Speaker 1: But it's not like a one aunt builds that entire colony,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, Yeah, it's every single
Speaker 1: one working together, more.
Speaker 2: Better, more and better, more, a little better, more and more.
Speaker 3: Welcome to More Better, a podcast where we stop pretending
Speaker 3: to have it all together and embrace the journey of
Speaker 3: becoming a little more better every day.
Speaker 4: That's most of a Mara And that's Stephanie Beatrice. Yeah,
Speaker 4: here we are. We're just really doing it.
Speaker 1: You guys, thanks for tuning in once again to the Shenanigans.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 4: What are you doing this week? That's more better? Uh,
Speaker 4: let's see.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be okay with uh my snacking habits.
Speaker 1: I may or may not have had an entire king
Speaker 1: sized Twigs bar last night, very late, and I'm okay
Speaker 1: with it. It just was something that I needed to
Speaker 1: do for myself.
Speaker 4: I love that. Yeah, it was good. I like Twigs.
Speaker 4: Hey man, They're a delight. I also did a late
Speaker 4: night snack last week. It was a bag of ship.
Speaker 4: You were gonna say I did a late night slut.
Speaker 5: I was like, tell me.
Speaker 3: More, No, it's a late night snack and you know what,
Speaker 3: and sure it was. And I dragged my husband into
Speaker 3: it too. He had half the snack. Now this does
Speaker 3: sound like innuendo, but yeah it does. He was like
Speaker 3: that was fun. I was like it was fun, wasn't it?
Speaker 3: Sometimes it was late night snacks are fun? Really, I'm
Speaker 3: talking about food, Yeah, sure, more better.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 3: Anyway, we're talking about something really important today with someone
Speaker 3: awesome who we both adore and look up to. I
Speaker 3: would say for myself, we're talking about finding causes you
Speaker 3: care about and civic duty, which to me, I've I
Speaker 3: think I've always kind of gravitated towards like I don't know,
Speaker 3: causes are just like speaking up, but like it's also
Speaker 3: kind of sometimes you get like, well, how can I
Speaker 3: be effective at this?
Speaker 4: And how can I do this more?
Speaker 3: And like just doing it online doesn't feel like enough
Speaker 3: and you know what I mean. And so it's always
Speaker 3: been this sort of ever evolving kind of relationship that
Speaker 3: I think I've gotten better at.
Speaker 4: As I get older, but I still think I could be.
Speaker 2: Even better at.
Speaker 3: And then you know, and civic duty that one, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, like voting has always been a big deal
Speaker 3: for me. I voted for the first time after September eleventh,
Speaker 3: and just always felt really because that happened to be
Speaker 3: the year that I turned eighteen, and so I just
Speaker 3: I've always felt really strongly about that, and I, you know, would.
Speaker 5: Say to.
Speaker 3: People that I knew that, you know, decided to sit
Speaker 3: out a vote or something.
Speaker 4: I would just be like, well, then you can't complain.
Speaker 4: If you're not going to participate, then you can't complain. Ah.
Speaker 3: I literally just put my hands on my hips to
Speaker 3: do that. Yeah, what does it mean to you, Steph?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 4: What's your been in your journey with it? You know,
Speaker 4: that's such a good question.
Speaker 1: I think I think a lot about this because the
Speaker 1: first time I heard about like, uh, when I was
Speaker 1: in Sunday School. When I was a kid, we we
Speaker 1: read like a Sunday School book that was like the
Speaker 1: Parable of the Good Samaritan. And if you don't know
Speaker 1: what that is, it's the story that Jesus tells somebody
Speaker 1: that's talking to him.
Speaker 4: He's like, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Love your neighbor as yourself, right, And the story is
Speaker 1: that there's a man that's walking down the road and
Speaker 1: he gets robbed and all these different people pass by
Speaker 1: him and nobody does anything, Like a priest passes by,
Speaker 1: like multiple people pass by, and then there's like a
Speaker 1: person that stops who's I think the Samaritan is like
Speaker 1: a different religion, and he stops and he helps the
Speaker 1: person that's robbed. And I remember that making like a
Speaker 1: really big impression in my mind as a little kid,
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, other people love other people as yourself.
Speaker 5: Okay, So that means I need to.
Speaker 1: That means like, if I care about myself, then then
Speaker 1: part of caring about myself is like caring about other
Speaker 1: people because we're all doing this, sharing this world together.
Speaker 1: We're all part of this community. But I have trouble
Speaker 1: with it because I don't know how it extends to you.
Speaker 4: Know, as a woman.
Speaker 1: As a woman, it's not always safe for me to necessarily,
Speaker 1: you know, for example, like get out of my car
Speaker 1: and help a person that has a flat tire. Right,
Speaker 1: it might not be safe for me to do that,
Speaker 1: Ted Bundy, you know what I mean? Like, so how
Speaker 1: do I do that? How do I do that in
Speaker 1: a personal way on a personal lefts? And like how
Speaker 1: do I how do I feel like a good person
Speaker 1: that's doing stuff for other people in our world? How
Speaker 1: can I do that on a day to day basis,
Speaker 1: and like I don't always know the answer to that,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to get better at that all the time.
Speaker 1: Some of that does include civic duty, like voting, like
Speaker 1: that's a really big deal because it helps make the
Speaker 1: world better for people, and other things are on a
Speaker 1: small or more granular level, like you know, and I
Speaker 1: don't exactly know what those things are for me all
Speaker 1: the time. I think a lot of people are sort
Speaker 1: of like stuck because they don't know what to do,
Speaker 1: like I said, particularly women, because we don't want as it.
Speaker 3: Can be really overwhelming, like there's so there's so much
Speaker 3: going on, and yeah, and how.
Speaker 1: Are you already busy? Your life is busy, Like how
Speaker 1: do you carve out time for that? And so I
Speaker 1: think that we have the perfect guest today to talk
Speaker 1: about it today with us is Elsa Collins. She is
Speaker 1: a basically a professional doer. She's a mom, a humanitarian,
Speaker 1: and she's a founder of Atistas and this is about
Speaker 1: humanity and we'll tell you a little bit more about
Speaker 1: those organizations as we get into it.
Speaker 4: But welcome Elsa.
Speaker 3: Hi, Elsa, Hello, Hello, Hi, how are you.
Speaker 4: We're so happy to have you here, excited to be here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm so excited to have you here. And
Speaker 3: I know you're super busy, and I really appreciate you
Speaker 3: making the time. But like, I feel like you're the
Speaker 3: perfect person to talk about this because I feel like
Speaker 3: you do so much. And also like you're a mom
Speaker 3: and your three kids. You have older kids and they're
Speaker 3: like in sports and big schedules, and like you're all
Speaker 3: over and like.
Speaker 4: You get it done. You are a professional doer. It's amazing.
Speaker 3: Give us a little bit of like background, how you
Speaker 3: kind of first started, Like how you knew this space
Speaker 3: was like where you wanted to like, you know, focus
Speaker 3: a lot of your energy and time into.
Speaker 5: You know, I would say that my journey to kind
Speaker 5: of the space I'm in honestly started when I was young.
Speaker 5: My mom was always someone who was taking us to volunteer.
Speaker 5: We were exposed to volunteerism, like at a really early age,
Speaker 5: and so it's part of my DNA, I think. And
Speaker 5: then I think that when I started having kids, it
Speaker 5: kind of was reborn within me. You know. I've always
Speaker 5: been someone who's wanted to be in community, building community
Speaker 5: sort of like an unofficial organizer. I think I've been
Speaker 5: an organizer since I was like twelve, like organize my friends,
Speaker 5: organize things. And now it's like so it's come into
Speaker 5: fruition as a full blown adult. But when I started
Speaker 5: having kids, it really clarified for me at least, like
Speaker 5: what is my purpose in this world? What is my
Speaker 5: purpose and my responsibility to others in my community. But
Speaker 5: it came from from having kids and feeling like I
Speaker 5: needed to really get focused on how I was going
Speaker 5: to make this world kind of a better place. I think,
Speaker 5: you know, twenty sixteen was a really hard year for
Speaker 5: so many people, and for me it was really the
Speaker 5: catalyst for thinking about this as actually as a profession
Speaker 5: and saying, you know what I'm going to I'm going
Speaker 5: to start a consulting company where we really focus on
Speaker 5: issues that matter and think about how people are using
Speaker 5: their voice and using their platform, because you know, it
Speaker 5: was a time where I didn't know where what was
Speaker 5: going to happen in this country, what was going to
Speaker 5: happen with my kids, as you said, like I'm raising
Speaker 5: three kids or multi racial, multi lingual, and at a
Speaker 5: time where that may not have been you know, looked
Speaker 5: at as a good thing. You know, it's like a
Speaker 5: double whammy. They're they're half Mexican and half black, and
Speaker 5: I thought, okay, I need to be as much of
Speaker 5: an advocate for them and for their existence as a whole.
Speaker 5: And that kind of was really what motivated me to
Speaker 5: look at this as something that I would do, you know,
Speaker 5: as a career.
Speaker 4: That was really cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I would go back. Let me go back
Speaker 5: to what you said at the beginning, Steffanie, because I
Speaker 5: want to say it before I forget it, which is
Speaker 5: sometimes you're like, I don't know what my role is
Speaker 5: in this space, and honestly that the first and easiest
Speaker 5: role is as a mother, and it's how we're raising
Speaker 5: our kids, and how we're exposing our kids to sort
Speaker 5: of obviously in an age appropriate way, but things that
Speaker 5: matter and things that are important. And when we look
Speaker 5: at what is the biggest predictor of what makes a
Speaker 5: voter a voter, it's if their parents voted. So it
Speaker 5: starts from like us, and so I want to say that,
Speaker 5: you know, we may someone may listen to this and
Speaker 5: finish the whole versation being like, oh my god, there
Speaker 5: was so many things. I don't know what it's like. Honestly,
Speaker 5: even if you're an auntie, you're like someone who's in
Speaker 5: the village of somebody else, or your a parent village
Speaker 5: of somebody else, or you're a parent yourself, Like you
Speaker 5: are having a very important role in creating like the
Speaker 5: next generation of change makers, upstanders, people who are going
Speaker 5: to say things, people who are going to like know
Speaker 5: what to do and know how to act. And so
Speaker 5: everybody who listens to this can start right there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's huge. It's huge, and it's part of like.
Speaker 1: That that responsibility or that I don't know, gift. It
Speaker 1: really feels like a gift to be able to vote
Speaker 1: for who you want to be in power, making laws,
Speaker 1: making choices, making changes. Not everybody gets that gift, right,
Speaker 1: And like, my parents lived in the United States for
Speaker 1: a long time before they were allowed to have that
Speaker 1: gift because they weren't US citizens. And when I became
Speaker 1: a US citizen, it was like, Okay, this is huge
Speaker 1: because I could see how much it meant to my
Speaker 1: parents to be able to vote. You know, it was
Speaker 1: a huge, huge, huge thing the first time that they
Speaker 1: got to do it, and subsequently it's been huge for
Speaker 1: me every time since, you know, because I could see
Speaker 1: that it meant so much to them to be able
Speaker 1: to take part in something that was the vote for
Speaker 1: their representatives in the United States. And sometimes I think
Speaker 1: people can feel like they're voiceless or what they want
Speaker 1: isn't accessible, But on a really, really on a reachable level,
Speaker 1: it really is, like on it is reachable. You can
Speaker 1: enact change in your community simply by taking the time
Speaker 1: to just a little time to get to know the
Speaker 1: candidates in your community, get to know them on a
Speaker 1: state level, get to know them on a on a
Speaker 1: on the United States level, and voting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that too, Like I've I've tried to be
Speaker 3: much better at, you know, educating myself about out local
Speaker 3: candidates too, because I feel like that is really what
Speaker 3: affects like your day to day life. And it wasn't
Speaker 3: something I thought about as much as a young person.
Speaker 3: It's just always focused on like the bigger elections.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: And but now I think, as you said, Elsa, like
Speaker 3: since I've become a parent, I'm more focused on and
Speaker 3: it just you know, it doesn't take long. It's just
Speaker 3: like sitting down, making a little time to just like
Speaker 3: get online and just like learn about who the local
Speaker 3: candidates are and like what they stand for, what their
Speaker 3: platform is, like read the blurb, read the thing you know,
Speaker 3: and and then it makes you know when you get that,
Speaker 3: you get to that booth and you got.
Speaker 4: All those names, so much lessons. Yeah, we're so lucky
Speaker 4: to say that.
Speaker 1: We're so Also, yeah, the Internet and yeah, can you
Speaker 1: give us like like I mean, for me, it's usually
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm I'm I look for Oftentimes there's
Speaker 1: websites that will break it down for you, like what
Speaker 1: candidates believe in the stuff that your values and your
Speaker 1: vision for your community aligns with, and then you can
Speaker 1: sort of see where they stand on different things, and
Speaker 1: from there you can vote as opposed to like having
Speaker 1: to sit down and sort of read a giant you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know we're all very very busy. We're
Speaker 1: not I'm I am. I'm barely getting through my US
Speaker 1: Weekly every week. You know, I'm not trying to get
Speaker 1: through like a treatise of what everyone thinks about every
Speaker 1: single thing.
Speaker 5: So I mean, I would say two things to that.
Speaker 5: I would say, first of all.
Speaker 4: Stop reading US Weekly.
Speaker 5: No, I would say, there are so many people who
Speaker 5: spend not even one tenth of the fraction of the
Speaker 5: time that we just talked about, we just walk in
Speaker 5: and are just like boooo, now great. The reason why
Speaker 5: I mentioned that is because I don't want people to
Speaker 5: feel like if you're not getting a PhD and poly side,
Speaker 5: that you are not allowed in that in that voting booth,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. So like, yeah, very easy.
Speaker 5: I love ballot Pedia, like it kind of breaks it
Speaker 5: down for you. You can look and it'll tell you
Speaker 5: put in your address and it tells you, Okay, this
Speaker 5: is what's going to be on the ballot. And even
Speaker 5: I mean I have voting like get togethers, Like even
Speaker 5: I will get together with our ballots and we'll go
Speaker 5: back and forth where we'll be like, yeah, prop whatever,
Speaker 5: and we'll be like yeah, yeah, it's yes, right, and
Speaker 5: then we'll read it. We'll be like, well, it's actually no,
Speaker 5: and then you realize it's written to literally confuse the
Speaker 5: f out of you, and you're like why and it
Speaker 5: sounds like and then these people support it and these
Speaker 5: people are against it, and you're just like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5: So I would say it's always a good idea to
Speaker 5: look at. You're always going to have a friend who's
Speaker 5: like way more into politics. Than you. I like looking
Speaker 5: at their sample ballot. Now I'm not going to take
Speaker 5: that and literally just go betam, but some people do,
Speaker 5: and then I'll sort of look and I look at
Speaker 5: like ballot PD, I'll look at a couple different sources.
Speaker 5: Some of the you know, whatever party affiliation you are,
Speaker 5: they will usually put out sort of like a recommended
Speaker 5: you know, voter's guide. So I'm pulling from like three
Speaker 5: or four sources to kind of come to a compilation.
Speaker 5: But I would say in every election, there's obviously going
Speaker 5: to be more important issues or seemingly more important issues
Speaker 5: are on the ballot. You know, obviously coming up in
Speaker 5: this election, we have women's reproductive health is on the
Speaker 5: ballot in a couple of states. Obviously it's it's a
Speaker 5: presidential election that's coming up, which is big. But as
Speaker 5: Melissa mentioned, there's going to be smaller amendments that are
Speaker 5: on the ballot, propositions, things that are happening literally in
Speaker 5: the county that you live in that can greatly affect
Speaker 5: your life. Your public schools, you know, how money gets distributed,
Speaker 5: how we improve you know, our highways or freeways or so,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of things that are happening at a
Speaker 5: local level that I think, to your guys's point, may
Speaker 5: affect your everyday life more than kind of what's up here.
Speaker 5: But I think, you know, knowing that you can pull
Speaker 5: from different sources. You don't have to feel like the
Speaker 5: smartest person in the world to go in and do it.
Speaker 5: But knowing kind of where you sit and sort of
Speaker 5: your general belief system, I think is a good thing
Speaker 5: to have with you and that's really all you need. Honestly,
Speaker 5: that's so good though.
Speaker 1: That's I never feel like the smartest person in the
Speaker 1: world when I go anywhere, so that's great. Just feel
Speaker 1: normal going into the voting with I love it.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I get nervous.
Speaker 1: Do you guys ever get nervous when you go in there.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, yeah, as my fingers on the pulse
Speaker 1: of everything right.
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, right at that moment.
Speaker 5: But I guess it kind of is.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe that's why I get nervous, because it
Speaker 1: is a very cool, big deal that we get to
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 5: Well. It's interesting because Mexico just had their election and
Speaker 5: you know, they and this was the first time that
Speaker 5: people abroad could vote so at all the consulates, at
Speaker 5: all the Mexican consulates. There was like hours long lines
Speaker 5: for people who were trying to vote. I think people
Speaker 5: in Paris were waiting up to like six hours. In
Speaker 5: La the line was about three hours. But two things
Speaker 5: that really made me sort of reflect on it was
Speaker 5: a we hold our elections on a I say wee
Speaker 5: because I'm a dual citizen. But we hold our elections
Speaker 5: on a Sunday, where it's easy for people to go vote.
Speaker 5: It's not that easy here in the United States. You know,
Speaker 5: the elections on a Tuesday. We don't know how late
Speaker 5: the you know the boot's going to be open. So
Speaker 5: you know. Part of why it's really important to vote
Speaker 5: is because sometimes there are people who try to make
Speaker 5: it harder for people to vote. Working people, people who
Speaker 5: have multiple jobs, they don't necessarily know where their election is.
Speaker 5: Can they vote outside of their district? You know, how
Speaker 5: easy are we making it so? So that's one of
Speaker 5: the things that I really appreciated about the election yesterday
Speaker 5: was it was on a Sunday. People know how important
Speaker 5: it is. I mean, they waited in that line, and
Speaker 5: we want to make sure that in our election coming
Speaker 5: up in November, that the same thing has happened, that
Speaker 5: people really take advantage of what is such a privilege
Speaker 5: to do in this democratic society, and to not have
Speaker 5: anybody make them feel like they're not worth it, They're
Speaker 5: not worthy and they don't deserve the access, and that
Speaker 5: they they were able to do it in a safe
Speaker 5: in a safe way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's so important. We didn't talk about how we
Speaker 4: all met. Oh yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 5: I do.
Speaker 4: I don't remember either. I just feel like else has
Speaker 4: always been around.
Speaker 1: Of course Elson knows, Elson knows how we met.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, so let's go. So in twenty twenty, we
Speaker 5: and I say we, me and eight other Latinas started
Speaker 5: bold Adistas, which is a nonpartisan community that focuses on
Speaker 5: Latina civic engagement. Now in its origin, in our minds,
Speaker 5: this was going to be like in person, we were
Speaker 5: going to be hitting the road from the beginning. But obviously,
Speaker 5: you know, difficult year COVID happens. So we've got to pivot.
Speaker 5: We've got to make this community digital first, and so
Speaker 5: we organized a zoom call with a lot of our
Speaker 5: sort of like Latina friends, and I was sort of
Speaker 5: the as I said, I've been an organizer, like basically
Speaker 5: from the womb. So I organize this call, get all
Speaker 5: these Latinas being like, Hey, this is why we need
Speaker 5: to show up. We need to use our voices, we
Speaker 5: need to use our platforms, and we kind of motivated
Speaker 5: all of y'all and thank y'all for coming on to
Speaker 5: get involved and get engaged. And then basically out of
Speaker 5: there the friendship of a lifetime flourished. And you guys,
Speaker 5: and now I'm just like, do you want to do this?
Speaker 5: Do you want to help me here? And you guys
Speaker 5: are so lovely. You've both come to the border with me,
Speaker 5: You've both done stuff around elections. So that's kind of
Speaker 5: how how it happened. But I think that the important
Speaker 5: thing to know is even though all the things that
Speaker 5: we do are serious and important, that getting engaged and
Speaker 5: being involved is fun and it's great to be around
Speaker 5: other people who want to be in community and want
Speaker 5: to be doing things. And I think that's one of
Speaker 5: the things that I would love to see like more
Speaker 5: of just in general, as people really reconnecting with each other.
Speaker 5: You can be doing good and having a great time.
Speaker 5: You can be hanging out with your friends and going
Speaker 5: to vote. Like I said, even I have like voting parties,
Speaker 5: like so we I I think that's one of the
Speaker 5: things that I would love for people to walk away from,
Speaker 5: is like you don't have to do this alone. You know,
Speaker 5: you don't have to be like the lone person out
Speaker 5: there trying to make a difference. There are so many
Speaker 5: people out there who are every day trying to organize
Speaker 5: and just looking for people to get involved.
Speaker 4: That is such a great point.
Speaker 3: I also want to ask you everybody's busy, right, and
Speaker 3: like we all like we work full time, we have kids,
Speaker 3: how do you choose your causes?
Speaker 4: Like sometimes it just feels like there's so.
Speaker 3: Much, you know, like I care, good question, you know,
Speaker 3: like I care about women's health, and I care about
Speaker 3: social justice, and I care about the environment, and I
Speaker 3: care about you know, and it's and but like it's
Speaker 3: impossible to like give time and attention to all those things.
Speaker 3: So like how do you go about choosing causes? Like
Speaker 3: how do you decide what to give your time and
Speaker 3: energy to?
Speaker 4: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: That makes so much sense, I think. I mean I
Speaker 5: would just go back to why is present in your life?
Speaker 5: You know, what are things that either you have gone through,
Speaker 5: family members have been through, what are things that are
Speaker 5: that are speaking to you as as a human being
Speaker 5: that feel easy to get behind or like a natural
Speaker 5: connection because as you said, you know, of course we
Speaker 5: all care about everything, right, we want this planet to
Speaker 5: be better. We care about climate change, we care about
Speaker 5: the oceans, we care about you know, asylum seekers, we
Speaker 5: care about people who are food and secure. Like, we
Speaker 5: care about all of these things, and so I think,
Speaker 5: but sometimes when you look at the landscape, once we've
Speaker 5: listed out every single thing there is to care about,
Speaker 5: you're like, well, I've frozen myself into paralysis and I
Speaker 5: can do nothing because how can we even start? Like
Speaker 5: holy moly, Yeah, I'm like, the good news is no
Speaker 5: one is expecting you to do it, all right, We're
Speaker 5: only and I see we in terms of people who
Speaker 5: are like in this work, we want things that feel
Speaker 5: either like there's an easy entry point and and it
Speaker 5: makes sense because it's convenient because the community service opportunity
Speaker 5: is on the day you're free, Like, it can be that,
Speaker 5: but it can also be you know, something like, for example,
Speaker 5: what this is about humanity. You know, I'm from the border.
Speaker 5: I grew up on the border. This is an issue
Speaker 5: that I feel very connected to and so it's easy
Speaker 5: for me to show up, and it's easy for the
Speaker 5: organization to provide opportunities to others who may or may
Speaker 5: not have any connection to the border or any connection
Speaker 5: to asylum seekers or refugees. But guess what, you know,
Speaker 5: we have like a pride of us coming up and
Speaker 5: that's around you know, LGBTQ asylum seekers. So if someone
Speaker 5: is really passionate about the LGBTQ community, there's an entry
Speaker 5: point there, you know. Or a lot of the asylum
Speaker 5: seekers that we're seeing coming through have had to come
Speaker 5: because of climate change and because of the lessening of
Speaker 5: opportunities that they have in their own home country, And
Speaker 5: so if you care about climate like, there's an entry
Speaker 5: point for you. So I think there's there's a lot
Speaker 5: of ways to find connection to causes. But for someone
Speaker 5: who maybe like you've never really gotten behind anything, or
Speaker 5: you've never had the time, or you're just sort of
Speaker 5: starting out in this, maybe you just had kids and
Speaker 5: you're like, I want to be finding a way to
Speaker 5: be more engaged with the kids. I always say, you know,
Speaker 5: look around your local community to like what is happening.
Speaker 5: And that's why like local journalism is so important because
Speaker 5: this is where we read about stuff that's happening, you know,
Speaker 5: in our neighborhood. We learn about what kinds of decisions
Speaker 5: are being made about, you know, schools and parks and
Speaker 5: access to different services and things like that. So I think,
Speaker 5: not feeling like we all have to be superheroes and attack,
Speaker 5: you know, tackle everything, but just starting with something that's
Speaker 5: like really you know, feels close to your heart, I
Speaker 5: think is great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's such a good tip, Like just start small.
Speaker 2: Better.
Speaker 3: How do you elsa avoid like just getting burnt out
Speaker 3: to burn out?
Speaker 5: So I always know in the morning, I'm going to
Speaker 5: get my workout in, I'm going to do that, I'm
Speaker 5: going to have my coffee like I'm going to do
Speaker 5: my routine. That really sets me up, sets me up
Speaker 5: for success. So even when I do a trip to
Speaker 5: the border, like I'm getting my work out in, I
Speaker 5: get my things because that way I can be a
Speaker 5: more effective giver. That's the first thing. So I try
Speaker 5: to unsubscribe to mom guilt and do the things that
Speaker 5: make me truly happy, and that way I can be
Speaker 5: a better, you know, better service to others. Second thing
Speaker 5: is I stopped trying to make sure everything I was
Speaker 5: doing was at one hundred percent because it was just impossible.
Speaker 5: So I feel like I'm kind of doing everything around
Speaker 5: like forty percent, but it feels good enough, and nobody
Speaker 5: seems to be really clocking that it's that. It's that,
Speaker 5: but but I think.
Speaker 1: That's I remember you saying, like, yeah, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to I wanted to make sure that I showed up
Speaker 1: to like an event. You were like, I wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure I showed up. I can only stay for
Speaker 1: this amount of time, but I wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: I showed up and say a hi to the organizers
Speaker 1: and say I appreciate being here and I appreciate this is happening.
Speaker 1: And then you bounced, and I was like, that's genius,
Speaker 1: because I don't have to stay for the whole thing
Speaker 1: if I can't hack it. Sometimes I cannot hack showing up,
Speaker 1: but like sometimes I can just hack showing up, like
Speaker 1: I could shack up and.
Speaker 4: Say thank you and yeah, just show up, show up.
Speaker 5: That's actually one of my that is one of my
Speaker 5: life hacks, like just show up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And sometimes we don't show up at all because
Speaker 3: we think we have to like give the whole thing
Speaker 3: give the one hundred percent and like that is such
Speaker 3: brilliant permission to just like no, it's the showing up.
Speaker 5: That's important, and that goes really far. That goes really far,
Speaker 5: especially in the like organizing space, you know, with grassroots organizations,
Speaker 5: with you know, nonprofits, with charities. It's like, you know,
Speaker 5: we don't we don't want to disqualify ourselves before we
Speaker 5: even gave a little. And I think we do do
Speaker 5: that a lot. We're like, well it said seven to ten,
Speaker 5: so I can't you know, yeah, right, And these organizations
Speaker 5: would love even just like a little just one half
Speaker 5: of half an hour, half a day, you know. And
Speaker 5: they I think they've they've really tried to when you
Speaker 5: look at like, for example, people who canvas right, canvas
Speaker 5: is when you go and you knock on doors for
Speaker 5: either like an issue or a candidate or whatnot. They've
Speaker 5: got it down to like, hey, just give us like
Speaker 5: a shift. It's just an hour, knock on twenty doors,
Speaker 5: call or text twenty numbers. You know. There's so many
Speaker 5: and that's the other like not everything has to be
Speaker 5: in person. There are so many things that have moved
Speaker 5: to the internets, as I like to call it, because
Speaker 5: of the world we like today where you can be
Speaker 5: you know, vote Writers is a great org where you
Speaker 5: can call or text people to let them know what
Speaker 5: ID they need in whatever state they live in to
Speaker 5: be equipped to show up and vote and so and
Speaker 5: that can happen digitally. You can be logging on from
Speaker 5: your computer. And so I think that there is there
Speaker 5: are so many opportunities that don't actually require your physical presence.
Speaker 5: That's also a version of showing up. And so I
Speaker 5: think that like mom guilt is not just for moms.
Speaker 5: Maybe we have like human guilt. And so I think
Speaker 5: people sometimes feel like, well, if it isn't good enough,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe I'm not the right person to do this,
Speaker 5: or I can't really get involved, but like you're the
Speaker 5: only person judging it. So like cut yourself in black
Speaker 5: and just show up a little bit, and you can
Speaker 5: be making a difference in so many ways.
Speaker 4: That's really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not like I mean to use a terrible
Speaker 1: metaphor similarly, don't know, but it's not like a one
Speaker 1: ant builds that entire colony, you know what I mean, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's every single one working together to build all those tunnels,
Speaker 1: to build that huge. You know, I'm thinking about the
Speaker 1: fire ant pile in my front yard right now. That's
Speaker 1: what's Oh God, gotta get.
Speaker 5: Rid of them scary.
Speaker 1: I love I love that you talked about online activism
Speaker 1: because I do think a lot of people want to
Speaker 1: do things and it feels like that isn't Like you said,
Speaker 1: it's an easy entry point, especially for young people that like,
Speaker 1: for the youth that spend a lot of their time online.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like in general online activism works. I
Speaker 1: would say that you you do, right.
Speaker 5: I do. I think that there's well, I mean, think
Speaker 5: about young people. Where are young people finding young people?
Speaker 5: And honestly, it's online, you know. I think that, Like
Speaker 5: I look at them and I think, guess what, people
Speaker 5: like you guys. You're amazing because you can amplify a
Speaker 5: certain type of situation and help more people find things out.
Speaker 5: But when you look at actual influence, the person who's
Speaker 5: on that group chat of seventeen people who's like their
Speaker 5: friend groups, not alpha, but just the person who makes
Speaker 5: suggestions or is encouraging or whatever. That's the person. So
Speaker 5: I'm hoping that person sees you and thinks, Okay, I'm
Speaker 5: going to influence my circle of friends that we're all
Speaker 5: going to go both this year. Like that individual person,
Speaker 5: this individual person listening right now has all the power.
Speaker 2: More better.
Speaker 4: Oh, Elsa, We're so glad you were here with us. Wait.
Speaker 1: I came away from this realizing that I have a
Speaker 1: lot of power of my group chats.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's such a big one. Why did you take away?
Speaker 3: My takeaway is, oh my god, unsubscribed for mom Guild
Speaker 3: is going to be my new catchphrase in general in life,
Speaker 3: especially with this topic and also just the like showing
Speaker 3: up at whatever percent, it doesn't have to be one
Speaker 3: hundred percent that those two are really who hit me
Speaker 3: right where I needed it.
Speaker 4: Do you feel more better? Stuff?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I feel I feel more better. I started this
Speaker 1: by talking about how can I get Samaritan? And I realize,
Speaker 1: like I can do stuff without getting out of the
Speaker 1: getting out of the car, you know, I can. I
Speaker 1: mean sometimes I do need to get out of the car.
Speaker 1: That's the other thing, like sometimes I can get out
Speaker 1: of the car and help. But being able to know
Speaker 1: that I'm not failing. I'm just doing it in different ways.
Speaker 1: I'm doing it in the ways that I can with
Speaker 1: my limited time and access to you know, an open schedule,
Speaker 1: completely open schedule where I can do this every day.
Speaker 1: It's like and also I kind of learned that, like, ah,
Speaker 1: maybe I want to do like more stuff around I
Speaker 1: mean I used to do a lot of like, uh
Speaker 1: stuff around dog.
Speaker 5: Adoption, particularly like a year.
Speaker 1: I remember it's really close to my heart and like
Speaker 1: that that's something that I could incorporate in this Yeah,
Speaker 1: back to it's it doesn't have anything to do with
Speaker 1: like voting or anything, but it's Oh, but it's to
Speaker 1: my heart that I care about. Mel Do you feel
Speaker 1: a little more better?
Speaker 4: I feel way more better. And I feel like I'm
Speaker 4: doing I feel like you're amped up right now.
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 4: My energy went up through this conversation.
Speaker 3: And I'm doing a fun event with Elsa this Saturday
Speaker 3: in Arizona for abortion rights and women reproductive health. And
Speaker 3: I am very excited now also because I get to
Speaker 3: spend the day with Elsa.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be We're gonna have a great time. And
Speaker 5: I think again, look look around your community. Don't be
Speaker 5: afraid to like be the one to make a suggestion
Speaker 5: to your group, chat, your group of friends. Yeah, you're
Speaker 5: gonna feel more better if you if you show up
Speaker 5: even a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, classy, classy, way to drop the title of the
Speaker 1: pod right there at the end.
Speaker 6: First of all, just spending this time with you has been,
Speaker 6: has been, has made me feel more better. Whenever I'm
Speaker 6: with you, guys, I feel more better And I hope
Speaker 6: that's how everybody feels when they hear your podcast.
Speaker 3: Oh, thanks for soon us too, Thanks for stopping by,
Speaker 3: Thanks for coming on the pod, Thanks for being here everyone.
Speaker 4: We love you all. We love you pod people.
Speaker 1: Okay, bye bye bye Better Dude, you have something you'd
Speaker 1: like to be more better at that you want us
Speaker 1: to talk about in a future episode.
Speaker 3: Can you relate to our struggles or have you tried
Speaker 3: one of our tips and tricks?
Speaker 4: Shoot us your thoughts and ideas. Morebetter pod at gmail
Speaker 4: dot com.
Speaker 1: And include a voice note if you want to be
Speaker 1: featured on the pod. Ooh, More Better with Stephanie Melissa
Speaker 1: is a production from Wvsound and iHeartMedia's Mikultura podcast network,
Speaker 1: hosted by Me, Stephanie Viatriz and Melissa Fumero.
Speaker 4: More Better is produced.
Speaker 1: By Isis Madrid, Leo Clem and Sophie Spencer Zebos. Our
Speaker 1: executive producers are Wilmer Valderrama and Leo Clem at wvsound.
Speaker 1: This episode was edited by Isis Madrid and engineered by
Speaker 1: Sean Tracy and features original music by Madison Davenport and
Speaker 1: Heylo boy Our.
Speaker 3: Cover art is by vincent Remy's and photography by David Avalos.
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 3: or wherever.
Speaker 4: You listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 3: See you next week, Suga Bye,