{"id":806337,"date":"2020-04-13T13:35:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T19:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381734"},"modified":"2020-04-13T13:35:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T19:35:29","slug":"mollys-new-game-combats-covid-isolation-through-worldwide-online-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/mollys-new-game-combats-covid-isolation-through-worldwide-online-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Molly\u2019s new game combats COVID isolation through worldwide online community"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"339\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-13-at-1.33.30-PM.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-13-at-1.33.30-PM.png 339w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-13-at-1.33.30-PM-241x300.png 241w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Molly Bloom and her husband Devin Effinger have lived through meteoric successes, spectacular crashes, and built better lives from the wreckage.<\/p>\n<p>And now they\u2019ve launched One World Group, a hybrid podcast featuring celebrities and experts that lets you ask questions.<\/p>\n<p>Among their speakers so far is a Harvard cardiothoracic surgeon, fashion icon Bobbi Brown, actress Jessica Chastain, a nutritionist and naturopathic doctor, Bloom\u2019s attorney, Jim Walden, from her battle against the IRS and FBI, a personal&nbsp;trainer, federal judge Rosemarie Aquilina, and a psychic astrologer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe point is to bring some of the community aspects into a format that would allow people to connect with each other,\u201d Bloom and Effinger said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/sdn-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Connection is key<\/h3>\n<p>COVID quarantines forced us away from each other.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the whole world plunge into isolation,\u201d Bloom said.<\/p>\n<p>Bloom and Effinger launched One World Group a couple weeks ago, promoting it on social media and encouraging people to join them. Hundreds do every day, becoming friends, supporting each other, forming a community that supports and inspires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an unprecedented time when everyone\u2019s life is disrupted. If there ever was a time when this could impact lives, it would be now,\u201d Effinger said.<\/p>\n<p>Bloom lived around Hollywood heavyweights for a decade and a half, running high stakes poker games in Los Angeles and New York City. Like all of us, she sees lots of online entertainment being created, and that\u2019s fine, but bringing people together is more important, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now people need community,\u201d Bloom said. \u201cWe think this is what a social network should be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to be of service,\u201d Effinger said. \u201cThe coronavirus is a great equalizer. We\u2019re all in the same place and position. People share on a vulnerable and human level. That creates connections that are not typical. People are sharing their victories and stumbles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People join from around the world: U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Romania, Ireland, London, and other far-flung places.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this was scaled up it could help humanity. It could spread like a good virus,\u201d Effinger said.<\/p>\n<h3>Molly\u2019s Game, Molly\u2019s gain<\/h3>\n<p>Bloom and Effinger found each other a couple of years ago. They married last September at Piney Lake, located 11 miles from Vail, high in the Colorado Rockies.<\/p>\n<p>Bloom\u2019s life is literally the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/movies\/la-et-mn-molly-bloom-mollys-game-20170102-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stuff of Hollywood<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>. She let the world see it in her book and then the movie, \u201cMolly\u2019s Game,\u201d directed by Aaron Sorkin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe visibility of the movie is a way to reach people who we might not necessarily have access to,\u201d Bloom said.<\/p>\n<p>She was a standout mogul skier, graduated the University of Colorado, and then put off Harvard law school to chase rainbows around Hollywood where she discovered money and power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made those things my gods and chased them into hell. I blew up my life and I still didn\u2019t find what I was looking for. I found loneliness and darkness,\u201d Bloom said.<\/p>\n<p>She made millions and lost millions more running those high stakes poker games. To cover debts that losing players stiffed her with, she started taking a \u201crake,\u201d a piece of the action. That\u2019s illegal and it attracted the FBI\u2019s attention; agents with automatic weapons came calling at her New York City home.<\/p>\n<p>To help cope with all that she fell into alcohol and drugs. A New York federal judge sentenced her to a year of probation, a $1,000 fine and 200 hours of community service, a slap on the wrist compared to what she could have faced. She wrote a book about it all, \u201cMolly\u2019s Game,\u201d which led to the movie directed by Sorkin. Chastain played Molly in the movie. These days Bloom is about the business of helping as many people as she can.<\/p>\n<h3>Devin\u2019s death and life<\/h3>\n<p>Effinger\u2019s rollercoaster life equals Bloom\u2019s for rises and falls and rises. He overcame serious childhood trauma, then he had to overcome a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/news\/heroin-in-the-high-country-the-slide-into-addiction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">heroin addiction<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>&nbsp;that left him broken and near death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never would have thought I\u2019d have a passion for anything at that point in my life. I didn\u2019t know how I could survive being anything other than a day-to-day drug addict. Being clean and sober is all rooted in the dream of being able to help people,\u201d Effinger said.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out he brought his addiction with him when he moved from Atlanta to the Vail Valley. The scenery changed, but he hadn\u2019t yet and the same sort of trouble found him. He decided he\u2019d had enough and, with the help of some friends he pulled himself out of his abyss. He worked closely with the Eagle County jail staff and helped launch Survive, a program to help inmates transition from life behind bars to life. As part of that, he took over&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/news\/gypsums-rittenhouse-opens-with-a-great-menu-greater-mission-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gypsum\u2019s Rittenhouse restaurant<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>, placing some former inmates among the staff to help them learn employable skills.<\/p>\n<p>Effinger is a systematic thinker. While thinking about his life he kept circling back to his early-life trauma, how it sent him into a sewer, and what it took to overcome it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happens to someone\u2019s brain that sends them down that road?\u201d Effinger asked.<\/p>\n<p>He went back to school because he wanted answers. He gravitated toward classes in social work and running nonprofits because that\u2019s what he knew. They were great, he said, but did not answer his most pressing question, \u201cWhat happens to someone\u2019s brain \u2026 ?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then he took a neuroscience class that pointed him toward the answers he sought.<\/p>\n<p>He finished his undergrad degree and earned a two-year fellowship at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nih.gov\/about-nih\/what-we-do\/nih-almanac\/national-institute-drug-abuse-nida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Institute on Drug Abuse<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>&nbsp;in Maryland.<\/p>\n<p>He just started his Ph.D. studies in neuroscience at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The program is five and a half years, a long road.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been down longer roads. This one is much, much nicer,\u201d Effinger said.<\/p>\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/news\/mollys-new-game-combats-covid-isolation-through-worldwide-online-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the full story on VailDaily.com<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/mollys-new-game-combats-covid-isolation-through-worldwide-online-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Molly Bloom and her husband Devin Effinger have lived through meteoric successes, spectacular crashes, and built better lives from the wreckage. And now they\u2019ve launched One World Group, a hybrid podcast featuring celebrities and experts that lets you ask questions. Among their speakers so far is a Harvard cardiothoracic surgeon, fashion icon Bobbi Brown, actress [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-14 06:14:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}