SBCC Vaquero Voices

Episode 56 - Emma Horanic

Episode Summary

Akil and Hong welcome Emma Horanic - the new director of SBCC's Marine Diving Technician program - to the show to discuss the program and what makes it special, starting with its roots in the region itself, its ridiculously low-cost compared to similar certificate programs throughout the country, and moving on to what students should be aware of before starting the program and what awaits them after they've finished. From there, the three discuss Emma's path to and through the program herself, her tradition of making Pizzelles for her family, and then discuss her love for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and how her love of the franchise is a perfect encapsulation of higher learning as a concept on this show and in our campus community.

Episode Notes

Mentioned in this episode:

SBCC Marine Diving Technology - https://www.sbcc.edu/marinediving/

Surface-Supplied Diving - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-supplied_diving

Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remotely_operated_underwater_vehicle

SCUBA Certification - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recreational_scuba_certification_levels

Saturation Diving - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturation_diving

The Last Breath - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Breath_(2019_film)

Bell Bounce System - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_bell

Piledrivers Union - http://www.calapprenticeship.org/programs/piledriver_apprenticeship.php

Apollo 13 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13

Madera, CA - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madera,_California

The REEF at Campus Point - https://msi.ucsb.edu/facilities-services/reef

Scott Simon at UCSB - https://sbclter.msi.ucsb.edu/about/people/ssimon/

Aqueos - https://aqueossubsea.com/

Hidden Figures - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures

Marni Zabarsky (first female saturation diver) - https://aqueossubsea.com/aqueos-welcomes-marni-zabarsky-as-hseq-manager-in-houston-location/

Keely Harwich - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keely-harwich-0409b0162

SBCC Promise - https://www.sbccfoundation.org/sbcc-promise/

Pizzelle - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzelle

Finney’s Crafthouse - https://www.finneyscrafthouse.com/santa-barbara/

Dutch Garden - https://www.instagram.com/dutchgardensb/?hl=en

SB Biergarten - https://www.sbbiergarten.com/

Harry Potter - https://www.harrypotter.com/

Horcrux - https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Horcrux

Thestral - https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Thestral

Hippogriff - https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Hippogriff

Patronus - https://www.harrypotter.com/features/what-is-a-patronus

Sorting Hat - https://www.harrypotter.com/sorting-hat

 The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - https://www.universalorlando.com/web/en/us/plan-your-visit/the-wizarding-world-of-harry-potter

Diagon Alley - https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Diagon_Alley

Butterbeer - https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Butterbeer

Butterbeer recipe - https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/butterbeer/

Episode Transcription

Captions provided by Zoom

 

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Hong Lieu: Hello and welcome to another episode of SBCC Vaquero Voices - a podcast highlighting the unique voices that comprise our campus culture, and how we're all working together to serve our students and the community at large. As usual, I'm joined by Co-host Akil Hill.

 

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Akil Hill: What's good y'all.

 

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Hong Lieu: And today we are honored to welcome Emma Horanik to the show. Welcome, Emma.

 

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Akil Hill: Memo.

 

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Emma Horanic: Thanks for having me.

 

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Hong Lieu: Yes, we felt this was a great chance to highlight a program here at Spcc. That is, you know, very important to kind of history and culture of the college, but might not be as have as much of a shine as you're the director of the Marine Diving Technology program.

 

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Hong Lieu: And for those that don't know. I mean, what exactly does that entail, I mean? Is this the marine diving like abalone abalone, diving lobster, diving, or commercial? Is it others, I mean, if you break down the program in a nutshell.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, that's a great question. So what a lot of people don't realize is that Santa Barbara. And actually, Summerland specifically, is the birthplace of commercial diving. So our program specials in commercial diving. And basically what that is, it's underwater construction. So one of the things that it's well known for is, you know, people hear underwater welding, and they're like, Oh, that sounds so cool. But underwater welding is just one aspect

 

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Emma Horanic: of commercial diving. So there's inspection work. There's pipeline installation bridges, I mean, any. Any construction underwater is commercial diving. And so Santa Barbara, being the largest natural oil seep in the world, if you guys have ever been to the beach. You see all this tar that washes up? That's actually just natural seepage.

 

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Emma Horanic: And so off the coast of Summerland, back in the fifties and sixties. I mean, there was all of these wooden piers that were actually wells just right off the shore collecting this oil.

 

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Emma Horanic: And what happened was these. These oil companies wanted to go deeper, but diving is

 

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Emma Horanic: inhibited by or it's

 

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Emma Horanic: cut off by air like we we can only, you know, breathe 21% oxygen in our air, and once you go deeper the partial pressures of the oxygen become too much, and you suffer from oxygen toxicity. You can also

 

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Emma Horanic: suffer. You suffer nitrogen narcosis, which basically your mind goes all fuzzy, and you can't really get work done. And so there was a gentleman by the name of Dan Wilson, who had this great idea to start incorporating helium into the gas mixtures so that they could get rid of that nitrogen narcosis problem and dive deeper, and he was able to prove that this worked and that you could do

 

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Emma Horanic: diving in deeper water. And that's what started this whole commercial diving boom, and so oil rigs then started popping up out in the Gulf of Mexico, where there's also all these oil reservoirs, and that need for commercial divers divers who were skilled in underwater construction and using surface applied diving, which is what we use. So rather than

 

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Emma Horanic: scuba, where you have a tank on your back and you're limited by air surface applied is you actually have. They call it an umbilical, which is basically an air hose that goes up to the surface and is attached to a compressor and a large volume tank. So you can. You're constantly getting air. You don't have to worry about running out of your your gas or your air source, and so that allowed for long-term construction, and it prevented this

 

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Emma Horanic: need for commercial divers, which is what led to the development of the Marine Diving Technology program at Santa Barbara City College. So in 1968, Ramsey Parks.

 

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Emma Horanic: who was actually a previous abalone diver. And that's where a lot of these men who started commercial diving were previous abalone divers because they already had all this familiarity with diving, and that's where kind of these first, st this 1st surface applied. Diving.

 

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Emma Horanic: i.

 

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Emma Horanic: The 1st surface applied diving source it what originated with abalone diving, and that was then brought over to commercial diving by all these these abalone divers. And so Ramsey Park started the program to help start producing founded the program to start producing commercial divers to

 

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Emma Horanic: fill this need for this booming oil commercial industry. So now here we are, you know, 50 years later the program's still up and running. I am actually the 1st female director that they've ever had at the program.

 

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Hong Lieu: Congrats.

 

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Akil Hill: Really.

 

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Emma Horanic: Which is really fantastic. Jeff Tillsch just retired last year, after 25 years of dedication to the program, so shout out to him, he was awesome, and he kept it running. And hopefully, yeah, I can fill his shoes and keep the program up to the standard that it was back in 1968. And to this point.

 

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Hong Lieu: As someone who loves abalone like like eating abalone like. It's nice.

 

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Akil Hill: Oh, yeah.

 

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Hong Lieu: Connection there, but I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been those early tests. I mean, it's it's great that it's cool, that it's a Summerland Santa Barbara thing. But pioneering in this kind of field must have been just like

 

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Hong Lieu: terrifying. I mean, because you're pushing deeper, I mean because the abalone diving happens pretty deep at times. But you're going deeper. I mean, it's nice. You have the surface air connection. But, like you, we know the ocean, you know, pressure and all this. And you're playing with all these things. The helium thing is is I mean, it wasn't a guarantee so like, oh, let's just try it, and then, of course, you try it. But then, when you're actually down there, and it's just like

 

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Hong Lieu: the hum of the ocean around you. And you're sitting there breathing like.

 

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Hong Lieu: okay, this is working. But can I do work under these conditions? I mean, it's pretty incredible that that technology was was born in the areas that's really cool.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. And actually, I mean the the guy who invented this whole Helium rig up that I mean, he took an old Mark 5 diving helmet and re-rigged it so that he could get the Helium mixture. He did it to 400 feet, so it was like completely experimental. They didn't know if it was going to work. And he was like, Yeah, I'll go down and try. And it's the Santa Barbara Channel. So it's

 

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Emma Horanic: freezing cold, you know it's dark. It's not like you're in off the coast of the Caribbean, where you're like, okay, I have light down to, you know, 200 feet. So definitely. You know, we owe the industry owes a lot to these pioneers who are willing to risk that kind of stuff to test out this equipment.

 

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Hong Lieu: And then, if we talk about the viability of the industry, I mean for folks that don't know, or students that are thinking about studying it. I mean, there's a lot of work to be done. I know there's like undersea data cables that people use to run Internet, you know, to various regions. I mean, that's a relatively new thing that you probably couldn't do without marine diving. But there are probably a lot of practical applications, because there is so much work and construction being done all around the world in the water, right? So.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. And so that's a lot of things, you know. Obviously, the underwater welding sounds the coolest right? And that's where people come in. They're like, yeah, I want to be an underwater welder. I want to do this. But that's definitely, although that's a really awesome aspect of our program. That's not all that it is. And they like you said, there's so many applications for commercial diving that a lot of people are unaware of. So all of our nuclear power plants. Those require divers to go in

 

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Emma Horanic: and clean them and monitor them. Potable water tanks, that where we get our water from those require divers for inspection purposes for any, you know, repairs anything like that. All of the ships, the large navy ships, those need maintenance. Their propellers need to be cleaned platforms, need risers, installed, video cables need to be monitored, examined, or

 

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Emma Horanic: prepared. I actually there was a girl who went through the program. And now she works in underwater pyrotechnics. And she actually did all of the explosion

 

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Emma Horanic: diving for the second avatar movie, which is like, you know, people don't even realize that's a job that that you can have. And so there's all these

 

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Emma Horanic: other applications. It's not just, oh, I have to go work in the oil field, you know I have to be an offshore diver. There's all of these these other smaller, or, you know, just different fields, doing all dam repairs. I mean every everything underwater any structure has to have people there, to monitor it, to inspect it, to repair it, to clean it.

 

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Emma Horanic: And so there is. It's a much larger industry than people initially realize.

 

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Hong Lieu: And that's something that it's really nice to highlight here, because a lot of folks it may not even be on their radar, especially, you know, coming in, maybe in this area, at least because there is a history here. But for folks, you know from outside the area or just elsewhere, you think about the term, and you might just instantly go to like fishing and stuff like that. But when you see

 

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Hong Lieu: it it, when you realize the applications. And see, this is something that's just a consistent demand. It's not something that ebbs and flows. It's just always there. It definitely seems like a viable kind of industry, and something that folks should kind of keep on their radar, and and, kinda you know, explore so.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. And there's so many offshoots of it, too, as well. Rovs, which is remote operated vehicles. That's becoming a really large

 

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Emma Horanic: new kind of technology in the field. So rather than using divers for some things where it might be really dangerous, or they don't want to expose a human to that environment. They'll use Rovs. And I mean, Rovs are getting so advanced with their robotic arms and video capabilities that that's a whole new field that's developing. And we do some Rov

 

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Emma Horanic: things in the program. But I'm hopefully going to try to expand that part of the program because that is definitely a developing field. And then all of the technology, too, that we utilize all the equipment, the saws, the the hydraulics, the students learn all about. They do a whole hydraulic class. But then those those are also

 

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Emma Horanic: things that people need to know how to learn, and those are those are careers in themselves, you know, being a diamond wire saw technician, which is what they use offshore to cut large pipes. That's a career in itself, or being like you, said even the survey person who goes out on the vessels and knows where all uses all the sonar equipment to know where all the cables are in the pipeline, so no one drags an anchor over something that's that's a career in itself, too. So there's all these.

 

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Emma Horanic: All of these careers work together along with commercial diving to make up marine technology and to help in this industry.

 

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Akil Hill: I had a question in regards to like your students that are in the program kind of thinking about our local high school students. And do you see many of them coming straight from high school or is the student that are usually, or the students that are mostly enrolled? Are they a little bit older, just trying to figure out, how do you? How do people find their way into the program?

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, that's a great question. So you know, we get quite a bit of mix from all around. So we do have a few students who are straight out of high school 18 years old. Then we have. We get quite a few veterans because they're able to use their gi bill for this educational and training program. Then we have some students who they, you know, live locally, or they heard about it from somebody. And they

 

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Emma Horanic: I just wanted to switch career paths. So right now, I have students from 18 to 44 years old in my program. So it's cool. And that and that's awesome because you get different experiences from all walks of life coming together. And you know, somebody might know engines really well. And another student might be really familiar with physics, and they can all come together to kind of help each other out. So it creates a really. And that's another awesome thing about the program is, the cohort

 

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Emma Horanic: takes all of their classes together, so they develop a really awesome bond. They go through all of these classes as a cohort, and they get to know each other really well, and learn to rely on each other and utilize each other's skills for for the benefit of the group.

 

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Hong Lieu: That cohort approach sounds really appealing. But I guess a follow up question, that is, are there any caveats in terms of like? If you're claustrophobic. Is it tough to be in a tank, or is there any like, you know? Will they be able to? I mean, there's probably some heavy lifting and things of that sort involved. Is that something that they kind of gain an ability. For as they go to the program, or there's some prerequisites that folks should have in mind before they even start.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, so we do require an application to enter the program. And one of those requirements is you. So you have to be open water scuba certified before you even apply to the program. So in that case, you know, hopefully, the students they've already. They will have already needed to go through that scuba certification, and they'll be familiar with being underwater. And you know, if they're claustrophobic at all. Hopefully, that kind of helps

 

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Emma Horanic: weed them out and get them familiar with that kind of environment. They also have to pass a diving physical which is different than just your regular doctor

 

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Emma Horanic: Checkup. Physical. You have to go through a chest X-ray and a drug test and a breathing test, and all that stuff to make sure that you meet the the health requirements to do commercial diving, and then you also have to pass a swim test. So at the beginning, before the fall, semester classes even start, all the students come and they do a swim test, and they have to be able to.

 

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Emma Horanic: you know, show, show their water strength before they're also allowed in the program. And so those are the the main prerequisites. But, like you said, you know, diving in a for commercial diving we use. They call them hats or diving helmets. So you're it's all enclosed. You're it's different than a full face mask, because it's actually like you're wearing a attire

 

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Emma Horanic: helmet that covers your whole head and everything. So your head stays dry. When you're underwater, it's all you're you have a seal around your neck.

 

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Emma Horanic: but that is kind of an enclosed space. And so we have had students that don't feel comfortable having the hat on and being underwater. And it's just they realize it's it's not for them, after all. But that's the point of the program is to, you know. Come through and realize that, and learn that about yourself, and and know before you, you know, spend all this time making it a career that it's maybe not for you.

 

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Hong Lieu: And that's not just a marine diving thing. I mean, folks always have to figure out if a program is right for them, whether it's English or mathematics, physics or marine diving. Sometimes you just have to pivot. And it's good that with marine diving, you actually have like.

 

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Hong Lieu: there are physical tales as well, because sometimes they're just emotional tales, and I'm not going to listen to those personally. But with this you'd be like, Oh, man, this is really crazy, or you just really get into it right away. And you kind of love the pressurization, you know, aspects of it. And just the science of it is really cool. I mean, putting humans in places that

 

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Hong Lieu: they shouldn't be for that amount of time at least, where you know, it's just it's pretty incredible. Just the technology behind it, let alone the fact that you're you're learning about all that stuff behind the scenes and doing the things as well. I mean, that's just it just sounds like a really great program. I wish I was capable enough to do it, but I don't think I am.

 

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Emma Horanic: And I mean, that's when I 1st started doing. I had no idea what commercial diving was. I just knew you know, I was one of those students. I was like, I like, welding underwater welding sounds cool like I'm the.

 

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Emma Horanic: you know. Try this program out. But then, once you get into it. You realize that that like, yeah, that right? It's incredible. Somebody came up with this whole concept of, oh, yeah, we can put divers underwater, and they can breathe this percent gas. And we figured out that if you come up this slowly it's totally fine, and the one that blows my mind is saturation diving, which is where the the divers actually live in basically a pressurized metal tube on

 

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Emma Horanic: on the boat for a month at a time. And so say, there, there's a job to 600 feet. Well, this this metal living area, this

 

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Emma Horanic: can they live in on the boat will be pressurized down to 600 feet. The divers live in there. They get all their food sent in and out. They get their toilet flushed for them from the outside, and there's a bell, a diving bell that will attach to this living chamber, and the divers can crawl, you know, crawl up into the bell. They close the hatch, so the bells pressurized to 600 feet as well.

 

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Emma Horanic: Then the crane on the boat will lift up the bell over the edge. The bell goes down to 600 feet. The divers come out with their umbilicals that are attached to the bell, and then the bell itself has an umbilical up to the boat, where all the communications and air and everything are supplied.

 

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Emma Horanic: The divers do their work, they get back in the bell, it comes back up, it attaches back onto the living chamber. Divers go in, and they've never left 600 feet of pressure, and so they stay. They live in there for a month at a time, and then, when the job's over, they've hit their 28 days, their 4 weeks.

 

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Emma Horanic: they slowly they can bring up the living chamber, they can repressurize it slowly to decompress the divers over days. I mean it.

 

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Emma Horanic: 4 feet an hour is how fast they'll like slowly raise the pressure. And that's that's crazy that you know. You just live in a metal tube with 9 other people for for a month at a time. You never.

 

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Akil Hill: It sounds like a Netflix documentary. They can film down there. Man, I got.

 

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Emma Horanic: 6, and a few.

 

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Akil Hill: I'm like. I cannot.

 

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Emma Horanic: If you watch the last breath on Netflix about Chris Lemons, who was a saturation diver who got his umbilical cut. And I mean it's an incredible story. So if you guys are ever bored over the weekend, highly highly recommend, and it does a really good job of kind of going into what saturation diving actually is.

 

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Akil Hill: Okay, how we'll get that.

 

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Hong Lieu: I will get them the show notes, and you know what it sounds like to me straight up is like astronauts. I mean, you know they talk about. They talk about the.

 

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Akil Hill: Reverse.

 

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Hong Lieu: They talk about. The ocean has this much unexplored compared to this and that, but you're doing the exact same. It's exact, same thing, and I feel like, you know, astronauts. It's always like kids want to go to space camp. Want to be astronauts. I mean, if you love that kind of exploration. That kind of really, you know, exploring the unknown, this is, this would be right up your alley as well. I feel like it's just a marketing thing. We got to get marine diving right next to all the astronaut hits on Google and.

 

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Emma Horanic: Oh, yeah.

 

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Hong Lieu: Want to live like that, because and you have one of those tubes in in the lab, right? I saw, I think I saw a metal.

 

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Emma Horanic: It's called a Bell bounce system. So it wasn't ever a system that the people lived in for periods at a time, but it was like. It has a bell and everything, but rather that chamber was just. You know, that the divers would come out. The chamber was used to then slowly decompress them over hours rather than days, and then they could come out so they weren't ever living in there. But it was the same kind of

 

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Emma Horanic: as far as like, okay, they go on the bell. They can come back up, and then, rather than them, decompressing in the water slowly. We can do it on land, in a safe or on a vessel in a safe and controlled environment.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. But yeah, so and the students will get to. That's 1 of the things they get to do in our little bell that we have. We take. Pick it up. We put it in the tank. They get to practice coming out and coming back in closing the hatch, rescuing each other. And and you talk about confined spaces. I mean, you got 2 people on that bell with all the equipment. It gets very tight, very quick.

 

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Akil Hill: Oh, my gosh! I'm like

 

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Akil Hill: stressing out already, just listening to that.

 

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Hong Lieu: And I'm glad you don't have to flush anybody's toilets. Let's I'm glad it's just a smaller version of the bells, so.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yes, yes, for sure.

 

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Akil Hill: Can you? Can you tell us a little bit, or or the listeners a little bit about like in terms of like? Look how lucrative the field is, I mean, because I've always heard like wild stories about

 

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Akil Hill: people that are out on, out on the platforms, out to see and how much they make. And you know, just that lifestyle people I just remember people telling stories about. There's movie theaters out there and all that kind of stuff. So I was kind of curious to, you know, maybe for the listeners and myself like in terms of like the pay, if it's a lucrative field and all that.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. So it all, you know, a lot of commercial diving is contract work. So like when the hurricanes happen. And there's all of this work to be done. Then, you know, divers can make a lot of money. But if there's not a whole lot of work, so it really depends on.

 

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Emma Horanic: on how that, on how much work is actually out there that it also depends on. If you're a Union employee. So if you work on the all like inland work as far as dams, rivers, bridges, that kind of thing is all part of the pile drivers Union, whereas offshore is a private sector by companies. So in that case, you know, I think Union pay in California right now is for a tender, which is when you 1st

 

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Emma Horanic: finished dive school. You're not officially a diver. You start out as a tender and kind of like an apprentice sort of position. It's like $75 an hour for through the Union, and then, if you work for a company, it'll be more around, maybe $20 an hour. But you get all your health benefits, you know you get all of that aspects were for the Union.

 

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Emma Horanic: That's

 

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Emma Horanic: not necessary. It's it's a little bit different. How that works. The other thing is, you're you're like, $20 an hour or 25, whatever. It doesn't really sound like a whole lot, especially in California standards. But you have to remember that when you're

 

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Emma Horanic: working it's it's usually 12 h shifts 7 days a week. So your overtime is where you're making all of the money, and that's where it builds up so you can't really look at it as like, oh, 25 an hour, because by the end of your paycheck it ends up being, you know, $40 an hour, because you get time, you get time and a half, and then you get double time. And you know. So that's that's definitely something that students have to think about. I'd say

 

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Emma Horanic: back, you know, where you've probably heard this is.

 

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Emma Horanic: It used to be back before when hurricanes and oil were really big, you could definitely make a lot of money as a diver, and you still can. It's just not as quick as everyone assumes. You kind of have to work your way up into a

 

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Emma Horanic: into a higher diver position. So when you're 1st starting out, you're not going to make as much as you're like. Oh, I'm going to start out making a hundred $1,000 a year. You won't do that, but you can totally work your way up, and I would say most straight out of dive school

 

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Emma Horanic: tenders will easily be able to make at 60 to 90 grand a year, depending on where they're working. So it's definitely a viable career choice.

 

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Emma Horanic: And then, as you work your way up, yeah, you just start making more and more money, you become more experienced. You start getting asked to be on more jobs because people know that you're legit, that you know what you're doing. And then when you get to saturation diving. That's where that's where you're making the big money, because you're getting paid 24 HA day because you're living inside this metal tube, and that's where you'll walk out, you know, after a month in the Tube with 30 grand for the 4

 

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Emma Horanic: weeks that you worked. So it's definitely depends on what? What job you're doing. There is money to be made, but you can't assume. Oh, I'm going to go through dive school and start making this much money as soon as I'm out.

 

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Hong Lieu: And and in terms of that kind of idea of contract work. I think it's like when my sisters were in Hollywood is a similar thing. And and it's 1 of those things where you kind of work with people, and those people will help you find your next job, or you follow them around, and like they'll go somewhere else, and they'll ask you to come with them kind of thing. So that's a big part of it. Is that networking aspect. So the money you make is all also dependent on how your relationships are during the work you do. So it's something where

 

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Hong Lieu: you do the work, and they like you. And so like, oh, man! They were so reliable, they were so good. They're going to be the 1st person I call when I go to my next job, or when they are at the end of a job, they're like, Oh, I'm heading here next, and you'd be like, oh, man, I can. I roll through, too, and and those kind of things just kind of happen, and then eventually it

 

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Hong Lieu: become stable like my sisters, I would never consider their job stable, because I'm not good at even asking for more work. But for them it's it's the stability that's that's always been there. And then they eventually segwayed. And just did you know a corporate thing kind of like the tender idea as well? But but I remember that start of that idea of networking. They're always telling me you got a network. You got a network, and I was like, Oh, no, no, no! My marriage will carry me now that was a little. That was a lot of who we but you know.

 

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Emma Horanic: No, and that's and that's what I tell the students a lot of times, too. You're you're out on these jobs with the same people, for, you know, days to weeks to months at a time. And and so, yeah, maybe you're super good at your job. But if you have a terrible personality, or you're just, you know, a bummer to hang out with like that.

 

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Emma Horanic: People remember that. And they're not going to put you on jobs or ask you to come back so like, know your stuff, but also be an enjoyable person to to be with that. People want you on their job because they know you're going to work hard, and they know you're going to be a positive contributor to the overall attitude of the group. So just little things like that being prepared coming on time. That's definitely large motifs we like to emphasize in the program.

 

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Akil Hill: Yeah. And I can confirm to the listeners. Hong is a pleasant to be with.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah.

 

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Emma Horanic: He took.

 

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Akil Hill: He's a network. He took his sister's advice very well.

 

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Hong Lieu: I I mean, am I? I'm pleasant to be with. Yes, but do I just exude the idea that I'm

 

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Hong Lieu: like I'm capable or competent anything I do. No, no, no.

 

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Emma Horanic: Would like to dismiss.

 

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Akil Hill: I will disagree.

 

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Hong Lieu: Specific subsets that are reasonable. But but yeah, in terms of, in terms of yeah underwater welding. They're looking at me. They're not coming to me for any help. So.

 

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Akil Hill: Yeah.

 

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Hong Lieu: So all right. Thank you for that, Emma. I will get all the info in the show notes at last breath. I'm probably gonna watch it this weekend.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, you have. It's great. It's really.

 

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Hong Lieu: I mean, because my 1st thing I thought about was Apollo 13, you know, like the idea of like in duress in these situations.

 

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Hong Lieu: unexplored, you know, uncharted territory. What do you do and like? How do you get out alive? I don't. I don't know if the person even gets out alive, so I guess I'll leave it for that. But.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah.

 

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Hong Lieu: In that.

 

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Emma Horanic: Actually out on Catalina Island. I mean, there's a whole group of commercial divers, and their job is to set up the fake like iss off the coast of Catalina. So when the astronauts come in, they can like practice.

 

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Emma Horanic: like what you just said, Yeah, they're under.

 

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Hong Lieu: There it is!

 

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Emma Horanic: It's the same scenario, right? You can't breathe out in a vacuum. You can't breathe, you know, in the water, and they set up a whole iss system in the astronauts practice, you know, entering in through a lock and and how using their the the spacesuit. So yeah, they're definitely very related.

 

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Hong Lieu: So, parents, if you have kids that want to be astronauts.

 

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Hong Lieu: leave the window open. Marine diving as well. Very similar skill sets very similar aptitude.

 

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Emma Horanic: And actually, when I was went through the program, there was a student in my class who wanted to be an astronaut, and that's why he was doing the program because he thought the the training was super relatable, and it would look great on his resume for for the Astronaut program.

 

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Hong Lieu: There it is, and a perfect.

 

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Akil Hill: Segment.

 

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Hong Lieu: To our next section. What brought you to Sbcc? So, Emma, you are a former alumnus as well. So in this case it's what brought you. Sbcc. Then what brought you back so as far back.

 

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Akil Hill: I can say.

 

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Hong Lieu: As far back as you want to go, if you want to break down your path. And what what led you this way? Did you grow up in the area, or or.

 

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Emma Horanic: Well, I grew up in the central valley, so Madeira, California, which is right north of Fresno, but for some weird reason I'd always grown up loving the ocean. I was fascinated by sea creatures and turtles were my favorite. I had a childhood obsession with turtles, but I wanted to be a marine biologist which you know, was a dream of a bunch of kids. So

 

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Emma Horanic: I ended up going to Ucsb to study aquatic biology. So right out of high school. I moved up to Santa Barbara. My goal was to go through Ucsb. And then potentially go on to get my Phd. And then hopefully get a job as a marine biologist.

 

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Emma Horanic: But as I went through my bachelor's degree I realized more and more that I wasn't super fond of the idea of doing research and applying to grants and writing papers and the competitiveness of

 

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Emma Horanic: you know, trying to get a job as a in academia or as a researcher and I looked around at the people around me, and I was like, man. If I'm if I'm competing with them, there's there's no way. And so I had worked at a small touch tank aquarium right on Campus Point, at Ucsb. Called the Reef.

 

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Hong Lieu: I love that place. My son used to go there all the time.

 

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Emma Horanic: Oh, yeah, no, it's it's.

 

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Hong Lieu: So nice.

 

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Emma Horanic: It's great, you know. Kids could come in. They can touch all the animals and see what's what's living right off their shores. And I was the abalone aquarist there, so I was responsible for all of the abalone as well as we were part of the White Abalone captive breeding program. So we had a bunch of endangered white abalone that I was responsible for taking care of and monitoring and raising, and

 

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Emma Horanic: within that I, I, you know, had to build filtration systems and different cages. And try different.

 

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Emma Horanic: you know, filters for this purpose and build tank stands. And I really like that hands-on aspect of actually working and building and creating ideas and putting something together. And so it was actually my boss there who was an Sbcc alumni. Scott Simon. He told me about this this, you know, underwater welding program commercial diving program at Santa Barbara City College, and he thought I might

 

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Emma Horanic: really like it because I liked working with my hands, and then I also loved the water, and I love scuba diving. I was doing scientific diving for one of the labs there on campus, and I loved being underwater.

 

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Emma Horanic: and so he's like, I think this would be a great combination between your love for for working with your hands, and then your love for diving. And so I was like, Yeah, awesome. And luckily the program because it's at a community college is so reasonably priced for in State students. I mean, it was

 

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Emma Horanic: It's insane to get your commercial diving certification. It costs around $1,800 here at Santa Barbara City College anywhere else, any other dive school. It's going to be 25 to 30, grand for the same certification. So so, because it was so affordable. I was like, Yeah, I'm all for this. I'm going to go try it. Maybe I'll really enjoy it. Maybe not. Either way. It'll be a great experience a great certification to have

 

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Emma Horanic: if I want to go into doing some sort of diving career. But I ended up really enjoying it. I loved working with my hands. I loved doing the welding. I love doing all the structure, the putting the flanges together and being underwater. And actually, you know, not just looking at stuff I liked

 

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Emma Horanic: accomplishing something underwater, and I like that feeling. And my instructor at the time Jeff Tilst, was like, if you want to be a diver, you got to go to the Gulf of Mexico. So when I

 

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Emma Horanic: graduated from the program, I moved to Louisiana and worked for a company called aqueous, which is really cool because the the President he actually just retired last year. Ted Roche. He's an Mdt. Alumni. So he went through the program himself, built his career up and started this program or started this

 

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Emma Horanic: company aqueous, and they have a shop both in Ventura and in in the Gulf and other places kind of around the country. So I went to work for them in the Gulf, and I

 

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Emma Horanic: started off as a tender. I worked my way up, I broke out as a diver that's what they call is breaking out when you go from a tender to a diver. And so I worked there in the Gulf for 3 years, and when I was on a boat I was on a boat in the middle of Mexico, when when Jeff.

 

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Emma Horanic: the my predecessor. The past director called me up and and said that he was retiring, and they were having difficulty finding somebody to take over for him, and that he was wondering if I would be interested in applying for the the position. And this program has a really special place in my heart, and he was

 

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Emma Horanic: nervous and worried that it might not continue if they were unable to find another person to take over for it. And I really didn't want to see that happen. And so I applied for the program and for the director position, and luckily I received it. And so I think that happened in last.

 

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Emma Horanic: He called me up in May. I applied and got the job in July, early July actually did my 1st interview while I was on the boat working in in Mexico.

 

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Emma Horanic: and I packed up all my stuff along with my partner, and we moved from Louisiana to Santa Barbara. Of course all of my stuff got rerouted to Atlanta through some miscommunication. So I started

 

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Emma Horanic: with nothing that I owned, which was really fun. But I think yeah, we got here August 1st the semester started August 21st for our swim test. So it was kind of a lot of stuff happening at one time. And I'm now the I'm the only faculty member full-time faculty member for the program. So we went from having 4 full-time faculty members in 2019. And now we're down

 

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Emma Horanic: to one with still the same amount of classes. So that's been definitely a real challenge and and trying to find adjuncts for such a specialized program is very difficult as well, especially because it's difficult to afford to live in Santa Barbara. So asking people to just, you know, teach part time, but then also live here and also have all of these

 

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Emma Horanic: special skills is is definitely a challenge. But yeah, so that that brought me back here and

 

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Emma Horanic: And now I'm currently the director. I have 2 great part-time faculty members who help assist with the scuba classes as well as the physics course, and then I'm responsible for all of the commercial diving courses, as well as all the director duties, which is super fun.

 

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Hong Lieu: And you know it's nice because you ended up back in Academia, where originally you wanted to be a marine biologist.

 

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Emma Horanic: Isn't that.

 

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Akil Hill: There's so many

 

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Akil Hill: stories there's so many parallels of like when she was little talking about the love of turtles, and and then you kind of see it play out working at the reef and then end up being, you know, like I, it's really cool to listen to to your story. I was gonna ask you,

 

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Akil Hill: did you face, or was there any challenges about, you know, being a woman in a probably a male dominant field? And maybe if there was, if you can speak a little bit on that for our listeners.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. So just to kind of put it in perspective, the the company I worked at probably maybe out of

 

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Emma Horanic: a hundred divers at that company there was 4 4 women divers, which was actually really great, and that was one of the higher ratios for most commercial diving companies. And so, yes, definitely. It is a male dominated field for sure. Like you said, there is heavy lifting involved. You have to be physically fit. It's a lot of manual labor, and I was definitely prepared for

 

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Emma Horanic: there to be a lot of prejudiced and kind of stereotypes, and I was actually pleasantly surprised with how open and willing people were to give me a chance which I really I wasn't expecting that there, obviously there were. You know, your

 

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Emma Horanic: good stuff.

 

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Hong Lieu: Bags. You can say it scumbags.

 

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Emma Horanic: Exactly who, you know were like you're a woman. You don't. You don't belong here like I don't want you on my boat. This is not, and you know I the living quarters you're living out on a boat or on a platform. You don't always have privacy, so you know that my, I had to rely on my other coworkers to be okay with me.

 

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Emma Horanic: staying in the same room with them, and I was fine with that. But, like, you know, maybe their wives weren't okay with that. And so that was something, too, that then they had to deal with figuring out how that works, and and my worry was that as a female, I was not going to be put on jobs. If that was a concern they're like, Oh, we have to give her special accommodations. Well, she can't go on that job, and that's definitely not what I wanted to happen. And I was actually I was.

 

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Emma Horanic: I was surprised in with how open and and encouraging my colleagues were, and my supervisors, and I think I it did take me a while to prove myself. I definitely feel like

 

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Emma Horanic: I had to work a little bit harder to prove that I belonged there. But once I did that, and I showed that I was putting in the effort. And I was trying, and I was actually decent at what I was doing. I gained their respect, and you know I didn't have really any problems, and then they supported me right if they if someone was like Oh, no, she can't be here. She can't do that. Then these people that I had proved to already would stand up for me, and they're like, no, she she's got it. It's fine! She she can do it.

 

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Emma Horanic: And so it was. The other thing I'd like to say is.

 

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Emma Horanic: you know, a guy would go a tender. We'd have a male tender, and and he would mess up or not be great at something, and it was him as a person that was not good at his job. But for women it was very much kind of

 

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Emma Horanic: all around, like if I would hear from people. Oh, yeah, you know that this company is weary of hiring women because they had 2 in the past that ended up not being greater, which is a terrible way to look at it. So I felt definitely more. I was not only representing myself but my entire gender, where, if, like, I messed up, it wouldn't look bad just on me, but on all of the women who came after me, and so I tried really hard to

 

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Emma Horanic: take that into account, and and be a good role model and and be a good

 

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Emma Horanic: definition for what a female diver was. So I hope hopefully, that got portrayed in my work ethic. And I think it it did. But yeah, that's the that was my experience.

 

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Hong Lieu: And obviously you're successful, because you know you you what was the term? Again Bounce bounced up or moved up, or.

 

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Emma Horanic: Break, break out when you.

 

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Akil Hill: Breakout.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yes, yeah, I did break out. So yeah, obviously, I was good enough to make it to the, to the diver level. And yeah, and that's what the great thing is, because I mentioned aqueous has their shop in Ventura. My goal is to continue diving for them in my summers, and that way I can keep the program as modern and up to date, with all the new advances in technology and standards as possible, while still continuing to do the thing I love.

 

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Akil Hill: What's that movie with the women astronauts?

 

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Akil Hill: Was it? Is it hidden? Was it hidden for you.

 

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Hong Lieu: Figures. Yeah.

 

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Akil Hill: I'm like we should. There should be a movie about women underwater welders, man, or I mean, that'd be super cool, too, you know, just thinking about, you know. In some ways I'm listening to your story. I'm like, Wow, you're completely like like a barrel blazers in a lot of ways in a field. That's probably, you know, male dominate, you know. Be cool to hear those kind of stories, you know, like all the women's that participated getting together writing a book, doing something around that experience is super. It's really special.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. And I'm definitely not the first.st There's plenty of women before me, and if you go down to the maritime museum they have some great

 

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Emma Horanic: like resources and great exhibits on women and diving and and that kind of thing. So yeah, there's definitely there's few of us. But there's definitely ones who who came before me, and, like Marnie last name, she was the 1st female sat diver. We have Keely Harwick who works for the Ventura branch of Aqueous. I mean, she's been doing it for 20 years, and she is the definition of a of a badass. I don't know if I can say that on air. You guys.

 

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Hong Lieu: Of course you can. You're good.

 

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Emma Horanic: Out. But yeah, she I mean, she's incredible. And so you have all these women who who have made it, who are still doing it. And yeah, I wish the world knew more about them.

 

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Hong Lieu: And it's important to acknowledge how

 

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Hong Lieu: how important that is in terms of you having to wear the, you know, like, like represent all women in what you were doing. I mean, yeah, maybe it motivated you. Maybe it drove you, but it also sucked. It was also completely unnecessary, and absolutely not a requirement to be as good as you were you? You don't need help climbing that highest mountain to striving to be better, and there was no reason for that to happen. I've had to wear the Asian, you know, especially more in Santa Barbara than La. I've had to be

 

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Hong Lieu: like representing all Asians, and sometimes that would drive me to go the opposite way. I'm going to be as quote, unquote UN Asian as possible to just stick it to somebody and be like, yeah, I can chug a 40 right now, what you gonna do about it, you know. So so it goes both ways where it can push you, but it can also deter people from doing things, and that absolutely 100%. We need to acknowledge not only that you persevered and did it, regardless of those scumbags.

 

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Hong Lieu: but also that it's not okay like it. It doesn't need to be a thing. It is fine that it was a thing, but that's not a standard to strive for. Absolutely.

 

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Emma Horanic: No, absolutely for sure. And I think that's just the more we we talk about it and and get it out there, and and let people know that. Yeah, the stuff does still happen. But I you know I would like to emphasize, for the majority, like, you know, people are good. I like, I.

 

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Hong Lieu: Yeah.

 

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Emma Horanic: I had a really low expectation. I was actually, really pleasantly surprised with how how supportive most people were. And yeah, you get those few scumbags, but for the most part I really enjoyed working with all the people I worked with, and I owe a lot of my my growth and my work etiquette to those gentlemen so.

 

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Hong Lieu: And the representation for you in the department, and you know, in the industry as well, but I mean

 

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Hong Lieu: always helps at the same. You know.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know. The more the more women in the industry, then, the more that these girls coming up can see. Oh, yeah, I could. I look like her. I could be her potentially, you know, being themselves their future selves in in a career.

 

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Akil Hill: Yeah. And also, I think it helps with normalizing just the

 

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Akil Hill: the pattern where, like Kong was speaking to about it shouldn't be a thing, you know. The more it becomes more normalized, the more women divers. We have that stigma hopefully, will kind of dissipate

 

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Akil Hill: in that space, you know.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, no, definitely.

 

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Hong Lieu: But yes, I love your story, and I also love the aspect of

 

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Hong Lieu: you know a lot of folks think, Oh, Sbcc to Ucsb. You did the opposite. You did Ucsb. To Sbcc.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah.

 

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Hong Lieu: Do need to also emphasize the cost that she listed. I mean 1,800 at Sbcc. Versus 20 to 30,000. If you even have an inkling of interest in anything marine diving related, or scuba. And you know things of that sort.

 

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Hong Lieu: Sbcc is the way to go. That's that's what I'm hearing.

 

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Emma Horanic: And with the promise scholar program through like the local. You know, Santa Barbara County. The fact that if you're a local high school student, you get 2 years free at Spcc, I mean, that's you could get it paid for. And we do require that students because they're open water certified. They have to have all of their own scuba gear for the program. But through the promise scholar, because it's provided it's necessary for the program, they can get all of their scuba gear paid for. It's paid for by the.

 

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Hong Lieu: Yeah, I mean.

 

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Emma Horanic: So you could do the whole program. And it's only one year. So you could do a 2 semesters for just the the Adci commercial diving certification, or you can do a the 2 year 4 semester associates degree. And yeah, so as a promise scholar, you could do it all for free, which is just, incredible.

 

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Hong Lieu: I guess. Follow up question. Then Scuba certification would not be through Sbcc, though you would have to do that first, st and does there.

 

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Emma Horanic: Something like that.

 

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Hong Lieu: But that that would be.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, we don't offer it. I know the Ucsb. Rexen offers open water. Sb, aquatics does dive Santa Barbara. There's a there's a few places around to get your open water. So yes, we do require that before you enter the program.

 

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Hong Lieu: But regardless, best deal in the world. It sounds like.

 

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Emma Horanic: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's a. It's incredible. And that's why we just yeah, a lot of people don't know about it. I went to the Gulf, and I was like, oh, I went to dive school in Santa Barbara, and they're like, there's a dive school in Santa Barbara. What are you talking about, and people were so upset when they found out how much I paid for my dive school compared to what they did, because they just didn't know about it. So that's 1 thing I want to try to work on. As I take this director position is definitely advertising and just kind of getting

 

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Emma Horanic: getting our program out there and and making sure that people are aware of it and know what it is.

 

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Hong Lieu: You should have told him like, Oh, yeah, you know, man, they never go for the best deal. There's.

 

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Emma Horanic: No.

 

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Hong Lieu: I, kid. I kid.

 

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Hong Lieu: Thank you for that, Emma. Great story. You are yourself a true badass, as you know, so let never forget that. But segue on to our next section. Good evening.

 

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Hong Lieu: Our food section.

 

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Akil Hill: She did say she was in the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana, so I know she's gonna bring it home.

 

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Hong Lieu: I don't know. I don't know if we're going going that way, or if you have something else from your, you know, growing up. But

 

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Emma Horanic: I know this is, I'm gonna.

 

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Hong Lieu: A restaurant.

 

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Emma Horanic: Kill, because

 

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Emma Horanic: actually, a vegetarian. So going to the Gulf of Mexico was.

 

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Emma Horanic: actually, people are like, I'm Are you okay? Do you have some sort of like or crackling like. What's wrong with you? We feel so bad for you.

 

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Hong Lieu: So no seafood as well, then, huh?

 

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Emma Horanic: No see, I know.

 

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Hong Lieu: To guess with your love of of all things, you know.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah. Yeah. And that's what even started when I was I want. Why became vegetarian in the 1st place, is when I was younger, I wanted to be marine biologist and in a veterinarian, and I didn't want to eat. My patience is what I.

 

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Hong Lieu: Yeah. And you know.

 

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Hong Lieu: talk about Abalone and me and me talking about how delicious it sounds that probably makes me

 

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Emma Horanic: I just. I couldn't stand seafood, though, from when I was a year there was something about the texture and the smell. I don't know my both. My, even my twin sister loves sushi, and I just couldn't couldn't do it. But yeah, so I, when you know, working offshore, I'd have to pack a bunch of my own meals. I'd pack like protein powder, because.

 

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Emma Horanic: yeah, they don't. Meat is like the main food group in Louisiana, and they like. Don't know what it is, you know, crawfish is like, Oh, yeah. When I didn't eat crawfish people were, they were like, you're there's something wrong with you.

 

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Akil Hill: Hi.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, so definitely. Which is why the one nice thing about moving back to you know, Santa Barbara is. It's definitely more vegetarian friendly here. I will say that, so I do have to. I do have to enjoy that aspect of it, although it's more expensive. I'll take the vegetarian friendliness here, but as far as I, you know, you said food like a food that you enjoy, or a meal that has

 

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Emma Horanic: mean something to you. I'd have to go with pizzellis, which I don't know if you guys have ever heard of pizzellis before, but they're Italian waffle cookies.

 

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Hong Lieu: Oh!

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, and you make them. You have a special. They use a special pizzelli iron. That it's like a waffle iron, but it makes them a lot thinner, and you have a special batter. And so my my family is

 

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Emma Horanic: on my mom's side, Italian and I actually am a dual citizenship. I have my Italian citizenship, although I cannot speak any Italian, but I'm pretty good at making pasta. I will say that. But so Pizzellis were a big thing with my family growing up every Christmas. That was one thing we would all do together is is go through and make the pizzelli batter and make Pizzellis and my papa

 

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Emma Horanic: my grandfather. It was kind of his thing, and when he passed away I sort of took over that responsibility in the family of being the the pizzelli maker, and so every Christmas, and usually for large family events, I'll bring my pizzelli iron, which is my grandfather's. So I took that when he passed away, and I use it to still make pizzellis in his honor and for the rest of the people. And it's kind of a

 

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Emma Horanic: fun thing that that a lot of people have never heard of before. They don't know what it is. And so, being able to share that

 

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Emma Horanic: not only with my family, but with my friends, and then also as a as a way to connect. Stay connected to my ancestors is is really awesome. So.

 

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Hong Lieu: Beautiful. And and my question is, is the pacellion that you have? Is it over the stove, or is it an electric Plugin?

 

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Emma Horanic: It's a plugin. Yeah, just plugs in, and then it it presses.

 

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Hong Lieu: A waffle iron there.

 

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Emma Horanic: Waffle iron. Yeah. But back in the, you know, when they 1st started they could, they'd have like 2 hot

 

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Emma Horanic: iron pans that they would, you know, press together.

 

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Akil Hill: Together.

 

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Emma Horanic: Stove. Yep.

 

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Hong Lieu: Very nice. So do you have any wrinkles in the dough? Or is a secret family recipe you can't share, or is because, because, you know you can go as simple as or complex as you want, with with dishes like this, where you.

 

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Emma Horanic: Oh, yeah, there's like.

 

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Hong Lieu: Can throw vanilla extract or something else, but there's no no like curveballs. You're throwing in your in your recipe right.

 

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Emma Horanic: I like to add cinnamon into mine, so I make them cinnamon, and then well, so not so much with the actual recipe. But then if you, if you take them out when they're really they're hot, but you get them off the iron, and then you can curve them and basically make waffle cones with the pizzelli cookies, and then you ice cream into them and peanut butter. And yeah, you make you basically make waffle cones. But they're Pacelli waffle cones, and that's 1 of my favorite things to do.

 

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Akil Hill: That's 1 of my favorite smells is when they're making like waffle cones.

 

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Emma Horanic: Like that's.

 

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Akil Hill: Smell, you know you're it's just that smells so.

 

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Emma Horanic: And that's exactly what the Pacelli smell like.

 

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Akil Hill: Emails like, Oh, man.

 

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Emma Horanic: Love. Them. Yeah.

 

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Hong Lieu: Especially if you're throwing like vanilla or cinnamon like you're saying in there like, Oh, that just mixes with the general blend of like.

 

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Hong Lieu: Oh, yeah.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, and they're just so easy and fun. And they have you can. The Pacelli irons will have fun patterns on them. And so they look really pretty and aesthetic. And yeah, and it's a really simple recipe. So that that makes it nice. You know, there's nothing too complicated. And all you need is the batter and the iron, and you're good to go.

 

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Akil Hill: Nice.

 

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Hong Lieu: So in terms of Italian food in town, have you? I mean, are there any restaurants that you recommend, or anything of that sort?

 

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Emma Horanic: So I I mean there.

 

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Hong Lieu: Or is it just home cooking for you when you're doing Italian.

 

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Emma Horanic: Are you?

 

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Emma Horanic: As far as oh, gosh! And I'm so cause I've I've just moved back recently, and so, as far as names go. I'm I'm so bad. One of my go to is I love Finney's right down here on the.

 

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Hong Lieu: Yeah.

 

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Emma Horanic: On State Street just because they have a lot of vegetarian options. And their beer selection is really great, and I like their vibe, and I love soft pretzels, too. That's 1 of my.

 

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Hong Lieu: Oh, yeah.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, guilty pleasures is a soft pretzel. And so that's 1 of my go to places. And it's I think it's pretty, you know, compared to Santa Barbara. It's pretty reasonably pretty.

 

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Hong Lieu: And it's a it's a fun vibe like you go there you sit outside and eat. It's always bustling, people coming in and out.

 

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Hong Lieu: I guess, or just go.

 

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Emma Horanic: Watch, too, because you can just sit out there on the patio and watch people going up and down State Street, and it's kind of that's entertaining in itself.

 

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Hong Lieu: Yeah, definitely.

 

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Hong Lieu: I will say, if you if you do like soft pretzels, my 2 favorite soft pretzels in town Dutch garden, and then the Sb. Beer garden. Those are the. Those are the because my wife loves pretzels as well.

 

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Emma Horanic: Okay, I'll have to cause, I think the beer garden opened up after I moved away. So.

 

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Hong Lieu: Yes, probably.

 

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Emma Horanic: I'll have to go. I'll have to go try one of those.

 

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Hong Lieu: And the Dutch garden recently reopened via Chef Fredericks. From Sbcc. Culinary. He he runs the kitchen there.

 

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Emma Horanic: Oh, wait. Oh, okay, then.

 

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Hong Lieu: And the pretzel is amazing. They serve with like a little beer cheese on the side.

 

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Emma Horanic: Oh, yeah. Buster's.

 

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Hong Lieu: They're good.

 

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Emma Horanic: I'm writing it down Dutch Garden that way.

 

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Hong Lieu: It's it's the second oldest.

 

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Emma Horanic: Reward tonight for making it through the weekend.

 

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Hong Lieu: Second old.

 

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Akil Hill: She's not even messing around. She said. Tonight she said tonight, huh!

 

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Hong Lieu: Well.

 

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Akil Hill: Her. Yeah, she's like, I'm not waiting till next week.

 

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Emma Horanic: I know exactly.

 

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Hong Lieu: They only do. They only do dinner 2 days a week, Thursday and Friday. So if you went tonight, it'd be on. So yeah.

 

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Akil Hill: Not waiting for the show notes. I'm going tonight.

 

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Hong Lieu: Like, I said, like we said true badass right here. She ain't playing. She ain't playing so, and she dropped. I'll be honest with you my whole life. I never heard it said as Pizzelli I thought they were pizzelles, so I had to like kind of I had to double check, and I was like, Oh, yeah, that kind of makes a lot of sense.

 

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Emma Horanic: I mean, that's how you know. That's how my family always says it.

 

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Hong Lieu: No, no, you're absolutely correct, because there's a lot. There's a lot of words that I just read, and I've never heard actually spoken. So it's good to get that kind of education ongoing. That's what you know. This. That's why this shows good for me, because

 

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Hong Lieu: I'm always learning so.

 

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Emma Horanic: Nice.

 

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Hong Lieu: Absolutely. That's great.

 

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Hong Lieu: All right. Thank you for that.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah.

 

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Hong Lieu: Time to take us home. Higher learning piece of culture.

 

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Hong Lieu: anything. And you know, book, movie, music, video, game, yeah.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, okay. Well, you said this, and I mean, I got it. I it's gonna it'll probably sound cliche. But it is such a big part of my childhood, and still, now that I I can't, I just like can't not reference it. So I got. I'm I'm a Harry Potter.

 

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Akil Hill: Harry Potter.

 

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Emma Horanic: Going through. I know.

 

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Emma Horanic: you know. I thought.

 

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Hong Lieu: Going to say ninja, turtles, ninja, turtles.

 

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Akil Hill: Knew it was Harry Potter.

 

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Emma Horanic: Was.

 

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Akil Hill: I knew it. I was gonna say it. But I'm like, Look, I'm not. Gonna I don't want to interrupt the guest.

 

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Hong Lieu: But how?

 

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Akil Hill: Literally was.

 

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Hong Lieu: How did you.

 

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Akil Hill: Water.

 

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Hong Lieu: How did you know like you? Just is it just an.

 

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Akil Hill: It was a vibe I was like, she's Harry Potter. It's gonna be Harry Potter. I just knew it. I knew it.

 

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Emma Horanic: That's yeah. It was funny. One of my students the other day asked me like we were just walking is like, Were you a Harry Potter? Nerd. It's like, what makes you say that like? How did you know that.

 

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Akil Hill: A feeling. It's a feeling I felt.

 

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Emma Horanic: Oh, yeah. So I mean, I like from, you know, 6 years old up into

 

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Emma Horanic: yeah. I don't even want to say, you know, I was Hermione for Halloween. So she was basically.

 

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Akil Hill: She's like last year.

 

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Emma Horanic: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Last year. Don't tell me more.

 

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Emma Horanic: But she I just you know she was so intelligent, and whenever there was any issue Harry and Ron that always turned to her mind, and she always had. She could always solve the problem, and I like really aspired to be like her when I was younger, and I know she's a fictional character. And yeah, but I love like I loved. How in awe of people like people were of her, and how her intelligence.

 

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Emma Horanic: you know, made her strong. She made she wasn't physically strong, but she was so smart, and people realized that. And and I love that about her, and I loved the like this whole world, I mean, I still, there's a lot of

 

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Emma Horanic: controversy around Jk. Rowling, but the fact that she invented this entire world is just incredible to incredible to me, that. And I mean the fact that there's stuff in the 7th book that references back to the 1st book, and she thought this all through. I mean, that's insane, like I I could never, and like the kind of imagination to come up with Horcruxes and festrals and hippogriffs, and, like all of all of these components where it's like this, came from, one person's mind is kind of is incredible.

 

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Akil Hill: Yeah.

 

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Emma Horanic: But I just growing up. I loved the books they were actually, I think I owe my love for reading to those books, which is why they also hold a special place in my heart, because now I, even as an adult, I love to read, and through school I love to read, and it was because the Harry Potter books showed me how fun and reading can be.

 

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Emma Horanic: And my sister and I, I mean, we we actually made the local news in Fresno for waiting 18 and hours for the premiere of the last movie we camped out in front of the theater. You know, we were those kids, those those nerds?

 

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Hong Lieu: Dedicated. That's what it is that dedication, and it shines through in the work you do. I mean, it's 1 of those things where you can separate the art from the artist if it's something that was really has spoken to your heart so truly, and has pushed you to be a better person, I mean. That's that's all you can ask for.

 

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Emma Horanic: Right.

 

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Hong Lieu: And that's why we call higher learning. Because the pieces of culture, you know, it's like it could come from anywhere, you know, and but but it's what it does to you, and how you interpret it and take it in. That really matters. And that's what you know. It's it's great to hear.

 

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Emma Horanic: And it was, and what I love, too, about it like. No, it's a universal thing. I mean, there's people in all over the world. They've read the books, and so you meet someone, and you might have nothing culturally in common. But you've both read Harry Potter, and there there you go, connect.

 

341

00:56:09.540 --> 00:56:10.390

Akil Hill: There it is.

 

342

00:56:10.960 --> 00:56:15.129

Akil Hill: so I have a question for you then. So what house do you belong to?

 

343

00:56:15.130 --> 00:56:18.120

Emma Horanic: Oh, I'm I'm through and through a raven claw. I really.

 

344

00:56:18.120 --> 00:56:18.840

Akil Hill: Yeah.

 

345

00:56:18.840 --> 00:56:26.890

Emma Horanic: Like Gryffindor. But yeah, I'm the book studying. Nerd follow the rules all the way.

 

346

00:56:27.690 --> 00:56:31.280

Akil Hill: All right. I keep trying to get Han to take the test. I'm a Gryffindor.

 

347

00:56:31.580 --> 00:56:34.710

Emma Horanic: Yeah, I would. I could see that I think Hong would be a hufflepuff.

 

348

00:56:34.920 --> 00:56:36.469

Akil Hill: That's what I've told.

 

349

00:56:36.470 --> 00:56:37.210

Hong Lieu: Like you just go to the.

 

350

00:56:37.210 --> 00:56:37.840

Akil Hill: Should I suggest.

 

351

00:56:37.840 --> 00:56:42.710

Hong Lieu: Because the the boats have gone hufflepuff so far that I can just I can just claim it at this point.

 

352

00:56:42.920 --> 00:56:45.920

Akil Hill: Absolutely. You don't even have to see how you can just close your eyes.

 

353

00:56:45.920 --> 00:56:46.789

Hong Lieu: Just a little talk.

 

354

00:56:46.790 --> 00:56:48.030

Akil Hill: Like that guy's a hufflepuff.

 

355

00:56:48.030 --> 00:56:58.480

Hong Lieu: No, no, I feel like I feel like you'd have to open your eyes and see how like huffy I am in general first, st and then you kind of just go like like a generally jolly demeanor that goes with it. Yeah, they, you know.

 

356

00:56:58.770 --> 00:57:04.079

Akil Hill: I think Hong has a little nuances of Ravenclaw, though, too, because he's like a researcher he knows a lot about.

 

357

00:57:04.220 --> 00:57:14.100

Akil Hill: I still to this day. Honestly, I can say, like, you know so much about so many different things. I'm like, okay, so me, I know I see hufflepuff, and that's the dominant, but I do see a little bit of ravenclaw in you.

 

358

00:57:14.100 --> 00:57:17.890

Emma Horanic: Yeah. But then he's got the long hair like snape. So maybe there's some slither in there.

 

359

00:57:17.890 --> 00:57:19.350

Akil Hill: That's the part.

 

360

00:57:19.350 --> 00:57:20.210

Hong Lieu: It's a very recent.

 

361

00:57:20.210 --> 00:57:20.710

Akil Hill: Puck.

 

362

00:57:21.037 --> 00:57:25.622

Hong Lieu: Since Covid, because my mom used to always make me cut it. So. Yeah.

 

363

00:57:26.110 --> 00:57:38.378

Hong Lieu: And and in terms of my research, it's like Jack of all trades, master of none. So nothing deep, very surface, like like comp like bare competence. And then I'm on to the next thing. So yeah, I don't know what that makes me, or you know.

 

364

00:57:38.640 --> 00:57:41.620

Akil Hill: What was Emma? What was your do you know what your patronus was.

 

365

00:57:42.320 --> 00:57:53.766

Emma Horanic: Oh, it I remember I took the test. I just remember being really disappointed because I wanted it to be a turtle, and it wasn't. And I think I was just like this test doesn't make any sense.

 

366

00:57:54.480 --> 00:58:05.730

Emma Horanic: I think it ended up being a rabbit. And I was really I was like, that's what are the odds, too. I wanted it to be a turtle, and it ended up with being a rabbit. And so yeah.

 

367

00:58:05.730 --> 00:58:12.039

Akil Hill: We gotta try to find that I'll try to find it, maybe how we should put that in the show notes where people can like link into it, and and then and take the test.

 

368

00:58:12.040 --> 00:58:13.540

Hong Lieu: I will definitely get everything to show notes.

 

369

00:58:13.540 --> 00:58:14.010

Akil Hill: Yeah.

 

370

00:58:14.010 --> 00:58:19.820

Hong Lieu: I was hoping you were going to say ninja turtles because I could go deep. Dive ninja, turtles.

 

371

00:58:19.820 --> 00:58:23.530

Akil Hill: She was a heavy part of man. I was getting those vibes. I was getting those vibes.

 

372

00:58:23.530 --> 00:58:27.619

Hong Lieu: Keel was ready. Akil Akil always comes prepared. So yeah, you knew.

 

373

00:58:27.620 --> 00:58:33.860

Emma Horanic: Like, maybe, should I switch it so it's like something, you know, new. And I was like, I can't. That's literally, I mean, that's

 

374

00:58:33.990 --> 00:58:39.390

Emma Horanic: that is the piece of culture that's probably molded, who I am the most absolutely.

 

375

00:58:39.680 --> 00:59:04.149

Hong Lieu: The things that, like you really are really near and dear to your heart, we can, you know, like it. It shines through, you know, and that's what we really want, because there's a lot of folks are

 

376

00:59:04.160 --> 00:59:08.270

Hong Lieu: don't always do these deep dives into things, and it's not to say that that's the way to go, but

 

377

00:59:08.640 --> 00:59:10.759

Hong Lieu: they're really just waiting for something that speaks to them.

 

378

00:59:10.790 --> 00:59:28.509

Hong Lieu: It's something that they can really take in and make wholly their own. And it's not like. There's a lot of things out there sometimes for folks, just one or 2 things, or sometimes it's like me, where you care a little bit about everything, maybe a little too much, but it's it's when you find it, and you get that feeling. It's like the the dopamine serotonin, whatever rush it is

 

379

00:59:28.540 --> 00:59:45.550

Hong Lieu: like it, just it's just great. And that's where we're trying to highlight for for folks. What is that which? What was that thing for for you? And that really tells people that it can be anything you never know. So you just have to be open to that kind of idea of.

 

380

00:59:45.590 --> 01:00:13.179

Hong Lieu: you know letting art move you like that, you know, because some folks, some folks don't. They just think like, Oh, only I'll look for it for this serious stuff and the serious stuff is like, well, you know. But then something that's a little more playful. But if it really speaks to you, then it that has become serious stuff, you know. Like, when when the playful becomes serious like that, that's to me that is kind of one of the encapsulations of higher learning. And so you really, just really embodied and exemplified the whole thing. So it really, really.

 

381

01:00:13.180 --> 01:00:14.530

Emma Horanic: Yeah.

 

382

01:00:14.530 --> 01:00:15.160

Akil Hill: Yeah.

 

383

01:00:15.360 --> 01:00:17.849

Akil Hill: And that was well said, hung like a true hufflepuff.

 

384

01:00:17.850 --> 01:00:18.290

Emma Horanic: Yeah.

 

385

01:00:18.614 --> 01:00:19.910

Hong Lieu: That that was a.

 

386

01:00:19.910 --> 01:00:20.960

Akil Hill: For profit.

 

387

01:00:22.220 --> 01:00:23.330

Hong Lieu: Good.

 

388

01:00:25.540 --> 01:00:26.200

Hong Lieu: I usually.

 

389

01:00:26.200 --> 01:00:26.590

Akil Hill: There you go!

 

390

01:00:26.590 --> 01:00:34.140

Hong Lieu: I usually mute the cough, but that go. That kind of goes with the the. I let it out because that kind of was part of the sentiments.

 

391

01:00:34.550 --> 01:00:46.550

Akil Hill: And I always like this time of year, too, like around the fall time. It always does. It reminds me of like, you know, Harry Potter like when it starts to get a little cold and fall. You're like you just want to like, turn on Harry Potter.

 

392

01:00:46.690 --> 01:00:50.079

Akil Hill: Turn on the fireplace. You get all dusted in. And

 

393

01:00:50.150 --> 01:00:53.159

Akil Hill: you know, so yeah, great, great, great.

 

394

01:00:53.160 --> 01:01:05.500

Emma Horanic: One of my favorite quotes ever is actually from Dumbledore in the second movie, where, when he says, it's not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices, and that it's like.

 

395

01:01:06.210 --> 01:01:31.249

Emma Horanic: I think that is so well said, because you can be so great and like what I was saying, if you know you could be so great at something. But if you have a terrible personality or you make bad choices, no one's ever going to know. And it's not gonna it's never, gonna you know, show the kind of person you are, because it isn't what what we can do. It's how we do it, and how we choose to portray our abilities and and the kind of person we are.

 

396

01:01:31.250 --> 01:01:40.350

Emma Horanic: And it's those little things inside where you're like, wow! I didn't know Harry Potter, could, you know, be that deep? Because, like you said, you got, you know, this fun fiction.

 

397

01:01:40.510 --> 01:01:45.720

Emma Horanic: you know, component here. But there's also some some really great messages, you know.

 

398

01:01:45.720 --> 01:02:09.139

Hong Lieu: Actually a good message for young folks, because, you know, I felt that when I was young the invincibility of youth you think your choices aren't as meaningful when even more so, you could set yourself on a path that is hard to wind back around from, and you don't even realize how important some of those choices you made really were to the trajectory of your life. So it's really important. You don't have to make great choices every time, but you just can't make those like

 

399

01:02:09.140 --> 01:02:26.470

Hong Lieu: pitfall choices, the ones that really set you on a path that you can't get back from, or that send you down a way that you know you're not prepared for at that time, not to say you can't revisit it later, but in that moment you might not be ready. And so it's good to good to be cognizant of those kinds of things, and make, you know, make decent choices throughout your life. So.

 

400

01:02:26.470 --> 01:02:31.459

Emma Horanic: Yeah, and not not rely on your skill or ability or money to to get you through.

 

401

01:02:31.460 --> 01:02:40.649

Hong Lieu: To get you through, no matter what, because, you know, you only know as much as you know, and there's always something you don't know that will kind of, you know, force you to

 

402

01:02:40.800 --> 01:02:44.429

Hong Lieu: pivot or kind of improvise in the moment. And that's another thing where

 

403

01:02:44.860 --> 01:03:03.649

Hong Lieu: you have to have that little bit of improvisational skill to kind of adjust and be like this is still okay, because otherwise you start, you know, spiraling, and and it becomes a self-fulfilling kind of prophecy where you don't feel great about something, and it doesn't feel great. But you have to still be, you know. Okay with, however, things present themselves, and make it make a go of it, as it were.

 

404

01:03:03.650 --> 01:03:04.940

Emma Horanic: Yeah, definitely.

 

405

01:03:05.650 --> 01:03:13.249

Hong Lieu: I guess my follow up question be, have you been to the wizarding world at universal studios? Is it good, or is it not like, did it not meet your standards, or was it okay?

 

406

01:03:13.250 --> 01:03:21.330

Emma Horanic: No, I actually, it's that's funny that you asked that because so I actually just got engaged last February.

 

407

01:03:21.330 --> 01:03:21.910

Hong Lieu: Congratulations.

 

408

01:03:21.910 --> 01:03:22.759

Emma Horanic: And thank you.

 

409

01:03:22.760 --> 01:03:23.200

Akil Hill: Congratulations.

 

410

01:03:23.200 --> 01:03:34.621

Emma Horanic: And how he so he took me to the the wizarding world in Florida because we were in Louisiana. So it was pretty close. So we went to the Orlando

 

411

01:03:35.220 --> 01:03:50.120

Emma Horanic: Universal studios in Orlando, and visited Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, and was really fun. And then we we continued down to Key West, and that's where he proposed, and he actually proposed with a golden snitch, and the ring was in a golden snitch.

 

412

01:03:50.120 --> 01:03:51.000

Hong Lieu: Very nice.

 

413

01:03:51.000 --> 01:03:52.029

Akil Hill: I love her.

 

414

01:03:52.030 --> 01:03:52.990

Emma Horanic: Water, in.

 

415

01:03:52.990 --> 01:03:53.440

Akil Hill: That's cool.

 

416

01:03:53.440 --> 01:04:14.449

Emma Horanic: It means to me. And so that was really sweet. But yeah, so I actually just got to go to the the wizarding world. And I mean the obviously there's a lot of people there. But the the details they put into the diagon alley I was super impressed with at the one in Florida because they don't have that one at the local one, and

 

417

01:04:14.450 --> 01:04:37.250

Emma Horanic: la! They just have, like hogsmeade and hogwarts, but they have a whole diagon alley in the Florida one. And I mean, yeah, it's it's it's spectacular, like, with just the detail and the settings. And you know, the the little shows that they put on. So I was. I was impressed, and I was really happy that I went, and the the butter beer is pretty good, too. So that's a plus.

 

418

01:04:37.250 --> 01:04:40.349

Hong Lieu: It's a little sweet. But I yeah, I can't hate. I can't hate too much on it.

 

419

01:04:40.350 --> 01:04:44.500

Emma Horanic: Right. I couldn't drink too much of it. It's definitely sweet, but you know.

 

420

01:04:44.500 --> 01:04:47.300

Hong Lieu: It does taste how you think it would taste like.

 

421

01:04:47.300 --> 01:04:51.850

Emma Horanic: If you say, Butterbeer, I'm like, Yeah, that's what I that's what I thought of. Yeah.

 

422

01:04:51.850 --> 01:04:55.459

Akil Hill: I remember there's like a recipe, for it's like cream soda.

 

423

01:04:55.460 --> 01:04:56.400

Emma Horanic: Watch. Yeah.

 

424

01:04:56.400 --> 01:05:01.280

Akil Hill: But yeah, butter ashtract caramel extracts. Maybe we'll put that in the show notes.

 

425

01:05:01.280 --> 01:05:07.180

Emma Horanic: Yeah, it's just yeah, just everything, everything. Every sugary thing you can think of. That's probably what goes into it.

 

426

01:05:07.180 --> 01:05:12.120

Hong Lieu: Actually a fun chemistry experiment, because it gets a little fizzy and stuff like that, too. Yeah.

 

427

01:05:12.120 --> 01:05:12.510

Emma Horanic: So.

 

428

01:05:12.510 --> 01:05:14.080

Hong Lieu: I'll put in the show notes for sure.

 

429

01:05:14.730 --> 01:05:15.470

Akil Hill: Nice.

 

430

01:05:16.070 --> 01:05:18.980

Hong Lieu: Thank you for that true higher learning folks.

 

431

01:05:18.980 --> 01:05:21.830

Akil Hill: Literally shit, is square on the head.

 

432

01:05:22.070 --> 01:05:31.720

Hong Lieu: Yes, because you gotta. You gotta get it. Get in where you fit in, pull it from whatever you can, and when you feel it. And then you look for that in other other places as well, so absolutely great.

 

433

01:05:31.830 --> 01:05:36.719

Hong Lieu: Great picks, great, great example. Thank you, Emma, for being on the show today. Thank you.

 

434

01:05:36.720 --> 01:05:37.440

Akil Hill: Much.

 

435

01:05:37.440 --> 01:05:38.656

Hong Lieu: True honor to have you

 

436

01:05:38.900 --> 01:05:42.569

Emma Horanic: Yeah, thank you for having me. I I really enjoyed talking to you guys. So I appreciate it.

 

437

01:05:42.570 --> 01:05:56.419

Hong Lieu: Drew badass trailblazing director of the Marine Diving Technology program at Spcc before we sign off any final words. Is there any? What's the best way for students to get in contact with you. What's the best way for folks interested in the program to learn more.

 

438

01:05:56.767 --> 01:06:21.419

Emma Horanic: On our website. So if you go to the Spcc. Mdt, they've got the steps there to apply our applications there. You have my contact. Information is on there. So feel free. If you have any questions you can email me, or you can call me the all of the calls go straight to my cell phone through the Zoom Phone. So hopefully, if if I don't answer.

 

439

01:06:21.420 --> 01:06:35.559

Emma Horanic: I'll definitely. I try to call everybody back when I can. So but there's a lot of great information on the website. But yeah, I'm always available. And you know, I pretty much am at the building from 6 Am. To 5 Pm. Every day, so

 

440

01:06:35.560 --> 01:06:43.429

Emma Horanic: swing by, I'll probably be here. If I'm not teaching a class. I'm I'm more than happy to talk to anybody, or or answer questions, so.

 

441

01:06:45.080 --> 01:06:47.989

Akil Hill: Yeah, you down with Mdt.

 

442

01:06:48.360 --> 01:06:49.535

Hong Lieu: Yeah. You know me.

 

443

01:06:49.830 --> 01:06:51.052

Akil Hill: Yeah. With, mdt.

 

444

01:06:52.430 --> 01:06:53.379

Emma Horanic: Going to start the program. Now.

 

445

01:06:55.245 --> 01:06:56.579

Hong Lieu: Every last homies.

 

446

01:06:56.580 --> 01:06:57.860

Akil Hill: There we go. So.

 

447

01:06:57.860 --> 01:07:10.680

Hong Lieu: So I will get all the information, not just a badass and trailblazer, but also readily available to take your questions and any any questions you have. Thank you, Emma. This is really special. It was an honor to have you. Thank you, Akil, as always.

 

448

01:07:10.680 --> 01:07:11.669

Akil Hill: Thank you, Hong. It was great.

 

449

01:07:11.670 --> 01:07:13.909

Hong Lieu: Time. Y'all, this is Vaquero Voices. Take care, everyone.

 

450

01:07:13.910 --> 01:07:14.650

Akil Hill: Peace.

 

451

01:07:14.650 --> 01:07:15.610

Emma Horanic: Bye.