Latest / All About The Joy / White House Demolition, Missing Guardrails & Who Really Pays

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White House Demolition, Missing Guardrails & Who Really Pays · All About The Joy

• 0:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Hey everyone, welcome to All About the Joy.
• 0:02
  Carmen Lezeth: This is Culture and Consequence with Carmen and Andrea.
• 0:05
  Carmen Lezeth: There was this guy on TikTok.
• 0:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I forget his name, but he's really popular.
• 0:10
  Carmen Lezeth: It doesn't matter, but he's like, honey, you need to blend.
• 0:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Like you gotta blend it in.
• 0:17
  Carmen Lezeth: And he was like showing him.
• 0:19
  Carmen Lezeth: And then he was like, he had the picture next to him.
• 0:22
  Carmen Lezeth: And he's like, look at look at this line here.
• 0:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Blend, honey.
• 0:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Blend.
• 0:25
  Carmen Lezeth: So funny.
• 0:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I was dying.
• 0:30
  Andrea: Yeah, that that was probably one of the funnier signs I saw from No Kings was like, he can't even blend his own makeup.
• 0:36
  Andrea: That's how incompetent he is.
• 0:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Even his, and and I know this is fucking petty shit.
• 0:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, by the way, um, I've gotten quite a few emails about my swearing.
• 0:47
  Carmen Lezeth: And you're swearing.
• 0:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I know, I know.
• 0:49
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't even put those in the list of questions we're gonna answer because I'm like, listen, let me just say straight up, this is gonna be a swearing episode, even more, because I'm pissed.
• 1:00
  Carmen Lezeth: But if you don't know us by now, we are people who swear.
• 1:04
  Carmen Lezeth: And I the emails are stupid, like they're just stupid.
• 1:09
  Carmen Lezeth: You're wasting time, like, whatever.
• 1:11
  Carmen Lezeth: It doesn't make me feel bad, it empowers me to swear even more, you fuck tards.
• 1:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, so I'm so over it.
• 1:20
  Andrea: Anyway, I mean, we we touched on this once before, too, right?
• 1:23
  Andrea: Like, there's actually studies that say people who swear more are more intelligent.
• 1:28
  Andrea: So I'm just putting that out there.
• 1:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Speaking of stupid, um it's just a weird ism.
• 1:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Like it's a weird thing to tell someone not to do something that they're just going to end up doing over and over again.
• 1:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, do you not know psychology at all?
• 1:43
  Carmen Lezeth: And if you're curl like you're pearl clutching, is that what they say?
• 1:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Pearl, then you shouldn't be watching this show.
• 1:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm not trying to move people away from the show, but it's a weird ism to be complaining about.
• 1:54
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, you're not being no one's forcing you.
• 1:56
  Andrea: And this is the way that we talk with each other.
• 1:58
  Andrea: That doesn't mean that we're walking around like at the grocery store in the post office, you know.
• 2:03
  Andrea: I am no.
• 2:03
  Andrea: Why am I feeling fucking high, bitch?
• 2:06
  Andrea: Go.
• 2:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, like, that's not what we're doing.
• 2:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Look, it I think that's the other part of it too, right?
• 2:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm using it as an exclamation point or whatever.
• 2:15
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what?
• 2:16
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't need to fucking look.
• 2:17
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what?
• 2:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I'll give a fuck.
• 2:18
  Andrea: It's a way to blow off some steam, it's a way to like be emphatic about something, and um, we have a lot of steam to blow off.
• 2:25
  Andrea: We have a lot of things to be emphatic about.
• 2:29
  Carmen Lezeth: All right, let's get to our topics, whatever.
• 2:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, because that's normally what we do when we're on the phone.
• 2:35
  Carmen Lezeth: We just Andrea, it's time to talk about our topics.
• 2:40
  Andrea: These are the four things that I had for us to discuss today.
• 2:44
  Andrea: I have my research ready to go.
• 2:46
  Andrea: So let's start.
• 2:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I know.
• 2:48
  Carmen Lezeth: So I think we're gonna, well, first I should say that we are 23 days into still the government shutdown.
• 2:54
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that's an important thing to uh just remind people in case you do not know.
• 3:00
  Carmen Lezeth: And we were going to talk about the White House demolition situation.
• 3:05
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'll let you go first.
• 3:09
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know.
• 3:12
  Andrea: I really thought about I've been thinking about this really all week because I knew that we were gonna talk about it, and I'm just like, I got nothing.
• 3:22
  Andrea: Like, what can you fucking say?
• 3:25
  Andrea: This is the craziest motherfucking shit I have ever motherfucking seen.
• 3:31
  Andrea: Like, we have established, clearly, thoroughly established that I am like the least patriotic American on the planet, right?
• 3:42
  Andrea: Never will I do any of the symbolic shit.
• 3:46
  Andrea: I will never have a flag, wear a flag.
• 3:49
  Andrea: I I don't even I don't even stand up for the what the song the national anthem.
• 3:55
  Andrea: Yes, I sit.
• 3:57
  Andrea: I'm like, fuck that.
• 3:58
  Andrea: No, I don't salute the flag, I don't do the pledge of allegiance.
• 4:02
  Andrea: When I was a teacher, I'm just saying I didn't have my kids do the pledge of allegiance.
• 4:05
  Andrea: So anyway, my point was that something required here in LA?
• 4:09
  Andrea: Really?
• 4:09
  Andrea: Yes, it was.
• 4:10
  Andrea: It is, yes, yeah.
• 4:12
  Andrea: Um, I was even my daughter told me that they had to do it at school once a week, and I was like, I'll write you a note, girl.
• 4:18
  Andrea: Because uh uh, but she was like, Oh no, it's fine.
• 4:21
  Carmen Lezeth: People are I just I just want everyone to know that I don't have the same feelings.
• 4:26
  Andrea: She doesn't have the same feeling.
• 4:27
  Andrea: I'm just saying, I am establishing the fact that I don't do the symbolic shit.
• 4:32
  Andrea: Right.
• 4:32
  Andrea: Okay, right.
• 4:33
  Andrea: Seeing what is happening at the White House has fucking broken my heart.
• 4:43
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 4:43
  Andrea: I like I'm actually embarrassed about how upset I am about it.
• 4:49
  Carmen Lezeth: That's actually awesome.
• 4:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I love it.
• 4:52
  Carmen Lezeth: It's good.
• 4:54
  Andrea: I mean, like, there's the like, how fucking dare you?
• 4:58
  Andrea: Yeah, first of all, of course, it's the East Wing where the first ladies' offices are established primarily by Eleanor Roosevelt.
• 5:09
  Andrea: So there's all this history there.
• 5:12
  Andrea: And as you mentioned in the start, like um, this is all somehow happening in the midst of a government shutdown.
• 5:23
  Andrea: No, no, no, we we need a ballroom though.
• 5:26
  Andrea: We do need a ballroom.
• 5:27
  Andrea: We do need a ballroom.
• 5:28
  Andrea: And I mean, just on the most basic level, try adding in some new like plumbing or an addition to your house and see how fucking long it takes you anywhere in this country.
• 5:41
  Andrea: Like, I it's just uh I don't really have articulate words.
• 5:45
  Andrea: I have a lot of swear words that I could throw out, which I already have, but like I don't even know.
• 5:51
  Andrea: I don't know, and and and why, why is aren't like the press and like the the like why aren't people just screaming about this?
• 6:03
  Carmen Lezeth: I just don't well I do think people are like I just turned off the news and they've been talking about it like agnosium at this point um because our attention span is so small, but they are you know because now the pictures are out, right?
• 6:16
  Carmen Lezeth: The it's it's the because they tried to barricade what was happening, which is so weird in this day and age of like, you know, drones and everything else, but they're able to see the actual destruction and they're showing live shots of that happening and the destruction, the complete demolition of the East Wing will be done by Sunday, is uh it then it's mostly already down.
• 6:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I was just watching it, and so I'll I'll say the opposite part.
• 6:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, and then I'm gonna talk a little bit about why this matters in even a bigger way.
• 6:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Because I because I think what's more important here, look at it's a fucking building.
• 6:53
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm I'm okay.
• 6:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Like at the end of the day, I don't give a fuck.
• 6:56
  Carmen Lezeth: There are people who are still being taken by ice, there are other things right now to me that are more important, but I I will say this it is not what is happening literally that's bothering me.
• 7:09
  Carmen Lezeth: It's all the people who are justifying it and all the people who keep supporting him, even though he is straight up lying to you again.
• 7:21
  Carmen Lezeth: And here's the difference.
• 7:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Look at I went and pulled, because you know me, I went and pulled all of the times that the White House has been redone, reconstructed, where things have been demolished and fixed or whatever.
• 7:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I did because I wanted to see, I wanted to understand what the hoopla was.
• 7:41
  Carmen Lezeth: There's so many reasons why this is bad.
• 7:44
  Carmen Lezeth: And before you start talking about Barack Obama changing the tennis courts to a basketball court, that's just bullshittering.
• 7:51
  Carmen Lezeth: He did do that, but he did it through the actual commission that and he talked to the art historians and he went through it, takes like a year to even have that conversation.
• 8:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me just say one thing that's really important here.
• 8:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I I just look, I just want you to see all the notes I took on this fucking bullshit.
• 8:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Because I, you know what, like you, okay.
• 8:12
  Carmen Lezeth: So here's here's the difference.
• 8:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I am extremely patriotic.
• 8:14
  Carmen Lezeth: I always have been.
• 8:15
  Carmen Lezeth: I love my country.
• 8:16
  Carmen Lezeth: And one of the things we were going to talk about later, but we'll just infuse it here is one of the things about the No Kings um protests that happened on Saturday.
• 8:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I was lucky to go to two.
• 8:25
  Carmen Lezeth: There was one here near my apartment where I like, like, I stepped out of my house.
• 8:29
  Carmen Lezeth: It was right there.
• 8:30
  Carmen Lezeth: And then I went um and checked out another part of Los Angeles, and that is what makes America great.
• 8:37
  Carmen Lezeth: That's what we're missing is the hopefulness, the optimism, the joyfulness, the happy, the that is the part that makes America great.
• 8:50
  Carmen Lezeth: And I don't care what you think about Barack Obama, but that moment when he was elected, everybody had that feeling.
• 8:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, except you fucktards again, the fuctards.
• 9:00
  Carmen Lezeth: We're just gonna start calling you guys the fuctards.
• 9:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, but we're missing that's what we're missing is that joy and that happiness.
• 9:07
  Carmen Lezeth: So it's happening at the White House right now, and the reason why it matters is because he didn't go through the right processes.
• 9:14
  Carmen Lezeth: No, and and this idea that he keeps telling everyone that we need, I want you to hear this.
• 9:20
  Carmen Lezeth: We need a ballroom.
• 9:23
  Carmen Lezeth: We don't need nobody needs a ballroom.
• 9:26
  Carmen Lezeth: We don't need a ballroom, but he keeps saying that.
• 9:29
  Carmen Lezeth: And let me just give you some stats here.
• 9:31
  Carmen Lezeth: So a football field is 57,600 square feet.
• 9:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, 57,000 square feet.
• 9:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Let's just leave it there.
• 9:40
  Carmen Lezeth: The White House itself is 55,000 square feet.
• 9:45
  Carmen Lezeth: The White House itself, okay.
• 9:48
  Carmen Lezeth: The east wing that he just demolished is 60,000 square feet.
• 9:53
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so it's a little bit bigger than the White House.
• 9:56
  Carmen Lezeth: This ballroom that he's going to build is 90,000 square feet.
• 10:03
  Carmen Lezeth: So that's a football field and a half.
• 10:07
  Carmen Lezeth: It's going to dwarf the actual White House.
• 10:11
  Carmen Lezeth: There is no commission, right?
• 10:14
  Carmen Lezeth: There is no, what's it called?
• 10:15
  Carmen Lezeth: It's the National Capital Planning Commission, um, the GSA, which is the government services admission, and usually the U.S.
• 10:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Army Corps of Engineers, who will turn around and work with the president to preserve the history of the place, to help come up with the right plans.
• 10:32
  Carmen Lezeth: He is building this bullshittery without doing any of that.
• 10:36
  Carmen Lezeth: And he keeps saying it's not going to cost the taxpayers any money.
• 10:39
  Carmen Lezeth: First of all, bullshit.
• 10:40
  Carmen Lezeth: And secondly, why do we want corporate, like if we want a fucking ballroom, we should pay for it.
• 10:46
  Carmen Lezeth: But he knows we don't want a ballroom.
• 10:49
  Carmen Lezeth: So instead, all of these fucking corporate fucking corporations are going to end up having their names slapped all over the ballroom.
• 10:59
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'll end with this little part.
• 11:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I hope, because it's not going to be done for four years.
• 11:06
  Carmen Lezeth: It might he said they think it's going to be done in four years because whatever, but this is another little in indication that he thinks he ain't motherfucking leaving that place.
• 11:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, for sure.
• 11:18
  Carmen Lezeth: But I'ma say when President Newsom or President whoever the fuck is next, because I think that's where we're going, or the guy from Chicago, what's the guy's name from Illinois?
• 11:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Pritzer.
• 11:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't care who it is.
• 11:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 11:30
  Carmen Lezeth: President next in line, who we know is going to be a white male.
• 11:34
  Carmen Lezeth: It's true.
• 11:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Hopefully, we had a Nazi tattoo.
• 11:38
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, exactly.
• 11:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my god, who had the Nazi tattoo?
• 11:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, we don't even have to go there.
• 11:44
  Carmen Lezeth: It doesn't matter.
• 11:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 11:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I said the other day, and I wasn't kidding.
• 11:48
  Carmen Lezeth: I can't wait for that motherfucking ballroom to be rededicated to Barack Obama.
• 11:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I just think that would be like the fucking Michelle Obama.
• 12:01
  Carmen Lezeth: And they're making it to like all offices or sciences or whatever.
• 12:07
  Andrea: Like I'm just hoping that's what happens.
• 12:09
  Andrea: They just look like uh, you know, inner city DC schools have proms there.
• 12:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Exactly.
• 12:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Like and make it like just the place where like community happens, like and just, you know, take I mean all the gold in that office is so disgusting.
• 12:25
  Andrea: Yeah, he just wants it to be like, you know, like somebody with golden poop shit all over it.
• 12:32
  Andrea: And that's I know it's so weird.
• 12:34
  Carmen Lezeth: So yeah, I just um I was shook by the football field analogy because it didn't it made more sense to me when I realized like it's going to also dwarf the White House completely and it's going to be ugly.
• 12:49
  Andrea: I mean, you know, speaking of hope, as you said that's not Gavin's style, they don't like that.
• 12:54
  Andrea: I can only hope that we never get to the point where we have to see all the gold shit and that it's you know, I mean, I don't know what you do when it's already start, you know, like I I don't know.
• 13:08
  Andrea: I just Well it's demolished already, so no no no.
• 13:11
  Andrea: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:16
  Andrea: I'm hoping that he will be gone one way or another, uh, before it's finished, before we get to the you know, gold leaf stage, and that it's uh not ever completed.
• 13:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 13:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, some professionals are saying there's no way, like, even on the best of schedules, there's no way it would be completed in four years.
• 13:36
  Carmen Lezeth: But there'd have to be like no delays, no issues, and that rarely happens.
• 13:40
  Carmen Lezeth: But you know, people are already suing.
• 13:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I know I'm I'm shy.
• 13:45
  Carmen Lezeth: But you know what?
• 13:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Um I don't mean this in a bad way, but it's nice to hear you say that it did kind of break your heart to see it.
• 13:52
  Andrea: It did, it really did.
• 13:53
  Andrea: And it, I mean, you know, there's sort of the metaphor of it all, like he's just doesn't give a shit going in and destroying our cultural heritage and everything that kind of the country is supposed to stand for, all of those kinds of things, you know what I mean?
• 14:08
  Andrea: There's just a lot of a lot to it, and it's I again just go back to like what will it take?
• 14:16
  Andrea: Is there anything?
• 14:18
  Andrea: Is there anything this person can do that will actually get people to be like, oh shit, that's far.
• 14:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, I mean, it's okay, and that goes into the next thing I wanted to talk about.
• 14:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't put it on the list, but it's kind of like I'm not even mad at Trump because Trump is like a child on so many levels to me.
• 14:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Like he's, you know, he's like, I want to do this, I want to do that.
• 14:39
  Carmen Lezeth: But at some point, people say, No, no, you cannot do that.
• 14:43
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm more upset with all these motherfuckers who are in office and know better, who are not stopping him at all, at all.
• 14:50
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, I say this with no respect whatsoever.
• 14:53
  Carmen Lezeth: Mitch McConnell, who is 83 years old, who fell the other day in the Russell Senate building.
• 14:59
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, I'm like, this is also the other part of it.
• 15:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Mitch McConnell, I blame for most all of the bullshittery we are in today.
• 15:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't even blame Donald Trump because he was the first person that when Barack Obama became president was just like, my our only job is not to let him be be re-elected again.
• 15:18
  Carmen Lezeth: He had already started this bullshittery.
• 15:20
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 15:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm tired of old people.
• 15:23
  Carmen Lezeth: I said it, old people, you need to stop thinking you can be in office forever.
• 15:30
  Carmen Lezeth: You're 83 years old, you can barely speak, and you're fucking bumbling around the goddamn.
• 15:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I know people mad at me.
• 15:37
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't care.
• 15:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't have a big constituency of old people on my show.
• 15:42
  Andrea: The ego on these people is shocking, really.
• 15:44
  Andrea: Look at there are some things I can't do anymore.
• 15:47
  Carmen Lezeth: And I like there are things I cannot do anymore.
• 15:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I cannot stay up past nine.
• 15:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I can't do it.
• 15:53
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 15:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Although, in all fairness, we all know I've never been able to stay up.
• 15:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm like, that's not new, people.
• 15:59
  Carmen Lezeth: But I really can't.
• 16:04
  Carmen Lezeth: I like I can't pull all-nighters.
• 16:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I can't.
• 16:06
  Carmen Lezeth: There are things I can't do, so you work around that.
• 16:08
  Carmen Lezeth: You don't force yourself to do it anyways because you're gonna make bad decisions.
• 16:12
  Carmen Lezeth: But it's like Nancy Pelosi, all these motherfucking people like enough already.
• 16:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Move the fuck on.
• 16:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, ageism.
• 16:20
  Carmen Lezeth: We're probably gonna get slapped with some type of something on YouTube.
• 16:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Ageism.
• 16:25
  Andrea: Remember, remember, I know you remember, and this is really sad, but like remember several years ago, there was an old guy, apparently really lovely family man, who drove his car into the farmer's market and killed people?
• 16:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:41
  Andrea: Take the motherfucking keys away, people.
• 16:43
  Andrea: Like, there are things you cannot do anymore.
• 16:46
  Andrea: You need to be at home enjoying your grandchildren or watching Jeopardy or whatever the fuck old people do, be in your garden, walk your dog.
• 16:56
  Andrea: I don't know.
• 16:57
  Andrea: We're gonna be old soon, too.
• 16:59
  Andrea: But but but look at my chickens, I'm ready to go.
• 17:03
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't Andrea has chickens for those who don't know.
• 17:06
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a whole other story.
• 17:07
  Carmen Lezeth: We're not talking about it now because I I I'm done with that shit.
• 17:10
  Carmen Lezeth: But anyways, but here's my thing is like, I think it's because we demonize getting older on every level.
• 17:15
  Carmen Lezeth: So getting old means X, Y, Z in this country, and it's like, oh, you need to get like 15 facelifts and look like you're 10 when you're actually 58 or something.
• 17:25
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 17:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Like you have to keep looking as young as possible, as youthful as possible, because being old sucks.
• 17:30
  Carmen Lezeth: And I think that's part of the problem.
• 17:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, but we need term limits or something because I'm I want I want Gen Z, I want millennials, I want young people in office.
• 17:41
  Carmen Lezeth: I want young people in office.
• 17:43
  Andrea: Yeah, this ain't it.
• 17:44
  Andrea: These people are gonna be dead in five years, they're walking around dead now.
• 17:50
  Andrea: Well, and then it's like they're making decisions that affect the lives of people who are cannot access power because they are in the way.
• 18:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, and they don't know, and I look at I I'm kidding around about the ageism thing, but I know this is what this is coming across.
• 18:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I just think that if you are not a person who has compassion and empathy, this is what you do because it's all about your ego, it's all about you.
• 18:17
  Carmen Lezeth: But these people do not know the internet, they don't understand AI, they don't understand technology, they don't know what TikTok is, they don't, and they're just bullshitting their way through.
• 18:28
  Carmen Lezeth: And when have we ever been okay with allowing people to bullshit their way through?
• 18:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh, don't talk about this current administration.
• 18:36
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying, like, in anything that you do, would you be like, oh yeah, that astronaut bullshitted their way through?
• 18:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Let's just let them do it.
• 18:44
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 18:44
  Carmen Lezeth: But for some reason, in fucking every political thing we do in Congress or whatever, we allow these people who are clearly not with it, walking around the halls of Congress, falling all over the place, their aides picking them up, speaking for them, like you're voting for them then.
• 19:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Then you're voting for them then.
• 19:02
  Carmen Lezeth: You're not actually being represented.
• 19:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Your constituencies are not being represented by who they voted for, you know?
• 19:09
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's like, it's just, I'm so sick of it.
• 19:11
  Carmen Lezeth: But I think that's also part of the problem.
• 19:14
  Andrea: Absolutely.
• 19:15
  Andrea: Look, I mean, uh, there's enough rage to go around for sure.
• 19:18
  Andrea: You know, I don't let Donald Trump off at all.
• 19:20
  Andrea: But yes, there's a lot of enabling from all kinds of people who have their own agendas, right?
• 19:26
  Andrea: They have their own reasons for wanting to be close to power, trying to get their own foot in the door so that they can have their day in the sun.
• 19:34
  Andrea: I mean, all of that kind of stuff.
• 19:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 19:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, whatever.
• 19:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm over it.
• 19:38
  Carmen Lezeth: All right, let's answer some questions.
• 19:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm done.
• 19:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm done.
• 19:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so I didn't pick any of the bad emails that we seem to keep getting about swearing.
• 19:50
  Andrea: The swearing thing.
• 19:51
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, that was one.
• 19:51
  Carmen Lezeth: There was another one that was kind of nasty, but I was it was more like funny.
• 19:55
  Carmen Lezeth: I was like, okay.
• 19:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh, she's married, and I'm not interested, is basically the answer to that.
• 20:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I was like, you weird.
• 20:02
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, I'll tell you about it in the green room.
• 20:05
  Carmen Lezeth: All right, so these are two emails we got.
• 20:08
  Carmen Lezeth: So we'll do the first one and I'll let you in.
• 20:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Wait, did we finish everything we were gonna talk about with those two things?
• 20:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, yeah, okay.
• 20:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, yeah.
• 20:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, I I think I kind of just said it because I kind of just said it like that was the good part for me about No Kings, was just, and it was kind of heartwarming.
• 20:24
  Carmen Lezeth: There were a couple of instances here where um some Trump supporters were trying to start something, and the police like they just pulled up on a motorcycle.
• 20:36
  Carmen Lezeth: No, no, this was the horses, they just came up with the horses and like just look at them, and they just turned around and walked away.
• 20:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, so that was kind of an interesting thing because it was really peaceful everywhere around the country and around the world.
• 20:50
  Carmen Lezeth: It was a peaceful event, kind of cool.
• 20:53
  Andrea: Yeah, I mean that that's I I did not attend, I was at a family birthday party with whatever.
• 20:58
  Andrea: She does not love our country.
• 21:00
  Andrea: It was lovely.
• 21:01
  Andrea: As I said last time, you have to find your joy in different places.
• 21:04
  Andrea: Uh, but I had fun um at my birthday party.
• 21:08
  Andrea: But um wait, your birthday party party.
• 21:12
  Andrea: No, I was like, no, okay, I know what was my cousin's daughter's four-year-old, you know.
• 21:18
  Andrea: So it was a sweet little kid birthday party.
• 21:21
  Carmen Lezeth: And listen, your priorities are your priorities.
• 21:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I care about our country, so I am dedicated to the cause.
• 21:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, you know what's so funny?
• 21:31
  Carmen Lezeth: You who's you're usually the one out there protesting.
• 21:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Ah, this is how we know we in trouble.
• 21:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Because when do I protest?
• 21:38
  Andrea: Never, never.
• 21:39
  Andrea: I'm out there at the ice protests.
• 21:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, you know, yeah, but I didn't I don't protest, so you know we you in trouble, girl.
• 21:50
  Andrea: Yeah, we in trouble.
• 21:51
  Andrea: No, but I I just want to say that it's like, you know, as someone who didn't participate live, it was really nice to kind of come back at the end of the day and look and see number one, how many people participated and how many places over seven million.
• 22:05
  Andrea: I love, love, love seeing like the small towns where they're like, you know, we have 300 people in this town and 150 were out there, you know.
• 22:14
  Andrea: Like I love that.
• 22:16
  Andrea: And it does, it just gives you hope.
• 22:17
  Andrea: And I think, you know, a lot of people who say whatever they say about these protests, I think it is important to see that many people who are like, okay, yes, this is the United States, this isn't France, where we, you know, it's very concentrated and we can like shut down the entire capital or whatever, but we can all come out and and actually say we're not all right with this.
• 22:40
  Andrea: And I think it does give a lot of people hope.
• 22:42
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'm gonna say something else that's gonna piss off a lot of people because that's what I do nowadays.
• 22:46
  Carmen Lezeth: Culture and consequence, Carmen pissing everyone off.
• 22:49
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, it was also a sea of white people, and I loved to see it.
• 22:55
  Carmen Lezeth: And I have to say, especially because I live here and there's not a huge population of people of color, it was beautiful to see thousands of people.
• 23:04
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'm like, oh my god, this is my entire neighborhood.
• 23:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Like it was just amazing to see that.
• 23:09
  Carmen Lezeth: So uh it, yeah, it was beautiful, it was very American.
• 23:13
  Carmen Lezeth: That is what you do as an American when you disagree with something.
• 23:18
  Carmen Lezeth: You protest and you let your voices be heard.
• 23:21
  Carmen Lezeth: And anyone who thinks otherwise is a fascist.
• 23:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know how else to say it.
• 23:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Is that clear?
• 23:27
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that sums it up well.
• 23:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I said, I think that sums it up well.
• 23:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that sums it up well, too.
• 23:33
  Carmen Lezeth: So, all right, let's get to our questions.
• 23:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, so the first one should I say the person's name?
• 23:39
  Carmen Lezeth: No, well, first name.
• 23:41
  Carmen Lezeth: I I won't say their name.
• 23:42
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, this is from somebody from Chicago, and they said, You talk with a lot of clarity, but I gotta ask, how do you deal when folks you love just don't see things the same way, like real disagreements, not just debates, but stuff that hits deep.
• 23:58
  Carmen Lezeth: How do you keep the peace without losing yourself?
• 24:01
  Andrea: So I I saw that question and I thought about it for a little bit.
• 24:05
  Andrea: Like, I don't have anyone in my life uh who I have those kinds of strong disagreements with.
• 24:12
  Andrea: I mean, I think that there probably are some people in my extended, extended family who I don't really have any real relationship with who are probably Trump voters.
• 24:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, but I don't okay, but I'm gonna bring up something.
• 24:27
  Carmen Lezeth: Sorry, I'm gonna put you out on this.
• 24:28
  Carmen Lezeth: But you have people you've had to work with in different states who are avid Trump supporters because I remember you calling me and so how did you deal with that as a professional?
• 24:41
  Andrea: Maybe we could well, as a professional, there I'm there to do a job, and I have a certain approach that I take to that job, and so I I tend to look at it as like, all right, if I sort of, you know, infuse my philosophy really and my approach into this person, maybe that's helpful.
• 25:02
  Andrea: Like I'm I'm not gonna have any kind of political discussion with anyone at work, it's certainly not in the context that I'm working with them, but I I feel like I just try to use the skills that I have to work with them and and as I said, to just use my approach to things and explain my reasoning, which is all a part of my you know own personal philosophy that I live by and that I, you know, the way that I work.
• 25:32
  Andrea: So that's that's really the way that I deal with it, is just almost like modeling, I guess, would be the best way to say it.
• 25:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I've had experiences with people in my life.
• 25:41
  Carmen Lezeth: I have family members who are Trump supporters or were Trump supporters.
• 25:45
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know what they believe now, but um, and I've had so I'll give you an example what happened.
• 25:50
  Carmen Lezeth: I posted something on Facebook years ago during the first administration, and a family member went off on me, and I blocked them and then had a full-on conversation with them.
• 26:03
  Carmen Lezeth: And my whole thing is like, I don't care what you believe, is my Facebook page.
• 26:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't call you to have a conversation about it, you know, I mean, because I know what you believe, you know what I mean?
• 26:14
  Carmen Lezeth: So, um, and we've we've rectified or we've reconciled since then, and I think you know who I'm talking about, but um, I think it's hard because especially when you love someone, like you love them, and you know in your heart of hearts that there's nothing you can do to dissuade them.
• 26:32
  Carmen Lezeth: They have to believe and do what they need to do and find their bumps away, you know, along the way.
• 26:37
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, it's the same thing with the Palestinian Israel thing.
• 26:40
  Carmen Lezeth: For those of you who don't know, I was married to an Israeli.
• 26:43
  Carmen Lezeth: So I have a different viewpoint because of that side of the family of the Israeli situation.
• 26:51
  Carmen Lezeth: And then to hear the kind of hatred or the anger towards Palestinians for me is really hard.
• 26:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I have compassion and empathy for the Palestinian people.
• 27:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I think you can hold more than one thought at a time.
• 27:06
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 27:07
  Carmen Lezeth: But if you're going to be so vile and so angry and so pissed off, I don't want to talk to you because I I can't relate and I ain't gonna change your mind.
• 27:16
  Carmen Lezeth: And it's kind of the same thing with the Trump thing.
• 27:18
  Carmen Lezeth: First of all, I'm not gonna ask you your opinion because I don't want to know your opinion.
• 27:22
  Carmen Lezeth: If I want to have a conversation with you, I will reach out.
• 27:25
  Carmen Lezeth: But I already had an inkling.
• 27:27
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 27:28
  Carmen Lezeth: But if you're gonna confront me, I will confront your ass.
• 27:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I've done it at work too.
• 27:33
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, here's the thing I work with people who have property and relatives in Texas.
• 27:38
  Carmen Lezeth: I tell people this all the time.
• 27:40
  Carmen Lezeth: I have conversations with people all the time, and I'm like, here, here is my point of view.
• 27:45
  Carmen Lezeth: You can believe what you want, but we're done with this now, you know.
• 27:49
  Carmen Lezeth: One of my clients, I think I told you, was trying to get me into because he wanted to fight.
• 27:55
  Carmen Lezeth: And I was like, I'm sorry, what?
• 27:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I don't like you can tell when somebody's just like, I want your opinion, I want to talk to you about it, or it kind of slips or something.
• 28:05
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, or whereas it's somebody's trying to instigate a fight.
• 28:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And when he was trying to instigate a fight, I was like, that's not what you hired me to do.
• 28:11
  Carmen Lezeth: And then I just close off because I got my check because I get paid a month before my actual work.
• 28:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I ain't stupid about that shit.
• 28:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I will walk away.
• 28:19
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's what I threatened him with.
• 28:21
  Carmen Lezeth: I think I'm very confrontational that way.
• 28:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, I think what I hate most, Andrea, is people who say, I don't do politics.
• 28:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't, well, politics is doing you, bitch.
• 28:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Link.
• 28:33
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't care if you don't do politics, it's happening to you.
• 28:38
  Carmen Lezeth: And and that's exactly what happened in Nazi Germany.
• 28:40
  Carmen Lezeth: And I don't give a fuck, you people who are like, stop using Hitler.
• 28:43
  Carmen Lezeth: It's not Hitler.
• 28:44
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, this is how it starts.
• 28:47
  Carmen Lezeth: This is how it happens.
• 28:49
  Carmen Lezeth: This is exactly the trajectory.
• 28:51
  Carmen Lezeth: I had to study in school his fucking Mein Kampf book, right?
• 28:56
  Carmen Lezeth: Did you read that too?
• 28:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, you just need to read it, read people, read.
• 29:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Hitler built the ballroom too, by the way.
• 29:03
  Andrea: Just saying.
• 29:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, but they don't, you know what it is?
• 29:06
  Carmen Lezeth: That's what I'm saying, is like when people don't talk, I wish people would stop talking about what they don't know.
• 29:14
  Carmen Lezeth: You don't have to know everything about politics.
• 29:16
  Carmen Lezeth: That's very different.
• 29:17
  Carmen Lezeth: You don't have to know or whatever, but then but don't act as if it's not happening to you.
• 29:22
  Carmen Lezeth: And you not wanting to talk about it or not having an opinion on it or not having any oomph to it is not acceptable in what we're doing today and what's happening to it's not.
• 29:32
  Carmen Lezeth: You may disagree in the entire but I think it's absolutely not okay.
• 29:36
  Andrea: Yeah, I mean, well, like you have an opinion about your life, right?
• 29:40
  Andrea: Do you have opinions about your healthcare costs?
• 29:43
  Andrea: Do you have opinions about your how much your food costs?
• 29:46
  Andrea: Do you have opinions about how easy or difficult it is for you to vote?
• 29:51
  Andrea: I mean, it all counts.
• 29:54
  Andrea: Like you said, it's do and you.
• 29:56
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, it is.
• 29:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I just I I I get annoyed.
• 30:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I understand that not everyone's going to be confrontational like me, and and and I'm not saying anyone has to be.
• 30:06
  Carmen Lezeth: I do it because I don't have anything to fear.
• 30:08
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'm not saying other people do.
• 30:10
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm like, I'm not asking anybody their opinion about politics.
• 30:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I'm not going to go up to someone and be like, you know what?
• 30:17
  Carmen Lezeth: I was thinking, can we have a conversation about politics?
• 30:19
  Carmen Lezeth: I've never done that with anybody.
• 30:21
  Carmen Lezeth: But if you jump in my DMs.
• 30:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Let's define it.
• 30:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Poke the bear, right?
• 30:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm just saying, if you jump and tell me something, I'm going to come back with facts.
• 30:37
  Carmen Lezeth: And I think that's the part too that pisses me off about people, especially people I know who talk too much about politics and they don't know what the fuck they're talking about.
• 30:46
  Carmen Lezeth: There is a difference between facts and opinion.
• 30:50
  Carmen Lezeth: So let me give you a fact and then let me show you an opinion.
• 30:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 30:54
  Carmen Lezeth: A fact is we breathe in air as human beings to live.
• 31:02
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a fact.
• 31:03
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a fact.
• 31:04
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a fact.
• 31:05
  Carmen Lezeth: It might be your opinion that we breathe in hay.
• 31:10
  Carmen Lezeth: But that's an opinion.
• 31:11
  Carmen Lezeth: That's not a fact.
• 31:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know where I'm coming up with hay.
• 31:15
  Carmen Lezeth: I think I'm thinking of the cattle ranchers who are having a really hard time after they voted for Donald Trump.
• 31:20
  Carmen Lezeth: That was all over the news today, too.
• 31:21
  Carmen Lezeth: Whatever.
• 31:22
  Carmen Lezeth: But I know.
• 31:23
  Carmen Lezeth: So many people will try to say, well, that's your opinion.
• 31:29
  Carmen Lezeth: No.
• 31:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Fact.
• 31:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Fact over here.
• 31:34
  Carmen Lezeth: I am never spewing an opinion unless I tell you, you know what?
• 31:38
  Carmen Lezeth: This is my opinion, girl.
• 31:39
  Carmen Lezeth: You know?
• 31:40
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 31:40
  Carmen Lezeth: And I have to say it exactly like that now.
• 31:43
  Carmen Lezeth: But I think that's the other part of it too.
• 31:47
  Andrea: Yeah, for sure.
• 31:48
  Andrea: And I think that's from the start.
• 31:50
  Andrea: We didn't even talk about this, but I think from the start of this podcast, we both came with our research because we know we have our opinions, and we're like, okay, well, if we're gonna talk about that, I need to make sure that I've got some data behind it.
• 32:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 32:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Like I don't have a reference for fucktards.
• 32:08
  Carmen Lezeth: I I don't.
• 32:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Like that's my opinion.
• 32:11
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 32:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Like that's not, I mean, it could be a fact, but it's not.
• 32:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah.
• 32:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, that's true.
• 32:16
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I think that's the other part of it too, is I think people, and this might be a lot of the Democrats' fault, by the way.
• 32:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Everybody should vote.
• 32:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Everybody has to vote.
• 32:26
  Carmen Lezeth: No, everyone should learn of what's going on.
• 32:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I know.
• 32:30
  Carmen Lezeth: I see, I I would get slimmed by the Democratic Party, but I think there's that other part of it.
• 32:34
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, everybody should be registered, and everyone should.
• 32:36
  Carmen Lezeth: And I think if you're part of this, what once was a magnificent possibility, it because it isn't to me anymore, right?
• 32:43
  Carmen Lezeth: I hope we can see the kernels of it through the protests or whatever, but um, you should be at least basic level understanding of how it works.
• 32:53
  Carmen Lezeth: You should know what the Senate is, what the House of Representatives are.
• 32:58
  Carmen Lezeth: You should know who the Supreme Court justices are, at least what they do.
• 33:02
  Carmen Lezeth: You should know who represents you in the House of Representatives.
• 33:06
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, you should be able to name the president, the vice president.
• 33:11
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know what I like.
• 33:12
  Carmen Lezeth: The Secretary of State.
• 33:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Do you know who the second he's such a fucking idiot?
• 33:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Sadly I do.
• 33:18
  Carmen Lezeth: Sadly, I do know who that is.
• 33:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Right.
• 33:20
  Carmen Lezeth: I just like you should be able to have the if you oh, here's a good one.
• 33:24
  Carmen Lezeth: I didn't know we were gonna go here, but I'm on fighting now.
• 33:27
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, wait.
• 33:28
  Carmen Lezeth: You should be able to pass the same test every immigration person who comes into this country has to pass to become an actual citizen.
• 33:38
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'll tell you right now that everyone that you keep thinking is a quote unquote illegal status human being in this country probably knows more about politics than you do.
• 33:51
  Carmen Lezeth: They might know it in Spanish, but they know more about this country than you do.
• 33:56
  Andrea: Because they have to in order to navigate it.
• 34:00
  Andrea: 100% agree.
• 34:03
  Carmen Lezeth: All right.
• 34:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, I hope we answered that question, didn't we?
• 34:06
  Carmen Lezeth: We went a little on topic.
• 34:07
  Carmen Lezeth: I thought we answered it.
• 34:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, for Darnell or whatever, from person from Chicago.
• 34:12
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay, ready for the next one?
• 34:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Yep.
• 34:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Yep.
• 34:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 34:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, this one is from your state, Iowa.
• 34:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Didn't you go to Iowa?
• 34:20
  Carmen Lezeth: My state.
• 34:22
  Carmen Lezeth: Not your state.
• 34:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Aren't you in Iowa?
• 34:26
  Carmen Lezeth: I don't know.
• 34:28
  Carmen Lezeth: I feel like work in Iowa.
• 34:30
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, that's what I call it your state.
• 34:33
  Carmen Lezeth: My state.
• 34:34
  Carmen Lezeth: You're embracing Iowa.
• 34:35
  Carmen Lezeth: Andrea's from Iowa.
• 34:37
  Carmen Lezeth: She's not.
• 34:38
  Andrea: She is not.
• 34:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Okay.
• 34:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I love how you both dive into politics without sounding like cable news.
• 34:43
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh my god, that's hilarious.
• 34:45
  Carmen Lezeth: But I'm curious, where do you get your information from?
• 34:48
  Carmen Lezeth: Are there specific journalists, outlets, or even podcasts you trust to help you cut through the noise?
• 34:53
  Carmen Lezeth: That's a great question.
• 34:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Do you want to go first, Andrea?
• 34:56
  Andrea: I will.
• 34:57
  Andrea: I will say I do not watch any news on television or and I don't listen to any news podcasts at all, except this one.
• 35:05
  Andrea: Except this one.
• 35:06
  Andrea: So um I have over the years curated kind of people that I follow.
• 35:13
  Andrea: I think it's, I think follow maybe like 50 people.
• 35:16
  Andrea: Um, and that's generally where I get my news sources from.
• 35:21
  Andrea: Also, I read a lot of books, so big fan of the library.
• 35:26
  Andrea: So I I get into a lot of books.
• 35:28
  Andrea: Um, you know, for local news, I'm really loving LA taco right now.
• 35:33
  Andrea: They used to be like, you know, where to get the best tacos in LA, which is information, absolutely, 100%.
• 35:41
  Andrea: And, you know, over the years it started to morph into more of a news organization.
• 35:47
  Andrea: And definitely, since all of the ice rates happened, that's basically all they're doing at this point.
• 35:51
  Andrea: Um, but there's, let's see, a couple that I really love, I may not get the pronounce pronunciation correct.
• 35:57
  Andrea: Um, so there's Ellie Mastal, he writes for the nation and on criminal justice and con law, anytime there's a Supreme Court case, he you know, writes about it definitely during like oral arguments and things like that.
• 36:10
  Andrea: Um, I also want to say that if I am reading an article, which is sort of by definition an opinion piece, right?
• 36:19
  Andrea: You're getting someone's, you're getting it in information interpreted, interpreted through someone.
• 36:25
  Andrea: Um, I will always try to go to the source.
• 36:28
  Andrea: So if it's a case or something like that, I will actually go and read the case so that I can kind of form my own opinion in addition to reading sort of what someone thing about it.
• 36:39
  Andrea: Talia Laven, and she's she's written a couple of books.
• 36:42
  Andrea: One, her most recent one is Wild Faith about Christian nationalism, and then um, what's the other one?
• 36:48
  Andrea: Culture Warlords about white nationalism.
• 36:51
  Andrea: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:52
  Andrea: Okay.
• 36:52
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, yeah.
• 36:56
  Andrea: Um, let's see.
• 36:57
  Carmen Lezeth: I have not read the second one she mentioned.
• 36:59
  Andrea: Yeah.
• 36:59
  Andrea: Um, I like Jacob Soboroff from MSNBC.
• 37:03
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, everybody loves Jacob Soborov, and he is an incredible journalist, and he's been handling.
• 37:10
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm sorry, I had to interject because I love him.
• 37:12
  Carmen Lezeth: And he should get whatever he's getting in the future, pull it's whatever it is, because his what he's been doing for this country is incredible.
• 37:23
  Carmen Lezeth: And he's been uh handling all the ice raids, not handling, but he's been dealing with all of the people who are suffering through all this.
• 37:29
  Carmen Lezeth: Go ahead.
• 37:29
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm sorry.
• 37:30
  Andrea: He's an LA guy, so you know, I love him local reporting as well.
• 37:34
  Andrea: I follow a couple of journalism professors because I think that's really helpful because they are like journalists with a capital J and are very interested in you know fair reporting and things like that.
• 37:45
  Andrea: So there's this guy, Bill Gruskin, um, another guy, Jay Rosen.
• 37:49
  Andrea: So those are, you know, I had there's a lot of others.
• 37:52
  Andrea: Um well you said it's 50, so I'm like, we're not going through the whole 50.
• 37:56
  Andrea: Yeah, like been bin uh Erinreich, who uh is Barbara Aaronreich's son.
• 38:02
  Andrea: Oh Aaron Reich wrote a fantastic book, Nicol and Dimed, which was turned into a play, which was started by our esteemed hostess.
• 38:12
  Andrea: So yeah, he he does some writing.
• 38:16
  Carmen Lezeth: I was in the theater production of Nicol and Dimed, right?
• 38:18
  Carmen Lezeth: Oh, I didn't I didn't realize that was the connection there.
• 38:20
  Carmen Lezeth: That's interesting.
• 38:20
  Andrea: Okay, and and then there's a handful of others.
• 38:22
  Andrea: Another uh that a couple that I want to mention is uh Nicole Hannah-Jones, who uh was the creator of the 1619 project, which is a book, uh podcast, a show on Hulu, and all, you know, it's um a curriculum, all of that.
• 38:38
  Andrea: Really, really important work there.
• 38:40
  Andrea: And one of my sort of longtime favorites who's passed on now, uh David Graber, who why are we bringing him up if he's passed on?
• 38:48
  Andrea: Well, I'm just saying he's he wrote books.
• 38:50
  Andrea: He wrote a book called Debt, the the first 500 5,000 years.
• 38:54
  Andrea: He wrote another book called Um Uh Bullshit Jobs.
• 38:58
  Andrea: He was uh kind of he was in the Occupy Wall Street movement and all that kind of stuff.
• 39:02
  Andrea: But anyway.
• 39:04
  Carmen Lezeth: So I agree.
• 39:05
  Carmen Lezeth: I think what I want to say, and thank you for doing that list because I think it's an important thing.
• 39:09
  Carmen Lezeth: But I the here's what I want to share.
• 39:12
  Carmen Lezeth: People are no longer following networks or newspapers.
• 39:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Like this idea that the New York Times is like this is a fight I've had with so many people, that the New York Times is the be all.
• 39:23
  Carmen Lezeth: No, it's not.
• 39:25
  Carmen Lezeth: And it hasn't been for years.
• 39:28
  Carmen Lezeth: And then I'll get the argument from people like, oh, but they have so many resources.
• 39:32
  Carmen Lezeth: Yes, just because you have money and resources does not make you a good human being, person, or corporation.
• 39:38
  Carmen Lezeth: So a lot of people, especially in the older generation, but even in our generation, are still fixated on this idea that you need to follow organizations and corporations, and you cannot do that anymore, nor do you need to.
• 39:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Most of the great journalists right now are independent and are on Substack, you know, and they're really shining.
• 40:01
  Carmen Lezeth: And so I'm gonna name some names of so I follow a professor as well, and he has written for the New York Times, but I love him, Eddie Galad Jr., he's amazing.
• 40:11
  Carmen Lezeth: He is definitely what you would say more left-leaning, but he also comes with receipts, also has written a great book on Baldwin.
• 40:18
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 40:19
  Carmen Lezeth: Like we can go down the list of that, but he's one of my favorites because he's so passionate and his empathy is off the charts, just about everything in the world.
• 40:27
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm gonna name some other people that she will cringe up, but Tim Miller from The Bulwark, he is a Republican who I know.
• 40:34
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm giving people other options.
• 40:38
  Andrea: I have read some of his stuff.
• 40:39
  Carmen Lezeth: I do, you know, he's actually really good.
• 40:41
  Carmen Lezeth: He's a staunch Republican who has now like completely thrown his his hat into like the there's his he's uh never Trumper, though.
• 40:50
  Carmen Lezeth: There's no doubt about it.
• 40:51
  Carmen Lezeth: But he does come to it from a different point of view, and I really like listening to him.
• 40:55
  Carmen Lezeth: Um he's also very calm, you know, he's very calm.
• 40:58
  Carmen Lezeth: Uh Nicole Wallace, I talked about her before.
• 41:01
  Carmen Lezeth: I like listening to her.
• 41:02
  Carmen Lezeth: She's also a former GOP person.
• 41:05
  Carmen Lezeth: She worked for George W.
• 41:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Bush.
• 41:07
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, I catch her show once in a while on MSNBC because I'm usually working uh when it's on live, but I do like to catch her.
• 41:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Um and I'm gonna name some other possibilities because you know these names.
• 41:19
  Carmen Lezeth: There are people who have walked away from network television, from cable network, because they either got fired, like Don Lemon and uh what's the other guy?
• 41:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Costa, I forget his name, Jim Costa from CNN.
• 41:32
  Carmen Lezeth: He was being regulated from his Saturday show to like a Sunday night show, and he was like, Yeah, no, I'm done.
• 41:38
  Carmen Lezeth: They have been unleashed on Substack, and it is an incredible thing to watch.
• 41:45
  Carmen Lezeth: And you start to realize how constrained all of these journalists are because they work for these big companies, unless they have the kind of power of like a Rachel Matta or Nicole Waller.
• 41:56
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 41:57
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, but it's fascinating to now see them unleashed.
• 42:00
  Carmen Lezeth: And I'm not saying you have to follow them or whatever, but if you want to see what the difference is with some names of people you used to maybe you've heard of before, and now see them on their own, it's cray cray.
• 42:11
  Carmen Lezeth: It's crazy awesome fun.
• 42:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I I think Don Lemon is now, I never used to like him.
• 42:17
  Carmen Lezeth: Now I'm like, okay, there's that's a journalist.
• 42:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Like it's it's an incredible thing.
• 42:22
  Carmen Lezeth: And he's doing a lot of opinion too, there's no doubt about it.
• 42:25
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, I also wanted to give a shout out to some, like, if you're going to go for organizations that are newspapers, like I do get alerts from specific places, and then you do your investigative stuff yourself.
• 42:40
  Carmen Lezeth: But the best ones, as far as I'm concerned, and they are more center, they're more in the middle, they're not left-leaning.
• 42:47
  Carmen Lezeth: Reuters, the Associated Press, and the BBC.
• 42:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Those are the ones that I get uh news alerts from.
• 42:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, and I think that they still are more center and they're less.
• 42:58
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, I think everything's an opinion.
• 43:00
  Carmen Lezeth: I think this idea that journalism was ever some objective bullshitery is why we're in the trouble we're in now.
• 43:07
  Carmen Lezeth: But you do get both both sides, and you do get just information.
• 43:12
  Carmen Lezeth: I'm gonna plug one more thing, two more things.
• 43:16
  Carmen Lezeth: If you want to double check things, and this is actually free, you can get a subscription, but you don't need to.
• 43:22
  Carmen Lezeth: It's AI.
• 43:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Perplexity AI is like this is how I'm explaining it.
• 43:27
  Carmen Lezeth: I am not an AI expert, it's how I'm explaining it to regular folk.
• 43:31
  Carmen Lezeth: Perplexityai.ai is uh like just a fantastic, bumped up, more impressive Google search.
• 43:42
  Carmen Lezeth: And what they do is within seconds not only give you the information you're looking for, but also give you all the references at the bottom.
• 43:49
  Carmen Lezeth: And that's what I love.
• 43:50
  Carmen Lezeth: Because then I can go and check, oh, wait, where did they get this information from?
• 43:54
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, so that's also a good way to double check your sources if you want to.
• 43:58
  Carmen Lezeth: But remember, AI is not always perfect.
• 44:00
  Carmen Lezeth: So you want to go double check your sources.
• 44:02
  Carmen Lezeth: But perplexity AI is like one of my favorites right now.
• 44:05
  Carmen Lezeth: And the last thing I'll say, whether you like Rachel Maddow or not, the thing about Rachel Maddow that I would encourage everyone to watch at least once is her ability to not just storytell, like she's a great storyteller, but how she builds a story for you to understand what's going on.
• 44:24
  Carmen Lezeth: So when it comes to historical things, war things, whatever it is, like she is on point and she always has that legalese and that ability.
• 44:32
  Carmen Lezeth: You want to not always follow people because of their ideology.
• 44:36
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, that's why I used to listen to Sean Hannity and you know, Larry Elder and all these people, not because I believed in what they said, but because I wanted to learn why they were saying what they were saying.
• 44:47
  Carmen Lezeth: What was their evidence behind it?
• 44:49
  Carmen Lezeth: You know, be curious, be a human being who wants to know the layers, and then you can speak from a place of knowledge and not just your opinion.
• 45:02
  Andrea: Yeah, I mean, I I think that's the most important point here.
• 45:05
  Andrea: I mean, I named off a bunch of people, I'm fully aware that that is a bubble, right?
• 45:10
  Andrea: No, no, no.
• 45:12
  Andrea: That was the answer.
• 45:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I mean, that was the answer to the question.
• 45:14
  Carmen Lezeth: Who do you think?
• 45:15
  Andrea: Yeah, I mean, but I'm just saying, like, I understand uh that I'm I'm not looking at sources who are even really that center, you know, much less more to the right, right?
• 45:26
  Andrea: So I understand that the news I'm getting, you know, the information that I'm getting is filtered through a certain lens.
• 45:34
  Andrea: And that's why I mentioned, and you've mentioned, like going to the source material, so you can read it yourself and form your own opinion.
• 45:40
  Andrea: I think it's still valid and a perfectly good thing to do to go ahead and read the full article and hear what people are saying and how it's being framed, but understand it is being framed.
• 45:52
  Carmen Lezeth: I think that's the problem, right?
• 45:54
  Carmen Lezeth: Is people will say, oh no, I I don't want like, first of all, there's no grandiose thing in saying you don't listen to network news.
• 46:00
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, I don't know why that's become a thing.
• 46:02
  Carmen Lezeth: I I don't watch network news.
• 46:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Well, somebody's fucking watching it.
• 46:05
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 46:06
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, and there's nothing wrong with that.
• 46:08
  Carmen Lezeth: That's not what the issue is.
• 46:09
  Carmen Lezeth: You getting your resources from YouTube videos also problematic.
• 46:14
  Carmen Lezeth: So you telling me that you watch YouTube videos is not an answer to how well informed you are because I don't know who the you don't have to listen to us either.
• 46:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, you know what I mean?
• 46:24
  Carmen Lezeth: Like, we anybody can buy a mic and have a camera and tell you whatever they want with a forceful way of saying it.
• 46:31
  Carmen Lezeth: I know the power of my voice.
• 46:33
  Carmen Lezeth: I know that I can tell people a fucking lie and they'll believe it.
• 46:37
  Carmen Lezeth: Here's the difference, though, is first of all, I would never do that because I have empathy and compassion.
• 46:42
  Carmen Lezeth: I would never use my power for bad or ill will.
• 46:46
  Carmen Lezeth: But just understand that just because somebody screams it or says it loudly or has a mic and has a computer and looks really pretty, or you think they're hot, or whatever it is, that does not mean that they are legit or that they are right or that they are on point.
• 46:59
  Carmen Lezeth: Where are their resources?
• 47:01
  Carmen Lezeth: Can you find three other places that say the same shit?
• 47:04
  Carmen Lezeth: This is why every time somebody dies, like I got the notification that that Robert Redford died, I was like, Yeah, that didn't happen.
• 47:12
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 47:13
  Carmen Lezeth: I got three other sources because I was not believing nobody.
• 47:17
  Carmen Lezeth: You know what I mean?
• 47:18
  Carmen Lezeth: That's what you have to start doing as a person in this day and age with all the technology and all the information at your fingertips.
• 47:25
  Carmen Lezeth: You need to be that into it.
• 47:28
  Carmen Lezeth: If you're gonna spew that shit out of your mouth, you need to be that into it.
• 47:33
  Carmen Lezeth: That you figure it out.
• 47:34
  Andrea: You get critical thinking, critical thinking, right?
• 47:39
  Carmen Lezeth: Let me just say I'm having a great conversation on Sunday.
• 47:42
  Carmen Lezeth: So please come visit.
• 47:43
  Carmen Lezeth: And we talk all about critical thinking with an educator and somebody who is trying to transform the education system, doing more of a hybrid model of using school and in-home teaching.
• 47:57
  Carmen Lezeth: And we talk about critical thinking.
• 47:59
  Carmen Lezeth: So that was a great segue.
• 48:00
  Andrea: We didn't even know about that.
• 48:03
  Carmen Lezeth: So that was good.
• 48:04
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, so check that out on Sunday in the private lounge at 12 p.m.
• 48:08
  Carmen Lezeth: Pacific, 3 p.m.
• 48:09
  Carmen Lezeth: Eastern.
• 48:10
  Carmen Lezeth: Um, andrea, thank you.
• 48:12
  Carmen Lezeth: That was a fun conversation.
• 48:13
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, absolutely.
• 48:15
  Carmen Lezeth: Yeah, so uh thanks everyone.
• 48:16
  Carmen Lezeth: Remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy, and we'll see you next week.
• 48:20
  Carmen Lezeth: Bye.
• 48:23
  Carmen Lezeth: Thanks for stopping by, All About the Joy.
• 48:26
  Carmen Lezeth: Be better and stay beautiful, folks.
• 48:28
  Carmen Lezeth: Have a sweet day.