I would never call myself an activist; even when I’m doing radio and TV and working with private clients, I’m a writer. Other people turn my words into action. I have a huge amount of data that no one else on the planet has access to, so if I didn’t use that data to help make the world a better place, I’d end up in Hell
1. Tell us more about your background and journey.
My background isn’t really anything special. I’ve always been a writer. I think I’ve been able to create success in my work because I always have a single focus. I’ve always felt that the one mistake a lot of writers and journalists make is to write about everything. Sure, there are some people who can make a career at that, but they’re almost all men. Women who write about everything rarely get their voices elevated to a position of action-potential because they come across as inconsistent.
When I first started writing, my focus was travel. When I was 15, that changed to cannabis reform and reshaping stigmas surrounding drug education. Then, a few years ago, my data evolved into a topic called “Social Decline.” Now, all of my writing goes toward the content output surrounding this macro-human crisis. I think this subject is going to follow me for the rest of my life and career, and I hope I always get to do it with my incredible business and writing partner, Carol Silver.
2. When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?
When I was 11-years-old, I knew I wanted to be a writer and only write for the rest of my life. I knew I’d always be able to creatively problem solve with a combination of data and lived experience as a writer, whereas every other field or potential career was highly limiting and had obvious rules to follow in order to be successful.
For example, literally anyone can become a doctor or lawyer or a business executive because anyone can follow a recipe to gain those titles. The thought of being restricted to someone else’s rules in order to be successful just wasn’t something I was ever interested in as a lifestyle. I respect those who do, but it’s never been for me.
For me, I never wanted to be able to say “no” to a new experience to perpetuate positive change, and it was important that I work in a field that was both sustainable and multi-faceted. Back in 2004, the internet was starting to evolve into what we see it as today, so it was just a case of focusing on a niche area of writing so I could work in both the public and private sectors as an expert in a particular field of writing.
3. Who is your favourite writer and why?
My favorite writer is my business and writing partner, Carol Silver. Her ability to tell her own story has always left me speechless -- and I’m always talking -- but the impact she’s had telling other people’s stories has quite literally grabbed the attention of the American public.
Carol has a truly uncanny ability to tell the story of individuals, groups, and entire cities like Los Angeles and states like California in such a way that we see it change people’s actions and mindsets in the real world. There’s a unique power to being able to use your voice to shape the actions of others in a positive way, and she does it better than anyone else on the planet.
Recreationally, I love Hunter S. Thompson and Carl Hiaasen and Geraint Jones. I also really appreciate the reportage of young voices like Bobby Burack, Lucy Sheriff, and more.
4. What led you to social activism?
I would never call myself an activist; even when I’m doing radio and TV and working with private clients, I’m a writer. Other people turn my words into action. I have a huge amount of data that no one else on the planet has access to, so if I didn’t use that data to help make the world a better place, I’d end up in Hell.
I am not a huge fan of living in modern society; I see myself becoming a worse person when I feed too much into consumerism and technology, which feels like an everyday thing when you live in a city. Therefore, I’ve always said that if I’m stuck living on this planet with all of it’s problems, I’m only going to stick around so long as my life is dedicated to making it a safer, more equitable and fair place for the people I share it with.
5. What is that one cause you care deeply about and why?
Homelessness in California is at the level of a genocide. Our politicians and a wealth of other individuals have manipulated the American political and financial systems to create the Homeless Industrial Complex.
The Homeless Industrial Complex essentially allows California’s Political Leadership to ask for billions of dollars from the Federal government to fix an “affordable housing crisis” that doesn’t exist, while the lack of accountability in our legislation allows them to make American taxpayers money disappear into their pockets.
While they build a few tent cities in parking lots and turn our hotels into drug dens -- or “bridge housing” as they call it -- thousands of people with severe mental health issues and drug addictions die on our streets, with an average death rate of 16 per day in 2020. These drug addicts and the mentally ill Americans are also preyed upon by organized crime syndicates, with women and children going missing every single day within these populations.
It’s a haunting reality, and could quite easily become the norm across America should people like me and Carol not break down the media wall up around this state and educate the masses on how to avoid the same fate in their homes.
6. If one wants to contribute and make a difference in social causes, how can one do it?
Talk to everyone. If you don’t like a particular social group, mindset, political idea, go and learn everything about it. Listen to the people who support the things you don’t understand or think you dislike.
Their opinion is as valid as yours, and the more time we spend understanding our similarities rather than our differences, the faster we’ll be able to start working together to make our lives and homes better.
7. Why is your research important? What are the possible real-world applications?
If myself, Carol Silver, and the incredible men and women we work with don’t take our message to a national level, America will fall into a social decline nightmare wherein no one with a mental health issue will get the care they need. No one will be safe inside their homes.
You’ll be unable to walk down the street without risking your life to a random violent attack. People will continue to die en masse and it’ll become an accepted part of our behaviour.
Your loved ones with mental health and addiction issues will die from their diseases, alone, or surrounded by people who will rob their corpse. This is the reality of California, and it’s coming for America if we don’t start focusing on local governance, and evolving the leaders and legislation who made this all possible.
8. What kind of response have you gotten to your research/findings?
It’s been overwhelmingly positive. We do get a few death threats, and we expect those to increase as our work gains traction. Thankfully, happy people don’t tend to Tweet as much, so I’m not worried about the impending hate. The beauty of understanding social science is getting to see a balanced picture when all you’re being shown is bias.
I think most people are absolutely blown away when they hear about what’s happening in California right now. It’s a daunting reality, and as we’re politically purple people, Carol and I have a large group of diverse friends and colleagues who are all uniting around this same platform. It’s kind of inspiring, really! For as horrendous as this crisis is, the balance is really coming from the warriors joining hands to finally make a difference.
9. What question or challenge were you setting out to address when you started this work?
How do we save the United States of America from the Californian homeless and mental health crisis? It’s as simple as that.
10. Did you change any of your or your family’s habits as a result of anything you learned from this study?
I came to America as a liberal democrat Bernie-bro socialist. I am now a borderline Libertarian, but honestly think we all belong back in the cave. Living in California should be enough to teach anyone that whatever faux-socialism we’re being peddled by the media doesn’t work, but neither does depending on self-determination. It just kills people, and hurts them on their way to a premature death.
My family are inherently liberal people, and we debate my research a lot. I really depend on them to keep me grounded, despite being thousands of miles away from most of them.
The one thing I absolutely changed was the desire to visit California. My family and I spent many summers here during my youth, before all of this started. Now, I would never risk their safety and lives by bringing them here. We’ll go and visit one of the other wonderful places that America has to offer. It really is the greatest country.
11. What piece of advice would you like to give to future aspiring writers and researchers?
Focus on one topic or problem, or become an expert in something else first. I became an expert at macro psycho-social research focused on demographic behavioral understanding and actionable change potential.
It sounds wordy as heck, but I’m basically very good at taking all of the primary and secondary data on a particular topic and uncovering the overarching paradigm that needs to be applied to human society to mitigate or solve problem(s) related to that topic. Most scientific data spends its life unread in dissertations and journals, so I’m giving it a new life where the problems our academic and scientists solve can reach the people it’s intended for.
As I had been a writer for the decade prior to qualifying, I quickly combined both skill sets and should be set-for-life as far as being able to work. Even if I’m not putting things onto physical paper, I’ll always be writing our way of problems.
Any writer or researcher needs to understand that their work isn’t for them; it’s for readers now and forever into the future. You’re capturing a moment in history, while hopefully providing your readers with something that can help them. If you’re looking for celebrity and status, you’ll never be able to be unbiased in your reportage. I always ask new writers who hit me up on social media: what do you care about and what do you want to be remembered for?
12. Which is your favourite book and why?
I really don’t know how to answer this, as there are so many. I try to read The World Without Us once a year so I am reminded that we’re just part of a Gaia system that doesn’t really need us or respect us. Into Thin Air by John Krakeur is also a personal favorite, but he quotes my great grandfather F. S. Smythe (another favorite writer of mine) so I might be biased. Touching The Void still haunts me.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas literally gives me seasickness, but I love it! All of the Carl Hiaasen books make me laugh out loud. I think all school’s required reading should also include Siddhartha, The Alchemist, Zen & The Art of Happiness, and I loved How To American, By Jimmy O Yang. That guy is brilliant.
- Kay Smythe
Kay Smythe was born and raised in Swansea, Wales (UK). She graduated from Plymouth University with a BA (HONORS) Geography in 2015 and moved to the US a year later. She’s been featured across major media outlets for her writing and research, as well as a wealth of other weird places. She co-hosts Carol and Kay Save The USA podcast and radio show, and is writing her first book with business and writing partner, Carol Silver.
- Instagram: Kay Smythe
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- Interviewed By Pearlina Marie Rein
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