Last of the Col-Hi Wildcats 1982
Last of the Col-Hi Wildcats 1982
#129 Last of the Col-Hi Wildcats 1982 w/Matt Newman
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As we approach our 40th year, I interview friends from my graduating class of 1982, The College High Wildcats. This class held the distinction of being the last graduating class of College High School before the name was changed to Bartlesville High School. Sooner High School and College High were combined into one school called Bartlesville High School.
In this episode, I visit with Col-Hi Wildcat, Matt Newman. We talked about his experience living alone as a senior in high school and why he chose to stay in Bartlesville while his parents and siblings moved to Florida, his love of sports, being the captain of the football team, and his current projects promoting hydrogen use as an energy source.
You can contact Matt on Facebook or via email, mattbnewman@gmail.
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Welcome to the last of the call high Wildcats 1982 podcast brought to you by Deetsoman Productions you know, you go to college and you're on this all star team. So I would tell myself that, really don't listen to that voice inside your head that tells you you're not good enough. And probably the other thing I would tell myself is get more sleep. Not everyone's gonna like you, but try to make them watch. And so working on that one. People say, Oh, I'm not going to have kids yet, because it's not the right time or I'm not gonna get married yet. It's not the right time. Well, if you keep moving the goalposts and lie, there's never gonna be the right time. So enjoy your life. Do what you love. Figure out a way to make that work. Don't Don't do something because that's what you're supposed to do, because it's gonna do something that makes you happy. They go to landers for lunch, sitting around Jeff Lers Mustang to and listening to this tape of the wall
Scott Townsend:it as a Scott Townsend Welcome back to the last of the call. Hi, Wildcats. 1982 podcast. And today I have with me. Good friend, old friend course. We're all old at this point. Matt Newman, Matt, how's it going?
Matt Newman:It is going great. Scott. It has been so enjoyable. Watching these podcasts listening to the podcast, I either watching at the gym, listen to them while I'm driving. I can't wait for our reunion. This is just really prepped me to continue to reach out to folks. So pleasure to be here.
Scott Townsend:Someone said the other day on Facebook that they feel like they know their classmates better now than they did when they were actually in high school.
Matt Newman:Yeah, absolutely. I feel the same way. You know, there are folks that you've interviewed that I would see in the hallway. And we were so absorbed with our little clique, or, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend, relationship work, you know, sports, and you'd have time with folks in a classroom, but you didn't have engagement in those. Right. So it has been a thrill to watch these and listen to these podcasts and get to know my classmates better. Yeah,
Scott Townsend:yeah. So you're the principal managing partner with new era advisors, your father husband, all around great guy, you know, well, two of
Matt Newman:the three out of two or three isn't bad.
Scott Townsend:So what's been going on the last 39 years since? Since Yeah, yeah. Can you sum it all up in two minutes? Ready, set, go. You bet.
Matt Newman:So, you know, married in college, divorce soon after started in the energy business. met a young lady, native Tolson. And we were married, instantly moving to Houston, and the energy business. And then we had an opportunity to move to Charlotte, North Carolina, and worked in the electricity utility industry, for about a third of my career, great tour duty, great friends, great community and then spent, left that sector and spent about a third of my career in renewable energy and innovative technologies, and had the opportunity to live in the kind of New York City Metro Area, which so Oh, my gosh, that is if I won the lottery, I would have a Central Park, South department just to go hang out. I just I love New York City. It's just so much fun. But business brought me we had a goal of getting back to Tulsa. You know, of course, our high school friends and college friends and other friends live here. My wife's whole family is here. So we had a desire to move back to the Tulsa area, and took us 17 years to get back. But we're here and we're here. We made it. We made it. We have made it. So that's kind of it in a nutshell. A couple of kids in there.
Scott Townsend:So when a couple of kids and yeah, that's awesome. What do you think 2022 is gonna be like,
Matt Newman:yeah, it's got to be better than 2021 that was I'm an extrovert. I like to interact with people. As As Tracy mentioned, we've got a group of college high Wildcat boys that get together on a regular basis. And that definitely recharges my body batteries. So being sequestered to your house was tough. And sequester travel has been tough. But, you know, from a from a business standpoint, I think it's personally I think the economy is just ready to launch. There's so many things, so many factors that come together. And I'm involved with a chair, a US Department of Commerce Advisory Council advisory board. So I get to see kind of a national viewpoint, macro viewpoint, which also takes in some global supply chain and interaction. So I'm the eternal optimist. And I think 2020 is going to be fantastic. I really do.
Scott Townsend:What are some of the big questions you have about? What's coming up in 2022? What, are there any concerns going into it? In the big any questions that you have in your mind about how things are going to shake out from a health standpoint or business standpoint, or?
Matt Newman:Well, I think Americans are very resilient, and very creative. And I think COVID has taught us that we've got a little bit complacent little bit. We've offshore too much with our critical supply chain. This is an example we can't make aspirin in the United States. Our foreign pharmaceutical feedstocks don't come in, they're not made the United States they come in into ports. So I think there's a definitely the one of the big initiatives is to look at what is critical to our economy? And what do we need to do to bolster that supply chain resiliency? So I put it this way, at a national level, if we had a problem with clean water supply in the United States, and I'm not talking about a drought in California, or a flood in Louisiana, or anything, like just we had a national problem with clean drinking water and industrial qualities of water, we would fix it. No doubt in my mind, we would fix it. Oh, yeah. So continent of that. So as we identify what we need to work on, and what we need to do, there will be a full court press to solve that. And that's what's exciting 2020.
Scott Townsend:Going back to Bartlesville. What was life like for you growing up in Bartlesville? Or did you grow up in Bartlesville? What?
Matt Newman:Yeah, yeah, we moved around a lot. My dad was a businessman, we moved around the United States quite a bit. We moved from Central Florida, to Bartlesville, the last nine weeks of our freshman year. So I walk in the last nine weeks to Central. And, you know, I've moved around a lot. So Mum kind of used to moving around. But it was a tough integration, because everybody was getting ready for the year to end. And I'm trying to make connections. But it took a bit to kind of crack analysts and into some, you know, the cliques? Because you all grew up together. Right? I was I was, honestly, I was very envious of how you folks, everybody seems like everybody grew up together. And he had some other outliers, Phillips bringing people in right now, some new people. But, you know, it was a great place to grow up. And I think Tracy and Kent, both mentioned this, we were super blessed. Multiple interviewees have mentioned this. You know, big small town. Education second to none. well funded education, phenomenal teachers. Phenomenal administration. Safe. Yeah. Right. Our peers are good people. Can't say that about every community. Right. And if you did anything good or bad, everyone would know. Everyone would know. And, you know, the parents would definitely know and you know, Chris service and I got into some trouble together. Not bad trouble. Just missed this drilling. Oh,
Scott Townsend:that's yeah, is you know, we're gonna get in trouble. I mean, there's no, there's no, using that away. It's just if you didn't, that would be a bigger problem.
Matt Newman:Yeah. And he's such a great guy. He's one of my lighthouses in life, you know, and we still stay in touch together. As a matter of fact, we spoke this week. But we did a little mischief, and we got pulled over by the police. And they said, You need to go home and your parents are waiting for you, Chris. And we may talk about this in a bit. I didn't have parents at home. So luckily Chris was driving. Yeah, actually would have been lucky if they would have said, you know, Matt, you need to go home. Yeah. And so anyway, we got to Chris's and doctors ervice and Mrs. Service are hosting a pretty well populated social event in the house. And we have to walk into this room full of adults. And basically, we were so busted. And if you think about it, they're about our age.
Scott Townsend:Yeah, right. Yeah. In the mid 50s, probably.
Matt Newman:Yeah. So they're basically our age. And here comes, you know, Chris and Matt. Walking in with their tails between their legs. And we're sorry, shocks. I'm sure everybody in the room was just cracking up to minor things. No big deal, but we were just mortified.
Scott Townsend:Yeah. Oh, yeah. So who were some of your So you moved to Bartlesville, ninth grader in central then you got a central moved up? College high. And so who were some of your I don't know, for who were some of the friends you befriended?
Matt Newman:Yeah, first, probably. Well, sports is such a great social lubricant. You know, so I got into the football program, and it's just a highlight of growing up in Bartlesville. Because I just enjoy the camaraderie. I enjoy the physicality of football. And there's a bit of pain involved and it's kind of fun. And your younger brother can probably attest to that. We have a lot of fun. Yeah, we had a lot of fun but you know, Chris nervous can't have and Tracy Robinette, Jeff Blair, Greg Brewer, Gauri Falcons. And Gordie Falk and family, my family spent some time together. They were friends or family as well. So we did some holidays together. You know, early on, Dana brought Cindy Brennan, Lisa Hutchins. You know, it's funny how you I'm sure we all did this, you shift a little bit, you know, so maybe our sophomore year, Dana, and Lisa and Greg Brewer and I did a lot of hanging out together. You know, completely platonic, but just really good friends. You know, then we start getting to the dating scene, right? Everybody starts to get a little bit more serious and date people. And as Ken Hudson mentioned, you kind of get sucked into that. And you kind of miss the interaction with the boys.
Scott Townsend:Right. Right. You mentioned your parents. You want to go into that?
Matt Newman:Yeah, yeah. So you know, these days, this would never happen. But we I mentioned I moved around quite a bit growing up. And my dad came home one day and said his businesses were doing well. And he had a great report. He bought a house on the beach in St. Augustine, Florida. And we're all moving. And as I said, Yeah, I'm not moving. You know, I'm playing ball. I've got my friends. I just really don't want to do this again. And move to St. Augustine, Florida, you know, and start all over again. Yeah. So we made a deal. You know, he would come back from time to time. And we made a deal. He would pay the mortgage, I would pay all the utilities. I get good grades and stay out of trouble. And he owned 50 minute photo and Eastland that Eastland mall that Eastland center. And so yeah, remember that? Yeah, so he had employees to watch after me so I couldn't miss work to get good grades. And then he would come home you know, and make sure the house was in order. Now one of the mistakes he made and to this day, he doesn't know this. So he I know he's not going to watch this podcast. But he had a 1974 t top Corvette Quadra jet for Barrow, her shift and it saw Osage County quite a bit. And he to this day, never knew that I took that thing out and just opened it up. You know that big straightaway that goes up the hill path circle mountain, the interest circle mount right. Just praying that a highway patrolman wasn't anywhere near us
Unknown:thank you for listening to the last of the call high Wildcats 1982 podcast and we'll be right back after this
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Matt Newman:lived alone was had to basically be super grown up and responsible early and pay utility bills and buy food. go grocery shopping. Hey, thank goodness I was in Bartlesville because another friend that I didn't mention to an underclassmen Alan Merle. Yeah, he was he was a racquetball racquetball ever play, he would have fun hitting me. And he could hit me no matter where I was in on the court. And he could pick the place where he's gonna hit me. But his his mom was so gracious. And and in Bartlesville, many people didn't lock their doors. So I was at work and would go run to get something to eat. And I would run over to Mrs. Myrtles to hook you know, sit down with them. And Alan should always make me a sandwich or something. And no one's home. But the doors open. They gotta eat. So go in and make a sandwich and leave a note for Mrs. Normal. You know, thank you for the sandwich. And yeah, wish you were here.
Scott Townsend:Man. That's crazy. Yeah. So I didn't know that I didn't realize. Yes, secret or a well known or
Matt Newman:it was not well known. You know, and I didn't know that. Glenn Goodrich was living with Mark Thompson. Mm hmm. You know, that's a lot more responsible. Yeah. Like the basement, you know, freshmen. Right. And somebody Oh, it wasn't well known. You know, my close friends knew. So that if somebody didn't want to go home, you know, well, I'm going to go stay over at the Newman's and they've come crash. And you know, Gordie Hawkins did that a few times, and nothing at hand. Nothing terrible was I was ridiculously responsible.
Scott Townsend:No, that's great. Yeah. I'm sure there was a party or two in there somewhere that
Matt Newman:might have Yeah. And James Dennis who knows air and the whole cast accrued done away and I I, I was just getting everybody out of the house. They were wrecking my house, out of my house.
Scott Townsend:Get off my lawn. Get off my lawn. So I have a question here. It says what kind of car did you drive? I guess you were driving a Corvette? No, no, it's to
Matt Newman:that that I had to be very, very strategic with. I had to beat up pickup truck my freshman or sophomore year, and then I bought a 73 Chevy Vega. That was just no air conditioning. Yeah, standard four, four on the floor.
Scott Townsend:I think they've never had a Vega at one point.
Matt Newman:Yeah, this thing was like candy apple red. It worked. You know, what was what was the stereo car stereo play CO or? No, no, one of
Scott Townsend:our cars. Yeah, Keith was there. Yeah, it was.
Matt Newman:They hooked me up. And of course, I had a stereo in it. You know, and a equalizer amplifier mate, got me to school, got me to work. Drove it all through college. And it worked well, but I was I was envious of folks like Karen Oakley that would drive up in a brand new car every other day. Right? Or it was easy to be envious of of your work driving a piece of crap. 73 Chevy Vega.
Scott Townsend:I was looking to the yearbook and I saw several pictures of you on the football team. And it looked like there was a college high call high day. I don't remember what that was all about, really. But there was you and you were in your football uniform. And I think Jimmy Webb was in there. And Pam Peterson and you were the captain the football team, right? Yeah,
Matt Newman:I crowned the queen. Right. And Peterson arbor. Now we're very, very, very, very good friends. So she's a adore her. You know, and I just kind of made a decision to really Plant one on her as after I crowned her. And if you look at the picture, she's pushing away. That was not the gentlemanly thing. And I really thought about it. I thought I'll just kiss her on the cheek. Yeah, you know. And then my gosh, man, this is the last
Scott Townsend:year that's a moment, man. That's a moment. Seize the moment.
Matt Newman:And Carpe Diem, it was not appropriate. But she was cracking up. You know, when we parted? She was cracking up. And yeah, she went to Oh, you and I saw her to you quite a bit. We just kind of laughed about it. But when I walked back from the football field, the guy that she was dating was less than pleased with me. And and, you know, was basically calling me out after the game kind of thing. And I'm like, game on, you know, let's break of course, that nothing ever happened. It was all for fun. It was all in good. Good, fun, good friendship. Yeah. And by the way, you know, being the captain, first of all, I was barely a mediocre football player. I mean, there were so much more talent on that team. But I just really enjoy the camaraderie, enjoy the game, enjoy the sport of it. And I remember, you know, Coach Ripley coming in and saying, Newman, go crowned the queen. I mean, literally, like she's, we got to go get somebody out there. And they were there. I thought he was joking.
Scott Townsend:Yeah. And was this outside during the football football game? Or was it in the
Matt Newman:did it? We did it before the football game instead of doing it halftime? Because he felt like we needed the downtime, the coaching. Even though our senior year, our record was just the worst ever. No. But incredibly good memories from playing ball. You know, there's so many people that took it so seriously, and I had just so much fun. George Davis made it fun. Oh, yeah. Can't Hudson made it fun. There was one there was one. One moment, a big old pile after a play. And Ken Hudson's face mask is against my face mask. And he's growling. I mean, he's, you know, it's just really into it. I'm cracking up. So we're face masks, Mayfair for the face masks weren't there. We really kiss him. And he's he's just, you know, Mr. aggression. And I'm cracking up. You know, and another fond memory from playing ball. One of the folks you interviewed, I think it was. Was Todd know who John that did some of this spotting. And then the broadcasting. Somebody did some broadcasting? John Hensley. Yeah. John Hensley. So I don't know. John hen. Now John has to be bald, so he couldn't get in there. But remember, Mr. Gay, yeah. would do the color commentary. He was announced. Yeah. And I have one of my favorite teachers. Yeah. And, and, you know, after the play, he would say, you know, there's so and so. So Matt Newman in on the tackle. And I'm like, standing by the pile not involved in any of this. And I would just look up to the press box.
Scott Townsend:Thanks. Thanks for sticking, like really?
Matt Newman:And he did it more often than than you think. It was? Entertaining. I remember that playing ball.
Scott Townsend:So that was there you go. There's another one of my questions and you funny stories you can tell there's more than certain there's several right there.
Matt Newman:There's one I'll share with you. We were at an away game. And it i It's um, really hard to embarrass him to get to get embarrassed, you know, and we're in the locker room getting ready. And you got to go out and do calisthenics and warm up. And you just grab your helmet go out there and when I was getting ready, I had a unique way of dressing. So I had like a wrestling undergarments and your athletic protector I would put over that. And then a pair of shorts, and then your football fan football fans. And I had kind of the wrestling thing and the athletic protector and coach came out and said on the field right now. Let's warm up. Go, go go. I'm like I'm not. I got to get dressed now. So I grabbed my helmet and ran out. And I lead, I had led the athletic warmups. So we're on the field I'm leading. With an athletic protector on the outside Garmin. Thought it was hilarious. Personally, I thought it was hilarious.
Scott Townsend:Oh my gosh. That's the coach it coach
Matt Newman:laughed. He didn't think it was appropriate. We worked through that.
Scott Townsend:That's so funny. You stay in touch with any of your high school friends up to this point?
Matt Newman:Yeah, yeah. Just as I said, I just spoke with Chris Zervas. traveling down to Texas, and he said, Hey, what are you doing? You want to go to Texas with me for a few days, like, Dude, you gotta give me more than 15 minutes. But yeah, we get you know, 567 folks together regularly pre COVID. We did it. You know, every quarter or so. You know, Mark Troxel. Scott Crawley Tracy, Robin that, you know, Gordie Falk and Butch Bolin. Ron team up for? You know, I'm leaving folks out. I know. We just had a Jimmy Webb times. But and we'll you know, Tracy is pulling together. The lunch for December. Yeah. So yeah, just get together. And it's just Greg Brewer is part of that group. And it's just, it's like, it just recharges my batteries to hang out with these guys and get. Yeah, I've all the high
Scott Townsend:school people, friends that you had friends that you've had, and that you know of? If you know if I were to say, wonder whatever happened to what would you?
Matt Newman:Yeah. GEORGE Davis. You know, he was a he's a linebacker, and he was soft spoken with a really dry sense of humor, but super smart. Yeah, just really a smart guy. And I had an opportunity from your podcast, I caught up with Cindy Hayes. And Cindy and George had gone to college together both studied chemical engineering. So I got kind of a little update, you know, on what George was up to. There's, you know, I got, I could probably pull four or five or six names out of the hat.
Scott Townsend:Couple of questions regarding you know, just overall, what's your, what would you say is your greatest accomplishment the last 39 years.
Matt Newman:So, you know, kind of three different buckets. So, you know, first, the very cliche, my kids, I've always wanted to be a dad, and try my best to be a good dad. And we've got a 24 year old son was born in Houston, and a 20 year old daughter that was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. And our son is engaged and lives in Oklahoma City. And he's working and our daughter is at ODU followed in his father and my wife was also a new grad. So she decided to follow in our footsteps. So hands down that that is my lifelong, biggest accomplishment, you know, on Earth. On a professional side, maybe being at the right place at the right time making the right decision. I was at Duke Power and did something that was kind of the poster child for ethical business practice. And the chairman and CEO put me on the cover of the annual report. And, and that you will I think we were a fortune 17 company at the time, you know, or fortune, definitely fortune 20 or fortune 50. Yeah. You know, that's super heady. You know, and I was held up in big meetings and asked to talk about business ethics and things like that. And, you know, that cover of the annual report, and three bucks will get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Right? Right. Oh, it's cool. You know, in there, there was financial reward there, but it's pretty hard. But on a professional basis, what I'm most proud of the biggest single biggest accomplishment, you know, when I moved back to Tulsa, I worked for a renewable energy company and the opioid pandemic. That's just horrible. It's a big problem. And the debt, the debt, the director of the Oklahoma year of narcotics I had heard was trying to pull together a pro To put drop boxes in every county in Oklahoma, where citizens could drop their unused unwanted prescription meds, so they don't flush them down the toilet, but also get them out of kids hands. Because the overdose death rate in Oklahoma is still absolutely unacceptable. And unfortunately, about seven months ago, I lost my nephew to a drug overdose.
Scott Townsend:Oh, wow. Sorry to hear that.
Matt Newman:Yes, it's just it's so you know, with our other classmates that have lost children. This was my boy, you know, he was very, very close to us. And he was like a second son. But rolling back to the program. I remember calling up director Weaver and saying, great program, you're gonna collect all these drugs? What are you going to do with them? And he goes, Well, we haven't figured it out yet. I said, you bring them up here, and we'll destroy him for free. Now he's a cop. Yeah. And free, is very skeptical. And it took us about a year to earn his trust, which we did. And I said, when we attain 100,000 pounds of prescription that's destroyed. I want to be an honorary Oakland Bureau of Narcotics agent, I want a badge, I don't want a gun. It'd be just cool to have a badge. And he goes Newman, you're not getting a badge. Ever. You're never getting a badge. And he goes, I'd be amazed if we hit 100,000 pounds of prescription meds. And we sailed over 100,000 pounds of pills. Just think about 100,000 pounds of pills that we got, we get off the street. So the you know, immeasurable number of lives that we've saved, you know, and the environmental protection aspect of that. And, Darrell, because of that program, we were awarded the Keith Oklahoma beautiful towering Spirit Award. And we were awarded the the Bellman Henry Bellman Sustainability Award. And it wasn't me, and it wasn't the company I worked for. It was the partnership, the public private partnership. So I said, I'll accept these awards under one condition. They the The award goes to the Oakland Bureau of Narcotics as well. You got to put that on the placard. We're both on the stage. So by far, the greatest professional accomplishment I've had.
Scott Townsend:That's great. Speaking of professional accomplishments, where's my you? Your lately I guess, involved in this hydrogen? Yes, the sustainability initiative with with members of the State Government STIP. And those guys, and they'll throw up a picture here. sent over this is you?
Matt Newman:Yes, so this just happened. This is a legislation, there was some legislation that created the Oklahoma hydrogen Task Force. And Secretary Wagner, who's the Secretary of Energy Environment asked me to help him so I'm advising him on all things hydrogen, which is very innovative. And I served as a facilitator for the Oklahoma hydrogen Task Force. And so you know, there's a Senator or Representative couple of representatives that the head of research for the University of Oklahoma that research the Water Resource Board executive, somebody from the Department of Transportation, somebody from O'Casey, Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology. And I've served on that board in the past, really powerful group tasked to pull together a roadmap for Oklahoma's participation in this hydrogen economy. And included subcommittees and 50 or 60, or 70, stakeholders attending meetings and getting input and ultimately providing the picture shows us delivering the report. And that was part of the legislation to deliver the report to Governor set. The president pro tem and the Secretary of the house, and we accomplished that. And that's really just the launch. Now the business now really gets going that we start to implement the
Scott Townsend:plan. So just you know, bringing it down to the common Joe and myself. What, what is the hydrogen economy, but break that down for me? What what is that? And
Matt Newman:just Yeah, yeah, so we're all familiar with oil and gas. Yep. And the natural gas business. Yeah. And we're familiar with wind and renewable energy and Oklahoma exports about 65% of our energy. So we're kind of a breadbasket for oil and gas sector. forests and for renewable energy exports and the globe. You know, the whole world economy is looking at sustainability, environmental, social governance, reducing your greenhouse gas footprint. And hydrogen is a really effective fuel. The really effective energy source. How do we get hydrogen? Yeah, hydrogen. Yeah, hydrogen. So we're gonna do back going back to our year in chemistry. Yeah. Gene was it wasn't our kingdom or was it now? Maybe I'd have to look it up. I just I remember Jean. Jean Jean, you know. So hydrogen, Dean, Dean was a baby. There you go. Thank you, Jeannie. So you know, hydrogen is the lightest lightest element. So all the way up on the far left hand side of periodic table. It's it unfortunately, it doesn't like to be alone. It likes to hang out with oxygen. That's water, you know, like sulfur. It likes to carbon likes to hang out with other elements. So it doesn't really exist anywhere in nature alone. Okay, so you have to basically use some products and feedstock. And that product can be natural gas, which is carbon, four hydrogens. And you crack the four hydrogens off the carbon, and now you've got hydrogen. Or you can use water via electrolysis. And you crack the h2 off the Oh, and now you've got hydrogen and oxygen. And with water, you can use wind and solar. So you have a transportation fuel or an industrial fuel that has no carbon. No, if you had, if you put it in like a we had an opportunity to tour some facilities in Germany recently, and we wrote on a hydrogen powered bus. And the exhaust is water and steam. And the first thing you'll notice, you know, it's like an electric bus. You know, the first thing you notice is everybody piles onto the bus. And you're talking and you can actually hear each other. Yeah, yeah. No, no internal combustion engine.
Scott Townsend:Seems like the transportation sector is prime for this kind of fuel source. I guess what you call it?
Matt Newman:Yes. And it? Absolutely, you know, especially in you know, communities like LA and Salt Lake City and Atlanta, New York. You know, Chicago? Yeah. Yeah, big metropolitan areas that have air quality issues.
Scott Townsend:So the car, if I want to use hydrogen fuel, what I would do go up to the pump. This is me being stupid, because I'm ignorant here about this. I know oil and gas but the hydrogen, I'm, I need you to help me with that. So I'll go to the pump and I pump water into the car,
Matt Newman:or what you've pumped hydro is just like compressed natural gas, you've seen some compressed natural gas stations, especially on the Turnpike, if you ever go down to Oklahoma City, you see at the center, I station, you know, diesel gas, and then CNG. So it'll, it'll move around like compressed natural gas moves around. You charge up a tank, just like you charge up a compressed natural gas tank. Okay. And, you know, the difference is, the industry is kind of leaning into fuel cells, which is all pretty much like solid state, there's no internal combustion, there's no moving parts. You'll see internal combustion engines that'll run on hydrogen coming. Okay. But you basically use the hydrogen to make electricity and your your output, your exhaust is heat and water. Yeah,
Scott Townsend:so you got involved with this through your new era advisors. Position?
Matt Newman:Yes. You know, so so it's an honor to serve the state. And, you know, when you get that call to action, just like you're here, commercial for doughnuts call to action. So when when you have a call to action, called your first, your first, my first response, I think everyone's first response in their head should be yes, how can I fit this on my calendar?
Scott Townsend:What's the advantages of the hydrogen economy other than, you know, the exhaust being water and steam? What are the other advantages? If this were to take off gas,
Matt Newman:it's a well you got it. It's a clean energy fuel. It's also a another pathway, another outlet for our vast natural gas supplies. The other way as I mentioned two ways to right now to make hydrogen is cracking natural gas. And that happens here outside of Tulsa and also in Enid, Oklahoma, is the places that make fertilizer or make ammonia. Okay, you crack the hydrogen apart from the carbon then use the hydrogen and nitrogen to make ammonia. And those are all fed by natural gas. So you're in the natural gas Business, and somebody is willing to come in and say, hey, I can make demand for your product. You know, let's, let's that's a, that's a new pathway for our vast quantities of natural gas that is have powered the nation, you know, power the state and power the nation for generations.
Scott Townsend:That's so cool. Why wouldn't
Matt Newman:we are doing it, that's what that report was about. Let's make it happen. And we're already doing it. Like I said, we got the ammonia plants doing this stuff. And then also just outside of Tulsa, we have companies that are building the parts and pieces necessary, you know, the processing equipment, and the pumps and compressors. And they're building them here and sending them to California. And sending them to, you know, the Northeast. And let's, let's build that up. Well, that's awesome. More more jobs and manufacturing for us. That's
Scott Townsend:all that's been fascinating. My clock is running. Yeah, running out on on us here. One of the last questions I have, you know, I asked you about your greatest accomplishment, maybe any disappointments, if you had anything that you've life lessons, or teachable moments over the last 39 years that?
Matt Newman:Yeah, and unfortunately, you know, when we think of that, you think of the stuff that didn't go well, right. And I'm still trying to figure this out. But, you know, when, when I was in Charlotte, you know, my best friend in the whole world, just my roommate was diagnosed with a fatal form of brain cancer. You know, the prognosis was a 1% chance to live in 12 months. And the young guy, you know, look like Superman look like Clark Kent, We're inseparable, just really, really close friends. And luckily, my career allowed me to serve as his medical advocate. So there's a lot of God's handedness, you know, so you find out about this, and then the best, you know, neuro oncologist, you think of the Mayo Clinic, but right there with Mayo Clinic is Duke University, they have an incredible neuro oncology department. And just so happened, I had a connection. And they do not take people you know, it's, it's, it's a unique relationship. It's so it just worked out. And we got him in. And he lived for 16 or 17 months. And we battled battle, that terrible, terrible disease, you know, together, and it was tough, it was really tough to watch your best friend, go through that. And then, you know, be there when when he passes away. And he left our best friends, his wife and two awesome kids. So there are a lot of lessons in there, you know, the things that I took seriously before that are not so serious. Now. You know, your parents always taught you don't worry about the little stuff, you know, focus on the big picture. And that that absolutely solidified that and be there not just for your family, be there for your friends.
Scott Townsend:That's, those are some awesome lessons there. I should do a better job at that. I guess I'm kind of trying to do that with this, you know,
Matt Newman:you are doing that. That's right. Think about all the joy you're bringing.
Scott Townsend:I you know, I've told other people this before. This is kind of like a love letter to the class of 82. You know, and you think of all the wisdom, like going I was writing that note to Lisa Hutchins on Facebook, you know, if you think of all the people that we've interviewed and the 39 years of wisdom that's been accumulated per person, you know, 26 people was 260 296. Graduates 30 times 39 That's a lot of experience. Yeah, a lot of wisdom, you know, and so it's great to be able to share that with each other, you know, everybody's got a different perspective of the same mountain. And you know, it's I you know, you have a different perspective on things and I and I every time I listen to you guys talk I get something it I don't know, I feel like I'm the only one benefiting from this because I get to hear it you know, but there's there's a lot of people listening and
Matt Newman:that's the important part of staying close with your friends and staying in touch my friends as the college Hi guys we get together for lunch. I learned from them every time we get together. Not not so much from Busch bowl and Yeah, well, maybe
Scott Townsend:wrapping it up, my last question like I asked everybody is you know your graduation 18 year old self. You're looking at Matt Newman walking across the stage. And as he steps off, you walk up to him and knowing what you know. Now, would you tell your 18 year old self?
Matt Newman:We should have put a second car in the lobby? Number one, yeah. No, you know, I think. Yeah, that's a hard one. Because I think that the lesson was, yeah, it was great accomplishment. Move on to the next one. Keep your focus, work hard. You know, be good to people. And never burn a bridge and the TV live by that. I think you're going to be just fine. And it gets it does get easier. It's still pretty tough. But high school was pretty tough. College was pretty tough, but high school is definitely you know, not as fun as it may have been for others.
Scott Townsend:Well, there you go. Matt. I really appreciate your time. Is there anything else that you want to say? Any last words you want to say to the Wildcats out there listening watching?
Matt Newman:Yeah, just go to the reunion. Let's get together. And not just one night one event. You know, let I'm sure we're gonna have a whole bunch of different opportunities to network and visit and I personally just confident we're going to walk away from the event going, Man, I wish we had two more hours. I wish I could have connected with this person and that person, this person, you know, so come come up. And, you know, let's all get together and break bread and have some fun.
Scott Townsend:All right. Well, Matt, have a great 2022 I mean, I hope this I hope this this year for you and your family is just gangbusters.
Matt Newman:Yeah. Thank you. And again, man. Thank you for doing this. And I know you bet. This is one podcast. I won't watch.
Scott Townsend:You won't watch. I was here. You did it. Alright, well, for Matt Newman. This is Scott Townsend. Thanks for watching listening to the last call. Hi, Wildcats 1982 podcast. Have a great day and we'll talk to you later.
Unknown:The last of the call high Wildcats 1982 podcast is a Deetsoman Productions. For more episodes visit the last of the calm high Wildcats 1982 YouTube channel. Listen on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.