Today’s guest is Reno Mayor, Hillary Schieve.

Hillary Schieve is an American businesswoman and politician from Reno, Nevada. She has served as mayor of Reno since 2014 and as President of the United States Conference of Mayors since 2023, becoming the first independent politician to hold this position.

In 2017, Schieve was named by Politico as one of the 11 most interesting mayors in America, citing her work to revitalize the MidTown District of Reno and continued efforts to promote affordable housing, mental health services, and the fight against homelessness.

Mayor Schieve and I got into all sorts of topics including: how she got into politics, her passion for the arts, the housing crisis in Reno, the complexity of the homelessness issue, her passion for mental health and her personal relationship to it, the potential for novel approaches to mental health treatment including psychedelics, why she identifies as non-partisan, her work as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, our mutual admiration for Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, the upcoming presidential election, the Reno Heartbeat song and video project from 2020 and a few other topics. Regardless of your politics, I hope you get a sense of Mayor Schieve as a person through this conversation. She was certainly a joy to talk to.

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic. Thanks for listening!

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Nick Ward is a performance coach who has worked with athletes across a wide range of ages, talents, and needs—from amateur to professional and Olympic levels, and in various sports including soccer, cricket, rugby, golf, skiing, and plenty of others. Nick's purpose is to support the health and performance of people who engage in and push themselves in athletic endeavors.

He earned his bachelor's degree in sport science at the University of Northumbria and his Masters in Exercise Physiology and Functional Fitness at the University of Calgary, Canada.

After moving to South Lake Tahoe, CA in 2016, Nick served as the ALTIS Director for Performance at Barton where he also worked with the US Ski and Snowboard Teams. The program he helped build served over 400 locals, preparing them for mountain activities or returning them to the mountain post injury.

Nick also serves as the ALTIS Programs Director, where he coordinates the ALTIS Mentorship Program to develop coaches from all over the world. He also provides online and in-person coaching programs privately, for high-performing athletes both locally and internationally.

In this episode we talked about:

• How Nick got into coaching

• Athletes and people as complex systems

• Whether or not to incorporate weight training into programs for junior athletes

• Approaching coaching and sport through a creative and specialized lens

• Handling the foundational elements before the minutia

• Cultivating character, not just high performance

• Training World Cup skiers and Olympians Travis Ganong and Marie-Michelle Gagnon

• Injury risk mitigation

• Building community through training

• Distance and virtual coaching

• Nick’s inspirations

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Nick over the past few years through hiring him as my conditioning coach for my recent experimental adult ski racing comeback. As you’ll see, Nick is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom and an excellent guy all around, and I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic. Thanks for listening! facebook.com/erichenryandersen instagram.com/erichenryandersen

You can follow Nick on Instagram, @coach_nickward and find more resources on his website: coachnickward.com

Today’s guest is Matt Musty. Matt is a professional musician, songwriter, and producer, who currently plays drums in the Grammy Award-winning pop/rock band, Train. His passion for music began at an early age, growing up on a farm in rural New Hampshire, packed to the brim with instruments. In addition to Train, he’s worked with a long and impressive list of some of the biggest names in the music industry including Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Grace Potter, Smash Mouth, and many others. In this episode, Matt and get into: The implications of AI on creative industries and the evolution of recording technology Train lead singer, Pat Monahan’s ability to adapt along with the music industry, and his voice being the “throughline” of Train’s catalog Developing musical maturity Landing the gig and touring with Grace Potter Co-writing with Pat and Jerry of Train and the utility of direct communication Working through the crap to get to the good stuff The technical side of delivering a world-class show Crossing your Ts and dotting your Is first, and then having a blast on stage Matt’s favorite songs and moments performing with Train including the timeless smash hit, “Drops of Jupiter” Fostering a sense of community through live performance Train’s upcoming European tour Our reflections of Matt recently producing my song, “Ocean of Oxytocin,” which will be out in the world later this fall by the way, and a few other fun topics! In addition to being an incredible drummer and producer, Matt’s also quite a fantastic guy, who I had the pleasure of meeting onboard Train’s music cruise, “Sail Across the Sun,” and getting to know even better through our recent collaborative work on my song, “Ocean of Oxytocin.” I really hope you guys enjoy this conversation as much as we both did! Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic. Thanks for listening! facebook.com/erichenryandersen instagram.com/erichenryandersen Mattmusty.com instagram.com/mattmusty twitter.com/mattmusty Sailacrossthesun.com Savemesanfrancisco.com Photo of Matt by Ben Zucker