So I guess I'll just start with your sorry, you mean myself? You're a data scientist now. That's right yeah I'm a data scientist at a consulting firm, the boston consulting group. So how did you go from studying evolution and Anthropology at some of the most prestigious universities in the world to becoming a data scientist? Um Yeah it's it's a good question. Um So basically for me and my graduate school I had a focus on data analysis and statistical methodology. So for me it actually was a pretty natural transition because I had this kind of technical skill that's transferable across different domains and different industries and realized that I wanted to kind of lean into that technical skill and be able to work in more diverse environments on more diverse problems versus kind of spending the rest of my career focusing on one set of questions which is kind of what happens if you stay in academia. Um So it was kind of jumping into a little bit of a bigger world where there's more room to maneuver and shift in your career. Um So yeah, just looking for options I guess. So what exactly is the type of work you're doing right now like that just kind of give me, you know, I'm sure very complicated to explain. It could be simple to explain but and in the best way you can for an average person. So what I focus on now is a lot of machine learning and artificial intelligence. So we often work with companies that are kind of early in their journey towards becoming more data driven, incorporating more ai into their business practices and we will help them do some of the foundational work scoping the data that they have the problems that they have, figuring out what are kind of some high impact models that we could build for them. Um And so it's it's pretty exciting because we often get to go into spaces where there is a lot of low hanging fruit um a lot of data and opportunity but they maybe haven't put as much work into actually building those models and seeing what kind of value they can bring. Um So it's it's pretty fun actually, I'm liking it a lot. How often does it come up that you were an Olympian on the day to day basis as a data scientist? Um You know, it actually doesn't, I think that's one of those things where unless you're really high profile, it it only comes up if you wanted to. Um I think for me that's something that can be kind of a fun conversational piece down the line, but I want people to get to know me professionally first and get to know me as a scientist first. Um And I find it it's a little better if they find that out later on and usually they're pretty surprised? Um But I don't lead with it and that's just kind of my style um Right now I'm not a hockey player and so I don't want that to be the first thing people, people think of me as right, I cover sports for living and for so many athletes, you know, sports defines them and they have trouble maybe transitioning to life after it, but for you, I feel that maybe that's not the case. I mean how did hockey fit into the puzzle that is randy griffin? Yeah, good question. Um so I think for me my journey was a little different than probably 99.9% of Olympians, I think for most Olympians that the olympic journey is kind of the culmination of a road that they've been on for a long time for me, my road actually ended in college and then I thought I was done with hockey and I was just coaching kids and playing recreationally for a few years and then had this opportunity to get back into the game, playing at an elite level, had to kind of fire back up, get back into shape and start over again. But by that point mentally I had already gone through that process of figuring out, okay, I have to think about my life after hockey, hockey is not everything that I am. And so then, even though it became the center of my life for a few years, I think having that foundation to come back to and knowing there is life outside hockey and that life is going to come back once the olympics is over, that never really left for me. Um So so yeah, definitely hockey has always been a huge part of my life, but you know, there's also Life outside Sports uh I guess famous story is that you thought the initial invitation to be a part of the team was a hoax, so I guess I'll just let you tell that side of it. Um Yeah, so so basically story there was that I had been in grad school for a few years at this point um I got this email from the korean Ice Hockey Association telling me that they were creating an olympic team and that they knew I was korean that they wanted me to come play for them. Um And I basically just thought that the email was a hoax, I thought that somehow they had gotten enough of my information to know that this was an email I would open, but there's no way that this could be real just because I I didn't know Korea even had a woman's ice hockey team and also to me it seemed crazy that someone would want me to play at that level after having been essentially out of the game for a few years. Um So so yeah, I really did think it was a joke, I kind of shared it with my coworkers, let's look at this funny email that I got. Um but you know, they followed up and turned out to be real. Um So so yeah, I ended up being a a nice detour in movies, there's like the hero gets the call to action and they always like turn it down at first, so if you're making your sports movie, that's kind of how the first act goes. So how did you switch? How did you say? Yes, what made you actually decide to do it? Um It was a bit of a gradual process, so so it started with, they have reached out to some other people that I knew, they reached out to my father actually, they reached out to there was someone on the team that I had played hockey against in college and so I knew her personally and her father actually reached out just to say that this is legit and also it's really fun, like, you know, my daughter has been over there, she's met the girls. Um you know, it's it's something that they're very understanding, they'll they'll let you still have your, you know, your graduate school, if you have to balance that with hockey, they'll be flexible. Um So I got that information and then also the korean Ice Hockey Association basically let me come over for one summer and they were very flexible. They said you can come here meet the girls, but you don't have to make any big commitment, you can see if you like it, see if it feels like something that's sustainable. So because there was this opportunity to go just kind of test the waters and see what I'd be getting into that was really helpful and that summer was a kind of a turning point because I found that I really liked the girls. I thought the opportunity was really exciting and also felt that um having been on the ice with the team, I could actually see the path to me getting in good enough shape to help them out um which was something I had been a little nervous about. So, so yeah, it was just a process of talking to people and then getting a chance to skate with the girls and actually get that kind of get bit by the hockey bug again and feel like, okay, I really got to go back and and take advantage of this opportunity. Can you give me an idea of how big of a deal this was to both North and South Korea to have this unified team. Um yeah, so the, the unified team was something that happened very last minute um on the South korean team, it was very much a surprise, something we didn't have a lot of time to prepare for or process before it actually happened. Um but in terms of the broader countries, so, so on the South korean side, you know, this was one of the bigger stories of the olympics, A lot of people were paying attention and in the beginning there was a lot of controversy around it. So we would have liked protesters coming to some of our exhibition games, there were people who felt strongly that this was a really bad idea that it was like pandering to North Korea may be making North Korea seem kind of friendly and good and that that was like a dangerous thing, we should be shutting them out of the olympics, not trying to kind of normalize them. And then on the other hand, there were people in Korea that felt that this was a really amazing thing for peace and a really important gesture. So those were kind of the, the two minds mindsets that we found in Korea, people felt very strongly one way or another in North Korea. My understanding is that they actually didn't really, on average. I don't think people knew much what was going on with the team. We found out after the olympics, for example, that like nothing about the Unified team was actually broadcast in North Korea. So it purely was a show for the rest of the world outside North Korea. Um so yeah, I guess I would say for North Korea, I'm sure it meant a lot to their leaders to have the opportunity. I don't think it meant a lot to North korean people because they didn't know about it. Um On the south korean side, I think people felt split, but as the olympics went on, my sense was that it became more of a positive thing because um you know, it went pretty smoothly. Um I think people liked watching our team and overall was, you know, there was positive press surrounding it. So I felt that the negativity protesting and stuff seemed to fade away once the olympics started, you know, like mental health among olympic athletes has become a big topic over the last year. I mean, did you feel a burden at that time, having the whole world, looking at you going from a student athletes and now carrying the weight of two countries? Maybe three countries, depending on how you look at it. Um I think we definitely all felt that pressure. Um I think overall our team also was very, I would say that the average temperament on the team was more introverted and humble, not the kind of people who particularly wanted to be in the spotlight taking lots of interviews. So it was a big shock to find that we were a bit front and center in the olympics, a lot of people wanting to interview us and hear about our experiences and it was pretty nerve wracking to feel that these interviews were no longer just very niche things, but there were things that could be broadcast across the entire country and we did have a couple of incidents early on where someone would say something that ended up kind of spiraling that person would get attacked on social media and so we realized there's real consequences to the things that you say now to the press and you know, we didn't have a lot of experience dealing with it. Um so, so yeah, to be honest, I think at the games something I wasn't expecting was that it was going to be the media that would keep me up at night and not the sports. I actually found that the sports almost faded to the background because it started to feel like no one actually cares that much about the sports. Like no one really cares if I play good tomorrow or not. Most of the people watching this game don't even really watch hockey and they don't know the difference between like a good game or a bad game and this is more about the context that the games are happening in and you know what it means, that these people are on the ice together. So my performance doesn't matter. And normally you think when you go to the olympics as an athlete, that's everything right, You're just thinking about your performance. I was more worried about my performance in the interview after the game, um because it felt like that's what people are actually going to remember. That's where something could really go wrong on the ice, like we're probably going to lose, no one's going to care and that's almost an afterthought. Um, so, so yeah, that definitely was stressful. But um, I was really proud of our team. I thought a lot of people stepped up and you know, just kind of said, okay, this, this is weird, it's out of my comfort zone, but it must be done, someone needs to take these interviews and represent the team and and we did it and it worked out pretty well and by the end I would say the handful of us that took most of those interviews had gotten pretty comfortable with it because after a few times you sort of know what they're going to throw at you. Um But yeah, just a few more questions for you. Um Now you said the hockey side didn't really matter, but you did score what the only two goals? I know it was the first goal I scored the first one. Yeah, the second one was another another player. Um But but yeah, I scored the first one that we got that was against Japan. Um So yeah, it was a bit of a lucky bounce um But but yeah, technically I did, yeah, I've seen some interviews given about before that it was it was an ugly goal. I mean how do you kind of feel that you have that piece of history all these years later? Um It's it's definitely cool. Um I mean it's sort of I guess it tickles me that I have that puck and I have that memory. Um So so yeah, it's definitely cool. Um you know, in my mind though it's definitely kind of the team's goal, I was really happy that we were able to get one as a team and that it did mean a lot to us. Um you know, to be honest, I don't put a whole lot of weight in me being the last person to touch the puck. Um but you know, it was certainly fun and I think especially is like fun for my parents, my grandparents, they got to see my name up on the jumbotron, you know, that kind of thing matters to them. So it was fun for sure. I saw that south Korea didn't qualify for this olympics. Um Did you have any involvement or any interest in trying to go for 20, No, so the team did a pretty major clean house after the olympics, there was sort of a period where we talked about either, we were gonna try to make a big push to retain a lot of players. That would have also had big implications for the structure of the team and their budget because if we were going to keep on a number of Western players, keep on english speaking staff, keep a structure where the team is kind of spread around the globe a lot of the time it has to come together for camps that's very different than when you have a local korean team. And ultimately it ended up going back to a much lower budget affair. So the team now is korean korean, all the operations happen in korean, all the players are local. Um There might be a couple exceptions, there are girls who have something going on, like maybe they're playing in the U. S. In college, but with those, with those few exceptions, the team is korean. Um and I think that is appropriate. They have to kind of build a grassroots program from here versus bringing in ringers and it's understood that that means it's gonna take a while for the program to to grow and maybe get to a point where they can qualify for the olympics naturally one day. Um but I think it was a good decision, it was the right move for the team. What we had was a very unique team that was created under a lot of time constraints and I think it was cool for what it was, but it made sense for it to transition after that to being more of a grassroots kind of program. So, so yeah, that's where they are now and you know, I I still keep in touch with some of the girls and I think they are having a lot of fun and are actually very much okay with not qualifying for the olympics um because the team is kind of back under their control. I think culturally it's closer to what it was before the craziness of pyeongchang happened and um I think they also took a lot from the pyeongchang experience and the girls who are still on the team who were at Pyeongchang are now leaders on that team. They're helping to mentor the younger girls and grow the program and I think for them having that experience of playing with some of these higher level players and playing at that level is something that still inspires them and causes them to push the team to get better. Um so you know, it's, it's cool to see that, but I also think it's um You know, it's, it's good that they're kind of doing it on their own in their own time and if it's 20 years before they get back to the Olympics, I think that's that's fine. Um and, and actually it's very similar to Japan, Japan had an automatic bid in Nagano, they sent a team that got their butts kicked in every game In 1998 and they were there with like a giant pikachu. They were kind of a joke. And then, you know, as you know, in Pyeongchang, they were there, they had qualified naturally a legitimate top eight team And that's sort of the time frame that it takes, I mean that was about 20 years to go from this automatic bid where you could see they didn't belong there to them actually having a team. I think that's probably a timeline career would, would be looking at as well. Um, so yeah, I think they're, they're right where they, they should be right now? Last question. Um You know, as you as you go through the rest of your life, how do you think you'll carry this experience with you? What do you think it means for for who you are and who you've become? Um I don't know. Um It's a hard question to answer um I think it it will always be a part of me as um you know, for for me it was probably the most I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, kind of just in terms of my overall lifestyle um just going into a very different environment, sort of upending my life for something that is very uncertain. I'll always be proud that I did that and made some really amazing connections along the way. Um So you know, just just cherishing the relationships I had with my teammates when I was there, the deepening connection I had with Korea and my, you know, korean side of my family as a consequence. Um And you know, I think also the other thing I would say is it felt like a gift to have a chance to play the game a second time. Um I think that's something a lot of athletes don't have is you know, to sort of retire and then get a chance to play again, but with a little bit of perspective. Um So I'll always really value that as well, kind of, renewed my love of the game of hockey and reminded me what matters like why you play the game. Um So yeah, that's just a gift I will cherish forever.