Ep. 1638 – The Good News with Angie Austin – JIM STOVALL, HOW TO STAY POSITIVE / WILLIAM DEWITT, HOW AI IS IMPROVING SECURITY / Katie Millar, Mean Teen Parenting Machine
The episode progresses as Angie explores the innovative intersection of artificial intelligence and sports safety with William DeWitt, a security expert from Verkada. DeWitt elaborates on how AI is revolutionizing security within large-scale sports events, enhancing safety and efficiency. This technological advancement ensures fans’ peace of mind while attending events through real-time threat detection and response capabilities. This untapped exploration segues into a meaningful dialogue with parenting author Katie Millar-Weirig, who offers a fresh perspective on maintaining trust and balance in parent-child relationships.
00:14:53 Parenting Guidance with Katie Millar-Weirig
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey there, friend, Angie Austin and Jim Stovall. We normally talk about Jim’s books and his columns, but Jim’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever met in my life. And welcome, Jim. I want to just ask you something because I just went on a vacation for 11 days where I was in, I interacted with many different families because there was a big volleyball tournament and then we took vacations with, you know, little like side vacations with other families. And I realized how, I guess, positive I am and how easy it is for me to let go of things. And I noticed how other people had a different maybe persona or attitude than I did, like wanting to beat other teams that they had a vendetta with or they didn’t like this coach or this player and they wanted to get even and they’d cheer when the kid made a mistake. And I’m not a grave dancer. I get no thrill out of seeing people fail. And you are one of the most… There are a few people I’ve met in life that when you’re around them or you talk to them, make you feel so good. And you’re one of the top three I’ve ever met in my entire life.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thank you. That means a lot to me. And, you know, I’ve learned that from a lot of people. And, you know, I become, I believe we become like the people we sit around with all the time. And, you know, candidly, that’s what’s so important to us to be able to mirror that great behavior that other people have. And You know, so I’m very honored that you feel that way because it comes from the other people that have allowed me to do stuff.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, and I think about that because you really, I mean, you’ve really tackled a lot, you know, losing your sight at such a young age and being such a tremendous athlete where you had such aspirations to do things that required your vision. And then to really, as you and I’ve discussed before, quite possibly become even more successful than you would have become had you still kept your sight. And, you know, to have, you know, the narrative narrative television network and over 60 books and now your ninth movie and to have become an Olympic weightlifter. I know that your grandmother that wanted to give you her sight, she thought she could give you her eyes. I know she was extremely positive and made you do the golden list every day where you basically count your blessings and things you’re thankful for. Who are the people who are most instrumental in helping to mold you into this positive person?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, certainly my grandmother, as you pointed out, and my parents. I mean, and my parents had no reason to be positive. I was their third child, the first two died. I had a brother who died of cystic fibrosis and a sister that died of leukemia. And if you’ve seen my movie, The Ultimate Gift, the little girl in there that Abigail Breslin played, that was not as much fiction as people think. That was my sister. And then I came along and I was diagnosed, I’m going to be blind. And, you know, if anybody ever had an excuse for being negative, it would have been my parents, but they never were. And, you know, we kept our attitude because it’s the one thing we can control. And they were such an influence on me. And then today, I’m a huge believer in that. I think we become like the five people we hang around with most. And, you know, I don’t hang up on people or shove them out the door, but if somebody gets in my environment and starts having a negative attitude, I’m going to be somewhere else where they are fairly quickly. I’m just not going to sit around it. I just… Life’s too short. You mentioned all the parents. Hey, 10, 20, 30 years from now, nobody’s going to remember who won that volleyball game, but there are some kids that are going to remember, that’s when my mom and dad went berserk and they acted like idiots. and they insulted me or insulted other people. I’m a huge sports fan. Here’s the rules that I live by. If you go to a high school game, you should applaud everything. The kids deserve it. Just by virtue of the fact they showed up, we’re applauding everybody. We applaud effort. We applaud everything. You don’t criticize. If you go to a college game, these kids are getting a scholarship. The only thing you should criticize is if they’re dogging it. They’re not giving you a total effort. Then you can criticize them a little bit, but that’s it. But then you go to a pro game, everything’s fair game. These guys are millionaires. You want to make fun of them. You want to yell at them. You bought it. You have the right to do that. So that’s kind of the way I look at it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Isn’t that true? I still remember the volleyball game where the dad was harassing my daughter, who was a line judge. And when you miss something or you didn’t see it or you’re unsure, you make an X with your hands. And she did that. And he kept making fun of her. And then he made her cry. And then the police were called. It was becoming such a nuisance. And he hid in the bathroom. And I’ll never forget the little girl crying. She was maybe 15, saying, my dad always does this. And I still remember that. But I… I can’t remember who won the game, to be honest with you. So that’s such a great point. Jim Stovall dot com. Thank you so much, my friend. We’re going to change gears now. But Jim, you’re going to be interested in this. OK, so stick around. All right. All right. From professional stadiums to college arenas, artificial intelligence is now being used to improve safety for players and fans. Joining us today is security expert William DeWitt to explain how AI and other tech solutions are providing real-time threat detection. It’s truly amazing. You’re not going to believe this. DeWitt served as a U.S. Marine and is now the director of global security for Verkada, a company that provides tech security across a global network. Welcome to you, William DeWitt.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you. Thanks for having me on today.
SPEAKER 05 :
You betcha. Well, let’s just start off with how is AI improving sports safety? This is pretty cool.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, you know, AI, we hear about it everywhere. It’s in everything at this point. But what we do is we manufacture smart cameras, perimeter security, and alarm systems, and we’re integrating AI into that from the very beginning. And what that’s allowing security operators or professionals to do is to operate with much more data, much more quickly and efficiently. You know, things that used to take 30, 40 minutes an hour now, you know, take seconds to a minute in order to accomplish.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s pretty cool.
SPEAKER 04 :
All right.
SPEAKER 05 :
So let’s talk about specifics where AI is being used to enhance security.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. So, you know, a lot of organizations use us, such as like the NFL or the NBA, you know, and they have large events with 30, 40, 50, 60,000 people in attendance. So, you know, in order, you know, a use case would be, you know, say they’re looking for an individual, you know, an overzealous fan or something like that. You know, kind of the workflow, the way that it works now is they kind of have to do a radio call out to all these security professionals, you know, that are looking up in the stands. And they’ll kind of give a description and say, like, you know, can anyone see this person? And the way that it works with our system is that You can kind of go into the system and there’s like a search bar, much like you’re searching the internet, and you can just say male, green shirt, blue jeans, black hat. and it will put the power of, like, all the cameras in the stadium and the computing power, you know, together. And within seconds, it will give you the results of anyone in the stadium kind of wearing that combo of clothing and let you know where they’re at in the stadium. And it just allows you to, you know, move your security professionals there much quicker, you know, within seconds, you know, because a lot of times these events only last a minute or two.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s amazing. It’s so much better than a crowd of drunk fans pointing at the perpetrator.
SPEAKER 04 :
Exactly. Right. And you don’t know exactly what they’re pointing at or what they mean. So the AI really lets you, you know, it finds it up on the video and it shows you exactly what happened, you know, in real time within seconds rather than, you know, having to do a big review or ask a lot of people and interview a lot of people what happened and what do they look like, you know. You know, another example, you know, maybe it’s not for security, but maybe it’s for safety. You know, a lot of times in these big events, you know, children can get lost, you know, when they go to the restroom or the concession stand or something like that. You know, it’s the same thing, right? You can, you know, use that search bar in plain text, kind of put a description of the missing person in there, and it can immediately tell you, you know, where they were last seen on a camera. And that’s a far cry, you know, from kind of the way that it works a lot of times where it takes hours to get that information, right, which at that time, you know, the data is stale and not real useful.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, so this is really unbelievable. So it’s really revolutionizing security. I mean, this is a whole new level.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, like I said, the AI, you know, it gives you this computing power that just almost gives the operators like the superhuman ability to find incidents as they’re occurring in real time and to action them, you know, within seconds of the event starting.
SPEAKER 05 :
Can AI security applications, you think, work for other industries as well?
SPEAKER 04 :
We work with a lot of different industries across the world. The retail uses us not just to keep their customers and their employees safe or their goods on the shelf safe. They use us a lot for fraud detection. We integrate with those point-of-sale systems. So that much like the description is you can enter a receipt number into the search bar and it will automatically bring up the footage and the details of that event, which really helps them to detect fraud or investigate fraud in those measures. Another big industry is manufacturing. Different manufacturers use us in different ways, and they use us a lot of times for safety issues. So you can set the cameras up to detect when someone’s not wearing the proper safety gear, like a harness or a hard hat or safety goggles and things like that, as well as some manufacturers use us. If someone gets too close to a piece of machinery, the camera can kind of measure that distance, and once they get within a certain distance, It can shut that machinery off so that they don’t get harmed.
SPEAKER 05 :
unbelievable because, you know, there’s been so many accidents over the years involving factories, machinery, et cetera. You know, I’m at, I’m in Vegas right now for this giant volleyball tournament. And I’m sure, you know, a few weeks ago, there was that big issue in Texas with a cheerleading convention or something, you know, a competition and parents got into a fight. So when this bar or part of the set fell, they thought it was gunshots, right? So you’ve got, you know, 40,000 parents and kids like stampeding out of the stadium. So we’re in this big arena yesterday in Vegas. And my husband saw some guy come in the exit door, which I’m from near Aurora, Colorado, where that guy came in the exit door at the theater a few years back. So my husband grabs this and pushes it against the wall. And my daughter goes, what are you doing? He goes, I’m just really suspicious when some guy comes in the exit door and it’s not supposed to be entered because it’s, you know, these tickets are really expensive to watch these kids events. It’s like 150 bucks for the two of us. So we’re like, Why is this guy? And he’s just kind of stumbling around looking like kind of confused looking. And so he goes, OK, everything’s cool. Let’s go. But we’re always I think because we’re in the news business and we’ve covered so many horrific things like the Aurora Theater shooting that we’re kind of always aware of where the exits are and what could happen. So to have this level of security that really is.
SPEAKER 04 :
truly amazing to me i had no idea that you could get into that much detail and find someone at a super bowl stadium within seconds that’s causing issues i mean that’s going to save lives for sure yeah and that’s that’s really what we’re all about it’s like keeping people safe you know it’s a great idea to always you know like you said like stay aware stay aware of your surroundings and what’s going on around you um but it’s also nice to know that you know A lot of stadiums and arenas are starting to adapt this technology that allows you just to go there and enjoy the game, knowing that there’s hundreds of security professionals with companies that have partnered with companies like Verkada in order to keep you safe.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, where can we go, William, to get more info?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, if you want to learn more about what Verkada is doing, you can go to our website at www.verkada.com. And that is spelled V-E-R-K-A-D-A.
SPEAKER 05 :
Now, I know I always like to ask people, I’ve been doing news for like 30 years now on TV and radio, how they got into it. I know you were a Marine, but how did you get into this specific area of expertise? I know we have a minute or two left.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so, yeah, I got my start in security in the Marine Corps, essentially as security operations. And then from there, I worked in different facets of security around Silicon Valley here for different tech companies, whether it was industrial security or executive protection and things like that. And I’ve always been the end user of security systems. And when the opportunity… Yeah, when the opportunity came to come over to Verkada, you know, me and my counterparts had always said, wouldn’t it be great if the systems would do this and wouldn’t it be great if the systems could do that? And I seen that Verkada was actually doing those and building those things. So I really took that opportunity and I was like, yeah, I got to go over and like work with them and be a part of this because I think it’s going to be really big and we’re going to help keep a lot of people safe.
SPEAKER 05 :
So you’re having fun, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s always a good time to work here in Silicon Valley. Awesome. All right. Thanks, William. Thank you so much. And thanks for having me on today. Oh, you bet.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. Welcoming back Katie Millar-Weirig. She is the author of Becoming a Mean, Crossed Out, Mean Teen Parenting Machine, a step-by-step guide to transform your relationship with your teenager. And we’re having her back because we want to get into more of the nuts and bolts on that step-to-step guide to transform your relationship with your teen. Welcome back, Katie.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you so much for having me again, Angie.
SPEAKER 05 :
You are welcome. All right, so give us the brief overview of the book and why you wrote it, and then we’ll get into the nitty-gritty.
SPEAKER 06 :
So, yes, this book specifically focuses on the most basic parts of the relationship that you have with your children, specifically your preteens and your teens. And what I’ve noticed in my professional practice is often parents would come in and say, you know, I have a problem with this behavior. Can you help me fix this? And I kind of explained to them, it’s like a tree. They come in and you complain about a leaf dying. You say, I need you to fix this leaf. And we can give you, you know, like tools to help revive this leaf. But really, if anyone who knows anything about gardening knows that the leaves are just a reflection of what is happening deeper in the roots of the plant. And that is the same with all of our relationships, especially those with our children. Often the reason we’re having behavioral issues or problems in the home is because there’s something that can be repaired within the fundamental relationship. And so this book goes back to the basic and talks about what you can do to start transforming that relationship so it’s very healthy, very trusting. It’s based on a foundation of love and trust. And then from there, you start to see behaviors change and And then it’s easier to address problems as they come up because you know that your relationship is healthy.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. You talk about that foundation of trust and how it is a foundation of every good relationship. And so let’s start there. You know, obviously, sometimes the kids tell me something that they don’t tell, you know, their father. And I have to really tread that lightly. But my relationship with my husband, of course, comes first. And then them next. And so other than discussing things with him, which I’ve explained, you know, to the kids, if it’s necessary to discuss with him, you know, sometimes it’s just something they want to just kind of talk about a friendship or relationship that isn’t necessary to share. But if it’s a really big deal, I obviously have to. And I think I’ve been able to navigate that pretty well. But how do you recommend that we because the kids do definitely talk to me more than their dad, for sure. You know about things. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think that’s normal in any family. And the relationship they have with their father or their mother in any given family is going to look a little bit different. The thing about trust is there are so many facets. The English language is so limiting. When we say trust, it can mean a lot of different things, like you betrayed my trust because you shared a secret that I didn’t want you to tell. But the real word that I’m trying to use for trust is also trust. Do they believe that what you’re saying is true? Do they trust you? Do they trust your judgment? Do they know that you have their best interest at heart? And so just like you’re saying, like navigating whether or not to tell them if your child, which it sounds like you already have great relationships with their children. If your child is telling you things and you have to disclose that whether to a medical professional because you’re worried about them hurting themselves or hurting others or to your spouse or to another friend’s parents, then you need to betray that quote like secrecy trust. Do they believe that you really have their best interest at heart? And do they trust your judgment? Do they know that if mom betrayed a line that they wanted kept held? Is it because they trust that mom actually knows what to do in this situation? And that’s something I have to explain to my children. And also the youth that I work with often in my practice is that when your parent so-called betrays that trust, you have to step back and look at it and say, what was the purpose? Are they trying to protect me? Are they trying to love me? Are they trying to give me a better future? And 99% of the time, the answer is yes. And so it’s hard for them sometimes to have that perspective in the moment and But that is our job as parents is to protect and love them. And when we have a relationship of trust where they know that about us and they trust that about us, then it softens the blow when we have to make a decision that they don’t necessarily love. But they can step back and say, I’m going to trust that this is for the best.
SPEAKER 05 :
OK, so I think I’m kind of on the right track there. And I think most parents try to be on the right track. I see a mistake, Katie, by the way, just a sidebar that a lot of parents make. And I know it’s not you and me because our Christian faith is so, you know, biased. foundation in our relationship with our kids and family, but they want to be best friends. And I don’t get that. Like, I know you want your kid to like you, but not at the expense of your kid being like, you want them to be like a decent person that gets into heaven, not this little monster that likes you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. You know, and it’s interesting that you say that because when I think about, let’s think about our relationship with God and how, because that should be the way we pattern all of our parental relationships. our parental choices should be on how does God treat us? And I would say that God is one of my closest and most dearest friends. friends in my life that relationship with me is so important so we can have a very good relationship with our children that is a friend-like relationship but that doesn’t mean that we just get confused on what is a good friend is a good friend telling us what we want to hear is a good friend giving us false advice because it makes us feel good in the moment no the truest most wonderful friends are the ones that tell us what we need to hear even though it’s hard and who keep us on the right track, who will remind us of things that we’re doing that are taking us off from our long-term goals. And that’s how God is with us. He draws a hard line. But there is always a feeling of love that comes from him. And I feel comfortable going to him in prayer and going to him with my problems. And that’s the goal that we should have with our children. I think you can have a friendship with your child.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Try to have that as long as you’re not prioritizing that over the long term goal, like you’re saying, of getting them to heaven, getting them to have that relationship with with their heavenly father. And so it is a fine line that we walk. And what I’ve noticed, is that it’s so different for each child and parent relationship because some children really need a hard hand and others need a parent that is so sensitive with them, you know, lots of hugs when they say something that’s embarrassing, they are naturally inclined to feel shame. And so having a hard hand for those child can be detrimental. And that’s why one of the first chapters that we talked about in my book and the first thing that I do with any client that comes in is, I ask, do you know your child’s love language? Do you know how they communicate? Do you know what they need to feel comfortable? Because when you do, it helps to navigate how you will punish your child when they make a poor choice, how far you should go with a friendship versus a friendship. a kind of like a instigator and a disciplinarian because you’ll know this is a very sensitive child who you know buckles under that or this kid’s a little bit more hard-headed and I have to be direct I have to be forceful and so once you know that because parents often say I feel like I’m going wrong with this kid and and sadly it’s like you might not that you’re being a bad parent it’s just you’re using the wrong tactic with this child because of their core personality and we believe that God gave all of us beautiful gifts and personalities and that it came from God. And we as parents need to honor that about our child and figure out ways to work within their limitations and their gifts to help them become successful. And often that means we have to be flexible in our parenting.
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I love that you talk about, you know, are words of affirmation important for your kid, which I think that’s important for every kid. But I’ve been lucky to get with my 15-year-old daughter a lot of quality time because she’s had tournaments out of town. I was just in your neck of the woods in Salt Lake City, and we’ve traveled a lot with her, so I get a lot of time with her, and she gets off school at 1.15, so… You know, I always thought teenage girls like, oh, we’re going to start butting heads. But we’ve had, I don’t know, just such wonderful time and experiences together. It’s been great. But one thing that you address besides the love languages, I think I really want to talk about is motivation and your teen. I have a hard time with school and grades. I was a straight A student and did not need anyone to motivate me. And I really see these kids. I have to check their grades. I get an email every day and I will circle a grade that I find unsatisfactory. And two this morning that I saw were beyond unsatisfactory, shocking to me. And so I email them circled in red, whichever grade I’m like, you’ve got one month until school’s out or whatever, you know, a time being until the semester quarter is over. and let them know that that has to be done. And one thing I do think is really great, Katie, that they do now at school, I don’t know if your schools do it, but they let you redo a lot of tests and assignments because they want you to do it well and to learn it. And if you fail something, they’re like, oh, well, redo it. And that’s so cool, I think, because when I was a kid, it’s like you failed, you failed. No, they actually want you to learn it. So go do it again.
SPEAKER 06 :
Exactly, and I do think that we, whether it’s a parent, our school, society in general, need to look at grades for what they were initially made to do, which was to give us a progress report on how well the child’s learning. So when we see a C, instead of saying, oh, that child’s just not good at history or not good at math, that C should tell us, ooh, something’s not connecting for them, and I as a teacher or as a parent need to get more creative in figuring out how to help them succeed here. And so grades have now become this benchmark of almost like natural ability.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Like, oh, my child’s smart because they get good grades and my child’s not as smart because they get good grades. And that’s not necessarily true. It’s just, these are just an indicator of what’s connecting and what’s not. And I wish that grades could be in an ideal world, something that is just communicated very privately between a teacher and a parent or teacher and student and said, hey, I noticed you got a low test score on this. Obviously, something’s amiss. What do we need to do? Rather than it being this glaring thing like a score that you get for a sports event where everybody knows I am a stellar student or I am not understanding history. And so as a parent, when we turn back and we sometimes if our students student is caught in the rut of feeling like that grade is a reflection of their natural intelligence, we need to step back and look at it as what we talk about a lot is performance goals versus becoming goals. And so you have achievements and you have learning. And when we focus on achievement, we actually disregard a lot of the important aspects of learning because we’re just worried about seeing a good score and over saying, does this child actually understand these concepts? And as all parents know, I can have a child that is a 4.0 student and still not understand math nearly as well as my child who’s getting a B in math just because he’s not interested. But man, he has a natural inclination for engineering and he’ll probably be a mathematician for career. So it’s just recognizing what the limitations are of these achievement benchmarks can be really helpful for students and parents.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, Katie, we only have two minutes left, so we may have to do another segment on this particular topic. We talked about how the teen brain, and I describe it as it’s like sometimes fireworks are going off in there. I don’t think a lot of us understand that emotional burnout that a lot of these kids have. Not only do they have the grade pressure, they have the dating pressure, they have the friendship pressure, they have the scheduling pressure. My kids have the club sports pressure. And then we have tours for them every night that they absolutely 100 percent have to do. And then the stupid technology that, you know, is beeping all the time and bothering them, et cetera. So let’s talk about how you’ve got two minutes. Talk about preventing emotional burnout in your kid.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, and once again, it’s so unique. Some kids thrive on being busy, and that’s a core part of their self-esteem. And others, this will be too much. They will be running too fast, and it will cause them to just shut down. And so in all of these things, I think it’s important to step back and prioritize. And you always start at zero. I thought COVID, even though it was so hard in so many ways, was wonderful because everything shut down. And so when we were able to start adding things back in, we had to ask ourselves, is this worth adding back in? And we might say this club sport caused more angst and anxiety and frustration than it was worth. Or, wow, their self-esteem and social life is really struggling when they don’t have it. But just like you do with a family budget, instead of taking what you already have and start slashing, start at zero and say, what is most beneficial to my child and what do we keep? If you start noticing they have a soul fever, you might not notice it. It may be fine. You may have found a perfect balance. But if you do think that there could be a chance, start at zero and add back in.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sounds good. All right. I want to make sure people can find your book. So, Katie, tell us the best place to find you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at The Balanced Mind Project, and all of my websites will be linked there. I also have a program for teenage anxiety that we do. It’s an at-home program. And then my book is on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It’s called The Mean Teen Parenting Machine.
SPEAKER 05 :
I love it. All right, Katie, I’ll be talking to you again soon. Thank you. Thank you, Angie.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
