Dana

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Relying on high-tech innovations (think 3D printing), the automotive company supplies axles, transmissions, and other equipment for vehicles of all kinds.

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The provider of driveline, sealing, and thermal management products serves major manufacturers of many types of motor vehicles.

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Dana (DAN): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Dana | Fortune

Dana (DAN): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

Prem Akkaraju, Chief Executive Officer, Stability AI, Dana Settle, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Greycroft Moderator: Allie Garfinkle, Senior Reporter, Finance, Fortune; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm AI


Brainstorm AI 2024: A New Lens on Stability

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Prem Akkaraju, Chief Executive Officer, Stability AI, Dana Settle, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Greycroft Moderator: Allie Garfinkle, Senior Reporter, Finance, Fortune; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm AI

Prem Akkaraju, Chief Executive Officer, Stability AI, Dana Settle, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Greycroft Moderator: Allie Garfinkle, Senior Reporter, Fortune; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm AI

Frame Dana. I am so excited to be here with you in part because this was known on my Bingo card for 2024 talking about a turnaround for this company less than eight months ago, stability was in a rapid decline. But here you are, you both stepped in and decided you really wanted to take it on why it wasn't on my bingo card either actually. But no one, no, eight or nine months. Yeah, it's no one's Bingo's Card. I think that um well, it, it was really because the, the, the technology and the team were too good and uh I've been partners with Sean Parker for over a decade and we have just did a very similar uh play at Weta Digital where we created an application layer for film and TV. We made Avatar one Avatar two big movies at that with that company. And we were after and that was we sold that company in November 21. And after that, we're like, ok, we should, we should probably be looking at the A I version of what we just did and how could we use A I to make film and TV, production gaming, as well as marketing, advertising, more efficient. And then this opportunity came about and I got heavily involved with Dana um on this like earlier this year. And um you know, this is where a lot of the outweighed returns live is when you're willing to go in and do the very hard work to kind of turn it around. And we did that very quickly and in opportunistic situations. And I think, um I'm, I'm fortunate to be a part of the uh the partnership now, the tram brick along with many other partners. Uh But, you know, like Prime, that is where the outsized, you know, returns live is actually in jumping into opportunities that, that other people don't always see. Um, and especially in an area like this, that's moving so quickly and where the technology here, like Prime said was just, it was, it was too good to let go. Dana. Dana bring the, sorry to interrupt the, the uh um she brings up a very good point. Like opportunities are things that only a handful of people see if we all saw them, they wouldn't be opportunities. And so that, that's kind of the definition and I think that we saw it and everything that we've done for this. How many months has it been now? It's been six months, six months, last six years. How long a time? Exactly. It's like 100 and 52 years in like real time. But, uh, we, we've seen extraordinary results in such a short period of time but, and it was really, it's, it's good to see that, you know, our assumptions really coming through and what was the financial state of the company when the two of you came in? What were we dealing with here? She's the, yeah, I mean, what are we looking at the financial state of the, they needed funding and, and that was, you know, where we had to really move quickly on analyzing the opportunity. And so we moved very quickly, but so deeply because we wanted to make sure that it was what we thought it was. And, you know, like Prime said, it's proven out to be, I mean, e everything we thought and more and I think in particular for us, it was really backing an incredible leadership team in Prime and Sean Parker to, you know, come in and, and lead what is essentially doing what they had done just a few years earlier in the South Space. I mean, you said they needed money. What for how bad was it was it because the reporting at the time, my colleague, Jessica Matthews and I spent a lot of time reporting on the story and the, the narrative was that it, it stability was a dust store. Well, I mean, look all A I companies require a, a lot of capital. I mean, that's no surprise. I think you can read it. Anywhere. Um But you know, I, I think what, what happens when you come in with a really incredible experienced management team, leadership team is they know how to get in. And this is prime, I mean, Prime really was working with the team um at stability even before we close the transaction and, and uh and, and helping to identify, you know, exactly where were the areas that they needed to focus on for this opportunity that we saw in visual media. I would say that people forget that Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy in 1997. Actually, I think they were probably closer to bankruptcy than actually, you know, this company was. And again, it all comes down to leadership and you saw what happens when leadership comes in with a very succinct plan, a product vision and the ability to, to attract capital obviously. But, you know, the clean up, we have now a clean balance sheet. We have no debt, we have nothing and to negotiate out of those deals or within those partnerships. It was no miracle by my part, even though I led the transaction. Give me an example of what we're, how much of a mirror. Well, I mean, it, it was, again, this wasn't on anybody's bingo card again. Well, I'll take, I'll actually give the credit. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. But um while I led that effort, it was, we, we cut deals in the best way. That you cut deals, which is um alignment of interest. And everyone on the other side of the table that I had to deal with to clean it up. And then we got there was saw that this was essentially too important to the ecosystem to fail. Stable diffusion. Represented 80% of all the every single image that everyone in this audience saw in 2023. Just last year, 80% of them came from stable diffusion that's gigantic. And when you think about what that implies with a 5 million person active community that works on our models every single day that's growing every single day. That's a gigantic ecosystem that the infrastructure of this industry could not take a hit on. So I think it was part, it was, it was, it was the alignment of interest with those parties and um uh you know, and our determination to make sure that that was articulated. And, but I mean, the reason I say you should take a lot of credit for it is, I mean, really bringing everybody along at a time like that is, I mean, that is true, hardship and that is hard and it's in doing it too when, you know, I mean, frankly, you weren't even ceo the company. And so, I mean, I think when you think about how difficult it is to lead a company during, you know, tumultuous times and during super high growth and, and change, that's hard when you are the CEO but, but, but what about when you're actually just coming in and, and sort of coalescing, you know, all of the different groups from, you know, investors, employees to partners, et cetera. And I think that, you know, that's what gave me greater and greater conviction at every step along the way, was just seeing how prime actually executed through that. Well, controversial past leadership has left the company but a lot of the early investors in the company, including including Co two and Lightspeed, they left and then they came back. Yeah. How did that go? How did that happen? Is that incredible? I'm very, I'll be honest, I'm surprised that I think that says it all, you know, and I think they really re underwrote to this leadership team but also understood deeply the opportunity. Co two left the board, they didn't invest anymore. Same with Lightspeed, same with sound ventures. So not only did all of three of them reinvest into this round, um their pro rata that they were allowed on only the best we did it, we did it as a rights offering in, in, in some cases even more than their pro rata. And not only did they did that but coach who actually rejoined the board and is on our board again now too. So it was uh it is extraordinary because I think they saw that progress being made and kind of the positioning of re establishing the leadership position. The reason that everybody is interested in the company is because they were so successful. If they weren't successful, you wouldn't have these, like, no one would care. What are those conversations like that? What was the vision that you, that you sold them on? Well, again, it was alignment of interest, I think in those, you mean for the other investors, it was really well there, it was really my pre previous success. And yeah, yeah. And I was gonna say, I mean, I think one of the really exciting opportunities here that, that we saw is a new investor coming in was essentially um you know, where we think that there is great opportunity in general A I right now is, is really when you're sort of coupling the models with the application there. And I think these models were phenomenal are phenomenal continue to be and then having a, a leadership team that's so deeply throwing stuff around under understands the the do exactly heads up um is really an extraordinary opportunity. And I, and I think that's again why I mean for us as new investors coming in and, and we are based in Los Angeles, New York and Silicon Valley. But we, we really understand the media ecosystem and knew how deeply prime understood that and, and was connected in that ecosystem. That's really that, that transition because we were, you know, the first evolution of A I was really the foundation of the frontier models. And then it was quickly seeing this base, um because people always talk about the application layer and it is true that value is there. But being able to understand and fine tune models all the way into a core model is extremely important for you to set up success on the application layer. So I don't think, well, you know, some people believe, uh you know, foundational models are, is raced to the bottom. I I, you know, I uh I tend to agree as a stand alone. Um We're really that application, the applied research and application layer, which is a race to the top, but that's a race to the top that we can have an advantage winning when we understand the entire entire software uh stack all the way down to the chip. Now, I want to talk a little bit more about the board coach. He's back. You da are on the board. James Cameron is also on the board. Yeah. Who here has heard of James, I actually who doesn't know who James Cameron is? Avatar? Avatar? Yeah, just a just stream avatar. Um How did that happen? What does he bring to the board? So I worked. So when I was CEO of Weta Digital, we made Avatar two made every frame of that movie with, with uh James Cameron. And so um when I built the application layer at WETA and eventually sold it to unity, uh you know, he had a front row seat at everything that we were, I was doing and uh with me and the engineering team. And so when this came about, um I was in constant dialogue with, with uh with, with James. And, um and in fact, pulled him in early in the year before I joined the CEO and I said, hey, I think this actually could be. And he said what he said, he agreed. He said he agreed, you mean about that? This could be, this has the potential. Of course. Well, I don't think he would have invested or joined the board if he didn't, I assume. Yeah, that makes sense. That track. But even back then before you joined, before it was before this full turnaround happened. Yeah. Well, no, it was definitely, it would mean he agreed, it would be hilarious if he did join the board without thinking about that. No, no, no, no, no, no. Well, there was no board for him to join at the time, right? I wasn't even the CEO of the company. So what I mean was he agreed was, was the question that I posed to him, which was, hey, I think this is worth looking at and like, let's really dig deep into this. And like Dana was saying, we dug very, very, very deep into the talent pool. Like we didn't, we didn't invest and I didn't join the company until I met every single person at the company myself. Um and Sean and, you know, we dug very deep in the talent pool was so depth, was so deep. I was so surprised because there's a lot of also like in no offense, the media kind of, you know, over exaggerates in both directions many times. And then so II I was reading but she's laughing because it's true. Um But I was so shocked because this was because there were some departures and there's other, you know, spinoffs that came off of it. But we were so um so happy to see that not only did the depth of talent still stay there. And there was over 90 people within the core and applied research team, but they had two other things that were, that you that are beyond just their genius and they were dedicated and they were very passionate about stable diffusion. And I found, and I, I told this and just recently, um during all that, you know, that was what feels like years ago, um was months ago when I was meeting everybody and when we close the deal, there was somebody on the applied research team that said, we knew you were coming. This is even before the actual deal was announced and closed. And they said, and what's that? Yeah, I mean, it's an amazing statement to make meaning, not me, but like, you know, somebody was coming that was experienced leadership that could bring the vision that could bring the capital to the table and clean up the company because it was just, it was too important. Well, they might not have imagined that it was gonna be you, Sean Parker and James Cameron. But to be fair, who could have imagined that again? Everybody's surprised Bingo card. What is stability do to today? And what is the opportunity? It still it down for us here and now. So our vision is we're doing two fold is one is we're exploiting the commercial opportunities, significant commercial opportunities with our enterprise uh licensing and API revenues. And the second is we are now building the first, first full stack A I production pipeline for professional vi visual media content, professional video media content, defined as film and television, obviously gaming and marketing and advertising. What about you? The opportunity? That's where, where, where does, where does this land for you? What's the end game? It's, I mean, it's amazing because it really is sort of the thesis that we had laid out at the beginning, which is that, you know, there is a huge opportunity on the creative and production side of media to leverage A I in the creative community. And really, I mean, you know, if you think about it, we have this incredible product marketing genius and James Cameron on the board deeply involved and having that combined with this technology is so unique and being able to then apply it to those three verticals verticals that, you know, we at gray crop know very well. Um Having been involved with, you know, companies like Scope Le, uh which is a large gaming company which was sold uh last year, um, you know, early days of youtube with Maker Studios off the TV. So this is an area that we're in, you know, mountain on the advertising side. We just think there's such tremendous opportunity. Um Sorry. Yeah. No, no said perfectly, but I, I actually don't know how to do it any other way. Um I think it's pretty because I did it at Weta. That way, we were, there was no space between the art and the science. Uh We worked with some of the biggest directors in the world. We made the last 10 Marvel movies and, you know, obviously avatar one and two and we worked very, very closely with the directors. And uh that was such a great um experience for me because people ask me all the time after we sold, after I sold the, the pipeline to unity. It's like, how did you know what products to build? How did you who designed your product pipeline? I was like, it's easy. I just asked the directors what they wanted. And so it, and it, it's true. So it, it became the product strategy, the product road map, the go to market strategy, everything and also the Q A everything is sort of built into one. And uh the confusing thing I find is how am I supposed to build uh artist tools without an artist as a partner at the highest level of the company? So that's just it, it's my, it's my muscle memory. Now, let's imagine for the sake of argument, we're sitting here in a year, us and a couple and a couple of our nearest and dearest. What has stability achieved? What does stability look like a year from now? Like robust managed service on our um which is growing at multiple, multiple, the, the, the, the head of marketing told me I couldn't tell you how uh in front of everybody, how much we've grown. But it's been extraordinary. Exactly. I would like to, I would like to because it's a gigantic growth. I know. I know. I blame you. Yeah, exactly. I'll tell you in a year, I think, let me then on here you can ask her the um uh so she wouldn't let me talk, but it's, it's incredible. It's triple digit growth and the uh and so I think we're gonna continue to see that and I think that we're gonna be seeing um several breakthroughs in individual shot elements. We have a very different approach. We have a professional approach to content creation. We don't have one text to video model that has one output that combines like a gazillion, different workflows into one that's actually not how professional content is created, professional, created in shot elements and then they're composited together, by the way, this is where he's going to go really, really deep because he doesn't understand this thing at all. Models. Now, if you want the, we're sadly at time. But that's, that's, that's for, it's ok. I can go over. I mean, they all came and way more interesting. Thank you and Dana so much. That is all the time we have. I wish we could. Thank you so much.

Feeling low-energy? You could be among the estimated 3.6% of Americans who are deficient and 12.5% who get insufficient amounts of vitamin B12.

How Vitamin B12 Could Give You an Energy Boost

Health

Feeling low energy, you could be low in vitamin B 12, an estimated 3.6% of Americans are deficient and 12.5% get insufficient amounts of the chemical. The first step in addressing low energy is to consult your doctor. A tip from Dr Elizabeth Sharp internist and medical director at health means Wellness in New York City. As she previously told, Fortune, she recommends undergoing a series of tests before considering supplements. This is especially important for vegans and vege for whom B 12 deficiency can be more common. But what exactly does vitamin B 12 do according to the National Institutes of Health? Vitamin B 12 is a nutrient that helps keep your body's blood and nerve cells healthy and helps make DNA the genetic material in your cells. It also helps prevent megaloblast anemia. A blood condition that may be the culprit behind someone feeling tired and weak. In addition to weakness and fatigue A B 12 deficiency may also prompt a flu of other symptoms depending on severity including pale skin, heart palpitations, loss of appetite, weight loss, infertility, tingly, hands and feet due to nerve problems, balance issues, depression, confusion, dementia poor memory and mouth soreness. Everyone requires a certain amount of B 12 depending on their age. This starts with half a microgram per day for infants and up to 2.4 mcg for teens and adults. And even more for women who are preg or breastfeeding B 12 is found in a wide array of animal based foods as it's produced by a gut bacteria that has been accumulated in the muscle tissue of most herbivorous animals including fish, cows, chickens and some shellfish. Many livestock are supplemented with B 12 through their feed when absorbed by the animal. It's then passed on to people who eat animal based products such as dairy and meat. Vitamin B 12 is also found in plant based sources including some mushrooms, seaweed and nutrition. Yeast. Still it's not enough to fortify vegans who in particular should consider being tested for deficiency and supplementing their intake. Kathy Danahy, a doctor of pharmacy, a dietary supplement researcher and professor at the University of California. Explains that certain groups are also more prone to vitamin B 12 deficiency. As she told fortune, this includes folks with pernicious anemia, an autoimmune disorder that prevents B 12 absorption. And those who frequently use over the counter stomach acid reduce like famotidine, which reduced the stomach acid needed to release B 12 from animal protein. While B 12 supplements may be a great option for those looking to increase their intake. Consumers should be selective when making their purchase, Jolene Brighton, a naturopathic endocrinologist told fortune be wary of supplements that are far cheaper than the rest or look like a good deal. Often these are using poor quality ingredients and in some cases because they're not regulated, they won't actually have what the label lists to help avoid such risks. Danahy suggests starting by speaking with your health care provider or registered dietitian who is well versed in supplements, then when you're ready to buy, be sure to do some research, especially on the brand, Danahy noted a question that I get asked fairly frequently is is this brand that I'm taking a good brand? Consumers may want to consult the NIH Office of dietary supplements as well as subscription based sources such as consumer lab, which charges a fee for access to its test results, which looks issues ranging from possible contaminants to making sure a supplement contains what it claims to. Vitamin B 12 can be found in multivitamins B complex supplements and by itself in A B 12 supplement. But research has not shown that any form of supplemental vitamin B 12 is better than others. According to the NIH, the federal agency also notes that some common doses much higher than recommended amounts such as 500 mcg or 1000 mcg. But because your body absorbs only a small percentage, those doses are considered safe according to the NIH. Vitamin B 12 can be prescribed as an injection, particularly for those who have absorption issues or have undergone gastric surgery since the shots bypass the digestive system. According to medical news today, prescription nasal sprays and IV infusions are also available though opinions on safety and effectiveness of the IV delivery are mixed. But finally, Dana, he stressed that however, you have to supplement yourself. The only reason it would improve energy would be if you're correcting a deficiency.

Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, OB-GYN; Co-host, SHE MD Dr. Kimmie Ng, Founding Director, Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Moderator: Erika Fry, Fortune

Brainstorm Health 2024: The rise of cancer in young people

Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, SHE MD Dr. Kimmie Ng, Founding Director, Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center, Dana-Farber, Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School, Erika Fry, Fortune

Thank you all for being here for this conversation. Uh Doctor Ying, I want to begin with you. You're a clinician and a researcher focused on G I cancers and the rise in young onset cases in particular. While there's still a fraction of all cases are increasing. And it's a bit of a, it's a mystery as to why, right? What can you tell us what you're seeing and what we do know about why this is happening. So there is a silver lining about colorectal cancer in that overall and especially in people over the age of 50 there's been a decline in incidents and improvement in survival, largely due to increased compliance with screening guidelines and also improved treatments. But this improvement has not been seen in people under the age of 50 where it has been increasing by about 2% per year ever since since the mid 19 nineties. And in fact, the problem is so severe now that colorectal cancer is actually the leading cause of cancer related death in men under the age of 50 expected to be the leading cause of death in young women by the year 2030. And we do think it's probably some combination of environmental exposures that is causing this uptick, but we don't know exactly which ones. Wow. Um Thank you. We'll come back to that. Uh Doctor Kim, you know, is this something that we're seeing more broadly with all with other cancers? And in terms of, you know, figuring out what's driving this, what are the, the challenges, you know, this is a really concerning pattern that we've all seen someone who's done lung cancer in their past, but now oversee a lot of cancers. This is the epidemic that is smoldering underneath us. We are not noticing it enough and now it's becoming apparent when you walk through our clinics. Now you will see people in their forties and their thirties showing up with new cancer diagnoses. In fact, the American Cancer Society reported that it was the 50 under age group that had the increasing rate of cancer, not the older folks. And uh we did our own study here in Orange County in Southern California where we looked at L A county, riverside San Diego and uh as well as Orange County and Orange County where Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Irvine is very highly educated uh population. We had the highest rates of cancer in those under the age of 50. So we've got to do something about this. Uh I I've seen patients in my own clinic in lung cancer over 10 years ago who were 4030 years old and it's not because of smoking. So something is happening. Um Doctor Ali Abadi, this is personal for you. You had breast cancer yourself. Olivia Munn, the actress credits you for saving her life for the role you played in her breast cancer diagnosis. In both those cases, they were near misses uh not caught or not detected in mammograms, but caught after you pushed for more thorough testing based on your breast cancer risk assessment score. You know, why was that the case? Why? Um are these things not? Um Like why are we not doing that screening? Well enough? No, first of all, thank you for having me. I've been in women's health for now over, I don't know, 30 years almost. And the first thing I noticed is that women in general get dismissed when they go to the physician, our complaints are dismissed and every time we open our mouth, they tell us we're exaggerating our symptoms. Uh It's P MS, it's anxiety. So that's the starting point of a woman going to a physician when it comes to breast cancer. Uh There's a lot of false information out there. Um I personally had no history, family, history of any cancers and I was still diagnosed with breast cancer. An average American has a 12.5% chance of getting cancer. So if I told you breast cancer, so if I told you this plane had a 12 point 5% chance of crashing. Would you board it? But when you tell a woman that you have a 12.5% chance of getting breast cancer. They're like, it's not a big deal. I don't have it in my family. Even if you don't have it in your family, you start at 12.5. Now, if you add, if you're tall, if you had Children after 30 if you have dense breast, if you've had family history, uh you know, you add these, uh if you're overweight, you add your risk factors and you get a risk score. If that risk score goes above, it's 20% or above. That means you fall into the high risk category and you have to start your imaging as early as 30 not 40. And you have to add MRI to it, which is exactly what I did for myself. And Olivia Munn. Olivia had a negative mammogram, negative ultrasound, but because her lifetime risk was 37%. I added an MRI, all her friends were telling her why is your doctor so paranoid? And you know, with my paranoia, she had three cancer lesions on her right and one on her left breast. And the, you're telling me as we came on stage, the CDC changed their CDC, the US task force because I heard you say it. They, they were talking and they're like the US task force changed their guideline. I'm like, who do you think did it? It's I call it the Olivia task force and I texted her since 2016, the US task force was recommending mammograms at age 50 it was driving me crazy. Olivia comes out with her story mid March on April 30th. I wake up in the morning, they had changed their guideline to 40 every two years and they said average risk this time, meaning if you're high risk, that means you need additional images. I texted Olivia and I said this is an Olivia task force. So thank you for that. Um That's uh that's great to hear. And you know, what are the challenges in detecting these cases early for younger patients, especially since they may not, you know, be entitled to screening at a younger age. Yeah. And the delays in diagnosis for young people presenting with symptoms that we commonly see with colorectal cancer is just a severe problem. There is an average delay of about six months to a year before somebody even goes to seek medical attention for their symptoms. And two thirds report having to see two or more physicians for being correctly diagnosed. And that's because there's a lack of awareness both among people, young people as well as the providers seeing them that colorectal cancer can happen in a young and otherwise healthy person. So there needs to be an increased awareness about what these symptoms are and not a dismissal of symptoms when they happen. Um Either of you have other things to add on what we can do to better prevent. So I have a personal story with my own colonoscopy. I'm 53 years old. I wanted to get my colonoscopy. At age 48. I went to my local gastroenterologist. He said, no, it's not going to get covered. You're going to have to wait. I waited 49 covered, not covered. 49 to 11 months. I get a phone call. We can do you now. Excellent. Had a colonoscopy. It was fine before I turn 51 the guidelines switched to 45. So am I five years late now or did I just get it in time? That's what frustrates me about these guidelines for lung cancer for years. The, the preventive task force recommendation was not to screen for lung cancer. It's because we don't have any evidence or data yet to support it. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. We've got to do something proactively through our research, through our clinical trials. Two of the initiatives that we've opened up here in Orange County at City of Hope through philanthropy. Not because the NC I is going to fund it or anything but philanthropic organizations. We opened up a pancreatic cancer screening program where in the 1st 10 patients who came in, we diagnosed a 78 year old sprite lady who's probably going to live to 110. Now, after her cured whipple and we found it. Second is a stomach cancer screening program. If you're of Asian or Latino descent, especially Asians, you come over from Asia, you're getting screened for gastric cancer. You moved to the United States. Now we don't screen it for it. It makes no sense. So we opened up a study now where we're screening our, a API population for this cancer. And the third one I'm going to open this year is a thyroid cancer screening program. Now again, if you go to the task force and it says thyroid cancer screening, they'll say not recommended may be harmful. Well, it's because we just haven't established the level one data or the pilot data that we need to find this. So it shouldn't stop our research and I hate it when people say it's not recommended. Well, no, it just means it hasn't been proven yet. We have to continue to pursue this. And if I may add the age at which to begin, colorectal cancer screening was lowered from 50 to 45. And most young patients getting diagnosed with colorectal cancer are in their forties. But if you look at the statistics, the rate of rise is actually steepest in those in their twenties and thirties who are still not eligible for screening. So a lot of work needs to be done to figure out how to best screen those really young individuals. I want to add one thing which is very important, especially when you talk about cancer in these young patients, make sure if you have family history of any cancers. I don't care what it is. If it's pancreatic, if it's prostate, you're a woman, it doesn't matter. Breast ovary colon, do a genetic test. These genes. I use the myriad my risk test. You can do it at home. You can literally order the box spit in the tube, send it back. They check for 48 cancer causing genes. It's so important because a lot of these younger patients specially have it in their family. They do carry a gene they could carry, I'm not saying all of them, but you don't want to miss at least the ones that carry the gene in my office starting age 25. If anyone has family history of cancer, I do uh order a genetic test on them and you just wanna make sure that's the uh you know, low lying fruit. You don't want to miss those patients, at least in your practice. And you'd be surprised how many people walk around without genetic testing. If you have one family member with pancreatic cancer insurance, we'll pay for it. If you have one family member with prostate, one family member with breasts, under 52 family members above 50 with breasts, two family members above 50 with colon, one under 50 with colon. I mean, almost everyone gets approved. So take advantage of that with appropriate genetic counseling as well. That's very important to have somebody be able explain those results to you and does wanna turn to the audience any questions? Uh just raise your hand? OK. I see you went out there. Um Hi uh Emily Sherbert with Apco worldwide. Um Well, I am the person you speak of. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 48. Um just had my lumpectomy going through radiation in a few weeks and throughout um I was all did the 86 gene uh genetic testing, it was all negative. My mother had breast cancer though she got it in her mid ff so throughout my whole entire journey, nobody talked to me about my diet. Nobody talks to me about my alcohol consumption or my exercise or any of my lifestyle factors. And I'm convinced that that was a big part of what led to me developing cancer at 48. Um So talk to me about or talk to all of us really about, you know, why is that? Why isn't that diet and lifestyle and exercise? You know, I mean, I saw a surgical oncologist, I saw an oncologist, you know, at all these doctors part of my care, not one of them mentioned diet. I think, I think part of the problem is when we go to medical school and I'll completely be honest with you. I think we can all speak to that. No one sends us to a nutrition class. They don't teach us about diet lifestyle, right? We just learn to treat the disease and we forget about everything else that surrounds it. I agree with you. I mean, processed food, uh, lack of exercise, obesity alone is linked to 13 cancers. So, you're right. And until, you know, we, I mean, more and more we're learning about diet and health and, uh, not smoking and, um, uh, obviously avoiding alcohol but it's a, we don't know, I mean, there's so many factors I don't smoke, I don't drink. I don't, I've never done drugs. I've never been overweight. I don't have family history. I don't have a gene mutation. I got breast cancer. So I think as she was saying there, I was the poster child of an American woman who was not supposed to get any cancers. I got it when I was 48. So there's so much more to it. I think. So when I, when I moved, I was recruited to City of Hope. Just 3.5 years ago, we're building, we just built our second campus in Orange County. Orange County has got the sixth largest county in the country, 3.2 million people. My very first recruit to come to the center is a guy named Richard Lee. He is an integrative oncologist. He's internationally known. He has spent time as on a Fulbright scholarship over in Taiwan, learning about holistic lifestyle, therapies. I recruited him. We started an acupuncture clinic, a massage therapy clinic. We had other programs ready. And we were fortunate enough to meet some donors who were ready to join our mission in just what you say to treat the mind, body, soul and not just the disease, treat the person. And so uh the Churn Family uh Andrew and Peggy Chung gave us $100 million to set up the Churn Family Center for integrative oncology at City of Hope. And what we're going to do with this is basically a drug development institute. But for naturopathic compounds, we're going to test aromatherapy, art therapy, music therapy, tai chi, you know, white button mushrooms. Uh cannabis, actually, he's the first person in the country to get an NC I grant to study cannabis in patients who have neuropathy afterwards. So all of these things you've mentioned is so important. That's what we're going to integrate, not into just those who are diagnosed but also in the survival and cured patient population, but also in the preventative population as well. So I hear you loud and clear. It's the mission of what we're doing. We're armed with resources and brain and smart people who are coming to join us. And we're going to make this a nationwide program. So I salute you there. And I don't think it's a coincidence that breast cancer and colorectal cancer, the two most common cancers in young people are the most strongly linked to diet and lifestyle. We started our young onset colorectal cancer center with the goal to really guide patients after their cancer diagnosis about what they can do in survivorship to decrease the risk of recurrence and have them live healthier lives. And that does include exercise and avoiding red meat and avoiding alcohol and not smoking and all those things that are often too often overlooked. Unfortunately, when survivors are being counseled, uh real quick, we have one question in the back and then Alicia Bazzano from Hopkins Venison. Uh I don't want us to just throw the US Preventative Services task force down the river. There was a reason that they didn't originally do that and it's because of false positives as well. So a lot of these conditions, for example, uh cervical cancer, we've done tons of pap smears on women and subsequently a lot of procedures and a lot of money spent on all those procedures um for women to get their cervixes cut out. And now they don't actually need them cut out as much because we know the, the natural history a little bit more. And there are a lot of false positives. Similarly with breast cancer, there are questions about that as well. So I wonder what your response is in terms of how do you address false positives and um in the future you mentioned MRI. But how does A I play into this as well? I think let's start backwards. Thank you. I think A I plays a huge role, one of the centers that I refer my patients to uh basically as um last year, they implemented A I to read their mammograms. And I was speaking to the CEO of the company and he was telling me that in the past six months, a I picked up 500 lesions that the radiologist missed. So, and even in my case, when my mammogram, ultrasounds and MRI were all negative, I had no cancer but because my lifetime risk was high, I asked for a double mastectomy. And after I did it, they found cancer in the, in my breast tissue, not the uh not this um not on the left where we they were doing all the biopsies but on the right when you know, and it was read as completely benign on all three images. So I think a I will bring a huge value. I think our false positive rates will go down and when it comes to the US task force, you know, when sorry, I'm really sorry. We are completely out of time. I'm sorry, we couldn't get to more questions. But thank you all for being here and for not very much. I think you can connect in the hall, but thank you.

Mandana Dayani, Creator and Co-founder, I am a voter.
Shannon Watts, Founder, Moms Demand Action
Moderator: Michal Lev-Ram, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2023 - Mobilizing the Next Gen Of Voters

Our next founders are inspiring political change through advocacy. They're harnessing public partnerships and social media to raise awareness on issues that affect many Americans. Madonna Diani is the creator and co founder of I am a voter, a nonpartisan organization that aims to increase voter turnout and raise awareness around civic engagement after the tragic shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut in 2012, Shannon Watts, founded Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization fighting against gun violence. They are joined by my colleague, fortunes editor at large, Mikal Lev. OK. So, um I want to start by asking you both about your personal journeys and we heard just a little bit about what your organizations do but, but tell us your personal stories, what led you to start them? So, and Donna, I'll start with you and you've done a lot in your career. You don't have to go into everything but tell us what matters for getting you to this point. Yeah. Well, thank you for having us here today. Um So I, I was born in Iran. Um and we fled, I would say when I was almost six years old and went to, you know, to Italy and then gained asylum to come to New York. Um So we have an organization called, I think that experience fleeing my homeland, coming to America was incredibly formative, not just in my patriotism for America, but also just this deep connection to refugees and what that experience is like. Um And really lived my whole life in this like pursuit of the American dream. My brother became a surgeon and I was told I had to become an attorney. And so, um I became a lawyer which I did not enjoy. And then I worked as uh as a talent agent and then I worked in fashion and entertainment and tech and I've had a lot of careers which I guess is for a different panel. Um But a few years ago when I saw, I was, I just had my second daughter and I saw the child separation policy unfold on television. Um It was incredibly just triggering to see, you know, that this country that had saved my family. Like I remember arriving at New York, I remember holding my mom's hand. I remember like this feeling of like, OK, we're going to be OK that the most vulnerable population in the world would come to America in pursuit of freedom and we would rip their Children out of their hands and in many cases, lose them. Um And I felt like this can't be right. And I got on a plane, I went to Torneo Texas. And I was like, it just felt that there was something broken in the humanity in our country. And so I went in this pursuit of how I could apply all the things that I did to help and met with different members of Congress and Senate. And everyone kept being like, well, if you want to make change in here and here and here and here, we just need higher voter turnout and obviously not knowing anything. I was like, that's not going to be hard. Um Think about how many brands and films me and my friends launch every year, like, like how hard is this? Um And so I did what I always do when I need to figure something out and I emailed all the smartest women that I know and we all came together and really started to build the beginning of this movement called I'm a voter um C A joined the town agency as our co founder. And yeah, it's been crazy. Shannon. Can you share your story? Yeah, I mean, I think there's some, some similar themes in there, which is, you know, I was a stay at home mom of five, living in a suburb outside of Indianapolis when the Sandy Hook School shooting happened in 2012. Um I had really never been politically active. I was in corporate communications. I was taking a five year break and like, I'm sure so many of you in this room I sat down and just sobbed as I watched the news that 20 Children and six educators have been slaughtered in the sanctity of an American elementary school. And like Madonna said, you know, this idea that humanity was broken, that Congress would likely do nothing after that happened. And I thought, ok, there has to be something like mothers against drunk driving, which was so influential to me growing up in the eighties. Um But for gun safety and I went online and uh I found a bunch of think tanks run by men in Washington DC. Uh I found some city and state organizations also mostly run by men. I knew I wanted to be part of a badass army of women. It's who I've seen get so much done in this country over and over and over again. So I started a Facebook page. I had 75 Facebook friends. I had no Twitter handle and I just wrote that it was time for women to rise up against the gun lobby and that went viral and it has turned into the largest grassroots movement in the nation. We are twice the size of the N R A now with 10 million members and we have passed over 500 good gun laws. We've stopped the N R A S agenda 90% of the time every year in state houses for the last eight years. Um And we've elected hundreds of our own volunteers to office So, um I, since, since you brought some of this up, I think it's a good segue. You know, there's, we see, we all read the news. I think it impacts us every time. I hope it does. Um But uh, you know, I think it's easy to walk away from reading all of that and thinking there's just, there's no progress made and you, you have a different take on it. So can you share with us a little bit more about, you know, why you do see progress there? Uh Just to be clear, special interests want you to feel hopeless and helpless. They want you to believe that this is the way it's going to be, that you're going to always have to put gun lobby profits above public safety if you go back in time, you know, that's not true. Otherwise people would still, you know, be encouraged to drink and drive. Um People would still have unregulated opioids like special interests have power until they don't and they are losing power. You know, I would not have woken up every day for the last decade and done this work as a full time volunteer. If I didn't think that we weren't winning, we are the NRA is weaker than it's ever been. They are hemorrhaging political power and dollars and meanwhile, we are stronger than we've ever be. And I, I was giving some examples in the intro of how much progress that we've made you know, last summer after the shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, we passed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act in Congress. Why is that such a huge deal? Because when I started doing this work in 2012, a quarter of all Democrats in Congress had an a rating from the NRA today, not one does. And in fact, 15 Republicans signed on to that bipartisan Safer Communities Act. So we are making huge progress. Hopefully, you saw that in the last couple of weeks, we've passed assault weapons and sweeping gun reform legislation in places like Washington and Michigan and Colorado. And now Minnesota, these are places that were solidly red or purple a decade ago. Um So I, as you can tell, have a lot of hope around this issue and I just simply don't believe that any of us in this room are willing to send our loved ones into public places, not knowing whether they'll come home. Um Please raise your hand by the way at any point if you have questions or, or comments. Um But uh a, a big theme of this conversation is women pushing for change, right? And, and you talked about how you kind of called your, you know, your boardroom, you called the women that you are your, the smart women in your life. Um And, and one of them was Shannon. I'd love to hear more about just your relationship, how you guys connected in the uh vacation together. Now, apparently so. Um, yeah, when I, you know, when I was starting, I'm a voter. I didn't, I really didn't know what I was doing in many ways. I, I knew how to build a brand and I knew how to get people engaged and how to make people feel something. Um, and I was Deborah, who's one of the women who helped found I'm a voter and I were together and she asked me like, well, how do we figure out organizing grassroots movements? And I said, I don't know, we call Shannon Watts. How do we talk to Shannon Watts? And she, I was like, let me D M her. And um four days later I was at the airport and, uh, Shannon and my phone rings and it's like, hi, Madonna, this is Shannon Watts. You would think Beyonce was calling me. I mean, she, to me was like the biggest, like celebrity of all time. And so, and that's just what she does. She's amazing. And we got on the phone and I, you know, she became my mentor and one of my closest friends, but it really was, hey, Shannon, is it weird? I mean, we're 25 women. Am I supposed to care? Are there men that are supposed to be a part of this? And she's like, what are you talking about? Um, and you know, it really, all of us do this as volunteers. All these are the most incredible women. And so that it's so funny because it took so late in my career for me to embrace vulnerability. And, you know, I was the person that I always thought like no one was gonna come to my birthday party. So when we started, I'm a voter and we developed this idea and these toolkits and I emailed, I wanna say like 1000 people I had worked with across all of these different sectors, the panic and fear in me of like, oh my God, what is everyone going to say? And, and I just share that it was overwhelmingly positive that the response was thank you so much. No one has ever asked. Um And that was so important to me because I realized how many people have such incredible skills that they can put towards activism and the issues that they care about, but are so rarely asked or provided opportunities to show up. And I think by us creating a place and a mechanism for companies and brands and influencers and, and communities to participate. I mean, like we now engage with hundreds of brands and thousands of communities and people in cities. And um I think that's what you've done so incredibly well with moms demand action was just creating an opportunity and a mechanism for people to just get off the sidelines. Um Obviously, everything is so politicized and polarized now and what you're both doing when it comes to, to gun violence, um You know, voter voting rights. Uh all, all of this civic engagement um somehow has become so politicized. Um And I wonder if you have any thoughts on just how you carry on these conversations, how you get in the right rooms. Uh And you reach out to different people and, and I wanna start with you because I know when we were talking earlier, you brought up your family's traditions of Shabbat dinners uh to uh anybody who's been to a Shabbat dinner, I think every culture, every religion has a version of that, of course. But, but talk, talk a little bit about what Shabbat has to do with all of this. You know, I sometimes I feel like that same theme of we've lost humanity. Like, you know, with Shabbat dinner, you sit across from people that don't agree with you all the time, your crazy uncle, you know, we all have them, right? Yeah. And you learn to find common ground. And I think in some ways and I think that you do this so brilliantly with your work. But I, you know, I talk to companies about this all the time, which is like if you actually zoom out there's so much that we agree on and so much of that is within the values. And so like if you can say, hey, as a company, we agree that we want our employees and our customers to feel safe, we can all agree on that, right. And so maybe the mechanism in which that appears is something that we can discuss. But sometimes there, there's just so much more common that we share and this ability to just have conversation, have disagreement, learn from each other. Um has been so helpful in applying weirdly in, in this work. Um And, you know, I talk to companies so much and, and obviously a big part of Judaism is giving back and we talked about stuff and, and, and these incredible virtues and you know, trying to explain to companies that, you know, doing good is good for business. You know, customers more than ever. Now see that the purchasing decisions they make as an extension of their values. Like we make a choice every day between Patagonia and North Face. And so we know that that is a signal to others about our values. And so when we do that and we're putting our money for something, we expect brands to have our backs and we expect them to show up, we expect them to do good and it ultimately affects your profitability, like you're making all these investments in technology and efficiency, but it helps with employee retention, it helps with customer retention because at the end of the day, like you can have super clear like modern packaging and you can ship within 24 hours, but your customer is going to care if you're hurting someone that they love and those things are not separate, like to be a brand that exists and thrives particularly with the younger generations that cares more than any other generation and is more diverse than any other generation. These values that we talk about are inherent in your brand and your success. And while we're going over to you, um Shannon just real quick, same, same question. Um you, you, you also know how to like stick it to people when you want to for sure. So it's not all, you know, let's all gather and hug each other. But, but how do you just very quick take away is what you've learned on reaching across to people who may not agree with you all the time. You, you know, people always talk about gun violence prevention as though it's polarizing. It's actually not 90% of Americans support background checks. It's only polarizing among gun extremists and I'm not wasting my time trying to get gun extremists to support what we're doing. I'm trying to get what has been the silent majority to use their voices and their votes on this issue when we ask volunteers why they come. But then stay staying is the harder part with a volunteer base. It's two reasons. One they feel we're winning and that's because we celebrate wins. We talk about the fact that we're winning and two, it's because they find their people, right? Even in the toughest of states, the reddest of states where this can be a different issue in gerrymandered state legislatures are volunteers find their people and those people become the best friends that they've ever had. So, there's a, there's a reason that they keep coming back and it's, it's to find the people that they want to spend their time with. That's so funny. That's what you just asked me before. And you said, what's the most rewarding work I've ever done? And I said I'm a voter because it led me to these people in my life that I have today and that's completely changed my life and you didn't find them at the law firm. Apparently I did not. Ok. Question over here, please stand up. I am Jennifer a couple of so, first of all, um Thank you for um tackling these issues in the ways that you are tackling them and your optimism around them is actually incredibly refreshing. Um The question I have for you because whether it's on this big stage that you sit on or in smaller stages where we're tackling different issues, how you were dealing with or addressing the amount of progress that you think you're making or that you see yourself making because you've been working on this, as you said for many years. And I think when you sit and try to think about how much progress have I actually made to achieving what we're trying to achieve. How are you thinking about that? How are you um, not getting discouraged? Um because we're taking steps forward and taking steps back. Like, how do you stay motivated and stick to it because you believe you ultimately get there. Like, I'd love to hear your perspective on that. Yeah. I mean, from my perspective, you don't get involved in any activism, but especially activism where you're taking on one of the largest, most powerful, wealthy, special interests that's ever existed. Right? You don't get involved in that and think I'm going to win this overnight. Although I kind of did, like you were saying, I thought, oh, this won't be that hard. Um Little did. I know I'm really grateful. I was so naive at the beginning, but we have come up with several mantras in our organization. One of them is keep going. Our volunteers actually get that tattooed on them. Um And then the other man like a real tattoo. Oh Our volunteers get tattoos every year. We have gun since university and all, a lot of the groups go get tattoos, our brand saying it's a thing. Um I've escaped that so far. But this idea of losing forward, right? Making sure people don't feel defeated when they experience those losses because we were very much David versus Goliath. And what we have said is yes, we're gonna lose, we're gonna win more than we lose. But when we lose, we're going to learn how to lose forward. So the next time we win and just for an example in Arkansas. When we started doing this work, we were really having a hard time getting a chapter there. Guns on campus. Sailed through the state legislature, the governor signed it standing next to an N R A lobbyist. It so incensed women across the state of Arkansas that our chapter grew exponentially, so quickly that we went in and carved out an exemption so that you could not bring your guns to a tailgate where alcohol is served. I mean, hello. So then the next year, two volunteers ran for office. One of them beat the guy that put the guns on campus bill forward by 12 points. A retired nurse who became a monster man, a volunteer. None of that would have happened if we hadn't lost originally on the guns on Campus Bill. So we really are always telling stories and I think Madonna would agree. A lot of activism is storytelling. What is our narrative? Our narrative is that we are winning and we are going to win if we don't give up? Take one more, very brief question over here. The story thing is such a big deal. I'm Britt. A and thank you for everything that you're doing. I think it's not just about um fighting the fight against those that want to have their weapons with them all the time. It's also the mental health piece of it. I have a 10 year old boy five years ago or so. He was going to kindergarten. I remember driving him to school on the second day of kindergarten and he says to me in the back seat, mom, we had a lockdown drill yesterday and I didn't even know how to react. And I said, what do you mean you had a lockdown drill? And he explained that they hid in the closet. Uh And they had to be super quiet because there might be bad people in the building, something like that. I start crying in the front seat as I'm driving him to school, totally unprepared for any of that. And fast forward to today, 10 years old every day. He says to me when I drop him off at school. All right, mom, I love you don't die today and he just is continuously focused on potentially bad things that could happen. And I don't even think he even realizes that it could be a mass shooting or something like that. But it's all of these things that are, are creating that anxiety for young people which we know then they grow up and then we have these mental challenges with older people, young adults who are trying to process their anxiety, their issues, et cetera. It's all connected. So what do we, what can we all do about it? You have, you have 10 seconds. I wish we can do about it. I think we all expect other people to do the work for us and we read the news and we hope that other people are getting involved and the reality is we all have to be activists. Walker says activism is a rent I pay to live on the planet. We aren't numb as a nation. We are traumatized. And so I would just ask you to become volunteers. Thank you so much for being here and, and sharing some hope with us. Yeah. Thank you.

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