00:00Pleased to say we're joined right now by multi-platinum singer-songwriter Jewel and mental health advocate now in the fourth year of your Not Alone Challenge, which has really evolved from just being an online challenge to now a full-fledged summit.
00:14Yeah, thanks for having me. The summit, we feel, is going to be a really important next step to help spread information.
00:21I think a lot of the information around mental health is very siloed, so to get experts together so we can share information will be helpful.
00:27I mean, what's the crux for this? I mean, we talk a lot about mental health, but we kind of talk about it at very surface level.
00:34And I know your history, you've been involved in mental health charities and philanthropy for years now, decades.
00:40And I am curious as to specifically what the evolution has been with regards to awareness and, more importantly, participation in your program as well as other types of programs.
00:49Yeah, and I moved out at 15. I had a difficult home life, and I knew that the movie for me shouldn't end well.
00:55You know, kids that move out on their own at 15 don't typically do better.
00:59And so I wanted to see if I could change my life. Was happiness a learnable skill? Was it a teachable skill?
01:05I didn't have access to traditional support like therapy.
01:08And so when I got popular, one of the first things I did was some of these tools that I learned for myself that really cost no money.
01:14I wanted to see if they worked for other kids that had no traditional therapy.
01:18And we get incredible results.
01:20And so now it's not just about raising awareness, but putting those types of tools into people's hands and realizing there's lots of tools.
01:27Therapy is incredible. It's wonderful.
01:29There's different types. There's different tools.
01:31So that people keep going and looking and finding what's right for them.
01:35And all of your work, of course, when it comes to mental health, culminating, in a sense, to this summit, the first time that you're doing this,
01:42though the challenge has been going on for several years, talk to us about how Steve Wozniak got involved.
01:47Of course, no stranger to the Bloomberg audience, but he'll be co-hosting this summit as well in November.
01:54Yeah, we have incredible people that are participating.
01:57Woz has been a longtime friend.
02:00My son calls him the magician and he just has a heart for help.
02:04He's a wonderful force for good.
02:06And, you know, it's interesting all the different ways that you come at mental health.
02:09I know that you're also the co-founder and the chief strategy officer of Inner World.
02:13I understand that's a platform offering.
02:16How does that wrap into what you're doing with the challenge and now the summit as well?
02:20Yeah, Inner World is a virtual reality online health intervention platform.
02:25It sort of grew out of what we built in the foundation.
02:29And so this allows it to be scalable infinitely.
02:33And now with the summit and the awards show, it's about that in-person connection.
02:37I am curious just about access to mental health care.
02:40I mean, obviously, we're very fortunate here.
02:42We have a great health insurance plan and we can get that care when we need it.
02:46But a lot of people, either if they even have health insurance, sometimes it doesn't cover mental health.
02:51And, of course, we know there are plenty of people in this country that are either underinsured or not insured at all.
02:56Yeah, it's a really important issue.
02:58In fact, I think the very best patient to therapist ratio is like 156 to 1.
03:04That's like the best in all the states.
03:06So even if you have money, it doesn't mean you're going to have any room on the therapist's docket or that therapist may not be the right fit for you.
03:14And so there's a real bottleneck in the industry.
03:16And so for me, my focus is really finding scalable tools that are very cost effective but that are proven to work.
03:23And also the idea of the stigma, the idea that if you're seeking help for mental health and that becomes public or your employer finds out,
03:30there's always been that fear that this could actually work against you in some way or another.
03:35Are we seeing maybe our infrastructure, meaning our companies and other institutions, being a little bit more accommodating to some of these challenges?
03:43I'm finding companies really coming to terms with the fact that mental health leads to a lot of sick days.
03:49It leads to a lot of ineffectiveness at the workplace.
03:51And so learning to invest and help your employees with their mental health is really just good for the bottom line, if for no other reason.
03:59Another conversation that I think is happening parallel to is the influence of AI.
04:04Clearly, that's a conversation in news.
04:06It's also a conversation in music as well.
04:08And I wonder, you know, from where you're sitting, what the influence in your view has been so far?
04:13I think it's giving the artist a lot of power.
04:17I think that we have more resources than ever to absolutely be independent and own that master right.
04:23I encourage people to know how the industry works.
04:25The master actually holds most of the money.
04:27And so you want to own your master.
04:29And now with social media, if you get a following, you can own that master.
04:32There's no reason not to.
04:34AI is also a big discussion of mental health.
04:36And people are turning to ChatGPT and other platforms as a mental health support, which is very uncharted territory.
04:43And people are turning to ChatGPT and other platforms as a mental health support.
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