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♪ ♪ From Maryland Public Television, this is "Direct Connection" with Jeff Salkin.

[ typewriter keys clacking].

JEFF SALKIN: Local writers making their mark on the publishing world.

I'm Jeff Salkin, and welcome to a special program featuring the best of our conversations with leading writers.

We begin with many of today's young people struggling to navigate an increasingly complex world.

Lisa Lawson, the CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, looks at the brain science in her new book.

You are not the first person to wonder, "What is wrong with adolescent brains?"

The question is as old as mankind, isn't it?

LISA LAWSON: It is, but we should teach young people more about their brains, and parents should get more information about adolescent brains.

There's actually so much interesting happening in that part of a young person's life.

SALKIN: Tell us about the book.

What age range are you focused on?

LAWSON: Well, "Thrive" is about adolescence, which is roughly the years between 14 and 24.

People often think that it's the same as puberty, and it is not.

Puberty is a biological change in the young person's life, but adolescence actually lasts longer, and it's a period of profound cognitive, emotional, and social development that lasts into your mid 20s.

Hopefully, at the end of that, you're a well functioning adult.

What are we at the beginning of that?

We're kids, I guess.

LAWSON: We are.

Adolescence is really the bridge between childhood and adulthood, and we want to make sure that all young people make it across that bridge safely and successfully so that they can enter adulthood with independence.

SALKIN: The process of adolescence when it comes to the brain different for boys and girls, men and women?

LAWSON: They're all going through the same process.

It might happen at a different pace, not necessarily just because of gender, but because of other environmental circumstances a young person might be going through.

If they are growing up in adversity, maybe surrounded by poverty, that's going to restrict the kinds of resources and opportunities they have, but not necessarily because of gender.

SALKIN: Does it have a physical impact on the brain and its structures if somebody grows up with great challenges?

LAWSON: You know, the brain grows back to the front.

The last part of our brains to develop is the front.

It's called the prefrontal cortex, and it controls cognitive thinking, emotional regulation, and how we build deeper relationships.

If a young person grows up in adversity, it doesn't mean that that development isn't going to happen; it just may be delayed in happening.

And what we know is that connection to adults who can help guide them through life actually helps the healing process for young people.

SALKIN: A lot of young people don't want anything to do with adults.

So we think -- LAWSON: I don't think that's necessarily true.

It's a time when young people are definitely building deeper relationships with their peers, but they are also keenly aware of the challenges and the navigation they need to make it through life.

Maybe more so now because of how complex life is.

So while we might think young people aren't listening to us, they absolutely are, and are desperate for guides, whether it's coaches or mentors.

It might not always be their parents that they are excited to listen to, but they definitely want the advice of adults to help them navigate life.

SALKIN: You're a big time foundation CEO, not a scientist, but what has changed on the science?

Has anything changed on the science side of this?

I'm thinking about all the developments put people's brains into MRI scanners and almost tell what they're thinking these days.

LAWSON: You know, I'm not a neurologist, so I can't answer all of that, but I do know we've done a lot more study to understand how these changes happen, the context that helps them happen more positively similar to what we learned about early childhood 40 or 50 years ago, and the neurons to neighborhoods research.

So adolescence is having a moment, if you will.

SALKIN: I told you before the show, one of the most interesting, no doubt, the most interesting courses I took in college, I stumbled into because I needed some type of elective, and it was Developmental Psych.

And it was dealing with young kids, the idea that there's a period of time where language acquisition can take place.

The brain is designed to learn a language up until about age seven.

You can do it after that; you just can't do it as efficiently.

You wind up with an accent.

The whole field fascinates me.

LAWSON: It really is amazing to really understand how we develop as humans.

That early childhood science is really important; it helps us know how to get kids off on the right foot.

But you can't stop at five; you've got to keep going.

And that's where the adolescent science comes in.

And it's exciting to think about what's happening in the brain and to actually educate young people about what's happening.

It gives them a lot more empathy for themselves, and I think it would give parents a lot more empathy, too, if they understood.

SALKIN: Does any adolescent know that?

I mean, does anybody tell them, "Hey, you know, your brain's not fully developed yet?"

LAWSON: Sometimes.

My daughter had a forward thinking biology teacher who told her in the ninth grade, and when she got in trouble, she would say, "But my prefrontal cortex isn't developed yet."

So that knowledge can be power if it's given to them.

But it does help them understand why they might have more trouble regulating their emotions or why they have trouble following -- multistep tasks.

It's all because their brain isn't fully developed yet.

SALKIN: Is that why they're bad drivers?

You know, boys in particular?

I mean, you think about them being less risk averse than older people, whether that's just lack of experience, hormones, or something else.

LAWSON: Well, their brains are wired for new experiences.

We often call that risky, but it's really creating new contexts for them to have experiences that help them learn.

And if you understand that about young people, you can create positive opportunities for them to have new experiences, not negative ones.

SALKIN: Long tension in Maryland and other places when it comes to juvenile justice is one of the issues that the Casey Foundation deals with.

And we'll talk more about your work there, but there's always tension between progressives and conservatives about how lenient or harsh the juvenile justice system ought to be.

Does this inform your views about that?

LAWSON: It does.

We want young people to be held accountable when they make mistakes, but it's a good question of how that should happen.

And we've learned a lot over the last 25 years about what helps get young people back on track.

And what we know about the brain science is they're motivated by reward, not by punishment.

And so creating incentives as a part of the justice system is an important way to help them get back on track.

But when we talk to young people who made mistakes, it is never a facility or a program that helps them turn their lives around; it's always a person.

And so we think it's most important to make sure those young people have connections because that is what's going to give them real accountability in relationships with others.

SALKIN: That person is probably an adult, it could be a family member, it could be a teacher.

How important is it to, as a society, facilitate that?

Even if the 18, 19, 22 year old maybe doesn't seem to be all ears.

LAWSON: It's extremely important.

As I said, you might think they're not listening, but they absolutely are.

And young people want mentorship.

I always hear that.

They want someone to help them figure out, "What should I major in?

What career should I pursue?

How do I bounce back from this setback that I've had?"

They know adults have navigated pivots in their lives before and really want someone to help them figure things out.

SALKIN: Interesting choice of the person who wrote the foreword to the book the Governor of Maryland, Wes Moore.

LAWSON: He is a person whose mother worked at the foundation that I lead.

So I got to know him first as the son of Joy Moore, who worked at the Foundation.

The governor was in his teenage years when she came to work for the foundation, but he also wrote a quintessential book about adolescence, "The Other Wes Moore."

And really, I think, exemplifies what the book is trying to tell us that young people can go in different directions, but it's important to make sure that they've got the supports they need, the opportunities to open doors for them, and relationships that help guide them forward.

SALKIN: Tell us about the foundation for people who haven't heard of it before.

It was tied to the UPS fortune.

And I believe you used to work for UPS before you came to this position, which was how long ago?

LAWSON: I've been at the Casey Foundation for 14 years.

It was started by Jim Casey, who was the founder of UPS.

He started UPS as a 19 year old who had dropped out of school in the third grade to support his mom and siblings when his father passed away.

I think the work we do around adolescents couldn't be more of a testament to the brilliance of a 19 year old who created the world's largest logistics company.

He cared deeply about teenagers.

SALKIN: And that's what the mission of the foundation is.

LAWSON: So the foundation focuses on helping all young people have a bright future, but particularly those who face challenges, who might be system involved child welfare, juvenile justice systems, as you mentioned who are growing up in low income families.

We want to make sure that families have financial stability.

Then neighborhoods, safer, healthier places for them to grow up.

So we work all over the country on those issues.

SALKIN: But you're sited in Baltimore.

That hasn't always been the case.

LAWSON: We have been based in Baltimore for the last 25 years.

We were founded in Seattle, moved to New York.

The company moved to Atlanta, and we moved to Baltimore.

SALKIN: In what way do you feel you've made the greatest impact?

So billions of dollars, and you have a clear mission, and we know a lot about brain science now.

What's been the most effective program that you've funded?

LAWSON: Oh, boy, that's a hard question.

Over 60 years of programs.

SALKIN: What works?

Maybe what don't you fund anymore?

LAWSON: I think the work that, one, provide data through our Kids Count data report to help all of us make better decisions about young people has been really important.

We have had a focus on basic needs for families for the entirety of our existence, and we know how important it is for kids to have safe housing, to have food, to have health care.

That continues to be important.

And to make sure that young people have a pathway to independence with jobs and education.

SALKIN: In just a couple seconds, would you want to be an adolescent today?

LAWSON: It's hard.

Life has changed a lot, but I certainly think that we have all the tools we need to build a stronger bridge for young people.

SALKIN: Lisa Lawson's book is Thrive: How the Science of the Adolescent Brain Helps Us Imagine a Better Future for All Children.

SALKIN: Now, former NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith cracks open the league's playbook in his book, "Turf Wars."

You were the longtime head of the NFL Players Association, which is basically the union.

What period of time was this?

SMITH: From 2009 to 2023.

My legacy, the person that I replaced, was a legend named Gene Upshaw, who, unfortunately, I never met, and tragically passed away from cancer a year and a half before I took the job.

But Gene left a great organization to run, and I tried to run it the way that he did.

SALKIN: What were the big events, the big highlights of your tenure?

SMITH: Well, you know, I came in and took over a small case about an alleged group of New Orleans Saints who put bounties on other players, and that turned into Bounty Gate.

Not long after that, I represented Colin Kaepernick, represented Tom Brady during Deflategate, went through a lockout of 143 days, signed a collective bargaining agreement in 2011, a second one in 2020.

And when I thought that I was finally done, I actually had to do another collective bargaining agreement to make our way through COVID.

So I had a few bumps and things along the way, but it was a job of a lifetime.

SALKIN: How difficult is it to keep that union unified?

You've got the Tom Bradys, the superstars of the world, and then you kind of have rank and file players, and their interests may not always align.

SMITH: The toughest part, honestly, was just doing battle with the owners every day, in all honesty.

I mean, one of the things that I always tried to do with our players is instead of focusing on the things that separate us whether it's a Tom Brady or a backup linebacker, the thing They have in common is they're playing a very dangerous game.

The careers are incredibly short, and the goal is to get more out of football than football gets out of our men.

So if you can focus them on the things that they need, healthcare, a safe workplace, making sure we can control what happens to them to the extent that we can on the field and off and focusing our players on this issue of these careers being so short, the owners were on the teams for generations.

And as a result, you have to be a strong union.

SALKIN: You know, the joke that NFL stands for "Not For Long," of course, and the average career reportedly three years.

Does that make it difficult when you're going to the mat and, you know, there was a lockout and say hypothetical players, have been in for two years, it's that colleges are creating people who are going to be coming for his job.

I'm thinking he wants to play in year three and bank some money, not being on a picket line.

SMITH: And that's hard.

And that is you hit the nail on the head.

That's the tension.

The careers are so short that literally the value proposition of going to a young man and saying, "I want you to go on strike for one year and lose one third of your earning capacity.

And by the way, that is going to inure to the benefit of players who come after you far more than it's going to benefit the current class of players."

That's a tough value proposition.

What you have to do, though, is you have to make that value proposition.

And what I tried to do was link it to history.

Free agency, just to put it in perspective the National Football League spent $4 billion on free agency this year, $4 billion.

$2.5 billion of that $4 billion was fully guaranteed money.

The fight for free agency started with the NFL players in 1971 with a Baltimore Colt named John Mackey.

It didn't end until 1993 with a player named Reggie White.

So the story that I try to tell players is, yes, you're only going to play for three years.

Yes, this might be one year of your earning capacity.

But the only reason you have free agency, the only reason you have a pension, the only reason that you have healthcare, is guys like John Mackey and Reggie White fought for those things for you.

And many of them sacrificed and lost their jobs.

My job as a union leader is to make sure that they understand and appreciate that in a way that keeps us together as a union.

SALKIN: On the other side of that, I read that you don't speak to Joe Montana to this day.

Why is that?

SMITH: You know, going back to that history, I tried to run the NFLPA just like a labor union, and probably one of the greatest education points that I had was, I was able to sit down with Marvin Miller, the longtime head of the baseball union, for a number of sessions before he died.

But I also, thanks to a man named Rich Trumka, joined the executive council of the AFL CIO.

And I have to tell you, Jeff, I wasn't a hardcore labor person when I started the job.

But by the time you get to a lockout, you become a hardcore labor person.

And the fact that Joe Montana at the time was the highest paid NFL player, and yet he crossed the picket line and left his teammates on the sideline, fighting for his pension and his benefits no, I don't talk to Joe Montana to this day.

SALKIN: Your book is full of stories.

Tell us a good story, either connected to our viewership is sort of divided between Washington football fans, Baltimore, a smattering of people who root for the Steelers and the Eagles.

So maybe if you have a story about any of those franchises, or I heard you had a good Tom Brady story.

SMITH: I've got one great Dan Snyder story.

I know Dan's gone, but since he's gone, he's somebody that's easy to pick on.

So my favorite Tom Brady Dan Snyder story: I would get to the to the games very early, primarily just to see the visiting team guys.

And truth be told, I hardly ever stayed for a football game during the entire time I was executive director.

Sunday is the one day that I know that our players aren't thinking about me, and I'm not thinking about them.

So I'm standing on the sideline.

I go over to say hi to Dan.

I've seen him a lot, and we were very, very friendly and cordial, to be dead honest.

So I turned to him and I said, "Hey, Dan, good luck today as you guys are playing the Patriots."

And Dan Snyder turns to me and he goes, "Good luck?

Is that all you have to say is good luck?

Look at their number 12.

Look at that guy."

Of course, it's Tom Brady.

And then he goes, "Look at my number 12.

Have a lovely game, Dan."

I think that day, I'm pretty Tom Brady rung 50 points on the Washington team that day.

But yeah, Turf Wars is full of great stories, but what I tried to do is tell not only the inside story of football, but this is a tremendous business.

But in the same way that you and I remember the Mayflower vans taking our team away, football belongs to the fans, and it belongs to the cities and towns that rise up around them.

And I think that there is something incredibly intrinsic that we have to try to hold on to when it comes to these teams and the cities.

And I think the more football becomes commoditized, the more we start to separate ourselves from the fact that these games are played by humans, the humanity of the game I think we threaten that we lose the soul of football.

So I wrote Turf Wars: The Fight for the Soul of America's Game for that reason.

SALKIN: Well, and that's the full title, The Fight for the Soul of America's Game.

So when the next contract is up, what's the fight going to be about?

SMITH: I think the fight is going to be what fights are always about between labor and management.

Management always wants labor to work longer hours for smaller amounts of pay, and the players want more of a fair paycheck.

And I think in 2030, this fight is going to boil down to that again.

There are a number of owners who believe that the 2020 deal that I signed was too rich for players, and they're going to want money back.

But they're also going to want something back that has been the traditional founding stone for labor: Union pensions.

The National Football League is literally one of the few companies in America, frankly, that are still paying pensions.

And the owners don't like the pensions because they're on the hook for any downturn in the market for those pensions.

And the National Football League and my hope is that the players continue to appreciate that even though their careers might end when they are 27 and 28, that they are going to want to have a pension when they are 55 and 60.

And I think that the league is going to draw a line in the sand and make a decision that pensions are a relic and that we need to go forward without it.

And I hope the players rise up and meet the challenge.

SALKIN: DeMaurice Smith, the book is Turf Wars: The Fight for the Soul of America's Game.

We appreciate your time.

Thank you very much.

SMITH: Thank you very much, Jeff.

SALKIN: Now, Nancy Yamada, and a conversation with one of the youngest authors in our area.

YAMADA: Joining me is Ava Perlin from Reisterstown.

She's just 17 years old and among her accomplishments, she can now say she's a published author.. Her book, One in a Million, is about her sister, her little sister, Millie, is that right?

PERLIN: Yes.

YAMADA: Tell me about the story and why you decided to write this about your sister and who it's intended for.

PERLIN: So I go to Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, and every year, the junior class takes on something called our Passion Project, where we have free range to create a project about something that we're passionate about.

So right away, when I heard about this project, I knew I wanted to do something about inclusion, about my sister, Millie, and about disability advocacy and inclusion.

And so I talked to my teacher, Kristen Miller, and we eventually came up with the idea to write a children's book, specifically targeted towards siblings of kids with Down syndrome, because that's who I am and that's my story and that's something that I can speak to.

And it's also something that I would have wanted when I was younger and navigating going to school with my sister Millie, just because many people haven't interacted with people who have Down syndrome before, so there was a lot of curiosity.

And this book at that time would have been very helpful for me, so that's what I wanted to create.

YAMADA: Nowadays, I think a lot of kids seem to get the message about not bullying, let's say, but your book is really about the subtle ways in which kids might exclude people who are different than them, right,or just make them feel different.

PERLIN: Right.

So I really wanted something especially with Millie, we've never really had any incidents where there have been stereotypical bullying but what I did notice was kids were intimidated and scared because they had never interacted with someone who had Down syndrome before, and people didn't really know.

And so I think that the best thing that I could do at that age was to teach other people.

And that's what I want this book to do as well.

YAMADA: And in the book, you talk about Millie loves to sing.

PERLIN: Yes.

That's very much a true story.

Millie loves to sing and dance, and especially when we were younger, that came with a little bit of embarrassment for me because we were often the center of attention with that.

She was loud, and she was happy, and that stands out.

So that's very much a real story.

And I wanted to teach other people that we don't need to be embarrassed, but also that a little bit of embarrassment is okay sometimes.

It's hard to be the center of attention, and it's hard when people don't really know who someone is or why they act the way that they do.

So that's another thing that I really wanted to touch on in my book that it's okay to sometimes feel embarrassed or feel insecure.

But at the end of the day, we are who we are, and inclusion and kindness are important above all else.

YAMADA: I love that.

Now, it's one thing to share your story with your class or with your school, but how did you end up getting it published?

That's pretty remarkable.

PERLIN: Thank you.

So I presented it to my school, and then I was invited to the lower school at my school so really the age range of kids that I had written this book for.

And I got very, very positive feedback, and many teachers after that came up to me and asked where they could buy a copy.

And so then we decided that maybe this story and maybe this message is needed in a broader sense.

So I used Kindle Direct Publishing, which is Amazon's publishing program, and I submitted my book, and it went out for review, and it was eventually accepted and published on June 1st.

YAMADA: How has the reaction been, and what does Millie think of it?

PERLIN: The reaction I received has been very positive, overwhelmingly positive, even.

We've heard from so many people that we know and so many people that we don't know, that just say that this story really is needed out there.

And I think that our favorite piece of feedback to receive is when people say that they are going to bring it into their classrooms to teach their students.

YAMADA: Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Again, the book is called "One in a Million."

PERLIN: Thank you so much.

SALKIN: And that is our program for this week.

For all of us at MPT, thank you for watching.

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