Tamara’s Christmas Eve Interview w/ Jon Fishman, Phish Drummer & Parent of a Lead-Exposed Child
For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since 2009, Tamara has been using XRF technology (a scientific testing method) using the exact instrumentation employed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to test consumer goods for toxicants (specifically heavy metals — including Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic).
- Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for 5 product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
- Items that Lead Safe Mama, LLC reports on are tested multiple times to confirm the results published (for each component tested).
- Tamara’s work was featured in Consumer Reports Magazine in February 2023 (March 2023 print edition) and The Guardian in November 2023.
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Published: January 9, 2021
Updated: December 26, 2021
You can watch the 3 Jon Fishman Interview videos here on this post or you can click through to the Lead Safe Mama YouTube channel.
On Christmas Eve 2020, I had a great video chat with Jon Fishman (drummer for the band Phish). In addition to just catching up and being silly (Jon is always entertaining to talk to!), the chat focuses on “all things Lead” (including discussing his experience with his child’s Lead exposure). The video above is the first of three “Ten Minutes With Tamara” video segments from this interview — please check out all three of the videos (I have embedded each at the bottom of this piece)!
Every video also has their own summary post here on the Lead Safe Mama website (linked), and you can also find them directly on the Lead Safe Mama YouTube channel. Thank you for taking the time to watch them. Here’s what one reader on Reddit had to say after watching the videos:
Topics included in Part 1 of The Jon Fishman Christmas Eve Interview:
- Jon’s Phish water bottle (which may have Lead!)
- Lead in stainless steel baby bottles
- Hydroflasks are a Lead-free alternative
- Licking Leaded garbage pails in Vermont…
- Which vacuum does Jon use for his performances? Does it have Lead?
- What is Jon’s favorite fan group?
- How being involved in politics is like being in a band! (Jon’s experience with politics in Maine)
- Lead in controlled burns for fireman training/ practice burns
If you are interested in learning more about childhood Lead poisoning and consumer goods safety issues, you can also check out the other videos in the Ten Minutes With Tamara video series on YouTube — including interviews with parents from around the globe (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States are represented so far)! Click here to see those videos!
Plus, there’s a documentary feature film (that Jon helped with!)
For a deeper dive into the issue of childhood Lead poisoning, the full documentary feature film I produced and directed (with help from Jon Fishman, too, as an Executive Producer of the project) can be seen at the following link (this is a private/ commercial-free preview screener link* for the film on Vimeo): https://vimeo.com/156169133/7915741044. The film also includes music donated by The Who, Tom Waits, Glen Moore (of the band, Oregon), Maia Sharp, and others. Highlights include footage from my interview with Noam Chomsky, and from my 2016 presentation with Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan.
*We are working on getting distribution for the film, so this is a temporary link that may become unavailable at any time. If you have not seen the film yet, and this link is not working, please e-mail TamaraRubin@mac.com — I will let you know how you can watch the film.
Thanks for being engaged in this conversation for childhood Lead poisoning prevention, and consumer goods safety. Just taking the time to learn about this issue makes a difference. If you are inclined to stay up to date on the latest articles, news, and consumer goods testing results from Lead Safe Mama, LLC, please do follow and subscribe to Lead Safe Mama in all the places! (We are on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and you can sign up for our free e-mail newsletter, etc.) Thank you. 🙂
Happy New Year!
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
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Great conversation you two! The way I found out about Lead Safe Mama was via a Phish Mom friend. So very cool to listen to these segments. Glad to have found your work Tamara!