The Daily Signal - #357: Worth Your Time

Episode Date: December 9, 2018

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This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, December 10th. I'm Rob Blewey, editor-in-chief. And I'm Ginny Maltabano. On today's show, we're featuring an interview with Erica Anderson of the Independent Women's Forum, author of Leaving Cloud 9, and host of the new podcast, Worth Your Time. We'll also share your letters and we share a touching story from the Secret Service. But first, we chat with Tim Desher, host of Heritage Explains podcast, about November's Unemployment Report.

Tim Desher is the Daily Signal's go-to expert on the monthly unemployment report. You can find his analysis on the first Friday of each month at DailySignal.com. And you can listen to him on the Heritage Explains podcast. Tim, it's a great show. We appreciate the work you do, breaking down tough issues for our listeners. Appreciate you being here. Well, thank you so much for having me back. It's awesome.

It's great to see you again. So tell us about the November numbers. What do we need to know? Well, look, you're going to hear that it's lower than XVIote. expert predictions. I'm maintaining that it's still a strong report, but with a caveat, if we want it to be stronger, we have to start doing more hard work. We can't just keep coasting on tax, the one tax bill that we passed a year ago. We got to do more. We got to do more to encourage. We've got to do more to reduce regulations. We've got to do more to get our out-of-control

spending in order here while the economy is booming. And what we have to do is we've got to get rid of these tariffs. That's a huge thing that a lot of people on Wall Street and business are worried about right now are the tariffs. And so why not we just scrap them? Why don't we stop using them as a negotiation tactic and just scrap them? So we could see more of these stronger jobs reports. Well, certainly big swings in the stock market last week. And how much of a factor are the tariffs do you think heading into the month of December as coming out of the G20 and negotiations with China. Will that be a factor as employers make decisions about what they do?

Here's what I'm certain of. This is creating uncertainty. An uncertainty, as even Trump said on his campaign trail, I'm going to be a president that makes business certain that they can grow. Well, he's promoting policies right now that's creating uncertainty. So regardless of what it's going to do, it's creating uncertainty. And here's another thing. every time tariffs are tried, they fail.

So we have history on our side here that we can just say, let's just scrap them. And we can try another negotiating tech. We could try another thing. But with the jobs report, I will say this. We are still doing well. We're averaging 206,000 jobs each month this year so far. And we have record lows for African Americans. We've got record unemployment numbers for people with high school diplomas.

non-college educated, that's a really good thing. Wages are rising across the board. These are really, really good numbers. So let's keep the pedal to the metal. Certainly some fantastic numbers still. Something that caught my eye, Tim. There are still over 7 million jobs open in America. Describe the amount of opportunity we have right now. Boy, if I was looking for a job right now and I saw that number, it'd be very, very encouraging. And so, yeah, that's a big, big deal right now in America. And like we talked about last month, this is a great opportunity for workers to demand more pay and more benefits. And employers are starting to do that. So hopefully we'll see that rising more as the months go on.

And we'll start seeing more people get back into the labor force participation. It's been a little stagnant. But I think that if we see an increased reason to get back in the workforce, we'll see people do it. What are some of the sectors of the economy that are seeing some of the biggest gains in your analysis? Well, we had a great month for manufacturing. In fact, I heard Larry Cudlow, one of the president's top economic advisors today, say that the blue-collar recovery is continuing. And that's because they've added almost a half a million manufacturing jobs since the election in 2016. And last month, 27,000 manufacturing jobs.

That's a big, big number. And we continue to see jumps in health care. We see jumps in transportation and warehousing and as well as other various sectors across the board. Tim, in terms of the numbers in December, what can be done right now to boost those numbers from this last report? Well, as we were talking about, we want to create an atmosphere with certainty. We want to ditch the things that are causing all this stuff. I'm not saying that we listen to Wall Street totally. We know what works here. We know what works time and time again. Low regulation, low taxes, an in-control budget here in Washington. That's a big one,

as well as the tariffs. So I'll repeat that again. The tariffs and lowering regulation and getting our fiscal house in order are, that's really the trifect of what's going to help. Tim, I want to conclude with this because you're going to have a situation in January of 2019 where you have divided government. You're going to have a Republican in the White House and obviously the Senate, but Democrats will take control of the House. What does that mean when it comes to the certainty you're talking about? Does it create the prospect that there might be some more uncertainty? I guess we're going to have to wait and see how that works out. I think politically, if I was a political person, I would probably say that gridlock,

is likely. What I don't want to see is I don't want to see bad deals. I don't want Republicans or conservatives to shake hands with Democrats and liberals and implement something that's terrible so they could get one small thing. So that's what we're going to have to be careful with is the idea of, quote unquote, working together with bad policy. We don't want bad policy ever. We just hope that deals aren't made. Well, that's well said. And certainly it seems that Nancy Pelosi is in no mood to deal. So maybe a Christmas spirit will change her plans. But Tim, we really appreciate you being back with us on the Daily Signal podcast. We'll look forward to chatting again next month, hopefully. Thanks so much, guys.

Liberals have pretty much cornered the market on 101-style podcasts that break down tough policy issues in the news. Did you know that every week, Heritage Explains intermingles personal stories, news clips, and facts from heritage experts to help explain some of today's hardest issues from a conservative perspective? Look for Heritage Explains on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're joined today by the Independent Women's Forum Digital Marketing Director Erica Anderson. She is a friend of The Daily Signal and host of the new podcast, Worth Your Time. Erica, thanks for joining us today. Thank you guys so much for having me back.

Well, why don't we start off by talking about what led you to start podcasting? Who are you going to be interviewing? Yeah, well, I recently became a podcast fanatic, basically. A couple years ago, I discovered podcasts a little late. And as so many people have seen, they've just taken off. They've just become kind of the new blog. And I have thought about it for a couple years. And I thought, oh, everyone's starting a podcast.

But then I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. It's a passion that I have. There's so many people I want to talk to. And I had a great resource in my sister who really helped me get it off the ground, all the technical stuff and logistics. And so I got it going and I have just a great lineup of women that I'm speaking to. Well, Eric, I want to ask you about your sister specifically. As a runner myself, I know you're a runner. She's quite the famous podcaster when it comes to running. Tell us about her. Yeah, my sister, Lindsay, her podcast is called I'll Have Another with Lindsay Hein. and she interviews basically every notable female runner in the United States and beyond.

She interviewed, I think, everyone that placed in the Boston Marathon this year. And everyone from Shalane Flanagan to Des Linden, those are some names that runners will know. And she's been featured in Runner's World. And I would say that all the female runners in the country that are doing anything worth talking about know my sister. Yeah, no, it's a great podcast. I loved her interview with Tony Dungey. Oh, yeah, and she got to interview Tony Dungey, which was super cool. That was.

Now, you have featured our very own Kelsey Harkness from The Daily Signal, Kelly Clemente, whose story we told at The Daily Signal. So when it comes to choosing guests on the podcast, are you focused on policy and politics or cultural issues, or how do you go about determining that? Yeah, well, you know, the inspiration came from just the fact that I am so lucky to know so many amazing women that are doing really cool things in politics, in policy, in culture, but also in business, entrepreneurship. Another friend of the Daily Signal that's coming up

soon is Beverly Hallberg. She's going to be a guest. But I don't want to just talk to people that are in my own political and ideological circles. I want to talk with people that are not just in politics, but maybe some progressive people, maybe some people that are entrepreneurs. And so, you know, I just, I want to open that conversation up and sort of show people that we have a lot more in common than, than we realize, even in the midst of political differences. Well, and it's so important to show those different perspectives, but something that really caught my attention was the name of your podcast, worth my time. How did you end up choosing that title? Well, it's funny. I was just, I was sitting at my sister's house. We were brainstorming stuff,

and I was like, I've got to come up with a title for this. And I said, you know, the one thing that always gets me to actually click on something on Twitter because, you know, there's so much stuff going through our feeds. We only have so much time to consume all the content that comes our way. And if someone puts in a tweet worth your time or worth a read, I always read it because I know that people don't put that phrase lightly. They're only going to put it if they really mean it. And I thought, well, that might make people want to listen. So I thought of it one day and I never went back. That's great. That's great. Well, speaking of social media and digital media, you do have a role at the Independent Women's Forum where this is your life.

And we live at a time when so much of our culture is based on what's happening on social media. Tell our listeners a little bit about your job, but what you do there and how you go about keeping pace with this 24-7 news cycle. Yeah, well, digital marketing is a whole, it's a big world and it's a lot of fun. But so some of the things that I do are basically take the content that we're creating at the Independent Women's Forum and promote it. various ways on social media as well as do advertising. So a big part of that is Facebook advertising, Google ads. So everyone comes in contact with the kind of stuff that I'm doing on a regular basis. So all that stuff that you see coming into your Instagram feed those boots that you want to buy or that course that you want to take or the present that you're buying for Christmas. I'm not selling

anything, but those are the kinds of things I'm creating, targeting those at the right people, trying to find our target audience on social media and draw in those folks that we think would appreciate our content, might want to sign up for our email list, might be interested in learning more about our health care policies and things like that. So it's kind of getting into the minds of people trying to meet them where they are and make sure that we're reaching them in the best, most effective way possible. And at a time when so many conservatives complain about an anti-conservative bias among the social media companies or have themselves face suppression of their own content, how do you stay ahead of the curve to make sure that the content

you are creating is getting seen by people. Yeah, I mean, I have not personally experienced any bias on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram myself, but I do think that it's there. You know, we recently saw just what was it last week. Twitter had banned the account of a guy named Jesse Kelly. He was banned. It was like, you know, he was never coming back. And then, you know, they realized that lawful action was going to be taken.

And all suddenly he was reinstated. So I think there is some, some. some problems there in terms of what kind of decisions they're making for who they're allowing and what they're allowing those issues when it comes to LGBT issues. That seems, transgender issues. That seems to be a problem. But it looks like at least they learned their lesson in this case. Hey, free speech matters. And so like I said, I haven't personally run into any issues, but we are on the lookout for that. We want to make sure that we're ahead of the game on that. And we know that there are people that are looking out for it, that we can contact,

get in touch with. And certainly when you make a ruckus about something, like free speech, it gets out there and people are talking about it. Erica, this year, along with our own Rob Louis, you were honored at the 2018 Buckley Awards for the great work you've done on the opioid crisis. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, it was pretty cool to receive the Buckley Award. I previously worked at National Review, so I have a great respect and love for William F. Buckley. And so that was really neat to be honored there. But mostly it was really a great opportunity for me to share the work in my book, which is, you know, I wrote a book leaving Cloud 9 that many listeners

may be aware of about my husband's life story growing up in trauma and poverty and generational addiction and things like that. But it's really led me to have a more, to really have a passion for addiction policy and find ways to really curb this crisis that's killing, you know, 72,000 people a year in this country, find ways that we can work with local communities, with churches, with local governments and with people and our family and friends, I want to find ways to solve that. And so getting this award was really a way for me to uplift some of those thoughts and some of those ideas about how we can do that.

And that's really why it was important to me and meaningful to me to receive it. Erica, we had you on this podcast when you were launching the book, Leaving Cloud 9. Now that you've had the opportunity to go through, do so many interviews and have the experience of promoting a book. What stories can you share with our listeners about that and how has it impacted your life? And have you seen others touched by the story of your husband that you tell in the book? Yeah. I mean, the whole process was pretty overwhelming. Just, you know, working with a big name publisher. It's a whole different experience than if you were going to self-publish. So it's a lot all at once and especially had a newborn baby. So it was a little bit crazy for me at that time. But

But it's been good. I really feel fortunate that I was able to work with the Thomas Nelson team just because there's no way I would have ever been able to get this story out to such a vast, wide audience without them. I mean, you can always self-publish it, and that is such a great option, something I'll take in the future. But there's no way I would have been able to get it on the bookshelves at Barnes & Noble across the country. And just the experience of, you know, being in Times Square on launch day, walking to the Barnes & Noble in the middle of New York City and seeing my book sitting on the shelf. I mean, I don't know all the people that it's reached,

but it certainly was a cool experience to see that. And I have gotten a lot of feedback. Not only from people, like, for example, I've gotten feedback from teachers that have told me, you know, reading your book has really opened my eyes to what some of the things my students might be going through when, you know, previously I might have been annoyed by certain things. Like I didn't realize what kind of trauma kids could be facing

to people that are the wives of men that have by, bipolar disorder and how they're dealing with that seeking advice to people that came out of similar circumstances. You said they related. They understood it. It was great to hear from someone who got it because it's hard to find people that really get it. So I've had a lot of great feedback and we're really happy with the results.

Well, that's great. And Ginny and I've talked about some of these issues on the podcast before we've had Eric Bowling. I know Ginny, you've covered Melania Trump's efforts to raise awareness. So I also feel like your book came at a pretty critical moment where a lot of the issues that you raised, particularly on opioids, have taken on a national conversation. Well, they have. And something that you've discussed in Melania and Eric is removing the stigma. And I think by writing such a personal story, you're helping to contribute to that. And so it's really powerful.

Yeah, I was just going to say it's so great. I mean, I watched Melania Trump's speech at Liberty University this week. And I'm so glad that she's taking that on as something that is, you know, a cause for. her. I think we need to just keep the conversation going about that. I know Eric Bowling, he was, you know, kind of hosted that conversation and he's done so much great work on that. But also just Congress in general, you know, President Trump just recently signed the package into law that was almost unanimously passed by the House and the Senate. And so people are taking this seriously. I just, you know, my message in all of this is take it seriously from a government perspective,

but also it really has to be a whole movement across the country. It can't just be a government thing. It has to be a people thing, a community thing, a church thing. Like, this isn't going to be solved by the government alone. That's never going to be the full answer. And I just don't want people to forget that and think that this package and all this money is going to take care of the problem because that's really just one small piece of the puzzle. It is.

It's very important to point out. Now, shifting gears a little bit. At the beginning of the podcast, you talked about you're going to have a lot of really important powerful women on your podcast, sharing different perspectives. Who are some women that you look up to yourself in the movement, outside the movement, that have meant a lot to you? Oh, gosh, I should have prepared for this question. You know, I'm going to say someone that listeners may not know,

and it's a woman who's a former Indiana State Representative in Indiana. Her name is Peggy Welch, and she is actually a Democrat, but she's a moderate Democrat, and she is the reason that I admire her so much is because she felt, called into politics through her faith. She felt like God was calling her to work in government and to make a difference and do a ministry through that. And she did that for many years. And she continues to work. I'm not, I can't remember exactly what she's doing now, but something else in government at the, moment. And she's been a real mentor to me and just watching her make very, every move that she makes is for a reason. And every move that she makes, she's consulting God and saying, like, is this what you want me to do, Lord?

You know, I want to make sure that, you know, you're able to do your work through me and that I'm making, you know, decisions that are based on principle and character. And so if you don't know who she is, she's a great person and know her name is Peggy Welch. And she's someone that I really look up to, really just for the way that she involves her faith and the very real decisions she makes in her career. Well, last question I want to steal from your podcast worth your time that you asked your sister. And it's what other podcasts should our listeners be paying attention to? And what do you listen to that they might find interesting? It doesn't have to be in the political space, but I mean, it can be anything. Well, I will tell you, I have a lot that I listen to.

I do listen to the daily almost every day just to kind of get up. From the New York Times. From the New York Times. I love that. But other ones that I really, really enjoy, the happy hour with Jamie Ivy is probably the inspiration for me most of all, just because she's interviewing very cool women that are doing things in the business world and in the book world. That's a faith-based podcast. I really love those interviews. I also like to listen to The No Limits with Rebecca Jarvis.

She is a reporter. I think she's on NBC. I like how I built this, and I also like Annie Downs. That sounds fun. And then I also like some other ones like Girls Gone Wad, which is a CrossFit podcast. And I listen to Jen Hatmaker. I just, I go all over the place. So there's so many that I love.

Well, congratulations on the launch of your new podcast again for our listeners. You can find it on the iTunes store or Google Podcasts. play, Google Music. It's called Worth Your Time. The host is Erica Anderson, a former colleague of ours here at the Daily Signal and Heritage Foundation. Eric, it's great to have you on the show. Thank you guys so much. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? I'm Rob Blewey, editor-in-chief of The Daily Signal, and I'm inviting you to share your thoughts with us. Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters atdailysignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast.

Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature some of our favorites, both on this show and in our Morning Bell email newsletter. Ginny, what do we have this week? First up, Nancy James writes, Dear Daily Signal, you have excellent articles, well-written and full of detail. I share a couple occasionally with Republican friends, and I am an independent who favors certain issues on both sides of the political spectrum. Well, thank you, Nancy. And our next letter comes from David Leffingwell, who writes, Your podcast and Exit Poll Data was the first Daily Signal podcast I've heard,

and I have to tell you that I'm now a fan. I understood before listening that the show's perspective would tend to reflect the conservative viewpoint on most issues, which is fine with me, since that viewpoint aligns with my own. However, I was struck by the absence of hyperpartisanship and polemics throughout. When you addressed the election and talked about the things that matter to different groups of voting, you were fair, objective, and dispassionate. It was terrific coverage with 100% less bias than I've heard in a long time from the quote-unquote objective mainstream media.

It reminded me of how interesting and informative, well-presented, straight news coverage can be. I'm now going through many of your other recent podcasts and deciding which ones to listen to first, and I will also be a regular listener going forward. Keep up the good work. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. send an email to Letters atdailysignal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. Want to get up to speed about the Supreme Court?

Then subscribe to Scotus 101, a podcast about everything that's happening at the Supreme Court and what the justices are up to. President George H.W. Bush was buried last week at his presidential library at Texas A&M University in College Station. His Secret Service detail was with him for nearly 38 years. After his burial, they released one final dispatch about the 41st president. This comes from U.S. Secret Service Bush Protective Division. And it says, quote, Timberwolf's detail concluded at 0,600 hours on December 7, 2018, with no incidents to report at the George Bush Presidential Library, College Station, Texas. Godspeed, former President George H.W. Bush, you will be missed by all.

Bush, Projective Division. Channel 10 News in Tampa, Florida, have the opportunity to speak with one of Bush's former Secret Service agents. Another treasure, this photo at the Reagan Library dedication. All the presidents that were alive at the time are on the dais. He was walking by, and he said, where did you get that picture? Well, sir, I just got it from the guys over at the Reagan detail. He picked it up and walked off with it. And I said, well, Mr. President, he goes, you'll get it back.

Don't worry about it. And I got it back. And he had sent it to all the presidents and their first ladies to have. him sign it. Well, Ginny, certainly a touching tribute to the former president. I want to commend you for the interview you did with your father about the rodeo in Houston and just how moving that was to hear about your own experiences with the former president. I don't have any, so it was nice to hear from somebody who did. Thank you. It was a really special moment to be able to talk about that. It's hard to believe it was nine years ago, but I know the 41st president really meant

a lot to all of us and changed a lot of lives. Well, certainly did. And we hope that you'll share your memories of him on our comments or leave us a message on iTunes. We're going to leave it there for today's show. The Daily Signal podcast is broadcast from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurcache Audio Network along with all of our other podcast. All of our shows can be found at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. And if you like what you hear, please leave us a review or give us feedback.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the DailySignal News. The Daily Signal podcast will be back tomorrow with Kate and Daniel. Have a great week. You've been listening to The Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis. Sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.