Adam Torres and Emily Musil discuss gun violence prevention.
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Show Notes:
Why should businesses, both big and small, be interested in gun violence prevention? In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Emily Musil, Senior Director at Milken Institute, explore the recently released report from the Milken Institute that examines gun violence prevention.
About Emily Musil
Emily Musil, PhD, is a senior director at Milken Strategic Philanthropy, where she leads the Social Innovation portfolio. An expert in future-focused, high-impact engagement and programming, Emily and her team create strategies for inclusive and effective giving, and design and operate programs using a range of philanthropic tools focused on innovation and impact. Under her leadership, she has built the Milken Institute Prize Program, and has created wide- ranging programming including mobilizing and supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs working on off-grid green energy in sub-Saharan Africa, and cross-sector workshops to design new solutions to prevent gun violence in the US.
Emily spent over a decade in academia where, as a college professor, she specialized in human rights, African history, and global development. She then joined the XPRIZE Foundation where she led the education and human equity domain, operating initiatives and large-scale innovation competitions to find and test new technology solutions to solve global challenges. She is passionate about exploring the ethics of our rapidly advancing technologies.
She has a Ph.D. and M.A. from UCLA, and graduated with honors from Drew University. She won a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship and conducted in-depth research in over a dozen countries on three continents. She has served on the OECD’s Senior Advisory Group for Blended Finance and the Advisory Board for CompTIA’s Center for Technology & Workforce Solutions (CTWS). She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Drew University.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right, so today’s guest is Emily Musil. She is the Senior Director over at Milken Institute.
Emily, welcome back to the show. You’ve been on before. Adam, thank you so much. I’m really honored and pleased to be a repeat guest here on Mission Matters. Oh, I’m trying to go way, way back in time. I feel like this is our third interview, three years running and we’re doing kind of a free interview before the next milking conference.
That’ll be coming up soon. Yeah. What next year? What am I talking about? This is December or November. I’m going crazy over here. That’s right. It’ll be right around the corner. Yeah. So I’m excited to get into today’s topic. Not because it is necessarily always the most cheerful. I know. Normally when we’re doing an interview, we’re normally talking about the, maybe the must be prize.
And we’re talking about like, you gave away all this money and all these amazing feedback. Things that we’re normally on a pretty high energy note. But today we’re going to tackle something else. That’s a little serious. It’s a serious thing that’s going on right now. And when I saw the original press release that came out and I saw your name attached to it and Milken Institute, I’m like, Oh yeah, I’d love to bring this content to our audience.
So high level. So what I want to get into is, engaging business and finance leaders gun violence prevention and strategies and really the work that you’ve been doing. So maybe just start with a little brief on like the work overall in the project. Sure. Great. Well, thank you so much, Adam, for reaching out.
And it’s true. You know, last couple of times we’ve talked, it’s what we’ve been celebrating entrepreneurs and giving out millions of dollars. I would say that we really want and need that same entrepreneurial spirit to figure out how we can cut through this critical issue of gun violence in the United States.
You know, some people say we shouldn’t engage in these types of topics because they’re so political, but we, one thing we can all agree on is we want our Children and our communities to be safe. It’s how you get there. That’s the question. So we’ve started this work really, if many years ago, milk and institute started an effort to really bring attention to this issue where there’s been progress, but it just.
feel so polarized for people and even if they’re interested in preventing violence, they don’t really know where to start. So about a year ago, we actually started with an innovation forum where we said, how can we think about other sectors that haven’t really been engaged with the issue of gun violence prevention?
So we brought people from tech industry. How can AI possibly be used for solutions? We bought, brought finance leaders health leaders. So it was really. Launching this year long. Work that resulted in the report we released just a couple of weeks ago, activating philanthropic and business capital strategies to advance gun violence prevention in the U.
S. This is a freely available report. Anybody can see it. So that’s really the background that led us up to the report that you read about. Yeah, is there and thanks for sharing that. And anytime you go down that route of going and doing a report or, you know, doing some intense research into a topic one way or the other sometimes some ideas are validated.
Sometimes some things are like, huh, like that’s, you know, some new learnings come from it. I’m just curious. Was there any Outcomes from the report or things that either yourself, you know, individually or as an organization, we’re kind of like, aha, moments are like, just kind of like, Oh, wow. Well, this is something to consider.
Like, did any, any of those moments come up? Many, many of those moments came up actually. So we ended up splitting the report into two parts. One half is all principles and recommendations for philanthropists and the other half are principles and recommendations for business and finance. I would say a few things.
One, that there are so many different options of ways that people can engage. I think that was really an aha moment where we, as the milking Institute, as you know, are fiercely nonpartisan. So we don’t want to take a stand on political issues. What we’re looking for is common ground and common sense solutions.
That’s going to be. Good for everybody. Good for business. Good for people’s lives. And that there are steps people can take. I would say some real things we need to think about our privacy concerns always comes up. And especially now, when we were looking at some of these tech solutions, there are things like 3D printed firearms, things like , that we really need some creative thinking.
And that’s where I’m going to call on our entrepreneurs again. How do we. Protect people from violence when there’s technology progressing at such a, fast pace. So what are some of the things people can really do to get started? Yeah, and I think, go ahead, please. No, no, and I think 1 of the things.
Just to kind of, I want to draw back into what you were just talking about was definitely the nonpartisan side of things and how you’re not like as a think tank and as an organization you’re not, you know, taking the one side politically or the other. You’re trying to, move the entire issue forward.
Can you maybe for those that are listening that maybe aren’t quite so familiar with milk and institute, maybe can you elaborate on that a little bit more so people know that it’s not about being anti or pro in this case, it’s about like it’s about preventing gun violence in general. Right. Yes, for sure.
Yes. So the Milken Institute is a non profit, non partisan, research based think tank that’s focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life. So we were really born out of finance and health, and we work with philanthropic and other leaders to really say, how can we work together?
We specialize in bringing together people you wouldn’t think would have conversations with each other. And that’s one of the most. Powerful pieces. You know, this is looking for common ground. You look at things like, you know, you have gun violence that has surpassed car crashes, cancer and drug overdoses to become the leading cause of death for Children and teens.
This is something we can all agree on. Nobody wants. Gun violence to be the number one killer of Children in America. We can do better than that. You know, the surgeon general this past year declared gun violence a public health crisis. So, rather than looking at this as a political issue, just saying, how can we do better?
So that our community that we, as Americans can be safe that our Children and teens can be safe from all different types of firearm injury. Yeah, and now we would think that you know, that, would be, you know, certain parts of what you just said would be pretty obvious. Like we want the well being of the people in the community, right?
And, but I do want to maybe spend a moment and maybe tie this back to business a bit. Why, should businesses, like, why should the small business owner or why should the, you know, the large business, the corporation, like, why should they be interested in gun violence and prevention? Other than obviously nobody wants.
to see, you know, gun violence, the news and nobody wants anything to happen to their families or things like that. But is there a business case for it? For sure. Thanks for asking that one. I mean, this is something that people sometimes don’t think about when we get caught up in certain news cycles and the tragedy.
It’s a hard question for me to ask, you know, like that’s a hard one. Like, , but yeah, go ahead, please. For sure. I mean, this is, look, if you look at the direct cost of firearm homicides. And nonfatal shootings alone. So that doesn’t include other types of gun violence. That’s more than 20 billion a year.
So we’re talking about all sorts of ways that this affects the economy, lost wages, revenue, productivity, this affects employees and customers, employers themselves. So it’s a really major issue and 1 that we can prevent that can help business. So, when we came up with our Main recommendations for business and finance.
We had 5 of them. And, you know, the number 1 is looking at industry specific improvements. We can talk a little bit by industry to is about employment pipelines for community violence interventions. Three is mobilizing capital to affect change. Four is developing innovative banking strategies, some of which have been tried already, but there’s a lot more to do.
And five is reconsidering the role of insurance. But above all that, our number one principle, you go into our business section of this report. Preventing gun violence is good for business. I mean, that is now, we can see this is gonna you know, I think people worry that if they take a stand, that it’ll be seen as a political issue, as opposed to thinking about this is, there are lots of different ways that you can specifically help your community when, whether you’re a small business owner or work at a large company.
So I’m happy to talk through some of those if we want to get into the weeds of it. I want to talk a little bit more about how, , what corporate leaders can do, like, , how they can get involved, like, , , what they can do, because sometimes when you hear a word and , I’ll speak for myself, but I think maybe some people out there would sympathize with me on this one.
But, When you think about gun violence or like such a huge, like issue, , it almost feels incapacitating. Right? , like, well, for me to where you’re like, well, what can I do? It’s just, you know, just me. It’s just this, like, you know, like , how do corporate leaders get involved? Like, how do they get involved in driving change?
Whether it’s funding gaps or I don’t know, like, how do they get involved? Yep, so there’s lots of different ways. So, number 1, some people may be aware that there was a, an open letter CEOs for gun safety. It was 1st, submitted to Congress in 2019 and revised again in 2022. so, this sort of CEO activism, just taking leadership collectively.
So it’s not just one person standing up, but it really then took risk away from one single CEO saying something to saying, Hey, we’re a group of business leaders. We all really need to take a stand on this. So it’s not just that, though, because that can be, you know, that’s about brand identity. There’s also things you can do just in terms of your own operations and reporting.
So thinking about ways that you can Protect your own employees. There are more than half of all U. S. adults report that either they or a family member has experienced gun violence, which means in any organization, wherever you are, you are likely to have an employee who is suffering from the risk of gun violence.
This means all sorts of things. You know, lost wages, of course, but even if someone is injured and able to get back to work, the cost of , their getting back to work in the same way, their medical bills, all these sort of things, gun violence is a real threat to workplace safety about somebody coming into the workplace.
But more so for your employees when they go back home. So there’s really thinking about that, larger ecosystem. I’d say some other things to think about depending again on what type of industry you’re in. There’s really different types of solutions. For sure, I think, doing more on mental health services, talking openly about this, there are strategies for safety within your workplace.
If you’re in healthcare, looking at things like provider training, there are, you know, all sorts of companies that really could do a lot more to make sure that when someone who’s come in, who has either is in crisis themselves, and it’s might be someone who would, you know, Commit violence or somebody who has been a victim of violence to really have the training to know what to do and quickly respond for people, for example, who are in real estate or property management.
There’s lots of research to show things like if you green a certain space, that’s a really cost-effective strategy for reducing gun violence. Investing in vacant properties you know, really finding ways that communities themselves can be safer. You know, we talk about. Thinking globally, acting locally, you know, just looking at your one community, this could be something like, if you are a small business owner, really investing in community interventions, this ends up being the most effective at this small scale.
So, people in your community who are. Need support, as they are trying to do violence prevention initiatives, you know, investing in them. I can say, for example, there’s a very large bank that was trying to expand its branches. And so they decided to invest in gun violence prevention, because they wanted to have more and want to make sure.
Customers are safe going to ATMs, so they ended up supporting a lot of community initiatives in that particular city. So those types of things that you can do investing in your community are really big. If you’re an entertainment, making sure you can show examples of safely stored firearms, for example, or having things like supporting after school programs, sports programs that have an outlet for physical activity, have role models.
All these things that you can do that are really going to safe in communities for your employees, for your consumers. We really want to look at overall job creation, stabilizing neighborhoods. It’s all part of the same of how can we have economic mobility? You’re going to then when people have options where they can see their future when they have a job, when they are involved, then you see a reduction in violence.
So, really looking to your community leaders. Yeah, this is great. How has this been, how has this been received so far? Like the report, the messaging, like what’s been your, and I know this is out pretty recently, I know it’s not out that much, but I’m just curious about how it’s been received so far, like from, you know, I don’t, from just in general, the business community or other stakeholders will say.
Well, thanks for asking, Adam, because we were nervous, you know, what are people going to and what’s the response going to be? And we were, I’m nervous. I’m nervous to your response right now. Emily, did I step on a landmine? I don’t know. You’re like, you know, what? I’m gonna be like, what? Why’d you ask that question?
I don’t know. You know, yeah, like this guy. Come on. No, it’s perfect. It’s a perfect question because we were really surprised and, I would say really inspired to see how many people said, thank you for stepping up and doing this, because on both sides, we thought on one side, people might be thinking, why are you messing with a topic that can be seen as controversial?
And we’re saying, because this is good for business. And on the other side, people saying, yeah, Hey, you know, we’ve been doing this work for a while. And what are you guys doing here? And what we really found is people saying, thank you. We’ve been looking for a way that we can have a nonpolitical way to have common sense solutions where we can come to the table with people who will maybe not.
Talking to before and say, what specifically can we do? So 1 of the things we’re launching this year is a business council. So we want to have business leaders join us and have a council for people to have even more specific recommendations. So I mentioned before, we have these 3 overarching principles and our 5 recommendations in the report.
We want to keep going. We want to hear more from business leaders to say, What are some specific actions? And can we help you all find peers build this? You know, a lot of these things are gonna have to be at a state level. So thinking about what makes sense across the board for bigger companies, and then what can people do?
You know, it’s gonna be very different depending on what state or community you’re in. And there’s gonna be different types of solutions so that we can continue to refine and really create things that make sense so that we can all have safe communities with. Thriving businesses and have our families, our Children and everyone safe as they walk back and forth to school and to to work and to, you know, whatever consumer activities they’re doing.
This is good for the economy. It’s good for the American people. Great. Emily, this has been a lot of fun. I’m good to good to get a, I’m happy to bring this to my audience. I’m happy to have the conversation. I think it needs to be had more. I’m really excited that, the Milken Institute undertook this topic and also, you know, created this report.
That being said, if people want to either, you know, read the report, if they want to get involved, if they want to learn more, I mean, what, the best way for people to do that? Great. Yes. Well, please read the report. We also have the a cheat sheet on it, a summary that you can download for free.
The whole report is available for free if you want to read the whole thing. So if you go to milkeninstitute. org, our gun violence prevention, everything is available there free. You can download, you can share it. It’s on social media. We really encourage people to take a look. We want this to be something that is for the
For free, you can find out more about what we’re doing. And all the work we are continuing to build and grow. It’s onward for us from here. We just want to bring people together. The more people want to join us, the better. So please reach out if you’re interested. We’d love to hear your ideas, your thoughts have people join a business council and more to come from us in 2025.
And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll put links in the show notes so that you can just click on the link and head right on over and get that report. And speaking to the audience, if this is the first time you’re with us at Mission Matters first welcome, and then don’t forget to hit the bell.
That subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration and knowledge to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Emily look, looking forward to the upcoming milk and conference before I sign off.
I got it. We got to do one last teaser. Why should be a, so should people be at the milking global conference in Beverly Hills coming up in 2025? Why should they come last? Yes. I mean, the Milken Institute Global Conference, there’s nothing like it. This brings together you know, heads of state, leaders.
Last year, let’s see what we had. We had David Beckham. We had Snoop Dogg. We had Kerry Washington. You know, , there’s stars. You had Adam Torres. You had Adam Torres. We had Adam Torres. I mean, five times over. I should have led with that. But really it is, you know, if you, if you can join us. It is an incredible, about 5, 000 leaders from around the world.
You know, we are a global think tanks. We have businesses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. You know, we do work in Mexico. So , there’s people from around the world who are coming together to do business you know, financial leaders to really figure out what’s next, what we should be doing next.
If you aren’t able to join us in person in Los Angeles, all of our main stage public programming is available. You can watch online. So that’s something that I think we started doing that 5, 6 years ago that now we have really opened things up that people can watch and see some of our exciting contents.
You just want to check out, see what it’s all about. Everything’s up on our up on our site. So you can see some of our programming. Learn what Milken Institute is all about and more important people who are who are in our network. We love to hear their ideas and get inspired and do the work for them.
That’s great. , and I love going and I can’t wait to go cover the conference again. It’s been a lot of fun. I think this would be our fourth year in a row. And we have a huge, we have a pretty big catalog now of work and interviews from the Milken conference with leaders like Emily and many, many others.
So for everybody watching, definitely go head to the website. Well, again, we’ll put that in the show notes and thanks again, Emily, for coming on. Thanks, Adam. Can’t wait to see you in L. A.
