People Not Numbers: Humanity, Music, and Joy in Public Health with Dr. Ryan J. Petteway, DrPH, MPH
Listen as Ryan Petteway, DrPH, MPH, discusses how music and poetry have guided his life, and what's missing in public health.
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Ari O’Donovan
Resources:
Learn more about Dr. Ryan Petteway at www.rjpetteway.com/.
Reserve a spot at Stats & Stanzas at https://bit.ly/3Nhu4qi.
Find more information about Poetry for the Public's Health at https://bit.ly/3Aybh2a.
Transcript:
Ari O'Donovan: (00:00)
Thank you so much for listening to boosting our Voices. This program has been brought to you by Boost Oregon. You can find them online@boostoregon.org
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (00:13)
To make it feel like we're talking about people, we're not talking about numbers. Let's listen. Let's tune in, let's hear those words. Let's lean into those emotions and those feelings, right? And let's hear that. And I feel like that for me is the part that's been missing from public health. And so, yeah, I can't imagine you being where you are right now without music playing some type of a role, right? You had a good day or you had a bad day. You trying to turn up a little bit. Okay. You need something, right? Public health is missing that something. And I feel like that's what I'm here to bring.
Ari O'Donovan: (00:38)
Welcome back y'all, to a new episode of Boosting Our Voices. As always, I'm your host, IRA O'Donovan and I boost Oregon's Diversity Program manager. Today's guest I have with me today is Dr. Ryan Petway. He is a professor at the O H S U, PSU School of Public Health. Dr. Petway, tell us a little bit more about you.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (00:58)
Yeah, thanks for having me. Uh, yeah. I'm Dr. Ryan Petway. I am a social epidemiologist and associate professor with tenure in the School of Public Health here. I'm in my seventh year here. My applied training is as a social epi. I think a lot of folks in public health understand what epidemiology is at this point, especially after covid, during Covid cause it's still with us. Um, you know, regular EPIs really out here trying to understand the causes and the distribution of different forms of disease and illness and variations in health and wellness. Social epi as a social epidemiologist, what I'm concerned about are more about the power structures that determine and shape those health distributions, right? And so I focus on things like structural racism, wealth inequality, uh, gender inequality, heterosexism, and all these other forms of exclusion and oppression that essentially function to afford some folks, uh, healthier life and a longer life and others not so much, right?
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (01:51)
So as a social epi, that's what I do. If that's my applied and technical training. And then within that broader area of social epi, I'm a place health scholar. So that means I focus on notions and ideas of place and how place affects our health. And so everybody knows that you live in a certain like community or neighborhood. The thing is though, your neighbor might define that neighborhood or place differently. And so the idea of place captures some of the flexibility when we start thinking about how place affects our health, right? Like it's not really a neighborhood, it's not a zip code. People like to talk about zip codes and everything. Like that's cool, but like really what I'm focused on is like what is the general idea for us personally and kind of collectively with populations? How are the things that are in our daily place environments shaping our health, right? Dynamics. Of course, I should mention that, you know, I do traditional more standard public health research, you know, the things that folks are used to seeing, you know, maps and statistics and things of that nature. But I'm also a poet. I'm in a semi-retired rapper, so I find ways to bring, you know, various forms of art, especially poetry and music into my work.
Ari O'Donovan: (02:45)
So you know, that one alcohol commercial, I can't think of the brand and the brand doesn't really matter, but it's the most interesting dude in the world. , you one of them type of people.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (02:54)
, I know what about,
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (02:59)
But I know exactly what you're talking about in my spaces, in my public health world for sure. There's not a lot of folks doing this and having these types of conversations that I'm trying to have in terms of like the creative aspects of public health and how we can make sense of the world around this, right? I think again, like folks are used to talking about like, oh yeah, there's health inequalities and people are dying. People are saying X, y, z. And we used to talking about it in a very distance, non-emotional, detached, numeric way, right? We just talk about people's stats, odds ratios and regressions, right? And that's cool. We need that type of like, you know, sense making and knowledge production and research for certain things. But for me, that's not how I started to see the world or observe the world or make sense out of what's shaping my health.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (03:35)
You know, when I was a kid, I was listening to nas, you know, listening to, you know, the Amatic Amatic day was yesterday. And so like that's how I started to make sense of the world was to listen to, to music and the poetry, right? Storytelling. And so in my space right now as a public health professional who is a tenured professor who's published a bunch of papers and written books and all these other things, yeah, in my world there's not a whole lot of folks that are trying to have different forms of conversations about, you know, health and equality and things of that nature, right? So yeah, I don't think one of the most interesting, but I think a lot of things I'm doing are new and they're disruptive, they're pathbreaking for sure. I think I'm not the only one that's thought about this. I think I might've just been one of those, the first few that have the nerve to say, I'm here and this is what I wanna talk about and this is how I wanna talk about it. And you can either get with it or keep it moving.
Ari O'Donovan: (04:19)
I really like that. And I've taken a lot of classes in college. I've taken organic chemistry, physics, I took your class four to six years ago now and it was the most eye-opening class I've ever taken. It was the class that made me really think about what it means to be a black woman walking around in this country and what it means to be a bipo community member walking around in this country, what it means to be in poverty, what it means to be middle class, what even is the middle class, all kinds of stuff like that. And like I said, I've taken a lot of classes and I've never had one reach me and impact me and still be applicable to my life and what I do every day at Boost Oregon and the class that you teach.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (05:07)
I appreciate hearing that it's beyond great to hear that. And I think that, you know, in the class that you took with me, you know, it was like the ISMS class, that's, that's generically what I refer to it as, right? It's like you get 10 weeks to talk about all the isms you can talk about in 10 weeks, right? Which doesn't really do with justice, right? Especially when we think about things like intersectionality, right? For you to take that class and share that space myself and the other students, I feel like those are the types of conversations spaces that we need is for folks to step into those conversations, be comfortable being their full intersectional selves. Yeah. These conversations can be, you know, new to some of us, right? They can be uncomfortable, but I feel like they're absolutely necessary. And I think when we get, as an educator, when I'm in a classroom teaching a class such as this one, right, especially the one that you took, it's kind of going with that awareness, right?
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (05:45)
Like I know my social locations and social positions and my positionality and my histories, right? And I know the ways in which there's variations of power and privilege and exclusion and oppression wrapped up in all of my social locations, right? And depending on who walks in a room that power dynamic changes. And so I try to be mindful of it, but I don't know whether or not students in public health are used to thinking about the world that way. I think a lot of times people think of public health as being like a clinical thing. Like let's get a vaccine, let's, let's go to the doctor. And public health is really, for me again, as a social epi, I think about it in terms of systems of power and exclusion and oppression and things of that nature, right? And so I think the class that you took with me is one of those ones that I think is fundamentally necessary to shape conversations about population health for students that plan on having careers in public health.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (06:25)
You know, I think it's important that we understand that all of us are much more aware of certain forms of power and oppression than others, right? And a lot of times it's rooted in our own experienced knowledge and expertise over our lives, right? We know ourselves, we know our experiences, right? And so for me it's important that when I create a class like that, that I try to decenter my knowledge as much as possible so that other folks can take up that space and share their stories, right? And that's why we do like, you know, the assignments like the end of one, if you remember that, right? And then also the public health mixtape allowing students to bring in music because like they were thinking about music. You all were thinking about music way before you started thinking about epidemiology, yelling, you know what the epidemiology was.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (07:02)
But you were probably 10 or 11 years old and you heard a song that made you feel a certain way and you started to be able to make sense outta the world and yourself in relation to various forms of art, right? And so I think that class for me is about, you know, how can we take the complexity and the nuance of one of us and use that as a starting point to tell our stories in relation to these systems and find the overlap and the similarities to be a bit more present and humanized and allow ourselves to feel emotion when we talk about these things. I think too much of public health is stripping away humanity, stripping away emotion and essentially turning lives into regressions essentially, right? There's always people behind the statue here. And I think we teach public health as if there's no people in it. And what I've tried to do in my classes is remind folks that actually we're talking about ourselves. Every time you read a study you're reading about yourselves. Remember that? That's
Ari O'Donovan: (07:46)
So true. And I took a lot of sociology classes early in college cuz I thought that's what I wanted to do with my life. And that was one of my biggest beefs with sociology. It's present in public health too. They have all these studies, people are publishing studies, they're doing all this research, they're collecting raw data and making sense of it and all this information. But it's like, are we changing anything though? Like are we improving people's lives? Like some studies lead to that as an outcome, but many of them . It's like we're pointing at a problem and putting a spotlight on it and talking about it as this group of people or individual person is going through this problem and it's like, oh, I'm just here to study you. I'm not really here to do anything about what's going on in your life. That really had an impact on me when I realized that.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (08:34)
I've always had the idea that like, I'm gonna do it my way. You know, my grandfather love some Frank Sinatra, right? And that song, I did it my way. It's been like he always sang that karaoke. And so I carried that with me, I carry that with me and I'm like, yo, listen, like I'm not here to do you. I'm not here to do your version of me, I'm here to do me to my fullest, right? But there's always like a a growing internet, right? And it's always kind of like negotiated, right? You can't just go all out. You gotta kind of read the room and figure that, you know, like it's a process. But I feel like now that I'm tenured and now that I feel like I've made it clear about who I really am, I feel like I've done this to various degrees from the very beginning of my career starting when I applied to my doctorate program and I went to Berkeley.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (09:11)
Like I just put things in my statement, just let folks listen. Like this is what I wanna do, this is who I am and if you accept me , then like just know that I'm bringing that I'm not lying to y'all. This is what I really care about. This is how I really wanna do things, right? I feel like that part about observing how folks, scholars will treat and study and just kind of objectify, literally just reduced to objects, statistical parameters, us essentially, right? And no one calls that out or calls that in, like for me to be in public health. And that conversation has barely gotten started. That's what I've been doing over the last few years. It's just like explicitly naming that. Because if you think about it for public health for example, it's a billion dollar industry, right? There's billions of dollars in grants for doing public health.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (09:50)
And a lot of this is under the name of health equity, which means we're trying to address inequalities between certain populations, whatever those populations are. It could be between racialized communities, could be between class level things, geographies, different, you know, like gender inequalities, things of that. H R A, like whatever it is, there's always gonna be some comparison type thing, right? A lot of this is on racial health inequalities. And the thing is, is like if you look at like the way the structure works nationally, tenure track faculty members in schools of public health, less than 6% are black, less than 6% are Latinx and 0.3% are indigenous. I ran the numbers on this once. I think that there was like one indigenous tenure track public health professor for every 750 white ones in the United States, which is like, you know, all indigenous, right? All indigenous land.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (10:32)
Like, and so you think about who these professors are that are doing this research and getting paid to do this research and who they're doing their research on and a belt, there's a disconnect between who's doing the work and who's doing the work on whom, right? You follow what I'm saying? Right? And then you think about you got a publisher research, you gotta get grants. We'll come to find out like most of the grant review panel, the folks that are done, the grant review panels that look at your grants, for example, at the nih, national Institutes of Health, if you wanna apply for a grant, they gotta send out the people who will review it and decide whether they wanna fund it or not. Like 89% of those folks are white. It's basically white scholars that decide like what type of research gets funded, right?
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (11:05)
And then you look at like when you wanna publish your research and look at who's on the editorial boards, something like 75 or 80% of those members are white. So you have essentially white research scholars, white funding review panelists and white editorial folks that are deciding what types of knowledge you're gonna be out there in the world about our communities, right? And so I think that when you mentioned that about you when you were in sociology, like that's the thing I've been trying to really highlight, emphasize within public health is essentially it's settler colonial, racial capitalist, extractive research tank where it's basically privileged white folks studying and enjoying research on communities of color and then reaping the economic and financial benefits from that, right? Meanwhile, where are we at as the professors, as editorial board members so we can tell our own stories in ways that we actually respect and value ourselves versus exploiting essentially the fact that there's inequality.
Ari O'Donovan: (11:50)
My goodness, you just gave me so much information, it just blew my mind. Especially the statistics you just shared. I had no idea that it was that bad . Like I just didn't know that I knew there was a problem. And a lot of people don't even know that much. So I know there's a problem. I didn't know it. It's that serious. That is a shame.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (12:14)
It is, it is. And it's not to say that like we obviously need a lot of folks out here doing this work, right? It's not to say that like if you're not a person of color, you can't do research, whatever, whatever, right? Um, but I'm just like, think about a correlator, like imagine if like, and then you don't have to imagine too hard cause it's pretty much how history has worked for a long, long time, right? But imagine if, like in the field of public health, if 90% of this research that's done about women's health is done by men, right? Like just think about like how, like, like why would we accept that? Why would that be okay? Right? And for a long time of course that was actually what it was. I mean it's, there's still some inequality in it, right? So the fundamental question I'm trying to get at here, the fundamental point I'm trying to get at is that if we are, you know, if we care about equity and justice and health justice, right?
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (12:53)
Like forms of knowledge and knowledge production are also a form of justice, right? It's called epistemic justice. Like the ways in which we go about telling the stories about health and health inequalities. If we are not careful, we're essentially going to reproduce forms of knowledge and ways of gathering that knowledge, that maintain the status quo and benefit the oppressors at the expense of the folks who are be experiencing the consequences of oppression, right? If we're so focused on like, oh let's advanced health equity, let's talk about health justice, but we're not thinking about how we're going about it in terms of our research, then we're just basically reproducing that social hierarchy and a social inequality within public health, right? And that's the part that really drives me crazy. And that's why I think that to your point earlier, like I'm just talking the hell of these days cuz I don't really care at this point.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (13:34)
It's like, listen, like odds ratios aren't saving us, regressions aren't saving us, our policies aren't based on robust sample sizes, right? Like nothing that Congress is doing has ever done has been based on our research study that's like just empirically based, right? Like everything that's happened over the last couple of years regarding like abortion rights for example, the evidence is actually entirely the opposite. But yet there's a policy change, right? And so I think that we need to, in public health, we need to stop pretending that it's just like math and objective regressions that's gonna save us, right? There's nothing objective about that. We need to be aware of the ways in which we need to ship narratives and ship power. And sometimes that requires creativity, storytelling, music, poetry, other forms of expression and knowledge, communication. I
Ari O'Donovan: (14:13)
Agree there's so many other ways that, that we can get information across and, and make it like truly more equitable. Because if you're not doing that with everything that you just mentioned it, it lends itself to equity optics to where we're not really , we're not really here to help the people. We're not really here to put people who are educated that look like the people they wanna study and or help. We're not here for that. We're just here for the equity optics of it all. And that that is horrible.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (14:44)
I mean it is, it really is. And like I said, I'll never be the one to be like, yeah, I don't want allies, I don't want solidarity, but I want, I want co-conspirators, you know, I wanna accomplice this. Like we need to this up and I need to know that you're gonna carry some carrying with you too. Like don't just come out and hold a sign up after it's burned down. Like, you know what I mean? Like there's levels of engagement here and I think that for public health we care about justice, social justice, health justice, and we have to care about epistemic justice. And sometimes that means we gotta start fundamentally questioning who gets a seat at the table. And sometimes I think the, the most bold thing is sometimes people need to have the courage to realize that they shouldn't even be sitting down. They should have never been sitting down and begin with. And that's the problem I see in public health is that too many people are comfortable benefiting from the fact that they get their research inequality and they're the part of the population that's actually always benefited from the inequality, right? It takes a pretty like introspective and honest person to sit down at that table and realize, actually this isn't supposed to be mine. But a lot of folks sit down anyway. And that's the problem that I have.
Ari O'Donovan: (15:36)
Yeah. The ability to realize that and step back and give another person an opportunity that is like allyship at the highest order same as you. I'm here for true allies and people that really wanna help and do something good, but we really have to change who's sitting at the table. Like that is a big deal. And I feel like I'm in another one of your classes learning another thing. I feel like the first class is a prerequisite and now we are really getting into even more heavy duty stuff. So it's interesting. Amazing.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (16:07)
Come through, get that, come through the PhD. No, I'm hearing PhDs are win for
Ari O'Donovan: (16:11)
You. Shout out to, if anybody's taking classes at PS O H S U P S U School of Public Health, find Dr. Ryan Petty Way. If you need a class that he teaches, take it with him. You will learn so much, you'll be happy that you took that class.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (16:25)
, thanks for the
Ari O'Donovan: (16:25)
Shout. You talked about Frank Sinatra and it reminded me of a song by GNU Sam old g I really liked that song and there's so many Yeah. Yeah. You thought I didn't know about that one. That's that's a, that's a classic
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (16:40)
Album.
Ari O'Donovan: (16:41)
Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was. Music drives you, I know that. What else drives you as an educator, as an artist? What would you like listeners to know about what you're doing? Share some of that with me.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (16:54)
You know, I think growing up in the environments I've had, like I was born in a red line city. I grew up in sundown towns and I lived in segregated, like public housing, you know, all these things that we hear about in terms of like community health that are like the negative things, right? But there's a lot of joy and love in there too, right? And I think that for me it's like that's what kept me grounded like that. I think that's what allowed me to, to get to where I am, right? I'm still here, right? Like if anything just, it's just that sentence. I'm still here and I'm here and some of my homes I grew up with are not. Um, and so for me it's like I'm in this space and the places that I've, and the spaces I've been in helped shape the way I see the world.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (17:30)
And so for me it's just remembering that and trying to connect that and move that forward, right? I think that um, you know, I think about the ways in which, you know, in my field place health research, we tell stories about place and we like to map communities like, you know, life expectancy here is like really low and it's like a, the red part of the map, we like to use red, like danger and fear and bad red, right? And that's how essentially like folks in public health like to talk about neighborhoods and communities, right? Especially like communities of color, quote unquote urban communities and like that, right? All these euphemisms essentially, right? Co racially coded language, right? And I think that for me, where I'm at right now, like what part of what motivates me, inspires me is that like there's always been more to it than just that map.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (18:08)
There's always more to it, right? Yeah. You can talk a whole lot of about the neighborhood I was living in when I was high school in public housing, right? Yes. The maps don't lie, right? Yes. There was like a, a less than 1% chance based on the research I've seen from opportunity atlas up at Harvard University. A less than 1% chance that I would've started where I started and be where I am right now. Less than 1%. I think it was 0.3% in terms of probability and like percentages, right? And 10% of the folks that were born in the eighties where I grew up are in jail. 10%, a folk 10%. So essentially you do that math, like the probability that I would be here versus like somewhere else, it's, it's slim, right? Those are stats that matter. They really matter. They tell a story, they're important.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (18:44)
We don't ignore those things. But those are like the negative things. And I'm only here because of some of those positive things, right? There's always been love and joy and resistance in those spaces, right? And I think that for me as a public health scholar, it really keeps me motivated is that, yeah, we can't ignore the problems but we also can't ignore like the joy. Like where is that conversation at in public health? And I think that's what art and poetry and music allow us to do. We can lean into that. Yes we can write a protest song, we can go Kendrick all day, but we can definitely like write songs that like, you know, like I have this assignment in one of my classes. Like you need songs that hype you up and you need songs that make you feel like home, right? And I feel like too much of public health is like one or the other. I think that we need to have both of those things. We need to acknowledge the, the problems and the issues we need things that like that fire us up and get us animated. But also sometimes we just need things that make us feel good and, and heal us.
Ari O'Donovan: (19:32)
Definitely agree. Music has gotten me through so many things in life and it's just the best way that I find my own home. It's the best way that I can connect what I'm doing, whether it's academically or professionally in the working world to my own life and to the communities that I reach out to and serve as diversity program manager. When I connect with communities, I really like to incorporate music on my own for that.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (20:03)
Yeah. And that's important, right? I know like they're not, everybody listens to music or whatever, right? Like not maybe they do casually, passively, right? But like can you imagine you where you are right now without a soundtrack Like our lives, I feel like there's always a soundtrack. Like you know, if we're in a movie there's always music playing somewhere, whether we're willing to listen or not. I feel like for me it's one of those things where let's tap into that, you know? And I feel like that's a way for us to, to make it feel like we're talking about people, we're not talking about numbers. Let's listen, let's tune in, let's hear those words, let's lean into those emotions to those feelings, right? And let's hear that. And I feel like that for me is a part that's been missing from public health. And so yeah, I can't imagine you being where you are right now without music playing some type of a role, right? You had a good day or you had a bad day, you trying to turn up a little bit. Okay. You need, you need something, right? Public health is missing that something and I feel like that's what I'm here to bring.
Ari O'Donovan: (20:51)
Yeah, I really, I love to hear that. I'd like to see you continue to do that. And I know you're going to, and I wanna see other people in the world of public health realize we have to bring the humanity back to what we're doing. It's quite a separation. It shouldn't be that way. It takes the humanity out of it. It takes any kind of really good work that you can do out of it when you reduce people down to just numbers.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (21:20)
Yeah, that's a problem. But the thing is, I think that, you know, the last few years I think we're starting to say a little bit of the shift, some of the things that I have been doing in terms of like poetry publishing poems and peer reviewed public health journals, right? There's basically like, it just doesn't happen. And so to be able to put a poem in an actual scientific public health journal as scholarship is a big deal and been able to slowly kind of open up that door over the last couple of years. And we're at a point right now where we can actually invite other folks into these conversations. So like for example, for the Journal of Health Promotion Practice, I'm on the editorial board for, I'm an associate editor for the poetry section along with Dr. Laconte Dill at Michigan State University and Dr.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (21:56)
Shana Burch at Columbia. And the three of us, like we created and try to curate this space for poetry, for the public's health, the first standing poetry section in a peer reviewed public health journal, right? Like making these things happen. Because the three of us, we know that like art and creative expression have always been core to who we are. It's always been that space for us to, like I said, to to find homan. And sometimes I find that energy to find that fire and to get up the next day and go fight the fights we need to fight. Right? You know, Laconte is, uh, is poet Shanae is also a pope, but she's also theater. I think theater's like really her home space for, for art and creative expression, right? But we created this space so we can, so we can't invite other students in, right.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (22:30)
You know, so we can't invite future public health professionals and, and current ones, right? So we get submissions from faculty members at other schools of public health. And July we're publishing a poem from a 14 year old. And so I think it's one of those things that, you know, we're getting an opportunity to really manifest some of these things and it's pretty exciting. And I'm working on a couple other projects like the public health mixtape, um, that you did for, for, for when you were in my class, right? Looking at that and aggregating these mixtape assignments over like five years of courses. We have like 5,800 and some songs that we're going through with one of my master students, Sylvia Rivera. We're going through that and we're trying to create like a actual public health mixtape curated 10 track selections for each course module and doing a podcast so we can actually engage these conversations about what's going on out in the social political world through the lens of music, right?
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (23:10)
And talk about that in the context of health, right? And so I think that, um, there's some shifts that are going on. I feel like I'm trying to make the most of it. And I, I think that's the part that excites me is like, what will I be able to do that someone else will see that they've always wanted or that they didn't realize they wanted? And I think that that's what I hear from a lot of students that like, oh they didn't, didn't even know that that was a thing. And again, I feel like part of my role, uh, part of my purpose perhaps is like to do that, just put it there. I don't have to be the best, I don't care about none of those things. But the thing is, is like someone needs to get this conversation going and if I can facilitate that and create some space for this so someone can take it to the next level, then let make it happen.
Ari O'Donovan: (23:46)
That is so dope. And I gotta stop right there cuz I want people to really understand what they just heard. You are doing a Public Health Mixtape podcast and I've never heard of anything like that. I think that's gonna be super dope. You are, there's poems in Publish Works and one of them is by a 14 year old. That is so dope. I really wanna read some of those. And do you know a timeline? Do you have any information that you could share for people about the podcast you're starting? Anything that you want listeners to know more details about?
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (24:23)
Thanks for asking. It's a work in progress. So we've gone through and we've identified the songs. So there's 10 modules essentially for the project, right? And so we found the top 10 songs for each of those 10 modules. We've gone through and done all that analysis work, right? And now it's a matter of kind of curating how we want to present them back. And so we're imagining one episode for each module and then breaking into seasons. So we're kind of going through the planning part for like the first season. And the idea is to basically have this podcast invite in current students, current faculty members, community members, just have three or four folks in the conversation, listen to the music right? And then talk about it, right? And then see where that conversation goes is T B D is very much T B D. But I'm cool with that and I'm excited about it. Uh, I'm also kind of nervous cuz like I'm not gonna be the host. Like I can't stand here myself tuck. So, uh, I think Sylvia Rivera's gonna be the host of this thing. We're gonna work that out. And then, but aside from that, I, I imagine that we'll probably have our first episodes dropping sometime in early fall.
Ari O'Donovan: (25:19)
Fabulous. I remember that assignment with the public health mixtape when I took your class. And I had never had an assignment like that in a class before. And I love music so much. Electronic music is where my home is. But I love a variety of different kinds of music, rap music. Even though tiny Bennett country in there. But I love talking about this information. Um, your class was so impactful to me. You're doing a lot of really cool things in your life and I know that you said you were a retired rapper. So tell me a little bit more about that.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (25:53)
Yeah, I mean I think I said semi-retired cause I don't really know. It's like I'm doing like this whole Tom Brady thing where I'm like eh, I dunno, I dunno, I dunno. I think about like recording songs still, but I haven't recorded one since 2020 And partly cause I've been so focused on trying to open this poetry conversation. I feel like rap in public health is a bit more work. gonna take a little bit longer, get that going, right? But I will say this, so like I grew up and I started doing, I think I mentioned earlier, you know, like Nas and Mob Deep, I think Quale were probably like the three artists that I probably listened to the most that were like my favorites. That kind of like gave me that sound, that aesthetic, that vibe for how to write and tell stories at least to freestyle battles.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (26:30)
And where I went to high school ed is where the subsidiary kind of group from Wutang Killer Army is from. So there's always connection to like Wutang growing up cuz Za used to live in the city that I lived in. And so like I've always been kind of connected and thinking about rap, right? And I had a couple chances here and there to really pursue that. And I thought I wasn't ready. I didn't chose not to do that. But undergrad I did some mix tapes, was with this record group and did some mix tapes, made some albums. We did a lot of shows and it was a lot of fun. But I decided to not pursue that. And I went to grad school and when I was in grad school at Michigan at the School of Public Health there, I created a public health mixtape.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (27:02)
It was like eight tracks that were about public health themes, right? One was on asthma, one was on lead poisoning, one was on intimate partner violence. And so I made this whole mixtape and it was like eight songs and I did that and then I graduated and I kind of just left that behind for a while. And so, so for me, like that was kind of the last time I was really like doing music regularly. That was like back in like 2008 or nine when I really stopped. Right. And since then it's just been like a do a song here and there and I work on beats every now and then. And so every now and then I think about, yeah, that maybe it's coming in here to my office. I have a mic in here that's from 2005. I should probably upgrade that . I need to talk to somebody about a, a new mic. I need some more software. Something about ways to get back into that. Right? So when I say retired, yeah it's pretty much retired but it's like, it's still kind of there.
Ari O'Donovan: (27:45)
Wow. The inspiration though that you had tib Quali Wutang at, I can't think of the name of the song, but I know there's one. Oh I try by Tib Quali and Mary J Blo. That song Mary J Yeah. I was listening to that song on repeat during the time I was in your class and that that got to me that song. Mm-hmm. .
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (28:05)
I was about to start singing it, but I don't wanna hear that. Like if I listen to this later, I don't wanna hear me trying to hit that on the hook.
Ari O'Donovan: (28:11)
I love that though. I love your inspiration. I love your story behind your music. You were doing freestyle work and that. Like I'm not a rapper, I don't do rap , I don't do any of that. But I know that I did extemporaneous speaking when I was doing speech and debate earlier in college and I feel like it's kind of similar to that where you're on the spot and you just gotta come up with something except yours has to rhyme and it has to flow together in a song. And that is not easy. I know that cannot be easy
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (28:41)
For some folks. It maybe it is. I know that like I was definitely better at writing songs than like freestyle, right? And part because like, you know, like freestyle battles, there's like an etiquette and expectation, right? And especially like if it the expectations, like it's a battle rap. I'm like, am I out here trying to battle nobody ? I just wanna tell stories. I just wanna like be creative and wordplay and all that. Right? But like freestyle battle raps, like yeah you gotta be kind of like ready to go and man, like it's not my personality. I'm not really trying to like do that type of freestyle, right? It's always found MySpace is more like writing songs and things of that nature. Right? The issue that I've always had though, that once I write something I need to record it immediately because the next morning like I'm looking at like this is comically bad.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (29:16)
Like why the would you write that ? Like this is terrible. So it was like I would write a song and work on the beat and just be up for 36 straight hours to like to finish it. Right? And then I'd walk away from it and I feel like I'm semi-retired because like who has 36 hours that they can do this? Especially like when you got kids in a job, right? Like you can't just like lose 36 hours cause when you come outta that 36 hours you need to recover and it's gonna take you another 36 hours to recover. Like I can't afford three days of like being Mia a right. I gotta find a new way to get that creative process and find the time to do that. Right? I think that's what it is. That's
Ari O'Donovan: (29:46)
A lot. You come outta being gone for 36 hours. Everything around you could all,
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (29:57)
So
Ari O'Donovan: (30:00)
Your voice doesn't change. What happened? I don't know. I wasn't here .
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (30:04)
I'm shaving already. What?
Ari O'Donovan: (30:07)
So I get that. I get that. If you ever are doing like anything, you've recorded something or you're doing a live event or something, let me know. I'd love to come see it, support whatever I can. Cuz that's cool.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (30:19)
I mean there is a lot of event coming up soon though, actually.
Ari O'Donovan: (30:21)
Tell me, tell listeners and me about that.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (30:24)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Right now on April's National Poetry Month, also National Minority Health Month and also National Public Health Week is during April. Right. So we had a plan to do a poetry public health event in April, but we couldn't quite get the venue booked. And so it's gonna be on May 5th, Friday, May 5th, I realize it's single to Mayo. And so folks are, you know, celebrating that. Cool. Maybe you celebrate it at this public and public health event. But it's on May 5th, Friday night from six to 9:00 PM at the Robinson Life Science Building. I went to choose South Waterfront Campus. Awesome. And it's posted by the School of Public Health, self Enhancement Inc. S e i and then also Apao the idea with the Advantage. We're gonna have black youth poets from S e I and Pacific Islander poets from AO come and read their poems from the poetry competitions we worked on them with.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (31:08)
And then a featured poet also read, I'll probably read a couple pieces. And then also a poet from Apao will also read some pieces and we're gonna have a DJ and music. It's gonna be dope. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be dope. I'm not gonna, I I got, I can't even lie to y'all, y'all out here listening to me. I'm all sorts of nervous about this thing, right? Cause I want it to be like completely on point, but I'm like, this is like this messy behind the scenes. Y'all like I shouldn't have looked, you know, I should've just like y'all playing the thing and I'll show up. But, uh, it's been a lot of work, but I'm excited about it. I think it's gonna be, uh, gonna be a dope night. Can
Ari O'Donovan: (31:36)
You give us a little bit more information?
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (31:38)
Yeah, definitely. So the event is called Stats and Stanzas. We're really trying to work with this idea that yeah, we need stats for certain things, but we can also, you know, engage poetry and creative arts, right? To complete that story and round out that story. Right? So Stats and Stanzas is happening on Friday, May 5th, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Robertson Life Science building. R L S B on the south waterfront of the O H S U campus. Yeah, there's gonna be a dj, there's gonna be free food, the event is free. Also bring kids, bring the family, bring the homies, bring the love, bring the notepads. There's gonna be a poetry competition. So come through. We look forward to seeing you. Yeah.
Ari O'Donovan: (32:09)
And I can tell that you've put a lot of work into it. You guys have worked with the kids before this event will ever even have taken place. Shout out to s e i, we did a blog post about them some time ago. And that's another organization that we'll talk about on another episode. I'd love that too. I could say. I think it's going to be very dope and I am gonna try to be there and bring friends so we can see what's going down.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (32:37)
Bring the homies, bring the fam, bring the love. Of course. Right? Like that's what it is, right?
Ari O'Donovan: (32:41)
Number one. Number one thing. I love that. Love that. Yeah. Send me some information. If there's a way that I can advertise or anything on social media, I'll definitely do that on Boost Oregon's social media and Boosting our Voices podcast ig. Yeah, that I'm so excited. You're doing so much cool stuff. I'll get to see you read one of your poetry pieces if I can attend that event. And I've never seen that before, so
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (33:08)
Hopefully I'll have it together. So if you do show up, you see like some type of like something, you know, you won't walk away like though this dude is whack, why did I even tell you? Right? Like, I hope it's together. The good thing is there's gonna be other poets there, so like I don't have to like be too worried about it.
Ari O'Donovan: (33:22)
Yeah. And I'm cheering for you and everybody there. I think it's gonna come together well. Anytime I've ever found that I'm ner I'm nervous to speak or do something like that in public, it's because I care about what I'm doing and it's gonna turn out good because I put time and energy into it and it's something that I'm trying to be here for and present for and show something to somebody. So I think it's gonna turn out good. Thank you for being a guest on Boosting Our Voices. I would love to, in the future, do an update episode, see how things are going, see where that podcast that you have as an idea right now. But I know it'll come to fruition. How is turning out more information, other topics we can discuss? I know that listeners are gonna be ready for that update episode.
Dr. Ryan Petteway: (34:09)
Yeah, yeah. Well I'm definitely down. It's definitely appreciate the invitation to join you today. And I think, yeah, I'm always down for another one.
Ari O'Donovan: (34:14)
Wonderful. Thanks again for being a guest. And as always, I am your host for boosting our Voices and Boost Oregon's Diversity program manager Ira O'Donovan. I've had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Ryan Petway and I'll be here next time. Don't be a stranger. Email us or send us a voice memo at boosting our voices gmail.com with your health related questions. Your questions may even be featured on an upcoming podcast episode. Follow Boost Oregon on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. You can find all of our social media and our website information in the show description below. Until next time, thank you for listening and be well.