8/25/26 Support Systems, Changing Soles & Healing Sounds

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Tuesday, August 25th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com https://www.moneywiseguys.com/ facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.facebook.com/moneywiseguys/ LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneywise-wealth-management-bakersfield/ Guest: Stephen Winters, CEO of the White Wolf Wellness Foundation website: https://whitewolfwellness.org/ The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Stephen Winters & The White Wolf Wellness Foundation are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield.

• 0:05Speaker 01

  Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:29Speaker 02

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:37Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the MoneyWise Show.

• 0:40Speaker 03

  And welcome to the MoneyWise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM, KERN, streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. We are your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and?

• 1:04Speaker 04

  Sammy Abiyawi.

• 1:05Speaker 03

  Dude, Sammy, it's been too long.

• 1:07Speaker 04

  It has.

• 1:08Speaker 03

  I heard yesterday's show was good.

• 1:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was really, really good.

• 1:11Speaker 03

  Dr. Dev?

• 1:12Speaker 04

  Any show I put together with Steven is really good.

• 1:14Speaker 00

  That's prep, baby. That's prep.

• 1:16Speaker 03

  Good prep.

• 1:17Speaker 04

  And we had a very good guest in Dr. Dev, and he made it really, really interesting. Like, it was very, very interesting.

• 1:23Speaker 03

  I heard you talked peptides?

• 1:25Speaker 04

  We talked peptides, and he broke it down like, you know, in layman terms for me, at least to understand what a peptide is. And it was really good. He made science, like, look cool.

• 1:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, it was fun again.

• 1:38Speaker 04

  Or sound cool. Sound cool, I should say.

• 1:41Speaker 00

  It was fun.

• 1:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was fun.

• 1:42Speaker 00

  I learned a lot.

• 1:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, me too.

• 1:44Speaker 03

  Oh, that's great. That's great. I'll have to go back and listen. If anybody out there missed yesterday's show, go to MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can find all of our podcasts there.

• 1:53Speaker 00

  Really?

• 1:54Speaker 03

  Yes, sir.

• 1:55Speaker 04

  Really, Steven?

• 1:56Speaker 00

  You can listen to past shows with no commercials?

• 1:59Speaker 03

  No commercials, man. The way to go. You listen to podcasts, right, Sammy?

• 2:04Speaker 04

  I do.

• 2:05Speaker 03

  Yeah?

• 2:05Speaker 04

  Interesting ones like ours.

• 2:09Speaker 04

  I mean, everybody and their aunt have podcasts nowadays, right?

• 2:13Speaker 03

  It's true. There's so many.

• 2:14Speaker 04

  But, I mean, you've got to, like, you've got to be really, really good for me to spend my time listening.

• 2:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:20Speaker 04

  Like, I listen to ours. I really listen to ours, just so I want to get better. Plus, I want to critique myself. And my son listens along with me, and he just gives it to me straight.

• 2:30Speaker 00

  That's the best way to do it, too. I do the same thing with my son. He's like, what is he talking about?

• 2:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 2:36Speaker 00

  What is that? Oh, that's interesting.

• 2:38Speaker 04

  Dude, I'm like, oh, like, brah. Like, my son will brah. Why did you say that? And I'm like, okay, I guess I need to adjust.

• 2:48Speaker 03

  I love, I love that Gabe is at that age where he's really, where you're really showing your age. You know, where you've got this connection between what the kids are doing and what us old people are doing.

• 3:00Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 3:01Speaker 03

  It's good stuff. Well, we got some good listener messages.

• 3:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:04Speaker 03

  Let's go for it.

• 3:06Speaker 04

  For a busy business owner, do you guys happen to meet with clients on the weekend? Or is that not something you do?

• 3:12Speaker 03

  How would you answer that, Sammy?

• 3:15Speaker 04

  We currently don't. But we can, I mean, our advisors are available after hours. So if you close your business, they'll accommodate. We value their life outside of MoneyWise.

• 3:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:31Speaker 04

  And we have really good advisors, and I think if push comes to shove, one of our advisors, all our advisors, will make themselves available if that's the only time you can meet.

• 3:41Speaker 03

  Yes, yes.

• 3:42Speaker 04

  But it's not something as a company we push for.

• 3:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's, I think that's a perfect way to answer it. That's what I would say is, you know, our hours at MoneyWise, we're trying to be considerate of our employees' personal life, and we don't want any of them to be consumed by work, as passionate as we are about it, and as good of a job as I think we do here in town. They need to go home, and they need to be with their family, and they need to do the other things that they have in their life, which we think makes them well-rounded advisors. If they were working all the time, and they were always in the office, they're going to turn into a CPA. And you and I know the CPAs in town are just, they're just, like, in it. And it's hard for, it's hard for a lot of, not all of them.

• 4:25Speaker 03

  Like, we have, we know a lot of great CPAs, and this is a fair judgment on that profession. But we do want our advisors to be a little bit more well-rounded. But like you said, if you're out there and you really, that's the only time you can meet on the weekend. I'm almost certain that we have an advisor in the office of the six advisors that we have. There's certainly one or two of them that would be more than willing to meet with you on the weekend. So reach out to MoneyWise. We'll accommodate.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  Especially if it's around a golf.

• 4:55Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:56Speaker 04

  They'll be out there. They'll sit on the cart for four hours with you and talk all.

• 5:00Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 5:01Speaker 04

  Definitely.

• 5:01Speaker 03

  Yeah. Or over brunch or something.

• 5:04Speaker 04

  Brunch, yeah.

• 5:04Speaker 03

  Yeah. Good stuff. Good question.

• 5:08Speaker 04

  Continue?

• 5:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, let's go.

• 5:10Speaker 04

  I text in a few weeks ago regarding having someone in your office that speaks Spanish. I was referred to a bank, but was guessing that no one at your establishment speaks Spanish. My parents only speak Spanish and thought it might be a good time to have a retirement group that has the option. My father understands English, listens to the podcast daily, but just doesn't speak English, just being MoneyWise.

• 5:35Speaker 03

  Ah, sweet. I love this. And yes, we do have a Spanish speaker in the office that can translate. And now, I also lived in Mexico. I speak Spanish, but I use that with air quotes, because it's been 30 years since I had lived in Mexico where I picked up Spanish. So since then, my practice has been not super great. You know, I speak when I can, when we travel, and I know a few, you know, a few people that don't speak English, and then I'm able to practice my Spanish then. But I still understand it very well. I can read it. I can still, I can get by.

• 6:16Speaker 03

  But when you're speaking Spanish and anything that's technical, then you've got to really know, you've got to really know the language, because in our, in our world of finance, there's so many different vocabulary that is odd, you know? And I don't even know if there's direct translations for some of these things. And I don't know if you, you're multiple, multilingual.

• 6:39Speaker 04

  Yes. Unfortunately, Spanish is not one of them, and that's the mistake I made when I came to the United States 25 years ago. I should have learned Spanish, just because it's so close to French. It would have been actually easier for me to learn than English.

• 6:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:55Speaker 04

  But, you know, I had to, I had to learn English, man.

• 6:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:58Speaker 04

  It's, that's, that's.

• 6:59Speaker 03

  Well, you speak Italian. Italian.

• 7:01Speaker 04

  I speak French. I speak Arabic. I speak Moroccan and English, but not Italian.

• 7:05Speaker 03

  Oh, I thought it was Italian. No.

• 7:06Speaker 04

  I would love to learn Italian.

• 7:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:08Speaker 04

  Yeah. I would love to learn Italian. Grazie.

• 7:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:13Speaker 04

  With the finger, you know, like they're doing with your hand.

• 7:16Speaker 03

  Italian's so great.

• 7:17Speaker 04

  Oh, my God.

• 7:17Speaker 03

  And if you speak Spanish, I can pick up most Italian, you know? And certainly, I can read it. And Italian, any of those romantic languages come a little bit easier. But Portuguese, that kind of, those languages. But this is, back to our listener's question about Spanish. This has been something that, you know, we are very much aware of in Kern County, where we have over half the population is Hispanic. And it is, I can, I can understand the need to be able to communicate with somebody, especially when you're talking about your own personal finances in your native language. And so we do have, again, we do have at MoneyWise the ability to help you.

• 8:02Speaker 04

  And I just want to, just want to say this. It's not lack of effort from our part to hire a financial advisor that speaks Spanish. They're just not readily available. And if they are, they have another job, and maybe they are happy where they are. We try to hire people and even, you know, get them licensed through our process internally. And we still have not had that success yet. But we are actively, actively either looking or trying to get that person, because the market needs it, in my opinion.

• 8:40Speaker 03

  Yes. Yep. Yeah, for sure. So, good stuff. Good question. We've got one more.

• 8:45Speaker 04

  One more.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:46Speaker 04

  Hello, guys. I'm interested in setting up an initial consultation to better understand the scope of your services and determine what would be most applicable and beneficial for my situation. My father recently passed away, and I'm seeking guidance regarding matters related to his passing, including obtaining a tax identification number and managing my inheritance. I'd also like to discuss financial advisory and planning related to my inheritance, as well as my own overall financial matters, including investment opportunities, 401K, et cetera. Particularly, I'm prepared to get married.

• 9:21Speaker 03

  Awesome.

• 9:22Speaker 04

  Steven shared our office number, and he asked for someone to reach out via email, so passed it along to Michelle.

• 9:30Speaker 03

  Oh, good. So Michelle should, should have been reached, reached out already.

• 9:33Speaker 00

  We got it.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  For this listener. This is good. You know, Sammy, we just, at MoneyWise, we have regular weekly trainings with our advisors. Where we get together as a firm, we talk about.

• 9:43Speaker 04

  In fact, we just talked about one yesterday.

• 9:45Speaker 03

  This is, and this is what we talked about.

• 9:46Speaker 04

  Exactly, yes.

• 9:47Speaker 03

  And we, and we went through sort of, what is that process of when somebody passes away? What, what do you do financially speaking? And it, anybody who's gone through this, where a loved one has passed away, it's very overwhelming, because you only go through it once or twice, whether with your mom or your dad, maybe a grandparent. Other than that, it's, it doesn't happen that often, so it can seem very overwhelming. The listener mentions one of those things, getting a tax identification number. There's, there's certain things that you have to do to close out an estate. An estate or a person who passes away, they still have to pay their taxes the year that they passed away. That means somebody's got to file a tax return for them, and that usually falls on the estate

• 10:31Speaker 03

  or the beneficiary of the estate. And how overwhelming is that? Like, you're grieving, and now you're trying to figure out all of this stuff. It's really challenging.

• 10:40Speaker 04

  This person is thinking about this the right way and seeking a professional advice, because to your point, Sharad, you're grieving. Your family is. So everybody is lost for a period of time. However, time, timing matters, and you want to act upon certain things because of the ramification, either tax ramifications or whatever. So, so you want to make sure that you have some type of support system around you during this period or these periods. So. Great, um, great, great thinking.

• 11:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, you know, the, a, a large part of what Money Wise does is, I'll, I'll give a profile of, of a client of Money Wise. Uh, one particular type of client, and that is somebody, uh, husband and wife. And one of them, the wife or the husband is involved in the finances. Generally, they're the ones that are taking charge of the finances, paying the bills, uh, filing their tax return. You know, doing, doing those, those sort of financial responsibilities. And you, you have, um, also usually in that, in that scenario, you have, especially when they're younger. One of them is, is, uh, handling the investments.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  And for most of us, that our investments are within our 401K or our employer sponsored retirement account. It's pretty straightforward. I mean, I'm not saying that you don't need a financial advisor, but most 401K providers offer uh, a, a lot of resources that can help you make sure that you're saving enough and that you're invested in the right allocation within your 401K. It's generally pretty straightforward, um, when it comes to investment advisory services. But usually what happens is that, is that the couple ages, the kids move out of the house.

• 12:37Speaker 03

  Eventually retirement comes through and now the burden has landed on one of the, the, one of the spouses to handle the, the finances. In most cases, they're still okay. They're, they're still, they're thinking, okay, you know, I can handle this. I've, I've rolled my 401K into an IRA and now I'm managing it. And, um, but at some point, even if they're competent in managing their investments, they get to the point where they realize, well, if I'm gone, how is my spouse going to handle this? And, and that is a big reason why a lot of couples come to us. It's not because they're incapable. It's because they want to protect one or the other in the event that one of them passes away.

• 13:21Speaker 04

  That's correct.

• 13:21Speaker 03

  And they want to make sure that they're, that they're, they're not going to be left in any sort of financial, uh, duress. And of, uh, having a good financial advisor is the perfect person to handle that. Because they're, they already know you, they, they, they, they know your, your financial goals. They know how your, what your investment strategy should be. They can continue to help carry that on after a spouse passes away. And then after you both pass away, they can make sure that that carries on to whoever your beneficiaries are. Your kids or your grandkids. And so it's this incredible amount of peace of mind. There's really, there's only two other professions that I can think of where they, you might have to

• 14:07Speaker 03

  get, get them involved, and that would be an attorney and, or a CPA. But both of those are incredibly important. Both of those professions you need to have, but both of those professions are, are sort of hourly rates. And, and they're not necessarily there to just sit down and like comfort you financially and kind of cover all of the picture. Whereas a good licensed investment advisor representative who is fee based, who's not going to get paid by selling some product can, can offer an enormous amount of comfort and guidance in these situations that even an attorney or a CPA can't handle. And, um, that, I'm a big advocate, obviously, for our industry. And it's not just me.

• 14:50Speaker 03

  Studies have shown that even when you pay for a financial advisor, the return on your money is, is far greater than what you're paying for. If, if they're good, I'm not talking about a commissioned advisor, one that's going to sell you an annuity or a life insurance product or, or, or, you know, or some sort of commissioned product. That's different. That's a transaction. I'm talking about a financial advisor where you're paying them for their advice, not paying them so that they can sell you something or, or make some

• 15:21Speaker 04

  Correct.

• 15:22Speaker 03

  Uh, uh, uh, sell you some investment product. And having those, having a relationship with a financial advisor, um, makes, makes that, uh, makes those transitions in life so much easier. So to our listener, uh, I hope you reached out or hope we reached out to you. If we didn't, um, you know, reach out to us and, and, or anybody else that's out there listening. We'd love, love to help you. All right, Sammy, uh, I want to mention, uh, why don't we take a, a break? We, we're not too late for a break, Stephen. We'll take a quick break right now. We come back, I want to talk about Dick's Sporting Goods.

• 16:00Speaker 04

  All right.

• 16:00Speaker 03

  This is in the news headlines today. Uh, not so great news coming out of Dick's. We're going to cover that plus much, much more. We're Money Wise.

• 16:13Speaker 03

  Thanks for tuning in. We're Money Wise. We're your hosts today. I'm Sharon here with Sammy Abi Awie. Sammy, I want to talk about Dick's Sporting Goods. Uh, the, uh, there's some headlines today. Uh, Dick's Sporting Goods stock is down 25, almost 30% today, just in one day. It's one of the worst performing days in the history of the company. And it led me down a path of, of remembering where Dick's Sporting Goods came from. Before I kind of give the history though, Dick's, uh, core business actually is performing decent. It recently acquired Foot Locker.

• 16:52Speaker 04

  Yeah. 2.4 billion.

• 16:54Speaker 03

  Billion.

• 16:55Speaker 04

  Yeah. Purchased in 2025.

• 16:57Speaker 03

  Last year, two and a half billion dollars. So if you look at just the numbers, their revenue is up 53%, right? 5.59 billion dollars, a 53% year over year increase. Well, it sounds great, right? Well, it's just because they've, they bought Foot Locker. So they, they absorb the revenues of Foot Locker. But the, the, the, the big story really is the fact that retail sales are down. People are just not going to these brick and mortar.

• 17:27Speaker 04

  Especially the malls, like Foot Locker struggled before the Dick's purchase because of the mall traffic.

• 17:33Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 17:33Speaker 04

  So the, the, the real estate strategy of Dick's is slightly different than the mall strategy of Foot Locker. And that's why they, they've been successful. It's in the, it's independent of a mall. They're in an open area. Their stores are much, much bigger and, and they, uh, cater to multiple sports all at the same location.

• 17:52Speaker 03

  Right.

• 17:52Speaker 04

  I mean, from pickleball to baseball, youth baseball and everything in between, golf even.

• 17:58Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 17:58Speaker 04

  Simulation, they have like a place where you can go and try your, um, uh, golf clubs and, and, and get them, whatever the saying is.

• 18:09Speaker 04

  Tailored to you or whatever. I'm not a golfer, so I don't know. But their model is completely different than, than Foot Locker, which focuses on mall traffic. And we know how malls have been doing in the last decade.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, not good. Last two decades.

• 18:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  Malls have been really struggling. The, uh, the, you know, if you think about, you know, Dick's Sporting Goods, it's like, well, what, what other, you know, we don't really have a lot of national sporting goods chains. At least here, and I know certainly in Kern County, we don't, and we have big five and

• 18:45Speaker 04

  We had the other one out there on Ming where Restaurant Depot is at right now. And it went bankrupt.

• 18:50Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 18:51Speaker 04

  Some years ago, I forget, I, I even forgot the name of it.

• 18:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, so many have gone out of business.

• 18:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:56Speaker 03

  Uh, you know, nationally, there's REI, there's Bass Pro Shops, there's been, and Cabela's. I mean, there's been rumors of a Bass, Bass Pro Shops coming to town. But, you know, Dick's is, is certainly, uh, the biggest. And it has, um, it's, it's approximately worth 20 billion roughly. Uh, if you compare that to REI, for example, worth about four billion. So substantially bigger, um, than, you know, than its competitors. But that's not helping it. It's still struggling to just get the, get the sales going. The year over year net income for Dick's is, uh, has dropped, uh, net income has dropped 17%.

• 19:41Speaker 03

  Down 17%. And it's a big, big drop. And that's why you're seeing the stock go down so much today. But what's interesting, why I'm always kind of interested in Dick's is because of their relationship to Foot Locker. And the reason why I'm interested in the Foot Locker aspect is because Foot Locker is the last remaining piece of Woolworths. So Woolworths is, was a, went out of business, uh, and in, uh, 1994 or 1997 is when Woolworths closed their last, their last store. But Woolworths created Kenny Shoes in 1963. Kenny Shoes, I grew up on Kenny's, Kenny Shoes.

• 20:25Speaker 03

  Um, and then, uh, Kenny turned into Foot Locker in 1974. Um, and, and then, uh, of course Woolworths went out of business in 1997. It was bought by a group called Venator Group. And Venator Group, after a couple of years, uh, changed its corporate name back to Foot Locker. So there you go. There, and now Foot Locker was bought by Dick's Sporting Goods in, uh, 2025 for 2.4 billion dollars. So that's the corporate descendant of FW Woolworth. Stick is right there sitting in Dick's Sporting Goods. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after this. We're Money Wise.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  Thanks for tuning in. We're Money Wise. We're your hosts. I'm Sharad, here with Sammy. Joined right now by our guest, we're actually pretty regular guests, Stephen Winters. Hey, Stephen.

• 21:27Speaker 05

  Hey, good to be back.

• 21:28Speaker 03

  Good to have you. Stephen Winters is, boy, you're involved in a few different things. One of your main gigs is out at Okehe, Camp Okehe, as it was previously known, or Okehe is part of White Wolf Wellness Foundation, a local nonprofit that is dedicated to revitalizing that old camp, county-owned property out there on the river?

• 21:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's a little oasis out there on the Kern River.

• 21:52Speaker 03

  Super great oasis. How many years now have you been out there?

• 21:55Speaker 05

  This is our fifth year. So we've been out there for about four and a half years. It's

• 21:59Speaker 03

  That's crazy.

• 21:59Speaker 05

  It's been awesome. I mean, it's been hard work, but a lot of rewards. It's really beautiful out there.

• 22:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know, you know, I'm involved in the, in the, with the board on, at White Wolf Wellness and out at Okehe. It's definitely a project that's, I'm passionate about, and in part because my boys, growing up, I was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout, raised my boys in that, and they, they, and when they were in the Cub Scouts and Wee Blows, at least, we would go out there and they'd have day camps and overnighters. And this was back when it was, when the county was actually maintaining it, and they had, you know, caretakers out there, and it was, you know, full facilities, and it was fantastic.

• 22:43Speaker 03

  But unfortunately, with, with county budget and, and financial problems and, and the evaporation of revitalization funds, the, the, Okehe was essentially abandoned. And before you guys went, took over out there, it was pretty dire.

• 23:02Speaker 05

  Yeah, I was in bad shape. I look at some of the pictures from the first few visits, and it's just insane how different it was. You know, it was almost completely destroyed. There's a couple of fires out there. You know, everything that wasn't welded down was stolen, basically. There's no infrastructure left. It was, it was in bad shape, and it was sad to see because we felt the potential right away, Catherine and I, and, and our board was on board right away, too. You know, I think cautiously, but, you know, we're so glad we took it on, and it's been a great project.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's been, I mean, you, you, you're out there all the time. You and Catherine are out there all the time. And you are certainly making a huge difference. I mean, it's, it's almost unrecognizable from what it was five years ago. And it's the only, it's, how do you describe it? Because it's the only sort of riverfront property that's so close to town that is so accessible. How do you explain it?

• 24:02Speaker 05

  You know, it's, it's 14 acres on the north side of the Kern River. So if you're familiar with like Calm and the AYSO soccer fields, we're right across from those. And so it's kind of a hidden gem, because not many people venture over that way unless you live or work over there. So it's quiet, you know, we keep it clean. We keep it just wild enough so that the wildlife still feels comfortable to be around there. You know, I have an owl that I see almost every day in the same spot in a tree. We, we talk sometimes about, you know, we see him more than we see most people.

• 24:36Speaker 03

  And he sees you.

• 24:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, he definitely sees us. And it's, and that, those kind of little moments are really fun to share with kids that are coming out for the education programs, you know. You get to see an owl up in a tree looking at you, see deer, bobcats.

• 24:50Speaker 03

  Bald eagles.

• 24:51Speaker 05

  Bald eagles, yeah. Hear the river, see the river.

• 24:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, beavers.

• 24:55Speaker 05

  Yeah, beavers. Yeah, I mean, and it's, that's been one of the sort of surprising things that has been such a big impact, is just showing and educating kids about the river, you know, in a non-fear-based way, something to respect. We don't, you know, go in the river, we don't go near it, but look at how, we need to appreciate this. It's the, the lifeblood of our town and our community. So it's been great. I love it.

• 25:18Speaker 03

  Yeah. Now, obviously, running a nonprofit, it's an, it's an ever, never, you never have enough money. There's never enough funding for a nonprofit. And besides you running, running the nonprofit, you're an artist, a very accomplished artist.

• 25:34Speaker 05

  Thank you for saying that, yeah.

• 25:36Speaker 03

  And in fact, you have a show that's coming up. You have a couple of shows that, that are coming up. But, but first, let's talk about the Sound Bath Series. You had a summer sound bath. I think a lot of our listeners are going to hear "sound bath," and they're going to go, "What the heck is a sound?"

• 25:51Speaker 04

  I want to know what that is.

• 25:52Speaker 05

  Yeah, and it's, it's one of those loaded terms these days, too, because it means a lot of different things. You know, you can go to a, a sound bath here and a sound bath there, and they can be two totally different experiences. But in general, the, the intention behind it is to create an intentional listening space. You know, when you're intentional about anything, you can really go deeper into your connection to it. And sound is something that's pretty accessible to everybody I know. You know, we all have music we like. There's music that kind of brings our energy up, or maybe brings our energy down, or can help us through some tough times. But the music we play is mainly improvised in the moment. You know, we, I do a lot of field recording to bring nature sounds.

• 26:31Speaker 05

  We do a lot of live looping, incorporate real traditional instruments like gongs and singing bowls and Native American flutes, along with, you know, electronic sounds and, you know, the, the current science behind certain tonal relationships and frequencies that are really good to relax us and put us in like a dreamy, meditative state. I mean, some people fall asleep. Some people go into deep meditation, have ecstatic, you know, almost psychedelic experiences. Some people cry. Some people just chill, you know. There's really not a wrong way to do it, other than just to, to let yourself relax and give yourself what you need while you're there.

• 27:07Speaker 03

  Right. I mean, you can literally just sit there in a chair. You can, you can bring pillows and lay on the ground. You can bring a mat. I, I've, I've attended a few of these in the past. I've brought, I remember one time I brought a full-on air mattress.

• 27:18Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 27:19Speaker 03

  And I was like, "I'm getting comfortable." I didn't want to fall asleep. I still wanted to hear it, but it's super relaxing. It's so relaxing. At least for me, it's always very calming, and it just feels good.

• 27:33Speaker 04

  You, you do these at, at Okehe out there, or?

• 27:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, you know, nature is such a, just a natural healing environment, you know, because we're, we're nature. We're part of nature, and we can connect and resonate to that. And it usually has a positive effect on our mental and physical health. So just the setting out at Okehe alone is a sound bath of sorts. You know, it's easy to sit by the river and listen for a little while.

• 27:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:55Speaker 05

  But then we add the intentional sounds to it and create a safe space for people to really relax. And we do three of those in the spring, three in the, in the fall. And then, you know, Bakersfield summers are intense. So we, we don't want to force people out into that, that weather any more than they already have to be. And so we, this past summer, we decided to do an in-town summer series. So for June, July, and August, we've been doing sound baths in town and bring in, you know, field recordings and nature sounds from Okehe into the settings in the city. And it's, it's been really rewarding. We did the first two at the Museum of Art, and I'm really excited about this one coming up at Woolworth's on Sunday.

• 28:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, this Sunday.

• 28:32Speaker 05

  Yeah, this Sunday.

• 28:33Speaker 03

  So just in a few days, if anybody out there is interested, there are tickets available. And you can go to okehe.org online, or on Instagram is, what's Instagram?

• 28:43Speaker 05

  White Wolf Wellness.

• 28:44Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 28:45Speaker 05

  And, or on Give Butter as well, is where the tickets are.

• 28:49Speaker 03

  Give, givebutter.com?

• 28:51Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm, yeah.

• 28:52Speaker 03

  And that's where you can, you can get tickets. All the proceeds are go to help support.

• 28:56Speaker 05

  Yeah, they're all going to go to the Okehe Project, and thanks to generous donation from the Woolworth's basement.

• 29:02Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 29:03Speaker 05

  You know, we're, we're just, I, I am personally stoked, because I've never gotten to play my music on a sound system this serious. So I'm just like twiddling my fingers over here like Mr. Burns, just ready to let it rip, you know?

• 29:15Speaker 03

  I'm excited to hear it. I'm excited to hear it on our system.

• 29:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 29:18Speaker 03

  And for anybody who hasn't been in the basement of the Woolworth's, it's a, it's a great, it's a great place to listen to, to sound.

• 29:26Speaker 04

  And also just listen to the, the future experience this Sunday. I mean, I, I don't, personally, don't, don't go to concerts, but this is something I would be interested in coming, because it's a lot calmer.

• 29:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:38Speaker 04

  And, and it does not have the other stuff that concerts have, but you still are in an environment where you have a good sound system with experienced people. So that's, that's, that's exciting.

• 29:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:49Speaker 05

  And that's why we love doing them on Sundays, you know, versus a Friday or Saturday night. I feel like it's just, Sunday's a great time to just relax, reset, kind of enjoy yourself before the week starts. And this is really good to help with that.

• 30:00Speaker 03

  Take a bath with sound. And before you came, I was trying to think of some funny or clever alternatives to sound baths. So can I throw some of these out?

• 30:07Speaker 05

  I'd love to hear them, yeah.

• 30:08Speaker 03

  See what you think. Okay, so you have Sonic Soak.

• 30:12Speaker 05

  Ooh.

• 30:13Speaker 03

  Pretty good.

• 30:13Speaker 05

  Sounds nice.

• 30:14Speaker 03

  A vibe soak, or a vibe bath.

• 30:16Speaker 05

  Vibe bath.

• 30:17Speaker 03

  Sound shower.

• 30:19Speaker 05

  That might be my favorite. I like that one.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  There's, there's some, there's some others here. Auditorium jacuzzi. Sonic hot tub.

• 30:28Speaker 05

  Ooh.

• 30:29Speaker 03

  Brain rinse. I like the brain rinse.

• 30:32Speaker 05

  Brain rinse, yeah.

• 30:33Speaker 03

  Spiritual pressure wash. The spiritual part is interesting. You know, I, you, we say "sound bath." I know that's like a loaded term. It's probably as, maybe as loaded as, I don't know, as loaded, but yoga. Yoga can sometimes be a loaded term, too. You know, it's like, it's this, it's this eastern and western philosophy that somehow it's been mixed up, and like, who defines it and what is it? And so I, I, I don't know. How would you, how would you describe sort of to somebody who might be a little averse to woo-woo? Like, how would, how would you describe the, the experience?

• 31:11Speaker 05

  You know, just, I, I would approach it as an open-minded skeptic, you know, and really trust your own intuition. There's so many different ways to, you know, go deeper into the, the stuff. And it usually seems woo-woo if it doesn't vibe with you, you know, but you have to at least give it a chance to, to, to see what it really is, you know? So just be careful not to have preconceived notions, because you had one bad experience. You know, just like in the medical field, you know, every doctor is still a human being. So find a doctor that you vibe with, you know, that you can communicate with, that listens, and you're going to have a better experience. So kind of like this, you know? Our, our sound baths might not be for everybody. We definitely do them our way and, and create the best experience we know how to offer.

• 31:56Speaker 05

  So I'd, I'd say, you know, if you're looking for the, the intention that we're offering, which is just a chance to relax, to listen, to be with yourself, come check it out.

• 32:05Speaker 03

  Hey, another, another description, an extremely relaxing noise complaint.

• 32:13Speaker 03

  Acoustic baptism.

• 32:14Speaker 04

  Whoa, that's pretty.

• 32:16Speaker 03

  Full body playlist.

• 32:18Speaker 04

  Full body playlist. You know, I had a girlfriend who once called me that.

• 32:22Speaker 03

  I was gonna say, that was her high school nickname. You know, I'm a big fan of live music and attending live music events, all different types of music. I mean, I like hip hop. I like pop. I like folk, country. But there are, there are some live music experiences that I go to that I like to just, like, I don't want to stand. I don't want to dance. I just want to sit and I just want to listen. I just want to absorb it. And I just want to take it in. This kind of musical experience, I'll call it a musical experience, even though it's sound.

• 32:52Speaker 04

  Sound shower?

• 32:52Speaker 03

  Is just, yes, sound shower. Bathing without getting wet is just pure auditory. For me, it's auditory bliss. It's just, you just get to relax. There's no expectations. There's no rules. You can just lay there, bring an eye mask if you want, and just like take in the sounds, you know? You don't have to do anything than just listen. And for me also, it's a very, it sort of forces me into a meditative state, which meditation also, I guess, is sort of maybe becoming a loaded word too, even though the medical

• 33:32Speaker 03

  community has really latched on to it lately. Doctors are prescribing it, you know, left and right now to people. I think maybe, maybe in part because we are in such a rat race, most of us, you know, where you're just going from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next. Your brain never shuts off until you go to sleep and then you wake up and it immediately picks up where it left off. And pretty soon your brain is running in the background and it's telling you things that might not necessarily be true. It might be off a little bit. It might just be words in your head and, but you do have to figure out a way

• 34:16Speaker 03

  to break yourself from that, from your own thoughts. Prayer for a lot of people is that.

• 34:23Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 34:24Speaker 03

  And, and just, you know, you gotta, we all have to find ways to sort of break out of just the, the human mental cycle that we can get trapped in.

• 34:35Speaker 04

  I a hundred percent agree with you. And I think that there are fewer and fewer people that actually have the ability to do that. Our society is such, a rat race is probably the best definition that, to that, in my opinion, because I find myself sometimes eating dinner with my family and I'm rushing a little bit because, oh, what do I have to do after this?

• 34:58Speaker 03

  Right.

• 34:59Speaker 04

  Well, you don't. Just enjoy your dinner, eat slower, just have a conversation. Or what sometimes, what we do sometimes, just don't bring the phone to the table. Just, just, just sit.

• 35:14Speaker 03

  Be at the table.

• 35:14Speaker 04

  Be at the table.

• 35:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, there's plenty of distractions out there, right? And, and it's interesting that we're, both of you kind of mentioned, you know, that, that the cessation of thought or the stilling of thought and just calming that thought down of what's next, what's coming next? What else can I think about right now? And thought is, in a way, it's kind of shaped and formed with time, you know? It kind of affects how we perceive and, and work with time. And that's what sound is. Sound of music is the art of time, right? So, you know, we can use music, you know, different rhythms, different beats per minute, different types of sounds that will resonate with kind of the time and the frequency of your thoughts and how things are flowing through your mind. And when our thoughts slow down, it's much easier to let the unnecessary ones float away and dissipate.

• 35:59Speaker 05

  Important things rise to the surface.

• 36:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:01Speaker 05

  And when you're done understanding them or getting what they need, they just disappear and the next one comes. It's a sort of this, you get into this effortless state, you know, we don't, and effortless by, you know, in a sense, it's effortless for your heart to beat. It's effortless for you to digest your food, you know, that kind of thing. Where we don't have to actually apply effort to be doing what we're doing. And, and that is a very healing state, right?

• 36:22Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 36:23Speaker 05

  You don't have to apply any effort to lay on the ground, let your heart beat, let the thoughts come and go and just listen. It's all effortless.

• 36:31Speaker 03

  Yeah. Again, if anybody's interested in supporting Okehe and White Wolf Wellness, or if just interested in, in having a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon, the Sound Bath is here at the basement, the Woolworths, right down here in the downtown Bakersfield. You can go to okehe.org or White Wolf Wellness on Instagram or givebutter.com where you can buy tickets. All money goes towards rehabilitating Camp Okehe out there on the Kern River. We have a listener message here, Stephen. It says, do they still have their horses and animals out there? We went last summer and got to feed the animals. Such a beautiful area. If you haven't been, go out and support.

• 37:16Speaker 03

  So talk about the animals that you have out there.

• 37:18Speaker 05

  They're definitely a hit and they're a huge part of the project. You know, it's amazing how people sort of automatically let their guard down and their curiosity rise when they're around our farm animals, especially like the horses and the goats and the sheep and the dogs. Everybody usually kind of has their favorite, they gravitate towards, you know, and I've seen several times people that arrived afraid of horses, but by the time they were leaving, they were feeding them carrots and bedding them, you know? So they have a really powerful way, I think, of getting us in touch with our deeper selves, you know, and feeling vulnerable and okay being who we are.

• 37:54Speaker 03

  Yeah. You, you have also been, you're an artist in multiple ways, not just with sound and music, but you also can do lots of drawings, paintings, all different. Talk about just your, your art background and, and then what you're doing artistically.

• 38:14Speaker 05

  Yeah. I mean, you know, art is something that has been a meditation for me since I was, you know, as young as I can remember. Something I'd do just quietly in my room when everybody thought I was asleep. And then it got to a point in my life where I wanted to really commit to it. And so I've been practicing, you know, as an artist ever since 2007.

• 38:33Speaker 05

  Went to school at the Art Institute, was formally trained, et cetera. And, you know, just kind of kept doing it in one capacity. You know, I was a tattoo artist for 16 years. But the last three or four years, I've really focused on just my fine art practice and, you know, working on drawings and paintings primarily that sort of share and express the, the story of my time out at Okehe mainly lately. So I had a show back in 2024 at Gallery RAM that was, was great. And it was focused primarily on what I was learning from our domestic animals and how they live on the land and how they, you know, sort of work in a semi, you know,

• 39:17Speaker 05

  you know, what's the word I'm looking for here? They're, they're domestic, you know, they're not totally wild, but they live out on the land. They don't live inside. They, you know, they work with the land in a little bit more intimate way than we do. This show that I'm having this Saturday, it opens, it's called The Animal I Forgot I Was. And it's a similar investigation, but explores the wildlife, the more wild nature all around us. It was inspired a lot by my journey into falconry, which I'm now doing in my second year, which if you're not aware, falconry is the ancient art form of, of training raptors to hunt. And so I have a hawk right now, red-tailed hawk, and I'm currently training her to come be my hunting buddy for the season.

• 40:01Speaker 03

  Oh, sweet. Yeah. What's, she have a name yet?

• 40:04Speaker 05

  She has a name. Her name's Lira.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  Lira.

• 40:05Speaker 05

  She's a large female with very strong feet.

• 40:08Speaker 03

  Ah, she's also the currency of Peru.

• 40:13Speaker 04

  And a bunch of other countries in the Middle East.

• 40:15Speaker 05

  Yeah. Okay. I didn't even think about that. Of course you guys would know that.

• 40:20Speaker 05

  But yeah, it's been a great experience. And what it sparked in me was, it blew my mind

• 40:28Speaker 05

  the type of relationship that is possible with a wild animal. If we're willing to be patient enough, if we're willing to meet the animal where it's at, if we're willing to communicate in a level that the animal can understand and be willing to listen and understand what the animal's communicating to us. And, you know, it takes time. It takes about two weeks for the bird to fully trust me enough to fly to me, you know? But we take baby steps and I never pressure her and we use food as communication. And, you know, every day we get a little bit more trust, you know? She'll take an extra step to me for some food, you know? And it's a really beautiful thing to watch. So what, what that sparked in me was this curiosity about, well, I wonder what other type of relationship is possible with the rest of nature?

• 41:09Speaker 05

  You know, yeah, the birds are the species, but they're not that different from all the other wild things around me. And, you know, I did a little research. I mean, there's, there's people that have been training cheetahs in Africa, just like falcons. And raise them as babies and cheat, yeah, train them and they hunt with them as hunting partners. And so it's not this, you know, enslavement type relationship. It's a partnership.

• 41:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:30Speaker 05

  Because the humans help the cheetah, the falconer helps the bird find more prey.

• 41:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:36Speaker 05

  And then the bird, you know, I'm not going to eat squirrels. So, so the hawk gets all the squirrels she wants when she, she gets a kill. And it's just, I mean, it's so beautiful to watch a bird fly and then trust you enough to come back to you and land on your fist.

• 41:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:50Speaker 05

  And not fly away when they have a kill on the ground. You know, it's, it's, it's beautiful. So it just, that's a lot of what the impetus of the show is, is me exploring that with the wildlife at Okehe. And that's not just animals, you know, the trees, the foliage, you know, a lot of the pieces are really dissolving that boundary. You know, there's a piece called dissolving into the grass and it's a bobcat taking a nap, which was a real experience we had out there during a sound bath, actually.

• 42:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:17Speaker 05

  And, you know, the, the way I, I made the drawing happen was where it's very, there's not a very distinct line between where the bobcat ends and the grass begins and vice versa. You know, and that's kind of how I, I feel my, my relationship is to nature and especially out at Okehe is now. You know, I'm a part of it. It's not, it's not a separate thing for me anymore.

• 42:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:39Speaker 04

  So. I was just gonna say falconry is an ancient sport, very, very popular, Central Asia.

• 42:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:47Speaker 04

  Middle East.

• 42:48Speaker 05

  A lot of people say that's where it all started.

• 42:49Speaker 04

  If you, I mean, there's, Middle East, they're so big on this sport that some, that the animal has a passport. So they can travel between countries for, for.

• 42:59Speaker 03

  Competitions.

• 43:00Speaker 05

  I've seen that. They get their own seat on the airplane.

• 43:01Speaker 04

  Yes. It's, it's amazing. And, and I just came back from Morocco and, and the desert of Morocco.

• 43:11Speaker 04

  A lot of the Emiratis and Qataris, they built houses and these houses are specifically geared around falconry.

• 43:19Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 43:20Speaker 04

  Because they want the desert, they want the open space for, to hunt and to your point, just that trust between the handler and the animal is just amazing. I've been, when I went to Patrick Wade's place in Ireland, the first day I arrived, he brought a guy with a bunch of birds and stuff. And it's, it was amazing to watch and I was able to put the glove on and just have the bird on my arm.

• 43:47Speaker 05

  Yeah. How does that feel when the bird just?

• 43:49Speaker 04

  It's scary, really. It's scary. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, you feel the comfort and you feel the connection. It's, but it was an amazing experience.

• 43:58Speaker 05

  And isn't it incredible to think about that bird's going through something similar?

• 44:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:02Speaker 05

  It's a little scared too and like, alright. And you like see that happening with the, you know, and it's another way to relate to nature, you know? We're different, but we're not that different.

• 44:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:12Speaker 04

  And all this is right here in Bakersfield too.

• 44:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:15Speaker 04

  It's amazing. It's the proximity. It's 15, 20 minutes from downtown Bakersfield. You can have this experience. And the other thing I was just going to ask you for, for me, like just going out there, you have places for people to actually rent and stay and have the overnight experience too, right?

• 44:30Speaker 05

  Yeah. Okehe was a big camping hotspot back in the day for the Bakersfield community and we're really trying to bring that back. So we have trailers that you can rent if you want a little cushier experience with a shower and a kitchen and air conditioning. But we also have tent spaces. We can bring your own tent, a few spaces if you're a car camper and car camp. And yeah, come check us out. It's a, it's a great place. You can feed some carrots to some horses.

• 44:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:55Speaker 05

  Sit by the river. Love to see you out there.

• 44:57Speaker 03

  Thank you so much, Stephen Winters. Again, go check out okehe.org. You can learn more about there. Buy tickets for the Sound Bath at the basement of the Woolworths this Sunday, August 30th. It's at 2:30 in the afternoon. You can get tickets at okehe.org or on Instagram. And go to Gallery RAM on Saturday, August 29th and you can see Stephen's show there at the gallery. At 5:30 to 7:30.

• 45:23Speaker 02

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