The Kindness Matters Podcast

Hello Starts Here

• Mike

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A terrified hello on a budget flight became a life raft—and then a blueprint for community. We sit down with photographer and connection-builder Adam Schluter to explore how he turned awkward street moments into lasting friendships, a global chorus of stories, and a backyard tradition that has welcomed more than 10,000 neighbors to the same picnic tables.

Adam traces the origins of Hello From A Stranger from early rejection to a pivotal encounter with a young refugee in Milan who had never been asked for his photo. That moment reframed the mission: people don’t just want to be photographed—they want to be seen. We unpack why scripts sound like sales, how vulnerability signals safety faster than polish, and why face-to-face time creates empathy no feed can replicate. Along the way, Adam explains how Monday Night Dinners began with burnt mac and cheese and evolved into a zero-agenda gathering with local music, potluck plates, and simple norms that keep business and politics at bay while making space for real talk.

This conversation goes beyond feel-good quotes. We get practical about hosting community without a budget, using music as a social buffer for introverts, and teaching teens the lost skills of eye contact and conversation. Adam shares plans to seed dinners in Mexico City and Japan, plus a clear definition of kindness as service—especially to people who have nothing to offer you. If you’ve been feeling isolated, or you’re craving a way to turn neighbors into friends, you’ll leave with a roadmap you can use this week: say hello, invite two people to eat, skip the pitch, and keep showing up.

If this story resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a seat at the table, and leave a review to help more people find their way to connection.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hey, hello, and welcome everybody to the kindness matters podcast. I want to thank you, each and every one of you, you and you and you and you and Okay, this is gonna take too long. Um, for for taking 30 minutes out of your day to listen to a podcast, not about murder mysteries or or true crime, but about kindness. It seems like such a simple thing, right? But I think I appreciate everybody that has taken an interest in this podcast and and uh taken their time to to listen. So I appreciate that. We have this is gonna be such a fun show, everybody. Let me let me tell you about my guest today. Adam Schluter is an introvert with a camera and a wild idea. What if you walked up to strangers all over the world and simply said hello from more than 1,000 portraits in 21 countries to Monday night dinners that turn total strangers into backyard family? Adam's Hello from a Stranger Project is all about proving that genuine in-person connection is still very much alive. Today on the Kindness Matter podcast, Adam joins us to share how a shy guy who was tired of everything being a text message turned awkward hellos into lifetime friendships, community potlucks, and a global reminder that the person next to you might just be your new favorite story. Welcome to the show, Adam. Thank you so much for being on.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, thank you, Mike. That was a great introduction. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. I wrote it myself.

SPEAKER_00:

I can tell. I love that. Nah hell. You're probably too young for that. The last person still not using Chat GPT. Thank God. We need that. I I enjoy writing it.

SPEAKER_01:

I like it. It's a beautiful nope. Uh so this is such a unique concept. And you are a self-described introvert, right? So what inspired you to start the Hello from a Stranger project? And and how did your interactions with strangers change your perspective?

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful question. I mean, what started this project was that I really had no other choice other than to begin in. And it really was not a project. There was not an agenda, there was not a goal. There was not there was no social media, there was nothing. I literally went out in the world all by myself and I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. But uh I am from the Midwest originally, and I'm the only one from the Midwest to leave. I'm very close to my family, but I wanted to live closer to nature. And uh I actually left St. Louis and moved down to Mexico. And I lived in Mexico for a few years and just had a beautiful life in Mexico. And I also was grown in the world, uh growing up with a family that took us in the world. They they were we didn't have any money, so our family was really funny, and they had a travel agent, and he would my dad would just say, plug us a cheap ticket, and he didn't care where. And the travel agent would be like anywhere, he'd be like, anywhere. And they would take us to like Caracas, Venezuela, when it was the murder capital world. Uh, they would take us to you know, far South America, remote villages where we had no clue what we were doing, we never spoke the same language, we had no idea where we were, we had no plans, truthfully, and we had no money. And so, like, we were but we were so happy. We're just a little family bouncing around. And so we were kind of foolish enough to where we had to interact with the communities, we had to talk to the locals, and we had overwhelmingly 100% of the time, the world was always so good to us. So I knew this. So then it was very fortunate to grow up with that. And so when I wanted to move somewhere else, I chose to move to Mexico because I knew about how good of a uh the people in Mexico are. And but uh, long story short, I had uh met a girl and I had been through a lot of relationship issues before, went to a very bad breakup, and so I met this girl, and um we were in our late 20s and we loved Mexico, but just obviously didn't have the opportunity. We're looking for Mexico to start a business and and do some things. And so we decided to just drive around the United States. We had no money, very little money. We had saved up just a few hundred dollars working at restaurants and um to find a new place to move, and we really had no idea. We went 22,000 miles in a car, we're sleeping in the car and everything, and we found this town that I live in now, which is Quarterline, Idaho, and this is 10 years ago before anyone knew what Idaho was, or and I didn't know what Idaho was, and I'd never been here, didn't know a single person, uh fruitfully literally just driving around the country, stopped here, uh rented a house. We were so poor when we got here, we had to sleep at a free campsite uh that was about half an hour away because we had no money to afford a place. And then every day we'd come into town and we would try to uh we would use Craigslist and try to find a place to rent, but also try to get a job. And uh ended up moving in into this home that I live in now. Um, and we rented it and we couldn't even afford the first month's rent, and they let us prorate the first month's rent. And uh so they were very kind and let us move in and felt like we were millionaires. We, for the first time in about a year, we had a roof over our head and uh we were starting a new chapter in a new place, and and that was it. So long story short, shortly after, uh, she broke up with me and I went through a very bad breakup in a town where I didn't know a single person and I'm very introverted, didn't know how to talk to strangers, didn't like technology, and my mental health just completely fell apart because then I went into the first winter time in the Northwest and isolated, alone, depressed, no sunlight, thousands of miles away from my family. And uh I was 100% questioning if I should continue living, if life was worth living, if I I felt so alone, I didn't know how to ask for help or support. And literally when I hit that wall, I just I come from a close family and I didn't want to do that to my family. And so I knew I had to do something just to terrify myself. And with all this knowledge I knew about the world, having lived in Mexico, I knew I wasn't alone. I knew it. I just knew that I could talk to strangers and and talk to people, and so I knew I just had to leave my comfort zone and do something about it, and that's what I did. So I decided to uh I was waiting tables at a local restaurant and I saved up as much money on tips as I could, and I booked the cheapest flight, the farthest I could get away, which was a terrible idea. It was actually the cheapest flight was to Copenhagen, Denmark, which was one of the most expensive cities in the EU. But I didn't really care. I was out of my house, I was out of my head, and for the first time I felt curiosity and intrigue that started to help my mental health again. So, and on the plane right there, I thought, well, I okay, but I still have to feel less alone. And um, as a way to feel less alone, I decided to say hello to strangers.

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's I don't know what that is. You know, it it sounds like it sounds very romantic, right? This I'm just getting on a plane and I'm going somewhere and I'll figure it out when I get there. But that's what you needed to do for yourself, right? Yeah, I w I wish it was romantic. It was it was a literal, literally pizzy, but just you know, like the kid who dreams about running away to the circ and joining the circus or or totally you know, something like that. So, okay, and I'm I'm kind of like you, kind of like you, because I I am kind of introverted. I don't let a lot of people in, I don't let a lot of people get close, but but yet at the same time, and I saw this video the other day, and it's this little kid, he's probably two, three boarding an airplane, right? And he's going down the aisle, and every single person he passes by goes, Hi, hi. So while I'm introverted, I'm exactly like that out in public, right? I go to the store, I'm like, hey, how are you? How are you? Uh but so talk to me, talk to me about your process when you're approaching strangers, especially in another country, because I'm thinking that's gonna add a layer of difficulty for their portraits. How do you build trust so quickly in each encounter?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great question because that's something that um, you know, when I was starting this, I was so afraid to approach strangers because my introversion and everything else, that I thought I should come up with a script of what I'm gonna say to sound poignant and like I, you know, it's confident. And so I made up this script. I would say, I'm photographing people all over the world, but only when I see something beautiful, and this is so beautiful in this moment, would you mind if I took your photograph? And I thought, oh, okay, that's eloquent and simple and concise. And what I found was that's really what I was doing to because I was so scared. Um, and almost everybody rejected me. Almost everybody. It was about 90 plus percent. And I was blown away because I was like, what's going on? I have this eloquent script, and you know, I sound like I know what I'm talking about. But when you think about it, when a stranger approaches you anywhere in the world, me especially, you have a millisecond to decide do I trust this person? Does this person want something from me? Are they selling something to me? You know, blah, blah, blah. And this is happens in an instant, you know, in a millisecond, and it's intuitive. And so you can't really like make it too far past that. And I realized that by having a script, everyone assumed I was selling them something, because why do I have a script if I'm not selling them something? No, I just memorized it. It was just like, yeah, that would have been easy. Like a little PowerPoint presentation. So what was really funny is I had no fallback plan and I was still, you know, really broken. And so I just got so beat down by all the rejection, but I really had no fallback plan, so I had to keep trying it. And I found that the more beaten down I got, the more vulnerable I became, the more vulnerable I became, the more I would just communicate authentically and compassionately. And then everybody opened up and would say, Yes, my rejections went from 90% rejection to maybe five percent. And I was like, what is going on? Because now I'm a little more awkward, I'm a little more I'm still scared, you know, but like now everyone's open up to me versus when I had the script. And so that was the key. The key is authenticity, but really it's not something you can fake, it's it's intuitive, you know. And so you're intuitively conveying to these people that they can trust you, and you do that without thinking about it. You do it through authenticity. And you know, naturally though, it's your eye contact and your body language and stuff. But I'm not thinking about these things, I'm just meaning it and telling it, you know, with passion and and honesty.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for sure. Wow. Um and and over a thousand pictures or portraits. What did what did you do with those?

SPEAKER_00:

Many more since then. That was just from when we did the book, and the book was a few years ago. It's yeah. No, no worries. What did you do with all the pictures? Did you give them to the subject or I was given to the person and I always gave it to the person as a way for us to stay connected after it was never a transactional thing. This is not a social media thing, there's no reason behind it. So it was never like I'm having this, and it was funny because you know, people would always say, Would you wear a GoPro camera? Or would you wear something, you know, something. And I always hated that because this is very sincere and very genuine. And again, for me to do to feel less alone, but also it ended up helping so many other people feel less alone. And if you had this genuine, I think this is what's wrong today a lot. Uh, you have this genuine kindness, this genuine compassion, these genuine interactions, and then people look down, they see a camera, and now it's all transactional. The kindness was transactional. And that's that's a terrible thing, you know. We need to really just go out and be kind and not do it for any ulterior motive, not do it because we're showing people what we're doing it, but doing it just because we mean it. And that's what people need more than ever these days.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because you see those creators out there just oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I was just gonna say, yeah, so I just took the photographs and I would always share it with and give it to the person so that we could stay connected. Many of these people I've been connected with for many years ever since. I go back to see them sometimes. We have dinner sometimes, we all stay in contact around the holidays and send pictures. But you'll see, I have a bunch on my wall here. It goes around the hole in the place. And then um most of them are just online and and then some never go anywhere. So it was what it was never about the photograph. The photograph was actually because I was so afraid to have these genuine conversations that I was actually hiding behind the camera. So I was making the mode or the mechanism to be getting the picture, but really that allowed me to stay more in my comfort zone because I was still protected and hidden behind the camera. And there's this very powerful moment when I was in Milan and I had been doing this for a while and I was comfortable. And I asked this gentleman, there's a bunch of refugees outside of the train station, and this gentleman sitting on stoop, and I asked him for his photograph, and I had gotten in this whole comfort mode with it all, and he said no. And I was so exhausted, and I had been running around, and I just it was a beautiful photograph. And but he said no to the picture, and so I'm like standing in front of him, and I'm so tired that it's really awkward because I don't walk away and I'm I don't know, my brain just shut off. And he's looking at me like, Why are you not walking away? Like, why are you looking at me? And there's this little moment of hesitation, and in that he's like, What are you gonna do with the photograph? Like, why do you want this photograph? And I was like, Oh, let me tell you like what I'm doing and and show you. And so he looked at me and he's like very intentional about it, and he's like, Okay, fine, like you can take my photograph. Like, I earned his trust. And so I ran over to the side and I took this his photograph, and it was exactly what I saw. And I ran over there and I'm showing it to him on the camera, and you know, I was used to showing it on the camera when people liked it or not, or whatever. But he just went silent and he took this camera and he's sitting on the stoop, and I'm standing in front of him, and he's holding this picture close to his face, refugee, who knows where the family is, and he gets very emotional. He gets emotional and he looks up at me and he says, No one has ever asked to take my photograph before. It was so powerful in a moment and and then this kid was he was probably in his late teens, I would say. But then in that you realize this kid is not seen. This kid doesn't feel seen by and there's people around him all the time that we all have all these strangers around us all the time, but we're not interacting and talking with each other. So we all feel invisible, even though we're surrounded by people all the time. So when that moment happened, I realized this needs to not be about the photograph at all. I need to get rid of the camera because this is I'm trying to be seen, but now I'm all protected behind my camera. Now this is really about the genuine conversation, and that's when things went a lot deeper. And from there, I really I w really wasn't taking pictures of people, and I I really don't do that anymore and haven't for a long time.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. So what do you think that some of these encounters have and I I think you kind of you almost touched on it right there, but about loneliness, vulnerability, and the healing power of kindness? Do you think there's any lesson there?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, of course. I just want to make sure what do you mean in the in the connections and the encounters?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Creating kindness. Is there did did these connections that you made with these people did it teach you anything about loneliness and vulnerability and the healing power of kindness?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, a million percent. And that was the the cool part. The reason this has been in so many countries and so many different types of places in the world is I really wanted to, I had had such a I mean, the first part of this project literally saved my life and really literally taught myself that I wasn't as alone as I felt, and then I really could go up and talk to strangers and be seen and ask for help. But I won I was curious, is this all over the world? And is this and you know, so many people were sharing that they were lonely also. And this is nine years ago. This is not this is pre-COVID, this is pre-everything. This is like people are already lonely, and now it's a hundred times that. And I wanted to go around the world and is everyone experiencing this, and a lot of this was you know, in the invisibility and social media and stuff. And what I found was over and over, just that genuine face-to-face contact, even from a total stranger, was always overwhelmingly enough to create a deep connection. And in that deep connection, face-to-face, always created empathy and kindness because there's actual understanding. We're really listening to each other. We don't care. There's all our differences, we could care less. In fact, our differences create a better conversation, but there's no anything other than a genuine connection that always creates empathy and understanding. And so I think these days we're losing that because we're not seeing each other, we're not spending physical time with each other. Um, and so it's easier to divide our ourselves, but that's not the truth. The truth is we're so much more connected and united than we see.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I I agree a hundred percent. You say, you know, we're we're not seeing each other, we're not spending time together. That kind of naturally leads into this whole thing with you and the Monday night dinners because you decided to, you know, instead of traveling the world, I just hit my microphone. Instead of traveling the world and talking to people, you're inviting people over to your literal house for dinner. Talk to me about Sunday night dinners. How did that get around come out?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, you know, you you heard the origin story is, you know, started in this house in a deep breakup and a bad mental health episode. And and so I went on this trip and I went around the world and it saved my life and it taught me the beauty of strangers. But then I came back to this home and I realized I still don't know a single person in this town, and I'm still completely alone. So I just said, I'm gonna do the exact same thing in this town that I live in, and I'm just gonna walk around and have genuine conversations with strangers. But then at the end, at each conversation, I'm gonna invite them to have dinner at my home. This is what I learned in Mexico and what I learned in a lot of third world countries is that when they really want to genuinely connect with you, they always invite you to have food with them because that's such a pure way to actually spend time to get to know someone. And in America, many many ways, everything's fast and expedient and gotta go and don't have time. Yeah, coffee and got 15 minutes. And that doesn't really create a deep enough, you know, for someone to really feel seen. And so I thought I'm gonna invite people to have dinner at my home. Again, no money, very awkward, didn't think a single person would show up. And I would invite like, you know, just people in normal circumstances, like at a grocery store or a bank teller or things like that. Um, and I I literally didn't think anyone would show up. And 11 people came to the first Monday night dinner. This is about nine years ago, and I was so surprised and we had no money. I ran across the street and we ended up eating burnt mac and cheese and we had water and a broken uh picnic table, but no one cared. Everyone's sitting around this table again nine years ago, and everyone said, I need this so much. Like I'm missing this in my life. And I was like, if you need it, I really need this. And so I just said we'll never stop. And so uh we have done them every other week for the last nine years. We just had our 103rd one, and we've had over 10,000 people that have had dinner in my backyard since we started this, and we have thousands of people each year that come to them now, and they're still in my backyard. We have never made a penny. We donate a hundred percent back to the local community. Everyone brings a side dish of food and a ten dollar donation, and one hundred percent of the donations go directly to the bands. We have l uh local music that play at them to help more introverted people show up, and so we give uh a hundred percent of it all back. It's like dinner and a show. Yeah, it was a cool thing because you know. Scary for a lot of people in the beginning. You don't want to walk in the backyard and there's hundreds of people waiting to talk to you. For introverts, that's terrifying. So we thought to bring in music as a buffer for you can come and just listen to the music. You really don't have to talk to anyone, but still be around people. But as we know, many times you dip your toes in and maybe you're, you know, and then a conversation unfolds. It's a very beautiful thing that allowed a lot more people to come.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So, okay, now one of the things about Monday night dinners is you have a no business, no politics, and no phones rule. How does that shape the experience of the attendees?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, what's cool? We actually don't have a no phones rule. We've never said that, but everyone just gets it and knows it. And everyone just obviously understands it. That's why we're there. But I I don't tell anybody not to do that, but everyone gets it. But the no business, no politics, no agenda other than old-fashioned connection is just a main reason is that a lot of times when people do this, again, there's an ulterior motive. And it's like you're doing this thing, but it's really because you're networking, or you're doing this thing, or because you're trying to sell something to something. And the world does not need another one of those things. We need altruistic, pure, compassionate things that it's literally just for this reason. And there's no other reason other than genuine connection. No one's making money here, no one's promoting anything here. But obviously, at a time like now, all the division we feel with politics and all the differences we feel with each other, this is a place to not focus on the division and more focus on the things that unite us. But actually, we those aren't hard rules. Anyone who cares? You can talk about anything you want, but we've always found that you have 10,000 strangers from a million backgrounds and different beliefs. And I've never seen anybody ever, ever focus on those things. Because again, you're having face-to-face connection and there's so much more to us than those things that divide us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I I can only imagine that a no business, no politics, and it's just understood, no phones, even if it's not a hard and fast rule. I would have to believe that that just makes because sometimes we feel like we're under pressure, right? You're talking about networking, and and it seems so hard these days to not talk about politics because it seems like everything is about politics, whatever. But I would think that that would make those dinners 20, 30, 40 times better if you didn't have to worry about, you know, well, what if somebody asks me about blah, blah, blah? You know, the the hot topic of the day, politically, whatever it is. And and you you know going in that you're not gonna have to be forced to talk about that or or even tempted to talk about that, right? So that has to make it so much more comfortable.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll give you even more. I mean, even if, like I said, no one's uh no one cares. Like there's no no one monitors or supervises, obviously. Like you're just showing up and you can talk many things you want. I would guarantee that these things do come up, but people are able to talk about them compassionately and humanly rather than with all the polarization and all the blood because it's face to face. This is why it's so important for us to talk to each other face to face, because I could say, Hey, Mike, I believe this, and you could say I believe this. And it's hard to like fight that like we could do over a screen, whereas face to face, it's kind of like that's really beautiful, Mike. I appreciate that. And why do you where'd you come to that? You know, you can have a conversation about it rather than this is my identity, this is who I am, this is who I'm always going to be. It's like you get to be human when you're face to face.

SPEAKER_01:

So with 10,000 people at one time or another over the years in your backyard, can you share a story about about someone who who maybe found friendship or healing or a sense of belonging through a Monday night dinner? Do you do you have a story about that?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a big question, Mike. Sorry. No, no, that's you know, I rather than there's so many of those that it's very overwhelming to me, honestly, to um because I, you know, I started this in a very dark place where I cared very little about myself. And so to see this make such an impact in so many other people's lives, it's hard for me to process all of that. There's been so many stories of people that have, you know, told me that these dinners literally saved their lives. I mean, they've written it in our books, they write it on the things and explaining going through divorces when they had no one to, you know, in dark moments and mid-40s, are you know, parents dying and having no support and that they found the support there. Just incredible stuff. But uh, you know, there it happens so often. There's on the website is a lot of the testimonials that people just have easy full access to to go and write. And uh, those are the most important things. I would say the most important things now, though, that everybody is much to that, but so many people are using this also to bring their kids to their teenagers and they're you know, because their kids don't know how to talk to people face to face, they growed up in technology and it's really powerful stuff. When I talk to the kids, and the kids are looking forward to coming back, and they have such a great experience there because they're getting to learn it's so funny, but how to shake someone's hand and how to look someone in the eye and talk to them. And they're saying how none of their friends know how to do this stuff, and to see that parents are now using this as a uh low barrier tool to helping their kids make friendships and and have relationships is yeah, because it it's it can be hard to talk to a teenager, right?

SPEAKER_01:

And it goes both ways, and you know there's plenty of blame to go around, but yeah, but when you when you talk to a young person, especially if you're a parent or teacher or something like that, there's maybe they're holding back because they don't want to talk about that with but I can see in a situation like this you're eating, you're having fun, you're you're enjoying. I could see somebody opening up a little easier, and and it's so important, you're influencing a whole nother generation and introducing them to humanity, communication.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and you know so much about just communication is practice. I mean, that's how you and me have grown up. It's it's by practicing. You're out in the world and you have to talk to people and you learn how to do it and how to be yourself and all stuff. Kids these days don't get practice, they have no practice because what are you gonna do? You're gonna talking on a phone doesn't help you learn how to connect with people in person. And then they go to high school, and every friend they have is on a phone and talking through phones. Where do they have this opportunity to just practice and learn, you know, and make mistakes or be awkward or whatever it is to just be okay with who they are? And so I find so much like my nieces and nephews are are my best friends in the world, and I do all this for them. And I find them so often, you know, I'm like the uncle that's getting them out of their comfort zone and out in the world to just have fun and be a part of it. And uh they always tell me how much they love to do this, and but they have no one that does this these things with them, you know. And because uh you know, with full respect to parents, it's a hard job, but a lot, you know, you could put a kid on the screen rather than being a teaching a kid how to, you know, sit in conversation, but I just worry about where that takes us as a society.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I I know my I have a three-year-old grandson now, and I'm like, I cannot believe what kind of world that we've given him. You know, so I won't have a few more years to influence him a little bit and he grows up in that.

SPEAKER_00:

I know his parents will too, because they're both they're both cool, but I do it's really I think our responsibility, yours and the parent and mine and all that. We grew up without this, and we know what what we are able to see the the good and the bad, the the contrast between the two. There's no, you know, it's not that everything's bad now or anything like that. It's just we know the other side of this. And so I think it's our responsibility to share it and help shine a light on that when we can.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we had to, right? We didn't have phones and texting and stuff when we were growing up. So we were actually forced, if you will. If you wanted to talk to somebody or have a conversation, you actually did it and you didn't text them. Okay. So what does kindness mean to you now after years of meeting people from all walks of life? Did you learn anything?

SPEAKER_00:

Have you changed has your impression changed? I would say that kindness and what I've learned in the whole world is service always in giving service to those who have nothing to offer you. And many of the times where that kindness comes the most now is in service of of your time, of giving your time to allow someone else to be seen and to spend time with them, but really to you know, to offer support, to offer perspective, or to just sit with someone. And right now it feels like no one has any time, but we do, of course we have time. And I think that kindness comes in sacrificing what we can to offer the support and love to those that are around us. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

I and I think that that's you can talk about paying it forward or buying copies, but I think it it really boils down to something as simple as being available, making yourself available physically, mentally, whatever the case may be, to listen to another human being. And I think that's probably the greatest kindness that we can give.

SPEAKER_00:

And it doesn't take that much more than that. You don't have to have the perfect thing to say, you don't have to have the right solutions. You literally can just give time to someone, intentional time, and the larger majority of the time that's all people need.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for sure. Okay, so last question for you. How can our listeners support your projects?

SPEAKER_00:

You're you're not still traveling the world, right? Yeah, we still do. We're not bringing Monday night dinners. We're teaching a lot of different uh countries how we're giving them Monday night dinners for free, obviously, and going and doing it, and then we leave each community with the dinners so that they can stay connected after we leave. So we're going to Mexico City in January, then we're going to Japan in April. One of the fastest declining populations in the world, or the fastest declining population in the world. Um, and we're not trying to change anything, we're not trying to impose our culture or anything like that. We're really just like what we've always done, we just create space and then allow that to bring people together however they want to come. And we we don't make any money from it and we give it all back. Sure. I would say the best way to support is just to um I mean, start your own Monday night dinner. It doesn't even have to be a Monday night dinner. I really think the only, you know, it could be anything of all of in your community or your neighborhood to say hello to your neighbors and say hello to a stranger. And if you're able to invite a stranger to have dinner with you, invite someone to invite a few people to have dinner in the backyard or a barbecue. I I would think that'd be the most thing. And to um, you know, the books are for sale on the website. 100% of that money goes back to the project also. And uh we'll do a hand-signed book to all that. And then we have the second book that's gonna be coming out and the show that will be coming out, and so to watch those and to be a part of those. But above all, we don't need any of that. If we started this and continue this just so that the world can bring themselves closer together, also, and we just want to share that and allow other people to. So anyone can reach out to me directly on the website where I will offer for free everything that we've learned about how to do this, um, and also will and help in any way we can.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so cool. It's such I can't even wrap my head around everything that you're doing and you're making such a positive difference in the world with with what you're doing here. Um and I just I want to say thank you for it.

SPEAKER_00:

My pleasure. I want to make sure to say I I 100% need it just as much as anyone else. I I continue them because I also still need them too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I feel that because my mental health has gone through the roof just in the three years that I've been doing this podcast. So I know where you're coming from with that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So beautiful. Thanks for taking the time today, Adam. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I wish you the best of luck going forward. Mike, thank you so much. I appreciate you using your platform in Spotlight to help us put a light on this project that helps us bring the world closer together. I really mean that. Pleasure was all mine, sir. Take care, happy holidays. Yeah, you do. Look forward to uh take care, Mike.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the city. We will be back again next week with a brand new episode. And we would be awkward if you would join us again. Remember Titus Matters. Let's go to you.