Dr. Amara Pope
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Honestly, in everyday communications, AI has been so helpful. I would say just in terms of testing, A, B testing, different marketing campaigns, being able to input the data that we want and saying, okay, if we could frame it this way, A or B, let's test those things out and see how it works.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Honestly, in everyday communications, AI has been so helpful. I would say just in terms of testing, A, B testing, different marketing campaigns, being able to input the data that we want and saying, okay, if we could frame it this way, A or B, let's test those things out and see how it works.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
But I also find if you're using platforms like ChatGVT for copywriting, so say you want to write an email, you pump it in there, it presents it in a professionalized way. There's so many key words that if you look for in an email, in a LinkedIn post, in Instagram, it gives it away. Don't use Delve. I found Delve is like a go-to and a way to spot it.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
So there's been ways I've been able to utilize it to better my corporate communications, but also recognizing what are the key things that you should make sure you look out for. But it's definitely helpful in everyday life when it comes to comms and marketing.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I think, honestly, a go-to for me is actually ChatGBT, which is why I'm talking about it. But I think it's really important the way you're explaining it, that the more data you feed into it, the more improved the outcome is going to be. Because if you're putting stuff, just say even just verbiage that sounds more like you, it'll pick up your tone of voice. It'll pick up your mannerisms.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
It'll pick up the way that you... communicate and have dialogue. So when it speaks back to you, it sounds more like you, the more frequent that you communicate with it. But I always think that AI, there's so much scare around AI and working in a telematics company, we try to demonstrate how there's so many ways it can be used in powerful ways that it can help
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
diminish errors, improve safety, do a lot of different things that the human brain and human capabilities cannot. And I think that rather than being scared of it, working in tandem with it is so important.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Okay. We can start with something like Canva. I also use that platform regularly. You can take a simple task. Say you want to edit a wedding photo and you just need to remove a little person or something in a corner. All it takes is a quick eraser, AI generates it, and you have a beautiful picture. Something as simple as that.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
It doesn't have to be scary, but if you start off with baby steps and see how it can help you in your everyday life... I think that's beneficial. If you're already on Word, say you're using Microsoft Word and you're using spellcheck, you're already working in tandem with a computer to help you spit out that essay or that email or that report.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
So just think about it as an additional tool rather than something you're battling. I think that's the best way to put it.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I think that any kind of form of education is important and continuing education, whether that be through skills and trades or that's through a traditional institution of a university or college. I think it really helps you when you graduate. You're a young adult. You're still learning about the world and learning about yourself.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I found that going through university, of course, I went through my undergrad, master's, PhD. I was going through a long haul, but I also had those real world skills where I was jumping into the workforce and trying a bunch of different things.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
You learn a lot about what your likes are, what your passions are, and also develop a lot of soft skills, your discipline, your ability to focus on something, your ability to communicate with others. I don't think that we should think about higher education as just learning books and theories and ideas and facts.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
It's also about developing the self and understanding these are soft skills that are going to take you forward.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Oh, yes. Um, right now it is overnight oats, which just sounds so boring and old, but really, really like overnight oats right now.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
That is comfort. You know, you could add chocolate chips, maple syrup, some berries to that.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Well, first off, everyone's creative in different ways, I will say. Just because you can draw stick figures doesn't mean you're not creative in just your expressions, you know, your mannerisms. That's very, very creative, I would say. So everyone has their superpowers. Everyone has their talents.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Ooh, a good chicken Alfredo. And my Italian husband says it's comparable to his Nona's. So I will take that.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
That is controversial, but I was always go with Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne, because to be honest, I think his... some of his lyrics are to me like modern-day Shakespeare, which sounds crazy.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I might like it. The interplay, the wordplay he has, and if you really analyze some of it, of course there's going to be outlying songs that are just hilariously dumb, but some of the wordplay that he makes, if you listen to... Oh, just the metaphors and just analyze it through a poetic stance. It's very, I think it's great. I did my, my second major was in English.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
So I can analyze something as like a poem and I see the different forms of wordplay, the rhythm, the beats. It's just, oh, that is what gets me through a hard workout is Lil Wayne.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Take out his voice, read the lyrics and you're going to see it. It'll hit you in a different way.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Always heavy lifting. When I'm frustrated and angry, it's not cardio. It's not doing abs. It's not doing lightweights. Anger translates well into heavy lifting. Definitely that.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Hmm. I think something paying homage to Trinidad and Tobago and just the vibrancy of that space, the beauty of that country, something I want to create soon.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Although the overnight oats was questionable, but...
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I love curry chicken, too, and wings. I don't know.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Oh, my gosh. Don't judge me based on the overnight oats. Totally judging.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Just don't title it overnight oats, please. Cool.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
No, no, I always say that. And to be honest, I grew up in a household where no one liked to paint and draw. I got my little brother into it. But honestly, that was something I didn't really get from my parents. That's why I always say we have our own skill sets. But I remember watching TV at home and
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
They can visit my website. It's www.dramarapope.com. And my handles are all the same across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X. It's all at Dr. Amara Pope.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Well, I really appreciate it. And all of our chats, they're always grounded. They're always full of random conversations. And I appreciate you so much.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Like I had told you in our past conversation, I grew up in a really small town where there was not a lot going on. And my brother and I were very close. And I found a really cool hobby that I picked up, which is drawing the cartoons we saw on TV. And that just evolved into a passion for art. I would volunteer my time to draw with little kids.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
And that also led me to pursue one of my two majors in my undergrad is fine arts. And I kind of so I did that during my undergrad, enjoyed it so much, but I ended up going down more of the academic route in communications and media. And as you know, on my corporate side, I'm more in marketing and communications.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
But I always found that fine arts helps me learn like compositional analysis that that affects the way I create social media posts or marketing campaigns. So those soft skills resonated with my academic work as well as my industry career. But it wasn't until I was wrapping up my PhD that I was able to pick up that paintbrush and kind of ignite that passion in me that I had time. PhD was done.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I was married. Everything was kind of like falling into place in life. And I took that time to really explore that creative side of myself again.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
For me, when I do take on a commission or there's one piece that I'm working on, it's just that it's in my head. I have to get it out. That becomes kind of the focal point of my life for those couple months, however long it takes. And I think it's because I really like to wrap myself up into one piece at a time. I tend to kind of block out everything. We have an unfinished basement.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
So I go in there, plug my headphones on. Around me is very chaotic and it's a mess, but because it's unfinished, I can make a mess. And I have all of my paintbrushes around me. And that tends to be when I'm outside of work. So in my evenings and on the weekends when I just want to wind down. Because to me, art has become a form of meditation. So I'm very busy. You're very busy.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
You understand the need to kind of decompress and have that downtime. So for me, it's either the gym or it's painting. Yeah.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
You're coming at me with the hard questions.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I did. I was interviewed by NBC when the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle came out. And what I did say was depending on your taste of hip hop music, I think Kendrick Lamar is more of the traditional route, the hard raps, the hard beats. I would arguably say Drake as you know, on my PhD thesis is a more contemporary side of things. He's a little bit more experimental.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Sometimes you hear a song of his and he's got three different compositions in one piece. So yeah, i don't know i i lean right now it changes but i lean right now more towards the traditional hip-hop side of things so there's my answer there i want some hard beats going in my ears as i paint and as i work out so you said team kendrick is indirectly i'm saying at different times different people
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Okay, all right. Well, I did actually do an analysis of Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl performance, and I thought he was a genius, so I'll leave it there.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I think that for a very long time in my life, I prioritized my career and my academia. I knew I was going through those years of the grind. And it was really important to me that I finished my PhD that took seven and a half years because I was working full time during that entire process. It did take me a long time.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
And then kind of building up my industry career, I was at some points doing four different jobs at a time just to try to get that work experience. So having immigrant parents, I saw the sacrifices they made for me and my younger brother. So I had that drive in me to kind of make it somewhere when it came to academia and industry. But now that the Ph.D.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
is done, I want to focus on having a family one day. That time for me is so priceless. And I've been able to kind of accomplish those personal career goals of mine. I'm still going. I mean, I'm never going to be completely satisfied, but priority shift in different stages of life. And I think I'm at that stage now where I can put that a little bit to the side and focus on my family time.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I know parents are aging. Stuff happens in life. I lost somebody very close to me last year and I know how precious like value and time is. So that to me is the new kind of shift for 2025. I love it.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
They are my world. I mean, I, I am very close with my parents. I they're Trinidadian. So family is huge to Trinnies and growing up, you know, they immigrated to Canada kind of on their own. We have a few aunts and uncles in the States and Canada, but again, moving to a really small town, we were a far stretch away from a lot of family members.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
So as a unit, my brother, my mother, my father and I became very, very close. And, um, That is such a blessing. That was something I didn't really recognize at the time when you're growing up. But now that I had moved away to actually Vancouver and then I moved back to somewhere closer to my parents, I'm about a 40 minute drive.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I still make sure at least twice a week to see them, whether I'm driving down and working from home by them because I work remotely or just seeing them for like a Sunday brunch. I think that that's really important. And their drive really enabled me to ignite a passion of mine to follow kind of the pursuits I have now.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Oh, that's a good question. I would say we went to a boat party for Carabana last year. And My family, they're very true to the bone, I would say. They know how to party. They know how to move. They can drink. They were outdoing me. And I was trying to keep up with my parents. And that was a very harsh reality to see. Wow, my parents can party better than I can. It was lovely.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
My, my, my brother was there with his wife, my husband, my parents, and we just, we had such a good time and my cousin and, and his father was there too. So we just, we made a big family affair. We suffered the next day and we made sure we got some food in us, but I don't know if that night or, or, you know, the next day was more fun for me just kind of seeing us all rally together.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I think that is a very grounding experience because it just reminds you of, what really matters to you in life. And to me, those moments of just laughing with my parents, being able to just spend, spend time with them. My parents both hit kind of milestone birthdays this year. And I was this past year and I was able to take my mom horseback riding for the first time.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
That was something she's always wanted to do in her life. And being able to kind of take some of the things I've been able to accomplish and bring that back to them has always been my, a goal of mine. I was able to just take my dad on a surprise trip to Florida to see his family out there. And that's, Just those are the things that I live for right now.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Being able to kind of spoil my parents in a way that I've wanted to do for so long.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Oh, so yeah, that was actually last November. I went, I actually, so I went with my husband and my aunt and uncle and it was a trip we've always wanted to do because, um, I just found Japan was we knew it was going to be a complete culture shock for us, completely different. And we wanted to go for two weeks and explore the country. We didn't want to see kind of only the tourist traps.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
So we booked this trip with kind of a larger group and we went to a different city almost every night and sleeping on floors in different places. And just really it was we went to a monastery. So we were able to experience that. And that's where we slept on the floor.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Then we would go to just downtown seeing Tokyo and being able to see all the different car meets, going more to Osaka and the beautiful landscape there. It was just such a variety of different experiences in one country. So that's why I wanted to cover as much as I could in that one space. And then the cuisine, I'm a sushi lover. So of course I love the food there and snacks.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
They have every little snack. You know how many KitKat different flavors they have? It was amazing. Really? Yeah. Oh man, there was, oh, there's just so many. And then for me, before we go into Kit Kat, I will say they have these little tuna sandwiches that they come in little triangles and they're wrapped in seaweed. And that became, it's at every gas station or rest stop.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Wow, thank you. I'm flattered.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
That became my go-to snack. Like they, they have all the things I wish I could have here and the drinks are amazing.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
unbelievable i'm going on and on about the food the culture itself is also really amazing though i um got to dress up as a geisha i got to do like a nice tea ceremony learn the kind of practices and the customs went on some hikes it was just it was crazy to do in two weeks we were exhausted after but i can say i felt fulfilled after that trip because i find that going to different countries with completely different scenarios and then cultures it just
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I'm doing well, thanks. It's so nice to catch up. It's been a couple months since we last chatted.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
takes you out of your comfort zone, but also reminds you of what you've become so accustomed to and what becomes mundane in your everyday life. Because there's certain things that you take for granted, like the practices of just greeting people there is so different from here, or just just everyday ways of communicating.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
And I found that it was really, really great for me to just kind of step outside the box and see those differences.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I think that the tea ceremonies were the most interesting to me because there was such a particular way to sit down to slurp the tea to demonstrate a real appreciation for the meal in front of you. The way that you eat the little biscuits they give you and drink it. There's like a certain pattern to do things. And it's just so very polite and there's so much etiquette to it that I didn't realize.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Like, I mean, I'm oblivious. I've gone to a high tea thing once, you know, like I've never, but that's so different from the customs and practices they do there. And I think just the level of respect that they have for one another in kind of the different scenarios I was in at least, that was something I really appreciated.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
I did not. No, I did go to the fish market though. And I got to see kind of the crazy shuffling and then the bargaining they do in the fish market is so crazy. It's such a high energy space, but no, I, I did get to select certain things when I crammed the sushi, but I didn't just get to pick a fish and have it cooked for me. No, I didn't get to do that.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Okay, sounds good. You got to do that.
Mick Unplugged
Dr. Amara Pope: Finding Harmony in Art, Family, and AI
Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I actually have some still downstairs, but I brought home a whole bunch of snacks for my little brother to try because he's a huge snacky. And the Kit Kat I love the most was the strawberry flavored. I can't even tell you what's in there because... Everything's written in Japanese, but it's really, really good. And they're actually like a strawberry colored like pink.