Rachel:
Hi, everybody. Welcome again to CPF's Instagram Live. We have a really exciting guest today, a CPF ambassador and ESPN sports announcer. Whoop, just dropped the phone. Hang on. Come back. Yeah. Jason Benetti. And so excited to sit down and chat with him today and really excited for all of you to hear about where he's at, where his career's at, and all things Jason. We'll just wait for him to join in and as soon as he does, I will add him to the live chat. As always, please put your questions in the comments. We've already got a few that have come over on Facebook and Instagram.
Rachel:
But please put them through and we will make sure they get answered. We'll just give Jason a couple more minutes. Yeah. Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday. Now it sort of feels crazy. We've been in isolation coming up nine weeks and we're really excited about the content that we're doing at the foundation, but please we'd love to hear more from you so that we can get some things. And I can see Jason has just joined us. I will invite him to be part of the call. And let me do this. Oh. Here we go. Let's see. Hopefully that's going to work. Can see it's just waiting.
Rachel:
And welcome again, everybody. Thank you all for joining in. We're really excited about our guest today with ESPN sports announcer and just all around amazing person, Jason Benetti. He has requested to join. Jason, just let me know. Hopefully that's going to work. And again, anyone who has any questions for Jason, please put them in the comments and we will get started very shortly. Hang on. Let me... Sorry for the little glitch. I'm just waiting for this to work. It's saying "Add" and it's saying it's waiting. Oh, here we go. I'm seeing connecting. Hello.
Jason Benetti:
Hello.
Rachel:
[inaudible 00:03:06].
Jason Benetti:
How are you?
Rachel:
Good. How are you? You seem to be sideways.
Jason Benetti:
How about that?
Rachel:
There.
Jason Benetti:
Better?
Rachel:
That's better.
Jason Benetti:
Good.
Rachel:
Much better.
Jason Benetti:
So, I'm old and I logged in, and I've never done Instagram Live because I usually am just on Twitter, and I had to enable access to my microphone and camera.
Rachel:
Oh, that's all right. We are just happy that you are here joining us now. We've got lots of people who are on board. And I suppose we can get started. Just a little introduction on yourself for those that don't know you. But I'm pretty sure nearly everyone on here does know who you are, but just in case.
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. Yeah. Normally I'm way better groomed, but I've been in [inaudible 00:03:50] for the last couple months. I'm Jason Benetti. You may have seen me if you're a sports fan. I do football, basketball and baseball for ESPN. I also do White Sox games here in Chicago when there's a baseball season. So, most of the time when there are regular years, I do about 200 games a year. And I'm a CPF Ambassador, which is something very close to my heart because I also have CP.
Rachel:
Yeah. No. And we are so grateful to have you on our team. And obviously you're a huge supporter of the foundation, as we are of you. We have been, as others, very much missing seeing you announcing and doing all these different thing. Can you tell us a little bit what life's like for you right now?
Jason Benetti:
As you can see, life does not involve a razor currently, or a haircut. Life has been interesting. I'm doing a couple things on social media that have kept me connected to the world, but I'm generally just staying in. I'm having groceries delivered. One of the things I'm doing is, every night people are sending me direct messages of notes to their loved ones, and I'm recording them as videos on Twitter. The first couple weeks of this were really interesting for me because I was in a couple arenas where there was exposure to COVID-19. So, I had to do the 14-day quarantine, not go out at all. And I just felt kind of detached and I was sad and I felt like I couldn't express that in any really true way because I wasn't doing any games. So, I asked people to send me notes to loved ones, and it's amazing how deep people are willing to be about the people they care about. And it just feels kind of nice to connect people in a very small way.
Rachel:
That is amazing. Because I think it's so hard right now to feel connected and to feel like part of something. I'm so excited that I'm actually talking to you today. I'm the same as you. I've been in quarantine and my daughter was sick, so we had all these things where we were inside for a very long time. So, it's nice to connect with familiar faces.
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. It's great to hear your voice. I mean, we've had so many laughs over the last couple years and it's just nice to talk to somebody I actually know.
Rachel:
Yeah. No, that's it, right? It's like, "Oh, finally!"
Jason Benetti:
Yeah.
Rachel:
But my question to you. So, we are seeing obviously things starting to open up. Do you have any inside information about some sports starting to start or any weird things that might be happening or interesting things? I shouldn't say weird.
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. Yeah. The golf that happened last weekend was really interesting and kind of weird, too. You saw the announcers that were separated by perforations and plastic and things like that. But I do think with all the governors saying, "Hey, our state is open for sports," I think the leagues are really starting to... Basically, in the headlines that I've read, and I don't have any great insight on it, I do know baseball's working toward a proposal to the players. So, I feel like those steps are happening, but it seems like every day there are more indications that we are getting closer to being back with sports with some, obviously, safety considerations that need to happen. But it doesn't seem like day to day we're getting closer and closer.
Rachel:
Because my interesting thing, right? Is a lot of people can work from home. Obviously your job, you could work from home if the games were playing, do you think? Or do you think really you get so much from being there in person?
Jason Benetti:
No. So, that's actually really interesting you brought that up, Rachel, because last Thursday I had an installer from ESPN, an operations guy from ESPN, come and set up a home studio for me. So-
Rachel:
Whoa. That's [inaudible 00:07:39].
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. I have a camera. I have a studio light. I have a computer that sets me up on a Zoom call. And actually last weekend I did my very first Korean Baseball Organization, KBO, game. It aired like 3:00 in the morning Central Time on Saturday. But I was here in Chicago. Kyle Peterson, the analyst, my partner, was in Omaha at his home, and the ESPN production staff was in Bristol socially distanced in their control room. So, it's really interesting doing a game off the monitor. But I've got a headset. I've got my whole setup. It's everything that I would need for a broadcast. I'm just not there. So, it's funny you say that because I did have a home studio installed on Thursday.
Rachel:
So, do you think that could be the way of the future? I hope not. I actually hope that you are not just always in a home studio and you do actually get out to be at the games, but that's pretty amazing that they can do all of that and set you up at home.
Jason Benetti:
It is remarkable. I mean, it really is. And there's a very slight delay on the audio and video because we're in three places and the game's in South Korea. But generally you can do pretty much everything. They pipe in some stadium noise so we can hear the dugouts. I don't think that's the way we're going to do it in the future unless safety considerations last really, really long, which I don't think is going to happen. I think they want us to be there and I think sports is best consumed when you're there. But I do think it's an option for people certainly. But no, it's good to know that we can do it because it helps get sports on TV.
Rachel:
Yeah, definitely. And I think good to know that these things can happen in a different way. I think it's so interesting. We've always got this question a lot saying, "Modifications." People have requested modifications in the past and they haven't been able to happen or people have said they're too hard. And now everyone's finding, "Oh, actually, this stuff isn't as hard as what people thought."
Jason Benetti:
Right. Right. That's absolutely true. And I think that's great for the disability community on the whole is to know that, "Hey, now we have, by total accident and obviously with a negative situation, but by total accident we figured out that these modifications are very feasible. We can do these things." The other thing that I've noticed is people with disabilities generally are just problem-solvers. And friends of people with disabilities and parents. I think we all have built into us, because of how we have to navigate the world, the ability to look at something and say, "Yeah, it's different, but I'll figure it out." And I'm really glad to have that as part of my DNA because there's never really any instinct for me to say, "Oh, well, it's on a slight delay so it's harder, so I'm going to complain about it." That doesn't really compute for me because you don't get to do that.
Rachel:
Yeah. I think it's this level of resilience and this adaptability that I'm hoping more of the workforce is going to see and see just how valuable that is. Because it's really quite a remarkable attribute to have and something that I think more companies can benefit from as well.
Jason Benetti:
I agree. And I don't like explicitly talking about it, like getting on a podium and saying, "I'm more resilient than you." That seems unfair to those people. But I do think that with what we all grew up with, having a disability or knowing somebody with a disability, you just understand that there are harder things than the fact that you can't go to a restaurant for a couple months or whatever. And this is an awful virus. It is. I'm not at all downplaying that because it's an awful thing. But in order to make it through, and that's what we're all doing, to have the ability to look and say, "Hey, well, I need to tweak this and I can tweak that." And it doesn't matter if it looks the same way that it used to, because I don't look the same as what people expect, and so many others with disabilities don't.
Rachel:
Yeah. No, totally. So, we are getting a lot of questions about sports broadcasting. Everybody wants to know. There's a few different people. People want to be broadcasters. So, we actually got a question in earlier from a college student who's actually about to go to Syracuse as well, similar to you, but wants to know, "What was it like transitioning from school to college, and did you always know that you wanted to be a broadcaster?"
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. That's interesting. I'll take the second part first. I was lucky enough to have a high school radio station at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in the south suburbs here, so I got to experience that early on. And when I had the rush of being on the air... I was on radio first. I was on the air and nobody saw me. I was like, "Wait, there's a way that I can do this and nobody's looking at me all the time." And obviously I was naive to why I picked it up, but that's why I did it in the first place. So, I knew then that that's what I wanted to do because of my high school radio station. And then my transition from high school to college, whoa. I was real bad at it. I knew I wanted to go to Syracuse for the program, but my family and I actually never visited. I went sight unseen. So, we just packed up the old Ford Explorer and drove to New York. And the first time I saw the campus was the day I moved into my dorm.
Rachel:
Wow.
Jason Benetti:
So, I was just really terrible at it. And the transition was hard. I mean, my freshman year, the two weeks in was 9/11. And so there was this moment of, I'm seeing classmates of mine who have parents working in New York City. And it was just, the campus shut down for a couple days and there was this mourning period. But by the second semester I found the campus radio station and I got to know people there and that's where I made my best friends. So, the transition was hard at first. I didn't know what I didn't know about the world and integrated slowly in that way. But once I found my people, everything went pretty well.
Rachel:
So, you talk about radio first. If someone wants to be a sports broadcaster or get into that, would that be something you would recommend, them trying out radio and seeing what that feels like?
Jason Benetti:
I would say do it all.
Rachel:
Where's a good starting point?
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. Yeah. So, I would say do it all. First, do mock broadcasts until your heart wants you to stop. Sit in front of a computer screen right now. If you want to be a sports announcer, right now is the time to, every day, pull up a game on YouTube, pull up a game on MLB TV, whatever it is, and do play-by-play a bit and listen back to it and critique it and compare it to the people you think are really good, and find them and send your tape to the people you think are really good. Because to have them tell you, "Oh, here's what you can tweak. Here's what you can work on," you'll start really aiming at the highest target. And I had some people that I was very fortunate to get to know early on, some people who were pretty high up as play-by-play announcers in the industry, who gave me a lot of tips that were really important.
Jason Benetti:
So, I think just do it as much as you can. Do play-by-play into your phone, into whatever. And then when the games start, go to games, sit with your phone at the top of the stadium, and just call the game in the crowd. Just doing it a lot in a focused way and working on stuff and making it sound different every time, that's the starting point. And there's a difference between radio and TV. If you're doing radio, you have to describe a lot more because we can't see any of it. And then with TV, it's a lot more about how you work with your partner and how you're bringing up topics that are important and how you're using your voice and things like that. So, I think it's important to do both, to learn what words apply on radio that don't apply on TV. And so I guess what I'm saying is, do it a lot. Don't just say, "Hey, I bet I can do this." Sit in front of a screen and-
Rachel:
Practice.
Jason Benetti:
... really work on it. Practice. Yeah.
Rachel:
No, it's such good advice and you're right. Right now you could be doing this. For example, everyone, I am terrible. And I always apologize for how... This is not my natural element to be doing these sorts of interviews and talking. I prefer to be behind the camera, as Jason knows. He's seen me a few times doing that. So, for me, this is such a new experience. But as you say, the more you do it, the more comfortable you become at it and the more you realize, "Is this something that I enjoy doing or not?" And I love doing these now. They've really become something that I look forward to each week.
Jason Benetti:
I think, first of all, I think you're great at it. You've always had a better presence than you think you do. When we do events together, people enjoy you and they enjoy what you do-
Rachel:
Oh, thank you.
Jason Benetti:
... and what you do for the foundation. So, there's nothing to worry about. But yeah, once you do it, you start to realize... The first thing for me was, "Oh, I actually don't hate the sound of my own voice." For a while, when you start talking you're like, "Do I really sound like that? That's really bizarre. Why do I sound like that?" And then you get over it and you keep understanding that when people criticize your work, when you send your work to people and say, "Hey, will you critique this? Tell me what I can do better," they're actually just trying to help.
Jason Benetti:
At first, this is going to shock you, but I was slightly defensive. As somebody who was both a perfectionist and had a disability, I got defensive about my work. I wanted it to be good, because this was the place where I could be good at something. And very quickly I realized that I just need to listen to the advice and not say, "Oh, they think I'm bad," or, "They think I'm not good at it," whatever. No. It's about making tweaks to what you do and using nuance to improve your craft. Not just saying, "I'm good," or, "I'm bad." Not grading yourself at every moment.
Rachel:
That is such wonderful advice because it's such a hard thing sometimes to take that step back and go, "Okay, they're not saying this to be mean. They're not saying this to be awful to me. They're not judging me on who I am as a person. All they're doing is going, 'How can you be better at what you've love to do and what you want to do?'" And I think all of us need that from time to time to say, "All right, look, we're giving you this feedback so you become better, not to bring you down." And I think that's a wonderful thing to find a good mentor to do that with as well.
Jason Benetti:
I agree with you completely. The most insidious thing out there is when you're aiming at a target you think is really high, but it's only average, right?
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jason Benetti:
Your best day is actually the best person's average day. I want to flip that. I want my average day to be other people's best day. I want to set enough strategies and goals and systematic "I do this every day" into my routine that I can't help but be aiming above where average is. And the only way you can do that is by sending your work, whatever industry you're in, it doesn't have to be broadcasting, but evaluating your work against the best score sheet out there. Early on in my career, 2008, I sent my work from a small school that I was doing basketball at to an NBA announcer.
Jason Benetti:
And he wrote me back to say, basically, "I like what you're saying, but how you're saying it is kind of boring." And I thought, "Wow, he's a jerk." That was the first thing I thought was, "Wow, he's mean." And then the second thing I thought was, "You know what? He's right. I can be more dynamic with my voice." And honestly, I've written him since. I actually wrote him maybe five months ago and said, "Hey, I just want you to know, we've never met in person, but what you said to me was so terribly important to my career because you gave me true advice that was harsh, but honest."
Rachel:
No. And I think it is so, so important. And I think all of us find it really hard to receive sometimes. And it is like for me, for example, we write medical journal articles and to get them published, they get peer reviewed. And sometimes you get it back and go, "Whoa, hang on. Did they read this paper?" And you have to take a step back and go, "All right, no, I could have written that better," or, "I could have done this better." All the time. So, I love this advice. And I think for all of us not to take it on as this critical thing of people being awful, for whatever reason. It really is. Most people are out there to help. Obviously there can be some people who aren't very nice. We see trolls on the internet all the time about stuff like that. But the majority of the time people are doing it to be really helpful.
Jason Benetti:
Especially if you've selected those people or you trust their opinions. And so I think, and this is a generalization but it speaks to my heart, and I do think that when you have a disability and you've been poked at and prodded at and joked at and made fun of or whatever comes with the reactions you get for your CP or whatever it is in your daily life, I think people like us tend to be more defensive at the outset. Because we feel like, at least I do, and I can't speak for everybody, but I felt early like I had to prove to people that I was smart.
Jason Benetti:
And so when somebody says, "Your work isn't good enough," you tend to want to put up a fortress around you. You tend to want to have a shield. And that will deflect really good criticism. Because if you say, "Hey, no, I have to make sure that my ego's intact because it's kind of brittle because I get joked at and people don't immediately gravitate to me for friends," or whatever it might be, there's a lot of pain in that. And I would encourage anybody who deals with that, whether it's because of a disability or that they're obese or whatever it is, right?
Rachel:
Mm-hmm.
Jason Benetti:
You're a woman in sports and people say stuff about you, don't be defensive. The advice that you're getting is actually real. Do not put that in with the mean-spirited stuff. Be able to separate those. Because if you ignore that good advice, you're not going to be able to really find yourself and find what makes you special.
Rachel:
Yeah. No. And I think in this day and age as well. And so this is particularly for some of our younger viewers listening. If you are graduating from high school, there can be a lot of mean things that are said. There can be some, particularly with the internet, those keyboard warriors that can really say things that aren't true. But find your people. Find your mentors around you. There are going to be phenomenal people in your life that absolutely want to see you succeed. And they are the ones who you can trust who to give that true feedback to. And I have another question for you though. Because I don't know. You and I have spoken about this a little bit. But in broadcasting and having CP, have you ever had that affect your job or what's it like having CP in broadcasting? Is there something there that you've had to consider?
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. It's really interesting because you never know, right? This is an industry and I've had success and I'm very happy with my career and I'm really grateful for the people who've said, "Hey, I believe in you," right?
Rachel:
Yeah.
Jason Benetti:
I shudder to say they took a chance on me. At some point somebody took a chance on me, but at some point the work was good enough too, that-
Rachel:
Yeah. You proved yourself.
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. That they should have hired me as well. And that sounds a little egotistical, but I think you know where I'm coming from there, that you don't always say, "Well, they got to take a chance because my eye drifts," or, "because I walk funny," or whatever. I think at first I think if you polled all the people that immediately saw my tape at first, they would've said, "Yeah, he's a little awkward on camera. He doesn't really know how to have a presence." And so part of that is my eyes, right? Part of that is that. And then part of it is I wasn't really good at being on camera either. So, there was a component there of me being right that I thought, "Hey, the way I look is affecting me initially just getting in the door of TV." But there was also, I just needed to be more confident in myself. So, I don't think it really has ever gotten in the way of anything. Sometimes I think it may have, but again, people make judgements subconsciously. They're not just saying explicitly, "Oh, he's ugly," or, "Oh, his eye's," whatever, right?
Rachel:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Benetti:
There's a part of them that might say, "Ah, I don't really like it," and they don't even know why. So, there's a piece of me that always wants to search for pretext. And then there's a piece of me that says, "Hey, stop that. Legitimately there's pretext for everybody." If you are an announcer with a face that's larger than somebody else's, or you have a tooth missing, or your nose is crooked, or you talk with a lisp or whatever it is, there's pretext available for everybody. So, when I'm at my best, and I've gotten better at this every year that I've been in TV, I really try to not think about it. And I legitimately turn my eyes to the work and I say, "How can I be better? How can I be more dynamic? What can I fix here? Who can I talk to that might be able to make an inroad with that person?"
Jason Benetti:
There's no value in searching for pretext, because if you truly believe in the work, you'll find somebody, I think, based on my career and my experience. And I'm somebody who has thought, "Hey, they're discriminating somebody or something," or, "They don't understand me." It's not even discrimination. It's that they don't understand what I can provide because I don't have the look. I'm pretty sure that that has happened. But also, as we were talking about before, you have to be a problem-solver. And so there really is no value other than to prove yourself right in finding pretext, and I'd rather be successful than be right, and so that's where I point myself.
Rachel:
Jason, I want to say thank you right now, because everything that you are saying right now is resonating so strongly with me and I'm sure it's resonating so strongly with everyone else. And it's something we all need to hear. And I think it's such a wonderful outlook to really think about these things and like, "How can we be our best selves and what are some of those things that hold us back?" And if those thoughts take over, that's really what holds us back sometimes. And so it's wonderful to hear that from you and go, "All right, this is, sometimes, strategies for success."
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. And I'm glad it resonates because I do think it's for all of us. And I just think, based on a couple factors of broadcasting, that I've been fortunate enough to land at a place where I feel really comfortable saying, "You can get good at something and have it really positively affect your life no matter what you look like." I'm in an industry where people judge you all the time. There are image consultants who work with TV stations to pick the right looking people for the TV station. And my answer has always been, "Yes, I can do better on camera and I will figure it out." And I have gotten a ton better on camera, but the answer is, dive into the work. Figure out how to make the work better. Be more dynamic. Be more accessible. Be more human. Be better with my voice. Whatever the specific is, really dive into the work and somebody will hire you.
Jason Benetti:
I don't want to say life is a vocational pursuit though, because we need to be loved as well. We need to have families and friends and all of that. But in terms of what my vocation has done for my confidence as a person, to know that I've found workarounds for a very subjective and sometimes really snippy industry, it just is. To know that I've found workarounds for that makes me think that the message is universal, that if you get out of your own head and stop saying, "The world is against me..." Which it is sometimes. That's absolutely true. People judge me. People think things of me that I have to overcome. But there is no second universe where I will get to be transported later to not have a disability. It's not going to exist where I ever get to walk up to somebody and they're not judging me. So, I have two choices. I can complain about it, which I have, or I can work around it, which I know I'm better when I do.
Rachel:
No. I think that actually takes us into a really good segue around awkward moments. Because you have developed with us of very successful campaign. And if anyone hasn't seen them, please go to our YouTube channel and look at the Awkward Moments series with Jason Benetti. Because not only are they very educational, but they're also hilarious. And it goes back to that point. So, around Awkward Moments, what do you see an awkward moment? Can you give us a description of one that maybe has happened in real life? Because a lot of these did happen in real life and you based them on your own experiences. But-
Jason Benetti:
Oh, yeah. They-
Rachel:
... what... Yeah.
Jason Benetti:
No, they all have happened. They all have happened in real life. The Awkward Moments series is basically... And I love it and I'm so happy CPF did it. It makes me smile and I'm so grateful that we could do it with such a sense of humor and such an understanding of humanity. Because these things get repeated so much that I've basically stopped blaming people for doing it, and I've started collecting the ridiculous reactions. Because let's face it. We have to organize the world in a way in our brains. And so people see me walking around and they want to help by giving me a cart ride, and I don't really need a cart ride. And there's a lot of stuff that goes into meeting me on a day-to-day basis. It's odd for some people and it's hard and whatever, because they don't really know what I am.
Jason Benetti:
They don't know what box to put me in. And so I think the one that's most interesting to me is, I was in the airport and it's in the Awkward Moments series, but this one is very close to my heart because it speaks to a lot of stuff that's happened in my life. I walked up to the guy at the airport in the pre-check line. And he said very slowly to me, "Hi. This is pre-check. Do you know that it is?" And I was like, "Yes, I travel all the time. I'm Diamond on Delta." Deal with it.
Jason Benetti:
And so I walked by and then I went through security and immediately after security one of the TSA guys says, "Hey, can you come over here for a sec?" And I wanted to say, "Actually, by law I have to if you tell me that I need to come over there. So, yes, I can." And he's like, "Hey, I just want to let you know I'm a huge Sox fan. I love your work." And it was awesome. Within 60 seconds though, I had a person think I'm a 10-year-old and then I had a person think that I'm the coolest person-
Rachel:
Coolest person ever.
Jason Benetti:
... they've met all day." Which is a total slingshot and messes with your mind absolutely bizarrely. Because you have people who are like, "Oh, hey, Jason, go White Sox." And then you go up to a flight attendant and they're like, "Can I help with your bag?" I don't know what I am when that happens. And I just need to center myself and realize that I don't get normal interactions. But yeah, I get those awkward moments all the time. It's funny to think of a buffet lunch at a ballpark right now because sharing food is the farthest thing from my mind. But I was at a ballpark a couple years ago and the woman who ran the buffet at this ballpark in the media room basically was very slowly walking me through all the food choices as I was selecting my food. And I was like, "Lady, I'm an announcer," like that.
Jason Benetti:
I had another. This one is actually, I think, even more important and a little less funny. But I had an usher. I was walking through a basketball arena with one of my broadcast partners. We were both holding our media credentials in our hands. My partner walked through the tunnel without incident. I started walking through, and I'm wearing a suit and tie, I started walking through and the usher takes my credential from my hand wordlessly, he says nothing, takes my credential and begins to tie it to my belt loop without saying a word. And I was like, "No, I'd rather hold it. And by the way, I'm not 12." And so I walked away-
Rachel:
"And by the way, take your hands off of me, please."
Jason Benetti:
Right, right. "Please don't touch me. Please don't touch me." And so I said something to my broadcast partner who's a very close friend of mine, a really, really good, wonderful guy who knows a lot about me, and he was like, "Does that happen to you all the time, that kind of stuff?" I was like, "Dude, you don't even know." And he went and gave a little what for to the guy. And I was like, "Please don't do that because I don't want to make a scene." But again, this guy, he just has never met somebody like me before. And so I think there's a lot of value in just getting the message out. You all do wonderful things medically and with research and the CPF is so good at creating better lives for people with CP medically, but also just perceptually.
Jason Benetti:
It's really the only place going that I think really pays attention to some of us have CP right now. And how can we help people in a fun way understand us? Because we have to navigate this world as it stands. So, doing medical research is fantastic, but also understanding that we can do a lot for people's perceptions just by having a sense of humor, by not blaming people. I used to blame people for misjudging me all the time, but what are they supposed to do? They've never met somebody like me. So, it's better if I treat that interaction smartly and calmly, and so they say, "Hey, next time I meet somebody like this, I have a better understanding and I can do it in a more human, healthy way."
Rachel:
Yeah. Well, I hope it makes us all be better people. And I think it goes down to, and you know I've told you this. So, the Awkward Moments series is really now being used in schools, which is pretty amazing. And just so people know, this series we've built into the Just Say Hi inclusion curriculum for schools, which really is about teaching these moments and having young children, it starts at kindergarten, being exposed to situations and how they would react in those situations themselves and getting them to think in a manner, as you said, that is humanity. How do we look at each other in a way where we bring each other up instead of putting each other down? And I think at the end of the day, that's what we all need to do for each other.
Rachel:
And the series absolutely, it's one of the most popular in the schools because kids love it. It resonates with them. They look at that and go, "Hang on. This situation, how did an adult respond that way?" And I think that's the most wonderful thing about children sometimes is that they don't have these preconceived ideas. They don't have this stigma and all these things built up. And so it's our responsibility really to make sure that they go forward in their life and into adulthood keeping that, that they don't create these biases and these stigmas that really are unfounded on so many levels.
Jason Benetti:
It's such a great point that children are born without that. People forget that when... I don't have kids so it's easy for me to forget that, but those are not there when people are born. It's truly amazing. And so what I'm grateful for is just, first of all, it makes me smile so wide that it's being used in schools. Because education has been so important in my life for me to understand people and for me to meet the people, like in college, who helped me really comprehend the world. And so I love the idea that we are able to, in small ways but really palpable ways, help kids have a good laugh about this. The first one we released about the kid who gets shushed by a parent for saying, "What's wrong with that man," that happens so often. It's so often, and that parent or caregiver or whoever is accidentally stigmatizing the person with a disability right then by saying, "Oh, we don't talk about that."
Jason Benetti:
Because if we do talk about this, we've seen that currency absolutely, in politics, in the world, you can go a long way with hatred. That's an absolutely available currency. But the sneaky thing that those people don't want to tell you is, we're all more alike than we think. And so if we can convey that message in a small way to whomever it is, right? There are politicians who on both sides of the aisle have trafficked in slime and hatred and whatever. But it's unacceptable to me to make fun of people with disabilities just as currency. It's just unacceptable. And so the reason people do it is because it's easier to guide people to where you want them to go if they hate somebody else. Well, guess what? We don't all have to live like that.
Rachel:
No. I love it. Coming from a message of love and trust and all those different things, it will win. We've got a question though. Here's one question. It goes on this little comment. "What happens if you go in to try to change somebody's mind?" They've got a preconceived idea and you just can't. What's some of your advice there? If you're at school or you're trying to do that, is it just to keep going? Or what's your advice on that one?
Jason Benetti:
Right. I would say this. I would say, try everything in your toolbox and beyond if it matters that much. If it's a gatekeeper in some way that you just can't avoid, try everything in your toolbox and then some. Go beyond wherever you think you can go with your strategy. And then if it really doesn't work, surround yourself with people who aren't like that.
Rachel:
Yeah. That's wonderful.
Jason Benetti:
But you got to try. You got to try real hard. You have to try everything. Because that's the other component of this, is sometimes plans A through X don't work and Plan Y does. And you'll want to know that if you meet somebody with that personality type again.
Rachel:
Yeah. No, I think that's great advice. Jason, you are the advice giver. Not only am I now going to make sure that we're re-posting your messages to loved ones, because you do have one of the best voices ever, but the way you look at life and the way that you have really,... That's why you are so successful. It's one of those questions that I think a lot of really successful people get. "How did you get there?" But it comes from a lot of hard work, but it also comes from this outlook on life, I think. And your resilience is really high but also your talent. So, I have one last question actually. And I know there's actually a few other questions in here, but I have one question. So, are you just a walking encyclopedia for sports? Do you have to know everything or do you fake it till you make it? How do you do this? Can I get you on my trivia team? What's going on?
Jason Benetti:
So, I do a couple things, and I have something to say as well. Just before I answer that, I do want to say, I have had really bad moments. I've had angry moments. Like you say about my resiliency and I appreciate it so much, Rachel. I really, really, really, really do, but I've had to build it. So, anybody who's watching this and saying, "I'm not that resilient," or, "I don't have that outlook on life," I didn't either. It was very hard for me. There were times where I got very angry in college because I thought people were judging me.
Jason Benetti:
Somebody at one point posted an Away message that said they were angry at me for an assignment that I gave out at the student radio station. And they posted an AOL Instant Messenger away message that said, "At least he'll be a great story in somebody's magazine one day," which is really awful to say about somebody's disability when you're in college. So, I would just encourage people who say, "Oh, well, he's resilient, but I'm not," build it. But on the encyclopedia front, it's a combination of I grew up loving game shows. I grew up watching trivia. I learned how to spell and read in part from Wheel of Fortune. And so I know a bunch of-
Rachel:
Oh my God, that's amazing.
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. Yeah. I know a bunch of esoteric random stuff, but I don't do a game without prepping. So, I have a bunch of stuff in front of me that I print out on colored documents and I organize. So, I've got a lot of touchstones that I've researched going into that game. So, I think Alex Trebeck has said before, yeah, he sees all this trivia, but he doesn't remember all of it because he's just asking the questions. I've built up a storehouse of knowledge because I've been around it. But sometimes it all does absolutely evacuate from my brain pretty quickly after the game. And then doing baseball, I've got a computer up in front of me. So, if I need to do some quickie research on something, I absolutely can do that. Most announcers do. So, I do know stuff. I do like reading. Books are good. Absolutely. But there's some of it that I research before the game, and then every once in a while I will do something in game to look up.
Rachel:
During the game. No, and I think that's good for people to know too, right? That you don't just show up to a game and just start talking.
Jason Benetti:
Right.
Rachel:
There is a lot of prep that has to happen before and after these games. You say you call 200 games a year, which for everyone out there as well, I don't know anyone that actually travels as much as you do. Because you do it across sports as well. It's not like you are just doing basketball or just doing... You really go across a lot of sports. How long does it take you to prep for a game?
Jason Benetti:
It depends on the sport. For baseball I do a lot of my prep before the season, because there's a game every day. So, usually in season I'll do two hours of prep per day for each game for baseball. For basketball, I would say probably eight to 10 hours. Football is a giant slog because we have one game during that week. We generally get the game on Sunday that we're going to do the next Saturday. So, we only have six days in general.
Rachel:
Wow.
Jason Benetti:
But most of my day when football season is happening is in and out of football stuff. So, I would say football's more like a 25 to 30 hour procedure because there are just so many players. It's like, you got 100 players on each team. You're watching games from previous weeks. And the thing about doing national games is every team has die-hard fans that are watching every game. So, if I just repeat the stuff the last crew said they assume I've done nothing. So, I've got to have information, doing one of their games a year, I've got to have information that the fan who reads everything doesn't know in order for me to be an expert. Which is horribly daunting. It's almost annoyingly so, but it's going to fun to try to research the stuff that truly is new.
Rachel:
Yeah. No. And truly people want to hear about, right? And they resonate. And as you said, these true fans, they know everything.
Jason Benetti:
Yes.
Rachel:
So, they do. They are walking encyclopedias. So, you've got a lot to live up to there, but-
Jason Benetti:
Totally.
Rachel:
... just thinking, where can we hear you next? What are your plans for the summer? Can we watch these games that you're calling in? Where can we hear you? Because I think there's a lot of fans out there that are missing contact.
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. So, my schedule is sort of up in the air, but my next two games are Saturday and Sunday. Set your DVRs, ladies and gentlemen, I should day. The 3:00 AM Saturday Central Time Korean baseball that I'm doing. And then I think it's 11:00 PM Central on Saturday night. So, I've got the Saturday/Sunday games. But look for KBO on ESPN. Saturdays/ Sundays games are the next ones I'm doing. And I'll be doing KBO games from my home for the next however long it is. And then if the White Sox season starts, we'll be on NBC Sports Chicago. And if baseball starts, then I'll be doing some major league games on ESPN, I would imagine, as well.
Rachel:
Yeah. No, we can't wait. We can't wait to actually see you back on our screens. And in the meantime, though, everyone should be following you on Twitter because your Twitter is amazing. And so thank you for coming across to Instagram. I feel like you should actually be on here all the time. Thank you-
Jason Benetti:
Actually, I need to do more on Instagram. It's like the graveyard of my social media. But I created the account actually because there were a couple fake Jason Benetti accounts that were following friends of mine. So, I had to create an account, and I need to do a little more on Instagram. Maybe we can talk about helping me with that.
Rachel:
You know you've made it in life when you have fake Instagram accounts.
Jason Benetti:
Yeah. But I don't want to have made it that way. I'm good with not making it if that's the definition of making it.
Rachel:
All right. It's been so nice to chat. It's been so much fun. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll make sure we put up Jason's Instagram handles and obviously Twitter handles. And if you don't follow him, go do it because it'll make your day. A lot of fun.
Jason Benetti:
You are so kind and you've always been so kind to me and I'm so glad to be involved with CPF as an ambassador. And so thanks for everything you do as well.
Rachel:
Of course. No.
Jason Benetti:
This was a total joy to talk about real life.
Rachel:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jason Benetti:
Thanks.
Rachel:
Stay well.
Jason Benetti:
You too.
Rachel:
All right. Bye.
Jason Benetti:
Bye, everybody.
Rachel:
Thank you, everybody.