Coming up on this episode of Back Channel, we go off script and on record with Tyler Clancy. He just left the Utah House of Representatives to go take on the challenge of homelessness in Utah as the state homelessness coordinator. We’re going to talk to him about that transition, what he accomplished, and what he wishes he had accomplished while he was in the house. We’re also going to talk to him about his early life when he played lacrosse at BYU, what he majored in there, and how that didn’t lead him directly to where he is today, but certainly was a good connection. Also, a really great story about what he learned from his father, who was also a member of the police force. That’s coming up right after this on Back Channel. This is the Back Channel. Back channel. You didn’t hear this from me. Back channel. Hey, you’re not going to quote me, are you? What channel is it on? Back channel. Offscript on record. Let’s break out the sodas. I think I already got some on my script. That’s okay. I get I get to make sort of makeshift coaster here. That’s good for me. Yeah, you forget the hard question. That’s right. It’s all over the the difficult ones, the real gotchas I’ve got for you. I went Coke Zero with lime. What did you go with? I got uh the the correct order. Diet Coke, fresh lime, little bit of coconut. So So why have you There is a right and wrong. Yeah. Why have you not converted from Diet Coke to Coke Zero? because I I don’t understand that. That’s like asking why the Pope’s Catholic. I mean, that’s it’s just the way it is. As an answer, your honor. Just the way it is. All right. So, you’ve got your fridge cigarette there and I’ve got and I’ve got the one true cola over here. But we really appreciate you taking some I figured we needed some caffeine because I I was thinking about you in particular coming on the show and uh everyone else gets a a goodiz break after the session usually like we don’t even see interim days coming for like a month or two. Yep. And you went from the legislative session, how much time did you have off before you started your new gig? 48 hours. 48 hours. RNR. That’s not very much. Did you uh look back on that and think I should have taken a little more time? Well, I didn’t have too too much of a choice because uh you know, this is an issue that’s super important for the state and uh the governor asked me to be ready when the session ended. So, uh when he calls, you answer. Yeah. Yeah. It is a nice thing about being in the governor’s seat or in the governor’s office. Frankly, people answer your calls and they they stop doing that when you leave, just so you know. So, enjoy it while you’re, you know, in the executive branch because at some point they’ll they’ll stop. They’ll stop. Yeah, that’s okay. I I you know, we could text or do some cameos. Do people respond better now that you’re in the executive branch or when you were in the legislative branch? It depends on it depends on who um the this this issue of of homelessness it touches so many different sectors which is great uh but then you’re you’re managing it from so many different sides whereas the legislature once again it kind of depends on the issue. So in my case I’m I’m working with a lot of the same people just in a different capacity. So it’s been a good transition. Yeah. Part of the reason we bring out the sodas is because the the idea here is like in politics they say find out if it’s somebody you would like to sit down and have a beer with. Well, we’re going dirty soda because this is Utah and we’ll do it that way. Go cheers. There you go. Um so before we get into to your current role and even your time in the legislature, I want to get to know Tyler Clancy a little bit better. Are you from Utah? Tell me where you grew up and and what uh what life was like as a younger man. Absolutely. Well, I’m a pioneer. I took my hand card out here. No. So, uh, both of my parents grew up in Long Island, New York. Oh, wow. Um, my mom, uh, joined the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she was, uh, uh, in high school. Yeah. So, she went to BYU in Provo. That’s where she, you know, started putting down those roots that I could pick up. Um, my dad joined the Marine Corps and, uh, they they went on different paths for for a couple years and they eventually reconnected and got married. And um my dad also joined uh the church as well. So uh Marine Corps took him to South Carolina. If you ever seen Forest Gump, I have. That is the that’s the claim to fame of the city that I grew up in. It’s called Bufort, South Carolina. Uh my dad uh went transitioned from the military to law enforcement. Uh but we we came to Provo pretty much every summer. We were at a lot of BYU sports camps, um, and lacrosse, football, and we stayed with our our friends and family in in Utah Valley. So, I’m I’m a little bit of a transplant, uh, but but love, uh, loved uh, I knew where I wanted to come uh, growing up. So, did your parents know each other on Long Island and then come out here and reconnected out this way? Yeah, they were they were friends in high school. Um he they they they didn’t date or anything, but my dad started uh these these two guys, these missionaries knocked on his door when he was a Marine Corps uh lieutenant and uh started telling him about the church and he thought it was interesting. Um and then his his roommate was telling him some other stuff basically saying, “Yeah, I think they have horns. They’ve got tails.” And so he says, “Well, I knew one, you know, he knew two members of the church. one Jason Lamb who’s now the lacrosse coach at Southern Virginia. He was a storied BOU lacrosse coach and he said Jason was the only one who didn’t do drugs at the restaurant I worked at and Lisa Clancy you know she seemed like a great gal and so he reached out and they reconnected over over letters over snail mail and the rest is history. Oh that’s awesome. So you ended up growing up in the Provo area then? Uh in South Carolina. South Carolina primarily. Okay. But but we we came out a lot uh during the summers and my mom spent some time out here for camps and stuff. if you said right. Um, you mentioned lacrosse and football. Were those sports that you played? Yeah. So, uh, I played played lacrosse in high school, then I played eventually at BYU. U, so I was I was living the dream as they say. Um, and then football, wrestling, you know, did the did the whole gamut growing up. Yeah. I mean, you’re not certainly you have the build of I would say like a wrestler would have been my guess and then I would have thought maybe lacrosse and football, but so college lacrosse is college lacrosse is it like a sanctioned sport at BYU? How does that work at at BYU? Yeah. So, at BYU, it’s an extra mural sport, so it’s like the rugby team or the men’s soccer team. And, uh, it it was the the best experience of my life. Uh, had a great coaches, lifelong friends. They just won the national championship again for their division on Saturday. So, I still I still watch from afar following. Um, but so I was like the kicker of the football team. So, you mentioned, you know, I’m kind of shorter, stockier. So, in in lacrosse, they have a faceoff. So they put the ball in the middle and the two faceoff guys wrestle for the ball and that was what I was good at. So they call it fogo face off get off because the minute I got the face off they said get off a quick change off the field. Yeah. Uh what did you learn playing lacrosse that still helps you in your career? Oh man. So many lessons I would say obviously work ethic, discipline, but I’ll throw one at you. Uh we were playing Michigan State in 2018 and uh I was having a great year that year as a face. I was a younger guy on the team, but I was really having a great year at the faceoff. We call it the X. I know you’re a lacrosse fan, too. That’s true. I’ve got you. Um so I was in the final four playing Michigan State and I got dominated. I I lost maybe I won three faceoffs out of like 21. Yeah. Uh, and we ended up losing the game. And a lot of people came up to me and they said, “Hey man, it wasn’t your fault. You know, you did fine. Oh, the ref’s this, the ref’s that.” And it wasn’t until later that summer when I was sitting there, I said, “You know what? Actually was my fault.” And, uh, but because of that, I dedicated myself that summer really. I started going to more specialized camps for the faceoff, uh, lifting, exercising more, and came back the next year and was better. And so that’s that’s a lesson I take is that that ownership of when something goes wrong, guess what? You actually might be the problem. And that’s okay because you can change it. Yeah. What’s the key to a good face off? You spend some time in in on the X. On the X on the X. Uh what’s the key to a good one? How do you win them? Well, you know, everyone has different strengths. So you you have some guys who are really small, but they’re super fast. You have some guys who are bigger, and they’re trying to wrestle you for the ball. What kind were you? I was I was probably somewhere in the middle. Okay. But that’s where I say is the the you have to roll with the punches. Um sometimes uh you know you have sweeps, you have the clamp, you have these different moves. And guess what? Some some some games uh this move is going to be working. It’s going to be hot. Other games it’s not. So just being flexible, uh being a hard worker, being dedicated, showing up, and we always say it’s zero, right? So whether you lost clean slate, if you won clean slate, come to that approach the X as if it’s a clean slate and and give it the best you’ve got. It sounds like some easy applications to a legislative career. Certainly. Certainly. So a lot of those where you’re like, “All right, well, I have a different opponent this time than last time. Maybe this guy’s faster. Maybe this guy’s stronger. Got to go figure it out.” 100%. Yeah. What did you study at BYU? So I studied family life and I’ll tell you the story behind it. Uh, I was I was really struggling my my freshman year at BYU uh uh in academics. And so I went to the adviser and I said, “What’s the easiest major at BYU?” She said, “Tyler, there’s no easiest major. It depends on your strengths and weaknesses.” I said, “Please.” She said, “Family life.” And I signed up. Really had to press her for that. You had to ask a follow-up question. But it was the best degree. I tell everyone that they should go join the school of family life. It It was hard. It was not easy. Um but so she lied to you. She li she or she was truthful in saying there’s nothing easy but this is the easy one. It’s all about life. It’s about relationships, managing those relationships and uh and being uh learning those life skills. It was so great. Um and it translated well to to my career. Yeah. So how do you go from family life into career? Tell me about that transition to go start a career when you leave BYU. So uh I had the opportunity to be mentored by some great people in college. Uh, one that you worked with closely is uh, uh, Speaker Greg Hughes, uh, Scott How, who’s actually a Democrat. Um, and so many more uh, great people were able to just take take me under their wing um, on different projects and initiatives. And one of those was homelessness. And, uh, so so right around the pandemic, um, I was reached out to by, uh, what’s called Solutions Utah. uh was called the Pioneer Park Coalition and Operation Rio Grand had just happened. So the big downtown shift, the new homeless resource centers and they were looking for an executive director who could help build some bridges there. Um and it they came to me and said, you know, you might be a good standin for for the next the real person that we get. And I said, “Well, what you’re going to get with me, I’m not the expert in the room, but I’ll do the work and I’ll show up every single day.” And so they they took a chance on me and and so I went into nonprofit uh management, worked on the ground with with uh city, county, state leaders on homelessness and I learned how diverse a challenge homelessness is, but that was that was kind of the the entrance there. Yeah. Uh how’d you get from there into law enforcement? So my dad was, as I mentioned, he was a police officer for 29 years. And around that same time, uh, uh, my dad passed away. And it’s interesting, you know, when you have these things happen in your life, for me, it’s it’s always like a reset is I kind of say, you know, if I if I if my ticket was called tomorrow, what what what impact would I have made in the world? And my dad uh, you know, didn’t make a ton of money, uh, you know, as public servants. um he we didn’t drive any fancy cars, but he always was proud of the work that he did. So that really resonated with me. So, um, I spent about two years at the, uh, in nonprofit sector and I said, it’s kind of crazy, but, uh, I’m actually going to go to the police academy. And I, I’ve, uh, lived in Pro my my whole time in Utah. And so, had the opportunity to become a Provo police officer and it was the absolutely the best decision I could have made. And, uh, talk about real world experience. You’re you’re thrown in the middle of it for sure. How did family life end up preparing you for that and what you would deal with as a member of the police force? It’s a good question. I think people think, you know, the show Cops, uh, they think they think being a police officer is like the show Cops. You’re always running over fences, chasing bad guys. Um, you know, some think it’s Reno 911 with new boots and everything like that. Short shorts. Yeah, but uh really people call 911 when they don’t know who else to talk to. They don’t know who else to call. Um I could tell you story after story of situations where I didn’t know what to do as a police officer. Um I remember one night, it was around Christmas time and I was working the graveyard shift, which was my favorite. U got a call that uh someone was calling 911. They were crying and then they hung up. And so the dispatcher said, “Hey, you know, 402, that was my badge number. We go check that out, of course.” So I was at the Wendy’s parking lot. It’s about two in the morning. And I show up and there’s a car running. So I figure this is most likely the person there because there’s no one else uh wandering around when it’s freezing cold at night. So I knocked on the door and and it was a it was a young lady probably in her 30s who who was crying. And I said, “You know what’s going on tonight? Like how can we help you?” And she just unloaded. She said, “I’m trying to get out of this relationship. I’ve got two kids. I don’t know how to feed them. I just finished my shift and I just found out that I’m not getting this raise that, you know, I was hoping for. I I don’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to do.” But I think with family life and the school of family life, you you learn that that’s okay to to not have the solution severance problems, but listening is so important because when people feel heard, then they can start to assess their situation and and move forward. So for me, it was a lot of those relational um uh uh chapters and trainings and and courses about how families function, what what the how people interact with different systems. and I felt that that was an invaluable resource uh at my time on the streets. You mentioned your dad passing away as being sort of the the catalyst to move you into the law enforcement field. Tell me about your dad and tell me um what your relationship was like with him. Yeah. Well, I’m very lucky. Both my parents uh are are just incredible. Um my mom is your quintessential uh you know, gatherer of people. She uh growing up she would uh find many times the folks who were in the military their spouses would get deployed. My mom had a knack whether it was at Walmart or it was in a you know a store or restaurant. She would always find uh some of these some of these gals who their their husband would be deployed for 12 to 14 months. And lo and behold, I’d be, you know, sitting at home or doing yard work or something and who who are these three people that are coming to our house for dinner? And those are the people that my mom found that needed a needed connection. So that that gives you a lot of insight to my mom. My dad was he was just a hard worker. He was just a old school guy who um really cared about his community. I’ll I’ll share just one story that I think gives an idea of what he was like. I remember one night he he came in and he looked like a Have you ever seen those ghillie suits when people go hunting? Mhm. He looked like that, but it was all mud and leaves and and uh they had just chased someone who had robbed a store. They chased him into the marsh. He fell. He blew up his elbow and um my mom was like, “You need to go to the hospital. Like, don’t go home.” And he’s like, “Oh, it’s fine.” you know, and uh got up early that next day and there was my dad 6:00 in the morning ironing his uniform, creasing it up, had breakfast made for everyone. That’s the kind of guy that my dad was. Just didn’t ask for a ad adoration, appreciation, just woke up, did his job every day, and did it again the next day. So, it sounds like sometimes it is like an episode of Cops in that case. Totally. You know, the get the theme song and everything. Yeah. Uh, did you have more experiences that were like cops or more that were like Reno 911? O, tough question. You know, it all depends on what shift you’re working. If you’re working the graveyard shift, it’s probably a mixture of cops and Reno 911. If you’re working the day shift, it’s more of like um, you know, I remember one time a gal, she called 911, said she needed an officer at her house. I show up, she says, “My cat’s in the tree.” Like, I’m not the fire department. I’m like 5 foot nothing, you know? So, so it’s it all depends. Shoot it down. What would you like me to do? If you could boost me up there, you know, maybe. But giving you one of those. Yep. Yeah. Never never a dull moment to to say the least. Yeah. All right. So, you’re you’re on the Provo Police Force and you’ve had some experience in the nonprofit world and somewhere along the line you decide, I’m going to go run for the Utah House of Representatives. Remind me how you got in the first time. Special election, just open seat. What was the situation? Yeah. So, it was I want to say it was no November or December and uh I had just woken up uh and I woke up in the middle of the day because I worked at night and I was uh reading the news and in the nonprofit space I had the opportunity to work on legislation related to homelessness. So, uh we worked on legislation with Representative Steve Ellison to create the state homeless coordinator position. We worked and advocate for the uh uh the other side village um and many of these other project. So I I generally knew how the process worked. Um and lo and behold I saw that my representative Adam Robertson phenomenal guy uh had resigned. Uh some some things took off in his personal life that were uh super successful business-wise and he just couldn’t manage it all. And uh they said we’re looking for vacancies to to fill this. and I said, you know, I’ll probably lose, but if I could get out there and campaign, I could at least move the needle on some of these issues I cared about. Um, and so didn’t have a lot of money. I reached out to to the contacts I had and just shared, hey, this is why I’m going to run. And I said, uh, good luck. I had one one person call me and said, are you old enough to to run to run? I said, I think so. And uh uh but long story short, really the only investment I made in that in that election was uh new shoes because I just walked uh the neighborhoods every single day. Uh knocked on doors. And once again, drawing back to that family life experience, I just listened. I had a stump speech prepared. Oh, this is what we’re going to work on. This is what I care about. But more often than not, I found myself just really listening and saying, what are the issues that are important to your family? And uh it was a very eye opening experience. I think everyone whether it’s the water commission or whatever it might be, the ability to meet your neighbors and connect on those issues, learn about it was invaluable to me and I’m I’ll always be grateful for that experience. I think it’s one of the things that it’s so easy for someone running for office to jump past that, right? Just like you’re saying, show up with here’s my speeches, here’s what I care about, I’m going to have your attention for this short amount of time. I love that approach because you go and you listen and even if you leave without even saying, “Hey, I’m not, you know, I want you to vote for me or making that ask,” they’re going to go, “Okay, I remember kind of what that guy looked like. I’ll I’ll figure out what his name was because I liked that interaction.” Yeah. And they’re, I think, more likely to go tell other people, “Hey, you know, I had a guy, I don’t know if he came to your house, he stopped by my place.” And and you suddenly have a champion. Yeah. It’s a pretty incredible way to go about it. Well, and I think the the listening factor is so important because of what you described. We all have our blind spots. We we bring certain issues. So, for me, the reasons I ran obviously homelessness very passionate about and homelessness you can really think of as intergenerational poverty, housing affordability, um the drug crisis, um and and a human crisis. I also care deeply about victim’s rights. I felt that at the time in Utah County there were some big gaps in that system and how victims were being treated by the criminal justice system as I was a part of that. Um, but I would go and knock on doors and I would say, you know, here’s my here’s my spiel. And they’d say, “Cool, sit down. Let me tell you about my family. My son’s been on the DSPD weight list for x amount of years. I you know, we’re we’re drowning in this.” Or, you know, these potholes uh on our street, like it’s it’s not safe for the kids to be riding bikes. Those are things I would have never known about because it’s it was my blind spot. So, that was very helpful for me. And I think interesting because I don’t think most people would say, “Oh, well, Provo, yeah, of course people have strong opinions about homelessness because you don’t think of Provo having a homeless problem, right? That’s Salt Lake City.” So interesting that that would be an issue that would sort of resonate with the people you’re talking to. Were you surprised by that? You know, so as a once again going back to law enforcement, you interact with uh people across the map, you know, every single day. So for me, um, something I’m very passionate about is when we have these issues, we have these challenges. Let’s face them head-on. Let’s don’t look the other way. Homelessness really begins in every community. Um, whether it’s Provo or Penguitch or Logan. And so, so that’s where I think I brought that perspective. But you know what? What’s funny you say that almost every single person I talked to said, “Yep, let me tell you about my cousin. Yep. Let me tell you about this.” Or, “Yeah, you know what? When I grew up, I was living in a hotel with my mom while she got things figured out. So, I think it affects more people than we think. Uh, you will have no reason to remember this, but I do remember the first time we met. Uh, because it was very Watergate, deep throat kind of a situation. I met you in the parking garage underneath the Capitol. Okay. Mike Mau introduced us. He just said, “Hey, Marty, come meet the newest guy in the house.” So, it was just right. Right. I mean, it would have been probably January right after you got But do you know the real story behind why I was in the parking garage? Lost. I was lost. My wife and I, the Speaker Schultz or Speaker Wilson at the time text and said, “I need you to be here early. You know, we’re going to get things figured out for the inauguration.” And I said, “I’ve only been through this door.” Yeah. Here’s your parking spot. So, we we did like three loops. Mike Mau found us and said, “Are you lost?” Yeah. I said, “Yeah.” And uh lo and behold, he he guided us around and we got more than we bargained for. We got a whole tour. Oh, yeah. And uh got to our destination. So, it was we got where you were going. We probably didn’t get there quickly efficiently one way or the other, but it was worth it for sure. Uh in fairness, just to defend you, if you are down there for the first time or even the first like I don’t know, five times, it’s not terribly intuitive where you are when you’re underground to think all right, which building is above me at the moment. So unfairness, you know, that’s I don’t want people leaving this exchange thinking, geez, this guy can’t even find his way around and he’s a cop, you know, come on. Uh, okay. So, you get into the house and you start right away sort of on the issues you care about, but there’s a lot to learn when you first get there. Tell me about what your experience was like, you know, first session and then what you kind of learned and got from your time in the legislature overall. Well, the main thing that stands out to me is just the people. Um, a lot of people they think of the legislature as this big L legislature, but the legislature is made up of normal people. Um, that just like I had those mostly normal. Yeah. I I fit into that, you know. Uh, maybe somewhere in between category. They go in normal. Yeah. True. It does something to people, right? Uh, that’s where I’d say the the people I got to serve with were great. Um, I I can’t say enough good about the folks I served with on on both sides of the aisle. So, for me, I had no problem with mentorship and, you know, listening. And um I had kind of planned to work on a number of different issues, but that first session uh it was Speaker Wilson’s last session as speaker, he pulled me aside and he said, you know, we really want you, Representative Elison and uh and others to to lead on the homelessness front. So, uh, I got my marching orders and and went to work and just once again did the similar to those knocking on doors and trying to learn and listen, but across the state and across the system, um, which was once again just a a huge asset, I think, in in that role. You’ve wrapped up your time in the legislature. I’ll at least say for now, who knows? Uh, as you look back on it, do you say here’s here’s the impact I made? was the big win or what was the thing that man I wish I could have gotten that done while I was there? Man, that is a tough question. I would say there’s a couple things that stick out to me. Um the school lunch was very I was very passionate about the school lunch expansion. Um very passionate about our homelessness system reform and very very passionate about um crime victims. Um there’s one I would say that that stands out among them that I really am am proud of. It’s kind of this wonky little uh policy piece, but uh the preliminary hearing process in Utah um there was a there was a period where there was some gray area in the law and in case law that judges were ordering even child victims to testify at preliminary hearings which are solely an evidentiary hearing. Um that is not a trauma-informed practice and it was very harmful uh to the system as a whole. We were able to work with both sides of the aisle, prosecutors, law enforcement, victim’s rights, defense attorneys, the the bar, the bar and the the courts to find a way to actually we what we did is we strengthened the preliminary hearing process but ensure that victims were protected through that process. To me, that was one where I said if I did nothing else, um we made the system better that day. Yeah, it’s interesting as we talk. I think, you know, we have a very conservative legislature. Um, and oftentimes when people say conservative, they might immediately think, oh, on programs like homelessness, it’s uncaring and we want to just make cuts and such. What I’m hearing from you is we want to make improvements to the system. The conservative principle is let’s use the funds that we have in the best way possible to help people. Did you feel like you um ran into that a lot where people sort of assumed that because of your party affiliation, for example, that like um I don’t know what he’s trying to do here. Did you have to overcome that at all to say I’m really here to help. I’m just going to help with a certain set of principles. Certainly. And I and I think that it’s wellounded. I mean, it can be very hurtful as a if you’ve dedicated your whole life to uh working on homelessness and you have someone who comes in and says, “This isn’t work. This is all garbage.” Right? that can be very hurtful for for us. The perspective that we’ve tried to take in Utah is to say this is really important and complex problems. Let’s make sure we’re we’re assessing our system to see if it works because ultimately there’s a human being on those graphs on those charts and the human side of it we we just can’t lose it. That’s where I would say is the the pivot point there. So you mentioned earlier on in our conversation and I want to get there now. you leave the legislature because the governor calls and you’re going to go become the state homeless coordinator. That’s the right title. Um what everyone else calls the homelessness are. So, uh what’s surprised you about it so far? I mean, you’re not that far into it. A couple months now. What’s surprised you the most and what’s sort of the game plan? Give us the overview. I would say what surprised me the most? I knew that there was incredible folks working on this issue. getting to break bread with people and really get to know their stories, learn about the work that they’re doing, it is genuinely inspiring when you see that much work on an issue that is easy to turn away from and not look at. Um, so that that stands out to me as like the wow. I would say what’s the plan? What’s the vision? The vision is that we recognize that homelessness is an extremely complex issue, but we call it one word. It’s this big umbrella. Homelessness is the mother fleeing domestic violence with her two children. The worker at a fast food chain who just gets priced out by the rent increases. He has to go live with mom and dad. And also the individual who’s my age, who’s in their 20s who’s smoking meth and fentanyl every single day in broad daylight and engaging in that high-risisk behavior. Well, all three of those folks, they need our help. All three of those folks need a system that works, but the system for each of them is going to be different. And that’s where we’re trying to bring this all of the above approach to be tailored to the human first approach. Yeah, that is a tricky thing about it, right? You say homelessness and it’s a broad term. We all think of something different. Um, and I think people do you think people tend to default to like to the the meth example and say that’s homelessness and that’s what we’ve got to go be tough on or we’ve got to do something different on without recognizing the rest. And how much of what you’re doing right now is helping people understand the the breadth of the issue? Well, I think it’s important to be specific when we talk about certain issues, and that’s why I’m really trying to um and our team is really good at this is to be specific about which problems we’re addressing. So, when we say homelessness, uh we’re being specific about what we’re describing. So, I think that’s where we get into a lot of these blue, red, right, left challenges is the almost the language that we’re using um and saying, “Well, no, homelessness needs this, not that.” So, I think a lot of it depends on what values and what experience you bring to the table. You have folks, uh, Senator Jen Plum and I were on a panel. The question came up about homelessness. She was talking about youth who had to run away because of a negative situation. I was thinking about individual using drugs and caught an addiction. Interesting how one word generated two different visions, if you will, of what the scope is. So, for us, it’s about precision. And that’s really what the governor expects of us is to be precise with our interventions because a one size is not going to fit all. Is there an advantage to at least being in a spot where everyone recognizes homelessness is an issue and needs to be addressed or are we hitting like a point where people are like we’ve tried to fix it, tried to fix it, maybe it’s unfixable. Do do you feel like there’s any fatigue on the issue or is there a tremendous advantage to saying everyone’s still on board now I’ve just got to make sure that we’re speaking the same dialect of that language? Yeah, I would say a little bit of both. The first part is the work that’s gone into aligning those visions I think is tremendous. We talked about you know almost a decade ago I was in these same conversations in the nonprofit space. There was certainly some disconnect some polarization there. I sit in those meetings today and people say, “Yeah, you’re right. This is a puzzle piece. This is a puzzle piece.” So on that front, wow, we’ve made a lot of progress. I think what you’re describing really is a a lack of hope because I think everyone agrees that this is a problem. But what’s been missing is that hope that we can do something differently, hope that we can see an outcome. So that’s why really what we’re focused on at the Office of Homeland Services is we don’t want to measure our success by how many people we serve. We don’t want to measure success by inputs or investments. We want to measure success by how many people don’t need our help anymore. How many people have flown flowed through the system effectively and they’re on their own path and self-sufficiency. That’s what I would say is the the process we’re working through right now. Uh I think I could speak for pretty much everyone to say I feel like we got the right guy working on it at the very least. Well, thank you. It’s a it’s a team effort. Um, I’m I’m just a like a a a strong cog in the wheel and I’m trying to do my part the best I can. Yeah. Uh, want to wrap up with a speed round if we can because we’re almost out of time. Okay. I need I need a take a sip of your take a swig of your drink. That’s the way to probably phrase that. All right. Um, you know, quick answers here. Um, all right. When you are done uh for the day, what’s your go-to app to mentally check out? App? Yeah. Oh, jeez. I I’m going to say Netflix. My wife and I are watching a show called The Night Agent. The Night Agent. It’s pretty good. Worth a recommendation. It’s worth a recommendation. Give us the synopsis. The Night Agent. Uh, The Night Agent is this uh secret uh uh task force that works in the basement of the White House and if the phone rings, they have to answer the call and do the mission to save the United States. So, what what could you could you more could you ask for? I’m looking for a show. So, the night agent’s on the list. Uh, best meal in Utah. Ooh. Okay. I’m going to say Sappa Sushi. That is my go-to place. If you don’t like sushi, they have a full suite of menu items that are all incredible. That’s my go-to place. Tap sushi. Where’s that? State Street. State Street. Okay. Uh, one person in Utah politics who you’d want to trade jobs with for a day. Oh my gosh, that’s a tough one. Um, okay. I’m going to say uh Joel Ferry uh DNR so that I could go and explore all of the trails and hang out with the park rangers for for a day. Okay. You went a different direction on the app question. So, this may be a little bit repetitive. You may have come to come up with a different answer. Um, favorite podcast, book, or other guilty media pleasure. I guess we’ll say not Netflix. Okay. Okay. Um, I listen to podcasts a lot as series. So, I’ll I’ll listen to a whole series and kind of move on. So, give us an example of what kind of like a podcast do you like? Uh, there’s a a recent one called Besides Back Channel. Yeah. I mean, that’s clearly the number one. It’s the number one, right? What’s your number two podcast? the I I really like uh there was one recently I listened to called Hunting Warhead. It’s about a sprawling long-term investigation into um a a child trafficking and this journalist embeds himself, crosses from the United States to Europe to Australia. Um I like that investigative journalism. I I like that angle. All right, final question. What advice would you give a younger version of Tyler Clancy if you could go back? Pick a time in your teens. you can go back. That’s not going back as far for you as it has been for some of us. So, you go back to your teenage self. What’s the advice you give? I will, this is the advice that I give all young people I talk to that that want to get involved and and serve their community. Be competent. I think a lot of times in public service, we focus on what opinions do we have? What beliefs do we have? But if you can, man, if you can set up an event, if you can coordinate that and put the chairs up, make a good event, that’s a skill. If you can write effectively and write a press release, get one out by the end of the day, those are all skills that I think are sometimes overlooked in the pursuit of the philosophical, which is so important. Those are going to come in your life. You’re going to experience different things in your opinions, your beliefs on this or that policy item. They’re probably going to change, but it build the competence, build the skills to be an asset in the workplace. That’s going to always be my my uh go-to. Awesome. I think you’ve earned yourself another sip of this. Tyler Clancy, thanks so much. Hey, thanks, Marty. All right, a reminder, the back channel is a Northbound Strategy production, and you can subscribe to the audio version of our show wherever you get your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok pretty much everywhere as back channel Utah. But try the YouTube because then you get to see our cool studio and what we look like, right? Uh our producer Shalis Ore joins us for our third and final segment today. What did you make of the conversation with Tyler Clancy? I loved it. I feel like it’s like he’s living like the ultimate medieval life, right? Because you want to like get everything medieval life cuz like if you die younger, right, then you’re getting like all the good stuff like packed in before you’re old. Yeah. I I think he’s like a brilliant example of that. I always think of that like I’m 44 now. What if I lived in medieval times? Then I’d be dead. You’d be dead by now. What have you done? What have I done? Well, you had some kids. That’s probably about the best you could hope for in medieval times if I were to think about it. Uh, yeah. I I look, I think he’s incredibly impressive. Um, he certainly knows the issue that he’s focused on. This isn’t a matter of like, oh, we just found someone who we think will be competent and can go take on a job like uh state homeless coordinator. Uh it’s someone who knows the issue and knows it from I think just almost like a 360 degree like other than probably um being homeless himself. Yeah. You know, he’s seen it from a law enforcement side, from a policymaker side, from an NGO type side. Uh so I just think he’s the right guy to go do it. It’s a massive issue and I loved how he broke it down for us that like when I say the word homelessness, right, or just homeless, you might think of one thing and I might think of a different thing and we’ve got to get some specificity to what we’re talking about. So, I think look, I I if you don’t walk away from that liking Tyler Clancy more, it’s probably only because you really liked him a lot before that in the first place. And someone that’s that passionate about it. That’s impressive. Yeah. Uh, all right. Uh, every week you bring us something that we should be talking about if the show if the format of the show fit that. And we’re going to make sure that this segment fits that. So, what what in the world have you found for us this week? What am I working on this time? Um, so I’m obsessed with the um account Cooking with Congress. I love food. I’m like the the world’s most handicapped foodie because of my like food allergies. So many food allergies. But I love food and all things cooking and all things eating. So he eats a day in the life of past presidents, um past first ladies, members of Congress currently or past members of Congress. Um current members of Congress, too. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. He he’s doing like a day in the life. It’s a broad he’s casting a broad net. Okay. Congress. Fair enough. He’s doing a day in the life of eating like um a constituent from each of the 435 congressional districts. You can send in your day of eating if you want him to eat like you for a day. Um one of my favorite episodes, I don’t know why, probably because it was the most disgusting, but he made like a fish aspic, which is like meat jell-o that Andrew Jackson was really fond of eating frequently. You had me at meat jell-o. Oh my gosh. I had everyone at meat jello, right? So gross. like a whole fish, a fried fish in fish stock gelatin. And he couldn’t really get through that, but Oh, let’s take a look at him trying to eat it real quick. It’s fish aladob, which means fish stew in other cultures and cuisines, but here it means an entire boiled fish encased in savory jelly. Sadly, the jelly stuck slightly, but that that’s not the issue here. It tastes like eating pure fish stock and feels like French kissing a trout. I know I can make a more elegant version, and this is my first time, but the great tasting version based on the original recipe, I don’t know. We’ll see. At least there was ochre on the side to wash away that taste. That looks absolutely disgusting. There’s no way. A lot of the things that he eats. I’m not a jello- guy to start, nor am I eating like And fish very rarely, but fish with the head on. Well, with like the scales, I think he got like a part with like a fin. Is that what it’s called? Yeah. He got He got the dorsal, not the dorsal fin. He got the side fin. Yeah. So disgusting. That is absolutely gross. How did you find this guy cooking with It’s just a cooking one that pops up and then you you found I guess like my the algorithm gave it to me. So he was eating like a lady that an older lady like 92 years old from Fort Worth, Texas and she ate a tomato like a hand fruit like bit it and then dipped it in the salt ate it like an apple. And I was just thinking that reminded me of like my granddad. He would eat kiwis like that like a hand fruit but with the skin on. Yeah. or like he and my dad will use an onion like people use a tortilla like have a bite of food, have a bite of onion. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that’s that odd. Certainly not that I eat, I don’t think. Yeah, my family makes great food when we’re together. We’re like very good eaters, very good cooks. But but just in case of emergency, grab an onion. Grab an onion and whatever you’re eating. Yeah. I I don’t know. I’m I’m not very adventurous with food. Jell-O has never been like even that is not on my my playlist. Uh I can tell you things I don’t like and one of the easiest ones to point out is sculpted meat. Like I don’t care for meatloaf. I could go for a good melo. And I’ve got to find this. I I didn’t come prepared to show it. Maybe we’ll find it and we’ll we’ll add it in. Uh someone had made a meatloaf that looked like a giant foot. Oh. And it had onions h for the like the toenails and it was called feet loaf. And I can’t think of anything that looks more disgusting than that in particular. But maybe we should claim that we eat this and then send it to you the cooking with congress guy and see if he can make it. So anyway, if people want to go find that, you saw it on Instagram. I imagine he’s on TikTok as well. He’s on Tik Tok. He’s on YouTube. Cooking. What’s his name? Cooking with Congress. Cooking with Congress. Maybe we need to come up with just something that we eat and send it to him and see if he’ll actually drink something. Yeah. Uh until then, I guess. Uh well, that’s that’s the show. We we’re ending on Fish and Jello. Hope you enjoyed the Tyler Clancy portion of the program. We’re back with another episode next week.