Episode 309 - Impact Shift: How a Physicist Pivoted from Science to Global Change

Welcome to Healthy Lifestyle with Laurieann. I am Coach Laurieann, America's number one take-action success coach and strategist, empowering, educating, and inspiring and igniting people like you to take action with jet propulsion. We love to assist people to take those next steps and, and just really go after those dreams. So think about what you want. When was the last time somebody asked you that question? What do you want? Well, one of the things that we're going to do today, and I'm so excited excited about having Dr. Rahul Prasad on tonight— today is we're going to talk about how he became a scientist. And you need to listen and stay in to stay with this episode. We're very excited to have him on. And, and really, Doc is going to talk about living a life of passion, person— purpose, and impact. I need to stop speaking New York fast. Um, he's going to talk about that with us today. So, uh, stay tuned and stay with us. Uh, we're going to invite Doctor on in a minute, but I want to give you a little bit of his biography. It is Unbelievably impressive. Doc was trained as an applied physicist. He's an avid photographer, explorer, traveler, and adventurer. He also utilizes his technical expertise to advise venture capitalist firms. That's very exciting. He received his PhD in applied physics from Yale University in 1987 and has worked at Yale University Physics International Co-Science Research Laboratory and Almeid Applied Sciences, a company he co-founded in 1994. He Recently, he was senior physicist and manager at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, working on various aspects of a national ignition facility. The man is inspiring. He has been an active volunteer for his alma mater, Yale University, for almost 3 decades, serving as the chair of the Graduate School Alumni Association and the chair of the Yale Alumni Association Board of Governors. This is an important person here based on the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Prasad is currently president of Butterflies USA, a nonprofit raising money for marginalized children in New Delhi, India. I'm actually familiar with that organization. He's the chairperson of the board of Amandla— you'll have to fix that for me— Development, a nonprofit raising money for at-risk youth in Cape Town, South Africa, and an investor and advisor at MVP Ventures. Doc, welcome to the show. Oh my goodness, I mangled that name. What is the the board of the development board that raises money for at-risk youth?

Amandla.

Amandla. Okay, so I didn't do so bad. It wasn't.

No, not at all. You did very well.

Oh, thank you very much.

Thank you for having me, Lori Ann.

So glad to have you on. You know, I I um I was telling you earlier that I um I have a partner in business and she's a scientist and I really love learning the science behind it. I get all geeky about that because when I understand why it works and how it works, it just makes more sense. And when I'm doing it, I have more tools at my grasp, if you will, and in my tool belt. But I want to back up and talk about you. In your early life, what drove you to become a scientist? Like, where did that come from?

It was actually just a very simple day, one day, and I remember it clearly, the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. I was watching the moon landing like a lot of kids my age. I was 8 years old at the time. A lot of kids my age were watching. I turned to my father, who was watching with me and I asked him, so what did Neil do to become the first man on the moon? And he turns to me and he says, well, son, he was a scientist. Of course, that's not quite accurate. Neil Armstrong was not a scientist.

Correct.

He was a test pilot, but that lit the light and that was it. And, you know, I've always been a very curious person. And so it meshed very well with my curiosity because I learned how to figure out how things work. When I was 5 years old, I got a bicycle for my birthday and I took it apart because I wanted to figure out—

Took it apart, no doubt.

How was it gonna work? And luckily my dad said, well, you got a bike. If you wanna ride it, you gotta put it back together again.

Yes. Fair enough. Yeah. One of my boys used to do that. Used to take things apart but couldn't put 'em back together. And I'm like, um, yeah. But that's, I love that, that you said you're curious. I love curious minds. I'm curious. I ask a lot of questions. I get laughed at 'cause I always ask questions. Matter of fact, my TV show is Help Me Understand. So I'm always asking questions.

Always.

I love learning. And science— scientific minds are very intriguing to me because you are very curious.

Yes.

What being a scientist taught you about dealing with challenges?

I think, you know, it's one of the things which happens when you're a scientist, when you train to be a scientist. The first thing you recognize is, so you've got a problem that nobody has solved before. There isn't an answer that is written in a book somewhere that you can go read. You got to figure it out for yourself. That's a challenge. And it teaches— what science teaches you is how to break down the challenge into bite-sized pieces and address each one of them. Because as a whole, a challenge may look very daunting, but if you break it down into the constituent elements, you can actually get past that challenge and it becomes an opportunity. An opportunity to learn and an opportunity to grow and an opportunity to do something new, something outside your comfort zone.

Yes. Oh my gosh, I love this so much. Yes. You know, whenever I talk to clients, I'm like, I need to know your big picture. And then we reverse engineer it to—

Yes.

Steps to get to it. Because if you look at the big thing, it's overwhelming. And that's why I think a lot of people stop pursuing their dreams. You had a big picture. You want— you were like, gosh, how did, how did he do that? How did he land on the moon? And you, at a very young age, reversed engineered and went, oh, I need to be a scientist. Okay, I'll be a scientist and taking apart things. And when you took things apart, you had to actually logically go, okay, what pieces go back together? Because I'm sure when you were taking apart, you didn't think about having to put it back together.

Nope, not at all. Not the first time.

So you had to pay attention to what you were taking apart.

Absolutely. By the way, I learned that because after my father told me I have to put it back together again, I said, okay, next time I want to take something apart, I gotta remember. Yeah, it's a lot easier if you remember what you did. Of course, you know, when I was growing up, there was no video camera. It would've been much easier with a video camera.

Oh my gosh, with a video camera or YouTube explanation. I got—

Absolutely.

I gotta tell you, I feel very empowered when I do things around the house. And because— but it's because I have a YouTube going, okay, now do this and now do that. And I was like, oh, thank God for smart people. What you're talking about too is critical thinking.

Yes.

You're, you're really thinking about, okay, what goes with what, what works with what, why does it work this way, how does it work with this. Talk more about critical thinking because I think it's something that we're so spoon-fed. For instance, having the YouTube video, I still have a slight bit of critical thinking going on, but I'm just following steps somebody else did. I'm not, I'm not looking at why it works and how it works and things like that. So talk more about critical thinking and the importance to that.

I think it's incredibly important because with critical thinking, you're able to understand, you're able to actually figure out how things are working from first principles. So, you know, you, you don't have to learn things by rote.

Yeah.

Because when you're learning, some of it is by rote. When you learn the alphabet, you've gotta learn it by rote. But once you figure out how things sound, you don't need to know how to pronounce every single word in the dictionary. You can. That's part of critical thinking because you say this comes after this, but that sound, because it's following this, you've learned that's not how it's going to sound. It's going to sound differently because it's got a modifier after it. And that's really critical thinking at its most elementary, basic level.

100%. It's, it's just taking things that you know here And applying it over here. It's repurposing the same tools. That's critical thinking.

Exactly.

Where you can take these tools over here to understand it well enough to be able to apply it in a different scenario.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's, it's like, um, my golf coach when he teaches me and everything. It's great. I hit amazing when he's around. When he is around, boom, it's good. When he's not, I need to be able to apply what he's thinking and the reasons why I have to do certain things or Why it went to the left, what I didn't do. I didn't complete my follow-through. That's why it went all the way to the left, or it went off to the right because it's actually off to the right because I didn't follow do my follow-through. But if he hadn't taught me that part, I wouldn't have been able to apply it by myself.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So exactly. Yeah.

So it's really good to understand and learn. I'm like, watch, learn, and and that's what a lot of teachers do is it's like. Try this, watch it, learn it, do it. Um, and I think it goes back to the 3 different ways of learning, don't you?

Yes, I think so.

Some people see it, some people listen to it, and some people have to actually do it. And we're using a combination strongly of 2, 3. We're all 3, but we're actually strongly a combination. Amazing, amazing. Now, one thing I noticed in the bio that I read, which was amazingly long and impressive, and thank you for all the giving back that you do. I think giving back is an important thing. If you've never done it before, it is a really wonderful thing to do, is give back.

Absolutely.

It is one of the things we should do when you're a member of a community, is give back into the community and help other people who might not be as fortunate as us. And that doesn't mean you have to be rich. It just means giving back. Giving back could be writing a check, but giving back, more importantly, could also be showing up and helping someone Teaching someone some critical thinking about—

Exactly.

But you're really involved in giving back. What in life made you do that? I know it was a lifestyle in my family. That was just something we did. And when I grew up, that's something I did. And I taught my kids, that's something they did. It's just something we do. But oddly enough, I was in a Rotary group up in New York at the time, and this one woman went to do the food pantry and she brought her son. They had— as an adult, she had never done Something like that, of giving back. So what inspired you to be such a giving individual?

So, you know, it started early on in my childhood. I watched my grandmothers. Whenever a person that was hungry came to the door, they would be fed. It didn't matter who they were. It didn't matter where they came from. If they came and wanted food, they would be fed. And it was a small little gesture. My grandfather, my paternal grandfather, Spent his career in the accounting service in, in back in India. And when he retired, he chose to help found a hospital that helped provide eye care for people that couldn't afford it.

Oh.

And he was so passionately involved with that so that, you know, when it came time for him to get cataract surgery, he went to that institution. He said, and, and my father, his son said, no, dude, you shouldn't do that because, you know, they're not— the good doctors are not that good because they're doing this for free and you need to get the best doctors. And he said, well, if it's good enough for those people, it's good enough for me.

Oh, yeah.

I am going there. So that's kind of the inspiration. And then, of course, you know, you get wrapped up in life and other things happen. You get kids, you get your career. And then it was my kids that actually, funnily enough, taught me about it because in school they learn about Giving back and they learn about community service. And they both went to parochial school. And as a result of which, I started thinking, hey, this connects back to my early childhood. My grandfather was doing it. Now my kids are doing it. And that just made sense. Yeah.

Yeah. It's full circle there. You know, and I love that some of the schools require community service now.

Yes.

In order to graduate. I love that, that they're taught that giving back element.

Exactly.

And it also gets them involved. I think it keeps I think it keeps people out of trouble. I think—

Oh, I think so. I think so.

As adults, if you're giving back, there's many things that come from giving back. And one of the things is it keeps you out of trouble. Yes.

And I think the other aspect, what giving back involves is you actually gain from it actively, you actively gain from it, because you're— one thing you learn a lot because you meet All kinds of people.

Yeah.

That you would never have met. So that's number one. And number two, in little ways, those people enrich your life. Oh, without a doubt. In so many different ways.

It also reminds you how fortunate you are.

You are. Exactly. That's another way. And I think that's very important because we tend to take what we have for granted. We tend to think that it's going to be there forever. Our lifestyle, our family, our friends, everything is gonna be around. When you meet somebody that doesn't have that, you suddenly realize, oh my gosh, this is really amazing that I have it.

Yeah. Gratitude just sinks in. It's such a—

Gratitude sinks in. And I think that that makes you a better person. And I firmly believe that the more good you do, the more good happens to you.

Oh yeah.

Not necessarily by the same people, but there's a cosmic karma, if you will.

100%. What you put out, you get back. It's a boomerang.

You get back.

Yeah, you get back. I'll never forget at one Thanksgiving, I was working with the— I'm involved with a number of groups. I was working with the Lions, and we, we go to a local restaurant and we cook on Thanksgiving for— and I loved going to do that. But I always— and I'm gonna get Misty on this— I always got choked up when they were so grateful.

Yes.

And I was just like, oh my gosh, you know, you just, you want to give them everything. And you want— we used to load up their dishes like there was no tomorrow and like, take Take this home, you know, wherever you're gonna go. And it's just, it's a, it's a beautiful thing. First of all, you get out of your head. Second of all, it reminds you how amazingly fortunate you are. And that, you know, we're not— we're always— we're taught by our media and by our culture here in the United States looking for more, looking for more, and not really appreciating what you have.

Yes.

It kind of is underlying to Toy Story. It's like you had this toy all along. You forgot about it because you had all these other toys and this was your favorite toy all along. Just go back to basics. It was a really nice adult underscoring on that one. And it's the same with giving back. The other thing, element I find in giving back is if you're sad or depressed or having a really hard time, the best way to get out of your head to find the solution is serve someone else.

Yes, absolutely.

If you're in that place, if you serve someone else, The answers will come because now you're not stuck in your brain.

Exactly.

You're working from your heart. And then all of a sudden, those answers just start easily pouring in. So I really recommend any of the listeners, if you're just having a rough time and you're just feeling life is really getting hard, go out and serve someone else. Go out and say thank you to someone else. It could be as little as just opening a door for someone else and giving them a smile and making eye contact.

That's—

Absolutely.

Absolutely. And, you know, I think smiling makes your day. You smile, the other person you walk by, they might smile back at you.

Yeah.

And it's so much nicer than walking by somebody with a grimace in your face.

Yeah.

Because that's also infectious. And the other thing I like to do is when I see somebody do something nice, I like to let them know that I saw that.

Yes.

I was at the local Alameda police station to get my car inspected, and I had to go to the reception desk, and the person was dealing with a person who had come in to pay a fine to get his car out of the impound lot because it had been towed. He'd left it on the street. The lady was talking to him, and she was so understanding, listening to his story, listening to the fact that he parks it every day. He normally comes out, but he was tied up on a phone call. He was fighting 5 minutes late, and the guys came and took the car away. And he left, and he had to pay the money, but he left with a smile on his face. When it was my turn, instead of asking her about getting the car inspected, I went straight up to her and I said, you know, I'm going to take a minute of your time to tell you that what you just did made my day because I actually saw a person treat another person with kindness.

Yeah.

In a place where you don't expect people to be treated With kindness.

Yeah.

Anybody that has an interaction with the police department tends to wind up having a negative reaction to it.

Right.

And here I saw the positivity. And she misted up and she said to me, you've made my day. Nobody in all of the 30 years that I've been doing this job has ever told me I've done a good job. You're the first person. And I said, so that little Taking of 1 minute of my time made her happy. That made me happy.

Yes.

And I dare say that she's gonna go back and do her job with that much more vigor and that much more kindness.

Yes.

Because she says somebody noticed.

Yeah.

A random stranger.

Yeah. Well, we all wanna be seen and heard, right?

Of course.

And so when you do see that and acknowledging that and making note of that, you know, we make note of all the bad stuff.

Of course. Everybody does.

We spend no time making note of the good stuff. And that's why, you know, Every week I'm like, look back on your week and celebrate some of the good stuff. They could be small little steps, but celebrate the good stuff that you've done. And if you have— if you can't find something, just do better next week.

Absolutely.

Go out and say hello. My husband says to me all the time, he's like, why do you constantly go up to people and tell them you like this or that? And I was like, because I know I like it when somebody does it to me.

Exactly.

I really like it, so I will tell them. I won't just willy-nilly tell somebody something. But if they look nice or they're dressed nice or they're, you know, they— it's just, it's just inspiring, or they have a nice outfit on, I will make a mention of it. He goes, I'm not allowed to do that because I'm a guy. And I was like, you're allowed to do whatever you want. He goes, but I can't imagine me going up to another guy going, bro, you look really nice. And I was like, okay, that's, that's fine. I said, well, I can and I do, and it's because I know how I feel when somebody takes the time to do it for me.

Yeah.

So I like to point it out because somebody's taken the time to do that. And you know what? It makes them feel good. thing is, is look up. My mother used to say that all the time, is look up, make eye contact with other people. In the year— in the time of having cell phones and stuff like that, making eye contact is difficult to do apparently these days. So doing that is a little act of kindness, but you know, your volunteering is way more than that. And when we talk about this, I really love talking about all the different elements, and you're involved in like 3 or Yes. Volunteer organizations must take a lot of your time.

At this point in time, that's all I do professionally is volunteer.

I love that. I think that's great. I think when you're listening to Healthy Lifestyle with Laurieann, I think when we come back, I really wanna get into more about what propelled you to get involved in volunteering for Yale.

Yes.

I think this is an exciting topic in and of itself. So, so much more to come. So much more to talk to you about, Doc. Everybody, we're going to take a short break. Welcome back to Healthy Lifestyle with Loriann. I am Coach Loriann. If you'd like to be a guest or lift up your business product or not-for-profit profits, or if you have a question or comment, we would love to hear from you. You know, it's important we answer All of your emails personally, and Lara, my great assistant, she will make sure that I answer every single one. And we love to hear from you. Some of your suggestions have brought on some of our best guests, so we appreciate you. Email us at healthy lifestyle with la at gmail dot com. That's healthy lifestyle with la at gmail dot com. So we were having this beautiful conversation with Dr. Rahul Prasad, and. Doc, I loved how we were talking before about paying it forward and getting involved with other people and just giving back to our community and the importance about doing that. We were both brought up in households that that was just what you did. It was part of our life, part of our DNA. And I suggest that we also carry that on with our children. But tell me more what propelled you to get involved with Yale. You really dove in.

Yes, it was, you know, because I am the person that I am today because of the time I spent at Yale. I arrived to get my PhD. I was a 21-year-old kid, really a kid. And I grew up to be the adult that I am because of the experiences that I had there, because of the way I was made to feel at home. This was a place that was about 9,000 miles away from my childhood home in New Delhi, India. And I arrived there on campus and I was made to feel like I belonged. And that to me was absolutely amazing. It wasn't just the degree. It was also the fact that I was able to make all these connections with people. And so, you know—

That has to do with you too.

Yes, of course.

Because you were open to make those connections.

Of course.

And not everybody will have that same experience. But you definitely, you know, I could just tell by talking to you, you're very easy to talk to.

Well, the other thing is what I believe we have to do this by ourselves is when we are in a room, when we are in a place, we've got to have the confidence to say, I belong.

Yes.

Because a lot of belonging begins with us.

Yes.

You know, the imposter syndrome is very real.

Oh yeah.

And, but you have to really work. You really have to work to make sure that you get past that and you believe that you belong. And then everybody else believes that you belong as well.

Yeah.

Most people.

100%. Now, I, I know you've been volunteering at Yale for 23, I think, years now.

23 years now. Yep.

How did that, how did that transpire?

It started because I got a survey announcement asking for volunteers and I filled it out and it was back in the year 2000 and I forgot all about it. And 2 years later, somebody responds. I get a phone call in my brand new office at the Lawrence Livermore Labs. It was summer of 2002, and this gentleman introduced himself as the chair of the Graduate School Alumni Association and said they had a spot to fill a 2-year term, a partial term, um, for me to go and be a part of this board. And I said, sure, this sounds like an excellent idea. 2 meetings, Not a big ask. I'll do it. I haven't been back to New Haven for the past 10 years. It'll be a lovely thing to go do. And I did that. And I arrived there and I started talking to the other volunteers. I got to talking to the students and I recognized that while a lot had changed, a lot was exactly the same. The kinds of things that were not ideal when I was a student were still not as ideal.

Yeah.

You get your degree, you get to study whatever you're studying, but they don't— nobody really helps you look for the next thing after you graduate.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's lonely.

That's lonely. That's a very lonely place. I felt that. And I'm one of those people that believes that when something has happened to me that I did not enjoy doing, I try to make sure that nobody else that follows behind me has to suffer through the same fate.

Yes.

I remember, you know, in joining my first year in undergraduate and being a freshman and being hazed. And then of course, I become a sophomore and now I'm supposed to be hazing and I refuse to be hazed.

Right.

I refuse to haze people.

Yeah.

And I said, I did not enjoy that. And I was laughed at. My classmates did not appreciate it. I was, you know, looked down upon. And in fact, I got hazed A second time around because I refused to participate in the hazing.

Right.

But I said, I am not doing it. This is not me.

It's archaic.

And, you know, that's the way I am. And so getting this opportunity to go back was a wonderful way to go and say, okay, so I can now make a difference. And I came up with this idea of creating a program which involved bringing alumni back to campus to talk to students, to tell them how they did what they did. You know, scientists, engineers, philosophers, economists, art history majors, every single one of them.

Yeah.

See what you can do after you graduate and what are the career paths you can take. And it turned out to be a rip-roaring success. 15 years later, that program still is a signature part of the Yale Graduate School. And in fact, they use it to lure students to accept admission, saying, you're not just gonna get a degree, You're actually going to get a community.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the number one thing my son said when he went to college. He goes, it really wasn't about the education. It was about who I met and who I know. And now I have this community that I can go back to. One of the things that I want to just go back to is you applied in 2000 and then 2 years later, this is partially for my son and other people. My son applies to something and the next thing he's like, they never answered. And I was like, oh my gosh, take a breath.

Yes, exactly. That's the only thing they're doing.

So exactly. Waiting those 2 years, you just never know what's going to happen. But you never know, filled out that application, you wouldn't have absolutely phone calls.

Absolutely. You know, it's, it's, it's like the— in California, the state lottery has a tagline: you can't win if you, if you don't play. Yeah, it's the same way as, you know, it's, it's true of life. Yes, if you want something, you can't expect it unless you ask for it. Or you try for it.

Well, how will people know you're interested if you don't apply?

Precisely.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you don't answer the call, as they say. Another thing that you said, I love that you didn't like the way you felt, you didn't like that, so you didn't do it either. That's beautiful. I love that. That's something that I agree with and I do the same thing. It's like, no, I didn't like that. When I was going through my training In my life, I wish I had had a me. That's why I do what I do today, because I wish I had had a me there to work it through. I've gone through the hurdles, I've made the mistakes, so now I can help you avoid them if you want to, if you're supposed to. Some people have to learn certain things by doing it.

By themselves, yeah.

Feeling the pain. Other people are great by hearing and observing, and they can jump the hurdle or go around it. So, so by doing what you do, that's a beautiful thing too. And I think, I really, really think it's important to repeat something that you said that's very germane, is that you have to start from a place of you are included in there. And that's the hardest part about walking through the door, is that you deserve to be there. You're equal among equals, and that you get to learn from other people. That's what I get excited about when I meet new people. I'm like, what am I going to learn from that person? Because you've had different life experiences than I have, and now I can learn through those life experiences.

Exactly.

Yeah.

If you met everybody that was identical to yourself, you might Might as well not go anywhere and look at a mirror.

Yeah, it's boring. Yeah. And I like people who don't have the same opinions too.

Yes.

I want to hear my own voice. I could just talk in the mirror too. I could talk to myself. I like to hear other people's reasoning and why they think that way. And very often, as fervent as I might stand in my shoes on that particular topic, very often I get persuaded otherwise because of what they say. And but if I didn't have those conversations, and they're not always comfortable, Oh yes. If I didn't have those conversations, I wouldn't learn. And that's how we learn. We learn—

Exactly.

Having those kind of conversations. Now, I mentioned another organization, Butterflies. Now, I'm a big butterfly person. I have a butterfly tattoo here.

Yes.

Butterflies, they're very meaningful for me on very many levels. Talk to me about getting involved in Butterfly, what that's about, how we can support it.

Absolutely. So I got involved with Butterflies because of my children. Interestingly enough, they were in middle school and they had to do their community service project. We were going to visit the grandparents in India, and it's hot in the summertime when schools are off. So we decided we'll do it in February, which is when it's really nice and pleasant. Of course, that meant talking to the teachers because we are gonna take the kids out during school time. And they said, absolutely fine. This is what they're supposed to do. This is what you're gonna have to do. But in addition, there is this community service project that needs to be done, and they won't have time to finish it after they come back. So they got to do it while they're away. So I said, okay, we'll do that. And I called up a friend of mine, a childhood friend of mine who lives in Long Island, and asked, you know, if they knew of any volunteer organizations, because I know they were very much into volunteering in organizations outside of the US. And as it happened, They knew the founder and executive director of Butterflies in India, and they introduced me. And so we went, and my kids were impressed. We did a project. They went around the neighborhood and collected art supplies because Butterflies works with marginalized children. And at that time, they were helping reunite children that were lost with their families. But while they were looking for their families and making sure that reuniting was a good thing to do, They were housing the kids and they needed to keep them occupied.

Right.

What good, better way of keeping kids occupied than having them do arts and crafts? So we collected 3 suitcases worth of art supplies, went to the organization, and I thought it was going to be a one and done. We're going to deliver the supplies and it'd be all done. But it turns out my kids got engrossed in working with these children. They didn't speak any of the local languages. The kids did not speak English. But as kids can communicate with each other without knowing each other's languages, they did. And so for the next week while we were there, instead of visiting the sites and all the various historical monuments around the city of Delhi, we were at Butterflies every day.

Wow.

So that's how I got involved with the organization to begin with. Fast forward several years, and this very same friend who had introduced me to Butterflies comes to me and says, we're making a promotional video and I've got information from India. I've got a video from India and I've got the translation, but something doesn't feel right. It— I get a clip that lasts for about a minute, and then there's 3 words or 4 words that are the translation. So I want you to help me because I know you understand the language. So sit with me and help me figure out whether this is really the translation, or if it isn't, tell me what the real translation is. And I did that. Then the end of the thing, he looks at me and he says, you know, I've been listening to you talk I'd love to have you narrate our videos.

You have a good radio voice.

So there we go. And that was, you know, 10 years, and I've been the voice of Butterflies USA raising money in the US for kids that live in the streets in New Delhi, and now beyond that, surrounding areas as well, to help them have the opportunities that I had because of my privilege.

Love it. Love it.

But they don't, they don't have that. Just this year, we had 38 children take their board-level exams. The 10th grade in India, you have a board-level exam. 12th grade, you have a board-level exam. All 38 of them passed.

Oh my goodness.

And they're all moving on to the next level, which is absolutely amazing. We had the kid that graduated, one of the kids that graduated the 12th grade scored an 84%. which puts, puts him in line to go to any college pretty much that he wants.

That's amazing.

Which is pretty amazing.

It is amazing. And it's something to be proud of. And just look at how you've changed these, these children's lives for the better. And I love the fact that it started with your children.

Yes.

It's just amazing. They teach us a lot, don't they?

They do.

They do. Yeah. Yeah. I, my son Nicholas is just amazing. He's, he's made me a better mom. He's made me a better adult. He's, you know, held me accountable without even knowing at his young age what he was doing. And I'm talking young age. And he would just ask really good questions and you're just like, huh, you know, it was a good reflection. So there's a reason why they choose us, right? There's a reason for that. You know, you have another organization, the name that I mangled.

Amandla.

Amandla. What is that about? What do they do?

So Amandla is actually very similar. It is based in Cape Town. In actually one of the shantytowns outside of Cape Town, Philippi, which is a place which has the highest density of kids, under 18-year-old children who suffer from HIV/AIDS.

Okay.

And so Amandla's philosophy is to help these kids go from cradle to college, part of which is, of course, helping them learn and understand and be able to go to college, but also to be able to be alive to get to that point.

Yes.

Because when you're suffering from HIV, so that's an organization that is working in Cape Town. The founder of Amandla is also a Yale graduate. And my work with butterflies and my work with Yale had all of my Yale associates know about my work with butterflies and listening to the videos that I narrate, they knew about it. And so, So a mutual acquaintance told Scott, the guy who founded Amandla, hey, you should contact Rahul. He's going to be able to help you raise money in the US for your organization. And so Scott and I met in 2018 in a cafe in San Francisco, and I was telling him everything that I know about raising money for kids in volunteer programs. And he looks at me at the end of the 90 minutes, it was supposed to be a 60-minute conversation, but it lasted for 90. He looks at me and he goes, you know, I've been drinking from a fire hose and I could try to replicate what you've done, but why don't you join me and help me create this organization?

Brilliant.

And I said, okay. It was about the time in my life when I was, again, had more time because I had decided I'd done what I wanted to do in science and I wanted to do something different. So I, I, and I had the option of being able to take early retirement from the lab. So I said, Hey, this meshes perfectly. I have time. I'm looking for something to do. You need somebody to do that for you. Match made in heaven, as they say.

Match made in heaven. I love it. Yeah. I mean, look at, look at the way everything, like, interconnected. So helping out other people and you're reaching out and helping other people, it just makes perfect sense. But this is what I'm really, really, really curious about. Little birdie told me you're writing a book.

Yes.

What's it about? When's it coming out? Come back on my show so we can promote it. Help.

Absolutely. So it's called Impact Shift: The Art of Pivoting for Meaningful Change. It's a book that basically covers my life story and how I have made an impact in various different areas and then shifted my focus and made an impact in a different area.

Yeah.

And there's a lot of folks that want to be able to do that.

That's repurposing your tools too.

And this is exactly figuring out what makes you tick, what makes you happy, what makes you fulfilled, and then reaching out and going and doing it. And it's coming out in December, December 23rd, I believe, is the release date. It's going to be available in print and all formats, the electronic formats. And shortly thereafter as an audiobook.

Oh, and I assume you're going to do the audio on it.

Yes, I will.

That's beautiful because you have that great voice. You should.

Thank you.

Impact Shift: The Art of Pivoting for Meaningful Change. I love— look for it. I'll have all that information with this episode as well. How can people reach you to donate, to get involved in the various organizations?

Simple way, LinkedIn, RR Prasad. That's, that's a very simple way to get a hold of me. Email, I like to answer my emails. It's rrprasad@mac.com.

We'll have all that information as well.

And that's an easy, 2 easy ways to get a hold of me. And like you, I read every email and I respond to everyone.

Yeah. Well, if someone takes the time, I like to take the time.

Exactly.

You know, so I think that's a really important element. So, so getting back and being communicative is, is really important. You know, the, the, These conversations always inspire me. You've inspired me, and I've come from a family of giving back. I'm a Lion. I'm a Rotarian. I'm a Moose. I'm running out of animals. And to be part of now, maybe I can be a butterfly, which would be great. That would be great. So getting involved in the local community is so meaningful. What's the most important thing to you?

What is the most important thing to me? That's a very good question. I think. Leaving the world a better place than I found it. And it doesn't mean changing the entire world. It means changing one little thing, one little piece. If you make an impact on one person's life that makes it better for them for one day, I think you've achieved that.

I think so, because it creates those, like dropping a pebble in a pond, it creates—

The ripple The ripple.

Yeah.

The ripple.

It creates a ripple. You've already created a couple of ripples yourself, all by yourself. And I have a suspicion that you'll be creating a whole lot more ripples.

I hope so. I hope so. I believe that, you know, as a mentor of mine many, many years ago told me, the day you stop learning is the day you discover you're 6 feet under.

100%. And that's a really good quote. We're going to end it on that because that was a really good quote. Will you come back when your book comes out?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I'll be happy to.

I'd love to promote it. Definitely, um, let me know when it comes out so that we can download it too. I want to give that—

We'll do it.

Because this is all in alignment with what I talk about as well. And, um, you know, learning from other people on how they shifted is a real important element.

Exactly.

To go in my tool belt. So you are inspiring. I admire you so much. I am so humbled to have you on the show and, uh, really just inspire every one of our listeners. Thank you so much for being who you are.

I'm honored and humbled to be a part of this show. I really like what you're doing. I've had a chance to listen to several of your podcasts after we connected, and they're very inspiring. Very, very inspiring. So I've enjoyed that.

Thank you so much. And I've enjoyed this episode so much. I don't want it to end, but we have to end.

Yes.

So thank you all for joining us today in Healthy Lifestyle with Laurieann. I hope we earned the privilege of your time. You know, I want to thank again my— our guest today, Dr. Rahul Prasad. Please feel free to follow those links that are below and, and support the different organizations that he's part of. You heard what they're about. They're amazing, and he's amazing. It's really good. Just give back however you can give back. It doesn't have to be financial. It could be your time.

Yes.

It could be anything. It could be just holding a door, but give back to your community members. When we act like like a community, we're all the better for it. So again, I want to thank our guests today. Look for our show next Saturday at 3 PM on JVC Broadcasting and iHeartRadio, and we can be found on all major platforms. And would be so grateful if you please like, follow, share, and subscribe. Please feel free to comment and give us some feedback. We love that. Until next time, I am Coach Laurie-Ann, America's number one take-action success coach and strategist. Let your dreams be bigger than your fears. and let your life be filled with joy. See you next time. Thank you so much.

Thank you.