Scripps Study: COVID Impacts Lasting Average Of 2 To 3 Months

Speaker 1: 00:00 Using technology to track COVID-19 in the body. This Speaker 2: 00:04 Gives further evidence that long COVID is really impacting many individuals who come down with COVID Speaker 1: 00:11 I'm Jayden, even with Maureen Kavanaugh, this is KPBS good day edition. What's driving a rise in fentanyl use. Speaker 2: 00:27 We're sort of catching up in San Diego now that it's easier for it to be coming here. And now I think we're just seeing a continuing legacy of that. That's been exacerbated by the pandemic. Speaker 1: 00:40 The university of California is taking in more students. And have you ever wanted to fight zombies will take you to a new virtual reality gaming facility that's ahead on midday edition. First, the news Speaker 3: 01:01 Scripts uses activity trackers to spot COVID symptoms and side effects. And why deadly fentanyl is becoming a popular drug. I'm Maureen Kavanaugh with Dre Hyman. This is KPBS mid-day edition. It's Wednesday, July 7th. Speaker 1: 01:27 Can your smart watch or Fitbit detect COVID-19 before symptoms appear? And can those devices tell you how your body is recovering emerging data from an ongoing study with script's research, translational Institute says it's quite possible. Scientists are using activity trackers to look at the physiological and behavioral changes that happened just before symptoms appear and extend months after the infection is gone. Jennifer Raiden is an epidemiologist with the digital medicine division at scripts, and she is leading. What's called the detect study. Uh, Dr. Raden Speaker 2: 02:01 Welcome. Thank you for having me. Speaker 1: 02:03 You are finding common technology like smartwatches to be very helpful and understanding how he COVID-19 infection impacts the body. What have you discovered from people who are wearing these activity trackers? Speaker 2: 02:16 Yeah, so activity trackers can really give us a better view into each individual's unique, normal resting heart rate activity, and sleep patterns when they're healthy. And so when someone comes down with a viral infection, such as COVID, we can identify, um, changes compared to each user's unique, normal to better understand how they are responding to an infection in our current study that just came out. We looked at people's recovery patterns. Um, so how long it took them to go back to their baselines for resting heart rate activity and sleep. And what we found was that on average, it took, um, participants who came down with COVID about two to three months to return to their baseline resting heart rate. Mm. Speaker 1: 03:04 And how do these new findings compare to the current understanding of the impacts of COVID on the body? Speaker 2: 03:10 Yeah. So this is the first time that we've really been able to collect continuous longitudinal objective data from purchase of Pence, to be able to understand what their healthy normal was prior to infection, and then really, uh, follow them continuously over time to really see how their body responded to the infection and how long it is taking to recover. And so this gives further evidence that long COVID is really impacting many individuals who come down with COVID the detect Speaker 1: 03:43 Study previously found that, that these devices may also be able to tell if there's an infection before symptoms show up. How Speaker 2: 03:50 So? Yeah. So, um, when people come down with a viral illness, they may start to see a subtle small change in the resting heart rate, um, even before fever onset or different symptom onset. And so sensors may actually give us an early warning that something is impacting someone's health and that maybe an individual needs to stay at home or be more aware of, of their health in any symptoms that they may develop in the next few days. The study Speaker 1: 04:19 Is ongoing and we'll look at the impact of vaccines. What are you hoping to find out there? Speaker 2: 04:25 There? Um, we're hoping to better understand the physiological and behavioral response to vaccines as well. Um, to compare Pfizer versus Madrona and also compare users who had, um, uh, COVID infection prior to getting their vaccines, how that may impact their, um, physiological response to receiving the vaccine. Uh, we also want to look at different age groups in different gender, um, look at gender as well to see if there's any differences there in response. And ultimately with that study, we, um, hope to in the future create, um, collect biomarkers. Um, so we can compare the physiological response to perhaps immune response. So we think that this can be maybe in the future a way to understand whether an individual has now did, uh, uh, immune response to, with the vaccine. What Speaker 1: 05:17 Other ways might the information in this study be useful? Speaker 2: 05:21 Yeah, so we are currently partnering with the Rockefeller foundation to increase enrollment on specifically in the San Diego county. And our goal is to create an early warning system where we can identify hotspots of viral illness, infection in different communities faster than traditional, um, viral illness detection. So, um, typically, um, surveillance for viral illnesses, um, relies on or relies on people seeking care from their healthcare provider and their healthcare provider, then reporting the number of people they see each week that meet a certain case definition, as well as those who, um, receive testing for COVID and flu. And that system, the traditional system is actually pretty delayed. It takes about one to three weeks before those data are collected and reported. And so we're hoping that with our wearable data, that we can provide an earlier warning in an earlier detection of, um, local outbreak outbreaks that may occur from new strains of COVID, um, or other viral infections, such as flu epidemics Speaker 1: 06:29 And Dr. Rodan, how can people sign up for this study? Speaker 2: 06:32 Yeah, they can go to our research app, which is called my data helps, or you can go to our website, um, detect study.org, and that will direct you to our research app and participants, um, can download our app and then they go through an e-consent process where they learn about our study, and then after that they can share, um, their device data. So we are device agnostic. We can pull in any wearable device that connects to apple health kit or Google fit, and then participants can share with us, um, any symptoms. They may develop vaccination status, any, um, COVID test or flu tests they may receive. And, um, this allows us to compare both the sensor data to what participants are experiencing Speaker 1: 07:20 Speaking with Jennifer Raiden and epidemiologist with the digital medicine division at scripts research translational Institute, who is leading the detect study. Dr. Raden thanks so much. Thank you. Speaker 3: 07:38 After more than a year of pandemic lockdowns and anxieties signs are emerging that the stress has taken a toll on mental health and personal behaviors. One of the worst examples of that is the increase in San Diego county of drug overdose deaths from fentanyl abuse county statistics show that deaths from the synthetic opioid more than doubled in the past two years, while seizures of the drug along the San Diego, Mexico border, continue to rise county health officials project the number of deaths due to fentanyl overdose. This year, we'll reach a staggering 700 people joining me to explain more about this drug and its lethal potential is Dr. Carla Marian Feld, a board certified addiction psychiatrist at UC San Diego who specializes in the treatment of substance abuse, Dr. Marian felled, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me now, how is fentanyl related to heroin and other opioid Speaker 2: 08:36 Drugs? Opioids are any class of medicines that can act on the opioid receptor in the brain. And some of them are derived from natural sources like the poppy plant. So things like morphine and heroin, and to some extent, coding fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. So its structure is different, but still acts on the same receptor in the brain. The difference with fentanyl versus some of the naturally derived opioids, is that it's much more potent. So you just need a very, very small amount to achieve a high or a pleasurable effect. And you just need a tiny, tiny bit more to actually overdose or have a very negative effect. Is it cheaper than say heroin? It's cheaper in the sense that you need much less to have a similar effect. So in many ways it ends up being a cheaper product to have a more effective, efficient, high, but with greater risks. And is Speaker 3: 09:33 The reason that there are so many overdoses is because people are unfamiliar in how to use this as opposed to heroin. Speaker 2: 09:41 I think that there's greater public knowledge about the risks of fentanyl, but there's also a mix of people who are using it. So for some people in the community, there is a preference for fentanyl because it is potent and it's a preferable high. They end up using it without really knowing or recognizing that it's in the supply of heroin or other opioids that they might be obtaining or increasingly where we're seeing it as in the supply of methamphetamine that people are using. But for some they're not necessarily aware, does fentanyl have any legitimate use? It's been around for a long time as a very helpful analgesic for patients with cancer pain, or other types of chronic pain. It wasn't till about 2013 that somebody realized the cheaper, more potent high that you could get with fentanyl. And it started coming into our illicit drug supply. And that's where we really saw this dramatic rise in opioid overdoses that had been steadily increasing since the early two thousands with oxycodone and with heroin, but just dramatically increased with the introduction of fentanyl to the illicit supply in 2013. What kinds of Speaker 3: 10:51 Challenges does fentanyl addiction present when treating someone for substance abuse? Speaker 2: 10:56 It actually makes things a lot more complicated. Unlike many other addictions, we actually have really good medications to help people with opioid use disorders with opioids. We have methadone, we have buprenorphine and we have once monthly injectable naltrexone. And these are all three medications that have dramatic benefits to reducing opioid cravings, reducing opioid overdoses, reducing mortality, improving life functioning, et cetera. So the challenge with fentanyl is that it's much harder to get patients started on these medications. Doctor, Speaker 3: 11:31 What are you finding out about the pandemic's effect on opioid addiction? Speaker 2: 11:36 We've had signals since early on in the pandemic of worsening rates of substance use across all substances. Particularly alcohol has made a lot of press, but we've seen it with opioid use disorder as well. The pandemic has done many things. It's interrupted drug supplies. So people are more likely to have disruptions in their use, which can lead to some desperate behaviors or trying to obtain things that are more risky. For example, in addition with all of the stressors that everyone in our society is facing isolation, mental health, et cetera, those things are already things that exacerbate substance use disorders and were just intensified and increased during the pandemic. You mentioned Speaker 3: 12:20 Fentanyl is new in terms of opioids. And when we know about heroin, we know about Oxycontin, but fentanyl is basically the new drug on our streets. Are we still catching up in terms of how we go about addressing this problem in our community? Speaker 2: 12:35 So fentanyl is newer to San Diego because we have some interesting dynamics in San Diego where methamphetamine has been such a prevalent substance of misuse. And there's been a lot of access to that because fentanyl is so potent, you need just a small amount of it. So it's actually easier to distribute and smuggle into the country as opposed to the quantities you would need for heroin. And so that's changed what's available in San Diego. So fentanyl was really a big problem in the United States, starting in the early 2010s, particularly around 2013, but we're sort of catching up in San Diego now that it's easier for it to be coming here. And we are seeing these change in what people are using in our community. And now I think we're just seeing a continuing legacy of that. That's been exacerbated by the pandemic. Speaker 3: 13:29 I've working with Dr. Carla Marian Feld, a board certified addiction psychiatrist at UC SD and Dr. Marian Feld. Thank you very Speaker 2: 13:37 Much. Thank you for having me. Speaker 3: 13:40 UC schools should accept more California students. That's the cry from critics. Who've watched the number of out of state and international students climb at state universities in this year's budget, California legislators included funding language that orders UC San Diego, UCLA, and UC Berkeley to cut their out of state undergraduate admissions by about 4% estimates are that will free up a total of 4,500 extra California admissions. And the budget also sets a target of expanding UC admissions in the next two years by more than 6,000 students. And all of them must come from California. Joining me is San Diego union Tribune, reporter Gary Robbins and Gary. Welcome. Thank you so much. How much have out of state and international admissions increased at UC San Diego? Speaker 4: 14:32 It's been explosive. Um, over the past 10 years, the number of international students for example, has gone from about 2000. We have to 8,000, the number of California residents has increased by about 5,000, excuse me, 500 students up to approximately 2000. So a lot of the growth of the university has been from people who are from outside the state of California, Speaker 3: 14:53 And is the increase in those Steve students, all about the extra tuition that they bring to the school. Speaker 4: 15:00 And it is mostly about that, but not entirely. So this is a dilemma with taxpayers. Taxpayers are saying that they want more of their kids allowed into the UC, the people that qualify, but at the same time, over the past 20 years, taxpayers have also been saying, well, we really don't want you to increase the funding for the UC system that pressured the UC system, particularly some of the larger campuses into going elsewhere, like out of state and internationally, uh, to bring in students who pay more than a two and a half times intuition. So it's partly that they're also trying to create universities here that have a more global outlook, particularly in San Diego, which is a Pacific rim, a city and a city on the border, but it is this mostly has to do with money. Speaker 3: 15:44 And how does this new state budget compensate the UCS for cutting out-of-state admissions? Speaker 4: 15:51 So it appears that the state assumes that it's going to cost about $184,000 over the next four years for the three campuses to reduce the number of undergraduates from other places and replace them with California's. They haven't appropriated all of that money, but the legislature is on track to do that. So they're essentially buying out the out of state and international students. Speaker 3: 16:14 Why exactly is there criticism about the number of out-of-state UC admissions and where is that criticism coming from? Speaker 4: 16:22 A lot of the criticism comes from prospective students and from their parents. Um, they've rightfully point to the fact that their children would qualify for entrance into the UC system under the current standards. And California, as you know, has been growing and the number of high school graduates who qualify for the UC has been improving. So there's quite a pipeline of, um, California based students who want to get into the UC. And many of those students want to get into particular schools like the Hoya, UCLA and Berkeley they're are considered to be the most prestigious and, um, a school like San Diego has been growing so fast. There's just a lot of dynamic energy there. And people are seeing it as a place that is really a fun and interesting place to be. Speaker 3: 17:03 And apparently California politicians are feeling that pressure from parents. Speaker 4: 17:08 They really getting it. I talked to Phil ting and he was just directly echoing the sentiments of parents saying, this is wrong. This is fundamentally wrong. That, um, you know, these parents are taxpayers and yet many of their kids aren't able to get into the UC because students are being given those slots from other places. Now, chancellor Kozol at UC San Diego says that there's never been a California student who didn't get in rightfully during his term at the expense of, um, of an out-of-state student and, um, an international student. Some parents are not buying that argument, but that is the one that the chancellor made. What Speaker 3: 17:46 Was chancellor Koestler's overall to this cut in out-of-state students, Speaker 4: 17:52 Very practical. I've known him for a long time now. So the conversation was very down to earth. He says, we will do this. We will do it over the five-year period. Um, and he is hopeful that the university system will get the money, the replacement money that the legislature says it will give. If it doesn't get that money, they could be in a world of hurt and you referenced something else. Marine that could be really difficult, uh, as part of the budget language, they said, in addition to do all these things, we want the UC system to add 6,200 students. We're talking about freshmen now, undergraduate freshmen next fall. Well, that's a very, very large increase in students in a one-year period. And if they go ahead with those 6,200 students, well, a lot of them will end up at LA Jolla because it has more room to exp to expand, but it's also difficult because UC San Diego has been growing so fast. That is kind of tripping on its growth right now. Um, it has 40,000 students. It is it expecting a very large record enrollment this fall fall 21. And then if you go ahead and expand the system further next year, that just makes it more difficult for UC San Diego to keep up with the pace. The chancellor is saying that the infrastructure is not keeping up with the number of students. So they're really choking on, um, building problems and, uh, growth problems right now Speaker 3: 19:12 In speaking with San Diego union Tribune, reporter Gary Robbins, Gary, thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Speaker 1: 19:23 San Diego county is spending more than a million dollars to set up an office of environmental and climate justice supervisor Nora Vargas asked to create the office and all her fellow board members agreed KPBS environment. Reporter Eric Anderson sat down with Vargas and recently discussed the initiative Speaker 5: 19:41 For me. It was really important to create an office of environmental and climate justice. That really was going to ensure that you had folks that were going to be looking every day. Their job is to wake up and look at, um, the world from an environmental and climate justice lens, which means looking at environmental racism, racism, right in our communities, which means looking at, you know, that talks the toxins, um, in our region, uh, you know, the contamination and, and it, it was bigger. You know, it was part of my bigger environmental package, but for me, it was really important that we had an office that, that really is going to have people who are dedicated to looking at the world from that lens, Speaker 6: 20:21 Help me define environmental justice as you we're Speaker 5: 20:27 Really proud of being a binational community. But if you think about, uh, the emissions from the long hours, uh, folks waiting at the border, um, all of these issues are impacting the community that because of their zip code have been, uh, you know, greatly, I think hurt by these policies that didn't really take them into consideration. Speaker 6: 20:53 Can you give me an example of how this county office might impact a piece of legislation that the supervisors would consider? Speaker 5: 21:03 What I keep saying to folks is for a long time, it's the nonprofit organizations, environmental justice organizations that have been doing the work that government should have been doing from the beginning. And so what we're doing now is government is taking that responsibility and ensuring that folks have the information that they need, and that we are actually going to be able to get their input as we're making, um, you know, the policies moving forward. Why Speaker 6: 21:27 Do you think the supervisors are ready to make this change? Speaker 5: 21:30 I came here to do a job on behalf of the community and that's, and that's what we're doing. And so this was a new board of supervisors. We have the will and, and, uh, to really make a difference and we have a short amount of time to do it. And so we have no time to waste Speaker 6: 21:45 Community members have been raising these issues, but why is it now that this is sort of, kind of coalescing in organizations that have the ability to make change? Speaker 5: 21:56 I mean, I think it goes back to decades of organizing in our communities, right? I mean, I started this work 25 years ago and we have all, um, worked side-by-side in terms of doing the, the equity minded work. Right. And whether it's healthcare, the environment, economic justice issues, uh, transportation, housing, we know that they're all integrated. And I think if anything, the last administration demonstrated how important making decisions based on science is for our communities. Right. I think about how COVID, I think has, you know, when we talk about the impact of COVID, particularly in communities of color, the Latino community, um, the communities across the county of San Diego, zip, again, it was the issue of, of where you lived that made a difference on whether or not you were going to have access, um, to vaccines or access to, to testing. And we shifted that around in a really short amount of time, because we looked at the data and we looked at, uh, the health equity index. Speaker 5: 23:01 And we decided that that's what we were going to prioritize because the county of San Diego is the safety net for so many folks that for many reasons, haven't have had access, you know, for years. And so for me, I think it's, it really is, um, a new day in the county of San Diego. And I think for what you're seeing in government, it's a real true partnership between elected officials and, um, community organizations and advocates. And, and I do believe that the will of county staff is there to be able to make the difference that Speaker 1: 23:36 Was supervisor Nora Vargas speaking with KPBS environment, reporter Eric Anderson, as the state braces for another summer of record heat and extreme weather. The need for longterm climate resilience is becoming more and more apparent a recent report put out by the American planning association and the Scripps institution of oceanography underscores the need here in San Diego in it, the report underlines the potential threat that the region may face due to climate change and lays out a framework for how San Diego might address future climate resiliency challenges. Joining me with more is Carrie lo of the American planning association and Julie, Kurlansky a climate scientist at Scripps institution of oceanography and the co lead author on the report. Welcome to you both. Speaker 2: 24:29 Thank you. So, Julie, Speaker 1: 24:31 Can you tell us what are some of the main climate challenges facing San Diego that are laid out in the report? Speaker 2: 24:38 Some of the main climate challenges that we have, and that, you know, we'll start to experience this summer are the extreme heat and heat waves. Also what we, and what we're experienced right now is extreme drought. Along with that extreme drought, we also have the flip side of that and our most extreme rainfall events and storms will actually are projected to become larger. And then in addition to that, what we're seeing is a longterm sea level rise, which will be punctuated by like extremes that can also cause flooding and erosion along our shores. Speaker 1: 25:10 How will these challenges impact everything from infrastructure to public health and safety here in San Diego, Speaker 2: 25:17 When taking combine, as you mentioned, these extremes have, will impact public health. And also that, especially with the flooding and erosion can impact our infrastructure. Uh, and the report also points out that the co-occurrence of these extreme events, which are also sometimes called a compounding events, extreme events can cause a Kindle has even greater stress stressors on public health and infrastructure. Speaker 1: 25:43 And Carrie, from your perspective, what are your thoughts on Speaker 2: 25:46 This? Well, we recognize how vulnerable the San Diego region is to climate change impacts. And we're happy that there's a lot of planning going on to address that. But our concern is that with all the plans that are being prepared at the state level, the regional level, the local city level, that there needs to be much greater coordination among all of that planning, different agents fees have different focuses. Some are more comprehensive than others. A big theme of our report is that, uh, first of all, the different levels of government need to coordinate with one another better. And then within our region, the different agencies, the regional ones, the like the county water authority or SANDAG, as well as the individual cities and other local agencies all need to be talking to one another more, uh, coordinating their better, uh, and sharing information. And Speaker 1: 26:47 Carrie following up on that, a key note from the report is that while there are many existing efforts to address climate change within the region, it's critical to coordinate these efforts together, to maximize their effectiveness. Has that kind of coordination been a challenge in the past? Speaker 2: 27:05 Yeah, it has been a challenge, uh, you know, within our region we have of course the county government, and then we have all the individual cities, each of which have their own general plans, their own climate action plans, uh, and various other kinds of plans that relate in one way or another to climate change. So they do have venues in which they can, uh, collaborate, uh, like sandbag, the San Diego association of governments. They're also are agencies that span all of them like the county water authority, and yet it remains a challenge. And we hope that our report will be something of an impetus to all these local government agencies to recognize the value, uh, for all of them in better collaboration. Speaker 1: 27:54 And also carry since the city of San Diego already has a climate action plan that was updated last year. How does this report build on what the city is already doing to address the effects of climate change? Speaker 2: 28:06 They a shortcoming, if you will, of many of the climate action plans is that while they address reducing greenhouse gas emissions, uh, in various ways, they don't do as good a job of addressing how to make their jurisdictions more resilient in the face of climate change. In other words, I, on the assumption that we're going to have some amount of climate change impacts, how do we make our cities and the county and individual neighborhoods able to better withstand those impacts and bounce back from them? And that's really the notion of resilience. So what we're advocating is not that they do anything different than what they're doing, but that they do more things. In addition that is focused equally on resilience and adaptation, as much as they are on, uh, on greenhouse gas reduction. And Julie, Speaker 1: 29:06 The report also goes into how certain efforts will play a role in working toward environmental justice for communities that have been historically oppressed, exploited, and neglected. Uh, can you tell us more about that Speaker 2: 29:20 These communities that you refer to, which we should for short and recall environmental justice or EGA communities tend to be either low-income areas, um, communities of color, Indian reservations, uh, just some rural areas, uh, areas that are, uh, for various reasons, more susceptible to climate change impacts. Uh, they may be, um, uh, located in places that are more vulnerable and more to the point that have historically been deprived of financial and other resources. So they don't have, uh, for example, as much a tree cover for shade, they may be more subject to coastal flooding, um, a whole host of, of ways in which they are often more vulnerable to, or subject to climate change impacts. So, uh, another big thrust of our report is to, uh, show how all of these plans and actions to address greater resilience should be looked at through a, uh, or I'll call a lens of environmental justice. So that those communities that have historically been deprived of resources, uh, will get the resources they need to catch up and be better prepared going forward. Speaker 1: 30:41 And Julie, is there anything else you'd like to add on this sort of climate challenges that San Diego has historically faced that this report takes into account and what measures need to be taken in the near future to prevent further damage Speaker 2: 30:55 In terms of preventing future damage? I think a lot of this is thinking about incorporating what the possibilities that climate change presents in terms of extreme, extreme events and the vulnerabilities to that. And so, as I mentioned before, this idea of looking at co-occurring or sequence of events that may happen back to back that add additional stressors is increasingly important because these are, I would say some of the most extreme events. And so by planning for some of them the most extreme, it prepares for the events that may not be quite as extreme. I've Speaker 1: 31:30 Been speaking with Carrie lo of the American planning association and Julie Kolinsky a climate scientist at Scripps institution of oceanography and the co lead author of the report. Thank you both for joining us. Speaker 2: 31:43 You're welcome. Thank you for having us. We're Speaker 1: 31:46 Listening to KPBS midday edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen Kavanaugh sandbox VR opened shortly before the pandemic hit and just recently reopened located in the mission valley shopping center. The virtual reality or VR gaming facility allows groups of up to six players to fight zombies, alien bugs, or each other in KPBS arts reporter, Beth Armando went with some friends to check it out. Speaker 7: 32:14 Oh, businesses love to hear their clients screaming. Speaker 8: 32:17 So the screaming is basically our customers, you know, enjoying themselves to their fullest. Speaker 7: 32:22 Welcome to sandbox VR. Speaker 8: 32:26 So sandbox is a fully immersive virtual reality experience. We offer five different experience, Amber sky Deadwood, Krista Davy Jones, star Trek, and also our fight one, which is UFL our group Speaker 7: 32:36 Opted for Deadwood mansion. We dubbed team Romero and geared up to battle the zombies with the help of sandbox manager, Jordan. Yeah, Speaker 8: 32:44 This is room one. Each one of these rooms look exactly like this. Maybe in somewhat of a different configuration. We do have the backpacks over here and the backpacks is what powers, the experiences. And then we have trackers. We have four trackers twos for your legs and two for your arms. And then we also have the haptic vests to have the vest. It's, what's going to allow you to feel that end game damage. So if your friend is shooting you or of a villainous shooting you or a zombie, she's like hitting you and in your face, that's what you're going to feel. Go ahead and put on your office. Speaker 9: 33:09 It was a VR game. Uh, it was a horror experience where we got to shoot some and, uh, Raff, lots of rats. I screamed a lot. My throat even hurt Speaker 7: 33:27 Flamenco. Sario killed more rats than zombies. Speaker 9: 33:30 Uh, the exterminator of the group, cause rats freaked me out. Then they were coming towards me and I was just like Speaker 7: 33:41 Hosea Koriaga was also on team Romero. It's Speaker 10: 33:43 Crazy how you actually get into the horror feudal. And you actually get like freaked out about things that are coming at Speaker 7: 33:49 You. Viviana Grondahl is an experienced gamer, but usually plays at home on a computer with a keyboard and Speaker 9: 33:54 Mouse. This was my first like fully immersive VR experience where I got to play with other players and see other players. And that part was so much better than just an alone experience with VR. Just being aware of your surroundings and your teammates and being able to heal each other. That was hilarious. Speaker 7: 34:10 Yeah, we did a lot, but it touch on the shoulder can revive a player that was shoulder to shoulder. This was Gavin Bowl's first experience with virtual reality gaming. Speaker 10: 34:21 It was okay. It was very, uh, immersive, very realistic and uh, made my heart pound Speaker 7: 34:28 As a concept artist. [inaudible] appreciated the games, design Speaker 10: 34:33 Environment. So well done that you feel like you're in it. Totally Speaker 9: 34:35 Immersive. The sounds the field, you get equipped with a haptic responsive best. So when something's touching you or attacking you you're feeling it. So it is completely immersive. It's cool. Cause you get, you know, a 360 view. So it's like, you're really in that place. I liked the fact that the Sambas came out from different places. You have to be like, you know, on your feet the whole time, like looking out and all the entrances and the stairs Speaker 10: 35:07 Stairs, stairs, stairs, it's fun. Speaker 9: 35:12 They give you guns. So you get to shoot at stuff. I have two handguns and I figured I could have a little bit more blast radius. If I have two hands to shoot with just one, it Speaker 10: 35:23 Did start very slow, but once it gets going and they explain everything to you and you get everything all geared up, it's very fast paced. Speaker 9: 35:30 It starts off pretty like a pretty manageable level. And it's quickly picked up pace. Uh, you start getting more enemies, different mechanics. So you kind of have to figure out what's going on around you and be aware of everything around you. So it goes, it goes by pretty quickly escalate quickly. Speaker 10: 35:44 I think my favorite part would probably be watching the video afterwards. Speaker 9: 35:50 That video was so funny because you're equipped with all of your gear and you're seeing things that you think it looked pretty bad as, and then you watch yourself and you're wailing Speaker 7: 35:59 Hosea [inaudible] AKA bath, but the team's MVP. Speaker 10: 36:03 Yes. I was pleasantly surprised about that because I did die a few times. But uh, yeah, I guess that shotgun group Tandy, Speaker 7: 36:11 So kudos to team Romero for fighting off most of the zombies for KPBS muse. This is Bob, the untouchable. I mean Beth, like a Mondo sandbox. Speaker 1: 36:20 VR requires masks and non-vaccinated guest and sanitizes all gear between gaming sessions Speaker 3: 36:30 With the return to live music in San Diego. Many local bands will finally get to perform again for an audience on a stage this summer joining me is KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans to discuss some brand new music from some of San Diego's local bands, including a few shows. You might want to dust off your calendars as well as your headphones. Welcome Juliet. Speaker 11: 36:55 Hi Maureen. Thanks for having me Speaker 3: 36:57 Now. First up is Jelani RA and we're all excited to kick off our KPBS summer music series later this month with Jelani. Julia, tell us about this track. You picked overexposed. Speaker 11: 37:09 This is from his forthcoming album. I've got some living to do, which will be out July 30th. And I personally am pretty much in full Jelani REA hype mode right now. And so is the rest of the world. He's getting about 1.2 million monthly streams on Spotify. So he is Filipino African-American and grew up in inland San Diego. It definitely brings a sensibility to his music of being kind of stifled by that suburban upbringing and a definite wisdom beyond his relative youth. But his music is really bright and refreshing. And I love the latest single overexposed. There's tons of really rich texture and layered vocals. And it just feels really original it's chock full of honest kind of questioning lyrics like the repeated first-line. Why do I do the things I do Speaker 12: 38:01 Do, uh, do the, uh, uh, just to fund the clothes, Speaker 3: 38:26 The clothes that's overexposed by RA. And now we have a concert you're excited about Julia and a brand new single from San Diego musician, Juliana, Zachary. You tell us about Becky Speaker 11: 38:46 Zachary, who is also putting on the finishing touches to a new album and she's getting ready to headline at soda bar on July 24th. And she's a somewhat recent transplant from Nashville. And I feel like we're pretty lucky that we caught her here, her music streaming and it's inventive pop it's really earnest and grounded as well as being kind of whimsical. And I find that this latest track Becky is just a really great love letter. So total image to the kind of love and romance, that's really steadfast like how magical some of the really mundane stuff could be like buying a carpet for your house is one of the lines in there. Indie fans should definitely have Juliana Zachary on their radars. Speaker 12: 39:36 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 39:58 Jackie is a new single from Juliana Zachary. You she'll perform at soda bar on July 24th. Next is an older track night end day. Sometimes nonsense helps by Irenie who will perform this weekend at high tea, a fundraising gala from arts organization, the hill street country club. Tell us about this track. Speaker 11: 40:19 This one is from 2018 by local singer songwriter. Ireni otherwise known as Irene west. And I love the sentiment here in this track that sometimes nonsense helps you get through some pretty bleak times. Her vocals are delicate, but also really strong at the same time. It's a great balance. And she has a really impressive range and just really creative songwriting and production. And yeah, she will be part of the lineup for high tea in Oceanside that's on Sunday, the 11th, the sacred souls will also be performing at that show as well as a bundle. Would it be, would it be bruh Speaker 3: 41:21 Night and day? Sometimes nonsense helps by Irenie SD state of mind. Volume one is a new compilation of local hip hop acts. Tell us about this and Julia, which you picked. Speaker 11: 41:34 Yeah, it's an anthology with 16 new tracks from some of San Diego's best hip hop artists. The entire album is great. Start to finish. There's a ton of variety and they're also having an album release show on July 14th at the Casbah, including some open mic time before and after the main show. And it was really hard to pick a standout track. So I just kind of went for the one with the most contributors. It's like an all-star batting lineup. This one is for the culture. It's a remix of a track from a few years ago with Kali and Ralph quasar also featuring Rick scales, Cali, the dreamer real J Wallace, Mickey veil, Apollo, and Beto Perez. Each artist here really brings their own style to their clip, but it never feels disjointed. There's this hypnotic refrain and some melodic flourishes. They really unify the whole song. And I'm partial to rapper Mickey Vale's kind of rye comparison to kombucha. I love the original version of the song that was from last fall that this remix feels just as essential. Oh, Speaker 12: 42:41 Oh motion. I'm like kombucha. I grew up with the culture. You still live with your mama. So you do a full exposure to all these K to play promoters. Got me losing my composure as Pam always show him love. When I pull up to the jams, they treat me like this star. So I shine like a prison, got bars and bars, the Palm bars prison Speaker 3: 43:03 For the culture remix from SD state of mind anthology, the album release show will take place Wednesday, July 14th at the Casbah and now for a female fronted emo rock band. Tell us about rain on Fridays. Speaker 11: 43:18 These are two young women out of Solana beach and they just released a new track a few weeks ago called no feet mailman. It's a little bit absurd and a little bit fun, but it's also kind of sad, but I really love their kind of irreverent girl rock that always works and ran on Fridays. We're doing a tennis shows, right when the pandemic hit and they recently recorded a fresh squeezed live session. And you can watch that on YouTube for now to hold you over until they start performing Speaker 12: 43:49 Again. [inaudible], Speaker 3: 44:11 That's no feat mailman by rain on Fridays. You can find links to listen to each of these tracks, plus a Spotify playlist@kpbs.org. And I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer, Julia Dixon, Evans, and Julia as always. Thank you so much. Thank you, Marie.