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In this week's Friday Feature, we are thrilled to introduce you to Abi Green, host of Sex, Politics & Bacon! Abi (she/her) is the funniest girl she's ever met. Eternal camp counselor, enthusiastic Mom, world-conquerer, lawyer, thrifting fanatic, progressive political know it all, Culinary MacGuyver and proud feminist with disabilities. In this session we connect about all things that relate to (predictably) Sex, Politics and BACON -- all with the goal of making the world a better place in both big ways and small. We talk about the ways every day people can get involved to push for positive change and create a better future for all. This was a really fun conversation that we think our community will really enjoy. Follow & Connect With Abi Green: https://linktr.ee/thriftygreen https://instagram.com/thriftygreen2020 https://facebook.com/abigreen https://www.linkedin.com/in/abi-green-0135ab22/ Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, & share! https://caremorebebetter.com And join the Care More Be Better Community! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/caremorebebetter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CareMore.BeBetter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CareMoreBeBetter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-more-be-better Twitter: https://twitter.com/caremorebebetter Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/care-more-be-better Support Care More. Be Better: A Social Impact + Sustainability Podcast

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Vote, Engage & Act with Abi Green, host of Sex, Politics & Bacon

Hello, fellow do-gooders and friends. I'm your host Corinna Bellizzi, an activist. Who's passionate about social impact and building a better, more sustainable future. Every week. I invite you to care a little bit more so that together. We can all be a little better and create that better world.

So today I am thrilled to be joined by a friend in podcasting. Who's also itching to make the world a better place. Abby green Abby is the funniest girl she's ever met. The eternal camp counselor and enthusiastic mom world conquer. Thrifting fanatic, progressive political. No, at all culinary MacGyver and proud feminists with disabilities.

She also has a podcast of her own called sex politics and bacon. Abby, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. We're finally, we've tried to run this for some time. I think you were sidelined for a bit because your husband was busy with the Olympics.

Yes. Yes. So he does news radio for, for young'uns out there. What podcasting used to do

Traditional broadcasting

Broadcasting, and yeah, so he got some extra shifts, which is wonderful. But with the time difference with the fact that the Olympics is practical 24 hours a day, I mean, No time for anything else, but that's over now. Yeah.

So I'd just love for you to tell us a little bit about your podcast, sex, politics, and bacon. What birthed this baby? What are you doing with this?

Sure. I'd love to talk about it. So if anyone's looking for it, you want to look on apple podcasts, all those places for sex, comma, politics, and bacon, that's the best way to find it. You just there's a lot of sex out there. You got to add the comment and the idea really came out of.

What are my three favorite things to discuss number one, sex, not just sure. The act and all of that, but. How about talking about the wage gap or about trans rights or other things of that nature, you know, when it really comes down to it, when you talk about Supreme court, when you talk about a whole bunch of things, it actually has everything to do with your sex or with the lack of knowledge of your sex.

And, you know, ultimately how did I become a mother, you know, no secrets there, right? That is what makes babies. When it comes to politics, you know, it's, if I had my non-branded mind on, I would probably say something more like social justice, if we really want to make the world a better place, we're going to have to learn about what's going on in politics.

And I really want to make topics that a lot of people say are politics gross, accessible to everyone. And especially women and mothers or parents, I should say. We have every reason to want to lean in and learn about what's going on. And I believe if we do it the right way. We won't be fighting with each other about silly things and making politics, such an icky place.

And then finally bacon. It is very much my favorite food. It always has been since before it was cool. It actually was the title of my first email from my husband to me on match.com. And since it's actually my child's middle name, so bacon is number one, talking about my favorite food cooking in general, all that good stuff.

But also parenting. And my, my obsession was my son.

Well, I love that. And I would just love to learn a little bit more about this obsession with bacon. So where did that.

Well, I've just always loved the food. I'll say that. And it is a very useful, believe it or not. I had a whatever adoptive grandma kind of thing, but a woman, I thought it was my grandmother.

If you ever got something hurt or you got a splinter, when you were a kid, she would put bacon on it. She put bacon on it and then wrap it around because the salt would pull out the foreign object or the glass or whatever was in there. So it was kind of always around. I think it's also a good example of something that.

A lot of people just love there's something about it. That's just fun. And like, you're, that's really good. And then beyond that, I've just seen it become this like cult following, you know, when, when I did have my child and named him bacon, I mean, Bacon gum bacon diapers. You can only imagine how many things are out there.

But when I first decided that I was done being single and I wanted to try to find someone to spend my life with, I wrote up what I thought was a very funny post for EA harmony or match.com. I forget which one I was using at that time. And my platonic male roommate said to me, it's all about bacon. Like.

You can't do that. You just sound like a big fat fatty literally is what he said. And I said, but it's funny. Cause it was like, I like to go out and eat bacon and then sometimes we'll come home. Don't worry. We have bacon at home. You know, it was, I thought it was funny. And he said, I just, I think you're gonna, you know, maybe people are gonna miss the point and the humor of it.

So I said, okay, you know, you're a single man, I guess I'll listen to you. So I went through and took all the, the bacon mentions out of my program. Put it back up. And six days later, I got an email from a very nice man and the subject line was bacon. And I said, oh no, I didn't take it all out. Oh my gosh.

And I went back and looked and there was bacon, not mentioned anywhere in my profile. And I wrote to this man and said, why did you say bacon? And he said, because it's the greatest food ever. Why wouldn't you put bacon as a subject of an email?

So that was, we've been together 12 years. So he has a shirt. He wears, it says you had me at Bacon. Because just the idea that I was like, see this as who I was supposed to find, he w he, I showed him the old profile. He didn't think there was hysterical. So ultimately I did attract who I, who I needed.

Right. Well, that's awesome. So let's talk for a moment about your mission to make the world a better place in small and large ways.

And in particular, as somebody who lives with a disability and is working with. Like really make sure that we have a more accessible life as well. So I'd love for you to talk about what it is that you're doing and how you're getting this message out into the world, aside from also podcasting.

Yes. Well, for starters another, you know, when it said political, no, at all, I've been doing political campaigns almost since birth, but really since I was about 16 years old, back in 2001, I was in a car accident that several surgeries later led to a fused.

I gained weight when I was pregnant. Anyway, a lot of pain that has just gotten worse over the last 20 years. I'm 41 now. So it's been about, about half my life and a lot of the organizing, the political strategy, the stuff I really love and what I believe is my calling wasn't really accessible to me because it means getting on.

And no matter what every disabled person knows this, when you go on an airplane, you're going to walk a couple miles. Like there's just no way to avoid it. And yes, there are wheelchairs and there's, there's all other things, but there's also just understanding your limitations. And it was the first time I really decided to go and.

The disability parking, like I had always sort of said, yeah, I'm disabled, but like not that bad, you know, I don't really need that stuff, you know, while working for disabled people, organization and advocating for them before Congress. But I, I still couldn't quite do it for myself and put it out there. So I sort of resigned myself to that.

I've got to find another way to sort of work, but then COVID happened and almost every job now has become virtual. And so. What has been really eye-opening and interesting to me at this moment when it comes to accessibility is so many things, jobs, previous bosses, who said, no, this can't be virtual. No, no, no.

You've got to fly out here. Now you've got to carry that super heavy computer all the way to Slovakia. You know, that's very important actually. It can be done virtually a lot should be done virtually. So what I'm doing at the moment as, as I reenter the campaign season for 2022, I'm really trying to make sure that it all points as they're hiring, as they're thinking about jobs, as they're thinking about where to put people in leadership roles and how to roll out events.

So many different decisions that need to be made, do it with not just the able-bodied people in mind.

Err on the side of making it too accessible because there's no, there's no problem with that. And I also think when populations have felt otherized or disenfranchised or oppressed or whatever, you know, it felt yucky, you know, to say that, to get them back again, you need to offer an invitation. It's not as simple as.

Look, we throw it up on a website, but really engaging with those communities and asking, what do they want to talk about? How, how do they look at life differently and not just make it lip service? So I'm really trying to try and do that.

You speak to a couple of reasons that I've taken the time to do things like.

Transcribe all of my episodes. And when it comes to putting my podcasts up on my website and ensuring that I do tagging for each photo so that somebody who is sight impaired can still understand all of the things that I've worked to put out there. And even just thinking about. Our digital world in that way and working to make everything as accessible as possible across different abilities, I think is important.

Because again, we're, we're working hard to get our messages out there through this platform of podcasting. I know that you and I met on social audio on clubhouse where clubhouse specifically has developed strategies and even just. The standard operating procedures of being on a clubhouse to announce who you are when you speak.

And then just say who you were as you're exiting the stage, all of these things to try and make the platform more accessible to a broader array of people, if they're sight impaired or if they're hearing impaired. And those things are just really, I think, good for us to keep in mind as we develop new technological solutions to reach more people.

And also as we consider. Who we employ, how we imply and the accommodations we make for communities around the globe. I mean, I worked for years and years in an office that was unwilling to let a lot of work over virtual. And since then, of course, they've had to make a lot of changes to let people work in a remote way.

The reality is technology has offered us all sorts of solutions to do that, and we just need to embrace them.

I totally agree. And I think. You can't do everything. So I know it can be overwhelming, right? No, it's like, oh, I'm supposed to do that. And like, I don't have a ramp at my house. I mean, there's so many things, but if you just think in the most simple way of connecting with people, asking them, yeah.

Is this, is this accessible to you? Does that make sense? Is this going to work and really listening to the answer? You know, when people really are used to just not being thought of specifically. And so I just, just discussing it. And I even say to people, you know, in, in a lot of context, there's a lot of things on, on social media, you know, that are for women.

And that's great. But whenever I go in those rooms, I say, is this just for women, are trans women welcome? Are non-binary people welcome? And the answer, it doesn't have to be yes or no. Right? It can be whatever the answer is. But if the answer is, that's not really where this is, make sure you have a place that is available to them.

So saying to someone now, you know, some things we just can't work with accessibility, but here's another organization or. Meeting or we'll tack something on just having that thought, putting that parking lot out there, having it, it not only just quite logistically helps more, but the feeling that it gives even to able-bodied people of, right.

We're all human. We need to come at this from a place of trying to work together. Not let me it. What you're doing wrong or what you're unable to do

Or how you're different. Right. And just saying, oh, well this is other and, and not addressing it. So, yeah, I completely agree. I know that you do a lot specifically in the world of politics.

I mean, sex bacon and politics. So let's talk for a moment about. What you're presently working on the initiatives that you're hoping to get into the world, whether even it's just, you know, get out the vote, like, what is it that you're working to do?

Presently the short answer. If this audience only gets one answer, it's a vote vote.

Make sure you vote and voted and then get more people to vote. So since I was a wee little feminist, I have been very interested in politics growing up in New Hampshire, you are one of the first primary states or the first primary state and a ton of effort and energy and focus is put on these tiny little towns, otherwise seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

So basically since I can remember every two and four years, I kind of dive back into campaigns. They're really. Jobs that last in between you kind of just jump in, do a ton of work, get somebody elected or don't and then, you know, you leave. And my main job has always been just getting out the vote. It is as simple as that, I organize people to organize people, to organize people, to go vote.

Obviously the job has changed dramatically due to technological advances changes in protocols. COVID you can only imagine while it sounds simple. It doesn't mean it's easy. Yes go vote. But also, and especially, you can imagine if anyone's paying attention in 2022. Right now, there are a lot of restrictive laws around people.

Um, being able to register, to vote, being able to use mail-in ballots or other things, obviously going back to our accessibility conversation. Right at this moment, I'm in the process of applying to jobs on campaigns. So it's very much like summer camp. Like you come back and you're like, okay, where are you been for two years?

What you've been up to? What do you, what do you have now to offer us? And where are we going to put you? So I've done everything from local, all the way up to presidential and at the current moment, Uh, being a lawyer and having focused a lot on election law, social justice, law, re lawn society, all those kinds of things in law school, I'm really hoping to do voter protection.

It's going to be essential this year, even if everyone's. Smartened up and does everything right. It's still going to be a very difficult season purely because of just how much organizing is needed. So that's what I'm in. I am a Democrat and very proud, but what I love about just getting people to vote is it's nonpartisan, right?

There are many people that are being disenfranchised. There are many there's many challenging populations out there. A lot of things we could talk about for days, but still there are still a ton of people that just. So I'm just going to go find them.

Let's let's talk about why people don't vote. I mean, I think you've probably heard many, many reasons.

Some of the primary reasons I've heard is that my vote doesn't count where I live. Like either they live in. State that always goes blue or an estate that always goes red. And so they choose not to vote because their vote doesn't feel like it matters given their political leaning. Another reason I've heard is that there's just.

They just don't have faith in the political system anymore. They feel like their vote doesn't really matter in the face of everything else that's going on. And so what do you say to these people to help them engage or re-engage with politics after potentially having steps?

It's an excellent question. And a lot of what I'm trying to do with my podcast in season two, because I've brought in someone very similar to your example, her name is Carrie Louis Caillou, and she is a salty new England, broad from Massachusetts, and does not want to talk about politics. And I like to point out to her, doesn't have to, because it's a very social justice, very blue state, but same thing.

Why does my vote matter all of that? Well, for starters, if you just want to talk about. You know, I think what you were inferring probably was the presidential race or congressionals. Yes. A lot of voting at that level has to do with party and some elections feel predetermined. Sure. I'll give you that. But until recently, and I'm just going to go back to like before 2016, because that kind of changed everything more than half of the elected offices in America were unopposed.

So sure we can talk about who's voting for president and whether those votes matter, but what about your school board? What about your county commissioner? What about all these other things that are so integral and actually in many ways, have a, more of a chance to change your life for the better than a presidential person ever could, because they're so close to your, your needs, your community.

Quite literally, they're representing fewer people. So you are a bigger deal. And the second thing I would say about that is that it was impossible to elect a black man until we did. New Hampshire was never, when I started, it was because my friend grabbed me in math class and said, Hey, can you go to my mom's rally?

She's running for governor of the state of New Hampshire. And I literally said, women can't be governor of New Hampshire because no woman had ever had. Well, she did when governor, and now she's one of the longest sitting senators ever. And until recently, Both senators, the members of Congress and the governor were all female.

I mean, it doesn't happen until it does. And I don't want people to feel guilty if they haven't so far or overwhelmed or intimidated. The whole point of democracy is you can do whatever you want, but don't think that it's the nightly news or even the political parties who decide whether your vote matters.

It absolutely matters locally. And especially if you're turned off, a lot of people just turned off by the partisanship, you know, blame that person. Now you blame them, blame them locally. It really doesn't come to that. It is far less about partisanship when you're talking about your area. Right. And one of the Republican strategists from several decades ago said I would rather have 40 school board members seats in this country than the presidential seat for our party, because they can do more because if you control what's in school, You control the message.

You control what people are learning. So find a way to engage. And you will find that the majority of the large, vast majority of leaders and people that take government roles are not crooks. They're good people. They're underpaid, they're underappreciated. And they're just trying to do a good job. Right?

I think it's easy to assume when we see a political system that is so well it's, it's a little bit.

I don't, I don't even know how to put it. It's like, we're, we're watching many battles all the time. That's how it is positioned to feel. It's like Mitch McConnell against this person or that person. Um, and so we see the, the theater of politics. That's what mostly we see. And so. It's easy to start to make assumptions about how politics is on every level.

But to your point, if you go to your local city hall meetings, you'll see a completely different scope of the political system. And, you know, I heard something so. I in a number of different ways over the years, but basically just this frustration with the fact that we have this two party system and a desire to get to a space where we could have room for more than that, to where we could have people who are independent or libertarian or green party, or, you know, whatever that political party was called, you know, actually enter more of the central main stage.

And the comment that was kind of thrown back in response to that. Uh, political science professor, friend of mine was that you have to lay the groundwork at the local level. First, you have to gain momentum. You then are, have seats in the house of representatives and then climb up to the Senate. And, and, and to the point where now this third party is more of an equal party.

Um, I don't think that that's necessarily a hundred percent of the solution I'm going to be bringing on. In the near future, who's talking specifically about a different type of voting system as a whole. So that is not simply, you know, you have every two people that you're voting for, or that it goes more the way it would, if you were trying to vote in a new sheriff or, um, somebody working as a judge or something to that effect where the person with the majority of.

Essentially gets in that slot as opposed to something different. So I wonder if you have comments or thoughts specific to our present voting system and changes that you'd like to see.

Oh boy, you don't have enough time, enough time in your life to hear all that I have to say, but yes, this is something I've been very interested in for a very long time.

I went to Northeastern university and Northeastern law school. And at university halfway through, you have to do this big research paper. And I did mine on the 2000 election. If you recall, that was a big lawsuit that ended up before the Supreme court. And I thought of, you know, five different scenarios of if we counted votes this way, if we did it this way, if we did it that way, I've learned a lot since then.

So I'm not even gonna say what my conclusion was then. Cause I don't agree with it anymore. Just start with the party idea. Our country was set up to have two parties. The benefits to two parties is it's pretty simple. It's pretty straightforward. This one or that one, and it moves relatively quickly. It's a little bit easier to get consensus.

If you look at a country like Germany, post-World war II. Really wanted to embrace multiple parties and think about more specific issues. And so they really set up their system to have at least three, if not more dogs in the fight, if you will, you know, real, real people in there. I don't know that that's realistic in America anytime soon in I'll say this because.

Right now, let's just pretend everybody falls on, you know, Democrat or Republican side. When you look at the quote unquote 50 50 Senate. So we have 50 senators that are Republican 50 that are Democrat, and one tiebreaker. That is the vice-president and she is a Democrat. So therefore wouldn't be, although those are equal number of representatives, the Democrats represent 30 million more people than the Republicans.

So. I would almost argue that the multiple parties are more specific parties, you know? So there, yes, there could be a green party or something like that. It's almost like most people are already over in that democratic space. And I hear from independence all the time. I'm not a Democrat. That's great. If it's a party system, you have to pick one and.

I think it's more likely that something like a progressive caucus or something, just a little more fringe within the general democratic party would be far more realistic than three, even close to equal equal parties. Precisely for that reason, it takes like a hundred years to build it up. And that's just not how our system was created and feeling like it's so messy and we're doing this all weird.

I agree with everything in America is very far from perfect. We're really trying we're really, really are. And we've been able to do it in a way that I don't think any other country really has. And I always love the quote. Democracy is the worst idea, except for all the others.

The worst idea, except for all the others. The person I'm going to be interviewing in a few weeks time as Erin Hamlin. He's the executive director of the center for election science and they're pushing for this idea of approval vote. So I'll be digging into that a little bit deeper, but, um, I really, really appreciate the perspective because I think it's just, yeah, it's a frustrating system.

You might have an idea that's different than the mainstream and really, really wanting to get engaged with having your green party candidate or having your independent candidate or having your libertarian candidate. Be able to run the race and end up at, you know, that pinnacle of success. But to that point, I mean, how long have women been in politics?

We still haven't had a woman president. Right? So like, let's be real. These things, they don't happen overnight, especially when you have a two party system. I think, you know, you'll remember the 2016 election. The thing that surprised me at that time, That Trump won as much as the fact that so many people were throwing the excuse out that, oh, well, I don't want somebody who basically has a uterus in control of the nuclear arsenal, because she's going to have a mood swing and we're going to lose, you know, how the, the Pacific rim or something.

Again, it's all about sex. You know, not having a penis, you clearly can't do the job.

So, so I mean now, I mean, we're at a different space. We have a vice president. Who's a woman for the first time. Like her or not. I think that's progress. I think that's a good thing. It doesn't, I mean, I don't care what your politics are.

You see a woman and that second. To highest office in the United States. And it opens up a world of possibility for young girls out there. They might even consider now entering a world of politics or looking up to. Person of color, a woman who's, you know, she's not 60 or 70 she's, you know, she looks closer to me in so many ways.

It makes it feel more attainable. Like if I dreamed of being in the white house, which mind you, I never dream of being in the white house. Then that would feel really good to me. So I just wonder what your thoughts are about where we are right now, given that we still have a dramatic minority of representation of women in politics.

Where do you see us heading in the next five years? Let's keep it on the horizon.

Well, just to bring up something that's coming up soon. I'm not sure how soon this airs, but you know, the state of the union is coming up on Tuesday and it's also really the start of the midterm election because. Although voting has already started in Texas.

That's when the polls close and precisely what you said. I think that when you've been in politics for the long haul for longer periods of time, you, you don't as much say why can't we just do this, but you do have to celebrate every seemingly. Small win or, or do just things moving in the right direction.

And I think what I've learned being married to a journalist is definitely what an integral role journalists play in politics. They have to, because they have resources, know how freedom in a way that no politicians can. So. So, not only is it about who's talking, but who's analyzing and discussing and reporting on that talking.

And so when I'm having an event, if this goes in, you're welcome to come 8:00 PM on Tuesday, we're going to do a watch party. I and my friend. Are like, it's like the Grammys or the Oscars. And we play bingo, like, oh, they mentioned immigrants, you know, I've got the bingo card and we drink wine and it's fun.

But on top of which, exactly what you said, we are going to look at a white man talking the state of the union, which we've seen, you know, a couple times before. Sitting right behind him is a grandmother. And I even have her Christmas card. The woman has like 9,000 grandkids, Nancy Pelosi. She's the first female speaker of the house.

Again, like you said, like, or not like her, and she's still the first one to do it. She's doing something right to get to that position because many women have tried seeing with Kamala Harris, a woman of color, I think, especially Indian populations, you know, that has never been something that has been represented in the United States.

And being a woman and a, as she calls herself a Mala. So we've got a mom and a grandma and a mom, Lola, and then I really, really love the coverage for instance, on MSNBC right now. So then after that, I'm going to hear from a gay Jewish woman, Rachel Maddow, joy Reed, who came up through the Freddie gray Baltimore ride.

And Nicole Wallace who worked for w Bush in the white house as the communications director, but is no longer considered herself Republican. And most of these people are moms. Like the idea that I at this moment can sit down here or the presidents say, and then listen to super smart people on TV who are mothers.

They're not going to sugarcoat or say like, that sounds like a great, they actually know how the rubber hits the road. How is this going to affect me and my kids and my family, and to be in that space when, especially. Women are the majority of the population in the world. And if you throw kids into that group too, we truly are the, the largest population.

Those are the opinions I want to hear. That's something to celebrate. That's something to say, look at this. We, we do, we don't have to listen to Walter Cronkite forever. Yeah. He had lots of great ideas. Sure. But he still was a man. And so I think that one of the things you talked about earlier about people that don't vote is because they've lost the hope and it's one of those things.

If you completely disengaged from something you're not going to see. The incremental changes. You're not going to, I don't think most people notice that we had never had a female governor when they were 16. I did it bothered me. I thought that your mom used to be a teacher. Teachers can be a governor. And then what do you know?

She went on to be Senator. Most people don't notice that or see it, or like I said before, invited to come and look, check out these awesome women. Even if you don't like politics, go celebrate these awesome women who are kicking buttons. That can only help. Well,

I love that, Abby. I feel so enthralled to be able to have this conversation. And now you've basically lit the fire under my tush to get this podcast out on Monday. So it may just have to go as a bonus show.

No pressure also we'll be doing the same around the January 6th hearings. I think if they're going to be prime time, they're going to be literally produced like a Netflix binge.

Worthy show. So the more that we can say, people just leaning enough to learn, you know, get into it in the same way you get into scandal, but also like it's going to be okay. We don't have to be upset about it. So just really making it accessible and making it real to people. So there'll be opportunities.

That's great. So I want to offer you the floor. If there's a question that I haven't asked that you wish I had or something that you'd just like to leave our audience with, what would that be?

So in the United States and I think around the world, because of the effect that the U S just has, um, on culture news, all of it.

We're kind of like arrogant teenagers. Americans are like, we've been doing this for five minutes. We totally have it all figured out LA and I think that the last few years between COVID between what happened with the 2016 election, I think a lot of us feel really politically traumatized when we saw what could happen when we saw what happened on January six, less.

And I completely understand when you have a trauma stepping back, getting away from it and getting your space and doing your processing. But I also think that if we don't as Americans or as people lean into find out what happened on January 6th, I think we're not going to be able to heal from it. I think it's really important that we know what happens because this will be the first time I think, in American history, as far as I can tell where there'll be congressional.

There'll be prime time. And the people asking the questions will actually know the answers to every single question. It's not like Watergate, where there was a gotcha moment or some found evidence because of cell phones, because of just people recording themselves and putting them on the internet. We pretty much know they will know every single minute of what happened during that time when they do these congressional questions.

So the question will not be what happened really in our minds. The question will be, are you going to tell the truth right now? And the whole world's here. There will be shocking moments in a way, but we, the worst is over. We already know what happened, and I really believe as we lean in and hear the stories of that day and leading up to that day, we're also going to hear about hundreds of people who said no, who said, no, I'm not doing this.

No, I'm not going to let that happen. Still. Some bad things happen, but tons of people were in places to prevent that. They deserve to be celebrated. And we deserve to say, you know, there are bad actors out there, but the majority of people out there are good people and tried to do their job and keep everybody safe.

So I urge people to just pay attention a little bit. You do not need to watch 24 hours of news. There's no need for a 24 hour news cycle, but just engage a little bit on some of these issues because especially around sort of January six, Election stuff. As a lawyer, someone who formerly worked at the Southern district of New York, we're about to see a lot of justice being served.

It feels late, it won't feel like enough. Nothing will bring back the trauma that we all suffered, but it still is some rectifying. It still is some form of healing so that we can move on and build that. So know that while bad things happen, I really think the last four years or so have been an apparition and that time's over now and now we can feel hopeful knowing that so many people in this situation did the right thing.

I think it's just important that we keep our hearts and our minds wide open when it comes to the world of politics, you know, really less us in them and more. To get the vote out. Let's engage on these topics. Let's talk about what our differences are. Let's build a world where it's okay to have a differing opinion and where you're not just seeing this inflammatory us versus them perspective on social spaces.

Because I think ultimately we have more in common than we have that differs with people that sit across the aisle from us. And we're not going to get important work done. Unless we collaborate. And part of collaboration is communication. And part of communication is collaboration. You go right back and forth from one to the other.

Absolutely. And I think when you do find someone, whether it's online in person that really disagrees or they're wearing a t-shirt and you're about to make all these assumptions about them before you do that, if you can find a way to connect with them and their humanity, it can make such a difference.

If they are screaming about something that's going on, just saying to them, Hey, how are you? That, that must be so hard for you, even if you think they're crazy connect with them as humans, because I think a lot of people are really upset right now are just screaming. I'm traumatized. I need help. I'm traumatized.

I need help. It just sounds a little different when they say it

Well, and if you're always just thinking red team blue team, red, red pill, blue pill, are you actually really connecting, conversing and talking through the issues that we all face. So I think that's important to note too. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Now it's time for that simple ask. All you have to do is share this podcast with friends in your community. Register to vote. Get out there and learn a little bit about what's happening in our political system and make sure that your voice is heard just by voting on that election day. Be a part of primaries, consider who you want to really champion and your neck of the woods and understand this.

You can make a difference. Thank you now on always for being a part of this pod and this community, because together we really can do so much more. We can care more and we can be. Thank you.

Important Links:

• All about Approval Voting: https://electionscience.org
• Future Guest: Aaron Hamlin, Election Science
• Register to vote: https://www.vote.org/
• State of the Union Address 2022: https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2022/