Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 9:9.mp3 Air date: 2026-09-09 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertiser, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. Yep, that's me, KNCO Newstime, just about 907, 74 degrees, some high clouds out there, but it's going to be hot the next couple of days. So again, as you get the day going, if you haven't gotten out and about yet, try to get your errands done early. It's probably a good advice. Keep the pets at home. You know, Rangers here with me, but you know, an air conditioned place, that's the best place for your pet to be. Just stay at home and do your errands. And as you're kind of out and about, you know your neighborhood pretty well. If there's neighbors that you can help run an errand for, I definitely advise that. It could be as easy as you're running to the store, maybe picking up a few things for them, but more than that, it's almost like doing a welfare check. Make sure that when the hot weather comes, especially when we just had this little bit of a cool down, make sure they still have a fan at the very minimum to stay cool. But sometimes doing a favor could be just getting trash at the end of the driveway, bringing back the cans, things like that, checking on their mail, you know, little things you can do. That's kind of life in Nevada County. Nobody knows that more than Melissa Hanebrink, who's my guest from Quiet Tech, because she's born and raised here. And you know, it's kind of funny, Melissa, I was looking at the trail of emails that you and Mary Ann were kind of sharing, getting ready for the show, and I realized how bad I am about checking things. Because Melissa and I prepped for the show for about, what was it, about two minutes just now? Yeah, probably two minutes. About two minutes. There was ample time I could have maybe shared some things, maybe we would cover and all that stuff. But I just kind of wing it. That's the way I do it. Is that okay? That's great. Yeah. There's so many things we could talk about when this Senior Insight show and they came up with the idea. You know, we're a pretty vulnerable population out there because there's so many life changes that are happening. And I'm like the poster child for them. I was just sharing with Melissa off the air, I'm battling like stage four cancer. My wife's not doing well, she's not thriving, I guess is like the official medical term, but she's had health issues in a care facility. And so there's going to be a whole bunch of changes happening that kind of, I can't say they're taking me by surprise, but it's like I'm totally unprepared. Because of that, sometimes we Google information. Sometimes we put just a question out there and it's so intimidating to get the results that come back. So that's one of the things we're going to talk about today. But of course, it's always what you want to talk about too, Melissa, because you're on the front lines of this. You have a column, I think, over the newspaper, right? And have for years. I do. Yeah. Right? And still trying to help people kind of go through this maze of stuff. Absolutely. You know, I try to focus on the human side of technology and what the average person experiences with the technology changing way faster than anyone can keep up with. And that's kind of new in this time of the world, because 30 years ago, you could learn a computer skill and it could last you for years. And now everything is changing in months or even weeks. And that can be very unsettling and hard to keep up with. Yeah, it really seems that way. Which brings up your dad. Ben Hanebrenk and Chris Patsey, for you Clear Creek people down there. Longtime teacher, music person. She plays Squeezebox, plays accordion, which I love her for, being a big Who fan. But Ben was our longtime tech guy. So I think he's synonymous. Started Quiet Tech. Does he stay up on this stuff or does he suffer from the same stuff as us old people do? That things change so quickly that it's even tough for him to stay up on it? Well, I would say my dad has the distinct advantage of being a lifelong learner. And so he is always interested in reading and keeping up with what's going on in the world. And it's really fun because my dad and I have a relationship where we send articles about tech back and forth and we have conversations about what's happening in the world and how things are changing. You guys are geeky, aren't you? We're so geeky, but I love that we can be geeky together. It's really fun. Yeah. Does it scare him to see what scams are out there at his age, like how they're kind of centered on certain populations? Absolutely. I mean, I think anybody who's paying attention should be scared because there is no one who is safe from it. I'm not even safe from it. Anybody who is alive and has a cell phone, a computer or access to USPS mail, scams can come in any type of way. So we all need to be extra alert and paying attention and no one should feel safe 100% of the time because that's how they get you. All right. Well, you know, here's the thing. The basics that people should do, especially seniors out there, I picked up the iPhone 17 recently. Nice. Nice, huh? Yeah. Fresh and new. I actually put in my iPhone 7 Plus and they actually brought people around to look at the home button being there and all that stuff because it was so old. It's a tech relic. But I know I've only learned probably 10% of this phone. Is that unusual? Is that most of us dealing with that type of stuff? It's not unusual at all. And I think that there's a piece of humanity that makes us feel like we are supposed to know something. And I hear that phrase a lot. Someone will say to me, I know I should know how to do this. And I always think, why should you know how to do that? Where would you have learned that skill? And why do you necessarily need to know how to do these things? So I think one part of that should be letting yourself off the hook for not having a skill that you would have never had an opportunity to develop. And it didn't come with an instruction manual, did it? No. I was expecting a book or something. No more books. No more books. And so you're on your own to learn. It has thousands of features. The average person is never going to be able to encapsulate all of that. So I think if we can, again, let ourselves off the hook and focus on the things that we need to know so that we can make our life easier or better and then forget about the rest. It's there and we don't need to use all of it. All right. Yeah. So that's easier said than done. Totally. Easier said than done. It is. And by the way, I shared this with Melissa off the air for our iHeart listeners out there. That's the way a lot of people listen to our show even right now. Yeah. You know, they're either out and about on their computers. So I'll just see if iHeart's working. Just to show you how dependent we are on radio signals and stuff, right? Yeah. So I'm going to use this technology to listen to the show. Oh, there we go. Okay. So it is showing. Nice. It's going. I semi-fixed it, but it only stays fixed for a while. But maybe Melissa can... You get a technician gold star for today. That's very good. You know how many times I called your dad, and you might have been a little kid when I think about it, in the morning. In the middle of the night. Sometimes it seemed like middle of the night, but it's usually about four or five in the morning. That's right. And your poor mom. Oh, my goodness. I wish she'd be in the background. And she's normally very sweet, okay? But maybe those four or five o'clock in the morning calls. I think she was even sweet even then. She was kind of sweet. No, she was kind of frustrated at times. It's your dad that was always sweet. So those guys, you share with me, just had their 61st anniversary? They did. They just had it last week. Oh, did they do anything special for it? We went out to 1228 Kitchen in Pin Valley to celebrate. And we did just have their 60th last year, and we went out of town. We rented a big Airbnb. The whole family stayed together. It was wonderful. So they did just have a big celebration last year, so they were a little bit more low-key this year. All right. Are they still playing music? Every day. Every day. They have seven Oktoberfests this year, and they have their own little recording studio in their house. They love to play music together. They're best friends who get to enjoy music for over 60 years. It's incredible. I usually see them at the fair, and I don't think I ... Maybe we just missed each other at the fair this year, perhaps. But they still look active and totally sharp and everything. That's right. Music keeps you young. They're not spring chickens. Well, no, but music keeps you young. How old's your dad? He is going to be 82 this year. Well, it's about time. Yeah. It's about time, Ben. All right. Well, I wish them all the best. We're going to take our first break. Okay. We'll come back. We're going to get into the meat and potatoes of some things to kind of educate people on what to look for, maybe recognize scams. I know you've dealt with people. I was reading your newsletter about somebody that got gold bars. Oh, yeah. We'll talk about that. That is an unbelievable story, but that can happen. That's what's out there right now. You've got a whole industry trying to scam people. So quick break. We'll be right back. There's a fresh chapter in a Nevada City favorite. Now under new management, Sopa House of Thai serves authentic Thai food in the heart of the historic district. Enjoy beautiful indoor dining or their gorgeous patio, plus beer, wine, and mocktails with vegan and vegetarian options available. Open six days a week, closed on Tuesdays. Come taste the tradition at Sopa House of Thai. Call 530-470-0101. When you or the people you love need extra care, you want someone you can trust. 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At Big O, when tire trouble is what you're focused on, our team of experts say, bring it on. Now through September 20th, get $50 to $100 in instant savings on four select in-stock Cooper, Pirelli, and Hankook brand tires with installation purchase. Plus, get our Labor Saver Package with any purchase, which includes tire rotation, alignment check, visual brake check, battery check, windshield wiper check, fluids check, free. Big O Tires, the team you trust. Installation required. Disposal fees and shop fees extra where permitted. C-Store for pricing. Eligibility may vary. Not valid with other offers. Hey, let's hit the barn trail this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, the 12th and 13th of September. Prospector's Nursery is proud to be a part of the fun. The barn trail is along Highway 49, featuring vintage decor, antiques, unique finds, and plenty of places to explore throughout Amador, El Dorado, Placer, and Nevada counties. Stop by Prospector's Nursery to get yourself a list of all the participants this Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call 470-0973. I'll see you for Hit the Barn Trail, including at Prospector's Nursery, 1003 Granholm Lane, Nevada City. Have you been horribly injured by a product made by the Acme Corporation? It's not your fault. There's probably someone to blame. The name of the case is Coyote versus Acme. Prime Cinema presents movies on the big screen as they were meant to be seen at Del Oro and Sutton Cinemas. Showing through September 10th at your Prime Cinemas at the Del Oro, Cars 20th Anniversary Rated G, Fall 2, Dead Point, Rated PG-13, The End of Oak Street, Rated PG-13, The Dog Stars, Rated R, and Spider-Man, Brand New Day, Rated PG-13. Now let's check on the Sutton, By Any Means, Rated R, and Coyote versus Acme, Rated PG. Playing through September 10th at your local theaters. Now you know what's showing. Be sure to enjoy a movie on the big screen at Nevada County's two Prime Cinema theaters, the Sutton and the Del Oro. Okay, it's good news time, just about 919, 75 degrees. Welcome back to Senior Insight, Melissa Hanna-Brink is not a senior, but she helps seniors. We were just talking about some of the outreach that she does, maybe kind of unexpectedly, because she runs Quiet Tech. The go-to place and have been for years for computer needs, computer intelligence, problem solving, and in doing that, Melissa, you're finding out there's a whole gap of service for our, especially our older community, for not necessarily technology, but almost like humanity type of services. For sure. There's definitely a hole in the community that is hard to fill for a lot of people. You think about 50 years ago, generations supported each other in a very different way than our culture does now. A senior can't necessarily rely on their children or grandchildren to help them or help them patiently, which is another level that can become frustrating. We've really identified over the years that this is a gap that we can help fill. Like I was telling you, I recently helped a person who had no idea how to pull her free credit report, so that was a technical barrier for her. I helped her pull her credit report, and we found that someone had stolen her identity, and she didn't know what to do from there. We filed a police report. I helped her make that report, and then I helped her write a letter to contest the debt directly with the credit agency that was reporting. Again, that's not really a technical need, but it's a barrier that often many seniors don't know how to get past that. They don't know who to call for help and how to address those kinds of situations. My having years of experience running a business and writing letters of demand and things like that that have to be done in this scope of life have assisted me in helping to assist others, which has been wonderful to be able to share with other people. But still, it says a lot about your character actually doing that, because it would be easy enough to say and refer somebody or say, well, you know what, you can call 2-1-1, maybe get somebody over here to volunteer and do that stuff, but to take it on, what's it fill you with? When you're able to help that way, what's the feeling like? Oh, I love it. It means everything to me that I can take care of something for someone, and when I leave their home, they look relieved. They look like I've taken a weight off of them, and they don't have to worry anymore, and that's huge, because if I think about my parents or my grandparents who are all gone, meeting something like that, to think that they didn't have somebody to call on to help them would be devastating, and so I think it's just critical as a person. If you see a need and you have the ability to fill that need, that's something that you should do. All right. Now, you might have just put it out there. Should people call Quiet Tech if they have a problem? Absolutely. You're up for that? We're up for that, yeah. We're a staff of 10. You're a staff of 10? Yeah. How did that happen? We haven't talked for a while. We've grown. I know. Wow. Yeah, so we are all, every person in the building is background checked. Several of us are HIPAA certified, so that we know how to safely handle private medical records. I'm a certified daily money manager, so I can help with people who are trying to figure out a budget or figure out basic financial information. We all have the expertise and the patience. That's the big one. We are all very patient in that building and love to help people, especially seniors. We want people to call us, even if it's not the computer. Even if it's, I have this weird problem and I don't know who to call. If we can't do it, we can help find a trusted person who can. That's the big thing is the trust. We want to make sure that a person doesn't end up with someone who's going to take advantage of them, steal from them. That's huge. We want to be at least a referral network, if not the provider for the person. Yeah. Should, you know, seniors that haven't really embraced technology, are they very few now? Have most embraced it at the very least? I would say most people have embraced it at least to some level. There's a lot of people who will be avoidant about certain things. A lot of people will say that they don't have a cell phone, but they might have a cell phone, they just don't really use it. Or they might have a flip phone, so they don't have a smartphone. But I think the statistic is something like 85% of Americans, including seniors, now have cell phones. So it becomes a very small amount of people who don't, and the people who don't rely on others for those needs. So they must have an app to get into certain things. I've asked a few people, well, if you don't have a cell phone, how do you do this? Oh, well, my wife does it on her phone. Okay, so you've offloaded the ability or need to someone else, but you still need that in your life because, unfortunately, the world has turned into a technical world that I think is a little bit unfair because it leaves people behind. I wrote a column a few months ago about an experience at the DMV where they have now forced people to scan a QR code to check in. And I was furious when I found that out because I'm thinking, how does that treat the people who don't have the skill set? Even if they have a phone, if they don't know how to scan a QR code or engage with that, that's unfair. That's leaving people behind. And I think that's really wrong. And they don't really greet you by telling you that. No. There's just like a generic sign up there as they have a couple of lines to go buy it. And they're like, wait, am I supposed to be doing that at this point? And there's nobody there to really address it. Exactly. And so you end up kind of doing it yourself and go, oh, no, you better do this too. Yeah, or somebody hopefully sees that you're struggling and they get up to help you, which is what you were talking about with Nevada County, how we help each other. That literally is helping in the DMV. That's what's going on is people are helping other people trying to figure out how to scan a QR code and get themselves registered. But it shouldn't have to be that way. Yeah. I totally agree. Of course, the tough thing about the technology, Melissa, is just the scams that are out there. Can you talk about the gold bar thing? That's a pretty amazing thing that I read about in your newsletter. Yeah. So gold bar scams are happening right now, and that's a very interesting situation because they are actually sending gold bars to people's homes. So the person says that they're being told they're investing into gold bars and gold bars show up at their house. So that builds the trust that a person needs to believe that something real is happening. And then they'll send a courier to pick the gold bars up, and they say more gold bars are going to come. So if you've ever heard of a pig butchering scam, what that means is gaining trust by basically fattening the pig so that, for example, you can say, if you invest $100 today in a week, you can withdraw $500. It's that big of a return. And you literally do get to withdraw $500 in a week. So then you invest more and more, and then they eventually don't let you pull the money out. The same thing is kind of happening with the gold bars is they convince you that you're going to have this big load of gold that shows up, and eventually nothing shows up and you are heavily invested in it. And the funny thing about the gold bar scam is that started the story that you're referring to. It's happened to many people, but the person who this specifically happened to, she received an email from PayPal that was fake saying she had been charged for something. And she did all the right things in that moment by not clicking on the link to the fake PayPal. She Googled PayPal to call them and got the wrong phone number because Google is often laced with fake phone numbers for scammers. So she called a scammer to say, I shouldn't have been charged for this on PayPal, and within an hour, she had been talked into buying gold bars. And by her own admission, she really doesn't understand how that happened to her. A similar situation happened to somebody that I helped yesterday where he got a call from someone claiming to be Microsoft who needed to connect to his computer to fix it. And an hour later, he had purchased $499 in cryptocurrency, which is not recoverable. And so often what's happening is... And he doesn't know how that happened either. He doesn't. He's vision impaired. He's nearly blind. So the person, once he got connected to the computer, was controlling the computer and asked him a series of questions that were confusing to the man. And so there are so many barriers that are happening to make it so a person can get stuck in that mire. So not knowing that when you Google a phone number, you can get the wrong number. Not knowing that the person connecting to your computer is not Microsoft. Not understanding the content of what the person is asking intentionally. They make it confusing so that you get lost. So one tip that I always like to give that I think is the most critical, and I might even say it several times today on this conversation, is slowing down and verifying are the two most important things that you can do. Not taking action in the moment when a person is telling you you need to do something, and then making sure that what they're telling you is accurate. And no respectable service provider or company will ever be upset with you for slowing down and checking your facts. That's just basics. And if they do have a problem with it, that should be a big red flag. That the person saying, no, you can't talk to anybody. You have to do this now on the phone with me, huge red flag should be waving in front of your face. So oftentimes, the act of just talking to somebody and telling them what is going on identifies that there's a problem. And that's what happened for the gold bar victim. Her son showed up to stay with her in town and saw gold bars sitting in her house. Yeah, that would be quite a sight. And he says, what is this? And she says, oh, well, I'm invested in these and a courier is going to come. And he says, whoa, I'm calling the cops. And got the police involved. So I mean, luckily, someone stepped in, but she had already lost $100,000. So I've talked to the Nevada County Sheriff. There's a victim in our community who has lost over a million dollars to a scam. Some of these are big, big money. And Americans lost $20 billion to scams last year alone. $20 billion. Yeah. And by the way, it's not just older people we're talking about. It scams everybody. You know, there's dating scams out there and really pulling at heartstrings and amazing the industry that's out there. It's horrible. And, you know, it's got us mostly to the point where I recently had to get my ATM replaced by West America Bank because there was some fraudulent charge on there. Well, they sent me a text. And when I and the number I have to admit the number matched the normal thing for their bank. However, when I called the agent, they wanted my social security number. I said, well, don't you have that handy? And they go, well, yes, but we have to verify it's you. And I said, I understand, but I feel better if I go into the bank. Absolutely. Is that the best way to handle that? So I felt funny about giving it to this woman. And I totally understand. So number one, if a person calls you, you should never give information. So if somebody calls, even if the caller ID says it is your bank. So we had an example with a local bank. A person got a phone call from the local number on their caller ID, said it was the bank. They answered. It was a person with an American accent. And they said, we've identified some problems with your account. There are two transactions that don't look right. Can you confirm? She confirmed that those were not her transactions. And they said, go ahead and verify your full account number and other information so that we can take care of this. As it turns out, it was the scammer calling. So he talked her into giving away private information by building that trust with the caller ID being spoofed to show it was the bank and sounding American, which is more and more going to be the case with AI, where AI can make your voice sound like anyone or anything. It can even sound like someone you know calling. So if a person calls you, the answer should always be to hang up and call a number you know is correct. If it's your bank, take your debit card out, look at the back, and call the number on the back. Or walk into the bank, because you know for sure who's there. Yeah. I decided to walk into the bank. And the first thing they said, well, didn't you want to handle this by phone? I said, I just felt uncomfortable about it. And I think that's the important thing, is that we need to all be sharing what our comfort zone is and insisting that we are helped on that level, just like the QR codes. I'm not comfortable scanning a QR code, because it could be replaced with one that's false. So I'm going to need this in paper. I need a different source for this. And I think the more that people push back gently and respectfully and share that they are uncomfortable, the better things become for everybody, because then there's awareness that this isn't working for a lot of people. I will say this. Yeah. When I was at the bank, they were very polite about it. Yeah. At DMV, they're not that polite. Right. They are just out of control. Yeah. They are. They're probably nice people, if you're listening to me over there, but really, they're just getting into an attitude over there, just about that QR code. I totally agree with that. Yeah. Anyway, we're going to take a break here, because I have to get a news update in, and I'm about three minutes late for it. But when we come back, we're going to talk about maybe something that might be uncomfortable, but that's part of the reason we have to talk about, the kind of end of life issues and all that stuff. And I'll be your example, because I'm kind of dealing with some of this stuff and how I'm worried about things maybe being scammed and stuff. So quick break. We'll be right back. I'm Chris Gilbert with the KNCL Local News Update. Approximately 30% of Nevada County consists of public lands. And with National Public Lands Day coming up on September 26th, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution at their meeting yesterday supporting their protection and responsible management. Among numerous provisions, it encourages Congress to oppose any legislation that would negatively impact public lands, and to support policies that ensure their long-term health, sustainability, and wildfire resilience of these resources. The resolution was introduced by Supervisor Harney Bullock, whose district includes large portions of the Tahoe National Forest and the Truckee area. He noted recent efforts by the Trump administration to sell public lands without adequate input by residents, and he also urged better funding for federal managing agencies. A significant part of our forest had no law enforcement official, which puts a lot of pressure on our Sheriff's Office and other peacekeeping entities to try and understand and cover a huge swath of area, so the boards worked hard to keep their office here. We're always looking to try and keep local connection, and we're hoping that those offices and the Forest Service staff can stay here where they can both contribute to our economy, be a part of our community, and also understand what the local needs are. The resolution also encourages federal agencies to provide local and regional offices with greater authority, flexibility, and accountability in recruiting and hiring personnel who understand the needs of the public lands and gateway communities they serve, and it supports a measured and transparent approach to changes in long-standing public lands policies and directives, recognizing that significant shifts can impact local communities that depend on consistent management and availability. And among hundreds of bills passed this year by the Legislature that are still on Governor Newsom's desk for consideration are 12 from Nevada County's Assembly Representative. And Heather Hedwig says one has already been signed, the first one ever for her. It allows licensed deer hunters to also carry a concealed handgun. They're not hunting with it. It fixes an old law that if you're archery hunting with a bow, that you can carry a pistol for self-defense. You can't hunt with that pistol, but that for whatever reason, the only big game that wasn't allowed was deer. Hedwig says the new law, which takes effect in January, repeals a 71-year ban that prevented bow hunters from carrying during archery season. Join us for our next local news update, coming up at the bottom of the hour. And for news and weather anytime, go to KNCO.com. I'm Chris Gilbert, KNCO News Talk 830. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded, hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart, with special guests, the second and fourth Mondays at 9 a.m., brought to you by Mowl Paint and Glass, serving Nevada County since 1949, and Smarter Broadband, local, reliable, high-speed internet. Don't miss the voices, the stories, and the history that make our community unique, right here on KNCO News Talk 830. The Nevada Union Miners hit the road for the first time this season when they traveled to Christian Brothers Friday night. Hi, I'm Tom Fitzsimmons, inviting you to join Jim Adams and Andrew Jackson for the best high school football on KNCO News Talk 830. Christian Brothers got their first win of the season against Wood last week and hope to make it two in a row against the Falcons, still looking for their first win. Nevada Union football is brought to you by B&C Ace Home and Garden Center, West Home Furniture, and by Sierra Timberline. It's Nevada Union and Christian Brothers Friday night at 7 on KNCO News Talk 830. For over 40 years, United Way of Nevada County has worked to support the people of this community. Hi, I'm Louise Reed, Executive Director of United Way of Nevada County. Currently, 13% of our neighbors live below the poverty line. Our priority is to work toward a day in which all the residents of Nevada County are able to meet their basic needs, such as food, clothing, disaster preparedness, and access to health care. Learn how you can help. Volunteer or donate at uwnc.org. This from the KNCO B&C Ace Home and Garden Center Weather Center. Ace is the place. Here is your forecast on KNCO News Talk 830. Sunny, with today's high in the low to mid 90s. We have a heat advisory in effect. It'll be clear tonight. Tell low mid to upper 60s. Sunny, warm and low 90s again on Thursday. Thursday night's going to be clear are low in the mid 60s and sunny, not as warm Friday with a high in the mid 80s. For weather anytime, click on the weather center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holliday on KNCO News Talk 830. Hi, KNCO News Time, just about 930, 877 degrees. I was trying to find some polka music, maybe for Melissa's mom, Patsy, because she is one of my favorite musicians out there. Mine too. I mean, she could rock out and she could play polka. She could do everything on that accordion. Amazing lady, amazing family, and great that you're running Quiet Tech and it's 10 employees strong. Did you think it was going to get that big? Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that. I asked you and you said you guys and gals are all totally busy. Yeah. We help over 14,000 people in our community. 14,000 clients. Yeah. Well, congrats on that. Thank you. What are your hours like? Do you work all day? Work all day. We're 8.30 to noon and 1.00 to 5.00 at the store and I'm pretty much on site every day all day. I go to people's homes and businesses. I do a variety of things. I will go to a house and fix a computer. That's it. I just fix it. Then I go to the next house and I help a person call and advocate for them to AT&T or Comcast or to any other random company. I move around all day and I help on a variety of things and the job never gets boring because everything is different every time. All right. Well, you and I were talking off the air because we haven't seen each other for a while and catching up and I'm dealing with stage four cancer, which is, it is what it is. I don't feel that bad, but I don't feel like great, I guess that's part of it, but my wife's not thriving. It's awful. She's in a facility and so we're getting towards end of life issues and stuff and that's a whole worry that I have because I'm not really prepared for it mentally. Maybe I'm more mentally than even intellectually. You don't really have many things to go off of. You have to kind of, I hate to say it, Google things or maybe ask some people and stuff. Once you get onto that train of asking things, all of a sudden you get inundated with stuff and you're wondering what's real, what's good, what's not. It's a very tough thing to navigate. It is. Everything that we Google has something attached to it. It becomes part of our permanent profile as a human where advertisers will reach out to us and some of those advertisers can be up to no good and convince us that we need to do or purchase something that we don't need. It does feel like you're walking around a minefield trying to figure things out at times. One thing, since you brought up a bank before, the whole banking situation, that's one thing. You were sharing with me something about my wife does have a cell phone. She hasn't used it in three years, but I have not gotten rid of it, which might sound counterintuitive to people, but I did hear something along the lines that it's part of her identification. It is. What will happen for a lot of people, I always say that they go into what I call control mode when they suffer a loss because they likely feel very out of control of the situation, so they want to take control of anything that they can. For some reason, one of the things that people who are recently widowed do is they cancel their significant other's cell phone, and that can open up a host of issues the next time that they need to log into something for their deceased spouse. They want to log into the bank account or the credit card or email or the cell phone provider, any of those things, and the code goes to the phone that now doesn't exist. I provide community education. One of the things I also do is I provide free education to groups about avoiding scams, about AI and what all of that is and how to engage with it safely, but one of the main ones that I teach is called digital death. In that class, I inform people in the first half about making sure that everything that you do and all your passwords are written down so that somebody doesn't have to try to get through those things, and then the second thing that I talk about is if you're the survivor, and one of the very first things I say is change nothing. Don't change anything about the technology because you don't know what that connects to, and we might find that out in three months or six months, and so that should be a pace that is slowed way down when we can focus on grieving and worry about the electronics later. Wow. Yeah. I like what you just said there. Slow down. Yeah. You have to be patient. You have to be a teacher because I have a tendency to be that way, be a little impatient and stuff. Yeah. It can be hard, and especially in our culture, we are taught that everything is supposed to be extremely fast. We need to react now. I just was thinking about the fact that our cell phone goes off, and we have to go to it right then and see what's going on and see what the notifications are, so not only a person can be impatient, but we have been culturally trained to move as quickly as possible, and that works against us with scams, and it works against us if we've just lost our other half and need to slow down, and so I think that if we can just remind ourselves that with every technology thing, slower is better. That's always going to be the principle. Make sure that what you're seeing is correct. Make sure you're not going to need that cell phone anymore. Make sure you won't need that iCloud account that you want to cancel the subscription to, but all of the pictures for the family are there, those types of things that many people don't have that awareness, and so slowing down and just getting advice, it doesn't necessarily have to be from me or from my company, but ask someone that you trust that has more tech savvy than you do to help guide those decisions. Say with the end-of-life days with my wife, just kind of dealing with remains and things like that, I'm getting close to calling and finding out she's down in Contra Costa County. What do you suggest that somebody do to find out who could handle those type of things without getting bombarded with stuff back? Is there a way? Completely. Yeah, there are some ways. So for example, I provide a free handout on my website that talks about digital death and what you need to do to prepare and what you need to do after the fact. It's very straightforward, and not all of it is technical information. For example, I suggest that when you get a death certificate, you get 25 or 30 death certificates because having to go back to the county to get another one and another one only reopens that wound, and it's easier to just have that handled. Wow. I wouldn't even think of that. Okay. So I try to have, and I've amassed this information, I teach a class and someone will come up to me at the end and say, you know, you said 20 death certificates, I needed 27. So I try to build off of the unfortunate experience that many people have that they reflect back to me, which is so useful for other people who might go through the same experience. The other person who you can trust is your trust attorney. So if you have somebody who handles your estate, that is somebody who you can absolutely ask, hey, who can I put in charge of the digital aspect of my estate to pass off passwords and things like that? And then there are also technology features that are kind of available in general, like if you use a password manager through Apple or through LastPass or 1Password, you can set up a person who can have access to those passwords when you're gone. And so that, again, is work that can be done ahead of time if you have time to plan so that you put your survivors in a better spot and they're not looking for information when they really can be focused on grieving. Okay. I'm still wrapping my head around 27. I know. Is there that much correspondence that might be going out? I think it really depends on how many accounts a person has, how many things that they're involved in. And so it really depends on the person. And that's always the case, is that everyone's circumstance is different. And what also is different is who was the most tech-savvy person in the house. Was the tech-savvy person the one who passed away, or did they really not have much of a digital footprint, which makes things much easier? Oh, okay. All right. Well, let's see. I'm starting to break into a sweat. But I know I'm not alone. This is something that people have to prepare for, you know? Yeah. What I would say is that, again, QIATEC is here to serve the community, and if you have a question, you don't have to use our services to call and say, I just need information. We've got dozens or hundreds of handouts and articles that I've written on our website that are available for anybody who visits about how to handle these things. And I love to write. I write the weekly column for the union. I write several blogs a month. And so, I'm always trying to disseminate information in a way that's understandable for the average person. I look at a news headline that is bombastic, and I go, okay, what is the average 85-year-old supposed to think when they read this? Because this is going to elicit fear, but how do they know if they should be scared and what they can do about it? And those are the types of situations that I like to break down in plain English for anybody to be able to go, okay, so I really don't need to worry about this, or, oh, this is a serious thing I need to pay attention to. So, use us as your resource, even if you're not our client, so that you can have those things available to you. The digital death classes, are they ongoing? They're ongoing. So, I teach to any group of 20 or more people at no cost, and I have four different classes that I teach. I teach a Stop the Scam class, and I focus heavily on the psychology of how scammers are getting people to bridge the gap from calling PayPal to complain about a bill to buying $100,000 of gold bars, for example, because if we are talking about this here, and anybody who's listening is probably going, I would never fall for that. That's ridiculous. How does that happen? It happens to people in our community every single day, all the time. I mean, we are absolutely being bombarded with scams, and people are falling for romance scams, people are falling for the gold bar scam, people are falling for bank scams. It's constant, and so I feel like it's easy to feel like it's not going to happen to you until it's happening to you, and it's seven in the morning, and the person is yelling on the phone telling you you're in trouble, and you go along with it because you don't know what else to do. Because you're intimidated. Yeah. The name digital death, did your dad and you come up with that name? Where did that name come from? I just came up with it. I just realized that our digital estate dies. So that's- Were you in goth or anything like that? Sounds like a rock band. Well, I mean, it gets the point across. Unfortunately, it's something that we all have to think about, and we all have to deal with in our lives, and so it's a harsh topic, but so that's the second class I teach is digital death. I teach one called clicking with confidence, which is just about removing some of the fear that surrounds electronic devices and why we're so scared of them, and then I also teach one that is completely going out of my mind right now, but I teach these classes to groups of 20 or more who anybody who wants to host me, I come out for free, I provide handouts because I believe that lifelong learning and education about technology is critical, and even if you're not a person who likes computers, they surround you and they interact with every part of your life, so you need awareness. That's important. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of positives to it. Yeah. That's for sure. All right. That's it for tonight's Senior Insight today with Melissa Hanna-Brink. So a quick break. We'll be right back. 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Today, even in an ever-changing world, the folks at Hanson Brothers continue a tradition that began more than seven decades ago, paving the way for Nevada County. From roads and driveways, to paths and parking areas, Hanson Brothers has earned a reputation for quality work, dependable service, and deep local roots you can trust. If potholes, crumbling driveways, or worn paths are showing the effects of winter wear, now is the perfect time to plan ahead. Early spring scheduling helps ensure your project is done right and done on time. Call Hanson Brothers HBE Rentals at 273-3381, or visit GoHBE.com for more information. Hanson Brothers, built on experience and trusted across Nevada County. All right, KNCO Newstime, 953, 78 degrees. Welcome back to KNCO Senior Insight. Melissa Hanebrenka, my guest today. We've been talking about a whole bunch of things, both on and off the air. Of course, artificial intelligence, or AI, brings up a little point about AI, because this shows you how it has taken over life. And I was voted, in high school, least likely to be involved with farm animals. But as I've been at the radio station, of course, I actually anchor our coverage of the Junior Livestock Auction at the fair, where they're selling all the animals, and also the Ag Mechanics Auction. But one of the things, I talk to these kids about all these things. And so one child, and I was a high school kid, talked about being involved with AI. And I said, well, that's very interesting, involved with animals, AI. I was thinking, well, maybe it's about feeding schedules and stuff. It was artificial insemination. She was involved with animal husbandry. But they totally referred to it as AI. And I said, did that ever cross your mind, that it's artificial intelligence? And it never did. It shows you, like, if you're focused, right? Totally. An acronym can belong to different groups. It's not like that dog place I was in, outside of town. We won't go there. We won't go there. Artificial intelligence is big. It's big. And it's exciting. And there's, I'm sure, lots of positives. The positives outgain the negatives at this point. Because it does seem pretty exciting. It's exciting, but there are some pretty big challenges. And the primary ones are the environmental impacts, of course. Cognitive offload, that is a big concern for young people who are using AI and replacing skills that they would otherwise be developing in a regular educational situation. And also, there's no guardrails around it yet. Everybody's racing to develop bigger and better and faster systems. And no one seems to be in charge of making sure these systems don't break containment and take control and refuse to be turned off and things like that. So I'm excited about some of the things, like medical advances, being able to detect pancreatic cancer three years before a physician can see it. That's huge. That is huge. That's amazing use of technology. But we also have to be concerned about the downsides. And so I'm cautiously optimistic, I'll say. Okay. Yeah. All right. For the seniors that are out there, should they be embracing it in certain ways? Or ways you could suggest that they at least put their toes in the water? Yeah. Well, one thing I always like to tell people is that you're already using AI, most people, whether you recognize it or not. So if you use GPS, if you use Netflix, if you use Google, those all use AI. And spam filtering that sends messages that you don't want into the spam folder, that's AI, and that's been AI for 20 years. And so we really are already involved with it, whether we know it or not. Data centers have existed for more than 20 years. And so that's not a new problem, although it's escalated significantly. I like for people to cautiously engage with anything that they can, because being informed is definitely a lot better than being in the dark. There's a caveat, though. AI can hallucinate, where it makes up answers that are incorrect. That's a strong term, hallucinate. Yes, and that is the literal technical term for when AI makes something up, and it can be very confident in its error. And so, for example, I would not trust it with any major medical questions, legal questions, or financial questions. And on top of that, I would be very cautious about feeding those types of information into AI, because we don't necessarily know what's on the other side. Where it could go. Who's going to get a hold of that information and be able to use it against you. So I think asking it for help with recipes and things that are very low impact, that's a great, safe way to try it, like going to chat GPT and saying, can you help me design a casserole recipe or something? But saying, is this mushroom poisonous and can I eat it? Maybe not. Maybe let's take a little bit more caution there. Now, for somebody who's listening right now going, well, I've heard of this chat GPT. How do I get chat GPT? How do they do that? You can go to chatGPT.com, and you're there, and it's got a search bar just like Google. And so if you are accustomed to going to Google and typing in what you're asking, you can go to chatGPT.com and type something in that you're asking and get an answer. It's definitely more essay long form as a response, whereas Google now has the top as the AI summary, and that's Gemini, that's their AI agent. And then you can still see the search results below it. So it looks a little bit different, but it's the exact same concept. Chat GPT is looking through all of the pages it finds and condensing the answer into one thing for you. Are you excited to see what Apple's going to put out with artificial intelligence? So they're kind of behind the eight ball. They are. And unfortunately, they kind of botched it because they told people that the service was built in on the iPhone 16, and then they didn't roll it out. So people bought a new phone for that purpose. And a lot of people will get involved with a certain AI, and that's the one that they're committed to. And so if a person got into chat GPT, they may not use the Apple intelligence once it's fully developed because they've already got a chat agent. The interesting thing about AI is the more you talk to it, the more it sounds like you. And so it's very easy to want to go back to that one source because it knows you better than any other search provider. Okay. Is there a thing that Melissa Hanna-Rink uses for AI? I primarily use chat GPT, but I also like to use Claude. Those are my two that I kind of work with. You're dating Claude? Who's Claude? Claude is another AI agent, and it's at claude.ai instead of .com. And so, for example, when I write a weekly column, I open Word and I type my words out onto a piece of paper, and then I copy it and I paste it into chat GPT and to Claude, and I say, check this for me. Verify, am I telling the truth? Is everything in here easy to understand for anybody? And I ask questions like that so I can refine my message rather than have it right for me. And do they come up with equal answers? Oh, they're different. Yeah, which is why I like to try both. Watch the Claude guy. I don't know if I trust a guy named Claude. I don't know about him. All right. We've only got 10 seconds left for people who want to get a hold of QuietTech. Absolutely. QuietTechAssociates.com or 530-272-6680. And humans, answer the phone. We'd love to talk to you. And that's what it's all about, humanity, the human side of technology. Melissa Hanna-Rink at QuietTech. All right. That does it for us. ABC News, right now. --- end of transcript ---