Our Story: Getting to Know Us & Our Mission

Jeremiah Barrett  0:00  
Hi, I'm Jeremiah. And I'm Andrea. We are your host chats with to Dyslexics a podcast that aims to inform, entertain and empower.

Andrea Goodrich  0:10  
You are a curious person who could use a weekly dose of positivity, then you've come to the right place.

Jeremiah Barrett  0:15  
Welcome to chats with two dyslexics. My name is Jeremiah,

Andrea Goodrich  0:19  
and my name is Andrea.

Jeremiah Barrett  0:20  
And this is our podcast. And thank you for listening to us. And this is a podcast, it's helping people who have dyslexia and other learning disabilities, we're not always going to be talking about it's just going to be just chatting about other things to people that we know.

Andrea Goodrich  0:36  
Yeah, exactly. So even though dyslexia is in the title, that doesn't mean, that's the only thing we're going to talk about. There's lots more to us than just our learning challenges, right?

Jeremiah Barrett  0:47  
Yeah, just so much about us. You know, there's not just one thing, you know, we have so many different sides, we have a lot of different upcoming guests that are going to happen. We have someone that was a parent advocate, help others and herself, get rights for a child, and help other people to get what their child needed for them to learn. And we have so much more, we're gonna have a person who was a ex lawyer that was deaf, and he's going to talk about how he was able to solve cases and like in court, and we also have this person that is really a program for kids with learning challenges to go to college. So we have a lot of amazing good people. We have a good lineup.

Andrea Goodrich  1:25  
Yeah, we just want people to feel like they're not alone. And we want people to feel inspired. We kind of want to create a community where people feel safe to share their stories, because we're going to have listener, Collins, and we're also going to do a little bit of pop culture. So we just want this to be a cool place where everybody feels welcome. Yeah, that's

Jeremiah Barrett  1:43  
definitely first, but I think we have to talk about how we met for so I remember meeting you in middle school, I believe it was in like in seventh grade. So how did you get there?

Andrea Goodrich  1:56  
Oh, let's see. Yeah, so basically, I had worked as a public school teacher for most of my life. And there was this opening for a teacher to start a pilot program for students with autism. And so that's how I started, I started off just working with one particular student. And then when a teacher had twins, I suddenly got transferred to middle school. And I was terrified because Middle School is not something I ever wanted to teach, but it kind of turned out okay.

Jeremiah Barrett  2:23  
Yeah. You talk about the plant that died before.

Andrea Goodrich  2:26  
(Laughter) Okay, yeah. So basically, the owner of the school had like this Bonsai plant. And when I got transferred to the middle school, I cried. And so she, she gave me my Bonsai plant. And I kind of thought, all right, well, this is kind of like a message of hope and growth and life and possibility, but then the plant dies. And I thought, oh, no, this is like a bad omen that maybe I'm not meant to be a middle school teacher. Yeah. So yeah,

Jeremiah Barrett  2:57  
before I even went to the private school, I was in the public school first grade, through half of my sixth grade, it was kind of hard for me because there was a lot of like, challenges with like, not getting the things that I needed to like, help me learn. It wasn't really like a good environment. You know, I did have some great teachers that helped me, but there was a lot of things that I needed to help me learn that they weren't providing. So I needed to be out placed and I had help with like my mom, she found this parent advocate, and she started like, helping me get the tools that I needed to learn. That's how I started to just like meet you. Because if I didn't have her, I wouldn't be at some private school. I also wanted to talk about the shame of being in special ed. I know for when I was in like younger, I felt like a little of shame, being in like the special ed classes. I feel like everybody will be like, especially the students not kind about it, because I think they were just jealous of us getting all the attention but they didn't realize that I guess the class was that we were going to we're not the greatest you know, I remember most of my special ed classes were being taught in the library, which is like you're posting and quiet and like how you supposed to learn, ask questions that's a weird place and the O.T.  room we had like this, out of order boys bathroom  locker room size bathroom and the gym. So that was like, that was where we did O.T. I forgot what OT stands for.

Andrea Goodrich  4:18  
Oh, yeah. Occupational therapy.

Jeremiah Barrett  4:20  
Yeah, thank you Andrea. So yeah, that's that's what I did that and then I speech sometimes I would do within the cafeteria, or sometimes do it in a hallway. There was like a lot of different weird places that I will always get like my extra services,

Andrea Goodrich  4:36  
which was weird. Did that make you feel embarrassed? It did

Jeremiah Barrett  4:39  
but like you think it's normal. Because you're young. You're like, oh, this is what school is like. I guess we're supposed to learn in a locker room (laughter). Yeah, so I don't know if you have any other experiences in like being taught in weird classrooms or being the teacher. We happen to use these weird classrooms.

Andrea Goodrich  4:58  
Well, it's interesting. because you know, growing up, I don't remember Special Ed when I was a kid, I do remember that there were kids that were different. And they all seem to go into one room. So that's like my memory. They were kind of like hidden from the rest of the school. But I also know that there was something different about me when I was a kid. And I just always felt like I didn't fit in. And I can remember, like teachers saying things that would make me feel bad about myself, like, you know, you're not organized. Or you would get better grades, if you tried harder, or people would laugh at me when I would raise my hands to ask questions. And I didn't understand why it was funny, probably because my mind processes information slower. So by the time I asked the question, everybody else had already moved on. And whatever I was asking must have seemed silly or ridiculous to them. But I was focusing so hard on writing things down that I would miss a lot of what the teacher would say. So I hated school. And I also remember, it was hard for me to stay still, I can remember, you know, going to the bathrooms and climbing on the stalls and swinging from the stallway doors and I think I actually fell in fifth grade and broke my tailbone. And the principal told my mom, I fell on the monkey bars outside, but I really didn't, I was just really hyper as a kid. So I think that's, I think that's why I ended up becoming a special ed teacher, because I didn't want kids to hate school as much as I did. And I wanted kids to feel like good about themselves, no matter how they learned. So that's kind of how I got into special ed. And then in the 20 years that I've taught, I've taught in everything from a closet without lights or ventilation to a boiler next to a boiler room (pause) rooms that were super hot rooms with no windows. Yeah, I was different a locker room or a broken bathroom. But some of my co teachers were stuck in the library. And I remember they cried. They were like, like, this is so degrading, like as a professional.

Jeremiah Barrett  6:57  
Yeah, it's like, degrading and it's like, it's kind of like, you kind of get the feel like you're second class or like you don't really, like you're here, but we don't really want you here like we don't you want like we want all students, but we just don't really care guys get like the same equipment or like anything at the other students, you know? Yeah, like, at times, we're able to, like use computer programs. But if you really have a hard time with reading, that's not gonna really help you. I remember we used to do this program called Lexia. And it was kind of like very hard. And I didn't know that I had dyslexia until like, the end of my graduation. So trying to do Lexia this computer program was kind of hard for me. I remember you said it's like playing whack a mole with a blindfold. I love that quote that you said. (Laughter) It's kind  of like true. Because like, if you're not really taught the basics and stuff, it's kind of hard. I think it did help other people. Lexia it helped people to like in people who my peers, but it's just so many like other things that like didn't really help me when I was trying to like learn

Andrea Goodrich  8:02  
well, yeah. And it's also Yeah, it's like, it's like giving somebody a tool and saying, Go practice when you're not even sure what you're practicing. Just like if you were to like have to bake something, like put together the ingredients. How are you supposed to know how to bake something when you don't even have the recipe? Like you're not even sure what the ingredients are supposed to be? You know, it's it's kind of silly, but I think as teachers, we generally weren't trained to teach students how to read, we didn't even really know how to recognize dyslexia, nevermind how to remediate. So yeah. So I think it's kind of like a no win situation...  people that don't have the training or the skills. And then you've got teachers and students who are placed in locations that aren't optimal, like out in the hallway where everybody can hear you and see you. Yeah, so I can relate to all of that.

Jeremiah Barrett  8:52  
I just wonder, like, why like, teachers don't have that training, because like, they go to school for like, many years, some of them try to get like their masters and stuff, like how come they don't really have the training if they're going to like school all those years?

Andrea Goodrich  9:05  
That's a great question. I mean, I got a master's degree in special education. And I honestly didn't even know what the definition of a syllable is. Like, I remember being a special ed teacher and looking up at the posters on the wall, you know, the Wilson reading program, and there would be a poster with the different syllable types. I had no idea what that meant. You know, nobody ever taught me that a syllable is a sound made with a push of air. So I think a lot of kids have fallen through the cracks. So like now that there are certain courses and tests that teachers have to take, I'm not familiar with them, but you need to pass them if you're going to become a teacher. And I think those tests focus a lot on the structure of the language and how to teach it. Yeah,

Jeremiah Barrett  9:48  
cuz I'm glad it's starting to change because like it would have helped definitely me when I was like growing up, and I'm pretty sure you probably saw a lot of other students struggling with dyslexia or Like trying to get services and stuff. Do you mind if you talk about some of that from a teacher's perspective?

Andrea Goodrich  10:04  
Sure. Sure. Yeah. So like the way I found out about Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching reading was I was teaching at a school and a particular parent knew that there was something wrong with her daughter that she wasn't learning to read the way she should. And so that mom brought her concerns to the school. And as it very often happens, the school said, Well, she just needs a little extra support. And they didn't do the tests that are necessary to show that there could be a language based learning disability or dyslexia. So the mom had her tested outside the school district and she sure enough, had dyslexia. So the mom took her to the Children's Dyslexia Center in Waterbury, and that place is funded by the Masons and they will teach a student for free for three years using the Orton-Gillingham methodology. That place also will train people to become Orton-Gillingham tutors, you have to spend almost a year, one Saturday a month studying and then you have to tutor I think it's over 60 hours of supervised clinical. So when this mom told me about it, I signed up and I took the training, and I worked with two students twice a week for one hour each for 10 months. And I took all the classes and that's how I learned how to read and spell for the first time in my life. Speaker 1 WOW

Yeah, and it was quite a commitment because I had to do that after working all day long. But that's what I needed to learn how to read and spell properly myself as well as learn how to teach others that have dyslexia. And I've told everybody I know about it. I just can't say enough good things about it.

Jeremiah Barrett  11:39  
Yeah, that's pretty good. That is a program sorry, I cut you off.

Andrea Goodrich  11:43  
Oh, no, no, that's okay. Well, I want to make sure that I'm clear. It's it's not really a program per se, like it's a methodology. So it's a way you go about doing it that has been scientifically validated. But underneath this methodology are what are called programs. So like the Wilson Reading Program, the Fundations Program, you might hear about something called like, oh, I don't know, maybe it's Visualize and Verbalize. These are certain programs that I think use the multi sensory approach. So a program is something that you can purchase. So somebody created something and they're making money off of it. You could use the Orton-Gillingham methodology without buying anything. All you need is a pack of index cards and your two fingers. Speaker 1 Yeah, Speaker 2 you know, it's a reading materials and maybe a highlighter. So parents can also go through the training, if they want to tutor their own child. It's open to anyone. Speaker 1 Oh, that's a great place. Yeah, yeah, they really are. And they've also expanded now. So now they have a satellite, their Hartford satellite is in Farmington. And their Bridgeport satellites is in Stratford. The only thing that's hard about it is that parents have to bring their child there and wait while the child is being tutored. And that very often means they have to race there after work with all the other siblings in tow. And they have to wait. And it's a big commitment for families. But you know, they're very dedicated to helping their child with dyslexia, learn how to read, so it becomes like a whole family effort. And some families have more than one child with dyslexia. At the time that I took the program, there was like a two to three year waiting list to be able to get in. So now that there's more centers, you don't have to wait as long. There are other places where you can get free tutoring I think. I think there's like the Haskins lab and you know, Literacy How, but I can't speak to the quality of any other places and the trainings that they have or the tutors that they have. I can only speak to what I know.

Jeremiah Barrett  13:33  
Yeah. Good that that makes sense. Can you bring your mic a little bit closer? Sure. The listeners can hear you. I think they hear you. But I want to make sure they can hear all the good knowledge that you have. Speaker 2 Is that better? Yeah, that's better,

Andrea Goodrich  13:49  
Cause mine keeps going into the red, which makes me worried that I'm talking too loud.

Jeremiah Barrett  13:54  
Okay, okay. I don't see the red. So like, then like, I just didn't know. So my next kind of like questioning like I remember we were talking and like you were talking about how some teachers don't believe in dyslexia, which is kind of crazy. And that's like, really shocking. So I was wondering if you can kind of go into that more.

Andrea Goodrich  14:13  
Yeah, I just don't understand it. I think it's it's ignorance, but I've encountered it encountered it my entire career. My very first teaching job, I had a teacher in high school who this is 20 years ago wouldn't make modifications to his study guides or tests because he felt like that was somehow cheating, and that if a student couldn't get the grade the way everybody else did, then they don't deserve it. And you know, this was an educated adult who didn't understand that dyslexia is a neurobiological condition. You know, it's just the way the brain is structured. And, you know, now we have a lot of data to show what the brain looks like. So you know, Sally Shaywitz did these longitudinal studies at Yale, I think with her husband And they actually can show the brains of people with dyslexia before and after remediation. But even still, like the school where I met you, there was a high school teacher who didn't believe that one of my students who when I met, the student was reading at a preschool level, they didn't believe that the student had dyslexia, they thought that the student was just being lazy and faking it all which, why would anybody fake a disability because they because they can't read. Nobody wants to come off as not being able to read like, why would anybody want to do that? Yeah, it's absurd. But just because somebody is a teacher doesn't mean they're they are wise or or kind. Yeah, there's a lot of there are a lot of people that could do a lot of harm. Just like there are a lot of doctors that can do harm or religious people. They're just, yeah, people are just flawed. So yeah, yeah. So it's important that we if we as individuals, or as parents feel that or think that something is not right, that we have to trust that and you keep getting second opinions and keep always keep monitoring what's going on. Yeah, you know, with with your students and with your child's education. Yeah, definitely.

Jeremiah Barrett  16:06  
Yeah, it's kind of like praise because there's like, there's some people who don't believe in it. And some people like some school districts that don't like they know some child has it, but they won't give them to like helping these I remember you said that like saying the "D word" , like for dyslexia, it's like saying the F word.

Andrea Goodrich  16:22  
(Laughter) There was actually a time. Yeah, there was actually a time in my career where if I spoke up like I could get in trouble. And I think it's because schools were afraid that if we provided the proper diagnosis or educational diagnosis, then we would be legally obligated to provide the intervention, which costs money, but you have to have (that are trained with these methodologies. And that involves sending them  or paying for them. And I can remember asking for this specific training at some of the wealthier districts I worked at. And I was told no, we don't do that. And I was expected to teach many, many groups of students, large numbers of kids without any training at all. And that's absurd in this day and age, and to me, it's unethical. So you know, I think now in Connecticut, the law has just recently changed. So that will enable people that work for schools to be able to say the D word without being afraid of repercussions because those services can be offered. And it there are ways to train teachers to provide the proper instruction with the frequency and intensity that's required, you know, and some of the programs that schools are using are not intense enough. And especially when a teacher is expected to teach large groups of kids with varying levels, it just it doesn't work, you need to be able to give the kids a one on one. If the teacher is highly trained and experienced, the teacher might be able to do small groups like two or three kids. But that is difficult. That takes a lot of training and practice. And unfortunately, the people who have the money to  pay for private tutors are the ones that are going to get the services for their children. And it's expensive, like people that provide Orton- Gillingham tutoring charge between 80 and $120 an hour, that's the going rate. Right?

Jeremiah Barrett  18:11  
Yeah, like like per session? Or like,

Andrea Goodrich  18:13  
yeah, Mm hmm. Because well, yeah, per session, because each session that you work with a student takes about an hour to put together the materials and the lesson plans, and then you got to figure you've got your travel time. So that fee is usually figured into all of that. So really, it only comes out to like maybe, you know, $50 an hour. And when you consider the amount of training that has to go into becoming certified, you know, people have to be able to make a living. And so, I mean, a lot of people wouldn't think twice about paying $3,000 or whatever it costs for Neuro psych eval, but they might think, Well, I'm not going to pay a tutor. You know that. That seems like a lot of money. Well, it is. But you're paying for you get what you pay for. You're getting someone who's highly trained. And it works.

Jeremiah Barrett  18:54  
Yeah, it works. Yeah, that's true. It does work.

Andrea Goodrich  18:57  
Yeah. Especially if it's done regularly. Like in schools, it's hard to give kids two hours a week like you're supposed to, because schools schedules there's always other things that come up like assemblies or meetings or field trips, or you know, volunteer work or vocational stuff, transition stuff. And then you know, there's teacher absences or student absences. So it's really hard to get that frequency and intensity and duration that is required. And that's why a lot of parents end up sending their kids to private schools or paying private tutors. So yeah, the system is still broken, even with a lot of the positive changes, unfortunately, and there are some very good private schools but they're expensive.

Jeremiah Barrett  19:34  
Yeah, they're very expensive. Like if you don't have the help, and it's like you're done like I've like kind of like it's gonna be like a struggle like a student to get the help they need from a school you know, again, they might disagreement and stuff. Everyone's different. I hear a lot of people's different stories I hear sometimes they even though some students are doing well at a certain school, they still have to fight to stay in that school because I know the district wants to bring them back to their own school, which is really kind of unfair. You know, I would say somewhat selfish because they don't really think about the child. And it should be Yeah, like trying to like, think about the kid,

Andrea Goodrich  20:07  
it comes down to money. I mean, ultimately, schools are a business, you know, and there's only a certain amount of money to be spent. And so if it costs more money to send somebody out, you use the word out placed. So if you have to outplace a lot of your students, then well, what are you going to give up? Are you going to have to let certain teachers go? Or you're going to have to, you know, I don't know, cut certain other services, like art or music, or that just seems to be the way it is. And it's unfortunate.

Jeremiah Barrett  20:36  
Yeah, it's really unfortunate. So yeah, I kind of want to like shift to something else shifted back to us to how we kind of like re like, sort of reconnect. So I met you in middle school, but I never really worked with you. I don't think I like I hung out in your room, you had like a lot of like, animal crackers, and like snacks and stuff. And like you, it's kind of funny, you will like take students away from their classes, and we'll all be hanging out and having a blast. And like, you'll be like, Oh, they're all in Andrea's room.

Andrea Goodrich  21:07  
(Laughter) I had one kid that would hide under my giant plant, I had this giant Schefflera and he would hide under it, so he wouldn't have to have speech therapy.

Jeremiah Barrett  21:19  
(Laughter) So that's, that's funny. So like, I think we I reconnected in 11th grade, because I remember, I was listening, cuz you were in another room, you were in another divider room, you have some students and another person has another students, they would do like sessions. So I heard that you were doing a newscasts, like news class, like film club with these two middle school students. And I was like, very excited, because at the time, I was going to a film club and learning how to like make films and write skits and stuff. And I had a lot of jokes about our school, the private school that I probably people wouldn't get, you have to get some. It's kind of like you have to be there to understand the inside joke. And I knew these people would. So I immediately said, hey, I can help. And we had a blast. And like, I remember skipping lunch and like, it was like a school project that almost turned into because we had like other kids hearing about that. And then people from middle school. We're all in the video. So then people from high school and then people from our elementary and then the same thing happened. You're kind of like taking students but they were kind of lying to us. They will say like, oh, I don't have class. This is my break time. Okay, you can be in this film, and they like we had such a blast. I remember I wrote this joke. We used to have retired chickens. And I had one of the students say like breaking news that the chickens actually went to retire like chicken farm but I said instead that they went to KFC, which I thought was kind of funny (laughter) like, I thought it was hysterical. Yeah, I thought it was funny too. And then there was one person that was like, really upset about that. And I was like, that's kind of funny, though. 

Andrea Goodrich  22:56  
i thought it was great. I mean, we had these chickens for so many years, and the kids would collect the eggs and you know, hold the chickens and they thought they were really cool. And then one day the chickens one chicken. I went outside and it was picking another one to death and I got so upset and they had some kind of disease. And so next thing we knew all the chickens we were told went to a retirement home for old chickens and I was afraid that they maybe had killed them all so I thought your joke about how they how they ended up at Kentucky Fried Chicken was hysterical. That's why we that's why we get along. We both have a twisted sense of humor.

Jeremiah Barrett  23:31  
Yeah. And I like having like a blast like doing it. Well, you made a lot of mistakes. We tried to use the green screen in your room. And then like I remember like we made the camera like that, like people want a video upside down during the show.(Laughter) Everyone's like laughing we're all like the audio was going in and out we have like mistakes during this. Everybody loved it. Everybody got to see themselves

Andrea Goodrich  23:53  
And we taught ourselves it was true learning like we taught ourselves everything.

Jeremiah Barrett  23:57  
You know, the one thing I really loved was like everyone was a part of it. Even people who didn't like each other in the skits that did together and it was just like really kind of like wow, this is like this film was like bringing the people together. So I was doing like running a student council so I decided to quit not quit. I had like two terms the first one like there was election it was a tie. I didn't want to do a deal tiebreaker. So there was like there was like a co presidents thing and then like my other like my second term like I was like the only one in the club. Well, that's not really true. Speaker 2 That's so sad. (Laughter) One student club No, I had other people in it, but it was just like some people were like slacking. I felt like I was LeBron James carrying the whole team. Oh, but like I still had a blast. I still did the events. I still work with people but I felt like this was a new chapter and like I saw something I really wanted to like work with different students you know, do something so I decided to do a film club and Andrea like you loved it and like we both thought was Good idea. We have a like a huge turnout. And then many people say they're gonna do it next year, because they're coming back and it was gonna be like my senior year. And I was like, very excited. And then like, we have like a lot of people sign up. But then everybody started to leave and like the people that you had you wish they left, because they weren't really doing any of like, the things you would tell them to do. It's like, if you don't it was rough. Yeah, it was very rough.

Andrea Goodrich  25:23  
Well, it's interesting, because like, I got the idea for the film club at the Southport School, which is for kids, yeah, with learning challenges like ADHD and dyslexia. And they were talking about, you know, having entrepreneurial options for kids with dyslexia, so that they can really thrive. So focusing on things that they're good at, and giving them outlets for their creativity. And so we had so many kids who are always like goofing off and singing and dancing, and just like spontaneously jumping up and singing and stuff. And I was like, well, these kids need an outlet for their creativity. So let's do a film club. It's also a fun way for them to show what they know. And I always secretly wanted to be on Saturday Night Live. So I was like, let's make a film club where we could do like, news skits. And we could talk about, you know, things around our school. You know, nobody was behind us. So we had to use our own phones and iPads and computers. And we had to buy our own tablecloth for a green screen. And we didn't have proper lighting and sound. But we pulled it off. And we had a blast learning.

Jeremiah Barrett  26:24  
We had a blast. I know there was a lot of people, but I still have a great time we did a lot. 

Andrea Goodrich  26:30  
And you taught yourself everything. You did all the editing and the sound effects and the banners and I mean, there's so much that goes into it.

Jeremiah Barrett  26:37  
Yeah, there was so much like into it. It was really like we made it actually kind of like a news segment thing. We recorded different videos but like we just made it onto like one movie.

Andrea Goodrich  26:46  
And also two things kind of went south with my health and I was out a lot and I even missed your graduation, which was so disappointing. But that's why I was so glad when you found that public access TV that does the free training after you graduated. Yeah.

Jeremiah Barrett  27:02  
Like that's how we reconnected again.

Andrea Goodrich  27:04  
And that's what the beauty of public access TV as you can you can sit there and play your guitar in the nude, and it's perfectly fine. Right? Nobody's going to tell you what you can and can't do not that we were Yeah, you can be naked. You can swear you can do anything you want on public access TV.

Jeremiah Barrett  27:21  
Every public access maybe somehow Oh, yeah. 

Andrea Goodrich  27:24  
Well it's not regulated by the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission or whatever Federal Communication. I don't know. That's what Melissa said. But not that anyone really does that. But the point is, you have complete artistic freedom without people judging you and saying it's dark humor or too violent.

Jeremiah Barrett  27:40  
And then after I graduated we what else? Yeah, we after I graduated, I was connected shout to DotLogan, she used to work at the Step Forward program. And she found this lady actually not found she knows this lady. Her name was Melissa, she worked at this public access TV. She's said that like come and take some classes and maybe I can get the certificate. So I can like use the studio. I was like, wow, this is great. Where is it? It's like very, like, close to me, you know. So it's like really cool. I was like, very excited. And I was like, once I got the certificate, and I was like, Who can I call? I was like, I gotta call Andrea. And then once we started, like, you took some classes at it and then I started doing some other video ideas. And then the pandemic happened. Yeah, that was aweful. And then I was like, wondering like, what am I gonna do? I still want to put out content, you know, I still want to do things. I was thinking about writing a blog about dyslexia. But I realized that's kind of defeating my purpose if  people who usually have dyslexia don't like reading. I'm kind of in this middle. I don't mind reading but if it's good story, but I think I'm doing better at reading because I'm reading a lot of stuff in college that I'm not really well want to read on my leisure time, but I have to, because it's college. So that was like, no, maybe I should do a podcast or and then I was like thinking about like cuz I'm a quiet and  shy person. I don't really talk a lot. I was like, Who can I like talk with and I was looking at my call list my phone showing how many people I call and how many people I talk the longest with besides my mom, like you were number second I was like, You know what I;m gonna call Andrea but I asked her to do this test subject we try like doing Streamyard because that's what some people were doing for public access. And then I was like, maybe I'll tell her that we're gonna test it out. And then I'm gonna ask her because I don't know if she's gonna say No, this is ridiculous. Like this is crazy. But you said yes. I was like really excited. I was like really like, oh, okay, yeah, I'm really excited. So we did a lot of like research and I think the hardest part was like coming up with the name of it. Oh, man, that was rough. And just like it was just like very like rough and just really just tough because every time like we think of a name I will go into Spotify, Apple or even Google, and like Apple stands for iTunes but like um  I would look and I'd be like, Oh, that's names taken and then like you came up with the name Chats With Two Dyslexics? I was like, at first I was like, I don't know about this. You know, no one says chat anymore, but Right. It's such an old people thing to say. No, I didn't say that I was like, I'm not really sure.  It's like, it makes sense. Like my best friend Tony. He says chat. Hey, do you want to chat? I was like, oh, okay, so I guess it is cool to say chat. Oh yah Tony, yeah. So it's like we kind of created it together. And we had help from this amazing person. Her name was Melissa I forgot her last name. Guller?  Yeah, yes, she does, like the Wit and Wire podcast. And like, she has like a podcast course that we were taking. And now we're like here making episodes.  Yeah,

Andrea Goodrich  30:54  
I mean, I'm really proud of us. Because we spent before we found that course, we spent six months on our own researching all of the things that you need to do to start a podcast and it's a lot everything from coming up with a name to trademarking, you know, to to copywriting, to protect everything to getting your equipment to how to record what type of platforms do you use, how to edit? Like, we tried so many different editing programs, coming up with your topics, getting a list of people to interview? Oh, yeah, getting your cover art design coming up with music or your trailers? And we did all of that on our own before we even took the class. Ross. What was the guy's name? I want to make sure yeah, I want to make sure he gets credit show notes or something. Yeah, cuz he was I'm gonna just Google it real quick. The the article that I found was called How to Write a podcast or how to create a podcast tutorial, let's see... how to create a podcast? I think it was, I think his name is Ross Winn ROSS WINN. And all his stuff was free. So that's what I loved about it. And he broke it down into step by step like small easy steps.

Jeremiah Barrett  32:03  
Yeah. So I think that's like a good wrap on our first episode. Yeah. So we did it took us only about eight or nine tries.(Laughter) Thank you for listening coming this far, right. All right. Before we end this, I do want to do some shout outs.We might be here for awhile.  But I wanted to thank my mom for helping me and helping me with this podcast encouraging me, you helped me a lot. You gave me some great ideas. And you're amazing. And I love you. Thank you to my dad, Thanks for pushing me and for helping me to be a better person and thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you to my brother Joseph and to my grandma and grandpa. Thank you to my uncle Curtis. Thank you to Aunt Gina, thank you to all my cousins, CJ. Mikayla,Tiffany Shannon Kenny, Ryan, Sabrina. Yeah, just thank you. You have always been like inspiring. So I really look up to you guys. And Miss Linda. Thank you Miss Linda for everything. Thank you, Andrea, for everything that thank you doing this. Yeah. What else? Oh, my goodness. There's so many people that thank I hope I mentioned everybody. Oh, thank you, Mr. G. Thank you just for just helping me just help guide me through high school. Thank you, Nancy. Tingly, thank you for everything. Just there's so much thank yous you know, I probably be here forever. But I just wanna thank everybody. You have anybody you want to thank?

Andrea Goodrich  33:40  
Well, first, thank you for asking me to do this. It was a creative outlet that I really had no idea how badly I needed it. You know, when I was younger, I wrote human interest stories, you know, stories, kind of celebrating the good part of life and the good things that people are doing. And I didn't realize how much I missed that part of myself until you asked me to do this. And we started, you know, finding people to interview and I was like, ah, yeah, this is something that really makes me feel alive, talking to other people and hearing their stories. So without you this wouldn't have happened. Yeah, and for helping me learn about technology because I kind of consider myself a dinosaur. When I met you. I still had a flip a flip phone.

Jeremiah Barrett  34:28  
I wanna thank... Oh, you wanna keep going? Speaker 2 No, no, go ahead. Speaker 1 Okay. All right. I want to thank Melissa from Comcast just for encouraging us. Well, thank Melissa Guller Just for just being really nice and just helping us with this platform to so many people to thing I just really just thank you all my uncles and every everybody all my family members, and

Andrea Goodrich  34:52  
I got to thank my husband because he's got the patience of a saint and there were so many times where you and I would be working together for two or three hours  Speaker 1 Yeah, definitely. Speaker 2 And he'd  bring me dinner. And my adult children, they were very helpful. They they were very good about listening to different names and giving me feedback about music or you know what they considered outdated or? Yeah.

Jeremiah Barrett  35:17  
Yeah, I definitely want to thank your husband because there have been so many times like you'll say, five more minutes and then you be 30 minutes later. And then five more minutes and then an hour and then another hour. It's like, what is it? It's like 10:16

Andrea Goodrich  35:36  
Like, who is this Jeremiah character that's taking my wife all this time? (Laughter)  No, he's a good sport. I have to put up with all his Rotary Club meetings. So it's a it's a give and take. 

Jeremiah Barrett  35:52  
MMM Yeah, I just want to like to thank everybody who just helped out with this and everyone who agreed to be on this podcast that that we're gonna do we're gonna like figure out when the create schedule.  Make sure you follow us on our socials... our Instagrams gonna be linked in below and it's gonna be we're gonna have a website page. And yeah, that's getting ready to go live. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you, everybody. And join us back again. And like, I'm Jeremiah and this is my cohost, Andrea and like Thank you. Thank you for listening. coming this far. Right.

Andrea Goodrich  36:25  
See you next time listeners.

Jeremiah Barrett  36:27  
All right. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai