- Coming up on Austin InSight musicians and mental health.

How creativity and mental health challenges sometimes go hand in hand, and the non-alcoholic or N.A.

beverage trend.

We'll talk with a James Beard Award nominee about delicious drinks, but without the buzz.

Austin InSight starts right now.

- [Announcer] Support for Austin InSight comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(lively music) (lively music) - Hello, and thanks for joining us, I'm Laura Laughead.

Central Texas and music-oriented Austin are home to more than 6,000 professional musicians.

During May Mental Health Awareness month, we want to focus on the challenges that sometimes accompany creativity.

Studies have shown that more than 70% of musicians struggle with mental health.

Why is that?

And what's being done to address this?

In Austin, the SIMS Foundation is a nonprofit focused on helping the music community access mental healthcare resources.

They celebrated their 30th anniversary with a concert and gala on May 18th.

Here's a snippet from a testimonial video from local recording artist Jaimee Harris.

- I myself, I'm a folk singer, and I've been in recovery for a little over six years, and I also battle depression.

So I'm truly grateful to the SIMS Foundation for all the help that they've given to me personally and all the help they've given to my friends and some of my family members.

And I think it's an incredible organization, not only because they help serve performing musicians, but also because they expand their resources so they can help people like tour managers and booking agents and roadies, anyone that helps keep all of the pieces of the puzzle together for performing musicians.

- And we are joined now by Derrick Lesnau, CEO, and Brandee Smith, director of Clinical Services from the SIMS Foundation.

Thank you both for being with us today.

- Thanks for having us.

- It's a pleasure.

- Absolutely.

So first let's talk about why.

Is there something unique about the pressures of being in the music profession that causes mental health problems?

- So there was a study that was put out recently by the, by an organization that focuses on mental health.

And it basically stated that one in five Americans is going to experience a mental health challenge throughout the course of a year.

And there was a study also done a few years back that recognized that three out of four musicians are going to experience a mental health challenge.

And so it's exponentially more present in the music industry.

And I think that has a lot of, there's a lot of reasons that go into that, but you think about the innate aspects of working in that industry where you're touring long nights, you are playing late night gigs, you're traveling, you're away from your family and friends for a long period of time.

And so I think there's a lot of aspects that music industry professionals deal with that lead to the result of them experiencing mental health challenges on a higher incidence than regular people.

- And there's definitely, from what you're saying, like there's a lack of stability, which always can exacerbate mental health challenges.

But you know, many people do face job stress, financial problems, a lack of stability, substance abuse and relationship issues in their life.

But that being said, why is that kind of doubly worse for musicians?

- Well, I would love to just sort of jump in there and say that I think those pressures are highlighted.

I think a lot of folks, you know, in media, you know, the media pressure today, social media, all of those challenges really experience imposter syndrome, this worry about perception, all those things that is extraordinarily exacerbated in the music industry.

And so folks are trying to keep up with AI, they're trying to keep up with their multiple jobs of being a working musician is a challenge because the financial instability, the time away from home, as we discussed all of those things, you know, work is high pressure.

The environment our industry professionals and our musicians work in, is in a lot of ways, even higher incidents of course, substance prevalence, pressure, late nights, inability to keep up with healthy habits like good sleep, you know, good diet, exercise.

All of those things really add to what our clients experience on a regular basis.

- It is undoubtedly hard to be a working musician these days.

What should musicians and the people closest to them, their loved ones be alert to when it comes to identifying that need for help?

- I think, the biggest indicator is probably a change, right?

A significant change from previous behavior.

That is less able to handle coping.

Things that might not ordinarily have been so extreme or catastrophic to a person.

Those noticing those changes in their inability, or less ability to handle those things.

I think unhealthy coping, withdrawal, isolation, sort of pulling back from the things that are important to them, the ones they love, enjoying the things that used to bring them pleasure.

It's a good thing to look out for those around, anybody, a loved one who's changing in that way.

- And that being said, for people that may be unfamiliar with these challenges, this mental health awareness month, what do you really want to make clear and have people take away from this work that you do?

- It is vital that we talk about it.

That we normalize not only just in the music industry and in those spaces, the venues, you know, with the labels, record labels.

It's really important that folks understand now's the time to talk about it.

And there's no better time than right now to talk about how you're feeling.

The more we normalize mental health as a part of our, you know, overall wellness, I think the better off we're going to be.

And so I think, you know, talking, we need to educate folks.

We need to be, you know, we try to advocate for mental health in general, but specifically for our population, the unique challenges that they face.

But I think the, you know, there's so many barriers including cost, which is what we're trying to help with with our group.

You know, that's a, that's a whole nother discussion about the cost of healthcare.

But absolutely just not being afraid to say, I'm not feeling okay today and I need to stop and I need to take care of myself.

That's going to help any person be better for the folks around them and for their own long-term outcome and wellness.

Mental health and otherwise.

- You said it great.

You know, it's removing that stigma and that's the second half of our mission.

It's not only connecting clients to the care that they need, but it's making sure that the community understands that it's okay to not be okay.

And when that happens, reach out, ask for help.

There are resources out there and we just want to make sure that people don't feel that isolation that can lead them to taking measures into their own hands or not recognizing how much they're loved.

Just recognizing that it's okay to not be okay.

It's not a sign of weakness to ask for help.

It's actually a sign of strength.

- That's well said too.

Checking in with your loved ones and also checking in with yourself, that is such an important lesson for all of us to really learn this mental health awareness month.

Well, thank you both for coming on and sharing your thoughts with us and for the important work that you and the SIMS Foundation are doing in the music community.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

- Thank you.

(light music) (light music) - From the three martini lunch slash Mad Men vibes to Animal House style frat parties to the craft beer movement, to that glass of Chardonnay.

Drinking trends are culturally and socially constantly evolving.

But the latest fad may actually be abstaining.

A survey from market research from NCS shows that nearly half of Americans plan to drink less this year.

A Gallup poll shows less than 40% of young adults are regular drinkers.

A change from 20 years ago when young people were the most likely to drink alcohol regularly.

So how does this trend impact Austin's vibrant local restaurant scene?

For more on that, we are joined by Arjav Ezekiel.

He is the beverage director and co-owner of Birdie's and award-winning local restaurant.

And speaking of awards, Ezekiel is nominated for the James Beard Award for outstanding beverage service.

That's a huge honor.

Arjav, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thanks for having me, it's such a treat to be here.

- Absolutely.

So first let's start with what we have here.

Can you please explain to us what this is?

And it's your signature as well.

- Yeah, this is what we like to call a Birdie's soda.

We change our sodas all the time.

This is a soda made with citrus.

So orange peel, lemon peel, rosemary and salt.

We add a little sugar, make a little simple syrup, add a little lemon juice and some soda water.

And it's kind of like our version of lemonade for the summer.

- I love it, a non boozy lemonade for adults.

And now we must put it to the test.

- Let's do it, cheers.

- Okay, cheers.

There we go.

That is really good.

- Good, I'm glad you like it.

- I like that.

I would order that regardless if I was not drinking alcohol or drinking alcohol, I think I would still order that.

That is really refreshing.

And Arjav, we were talking about this, but dinner and drinks, right?

It's so much a part of the social scene in Austin, couples friends, it's really hard to not feel excluded if everyone else is drinking around you and you're deciding not to drink for whatever reason.

What kind of trends are you noticing among your customers when it comes to the not drinking movement?

- I think, you know, for me it's like a little hard to call it a full movement yet.

I think what we see though is that like part of all great restaurants, you want to be as inclusive of a restaurant as you can possibly be.

And we're a wine bar primarily, and we have a huge wine list.

We have 350 to 400 different bottles on the list at any given point.

And we wanted a non-alcoholic list that reflected that too.

So my dad doesn't drink and when we go to restaurants, he's often left with just one option, maybe a coke or a sparkling water.

And I wanted to create a non-alcoholic list that he would really enjoy.

So we start off with what we call an apero category, which is basically like an aperitif.

We have really fun juices from around the world.

We have this really cool non-alcoholic pear cider right now made by one of the great cider makers of the world.

We make our own sodas in house and then we have some bitter drinks at the end of the meal to help settle your stomach after a big meal.

- Wow, you clearly have so many options.

And now I'm like getting thirsty and need to have another sip of this.

So you guys are ready for all these customers to come in if they're deciding not to drink.

And we talked about this a bit before, but you know, sometimes just the act of holding something in your hand, right?

Even if you're just milling about the room.

- Absolutely.

- So what do you expect being in the restaurant scene, what do you expect of this trend?

Are you the only restaurant in town that's responding to this in this way, would you say?

- I don't think so.

I think there's, you know, most restaurants now have a non-alcoholic selection of some sort.

I think Birdies maybe has gone the most head in in some ways.

We have the longest list, I think, of anybody I've seen in town.

But I think for us, because beverage is such a big part of what Birdie's is, my wife Tracy is the chef there.

She does all the cooking.

I try and match the wine list and the non-alcoholic list to what she's cooking based on the seasons.

And I think it's really important for us to have breadth and choice, because I maybe want something a little bit different when I'm waiting in line to eat at Birdie's than when I sit down and have my first bite of deviled egg versus what I want with, you know, the smoked fish dish that I'm eating last.

So, you know, for us it's all grounded in the food, the Tracy's cooking, and we're always thinking about how beverage can be almost like the condiment to the food.

It's not unlike the ketchup on your burger.

- Yeah, - It adds a little sweetness and a little acidity.

We think a little bit of our, about our beverage program the same way.

- It's a quintessential part of the dining and meal experience for sure.

And speaking of that, you guys have this amazing nomination for a James Beard Award for beverage service, and that's actually new.

I know that was the first time I'd ever heard of award like that.

Can you talk about what that meant to you?

- I mean, it means so much.

You know, what I've dedicated my entire career to the dining room and the business.

And it's incredible, not just for me, but for our entire dining room team to be acknowledged in this way.

We were the only nominee in Austin, and I think that was a really special moment for our entire beverage team, our entire dining room team.

And quite frankly, even the kitchen team.

Tracy was a nominee last year for outstanding chef in Texas.

And it's cool to have both the kitchen and the dining room acknowledged in back to back years.

It makes us feel like we're doing something that's meaningful to our industry.

- Absolutely, and I'm sure on behalf of the sober community or the sober curious community, they're really excited and it means a lot to them to have something that makes them feel included.

And we want to say, once again, congratulations on the James Beard nomination.

If you haven't been to Birdie's, you've got to get there and try this, this adult lemonade.

I love that we're hearkening back to our childhoods here.

Arjav, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thanks for having me, it's been a pleasure.

- One day there was a store owner named Jack who accidentally added the crazy salt to the lemonade, which made the lemonade go crazy.

- Somewhere in this video could be the next Larry McMurtry or Rick Riordan.

This is the Austin PBS Writer Showcase Awards last weekend.

For more than 20 years, this annual contest has highlighted young writing talent in central Texas.

This year, more than 400 writers and illustrators from pre-K through fifth grade entered.

Some of the winning stories, included a tale of a traveling meatball in search of a home, a chicken who learns ninja skills to fight bullying, and a magic ice cream shop with flavors that helped a shy boy become brave and a sad girl see her grandparents.

Love to see that creativity.

Every child's story is posted or published online at Austinpbswriterscontest.org.

The Writer Showcase is one of the many programs from our Austin PBS education team.

Speaking of, you've already likely seen the news stories.

Earlier this month, president Trump signed an executive order halting federal funding for PBS and NPR.

That includes us here at Austin PBS.

The White House argues that taxpayer money should not go to what they describe as biased reporting and quote, woke propaganda disguised as news.

While the decision came as a blow, it did not come as a surprise.

This situation is ongoing.

We previously sat down with our Austin PBS CEO to help explain what's going on.

(lively music) Joining us now to help us better understand what's going on here is the CEO of Austin PBS Luis Patino.

Luis, thanks so much for joining us.

- Thank you, Laura, for having me.

- Well, Luis, what's been the reaction to this news from PBS so far?

- Well, I think we've had reactions that have come in phases, right?

I think the original action that was, that really started to come in as a result of the DOGE subcommittee hearings was sort of one set of reactions around, you know, really was it really needed, truly needed to have a DOGE subcommittee hearing with both CEO of PBS and NPR.

That certainly had some interesting reaction to it.

Then the executive order came down that had a reaction, many people reaching out to us in support of what we do, especially here in Austin.

But I think that the biggest reaction that we had was over this past weekend because Department of Education just cut some significant amount of funding for PBS Kids content and services to the tune of $23 million across the country.

Here in Austin, it also affected some of the work that we do around our Ready to Learn program.

So that has to do with educational outreach programs that we do for pre-K children, kindergarten children.

So that's content and services that directly affect us.

In Austin that's roughly $350,000.

And then across the state, you can add a little bit more to that, but that really caused some major outrage because if there's anything that people truly are reminded of when they think about PBS and public media, it's the services and the content that we have provided for over 60 years to their children.

- It's PBS Kids, simple as that's.

It's inextricable from all the work that we've done for the community and PBS has done.

And that's a double whammy, you know, the potential loss of federal funding.

- That's right.

- You mentioned the Department of Education.

So how could the slashing of both of these, these fund sources impact Austin PBS directly?

- Well, if you think about any business, whether you are a large corporation or a small, small business here in town, if they slash 10% of your annual revenues, which is what is at stake for Austin PBS, roughly 10% of our total operating budget has the potential to be gone should the federal funding go away.

Then you tack on top of that, the dollars that we just talked about that came from the Department of Education and that adds, we get closer to 12%.

So take away 12% of anybody's annual revenues and they just cannot continue to operate in the same fashion.

So it just, it will not be status quo.

What does that exactly mean in detail?

We don't know yet.

And also, when you think about that, those dollars, those dollars are used in such an efficient manner, right?

The way that we are able to operate at Austin, PBS and the things that we're able to produce just could not be done in the commercial media world.

So as somebody who comes from the commercial media world, I can tell you we are extremely efficient in the work that we do and that we provide for the community.

- And it's great you bring that up, 'cause and I know the commercial media framework is also changing.

I too come from that world.

And the beautiful thing about PBS is a lot of stations that are un, or that serve areas that are unreachable oftentimes.

- That's right.

- By these commercial stations.

And those could potentially shudder in totality because of this.

- Exactly, exactly.

No, that's a really good point.

And I think that, you know, we're definitely concerned here at Austin PBS, our colleagues at KUT, KUTX, right?

But we are extremely blessed to live in a city like Austin.

If you think about some of the other markets that are sort of the more rural stations, whether they're radio or television stations, you know, many of them are in markets where they are literally the only news source in town.

We've heard this concept that we've termed news deserts.

- Well, they exist and they exist partially because in the commercial media world, it just doesn't really pay, the business model doesn't hold to have a full blown television or radio station in Marfa, Texas, for example.

But we have an amazing NPR station in Marfa that does great work with very few people.

Huge impact for the West Texas community.

There's also a lot of infrastructure that allows us to have as a system-wide, 330 PBS station organization.

Obviously there's a lot of infrastructure needed for that.

- And to note this, federal funding roughly amounts to about $1.60 per taxpayer.

So really not that much in the grand scheme of things per taxpayer.

- And that's why I talk about the efficiency, right?

Again, a $1.60 pays for 330 television stations, PBS stations, over 1,200 NPR stations across the country.

That's pretty efficient utilization of a dollar and 60 cents less than a cup of coffee.

People remind me it's a lot less than a cup of coffee.

- These days, yeah.

Or like five times, five times less.

- But it's extremely efficient.

And when you look at the overall budget, I think it's 0.001, you can fact check me on that, but it's, I think 0.001 of the total national budget.

So it's it, we're not talking about huge dollars, and I get the conversation around where people want their tax dollars spent, but if you talk about it from an efficiency point of view, from a community impact point of view, there is nothing better than public media and what we have been doing for over 60 years.

- And with these potential cuts looming, how do you foresee PBS making up for that potentially and what's next for PBS?

- Yeah, well I think that what is next for us right now in the immediate future is to really ask that our community really stand with us right now.

There is a website that between PBS and NPR and some of our national organizations, we all collaborated to create the website that's called Protect My Public Media.

That website allows for our community members to go onto that website, put in their information, your zip code primarily, and that immediately signals which congressional district you belong to, who your elected official is.

All you have to put in is really your real, your basic information.

I think it just asks for your name, your zip code, and it automatically sends a letter to your congressional district representative telling them to support public media to support their local PBS station, their local NPR station in their respective market.

And I think that right now, the more that we can get our community to stand with us, at the end of the day, that is what has always been one of the beauties of public media, is that we've always had bipartisan support across the country.

Because people realize that there may be one conversation happening in Washington, D.C. but when you get back to Austin, when you get back to Amarillo, when you get back to Midland-Odessa, your community speaks very loudly about their interest and their support of public media.

And therefore those elected officials know that.

- And you bring this up, but even though this is a tenuous time, undoubtedly for PBS, it has been heartening to see how many people are coming out of the woodwork to support and really love on PBS right now in the middle of all this, do you foresee maybe a rise in first time donors or new donors giving more than they ever have because of the situation?

- Yeah, absolutely.

We've definitely seen a lift of people reaching out and wanting to become members of Austin PBS and wanting to support us in different ways.

And I think that's what's important, right?

Obviously as a nonprofit media organization, it is really important for us to have that support, that philanthropic support from our community.

But even almost equally as important is the engagement, right?

We want new audiences to discover PBS programming, to discover our, our shows, some of the new shows to rediscover some of the programs that we have had for years, right?

Just last year we celebrated 50 years of Austin City Limits.

I think people realize now more than ever, that a program like Austin City Limits would never have survived in the private sector, right?

Something would've happened one year, the ratings would've declined and somebody would've decided to cancel it, right?

One of the only reasons, and I, and I believe firmly in this, one of the only reasons that Austin City Limits was able to survive for 50 years is because it lived inside of the public media sector and you had 330 stations willing to run it, willing to support it, and people across the country that loved what they saw when they would turn on Austin City Limits and think about what it did for our city.

- Absolutely.

Without it, would we even have the reputation to the degree we have of the live music capital of the world?

- Yeah, maybe not.

- Oh, that'd be a sad situation.

A sad state of things.

Well, Luis, during this tenuous time, thank you so much for coming on and helping us better understand and breaking down the situation.

We'll have to see it all play out.

- Absolutely, thanks for having me.

(light music) - We talked about musicians and mental health at the beginning of the show.

And with that in mind, we want to take a moment to recall the struggles of a well-known local musician.

Roky Erickson was an innovator in psychedelic rock in Austin in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

He was a prolific creator and performer over decades, while living with significant mental health challenges, including treatment for schizophrenia.

His story was told in a 2005 documentary film called, "You're Gonna Miss Me."

- Anyone who tried to have a conversation with him understood that he was not of this world.

- Oh, I've gone through three changes.

I thought I was a Christian, then I was with the Devil.

And then the third one where I know who I am, you know, I feel like I'm an alien.

- Roky Erickson died in 2019, but his music endures.

We'll leave you tonight with a cover of one of his songs performed by the Foo Fighters on the Austin City Limits 40th anniversary show.

Here's "Two headed dog."

Thanks for watching.

♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ I've been working in the Kremlin ♪ ♪ With a two-headed dog.

♪ ♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ I've been working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog.

♪ ♪ Peace brought back, brought back.

♪ ♪ Relaxed be nyet, brought back.

♪ ♪ Did you dry her out ♪ ♪ Wind her out like jerky?

♪ ♪ To me she's healed, don't attack.

♪ ♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ I've been working in the Kremlin ♪ ♪ With a two-headed dog.

♪ ♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ Two headed dog.

♪ ♪ I've been working in the Kremlin ♪ ♪ With a two-headed dog.

♪ ♪ Children nailed to the cross.

♪ ♪ Pain does not look our hell.

♪ ♪ Certainly is not a spell.

♪ - [Announcer] Support for Austin InSight comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(bright music)