we should

43:43 Speaker 4: have teachers with disabilities. But of course teaching is a

43:47 Speaker 4: very hard job, stressful job, one that does not allow

43:51 Speaker 4: for a lot of doctor's appointments, admittedly.

43:53 Speaker 1: But then again, to be fair, you might even see

43:54 Speaker 1: more teachers with disabilities than you realize.

43:56 Speaker 4: It's true because you don't see them. So there's there's

44:00 Speaker 4: something about being open about a disability. To Now, I

44:03 Speaker 4: am in a situation where being open about my disability

44:06 Speaker 4: is very unlikely to get me discriminated against in an

44:09 Speaker 4: employment fact, you know, in an unemployment way, because I'm

44:16 Speaker 4: I found it a nonprofit that I am running, so

44:19 Speaker 4: you know, no one's gonna not hire me because I

44:21 Speaker 4: require accommodations. I get to make the accommodations in my office.

44:26 Speaker 4: But there's a lot of people that don't feel like

44:29 Speaker 4: they can talk about their disabilities because then maybe they

44:32 Speaker 4: won't get hired for a job that they really really want.

44:36 Speaker 4: And that's that's that sucks, man, Yeah.

44:40 Speaker 5: That really sucks.

44:41 Speaker 4: Because so I can be really open about you know,

44:43 Speaker 4: like my idiopathic hypersomnia and the pain that I'm constantly in,

44:47 Speaker 4: or that I need a special chair, or if you

44:49 Speaker 4: see me at at city meetings. I bring in my

44:50 Speaker 4: own camp chair and I sit in that, because he

44:52 Speaker 4: knows those metal folding chairs are awful on someone's back. So,

44:56 Speaker 4: like we, we need to be able to provide space

45:00 Speaker 4: to people to genuinely be themselves and accommodate themselves. Right,

45:05 Speaker 4: You'll find most people with disabilities they don't want to

45:07 Speaker 4: ask for help. They want it to just either be

45:09 Speaker 4: there or carry their own accommodations, like me carrying my

45:12 Speaker 4: chair in right. And the only time they're asking for

45:16 Speaker 4: it is when they really do actually need it, they

45:20 Speaker 4: really do. It's not because they want to make work for.

45:23 Speaker 1: Someone else, of course, of course.

45:24 Speaker 4: They just want to be able to go on about

45:26 Speaker 4: their day and access to things that make them comfortable

45:29 Speaker 4: or healthy or enjoy life a little. It's so sad

45:34 Speaker 4: that people can't be as open about disability as as

45:39 Speaker 4: we should be able to.

45:40 Speaker 1: Right or grade agreed? Yeah, absolutely absolutely well so as

45:47 Speaker 1: we near the end of the segment. So of course,

45:49 Speaker 1: if you are just joining us, we have Amber Nicole

45:51 Speaker 1: Cannon here with us in studio. She is the commissioner,

45:54 Speaker 1: the commissioner of what's.

45:56 Speaker 5: The Department of Public Works.

45:57 Speaker 1: It's true, the Department of public works. Yes, and of

46:00 Speaker 1: course the founder what do we call what do you

46:02 Speaker 1: call yourself? The founder, the CEO of.

46:04 Speaker 4: Our founder, executive director. It doesn't really matter. I just

46:07 Speaker 4: got to get the job done.

46:09 Speaker 5: Charged.

46:10 Speaker 3: And the board of directors the seasides.

46:13 Speaker 4: Yes, I am on the board of directors at the

46:15 Speaker 4: Sea Science Center. Oh great, and that is that is

46:17 Speaker 4: one of my most exciting things I'm working on right

46:19 Speaker 4: now is our summer camps are hosted at the Sea

46:21 Speaker 4: Science Center. Oh okay, and it's a it's an interesting

46:24 Speaker 4: thing too. It's not just that they're hosting our summer camps,

46:27 Speaker 4: which you can get scholarships through if you have a disability,

46:29 Speaker 4: by the way, reach out to me. But also we

46:33 Speaker 4: encountered like the same problem or same coin, different side

46:38 Speaker 4: problem where they have to hire seasonal workers for their

46:41 Speaker 4: summer camps. And I have teachers that are super employed

46:44 Speaker 4: during the school year, but their hours go down in

46:46 Speaker 4: the summer. So not only are we hosting all our

46:48 Speaker 4: summer camps at the Sea Science Center, yeah, we're staffing.

46:52 Speaker 5: All of their camps.

46:53 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So if you're.

46:55 Speaker 4: Going to a Sea Science Center camp, you're going to

46:57 Speaker 4: get the wonderful caring, loving, supportive individuals that work for

47:02 Speaker 4: Chartered helping your student through their day.

47:05 Speaker 1: Oh, that's awesome. No, I'm I'm I'm at the c

47:08 Speaker 1: Science Center usually a couple of times a week. I'll

47:10 Speaker 1: I'll tell you off air why why I'm a frequent

47:14 Speaker 1: visitor there, and that's with something else I do, uh

47:17 Speaker 1: employment wise, but but uh yeah, so that's that's wonderful, excellent,

47:23 Speaker 1: excellent uncharted Where should people go online?

47:25 Speaker 4: To uh uncharted dot org. You gotta check that it's

47:29 Speaker 4: it's that W E R E. D card heard dot org.

47:35 Speaker 4: You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook. That's

47:37 Speaker 4: where I post all the videos and talking about our

47:40 Speaker 4: latest move and just the hygienks we get up.

47:43 Speaker 1: To Okay, outstanding, and also to just generally where should

47:46 Speaker 1: people go online to keep up with everything that you're

47:48 Speaker 1: everything that you're doing, not just unchartered.

47:50 Speaker 4: But yeah, so my my, my my personal art page

47:53 Speaker 4: is bioside creative okay dot com, and I'm also on

47:57 Speaker 4: that at Instagram. I don't post as much there, but

47:59 Speaker 4: when when I'm doing a gallery show or making a

48:03 Speaker 4: piece of art, that's where I'm posting it.

48:05 Speaker 1: Outstanding, outstanding and do you want to spell your last

48:08 Speaker 1: name for people who can't.

48:09 Speaker 4: Canon C A and then a N. Yes, there's no, oh,

48:13 Speaker 4: there's no.

48:14 Speaker 1: Oh.

48:14 Speaker 4: That's what I say when I call the doctor's office

48:16 Speaker 4: because they always write a note and I'm like, no,

48:18 Speaker 4: that's why you can't find me.

48:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, very good. Well, Amber, Nicole Cannon, thank you

48:23 Speaker 1: so much. This has been wonderful.

48:25 Speaker 5: I'm so happy to have come today. Yeah.

48:26 Speaker 1: Absolutely, Oh this happened because we ran in you it.

48:30 Speaker 1: It was at Mosaic, right, yeah, ran a Mosaic art collective.

48:32 Speaker 5: That is the social scene it is.

48:34 Speaker 1: It is, Yes, wonderful. I love that place. All right, well,

48:38 Speaker 1: very good. Well, if you are listening live, please stick around.

48:40 Speaker 1: Coming up in the third hour, we have Who I

48:42 Speaker 1: Am and thrax Is h Is here as well as

48:45 Speaker 1: Very Good, so they will be in studio with us

48:48 Speaker 1: in the third hour. I'm gonna play I'm gonna play another,

48:51 Speaker 1: I'm gonna play this again. We played it in the

48:52 Speaker 1: first hour, but this is my favorite track from joh Wobble,

48:56 Speaker 1: who joined us in the in the first hour. Eventually

48:58 Speaker 1: we were able to get him on the line. He's

49:01 Speaker 1: got uh, he's got his new album and this is Uh,

49:04 Speaker 1: this is one of the tracks on it. This is

49:05 Speaker 1: my personal favorite. This is called who Wins and Uh,

49:08 Speaker 1: when we come back, we'll show some love to our

49:10 Speaker 1: amazing sponsors and then we will have who I Am

49:12 Speaker 1: and tracks in studio and uh, Amber Nicole Cannon, thank

49:15 Speaker 1: you again, Thank you,