YouSaid · the spoken record

Gregory Boyle

lines on the record: 25
first: 2020-11-19
most recent: 2020-11-19
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Your joy complete. That's the whole ballgame. And related to the earlier thing about kinship, that's where the joy is. So we're always trying to get to joy. And like the marriage vows, you know, in good times and in bad in sickness and in health, it's joy in all those circumstances. So it doesn't really matter how things turn out. Joy is possible right here and now, no matter what's happening.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you want to put everything in its place. You want to live as though the truth were true, and you want to put first things recognizably first. So in terms of death, you know, if death is the worst thing that can happen to you, then you're going to be toppled by life itself. So you want to be able to put it in its place, you know. But with grief, our lives are disrupted, but our entire identities in many ways are torpedoed. you have to lean into the grief and you have to find yourself curious about it. And then pretty soon you're savoring and then you're relishing and then all of a sudden you're being led to joy. That really happens if you do those things because then you're anchored in the present moment, in the here and now, and you're delighting in who's right in front of you. And that's the whole goal, if I could get biblical, you know, my joy, your.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A sign. It doesn't want to point stuff out. It wants to point to something. It wants to point to what if we really believed that we belong to each other. That's a game changer once we believe it.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bill, kinship is the whole goal. You know, if I could get sort of biblical here, you know, Jesus says that you may be one and that we belong to each other. So you want to create a community of beloved belonging. You know, the great John Lewis says, we all live in the same house. That's not an aspiration. It's not one day we might. Or some people live in the basement and some people live on the third floor. No. We all live in the same house. So homeboy tries to be the front porch of the house. Everybody wants to live in a place of radical kinship, of exquisite mutuality where there is no us and them. That's the whole goal, even in terms of our own country's belief, you know, a more perfect union. That's what it's about. So that's always the goal. And Homeboy is a solution, I guess, but it's also...”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, they could. I mean, prisons should shift from punishment to be more restorative for sure. We've been invited in once there was a warden who was very progressive who wanted to give homeboy industries a whole pod of the prison. But we kind of feel like it's a little bit like rehab. You know, if you force people into rehab. But you kind of have to walk through our doors. Our program is not for those who need it, it's only for those who want it. Certainly prisons could do better than they're doing instead of just warehousing. They could be helpful. But there's something about walking through the door and choosing that fuller and more whole.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, I'm fine. I have leukemia, but I've been battling it for a lot of years and have been really fortunate not to have to battle it since March. So in the last treatments I got were radiation. And so far so good. But, you know, the homies are kind of, I just go with it, I surrender to it. They put me in a kind of a tent, a little Kazbah that's in the... Because they refused to let me in the building. It's a tent that's very airy, and it's like being outside. They're more protective of me than I would be, but I'm just going with it.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They haven't figured it out, but they will. But you know, I've done two double funerals from COVID, a homeie and his father, and then a homeie's mom and grandmother. And it's not every day that you do double funerals. It's kind of a remarkable thing. And I just know countless folks who, because they're disproportionately impacted by the virus, because they're in these essential worker positions. the risk level gets higher.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, like everybody, we were probably shut down for the first two months, maybe, but we've been open since then where we've been designated by the mayor as an essential organization. So our protocols are quite strict. They take the temperature. There's a series of questions. Everybody has to wear a mask and everybody is distant. So the only thing we haven't done in our headquarters, we haven't yet figured out how to do tattoo removal because it's such a small space.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mechanism of delivery to homeless and addressing food insecurity in our county, seniors, shut-ins. So it's been kind of a remarkable turn and we've been fortunate to be able to make that pivot so successfully.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As I mentioned before to you, the homeboy bakery and cafe at LAX Terminal 4 has just reopened, I think it was last week. And that's after all these many months. The homeboy diner at City Hall has yet to open. But we were so fortunate because our pivot was immediate in the Home Girl Cafe and catering and the bakery. So we were immediately got these contracts with the city, county and with the World Central Kitchen, which was started by Jose Andres. And so now, you know, we're 17,000 meals a week, which is just, I think we're up to like 200,000 meals so far. And, you know, that's really kept us alive. And we haven't laid off anybody, which is kind of remarkable. So it's not just preparing the meals. It's this.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That has not relaxed in any way at all. So we're still inundated because there were kind of the only game in town, you know, where people come wanting to reimagine their lives. To say nothing of the fact that it looks like we'll be at 300 homicides in LA come the end of the year and we haven't had that since 2009, but it's a rise. And again, if our diagnosis is steady, which is this is about a lethal absence of hope, and obviously, you know, the economy and the virus have impacted that hope or lack thereof. So, you know, we need to infuse hope where hope is foreign, and that will go a long way to make the streets safer. But I've buried a lot of homies who killed during this time of... Pandemic, which wasn't so much true before it.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So big deal. I'm personally not very big on let's plot this one out. You know, you go with your gut, but I'm not the CEO of Homeboy anymore, so I have a wonderful business person who has lots of experience. You know, his gut is better than mine. So we're always exploring new ventures because God knows the demand is high. And people, especially right now, you know, they're releasing all sorts of prisoners from state prisons and they just release 5,000 from the LA County Jail. And they all come to homeboys.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that was a tough one because people come to us. And so two great guys who were starting their own business, you know, Lopez Plumbing, and they were graduates of Loyal and Mary Mount University. So there was a kind of a Jesuit connection there. So it was homeboy plumbing, you know, but who knew people didn't want gang members in their homes. So it was not very successful. And it became a black hole. And so at some point, the board went, oh, no, no, no, we got to stop this. So that happens. You know, you back into things. You know, people will say, this seems like a good idea. What's the worst that could happen?”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“By any means. So as soon as we've raised $10 million, we have to go back and raise it all over again. So we have senior staff, then we have core workers, our homies who have gone through the program. You know, they're good bakers and they can teach the newer folks. And so we have all our trainees. Then we have all our part-timers who are kids released from probation camps who are working part-time and many of them are in our school. So yeah, it's a heavy lift, you know, but it's a training program so nobody has any illusions that somehow we won't have to raise money than they do. That's not a failing of the businesses. Some are more profitable than others. And we hope at some point to have just a straight out profitable business that will pump more money into the nonprofit piece, the training piece.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, we're like $22 million. And so about half of that comes from our businesses. And the other half we have to raise, which is a heavy lift.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he was approved. He was given the job. A wonderful guy, just a wonderful guy. And you're lucky to have him as an employee. For some reason this morning, the badge went off and he had to be escorted because they did a secondary review of his record. Yeah, well, like all of us, he's a whole lot more than the worst thing he's ever done. It's like, how are we going to make progress? If somebody has given a life sentence, even though they only did five years in prison. You know, it's like I said, Come back to us. I don't know what to do, but it's just we're not there yet. But better than we were 25 years ago.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But that isn't the engine. The engine really is let's do the right and good and just thing. And somehow it's worked out. And whereas we're 32 years old, the first 10 years were marked by death threats, bomb threats, and hate mail. And so not from gang members, of course, but from people who would demonize gang members. So why are you helping the enemy, basically? And so we had to change that before people would, you know, send us money or buy our products. And so, you know, we still have a long way to go. I just got a text message from we're an 18 month program. So they finish our program and then we find them employment. And we found this guy really a good job at a Walmart warehouse. And he just said they just escorted me out because there's a secondary process where you check people's records and stuff.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, all our strategy is an evolving thing. You're always backing your way into strategy. And yet, if the driving force is to become successful, then I think that you're doomed. And I kind of agree with Mother Teresa, who says, we're not called to be successful, we're called to be faithful. And so at Homeboy, we just keep our heads down and we do the thing that we believe is good and true and right and just. And oh well, you know, whatever happens happens. Now, you know, I think we've also been successful.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think so. Although the caveat, like with Newman's own, is it has to be high quality. Nobody's going to buy something that doesn't taste good. And they'll pay more if they know that in that case all the proceeds go to help people. And the same is true with us. You know, people will come to us and say, I want to print up shirts, for example. You know, we give them a price and they go, whoa, I can get this for three cents a shirt. Well, go do it. But this is who we are. We pay a living wage and people are trying to get on with their lives. Give us your business or don't. But in the end, people like to feel good about what they're doing and they'd be willing to pay as long as the quality is high and it's reasonably priced. They're willing to pay more if they know it's going to make a difference in the world. And so, you know, that's kind of the principle.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the byproduct of the whole thing. You know, it's like we'll hire you in our 18 month training program, but you're going to have to stand next to a guy you used to shoot at as you make croissants in the bakery. It's like a three fur. You know, it's money in your pocket. You can feel good about yourself. And you cannot demonize people you know. And so you get to know people. And does that always work? Yes, always. I can't think of a single exception in 32 years.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have a thing called the global homeboy network, which is 300 programs in the country and outside kind of modeled on our methodology. You know, and they all want to start a social enterprise, and they all want to do food, which I always say don't. But, you know, because food is hard. Restaurants are really hard, but there's a sexiness to a bakery and a cafe, and it's hard to talk people out of this. But I always tell them, do silk screening. That's recession proof. Everybody wants a t-shirt. Their family reunion or their 5K race, and they'll go with you, even if it's more expensive, because it's kind of the Paul Newman feel-good. You know, it's like, yeah, it costs more, but it helps employ. Felons, you know, so.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Parochial school and a movie producer named Ray Stark after the unrest in'92 wanted to help and I said, well, okay, I don't know buy this bakery. It has ovens. They don't work. You could fix them. We could put hair nets on enemy rival gang members. Well, that was the entirety of my business plan. So I think everything else kind of operated in the same way. There was a couple from the parish who wanted to start Rodriguez silk screening. And I said, well, don't start homeboy silk screening. And so that's how that was born. So, you know, it wasn't like some big master plan. And it was all kind of accidental.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My board would never co sign on the notion that I know anything about business. So I don't really see it that way. But we were always responding. If tattoos had become an obstacle and gang members wanted them off, we started that. Even in terms of our businesses, they were all kind of haphazard. You know, there was no business plan. There was an abandoned bakery across the street from our school.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Our headquarters, we have Home Point Bay Creek, Homegirl Cafe, and Homeboy Homegirl Merchandise. And then we have the restaurant at the airport, the city hall. We have the homeboy diner, the only place to get food at City Hall. We have a thing called Homeboy Grocery where we sell chips, salsa, and guacamole and a variety of grocery stores. Homeboy recycling, which is a recycling e-waste, which is quite an extensive business and growing. Homeboy silkscreen and embroidery. That's been around for like 27 years. Supposed to be nine in there, so I don't know how many of that. That's a lot.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“About 15,000 folks a year walk through our doors trying to reimagine their lives. We were begun in 1988. Just in my parish, which was the poorest in the city, but it had the highest concentration of gang activity. We had eight gangs at war with each other. And I started to bury kids. I buried my 283rd last week. Not all from that community, obviously, but I know a lot of gang members. So I get asked. And so we just started things. We started to school, then we started a jobs program trying to find felony friendly employers. And then that was not so forthcoming. So we started businesses. Homeboy Bakery was the first in 92. And now we have nine social enterprises. But it's also a program of healing, you know, so there's tattoo removal, there's therapy, case management, classes.”
2020-11-19 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT