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No Stupid Questions with Ben Sheehan · Dos Amigos

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's up? I'm Wilmer Valderrama. I'm Freddy Rodriguez.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: And welcome to Dos Amigos. Today, we find ourselves being
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: three amigos.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Three amigos. Yes, indeed.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: And we're very proud to have this episode here. This
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: is one of those episodes that I'm excited to do
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: because for many reasons, right? you know, we have a
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: responsibility as a show and specifically with our audiences and
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: the Latino audiences who also listen to the show to
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: be informed, right? To be equipped, right? To understand that
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the stakes are high when it comes to, you know,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: voting and midterms and national elections and things like that.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: And the idea that we can kind of provide a
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: window to, you know, to be more confident when you're
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: out there actually speaking on what's really important to you.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I think that's also important.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Kind of part of the vessel of storytelling. And I
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: think podcasts carry and hold a very special sacred space
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: for people to really be unapologetically truthful about the things
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: that they know about. And so today I'm really happy
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: to be joined with Ben Sheehan, who, you know, you're
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: from Washington, D.C.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We frequent Washington, D.C.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Often, and I'm pretty sure in our time we find ourselves,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: you know, crossing paths over there.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So you are an author as well, and you're a producer,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: and you're.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: A civics educator who, you know, you use comedy and
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: storytelling to make American government more accessible to people. And
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: that's something that is not just urgent.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It's, like, critical. That's important.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Things have gotten so complicated to understand. There's so many layers,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: so many claims, so many things, you know, to break down.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: But first and foremost, I want to give you a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: moment to, you know, to say hello and to tell
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: us a little bit about yourself.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. You know,
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: I was born in D.C. and I grew up there
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: and I had... One parent that worked in the federal government,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: in the Senate for a senator for a long time,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: and then another parent that worked with the federal government.
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  Speaker 3: So every dinner conversation was about government. And when I
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: was younger, it was super annoying. I didn't want to
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: talk about it. And it wasn't until I got older
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: that I realized that I actually kind of accidentally got
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: this very valuable civics education my entire life. I went
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: to school in DC. I got a half a year
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: of government education, maybe in eighth grade. Like, I think
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: they like walked us down to the Capitol and they're like,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: there it is.
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  Speaker 1: Goodbye.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Um, and it wasn't until I got older that I
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: really grew to appreciate what my parents had taught me.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: And it was about maybe eight years ago that I
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: realized that, you know, a lot of my friends out
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: here in Los Angeles, and I was working in the
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: entertainment industry at the time at a, at Funny or Die.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: the comedy site founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of my friends would come up to
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  Speaker 3: me and sort of ask me, I kind of became
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  Speaker 3: like the government guy there. They would ask me questions
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: and they would always start everything by saying, I know
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: this is a stupid question because, like they'd always like whisper.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And this kept.
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  Speaker 3: Happening over and over. And I'm like, why is everyone
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: so embarrassed about not knowing this? And then I started
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: looking into it and I realized that seven states require
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: at least a year of government education. Only seven states,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: K through 12. So we're not teaching this as much
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: as we used to.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Such a disconnect, right? Such a disconnect.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'll tell you that 20 plus years ago,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Rosara Dawson and I partnered up with Maria Teresa Kumar, who,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: you know, we launched Voto Latino. And the pure thing
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: was just to kind of get Latinos to sign up
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  Speaker 2: to the census.
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  Speaker 1: So we started asking a lot of our colleagues, a
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: lot of entertainers.
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  Speaker 2: We're like, hey, man, we want to do some PSAs
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  Speaker 2: to get the Latino community, to really embrace the census
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  Speaker 2: because they've never been invited to fill that form up.
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  Speaker 1: And the response.
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  Speaker 2: From very high-level educated friends of ours in that time
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  Speaker 2: was like, oh, well, I don't get involved in politics.
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  Speaker 2: And I said, it's the fucking census, bro. Like, nothing
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  Speaker 2: could be farther from politics than the census. And it
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  Speaker 2: just goes to tell you that Even the most prolific
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  Speaker 2: people at that time, 20, 25 years ago, 30 years ago,
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  Speaker 2: looked at politics as like this other thing. And maybe
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the rock to vote got 18-year-olds to go vote at
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: one point, and MTV did. But without the real understanding
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: of the stakes and the nuances of that. And when
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: was it for you, specifically I would think about the
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  Speaker 2: Funny or Die experience, when was it for you that
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  Speaker 2: entry point to understand, oh, people are so intimidated about
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  Speaker 2: this knowledge. They don't even know how to dip their
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: toe in.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: So the great thing about Find Your Dye is that
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: it was a grad school that I got paid to
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: go to, basically. I mean, not a ton of money,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: but it was a really incredible experience. And I learned
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  Speaker 3: to use humor to simplify stuff, to take a complex
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: idea and find the shortcut to like explain it in
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: a couple seconds or a short comedy sketch or an
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  Speaker 3: image or whatever. But the big moment that I realized
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  Speaker 3: that people really were embarrassed about not knowing this information
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  Speaker 3: was 2018. And I was doing a series of events
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  Speaker 3: trying to get young people to register to vote. And
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  Speaker 3: at these events, there's a speaking portion, usually a panel,
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  Speaker 3: kind of like this. And then there would be a
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  Speaker 3: portion for questions and nobody would raise their hand in
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  Speaker 3: the public setting for questions. After the event ended, there
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: would be a line of people waiting to talk one-on-one.
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  Speaker 3: And I would say, well, this is a great question.
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  Speaker 3: Why didn't you ask it for the Q & A?
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  Speaker 3: I didn't want to look dumb. I didn't want to
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  Speaker 3: look dumb. I was ashamed. I didn't want to be stupid.
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  Speaker 3: And so I think that there is a quiet epidemic
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  Speaker 3: of people who want this information, who want to know it,
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  Speaker 3: and are somehow giving themselves shame for not knowing it.
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  Speaker 3: But unless you were lucky like I was and just
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  Speaker 3: had parents that this is what they did and taught me,
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  Speaker 3: or you got a robust education in school, it's up
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  Speaker 3: to you to teach it. And this stuff is confusing
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  Speaker 3: and hard.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Do you think it's confusing and hard because there's so
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  Speaker 4: much misinformation out there? And so people feel like, well,
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  Speaker 4: let me not ask this because I think it's this
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  Speaker 4: from this misinformation or might be misinformation.
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  Speaker 1: That's sometimes how I feel.
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  Speaker 4: Sometimes I feel like, well, I'm watching this particular network
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  Speaker 4: and I'm not sure if that information is correct. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: do you think that has something to.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Do with it? It has a huge amount to do
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: with it. I mean, on one hand, it is confusing
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: information and it's complex. But on the other hand, yes,
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  Speaker 3: when you throw in all the partisan agendas and people
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: trying to sort of subtly bend something one way or another,
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  Speaker 3: I mean- information without bias is, is hard to come by.
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  Speaker 1: Especially nowadays with all the noise and the yeah. Yeah.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And it's a huge reason. So I host a show on, um,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: on PBS called civics made easy. And so the, the next, um, the,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: the second season premieres October 14th. And obviously I have
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: my own personal beliefs and opinions one way or another
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: on certain issues. But the real challenge to me was
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: how do I just give people the basics? How do
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: I give them the foundational information, the nuts and bolts
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: about how things work so they can make their own opinion?
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  Speaker 3: And so I talk to people all across the political spectrum,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: experts on the right, the left, the center, wherever, because
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  Speaker 3: I think, like, to your point, you know, it's really
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  Speaker 3: important that people have this foundational information because that's how
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: they get involved, not just the next election cycle, but
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: over and over and over again.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: In your show, I want to talk a little bit
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  Speaker 2: more about your show because I want people to really
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  Speaker 2: be aware that this is a place they can go
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: to feel safe, to feel, most importantly, confident in what
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: they're going to receive. In your conversations with the left
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  Speaker 2: and the right and the middle, what do you think
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  Speaker 2: is the commonality between all three of them that they
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: may possibly connect?
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  Speaker 3: I think that, well, first off, there are way more
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: things that people agree on across the board. I was
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: having a conversation recently with certain experts and they were
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: sharing data There's an episode in the next season on
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: term limits, right? Term limits for members of Congress. So
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: right now, you can run for as many terms in
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: the House or the Senate as you want. If you
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: keep winning, you can serve forever. People have served for
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  Speaker 3: as long as 60 years, sometimes in the Senate.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Like the Supreme Court justices.
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  Speaker 3: Supreme Court justices are essentially lifetime appointments. Unless you quit, die,
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: or get impeached and removed, you're there for life. So,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: you know, I think as we've seen, you know, members
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  Speaker 3: of Congress, you know, they're not banned from trading stocks.
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  Speaker 3: Sometimes they get information in a hearing and will help
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: with the stock pick. There are certainly people who accept
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: gifts from lobbyists and their special interests at play. So
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: I think there's a real shared passion among people all
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: across the political spectrum on fighting corruption, wherever it is.
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  Speaker 3: They want fairness. They want elected leaders who are actually
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: going to represent them. And so term limits and age
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: limits even for members of the federal government, right? We're
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: in a place now where we have certain people on
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: both sides of the aisle dying in office, which is
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: not great. So I do think that's one issue area
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  Speaker 3: where people seem to be really united. Well over 80%
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  Speaker 3: of Americans across the political spectrum, doesn't matter what part
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: of it you're looking at, support one of these limits.
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  Speaker 3: So I do think that a distaste for corruption, wanting
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: leaders to represent them, and ultimately wanting a fair playing
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: field is something that's shared, but I do think people
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: have different ideas of what would actually make that happen.
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  Speaker 4: How would you get that across if the very people
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: who are voting to get that law in are the
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: very people that are being affected by that law?
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: You've perfectly illustrated one of the key issues standing in
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: the way of reform is that if it's up to
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Congress to police themselves, then we have a problem. But
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: there are other ways to make things more fair. Sometimes
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: it's a law that can be passed at the state level.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's a ballot measure that can be implemented at
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: the state level that actually has an effect on Congress.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: When we talk about gerrymandering, which is the way that
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: political districts are drawn, you can manipulate the lines so
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: that one party has an advantage, but states can prevent
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: that from happening. They can pass laws saying, no, the
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: lines have to be fair. And we're actually not going
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: to have politicians draw them. We're going to have ordinary voters.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: And even though we paused it temporarily here in California,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: normally we do have that process. We have 14 people,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: ordinary voters picked all across the state who get together
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: and draw the lines.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: Can you explain gerrymandering for our listeners here who have
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: heard it in the news and but have no idea
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  Speaker 4: what it means.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: So every member of the U.S. House of Representatives represents
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: a district. In a small state like Delaware, there's only
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: one person from the state. So Sarah McBride is the
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: representative there. She represents the whole state. But in a
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: state like California, which is much bigger, we have, you know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: 52 members of the U.S. House. And so each of
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: those members represents a different area of land in the state.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: And every district usually has around 780 something thousand people
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: in it, right? And so the way that you draw
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: the districts, however, can create a partisan advantage if you
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: draw districts in a way where you take, let's say,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: all the Republican voters or a huge chunk of the
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Republican voters and put them in one district so they
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: have less of an influence on the rest and the
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: rest elect Democrats or the vice versa. Or you take
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: the Democratic voters and instead of allowing them to have
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: power evenly in the districts, you chop them up so
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: that there's only a few Democrats in every district so
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: they all go Republican. So it's called packing and cracking.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: There are all sorts of different ways to do it.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: I mean, it starts to sound like the mafia when
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: you get in. There's kidnapping. You draw two existing members
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: in the same district and they have to fight against
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: each other. So there's all sorts of ways. And as
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: technology improves, it's easier to do that. They can actually
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: draw the districts down to the house on the street
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: because they can see public data that shows your party registration.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: So they know that you're a Republican or you're a Democrat,
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  Speaker 3: and they can draw it so that.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: So it looks like a snake, basically, on a draft,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: you know?
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  Speaker 3: It's funny you mention snake because, you know, gerrymandering comes
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: from 200 years ago in Massachusetts. The legislature did this,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: and there was a newspaper cartoon that was showing this
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: outlandish image, and it looked like a salamander, and the
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: governor who signed the map was named Elbridge Gerry, and
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: so gerrymander... became the cartoon caption. And 200 years later,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: it stuck. So, and there are shapes like in Pennsylvania,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: apparently there's one that looks like Goofy kicking Donald Duck.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: There's one called the snake on the lake that used
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: to be in Ohio, which connect, it was just a
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: little thin line and it just connected one side of
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: the state to the other for no discernible reason other
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: than to have a partisan advantage. Wow.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: That's, It's that right there, even just the way you
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: explain all of that and how, you know, when you're
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: an election night or you're like midterms and you're waiting
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: for the resorts.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: And the map is red and blue and.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Purple, whatever, you know, it's really hard to define.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Because that's why people.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Are like, look at sometimes they'll look at look at
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: how much red the country is. You know, and like
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: the deceiving thing is that like within that, you know, it's,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: it's like a lot of land, a lot of planes,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: a lot of this, you know, a lot of farming,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: you know, which is, it makes it bigger. Uh, so
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: therefore just that the paint is, is more efficient, you know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: when you do it that way. But, um, what do
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: you think is the most, when you, and I like
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: to talk a little bit, um, uh, midterms because.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Most people hear about it. They think it's important.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: But I would say the majority is like presidential is
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: when I come out, right? What I think a lot
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: of people fail to see with midterms is that some
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: of the most critical runway, long-term runway decisions that a
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: president or not can actually really influence happens there, I think.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: So would you explain a little bit? Do you feel
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: like the stakes and the midterms are different? are probably
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: either as important or maybe more important than the actual
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: presidential campaign.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: I completely agree with you. I also think that, you know,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I think we have a, to take one quick step back,
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: we have a bit of a misunderstanding about where power
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: lies in government. You know, over our, throughout the years
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: we have three co-equal branches of government, right? And that
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: word co-equal or equal keeps coming up. If you actually
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: go back and read the Constitution, the branches aren't equal.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: that almost half the document is about Congress. It's all
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: the powers Congress has to do. Congress can declare war.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Congress regulates our money, regulates our trade. Congress established if
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: they wanted to tomorrow could change us over to the
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: metric system. I hope that doesn't happen, but maybe they could.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: They debated that for a hot second.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: So they have a ton of specifically mentioned power. And
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: it really was that the founders wanted Congress to be
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: the driving force, right? I mean, The Congress can, if
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: it wants, remove the president. The president cannot, if he
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: or she wants, remove Congress. And so there really is
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: there are three branches with checks and balances, but that
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: doesn't mean they have equal power. Congress was supposed to
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: have the most power. And so what's interesting about the
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: midterms is that just like presidential elections, you know, every
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: two years, all of the all 435 seats in the
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: House of Representatives are up for election every two years.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: And every two years, a third of the Senate. And
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: so this year, there are 35 Senate elections. But as
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: important as that is, and Congress is who funds things
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: in our government, Congress is where, you know, the reason
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: ICE has any money for their enforcement operations is because
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Congress gave it to them. The people who funded ICE,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: most of them are on the ballot this year. And
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: so if you're upset about that, this is a clear
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: way to, you know, fire those people or keep them
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: if that's what you want. But the thing that's really
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: fascinating about the midterms is that most of state power
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: is on the ballot. Most governors, most state lawmakers, most
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: state attorneys general, tons of ballot measures. And so, you know,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: we tend to think of the federal government up here
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: and states like down here, it's really more like this.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Maybe like a little bit, maybe federal government is like
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: a little edge, but it really is your state has
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: way more power and people don't pay as much attention
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: to those races. And for something like gerrymandering, you know,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: just to give a quick anecdote, in Michigan in 2016,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: after the election, this young woman named Katie Fahey was
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: upset because Michigan allowed for gerrymandering. And she was like,
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: this is fucked up and not fair. So she posted
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: on Facebook and she was like, I want to end gerrymandering.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Does anybody else want to do it? And some people
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: were like, sure, right? Go commenting under it. She ended
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: up forming a group with the people that commented on
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: her Facebook post, strangers. And two years later, she was
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: able to get a ballot measure on the ballot in
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Michigan in 2018 that would ban gerrymandering from for state
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: house races, state senate races, and the U.S. House.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: And it passed. No way. And it passed. No way.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: She passed. And so she, in less than two years,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: went from a pissed off Facebook post to now, for
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: the last eight years, Michigan has had fair elections for
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: its U.S. House representatives, its state house representatives, and its
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: state senators. And that's because of one person on Facebook.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: So that's the power of state government. It's like you have...
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: It's way... I want to say it's easier, but you
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: can make things happen faster. And you can see results
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: happen faster. And there's way more power than people realize.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Education is a huge thing that's largely dictated at the
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: state level. And so I think of midterms as a
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: huge opportunity to affect state power and use that power
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: and use that to better your life. Because honestly, the
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: further down the ballot you go, the more local you get,
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: the closer you get to your front door.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: So, okay, first of all, thank you for that, Najee.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have explained it better.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And I've been working around the politics for so long
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: in my life, in my career. It's been such an
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: extension of what I've done. I work for President Obama
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: on immigration reform. I've done so many things. And all
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: you can do is show up, give your opinion, and
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: try to kind of embody what your community is. is
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: struggling with so they can actually feel like, oh, I
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: got it to the front door. Like I brought the
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: telegram from our community to the front door. I felt
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: like I was the, I was like the guy in
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: the horse. I'm like, I'm going to see how far
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I get through the storm, you know?
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: And oh man, I got to the front door. Here's
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the letter from all of us back.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: There, you know?
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: And, and so thank you for, for the way that
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: you explained that. You know, what do you think.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Suppresses the knowledge? No, no, that's not the word. What
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: do you think.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Suppresses our ability to look at ourselves as an individual
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: that can single-handedly create what you just described with this
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: individual in Michigan, where all of a sudden it actually
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: passed in a way that was like, wow, Michigan is
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: one of the most comprehensive.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: States for these things to happen.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: What do you think is oppressing the thought that you
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: could do it from your local zip code?
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: I think it's half accidental and half intentional. I think
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: the accident is, as I mentioned, you know, there was
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: a law passed in 2002 called No Child Left Behind.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: And education is something that is like, in terms of
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: like what we teach in school and the specifics of
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: the materials, those are all state and local decisions. But
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: the federal government does have the ability to fund education.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: They can put money toward schools. give to states and
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: counties to help fund certain, the teaching of subjects. And
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: so they passed this law and they created this set
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: of new standards that incentivized teaching to reading and math.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: The better students did on the tests, the more money
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: for schools, the more money their school could get. And
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: it really gave teachers pressure to teach to these subjects.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: And so they started to let other subjects fall by
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: the wayside. And it's not specific to civics and government,
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: but that is one of the casualties. So if you
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: point to why we've had this sort of drop off
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: in civics classes and government classes over the last couple
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: of decades, people point to that 2000 law. And that
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: was signed by George W. Bush. And then 13 years later,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: reauthorized by President Obama. So both parties are guilty of
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: this helping one area and letting this other area falter.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: But if we go back even further than that, I
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: think about the civics we had in the 40s and 50s.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: coming out of World War II, there was this huge, like,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: renewed national pride and interest, right? And we had classes
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: like democracy and U.S. government and U.S. history and civics
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: all throughout our public schools. And what happened in the 1960s?
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: People got really fucking involved. And they had 15 years
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: of knowledge of how to make change. And we ended
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: up getting the Civil Rights Act passed, the Voting Rights
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: Act passed, the March on Washington that led to that.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: It started with individuals basically saying, Here's a crazy idea.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: Look at all this education we got. We have a
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: lot of power. What do you guys think? Should we
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: use it? And they got together and made, and that's
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: not even counting things that happened at the state level,
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: you know, constitutional amendments, you know, voting rights for DC,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: for president, obviously, you know, lowering the voting age to
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: 18 from 21, banning poll taxes, which were taxes that
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: people used to be have to paid in order to vote,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: which disenfranchised you know, poor people and people of color.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: And so a lot of positive change for an even
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: playing field happens. And again, I don't want to get conspiratorial,
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: but starting in the 70s, you started to see some
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: of these classes go away and people who didn't like
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: those results go, well, maybe we can change how we
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: teach civics a little bit and incentivize more of the,
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: you know, business values and stuff like that. And so
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I think it's an
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: effort by, you know, some people in power are quietly
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: happy that we don't know this because if we did,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: we would act like the bosses we were supposed to
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: be and throw them out.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Because it was by the people for the people. There
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: you go. So it would be a nightmare for suppressive forces.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Kind of.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: To invest in humbly economics in government classes in school.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: If you're skating by and doing a shitty job and
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: then suddenly one day your boss is like, oh, I'm
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: actually going to pay attention to what you do because
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: we are bosses. We pay their salaries. We pay their
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: expenses and benefits. We give them their jobs. We share
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: that boss duty with hundreds of millions of other people.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, thank you for that. I want to get
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: back to you. So you're an author. You wrote a
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: book and it did quite well. Bestseller right now. And
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: would you tell us a little bit about what inspired
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: you and what was your objective with it? Like what
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: was the statement you wanted to make with that?
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: So, you know, this came directly out of those meetings
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: I was talking about earlier with friends coming up to
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: me and asking me those stupid questions. And like, to
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: your point, a lot of these, you know, some of
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: my friends, super successful have their shit together and doing
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: a lot in their life, but then they didn't know
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: the difference between the Senate and the house. And they, again,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: they were embarrassed about all this. And so I, that's
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: when I did the research and realized that states aren't
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: requiring civics enough. And I thought back to my own upbringing, right?
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: With my mom over dinner and giving these lessons. And
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I go, well, what if I were to give that
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: opportunity to to give those back of the napkin lessons
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: to friends of mine. If I was at a bar
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: with a friend for four hours and I had a
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: copy of the Constitution, how would I explain it to them?
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: I was like, maybe that's the book. Maybe that's me
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: explaining the Constitution to a friend like I would over
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: drinks in as easy to understand language as possible. I
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: wrote this idea. It went from, I I'm, it was
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: clearly meant to be, and it was like forces beyond my,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: my control. Cause it went from idea on paper to
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: a book deal in six weeks.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: And it was total luck.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: It goes to tell you how thirsty people are for
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: a place to be understood or to be related.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible. Why do you think it happened that fast?
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: Why do you think your publisher, what do you think
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: your publisher saw on it that quickly?
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: I didn't even have a publisher. I went to, you know, I, I, the,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: the 2018 cycle had ended. I wasn't sure what I
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: wanted to do with my life. And so I did
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: what a lot of people had given me the advice
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: to do, which is just meet with as many people,
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: catch up with as many friends as possible. Don't ask
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: for help, but just ask to catch up in advice
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: and guidance. And so I went to meet with a
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: friend at a talent agency in New York where I'm
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: now represented at UTA. And as I was walking out
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: of the building, I ran into another guy I knew
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: who worked there. I was literally on the way to
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: the elevator. And he was like, what are you working on?
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I'm like, blah, blah, blah. And I have this book idea.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: And he's like, well, what's the book? And I go, oh,
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: you know, it's like a comedic guide to the Constitution,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: but it's like the real information and it's engaging and accessible.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's a great idea. Do
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: you want to pitch it? And I go, sure, when?
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: He's like, right now.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Right now. I go, what do you mean?
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: He's like, let's go upstairs. He walks me upstairs. I
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: was literally walking out of the building. He walks me upstairs.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: I walk into this guy's office. He has me pitch
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: it on the spot. I pitch it. And he goes, yesterday,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: I got off the phone with the publisher who wanted
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: a project exactly like this and just lost out on it.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: So they were looking for a replacement. Do you have anything?
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: I had a PDF doc. I sent it over. Six
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: weeks later, I had a book deal for four books. Oh,
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: all related to that. So it was an adult version,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: a kid's version and a Spanish version and.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: A book on gerrymandering.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Well, muchas gracias. That book brought to you by those amigos.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Very good, man. I mean, that's incredible. Congratulations. You know, um,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: we're all, uh, uh, aspiring authors over here.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's beautiful to see that you, you could
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: do something with the subject matter that's so important. And, uh,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: I'm really interested in the children's one too. Cause that's
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: just like, I mean, what a great heist.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: It was cool. You know, that was the one that
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: I really was really proud of. And I'll get people,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: you know, DM me pictures or sending me messages and
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: being like, my kid stayed up all night reading your
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: book or like, I've never been able to get them
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: involved in government and now they're involved. And so that's
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: the thing is like, I never want to be the,
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I don't consider myself like there are policy experts and
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: brilliant constitutional lawyers and people who can talk about this stuff,
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: you know, for hours and hours at the highest levels.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: I've never been trying to lift the ceiling on American's knowledge.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to raise the floor. And if I can
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: do that and get more people interested in realizing that
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: this isn't like you said earlier, right? I don't care
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: about the census, right? If somebody knows that, wait, the
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: census actually dictates how much money my community gets for
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: parks and other government services, if there's an emergency, you know,
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: if I can get people that little spark of interest
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: and then they stay interested, that's what I'm trying to do.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: Do you think, do you think that your comedic background
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: has something to do with, obviously your books, just me
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: hearing it sound incredibly interesting, but do you think that's why.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: The children's book works? Why the book itself work?
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: Because you have a comedic background and are you implementing that?
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: some of the elements that you learned at Funny or
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Die into the books?
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: All the time. I mean, I, you know, the thing is,
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: is that it's not that I'm presenting new information. I
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: just think the fact that I don't come from, like
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I come from this, yes, I grew up in that
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: world and I studied in college and that was my focus.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: But having this entertainment background helps me translate it for
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: a mass audience. And that's the thing is that oftentimes
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: people who are so smart and experts at this, they
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: can't like distill it down enough. Like people are still like, Ooh,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: it's still a, your, your simplest version is still way
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: above what I can do. It feels like class, right?
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: And they also, some of them kind of love the
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: big words and they're like, I'm the only one who
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: can understand that, that it's like, I just want to
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: make it as simple as possible. And so coming at
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: it from a different angle, I think the presentation has
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: helped people resonate with it and grasp it.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about running for some type of office?
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Yes and no.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Start with a no.
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: Start with a no? Yeah. I'll start with a no. Obviously,
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: learning about government and following it and distilling it has
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: made part of me really disillusioned about it and really upset.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: And even growing up in a time with a parent
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: who worked in the Senate, she would come home and
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: she would explain her job to me. Be like, today,
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: we secured, you know, you love... Sesame Street band, we
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: kept their lights on today. We gave them X amount
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: of money. Mr. Rogers gets to go to work again
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: because we gave PBS money. So the irony of my
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: mom literally saving PBS's money in the 80s and me
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: now having a show on PBS.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: What an epic moment that was.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: It was really wild. But my mom also in the
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: early 80s was instrumental for helping get the first federal
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: grant ever for AIDS research. And so her senator, she
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: worked for a Republican senator, a guy named Mark Hadfield.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: In the early 80s, there was disease. People didn't really
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: know about it. And so her and other staffers were like,
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: this seems like something we really need to find out about.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: And so they, it was, here's a secret. DC is
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: run by staffers. It's not run by the actual members.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: It's run by the 25-year-olds on the staff who actually
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: do the work, who do the research.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: And doing all the networking.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: All the networking, you know. And so it really is
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: those people. And so she was one of those. And
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: She pushed and pushed for her for her senator to
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: help pass this. And so those are the stories that
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: I grew up with of government actually like it's not
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: front page news, but doing good stuff like the default
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: is supposed to be helping us. That's that's why we
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: have it. And that's why we pay our taxes. And
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: so it makes me disillusioned today when I see things
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: largely not working like that. Yes, there was a very
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: consequential and helpful housing bill, in my opinion, that passed
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: a few months ago. But you see, we're presented with
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: so many more examples of corruption and things not working.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: And while I think it's important for people to know
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: about that, it also kind of gets people jaded. And
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: then instead of wanting to fix it, they just walk away.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: I just think that your ability to communicate To communicate, period, right?
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: Whether it's to your books or anything else that you've
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: done is going to be your superpower if you ever
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: decide to run.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, I would have for anyone to debate you
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: on shit.
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's your superpower because you're able to convey your
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: message in such a form that the average person could
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: relate to. Well, I think that sometimes that's the problem
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: with some.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Of these politicians.
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: It's like the average person just doesn't understand them.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: They don't care to put it into terms, right? They're
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: like talking to one another. They're not talking to the people, right?
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: So I think that's also a deficiency of like connectivity.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Some of these official office jobs, they look so unobtainable
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: and so impossible for you to aspire to be because
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: somehow they make it what they used to make it
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: look like you had to be very.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Smart to be in those roles, you know?
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: Throughout the years, we have deconstructed our inability to think
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: that you even need a college degree to actually do
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: some of the shenanigans that happens out there. But I
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: will say that there is also a lot of hopeful individuals.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I think there's a whole new generation of politicians, young politicians,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: that really have paid attention and I think are about
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: to say, I'll just take it from here.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: And I don't.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Know that the values that are being so combated over
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: right now are going to really be the values that
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: we fight for next.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I think I see a lot of hope.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: And it's true what they say, the majority all is aligned.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: But I think storytelling has created the mirage that the
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: country looks and feels and thinks a different way. And
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: therefore it suppresses your ability to just beat yourself out
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: loud in many ways. So I think we're about to
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: have an interesting awakening, but I'd love for you to,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: you know, as we kind of wind down over here,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: I'd love for you to tell us a little bit,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: do you think, are you seeing, and not perhaps with
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: the current state of affairs, right? I think that we're
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: experiencing a transformative process, right? But I think it's also
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: creating an awakening and serendipity, you know.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Full circle.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: I think the next generation is being like, We're going
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: to let this pass, right? And I think we're going
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: to have to get to work. I mean, I've talked
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: to so many young people and so many young activists
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: who are just rolling up their sleeves, waiting for the window,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: you know, so they can just get in there.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: I think that, you know, every action begets an equal
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: and opposite reaction. You know, night is darkest before the dawn.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, you see, you know, peaks and valleys, right?
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: You go through moments of hardship that really test the
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: guardrails of, you know, how this country is going to move,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: what direction we're going to go in. And I definitely
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: see what you're seeing of people much younger than me
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: who are way smarter and are like really, really active
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: and know how to use social media and know how
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: to organize and know how to rally behind stuff, including
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: paying attention to things at the local level and knowing
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: that that is a really powerful way to make change.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: It's not that it's less of a big deal. It's
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: just it affects a smaller number of people. But if
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: that's your community, it has a massive amount of power.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: And so... I totally agree with you. I constantly meet
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: younger people. I did a speaking event at a lower
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: school in Eagle Rock not too long ago. And I
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: was talking about the kids book. And I asked a
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: question to these fourth graders. And I was like, does anyone,
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: you know, does anyone know what a constitutional amendment is?
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: Do you know how many there are? This little girl
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: raised her hand. I go, sure. She goes, there are 27.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: Do you want to know what they are? And I go,
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: that's what I'm talking about. Yes. Can you be president?
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: So I see that all the time. And it honestly,
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: if it wasn't for examples of that, I wouldn't be
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: as motivated to keep doing what I'm doing.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Is there going to be a documentary form of each
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: of these books that we could watch?
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, that's kind of how I vision the show.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: And so the first season of Civics Made Easy came
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: out last year and it did really well. And I
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: think we got, four to five million viewers on season one,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: and it's being taught in 40,000 classrooms.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's based on the book. It's not your own.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: It's an extension of the book. So it's sort of like,
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: you know, because the book is specific to the Constitution,
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: and so there are some things that I want to
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: cover that maybe are a little bit in the Constitution,
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: or not as much, or things that, you know, obviously
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: have a footprint there, but then they've grown so much since.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: And so some of the topics we, you know, covered
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: in the first season were, like, the Electoral College... We
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: covered the history of U.S. territories. Why do we have territories?
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Why aren't they states? We talked about the amendments process.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: We talked about the history of the voting rights. And
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: then this season, you know, we talk about the separation
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: between church and state. We talk about term limits and
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: age limits, state power, partisan gerrymandering. And then the first
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: episode of the season is a really interesting question.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Is the U.S.
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: Truly a democracy? Mm-hmm.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Very provocative.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Provocative questions.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Very provocative questions.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, man, we could do six more episodes with you.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: I'm fascinated by.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: What you're doing.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: I'm in awe of what your achievement and I can
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: sleep at night knowing that you exist, you know. And
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to commend you on that and say
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: congratulations and thank you on behalf of, you know, humanity
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: who's on the side of common sense. because that's the fight.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: The fight is for common sense now. It's not even
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: what's right and wrong. It's just to fight for what
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: actually makes sense to humanity and to all of us
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: as communities. Brothers and sisters, the bond behind the American
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: flag that we all believe in so much.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: No one looks at the.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: American flag and not think this is a land where
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: you could voice your opinions in ways you can and
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: fight for what you believe in and also... you know,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: make a dream come true, right?
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: So I think that's the idea.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: The idea is to create, you know, texture, create context,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: you know, for how you can navigate in this.
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: Common sense and facts, right? Like you just said on
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: your show, sometimes you'll have people on the left, sometimes
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: on the right, sometimes in the middle. You have your
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: own political views and that's okay, right? That's what America
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: is all about. But facts are still facts. And I
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: think that that's what we're fighting up against.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: And numbers are numbers. And numbers are numbers. You can't
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: dispute numbers.
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: And I find that in my own limited knowledge of
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: politics and what's going on, that's the thing that I
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: find myself combating against the most is talking to family
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: members and and, um, starting a debate with me on
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: something that's not even factual and having Facebook news, you know?
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And me having to go through the process of
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: like showing them that we can't even have this discussion
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: because what you're saying is not even a fact. It's
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: not even about like what you believe on your side
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: or what I believe on my side. It has nothing
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: to do with that because the foundation is not even factual.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: So I commend you.
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: And I hope that, what you continue to do continues
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: to bring facts into the light.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Thank you both for giving this opportunity. It's really great
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: to talk to you. And I also want to thank
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: you both for using your platform. You've been, you know,
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: you both have been taking your platforms for a long
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: time and using them for good and representing your community
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: and going and, you know, pushing for policy and using your,
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: you know, the megaphones that you have for, really helpful reasons,
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: you know, other than just benefiting yourselves. And so thank you.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: No, thank you. It was a privilege to have you here, man.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: And we're, we're going to do this again.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: And as, as we get closer to, uh, to judgment day,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: I think we should, we should have another episode and,
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: and talk and make it your next book, man.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: You got to come in and talk to us about it.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Where can we get your book?
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Everywhere?
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: It's available wherever books are sold and on all the
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: big real retailers. But if you want to support a local, uh, bookshop,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: it's on, it's on bookshop.org.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: And then your Instagram, uh, is also something I want
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: to drive everyone to. Your content is phenomenal. It's poignant.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: It's straight to the point. It's incredibly easy to carry with, right,
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: to carry. And so what.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Is your name? It's just my name. Okay, Benjamin. Well,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: so grateful, man. Thank you for being here again.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you. This is your house, bro. Anytime you're
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: going to promote anything, let us know. We got your
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: back over here. And I'm really, really grateful you came.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: And I'm Wilmer Valderrama. I'm Freddy Rodriguez. This is Los Amigos.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: And thank you for listening or watching wherever you are
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: in the world. And thank you again for coming.