Girls Gotta Eat - How to Make an Impact (and Feel Less Hopeless About Politics) with Emily Amick

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

We have your political questions answered with this insightful and inspiring episode with author, political analyst, and one of our favorite Instagram follows, Emily Amick (@emilyinyourphone). We cover so much: The current vibe in politics/the election, figuring out your civic personality and how to make a difference on both a local and national level, why women have been told not to talk about politics, how to talk to friends/family members with opposing views and values, if Taylor Swift's endorsement actually made an impact, whether "all politics are corrupt" is accurate, where to get factual news, and Kamala's policies vs. Trump. We also discuss women's reproductive rights, why this is always such a battle, and how we can continue to fight it and win. Before Emily joins us, we discuss which states have the best and worst sex, Ashley shares an awkward coffee shop encounter, and Rayna (lightly) roasts Tessa. Enjoy! Follow Emily on Instagram @emilyinyourphone and Tiktok @emilyinyourphone, get her new book Democracy in Retrograde, and subscribe to her newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @girlsgottaeatpodcast, Ashley @ashhess, and Rayna @rayna.greenberg. Visit https://girlsgottaeat.com for tour dates, merchandise, and more. Thank you to our partners this week: Boll and Branch: Get 20% off and free shipping on your first set of sheets at https://bollandbranch.com/gge. ZBiotics: Get 15% off at https://zbiotics.com/gge with code GGE. BiOptimizers: Get 10% off at https://bioptimizers.com/girlsgottaeat with code GGE. Land Rover: Explore the Range Rover Evoque at https://landroverusa.com. Beam: Get 40% off at https://shopbeam.com/GGE with code GGE. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The goal is to help people figure out what is their place. Because we don't all need to do everything, but we all just need to do something. This podcast is a Dear Media production. Hi, guys. Hi, guys. Welcome back to another episode of Girls Got to Eat. First episode of fall. Oh, I thought you're going to say post the first tour.

Everyone's like, can you shut the fuck up on the tour? I'm defrosting. I'm excited. Defrosting. Well, we're back from Vegas if you're listening. I'm sure it was an incredible weekend. Thank you guys for coming. We will talk about it next week.

Yes. We had to record this before we headed out. But I'm so excited for fall. I'm too. Cozy season. We're spending half the fall on the East Coast. Cuffine season. Yeah, cuff me up.

October's de frosting. Well, October's the month. The month. It's the month for me. It was a summer, though. It was a summer. Was it? What we do was how you got engaged?

I got engaged. No, I just, it was a fun summer. Don't you feel like the vibes were high? Better than other summers? I always have a good summer. We're always in Europe. I wasn't. I'm always in Europe.

three summers in Italy going strong. Well, two summers ago you got a boyfriend and this summer you got a husband. So I got Europe. No, but then like, I don't know, like Kamala. You know, it was just like a spicy summer. Yeah, it was a great summer. Oh, because summer officially ends on September 21st. Yeah, I like to drag it out.

I'm all for unofficial start of summer Memorial Day and unofficial end of summer Labor Day, but I still like to drag it out till it's official. You and I did not work the week after Labor Day. I was like, are we still on vacation? Tessa, stop talking to us. I got engaged. I'm like, we're on vacation, bitches. No, but like Raina said,

thank you guys are coming to Vegas. If anything crazy happened, we'll recap it next week. I know crazy stuff has happened. So next week, full recap. But yeah, we have a fun one for you guys today. Yeah, we're going to take a couple of our partners and then jump on in.

Thanks to Beam, get 40% off at shopbeam. com slash GGE with co-GGE. Thank you to Zbiotics. Get 15% off at Zbiotics. com slash GGE with co-G. And bioptimizers get 10%. percent off at buy optimizers.com slash girls got to eat with code GGE. Yes.

And thank you to Land Rover. Explore the Range Rover Evoke at Land RoverUSA.com. And Bowling Branch, get 20% off and free shipping on your first set of sheets at bowl and branch.com slash GGE and JLo Beauty. Get four free masks and free shipping at JLo Beauty.com slash GGE. Oh, I'm going to be on that mask game all tour. I need a mask. a mask. You know I care a lot about my

skincare now. All of a sudden. And my hand care. Your hands look good. Thank you, bitch. I'm on a hand care journey. You just starting to care about your hands last week and I've see, I see the difference. Thank you. Look at those baby hands. You guys, I've been ready for a ring, y'all. Right, I know. I've been thinking about rings a lot. I've been on a skincare journey and I'm just like, what about my hands? Okay. And then that one time that person thought

there was a man in my Instagram story and it was just my hands. And so, like, people were like, no, there's no way that's not a man. It was just me, you guys. So apparently, who knew? The same stuff that goes on your face for your skin care can go on your hands. Never know. I mean, I've always been on that journey, but sometimes it's just so hard. I mean, they're just out all the time.

I wash my hands a lot. I really do wash my hands a lot. You do? Yeah, I like to wash my hands. Just not, like, not when you just go the bathroom other times. Yeah. I'm not like a germophobe, but like, I really like to wash my hands. When we go to a restaurant, I always go to the bathroom, wash my hands.

Like, if I touch. a subway pole. Like if I would be in New York on the subway and I would touch the pole or hold on to something, I felt like my hand was contaminated until I could wash it. Oh, New York, definitely. Like I have a mental thing of like stuff I'm touching. I've got to wash my hands immediately. But I'm glad you're on the journey. Yeah, I am. So now I'm going to have delicate looking hands. Look out, world. So I have a funny thing to tell you. So last week we talked about pick me girls. Can I tell you the thing that I feel pick me about? That I'm not like other girls is that I don't feel earthquakes.

Every time in the group chat, I have to be like, I'm not like you guys. I have been, I'm trying not to be. But this has been like five or six times, Raina, that the group chat is fired up. Did you guys feel that? And I have to be the pick me in the group like, no. And last time I didn't even respond because I hate not being like other girls. I am day to day opposite of a pick me. And like, this is one thing that I keep having to be like, no, not me.

I guess I just don't feel them. I don't really understand it because I'm not, I'm a moderate sleeper. I'm not super sensitive, but I don't sleep like the dead either. But like an earthquake wakes me up. And I am like groggy and out of it. Almost 100% of them have happened. There's one this morning. You probably didn't feel it.

I've not felt one yet. I'm telling you that I should run the tape. I think there's been five or six that has fired up the group chat since we have lived here. There's been only one where we were actually awake. No vibration to speak of. But like it wakes me up and I'm a little out of it. but like I know what happened. But the one that you slept through the other day was 15 seconds.

I don't understand. My nail lady came over and she was like, so how are you? My husband didn't even want me to come over here because of tsunamis. And I was like, oh my God. Yeah, you're not. Like, you're not such a heavy sleeper. You're not like, I'm out like the dead.

It's so funny because that morning that the earthquake woke all you guys up, I had been woken up in the middle of the night to these cats fighting. Fighting or fucking? I think it's fighting. You've heard when cats are making noise in the night. It is out of 12. They think they're fighting. Everything way to know.

I don't think they're fucking. But when cats are, have you guys heard cats fight in the night? It's a crazy sound. It is screaming. It's like so shrill. It sounds insane. That's crazy that I don't because you know there's cats all over my neighborhood. They just stay being all over this fucking.

Every other day, I just like there's a cat in your yard. Like when you hear cats really fighting at night, you want to call the cops. It sounds really crazy. And so. I have been. woken up to this like, like it's wild sounds and then slept through the earthquake. That is crazy.

Tessa, can I make funny about something? Oh my gosh. It's more of me. I have to make fun of it. Tessa, we've been laughing about this for some. So last week we had this meeting at the house that I,

we're launching a bunch of new vibes only stuff, which we're very excited about. We are going to talk about it today. And we've new vibeders coming out next month. But we had a meeting at the house with one of our partners in Vibes Only. And she brought up a ton of Vibers. And we had told Tessa, you could come around.

else is on the Zoom. The company-wide meeting, yeah. Company-wide meeting, though. It was like a four-hour meeting. And Tessa, we just want her input and her opinions because, you know, everybody's different.

We want to know, like, what you like. We want Tessa to masturbate at the meetings. And she told me ahead of time, I just have to pop out. And I swear I asked why. Like, I swear to God, I asked you why. And I was like, Tessa is just to leave. And Ashley was like, why?

And I think it's like a doctor's appointment. And in the middle of the meeting, you did just get up and leave. You left all your work stuff at my house. Tessa gave us like, can you watch my stuff? Yes. Tesla gave us coffee shop. Can you guys make sure no one steals my stuff?

And just left. And it took me a minute to register that her stuff was still there. And Ashley's like, where is she? And I was like, she was like, cagey about it. And I was like, she's either interview for another job or she's at a doctor's appointment. Like she definitely had a doctor's appointment, though. Like, I asked our employee, like, where she's going for sure.

And Tesla goes back in. Like, where'd you go? She was like, I was a spray tan. Tesla comes back in beautifully bronze. A tan queen walks in. You look amazing. We should have known where she went by this. She walked in a different person.

I didn't dodge a question. You never asked. She said, I never asked. She never lied. She didn't say doctors. I just said pop out and you were just like, you don't even have to be here. Yeah, it was not a mandatory meeting. And I love that Tesla wants to come to stuff that's not mandatory required. She wants to be involved. But the way she got up and then-

It's a fine-year-walk from Rana's house. So it's close to Rana's house is what she's saying. And so she just left, I mean, and then came back and she just started eating a Hogi. I'm like, Tesla is hysterical. And like, at that point, I was like, she didn't bust out a tuna sub. Actually, can we say that of funny thing? So we walk in, she's freshly tanned. Like, all Raina's furniture is white.

The way you just waltzed in here, like you were going to sit your bare thighs on my white chairs. So then Raina's like, do you have a blanket or something to sit on? So she's like, yeah, I have something to my car. Because we live in California, you always got a beach tower blanket in your car. She comes in, she's holding this blanket. I go, is that my blanket? So it was like a blanket that I had put in like a Goodwill bag that was pretty nice. I just have so many blankets.

Tesla took it and it's her beach blanket. So she comes in, I was like, is that my blanket? And like, you're so tan. And you left her stuff. And now you're eating a sub. Like, it was so funny. And we weren't laughing in the moment because it had been like a two hour plus meeting at that point. I was so fried.

I hadn't slept that well the night before, not because the earthquake. That meeting was almost four hours by the time she left our house. But later that night, Rain and I were like, that was hysterical. And we did not laugh enough in the moment. Also because, like, I think about like when I, I worked for Amazon, I worked for Groupon. If I was in like a company all hands, I would never have like been able to say to my boss like can you just watch my ship for 15 and pop out to get a spray tan come back and you're just

like what and you just bust out your hoagie your tuna hoagie and start eating it on my white furniture she got a blanket. We laughed at you for like an hour. But that's a company policy. Anytime you got to leave to go get some beauty stuff done, you're welcome. We support it. You were just every time I was like, is it okay? It's always okay.

And Tesla, we love, yeah, we told you need to be there also. We love that you want to come to like everything. that we do. And like, I really want your input. We really want your input on the new vibrators, new flavors, blow gels, all that. But you just bounced and got a spray in the middle of the day. When she left her stuff, she didn't even close her laptop. It was open. I could have been on her eye message. Like, boop, boop. We hope that you're having fun. Tessa. Okay. We should have bribed you up for this. You made me laugh. But speaking of, oh yeah, new product. You guys will see Tessa throughout the tour. She runs a tour, so you'll see her on stage if you come. She'll be doing the themes. Yeah. All the themes are on the website, by the way, Girls Gotta Eat.com. Tickets are there for everything. The themes. It's going to be here outfits. It's got your outfits. It's going to be fun slumber party games. And there should be a few tickets left in every market. Like Raina said, the Pittsburgh website's kind of wonky. So just play around because there are seats left. And then we'll see you guys in indie. And then Detroit. Technically.

Royal Oak, Michigan. We cannot wait for this run. You can still get tickets at Girls Gotta Eat.com to the No Crumbs Tour. Yes, and just briefly, Vives Only, we have a new launch today. This is our red collection. I love it.

So we have two really bestsellers, our kinklinks and our blow gel, and both of them are coming into new flavor slash colors. So I'll start with the blow gel. We sell a flavor oral enhancer. It can go on any body part that you like, and it will activate the saliva glands. It tastes really amazing.

our bestseller that we always have vanilla frosting. But our flavor for this season is red velvet. You guys, I have been so excited about this. I think we started testing this and tasting it in like December last year. It's been such a long journey to get it perfect because I feel like red velvet. I mean, most people love it. When you love it, you like really love it. It can be a little polarizing.

So we wanted to have the perfect red velvet flavor. And again, this is our suck and blow gel. And it is vulva friendly too. So you can perform oral sex on anyone and have just like an amazing tastier. experience. But this flavor, oh, chef's kiss. Just like a little bit of chocolatey in there. It's not too sweet. We work really hard to make sure that all the products are not too sweet. So just like a

little drop of that, right on a penis or a vagina or your nipples or whatever you want to make taste yummy. And that is at vibes only.com. And wait, I'm going to read you this. I was going to put on my Instagram and I just feel like now is the perfect time. This is one of the best DMs I've ever gotten since we're talking about the second blowjo. Okay. So she DM me. This is a couple days ago. This is my hidden. Thank God I found it. Ashley, congrats on your engagement on that topic.

I have a funny story for you, L.O. L.L. My fiance and I recently got engaged and we're currently on a trip together. The ring is a little big and I usually sleep with it in a jewelry box on my nightstand so it doesn't slip off in the night, but I didn't bring anything to put it in. So I decided to just put it on my middle finger so I wouldn't lose it. Well, long story short, we drank a lot of wine and I woke up super puffy. Unfortunately, my finger puffed up too and the ring was super stuck on there. Well, we did happen to bring the suck and blow gel. It's travel friendly, you guys. And we ended up using it to lube up my finger to slide the ring off, which work like a charm so we can confirm the suck and blow gel is multifunctional.

Could you die? A versatile product. And then you get to suck it off your finger, which is hot. So hot. What is hotter? So you can use it to get your rings off or to suck a dick or to eat a pussy. It is so multifunctional. Okay, should we talk about the kinklinks?

Yeah. Okay, so the kinklinks are silicone handcuffs. They are super stretchy. They're a great gateway into BDSM. If you want to dabble a little bit into some bondage, they really just slip. easily on and off of your hands. Again, these just very stretchy. There's no lock and key. There's no hooks or anything like that. They just go on and off. They're very fun to play with. They're so lightweight and so small to toss in a bag. I mean, I remember saying what it was like over

Christmas. We used them at like 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Just really spiced up the day before we did our gifts. And you guys never missed an afternoon. We never miss an afternoon. So they're great for the afternoon. But they're just really fun. And you don't have to worry about getting locked into them. And they're not like too kinky. But they're really just a great way to spice up the bedroom with partner. And we had them in this deep, dark purple eggplant color. And now we're releasing them in this really hot red. So you can purchase those on the site. They're a great price point. There's a great gift. They're just a great way if you're like, how do I spice it up in the bedroom? Yes. I don't know anybody that wouldn't love these. And you can, of course, buy them separately.

But we do have the red hot bundle. And that is going to be the kinklinks with the red velvet suck and blow gel. And that's going to be just like a fun little power pack. Yeah. So really great accoutramant to the vibrators, toss that in with everything. And then next month, stay tuned. We have two new ones. one's being released, which we're really, really excited about. And nothing's coming off the website. So the full collection's there. And check it out, Vibesonly.com. And honestly, I am obsessed with our Instagram and our social media. And so check that out. You guys follow the account. It's just great information about how to like get into certain toys and certain practices. A lot of FAQs and out of the newsletter. So really spicy, funny reels. Like really, we would love you guys

to give it a follow. You're not going to be disappointed. So it is informational and it is fun and funny and spicy. So vibes only on Instagram. Okay, can I tell you a story? Yeah. Okay. So this happened on Sunday. So I have a coffee shop that I go to in my neighborhood. And I have two that I split my time between. And they know me there, which I just think is like the best part about a neighborhood. Like they knew me at my coffee shop in New York. And when I was in West Hollywood, they knew me to the point where I was walking in. They were already making my order. So that's the vibe I have going on. And the one guy at the one coffee shop, I walk in, he's already poured my coffee, he charges me for a small, even though I always get a large. And we talk here and there about the different coffees and things like that.

And I would say it's like friendly. It's not flirty. It's just friendly. Okay. We'll chit chat here and there. You know, like every once in a while we'll have a longer conversation. Some morning it's just like, hey, and have a good day. And I would joke with my fiancé, Sparkle eyes, that like he'll flirt with me.

And then he's just joking and like, don't flirt with that guy, whatever. So I go to the coffee shop on Sunday, and I was on the phone with him. And I'm not typically walking into places and being on the phone. I all get off the phone. It's rude. I want to have a human interaction with the person at the counter, whatever. But he and I are long distance. We talk all the time.

We do stuff while we're talking, whatever. So I was just like, hold on. Let me just order my coffee. So I put my phone down on the counter. I didn't expect that guy to be in there because he usually is like money through Friday, but he was in there on a Sunday. And this is the day he decided to flirt with me while my fiance. is on the phone.

So funny. Raina, he was on one. He was like, I got the special coffee for you today. And then I was wearing an eagle shirt. He was like, actually, I should give you the old batch because of that shirt you're wearing.

And he's like a Cowboys fan. He was full flirt. His tone was different. I don't know if he noticed that I'd placed the phone down. And like, there's a man's name on the phone. Like, I don't know what he thought. But from always being just casually friendly, he decided to flirt with me that day and Sparkleizes on the phone just listening.

That is so funny because, like, you think like your partner goes out into the world all the time and has these interactions. Like, you know, like your partner is not suddenly not attractive to other people just because they're like wiped up. But like, you never think you're going to have a window into it where nobody knows that you're

there. And I don't want it. I want to pretend that no one wants to be with my partner besides me. My head was spinning because I was trying to be friendly and I'm like, he has turned it up to it to him. Let me mute this. That's so funny. The second he starts flirting, I'm like, mute.

He's like, why did you mute me? I'm like, because this guy was, I didn't want you to have to cuck this situation. It was so crazy. I mean, it was just very funny. And I walked out there and I was just like, what's about to happen? He's obviously so cool. I was laughing so hard. He was not laughing.

I was laughing so hard. I'm like, that is so funny. You had to hear all that. And he was like, Ashley, what the fuck? That's how you get him to move here. That's a new strategy. I think you should go everywhere and just make him listen to people for it with you. I'll hire people to do it.

But, I mean, he's seen people. We have a joke about this one couple. they're engaged, but we joke that they both parties flirt with us. Like the guy flirts with me and the girls. One time she was so flirty with him and it's become a joke between us. Like, you know, he'll joke about him and I'll joke about her. It's like our inside joke about this other couple. But for him to hear that whole interaction, I was just like that he wasn't stopping.

Like it wasn't like a flirty like, got your fave today kind of thing. And then he transitioned into the Eagles, Cowboys, things. I was like, oh my God. And then I left. I yelled go birds. I was like, I got to get the fuck out of here. It would be funny if you just ended the call. And you were like, oh, my God.

That's a weird. I got weird service. He's like, you go there all the time. You know, we're a service. But my wheels were turning and like, should I do something? This is, how much more is this going to escalate? What if he asks me out today? Ashley, I would die.

I would love it. What if Sparkly's on the phone? He's like, hey, so you've been coming in here a lot. And I just wanted to like see if you're available. Can I get your number? He's like, I see your phone right there. Can I get your number? I mean, that's some people's king.

Like, you know, Nikki Glazer was on our show. And she's time when she, like, likes to watch her boyfriend. Like, this years ago. I don't know. that's their scenario anymore, but likes to watch him, like, flirt with other girls and, like, talk about people's girls. Like, that's some people's kings. Yeah, I'm sure I got him a little fired up. Oh, okay. And then you guys had phone sex. Let's walk it through the park. Why you walk that today.

Anyway, okay. I love it. That's so cute. That's how we get him to appear. Yeah. Well, that's the plan. Okay, so you sent me this thing today, which really dovetails very nicely into the political episode, but it's the states that report the most and least sex satisfaction. Like the best states are fucking. So I want to just preface this with saying that the skim posted this. We love the skim. If you guys don't know it, we love it. We love the skim for information because today we're talking a lot about like where you get information in the first place.

But they posted this thing yesterday where people in the U.S. have the best sex. And it says that it was according to a new nationwide study from Knapp Lab, which I think was just like a mattress company. Like I don't think this was that official of a study. People in the comments were like a thousand people answered this. Like, which I think it's fine to post funny stuff. this, but I do think if you're the skim, you are a news media outlet, you should say when you're posting something that it isn't where this came from and who did this. I mean, they said NapLab, but like, what is that? You know, NapLab is objective data-driven mattress

reviews. I mean, maybe this is more official than we think. But bottom line, we still want to talk about it because we find it really funny, but the results were whack as hell. Right. So study asked respondents to score their sex lives on a scale of one to 10 with results averaging a 4.7 a failing score on most Rubik's nationally, 23.6% of Americans rated their sex life a 1 out of 10. Yikes. Well, only 10.6 of respondents rated their sex life at 10 out of 10. So listen, you guys, if you're like, my sex life is mid, you're in good company. Listen to this podcast. We have tons of advice for you. Yeah. Stop our vibrators. Exactly. If you can't have sex with other people, have sex with yourself. On a state level, Virginia, New Mexico, and Alaska came out as the states

with the worst sex lives with Oklahoma claiming the top spot for best sex. Putting the O in Oklahoma. So, I mean, listen, I take this is the greatest all. It's just, you know, some of these places people don't know what they're missing. You know, you marry somebody in Oklahoma straight out of high school. You think you're having good sex. Okay. So let's read the 10 states to have the best sex.

Per this study of 1,000 people, apparently. Number one, Oklahoma, then Kentucky, Texas, Maine, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Georgia. and South Dakota. So the states having the best sex. Those are the best sex, which the comments, I feel like a lot of them pass the vibe check. It said a lot of these states are deep red states were only men asked this question. Not sure how you could have great sex in Texas when women don't have the right to choose with best for their bodies. With only 187 respondents, this average is 21 respondents per state, blah, blah.

I mean, a lot of people were kind of like debunking this stuff. Also, we think, you know, we love a lot. South Dakota, how many people from South Dakota even answered? If there's a thousand people on this, there's eight people in all of South Dakota. All you need was eight of them to be like, yeah, That's pretty good. It's pretty good. And then the 10 states that have the worst sex, I'll go from worse.

So 50 to 41. So 50 is Alaska. Then New Mexico, Virginia, Hawaii. I don't buy that. Rhode Island, California. Don't buy that either. North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts. Now Boston guys can get down.

Trust me, guys. And then Delaware. Massachusetts was a shock for me because there's so many colleges. Like, there's like a million colleges in Massachusetts. All they're doing is fucking. So, Raina. Let me just say that when you and I conduct research and do surveys on Instagram, we have like 30,000 respondents. Totally.

A thousand is not legitimate. So I'll just shit all over this all day. But I have to tell you that I just commented in the comments justice for Delaware because Delaware is in the worst. And then you know who commented back? Joe Biden. It was actually Jill. Your brother. It was the Starboard.

Your brother's like, I'm fucking. It was browse about books. which is our favorite bookstore in Rahobahith. No. So what did they say? They just wrote like an up arrow and said this. So I sent this to my brother and I'm like on so many levels. He was like, Ashley, this is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen.

Browse about. The fact that you're commenting on the sex thing in the bookstore where I've only seen nice little old ladies working. I was like someone's going rogue on the social. Who is writing the social at this like nice little bookstore in Rahobith? That was my personal story Also like what do they rate this? Like good sex means different things to different people. Like to some people it means you had an orgasm.

To some people, a lot of women are like, I've never had an orgasm during sex. I still enjoy sex. Is it that somebody prioritized my pleasure? Is it the length of time? Is it the amount of sex you're having? Like what goes into this? I think you and I should conduct our own research.

Pennsylvania, I was having a ton of good sex in Pennsylvania. Oh, this is just, it's not even mentioned. Florida. Florida. The place I've had some of the weirdest stuff happened. Guys from Tampa, the first person ever really choked me and spit in my mouth was from Tampa. It was in Australia, but he was from Tampa.

Oh, spring break sex? I mean, you don't remember it, but. Nothing more disgusting. Where have I had disgusting stuff happening? Wait, where was New York? New York is not on here. New York is not even on there. I mean, this, a thousand people in a study is just really whack.

So, I don't know. But, yeah, like, we could do this better. And is it like, you're talking about it from states. You've had the best sex, but I think we're talking about, like, residents, but like, it's interesting that, like, Oklahoma, like, they're getting down like So it's people that are, like, living in those states. I guess so. But, like, New York versus California, I've had, like, a lot more sex in New York. Also, I want to know how North Dakota ended up in the very bottom number 44 and South Dakota ended up in the very top number 10.

Like, what is the difference between those two states? That actually is the smoking gun of it all. The Dakotas. Like, they cannot be that much different. Let's ask Dale Moss. Dale Moss is from one of them. Sue Falls. That is so funny. South Dakota. Oh, those people like to be on the top. North Dakota, they like to be on the bottom. I mean, I've dated people from, I will tell you where I've had the most boring sex, D.C., which doesn't really surprise anybody.

Fair. We are talking about politics today. Yeah. The most boring sex, and he knows it, D.C. I've dated a lot of long distance. Charleston. It's fine? Yeah, I've had some sex in Charleston.

I've had some sex. Yeah. They're hot there. Yeah. They're hot there, so they get like a little more of a pass. It's mid. It's mid. Denver?

I've had sex in Denver. Mid. It's fine. We've both had sex in Denver. Yeah, mid. Where else if I had sex? Have I had sex in Texas? I've had Austin sex.

Pretty dee's. Pretty dees. I'm Boston all day. I'm Massachusetts all day. I mean, this is crazy. It's Delaware, Massachusetts and California. Like, arguably, my three states are in the bottom. I mean, this is just surveys.

Hawaii, like, what's happening? The worst states to have said, Hawaii? What are you doing at all? Hawaii, just those people are so relaxed. They're, like, live in their best lives. Like, I feel like they're having good sex in Hawaii. there's nothing to do there besides have sex and surf. What else are you guys doing?

Right. And just like live your best life. Hiking and be tan and be happy. Yeah. Be tan like Tessa. Yeah, we think this is shit. But we still love the skim and we, you know, it obviously opened up a conversation. They got a lot of like comments and shares and things like that. But we just thought it was interesting. So maybe we'll do our own.

Yeah. It's for, you know, it's all in good fun. Yeah. And so states kind of leads us into our political discussion today. And we do have Emily Amick on, Emily and your phone on Instagram and we'll enter her again, obviously. But I do just want to say, you guys know, this is not a political podcast, but we've never shied away from being political in the history of the podcast and especially around the 2020 election we did a little bit more. And we did a full bonus episode about abortion when Roe was overturned. And we want to use our platform to speak about things that we're passionate about. And we want to try to make a difference when we can. And so,

we wanted to do an episode that was dedicated to politics with a guest. And that's what we're doing today. And there may or may not be another, but we're going to continue to talk about this. And we I want you guys to come here and get your dating sex relationship advice. And now, of course, with the snack, we have pop culture and we've dabbled in some politics there, of course. But politics affects everyone. And so we understand that some people want to come here as a break because we're so inundated in our social media and in the news and everywhere you look.

But we would be remiss if we didn't use the platform that we built to talk about these types of issues that affect women so much and everyone in the country, in the world. So that's what we're going to do today. I just wanted to give that little disclaimer. We love you guys. respect your beliefs. You know, we have ours as well. We want to have a respectful discussion. And it's important to us to use our platform for good. So that's what we're going to do today. We hope you enjoy the episode. Yeah, we are just going to talk about a couple of our partners.

So I am so excited to tell you guys about the Ranger Rover Evoke. We love it. Sexy car. We've seen it on the streets of L.A. and beyond. I was looking at these when I was car shopping. I could see myself in a Ranger Rover evoke who couldn't, you know, one day. So this is really just such an elegant SUV with sophisticated design. advanced technology and premium materials. We just love the clean lines. And we really just like love the way it looks. We love the company. They're so wonderfully made. They're really approachable, but there is an air of opulence, of course. So I feel like this is a perfect car if you're like, I don't want like the biggest giantess Rangerover on the planet. You know, you might want something that like is a little bit more smaller, more approachable, but still so sophisticated and

charismatic. It's really going to elevate your every drive. The Ranger River evoke is art and craft in equal measure. The exterior is a quietly bold expression. of the Range River DNA. It has a floating roof, continuous waistline, and three-dimensional grill. We love the grill. I love, I care about the grill. I care a lot. They see you come in. That's the first thing people see. Yeah, it gives the Ranger River Evoke. It's captivating character. So modern, chiseled tail-lake graphic. We love the tail lights too. The front and the back creates a sense of continuous motion and contributes to the signature aesthetic of the evoke, but really still has that calm minimalist cabin anchored by a center console that features a tactile gear shifter.

So I've sat in this car. I'm obsessed with it. Rain and I are big on the the interiors. I mean, there was a car that was your dream car and you got in the inside. You were like, I can't stand this interior. I can't stand the navigation, all that kind of stuff. So we really love this. You can choose a modern austere aesthetic or warmer authentic appearance for your interior with curated elements throughout the cabin that can be tailored to you. So just kind of design your perfect car. And we love it. I mean, we love Rangerover. We love the company as a whole and we love the evoke. And I mean, they just stopped me in my tracks. Every time I see them on the highways, on these streets, we are such big fans. And this is just going to be a gorgeous car. Of course,

Fran and I would always do white or big white car garlies, but whatever color you guys are into, of course. You can build your range rover evoke at land rover USA.com. Visit land rover USA.com to configure your range rover evoke. So even if you're not car shopping, you just want to look around. Just get on there and design your dream car. Explore the range rover evoke at land rover USA.com. Okay. And over 75% of the population is magnesium deficient. Unique spectrum, no other supplement on the market offers. Seven types. of magnesium in one bottle like magnesium breakthrough. And magnesium breakthrough promotes healthy sleep. You fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and have a more peaceful night.

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but this is how I folded it into my day-to-day routine. And it did just help me sleep better and just feel an energy boost and just better overall. So I've just kept it as part of my routine. Yeah, I love that they're a partner because we knew about them before. We had the stuff before. Like when they came across our desk, Raina was like, wait, I have this. So we're so excited to talk about them. Don't miss out on the most relaxing sleep ever with magnesium breakthrough for a exclusive offer, go to buyoptimizers.com slash Girls Gotta Eat and use promo code GGE during checkout to save 10%. And if you subscribe, not only will you get amazing discounts and free gifts, you'll make

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with Emily. Okay, guys, we are very excited to welcome our guest today. She is a lawyer journalist, and she is known as Emily in your phone on social media, where she shares the inside scoop about what's happening on Capitol Hill and the tools to advocate for political change. During her career, she has worked for the U.S. Senate as Judiciary Committee Council to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. She has worked on some of the biggest legislation that's passed through Congress on both sides as a staffer and an advocate. Her book, Democracy and Retrograde, How to Make Changes, Big and Small in our country and in our lives is out and was a New York Times bestseller. Please welcome to the show, Emily Amick. Hi, I'm so happy to be here. Hi. We are so happy to have you. Thank you for putting

your book out on my birthday. That was such a treat. Yeah. You know, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday America. Happy birthday. Very much. It was like a hangover for Independence Day slash crazy SCOTIS decisions came out like mere days before the book came out. Well, that's what's so fun about a July birthday recently because like June is just so terrible. You just roll right into America's birthday as of late. It used to be feel different in June. But I love you. I followed you for so long and you're just such a real go-to when people may be feeling despair or what can I do and we'll let you speak on it. But it does feel like that is your goal and why you wrote the book in the first place. So do you want to just tell us a little bit of background and Raina just kind of introd you as far as

your political background, but what made you even want to start this social media account and write the book and all of the things that you do? So, yeah, I'm like a real random person on the internet, is what I'll say. I'm not like your average, average internet bear. I was, I'm a lawyer. And I worked for many years. I worked at a nonprofit in New York City. And then I was a judiciary committee council for Senator Schumer from New York for a number of years. And I went into private practice. I was representing terrorism victims. But I love Instagram. Like, I, I'm an IG girly through and through. I have dogs. I've always posted picks of my dogs on the internet. Right. Like I fucking, I love the platform. And frankly, that is the platform where most

millennial women I know are. And they are platform specific. And I realized a number of years ago that like no one was talking about politics on the platform. And it was a real missed opportunity because, of course, women's political participation is so absolutely critical on so many issues across the board. And so I started posting about politics because I realized if people were going to be there, I wanted to give them information that was fact-based, that was actually helpful, that was motivating in the place that they are in the vernacular of the platform, in the aesthetics of the platform, to the best of my ability. And I started in 2019. So I've been doing it for a while. And it's been really, really interesting to see how everything has grown and changed. But it's been really exciting to build a community of people, many of whom are new to politics, Many, many of my followers were totally politically disengaged, which is a very different, it's a very different group of political people than most political audiences on the internet, which are like deeply entrenched in extremist echo chambers. So it's a fun group. And really the book came out of a question that Sammy, my co-author and I get over and over and over again. Well, two questions. One,

what can I do? And two, how do I not feel so helpless? Sure. And hopeless. Right. And the book is to answer sort of those questions. I love the tone of that. And I think it echoes the general temperature of the political climate and our listeners that really want to know, where do I get information I can really trust? And then where do I take this, this need to feel like I can be effective? And you code the book with Sammy Sage. You sort of like gloss over it, but I just want to let our audience know. She's one of the founders of Betches and we love them. And we've had one of their other founders on the show, too. So we love her as a co-writer. Yeah, it was fun. Can I just ask you just currently, how are you feeling? Like, what's the vibe on your end? You know, there's been a shift,

certainly, but just today, as we record, everything changes day by day. But yeah, post-Dailor-Swift endorsement. You know, just how are you feeling in this moment? What's the temperature of politics in America today? You know, I think that the Democratic base is excited. And the vibes were definitely low when Joe Biden was the nominee. And so I think people are really excited about Kamala. I think she's done an excellent job. She cannot make a single mistake. I mean, this woman has trained her whole life to be perfect, to be twice as good and work twice as hard. And she's really doing it.

But I think I'm also acutely aware of the fact that, like, this election, both the presidential and all of the down ballot races are on the margins. The Montana Senate race just got moved to likely Republican. That means we lose the Senate. If we don't have the Senate, none of the things we want to see done can get done. No Supreme Court Justice can get confirmed. It means no legislation to address gun violence, to address reproductive rights, to address climate change. None of that's getting past.

So not only is Kamala's race on the margins, but all of these other critical down-ballot races are. So I think, like, I'm very optimistic. I'm loving the vibes. I'm loving the excitement. And I'm also loving seeing people who sort of previously weren't motivated to get engaged, get motivated. But there's also very much a feeling of, like, a lot of work to get done.

Well, and that just seemed like that was the vibe at the DNC. They couldn't stress it enough. Like, we're all excited. This is really great. You're feeling really, like, empowered and positive and optimistic, but there's still work to be done. And I like you reiterating that. Like, this is not in the bag.

And there's still so many more important races aside from even just presidential. Right. And it's hard because, like, having good vibes is a part of running an election. Right. Like, you know, like, it's a little bit like, the secret manifesting, like you have to act like a winner to be a winner. And it really does, that does work in campaigns. But it also, like, you have to communicate to people that like, nope, don't rest on your laurels. For God's sakes, let's not do 2016 again. Like, you know,

so it's a little bit of a balance. Yeah. Clearly you were inspired to write the book because people were like, I don't know what to do with this energy where to go from here. So what do you feel like the general temperature of people is across the board? Is it despair? Is it hope? Is it action? your boots on the ground in D.C. What are you feeling? Well, D.C. is not the people. Right. D.C. is a group of like weirdo politics nerds. But I fit in perfectly. But, you know, the thing that I have continued to find is a lot of people are still in the space of I don't know what to do. And they are looking for very explicit directions. And part of why we wrote democracy and retrograde is because there isn't really a specific prescription that I can tell everybody. Like this is the single thing you can do that will transform everything, right?

Like, what we want is everyone to figure out what is most meaningful to them, what's most, you know, sustainable for them, something that will get exciting and cup filling. There's certainly like across the board things we can say, like talk more about politics to the people that you know, make sure you have a consistent information source that like doesn't stress you out. But the goal is to figure out, you know, everybody doesn't need to be volunteering 24-7 for the presidential campaign. Maybe you have a school board race. maybe you have a state house candidate. Like there's 13,000 school board seats in this country. There's thousands and thousands of other political races happening this year. And in addition to like everything else in the civic space.

So one of the things we hope to accomplish with this book is to say like politics isn't something that happens once every four years. It's something that happens every single day. If you want to do some self-care and have a bubble bath, that's great. You really want that water clean. So we need to be engaging, you know, like you really want to go walk your kid to school. Great. You need those quality sidewalks. You know, all these other things that are the contours of our lives that require civic engagement. So how do we get people excited to be doing that every day beyond November? Well, and I think that's so important. And something that I feel, I don't want to tread lightly, but is a very uneducated, uncritically thinking mindset that a lot of people have is just like my life.

is because of the president, which is just kind of nuts. You know, this is someone that could potentially change every four years. And people are like, my life's not good enough. And it's the president's fault, not taking it an account city, state, local. You know, so I think I'd love for people to understand that so much of your quality of life and the way that you live day to day is based not on the national, federal level, necessarily. And the president, it's what's going on in your city, town, and state. Yeah, and it's also, you know, one of the reasons I find that people feel so helpless is because they want to take action on issues like gun violence, right? And they want to make a phone call, which you should do. You should be calling a reps. But they want to then have that one phone call, create immediate change. And that's impossible, right? Like there are some of these national, specifically culture war issues that are very, very ensconced and largely calcified in our country right now. We're going to have to have Supreme Court changes to change a lot of these things. You know, we need to.

win the entire Congress and the presidency to change into these things. If you start advocating to get a speed bump on your street today, within a year or two, you will see the physical manifestation of that work. You will say, I did that. My advocacy, I talk to people at town hall, I talk to the mayor, I talk to the zoning board, whatever it is in your town, and you'll be able to see that. I actually have a follower whom I've known for a while who got really upset about speeding in front of her house when there's like a bus stopped, you know, and your kids are getting off the bus and she was like, you know what, I'm just going to call the mayor's office. I'm going to see Emily always gabs about the speed bump. Like, I'm going to see what needs to be done.

She called and it turned out that they had had, they'd already gotten the funding to install cameras, speed cameras on the buses, but then like someone had dropped the ball a couple months ago and like no one had moved along the project. So she called now that the project is going forward and those cameras are going on the buses. And like she's going to very quickly see the manifestation of her advocacy. And I think that's motivating when people want to, they want to find a reason to say, like, I have a semblance of control and I have a semblance of autonomy and advocacy that I can move forward in this process. Getting more involved on these local and state issues is a way to do that so you don't feel so helpless. Well, also concurrently still being engaged,

hopefully on national issues. And then how do people start? Like, I mean, you say, like, action is the antidote to despair. So if you're feeling feelings of despair and helplessness and people listening like what you're saying, they like hearing about the speed bump and the small local changes. Like, where do you even begin? Yeah. And then could that bring us to defining your civic personality too? Yeah. So democracy and retrograde, it's not, we really tried to make sure it's not a boring political book. It is, okay, great. It is really a, it's sort of like a half workbook type of thing where as you work through the book, there's lots of journaling prompts and quizzes and a personality quiz and worksheets that at the end of the book, you have your own civic action plan that reflects

your values, your interests, the people you care about, how you want to help, how much time you have, like all of the things that go into finding a meaningful way to get civically engaged. And you get that. You have that sort of all together by the end of the book. And one of the things you mentioned is the civic personality. We have a civic personality quiz because who didn't love 17 magazine quizzes? I sure. I did.

And there's four civic personalities. because one of the things I hear is like I tell people like you want to get engaged and they say, but I don't want to run for office. And I get it. Like that feels like that's the option. But there's so many other things. So we have leaders, connectors, creators and givers are the four civic personalities. And then within that, there's a bunch of manifestations. And it's been so interesting to hear people who take the personality quiz and be like, I never really thought of myself that way. But you're right. That actually would make me really happy. Like I've heard a lot of people who are like, you know what, actually I am a giver. And I'm going to start just doing an hour here and there of work.

And one of the things we talk about in the book a lot is the loneliness crisis in this country. And we view civic engagement as actually the solution to the loneliness epidemic. And getting involved in something you really care about that's really rooted in your values is an amazing way to meet friends. And that is what keeps you going back. Like at the end, I go to sort of like school board type meeting. And what I love to do isn't really go to the meeting. It's to talk shit with my friends who also go to the meeting. Right. You know what I mean? Like who doesn't? It's like book group. But yeah, it's like book clubs. Right. And that's really, you know, civic engagement is just like being involved in your community. It doesn't have to be advocacy for a specific little thing. It can be just

doing a book club, doing something for kids in your community, making sure people who need help are getting help. Like there's all these other different permutations. The goal is to help people figure out what is their place. Because we don't all need to do everything, but we all just need to do something. I love that quote. And I also just want to tell people it's accessible. Like I think people are like, how do I get over the hump of going to a school board meeting? Whatever it may be, like, can you just kind of tell people that this is easy to do? You just got to show up. It is easy. Look, you know, I think I understand how it's daunting. And it's sort of like, you know, when you show up to a gym for the first day or a school, the first day and you don't know anyone, you don't know what's going on. It's really, really

scary. But then the second time you do it, you know where everything is, you know where the bathroom is. And then the third day, you start recognizing the people. And I think that civic engagement is a little bit like that, that getting over that first hump is very daunting. You might not like the first thing you try. So it's about like the gym. Like the gym. How many different athletic activities have I tried and given up? But like nonetheless, I will keep trying. I will do the next social media fad, inevitably. I think that, you know, civic engagement is something similar. So you might not like going to school board meetings, but you might like going to a vacuum in club where there's a lot of cross-generational interaction. And you start getting involved with seniors in your community. You realize

some of the seniors are having trouble getting food. You help them get food or you drive them to a doctor's appointment now and again. You realize that there's problems getting their Medicaid. You make a phone call for them. I have found that once you start getting a little bit engaged, it pulls you in. And we did, there's a bunch of different interviews done in the book about just regular people and how they're, they're engaged civically. And one of the women that I really enjoyed talking to, her name is Jessica. And she said, I started volunteering because I thought it was my obligation to help others, because when I needed to help, people have helped me. But what ended up happening was I made all these friends. And then I just keep showing up because I want to see my friends. And to harp on my back

topic. I think that's actually more realistic about what actually happens. And then you'll get over the hump, right? Because you'll have these people you want to go see. I love that. I mean, I find it to be a little daunting too. Sometimes, you know, Ashley and I want to use our platform to have these type of conversations without alienating people that don't believe the same thing that we do. And we really love our listeners. We love every woman that takes the time to, well, most of them, that takes the time to listen to this show. And, you know, we want to be able to use our platform. And sometimes I feel like it's like, well, is an Instagram post enough? Is an Instagram story enough? Is dedicating an episode of this podcast enough? But, you know, Ashley and I can't go and volunteer for the presidential campaign every single weekend. So when is it enough? How have we reached enough people? And I think even having conversations on a more micro level with just friends and family can seem really frightening and daunting. And Ashley and I even got into this conversation kind of recently with two friends. And I felt like, I mean, Ashley and I feel really impassioned about women's rights and the rights of transgender. people and gay people and children and all the things you're supposed to feel like really impassioned about. And I felt everything really escalating in this conversation against one person. And I had to like remind myself like speak with empathy, dial it back a little bit.

You know, you're not going to really move the needle by attacking somebody. But even I suffer from like, how do I help and what's effective? Yeah. And I want to get into the nitty gritty. We'll talk about some like specific questions. Kamala Trump, where to get news, things like that. but I think I'd love to talk on that. Like, how do you talk to family and friends with different values? I mean, of course, we know there's not a one-size-fits-all approach, but how do you feel about having conversations with people close to you who have such wildly different views and values? So one of my, like, standard things that I always talk about is that no one ever wins a political argument.

Right? Like, you know, I'm out here like, I've won. I know I've won. No. There's no winning. What's the point of a conversation if I'm not going to win? And I think the thing is that conversations are super important. And the reality is all of politics is just conversations.

And there's actually some data that shows that groups of people having conversations physically changes brain chemistry and brings people into alignment. And part of what we have seen happen in America is this increasing polarization. And it's not just polarization. It's polarization, tribalization, and calcification. these three sort of wonky terms that add together to create this really weird political environment where people are not only polarized but they're pulled into tribal camps that don't talk to each other and then they're calcified. They're stuck in those camps and they can't leave. But 70% of America

is in this middle group called the exhausted majority. And these are people who are not defined by the fact that they like sit on one of the wings, but rather that they're somewhere in the middle. It doesn't mean they're centrist politically, but it means they're sort of disengaged or exhausted or hold a group of opinions that doesn't sit them in one of the sides. And those people are out there largely not starting political conversations, right? Like I think a lot of times what I find is the people who start political conversations, people who are looking for an argument, right? Like I always joke it's like Uncle Chad at Thanksgiving who just like, he just like wants to dunk. It's not a good faith discussion. But I have lots of friends who don't talk about politics, but if I start asking them questions,

like, oh, what are you interested in? What are issues that are important to you? What are things that you're passionate about? And I just start asking questions. Learn a little bit more. Learn something they're concerned about. What are you thinking about this election? What are you excited about? I learned something. I maybe don't know the answer. I come back to them a week later. I send them a text. Oh, I saw this news article I thought you'd be interested in. Oh, this is a really interesting information. Find a reliable source. Give them information. That's fast. based interesting viewpoint on this. Or I'm ready the next time I have a conversation with them to give them that viewpoint. Or I just share my feelings, my values, how I approach it, think about

how I think about this issue differently. But one of the most important things for us in writing the book was to say a lot of women have been taught that talking about politics is in our place, right? That it's not appropriate for women. This isn't you two gals. But like I, you know, I grew up in Texas. Like a lot of the way the people I grew up. up with were raised is no politics at the dinner table, like be smiling, be sweet. And that is not helpful. Silence is giving power to people who want to take away our rights. And really getting engaged and speaking up more is, in fact, like a political action. And I want to sort of close this by going back to how the question started, which is like, is an Instagram post enough? Like, what's enough?

You know what I mean? It is something. It is a contribution. And it is helping that. the public square how to sort of have these very public conversations. And it's very important. And there's no enough. Like, you know what I mean? And that's sort of the point, which is like politics is every day forever. It's not just this election. It's going to be ongoing. And so we have to figure out how to have it be sustainable. And so like if you have something to say, I always encourage people to say it. But like, it's not about saying one thing. It's about having a continual dialogue on whatever platform or medium you are. Okay. Just going to take a quick break and then we'll get back into it. Okay. You guys know I talk about my relationship to sleep all the time. It's so important

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Yeah, hands-down J-Lo. I mean, it's not even close. If there's one thing you can trust with J-Lo, it's beauty and skin. I mean, she has the absolute best. And she's over 50. I mean, nobody looks better. Yeah, she's the skin. We all envy.

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and use code GGE at checkout for 15% off. Thank you Zbiotics for sponsoring this episode and our good time. Okay, let's get back into it. I like this idea that you can share a little bit of information that Rome wasn't built in a day. You're not going to change somebody's idea overnight. And I've watched this happen for a couple years with a good friend of mine and her father when the abortion bans started to come down. And I feel like really emotional about it.

But obviously she was very upset about it. And her father was raised in a very conservative, hyper-Christian, blue-collar, middle-of-the-country environment. And he didn't feel the same way as her. And I see that it's caused a lot of problems between the two of them, that she's just like, how can you even think that you have a dog in this fight? I'm a woman.

And these are my reproductive role. rights. And on top of that, how could you not want me to have reproductive rights? And I've seen like little by little over the years things really change and him come around by her just sharing like little pieces of information. She wasn't going to change somebody's opinion overnight. You know, you're talking about 60 years of breeding with some people about what it means to be religious, what it means to be a Christian or a good person in different parts of this country. But I think little pieces of information can really be helpful. Yeah. And I just, this whole don't talk about politics and especially when it comes to people.

who have a platform and, you know, of course, people like stay in your lane. And it's just like, it's so deranged as a mindset because what you're saying is leave all the decisions that affect all of us to these people, you know, to these politicians. And it's the same people that say, stay in your lane and don't talk about politics that also think politicians are corrupt. It's totally contradictory. And so I just have such a problem with this. And I want to just fight it and debunk it at every turn because it's like this affects all of us. I think it's crazy. You just want these people and power to make all your life's decisions.

Like that at its core is what you're saying when someone is trying to silence you in terms of don't talk about this kind of stuff. It's supposed to be frustrating. And I think that a little bit is changing anything takes friction, right? And that's just how things goes. And so you're not going to, everyone's not going to be happy. If you are trying to change things or take power away from someone or disagree with someone, someone is going to be unhappy with you. Someone might question you. And one of the things I hear from people is they're like, I don't know enough to talk about this issue. And they're very scared of being criticized and attacked. And I'm like, it's okay. You know, you can say, I don't know. You can say I'm going to look into it. But you can also say, I know my values. I know what I care about. I know what I think is important. And this is what I think. And one of the sort of destructive cycles we're in, I think, right now and social media has magnified this in a way is this very much empowering those who want to silence us by.

just creating a little bit of argument isn't the right world, but just creating a little bit of toxicity around these public conversations. And it's just like, I don't want to deal with this. I stop. And it's really letting them win. And I mean, I talk about politics on my platform every day. People are constantly screaming at me. And I see it because I know people are much more likely to say something mean than they are to say something nice. And I'm constantly having to remind myself, thousands of people are looking at my content and liking it and just moving along with their day because they're fucking normal people. Exactly. Right. Right. Yeah. With that.

sort types of reviews. It's the negative people that are going to leave a reviewer. Yeah. And we say all the time, you know, the average person will look at something that they don't agree with and keep it moving. And I think that it's really important and brave to say what you said, which is that there's always going to be people that are a problem with you. If you take one side of a two-sided issue, somebody is always going to have a problem with you. And I think it's a shame because I see people post things that I think are really well-meaning and they get so attacked that the people that probably would stand up for them don't even bother to let me a comment and stand up for them. And it is a really scary environment. It's, it's scary for everybody. And it doesn't matter how

educated you are. And I hate this notion of, as she said, stay in your lane. Because whose lane is it? I'm a voter and I'm a person in the world. Right. How is it on my lane? And I think that you should be able to differentiate and critically think between whose opinion am I taking is fact or not. You know, do I think Taylor Swift is a politician? No, but do I think she should stay in her lane? No, I think millions of women look up to this woman for what is right and important. And you can take her opinion or not. You can critically think, is this somebody's opinion I want to take or not? Yeah. You know, for JD vans to come out and say, like, we don't think it will have any impact. It won't matter. And then Trump to mere days later say, I hate Taylor Swift. Obviously, they care. You know what I

mean? Yeah. What's that high school quote everyone had the opposite of love is in hate. It's indifference. Right? Yeah. Exactly. Well, let's just talk about it. I mean, I find his post. I hate Taylor Swift to be also dangerous. And, you know, he knows that his base will be incited to violence. And it's funny on its head because it's so like unhinged and you're watching this man spiral in real time. But it's still like when I really think about it, I'm like, I find it really dangerous and so unprecedented everything that he does. So that goes that same. But does someone like her have an impact? I mean, I've read somewhere that a half a million people registered to vote after her Instagram post. So I want to hear from you, you know, I think people are a little

disillusioned with celebrities. I think they're like they don't represent the average American. And I think sometimes a celebrity endorsement can do the opposite in terms of helping. But I think in some cases it does. And we'd love to hear you talk about in celebrity endorsements in general. And I wrote a whole substack about this. And I have enjoyed having substack, I'll say, as a platform, because it allows me to go a bit deeper on issues. And I try to specifically write questions that I know my audience really wants to know the answer to. It's not like a news delivery substack. It's a little bit more like, I know everyone's going to ask this question. Here's how I think about it. So Taylor Swift, there was, I think, over 400,000 clicks to vote.org from her post, right? Which doesn't necessarily mean registrations,

but there was a pretty significant registration bump from last time when she endorsed. So we know it's it's powerful. And there's been a Harvard study that was done that shows there is an impact on celebrity endorsements. But, you know, it's not just, A, I'll say like 400,000 clicks is a lot when you remember the 2000 election was decided by 537 votes in Florida. Right. Like, you know, every single vote matters. And we're not just talking about the presidential. We're going down ballot where, like, they are often very, very close. So, you know, there's a lot of young people who I think Gen Z is more apathetic than millennials, for example, and they were disengaged and, you know, getting some young people excited to register to vote is an awesome, awesome thing.

And having more normalization of talking about these issues a really, really important thing. But also one of the things we're seeing from the data is that this election is becoming increasingly gendered. And especially amongst young voters, young men are increasingly tacking to the right and young women are attacking to the left. And I think one of my big predictions about this election is we're going to see a really significant gender gap in the votes of the parties. And that's because fundamentally it's a party that there's one that thinks women are humans who deserve bodily autonomy and then another party who thinks that we should go back to a time when there was no fault divorce was illegal, right?

Like, you know, all of these types of things. There's a massive growing distinction amongst the treatment of women between the leadership of these two parties. And so having someone like Taylor's who has a huge female audience who care about her and who respect her saying something like this, I think is really important and is really helping the vibes. And in general, the more is better when it comes to campaigns. And so like, yes, I'm excited. When's Beyonce going to do the endorsement? I'm just waiting more. She's already. I mean, it's just like she let him use her song as the like, you know, there's going to be a big event. They'll be more. Yeah. We'll have more. Well, I want to rewind to what you said about not thinking that.

that that is funny. I'm not like that some people think that that tweet is funny. I hate Taylor Swift. It's so unfunny to me. It's so deeply disgusting. It's more than dangerous. Anybody that's supposed to be a leader. I mean, Ashley and I,

we own a company. We from our company would not tweet out, I hate ex person on any side, unless they were very, very dangerous. I mean, we're not tweeting out from our vibrator account. I hate Donald Trump. We're just not doing it. You know, to have any leader tweet out something like that,

I'm shocked that anybody could see that and think, that person feels fit to represent me and my country. It feels like a child. I don't mean this sarcastically. I genuinely don't understand it. It feels crazy to me. I want to talk about this with you. I mean, this is not your typical candidate.

I mean, I wonder if you feel like it's hard to even discuss him as if he is. You know, like this isn't John McCain or Mitt Romney. I mean, God, I've missed those guys these days, you know, where people had some honesty and some decorum and acted like. an adult and some maturity and we're rational. I mean, this is not the Republican Party that anyone's ever known. And so it's like weird because when we discuss it, it's not an attack on Republicans. It's we used to be able to have these conversations across party lines at the dinner table and with friends. But like, it's tough to discuss Donald Trump and the MAGA base. I mean, and this

goes into talking to people who share those values. It's really tough to talk to them because it really is so rooted in hate and lies and irrationality, I guess. Yeah. I mean, so I've been in professional politics for 20 years and it has never been this bad. I mean, I quit my legal job because I think that this election is an existential threat to democracy and I wanted to work full time on it. Right. Like, I cannot understate my belief in like the absolute importance of this election cycle.

And I think Donald Trump is, I think, you know, One of the things about his first presidency was he hired imbeciles who were incapable of executing on his authoritarian whims. And he, you know, in the debate, bragged about hiring people who needed to be fired. That's not a thing to be proud of, my bro. But, you know, this time around, things are very, very different. I was working in D.C. on a lot of bipartisan issues at the time, right? And a lot of the conservative people I know didn't want to work for Trump because I thought it would ruin their career. They all have a very, very, very different posture to the next Trump administration, which is like they know that's the train. There is no distinction between the Republican Party

and Donald Trump anymore. They are one and the same. And any any claim otherwise is delusional. There's most certainly people who are Republicans who don't support Donald Trump. But like, they are very few and far between and inevitably if you are voting for Republicans, you are largely voting for MAGA. Like the vast majority of quote unquote moderate Republicans have been pushed out of the party. They don't exist anymore. Less motivation. Well, Liz Cheney, we still have Liz Cheney. Right. But, like, Liz Cheney is hated by the Republican Party. I know, of course, of course, but thank God for her. But, yeah.

It's a whole diversion I have about, like, gun violence and how there's no bipartisan solution to gun violence because all of the Republicans who supported common sense gun reform have lost their seats. They have been kicked out of the Republican Party in as much as, like, being one means holding a seat in Congress. So all of that is sort of a caveat to say, I think that, you know, Donald Trump is exceptionally toxic and he empowers his supporters to be likewise toxic. When we look at the conspiracies he's spreading about the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, right? Like, it's all fun in games until he's actually spouting blood libel. And he, you know, this is on the foundation of an RNC where there were literal signs about mass deportations.

It's incredibly, incredibly obvious what he's talking about. And one of the things that I think has been a little bit hard about being a, I'm a sort of moderate Democrat all these years, has been trying to balance being like, I'm not engaging in histrionics to point out the obvious. And sometimes people will be like, I want a smoking gun. And I'll be like, well, it's pretty clear what the dude, what the dude's saying. You know what I mean? Like the dude wants to be a dictator. He's going to get there based on hatred, toxicity, violence, and it doesn't bother him. And, you know, when we think about his supporters and having conversations with them, I mean, I'll go to my caveat, which is, you know, like, at the end of the day, you always have to protect yourself, right? And if having a conversation with someone is going to cause you emotional or physical harm, you should absolutely bounce. My general approach is the approach you take to people in cults, which is the goal is to maintain a personal relationship and you don't have to discuss the underlying issue of their participation in the cult, right? Like, you're never going to argue someone out of, out of their

conspiracy beliefs. You can only be there for when they are finally ready to leave and want a semblance of reality to, like, be there to offer it. And I think it's super hard. And I think it has broken a lot of families apart. And I've heard so many, so many stories about people who, you know, can't talk to their parents anymore, have lost relationships with siblings and friends. I mean, it's, it's not good. And it's what Trump wants, right? He wants to isolate his people. and that helps his political movement. Sure. I mean, I've never in history,

and I'm sure a lot of people understand this, I've never felt like the opposite party is a real threat to me, to other women around me, to the women in my life, to the children that they're going to have. God forbid, they're gay or trans. People of color, immigrants, all of it.

And to disagree with that, I feel like you are attacking me. And I don't know that I've ever, I certainly didn't feel like George Bush was a threat to my. way of life. You know, I've been alive for other Republican candidacies and candidates. And I never felt that those people were a direct threat to me. So for somebody to say to me that that's not true, I feel really, I feel attacked. And it's hard to not feel like that in a conversation with somebody.

Yeah. I mean, I think of like my uncle, for example, who lifelong Republican, he was in the Navy with John McCain. That was his squadron leader. I mean, and he was kind of our one super Republican family member, you know, and he is a registered Democrat now. He can't stand Donald Trump. He's had, he's known him throughout some of his business dealings throughout the year and he sees what a threat he is to our country, to democracy, to all the things Rayna just mentioned. And I was just with him recently because I really value his opinion as someone who was so Republican, you know, for so long and is now could not be more upset with the way that his former party has gone. And I was talking to him and my aunt about people who are supporting Donald Trump that they know, people who they've

been friends with when they said they just feel like it's immigration based, which is ultimately racism based. And so we wanted to talk a little bit today about these two candidates like platforms and we can't get to every issue and every policy issue. But to me, especially even when I watched the debate, like I do feel as though all Trump really has is the immigration thing. And that's the appeal. Could you help us decipher any other appeal? besides someone just really loving the sheer hatred and misogyny of it all. Like, let's take that person out of it. Let's assume there's good people who are supporting him.

Yeah. So I'll say a couple things. Number one, you know, Christian nationalists are a real political movement in this country. And it cannot be sort of discounted and understated. There are people who fundamentally believe that we should live in a biblical republic. Yes. And right. Okay, there is that.

And it's not a small group of people, and especially when you consider the fact that, you know, what Donald Trump cares most about is his base. I care a lot about reproductive freedom issues. And so I'm always following women who are focused on right-wing talking points on that issue. And they are extremely doctrinal. They don't want IVF to be legal, right? Like, this isn't just about abortion access. It's about IVF. It's about birth control. It's about all these other things. So you have those people who are true believers from a religious perspective, who view religious freedom to them is the freedom to impose their religion on others, right? And that is their fundamental belief. I think that there's also a group of people, and I'd say like, you know, populism is an

effective political strategy for aspiring authoritarian for a reason. And what we hear from Trump and J.D. Vance attempts to is just a lot of populist rhetoric. And there's not a lot of there there, right? Like in the debate, I ever, for certainly my favorite part of the debate when he was asked about his Obamacare replacement. And he's like, I have the kind of. concept of plan. Best quote. Right. Like, yeah.

Which is a bud, you've been running on this platform since 2015. It's been nine years. You can't come up with one. And he can't come up with one. But the idea is like, this thing is awful. And certainly I would be better because you hate what's going on right now. And health insurance costs are high. I mean, I have been in cancer treatment for a couple of months.

And I can't, I'm like so frustrated with the health care system. Totally. Right. But nonetheless, like, this. The viable path forward isn't to just like blow it all up and deny everybody health care, which is what repealing Obamacare would entail. It's about like figuring out how to improve it, which is in fact challenging. It's a lot easier to be like, blow it all up than it is to be like, let's think about how to improve this like vastly complicated system. And the last thing is I think

what I have seen come from Trump and Trump supporters is an attempt to focus on the economy. Right. And in a world in which you control. all the information that goes to your followers because they've worked really, really hard to isolate their followers from quote unquote mainstream media, right? Like to make them to believe that they are themselves the only arbiters of truth and no one outside their ecosystem is truth inherently, right? Like J.D. Vance was like, why would anyone care what the mayor of Springfield says? It's like, well, because he's seemingly someone who knows what's happening in Springfield. But when you totally decimate all ideas of expertise, you allow yourself to be the only one who has this access to reality.

And so it's a lot of stuff about kitchen table issues, economy, like, and a lot of polling in any election, right? People are always at the end of the day they care about the cost of eggs because that's just how people are. Like you're always thinking about your next month's rent, yada, yada, yada, the price of gas. And that's why it always works very well in political messaging, right? like threats about other people taking your jobs and threats about the cost of eggs and gas are like the cornerstone of political messaging for a reason and that is what I'm hearing a lot from them. It's not backed up by reality, but that's not always the most important. For sure. I mean, it's so interesting to me because like, listen, I don't think Democrats are the perfect

solution. I don't think there's a perfect candidate. I think lots of people are full of shit. I think you got to pick the person. There's corruption everywhere. I mean, I don't think like that CNN, everything they say is the truth. And Kamala is the most honest, amazing person. person's ever lived. I'll vote for her forever. But you should at least want to vote for a person that comes to a debate and doesn't say I have concepts of a plan. How disrespectful to your base to say, I want to be your candidate and then show up and say, but I don't have any idea what I'm going to do. But he was also president. That's what's so crazy. It's so funny because it was like, you were president also for four years. She's been the candidate for two months. Yeah. But I want to ask you

one final question. I kind of want to move away from this. There's some more we really want to discuss with you if you have the time. But when you have your Christian nationalist and your people who want to bring you back to biblical times, I'm just curious, how do they justify a man who's had multiple wives, children with a bunch of different people who's been divorced all these times, who truly has not followed the biblical way of life? How do they twist that in their own minds to support him because they're so big on like the family and the family unit and all those values?

They say I'm choosing a president, not a pastor. Okay. But like they want to bring religion into, they don't want to separate church and state. So it's very, it's hypocritical. You know, the thing is like, yeah, hypocrisy doesn't stop anyone ever. Okay. That's the answer. Right.

Unfortunately, yes. Right. That's so rational of you to say. Yeah. But this is like this, like, you know, I don't know if you know Jason Selvig and the good liars, they go out in the streets and they talk to people and they ask them the most at Trump rallies and whatnot. And you see. the most insane stuff. People don't know what's coming out of their mouth and then they get caught up.

But I mean, to Raina's point about, we always want to say, like, we're not these stands for Democrats. They'll fix everything, you know, and we understand that. We would love to vote for people that gave us tax breaks. What a dream. Yeah, exactly. That would be. Yeah, living in California and coming from New York. But to the voter, to the person who says, it's all bought, it's all rich people at the top making all these decisions.

It's all corrupt and it's all few by money. Like, why should I even care? I know I'm not making a difference. You know what I'm saying? You know, I do. And those people definitely exist. And yeah, and I'm running a relational organizing campaign right now, ripplevote.org. Check it out.

And we give you scripts to talk to your friends about what's on their ballot. And we have scripts in there for people who have, like, that is a very common thing. It's not weird. And I totally get it. And I think, you know, we still have democracy. And at the reality, at the end of the day, the Democratic Party is just all of us. And we are what makes. of it. And the way you get to choose the future of the party is by participating in it. And there is a

problem with money in politics right now. We do need to change things. Democrats have put up bills to try to rein in dark money in politics. You know, and the only way we get those bills pass to fix those problems are to vote people in who will vote for them. And inevitably, topping out is just handing the keys to the kingdom to the people who don't want you to have any power. And, you know, silence and inaction, those are political choices. And I get it. I, like, have participated in a lot. I've been on TikTok for hours of my life and, like, have had my brain cooked also. But, you know, there's these doom spirals and these negativities. They're very, very addictive. But they're not, they're not reality, right? The reality is that, like, we are all part of a coalition of people who are trying to make America a better place for all of us. And the way to get there is encouraging. And we have to move things forward because the other option is worse. Exactly. And I mean, do you agree with a statement that like all politics everywhere, every country, no exclusions, there is corruption. And that's just the nature of like we're not living in a world where everyone is so honest and there's no bribes and there's no greed. I mean, I just think it's like the nature of what it is. You can feel free to tell me I'm wrong. But as a lawyer, I'll never agree to an absolute. It's against our professional code. You know, look, I think, you know, dark money is a huge problem in this country, and it was

legalized and made possible by a Supreme Court bought and paid for by the Republican Party. And we have a really big problem. We should not be able to have billionaires buying, you know, these massive influence campaigns over our elections. And we need to start fixing it. And, you know, I really believe in rank. voting, for example. I think that partisan primaries and the polarization that is ensconced by that infrastructure is a huge problem in this country and we need to fix it. I think we need to get rid of the

electoral college. I think it's fucked up. Right. Like there's all of these massive infrastructural issues that need to be addressed. And the reality is like Trump and his cronies who are gobbling up all our time with their insanity are preventing us from being able to move forward. And that's what they want, right? Because they want to be able to take over this country so they can enact biblical rule and inevitably corporations can be unregulated and make an infinite amount of money. Yeah. I say this all the time. When it comes to abortion, I hate that this is something we have to discuss. You know, like, I feel like it's not a distraction because it's so important, but it's a distraction in terms of like it shouldn't even. We already did abortion. We've been. This used to be the law of the land and it's come back on

our plate. And as a lot of women, it's got to be the thing we focus on the most. And it's so frustrating to me because it didn't used to be like this. And now it's become front and center again. And it is something we have to focus on and talk about. But it's become all encompassing where there are so many other issues at stake and so many other struggles that people in America have and so many other different things we'd love to be discussing. But this kind of takes precedence and that feels so unfair. And that's what has happened because of the Supreme Court and Donald Trump and different Republicans. leaders. And so I find it very frustrating that that's even where we're at. I mean, conservatives spent

50 years working to overturn Roe. Right. They engaged in the long game. They strategically built this massive weapon, right? Like, they took over the Supreme Court. They created model law writing things. They created an entire impact litigation firm that does Supreme Court litigation. Right. Like, they did all of this stuff. And I think that the reproductive rights movement was largely asleep at the wheel when it comes to this type of stuff. Like, we did not play the game. We were sort of settled back. And the reality is even pre-Dobbs, I think it's like 86 or 87 percent of counties in America didn't have an abortion provider. Right. So there were a lot of people who were not able to access abortion services. And stuff was, you know, during my tenure even in Congress,

things were getting passed. We have, you know, all these amendments that were preventing us from being able to do all of this work. And so I do think that one of the problems about politics is like it never ends, right? Like the fight over women's right to our own health care, it will absolutely never, ever end. It will be the most important issue for me in every election until I die. I go to sleep knowing this every single night. It doesn't mean it's the only thing that will be important, but like figuring out how to defend that because there are women who are going to be dying if we don't do it is always going to be at the top of my list. And I want to be in a world who were merely defending that, right? Not trying to achieve it. But, you know, I was just writing my

substack right now about ProPublica just released an article the first known case in modern American times of a woman who died because she wasn't able to get an abortion. And it's now public information. They said they're going to be coming out with the second story this week about another woman who had a preventable death because she wasn't able to access an abortion. And this is the America we're going into. And so I talk a lot. I don't know if I created the term. I think I did. But this idea of a threshold voter, which I think is something different than a one-issue voter. Okay. You know, a one-issue voter is someone who, they just have this one thing.

It's all they care about. Politicians love them because you don't have to deal, like, you just do their one thing that they want and then you don't have to talk to them or care about them again. I consider myself a threshold voter. There's a number of things that are threshold issues for me. And then if you don't meet my threshold, I will not vote for you. Yeah. Right.

And abortion rights, that's one of the things. Caring about addressing the gun violence epidemic, that's another one of those things. Same. right? And and I think for a lot of my followers, it's the same thing. And I think that it's sort of another one of these tactics to stigmatize and silence us to act like we're idiots because we care about these things, right? That doesn't mean I don't care about like loads and loads and loads of other things because I very much do. But those are just threshold issues for me that I care passionately about because they, they are about the core of who I am and what I care about. I also

care, as you know, about speed bumps, right? Like, I also care about climate change. I also care about OSHA regulations, actually, very deeply, you know, and those are all things that can coexist. And I think women are often made to feel small and petty for the things that we care about, you know, like Kate Kennedy would be there in five many years ago. I always talked about, like, how they make us feel so stupid for liking pumpkin spice lattes. It's very much, like, right? And I think the same is about politics, right? Like, how How effective for them to make us feel small and silent about caring about our own bodies and our own ability to access health care, in our friends bleeding out in parking lots? I have multiple girlfriends who have bled out waiting for care. Multiple.

Yeah. Like, that's not an insane thing to be passionate about when you have that lived experience. But it's just so frustrating because we only have so much capacity. And we have plenty of other countries that have sensible gun control and where women have, bodily autonomy and they get to focus on the other shit. And that's where I just get so frustrated because it's like you have to prioritize these things, but there's so much more. And we've been forced to fight for this stuff and claw our way through it. And like you said, it'll be a lifelong battle. And that's the most enraging thing to me. And we'll do it and we'll talk about it and we'll

do everything we can. But I'd like to focus on other things. I'd like to not have this be. Maybe Gen Alpha will be different. Oh, the next generation. Yeah. Maybe the next. I don't know about Gen Z, but maybe Gen Alpha. Yeah, maybe. I'd like to. I'd like. to focus on what happens after we force all these people to not have abortions, like child care and education and school lunches and how are we going to? Our communities. Yeah. What are we going to do for all these people? Yeah, people who can't afford health care. I mean, all these things. Like, health care is really high up for me. And I think about this all the time. This is why I've always been a fan of Bernie Sanders because this is his main thing. And it's just like, it's fucked. And are we too far gone? And, you know, I don't want to go down this,

like, dark rabbit hole. But this is the point of being in a political party, right? Like, it's a coalition of people where you have different groups who have one or two things that are the most important in their most advocates about, right? This is why you have advocacy organizations that are on the ground doing this work, who hire a lobbyist to do all of this, right? Like the point of being part of a coalition of which a political party is just a coalition of people is to be able to move all of those things forward. The thing is for Democrats as a coalition to be able to move all of this issues forward, we need political power. And that's voting. And when it talks about getting votes, that's when you go down to these like particular political issues that are winning issues.

Like there's a reason we talk about reproductive rights in, you know, the year of 2024 is because it's a winning issue at the ballot box and we need to win these seats. So like if we're ever going to see changes on health care, those Democrats may be sitting in those seats and we need to win those races. Yeah. I mean, it almost makes it easier sometimes because you're just like, I can't vote for anybody that would not support women's rights to do what they want with their own bodies. Like you come down on single issue voters.

But like if that's the issue, then I'm going to choose the person that's going to do the least amount of harm to 50% of this country and more once all of these children are born and have no health care and no school lunches, no education and all those things. So if we want to just wrap up the women's reproductive rights conversation, can we get there with a Kamala win? I mean, because you still have all these states and we still have our Supreme Court. I mean, I don't want to be doomsday about it. But obviously voting for Kamala and down ballot blue is your best bet. But are a lot of places still going to be fucked for a while? Yeah. So there's a couple of things.

Number one, preventing Trump from taking office is absolutely critical because Trump will be able to use Comstock Act to make abortion functionally and accessible in this entire country. Right. So like installing Kamala as a backstop is critical. Of course. It could get worse. To see a national reproductive rights law passed, we need Congress.

There's the Women's Health Protection Act, the Democratic. House has passed it. It is blocked. We need to have enough Democrats in the Senate who will pierce the filibuster to pass it. That is what we need for those things. Now, to turn the tide back on Dobbs and the fact that there's this conservative assault on the Supreme Court, it is most definitely possible. I have a substack where I outlined all of the ways we can fix the Supreme Court. In my opinion, the most viable ways to have Congress add more seats to the Supreme Court. That is the most logical path forward. It's a legal pathway.

You know, a constitutional amendment takes a lot of wrangling. It's highly unlikely to happen. You know, the only way we get there is if there's enough political will to do it. Right now, September, 2024, there really isn't national support for something like that. But the way you get there is for people to continue talking about it and growing. People's opinions do change. I think one of the things I hear a lot from people is like nothing ever does. changes in politics. I was like, you know, when I first got involved in politics,

yeah. When I first got in politics, right, people did not really support marriage equality. There was this idea, right? You know, right? Like it was like the thing du jour in the late 90s was like civil unions, but not marriage equality and da-da-da-da-da. Now that's a ridiculous proposition. It is the general societally accepted thing. Most normal people accept marriage equality, including like seemingly the Trump's. Though, of course, that's like not really what the policies they would implement, but like that's the things they articulate because that's the social norms. And that's just 25 years. And we've seen that massive change. So like there are, you know, guns is another issue. There's been massive change in the 15 years I've been working on it.

Things definitely do change. And I think that, you know, a few more ridiculous court decisions and like the American sentiment on the Supreme Court will likewise change. And we are probably going to see that from them because they are increasingly becoming outlandish in their governing. the bench. So, you know, I think that Kamala Harris cannot single-handedly solve the problem of reproductive rights in America. Exactly. I would never tell anyone that you could, but she's certainly like the best path forward. Not going to single-handly take them away. But that's, right. And that's where people, again, like I mentioned before, are just kind of uninformed and thinking that the president is a god that just like makes these sweeping changes. Like,

I mean, it just shows you don't know a lot about politics. But a couple of like additional things, and these come from our listeners. You did mention the electoral college and that we need to abolish it. Is that a possibility? How do we do it? I mean, that came through in a lot of the questions that our listeners submitted of like, fuck this thing. How do we get rid of it? Yeah. I mean, I'm saying it's not at the top of my list of things to do. Sure. I'm just, I'm just curious your thoughts because you mentioned it before and it came up. It's yeah, I did, you know, that's funny that people meant burned up. It is, it's definitely possible. You know, like, while we still have a democracy, what I'll say, it's like anything is possible. You know what I mean? Like, you get enough people to

vote for something. You can get it done. We can do anything in this country. we could change the national animal from the eagle probably. I don't know why we'd want to do that. But like, I'm sure there's a, where there's a will, there's a way. It is fascinating to me that the electoral college is something that like still exists because it's so anti-democratic and it's so antiquated. And it is taking power away from people. But the problem is, you know, those in power are incentivized to maintain their power.

Okay. So I guess one of the most overarching questions from our listeners, is where can I get factual, trustworthy, unbiased news? I mean, people don't have to take our word for it, you know, like where can I go? What can I listen to if you really feel a sense of like, I don't know what to trust and where to get information? In addition to you. Yeah. You're a great source. In the workbook section of democracy and retrograde, the first thing is auditing your news diet.

Right. Like I think that making sure you are consuming information that you trust and you can rely on and that doesn't make you lose your marbles is absolutely critical. Personally, I have a bunch of different newspapers and newsletters that I subscribe to and a couple podcasts and then news content aggregators on Instagram that I follow. And I sort of go through all of the news and I consume it. I have time to consume a lot of different news. And if there's an issue I really care about, I Google it and then I just read a bunch of

sources. I read the news articles written by ABC, CNN. Right. Like I'll go and I'll read all the different news articles. I think that it's about, you know, in this day and age, we have these content news aggregators on Instagram. So Jessica Yallen and Moshe in particular, I know a lot of my followers really like them. And they're able to go through. But, you know, every single person is biased. It is impossible to be a human being in existence and be unbiased. And I think we've a little bit gotten obsessed with this idea of this like perfect. anti-biased news organization, and that doesn't exist. What I try to focus on is fact-based information providers. We can even remove biased out of it, just facts, factual information. I think it's just scary because you have the presidential candidate saying that people are giving abortions nine months in.

And that seems like a fact coming from a political candidate and it's not. So it can be scary. Or if you see it on Fox News or something, you're like, oh, I thought that was a trustworthy source, you know. And I'm reminded all the time that like I am part of a very different news cycle than other people because what they follow and what they are served is quite different than May. The death of expertise has done a lot in this country. And I'll say like also social news stories going viral on social media. I mean, you know, the boomers fell for it on Facebook, but a lot of

my friends Paul Ford and Instagram and TikTok. So we fall for it too. I, I often, I go Google and I look at just, you know, mainstream media sources, see if multiple places with reputable journalists are repeating it. diverse and I always go look at like New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, CBS, you know, those types of places. NBC, you know, for my congressional content, I like Punchball News and I also read Politico. There's almost too much information these days. And again, I'll sort of push finding a local news outlet that you care about. They can give you the information about sort of your local issues.

And finding, you know, influencers or podcasters across. content providers who care about the things you care about? Like, I'm not giving my audience the daily news. But when there's something important happening on an issue that I care about, which means they probably care about it because they follow me, I'm talking about it. You know, they trust me because I have consistently provided with them with fact-based information all these years. And I make it clear when I'm saying, like, this is my opinion, this is what I think will happen versus this is a fact. And I think, you know, my audience appreciates knowing what my opinion is on issues. And I think they're willing to understand that there's a difference between

those two things. Yeah. And I mean, my three of my go-tos are you, which I do feel is fact-based, but a lot of your opinion, which I like your opinion, that's why I follow you. Jessica Yellen, like you said, news, not noise, which does feel mostly facts only. I mean, you can kind of feel what she's feeling, but she really tries to keep it as unbiased, quote-unquote as possible. And then I love Sharon says so for like the educational component of it all. And like you three, I followed you for years. I don't know how you feel about them. You don't need to speak on it. But I just, those are where I get three different. I kind of get a little bit more opinion based, fact based, and then educational based in terms of the aggregators on Instagram. That's what I really like

about Instagram. I like that you're able to sort of curate your own news feed. And I've had some really interesting interviews that I've done with, you know, old school reporters where they've not really understood me and in my place. And I'm always like, there's an opinion section in every newspaper. You know, like, that's the most clicked section at the New York Times. That's not like cooking or games. This is a thing. People like, this is people like it. And it's, it's like you get to curate your own newspaper. Okay. We wanted to kind of wrap it up with, let's just talk a little bit about Kamala and what you feel like if you were to name kind of three to five policy type things. I think we've covered reproductive rights that she really stands on and has figured out and is

really, I mean, I think the debate was, a lot of it was just debating Donald Trump and, you know, people of critiques of like, where was all the policy? I think there was policy in there for sure. But how do you feel about her as a candidate in terms of the things that matter to the American people if you were to name a couple of the issues? Yeah. So, I mean, I think there definitely was policy discussed with the debate. And I think inevitably, I have also heard that criticism a lot. And I'm like, well, you are also probably listening to the fun parts, too. Right. And also she's answering when she's asked.

I don't know, blame the moderators. She's dealing with somebody that's like slinging shit at her for two hours. It's a Q&A. So, okay, but anyway. Yeah. So I think, you know, reproductive rights, gun violence, those are the issues that my community cares a lot about. I'll say child care, Democrats and Kamala here are supposed to child care tax credit,

which is putting money in the pockets of people who have kids and specifically focused, you know, if you're earning no dollars, where does a tax deduction get you, right? A tax credit is actually putting money in people's pockets. It reduced childhood poverty by half. Republicans let it expire. She wants to implement that. She also wants to give a newborn tax deduction. She wants to install paid leave. So those are some of the really important things. There's a lot on climate change that she's done that's really important. That's really meaningful to me. Housing is a really interesting component where she wants to, you know, help build more housing. That's one of the top issues for.

people give a $50,000 tax reduction for people to start a new small business, which is really exciting when we're thinking about how to help people build wealth in this country and how to, you know, when we're talking about bringing jobs back, right, like tariffs won't bring jobs back to America. Donald Trump seems to think that tariffs are the solution to every problem. All tariffs are going to do is like raise the costs for Americans, right? Like, it's just another tax that's going to affect the poorest the most. So I think those are sort of the, the, the top issues that I hear people asking about that she's released platforms on. She has on her website a list of policy platforms. The New York Times also did a really good deep dive and a comparison of

the two platforms that I really enjoyed and being able to look to. When I'm talking to people, what I often do is try to figure out what issue that person cares about the most. And then I do some research and come back to the person. I don't put the pressure on myself to help all of Kamala's policies memorized. And they're on her website. People are like, what does she feel on this? It's like you can look that up. But like I just have one question for you for someone that asks when they hear about her tax

credits here and there. And like the person that's like, yeah, but who's paying for that? You know, like where are we getting this money or my tax is going to go up? I mean, what do you say to that person? Because people hear this and they're like, you're just giving money away. I know that's not rooted necessarily and actually how it all plays out and in facts. But people do hear that and they wonder where is that coming from? The thing is, it's who's going to be paying more and who's going to be paying less is really the question.

And what we're seeing from the Democratic Party is they want businesses and billionaires to be the ones to start paying more. You know, what we saw from the Donald Trump tax cuts is that they were tax cuts for the rich and for businesses. So it's about shifting who pays more. And the way we have our country set up is to use taxes to incentivize people to do things, right? And that is how we do it. So we want people to be able to own homes. We want people to have kids. We want to support them.

giving them tax deductions and tax credits, that is our main method for doing so, right? That's sort of one of my big pitches is like, this is a good, this is what we want to have happen. This is the system we have set up for governance and we want to use it to incentivize people. In the same way, we want to like increase the taxes on cigarettes to stop people from buying cigarettes for their own health, right? Like it's the push and pulley that we use for controlling behaviors in our country. I would like a tax credit for not having kids. I think we should talk about that.

No one's talking about this. No, I'm not straight. I will pay taxes all day for the kids I'm never going to have. I understand that's part of being in America. I've talked about this. I post on Instagram. It's like, you pay taxes for things that don't affect you and may never, but it's for the go to the whole.

It's for your community. But I still would like a tax credit for not having kids. Me too. And I'm not adding anything to society that's going to harm it. Like, also, can I get some street lights on my street? I'm a single cat lady. Raina, I can, my street is not safe. Like, can I just get.

a little bit of tax credits. I'll pay for street lights on my street. So Emily, let's talk about this. Raina lives on a really dark street. There should be lights. It's really crazy. It feels very dangerous. Like, what would be her first step? So I would, if you have a town council or an alderman or some municipal body that represents you, I would go to that office. They should have a constituent liaison. They should have like one staff and talk to that person to be like, can you help me? Who do I talk to? You might have to go talk to like the police. Like where I live, the police control the streetlights or like there's bureaus, right? So, and you just go talk to them.

We got a street lamp fix that have been broken for like five years on my street like two years ago. And it just involved making some calls. Okay. I mean, I had to make like a bunch of calls. I had to keep calling. But like we got it done. Yeah. Yeah.

So like activism for dummies is what Raina's going to Google town council for Venice. Yeah, I mean, and just make some calls. I would like some follow-ups. Like, in New York City, you could go to, like, community board meetings, and you could get on the docket. And I don't live in New York City anywhere. I live in L.A., but in New York, you could just go to community board meetings. You just, you say, I want to be heard. They listen to you.

Yeah. You know, there's a lot of people who are sitting in public service jobs who want to help. They just aren't, they aren't aware of this is an issue, right? Right. So, like, if you bring this up to them, you just have to find the right person who wants to help you. And, like, it's going to take two years. But we don't live here anymore. Yeah, exactly.

We're renters, Emily. We don't care about those neighborhoods once we leave. I'm kidding. No. But, you know, no, you never really know. As I said, also there could be a plan that you're not even aware of. Yeah. And I find it enjoyable.

I mean, my, you know, everyone references parks and rec for their favorite pop culture, local politics. But I, there's that TV show about the vampires. What's we do in the shadows? Have you guys seen that show? No, I just actually saw it last time in the Emmys. There's an episode. where they go to a council meeting on Staten Island.

And it's my favorite episode about politics. I love that. Okay. We'll check it out. South Park, too. The Simpsons. Tessa told me the Simpsons has correctly predicted, like, basically everything that's happened in politics. I thought I told you that.

You did? She just told me it was today. Oh, really? I said that before. Well, Emily, this has been incredible. Thank you. We kept you for a long time. We just had a lot to cover.

We don't cover politics too much. That's not what this podcast is about. We're dating sex and relationships. But, you know, we've had on Elizabeth Warren. And we've supposed. I was going to have on Kamala for the past four years. So maybe we'll get her and you. And so we really, you know, we want to use our voice for good and dedicate time and space for it every once in a while. So we wanted to at least get in a good amount of time with you. We really appreciate your time. Well, thank you guys so much. Thanks for what you do. The audience can find me at at Emily and your phone on Instagram. Increasingly TikTok, even though I'm absolutely tragic at it. No, you're doing great. You're doing amazing. And substack, which is my prefer. platform. No, I like IG.

Okay. And of course, people can get your book on Amazon or anywhere that you buy books. Anywhere you buy books, ebook, audio book, it's all there for you. Yes. Democracy in Retrograde. You guys can get this. And of course, again, just follow her everywhere. She said, keep the vibes up, get involved. Do one small thing. You'll feel great. Do one small thing. Go to ripplevote.org. If you want to sign up and talk to five friends about what's on their ballot, it's going to help you talk about some of those important critical congressional Senate and legislative races. Okay.

Okay. And, of course, sign up to vote, guys. Yeah. First of vote. Check your voter registration. Make sure you're good to go. Okay. And thanks again.

Thanks. Okay. Bye guys. Well, we hope you guys enjoyed this episode. We know it was a little different, but so much value of information. And we love the talk with Emily. And you can find us, of course, at Girls Gotta Eat.com, Pittsburgh, Indie, Detroit. We will see this weekend.

Get those tickets to the no crumbs tour. then for all the other dates, Girls Gotta Eat.com. We are Girls Got to Eat podcast on Instagram and TikTok. Vibes only for the new red hot products, vibes only.com. Follow vibes only on Instagram. I'm Ash Hess.

Rain is ran. Dot Greenberg. Subscribe on YouTube. Share this episode with a friend. And we will see you Thursday. A couple days, guys. Hi.