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Speaker 1: Because we're trying to change the culture of democracy, changed

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Speaker 1: the culture of citizen participation. People roll their eyes and

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Speaker 1: grown when they think about like having to show up

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Speaker 1: and vote, Like its election season again, right, and we

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Speaker 1: wanted to change that. Welcome to How the Citizen with

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Speaker 1: Baritune Day, a podcast that reimagined citizen as a verb,

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Speaker 1: not a legal status. This season is all about how

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Speaker 1: we practice democracy, what can we get rid of, what

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Speaker 1: can we invent, and how do we change the culture

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Speaker 1: of democracy itself. We're leaving the theoretical clouds and hitting

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Speaker 1: the ground with inspiring examples of people and institutions that

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Speaker 1: are showing us new ways to govern ourselves. The first

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Speaker 1: time I remember really getting involved in electoral politics was

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Speaker 1: as a resident of Somerville, Massachusetts. I had just graduated

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Speaker 1: from college and this guy named Ivy Green was running

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Speaker 1: for state Assembly. I liked what he was hoping to

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Speaker 1: do an office, and one day he was outdoor knocking

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Speaker 1: and asked me, would you join me in walking your neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: Now I had been asked to canvas, I'd been asked

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Speaker 1: to phone bank, I'd been asked to put stickers and

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Speaker 1: signs in the windows for candidates. I had never been

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Speaker 1: invited to campaign with them, so I said yes. Going

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Speaker 1: door to door with him. It felt like running for

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Speaker 1: office without all the responsibility of actually being the candidate,

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Speaker 1: and it made me see my neighborhood differently. I learned

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Speaker 1: more about how people on my block experienced our city

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Speaker 1: and what and who they cared about. And I also

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Speaker 1: learned that I was living down the street from a

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Speaker 1: literal Confederate flag waving Nazi. Trust me, we walked away

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Speaker 1: from that house real quick. But despite that ugliness, what

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Speaker 1: stuck with me twenty years later is A's invitation, the

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Speaker 1: invitation for me to get to know my neighbors and

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Speaker 1: to get a sense of the issues and realities that

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Speaker 1: influence how each of us vote. If we do at

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Speaker 1: all to build a healthier culture of democracy, we need

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Speaker 1: to address our collective role in deciding who operates it. Specifically,

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Speaker 1: we've got to talk about how it feels to vote.

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Speaker 1: I'll say it. The culture of voting is trash. It's

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Speaker 1: text messages from unknown numbers, people begging you for money.

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Speaker 1: It's folks selling your email address. I mean, come on,

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Speaker 1: it's people only showing up when they want something from you,

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Speaker 1: and never offering something in return, or if they do us,

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Speaker 1: not being able to trust that they'll follow through once

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Speaker 1: they're in office. And I could go on, because there's

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Speaker 1: a lot about voting in this country that feels bad,

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Speaker 1: But there's opportunity here too. We can create a culture

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Speaker 1: around voting that's inspired, one that highlights these pillars of

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Speaker 1: citizening as a verb, showing up and participating, investing in relationships,

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Speaker 1: understanding power, and valuing the collective. And I know it's

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Speaker 1: possible because there are people already building it. Voting rights

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Speaker 1: organizer and strategist in say Oufat is one of those people.

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Speaker 1: In our first two episodes of this season, Adrian Marie

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Speaker 1: Brown and John Alexander emphasized joy as necessary to infuse

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Speaker 1: into our practice and democracy, especially the practices that feel

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Speaker 1: like work. Well, what could feel more like work than voting?

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Speaker 1: For eight years, Insay served as the CEO of the

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Speaker 1: New Georgia Project in GP. This is a non partisan

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Speaker 1: organization founded by Stacy Abrams. Now Abrams you might remember

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Speaker 1: the former minority leader of the Georgia State Senate and

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Speaker 1: two time candidate for the Governor of Georgia, or you

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Speaker 1: might remember her as the most famous Star Trek fan

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Speaker 1: you've ever heard of. Either way, n GP is dedicated

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Speaker 1: to registering and engaging the growing majority of people of

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Speaker 1: color and young people all across the state. For the

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Speaker 1: better part of the last decade, in Say worked tirelessly

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Speaker 1: to build this New Georgia, engaging and registering hundreds of

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Speaker 1: thousands of eligible voters, and in twenty twenty, her mobilization

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Speaker 1: efforts helped turn Georgia blue for the first time since

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two. I had to figure out how she

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Speaker 1: did it, so I spoke with her via zoom and

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Speaker 1: while we were talking, a get out the Vote volunteer

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Speaker 1: from the New Georgia Project knocked on one of our

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Speaker 1: live audience members doors. I'm not kidding you. Gotta stick

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Speaker 1: around for that magic moment after the break in Say

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Speaker 1: Oofat on what it takes to build a better, more welcoming,

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Speaker 1: and fun voting culture. Our guest today is the former

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Speaker 1: CEO of the New Georgia Project Action Fund and the

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Speaker 1: New Georgia Project, which he describes as a statewide, multi racial,

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Speaker 1: multi ethnic, cross class, intergenerational movement that is breathing, inspiring,

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Speaker 1: and organizing a New Georgia and a New South into existence,

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Speaker 1: who welcome voting rights organizers, strategist and all around badass

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Speaker 1: and say oofat what's up and say hello Barrens today,

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be here. I'm excited too, Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for being here with me. Now, the

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Speaker 1: premise of our show is that citizen is a verb,

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Speaker 1: not a sort of immigration legalistic now, but it's a

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Speaker 1: verb in that there's many ways for all of us

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Speaker 1: to shape our communities. And we tend to stress that

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Speaker 1: this goes beyond voting, especially because so many people legally can.

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Speaker 1: But most of us know you because of your almost

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Speaker 1: singular focus on voting. So can you tell me what

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Speaker 1: does voting mean to you in the context of ensuring

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Speaker 1: that we actually practice this thing called democracy and self governance? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I would be if I'm going to be

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Speaker 1: a great parents with you in your audience. Voting is

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Speaker 1: a tactic. Right. We are at our core a power

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Speaker 1: building organization, right, And when we think about power and

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Speaker 1: the working definition in this sort of Georgia context, the

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Speaker 1: New Georgia Project context is the ability to stop bad

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Speaker 1: things from happening, but also ability to sort of shape

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Speaker 1: the world, shape the policy environment, shape laws, shape the

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Speaker 1: context in which we are living and loving and learning

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Speaker 1: and raising ourselves and our families. And so who has

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Speaker 1: power who doesn't, Who makes decisions for our communities, Who

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Speaker 1: decides where my money is right and how much of

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Speaker 1: my money is being taken out. I used to be

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Speaker 1: a union rep long long time ago and a union lawyer,

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Speaker 1: and one of the unions I worked for was asked

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Speaker 1: me the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

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Speaker 1: So I represented the lunch ladies and custodio staff in

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Speaker 1: public schools, and people would often be like, well, what's

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Speaker 1: asked me? This tax that I'm paying? Right? And so

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Speaker 1: again the people taking money out of our checks, and

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Speaker 1: you have no idea what they are for. They are

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Speaker 1: decisions that are made, wars that are being fought, Climate

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Speaker 1: science as being ignored in our name, and so voting

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Speaker 1: gives us the ability to hire and fire these people

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Speaker 1: who are making decisions about the city, the county, the

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Speaker 1: country that we live in. And as an employer, I

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Speaker 1: take that responsibility very seriously, and as a citizen, I

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Speaker 1: take that responsibility very seriously. And so do I think

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Speaker 1: it's a magic bullet. No, there are people who we

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Speaker 1: organize with. There are family members that we contemplate when

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Speaker 1: we think about the America that we want to live

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Speaker 1: in that don't have the ability to vote. Right, But

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Speaker 1: the under eighteen right, the currently or formally incarcerated, the

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Speaker 1: new Americans or people who have yet to become citizens

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Speaker 1: are a part of our communities, are a part of

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Speaker 1: our decision making. And so again, voting is but one

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Speaker 1: tactic in our overall quest to build power, to build

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Speaker 1: powerful communities where we make decisions that are in the

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Speaker 1: best interest of the whole tactic. Yes, seeing ourselves as

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Speaker 1: employers much more empowering perspective on what voting actually is

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Speaker 1: hiring and firing. So thank you for that. And especially

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Speaker 1: when you actually meet these jokers. Can you have a

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Speaker 1: meta state legislator like exactly? And I think what comes

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Speaker 1: across already and say, and I've seen you on a

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Speaker 1: thousand zooms and I've met you in person at least once.

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Speaker 1: Your vibe, your energy, your smile. Even if someone listening

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Speaker 1: to this can't see you, I think they can feel

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Speaker 1: and hear it, and it helps that message go down.

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Speaker 1: So let's keep that good energy going, you know, m GP.

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Speaker 1: By our research registered, over six hundred thousand people registered

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Speaker 1: to vote, and I want some context, said, you don't

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Speaker 1: have to spend a lot of time on this, but

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Speaker 1: just the origins of New Georgia Project and your origin

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Speaker 1: story within the organization. What are those two tales. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so there's a woman in Georgia. Her name is Stacy

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Speaker 1: Abram oh from Star Trek. Yeah. Absolutely, you might know

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Speaker 1: from Star Trek. I know her from being best friends

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Speaker 1: with Common and Kerry Washington. Right. Stacy Abrams was the

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Speaker 1: minority leader of the Georgia State Legislature at the time.

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Speaker 1: We were introduced by a dear, dear, dear friend, a

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Speaker 1: mutual friend who was working with a Georgia Democratic Party.

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Speaker 1: I'm living in Canada at the time. I'm living in Ottawa.

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Speaker 1: You got out, I did keep bringing back in. Okay,

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Speaker 1: It's so funny because you are the King of the

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Speaker 1: Nurse and so you have been around interneting for quite

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Speaker 1: some time, and I know that you're familiar with the

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Speaker 1: threat that when things didn't go well, people would always

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Speaker 1: threaten to move to Canada. I actually did it and

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Speaker 1: was living and working and organizing in Ottawa for a

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Speaker 1: number of years. A very good friend came to visit

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Speaker 1: me and said, are you coming home for the holidays?

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Speaker 1: Are you coming home for Christmas? Like you've met Mama Ufat.

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Speaker 1: Of course I'm coming home for Rusus. That's really not

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Speaker 1: an option. And she says, well, I would love to

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Speaker 1: introduce you to a state legislator. And I was such

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Speaker 1: a jerk at the time. I was like, I'm really

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Speaker 1: just coming to Atlanta to hang out and do irresponsible

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Speaker 1: things with my college friends. And She's like, but you

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Speaker 1: should have brunch and I was like, well, that's a

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Speaker 1: favorite pastime of mine, so of course you should have

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Speaker 1: led with that. So I have brunch with Stacy. On

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Speaker 1: New Year's Day twenty fourteen, she lays out this really

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Speaker 1: powerful vision of the New Georgia project. At the time,

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Speaker 1: there were one point two million African Americans, Latinos, and

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Speaker 1: unmarried white women in the state of Georgia who were

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Speaker 1: eligible to vote and completely unregistered. Why that number mattered

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Speaker 1: is that also at the same time, the successful Republican

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Speaker 1: was beating the losing Democrat over and over and over

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Speaker 1: again a decade by a margin between two hundred and

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Speaker 1: three hundred thousand votes. So there were five times the

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Speaker 1: number of people of color, young folks, and unmarried women.

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Speaker 1: Then what was necessary to swing any election in Georgia, period,

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Speaker 1: full stop. But they weren't even eligible to participate because

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Speaker 1: they weren't registered to vote. And there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of organizations and leaders who were claiming that that was

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Speaker 1: their work, but nobody was doing this work at scale,

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Speaker 1: nobody was being really intentional about it, and people didn't

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Speaker 1: understand why folks kept falling off the voter rolls. So

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Speaker 1: she says, yes, let's register a million black people to vote.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, that's adorable, and I gave

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Speaker 1: her like thirty reasons why it would not work. I

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Speaker 1: grew up in the Georgia Democratic Party, grew up in Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: have dealt with the Georgia Democratic Party of the eighties

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Speaker 1: and nineties. The Dixiecrats baratun Day here with a quick

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Speaker 1: explainer tunday for those who haven't heard the term or

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Speaker 1: don't understand the term. Dixiecrats refers to Southerners who seceded

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Speaker 1: from the Democratic Party in nineteen forty eight. They were

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Speaker 1: against the party ending racial segregation and extending civil rights

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Speaker 1: to black Americans. Thousands of Confederate flag waiving X Democrats

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Speaker 1: formed a right wing splinter group called the States Rights

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Speaker 1: Democratic Party. This group pushed a white supremacist, segregationist agenda

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Speaker 1: and even ran a candidate in the nineteen forty eight

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Speaker 1: presidential election. While this failed third party officially dissolved that

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Speaker 1: same year, the Dixiecrats influence on the Democratic Party, especially

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Speaker 1: in the South, has been lasting all right back to

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Speaker 1: Insa now with the Georgia Democratic Party of the eighties

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Speaker 1: and nineties. The Dixiecrats the sort of small c conservative

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Speaker 1: approach to building power, the gentleman's agreements between the Democratic

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Speaker 1: leaders and the Republican leaders that spoke to the needs

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Speaker 1: and priorities of a business class, and the elite fictions

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Speaker 1: and narratives about Atlanta being the city too busy to

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Speaker 1: hate while also being the city in the country with

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Speaker 1: like the worst income equality, particularly racial income in equality.

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Speaker 1: So like, there's these narratives that are like really really

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Speaker 1: difficult to challenge, and a status quo and way to

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Speaker 1: do Southern politics and a way to do black politics.

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Speaker 1: So I hit her with all of that, and if

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Speaker 1: you know, Stacy, she had like thirty five reasons why

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Speaker 1: this absolutely could work. So we go back and forth,

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Speaker 1: we're doing back up the napkin math. I'm like, this

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Speaker 1: lady is brilliant but also delusional. Also, you're doing math

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Speaker 1: at brunch, which is not my idea of a great pleasure,

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Speaker 1: right listen, and our blurred status is certified. So we

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Speaker 1: have brunch, we go our separate ways. I get back

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Speaker 1: on a plane and I got back to Canada and

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Speaker 1: I was like, that was nice. And then a couple

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Speaker 1: of months later, she calls me and she says it's time.

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Speaker 1: It's time to come home. There's music and it's like

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Speaker 1: a Wakonda esque vibe to it. It is time, my child,

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Speaker 1: It's time. I was ready. I packed up my truck

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Speaker 1: and drove twenty four hours from Ottawa back to my

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Speaker 1: childhood bedroom in Atlanta. Wow. And started as the executive director,

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Speaker 1: eventually becoming the CEO of the New Georgia Project. Literally

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Speaker 1: like the next day, it's a dramatic move back. And

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Speaker 1: in the twenty four hour drive what pulled you? Was

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Speaker 1: it the pangs of nostalgia? Was it Stacy's math plus charisma?

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Speaker 1: Was the healthcare in Canada not all it was cracked

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Speaker 1: up to be. No healthcare in Canada was amazing and

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Speaker 1: I was trying to get my whole family to move

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Speaker 1: with me. But you know what it was. So I'm

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Speaker 1: I was born in Nigeria and emigrated to the US

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Speaker 1: with my family when I was a young wom when

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Speaker 1: I was in elementary school, Okay, And you know, I

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Speaker 1: became a US citizen with my mom in high school,

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Speaker 1: and my mom got a third job so that she

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Speaker 1: could hire an immigration attorney. And I was responsible for

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Speaker 1: making sure that we passed the citizenship exam, and having

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Speaker 1: studied the Constitution, studied this country's foundational documents, swore an

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Speaker 1: oath of allegiance. I'm a patriot. I love this country.

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Speaker 1: I am a radical, feminist, mouthy African working class kid

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Speaker 1: who grew up in the Deep South. Yeah. The vulnerability

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Speaker 1: that I sort of exist with, I think would have

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Speaker 1: put me. I would have been in jail if I

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Speaker 1: were in Nigeria. With my commitment to free speech, my

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Speaker 1: commitment to challenging the status quo, there are very few

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Speaker 1: countries in the world where you can challenge leadership, challenge power,

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Speaker 1: challenge the government and still live to tell the story

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Speaker 1: about it. As we're seeing, you know, in Iran, in

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Speaker 1: China and another country by the time someone hears this. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so when I think about the opportunity to come

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Speaker 1: back home right that what I've known for a really

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Speaker 1: long time is that Georgia wasn't a red state. George

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Speaker 1: isn't dominated by the GOP naturally, when you pull all

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Speaker 1: of its citizens, that there were one point two one

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Speaker 1: point three million people of color who were foreclosed and

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Speaker 1: not participating in the process at all. Why aren't people

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Speaker 1: voting when they get registered, Why aren't they making it

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Speaker 1: onto the voter rules. Why do people go and vote

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Speaker 1: for president and then there's such a drop off on

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Speaker 1: the bottom of the ballot. What's happening with these elections

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Speaker 1: in Georgia and the opportunity to take my background and

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Speaker 1: marry and leverage technology with culture to have a more

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Speaker 1: representative democracy and contest for power in my home state.

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Speaker 1: Let me only jump in here because it's almost like

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Speaker 1: you're adding resolution to a simplistic picture most of us

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Speaker 1: have been presented with. And so we see, especially from

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Speaker 1: the outside and not the South at all, Georgia read

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Speaker 1: Georgia Republican, Georgia racist and people who vote for president

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Speaker 1: and don't vote locally was because they don't care you

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Speaker 1: know that we just have a very generally simplestic, generally

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Speaker 1: binary and so you're coming in with this mathematical, technological,

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Speaker 1: but also cultural approach and you're helping people get in

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Speaker 1: the game. One of the ways that has stood out

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Speaker 1: to me about your work is not just vaguely registering voters,

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Speaker 1: as you said, a lot of people claim to be

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Speaker 1: doing that, some actually do. But then you have this

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Speaker 1: concept of super voters, and you wanted to create supervoters,

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Speaker 1: which sounds like some sort of magical serum that you

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Speaker 1: take and then your vote counts for three times as much.

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Speaker 1: But what is a supervoter? So the way I have

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Speaker 1: defined supervoters are people who vote in every election in

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Speaker 1: which they're eligible. And you know who are supervoters are

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Speaker 1: grandparents are supervoters. So senior citizens are super voters. Many

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Speaker 1: black women, African American women in this country are supervoters.

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Speaker 1: If there's a ballot measure, there's a special election, there's

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Speaker 1: a runoff, is a primary. These are super voters every

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Speaker 1: election in which they're eligible. And so we set off

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Speaker 1: to study and understand what is it that black women

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Speaker 1: know that despite the challenges of racism and sexism and

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Speaker 1: classism and how they intersect in this country. They still

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Speaker 1: show up and vote, and they vote in every election.

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Speaker 1: Right despite the limitations of you know, our elections and

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Speaker 1: voting not being a silver bullet, they still show up

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Speaker 1: and do it. What do our grandparents know that has

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Speaker 1: them showing up and voting in every election? And what

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Speaker 1: can we take from that knowing and in part to

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Speaker 1: new Americans and to folks as they turn eighteen and

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Speaker 1: start wrestling with how they want to make change in

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Speaker 1: their lives. So you've also said that super voters are made,

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Speaker 1: not born there as how do you make a supervoter

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Speaker 1: into You make a super voted by understanding what they

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Speaker 1: care about? Right, And so the way that we train

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Speaker 1: our organizers is that you have twice as many years

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Speaker 1: as you do out and you black Grandma said to me,

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Speaker 1: what do you think I got it from? Its very

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Speaker 1: clear and so we should be listening. Yeah, And here's

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Speaker 1: the thing. People will tell you what their hopes are,

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Speaker 1: what their fears are for themselves, for their families, for

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Speaker 1: their communities. They will tell you what their ambitions are.

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Speaker 1: And people don't often connect the dots between policy politics

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Speaker 1: and their personal priorities. The things that they actually care about.

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Speaker 1: So you say you're a climate change voter, right, Jeff

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Speaker 1: Bezos is not inviting you to travel to the moon.

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Speaker 1: Elon Musk is not inviting you to participate in intergalactic

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Speaker 1: space travel. There's no Earth to right, And so you

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Speaker 1: are deeply concerned about the water that we drink, the

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Speaker 1: air that we breathe, and making sure that there is

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Speaker 1: a world for future generations to live in. And so yes, like,

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Speaker 1: please continue to protest, please continue to write letters, please

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Speaker 1: conceive the recycle, and do all of the things that

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Speaker 1: you're doing in your personal life. But also, what if

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Speaker 1: I told you that Public Service Commissioner is an elected

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Speaker 1: official in Georgia that sets energy rates, that sets energy

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Speaker 1: policy for the state of Georgia. What if I told

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Speaker 1: you that there haven't been any nuclear power plants built

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Speaker 1: anywhere in the US in thirty years, and they're two

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Speaker 1: being built in Georgia. What if I told you that

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Speaker 1: if you're a Georgia power customer that you're paying for it, right,

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Speaker 1: that you can actually do something about it. And so

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Speaker 1: we start by having meaningful conversations with people about the

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Speaker 1: things that they told us that they care about. And

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Speaker 1: then you connect that to the power of the vote.

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Speaker 1: But why it's effective is because it goes to the

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Speaker 1: heart of what someone already cares for, what they already

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Speaker 1: going to protest for, what they already give their money to,

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Speaker 1: how they already see the world. So you're closing this gap.

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Speaker 1: People are already being active in their community. You're trying

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Speaker 1: to add voting to the list. There's been such a

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Speaker 1: level of poisoning of the collective mindset around the effectiveness

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Speaker 1: of voting that I know so many people who care

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Speaker 1: super passionately about this, that, and the other, and equally

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Speaker 1: dispassionately about voting because they don't think it matters. How

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Speaker 1: are you able to overcome the disinformation techniques that deny

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Speaker 1: people knowledge of the power of their vote or their

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Speaker 1: well earned pessimism that after having voted a few times

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Speaker 1: they haven't seen the change that was promised. So how

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Speaker 1: do you continue to close that gap in the face

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Speaker 1: of those two counter messages that voting doesn't really matter.

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Speaker 1: So there's a philosopher, a Mailcar cabravs as we never

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Speaker 1: lied to the people, right, And so I think that

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Speaker 1: one of the sort of knee jerk reactions and the

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Speaker 1: instincts is to overstate the importance of voting as a

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Speaker 1: way to combat against this information. And when you elect

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Speaker 1: a Barack Obama and black unemployment is still at historic

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Speaker 1: levels in the Deep South, then you have to go

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Speaker 1: back to those people and be like, I know you

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Speaker 1: voted because we said that this person would change things,

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Speaker 1: but you know the system is limited, etc. You know

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Speaker 1: that he's president, he's not king. And then he starts

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Speaker 1: talking to folks about federalism and checks and balances and

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Speaker 1: you know the role of the administrative branch versus the

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Speaker 1: judicial branch, etc. Leading with what does it take to

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Speaker 1: bring about the change? Elections aren't the event, right, and

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Speaker 1: so elections are opportunities to test our power and flex

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Speaker 1: our power on the way to getting wages that Georgians want, right,

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Speaker 1: And so again it is not about the election itself.

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Speaker 1: I mean they are events on a campaign timeline where

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Speaker 1: the campaign goal is to live a better life. Right,

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Speaker 1: is to have the things that we need in order

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Speaker 1: to live the life that we deserve to live in

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Speaker 1: the communities, the cities, the counties, the states that our

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Speaker 1: families deserve to live in. I think that that's why,

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Speaker 1: you know, when we focus on polling, and when we

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Speaker 1: focus on the horse race, and when there's so much

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Speaker 1: obsession about the elections themselves that we're actually doing democracy like,

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Speaker 1: we're doing harm to democracy, to the democratic process, and

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Speaker 1: to people's understanding about what is actually important. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: I'm glad that you named polling, which often acts as

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Speaker 1: a sort of election event pre emptor. Right, if you

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Speaker 1: tell me what's going to happen, you ensure that I

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Speaker 1: don't have an ability to affect what happens because I've

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Speaker 1: already assumed that it's going to happen the way you

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Speaker 1: told me. So it can be a subtle way of

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Speaker 1: draining people's power. You've been successful at registration, at getting

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Speaker 1: people to the polls. I've seen y'all got music, you

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Speaker 1: got events, you got good food, you know where it's allowed,

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Speaker 1: and using apps in technology, all good things. And I

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Speaker 1: think you also have articulated even here that the election

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Speaker 1: is a kind of a milestone on a journey. So

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Speaker 1: there's work to be done in between these, right, not

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Speaker 1: just showing up the week before election day at a

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Speaker 1: church with some barbecue. From a results perspective, though, because

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Speaker 1: y'all have the benefit and the curse in GP, I

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Speaker 1: should say had the benefit and the curse of fame.

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Speaker 1: You know, I joked about Stacey Abrams in Star Trek,

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Speaker 1: and I think from the outside people will look in

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Speaker 1: and say, Stacey Abrams ain't the governor. And Raphael Warnock

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Speaker 1: had to face a runoff with an out of state

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Speaker 1: football player who consistently cannot weave the correct words together,

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Speaker 1: so ergo. Therefore in GP is a failure, Like how

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Speaker 1: do you assess the results and consider success or failure

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Speaker 1: across these events? Over time, we in this country and

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Speaker 1: in our culture love a superhero and a messiahaire. Right,

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Speaker 1: And so when we think about Stacy Abrahams and her

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Speaker 1: quest to become governor of Georgia, her quest to become

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Speaker 1: America's first black woman governor, that it's focused on her narrative. Right,

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Speaker 1: when you think about Senator Warnock and like the idea

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Speaker 1: that you know he is the pastor of America's civil

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Speaker 1: rights church, that there was mer Luther King Jr. Two

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Speaker 1: other dudes and then Warnock right to command that pulpit.

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Speaker 1: That we focus on them and they are like heroic journey.

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Speaker 1: But actually the Georgia's story is the story about people

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Speaker 1: doing what they can when they can with what they have,

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Speaker 1: that people are showing up to vote in numbers as

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Speaker 1: well as protesting, as well as community organizing and power building, etc.

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Speaker 1: And so what I will say is that we have

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Speaker 1: built infrastructure that is designed to push back against the

431
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:06,400
Speaker 1: worst instincts of authoritarian leaders, and that is designed to win,

432
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 1: like actual wins for working people, for working families, and

433
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: then defend those wins beyond one election cycle. We elected

434
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,080
Speaker 1: a thirty three year old Jewish kid from the North

435
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:21,080
Speaker 1: Atlanta suburbs and Reverend Warnock from Ebenezer Baptist Church to

436
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:26,680
Speaker 1: the United States Senate right, and then immediately afterwards, because

437
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: there is a near supermajority in the Georgia state legislature,

438
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 1: they passed Senate Bill two O two, which changed Georgia's

439
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: election laws to make it more difficult for Georgians to vote.

440
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: After we elected us off in Warnock, and that could

441
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 1: have been the end of the sort of battleground Georgia project.

442
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,960
Speaker 1: But we've been able to hold the line, hundreds of

443
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: thousands of phone calls, millions of quality face to face

444
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: conversations letting Georgians know what's up, creating opportunities for them

445
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:02,280
Speaker 1: to get involved in their local community. That is a wine.

446
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 1: That is the thing that's going to keep our voices

447
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,920
Speaker 1: active and in the process, that's going to keep people

448
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 1: informed and educated over the long haul. And so it's

449
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 1: not just electoral results that determine our success. It's the

450
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 1: infrastructure that we've built and the ability to create pathways

451
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:28,159
Speaker 1: for people to citizen as a regular part of how

452
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,400
Speaker 1: we build the world that we want to live in.

453
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: Boom boom, boom boom. So yes, and using citizen as

454
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 1: a verb, you're clearly one of us. I am one

455
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 1: of you. I hinted at this before, but I want

456
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 1: to make a clearer point of it. I love the

457
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,120
Speaker 1: level of fun and play and sort of sophistication to

458
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: the strategy. You made a video game, you know, you

459
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,840
Speaker 1: turn longlines to vote into block parties, like you take

460
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: what should be considered a weakness and turn it into

461
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: an opportunity and potentially your strength. You got marching bands, yes,

462
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: and Mariachi van mariachis supwalkers, strippers, food trucks. So this

463
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: is culture to the max. It's it's a sophisticated use

464
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: of technology. Why was it important to incorporate these into

465
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 1: the work because we're trying to change the culture of democracy,

466
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 1: change the culture of citizen participation. People roll their eyes

467
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 1: and grown when they think about like having to show

468
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: up and vote, like, oh, it's election season again, right,

469
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: and we wanted to change that, and how else do

470
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 1: you change culture? But working with culture workers, Right, So,

471
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 1: I don't know how much your audience knows about Atlanta

472
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 1: and Atlanta nightlife, but nightlife is a big part of

473
00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 1: youth culture in Atlanta, and so adults entertainment dance. They're

474
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: strippers with like two million followers on Instagram who can

475
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 1: get out get out the vote message. So if I'm

476
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: trying to target young for example, African American men, I mean,

477
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: I can put up this really well research get out

478
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: the vote message direct to camera, and I'm earnest. I

479
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: mean what I say and I care, and my thirteen

480
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: hundred followers would be like right on and say it

481
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:22,960
Speaker 1: well stated. But then like, you know miss Cherry and

482
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 1: her two million followers, and she cares because she's an entrepreneur, yes, right,

483
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 1: and a citizen. So working with culture workers to help

484
00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: us change the culture of democratic participation felt like a

485
00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 1: really important tactic. When I think about music and songs

486
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: when the video games, I mean, we had registered at

487
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: the time half a million young people and people of

488
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: color to vote, and as a part of our work,

489
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,959
Speaker 1: we get their permission and their consent to get their

490
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,880
Speaker 1: phone numbers. So we got half a million phone numbers.

491
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: And so why not take a candy crush or like

492
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 1: a super popular Match three puzzle game that's sort of

493
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:07,720
Speaker 1: easy to code, rap it in some Georgia iconography. So

494
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: let's throw some peaches, some peanuts, the Varsity, the Georgia Bulldog,

495
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: and then put it in people's phones that you can

496
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: mindlessly scroll. And then we can do push notifications when

497
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: the voter registration deadline is on its way up, and

498
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 1: we can ask people for permission to turn on their

499
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:27,400
Speaker 1: location when they go vote, so that we can know

500
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: where there are long lines at the polls and deploy

501
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 1: resources if necessary. This speaks to me and I think

502
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: when we were backstage at this event in New York

503
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: where we met in person, the Blurred Fest, because you're

504
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 1: you're taking this geek culture, this tech culture, but again

505
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: joy fun play to change the culture of democracy, or

506
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 1: at least the culture of how we practice it. And

507
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 1: that is that is just a much better on ramp

508
00:31:55,600 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 1: than pure facts, well reasoned persuade of arguments, and also

509
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 1: the alternative which many of us have experienced with, which

510
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 1: is fear, which is threats. I could show you, but

511
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: I don't need to my inbox from the Democratic Party,

512
00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: primarily my text messages, the amount of folks I've had

513
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 1: to report and block for terrifying me into giving three

514
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 1: dollars to somebody who I don't know how they got

515
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,239
Speaker 1: my number. I didn't consent to that. It's such an

516
00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: opposite approach and it literally turns me off from democracy practice.

517
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: And I host a show called How to Citizen. So

518
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: can you I guess this is a long way of saying,

519
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: can you take over messaging for the whole Democratic Party?

520
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: I'll give you my number. You could text me anytime.

521
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 1: I think the challenges that it works, right, So like

522
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:53,560
Speaker 1: Fox News is really not a news organization at all,

523
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 1: it's a propaganda machine. But they're super effective because fear

524
00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 1: is a powerful motivator. Anger is a powerful motivated The

525
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: problem is that it is not sustainable that people burn

526
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 1: out and tune out, right, and so that is why

527
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 1: they send so many emails. Because you've sufficiently scared someone

528
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: and like, give me five dollars now, or the world

529
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:17,880
Speaker 1: is going to blow up and Trump's going to be

530
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 1: president again. It works a couple of times until it doesn't,

531
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 1: and then you got to burn through more citizens, you

532
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: got to burn through more donors. You have to ratchet

533
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: up the rhetoric in order to maintain the same level

534
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 1: of impact. And it's a cheap drug. It is a

535
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 1: cheap drug, and what I'm proposing is much more sustainable.

536
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 1: I say that joy is a renewable resource that we

537
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: can continue to tap back into. That people want to

538
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 1: come and hang out with us, they want to come

539
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 1: and volunteer with us, they want to come and donate

540
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 1: to our efforts because there's a nine foot person walking

541
00:33:54,720 --> 00:34:00,160
Speaker 1: around and like singing show tunes, keeping voters entertained and

542
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,959
Speaker 1: keeping people's spirits high. And you can continue to go

543
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: back to that well. The Second Line Band, the New

544
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: Orleans Natives who live in Georgia now, who came in

545
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,479
Speaker 1: volunteer for us. They loved what they did, and people

546
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 1: were super grateful and they got new clients from it.

547
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 1: And so when it came time to go back to

548
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:22,080
Speaker 1: the well, they were eager and made recommendations right that

549
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 1: did Miss Cherry get new clients as well? Miss Cherry

550
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:31,880
Speaker 1: definitely got new followers, and I think that her existing

551
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 1: customers and we're like, oh, she understands politics too, and

552
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: she gets work. What I'm saying after the break and

553
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,240
Speaker 1: say on what it takes to motivate people to vote

554
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:54,120
Speaker 1: for what they loved, not just against what they hate.

555
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:01,759
Speaker 1: What would you say The greatest challenge facing our electoral

556
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 1: system is, Mmm, there's so many. I'm trying to choose one.

557
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:19,879
Speaker 1: The insane amount of money that flows through our elections, um,

558
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: the way that wealthy individuals, high net worth individuals, incorporations

559
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 1: have their thumb on the scale, the way that they

560
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:34,280
Speaker 1: have elected officials in a chokehold, has made it really,

561
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: really difficult to make progress on the policy priorities that

562
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 1: Americans actually care about. There was a whole insurrection barrassing day,

563
00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:49,479
Speaker 1: Why are you bringing up a stuff? There was a

564
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 1: whole cool attempt right and there was a failed murder

565
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:58,240
Speaker 1: plot to kill the Vice President of the United States,

566
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 1: and the Speaker of the House tried to steal the

567
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:07,760
Speaker 1: electoral They identified alternative electors who were on standby, ready

568
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: to supplant the will of the people for their own

569
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:16,719
Speaker 1: and for a moment, corporations were shamed. A moment they

570
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 1: all refused to make any pack or corporate contributors, right right,

571
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:29,840
Speaker 1: that was that was an inspiring seventy two hours, and

572
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,440
Speaker 1: they said, we're not giving money to anyone who voted

573
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 1: against the electoral college vote, anybody who denied the results

574
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,879
Speaker 1: of the elections. They don't mean us well, they are

575
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 1: a threat to our country or a threat to democracy,

576
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 1: We're not going to give them money. And then quietly,

577
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: as we prepared for the twenty two mid terms, they

578
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 1: turned this bigot back on right and they started giving

579
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,520
Speaker 1: to both sides as if they were equal. They started

580
00:36:55,520 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 1: to equivocate. They started to justify, you know, giving money

581
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,959
Speaker 1: to these election deniers. And so, yeah, I think that

582
00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 1: the money as speech, corporations as citizens are one of

583
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 1: the biggest threats to our democracy, to our election system,

584
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,640
Speaker 1: and no one is interested in unilatterally disarming. So the

585
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: Republicans are not gonna say I'm gonna stop taking corporate money,

586
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:25,520
Speaker 1: and for the most part, most Democrats won't say, I mean,

587
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 1: you have some anomalies like Senator Sanders and AOC and

588
00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:33,479
Speaker 1: others who are principled in this particular way, right, but

589
00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:37,399
Speaker 1: no one is interested in unilatterally disarming. Maybe I want

590
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:39,760
Speaker 1: to see it as an interim. We're kind of between worlds,

591
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: because even we were having a joyful conversation, you and

592
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,239
Speaker 1: I until I ask you about the biggest threat, right,

593
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:49,720
Speaker 1: and then it was like oh snap, like bubble burst,

594
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: the funding of pro insurrectionists people. And so we see

595
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 1: a path of twerking the vote and second lining the

596
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:01,600
Speaker 1: vote and crushing the on our phone and meeting people

597
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:04,240
Speaker 1: where they are and listening. And then we see fear

598
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 1: and the cheap drug which still gets you high but

599
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 1: also kills you know and can kill the body. Politic

600
00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 1: absolutely the way out other than the joy part, which

601
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 1: you've been so good at talking about. Part of the strategy,

602
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:20,600
Speaker 1: and what you wrote in your farewell letter is about love,

603
00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:24,799
Speaker 1: and so I want to know this is let me

604
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:26,319
Speaker 1: just share a little bit of what you said, and

605
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 1: our work fighting for justice and a new future, love

606
00:38:29,239 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 1: can easily get overshadowed by all the things working against it.

607
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,200
Speaker 1: And then you go on to quote Bell Hooks, the

608
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,520
Speaker 1: late black feminist writer. I move with and from a

609
00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 1: love ethic which has guided me, fortified me, and provided

610
00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 1: the load bearing beams that support all that we have built.

611
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,399
Speaker 1: So what do you mean by the love ethic? How

612
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,759
Speaker 1: do we citizen more with love to ensure that the

613
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 1: forces of love and fun and joy defeat the forces

614
00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:02,040
Speaker 1: of fear and that cheap and unsustainable drug. So it's

615
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:06,760
Speaker 1: a practice, right. I am so good at telling people

616
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,040
Speaker 1: about all the things that I hate, Right. I tell

617
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 1: the movies that I hate, the music that I hate,

618
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 1: the people that I based, and it's at the forefront

619
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,759
Speaker 1: of my cerebral cortexes and my fingertips. It rolls off

620
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,400
Speaker 1: my tongue, right. But when you ask people about what

621
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 1: they love, right, what they love, what they care deeply about,

622
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,360
Speaker 1: like sometimes it takes folks a minute. I think that

623
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:31,400
Speaker 1: people are really precious about it. They're really protective about it.

624
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:33,720
Speaker 1: That people will go to the ends of the earth

625
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 1: for the ones that they love and the things that

626
00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 1: they love. You've seen the mom lift a car off

627
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 1: of a toddler, right because of the love that they

628
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 1: have for that young person. And so focusing on who

629
00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:52,239
Speaker 1: I love, what I love, and what I want for them,

630
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: what I want for us is the load bearing being.

631
00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:01,600
Speaker 1: What I'm building my campaigns on what I'm building my life.

632
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 1: It was build my career on like who do you

633
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:08,919
Speaker 1: love and what kind of world do you want for them?

634
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,560
Speaker 1: What kind of country do you want for them? And

635
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:13,840
Speaker 1: I think that that is what I mean by the

636
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 1: love ethic, that it is infused in our communications. It's

637
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:28,440
Speaker 1: infused in our campaign design, who we hire, who we

638
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:32,000
Speaker 1: partner with, the vendors that we use, like do you

639
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 1: share our values? Do you share our analysis? Are you fighting?

640
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,879
Speaker 1: I mean it even comes down to like real estate

641
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 1: choices that we've made, like we've moved offices because found

642
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:47,719
Speaker 1: out that like the show company that actually is our

643
00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:51,840
Speaker 1: landlord is also like connected to somebody that we're actively

644
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 1: campaigning and organizing against because they're anti worker or you know,

645
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 1: they're spending money against the union organizing campaign. And so

646
00:40:59,239 --> 00:41:02,759
Speaker 1: thinking about again who we love, what's important to us,

647
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:06,040
Speaker 1: what matters, and using that as a lens to make

648
00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:10,000
Speaker 1: decisions and a lens to see the world at the

649
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:14,279
Speaker 1: very obvious risk of playing into puns. I love this

650
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 1: part of our conversation and say, yeah, a lot of

651
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,800
Speaker 1: things come together, and I think the the extra step,

652
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:27,160
Speaker 1: the infusion piece, the lens piece that it's not just

653
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:30,719
Speaker 1: in who you hire, it's how you employ, it's where

654
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: you put your real estate money, it's how you message

655
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 1: that if that fuel source can power everything, then it

656
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:41,920
Speaker 1: can change everything. So that's that's great. What are you

657
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 1: bringing your love and your love ethic to next? And say,

658
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:48,959
Speaker 1: I hear you might be writing a book. I am.

659
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 1: I really wish that like technology advanced to the place

660
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 1: where the book can write itself. It's almost there. We

661
00:41:55,200 --> 00:42:00,560
Speaker 1: got these little AI learning models. I hate them again.

662
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,759
Speaker 1: Back to it's like I don't sound like that, and

663
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:06,440
Speaker 1: that real people don't talk like that. But yeah, I

664
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,719
Speaker 1: want to tell the story of people power and how

665
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 1: it gets built. I won't say too much, but I'm

666
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:16,400
Speaker 1: excited about a graphic novel that tells a story about

667
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:18,360
Speaker 1: how we win. We've never had more money than the

668
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:23,400
Speaker 1: enemies of progress, right, But throughout the history of the world,

669
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:28,399
Speaker 1: people linking up with folks who share their values and

670
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,839
Speaker 1: fighting next to one another for a world that they

671
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:36,359
Speaker 1: think that they deserve has been the most consistent way

672
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 1: that we've won. And so I want to show what

673
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:43,200
Speaker 1: that looks like in the twenty twenties and inspire a

674
00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 1: next generation of young citizens to take responsibility for building

675
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:53,359
Speaker 1: the future. And you know, too long didn't read as

676
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,239
Speaker 1: a lifestyle. So let's give some dope pictures. Pictures and

677
00:42:57,320 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: you know, pictures worth a thousand words. So it's basically

678
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 1: data impression. Yeah, at see, this is what I mean.

679
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,400
Speaker 1: I've been going hard for a while, and so I think,

680
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 1: you know, going somewhere and crying in the ocean and

681
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:14,920
Speaker 1: then writing a book feels like the priority for the

682
00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:19,399
Speaker 1: next couple of months. You deserve that so much. We

683
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 1: have this belief here and we practice it in the

684
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,839
Speaker 1: title citizen as a verb. It's something we can all do.

685
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,960
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you for your definition. If you interpret

686
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:32,640
Speaker 1: citizen as a verb, what does it mean to you

687
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:41,400
Speaker 1: to citizen? To citizen means knowing yourself, knowing your priorities,

688
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 1: and then articulating that to folks who are making decisions

689
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: about the communities that we need to build. And it's

690
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:56,279
Speaker 1: not an outsourcing thing, right, It's a small d democracy things.

691
00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 1: We are making decisions together and I am being honest

692
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 1: about my motivations. I'm being honest about my priorities, and

693
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 1: I'm being honest about how I want my money spent.

694
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,560
Speaker 1: You are these principles in motion, in action. You are

695
00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:21,279
Speaker 1: these beams. Your love ethic shines beautifully through. So so

696
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 1: thank you for this one on one conversation and say,

697
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:30,800
Speaker 1: oh fuck, thank you Bir today blur king. I mean again,

698
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:34,239
Speaker 1: it means so much to me to have this conversation

699
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:38,600
Speaker 1: with you. One. I remember the early days of Twitter,

700
00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 1: getting on there looking for community and like black immigrant nerd,

701
00:44:45,960 --> 00:44:48,160
Speaker 1: but with you know, a little bit of swag like

702
00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 1: a sprinkle if you will, and coming across your feed,

703
00:44:57,480 --> 00:45:01,839
Speaker 1: coming across like your public scholarship, your public organizing, and

704
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:06,280
Speaker 1: like finding my people. It was just really really important

705
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:09,280
Speaker 1: to me in my formative years as I think about

706
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,360
Speaker 1: like how to use technology to build a better world.

707
00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:15,800
Speaker 1: And so this is such a treat and I feel

708
00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:19,520
Speaker 1: so fortunate to be able to sit down and have

709
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: this time with you. So thank you. Is it just

710
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 1: because I have a fake Nigerian name that you follow

711
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:30,120
Speaker 1: me on Twitter? I mean that helps. I'm not gonna lie.

712
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:32,160
Speaker 1: I get a lot of I get another Nigerians that way.

713
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 1: I am an unofficial census taker of all Nigerian Americans.

714
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:38,800
Speaker 1: So like if you have a little bit of African

715
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:43,640
Speaker 1: ancestry DNA result of like he's Nigerians. Good. So we're

716
00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:46,799
Speaker 1: going into phase two to our live audience here, Thank

717
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 1: you for witnessing this. We've gathered a lot of your questions.

718
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:54,759
Speaker 1: First up is Janine, say your name and where you're based. Hi,

719
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:59,760
Speaker 1: Janine from Philadelphia. Thank you so much. This was lovely.

720
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,600
Speaker 1: My question is you all talked a lot about on ramping,

721
00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:07,359
Speaker 1: you know, political education for folks, and you spoke right

722
00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: at the beginning that voting is one tactic among tactics,

723
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:13,600
Speaker 1: and I was wondering, what do you think are your

724
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:18,080
Speaker 1: top three or maybe four or five tactics for doing

725
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:23,200
Speaker 1: this work of connecting people to small p politics locally

726
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:27,640
Speaker 1: all year so that when someone like you and folks

727
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:30,040
Speaker 1: are trying to do the voting thing, the on ramp

728
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:35,400
Speaker 1: is a little less steep. Definitely, public scholarship, public and

729
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:40,719
Speaker 1: popular education is really important too. I think cultural organizing, right,

730
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:45,279
Speaker 1: and so reimagining what's possible, continuing to challenge stories about

731
00:46:45,280 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 1: the status quo, etcetera. You know, I think Adrian Marie

732
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:50,719
Speaker 1: Brown says that like all organizing is an act of

733
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 1: science fiction, that we are working to build a world

734
00:46:55,239 --> 00:46:58,680
Speaker 1: that currently only exists in our minds, right, and So

735
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:00,960
Speaker 1: how do you share that vision of the world. Is

736
00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 1: it through song? Is it through dance? Is it through

737
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:06,960
Speaker 1: your witty and fire tweets and Instagram posts? Right? And

738
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:10,840
Speaker 1: then what are other year round tactics? Oh, I think honestly,

739
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:15,720
Speaker 1: for us, it is the asking of questions. It's the polling,

740
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:19,479
Speaker 1: It's the knocking on doors and having high quality face

741
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:23,720
Speaker 1: to face conversations when it's possible that I would argue

742
00:47:23,800 --> 00:47:27,200
Speaker 1: that there's nobody in the state of Georgia that has

743
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:30,320
Speaker 1: a better sense of where young people are and the

744
00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:33,320
Speaker 1: attitudes of black people and black voters than me, and

745
00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: the infrastructure that I've built at the New Georgia Project

746
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 1: because I invest in it because it's important to me,

747
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:40,920
Speaker 1: because it's what we do year round. So you can't

748
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:43,360
Speaker 1: find out what people care about and then connect that

749
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:45,160
Speaker 1: to the act of voting and then get them to

750
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:48,840
Speaker 1: understand that voting is important in October before an election,

751
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:50,800
Speaker 1: that that is something that we are doing day in

752
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 1: and day out year round, and so meaningful conversations with

753
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:58,040
Speaker 1: people about things that matter. Thank you for that. And

754
00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 1: as for your answers, the imagination game is very strong.

755
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 1: We've got an interview in this season coming up with

756
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 1: Ruha Benjamin, who says, you know, we are living in

757
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,440
Speaker 1: other people's imaginations, just in terms of the reality of

758
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 1: the world we set and a white supremacist imagination often

759
00:48:14,040 --> 00:48:17,360
Speaker 1: and we have Adrian Marie Brown and lastly on the

760
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:22,040
Speaker 1: Year Round organizing with Angela Lange from Block Milwaukee in

761
00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 1: an earlier episode. So if folks want to find out

762
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:26,800
Speaker 1: more of what that can look like, Angela is a

763
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 1: great resource in our conversation with her. I will now

764
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 1: call on Diane Hendrix, a regular in the How To

765
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:37,000
Speaker 1: Citizen World. Now, Diane, welcome back. Say your name and

766
00:48:37,080 --> 00:48:40,240
Speaker 1: where you're calling in from. Hi there, I'm Diane Hendrix

767
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:45,680
Speaker 1: from Boston. I grew up in Georgia. I was where

768
00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: Hot Wanta I was. I went to take some Sensus

769
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:56,760
Speaker 1: down there, and so I was inspired by Stacey Abrams

770
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,880
Speaker 1: to do some phone banking for Reverend war Orknock and

771
00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:07,320
Speaker 1: that was so wonderful. So the very wooden instructions that

772
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:11,800
Speaker 1: you get from some of these phone bank people is

773
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:15,680
Speaker 1: not very inspiring. But I wondered if you have strategies

774
00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:20,800
Speaker 1: like backdoor strategies for phone banking calls because you're not

775
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 1: supposed to talk about, of course, who you're voting for,

776
00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:28,320
Speaker 1: so you get to hide that. Here's a question, I like,

777
00:49:29,040 --> 00:49:31,640
Speaker 1: what kind of voter are you? And give people examples

778
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 1: like are you an education voter? Are you a Second

779
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:38,040
Speaker 1: Amendment voter? Are your climate change voter? Are your women's

780
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:41,560
Speaker 1: health voter? And you know, give people some examples, but

781
00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 1: then give them an opportunity to answer that open ended question,

782
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:46,759
Speaker 1: because it'll also give you a sense of what they

783
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:51,960
Speaker 1: care about and help you talk about the candidate, the

784
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:55,040
Speaker 1: ballot measure, whatever it is that your phone banking them

785
00:49:55,080 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 1: about in a more bespoke way, like in a more narrow,

786
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,440
Speaker 1: more tailored way, because they've already told you what they

787
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:07,000
Speaker 1: care about. Good question, Diane from Boston and Georgia. Okay,

788
00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:12,040
Speaker 1: Beatrice Sue Blay for chance, All right, right, Sue Blay

789
00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:14,640
Speaker 1: is correct. And I just think it was fortuitous that

790
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:19,280
Speaker 1: while we were on a person from the New Georgia

791
00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 1: Projects came to my door and here's the door doctor,

792
00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: And it was just beautiful and not only well, first

793
00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:29,040
Speaker 1: of all, he was asking telling me that I know

794
00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:31,160
Speaker 1: about the run off, and of course I'm an East

795
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:33,560
Speaker 1: Point Georgia. I forgot to say that, Hey, Mayhver. Oh good,

796
00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 1: all right, hi baby, and I'm from New Orleans too.

797
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 1: I came up after Katrina, so if I call you baby,

798
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:41,120
Speaker 1: don't get your feelings her. I'm familiar. But after I

799
00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:43,160
Speaker 1: told him that I had voted, I knew about I

800
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 1: voted on Saturday because our senator had sued to get

801
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:49,080
Speaker 1: that day and I was gonna go out there, baby.

802
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 1: So anyway, after I thought our conversation might have been

803
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:55,400
Speaker 1: over and he had given me this wanderful information, he

804
00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:57,760
Speaker 1: began to ask me, what are some of your issues?

805
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:01,000
Speaker 1: And I thought that was so profound because I was

806
00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:03,759
Speaker 1: able to articulate them, and there was one that I

807
00:51:03,920 --> 00:51:06,160
Speaker 1: had a concern about that he wasn't sure what you know,

808
00:51:06,200 --> 00:51:08,440
Speaker 1: what had happened with the Education committee anyway, But the

809
00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 1: point is it was a wonderful encounter and it was

810
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: not just here take this. We've given rise to the polls.

811
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 1: Thank you by It was excellent. It was a relationship,

812
00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:21,239
Speaker 1: even in that short time. So it was just for two.

813
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,000
Speaker 1: It's just that we were on and I was so happy.

814
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:26,920
Speaker 1: I'm happy. Thank you for confirming that I'm not a liar.

815
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:33,439
Speaker 1: Right that we asked people what they care about it's

816
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:36,920
Speaker 1: conversational and we don't lie to the people. He didn't

817
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:39,680
Speaker 1: know about the Education committee thing that you were concerned about,

818
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:41,920
Speaker 1: and he told you, but he was able to engage

819
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 1: you on other topics. So I love this. I love that,

820
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:48,880
Speaker 1: and say you are so organized that you planted a

821
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:52,719
Speaker 1: New Georgia Project canvas there to hit up one of

822
00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:57,040
Speaker 1: our audience members during this live taping that's with lit

823
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:02,040
Speaker 1: with the doorhanger. I'm just I'm good. Oh if I'm

824
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:04,560
Speaker 1: going to ask this question on behalf of a listeners

825
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:09,400
Speaker 1: from Paula Costa or Costa, how do you peacefully respectfully

826
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:14,919
Speaker 1: address the issue of gun regulation, especially in communities where

827
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 1: many people believe not only that gun ownership is an absolute,

828
00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:28,480
Speaker 1: unquestionable right, but part of their identity. I mean, we

829
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:35,360
Speaker 1: are in a gun's everywhere state, and guns is actually

830
00:52:35,480 --> 00:52:42,000
Speaker 1: particularly challenging in a place like Georgia where marginalized groups

831
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,720
Speaker 1: and a press groups, minority groups have had to hold

832
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:51,399
Speaker 1: the line and defend themselves and their communities against state

833
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:58,400
Speaker 1: sanctioned violence. And so it's a conversation that we lean into,

834
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:02,399
Speaker 1: but it is going to be a cultural conversation, which

835
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:06,080
Speaker 1: means that like quick hits are not gonna get it

836
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:11,520
Speaker 1: done because thinking about guns and the culture of guns

837
00:53:11,680 --> 00:53:15,440
Speaker 1: in a place like Chicago versus thinking about guns and

838
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:18,440
Speaker 1: the culture of guns in a place like Brunswick, Georgia,

839
00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:24,279
Speaker 1: right where you know, a mod Arbrey was running and

840
00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:30,160
Speaker 1: it was murdered by some vigilantes and people who thought

841
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:32,719
Speaker 1: that they had the color of authority just because they

842
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: were white. It is a very different conversation. And I

843
00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:41,839
Speaker 1: always always always start with listening. It's easy to think

844
00:53:41,920 --> 00:53:44,759
Speaker 1: that like people are clinging to their guns and their

845
00:53:44,880 --> 00:53:50,360
Speaker 1: god because of ignorance and because you know, they've inherited

846
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:54,600
Speaker 1: a political ideology they've inherited, like the mythology of like

847
00:53:54,840 --> 00:53:57,400
Speaker 1: the frontiersman and what it means to be an American.

848
00:53:57,920 --> 00:54:02,240
Speaker 1: But there are seventy five years black grandmothers in South

849
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:06,200
Speaker 1: Georgia who've seen some shit. Yeah, and you are not

850
00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:09,840
Speaker 1: going to take her shotgun. You're just not. And so

851
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:14,160
Speaker 1: who are you talking to? Yeah? Right? And why are

852
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:16,440
Speaker 1: they so committed to guns? And honestly, if we just

853
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:20,759
Speaker 1: regulated the corporations who are mass producing these guns and

854
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:26,080
Speaker 1: who throw money and buy elected officials, like that could

855
00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:31,640
Speaker 1: be the silver bullet to starting us on the path

856
00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:34,880
Speaker 1: to gun controlled and so we could focus on the

857
00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:38,040
Speaker 1: culture wars, We could focus on Bubba or you know,

858
00:54:38,160 --> 00:54:41,000
Speaker 1: Miss Mabel and like why people had their guns, or

859
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:43,200
Speaker 1: we could go directly to Smith and Weston, we could

860
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:46,560
Speaker 1: go directly to the NR who have an outside influence

861
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:50,960
Speaker 1: on gun policy in this country. Yeah, and say, is

862
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:54,960
Speaker 1: there anything you want to add yourself that is related

863
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:57,360
Speaker 1: to this topic that we didn't get to or just

864
00:54:57,520 --> 00:54:59,760
Speaker 1: on your mind, totally unrelated, but you have a microphone

865
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:02,759
Speaker 1: interview and you want to say some things. I am

866
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:08,600
Speaker 1: even more convinced now that like borders are fake, and

867
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:13,120
Speaker 1: with the Internet making the world so much smaller, that

868
00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:18,440
Speaker 1: like attacks on information and information sources and democracy is

869
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:21,040
Speaker 1: really a global phenomenon. And so I think that we

870
00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 1: also need to be looking at what's happening in other

871
00:55:25,280 --> 00:55:29,040
Speaker 1: countries as a little bit of foreshadowing about what happens

872
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:33,640
Speaker 1: if we lose the ability to hire and fire elected officials.

873
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,279
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I just encouraging people to not

874
00:55:37,440 --> 00:55:40,520
Speaker 1: think about democracy. It's just the voting conversation, but really

875
00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:44,080
Speaker 1: thinking about like it is the way that we make

876
00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: decisions about how our world works, and it is actually really,

877
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:56,840
Speaker 1: really really important and the spillover from failing democracies or

878
00:55:56,880 --> 00:56:00,600
Speaker 1: attacks on democracies could be really, really kind of sequential,

879
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:04,880
Speaker 1: and I just want us to be mindful of that.

880
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:08,120
Speaker 1: I love y'all, We love you too, and say thank

881
00:56:08,200 --> 00:56:10,680
Speaker 1: you so much. The way we make decisions, on the

882
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:13,680
Speaker 1: way our world works. That is a great definition of democracy,

883
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:16,400
Speaker 1: and your practice of it is inspiring all of us.

884
00:56:16,520 --> 00:56:26,080
Speaker 1: Have a beautiful rest of your day. Let's be real.

885
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:32,120
Speaker 1: Ideally we wouldn't need carnivals, marching bands and miss Cherry

886
00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:35,040
Speaker 1: post into her page in order to get people out

887
00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:38,080
Speaker 1: to the polls and then wait in long lines once

888
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:43,120
Speaker 1: they got there. Ideally we wouldn't need hundreds or thousands

889
00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:46,719
Speaker 1: of volunteers on the ground registering people to vote in

890
00:56:46,920 --> 00:56:51,439
Speaker 1: order to have fair representative voter turnout. But we don't

891
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:54,400
Speaker 1: yet live in that ideal, and in the space between

892
00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:58,080
Speaker 1: the ideal and the real. Thankfully we've got people like

893
00:56:58,239 --> 00:57:01,200
Speaker 1: in Say helping us close the gap. She does this

894
00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:05,360
Speaker 1: using a story of love as both a motivator and

895
00:57:05,719 --> 00:57:09,200
Speaker 1: as a goal, a story that values the culture we

896
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:13,040
Speaker 1: create around democracy as much as the systems that make

897
00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:22,400
Speaker 1: that democracy function. And now it's time for some actions,

898
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:27,160
Speaker 1: starting with an internal reflection. I want us to feel

899
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:30,560
Speaker 1: the love as both a motivator and as a goal.

900
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:35,160
Speaker 1: Take a moment to reflect on what you love about

901
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:39,760
Speaker 1: your city, your county, or your country as you're thinking

902
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:44,240
Speaker 1: of it, pause and breathe while visualizing those things for

903
00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:47,200
Speaker 1: just a few minutes. What do you feel in your

904
00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:49,880
Speaker 1: body when you put your attention on what you love

905
00:57:50,680 --> 00:57:54,680
Speaker 1: and how might this feeling help you citizen better? Now?

906
00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:57,440
Speaker 1: Our next action is in the category of becoming more

907
00:57:57,560 --> 00:58:01,440
Speaker 1: informd and Say mentioned this idea of a love ethic,

908
00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:04,920
Speaker 1: which she got from black feminist author and activist Belle Hooks.

909
00:58:05,760 --> 00:58:09,160
Speaker 1: Learn more about that ethic by reading Hooks's book All

910
00:58:09,240 --> 00:58:12,120
Speaker 1: about Love, New Visions, a love song to the Nation.

911
00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:15,080
Speaker 1: If you've only got time right now For something shorter,

912
00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:18,840
Speaker 1: we found a beautiful blog post that summarizes bell Hooks's

913
00:58:18,920 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 1: love ethic. Both the book and the blog are linked

914
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:26,080
Speaker 1: in the show notes. And last, but not least, let's

915
00:58:26,120 --> 00:58:28,400
Speaker 1: put that love to work in the form of some

916
00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:33,160
Speaker 1: public participation. Now, there's only one new Georgia project, so

917
00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:36,560
Speaker 1: if you live in Georgia, get involved with that organization.

918
00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:40,160
Speaker 1: You've heard all the reasons why in this episode. For

919
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:42,520
Speaker 1: those of us not blessed to live in the Peach date.

920
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:45,680
Speaker 1: Every region of the US has similar groups focused on

921
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:50,440
Speaker 1: relational organizing work. Check out popular democracy dot org for

922
00:58:50,560 --> 00:58:54,640
Speaker 1: a great listing of affiliate organizations all around the US

923
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:57,280
Speaker 1: that you can get involved with. You can also put

924
00:58:57,360 --> 00:59:00,720
Speaker 1: relational organizing to work with your relationships. When it's time

925
00:59:00,760 --> 00:59:04,520
Speaker 1: to vote, there's organizations like Circle Voting or vote Force.

926
00:59:04,920 --> 00:59:07,520
Speaker 1: Check the show notes for links to everything I just mentioned.

927
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:11,120
Speaker 1: If you take any of these actions, please brag about

928
00:59:11,160 --> 00:59:14,920
Speaker 1: it online and use the hashtag how to Citizen. Also

929
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:18,840
Speaker 1: tag our Instagram how to Citizen. I am always online

930
00:59:18,880 --> 00:59:20,960
Speaker 1: and I really do see your messages, so send them.

931
00:59:21,480 --> 00:59:24,280
Speaker 1: You can also visit our website, howard to citizen dot com,

932
00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 1: which has all of our shows, full transcripts, actions, and more. Finally,

933
00:59:30,320 --> 00:59:33,720
Speaker 1: see this episode show notes for resources, actions, and more

934
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:38,840
Speaker 1: ways to connect. How to Citizen with barrettun Day is

935
00:59:38,840 --> 00:59:43,040
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Row Home Productions. Our

936
00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:47,640
Speaker 1: executive producers are Me, barrettun Day, Thurston, and Elizabeth Stewart.

937
00:59:48,120 --> 00:59:51,920
Speaker 1: Our lead producer is Ali Graham. Our associate producer is

938
00:59:52,000 --> 00:59:56,720
Speaker 1: Donya abdel Hamid, Alex Lewis is our managing producer and

939
00:59:56,920 --> 01:00:00,680
Speaker 1: John Myers is our executive editor. Our mix engineer is

940
01:00:00,760 --> 01:00:05,400
Speaker 1: Justin Burger. Original music by Andrew Eapan with additional music

941
01:00:05,520 --> 01:00:09,480
Speaker 1: by Blue Dot Sessions, and our audience engagement fellows are

942
01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:13,840
Speaker 1: Jasmine Lewis and Gabbie Rodriguez. Special thanks to Joel Smith

943
01:00:13,880 --> 01:00:25,560
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio and Layla Bean Next Time on how to

944
01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:28,600
Speaker 1: citizen in say taught us how to get the most

945
01:00:28,680 --> 01:00:31,480
Speaker 1: out of the voting system we've got. But how else

946
01:00:31,520 --> 01:00:34,160
Speaker 1: could civic engagement look if we were invited to do

947
01:00:34,320 --> 01:00:38,600
Speaker 1: more than just choose our representatives? What if we represented ourselves.

948
01:00:38,920 --> 01:00:40,600
Speaker 1: I don't want this to just be some sort of

949
01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:44,560
Speaker 1: politician bashing. I really feel like it's a systemic problem.

950
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:48,760
Speaker 1: The short termism, the fact that party politics and campaign

951
01:00:48,840 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 1: financing and all these things come out on top in

952
01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:54,080
Speaker 1: terms of what are the incentives for the collective public

953
01:00:54,200 --> 01:00:57,720
Speaker 1: decisions we're taking. These are features, not bugs, of the

954
01:00:57,840 --> 01:01:00,280
Speaker 1: system that we have today, and so how do we

955
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:02,880
Speaker 1: redesign the system and how do we shift power to

956
01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:08,200
Speaker 1: new institutions of citizen participation, representation by law, and deliberation.

957
01:01:08,840 --> 01:01:11,800
Speaker 1: Claudia Phlitts on the movement to put citizens at the

958
01:01:11,880 --> 01:01:22,080
Speaker 1: center of our democracy with citizen assemblies, row home productions