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Maryam Mehrtash has spent her career building narratives for some of the biggest names in entertainment, most recently leading global marketing for Marvel Studios and 20th Century Studios. But long before any of that, storytelling was survival. Her family fled Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, passed through refugee camps in Eastern Europe, and eventually settled in Montreal, where Maryam learned English by watching Disney cartoons because there was no one around who could teach her. Her grandmother, a celebrated Kurdish actress and singer before the 1979 revolution, was imprisoned and tortured for four years afterward. Maryam says she comes from a lineage of storytellers who were silenced, and that history shapes the work she does today: helping people understand how narratives are built, who's building them, and how to build their own.
Maryam Mehrtash is an entertainment marketing executive, writer, and speaker with nearly two decades of experience at the intersection of media, technology, and culture. She most recently led Global Marketing Partnerships & Promotions at Marvel Studios and 20th Century Studios at Disney. She previously served as Vice President of Marketing Strategy & Brand Partnerships at Paramount and CBS Entertainment, where she led the go-to-market launch of Paramount+. She is currently writing her first book and publishes This Is Not a Memo, a weekly newsletter on leadership, reinvention, and courage. She serves on the Board of Directors for Waterwell and the Prohuman Foundation.
Website: thisisnotamemo.substack.com
Instagram: @maryammehrtash
TikTok: @maryammehrtash
X (Twitter): @maryammehrtash
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maryammehrtash
Facebook: facebook.com/maryammehrtash
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[00:00:00:00] Wilk Wilkinson: My guest today learned English by watching Disney cartoons. Years later, she’d end up running global marketing for Marvel and Disney itself. But the real story isn't her resume. It's what she learned about narrative along the way, and the three questions she now asks herself before she lets anything online make her angry. Stick with me. Welcome back, my friend, to the Derate the Hate podcast. I'm your host, Wilk Wilkinson, your blue collar sage calming outrage and helping to navigate a world divided by fog and those who would spread that fear, outrage and grievance. The Derate the Hate podcast is proudly produced in collaboration with Braver Angels, America's largest grassroots cross partisan organization working toward civic renewal, this podcast amplifies the mission that we share to foster a more respectful and united America where civic friendship thrives even when we disagree. Each week, through the power of story, conversation, and connection with incredible guests, we work to build bridges instead of barriers, not to change minds on the issues, but to change how we see one another when we differ. Because friends, it really is about bettering the world one attitude at a time. We did not create the hate, but together we can Derate the hate. So be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast, share it with a friend and visit Braver Angels to learn how you can get involved in the movement to bridge the partisan divide. Friends, I am so incredibly grateful that you have joined me for another powerful Derate the Hate episode. So let's get to it. Maryam Mehrtash learned English by watching Disney cartoons. Her family had fled Iran during the Iran-Iraq War, landed in refugee camps in Eastern Europe, and then rebuilt a life in Montreal where nobody around her spoke English. Yet years later, she'd find herself leading global marketing campaigns at Marvel Studios and Disney, the very place that had once taught her a new language and a new culture. But the through line in Maryam's life isn't the resume. It's the storytelling itself and where she learned to take it seriously. Her grandmother was a celebrated actress and singer in Iran before the 1980 revolution. After that. She was imprisoned and tortured for four years for it. Maryam carries that history into everything she does now. Writing about leadership and reinvention through her newsletter. This is Not a memo and teaching people how to recognize when a story is being built around them instead of by them. We get into what separates authentic storytelling from manipulation, why outrage has become the business model of modern media, and the three questions that Maryam asks herself before she ever reacts to anything online. We also dig into a word that comes up again and again in her work, reinvention, and why she sees it as a different, harder thing than a pivot. Let's get into it with my friend Maryam Mehrtash. Here we go. Maryam, thank you so much for joining me on the Derate the Hate podcast. It is wonderful to see you today.
[00:03:54:02] Maryam Mehrtash: Thank you so much for having me. It's so nice to meet you.
[00:03:58:05] Wilk Wilkinson: It is very nice to meet you. when our friends over at the Pro Human Foundation told me that you had joined the Pro Human Foundation board of advisors I always get excited when new advisors come on, because that means I get new friends. I get to meet new people and quite often end up having them on the show to, to talk about their journey into this, into this space. And and Maryam I, I started looking at the work that you've you've got this incredible body of work that that you have done over the years. And I'm excited to see how that led you to where you are now. So, so without trying to to recreate for the listeners everything that you've done. I want to focus primarily on the storytelling aspect. At least that's what we're going to start.
[00:04:51:16] Maryam Mehrtash: Yeah. That's great.
[00:04:53:04] Wilk Wilkinson: Is the storytelling aspect because you've helped, like all these amazing organizations create these narratives for years, and then now you've taken that storytelling thing into a new space. So Talk to me about this, this narrative building, this storytelling and how that part of you has brought you to where you are today.
[00:05:15:01] Maryam Mehrtash: Yeah, I mean, storytelling has been a part of my DNA since I was a little girl. I, you know, for the audience that doesn't know, I'm a Iranian refugee and immigrant. My parents fled Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, after the revolution that happened in 1978, the Iranian revolution. And my grandmother was an actress. She was a pretty famous actress, Kurdish singer and actress in Iran during the time of, you know, pre the pre-revolution era, during the time of the Shah. And when the revolution happened in 1980, my grandmother was imprisoned and she was tortured for four years in jail in Tehran. And I feel that that part of her story, knowing that I came from a lineage of storytellers who were silenced, has driven so much of who I am today and the work that I do. After my parents fled Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, we were thrown into refugee camps in Eastern Europe. And then, you know, we we eventually made our way over to Canada. And my parents were, you know, two young Iranians who were rebuilding their life in a new country, didn't know how to speak the language. So they couldn't teach me how to speak the language. So my first language was Farsi. We moved to Montreal. So then I learned French. But I actually learned English through storytelling, through watching Disney cartoons, because there was no. Yeah. So it was a full circle moment for me when I started working at Disney. Yeah, yeah, year that Disney ended up being a teacher for me in terms of, you know, understanding American culture, understanding narrative building storytelling, but language as well. And so, again, like for me, the journey of storytelling has been a part of my DNA and my lineage from a very young age. And it was how I made sense of the world and how I continue to make sense of the world throughout my journey. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my grandmother, and I wanted to be an actress. So I became a theater kid and, you know, studied Meisner and studied Shakespeare and studied all the greats in terms of theater. So that continued to fuel that storytelling skill for me. What I didn't know is that I would end up in business, and then I would end up in marketing and narrative building for some of the biggest studios and brands in the world. I wanted to continue being an actor, but my parents had sacrificed so much to leave Iran and they, you know, wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer. And they're like, this is great that you would follow in your grandmother's footsteps, but, you know, it's not really going to make you be successful. Like, you know, it's a hard journey going down that route as an artist. So but the artist never left me, the storyteller never left me. And I've carried it through everything that I do, whether that's building narratives for brands, whether that's building a campaign narrative, whether that's, you know, writing my Substack so that that narrative storytelling muscle is, is just who I am.
[00:08:37:15] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. Well, and and that's, that's what I want to get into is the, the who you are a part of this because when, when you're somebody that's, that's trying to to shape narratives for a living and you're somebody that's, you know, very passionate about what you're doing and you have a story of your own, but then you're trying to work that into these, these big multinational brands and things like that. Tell me what that relationship is like and how you how you shape that narrative is. Is there a point where you have to separate yourself from that narrative, or how does that work?
[00:09:20:05] Maryam Mehrtash: Of course, I mean, there's always a separation because depending on what the goal is, right? I mean, if we're talking about campaigns, finding what is going to resonate with audiences, audiences is always first and foremost. At the end of the day, every narrative, every story, everything that you're building is serving an audience. So you need to get to the truth and authenticity of what is going to land with your audience. And, you know, coming from right now, we're living in a time where trust is at an all time low around the media, and we're living obviously in a very polarized world, and people don't trust the narratives that are coming out of Hollywood. And I think that, you know, Hollywood or, you know, news specifically, right? The big media organizations and how I've navigated that is always staying true to the objective or the story, the intentionality of what are we trying to say? And I found that if people used the tools that I know how to use in storytelling in Hollywood to have dialog, to have conversation, we'd actually be living in a better world. Because in authentic storytelling, you're not trying to fabricate, right? You're not trying to fabricate the conflict or, you know, polarizing stories. You're trying to find the humanity in them and in finding the humanity and the authenticity in the stories, in what your audiences lived experience are and reflect that to them. As a mirror is where the truth actually lives. And and the best storytellers I've worked with know how to do this flawlessly. And of course, there's always going to be, you know, from a mark. And then, you know, I wear my marketing hat. From a marketing perspective, you need to find those areas of tension to drive your campaign forward. What are people going to talk about? What are they going to care about? What is going to be the thing that's going to light the switch for them, where they want to jump in the comments and say something and have have a dialog or have an opinion. And I don't think that's a bad thing, as long as it's not, as long as it's not done in a way where it's harmful or disrespectful or or fueling hatred. Does that make sense?
[00:11:42:19] Wilk Wilkinson: I think it does. And and I think that's I think that's where it's it's very tough right now in terms of whether it be the media or the movies that people are watching and things like that. It's like, how do you get people interested in or, well, how do you make people? Because I think a big part of that is right. People have to see themselves in the story that you're telling, for them to be interested, for them to really buy into it, they have to be able to in some way see themselves in that story and have an emotional response to that story. But then how do you get them to interact with with that content in a way that that doesn't, doesn't connect with the the bad emotions or the raw ugliness that they might feel, but but do it in a positive way, because that's, I think, what's missing in a lot of what we see today, Maryam, in, in whether it be social media, our regular media, our politics, all these different things is like it's like a lot of those different mediums or appealing to the ugliest parts of of what's happening in society. So when people do see themselves in those stories, they see that, they see that it taps into the ugly part.
[00:13:06:08] Maryam Mehrtash: Yeah. And I think we as storytellers have a responsibility, and it's part of the work that I've been trying to do, as well as a storyteller, as part of my work on Substack, part of the conversations and videos I've been making is educating people, being transparent about the process of storytelling and and how conflict isn't inherently bad. We are human. We are, you know, we I think what the problem is isn't necessarily that stories are polarizing because they are because we are humans with different perspectives and values and experiences. I think the problem is that people want to have certainty. They want to live in binaries. They want to feed and fuel what they believe their own narratives. And I think part of the education that I'm trying to do is to teach people to be able to hold complexity, nuance in multiple truths, that at the end of the day, we're not going to change polar essence of polarizing stories. We're not going to change the fact that people come from different religions, political values, backgrounds, that these are at times going to conflict. Again, this is just being inherently human. What we need to shift our perspective around, and what the work that I try to do as a responsible storyteller is to let that tension feel dialog, but then also start to have conversations like this where we teach people how to live in that tension without getting into the bad of it. Right, without being able to really understand each other. And I think that, yes, media is part of the problem because they are serving algorithms, and algorithms are served by creating hooks and and, and and conflict. They start at the climax, right to get attention. But we as an audience also have a responsibility to pause and think. And people aren't pausing and thinking. They are jumping to conclusions. And I see this all the time, even in my comment is that I will speak about, you know, I did this video educating people about the diversity of Iran and the different ethnicities that live in Iran. There's a misconceptions that all Iranians are Persians and Persian is a dominant ethnicity, about 60. I think it's 61 or 63% of Iranians are Persians, but Iranians are actually being an Iranian is a nationality. It's like being American, right? That's your nationality. Being Persian is your ethnicity. And even though it's the majority, there's all of these other minority ethnic groups that live within Iran like Kurds. My grandmother was occurred. So I did this video to explain the diversity of Iran. And somebody in my comment said, row. So are you saying that they deserve to be bombed?
[00:16:04:08] Wilk Wilkinson: Like so what.
[00:16:07:02] Maryam Mehrtash: Exactly what? And so I see this in my comments where I'm talking about Iran and I'm trying to explain a specific narrative. I'm trying to educate, I'm trying to bring awareness. I'm trying to provide context and to the complexity of the situation that it's not black and white, we're not living in binaries. And then I get a comment where someone takes what I said and filters it back through their own narrative, and which usually comes from a negative narrative and says, are you saying you're pro-war?
[00:16:42:14] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah.
[00:16:43:06] Maryam Mehrtash: Like where? Where did I say that? In my in my two minute video?
[00:16:48:11] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah, exactly. At what point. And and me as somebody who, you know, I put out a lot of content and obviously I, I drop a 30 minute episode of this every week and have for 300 and some weeks. So there's plenty of different things where people will take a little piece of what I've said in a conversation and completely turn it into something that's it's totally different. And I want to get into that complexity thing. Maryam, because I think that's a hugely important thing to key on, because you said a few things, right? You're talking about complexity, and people ignore the complexity of an issue and turn it into a binary issue. I think you make a hugely important point there where people will take a, a small piece of something and then run it through their own filter and turn it into something completely different than than what you had said or what you intended to say. And and this is something that we see all the time and, and when you talked about. Okay, there's a number of different things here that I've got, I've got bouncing around in my brain based on everything that you just said.
[00:18:06:06] Maryam Mehrtash: I love it. Yeah.
[00:18:07:12] Wilk Wilkinson: Well, and you know, when you talked about the media and their responsibility and then our, our responsibility as consumers of the media, that's that's a big dynamic, right? There's a big thing there that people people fail to, to realize. And I just had this conversation the other day with a, with another guest she, I think she wrote she actually wrote a book, I believe I've got to go back and remember it now. But but it was, it was like the media is us, right? And we are the media and and we are just a reflection of the media and how we how we consume that and, and when, when different power structures. And this is what I this is one of the questions that I had been thinking about before. This conversation is when, when when a narrative is created by somebody, whether it be an individual or some type of media apparatus or some type of power structure or whatever, when they. There's there's. Two things that can make this really bad. Either they can try to whitewash the and completely minimize the tension, to pretend that there is not attention, their attention, not not attention, or they can kind of highlight the attention and kind of focus on it and exacerbate that tension. Or they can just tell the story from a does that make sense?
[00:19:43:01] Maryam Mehrtash: And I will say that most of the time, right. Most of the time there is a specific narrative and lens, depending on where you're reading your news, who's funding that company, right, where the money is coming from, what their values are within the organization. That is the lens that you're going to get the narrative. And I think that's part of education, that's part. Of. Audience knowing what they're consuming. We have a responsibility going back to that to understand it, because there are so many different news outlets that you can get your information from, and you have to understand who is the funding source and what parties that they're they're filtering through that. So depending, you know, there are more and more independent journalists popping up because they don't want to be attached to an overall umbrella of a company that has a specific point of view that they need to filter their news or journalistic integrity to. Right. So that's from one angle that we're looking at it. And that's why I believe that the audience has a responsibility as well, because as a storyteller, my job is to get a reaction. My job is to we are living in such a fragmented world. We are living inside right now, the most sophisticated narrative machine ever built, right, in terms of AI, chat bots. And, you know, the algorithm on social media fueling your own right, working and fueling your own narrative. We have to be so savvy now as audience members to be able to navigate that world. And I think that people and that's again, part of the work I'm doing, because you have to remember that, you know, two things can be true. Yes, the media can be bad. And yes, I still need to do my job as a storyteller in a fragmented, noisy world to get your attention. So how am I going to get your attention? I have to have a hook that's going to hit you right at a place where I know at a human level, it's going to make you react. That's not a bad thing, right?
[00:22:04:17] Wilk Wilkinson: No.
[00:22:05:09] Maryam Mehrtash: Because how else are we supposed to get stories out there and in.
[00:22:10:18] Wilk Wilkinson: Happening since the beginning of time, I mean, with marketing commercials, things like that. I mean, you know, the way that we place things within a particular I get it. But I think we're in the responsibility piece that we have as consumers. That's also where we we find the solution which which I think you're going to get into next is, is the solution to. Yes. Kind of like I talk about all the time. There's all these different things that are outside of our control. And yes, there are there's good media, there's bad media, there's there's down the middle. I love the bring the fact that you bring up independent journalists. I was just on a panel with, you know, talking about that the other day. I'm not a journalist, but it's it's important.
[00:22:56:06] Maryam Mehrtash: Yeah, it is important. I think, you know, we're talking about the solution. I think part of the solution is starting to have these types of conversations and having people who are able to educate our audiences, which is what I'm trying to do, and bring awareness. The first step is awareness. Being aware that you're even in this machine and that you have a responsibility on how you react, right. That's like the number one. Right. And then number two is asking yourself these three things. So first of all, asking yourself who built this tension and what do they need me to feel? Or why do they want me to feel this. So what is the conflict they're trying to show me that is trying to get me to react right? Like being aware and before jumping to conclusions and filtering that narrative through your own filter. Taking a pause. People don't even know how to take a pause. They just react right? And then understanding and really listening to that other person's perspective. And it's okay to disagree with them. But how are you able to disagree and ask hard questions? So again, part of a lot of the work I do is around having the courage to ask hard questions, having to the courage to sit and discomfort. And I think a lot of people again, it's a skill that most people don't. It's not a it's not an innate skill. You build it by practicing, right? And you build it being aware of it. And a lot of people aren't taught that skill. They're not taught to ask hard questions, to sit in the discomfort, to understand that it's okay for someone else to disagree with you. How can you work through the tension together and have a conversation? And that's a lot of Darryl's work. And part of the reason why I join Pro Human Foundation is because there was a lot of parallels when Lory reached out to me to be on the board with the way that Pro Foundation views the world and the work they're doing, and the work that has been doing for decades with, you know, the KKK and having dialog. And it's all around listening and understanding and respect. I yeah, all of those things is is what I'm trying to also do in the work as I try to educate people about how narratives are built, how storytelling is built, and how can we live in that tension together and bring dialog forward. And I think that if we do it right, actually good things can come from it.
[00:25:37:13] Wilk Wilkinson: absolutely. And this is you know, Daryl's been a friend of mine for a number of years. He's been on the show a number of times and, and some of the stories that he's, he's shared with me and, and stuff, they've they're amazing. And and I think you're absolutely right to highlight. And I try to highlight it as often as I can on these shows is is the courage to listen with intention, you know, sit in that, you know, as you said, sit in that discomfort because it's never going to be easy. It does get easier for people like you said, you know, to build that once they build that muscle, they start learning how to to sit in that discomfort, listen to things that they don't agree with. And yes, you're absolutely right. You know, pro human for a number of years now. Lory and Bion and Daryl have, have put together this model. And Letitia, I don't want to forget about Letitia, but have put together this model and it's as good as anybody's. But that idea that we can, as unique individuals come together to, work at something bigger and better than, than the sum of its parts. It's always important. It's it's also very important in the work that I do at Braver Angels, in the idea that we have to be able to come together across difference, listen to each other, learn, not just what we believe, why we believe it. That is a hugely important skill that that us in this, in this bridge building space. I think we have a responsibility, those of us that that have developed that skill to try and get other people acquainted with it and and strengthen that muscle.
[00:27:22:00] Maryam Mehrtash: Yeah, I don't think that up until now, it was a skill we really needed to learn to the extent that we do now for so long. There is a handful of media companies that own the narratives they owned. You know what was being distributed in terms of movies, television shows. Right. What we were viewing from a storytelling perspective, and that was mainly controlled by by a few. And you can still argue that that's still the case. But there's so much independent content creators now and independent journalist, and that is shifting, getting through that and sifting through it and understanding and developing that skill of what do I take and what do I let go, what's real and what's especially now with AI, what is fake news? And that is a skill that we have not had to develop until now, you know. So I always say to people, the next time you see something that gives you rage or creates outrage in you, just pause and ask. Yourself. Is this a reaction that I have? Like, why am I having this reaction? And am I being set up and and ask the questions, you know, is this fake news? Where is the source? Who's funding it? You know, is the image even real or is it fabricated? I mean, in the in the Iran war that we're seeing, there was there's so much misinformation happening and people don't know how to navigate it. So they allow that to feel their outrage. And I think that's why I continue to say that now, in the time we're living in now, we need to be the director of our own narratives.
[00:29:10:02] Wilk Wilkinson: There you go.
[00:29:10:21] Maryam Mehrtash: You know, we need to be the direct we there was there was other people directing our narratives in the past in a closed wall garden. And now that wall garden has opened. So we need to be able to direct ourselves.
[00:29:25:13] Wilk Wilkinson: Yeah. Well, that's why personal accountability is such a hugely important thing. I mean, part of my story and a lot of people know this, but but a part of my story was a long journey in how I was going to start to navigate things better. I had a horrible temper. I spent a lot of years just angry and full of animus and dealing with almost everything poorly. And yeah, coming to coming to the realization that I was the the common denominator in almost all of my problems was a was a big thing for me. And I think when you're talking about we have to be the director of our own story, that that should land hard with everybody, because there is all of these different things happening around us at any given time, and what we choose to absorb, what we choose to, to bring in is, is, is going to be very important in how our story plays out. It's like it's like those storybooks from when we were a kid, you know, that, that you kind of pick your own journey, you know, how are we going to navigate these different things and, and how can we make sure that we end up with the best outcome? You know, there's one thing, one word that keeps on coming up in. You know, when I've looked through a lot of your work, Maryam, you have the work, the word reinvented in there. I know you talk a lot about courage. You talk a lot about storytelling. But the word reinvented came up a number of times, and I'm curious. What you know, because sometimes people talk about a pivot. You know, they talk about this, they talk. But reinvented is a is a different thing. Talk to me about reinvented. What is that to you?
[00:31:13:09] Maryam Mehrtash: Yeah. I mean, to me. Being somebody again who has had to reinvent themselves throughout my entire journey, from being the immigrant kid to being wanting to be an actor, to having to reinvent myself to being a business thought leader, to, you know, working in Hollywood in an era where there's so much change. And I think part of that is that reinvention. I also look at it as a muscle is that for so long we've been told a specific narrative go to school, get good grades, get a job, work your way up, and that that narrative is collapsing. And we're seeing it through layoffs, through technology advancements, especially for the middle management. You know, the millennials, the Gen X says they're going through it right now. They've spent their entire life being told this narrative. I don't think this affects Gen Z as much because they are new to this new era, the digital world and AI, they're growing up with it. But for those of us who were told, you know, stay in the same job for 15 years and get your health benefits, and we are seeing a the, you know, the great reinvention happening right now. And so many people are so scared. They're so afraid of what that means, how to do it. And that's why I talk a lot about it, because even for myself, I'm constantly reinventing myself. And I have since I was a little kid because I was forced to. But right now, as an adult who is rethinking about what is the next, you know, ten, 20, 30 years of, of my work look like I'm constantly asking those questions. And for me, it really comes back to the purpose of impact and giving back and solving problems and making the world a better place. I mean, I always come back to them, and how can I do that with the skills and the tools that I've learned? And how can I get people to live in this discomfort that they're living in right now when Hollywood is collapsing and some people haven't had health benefits for, you know, Emmy Award winning producers and writers who who haven't worked in three years that are trying to figure out, you know, what do I do with my life? And so that's why I started writing about it, is because I saw that, you know, especially within Hollywood, there's so many people who are having to live with the reality that they need to reinvent themselves. And so many people, again, don't have the skills, the tools or the know how to to know to where to even start.
[00:33:54:13] Wilk Wilkinson: That's right. Yeah, they may have the skills to do something different, but they do. They have the skills to to make that reinvention. Happen and adapt. To the changing landscape. Yeah. I think it's beautifully put. It's a it's a great way to think about it. You know when I mean that's, that's the one thing about the world that we, that we, that we live in, Maryam is, is the only thing constant is the fact that everything is changing. And right now we may be living in a time where things are changing faster than, than they ever have. And we as human beings have to have that ability to to reinvent, reinvent. I think that's that may be one of the more important things that people take away from, from this is as the landscape changes, we have a we have a choice to make. And that's going to be a tough choice for some. But yeah, when the landscape changes, you have to change the way you're navigating it. And that that may take some reinvention. Maryam, this has been an incredible conversation. And and the work that you're doing is certainly making the world a better place for for people helping helping people to understand and navigate this. It's been incredible. Where can people find more about you and the work that you're doing?
[00:35:11:07] Maryam Mehrtash: My Substack, this is not a memo. I it's under my name, Maryam Mehrtash. That's where a lot of my work lives. You can also follow me on Instagram. I do a lot of videos talking about different topics, everything from parenting to, you know, my Iranian heritage and what's happening in the global world right now. And then leadership, courage, reinvention. So I do I do videos on IG and TikTok. I post the same videos on TikTok under my name, Maryam Mehrtash, and then on on my Substack, my longer form essays.
[00:35:46:19] Wilk Wilkinson: Very cool. Well, we will have all the ways to contact you in the show, notes Maryam. Maryam. Mehrtash. It's been a great pleasure. I look forward to more conversations in the future.
[00:35:57:02] Maryam Mehrtash: Thank you so much for having me. I've loved talking to you and I can't wait for us to have a part two in the future.
[00:36:04:18] Wilk Wilkinson: Friends, I want to thank you so much for tuning in. And if there's anything in this episode that provided exceptional value to you, please make sure to hit that share button. If you haven't done so already, please be sure to subscribe to get the Derate The Hate podcast sent to your email inbox every week. We really are better together. So please take a moment to visit Braver Angels and consider joining the movement towards civic renewal and bridging our political divide. This is Wilk wrapping up for the week saying get out there. Be kind to one another. Be grateful for everything you've got. And remember, it's up to you to make every day the day that you want it to be. With that, my friend. I'm going to back on out of here and we will catch you next week. Take care.
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