0:01

My name is Alex, and I am voting for Joe Biden

0:04

and Kamala Harris in the election.

0:07

No mob, alright, no

0:10

alright, no mob alright

0:13

forever nob

0:17

alright, lit alright,

0:21

no mob alright, forever al

0:26

right. Before we get into this episode, I want to give you guys a little

0:28

personal life update. I'm actually in the middle

0:30

of moving houses right now, which is so exciting.

0:33

Um. But with that excitement also comes a

0:35

different recording set up, so it might sound a little

0:37

bit different than it usually does. It's

0:40

the beauty of the pandemic podcast recording.

0:42

But this episode is so important and very very

0:45

timely, so just so you guys know, let's

0:47

get into it. My

0:49

parents told us, you know, there's there's

0:51

specific things that you want to share. You want

0:54

to share your positivity, you want to share your light

0:56

with other people, you want to share love and happiness.

0:59

But the one thing you don't want to share, and my parents

1:01

always said to just not really talk about it because

1:04

it always brings up problems is politics.

1:06

And so I grew up kind of disconnecting

1:09

myself from politics, kind of in

1:11

that realm of you know, unless it involves

1:13

me directly, not really worth

1:15

bringing up because it only divides people, it only

1:18

makes you choose a side, and all of those things. That's

1:20

how I grew up. But I grew

1:22

up and so uh

1:25

as I became an adult, I started realizing

1:28

one that life is a lot

1:30

bigger than just me. I think I should be

1:32

more caring about other people, and

1:34

so I realized that a part of

1:36

that caring for other people is fighting

1:38

for other people and supporting other people,

1:41

and not only in my personal dealings,

1:43

but also in you know,

1:45

in voting. This was kind of at the same

1:47

time that I was gaining a following on social

1:49

media, and I realized that every

1:53

time I saw somebody that was speaking out,

1:55

not only where they met with some support and

1:58

love, there's also people that

2:00

were just bashing that person. They would be

2:02

like, why are you talking about this? I can't believe

2:04

you, because again, there are two sides

2:07

to most, you know, situations.

2:09

So I wasn't really sure if I wanted to be

2:12

one of those artists that talks about topics

2:15

that might cause people to think

2:17

of me, you know, differently, or to stand

2:19

up for what I believe in. And and

2:21

my parents always taught me to follow my heart and

2:23

a lot of the times, especially in support

2:26

of of the l g b t Q plus community,

2:28

because I've always had so many friends, so many

2:30

family members who are part of the lgbt

2:32

Q plus community, have always been very

2:34

proudly an ally to the lgbt Q plus

2:37

community, and I realized

2:40

that that was kind of the first um

2:42

social issue that I

2:45

was passionate enough about in

2:47

my heart that I knew I needed to speak up

2:49

about it. And even at that point, you know, like

2:51

there were some super small minded,

2:54

you know, like I like to say, less

2:56

evolved human beings who

2:59

had view was against my own that

3:01

that definitely said, I can't believe you support

3:03

this or whatever. But I realized

3:05

that I was doing myself a better service

3:09

by by speaking

3:11

out and following my heart the same way that

3:13

I do with my music, with my own life.

3:15

Once I realized that, and this was actually only a

3:17

few years ago, Like you have to understand, I

3:20

was never even into politics until you

3:23

know this, like this, this this cycle

3:25

of of elections since really since Donald Trump

3:28

came into office, when I realized that

3:30

it's way more than just the LGBTQ plus

3:32

community that I'm passionate about that I need

3:34

to be vocal about and more than

3:36

all of that that I need to educate myself about.

3:39

So I've taken time through this pandemic,

3:41

through all of these social issues

3:43

that we've been you know, we've been dealing

3:45

with in real time, from racial justice

3:48

or racial injustice, the lack thereof environmental

3:52

policies, and the way that each of these candidates

3:54

are viewing the environment and global warming

3:57

and and climate change, so

4:00

many different things that it's

4:02

it's almost not even politics, you know,

4:04

it's about me following my heart and doing

4:06

what's right. And if other people call that politics,

4:08

then we're here talking about politics.

4:11

I'm realizing and I'm understanding that

4:13

all of us have different things that were

4:16

passionate about. All of us have different things

4:18

that that speak to our hearts, and

4:20

the most important part across the

4:22

whole board of that is that we all vote.

4:25

So that got me thinking, why is it so

4:27

important to vote? All

4:30

right, guys, what's up? This is alex I. Oh no, this

4:33

is my podcast. It's all let's get into it and

4:35

we talk about everything under the sun. And now

4:37

we can really say that because we're talking about

4:39

the thing that my parents told me to never

4:41

publicly talk about politics.

4:44

Um, we are talking about

4:46

the importance of this election, talking about

4:49

getting involved in politics, even if it's

4:51

something you don't necessarily want

4:53

to even do. And I needed two amazing

4:56

guests that could help inspire that. And so

4:58

luckily, thanks to Catherine and thanks to our

5:00

amazing guests, we made it happen. My

5:02

two guests, one of them is a Shanty Goldla. She

5:04

is a nationally recognized political strategist.

5:07

She is the president of Emerge, which is an organization

5:10

that recruits and trains democratic women

5:12

to run for office. She's also the

5:14

founder of The Brown Girls Guide to Politics,

5:16

which is an organization that also has a

5:18

fantastic podcast, Ashanti.

5:21

How are you? I'm good, Alex,

5:23

thank you so much for having me, and thank you

5:25

Catherine. Of course. Our

5:27

other guest is Tanya Mosley. She's

5:29

the co host of NPRS Here and now the

5:31

co host of the podcast Truth Be Told, as well

5:34

as NPRS Film Club. She's

5:36

worked in every medium from television to print

5:39

to radio two documentary filmmaking.

5:41

She actually recently won an Emmy for her televised

5:43

piece Beyond Ferguson. So the one congratulations

5:46

do how are you? I

5:48

am well? Thank you all for having me. I'm really honored

5:51

to be on the show with you. Alex of course,

5:53

thank you both for being here. And again you know, I'm

5:55

I'm going to use this episode more

5:57

than anything as like education for my health

6:00

to continue, you know, learning about

6:02

the importance of stepping up and getting

6:04

involved in politics. Though, thank you both for being

6:07

my teachers. Today, we have some really cool

6:09

topics that we're gonna be talking about. First, Tanya,

6:12

you and I are going one on one. We're gonna talk about journalism

6:14

and politics, and then we'll take a

6:17

quick break. When we come back from that break, Ashanti,

6:19

you and I are going to talk about the importance of getting involved

6:21

in politics. And then lastly,

6:24

the three of us are all going to have a big, nice round

6:26

table talking about voting in the data

6:28

dumpster fire funny. Uh

6:32

So, I've excited for all of those topics, but before

6:34

we get into them, today is actually

6:36

nine and eleven, and with all of the madness

6:38

going on in the world, um, it's the nineteenth

6:40

anniversary. And so even

6:43

though we are a for lack

6:45

of better term, a country divided right now, I

6:47

think it is important to recognize the

6:50

sacrifice that all of the first responders

6:52

made I think about our country

6:54

then and though a lot of the problems we

6:56

have today we're still problems. Then, Uh,

6:59

it felt like a different time and it's almost

7:01

sad thinking about how great we were as

7:03

human beings to each other just for that

7:05

moment versus where we are today.

7:08

But I wanted to talk about that. Do either of you guys

7:10

have anything specific that you'd like to share. I mean, I

7:12

was six years old, so I remember sitting on my parents

7:14

bed and seeing it, not really understanding the weight

7:17

of it all. But um, if either of you guys have anything

7:19

that you'd like to say, just because today

7:21

is is September eleven, I would

7:23

love to hear it. Sure, you know when

7:26

you mentioned that, I thought about you, Alex,

7:28

about how old you you were at that time,

7:31

and actually my heart aches thinking about

7:33

you being so young and that

7:35

memory being steered into your consciousness

7:38

because you know, it's six years old,

7:40

you're just learning about the world around you. I

7:42

was actually a young journalist then. I was just

7:45

I was in my first job in media, and

7:48

I'll never forget that time and that day

7:50

it felt like such a dark time and it felt

7:53

like there was so much confusion and

7:55

hopelessness. But to your point, there

7:57

was also a sense of coming together

8:00

as Americans during that time.

8:02

I remember you couldn't drive anywhere without

8:04

seeing American flags everywhere,

8:06

and we all kind of came together in

8:08

this collective grief. And there's a lot of

8:11

difference now and what we're seeing. We'll

8:13

talk about this a little bit later, I'm sure, but

8:15

you know one thing that I think about the difference

8:17

between today and then is social

8:20

media and what would the world

8:22

have been like back then if

8:24

we had social media, Yes, we would have been more

8:26

connected in a way that information

8:29

would have been passed through really quickly. But

8:31

on the other hand, a lot of misinformation

8:33

would have been passed through. All of those conspiracy

8:36

theories would have been at the forefront in a way

8:38

that that might have made us more divisive.

8:40

And it's kind of this major factor

8:43

today and why we're so divisive. Wow.

8:46

Yeah, absolutely, Shan, Do you have anything you want to

8:48

add? I agree with the divisiveness,

8:50

And for me, what I really think about

8:53

is empathy. Back then,

8:56

we had a president, no matter what

8:58

you want to think about him, he had

9:00

empathy for what happened.

9:03

And we know that there was still absolute

9:05

hatred, particularly to our Muslim

9:07

and see brothers and sisters. They

9:10

took the majority of that hate.

9:13

But I remember, you know, George

9:15

Bush, he went to go visit

9:17

the site and someone had yelled,

9:20

we can't hear you, and he yelled back,

9:22

but I can hear you, and

9:24

just those simple words

9:26

to let people know that they

9:29

were not alone. They had a

9:31

leader that saw them, and

9:33

we had more empathy for

9:35

each other as Americans and for humans.

9:38

And you do not see that today.

9:41

We do not have that empathetic leader.

9:43

We do not have that leadership,

9:46

and it's amazing what can

9:49

happen in twenty years.

9:52

I was very clear when Trump got elected.

9:54

People asked me, what do you

9:57

think is going to be the key thing that we're

9:59

going to see? And I said, we're

10:01

going to see how fragile democracy

10:03

is. And that is what

10:05

we are witnessing when you do not

10:08

have empathetic, servant

10:10

leadership in the White House. And

10:13

that's going to lead me perfectly into my next

10:15

question. Usually with

10:17

my guests, I have a question that we kind of throw around,

10:20

which is how have you been improving yourselves this

10:22

week? For the next few episodes, I

10:24

actually want to change that question to continue inspiring

10:27

um not only young voters, but but

10:29

every American out there who has the ability

10:31

to vote, and hopefully we can inspire them to vote.

10:33

So instead of asking how have you been improving,

10:36

I want to ask all of my guests, why are

10:38

you voting? And I'll

10:40

start again. Like I've said, I've never

10:42

been the most educated in terms of politics,

10:44

and it's something that I try and learn more and more about

10:46

every day. I try and unfortunately

10:48

watch all of the news and deduct where

10:50

the where the truth is in all

10:53

of it, or try and really follow my heart. But for

10:55

me, I'm voting because I see people

10:57

I love being told

10:59

that they are not the same level

11:02

of priority as other human beings

11:05

and it breaks my heart. I mean, I have so many

11:07

friends that are constantly fighting for

11:10

the same freedoms that I have as a heterosexual,

11:13

cis gender, you know, half white

11:16

male. I'm looking at my sisters,

11:19

I'm looking at my mother, I'm looking at

11:21

my my friends and family in the lgbt

11:24

Q plus community. I'm looking at my black

11:26

brothers, sisters, and non binary

11:28

family members. It

11:31

tears me apart of somebody who always wants

11:33

to follow their heart that as a country

11:35

we are not treating every human

11:37

being the exact same way. And and

11:40

so that for this episode is going

11:42

to be my main reason why I want to let everybody

11:45

know I am voting. Being said,

11:47

Ashanti, you got anything for me? I

11:50

always tell people that at

11:52

my core, I vote because

11:54

I literally had people fight

11:56

and die for me to have this right.

11:59

Are that they want it so bad?

12:02

They march, they protest,

12:04

they lead these amazing

12:07

movements. So I could

12:09

easily register to vote

12:12

on my eighteenth birthday, vote

12:14

for whoever I want. And

12:16

I take that very seriously that

12:20

my ancestors this is the future that

12:22

they wanted for me. So I

12:24

have to make sure that I am an active participant

12:27

in my government. And the

12:29

second part is, you know,

12:31

for me, I'm doing quite well.

12:34

I'm lucky in that sense,

12:37

but I really think about my nieces and my nephews

12:39

and I want for them to be able

12:42

to do what T. T. Shawnee was able

12:44

to do. I need for them to have

12:46

that same quality of life. And if

12:48

I want them to have that quality of life, I need

12:51

to make sure that there are people

12:53

in office who see

12:55

them as young black girls,

12:57

young black boys. Who does

13:00

serve to have a future, a great future,

13:02

and who will create and pass policies

13:05

to allow that to happen. I

13:07

love, what do you have that? Yeah?

13:10

You know, I mean Ashanti really laid

13:12

it out so well, some of the same reasons

13:14

why I feel it's so important

13:17

to vote. You know, I grew up right around

13:19

the corner for my grandparents, and I would say my family

13:22

was not extremely political,

13:24

but one thing they did instill in me was

13:27

the power of voting and that I should vote.

13:29

My first job was working on the polls.

13:31

I think I was about fifteen years old, and

13:34

my grandfather would volunteer every year

13:36

to work on the polls for every single election.

13:38

And I had a chance to be a part of that

13:40

political process every time an election

13:42

came up, to work on the polls and volunteer

13:45

in that way. You know, I'm

13:47

an American and it's my right to

13:50

be able to be a part of the democratic

13:52

process. And I also, just

13:55

like Ashanti, want to instill in younger

13:57

people and in my children that this

13:59

is what we do as part of our civic duty.

14:02

And it's also important

14:04

that I didn't grow up really

14:06

focusing in on those issues. But

14:08

right now it is so important for us

14:10

to be thinking in this way, to learn

14:12

about what our politicians are doing, what

14:15

they stand behind, what their records are.

14:17

And so, yes, that is my answer to

14:19

your question. Analytics. I love it.

14:21

I love it. I know that we, uh, we kind of

14:23

dipped down in a moment of solidarity

14:25

for nine eleven, but I think your guys answers

14:28

just kind of brought my energy right

14:30

back up. And I think that's where it should be. You know, we

14:32

we are really if we as a country do this

14:34

right, then we're gonna make some really good changes here.

14:36

And so both of your answers, if

14:38

you're listening, I hope that those answers inspired

14:41

you more than even mine. But it is

14:43

your right. It is not only your right, it's your duty

14:45

as a citizen of the United States to vote and

14:48

to help make decisions in this world.

14:50

And uh, I love your answers. I just

14:53

I wanted to say that. That being said, Ashanti

14:55

will be with you in justice. Second, Tanya, you and I are

14:57

going to go one on one. We're talking about journalism

14:59

and politics, which you know quite a bit

15:02

about both of you know

15:04

quite a bit about both of them.

15:06

For the next few weeks, we're actually talking about politics,

15:08

and not just because everybody's talking about politics,

15:11

but right now, with everything that's going on

15:13

in the world, we need to get involved.

15:15

We need to make a difference. Things are not

15:17

okay, speaking of which you're actually you

15:19

live in Pasadena, which is currently on fire.

15:22

I just want to make sure are you guys, are you okay? Oh,

15:24

I'm so thank you so much for asking me that.

15:26

Yeah, I'm about five miles away from one

15:28

of the wildfire's burning and we are in the warning

15:31

zone, so we we haven't been told to evacuate

15:33

yet, but just to be on standby. So

15:36

we do have our bags packed and we are watching

15:38

what's happening. It literally is one of those

15:40

things where we go what else could possibly happen,

15:42

I know, and then it happens. So I'm

15:44

glad to hear you're doing okay. I'm glad to hear you're

15:46

prepared. If you are in any area in Los

15:49

Angeles or anywhere on the West Coast where fires are,

15:51

please make sure that you are you

15:53

are ready for any emergency situations.

15:56

Um, let's get back into politics, though we all

15:58

know that there is especially now,

16:00

like you mentioned, with social media, there is a

16:02

ton of propaganda, false information

16:05

that's literally spread all across social

16:07

media. But we're also finding that that's also

16:09

true with traditional news outlets. I turn

16:11

on the TV and I switched from Fox

16:14

to NBC, MSNBC two,

16:16

CNN. It's just across the

16:18

board. It's so hard to find

16:20

which of these um news sources

16:22

is telling you the most unbiased

16:24

version of what's going on in the world. How

16:27

do you think somebody can identify which news

16:29

sources are actually trustworth? You

16:31

know, Alex, this is the billion

16:33

dollar question because we have

16:36

so many sources that we can go to. You

16:38

turn on the news, you know. The one thing that

16:40

I think is also a challenge for people is

16:43

we often don't have context. We don't

16:46

start off with context, So people

16:48

flipping channels, going to different sites

16:50

online. You're getting the latest on

16:52

things, but you don't have an understanding of where

16:54

it fits in the collective, like the overall,

16:57

and so it just feels like noise because

16:59

there's so much This

17:01

is something I think very deeply about because

17:04

I work for NPR. I have

17:06

worked throughout my career in

17:08

what I consider reputable news organizations,

17:11

but I realize that we are now in a time

17:13

where people are telling us they're not

17:15

sure whether or not they can trust us, and

17:18

so I'm thinking very deeply about what does

17:20

that mean and what we can do to be

17:22

able to provide that clarity for people because

17:24

they're confused. You

17:26

can think about some of your major newspapers,

17:29

your local newspapers who have been

17:31

decimated by budget cuts

17:33

because of the recession back

17:35

in two thousand and six and seven and eight, but

17:37

they're still there those places.

17:39

Those people can give you the on the ground news,

17:41

for instance, around voting, where

17:44

you are when you can vote, where

17:46

you can vote, where you need to have your absentee

17:48

ballots when you need to have them in Those

17:50

are really important questions on the local level.

17:52

You can start with, um, your newspapers,

17:55

and also your television stations, the NBC's,

17:58

the CBS is, the A b c's, But

18:00

you know, we do have to call on them to be better. And

18:03

I actually think that media organizations are really

18:05

open to that right now because we're all running

18:08

around with our heads cut off. We're all kind of like

18:10

every day there's something happening with the Trump

18:12

administration. There wildfires,

18:14

there's a pandemic, there's the racial reckoning. There's

18:17

all of these things happening. We want to

18:19

provide the best information, but we also

18:21

want to make certain that you can hear it through the

18:23

noise. Yeah, I love that, and

18:25

I don't know if it's rare or not. You might be one of

18:27

the very first members of the media

18:29

that I've spoken to. But as a member

18:31

of the media, you've never been afraid to voice

18:34

your opinions on the media itself, like you just

18:36

have. You've also spoken a

18:38

bit about the importance of diversity

18:41

in the newsroom. Right now, we are

18:44

dealing with everything from racial

18:46

injustice to people making

18:48

laws about women's bodies. What

18:50

shortcomings do we see when the diversity

18:53

of the newsroom hasn't been met. Oh,

18:55

well, we just saw it at the end of May and

18:57

June and even right in this moment

19:00

when people started rising up in the streets

19:02

and saying, we just saw a black

19:04

man die in Minnesota,

19:07

George Floyd, and we're

19:09

tired of it. We're seeing black men on video

19:11

die all the time. There needs

19:13

to be big change. We're not talking about

19:15

incremental change. We're talking about reforming

19:18

police, defunding police,

19:20

changes to our government, changes to

19:22

the way police operate. We

19:25

were really handicapped because

19:28

when it comes to covering

19:30

issues of race and racism, Americans

19:33

have a really hard time with it, you know.

19:35

I mean, we can cover just about anything, but when

19:38

it comes to race and racism, when you don't have the diversity

19:40

in your newsroom, you're caught flat footed

19:42

because you don't know how to take on those issues.

19:45

And so all of the things that I've been talking

19:47

about in so many voices, have been talking

19:49

about over the decades, even before I was born, about

19:51

diversity in newsrooms, it's really

19:54

coming to ahead at this point, and

19:56

it's not that hard to diversify newsrooms.

19:59

But it's also incumbent on our

20:01

white brothers and sisters to take on

20:04

this as well, because white is a race and

20:06

they're also a part of this as well.

20:08

And so I think what it brought up for us is not only

20:11

how we need more people of color and newsrooms,

20:13

but also how we need white people

20:15

to understand their place in all of this

20:17

and how they can be a part of the

20:19

change when it comes to covering it

20:22

in the media. As you know, Alex,

20:24

like I've been over the last few years talking

20:26

a lot about journalists really acknowledging

20:29

implicit bias in our own biases.

20:31

And that's because until we

20:34

really acknowledge that we're human beings and we're

20:36

part of this collective just like everyone else,

20:38

we're not like these superhuman people

20:40

who are over here and can truly be objective.

20:43

Our life experiences play a huge

20:45

role in how we cover the news until

20:47

we acknowledge that we can't really make change,

20:50

and so that's that's kind of where I sit on this. So

20:53

that was just perfectly said. Um, I do want to change

20:55

directions. I'll speak directly to politics, especially

20:58

the political moment that we're in right now. You

21:00

talked recently on one of your shows about the suburban

21:02

Trump supporters who do want to stick

21:04

with Trump, for people who are planning to

21:06

double down and vote him again, even

21:09

asked to do more with like politics or are

21:11

they just trying to prove to themselves at this point

21:13

that they didn't make a bad decision four years ago.

21:15

Oh, that's such a complicated question,

21:18

you know. I think we're all trying to

21:20

figure out why people support

21:24

what they do and who they do, and

21:27

there are lots of different reasons for it. But

21:29

I think in many ways and I can't

21:31

speak for all Trump supporters, but

21:34

there is a feeling among many Trump

21:36

supporters that they are the unheard.

21:39

Think about if your whole life the

21:41

world was one way, and then

21:43

over the course of just a few short years,

21:46

you start seeing things change in a profound

21:48

way. You start saying that there

21:51

are more people of color where you live. You

21:53

see that they're taking jobs that used

21:55

to be predominantly held by white people.

21:57

And this is just one slice of it. I'm not saying this

21:59

is like across the board. You

22:02

may have already dealt with hardships.

22:04

But what I hear, what I heard from those women

22:07

that I talked to on my show, was that they

22:09

earnestly believe what they believe. And

22:11

there's nothing that I could

22:13

ever say, You could ever say, Ashanti

22:15

could ever say, that would change how they

22:17

feel about it. What does that

22:19

tell us about where we are? When there's

22:21

no unifying voice, when there's no unifying

22:24

collective understanding of where we want to go in

22:26

this country, democracy

22:28

is at stake. I mean, we're seeing it crumble.

22:32

That goes back to what we were talking about when we talked

22:34

about nine eleven. We all were collectively

22:36

in agreeance that what happened was wrong,

22:39

and that we want to see something

22:41

happened because of that. Today,

22:44

we don't have any unifying collective

22:46

understanding of what we feel like is wrong.

22:49

It's the truth, though, you know, Like I think

22:51

a big issue that I see is

22:53

that we at this moment, so

22:56

many of us believe that everything that

22:58

we believe is the right thing. Willingness

23:01

to be wrong is at such a low level

23:03

these days. And the reason

23:05

why I asked about the doubling down to prove that

23:07

they're right is, like, I think it's human nature

23:09

to even when you know you're wrong. I think

23:11

about when you get in an argument with your significant

23:13

other and you start realizing, like, dam I'm

23:16

wrong in this argument, but you still keep kind

23:18

of pushing for yeahs

23:20

like that, you know, And so I look at it,

23:22

Um, I look at us as not only a country divided,

23:25

but a country that's too afraid to step

23:27

up and be wrong. But Alex, how much do you

23:29

think? And I don't want to, because you know, I'm on social

23:31

media just like everyone else, But I've been thinking

23:33

really deeply about how it

23:35

has polarized us in a way where

23:38

you could double down. But what if you knew you

23:40

could go online and you can find millions

23:43

of other people who also feel like you and

23:46

are feeding you and saying what

23:48

you're saying is right, and

23:50

hey, here's some other stuff that we found,

23:52

Like you have a collective community of people

23:55

who are always affirming you,

23:58

you know, like we're all looking at each other right

24:00

now. When we go on our social media

24:02

feeds, will all be looking at something different

24:05

because based on the things that we put

24:07

in, it's giving us back what

24:09

it feels are most aligned

24:11

with what we put in. So

24:14

there's no truth there. There's no like centering

24:16

of truth there that really gets us to this unifying

24:18

front that we're talking about. I'm really

24:21

concerned about it, and I don't know where it's going to take

24:23

us. I don't think we've ever been here in our

24:25

entire like the entire existence of humanity.

24:28

We've never been at this place where we have

24:30

the convergence of all of this coming together

24:32

at once. That's that's very interesting

24:35

to think about. I mean, social media is

24:37

is like you mentioned, it's tailored to us.

24:39

You know, it's tailored too to our own voices, and

24:41

it's tailored too when we speak. It

24:43

tailors everything around that to make us feel

24:45

like we are the leader of you know, of that community.

24:48

Right. I don't know where we're going to go with

24:50

that either. Some people say regulation

24:53

is the way. We'll see where that goes. But

24:55

the regulation of media companies, social

24:57

media companies, I think that that's absolutely

25:00

valid and would be absolutely warranted,

25:02

especially because we are divided. I do want to talk

25:04

about flipping the social media around a little

25:06

bit, because you've You've said some things on social media

25:08

that I absolutely love. You tweet a couple of weeks

25:11

ago about your grandma telling you that there's

25:13

it seems like there's so much going on, but at

25:15

the same time, and nothing's happening right

25:20

that that we just kind of don't seem to be learning

25:22

from history, like we're stuck

25:24

in one spot. Why do you think we're so stuck?

25:27

You know? I've been thinking a lot about this as

25:30

I look out in my window and I see the orange

25:32

sky, and I think, like it feels

25:34

like the world is burning, and

25:37

we know we've been here before, but

25:40

somehow we continue to do it. And

25:42

maybe it's just human nature. What

25:44

if this is just how it happens? I

25:47

mean, we know there are other civilizations

25:49

in time. We can know because we excavate and

25:51

we find things in the ground all the time that

25:53

are surprising and give us a view of

25:55

the past. Also, I think

25:57

though specifically about the United States,

26:00

and we think about like our founding,

26:03

we're always moving forward. We're

26:05

always looking forward, never back. It's

26:07

always about the new, how can we be

26:09

better and bigger? And we have always

26:12

as a country culturally put

26:15

less value on history. If you go to other

26:17

parts of the world, history is such

26:19

a huge part of their foundation. I mean, if you go

26:21

to Italy or Spain or any of those Egypt

26:24

I mean, they still have all of those

26:26

old artifacts up and it's like one of

26:28

the first things you learn when you go to

26:30

those places as the history of the place. We're

26:32

not like that in the United States. And so that

26:34

goes for all of it, including race and

26:36

racism, which is America's original

26:39

sin. We don't want to go

26:41

back and look at that. We feel like it

26:43

is that's the past. We're now in the president

26:45

we should be looking to the future. But I think what

26:48

we've seen over the summer is more indication

26:50

than anything else in our recent history

26:52

that we have to deal with that original

26:54

sin in order to move forward. So

27:01

we're gonna take a quick break. But before we get there, I have

27:03

one last question for you. In

27:05

a perfect world in your mind, what

27:07

does our country look like? What does

27:09

our country feel like? After the election?

27:13

My main focus right now as a journalist

27:16

is as I mentioned before, is to add context,

27:19

clarity, and understanding. And

27:22

one of my main focus points is

27:24

really offering folks and understanding

27:27

of how they can vote because it's so

27:29

different than it than it's ever been because

27:31

of the pandemic. Most states, you're

27:34

going to be voting absentee when

27:36

you need to have your ballot in in if

27:38

you need to go in person, where you can go, how

27:40

you can keep yourself safe. That's my mission

27:43

over the next few weeks. You

27:45

know, like their places like Florida, for instance, where

27:47

felons have been given the right to vote, but they

27:49

now there's a Supreme Court decision. Is they

27:51

still they have to pay all of their fines

27:54

before they can vote. But it's such an antiquated

27:56

system you may not even know

27:59

where you owe a fine, so how

28:01

would you know where to go to pay the fine?

28:03

Those are the things I'm thinking about because

28:07

if it's as close as many people believe

28:09

it might be every vote

28:11

counts, and if you've allowed

28:13

folks that the right to vote in places

28:15

like Florida, but they will get to

28:17

the polls and they won't be able to cast a vote

28:20

that could have an outcome in the election. Thank

28:23

you so much, Tanya. Really like again,

28:25

like I mentioned earlier, this is an educational

28:27

experience for me. So the things that you

28:29

mentioned with the media in the professional

28:32

space, I think a lot of that advice can be

28:34

taken as just people who have social

28:36

media accounts tweeting things out of our brains

28:38

and tweeting our hearts. We're gonna

28:40

take a quick break. When we come back. I'm actually gonna be speaking with

28:42

a shanty goal are. We're gonna be talking about getting involved

28:45

with politics. Don't go anywhere, alright,

28:49

y'all, we are back. This is let's get into it. We

28:51

are talking about getting involved with politics

28:54

here in twenty twenty. I've just had an amazing

28:56

conversation with Tanya talking about the

28:59

journalistics I of politics,

29:01

how that's all playing into now. And now I got

29:03

a shanty golar already gave you your

29:05

intro. You've done more things

29:07

than I can count on both hands and both feet.

29:10

So let's just get straight into it as shanty. Alright.

29:13

You think that one person can

29:15

make a difference, one person can

29:17

absolutely make a difference.

29:20

So at Emerge we focus on recruiting

29:22

and training democratic women to run for

29:24

office. And I'm not joking

29:27

when I say every year we

29:29

have several alarms who lose their

29:31

race by one vote.

29:34

M I will repeat that again.

29:37

There are several people in this country

29:39

who lose their race by one

29:42

vote. And I'm going to tell this

29:44

particular story about Shelley

29:46

Simons. She was she's one

29:48

of our alums. She ran for

29:51

Virginia delegate in her

29:55

race was tied. Do you know

29:57

how you break a tie vote in Virginia?

30:00

You pick a name out of a hat? Are

30:02

you serious? That is how her race

30:05

was decided. Her name was

30:07

not picked out of the hat. So

30:10

during that legislative session, amazing

30:13

bills that focused on lgbt

30:16

Q issues, Medicare expansion,

30:19

police reform, passing

30:21

the Equal Rights Amendment, all

30:23

those votes failed by

30:25

one vote. If Shelley had

30:27

been elected, those bills would

30:29

have gotten passed. But

30:32

she's an emerged woman. She ran again in twenty

30:34

nine one,

30:37

and now you see Virginia leading

30:39

the way in their state

30:41

House with bills that are bettering the

30:43

lives of people. So

30:46

when we say not one person can make a

30:48

difference, your one vote

30:51

can actually mean the difference between

30:53

if you get discriminated against

30:55

when applying for a job because of

30:58

who you love, if your family

31:00

member is able to get the health care that

31:02

they need, if your school

31:05

gets a proper funding so

31:07

that kids don't have their lunch thrown

31:09

away because their

31:11

parents can't pay the bill. So

31:14

never ever think that your

31:17

vote does not matter, that you don't

31:19

matter. And when we

31:21

talk about politics so much, there's

31:23

really an ecosystem. There's the

31:25

candidates that get elected

31:28

by voters. But those candidates

31:30

also have campaign staff because

31:32

running a campaign is really like running a business.

31:35

They have a campaign manager, they have a

31:37

treasurer, they have a press

31:40

secretary, and those

31:42

campaign staff they need

31:44

amazing volunteers. And

31:46

those volunteers and the voters are the

31:48

ones that make things happen.

31:51

And even if none of those things appeal

31:54

to you, you can be a donor.

31:56

And even when we talk about donors, because

31:59

of how our campaign finance system

32:01

is set up, I know people are like shanty

32:03

I ain't got a thousand dollars, girl, I don't know what you're

32:05

talking about. If

32:08

you have five dollars, if you have ten dollars,

32:10

if you have fifteen dollars that

32:13

you can give to a candidate, that makes you a

32:15

donor. You are investing

32:17

in someone's campaign. You

32:19

are investing in democracy,

32:22

and that money adds up. That

32:25

can be social media ads, that's

32:27

campaign lit, that's them

32:29

doing a TV ad. A

32:32

small dollar donors, we

32:35

have the power to actually change

32:37

this system when we all

32:40

come together with our little

32:42

dollars. Those

32:44

billionaires ain't got nothing on us. They

32:46

can do whatever they want. They can say whatever

32:49

we want. Because our

32:51

fifty dollars a month that we're given

32:53

to this congressional candidate now

32:56

means that we have the most women

32:58

serving in Congress and that

33:01

Congress is passing bills

33:03

that will make our teacher better. So

33:06

you matter, your vote matters, your

33:09

dollar matters. This is

33:11

our country. We should not let the

33:13

one percent dictate how

33:15

we live. So

33:18

that's the interview. I don't

33:23

know, I don't even know what else to say. I got

33:25

a list of questions right here. I'm like you

33:27

just I'm so lucky

33:30

have you on this show. Thank

33:32

you for having me. Let's

33:35

get a little more specific then, UM this

33:37

year is the anniversary

33:39

for the Women's Right to Vote. UM

33:42

as the as the head of Emerge, which

33:44

is encouraging women to run

33:46

for office, and you and you help facilitate that. Also

33:49

as the creator of the Brown Girls Guide

33:51

to Politics, You've said and

33:53

and shown many times that you can't win

33:55

without women. You've actually you said that

33:57

people are finally realizing this as well. Do

34:00

you expand on that whole concept. I'll

34:03

say also, being a brother to three sisters, I've

34:05

known miss like I've known plan

34:09

my whole life like my sister is. My birthday

34:11

is all planned out. Their birthdays are. Everything's planned

34:13

out, and I leave it to them because every time I planned

34:15

something, we end up at the beach with no water, no towels,

34:18

and for some reason, everybody trying. That's

34:20

kind of how that turns out. So I'd

34:23

love for you to expand and teach other people as

34:25

well what you mean by we can't win

34:27

without women. Yes, So

34:30

let's start with the number of elected

34:32

offices we have in this country. There

34:34

are five hundred and twenty thousand

34:37

people that we vote for to

34:39

represent us. There's five elected

34:42

offices. Women were of

34:45

the population. We did not hold

34:48

of those offices. Men still

34:51

occupy of

34:53

those offices and they're mainly

34:56

white men. So

34:58

when we're just saying you can't when without

35:00

women were the majority of the

35:02

voters, you

35:05

need our vote. But also with women,

35:07

just like you said, Alex, it's not just

35:09

about us voting. We got the brothers,

35:12

we got the friends, we got the colleagues.

35:14

We bring everyone with us

35:17

to the polls. We are

35:19

a very powerful constituency

35:22

when we're talking about black, brown, and

35:24

Indigenous women, especially

35:27

with the Democratic Party. Black

35:30

women are the base of the base of the Democratic

35:32

Party. We consistently

35:35

turn out. Now, let's

35:37

tie this to women's representation

35:40

in elected office. It

35:43

was the anniversary of the nineteenth

35:45

Amendment, but the fact

35:47

is that only really gave

35:49

the right to vote to some women. It

35:51

technically gave women

35:54

the right to vote, but we know that

35:56

black, brown, and indigenous women were

35:58

left out of that move and when

36:01

they did participate, they

36:03

had to march in the back. It

36:05

was still very much about

36:08

white women's empowerment. It

36:10

was not about empowering all women.

36:13

So when we talk about women in elected office.

36:16

Our white sisters have really

36:18

had a hundred years. We have not

36:20

had a hundred years. It's only

36:23

been since ninety five and after

36:26

that we have been able to be active

36:28

participants in this political

36:31

system. So what we're talking about

36:33

women holding less

36:35

than one of these

36:38

offices just across

36:40

the board. Women only make

36:42

up of Congress when

36:44

it comes to state houses

36:47

less than twenty when it

36:50

comes to mayors and major cities less

36:52

than twenty percent. If we want to

36:54

tie that to black, brown, and Indigenous

36:56

women, it is all under

36:59

ten percent. Where we're talking about

37:01

our indigenous community

37:03

in general, they make

37:05

up less than one percent of elected offices.

37:08

So we still have a long ways to go

37:11

when we're talking about equality not

37:13

only for women but also

37:16

for people of color. So post

37:18

six, we saw more

37:21

women running for office. So

37:23

many of them said, Okay, if not Hillary,

37:26

then who than me. I have to be the

37:28

one to step up and run. And

37:30

we saw a record number women running.

37:33

And this year we also see a record

37:35

number of women running, but particularly

37:38

women of color, especially black women,

37:40

And people are like, oh my gosh, what's going

37:43

on. I mean, this is so great, but why

37:45

now? As Like, the why now

37:47

is because this is our time. We

37:50

didn't have that time in the nineteen twenties and nineteen

37:52

thirties and nineteen forties. This

37:55

is how it is supposed to be. We

37:58

are owning our moment, our

38:00

political moment, our moment of

38:02

power in this country.

38:05

To run for these seats. We just don't

38:07

have to be the voters. We can

38:09

actually put our name on the ballot

38:11

and be the one at the table making

38:14

the decisions. It seems to

38:16

me, and maybe I'm wrong, that what you just

38:18

spoke about is kind of the basis

38:20

of why you are so inspired

38:22

to start and continue working

38:24

through this concept of the Brown Girls

38:27

Guide, making it such a beautiful

38:29

movement. Is there anything that you haven't

38:31

mentioned already that a specialty

38:33

or important to you that you want the listeners to

38:35

know about the Brown Girls Guy topologist, My

38:38

story is a lot like here is Alex. I don't

38:40

come from a political family at all. I

38:43

think people make that assumption because

38:45

I do what I do. But fun

38:48

fact, one day I was watching

38:50

TV with my mom. She got

38:52

up, I do what kids do. I changed

38:54

the channel to what I want to watch and

38:56

I discovered c SPAN and

38:59

I was like, what is this? All

39:03

these people yelling and fighting,

39:05

wanting to make the country better. I am

39:07

intrigued, and

39:09

that is how I fell in love with politics.

39:12

But even at a young age, I

39:15

knew I did not see a lot of people

39:17

that look like me. I didn't see a lot

39:20

of women. I didn't see a lot of people of color.

39:23

And that let me know that, even

39:25

though I love this, is

39:27

there a place for me in this? Can

39:30

I achieve with the few

39:32

people I do see doing this? Can

39:35

I do that? So I always had that

39:37

doubt in my mind, but I

39:39

stayed involved in politics.

39:41

I had a great government teacher,

39:44

Mrs King. You got extra credit

39:46

when you can volunteer. And

39:49

I loved it so much. And I'm

39:52

where I'm at now because of

39:54

so many other women who saw things

39:56

in me that I didn't see it myself, who

39:59

uplifted me and supporting me and helped

40:01

me along this journey. And I'm so grateful

40:03

for them, especially the colored

40:05

girls. They have a great book out

40:08

that I recommend your listeners

40:10

go and read. It's Donna

40:12

Brazil, Yolanda Hairway, mignamor

40:15

bishop Lea Dawtry. They

40:17

were the women who I looked up to

40:19

when I was just a little girl in

40:21

Las Vegas who loved politics. I

40:24

had to look all the way to Washington, d

40:27

C. To find those women, and

40:29

unfortunate now that they're my mentors.

40:32

So I'm very blessed in that way

40:34

that I was able to connect with them. And

40:37

the catalyst for the b GG was

40:40

I had so many young women who

40:42

would reach out to me saying, I'm interested

40:44

in politics. How do I get started?

40:47

I don't know if there's space for me. And

40:49

that was my story, That's

40:51

who I was, and

40:54

I really wanted the opportunity to pay

40:56

it forward and let them know, Yeah, you

40:58

belong, You've a long and campaign,

41:01

you belong at political committees, you

41:03

can be a consultant, get your money, girl.

41:06

I wanted them to know all the

41:08

things that I didn't know. So

41:10

I create The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics

41:13

as a platform. It really a

41:15

resource where women

41:17

of color who love politics,

41:20

think they may love politics, when to get

41:22

involved in politics, have a one

41:24

stop shop where they

41:26

can find Brown Girl friendly organizations.

41:29

We share news and

41:31

we have our blog. And

41:34

I reached out to some of my friends

41:36

and I joke, I basically asked

41:38

them, hey, you want to join me? And putting

41:40

all our political business own on the internet

41:43

and helping other young women of color

41:45

along their journey, and several of

41:47

them said yes. And we did

41:49

a series on the blog called being

41:51

the Only Brown Girl in the Room,

41:54

because even in there're

41:58

still rooms in this case Zoom room that

42:01

I go into and

42:03

I'm the only woman of color. Sometimes

42:05

I'm the only woman. And we talked

42:07

about those struggles, and

42:10

my blog posts focused on being the only

42:12

Brown girl in the room when people

42:14

say some really messed up racist

42:16

stuff and how do you respond?

42:19

And that blog series was very

42:21

popular. It continues to be our most

42:23

popular blog, and that became

42:26

the catalyst for the podcast, for us

42:28

to be able to really tell those

42:30

stories some more. And at

42:32

the end of the day, I really think

42:34

of the b g G as my love letter to

42:36

my fellow women of color who love politics,

42:39

to let them know that they're seeing

42:42

their heart, they're valued, and they

42:44

can make a difference. I literally could

42:46

listen to you, you know, as a brother to

42:48

any brown girls. I've literally talked

42:52

about it, and that empowerment is

42:54

really something that's important. In your first

42:56

episode of your first podcast episode

42:59

featuring Stacy Rooms who narrowly lost

43:01

just like um, like you mentioned earlier narrowly

43:03

lost the Georgia governorship due to alleged voter

43:05

suppression in your state. There's also a lot

43:07

of talk right now about voter suppression,

43:10

and you know, with everything from mail

43:12

in ballots to just kind of both

43:15

sides of talking about how the elections rigged.

43:17

And you have so many voices talking about

43:19

voter suppression. How worried do we need to be about voter

43:21

suppression. I'm real voter

43:24

suppression exists. And for those

43:26

people who think that their vote

43:28

doesn't matter. If it didn't matter,

43:31

they wouldn't be doing all these shenanigans

43:33

to try to stop people from

43:35

voting. It would be like, oh,

43:38

someone personally delivering your ballot

43:40

to the door with the mass like the face

43:42

shield. They would want everyone to vote.

43:45

But the fact is there's just some people

43:47

in this country because of the

43:49

changing demographics, they know

43:52

that they cannot win honestly, so they

43:54

have to suppress the vote. When

43:56

it comes to our situation right now, Alex,

44:00

people are thinking, oh, voting is

44:02

going to start, or voting is in

44:04

November like we are

44:06

in the general election. People in North

44:08

Carolina are returning their

44:10

ballots. This is it

44:12

y'all. It is game

44:15

time. So the biggest

44:17

thing that people need to do is

44:19

keep up to date on what

44:21

is happening with voting laws,

44:23

election laws in your

44:26

state. Make sure you know

44:28

the deadline to request your mouth

44:30

and ballot, Know the deadline

44:32

for when you have to return that ballot. Know

44:36

what color inc. You have to complete

44:38

your ballot in because

44:41

it has to be a certain color inc. Or also

44:43

throw it out. Make sure you

44:45

sign in all the places. Know if

44:47

it's legal for you to help someone

44:49

else out with their ballot. Know if it's

44:52

legal for you to return someone else's ballot

44:54

to the clerk, if that is an option for

44:56

you. Everyone needs to

44:59

really educate themselves

45:01

on this process and

45:05

pay attention if you have a

45:07

secretary of state election

45:09

on your ballot, because it's your secretary

45:12

of state who creates these

45:14

laws. Going back to Stacy

45:16

Abrams, Brian Kimp the

45:18

governor of Georgia, and everyone can't

45:21

see man using quotation marks because that may

45:23

install the election. He was the

45:25

secretary of State when

45:27

he was running for governor. He was

45:29

the candidate and the referee.

45:32

He set the rules. He

45:34

was able to rig it so he could win. And a

45:37

report came out this week showing

45:39

that there were over two hundred thousand

45:41

people that they

45:43

illegally removed from the voting roles.

45:46

Stacy Abram's lost by

45:48

less than fifty thou votes she

45:51

would be governor. So everyone

45:53

just has to be extremely diligent

45:55

and also be diligent about

45:58

who your state legis stative

46:00

candidates are because we're

46:03

about to have redistricting, and

46:05

can you tell me a little bit more about that, um, what

46:07

is redistricting for for those of us who don't

46:10

know that, is when they

46:12

redraw the lines to figure

46:14

out what district you're in, how

46:17

many members the Congress you

46:19

get. We also know

46:21

we're in the middle of the census as

46:23

well. One of the things that they

46:25

love to do with redistricting

46:28

is something called jerrymandering, and

46:30

especially for people of color, they like to put us

46:32

all in the same district. That

46:35

is another form of voter suppression, them

46:39

taking away our ability

46:41

to have a fair representation. So

46:44

make sure you're looking at who your state representatives

46:47

are because in a lot of states,

46:50

they're going to be the ones who decide

46:52

these lines for the next

46:55

ten years. And please take

46:57

your census when you don't complete

46:59

your sense this you're leaving

47:01

money for your community on the table. That means

47:03

you're leaving money for you on

47:05

the table. That's roads, at

47:08

schools, all the things

47:10

that you use, that your family

47:12

uses. They're counting on us

47:15

not voting. Their counting on us not compleating

47:17

the census, like don't fall for

47:19

the Oki dock. We need to make

47:21

sure that we are on top of both

47:23

of these things. I'm so mesmerized.

47:26

I'm gonna call out Catherine because she told me I'm

47:28

mesmerized, and I was like, that's the word I was looking

47:31

for. Y'all

47:33

are sweet. This

47:35

conversation has been so really educational

47:38

for me and inspiring for me. I

47:41

want to close this out as we can take a quick break

47:43

by asking you the same question. I would love

47:45

to hear your hope for post

47:48

this election. What is it that you kind of hope

47:50

to see as a result. I

47:53

really want to see more

47:55

great women in elected office

47:57

up and down the ballot. I

48:00

am proud to say that I'm voting for

48:02

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

48:05

It was really great when

48:07

Vice President Biden said that he was going to put

48:09

a woman on the ticket as his vice

48:11

presidential candidate. I was excited

48:14

the minute he said that, and

48:16

I was excited when he chose Senator

48:19

Harris. And the

48:21

night that she accepted the VP nomination,

48:25

I did a Women for Biden event and

48:27

they asked me, how do I feel about

48:29

this moment? And

48:31

I let them know that at

48:33

the nineteen sixty for Democratic Convention,

48:36

Danny lou Hammer fought to be sat

48:39

as a delegate. This is what she

48:41

wanted. This is what she fought for.

48:44

This is what Shirley Chisholm fought for,

48:47

This is what Harriet Tubman fought for. This

48:49

was what they envisioned for women,

48:53

especially women of color. So

48:55

when she accepted that nomination,

48:58

she was standing on their shoulders. This

49:02

is the culmination of years

49:04

of the work of women, even

49:06

with emerge. I became the president

49:09

in February of this year. We're

49:11

celebrating our fifteen year anniversary.

49:14

I'm standing on the shoulders of women

49:16

who did this before me. So

49:18

there's just so much at stake,

49:20

and there's so many great candidates who

49:22

are on the ballot. So really

49:25

research people, and

49:28

what I tell people when they're thinking about

49:30

voting every year is think

49:33

about what you want your life to be

49:35

like in five years, what you

49:37

want your family's life to be like in

49:39

five years, what you want the world to be

49:42

like in five years. Find

49:44

the candidates that will make that happen,

49:48

and that's who you vote for. And

49:50

you know, Alex you said earlier, people are

49:52

like, well, there's just no candidate

49:54

that I like that agrees

49:57

with me. And my answer to that

49:59

is who The only person you're ever

50:01

gonna hunt your person agree with is you. So

50:04

that means you need to run for office. You

50:06

need to put your name on the ballot if

50:08

that's how you feel, and

50:10

then you get to be someone else's candidate

50:13

who's going to make their life better in five

50:15

years. So run for office. We

50:17

have to take a break only because we have to, literally

50:20

because we have to run an ad. We're gonna be right

50:22

back because I don't even want to. I'm not even gonna stop

50:24

this incredible momentum we got

50:26

going out. We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere, all

50:30

right, We're back. I told you we were not going to go anywhere

50:32

quick. This has been just the most inspiring.

50:36

So thank you both Tanya and Shaunky for for

50:39

being such incredible guests on this podcast. Thank

50:41

you. We're talking about voting in the

50:43

dumpster fire. Literally almost

50:45

every part of traditional campaigning processes

50:48

are different this year. You know, we're not knocking on

50:50

doors. We're in a pandemic. Politicians

50:52

can't have proper rallies or conventions

50:55

like they've had in history. Even polling places

50:57

are going to be looking at especially different.

51:00

You have mail in ballots, and like you mentioned, I would

51:02

love to take this time right now to reiterate

51:04

what Ashanti said at the end of hers learn

51:06

what mail in ballots mean for you in

51:09

your community, in your city, in your town,

51:11

in your state. The Postal Service

51:13

has recommended people allowing fourteen days

51:15

round trip for your ballot, So I

51:17

want to let you know if you're casting

51:20

your vote by mail, November three is not

51:22

your voting day. Your voting day in

51:24

essence from the Postal Services recommendation

51:27

would be October is the day

51:29

that you should mail in your votes so that it arrives

51:32

for the count. That being said, what

51:34

impact do you both feel that this

51:36

new kind of weird, different

51:39

version of an election. What do you think that

51:42

impact is going to have on it? I still

51:44

have hope now at

51:46

the beginning of March when the pandemic hit.

51:48

One of the things that we had to think about ad

51:50

Emerge is how do we support

51:53

our women during this time because

51:55

campaigning has been turned completely

51:58

upside down. Like you said,

52:00

Alex, you're not knocking doors, you're not

52:02

doing your fundraising. We

52:05

had to really support them, and

52:07

we created our Campaigning through Crisis

52:09

series where we went

52:11

through all the ways that you had to adjust

52:14

your campaign, especially because

52:16

every campaign has the wind number,

52:19

and that's the number of votes that

52:21

the campaign determines that they need

52:23

to win. And for

52:25

so many people, the win number changed,

52:28

especially if you had a

52:30

college campus in your district.

52:33

Those students have gone home and

52:35

there were a lot of campaigns that were planning

52:38

on them being back in the fall and they're

52:40

doing remote learning. So

52:43

I had to support one of our candidates with

52:45

figuring out her new win number

52:47

and getting her voters out.

52:51

And why I say I had a hope is with

52:53

Wisconsin, there was a lot of back and forth

52:56

about if they were going to have their election,

52:58

and we didn't know and to election

53:00

eve that they were still going

53:03

to have it. We have fifty

53:05

nine of our Emerge alums on the

53:07

ballot for that election, and

53:09

fifty one of them won their races

53:12

because people in Wisconsin still

53:15

turned out to vote in

53:17

person, risking their

53:20

lives to cast their right

53:22

to vote because they needed better

53:25

leadership. They knew that

53:27

that was absolutely essential. And

53:29

as we continue to look at the primaries,

53:32

you still had record turn out either

53:34

in person, are VML and ballot

53:37

in so many states, so

53:39

people are paying attention. And

53:42

I think one of the upside

53:44

to this is because

53:47

we are having town halls

53:50

online, because we're having fundraisers

53:52

online, because we're doing meet

53:55

and greets with the candidates online,

53:57

it has allowed more people to particip

54:00

a paint because these

54:02

are things that they can do now. Not everyone

54:05

can make it across town

54:07

at six pm for a fundraiser. Not

54:09

everyone works hours that allow

54:12

them to attend these fundraisers.

54:14

So it has made getting involved

54:17

with campaigns and getting to know your candidates

54:20

a lot easier. But still, I'm

54:22

going to say that's only for some

54:24

people, because internet is still

54:26

a luxury in this country,

54:28

and we know so many people don't have it, and we're

54:31

unfortunately seeing that with our children

54:34

who are sitting outside Starbucks

54:36

and Taco Bells to use free

54:38

WiFi with parents who

54:40

are writing papers on their phone

54:42

for their kids because there's not a computer

54:45

at home. It has also showed

54:47

us truly that haves and have nuts

54:49

that we knew existed but are

54:51

on full display. So I

54:53

have such hope. I'm

54:56

also an optimist that people

54:59

are really going to make sure

55:01

that they're out there, they're

55:03

doing their part too, at

55:05

least make sure we can get our country back

55:08

on track. I love your optimism to

55:11

do anything that you want. You want to add some of the impact

55:13

that this kind of new world

55:15

we live in is going to have on this election. Yeah,

55:18

it's going to be really interesting to see

55:21

turnout because I

55:24

actually don't know if we have a full sense of how

55:26

people are feeling, but we do know

55:28

what they're dealing with we're do. We do know

55:30

that we're dealing with record unemployment, and

55:32

we do know that so many people are suffering

55:35

and they want some sort of relief. And

55:37

so I think as a journalist when

55:39

we're taking we're having these discussions

55:42

on our show and lots of other programs

55:44

about the back and forth between Trump

55:46

and Congress over a stimulus

55:49

package, or the back and forth

55:51

with politicians about what is

55:53

true and what's not true. I'm

55:55

really wondering about what everyday Americans

55:58

are thinking about ultimately what they want

56:00

for their lives after this election,

56:02

because you know, we can talk way up

56:04

here, but the realities are. As Ashanti

56:07

said, there are so many people, their

56:09

kids who don't have access to the internet.

56:11

There are people who are working multiple jobs,

56:15

driving lifts and ubers to deliver

56:17

food for people, and

56:19

I just want to make certain that those people have all

56:21

the tools they need to go out to vote

56:23

for who they feel like will give them the future

56:26

that they deserve during what is

56:28

such a difficult time in

56:30

the midst of a pandemic. Is

56:32

there anything that you feel, Tanya, that you

56:35

wish people were talking about more right

56:37

now leading up to this election. Well,

56:40

you know, Alex, I think what you represent

56:42

is the majority of people and how they feel

56:44

about politics. How are they were raised. I

56:47

mean, in many ways, I was raised that way

56:49

too. We didn't talk about the issues, We didn't talk

56:51

about organizing or being a part

56:53

of the political process besides voting.

56:56

We were civically engaged. But I think ultimately

56:59

what I look forward to getting back to or

57:02

reimagining, because I think that so much

57:04

discontent that we see as well, so

57:06

much discontent and support for Trump, for

57:08

instance, comes from people

57:11

who never had faith in the political process

57:13

to begin with. And so how can

57:15

we reimagine the way

57:18

that we interface with people, politicians

57:20

interface with people the media that is

57:22

true to their experiences and

57:24

what they truly want. You know,

57:26

in addition to what Ashanti is saying about, like

57:28

if you don't see the candidate that you support,

57:31

you know that you that that aligns with you, then

57:34

run. The other part of that is

57:36

you can be involved. You know. I was in

57:38

South Carolina for the primaries

57:41

in February, right before we went into

57:43

lockdown for the pandemic. It

57:46

was so hardening to see so

57:48

many young people just assisting

57:51

the candidates, really getting the word out, and

57:53

their voice matters because they're talking to the candidates

57:55

about the issues that are important to them, and

57:58

they're informing those candidates

58:00

on what's important as they go out into

58:02

the world. And so those are also ways.

58:04

I mean, they're always wanting to hear from their

58:06

constituents, and I think

58:09

that's the one thing that I'm really excited to

58:11

see is the engagement of young people. They can do

58:13

it through so many different means. Now, as

58:15

a Shanty said, the one thing is that

58:17

we can be more connected because we're just connected

58:19

more digitally, so we're not like having

58:21

to drive to different places. It's

58:24

like the drum that we're always beating is

58:26

that our voices do matter

58:29

and really informing what the candidates

58:31

focus on and what they do for us. Yeah,

58:34

I mean, I can't remember where I saw the stat but like

58:36

it's been talked about a lot, that the young vote

58:39

is stronger now than than it's ever been

58:41

before, and and whether we we credit

58:43

that to social media and everybody having

58:45

an easier form of learning

58:48

for what's going on in the world and we're

58:50

all connected like you had mentioned, Um, I

58:52

think it's definitely something that we should continue highlighting.

58:55

Ashanti, Do you have anything that that you feel

58:58

people should be talking about more you wish people

59:00

were talking about more right now that we can highlight. I

59:03

think for this we have to remember that

59:06

the world wasn't always like this. We're

59:08

sitting here during this time because

59:12

people rose up and they may

59:14

change and change is

59:16

hard, change is uncomfortable,

59:19

change is difficult, and

59:21

not everyone likes it. We see

59:24

people fighting back now against

59:26

this change, but this

59:28

is what we have to do to

59:31

make things better, and we

59:33

have a choice right now. You

59:35

have to decide what side of

59:38

history do you want to be on, because

59:40

this moment we're living in right now,

59:43

it is history. It is going to be

59:45

in history books. So

59:47

when the future young people

59:49

in your family are asking you what

59:51

you did during this time, figure

59:55

out what do you want to say.

59:58

Did you put on your mask and

1:00:01

fight for black lives? Did

1:00:03

you go out in protests

1:00:06

against ice and having

1:00:09

kids in cages? Did

1:00:11

you make sure that you

1:00:14

watch the mailman pick up

1:00:17

the mail and the little box that

1:00:19

you put your ballot in because you wanted to

1:00:21

make sure that your vote was heard.

1:00:24

You got to decide right now

1:00:27

what part of history are you going to be on?

1:00:30

And then take action. Absolutely,

1:00:32

I wanted to step in to say I

1:00:34

think about this all the time, and I

1:00:37

think about this even when I'm talking with the people in

1:00:39

my life, like what side of history do you want to be

1:00:41

on in this moment? And to your point, Ashanti,

1:00:43

about change is hard and

1:00:45

difficult and painful. I think that we

1:00:48

looked at the civil rights movement of the sixties.

1:00:50

It was neatly presented to us and

1:00:52

our history classes because you

1:00:54

know, that's the way it's synthesized

1:00:57

and history books. But it

1:00:59

was painful and chaotic and was not

1:01:02

clear, and folks did not know what the

1:01:04

outcomes were going to be. They did not

1:01:06

know. Think about all of our leaders

1:01:08

were being assassinated during that time.

1:01:11

There were people fighting for the right to vote,

1:01:13

there were people fighting for desegregation,

1:01:16

all of those things, and there was no clear path

1:01:18

that that was actually going to be a reality. And

1:01:20

so we can look back and see that, oh, yeah, those

1:01:22

changes did happen. You know what, I

1:01:24

always call myself a realist Ashanti, but

1:01:27

I think I am an optimist in

1:01:29

this, in this regard that

1:01:31

I do feel like perhaps there is

1:01:33

hope on the other side that we are thinking

1:01:35

about it in terms of change is hard

1:01:37

and chaotic and painful, and if we

1:01:39

keep working hard on the other side of it, we

1:01:42

will see it. I

1:01:44

mean, you said it right there where it's I think

1:01:46

you have to have some optimism to endure

1:01:48

that change. The hardships and the weird

1:01:50

feelings and the uncomfortable conversations,

1:01:53

and you have to be optimistic that through

1:01:55

those things you will see

1:01:57

something better. And even if it doesn't, you know, knock

1:02:00

on what I don't even like saying it. If it doesn't go our

1:02:02

way, we can still look back and say

1:02:04

I I still am proud that I fought,

1:02:06

and I stood up for my brothers and my sisters,

1:02:08

my gender nonconforming family members,

1:02:11

and and really hunkered

1:02:13

down and stood, you know, stuck my feet

1:02:15

in the mud and stood for what I believed. I

1:02:18

want to close with this, and you've both kind of mentioned

1:02:20

it in the sense of and you've both shown

1:02:22

it through your example of

1:02:24

of getting involved in politics and and

1:02:26

and discussing it, whether you're a member of the media,

1:02:28

whether you are the president

1:02:31

of a company that inspires women to run

1:02:33

for office. I've definitely had

1:02:35

that moment where people say things

1:02:37

like, well, if you want a perfect candidate, why don't you

1:02:39

go and run for it? And I think some of

1:02:41

us start thinking to ourselves like maybe

1:02:44

I could, or maybe Alex, Look,

1:02:47

you already a star. You're only two. What you're only

1:02:49

twenty four. I mean, where are you going

1:02:51

to be at forty? You just might be the president

1:02:53

of the United States.

1:02:56

Questions not my point. My point is

1:02:58

more, I would love your ice

1:03:00

for anybody, any listener who's

1:03:03

starting to get that inkling, or maybe they grew

1:03:05

up like all three of us, as I'm starting to find out,

1:03:07

and and politics wasn't something that was

1:03:09

necessarily ingrained in their in

1:03:11

their fibers. What's

1:03:13

your advice from both of you to

1:03:16

that listener who wants to get a little bit more involved,

1:03:18

whether it's on the running

1:03:21

for office side, or just whether it is

1:03:23

being a very vocal person, being

1:03:25

a strong voice in your community for politics.

1:03:28

For me, we have to remember everyone

1:03:31

starts somewhere. Nancy

1:03:34

Pelosi did not wake up Nancy Pelosi.

1:03:37

Kamala Harrison not wake up Kamala

1:03:39

Harris. The co founders of Emerge

1:03:42

are friends with her, and they helped her with

1:03:44

her first d A race, and they talked about

1:03:46

how they had to help her write her bio, how

1:03:49

they bought her a Palm pilot to put in

1:03:51

her contexts. We

1:03:53

all start from somewhere, and you don't

1:03:55

have to have it all figured out, and you do

1:03:58

not have to be perfect

1:04:01

because we see all of our

1:04:03

elected officials and oh they

1:04:05

got it all together. No

1:04:08

people talk about a reflective democracy.

1:04:11

I want an inclusive democracy.

1:04:13

That means that I just don't

1:04:16

want the people that look like America.

1:04:19

I want the people who have experience

1:04:21

homelessness. I want the people

1:04:23

who have college debt.

1:04:27

I want the people who know what

1:04:29

it's like to experience

1:04:32

bankruptcy because they lost their home

1:04:35

during the crisis. Those are

1:04:37

the best people to represent

1:04:39

us because they have those real, lived

1:04:42

experiences. We need those voices

1:04:45

at that table, and that is

1:04:47

all of us. Yesterday we

1:04:49

did one of our Emerged Leaders Matters

1:04:52

or Tool salons with Congresswoman Deb

1:04:54

Holland and Congresswoman Sherise David's,

1:04:57

both of them elected to Congress in tween

1:05:00

and the first Indigenous women elected

1:05:03

to Congress. Think about that,

1:05:07

and when we talked about running for office,

1:05:10

Charis said something and

1:05:12

it's like it blew my mind. She's

1:05:15

like, for us people of color, for

1:05:17

us black, brown and Indigenous people

1:05:19

who live in this America,

1:05:22

we're going to experience things that are a

1:05:24

lot harder than running for office. Running

1:05:27

for office is actually one of the easiest

1:05:30

things that you can do as

1:05:32

a person of color in this country because you've

1:05:34

experienced so much

1:05:36

worse things that are so much

1:05:38

harder that they prepare

1:05:41

you to run for office and to be that person.

1:05:44

So I think that that is my advice.

1:05:47

We all start somewhere

1:05:51

and know that you can be that person. Do you

1:05:53

ever think that I'm a co founder

1:05:55

of Emerson about in two thousand and six.

1:05:58

When I got that email, I was not like,

1:06:01

oh, I'm gonna run that organization one

1:06:03

day. That

1:06:05

that never crossed my mind at

1:06:08

all. But

1:06:11

we all start somewhere and you will

1:06:13

end up where you are supposed

1:06:16

to be. So keep that in mind.

1:06:18

That's so good Ashanti, you know.

1:06:20

And to just add to that, as

1:06:23

crazy or twisted as it sounds, I

1:06:26

think that Trump being our president in this moment

1:06:29

speaks to people really

1:06:31

having a yearning for the anti

1:06:33

politician. So they

1:06:36

want real people who have experienced

1:06:38

real things, and many people believe that

1:06:40

the Trump and somehow, somehow

1:06:42

represents that even though he doesn't come

1:06:44

he comes from extreme privilege, but he

1:06:47

is the anti politician, and that he

1:06:49

had no experience before he set

1:06:51

foot into this arena. But that speaks

1:06:54

to the opportunity I think for people

1:06:56

who are interested or may have an inkling

1:06:58

that you know what, gone

1:07:00

are the days when you have to have a spotless

1:07:02

record. Remember when we were talking about Clinton

1:07:04

back in the nineties, did he smoke a

1:07:07

joint when he was in college. Like

1:07:09

that is no longer. I mean,

1:07:11

come on, let's talk about like people who

1:07:13

have really lived in They're not just

1:07:15

career politicians, but they've lived life.

1:07:18

And to Kamala Harris, wonderful example.

1:07:20

I mean, her passion in the beginning was law, and

1:07:23

she was a lawyer and she moved through

1:07:25

into being a politician. And so

1:07:28

there's so many different entry ways and points

1:07:30

to it. But maybe we can look at this

1:07:32

as a point where we are re examining

1:07:35

what politicians look like and what they

1:07:37

are and what we expect of them. Wow,

1:07:40

I mean I think about it. Like, just to add

1:07:42

to that is like I think about musicians when

1:07:44

people ask even me, when they go, hey, how do you

1:07:46

get into music? Or like I want to get

1:07:48

into music, but I don't have this, that and the other,

1:07:50

And it's that exactly the exact same advice

1:07:52

that you both have given is the exact same advice.

1:07:54

The same thing is when they asked somebody how to get into

1:07:57

journalism, right, or I want to get a journalism

1:07:59

but I didn't come from a journalism family, or

1:08:01

I didn't come from a family that did this. You

1:08:03

know, I didn't come from a family

1:08:06

musicians. I'm pretty sure you didn't come

1:08:08

from a family that was you know, I don't think

1:08:10

your parents last name is NPR right.

1:08:13

My mom's still like, what is that? Okay,

1:08:16

I'll try to find it. To listen to you. I

1:08:19

want to reiterate just that

1:08:21

that thought that is, it doesn't matter

1:08:23

where you come from, it doesn't matter if you were raised

1:08:26

in politics. I want to implore

1:08:29

anybody who's out there listening, who has any

1:08:31

inkling, even if it's inkling, that's against

1:08:33

what your friends think, what your family thinks, what your

1:08:35

peers think, what the people in your city or your state

1:08:38

think, follow your heart

1:08:40

and uh and that's something I really want to highlight

1:08:42

for for this whole election is vote with your

1:08:44

heart. You know, identify

1:08:47

what speaks to you, what speaks to your community,

1:08:49

and and and chase after it and don't be

1:08:51

afraid of that. Tanya Ashanti,

1:08:53

thank you so much. I really feel I

1:08:56

love that you both came on here, and I'm so grateful that

1:08:58

you both came on here. We have this moment and and

1:09:00

it's kind of like our whole our whole podcast

1:09:02

right now is kind of changing in its tone. Usually I call

1:09:04

it not so shameless promo. UM,

1:09:07

but I just want to I want both of you to just

1:09:10

tell us where we can find more, because

1:09:12

I wish this podcast wasn't just an

1:09:14

hour long podcast. I wish I could talk to you both for

1:09:16

for the whole day and and I have so many questions

1:09:19

and so many thoughts, and so for anybody else who ask

1:09:21

questions and thoughts, where can we find Utahania,

1:09:24

Well, you can find me Monday through Friday

1:09:27

at noon on NPRS Midday

1:09:29

Show here and now I also have a podcast,

1:09:31

Truth Be Told and Truth Be Told.

1:09:34

I am the twenty years older version

1:09:36

of Alex, black woman version of Alex,

1:09:39

all about all

1:09:41

about having these kinds of conversations,

1:09:43

which I want to thank you. I do feel like you're such

1:09:45

a national treasure. You're a star, but you're

1:09:48

also a national treasure

1:09:50

in that you have this platform and all

1:09:52

of the things that you do is a way to

1:09:54

amplify other thoughts and ideas

1:09:56

and then use yourself in such a

1:09:59

personal and vulnerable way

1:10:01

to showcase what so many people are

1:10:04

all feeling and wondering. So I thank

1:10:06

you for that. But you can find me in those two places,

1:10:08

and of course, all the social media platforms

1:10:11

you can find me and I'd love to connect with everyone.

1:10:13

I love that, Ashanti, your turn, Now you gotta

1:10:16

you gotta have a learning curve. Now Todd, you crushed

1:10:18

it, so you can just follow that same that

1:10:20

same format. Well,

1:10:22

I first have to say thank you Alex

1:10:25

for using your platform in this way, because

1:10:27

there still are so many people who

1:10:30

won't touch politics. They don't want to

1:10:32

be controversial. So what

1:10:34

you are doing is amazing

1:10:37

and you get to say you're on the right

1:10:39

side of history when people ask

1:10:41

you. So thank you for that and

1:10:43

for me personally, I'm Ashanti

1:10:46

Golar on Twitter, Facebook,

1:10:48

and Instagram Emerge

1:10:50

America. Our website is emerge

1:10:53

America dot org. If

1:10:55

you're a Democratic woman who's interested

1:10:57

in running, we have some trainings coming up,

1:10:59

so sign up for our list and you

1:11:01

can find us on Twitter, Facebook,

1:11:04

and Instagram at emerge America. For

1:11:06

the Brown Girls Guide to Politics, we

1:11:09

are at the b G Guide dot com

1:11:11

and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

1:11:14

at the b G Guide. And

1:11:16

we are currently doing a special

1:11:19

series on the Brown Girls Guide to Politics

1:11:21

podcast called Freedom Summer, where

1:11:24

we are talking about what we

1:11:26

are experiencing with what

1:11:28

I say, is our racial injustice pandemic.

1:11:30

We have two pandemics going on in this

1:11:32

country, a health pandemic and a racial injustice

1:11:35

pandemic, and we're talking to black

1:11:38

women leaders at the forefront about

1:11:41

where do we go from here? Anya

1:11:43

Mosley is Shanty Golar. Thank you both so much

1:11:46

for coming on my podcast. You know you can

1:11:48

find me at alex ion no ai o n

1:11:50

oh. It's the best part about having a weird last

1:11:52

name. Please take some time to rate

1:11:54

our podcast, subscribe to our podcast. That is

1:11:56

how we grow. Please leave a review. That's

1:11:58

how we grow. And I also slot to know what to think

1:12:00

about this podcast. But thank you so much

1:12:02

for listening. We'll see you guys next time. It's politics.

1:12:05

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1:12:13

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1:12:44

if that's a doozy