Speaker 1: You and Me Both is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Hillary Clinton, and I am thrilled to be back
Speaker 1: for season two of You and Me Both. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot has happened since season one concluded, like an
Speaker 1: insurrection on January six, and I had the chance to
Speaker 1: talk about what it was like that day in the
Speaker 1: Capital with speaker Nancy Pelosi for a bonus episode, and
Speaker 1: on a much happier note, we celebrated the inauguration of
Speaker 1: President Biden and Vice President Harris. Now, I have to
Speaker 1: tell you I've been to every inauguration since and this
Speaker 1: one just felt so special. It certainly was a lot
Speaker 1: better than the one four years before, because there was
Speaker 1: just a palpable feeling of relief and joy and hopefulness.
Speaker 1: And part of why I think we all felt that
Speaker 1: way is because of Amanda Gorman, the youngest presidential inaugural
Speaker 1: poet in history. Let me tell you, when that young, vibrant,
Speaker 1: charismatic woman walked to the front of the platform in
Speaker 1: her bright yellow coat and that magnificent presence, I was thrilled.
Speaker 1: And the poem itself titled The Hill We Climb, just
Speaker 1: captured the moment, and there were a lot of lines
Speaker 1: that have stayed with me. But here's one Stanza that
Speaker 1: sums up the pain and the hope of the last
Speaker 1: four years. Let the Globe, if nothing else, say this
Speaker 1: is true that even as we grieved, we grew, that
Speaker 1: even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we tired,
Speaker 1: we tried. So you can imagine my excitement that we
Speaker 1: are starting this season by talking with Amanda. Not only
Speaker 1: the youngest poet ever to read at an inauguration and
Speaker 1: the first youth poet Laurette, she's the first poet to
Speaker 1: perform at the Super Bowl, and of course, on a
Speaker 1: personal note, she is someone with an enviable headband collection. Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out how to wear a
Speaker 1: headband with my headset. I love it. How how are
Speaker 1: you doing? I mean I have to start by just saying, Wow,
Speaker 1: what a whirlwind couple of weeks this has been for you, Amanda. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been wild. I'm doing good. I think I'm like
Speaker 1: on the third part of the wave of just like
Speaker 1: it was literally like I feel like my life changed
Speaker 1: in like six minutes basically, and so my body has
Speaker 1: just been processing that and now I'm feeling like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I've absorbed that it happened. Let's move forward. So yeah,
Speaker 1: feeling very good. Well, you sure made a lot of
Speaker 1: us feel very good. So, uh, it's mutually reinforcing. We
Speaker 1: needed some you know, positive uplift and you know, a
Speaker 1: new sense of as you said the other day and
Speaker 1: that wonderful interview you did with Michelle Obama, unity with purpose.
Speaker 1: We needed to come together not just for the sake
Speaker 1: of coming together, but to try to figure out what's
Speaker 1: the best way forward. And you know, when I saw
Speaker 1: you and your mom on the platform at the at
Speaker 1: the Capitol, it was just so exciting and it was revealing, uh,
Speaker 1: the feelings that people had been bottled up that they
Speaker 1: hadn't been able to express because we were all holding
Speaker 1: our breath for four years. Yeah, what stood out to
Speaker 1: you from that day because it was such a happy occasion,
Speaker 1: even though it was under such odd circumstances, right right, Well,
Speaker 1: the day was both a whirlwind and endless. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how it was for you, And I'm really interested
Speaker 1: in hearing more about that because the whole time we
Speaker 1: were sitting there, my mom was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: look at Hillary. She's so beautiful. I wonder what to
Speaker 1: go in through her head right now. You have to
Speaker 1: realize every single time that I'm in the vicinity of you,
Speaker 1: all of the grandmothers ever related to me, or like
Speaker 1: you have to tell her how much I love her.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no kind of like do a good job.
Speaker 1: There's all like tell Hillary I love her. Um. But
Speaker 1: you know what I remember from that day is, you know,
Speaker 1: you have this incredible sensation of the historicity of the moment,
Speaker 1: and it's it's something that I think is very difficult
Speaker 1: to internalize. So, you know, you go up to the
Speaker 1: podium and I remember distinctly seeing the Washington Monuments, seeing
Speaker 1: the Lincoln Memorial, seeing the flags laid out for the
Speaker 1: lives lost to COVID, and so you're standing in one
Speaker 1: of the most sacred physical spaces in American democracy, and
Speaker 1: I really remember just absorbing that, just trying to take
Speaker 1: that in in order to do the poem justice. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you more than exceeded anybody's expectation. Of course, I flashed
Speaker 1: back immediately to my Angelou, uh and the inauguration in
Speaker 1: in because in very different ways, because obviously age and
Speaker 1: everything else that separated you your spirits seemed to be
Speaker 1: communing on that inaugural stage this year, and it was
Speaker 1: so touching to me personally to summon back that memory.
Speaker 1: And I know that you have told people you had
Speaker 1: a little bit of writer's block, you weren't quite sure
Speaker 1: what you were going to say, and it was the
Speaker 1: terrible events of January six that seemed to really spark
Speaker 1: the creativity that led to what you did finally, right absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean when I began writing the poem, I want
Speaker 1: to say, I began it on January one, and I
Speaker 1: was just going at it like a slug. I think
Speaker 1: I was writing like one sentence a day and kind
Speaker 1: of looking at myself like, if I continue at this space,
Speaker 1: this poem is not going to be done until two
Speaker 1: inaugurations from now. And so I was, you know, doing
Speaker 1: my best to kind of chug along and do the labor,
Speaker 1: and then you know, the events of the introduction at
Speaker 1: the Capital happened in that just it was this kind
Speaker 1: of on switch moment where what I knew I needed
Speaker 1: to say clicked into place, and how we've been discussing
Speaker 1: coming into the poem. I knew that the theme of
Speaker 1: the inauguration was going to be unity. But I think
Speaker 1: as the inaugural poet, I took it as my kind
Speaker 1: of responsibility to ask unity for what purpose? Unity to
Speaker 1: what end? And I think poetry at times can speak
Speaker 1: to that in a way that pros not and so
Speaker 1: that really helped me finish the poem. I sent it
Speaker 1: to the inaugural committee that night one because the poem
Speaker 1: was finished and I was proud of it and I
Speaker 1: wanted people to see it. But more importantly too, I
Speaker 1: felt it really important to underscore to the committee that
Speaker 1: in inaugural poem was still more than possible in that moment,
Speaker 1: as dark as it was, and that this was something
Speaker 1: that the country in the world and needed to hear. Well.
Speaker 1: Amen to that, because what you were able to do
Speaker 1: is to weave a story that was an honest story.
Speaker 1: You didn't shy away from deep and painful parts of
Speaker 1: our history, particularly our history of racism and slavery, but
Speaker 1: you also maintained hope about the future. You threw it
Speaker 1: into the future, and I think was cathartic. You know,
Speaker 1: we mainly think of Catharsis as being rooted in theater,
Speaker 1: but if you really go way way way back, I'm
Speaker 1: the recitation of stories exactly which you would call poetry,
Speaker 1: predates the acting out of play. So in a sense,
Speaker 1: you're capturing those feelings enabled the entire country to kind
Speaker 1: of go through them with you. Could you sense that
Speaker 1: when you were up there was that part of your consciousness.
Speaker 1: I sensed the catharsis when I was performing, but I
Speaker 1: think even more so when I was writing, you know,
Speaker 1: birthing it to being. I was very purposeful with myself
Speaker 1: and understanding that this was a moment to re sanctify,
Speaker 1: to reconsequate not only the capital building, but American democracy.
Speaker 1: UM I often talk about I think in religion, catharsis
Speaker 1: and cleansing is most often connected with rituals of water.
Speaker 1: I think about cleansing in terms of like rituals of words.
Speaker 1: When there's been evil or wrongdoing, how do we build
Speaker 1: a new precedent? And often the language and the words
Speaker 1: and the rhetoric that we use is part of that tradition.
Speaker 1: And for me, it was looking at we have seen
Speaker 1: the ways in which words and language have been violated
Speaker 1: and also used to violate others. So how can this
Speaker 1: inauguration day be a new dawn for the written and
Speaker 1: spoken word and that we're actually reclaiming that tradition as
Speaker 1: a path of healing. When did you discover poetry, How
Speaker 1: old were you and what was your process your journey
Speaker 1: like to becoming a poet. I discovered poetry, I want
Speaker 1: to say, at a really young age, probably like four
Speaker 1: or five. I didn't really know it was poetry. When
Speaker 1: I first began writing, I was just putting my thoughts
Speaker 1: on a page. I thought they were honestly songs, and
Speaker 1: then I realized I could not sing, and I was
Speaker 1: just speaking out when I was writing. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: from pretty young age. My mom's an English teacher, so
Speaker 1: that's always been at the forefront of my thinking. Funnily enough, Um,
Speaker 1: she's not the biggest poetry fan. I think. I think
Speaker 1: I'm one of the main only I would see reads recently.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, when I was a toddler m
Speaker 1: I stumbled across writing, and I think it was a
Speaker 1: huge instrument for me because growing up I had a
Speaker 1: speech impediment, so it was like, wow, look at this
Speaker 1: medium in which I can express my thoughts and my ideas.
Speaker 1: And I remember distinctly being around eight and I was writing,
Speaker 1: and it was just this surreal dichotomy because the voice
Speaker 1: that I heard in my head when I was writing
Speaker 1: on the page sounded so different from the voice I
Speaker 1: spoke in And I think only now as a twenty
Speaker 1: two soon to be twenty three year old, am I
Speaker 1: actually speaking with that voice that I heard so long ago,
Speaker 1: you know, when I was seven and writing. That's fascinating. Well,
Speaker 1: you're also a twin, and people talk about how twins communicate.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you think there was anything about your
Speaker 1: twinship that moved you toward being a poet. Absolutely, and
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought that up. What's so funny
Speaker 1: about being a twin is you probably hear this all
Speaker 1: the time, like we often have her own languages. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure that actually helped with the speech impediment, because
Speaker 1: it was like, why do I need to speak English?
Speaker 1: I had my twin language. She gets me, and my
Speaker 1: twin often served us like my translators, like I was
Speaker 1: a foreign dignitary. My twin was like, she wants a sandwich,
Speaker 1: there's too much peanut butter, and my mom was just
Speaker 1: being like, okay, great, So my poor mother would just
Speaker 1: like have my sister work as like Google Translate for
Speaker 1: Manda Gorman. Um, so it was really funny. Being a
Speaker 1: twin I think made me lean into the idea that
Speaker 1: who says language isn't this, who says language isn't that.
Speaker 1: We still have her own language to this day, and
Speaker 1: we're kind of bad about it because we use it
Speaker 1: to talk about other people when they're in the room.
Speaker 1: So we used to do that in high school. Uh,
Speaker 1: and just be talking about people in our own language
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, we're just talking about dinner, you know,
Speaker 1: doing it. But yes, So I love my twin and
Speaker 1: she's always been a great supporter of my non English conformity.
Speaker 1: I love that we're taking a quick break, stay with us.
Speaker 1: You know. When I read about your mom and the
Speaker 1: fact that she was an English teacher and she obviously valued,
Speaker 1: you know, education, I read that when you were a kid,
Speaker 1: she only let you watch nineteen sitcoms, and one that
Speaker 1: they mentioned in the article I read was The Honeymooners.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I'm dating myself, but you know I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't watching that on reruns back of the day.
Speaker 1: And if you wanted to watch so called modern TV, uh,
Speaker 1: you had to make a social justice argument exavince her
Speaker 1: to let you tell us what that was about, because
Speaker 1: clearly it worked. It's a little undiventional, but it worked
Speaker 1: exactly well. Um. You know my mom, she was really
Speaker 1: hard set on us not necessarily just being consumers of content,
Speaker 1: but creators of our own content and the stories you
Speaker 1: wanted to see. So that started with kind of monitoring
Speaker 1: what we were taking in and how much we were
Speaker 1: taking in. And so we started just with like one
Speaker 1: TV show that we were allowed to watch, with just
Speaker 1: the Honeymooners. I was probably like a late elementary school
Speaker 1: when I realized television and color was actually hid thing.
Speaker 1: It was so funny, like I brought my friends over
Speaker 1: to my house and I like put in the little
Speaker 1: VCR tape and they were like, wires are screen and
Speaker 1: black and line. I was like, isn't yours? And um.
Speaker 1: But it was a really lovely childhood because it meant
Speaker 1: that we were spending so much time creating plays and
Speaker 1: songs and writing poetry because the television was off because
Speaker 1: we had to be our own entertainment. And then once
Speaker 1: we kind of graduated from the Honeymooners to things like
Speaker 1: h or preference stuff very complex. Um, the monsters and
Speaker 1: so on. If I wanted to watch something um that
Speaker 1: was modern, I had to actually communicate why that was
Speaker 1: something that should be in my visual effort are So
Speaker 1: I remember wanting to watch Kim Possible and making the
Speaker 1: argument that she was a strong female character and I
Speaker 1: should be exposed to her in That argument worked, But
Speaker 1: when I wanted to watch America's Next Top Model, it
Speaker 1: was more some good try. But my mom did turn
Speaker 1: it on for a few minutes and she was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's talk about everything wrong with this, like what did
Speaker 1: you just see and what were those messages? And so
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily sheltering us from everything, but making sure
Speaker 1: that we were able to articulate those stories how they
Speaker 1: were influencing our points of view, so that we could
Speaker 1: then speak back to them. Well, she was ahead of
Speaker 1: her time, because now everybody says, you know, limit screen
Speaker 1: time for your children, and it's no longer just the
Speaker 1: TV you're competing with, but obviously everything online exactly. It
Speaker 1: can't help but limit your own creativity because you are
Speaker 1: absorbing somebody else's messaging and you've got to almost deliberately
Speaker 1: move away from that in order to do your own creativity.
Speaker 1: You know, this year, as you summed up so well,
Speaker 1: both in in your poem but also in the interviews
Speaker 1: that you've done, has been incredibly hard for so many people.
Speaker 1: Were you able to finish your last year of college
Speaker 1: before COVID hit? No, I wasn't. UM. I was in
Speaker 1: my senior spring and our campus closed down like so
Speaker 1: many others around the country. UM, and I came back home.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I think I was a few weeks
Speaker 1: in to the online schooling process where I realized, I
Speaker 1: think how much grief I personally was in. I think
Speaker 1: for so long we didn't have a collective word for
Speaker 1: what we were going through. It was almost an unintelligible emotion.
Speaker 1: And to kind of realize that, oh my gosh, every
Speaker 1: day I'm waking up grieving, grieving for everything I've lost
Speaker 1: and everything I haven't yet. UM. And so that was
Speaker 1: a really hard period. I'm not being able to have
Speaker 1: my graduation, which you know, my family takes education so seriously.
Speaker 1: I am a descendant of slaves. The idea that I,
Speaker 1: as a black woman, would be walking across the Harvard
Speaker 1: graduation stage graduating with honors was huge to my family,
Speaker 1: and so just finding ways to move forward and push on.
Speaker 1: You know, it was difficult, especially because when you're someone
Speaker 1: that I think people look too for hope. I was
Speaker 1: writing a lot of poems at the time, and people
Speaker 1: kept asking me for kind of new commissions which spoke
Speaker 1: to the moment, and I was like, I'm right here
Speaker 1: with you, I am going through this, I'm in the
Speaker 1: moment with you. You know, I'm in the fog of
Speaker 1: war and being expected to have clarity in that um
Speaker 1: And so that was hard, and I think how I
Speaker 1: now navigated it and continued to cultivate my own creativity
Speaker 1: in my voice was actually looking a lot to the
Speaker 1: past and looking at the truth speakers of our history
Speaker 1: who lived through times of im mental grief and also
Speaker 1: intense isolation which we now call quarantining. So I was
Speaker 1: thinking about, you know, Mornin Luther King writing a letter
Speaker 1: from a Birmingham jail. I was thinking about Anne Frank
Speaker 1: writing in her diary while hiding from Nazis. I was
Speaker 1: even thinking about Shakespeare um during the plague and when
Speaker 1: it hit Europe and him having to leave London um
Speaker 1: and continue his artistry and kind of rural areas. So
Speaker 1: there has been a precedent of storytellers continuing to document
Speaker 1: the best and worst of humanity, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: be part of that tradition, not to say I am
Speaker 1: anyone of those icons, but to say that their light
Speaker 1: in history has served as a beacon for me. Well,
Speaker 1: but I think that's really important, Amanda, because what we're
Speaker 1: missing right now is hopeful storytelling. We we are missing
Speaker 1: the individual voices and then the chorus that they can
Speaker 1: create that can help guide us. Like I really appreciated
Speaker 1: your poem during the Super Bowl lifting up people on
Speaker 1: the front lines, because it was a way of saying,
Speaker 1: we're all in this together. We're about to watch a
Speaker 1: football game, but let's not forget the people who have
Speaker 1: been taking care of us and keeping us going. And
Speaker 1: right now, in conversations that I'm having with people, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody is saying, what's America's story? You know, the story
Speaker 1: has been somewhat degraded and words have been weaponized. Your
Speaker 1: poem helped to kind of pull us forward. But to
Speaker 1: what's next? I mean, if you could have the proverbial
Speaker 1: you know, magic wand to wave, how would you help
Speaker 1: America regain a truthful unity with purpose? Home? You know,
Speaker 1: sense of story about where we go next? Only asking
Speaker 1: the easy questions today, aren't you killer? I'm looking for
Speaker 1: wisdom you know, I love it well, I'm looking for
Speaker 1: it from you so um. But you know what's really
Speaker 1: interesting is my mom keeps saying this to me in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of my poem about you know. The reason
Speaker 1: that she believes it's touched so many people is she
Speaker 1: was basically saying, you know, for so long, we've heard
Speaker 1: so many words and none of them have been kind.
Speaker 1: No one it feels like, has said a kind word
Speaker 1: in four years. So for me, it's it's looking at
Speaker 1: what is America's story and how do we tell it?
Speaker 1: You know, which is just as important. It's just as
Speaker 1: important of the things that we're saying as how we
Speaker 1: are saying them, or were saying them with honesty, with kindness,
Speaker 1: with compassion. Are we saying what is necessary? And so
Speaker 1: I think I'm a small piece of that effort. It
Speaker 1: was almost like on Inauguration Day there was this on switch.
Speaker 1: I was watching the news in the language of coverage
Speaker 1: was so much different, The language of journalists was so
Speaker 1: much different, The language um that I was hearing from
Speaker 1: fellow poets was so much different, and it wasn't as
Speaker 1: if we were erasing anything that had happened. But it
Speaker 1: was so amazing to see hope into kindness re enter
Speaker 1: American rhetoric to all of a sudden become the dialects
Speaker 1: that we speak in once again. And so I think
Speaker 1: that's the power of voice, of storytelling of one person.
Speaker 1: If one poem can reintroduce a country to what it
Speaker 1: means to hope together yet again, that in itself is
Speaker 1: a new chapter in the American story. Right. You create
Speaker 1: the space for people once again, uh, to be kind,
Speaker 1: to be hopeful. I think we've all been in a
Speaker 1: kind of collective defensive crouch. It's almost like, what's going
Speaker 1: to happen next? You know, what terrible thing is going
Speaker 1: to occur? And of course you're not only a poet,
Speaker 1: you're someone who has followed and expressed an interest in politics,
Speaker 1: including running for presidents and six when did that first
Speaker 1: dawn on you that hey, wait a minute, I want
Speaker 1: to do this. I mean, probably with you, honestly, And
Speaker 1: I know you're such an inspiration to so many people
Speaker 1: around the world, including me. I mean, I remember being
Speaker 1: an elementary school and you know, your name is always
Speaker 1: in our household, and you know, my mom always making
Speaker 1: sure that I saw the work that you were doing.
Speaker 1: And then I think, you know, as I entered middle school,
Speaker 1: what's interestingly enough, I think that is typically the phase
Speaker 1: where girls their dreams start to change. They might have
Speaker 1: begun hoping to be a scientist, and then you know,
Speaker 1: they enter middle school and puberty happens and they're kind
Speaker 1: of shepherded off to other avenues. That's kind of when
Speaker 1: I doubled down, if anything on their dreams I already
Speaker 1: had and saying I want to make a difference. I
Speaker 1: want to make a change, and I don't just want
Speaker 1: to write about it, I want to participate in it
Speaker 1: and other avenues. So I would say probably around six
Speaker 1: or seventh grade. And it was funny because, um, I
Speaker 1: think many people at first thought it was a joke,
Speaker 1: like ha ha, little girl was to be president, and
Speaker 1: it is no joke. M I told my mom, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to be president, and she was like, okay,
Speaker 1: so this is what we're going to do. And we
Speaker 1: sat down and had a great family conversation, the you know,
Speaker 1: main message of which was I would have to be
Speaker 1: so careful for basically the rest of my young adulthood
Speaker 1: with what I put out there of myself. So I
Speaker 1: didn't get social media until late high school. Um, and
Speaker 1: even if I remember so many times being at parties
Speaker 1: or hanging out with friends and they would be taking
Speaker 1: selfies and I would just run into the bathroom more
Speaker 1: slide away or like cover of my face, and it
Speaker 1: was just like the de facto norm in my family
Speaker 1: and our friendship group. Amanda is going to be president
Speaker 1: in twenty five years. Um, we can't be taking photos
Speaker 1: of her all the time. So it was just like
Speaker 1: what happened. And I remember, you know, my sister, my
Speaker 1: twin being at U c l A and being at
Speaker 1: UM parties and them taking photos and her being like,
Speaker 1: I can't be in it. My sister is running for president.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be the thing that comes up
Speaker 1: twenty five years and now. And so my family takes
Speaker 1: it dead seriously and I love them for it. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's been a it's been a long goal. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. So what's next for you? How do
Speaker 1: you you know envision you know the next five years,
Speaker 1: you know, into your late twenties. For me, what's next?
Speaker 1: For me is almost kind of like what's now? I
Speaker 1: think so much is happening, and often it feels like
Speaker 1: you have to say yes to everything at once. Just
Speaker 1: the wave of attention and request that I've been getting,
Speaker 1: and I've been learning that like no is a complete sentence,
Speaker 1: it is. That's a good lesson exactly. It's it's a
Speaker 1: really good lesson that I've been learning to kind of
Speaker 1: just take time for myself. So I think, you know,
Speaker 1: the next few years are going to be really interesting,
Speaker 1: They're going to be exciting, um and it's going into
Speaker 1: be me. I think continuing on a path of what
Speaker 1: I hope is a leadership and also like a non
Speaker 1: traditional fashion. So I think often when we think about
Speaker 1: leaders are the political sphere, there's a very set agenda
Speaker 1: of tick marks that you have to hit, and often
Speaker 1: they're defined by whiteness and masculinity. That's how you achieve
Speaker 1: a pedestal of leadership. And for me, it's like how
Speaker 1: do I gain an imprint in society where I can
Speaker 1: make change, Where I'm actually following a path that is
Speaker 1: informed by my femininity, informed by my blackness, is inflorenced
Speaker 1: by my poetry. So it doesn't mean stopping writing and
Speaker 1: then you know, going to law school it means actually
Speaker 1: continuing to write, continuing to speak, and also continuing to
Speaker 1: learn and be educated in all of the wide spheres
Speaker 1: that I can be. I think you have what is
Speaker 1: the most important uh quality for anyone who is seeking
Speaker 1: leadership and whatever sphere. You have a voice that is
Speaker 1: informed by not just your own life experience, but very
Speaker 1: importantly you know, the shoulders you stand at going back,
Speaker 1: you know, generations. You have a voice because of how
Speaker 1: you've been raised as well as educated. Uh. You have
Speaker 1: a voice that is poetic, but it comes from a
Speaker 1: deep place. So it's important to just remain who you
Speaker 1: are with that voice, uh, and to seek opportunities, you know,
Speaker 1: to try to you know, utilize it to bring people
Speaker 1: together to you know, maybe set some goals, some projects,
Speaker 1: some things that you are going to work on, because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we are in great
Speaker 1: need for a kind of revitalization of the American experiment.
Speaker 1: Right it has you know, I'm not gonna say run aground,
Speaker 1: but it's maybe out there treading water. Yeah. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of confusion, there's a lot of conflict,
Speaker 1: and so clarity of voice, breaking through that fog is
Speaker 1: a necessary part of leadership always, but particularly now, I
Speaker 1: think exactly. And I think that's something that I'm also learning,
Speaker 1: which is of the pricelessness of your own voice. I
Speaker 1: think when you have this electric moment where something you
Speaker 1: say vicachetes throughout the entire world, people keep handing you
Speaker 1: the mic and saying speak, say, And for me, it's
Speaker 1: learning to kind of take a step back and actually
Speaker 1: pass the mic onto other people, which is why I'm
Speaker 1: For example, the Super Bowl poem was so important to me.
Speaker 1: It wasn't about here's a man of Gorman again, applause, applause.
Speaker 1: It was actually, there's these three amazing people who are
Speaker 1: doing great work who we should recognize because they symbolize
Speaker 1: the best of who we are, and so many thousands
Speaker 1: of other people who are showing up every day for us. So,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to use my voice to give voice
Speaker 1: to others. Well, I can't tell you how excited I
Speaker 1: am for what lies ahead for you. And I really
Speaker 1: mean it when I say I want to be of
Speaker 1: whatever help and support, because you know, there's a change
Speaker 1: in perspective that inevitably accompanies you know, post college, entry
Speaker 1: into adulthood, particularly looking for you know, political footing, and
Speaker 1: someday when we could travel again post COVID. Uh, maybe
Speaker 1: you and your mom and I can you know, sit
Speaker 1: down and have a meal together. I love that amazing.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you so much. Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem,
Speaker 1: The Hill We Climb, will be published in March. Her
Speaker 1: debut children's book, Change Sings, and her first poetry collection
Speaker 1: will be out in September. You can pre order all
Speaker 1: three now from your favorite independent bookstore. So that's it
Speaker 1: for this week's episode. But we do have a lot
Speaker 1: to talk about in this season. We're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about fighting online disinformation, what to do about these tech
Speaker 1: companies that are literally taking over our brains and in
Speaker 1: many ways running our lives. We'll talk about the impact
Speaker 1: the pandemic has been having on kids, what do we
Speaker 1: do for kids who have been so dislocated, not being
Speaker 1: able to go to school, being at home, trying to
Speaker 1: make you know, online learning work. And we will also
Speaker 1: look at the differences between real life politics and what
Speaker 1: we see on shows like S n L. We've got
Speaker 1: a lot of great conversations and yes, a few surprises
Speaker 1: headed your way, so please stay tuned. You and Me
Speaker 1: Both is brought to you by I Heart Radio. We're
Speaker 1: produced by Julie Subrant, Kathleen Russo and Lauren Peterson, with
Speaker 1: help from Huma Aberdeen, Nicky etur Oscar Flores, Lindsay Hoffman,
Speaker 1: Brianna Johnson, Nick Merrill, Rob Russo, Opal Vedan and Lona Valmorrow.
Speaker 1: Our engineer is Zack McNeice and original music is by
Speaker 1: Forrest Gray. If you like You and Me Both, please
Speaker 1: share it with your friends. Let them know they can
Speaker 1: subscribe to You and Me Both on the I heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and see you next week.