Transcript

Staying Sane · Mom Wars

0:01
Speaker 1: From the front lines of the mom Wars. Here's Bethany
0:04
Speaker 1: Mandel and Kara Kennedy.
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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to another episode of your favorite podcast.
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Speaker 2: I Hope I am your only co host. Kara is
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Speaker 2: still on maternity leave. We miss her desperately and can't
0:18
Speaker 2: wait for her to come back because her British accent
0:21
Speaker 2: makes us sound smarter and it doesn't sound smart without her.
0:25
Speaker 2: But I've brought in a guest who will bring the
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Speaker 2: intelligence quotion up a great deal. I am joined this
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Speaker 2: week by Christina Smith. She is the Consumer Center director
0:34
Speaker 2: for the Taxpayer Protection Alliance and a mom of one
0:38
Speaker 2: point seven five.
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Speaker 1: My pleasure.
0:45
Speaker 2: So when we had our last podcast with Kara, we
0:48
Speaker 2: didn't know what was our last podcast because her baby
0:51
Speaker 2: came early.
0:53
Speaker 3: That does tend to happen, and we're not trying to
0:55
Speaker 3: have that happen during this podcast. So certainly not not allowed.
0:59
Speaker 3: Although we are recording this on video and subscach subscribers
1:04
Speaker 3: can watch this instead of just listen to it the
1:06
Speaker 3: mom Wars dot substack dot com. So if you do
1:09
Speaker 3: go into labor, maybe that will increase my subscriptions would
1:13
Speaker 3: probably that probably.
1:14
Speaker 1: Would be that'd be very interesting podcasts would very would.
1:18
Speaker 2: So we were set up by a mutual friend because
1:21
Speaker 2: we have some of the same wonky mom slash Washington
1:25
Speaker 2: slash policy interests in really dorky do we be things
1:29
Speaker 2: that I think are really relevant and important for American families.
1:33
Speaker 2: He sent you a calumn that I had written recently
1:36
Speaker 2: about in the New York Post about sort of like
1:39
Speaker 2: the maha mom stuff driving people crazy. And I wanted
1:44
Speaker 2: to like give a little bit of color for like
1:46
Speaker 2: why I wrote that column and then and we can
1:49
Speaker 2: like sort of jump into that conversation. So I had
1:53
Speaker 2: like three interactions with mom acquaintances. This is always a
1:58
Speaker 2: risk of like when you talk to me, I might
2:00
Speaker 2: end up using things that you say in a column
2:02
Speaker 2: and sometimes not nicely. So might explain why I don't
2:05
Speaker 2: have enough in person friends. But there was a couple
2:10
Speaker 2: of mom acquaintances who like, did you hear this latest
2:14
Speaker 2: thing about the chemical? And I had like pizza boxes
2:20
Speaker 2: stacked up on my floor behind me, and I was like, yeah,
2:24
Speaker 2: I hadn't heard about that. And the mom that I'm
2:27
Speaker 2: thinking of, like one of the three just like kept
2:30
Speaker 2: on like trauma dumping on me about all of the
2:33
Speaker 2: health things that she was currently really amped up about,
2:37
Speaker 2: and I just gray rocked her. I just like blank
2:41
Speaker 2: slate of a face and was like, so do you
2:45
Speaker 2: do you want to go to the park or like
2:47
Speaker 2: go over there, because like I can't, I can't take
2:50
Speaker 2: the And I think a lot of it is like
2:52
Speaker 2: evolutionary that women are so drawn to protect our children,
2:59
Speaker 2: and like we're driven to do that biologically, and we
3:02
Speaker 2: have like basically no risks now in our world, and
3:06
Speaker 2: so they're like really amped about all of these perceived
3:10
Speaker 2: risks that like, I mean, is canola oil great? Probably not?
3:15
Speaker 1: Right? Am I staying up at night about it? No?
3:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, where are you on the crunchy scale?
3:22
Speaker 3: No?
3:22
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's a really good point.
3:23
Speaker 3: So with my first son, who was born twenty two
3:26
Speaker 3: months ago, after I had him, I didn't have extreme
3:30
Speaker 3: difficulty during postpartum, but I would say when I went
3:33
Speaker 3: to my first doctor's appointment after with the doctor who
3:36
Speaker 3: delivered and she has three children, I talked to her
3:39
Speaker 3: about I had anxiety about him. I was just so
3:42
Speaker 3: protective of him, and she said, again, right, that's very
3:46
Speaker 3: biological because it used to be the fact that you
3:49
Speaker 3: would have to protect them from wild animals and these
3:52
Speaker 3: environmental factors, and today we just we have homes and
3:55
Speaker 3: we have nanets and we have all these technologies and
3:58
Speaker 3: things that reallyrotect our children, and that's amazing. Technology is great,
4:02
Speaker 3: you know, and so we just still have that biological
4:05
Speaker 3: instinct and it's so real. I mean, I remember just
4:08
Speaker 3: when he was first born and I was just like,
4:11
Speaker 3: you know, really concerned with everything. And now with my
4:14
Speaker 3: second I think a lot of that has you know,
4:16
Speaker 3: subsidety will probably have been subsided. But I do think
4:19
Speaker 3: that's just really important to note that we do want
4:22
Speaker 3: to protect our children and that that instinct is still there,
4:25
Speaker 3: and so it kind of is consuming itself with all
4:28
Speaker 3: of these other factors which are important, but you know,
4:31
Speaker 3: we shouldn't allow them to take over our life. Like
4:33
Speaker 3: you said, we should be able to go to the
4:35
Speaker 3: park and live our life. And you know, there's just
4:38
Speaker 3: not the same risk that there was in the caveman
4:40
Speaker 3: days with you know, a bearing to eat your child.
4:43
Speaker 3: That's just not realistic. But that instinct is so strong there.
4:48
Speaker 3: So I just I think that's just such a good point.
4:50
Speaker 3: And I'm glad you made that point because that happened
4:52
Speaker 3: to me and I definitely resonate with it because it's real.
4:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's it's like this innate thing. I will
4:59
Speaker 2: say that I have like a love hate relationship with
5:02
Speaker 2: the technology that we have now because on the one hand,
5:05
Speaker 2: like milk pasteurization, I think that's great. I enjoy not
5:11
Speaker 2: getting e coli from you know, a glass of milk.
5:14
Speaker 2: Not that I'm like anti raw milk, but raw milk
5:17
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six has a lot of safeguards in
5:21
Speaker 2: place that they didn't have, you know, a thousand years ago,
5:24
Speaker 2: one hundred years ago. So I'm pro that. But I
5:28
Speaker 2: have a lot of mom friends who have asked me, like,
5:31
Speaker 2: how do you sleep without watching the baby monitor all day?
5:34
Speaker 2: And my answer is I don't have a video baby monitor.
5:37
Speaker 2: I have very rarely even had an audio baby monitor
5:41
Speaker 2: because the slightest sound would wake me up and they
5:45
Speaker 2: would often like eh and then go back to sleep.
5:49
Speaker 2: And if it's down the hall, I never heard the
5:52
Speaker 2: E and it didn't wake me up. But when they're
5:56
Speaker 2: like really needing me, I hear it to monitor, right,
6:01
Speaker 2: And so I think that like a lot of this stuff,
6:03
Speaker 2: like the owlette thing that people like put on their
6:05
Speaker 2: baby's toe, to make sure they're not going to spontaneously
6:08
Speaker 2: combust in the middle of the night. All of that
6:11
Speaker 2: stuff has mental health consequences that I don't think moms
6:15
Speaker 2: are accounting for. I think a lot of the mom
6:20
Speaker 2: discourse completely disengages with the idea that like mom matters,
6:26
Speaker 2: and so like you see it with like the extremism
6:28
Speaker 2: about breastfeeding, about lots of things that put our needs
6:33
Speaker 2: not just last, but like so far down that a
6:37
Speaker 2: perceived minor benefit to a child supersedes mom staying sane.
6:43
Speaker 2: And that to me is extremely unhealthy, and I think
6:46
Speaker 2: is part of why the birth rate is the way
6:48
Speaker 2: it is, because it's unpleasant to be a mom When
6:51
Speaker 2: you live like that.
6:52
Speaker 3: Oh, I think that you hit the nail on the head.
6:55
Speaker 3: I mean, that's how mothering is in today's world. I
6:58
Speaker 3: would say, especially if you're a good mother or not
7:01
Speaker 3: a good I don't want to say that, but if
7:02
Speaker 3: you are a mother that has empathy and care and
7:06
Speaker 3: are really trying hard, it is really you are last,
7:11
Speaker 3: and you will do the bare minimum. I mean you
7:14
Speaker 3: for yourself to give your child just this little bit more,
7:18
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, One extra song, one extra book,
7:20
Speaker 3: anything you know, and that's how mothering is today. And
7:24
Speaker 3: you know, we really do, I think give a lot.
7:26
Speaker 3: And like you said, the technologies and every all this
7:29
Speaker 3: like kind of over information era, you know, kind of
7:33
Speaker 3: pushes us in that direction. So it is it is
7:35
Speaker 3: different than I think mothering was in the nineties when
7:38
Speaker 3: I was born.
7:39
Speaker 1: It was very different in some good ways.
7:41
Speaker 3: There's some good things, but you know, like you mentioned,
7:44
Speaker 3: with our parents, you know, had just monitors that you
7:47
Speaker 3: could listen to and we all, you know, they did
7:50
Speaker 3: very well with most right, will.
7:53
Speaker 2: You remember the thing or are you too young that
7:56
Speaker 2: they would say it's ten o'clock?
7:57
Speaker 1: Do you know where your children are? Yeah?
7:59
Speaker 3: I mean we used to, yeah, ride our bikes around
8:02
Speaker 3: the neighborhood and just it was we were outside all
8:04
Speaker 3: the time. My husband I talk about that all the time.
8:06
Speaker 3: We grew up outside with no cell phones. I mean,
8:09
Speaker 3: we didn't have tech. I mean, the internet wasn't invented
8:12
Speaker 3: even we were girls.
8:13
Speaker 2: That make you feel old when you say that, Oh
8:16
Speaker 2: my age before the internet. Yeah, it's just different, pretty
8:20
Speaker 2: different now. Yeah, no, and I I struggle with it.
8:24
Speaker 2: Like my oldest is twelve, and none of my kids
8:28
Speaker 2: have cell phones and there's sometimes where I'm like, oh,
8:31
Speaker 2: I wish I had a way to get in touch
8:32
Speaker 2: with them, But my workaround has been like baby tech,
8:36
Speaker 2: like I'll put I'll put an air tag in a
8:39
Speaker 2: pocket and send them off. And what's funny is like
8:43
Speaker 2: people who are my age. I am forty, people who
8:45
Speaker 2: are my age are surprised by it a lot, and like,
8:49
Speaker 2: how how will she get in touch with you if
8:51
Speaker 2: I send her down to the pizza shop like half
8:54
Speaker 2: a mile down? Yeah, And I'm like, well, what would
8:57
Speaker 2: you have done when you were kid and you were
9:00
Speaker 2: sent to the pizza store, right, And they were like, well,
9:03
Speaker 2: I would just ask to use the phone at the
9:05
Speaker 2: pizza store.
9:05
Speaker 1: I'm like, and that's what she does, right, Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Yeah.
9:10
Speaker 3: We were raised in a different era and sometimes you
9:12
Speaker 3: kind of miss those missed things.
9:16
Speaker 1: Yeah.
9:16
Speaker 2: I like to think that I'm giving my kids like
9:18
Speaker 2: a little bit of a retro childhood in that way,
9:20
Speaker 2: because they don't have the cell phones. We have a landline.
9:24
Speaker 1: Yeah.
9:24
Speaker 2: But then at the same time, like you know, the
9:26
Speaker 2: older three have their own laptops. They're the older two
9:30
Speaker 2: have an iPad, which is great because I text them.
9:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so cool.
9:35
Speaker 3: My nieces have that we can text through an app
9:37
Speaker 3: on the iPad and that way they are you know.
9:41
Speaker 1: Getting into maybe something.
9:42
Speaker 3: It's very monitored, but we can still kind of have
9:45
Speaker 3: that communication so they're not left out, and I think
9:47
Speaker 3: that's really cool.
9:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, so tell me what are your plans? So you
9:51
Speaker 2: have an almost two year old, So are you planning
9:55
Speaker 2: to like send to school? Like what are what are
9:58
Speaker 2: you thinking for your future?
10:00
Speaker 1: Yeah?
10:01
Speaker 3: I mean we discuss where his preschool is going to
10:04
Speaker 3: be all the time. I mean, those decisions are so challenging,
10:08
Speaker 3: and he's grown so quickly. I mean, we have those
10:11
Speaker 3: discussions a lot, and we you know, really thoroughly probably
10:15
Speaker 3: overanalyze all of it. But I don't I don't know
10:18
Speaker 3: that we're setting stone where he's going to go to school.
10:20
Speaker 3: And I think we will send him to a school.
10:23
Speaker 3: We're not. We're not homeschooling parents, but I think that's
10:26
Speaker 3: awesome for parents that are. I don't know that I
10:28
Speaker 3: have the capacity to do so. But we, you know,
10:31
Speaker 3: are looking at our options. And we're in Iowa, so
10:33
Speaker 3: we have school choice, so we're allowed to really have
10:37
Speaker 3: full you know options with private schools, charter schools, we're
10:40
Speaker 3: really allowed to send them anywhere within the state that's accredited,
10:43
Speaker 3: so we really have or even if you had that
10:46
Speaker 3: at home, you would have the benefit the financial benefit,
10:49
Speaker 3: as all children would that go to public school. So
10:51
Speaker 3: I think that that's a really good option for us.
10:54
Speaker 3: So we do have so many choices that you know,
10:56
Speaker 3: we're trying to kind of narrow it down.
10:58
Speaker 2: That's amazing that you have that here where I live.
11:01
Speaker 2: I live in like the DC suburbs, and you either
11:04
Speaker 2: send to a public school where the violence is off
11:08
Speaker 2: the charts on one end, on the up end, on
11:12
Speaker 2: the down end, you have all the test scores of
11:14
Speaker 2: the reading in the math, and so that's your public
11:17
Speaker 2: school option. You have private school, which is like twenty
11:21
Speaker 2: five thirty K per kid per year, or you can homeschool,
11:25
Speaker 2: and if you homeschool you get absolutely zero support, even
11:29
Speaker 2: so far as like I have a kid right now
11:31
Speaker 2: who's getting like an IEP test basically, but like we
11:34
Speaker 2: don't have IEPs because he's not in school. But I'm wondering,
11:38
Speaker 2: like does he have like a learning challenge or learning
11:41
Speaker 2: disability of some kind is And so I have to
11:44
Speaker 2: pay for that private out of pocket because he's not
11:47
Speaker 2: in the public school. My kids can't play like team
11:50
Speaker 2: sports with the public school kids. And one thing that
11:54
Speaker 2: really annoys me is that we as tax payers speaking
11:59
Speaker 2: of tex Payers Alliance, if you want to add this
12:01
Speaker 2: to your to do list. So Montgomery County public school
12:04
Speaker 2: students can take college classes for college credit and the
12:10
Speaker 2: public school system pays for it, or like the county
12:12
Speaker 2: pays for it, and so you don't have to pay
12:15
Speaker 2: per credit hour to get college credit level classes if
12:19
Speaker 2: you're a public school student. If you're a private student,
12:22
Speaker 2: or if you're a homeschool student, you have to pay
12:24
Speaker 2: full price. And I'm like, wait a second. I these
12:28
Speaker 2: the kids who are in public school. That's why the
12:31
Speaker 2: tax dollars are paying for it. I'm not like I'll
12:34
Speaker 2: continue to do that. That's part of the societal contract.
12:39
Speaker 2: The kids in this county who are costing zero dollars
12:43
Speaker 2: because the parents have taken on that responsibility, we're the
12:46
Speaker 2: ones that also have to then pay for community college.
12:50
Speaker 2: And that to me is fundamentally flawed. And I have
12:55
Speaker 2: been fighting, and I will lose. I'm sure I will lose.
12:57
Speaker 2: I've been contacting like state legislatures, County council members and
13:01
Speaker 2: everyone's kind of like, yeah, well.
13:03
Speaker 3: Sex well, yeah, I think I hope that you know,
13:06
Speaker 3: more states take on kind of this IO model. I
13:09
Speaker 3: think there's a few other states that have implemented school
13:12
Speaker 3: choice or at least somewhat you know, where the money
13:15
Speaker 3: should follow the student. So yeah, I'm I think it's
13:19
Speaker 3: atrocious policy, and it's it is there's something fundamentally wrong
13:23
Speaker 3: with not allowing parents to make those decisions for their
13:26
Speaker 3: children where they should go to school.
13:28
Speaker 1: We don't have that in healthcare.
13:30
Speaker 3: I mean, we don't have government run you know, hospitals
13:33
Speaker 3: and you have to go to that hospital or that doctor.
13:36
Speaker 3: If you're on Medicaid or Medicare, you're able to choose
13:38
Speaker 3: your doctor or choose what you know, hospital you go to.
13:42
Speaker 3: And so really, you know, education is one of the
13:45
Speaker 3: only areas where the government says we have a monopoly
13:48
Speaker 3: on this industry and we are not going to you know,
13:51
Speaker 3: allow that money to follow the student, even if it
13:53
Speaker 3: would suit the student, especially if the student has special needs,
13:56
Speaker 3: or if the student you know, does have an IP
13:58
Speaker 3: or has certain you know, ailments are things that you
14:01
Speaker 3: know could be met better somewhere else. Maybe across the state.
14:04
Speaker 1: I don't.
14:04
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm an e learning you know, platform or something,
14:08
Speaker 3: but yeah, I think. I think it's a total disservice
14:10
Speaker 3: to students. And I hope more states adopt a school
14:13
Speaker 3: choice model, So I hope for your area it could happen.
14:16
Speaker 3: I think it can happen. I think keep fighting the
14:18
Speaker 3: good fight.
14:19
Speaker 2: It's it's tough, it will It's bizarre because I'm shaking
14:22
Speaker 2: my head no that it will never happen. I live
14:25
Speaker 2: in Maryland. It will never happen here. And I don't
14:28
Speaker 2: understand what Democrats are thinking. Allowing this issue to become
14:33
Speaker 2: red coated versus blue coated is wild, especially when schools
14:38
Speaker 2: in blue areas are failing at a much faster clip
14:43
Speaker 2: than ones in red areas. And that's the interesting thing. Like,
14:47
Speaker 2: I think the state that's seen the biggest gains in
14:50
Speaker 2: literacy rates is Mississippi. Yeah, I mean maybe because the
14:54
Speaker 2: name of the state is so hard and they had
14:57
Speaker 2: to like make a whole song about how to spell
15:00
Speaker 2: a name.
15:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that that, Yeah, that very well could be.
15:04
Speaker 3: I mean, Iowa has great public schools, and I went
15:06
Speaker 3: to public school, but we have amazing public schools. But
15:09
Speaker 3: really just that ultimate decision of allowing parents to have
15:12
Speaker 3: the choice, in allowing those schools to compete. That will
15:16
Speaker 3: improve the education system if there has to be some
15:20
Speaker 3: competition in the market, and there really isn't today.
15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's it. There is competition.
15:24
Speaker 2: And so one of my favorite analogies that I've seen
15:28
Speaker 2: in politics made and he harps on it like all
15:30
Speaker 2: the time, And this is part of why I think
15:32
Speaker 2: it's it's caught when so much as Coridyangelis always says, yes,
15:37
Speaker 2: you you're not mandated to go to only one grocery
15:40
Speaker 2: store zoned for your zip code. Right, you can go
15:43
Speaker 2: to Trader Joe's, you can go to Whole Foods, you
15:46
Speaker 2: can go to the kosher supermarket. There's all of these
15:49
Speaker 2: different options for you for supermarket to spend your money. Absolutely,
15:54
Speaker 2: why would that not translate to children and their education?
15:59
Speaker 2: And when he starts like really harping on that and
16:01
Speaker 2: I thought about it, I'm like, yeah.
16:04
Speaker 1: It's a good point. Why didn't I think of that?
16:07
Speaker 2: And I think it's just because like this has always
16:09
Speaker 2: been the case, and so I never really thought that
16:12
Speaker 2: deeply about it. But yeah, no, it is a fundamentally
16:16
Speaker 2: flawed system that we have here, and and especially like
16:20
Speaker 2: we have as communities such different needs, like Christian parents
16:25
Speaker 2: want a certain kind of education, Muslim parents want a
16:28
Speaker 2: certain education, Jewish parents want a certain education, and we
16:32
Speaker 2: should be able to do that and not be penalized
16:36
Speaker 2: for it. There's been a lot of Supreme Court sort
16:38
Speaker 2: of decisions about education recently where they're basically like, yeah,
16:42
Speaker 2: you can't. You can't penalize people for, you know, for
16:47
Speaker 2: being of faith in the public school setting. And I
16:52
Speaker 2: want to just sit on like the shoulder of the
16:55
Speaker 2: people who are, like the Supreme Court justices who are
16:57
Speaker 2: writing that. I'm like, maybe we shouldn't be trapped in
16:59
Speaker 2: the public school syste them right with people who hate us,
17:02
Speaker 2: but they can't do anything, like they have their like
17:05
Speaker 2: their mandate in front of us, and it's just the case.
17:07
Speaker 2: But I think that something needs to happen, like on
17:11
Speaker 2: the federal level, because in Maryland it's never going to happen.
17:16
Speaker 2: I live in a waste land of liberal idiocy.
17:19
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry. I lived in the DMV for a
17:23
Speaker 3: few years and then I circled back to Iowa, and
17:26
Speaker 3: Iowa does pretty overall, we do pretty well, So it is.
17:29
Speaker 3: It is tough living in a state that's so leans,
17:34
Speaker 3: so left.
17:35
Speaker 1: It's it can be difficult. Hi, I'm Ben SaaS and
17:46
Speaker 1: I'm Chris Steierwaldt. And this is not dead yet. We're
17:50
Speaker 1: all dying, but some of us have been brought face
17:52
Speaker 1: to face with that reality. However long each of us
17:55
Speaker 1: have to do it though. We all want to live
17:58
Speaker 1: a good life, one with meaning, love and joy, and
18:01
Speaker 1: our guests are here to help us do exactly that.
18:04
Speaker 3: Now available for download and streaming at ricochet dot com.
18:07
Speaker 1: Ricochet join the conversation here in the DC area.
18:23
Speaker 2: I used to hear all the time from people who
18:24
Speaker 2: lived in Virginia, well, come.
18:26
Speaker 1: On over the Potomac, it's better here.
18:29
Speaker 2: And can I just admit that now that they have
18:31
Speaker 2: Abagail Spamberger, I'm like, hmm, it turns out you were
18:35
Speaker 2: just one governor away from being Maryland after all. Right, right,
18:41
Speaker 2: so sorry that I am. I'm like enjoying a little
18:44
Speaker 2: bit of it. I can never pronounce it. Schadenfreud. Is
18:48
Speaker 2: that how you say it?
18:50
Speaker 1: I'm not sure.
18:51
Speaker 2: Oh, it's like this, like enjoyment in other people's misfortune.
18:55
Speaker 3: Oh, I wouldn't know, but maybe that's sactly, because you're
18:58
Speaker 3: from Iowa and I'm from I'm I'm a Jew from
19:01
Speaker 3: New York, and so that that's that's actually okay, that's
19:05
Speaker 3: actually funny. We do have Iowa and Ie, but we're
19:07
Speaker 3: very blunt. So I do get along with New Yorkers
19:10
Speaker 3: very well because they're also very blunt, and so we
19:13
Speaker 3: have a good I feel like the New Yorkers that
19:15
Speaker 3: I've had for bosses, like we I don't send in
19:18
Speaker 3: my emails.
19:18
Speaker 1: Once I was told this, I didn't. I don't send
19:21
Speaker 1: you know, how's the weather? How was your weekend?
19:23
Speaker 3: I just send the request and the answer. And I
19:26
Speaker 3: was told by some Southerners they told me, they said
19:28
Speaker 3: you need to you know, when I first moved to DC,
19:30
Speaker 3: they said, you need to ask people, you know, how
19:32
Speaker 3: is their weekend?
19:33
Speaker 1: Or how are you doing? Or how's the weather? And
19:34
Speaker 1: I said, that's not how it's not we do it
19:37
Speaker 1: in Iowa. We're just very blunt.
19:38
Speaker 3: So I do get along with New Yorkers usually very
19:41
Speaker 3: well because they're very blunt too, And I like that
19:43
Speaker 3: because I know where I stand.
19:45
Speaker 1: Yeah.
19:45
Speaker 2: One one of my favorite cultural differences in like American
19:50
Speaker 2: English versus any other language I've ever encountered is that
19:53
Speaker 2: we as Americans say how are you as a greeting, right,
19:57
Speaker 2: but we don't care, like we don't want to her response,
20:01
Speaker 2: whereas like other countries, I am very careful not to
20:04
Speaker 2: say how are you because I don't care and I
20:06
Speaker 2: don't want to hear the answer. When I'm like going
20:09
Speaker 2: up to a cashier and I'm like, hey, how are
20:10
Speaker 2: you and they're like, let me tell you about Oh,
20:13
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, I did not sign up to hear
20:14
Speaker 2: about you.
20:15
Speaker 1: I just wanted to pay for this item, right. Yeah,
20:19
Speaker 1: that's very true.
20:21
Speaker 2: So I want to switch gears a little bit because
20:23
Speaker 2: you wrote something interesting and this is why someone made
20:27
Speaker 2: a matchmake between the two of us, our mutual friend.
20:30
Speaker 2: You wrote something very similar to what I wrote for
20:33
Speaker 2: the Washington Examiner. I think it was like a week
20:35
Speaker 2: or two ago. Do you want to give listeners a
20:37
Speaker 2: little bit of background into what you wrote?
20:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we had the same perspective, which is
20:43
Speaker 3: and that Yeah, they're published as I think it was
20:45
Speaker 3: published a couple of weeks ago. On the pharmaceutical advertising
20:49
Speaker 3: kind of ban, this kind of new narrative about banning,
20:52
Speaker 3: you know, the ability for pharmaceutical companies to advertise on
20:56
Speaker 3: TV or social media. So that direct to consumer advertising
20:59
Speaker 3: has has been brought up in Congress. There's a bill
21:03
Speaker 3: or two, and then just there's kind of a narrative
21:05
Speaker 3: I think around the Maha movement a little bit in
21:08
Speaker 3: terms of kind of banning pharmaceutical ads, and I took
21:12
Speaker 3: a different perspective just in terms of, first, the Constitution
21:15
Speaker 3: does protect that type of speech for corporations and being
21:19
Speaker 3: able to market to consumers. That direct to consumer advertising
21:22
Speaker 3: is a you know, foundational piece of America. Being able
21:26
Speaker 3: to have freedom of speech is really important, even if
21:29
Speaker 3: maybe you don't like that speech or it's not preferred speech,
21:32
Speaker 3: as long as it's not snake oil salesman, you know,
21:35
Speaker 3: it's trying to sell you something that's not true or
21:38
Speaker 3: very misleading. And there's a lot of regulation over especially
21:42
Speaker 3: pharmaceutical ads. But that's one aspect of it. And then
21:45
Speaker 3: the other aspect was really if we did ban you know,
21:48
Speaker 3: pharmaceutical advertising, I think that we would limit consumer you know, information,
21:53
Speaker 3: So that direct to consumer advertising is important because it
21:56
Speaker 3: allows consumers to have access to information that's not regulated
22:00
Speaker 3: by Big Brother and this governmental body, which I think
22:04
Speaker 3: is wrong, especially especially when it, you know, could help
22:08
Speaker 3: save your life or you know, I think of just
22:11
Speaker 3: my mom off the top of my head. She has
22:13
Speaker 3: a fib and she I don't know if she got
22:17
Speaker 3: this through you know, a pharmaceutical ad, but there's just
22:20
Speaker 3: Facebook groups with people that post things about their experience
22:24
Speaker 3: and the rebates they got in the drug that they've
22:26
Speaker 3: tried or are on. And I just think of limiting
22:29
Speaker 3: any type of information like that from consumers is so detrimental.
22:33
Speaker 3: Because she found a great drug and she got found
22:36
Speaker 3: a rebate through a Facebook group. You know, that's four
22:39
Speaker 3: hundred dollars rebate a month through a Facebook group. So
22:42
Speaker 3: I just think like getting rid of information for consumers
22:45
Speaker 3: is not helpful. I don't think it makes people healthier.
22:48
Speaker 3: I think consumers do best when they're informed and have
22:52
Speaker 3: the ability to make decisions for themselves and with their doctors.
22:55
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, I think it was just
22:57
Speaker 3: it's kind of misguided, you know, legislation made we want
23:00
Speaker 3: people on fewer medications or we want people to be
23:04
Speaker 3: less sick, that's fine, but banning it, I think, is
23:08
Speaker 3: you know, constitutionally wrong.
23:10
Speaker 1: I think the.
23:10
Speaker 3: Constitution in Supreme Court would not not be in favor
23:13
Speaker 3: of that, and for good reason, so I wrote an
23:16
Speaker 3: op ed on that.
23:18
Speaker 2: So I don't really understand it from a Maha perspective personally,
23:21
Speaker 2: because I feel like there's a lot of justifiable in
23:26
Speaker 2: a lot of times, a lot of instances, and sometimes
23:29
Speaker 2: not distrust of the medical establishment, and it encourages people
23:35
Speaker 2: to have their have fully formed opinions based on their
23:39
Speaker 2: own research and knowledge and all of those things, and.
23:43
Speaker 1: I think that's good.
23:44
Speaker 2: I separate on the on the vaccine stuff personally, but
23:49
Speaker 2: when I go into a doctor's appointment, For example, I
23:52
Speaker 2: went into a doctor's appointment like a week ago with
23:53
Speaker 2: one of my kids who has always had like extreme
23:56
Speaker 2: sleep disturbances. And before I went into that doctor, whom
24:00
Speaker 2: I crowdsourced on my Instagram, I was like, does anyone
24:04
Speaker 2: have any ideas? And I went into that appointment that
24:07
Speaker 2: is only twenty minutes at most, so like, I really
24:10
Speaker 2: have to go in there like with an agenda. I
24:13
Speaker 2: went in there, like we tried magnesium glaciate over the
24:17
Speaker 2: counter for her because someone recommended it and sent me
24:21
Speaker 2: a link, and I was thinking about so I recently
24:25
Speaker 2: went on zep bound and I lost like fifty pounds. Yeah,
24:28
Speaker 2: and I wrote a column about it. And the reason
24:30
Speaker 2: why I decided to write this Examiner piece was because
24:34
Speaker 2: the next day after I wrote this column, I had
24:36
Speaker 2: no joke, like one hundred messages between Instagram and Twitter,
24:41
Speaker 2: people asking me questions, and I felt like I was
24:44
Speaker 2: a drug ahead and I was like, but I'm not regulated,
24:49
Speaker 2: and I got an expert, so maybe like I'm not
24:55
Speaker 2: your source of info, but I was a source of
24:57
Speaker 2: info for one hundred people at least.
25:00
Speaker 1: And it was funny.
25:00
Speaker 2: I ran into someone the other day and he was like, yeah,
25:02
Speaker 2: I talked to my doctor because I read your piece,
25:04
Speaker 2: and I'm like, that's smart because now that I'm looking
25:08
Speaker 2: at you, like, yeah, you probably do need to lose
25:10
Speaker 2: like fifty pounds, also the same as me, and like
25:12
Speaker 2: I was preciping really close to diabetes, which is why
25:16
Speaker 2: I went on it. And having that like knowledge base
25:22
Speaker 2: to go in wherever you get it from, but preferably
25:27
Speaker 2: somewhere that's like kind of regulated and intelligent versus a
25:30
Speaker 2: Facebook group, right, is not bad, not a bad thing. Yeah.
25:36
Speaker 3: I think it's interesting too, because when you see that,
25:38
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think anyone's favorite thing on TV
25:41
Speaker 3: is probably pharmaceutical advertising commercially is my children's favorite.
25:45
Speaker 1: Thing more your children, they like it. I think it's hysterical, right.
25:50
Speaker 3: I don't know that if anyone's I'm not always watching them,
25:53
Speaker 3: but I do think of, you know, there are patients
25:57
Speaker 3: out there who maybe don't even know they have in ailment,
26:00
Speaker 3: a disease. They might not even know, and then they say, well,
26:04
Speaker 3: I have all of those things they just mentioned on
26:06
Speaker 3: this you know, to twenty thirty second TV ad, and
26:10
Speaker 3: they might go talk to their doctor and they might
26:12
Speaker 3: discover they do have you know, x ailment and they
26:16
Speaker 3: can you know, be treated for it and it could
26:17
Speaker 3: potentially improve their life. So I just I just think
26:20
Speaker 3: limiting that information is is not helpful. And I don't
26:24
Speaker 3: also see it being the case where you don't have
26:28
Speaker 3: you know, these ailments that you're gonna go to your
26:30
Speaker 3: doctor and say, well, I saw it, I saw a
26:32
Speaker 3: pharmaceutical ad and now I want to get prescribed X medicine.
26:36
Speaker 3: I don't I don't see that being the case personally,
26:39
Speaker 3: But I just I do think just withholding information from
26:43
Speaker 3: people is never usually good. I think whenever you're on
26:46
Speaker 3: the side of limiting information to consumers. I don't think
26:50
Speaker 3: that's usually that you're on the good side of history.
26:53
Speaker 3: I just don't see that playing out well. So yeah,
26:56
Speaker 3: I hope that they can maybe reverse And I think
27:00
Speaker 3: having strong regulations is important. But the pharmaceutical ads do
27:03
Speaker 3: have to, you know, have strong.
27:05
Speaker 2: And they have they have to give you a whole
27:06
Speaker 2: list of terrible things that will happen.
27:08
Speaker 3: To you, right, they do have very strong regulations. And
27:10
Speaker 3: I would also hope that an individual doesn't see a
27:14
Speaker 3: thirty second clip of anything, whether it's pharmaceutical ads or
27:17
Speaker 3: I mean anything, and they're changing their lifestyle or doing something.
27:21
Speaker 3: Hopefully there is for the research, Hopefully there is communication
27:24
Speaker 3: with you know, your medical doctor, you know. Hopefully that
27:27
Speaker 3: those decisions are a little less rash than maybe kind
27:31
Speaker 3: of the fear.
27:31
Speaker 1: That has been has been pushing this narrative. So I
27:35
Speaker 1: would hope that that would be the case.
27:37
Speaker 3: And yeah, I just I think the Constitution stands by
27:39
Speaker 3: that that, you know, companies have the right to advertise
27:43
Speaker 3: directly to consumers, and it isn't net benefit to have
27:46
Speaker 3: consumers make decisions for themselves based on information.
27:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that to me is very hot coded.
27:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, this is what doesn't really what I really
27:57
Speaker 2: don't understand because tracking yeah, so I yeah, I don't.
28:03
Speaker 2: I don't feel like it's I don't feel like it
28:05
Speaker 2: jives with the MAHA vibe. Because one of the things
28:09
Speaker 2: that I really enjoy about the impact of MAHA and
28:14
Speaker 2: RFKN all of these things is something that I've very
28:18
Speaker 2: very strongly believed since I'm a teenager, that you like
28:21
Speaker 2: really need to be your own best advocate in a
28:23
Speaker 2: doctor's office. And so when I was sixteen, my mother
28:28
Speaker 2: passed away. She had like a chronic illness, and she
28:30
Speaker 2: passed away, but the years prior to that she would
28:34
Speaker 2: be hospitalized whatever. And she told me that we had
28:37
Speaker 2: a policy that before they administered any drug that I
28:41
Speaker 2: as like the coherent person who had like you know,
28:44
Speaker 2: I wasn't in a medical crisis. I had to ask
28:47
Speaker 2: the nurse, what are you administering? Can I see the order?
28:52
Speaker 2: And I caught to one of which was almost catastrophic mistakes.
28:56
Speaker 2: But as a fifteen fourteen year old say to the nurse,
29:01
Speaker 2: I'd like to see what you're administering, and I'd like
29:04
Speaker 2: to see how much is in the vile And just
29:07
Speaker 2: that small thing catches medical errors and I always recommend
29:12
Speaker 2: to people never to leave a loved one unsupervised in
29:16
Speaker 2: a hospital. There always should be someone physically present because
29:21
Speaker 2: you have to be your own best advocate. Mistakes happen.
29:24
Speaker 2: Doctors are human. One of the interesting things that I'm
29:28
Speaker 2: very on the fence about with AI, and I'm curious
29:31
Speaker 2: your take is like how many jobs it will take away,
29:35
Speaker 2: because like on the radiology front, for example, AI is
29:39
Speaker 2: better than a human radiologist. But at the same time,
29:44
Speaker 2: should I be AI questioning medical choices? Have I done so? Yes,
29:49
Speaker 2: I have, Like, I don't know. I think it's a
29:53
Speaker 2: tough question. I'm curious your thoughts on AI in the
29:57
Speaker 2: medical world.
29:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think it's interesting.
30:00
Speaker 3: I think definitely, technology in the medical world has saved
30:04
Speaker 3: so many lives. I mean just from simple technologies or
30:07
Speaker 3: changes and improvements and EpiPens, like very basic improvements have
30:12
Speaker 3: saved lives. But in terms of AI and taking away jobs,
30:17
Speaker 3: I think certain industries will be more heavily impacted. I
30:21
Speaker 3: kind of lean back to this candle maker's argument back
30:24
Speaker 3: when electricity was created. It's you can google it, but
30:27
Speaker 3: the candle makers.
30:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about.
30:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were all the candle makers were worried we
30:32
Speaker 3: aren't going to have jobs anymore because of electricity, And
30:36
Speaker 3: you know, it's that kind of same argument. There were
30:40
Speaker 3: less candle making jobs, but electricity has created a ton
30:45
Speaker 3: of jobs. I mean, just of all of the technology
30:48
Speaker 3: that we have in how many jobs and interesting jobs
30:51
Speaker 3: now people are creating apps and people are I don't
30:54
Speaker 3: even coding, I mean things I don't know a lot about.
30:57
Speaker 3: So I think the job market will change, you know,
31:00
Speaker 3: I think especially like driving and like kind of that
31:03
Speaker 3: long semi truck driving and things. I think those automate
31:06
Speaker 3: those jobs that can be heavily switched to automation might change.
31:10
Speaker 3: But I think I do believe that there will be
31:14
Speaker 3: more opportunity for different type of work, and that might
31:17
Speaker 3: be It sounds really crazy, and I heard this on
31:20
Speaker 3: a podcast, but I do kind of lean in this direction.
31:23
Speaker 3: I think there will be more opportunity for you know,
31:25
Speaker 3: maybe more therapists.
31:27
Speaker 1: Maybe you know, you're paying someone to go on a
31:29
Speaker 1: walk with you and talk with you.
31:30
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know what the world's going to
31:33
Speaker 3: be in fifty years, but I do believe that, you know,
31:36
Speaker 3: the further we get in technology. There will be some
31:38
Speaker 3: industries just like the candle makers, you know, that will
31:42
Speaker 3: maybe cease to exist even but there will be opportunity
31:46
Speaker 3: for other other employment.
31:47
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I don't know the future of AI.
31:50
Speaker 1: It's hard. It's hard.
31:52
Speaker 2: I I kind of view it the same way. I
31:54
Speaker 2: think it's like going to be like the Industrial Revolution,
31:57
Speaker 2: where there was some growing pains, but it was a
32:00
Speaker 2: net positive. My daughter, my six year old, the other day,
32:03
Speaker 2: asked me what jobs should I have to make money
32:07
Speaker 2: so that I can have lots of babies?
32:09
Speaker 1: And I was like, what a great question.
32:11
Speaker 2: I love it because I want a lot of grandchildren
32:15
Speaker 2: and I have six children, and I want it. I
32:17
Speaker 2: want twenty five thirty five.
32:19
Speaker 1: Oh my grandchildren.
32:20
Speaker 2: They better deliver amazing, right, And so she asked me
32:23
Speaker 2: this question, and I said to her, because I had
32:26
Speaker 2: I had like thoughts. I had thought some thoughts about this,
32:29
Speaker 2: like how should I be steering my kids? And I said,
32:33
Speaker 2: you know, we don't know what jobs are going to
32:35
Speaker 2: make a lot of money by the time you're a
32:36
Speaker 2: grown up. But if you are a hard worker and
32:40
Speaker 2: you are a good critical thinker, which you are, she's incredible.
32:43
Speaker 2: She's so smart. She can listen to like I'll read
32:48
Speaker 2: like a page of Psalms and in like like not
32:52
Speaker 2: kitty song, like real like reading the page in homeschool
32:56
Speaker 2: along with her three older siblings, and she takes so
33:00
Speaker 2: much out of it and has so many deep thoughts.
33:02
Speaker 2: She's six. She's really really smart in this way. And
33:05
Speaker 2: he said, continue to be a critical thinker. You'll be fine.
33:09
Speaker 2: No matter what you do, you will find success. Are
33:13
Speaker 2: you a fan of Gilmore Girls? Have you watched Gilmore Girls?
33:15
Speaker 1: Oh? I love Gilmore Girl?
33:16
Speaker 3: Okay? I have the newer version or the newer when
33:20
Speaker 3: they re update. I haven't watched all that, but the
33:22
Speaker 3: old old version. I just watched all of it, not
33:25
Speaker 3: that long ago. Actually I watched it.
33:28
Speaker 2: So I'm in a watch with my children and we
33:32
Speaker 2: watched an episode yesterday. We're up to season six, which
33:35
Speaker 2: has gotten extremely inappropriate. And this is not me telling
33:38
Speaker 2: people you should watch Gilmore Girls with your children in
33:41
Speaker 2: season six because it got so bad. I take this
33:46
Speaker 2: with some grains of salt. But in the episode, Rory
33:49
Speaker 2: is doing community service after she wrote after she stole
33:52
Speaker 2: the boat okay, and she is working at a nursing
33:56
Speaker 2: home and picking up trash on the side of the road.
33:58
Speaker 2: And she went from like day one feeling like she
34:01
Speaker 2: was drowning and that she was whatever to now she's
34:05
Speaker 2: running both job sites as the intern and doing community
34:10
Speaker 2: service for a crime she committed because she is smart
34:13
Speaker 2: and driven and like that that personality. You put that
34:18
Speaker 2: personality anywhere and thrive.
34:22
Speaker 1: Yeah.
34:22
Speaker 3: No, I think transferable skills are huge, and I think
34:26
Speaker 3: definitely you'll be able to transfer skills. I'm even thinking
34:29
Speaker 3: of you podcasting or all of the podcasts and like
34:33
Speaker 3: influencing like that is a career that I didn't wouldn't
34:36
Speaker 3: have known about when I was even in college. I mean,
34:38
Speaker 3: that wouldn't even yeah job.
34:40
Speaker 1: I mean really though, I wouldn't. You know, it's i
34:43
Speaker 1: mean just the job market changes.
34:45
Speaker 3: So I think to set your sights on that, you know,
34:47
Speaker 3: on what is this one specific job.
34:49
Speaker 1: I don't think any of us can predict that.
34:51
Speaker 3: It's just the market kind of does its own thing,
34:53
Speaker 3: and you know, some things that you wouldn't think would
34:56
Speaker 3: be you know, likable, and things change. You had taxi drivers,
34:59
Speaker 3: now you have Uber used to have, and then you'll
35:01
Speaker 3: have Way on Netflix. Yeah, I mean, I don't know,
35:04
Speaker 3: it's just hard to predict what the next you know,
35:06
Speaker 3: technological advance will be in what field. But you know,
35:09
Speaker 3: I do think, I do think that it typically makes
35:13
Speaker 3: people's lives easier, you know, and then it does hopefully
35:18
Speaker 3: hopefully benefit benefit people as well.
35:29
Speaker 1: Hi, this is a young culture. Welcome to my Ricochet
35:32
Speaker 1: podcast and culter every week on Ricochet. You're home to
35:37
Speaker 1: center right conversation. Hey, that was pretty good.
35:48
Speaker 2: My only concern is that I feel like this generation
35:53
Speaker 2: of like we're winding back to our first part of
35:56
Speaker 2: our conversation. I don't feel like we're raising a generation
36:00
Speaker 2: of critical thinkers. And this is what worries me, that
36:03
Speaker 2: the kids are not okay, And I'm not sure. I mean,
36:07
Speaker 2: I think so much of how you learn critical thinking
36:11
Speaker 2: skills is by analyzing everything around you. And that's something
36:16
Speaker 2: that I really like about homeschooling personally, is that we're
36:21
Speaker 2: like even an episode of Gilmore Girls, we're analyzing rory
36:24
Speaker 2: and literature, constantly, constantly reading. And this is a generation
36:29
Speaker 2: that is growing up consuming TikTok content. It's like, if
36:34
Speaker 2: it's under three minutes, they're not interested.
36:37
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I think that's probably very true. I mean,
36:40
Speaker 3: not in my household. But I definitely, I definitely see
36:44
Speaker 3: that amongst you know, oftentimes and masses, and I think
36:48
Speaker 3: there is concern of the.
36:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's justifiable. I mean, that's the thing though,
36:52
Speaker 2: Like raising one of the things that people always say
36:56
Speaker 2: is like, you know, how as like a homeschooler, like
37:00
Speaker 2: how will your kids be socialized into their generation? I'm like,
37:03
Speaker 2: I don't want them to be.
37:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I try to be.
37:07
Speaker 3: Some of those exposures and yeah, yeah, no, I think
37:11
Speaker 3: that's that's a good point.
37:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's the same like with a lot of
37:14
Speaker 2: private schools, like you have to sign a contract like
37:17
Speaker 2: they won't have a cell phone, they won't build, you know.
37:20
Speaker 2: And I think that that's important for setting boundaries in
37:23
Speaker 2: a community, and it's something that I think a lot
37:26
Speaker 2: of private schools need to start being more cognizantive and
37:30
Speaker 2: more deliberate about is like this, these are the terms
37:34
Speaker 2: that we set to be a member of our school community.
37:37
Speaker 2: My husband is from like a very very very altered
37:40
Speaker 2: orthodox town in New Jersey called Lakewood, and he wasn't
37:43
Speaker 2: ultra orthodox, but everyone in town was. And they had
37:48
Speaker 2: agreements about having a TV in the house when he
37:51
Speaker 2: was a kid, and people used to sneak a TV
37:54
Speaker 2: into their home in a refrigerator box and hide it
37:57
Speaker 2: in a room so that if like their kids had
37:59
Speaker 2: to play eight, no one would see the TV.
38:01
Speaker 1: But like the terms of.
38:03
Speaker 2: Being a member of the school community was that you
38:07
Speaker 2: could not have a TV in the home. And when
38:09
Speaker 2: he would tell me about this, like fifteen years ago,
38:11
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's a cult.
38:13
Speaker 1: That's weird, that's.
38:14
Speaker 2: Extreme, extremely Yeah, and now I'm like, hmm, maybe I
38:18
Speaker 2: had a point.
38:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, that's very interesting.
38:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's it's definitely interesting to think about
38:26
Speaker 3: the different you know, different impacts on It's just it's
38:31
Speaker 3: different today too, because there's so many options for schooling
38:35
Speaker 3: and raising your children. I just feel like America is
38:38
Speaker 3: a big melting pot, which is so awesome, but there
38:40
Speaker 3: are so many different outlets, you know, ways you can go,
38:45
Speaker 3: so it is difficult to to you know, kind of
38:47
Speaker 3: diagnose and figure out what's the best path for your kiddo,
38:50
Speaker 3: because what might be right for one isn't always right
38:53
Speaker 3: for the other.
38:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
38:55
Speaker 2: One of my friends, she lives in Virginia. She is
38:59
Speaker 2: like taking on the fight to get Chromebooks out of
39:01
Speaker 2: her kids' elementary school, and I think it's great. Like
39:05
Speaker 2: she she's decided like this is a boundary we should
39:08
Speaker 2: have as a school community. And she's like taken up
39:11
Speaker 2: the fight and she's like making petitions, talking to parents
39:15
Speaker 2: at pick up, in the playground, she's testifying in front
39:19
Speaker 2: of the school board, and she's like, this is what
39:21
Speaker 2: my year is going to be devoted to is getting
39:23
Speaker 2: the chromebooks out. And so I'm always like wary of
39:26
Speaker 2: people who homeschool. They're like, I've created my little bubble,
39:30
Speaker 2: and it's like, no, you can, Like you just have
39:32
Speaker 2: to fight harder when you're like in a school community,
39:35
Speaker 2: especially if it's public school. But I think my lesson
39:39
Speaker 2: from COVID was that like we need to be Karen's
39:42
Speaker 2: more like we need to fight against the tide of
39:45
Speaker 2: like this is this is what's happening, and like just
39:48
Speaker 2: raise your hand and be like, no, we should not
39:50
Speaker 2: do that.
39:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, yeah, definitely, it's you know, district by district,
39:55
Speaker 3: in school by school, but there is a big push
39:57
Speaker 3: now or questioning you know, all of the technology and
40:01
Speaker 3: you know in the classroom and whether it's allowing them
40:04
Speaker 3: to have phones in the school at all, or whether
40:06
Speaker 3: they're having phones in the classroom, I mean all of
40:08
Speaker 3: those things. And then yeah, I think that the laptops
40:11
Speaker 3: for you know, your little elementary school kids, I think
40:14
Speaker 3: that is an interesting topic. I actually heard about that
40:18
Speaker 3: recently and I thought about it, and I was like,
40:20
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I want my you know, six year
40:23
Speaker 3: old on a chrome book, you know, half the day.
40:27
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that.
40:28
Speaker 3: We try to limit screen time here and he doesn't
40:31
Speaker 3: even have an iPad or know how the TV works,
40:33
Speaker 3: and that's how I like it here. But we still
40:36
Speaker 3: get to watch you know, Grinch and some fun things.
40:39
Speaker 1: Right.
40:39
Speaker 2: Put it together, and the research on that is is
40:43
Speaker 2: good because when you're watching something with your children and
40:46
Speaker 2: you're in dialogue with them, it's different on their brains
40:50
Speaker 2: versus you're just throwing an iPad in front of them
40:52
Speaker 2: and saying, go shut up for the next hour so
40:54
Speaker 2: I can go do this. And I want a caveat
40:57
Speaker 2: what I just said, which would what I told you
41:00
Speaker 2: before we started recording. The only reason I'm able to
41:03
Speaker 2: record right now at noon on a Friday is because
41:05
Speaker 2: my six year old is on her iPad and has
41:08
Speaker 2: the TV on and I'm sure, is like rating the
41:11
Speaker 2: snack cabinet and climbing on the counter to get lollipops,
41:15
Speaker 2: Like there's no rules happening downstairs right now.
41:19
Speaker 3: So in moderation, moderation, everything is better. In moderation, I
41:25
Speaker 3: would say that's a good rule of thumb for all
41:28
Speaker 3: aspects of life. Yeah, yeah, So where can folks find
41:32
Speaker 3: you to read your stuff and to sort of learn
41:35
Speaker 3: more about what Taxpayers Alliance is working on these days?
41:38
Speaker 3: And what do you guys do You didn't even tell
41:40
Speaker 3: me that I'm terrible about this.
41:43
Speaker 1: Yeah.
41:43
Speaker 3: So our website is protecting Taxpayers dot org, So definitely
41:47
Speaker 3: can head there and you can you know, subscribe to
41:50
Speaker 3: our content and you know find out you know, weekly,
41:53
Speaker 3: we put daily new blogs up. We represent millions of
41:56
Speaker 3: taxpayers across the country and try to advocate for issues
41:59
Speaker 3: at tax pairs care about. So definitely on the fiscal
42:02
Speaker 3: side of things, so less spending and holding your government
42:05
Speaker 3: accountable and you know, eliminating fraud, waste and abuse in
42:08
Speaker 3: the government, so there's no shortage of work for us.
42:11
Speaker 3: You know, we do handle technology, healthcare, you know a
42:15
Speaker 3: lot of issues that I think moms would be you know,
42:18
Speaker 3: very interesting because I think every issue is mom issue.
42:21
Speaker 3: There's no like scope limited scope of that. I think
42:24
Speaker 3: that expands. So yeah, I definitely check out our website
42:28
Speaker 3: and you know, you know, follow what we're doing, and
42:31
Speaker 3: you know, we'd love to you know, get in touch
42:33
Speaker 3: if there's an issue locally that you're battling. We definitely
42:36
Speaker 3: have no no, no, there's no platform too small or
42:40
Speaker 3: issue too small. And then we also you know, address
42:43
Speaker 3: things on you know, in all fifty states and on
42:45
Speaker 3: the federal level.
42:46
Speaker 2: So so can I assign you my my community college problem?
42:51
Speaker 1: Yes, I would like I'm at my wits end.
42:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think just yeah, we are definitely supportive of
42:56
Speaker 3: school choice and that would you know, expand that's under
43:00
Speaker 3: that umbrella, you know we I mean I'm thinking of
43:03
Speaker 3: when I was in school, we had opportunities to take courses.
43:07
Speaker 3: I think I got almost a semester done in my
43:09
Speaker 3: high school. And so I just I think that that
43:12
Speaker 3: goes back to that school choice, where the money should
43:14
Speaker 3: really follow the student and the student should be able,
43:17
Speaker 3: you know, to go to whatever school regardless if it's
43:20
Speaker 3: public or private. That's just a really arbitrary, arbitrary distinction made.
43:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm just trying to fix this situation
43:28
Speaker 2: before my daughter is ready to take these classes, so
43:30
Speaker 2: I'm running out of runway. I only have like three
43:32
Speaker 2: or former years to like solve this crisis.
43:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'd love to help advocate for that, so we're
43:38
Speaker 3: all amazing.
43:39
Speaker 2: Yeah all right, cool, Well, thank you so much for joining,
43:42
Speaker 2: and folks, don't forget to hit subscribe and also head
43:45
Speaker 2: over to our sub stack where you can watch this conversation.
43:48
Speaker 2: And I actually have makeup on because I did Fox
43:50
Speaker 2: News earlier, so you're you're you're really lucking out on
43:55
Speaker 2: this one until next week.
43:57
Speaker 1: What do I say? Satell up? There we go, mm hmm.
44:07
Speaker 1: Ricochet joined the conversation