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Transcript:

David Pace 0:01

Good morning, Alex. 

 

Alex Barilec 0:09

Good morning, David. Can you believe we’ve made it to the end of season one? 

 

David Pace 0:15

Yes, Season one of the Pace Yourself Wellness Podcast is coming to an end. My name is David Pace. 

 

Alex Barilec 0:23

And I’m Alex Barilec, and we’ve been doing this a long we forgot to do our intro, but this last outro is more of a way for us to to wrap up the first season and reflect on the conversations we’ve had and most importantly, give a real big thanks and shout out to all of the people behind the scenes who’ve made this possible because without them there would be no podcast. 

 

David Pace 0:46

That’s correct. 

 

Alex Barilec 0:47

But before we do that, I wanted to just start with a little bit of a background for our audience about, you know, how we came to be, how this came about. 

 

David Pace 0:58

Yeah, absolutely. So I think that under the direction of Dean Peter Trapp and our safety director, David Thomas, we’ve really stepped up, I think, the College of Science here at the University of Utah to have a wellness program that is robust and actually helpful to our staff and employee group here as well as faculty and students. So we need to thank them for initiating the idea of a wellness tip first off, that happened during staff meetings and then eventually to this podcast, which is hopefully going to be available to more people than just those in the College of Science here at the U. 

 

Alex Barilec 1:49

Yeah, this really grew out of something that was like we were doing organically what you were doing organically, right? And we’re sharing with our staff meetings and I think I just want to lift up, you know, Dean Trapa really is like the, the leader behind making sure that, that we’re focusing on this in the college. But David Thomas really had the idea to say, hey, what if we can share this with more people? There’s only, you know, 30, 40 of us or so in the meeting at the time. What if we could expand this out and so that’s how, you know, that’s a little backstory of how we came to be. There’s a few people, though, that really have made this as possible. And one of them has been sitting right next to us for all eight episodes. And he has guided us, he’s made us sound professional and Ross, like, we really couldn’t do this without you, man. I know. 

 

David Pace 2:48

That’s Ross Chambless. 

 

Alex Barilec 2:49

That’s Ross Chambless sitting next to us that I’m speaking with, and-

 

David Pace 2:52

He’s with the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy. And he is also an exceptional sound guy who has done podcasts ubiquitously here in the Beehive State. 

 

Alex Barilec 3:06

And if I’m honest, he really has made this like really easy because I was quite nervous about all of the technical back-end aspects. And from the first time we sat down, Ross is like, ah, no big deal, man. I got this and that’s really been like, you know, without your confidence in and ease of being able to do that, this wouldn’t have went anywhere. And then once it did and once we sat down, you know, a few months ago, there’s been a whole other team of people that have lifted us up and pushed us forward. 

 

David Pace 3:37

Yeah. So we want to have a call-out here for Cole Elder, who’s our production assistant. He’s done a lot of the sound editing as well as the website and worked to get the logo along with Seth Harper, who has worked on the communications and marketing side of this, along with social media under the direction of Bianca Lyon, who is our Associate Director of Marketing and Communications. 

 

Alex Barilec 4:08

And I want to give a big thanks and shout out to you for getting in the ring every time and for, you know, taking the time out of your day to, you know, walk across campus and explore. And it’s been really fun to get to know you, but also to, you know, lean into this project and explore this together. I don’t think this would be nearly as interesting if one person was talking. So I’ve really enjoyed it. 

 

David Pace 4:35

I don’t know I’m pretty interested in a monologue, but no, I’m just kidding. No, I’m really glad that you’re a co-host here with me because I think it really enriched the exploration of wellness through these eight dimensions. I think you brought a certain technical scholarly aspect to it that eludes me. And I think it’s really been an act of generosity, quite frankly, from you. 

 

Alex Barilec 5:06

And I really appreciate the storytelling that you have brought to this. You’ve helped bring that out of me. And, you know, you’ve shared quite a bit about your background in theatre and writing, and that really has helped bring this alive because even if I know that, like facts and tools don’t emotionally elicit people’s attention, stories do I still like, you know, I still find tools and frameworks useful. And so on that note, with the invitation from David Thomas, our director of safety, who is really the brainchild of this, one of the things we thought we would do was leave our listeners with a simple but fundamental tool to go back to over and over again when they listen to any of these dimensions of wellness and they think to themselves, How do I do this? Right? We’ve talked a fair bit about what to do, but if we’re honest, how to do this in all of our busy lives is really the crux. And there is an idea that I have found useful and simple time and time again. Whether you’re thinking about emotional wellness, whether you’re thinking about, you know, environmental wellness and changing your digital spaces or physical wellness, and it’s getting in a little bit better shape for whatever reason. And that is the idea of intentional habit formation. So this idea comes from James Klare, who’s the author of Atomic Habits and what the idea is, if anyone’s familiar with Simon Cynic’s Golden Circle and essentially takes that and it brings it into habit formation. So I want you to imagine for a second a circle that it looks like a bullseye. So there’s three levels to the circle, and the outer ring is what to do. Okay, So this is a lot of the things we’ve talked about in this podcast. These are the new ideas or frameworks or mindset. This is what we need to do. Maybe need to spend a little bit more time at the gym or a little bit more time, you know, stress relieving. And then the next layer in is how to do it. Okay, this is creating some time in our schedule. This is like understanding how to do some of these techniques. And those two levels are really useful. But what James research found is without the inner ring, those two levels often never happen. And that inner ring is why. So getting really clear for yourself on why you’re doing. Or why it is important to you to develop a new habit or change this area to life. Without that, at the foundation, the how and the what will often fall apart or get pushed to the side. And in any area that I’ve wanted to change, I found if I can attach a really strong why and make it meaningful and important to me, that’s made it really easy to me. 

 

David Pace 7:58

That’s a great idea or a great way of thinking about it, because you’re talking about motivation. And, you know, one of our last episodes was about spirituality wellness and a lot of that has to do with aligning yourself with your values and your ethics and that’s definitely answering the question of why. I think you get to that point by saying why? Why do I feel like I need to even have a moral compass or an ethical standard? Those are really deep, existential questions at the heart of this. 

 

Alex Barilec 8:36

Exactly. And maybe we’ll get to explore some of those in a later season. We want to thank all of our listeners and people that have been tuning in. Hopefully this has been helpful. We’d love to get some feedback and we’ve got some really cool ideas with, you know, people inside the College of Science and maybe even some other colleges across campus where we can continue to grow and develop. So, yeah, stay tuned. 

 

David Pace 9:00

Absolutely. I just wanted to sign off with the land acknowledgement here. This is related to the four pillars, actually, that our dean has very wisely put together and that we talk about regularly here at the College of Science, which is teamwork, professionalism, assume positive intent, which is my favorite, and find ways to increase access and equity. And one of the ways that we do that is by acknowledging that the University of Utah has both historical and contemporary relationships with indigenous peoples. And given that our valley here in the Salt Lake Valley has always been a gathering place for indigenous peoples, we acknowledge that this land, which is named for the Ute tribe, is the traditional ancestral homelands of the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute and Ute tribes, and that it is a crossroad for Indigenous peoples. So we’re grateful for the territory upon which we gather today. We respect these Indigenous folks. The original stewards of this land, and we value the sovereign relationships that exist between tribal government, state governments and the federal government. Alex, it’s been a pleasure. 

 

Alex Barilec 10:10

Always a pleasure. David, Thank you so much and look forward to doing this again soon. 

 

David Pace 10:13

We’ll see you down the road.