Latest / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast / The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Origin Story

Transcript

The Bluegrass Blues Podcast: Origin Story · The Bluegrass Blues Podcast

0:00
Hello, this is the bluegrass blues podcast. I
0:04
am Amy and I'm Jesse So Jesse, what are we doing?
0:19
Well, we're doing a podcast that involves Kentucky
0:22
and it's not only Kentucky politics well, it's
0:26
gonna be Kentucky politics, but First of all,
0:28
let's explain what the name is. We call ourselves
0:31
the Bluegrass Blues Podcast. And the reason we're
0:34
doing that isn't because we're going to be playing
0:36
bluegrass music here. So I'm sorry for all you
0:38
bluegrass fans. That's not our purpose. What
0:42
we're going to be doing is talking about issues
0:44
in Kentucky because it's the bluegrass state.
0:46
And we're calling ourselves the Bluegrass Blues
0:48
because in terms of the political spectrum, we're
0:51
on the blue side as opposed to being on the red
0:53
side. So you put them together, you have the
0:55
bluegrass blues, and if you're listening to this,
0:58
this is a podcast. So we're gonna talk about
1:01
who we are first, why we're doing this, and maybe
1:04
we'll bring up a few topics as we go along. So
1:06
Amy, who are you anyway, and why are you here?
1:09
Hey, so Jesse and I go way back, but... Basically,
1:15
I am an economic inclusion expert and what that
1:19
means is over the years, I've had the good fortune
1:23
of working in every state and Puerto Rico and
1:26
in Native American country to ensure that all
1:32
of us have access to wealth building opportunities.
1:37
And it's been really gratifying. I did start,
1:42
I started a Department of Transportation paratransit
1:48
system in New York City in the 80s because the
1:52
community with disabilities sued the state government
1:54
for not having affordable accessible public transportation.
1:58
And I was on the team that launched AccessorRide,
2:01
which is a transportation system now that they
2:04
can take and go to the opera, go to a park, not
2:08
just to dialysis appointments the way that they
2:11
had to before. And then since then, I have been
2:16
doing this work and unfortunately when Trump
2:19
was elected the first time, he cut this program
2:24
that I was working for. It was called Assets
2:27
for Independence and it was a fabulous grant
2:30
program, very small, just about a $25 million
2:33
program in the federal government. in the Office
2:36
of Community Services Administration for Children
2:39
and Families in the Health and Human Services
2:42
Department. And what it did was I went out and
2:46
worked with municipalities and state governments
2:50
and nonprofits and tribal entities. And we did
2:54
these match savings programs that got people
2:56
saving. get out of debt and we would match their
3:01
savings so they could buy a house, buy a reliable
3:05
vehicle, go to college or trade school, any kind
3:09
of post -secondary education or start a business.
3:12
And it worked, you know, people saved, they got
3:16
out of debt, they started paying taxes, they
3:18
got off of public benefits, and then, you know,
3:21
just crazily Trump eliminated the grant program.
3:27
Then I launched what's called a CDFI, Community
3:31
Development Financial Institution in Louisville,
3:35
and basically Louisville is terribly under -invested
3:39
in providing capital to historically under -resourced
3:44
communities because of systemic racism and redlining.
3:49
And this CDFI was the first one headquartered
3:53
in Louisville. and got capital to primarily black
3:57
and brown small business owners, but also helped
4:01
black homeowners stay in their homes and not
4:03
have their property taxes sold to third parties
4:06
and then displaced from a $500 property tax bill
4:11
that they couldn't pay or didn't even know was
4:13
due. And now I'm affected by Trump too, because
4:18
he's going after the CDFI fund, which is in the
4:22
U .S. Treasury. And the reason the CDFI fund
4:24
exists is because banks were not lending fairly
4:30
to minority communities, and they redlined. They
4:34
literally drew a red line around census tracts
4:37
that were low income and primarily minority communities,
4:40
and they either didn't lend or they charged.
4:44
egregiously higher interest rates to them. And
4:47
thus, these communities have never had access
4:51
to affordable capital, and that's what a CDFI
4:54
does. So I'm having trouble in this field right
4:59
now because, you know, they're decimating the
5:02
field because they obviously don't care about
5:06
black and brown communities or people with low
5:08
incomes because all of that is now labeled under
5:11
the terrible acronym DEI. And, you know, people
5:15
are suffering and I'm kind of suffering too because
5:18
I don't get to do this great work in partnership
5:21
with the community. But I get to do this podcast
5:25
with you, Jesse. Well, one thing I was thinking
5:28
was when we were in New York, we were about in
5:31
New York at the same time. I was living in Staten
5:34
Island, you were living in Brooklyn. Manhattan.
5:36
I was the best person in your wedding. That's
5:38
right. Didn't you work on the Wall Street or
5:41
weren't you involved in some Wall Street investment
5:43
firm? I did. I worked at Moody's Investors Service
5:46
for over three years and we rated municipal bonds.
5:50
I was the lead analyst for the Commonwealth of
5:53
Kentucky and what I discovered, this is probably
5:57
my favorite thing, the thing I'm most proud of
6:00
professionally, is in Kentucky Moody's and the
6:05
other standards and pours and Fitch, they were
6:08
rating Kentucky school bonds erroneously. And
6:11
by that I mean, they were penalizing property
6:14
poor school districts in Kentucky because they
6:18
thought they would default on their loans and
6:21
they were riskier. But in fact, as a result of
6:24
KERA, the Kentucky Education Reform Act, the
6:28
state has an intercept. And the intercept says,
6:33
okay, school district, if you're having difficulty
6:36
paying your debt, we will intercept and prevent
6:40
a default. The state comes in and prevents a
6:42
default. And I brought this policy up to the
6:46
powers that be at Moody's Investor Service. And
6:50
all of a sudden, every single Kentucky school
6:52
district got a minimum of an A bond rating. And
6:56
some of these had, had really been low bond ratings,
6:58
which means they had to pay really high interest
7:01
on these bonds. And as a result of this policy,
7:07
schools all over the Commonwealth. sewage had
7:11
been running into haulers. There were all these
7:13
portable facilities with no air conditioning.
7:16
And if you go around the Commonwealth of Kentucky
7:19
now, you see beautiful schools with heating and
7:22
air conditioning and indoor plumbing and with
7:26
environments now that can support really good
7:30
educational outcomes. And I'm really proud of
7:32
that. Let's see, that's the thing about Wall
7:35
Street. Everyone thinks that Wall Street doesn't
7:37
care about anyone other than billionaires. And
7:41
there are things that can be done on Wall Street
7:42
with people with integrity that actually help
7:45
people in the rest of the country. Put a broad
7:51
brush on everybody being evil on Wall Street
7:54
There is this difference between Wall Street
7:55
and Main Street But there are people on Wall
7:57
Street who are actually trying to do some decent
7:59
things then I don't want to be an apologist for
8:02
Wall Street because that would be wrong. It's
8:04
just it's not the right thing to do. I wanted
8:07
to share just one more little tidbit about myself.
8:10
I am a boomeranger. I grew up in Louisville and
8:14
I moved back in 1997 and I got very involved.
8:19
I've always been a community organizer and an
8:22
activist. And in 2006, I ran for state representative
8:26
in, um, house district 48, which is out in the
8:30
East end of Jefferson County. And at that time,
8:33
you know, no Democrats had won that seat. It
8:36
was very red. Um, and there was a guy, Dr. Bob
8:40
Dewey and he was, you know, he was a nice guy.
8:44
He apparently was a good doctor. A lot of people
8:46
really knew him and he was a terrible legislator.
8:50
And. I ran and this is after he hadn't had anyone
8:53
run against him for eight years which you know
8:57
in a democracy you really want to see both parties
8:59
like flourishing and people running for office
9:02
and you know bringing up things that they think
9:04
will help the district. And I went out there
9:07
and I raised more money, I think, that year than
9:09
any other person running for state rep, about
9:11
$100 ,000, which was a lot of money in 2006,
9:14
and really made him work for the first time to,
9:18
you know, not be all over the Commonwealth campaigning
9:22
for other people, but to actually show up in
9:25
our community and our district and talk about
9:27
his policy, you know, his policies to people.
9:31
So I ran a really good race and I was close for
9:36
a first race. I did lose, the numbers just weren't
9:41
there. But here's the thing, when we run, especially
9:44
us women, when we show up, we could be really
9:48
inspiring, and we speak about families and issues
9:52
that are important to us. And now in that district,
9:55
we've had a Democratic woman in the seat, and
9:59
we also have a state senator out there, Karen
10:02
Berg, who's also a physician, who's a Democrat.
10:07
Her district, the senator district goes out into
10:10
Oldham County and I think Trimble and that was
10:14
very red. And so, you know, when we run for office
10:18
and we show up for our community and we speak
10:21
about the kinds of things that people care about.
10:25
You know other people follow in our footsteps
10:27
and and now you see, you know, very good Democratic
10:31
legislators in Eastern Jefferson County just
10:33
that just wasn't the case in the early 2000s
10:37
Okay, we're gonna make a transition because I'm
10:39
going to talk about what I do But one of the
10:40
things you raised with me years not maybe years
10:43
ago Maybe months ago was when you ran you didn't
10:46
get the endorsement of the local paper. Yeah,
10:48
you want to tell that story? Yeah Yeah, so when
10:52
I ran I did go in front of the Courier Journal
10:56
and I spoke about what my policy issues and you
11:01
know I was I really had a groundswell of support
11:04
I was just I was working really hard I had this
11:08
finance background so I understood finances I
11:13
understood you know poverty and we're one of
11:15
the poorest states we My father is a periodontist
11:19
and we have the most adult toothlessness of any
11:23
state. So I did all kinds of research about what
11:27
we need in this state and ran a really good campaign
11:31
and Bob DeWees was... um, was endorsed by the
11:36
local paper, the Courier Journal. And I found
11:38
out later actually that there were campaigns,
11:41
even John Yarmouth's campaigns, but, but Jerry
11:44
Abramson, who was mayor then, they did not want
11:47
to tip the apple cart. They did not want me to
11:49
win, um, because Bob DeWees, you know, had supported
11:53
Jerry Abramson in becoming mayor after the Metro
11:58
Louisville, um, government was formed. And I
12:00
didn't know any of this, but the paper was in
12:03
on it too and they had to endorse some Republicans
12:07
because of course the liberal media bias and
12:10
everything and I did not get the endorsement
12:12
that I deserved. Well since we're going to talk
12:15
about journalism I am a journalist. I've been
12:18
a journalist for almost 50 years. I retired recently.
12:23
My last job was at the San Francisco Chronicle
12:25
where I was director of culture and operations
12:28
which meant that I was overseeing the one of
12:33
the departments involved race and equity and
12:35
the other department involved transformation
12:37
which involved the economics of San Francisco
12:40
especially post pandemic because if you look
12:45
at San Francisco's property values now they've
12:47
like completely crashed where billion -dollar
12:50
buildings are going for a couple of hundred thousand
12:52
dollars a couple hundred million dollars now
12:55
these days. But I was there for three years and
12:59
I'm going to go through my whole journalism past.
13:01
When I graduated from college I went to Ohio
13:05
Wesleyan. My first job was in South Florida.
13:09
I was at the Ocala paper that was part of the
13:11
New York Times chain and I was a reporter there
13:13
covered just whatever they told me to cover.
13:16
I was there for a couple of years then I moved
13:18
on to another newspaper in Florida down in Fort
13:21
Lauderdale. That was since Sun Sentinel, and
13:25
I was specifically a feature writer there. So
13:28
I wrote features for, it couldn't have been more
13:31
than a year, and at a certain point I was at
13:35
my desk. I'd written a story about a woman who
13:39
collected thimbles, and I thought, oh my god,
13:41
I gotta do something else. And just about that,
13:44
within days, someone called me from Pennsylvania
13:48
because I had met a person who was the New York
13:52
Times correspondent for Florida Papers in Florida
13:57
while I was in Ocala. And he gave me a call from
14:01
Pennsylvania because he wanted to join the office
14:04
of Governor Dick Thornburgh, who's a Republican.
14:07
And he said, do you want to come up and work
14:10
for Dick Thornburgh? And I thought, well, do I
14:12
want to cover thimbles for the rest of my life
14:14
or do I want to go into politics? So I joined
14:17
the Thornburgh administration as an assistant
14:19
press secretary. Republicans then are not what
14:24
they are now. Let's get that clear. I had no
14:29
qualms about working for Dick Thornburgh. I thought
14:31
he was an honorable man. He did really good things
14:35
for Pennsylvania. He was coming out of, well,
14:37
he actually won his election because the Democratic
14:40
governor was just plagued with corruption scandals.
14:44
And one of the things they told me when I went
14:46
up to interview for the job in Pennsylvania was
14:50
that if you work for Dick Thornburgh, he will
14:53
not embarrass you. And he didn't embarrass me.
14:56
He was a very good governor. Unfortunately, he
15:01
wasn't picked for the vice presidential campaign
15:04
when George Bush was running. Why was that, Jesse?
15:08
Who was picked? Dan Quayle, of all people. And
15:11
we all remember Dan Quayle was like the original
15:14
George Bush, I guess. George Bush II. It was
15:21
around the time and if you remember politics
15:23
back in that era We're coming off the Reagan
15:27
administration There was this demand for true
15:32
conservative values and you know morning in America
15:35
and all this other stuff and then George Bush
15:39
came along and he was seen as this is the first
15:41
George Bush HW he was seen as one of these ivy
15:45
league snob preppy types and you know, it's One
15:49
of the things I got out of politics was I got
15:53
the feeling that people didn't want to vote for
15:55
anyone who they thought was smarter than they
15:57
were. Dick Thornburgh was smarter than most people,
16:04
and George Bush I was smarter than most people.
16:07
So how do you counter that? How do you not appear
16:10
to be like an elite snob? Do you make America
16:14
great again? Well, that was... That was later.
16:17
And that's a different story altogether because
16:19
if you look in that case, that's a billionaire
16:22
saying that. But George Bush, the first, was
16:26
not a billionaire. He was a millionaire, definitely.
16:28
But he needed someone who didn't give an Ivy
16:33
League air to every political decision. So he
16:38
picked Dan Quayle. I still don't understand why
16:41
he did that because I understand in the fact
16:44
that people thought Dan Quayle was an idiot when
16:48
he was running and we all remember the potato
16:50
incident and if you don't remember it because
16:52
I'm sure there are possibly young people listening
16:55
to this and don't even know who Dan Quayle was
16:57
but Dan Quayle was in this classroom like this
17:00
elementary school classroom and it was a spelling
17:03
contest and someone asked to spell potato and
17:08
so the kids spelled potato correctly And Quayle
17:11
pointed out that, no, it has an E at the end.
17:13
And it's like, oh, OK, no, it doesn't. But that
17:17
was probably the highlight of Dan Quayle's vice
17:20
presidential term, that and attacking Murphy
17:23
Brown. And for all you young folks out there,
17:26
Murphy Brown was a television show about a reporter.
17:30
Was it Candice Bergen? Yes, Candice Bergen. So
17:33
Candice Bergen was the star. And she had this
17:36
season where she was an unwed mother. And Dan
17:40
Quayle was just talking about the lack of values
17:42
of Murphy Brown. And people were thinking, well,
17:47
that's a fictional character. What are you talking
17:49
about? But that's Dan Quayle in a nutshell. So
17:53
anyway, I worked for Dick Thornburgh for a few
17:56
years. I, again, have no qualms about doing that.
18:00
I think he should have been vice president instead
18:02
of Dan Quayle. I think he could have been president
18:05
if he had gotten that position. But, you know,
18:10
that's the way it went. He didn't, he wasn't
18:12
picked. He eventually, he ran for Senate. He
18:15
lost to, it was during the Reagan recession,
18:20
I guess, or no, it was after that, but he ran
18:23
for Senate in Pennsylvania and lost that race.
18:26
So, in the end, he ended up as Attorney General
18:29
for George Bush, the first. And so after I left
18:34
politics, I went to grad school in New York,
18:36
went to Columbia University, which is now sort
18:39
of like caving to the Trump administration. But
18:44
anyway, I got my master's degree there. And my
18:49
job after that, and this is where the Louisville
18:51
connection comes in, I came to Louisville after
18:53
grad school. And I worked at the Courier Journal.
18:55
This was in the Bingham era. where the Courier
18:58
Journal was a great newspaper and everyone would
19:05
admit that. When I was in school you'd look at
19:08
the top ten papers in America and the Courier
19:11
was always in the top ten and it's because the
19:14
Bingham family was dedicated to improving the
19:18
quality of life in Kentucky. They were from
19:22
here. They knew this place. Right. They weren't
19:25
a corporation. So they weren't like these people,
19:30
I think, and it's based in Virginia. And they
19:32
weren't like these suits in another state who
19:35
knew nothing about what this part of the country
19:38
was. And, you know, they helped build Louisville
19:43
to be a world -class city at the time. And it
19:48
had a great editor in David Hawpe, who was a University
19:52
of Kentucky graduate. I think he got either a
19:55
Fulbright or a Rhodes Scholarship or something
19:57
like that. And he was a liberal. Everyone knows
20:04
that. It was like the big criticism of the Courier
20:08
Journal was that it was run by this liberal.
20:11
But David was from this. this state he grew up
20:15
in coal country when he uh one of the stories
20:19
about David is that he had a lump of coal that
20:21
his father gave him and his father gave it to
20:23
him just to remind him where he came from and
20:26
I don't think he ever forgot that but then Gannett
20:29
comes along and I was here for the Gannett takeover
20:31
and it was not in my view and in the view of
20:36
the people who were at the courier at the time
20:39
that was not a great thing to happen. We knew
20:42
Gannett's reputation for stripping down, just
20:48
cost cutting. And it was not considered the quality
20:51
news organization. And, you know, it's, I can't
20:55
say it's better than it was back then. I think
20:57
it's worse, but you know, it's now one of the
21:00
prominent news organizations in the country.
21:02
And if you look at Gannett, you look at the regular
21:05
job cuts, reporters have been, staff has been
21:08
slashed. I applied for a job here in Kentucky,
21:15
I'll go through the rest of my journalism career
21:18
later, but I did apply for a job here twice.
21:22
One was for an editorial page editor job, and
21:26
the other was for the executive editor job. And
21:30
when I applied for the executive editor job,
21:32
which was not too long ago, there were probably...
21:36
80 people on staff at the time. And last time
21:39
I looked, there were probably 60 at most, maybe
21:42
50. Which, you know, that's a huge chunk of what
21:47
the paper used to be. Because when I was here
21:51
with the Bingham era, we didn't have one newspaper,
21:54
we had two. We had the Louisville Courier -Journal
21:56
and the Louisville Times. And the Times was the
21:59
afternoon paper, the Courier -Journal was the
22:01
morning paper. It covered the whole state. It
22:04
had bureaus everywhere. And we were getting feeds
22:08
from all parts of the country. Jesse, why didn't
22:11
you get either job? Well, I don't know. When
22:19
I did the editorial job interview, I felt I just
22:24
get the feeling that they didn't want to make
22:28
waves. They didn't want to make waves in an editorial
22:32
department. They still know, well, we're in a
22:37
red state. If you offend people, then you're
22:42
going to lose all these readers. So let's just
22:45
stay down the middle and be kind of wishy -washy
22:48
about everything, which is not good if you're
22:51
a news organization. If you don't stand for anything,
22:53
then why would anybody want to look at you to
22:54
begin with? So I didn't get the job then. I didn't
22:59
get the job as the executive editor, but let
23:03
me talk about my other journalism path before
23:06
that. After I left the Courier Journal, where
23:09
I was like a news editor, I was started as a
23:11
copy editor, I was running Sunday nights. I did
23:16
like, oversaw the Sunday night publication. So
23:20
the Saturday night publication for the Sunday
23:22
paper, which was the bigger paper. And after
23:26
a few years, I started looking around, and I
23:30
got an offer from the Wall Street Journal. And,
23:34
well, David called me into his office when that
23:38
happened, and he said, why are you leaving? We
23:40
had plans for you. And I said, well, it's the
23:43
Wall Street Journal. And it's like, that was
23:46
one of the papers when I was younger. I thought
23:49
that's the place to go. That is a quality newspaper.
23:54
I don't think it's quality. newspaper as much
23:55
as it used to be, but it was a quality newspaper
23:58
at the time. It covered some of the great events
24:03
of the late 20th, early 21st century. It was
24:11
there when the market collapsed. 2008? No, it
24:17
was back in the 90s, even before then. And they
24:22
won a Pulitzer Prize for that. And I was there
24:26
for 9 -11. We won a Pulitzer Prize for that.
24:29
And the thing that was the most fascinating about
24:32
it was that it was the World Trade Center was
24:37
directly across the street from the Wall Street
24:39
Journal building. And people in the office had
24:43
to run for their lives. And this is like literally
24:46
they were watching people jump off the World
24:49
Trade Center. They were watching people die.
24:52
It was a very emotional time. It was just devastating
24:57
for everyone. But we got a paper out, even though
25:00
our building had essentially been blown up in
25:04
the terrorist attack. But that was probably the
25:10
most important story I was involved in. And I
25:14
really am happy with the work I did. I'm happy
25:17
with the work everyone did. I think it was recognized
25:20
that what we did was amazing. So I worked at
25:24
the journal. At the time, I was the director
25:27
of the copy desk. So I was responsible for having
25:31
people who edited the domestic journal, the European
25:35
journal, and the Asian journal. So after 9 -11,
25:41
about a year or two later, I got a transfer to
25:44
go to Brussels to work as an assistant managing
25:48
editor at the Wall Street Journal Europe. and
25:52
eventually I became the managing editor there.
25:56
And then I retired after a few years. And I had
26:01
reasons for retiring because I was at the Wall
26:03
Street Journal when Rupert Murdoch took over.
26:07
And that was, you know, it was like Gannett taking
26:10
over. Okay, this is not good, so I don't really
26:14
want to work for this organization anymore. And
26:17
it was... One of these deals where I worked a
26:20
year, got a year's pay for staying the year,
26:24
and then I retired. And I thought I was kind
26:28
of done with journalism, but within months I
26:31
got a call from the Washington Post. And the
26:36
people who were running the post then were my
26:38
former bosses at the Wall Street Journal. And
26:41
they said, you want to work in Washington? And
26:44
I'm just like, sure, why not? You know, this
26:46
is like... another great newspaper, The Washington
26:49
Post. It's up there with The Wall Street Journal.
26:54
Was it one of those Marty Baron? I got there
26:58
before the Marty Baron era because the guy who
27:01
hired me was Marcus Brauchli. He was my boss
27:06
when I was in Europe. He was the head of the
27:11
newspaper, The Wall Street Journal in New York.
27:13
And we got along very well. I used to edit Marcus
27:17
when he was a reporter. He liked my work and
27:20
he knew what I did at the journal as the copy
27:24
chief. So he got me into Washington as the copy
27:27
chief there. And so we were, you know, editing
27:31
stories, just doing, you know, covering all kinds
27:36
of things. We won Pulitzer Prizes, again, one
27:39
of the... things that I have are a couple of
27:42
copies of Pulitzer Prizes in my office here because
27:45
I was I could say I was part of a team that got
27:49
these these awards so I stayed at the post for
27:55
almost 10 years I was at the journal for more
27:57
than 20 years and at the post I was there when
28:01
Jeff Bezos took over so you see this trend here
28:04
wherever I go someone takes over Not someone,
28:08
or I guess people, corporations are people now,
28:11
right? Well, that's what Mitt Romney said when
28:14
he was running for president. Citizens United.
28:16
Yeah. But, you know, Jeff Bezos was, at the time,
28:22
Jeff Bezos let the Post do what it was supposed
28:25
to do. It was covering news. We were the ones
28:28
who broke the Snowden story about the surveillance
28:32
that the government was doing on all Americans.
28:36
Got a Pulitzer Prize for that one. That was the
28:39
Marty Baron era. And Marty, for those who are
28:44
aware of the journalism world, if you go watch
28:46
the movie Spotlight, that was about the Boston
28:49
Globe covering the pedophile, the priest pedophile
28:53
situation in Boston. They were the Pulitzer Prize
28:56
winners for that story. And Marty was in charge
29:00
of the Boston Globe when that happened. And if
29:02
you see the movie spotlight, Leif Schreiber is
29:06
Marty in the movie. And that's exactly how Marty
29:09
is. We just sat there and we had like a group
29:13
viewing of the movie when it first came out in
29:17
Washington. And, you know, we watched the mannerisms
29:21
and that's Marty Barron. So he's that kind of
29:24
guy. But he eventually left the post. He retired.
29:31
Not long after that, I retired. That was my second
29:34
retirement. And after my second retirement, I
29:40
thought, OK, I'm done working. I'm not going
29:41
to work anymore. And then I got a call from the
29:44
San Francisco paper. And they said, hey, you
29:46
want to come out here and work with us? And I
29:49
thought, well, I've been in Europe. I've been
29:53
throughout the East Coast. I lived in the Midwest.
29:57
I never lived on the West Coast. Let's go out
30:00
to California and I've been at the San Francisco
30:05
Chronicle for three years Yeah, three years and
30:10
I retired this year Really great newspaper. I
30:14
have really good things to say about it. But
30:17
like all news organizations, it's been devastated
30:20
by job cuts by you know just the The lack of
30:26
commitment to journalism by the public and by
30:31
the corporate operators, I'll give Hearst credit
30:34
for maintaining some kind of integrity for its
30:37
papers, but job cuts are inevitable these days.
30:42
What was your job there, Jesse? Director of...
30:47
culture and operations, I think I said that already.
30:49
No, you didn't say that, but is that kind of
30:52
DEI -ish? Oh, it is definitely DEI -ish, because
30:56
covering race and equity is one thing. Everyone
31:03
thinks that San Francisco is this great beacon
31:07
of liberal values, but when you really look at
31:11
it, it really is very discriminatory. One of
31:16
the things that struck me when I first got there
31:18
was there are no black people in San Francisco.
31:22
Really, if you go around there, the only black
31:25
people you see are either homeless or on some
31:30
kind of drugs. It's just because the cost of
31:33
living in San Francisco is outrageous. In order
31:37
to buy a cheap house, a fixer -upper is a million
31:41
dollars. You know, how many houses can you buy
31:44
in Louisville for a million dollars? I mean,
31:47
prices are going up here, but we can get a couple
31:50
for that amount of money. And the city is also
31:56
getting very old. If you look around San Francisco,
31:59
there are hardly any children. You see more dogs
32:01
than children in the city. And it's also, you
32:06
know, it's like the haven for tech bros. So it's
32:09
that whole culture that's different. And again,
32:13
they say that they're liberals and all this stuff.
32:15
But I've seen these proposals they've made for
32:20
building new neighborhoods, like these enclosed
32:24
sort of like cells within the city. And one of
32:29
the things about the the designs that they give
32:32
are you know they give like some kind of view
32:35
of what it's going to be some AI generated thing
32:37
where you see people smiling in new buildings
32:41
and all this other stuff and flowers and trees
32:43
and all those things but I pointed out to our
32:48
our editors and staff that if you look at these
32:52
drawings there are no black people and that that
32:56
was definitely a conscious decision by the tech
33:00
bros there who just, you know, they don't register
33:04
minorities as being of any worth there. And no
33:09
one can live there. It's like, if you're, I don't
33:14
know how you can make a minimum wage and survive
33:17
in San Francisco. And the minimum wage in San
33:19
Francisco is probably 18 to $20. But. Jesse,
33:24
when I was doing some anti -poverty work in San
33:27
Francisco, I always talk to my Lyft drivers when
33:30
I go places if I'm not using public transportation.
33:33
And my Lyft driver was a Latinx person from Fresno.
33:38
And he would go to San Francisco and just drive
33:42
for a week, like almost 24 hours a day, for a
33:46
week. And he would stay in a boarding house for
33:49
that week with a whole lot of other people. who
33:53
couldn't afford rent, and then he'd go back to
33:56
Fresno for two weeks, and that's where his family
33:59
was. And he'd do whatever he was doing in Fresno,
34:03
probably not driving Lyft. And that's how his
34:06
life was structured. There was absolutely no
34:09
way that he could live in San Francisco. But
34:12
it's not only him. like a school teacher can't
34:15
live in San Francisco, or a cop can't live in
34:18
San Francisco, or public servants are not able
34:22
to live there because it costs too much. You
34:24
have to have millions or billions of dollars
34:28
to survive there. So how did I get there? That's
34:32
another story, but I was commuting. Pretty much.
34:36
I've been living in Louisville for 18 years now,
34:40
just between working for the Courier Journal
34:42
and since retiring from the Washington Post.
34:47
No, from the Wall Street Journal, we moved here
34:50
to Louisville after I retired from the Wall Street
34:52
Journal because my wife is from the area. She
34:56
was born here. She was raised down in Lebanon
34:59
Junction in Bullitt County. and it was time to
35:02
go home. So she followed me around the world,
35:06
and so I followed her here. And so while I was
35:09
working in Washington, I was commuting between
35:11
here and Washington, have a place there. While
35:15
I was in San Francisco, I commuted between here
35:18
and San Francisco. Couldn't find a cheap apartment,
35:22
but fortunately they paid me enough to stay there.
35:26
But now I'm retired, and now I'm retired in Louisville.
35:30
Now we're doing this podcast and so I guess now
35:33
we lead to the question. Why are we doing this?
35:37
Yeah, I mean so I have my reasons as someone
35:41
who is very rooted in this community and has
35:46
a lot of I have family here. I have so many friends
35:51
and I'm so committed to social and racial justice
35:55
and What I wanna do with this podcast, Jesse,
36:02
is to, while you talk about media and how the
36:07
media is failing us with this incredibly fascistic
36:12
administration that's tearing us apart and creating
36:16
so much fear and discord everywhere, I wanna
36:20
lift up what people are doing in the Commonwealth
36:25
to fight. the good fight against this fascistic
36:29
administration. what we're doing to fight the
36:33
Republican majority in the House and Senate in
36:37
Frankfort, which really, they overrode all the
36:42
governor's vetoes that were gonna protect, you
36:45
know, clean air and all kinds of things, worker
36:49
safety, reproductive freedom, et cetera, which
36:52
we'll go into another time. So I'm really here
36:55
to give voice about, you know, people look at
36:58
a red state, especially from the coast, and it's
37:00
like, over country, right? Oh, red state, they're
37:03
monoliths. It's absolutely not true. And in fact...
37:08
people like us can really make a difference in
37:11
a place like Kentucky because we can build community
37:15
really well. We can organize really well. We
37:18
lift our voices really well. And then sometimes
37:21
we get to elect someone really good like Andy
37:24
Beshear, who's our Democratic governor in the
37:27
red state and who's really widely beloved because
37:31
people see beyond party with this person. He
37:33
really cares about the people in Kentucky and
37:35
it just comes out. in every way. So that's one
37:39
of the reasons I'm doing it. And I'm doing it
37:42
just because my family is here and you know,
37:45
you have to care about the environment your family
37:47
is in. I have two grandchildren. They're going
37:51
to be going to schools here. They're going to
37:53
be, their mom and dad went to the, went to UofL,
37:57
University of Louisville for people who aren't
37:59
from the area. But this is now home and this
38:03
is, this has been my home for 18 years, even
38:06
though I've been. traveling around the country,
38:10
doing other jobs at other news organizations.
38:13
But, you know, when it comes down to it, I am
38:16
a Kentucky resident because I vote here. I pay
38:20
taxes here. I care about what happens in the
38:26
city. I look around and see things that could
38:28
be better. And it's not only the city. It's the
38:30
rest of the state. You know, we're calling ourselves
38:33
the bluegrass blues. podcast not because we're
38:35
going to do music, although we will have references
38:38
to music and arts and other things like that
38:41
and sports as we go along, but because we're
38:44
in the bluegrass. and we are blue in a red state.
38:48
So that's how Bluegrass Blues comes along. Well,
38:52
and also the blues, singing the blues. I think
38:54
some of us are pretty blue right now. Some people
38:58
are hopeless. I was just in my book club and
39:01
the women in my book club felt hopeless and they
39:04
were like, what brings you hope? And so I, you
39:07
know, although I am... disgusted with these inhumane,
39:12
illegal, corrupt policies that are being shoved
39:15
down our throats and our livelihoods, I do have
39:18
hope. And the hope is in you all. It's in the
39:20
people of the Commonwealth and of this country.
39:22
And we outnumber the broligarchs, so we're gonna
39:26
step up and we're gonna make good trouble. But
39:28
we also have to raise questions on, okay, we
39:30
outnumber the broligarchs, we outnumber the oligarchs,
39:33
we outnumber the billionaires and the millionaires,
39:36
but... Why do we vote for them? Why are we why
39:40
is this state? the state used to be a democratic
39:43
state and it used to be solid blue and over the
39:46
years with Well, I guess Mitch McConnell's responsible
39:50
for pretty much all of it But the state has gone
39:53
from solid blue to solid red and you know, Andy
39:56
Beshear is the governor Yes, he is the Democrat
39:59
but I have to raise the question of If Andy didn't
40:04
run against a black guy in the last election,
40:06
would he have won? I think that's a legitimate
40:08
question to raise because, you know, I would
40:13
never vote for Daniel Cameron, and he's a black
40:15
guy. And let's get that out of the way. I am
40:18
a black guy, too. But it just to me, it just
40:23
seems like if he had a different opponent in
40:28
the election, the election would have been a
40:29
lot closer and it would have just I think he
40:32
still would have won, but I think it would have
40:34
been by a razor thin margin. Well, and in future
40:37
podcasts, we're actually going to talk about
40:39
the media and how the media, particularly Fox
40:43
News, has, you know, basically spread fear and
40:48
xenophobia and sexism and racism and made people
40:53
arm themselves, you know, to the teeth because
40:56
they're so afraid of the other. And the media
41:00
has really lit this fire. Yes, I thought I thought
41:03
Mitch McConnell was the worst person in the country,
41:06
maybe the world, maybe, but really the country,
41:09
particularly during President Obama's terms,
41:12
you know, just obstructing. every single judge
41:16
and justice that Obama brought up. And now, what
41:21
did he do with Rand Paul recently that was like,
41:25
oh, oh, we're against tariffs. Tariffs, yeah.
41:27
Yeah. Of course, tariffs are terrible, and they're
41:30
awful for the bourbon industry, which we have
41:33
the bourbon trail here. And whereas Colorado
41:36
is the marijuana state, we are the bourbon state.
41:39
And so when it starts hitting your pocketbooks
41:42
and hitting the shareholders' quarterly reports,
41:47
we've got to speak up. But we're certainly not
41:50
going to speak up for any of the immigrants.
41:53
that ICE is coming to take out of their homes,
41:56
even though they're at the backside of the track
41:59
getting ready for the Kentucky Derby while the
42:02
world comes to Louisville. And they're picking
42:05
our crops and all the things. No, we don't care
42:08
about the immigrants, but what we do care about
42:11
is our own bottom lines. Well, everyone cares
42:14
about the bottom line. Having been a Wall Street
42:17
Journal editor, there is something to be said
42:20
for watching the bottom line, but there's also
42:22
something to be said about treating your workers
42:24
fairly and treating your residents fairly. Because
42:27
if you want to appeal to people and if you want
42:30
to stay in office, you appeal to everybody. You
42:32
just don't appeal to what I consider a cult,
42:37
this cult of personality. Some of the things
42:40
that are happening today are not that much different
42:43
than what happens in North Korea. And you know,
42:46
that's their pals that our president and the
42:48
head of North Korea are pals Write love letters
42:51
to each other. It's kind of embarrassing Yeah,
42:53
but you know, it's those kinds of things that
42:56
we'd like to look at over the the course for
42:59
our podcast Oh, we also have a website. It's
43:03
the bluegrass blues podcast calm so we will be
43:08
posting things there will be talking about the
43:11
things we post and We are going to really try
43:16
to keep in touch with what's going on in Kentucky.
43:20
We hope to get people to just share their stories
43:23
with us. We'd like to hear what's going on out
43:25
there. But again, this is our first attempt at
43:30
a podcast. We'll see how it goes. We'll see if
43:32
there's any interest. We're getting close to
43:35
45 minutes, which we thought we weren't going
43:38
to be able to do, but we're here. Thanks for
43:43
listening in. We encourage you to share this
43:46
with your friends on social media and we're probably
43:50
gonna air, we're thinking about airing every
43:52
couple weeks and in the meantime writing blog
43:56
posts at bluegrass, thebluegrassbluespodcast
44:00
.com. Right, so like and subscribe and all those
44:03
other fun things that the YouTube people say
44:05
and I think we will be on... YouTube and we hope
44:09
to get on to Apple Music and Spotify. And we
44:13
will post this to our website as well. So keep
44:17
an eye out for us and we hope to see you soon.
44:20
Take care. Thanks everybody.