0:01

For years I just dreaded going to the dentist,

0:03

but at Advanced Dentistry I don't have to. First

0:05

and foremost, they want you to feel comfortable when

0:07

you walk in. Like, you'll feel it. Whereas in

0:09

the past I might have gone into the dentist

0:11

and thinking I might

0:13

feel some pain at some point, but with

0:15

IV sedation it can be something that you

0:17

don't dread. If you've

0:20

been avoiding the dentist because of fear,

0:22

worry, or just not wanting to be

0:24

judged, you're not alone. Visit knowfirdentist.com to

0:26

learn how IV sedation can change your

0:29

life. Want

0:31

the same expert advice you get from

0:33

the pros in the store while shopping

0:36

online at DiscountTire.com? Meet Treadwell, your personal

0:38

online tire guide that matches you with

0:40

the perfect tire for your vehicle. Get

0:42

your best match in one minute or less

0:44

with Treadwell by Discount Tire. What

0:47

happens when one of China's most prominent human rights

0:49

activists escapes house arrest in China, lands

0:52

in America as a hero of freedom

0:54

and democracy, then somehow re-emerges a few

0:56

years later as an avid Trump supporter?

0:59

This is the story of

1:01

Qin Guangqing. In

1:04

Crooked's newest podcast, Dissident at the

1:06

Doorstep hosts Allison Clayman, Colin Jones,

1:09

and Yong Yongqing tell the

1:11

story of how a person can become a

1:14

symbol for American values and what happens to

1:16

them next. Listen to new

1:18

episodes of Dissident at the Doorstep each Saturday beginning

1:20

January 13th in the Pod Save the World feed

1:22

wherever you get your podcasts. Hey,

1:25

this is D'Ray. Hey,

1:28

this is D'Ray. And welcome to Pod Save the

1:30

People. In this episode, it's me, Miles, D'Arra, and

1:33

Kaya talking about the underreported news from the past

1:35

week. The news with regards to race, justice,

1:38

and equity that you probably didn't hear about but

1:40

should have. And then I sat

1:42

down with Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves

1:44

to talk about some of the new initiatives

1:46

coming from the Biden Administration and Commerce. What

1:48

do you know about the Commerce Department?

1:51

I didn't know much. Here

1:53

we go. I'm

2:01

MALDI Johnson, you can

2:03

find me on Instagram

2:05

and at FerroRapture. I'm

2:17

Kaya Henderson, you can find me

2:19

on Twitter at HendersonKaya. This

2:22

is D'Ray at D-R-A-Y on Twitter. All

2:25

folks, lots of political tea

2:27

happening over the weekend. Ron

2:30

DeSantis is out, which

2:32

leaves us with Donald

2:35

Trump and Nikki Haley. And

2:38

things are heating up. Donald

2:40

Trump has gotten into the very,

2:42

very special part of his campaign

2:44

where he really gets into the

2:47

renaming, name calling of

2:49

his opponent. So we'll

2:52

see how Nikki does

2:54

against the Trump

2:57

campaign machine. But

3:00

so far, so far it's

3:02

gotten pretty rowdy, pretty quickly.

3:06

And as we know, the New Hampshire primary

3:08

is coming up. When

3:10

is it? I think it's, is it Thursday? Is it

3:13

Wednesday? I feel

3:15

like it was four days from yesterday. That's

3:17

the last time. Well,

3:19

I watch the news every day. That was

3:21

the count from, from yesterday's news watching, but

3:23

it's heating up, y'all. I

3:27

will say this 2020, this 2024 race has been interesting

3:29

in the past week because there's a

3:34

lot going on. So DeSantis drops out. Trump

3:37

refuses to call Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley,

3:39

he calls her instead, Nembrah, which is

3:41

none of her names that she goes

3:43

by. Her name is

3:45

Nembrada. Who

3:48

else has something? Oh, and then Tim Scott's

3:51

girlfriend becomes his fiance magically

3:54

overnight in a really interesting

3:56

twist. And

3:58

the Republican side. is really interesting.

4:00

I will say this morning, I'm

4:02

going to the gym, I'm

4:05

in a lift, and

4:07

I'm like, listen to the radio that

4:09

the black driver has on. And I'm

4:11

like, okay, I'm not really paying attention.

4:14

And then I realized it's right wing

4:16

talk radio. And I'm like, what are

4:18

we doing? And the way

4:20

that that side has just normalized

4:22

Trump as just like, literally the

4:24

dissonance for me was, you

4:27

know, how do we keep, the guy

4:29

goes, how do we keep our city safe? Lock

4:31

up all the criminals. And

4:33

then he starts talking about Trump and you're like, but this

4:36

man is the criminal. Like what is, what is what?

4:38

So I'm interested in what everybody has

4:40

to say about this Republican phase because

4:43

Trump did better in Iowa at this time than

4:45

it seems like he did last time. And still

4:48

the Republican side is a mess. Y'all,

4:50

I'm just preparing. I

4:52

think that's the phase that I'm like going

4:54

into because I don't

4:58

want this to be true, but it looks a

5:00

little imminent that there might be a Trump presidency.

5:02

I literally been reading Trump the art of the deal,

5:06

trying to figure that out. I've

5:08

been like trying to understand him, understand

5:11

the appeal. Cause I wasn't, I wasn't,

5:13

I wasn't popping in alive when Trump

5:15

was at his most powerful.

5:17

So I'm really trying to understand what

5:19

is going through. Like

5:22

DeRay said, a seemingly

5:24

middle-aged black man's head, that they're

5:26

aligning themselves with Trump politically, really

5:28

trying to understand it. And also

5:30

trying to wrap my head around

5:32

that this, we might

5:34

have another four years with, with this man. It's

5:38

wild. First of all, I love all

5:40

of the political gamesmanship happening literally until

5:42

yesterday. We forgot all about Tim Scott's

5:45

makeup girlfriend cause we made up girlfriend

5:47

cause we hadn't seen or heard from

5:49

her ever since. He was like, oh

5:51

yeah, I got a girlfriend. Here she

5:53

is. Here's a picture. Wanna see her?

5:56

And now all of a sudden there's the picture

5:58

on the beach with them. with

6:00

him proposing to her and he made me the

6:02

happiest man in America. And it's

6:05

all very clear that he is

6:07

gunning for the vice presidential slot,

6:11

which will be fascinating actually, Miles,

6:13

because if Tim Scott is the

6:15

vice presidential

6:19

pick for Trump, that

6:21

is a clear way to shore up the black man

6:23

base, I think, but I think

6:25

this is all, it's also

6:27

interesting to watch. I would not like,

6:30

does Sanders pulling out at this point was not on

6:32

my bingo card for 2024. I

6:35

thought it was really early. Personally, I

6:37

mean, I don't think Nikki Haley stands

6:39

a chance, but even if

6:41

she shows up in New Hampshire, I could

6:43

be wrong. Of course, we're all just, you

6:46

know, speculating at this point. But

6:48

I feel like, I feel like

6:50

maybe what could happen, this is the optimist

6:52

in me, is it

6:55

has to all coalesce around Trump, right?

6:58

Because when he falls apart,

7:00

then there's no other option,

7:02

but to, you know, but

7:04

for Biden to win and

7:06

to regain the opportunity to

7:08

do as much for America as he

7:10

has done, which we will learn a

7:13

little bit more about later on today.

7:15

What do you mean? Like, what

7:19

do I mean about what Biden has done? But

7:21

not coalescing around Trump. So I

7:23

feel, I feel like, you know, there

7:25

it's like maybe Nikki Haley would have

7:27

been a decent candidate, right? Like if

7:30

she really had the chance to get

7:32

up there, maybe Ron DeSantis, maybe not.

7:34

Okay. Maybe Nikki Haley would have been

7:36

a decent candidate. Who knows? Could have

7:38

attracted people, centrists,

7:40

moderates, Democrats, who know,

7:42

independents, who knows. But I

7:45

think she's going to be dispensed with because all

7:47

of the air, Trump takes up all the air. The

7:49

whole Republican party has aligned themselves around Trump. And

7:52

so like, basically, there's nobody else

7:54

to bet on but Trump. If

7:56

any of these prosecutions go well,

7:58

or if any. happens between now

8:01

and November, which anything could happen that

8:03

imperils the Trump presidency, then that's it.

8:05

That's the bet. There's no, there's nowhere

8:07

else to go, right? So you

8:10

are putting all your chips on this

8:12

man. And if it goes

8:14

south, it's going way, way

8:17

south. And the rest of us

8:19

just slide into another Democratic presidency.

8:21

Wait, so my

8:25

lawyer, you know, I just got my

8:27

law degree. So I need a refresher

8:29

from the era. So when

8:31

you're running for president, and you also

8:33

got the feds on you, does that

8:35

pause or is that just happening at

8:38

the same time? And maybe the

8:40

day if it like, are

8:44

having their possibility that

8:46

he could be in the middle of his

8:48

election, in the middle of everything, or the

8:50

middle of his campaign, rather, and then he's

8:52

still getting down in to go to jail,

8:54

like that can happen at the same time. So

8:57

everything's not pause. Absolutely. No,

8:59

the only thing that has been

9:02

interesting, because I do feel like

9:04

it signals a pause is, and

9:06

we've covered this where in some

9:08

states, and I'm

9:11

gonna forget the states now, where

9:13

they basically have said that since

9:15

he incited a riot, January 6,

9:18

that he has actually in that

9:21

he is, you know, ineligible,

9:25

now to be on the ballot, Colorado, and there's

9:27

another one to Maine, I feel like. Yeah.

9:31

And that and so that is the thing that

9:34

actually I feel like has had some impact, because

9:36

if he's not on the ballot, that is that

9:38

is a pause, in

9:40

some respects, in terms of

9:42

it does slow him down. But all

9:44

of these cases, they just

9:47

don't keep going, because it's unprecedented.

9:49

It's unprecedented that somebody running

9:51

for national office or any kind of office

9:53

would have would

9:57

have, you know, these these types of criminal matters.

10:00

ahead of him. But I also I

10:02

have a theory, a Nikki Haley

10:04

theory, that I've been thinking

10:10

about and you know just

10:13

going back to 16 and how one

10:15

of the you know major reasons just

10:18

technically why Hillary didn't win is because

10:20

a lot of white women did not

10:22

vote for her. I

10:25

think that white women are going to come

10:29

together and support Nikki

10:31

Haley. I really do.

10:33

I think Kaya she will appeal to

10:35

a lot of centrist voters

10:37

but I think just.

10:43

Very interesting. Do you? Very interesting bunch.

10:46

I hear you. I hear you. I totally

10:48

hear you and I think she could be viable.

10:51

But she came in third

10:53

in Iowa way way behind

10:56

and it stands to reason

10:58

if she gets trounced in New Hampshire which

11:02

is what everybody is still predicting. I mean she'll stay

11:04

in because she wants to be a foil to Trump.

11:07

But she only got a couple more primaries to lose

11:09

before she's got to drop

11:11

out even if she does appeal to white

11:14

women. Right. But

11:17

she also has South Carolina coming up. So

11:19

I think I suspect that she wouldn't drop

11:21

out until after South Carolina. Yeah

11:23

totally. And Iowa you know

11:26

if you look at how much money DeSantis spent

11:28

and how much time he spent there and the

11:31

fact that she did a small portion

11:34

of that and still with only a

11:36

couple percentage points below DeSantis. I

11:39

mean. She did more than him. She did more than

11:41

him in in Iowa.

11:44

I thought not the spend

11:46

not the spend.

11:50

So I don't I don't know if I see

11:53

the results in Iowa as like a failure

11:56

on her part. I think it is it is part

11:58

of. Let's see how far I need

12:01

to stretch this money. Let's see where I can have the

12:03

most impact. I

12:07

don't know. I just have an

12:09

odd feeling about Nikki Haley.

12:11

I really, really do. And

12:14

it's terrifying. I hadn't heard anybody

12:17

float this Nikki Haley thing with white

12:19

women, but that is interesting because frankly,

12:21

they're the only people who might support

12:23

her. So you're right. If there's a

12:25

demographic, because the white men are like,

12:27

no, they like this woman is Indian, no matter

12:29

how much she keeps trying to say she white,

12:31

they are like, no, thank you. And

12:34

as much as they hate in Barack,

12:36

they definitely don't want Nemrata. So

12:38

there's that. But you're right.

12:40

I could see white women. It is really interesting

12:43

for her though, to try to navigate

12:45

the like racism never existed

12:47

talking point. And I

12:49

just don't know how long that lasts, but

12:52

I think you're, I am intrigued by this idea

12:54

that white women could swing towards

12:57

her. So that's

12:59

interesting. Isn't that Adore like

13:02

simultaneously, she's saying that America

13:04

isn't racist and that very

13:06

historic systemic racism is being

13:08

weaponized against her to disqualify

13:11

her. Like she's experiencing it

13:14

and losing because of it as she's saying it doesn't

13:16

exist. Good for her. Good for

13:18

her. I

13:21

love it. Hey, you're listening

13:23

to Potsy the People. Stay tuned, there's more

13:25

to come. Potsy

13:28

the People is brought to you by

13:31

BetterHelp. Around New Year's, we

13:33

get obsessed with how to change ourselves instead

13:35

of just expanding on what we're already doing,

13:37

right? There are things that you are crushing

13:39

it on. Maybe you finally organize one part

13:41

of your space and you wanna tackle another.

13:44

Or maybe you're taking supplements every morning and

13:46

now you wanna actually eat breakfast too. Therapy

13:49

helps you find your strengths so you

13:51

can ditch the extreme resolutions and make

13:53

changes that really stick. If you're thinking

13:56

of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.

13:58

It's entirely on the phone. online is

14:00

designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited

14:02

to your schedule. Just fill out a

14:04

brief questionnaire to get matched with a

14:06

licensed therapist and switch therapists at any

14:09

time for no additional charge. Celebrate

14:11

the progress you've

14:13

already made. Visit

14:15

betterhelp.com/people to get

14:18

10% off your

14:20

first month. That's

14:22

betterhelp, help.com/people. Luxury

14:25

is meant to be livable. Discover

14:27

the new leather collection at Ashley

14:29

with premium quality leather sofas, recliners,

14:31

and more all built to last.

14:33

No matter how many spos, scuffs,

14:35

or pet related mishaps come its

14:38

way, the leather collection at Ashley

14:40

is made with the durability you

14:42

need for the whole family. Shop

14:44

the new leather collection at Ashley

14:46

and find shares starting at $499.99

14:49

and sofas at $599.99. Ashley

14:52

for the love of home. At

14:57

Consumer Cellular, you get the same exact coverage as

14:59

the largest carriers, but for up to half the

15:01

cost. Same thing, up to half the cost. Up

15:03

to half the cost for the same thing. 50%

15:05

the money for 100% the same thing. I

15:10

hope I'm making myself clear. Consumer

15:12

Cellular. When freedom calls, we're here to

15:14

answer. Call us at 1-888-FREEDOM. Half

15:17

the cost savings based on cost of Consumer Cellular single

15:20

line 5GB data plan with unlimited talk and text compared

15:22

to lowest cost single line postpaid unlimited talk, text and

15:24

data plan offered by T-Mobile and Verizon May 2023. So

15:34

my news is actually true,

15:36

but Jason, but it's really about

15:39

storytelling organizing in the political climate.

15:41

There's a fascinating article that's in

15:43

the Atlantic and it's called the

15:45

great normalization and what

15:47

it essentially talks about the punchline is that

15:50

things are better today than they had been

15:52

in a long time, but

15:54

that is not what people believe. So

15:57

you probably remember the great spike

15:59

in crime. homicides are up everywhere,

16:01

like that whole narrative coming

16:03

out of the pandemic. It is true. There

16:05

are about 66 cities that we collect crime

16:08

data in, in about 60 of them.

16:12

Crime spiked at one point as

16:14

we were coming out of the

16:16

pandemic and that is what everybody

16:18

talked about. I will say this

16:20

is a small aside. I am

16:22

fascinated by how normalized we have

16:25

become to the language of 2020,

16:28

like how people talk about 2020 without talking

16:30

about the police. People like

16:33

DEI spiked in 2020. Black art

16:35

changed everything in 2020. Like people

16:37

talk about the changes that happened

16:39

in 2020 and refuse to talk

16:41

about what led to, and

16:44

maybe people say George Floyd's name but will

16:46

not talk about the police and I think

16:48

that is fascinating to me. But back

16:51

to this article, people also are like, you

16:53

know, the rate of inflation, everything is more

16:55

expensive. Police are dropping out

16:57

of the force like that as a

17:00

narrative. And in reality, what is really

17:02

interesting is that violent crime

17:04

rates have plummeted to their lowest level

17:06

since the 1960s. The

17:08

rate of inflation is exactly essentially

17:11

where it was before the

17:13

pandemic. So things are a little more expensive,

17:15

but the rate is the same. It

17:18

is true that officers did leave

17:21

the force in a way that

17:23

is measurable and what happened when they did

17:26

violent crime decreased. And

17:29

what the writer does really well is

17:31

talk about what Trump's talking point is.

17:33

Trump's talking point is that I'm going

17:35

to take you back to what was

17:37

before the pandemic. I'm going to make

17:39

cities safe, you know, all this conversation

17:41

about justice and whatnot, let more criminals

17:44

out and he's going to fix

17:46

inflation, this is giving him a lot of credit

17:48

because he barely has complete sentences. But what

17:51

is really interesting is that 77% of Americans

17:53

think that crime is more than it was

17:57

a year ago. It's not a Wall

17:59

Street. A journal survey found that voters

18:02

overwhelmingly believe that Trump will do a

18:04

better job than Biden when it comes

18:06

to the economy, inflation, and crime. But

18:09

again, the true story is that Biden has already done

18:11

a better job than Trump on all of those areas.

18:14

Now, I disagree with the Biden presidency

18:17

on issues around Palestine and some other

18:19

things. What is true is that

18:22

the biggest issues that have been

18:24

issues for voters across election cycles,

18:27

crime, money,

18:30

those are better today than they were. Those

18:33

are historically low. Crime is

18:35

at historically low levels. And

18:38

when you ask people, they disagree. Now,

18:41

what I would offer is that one of

18:44

the downsides to a

18:47

fully commercial media industry is

18:49

that they need clicks. And when

18:51

you have an industry that is dominated

18:54

by needing clicks, the one

18:56

murder that does happen, the one crime that does

18:58

happen, takes up so much air that people believe

19:00

that this is happening everywhere. What's really interesting, too,

19:02

is that when you poll people and

19:05

say, have you been a victim of crime, or

19:07

do you know somebody that's been a victim of

19:09

crime, it is always low. That has historically been

19:11

low. But when you ask people, is crime bad,

19:14

they say yes, because they've seen it essentially in

19:16

the media. And I'm fascinated

19:18

by this. And this, I do think, is

19:20

the organizer's dilemma. How do we tell stories

19:22

about what is true in

19:24

the world without discounting the negative things,

19:27

but also being honest about, like, y'all, this is,

19:29

you don't know what bad was. This is better.

19:31

And you might not feel it in the same

19:33

way. But it matters in terms of

19:36

what we get long term. Because I can tell you,

19:38

Trump is not going to make it better than, you

19:40

know, the Trump era was a

19:42

hard era. And last thing I'll

19:44

say, I should not laugh about this. But I

19:47

definitely had a good guffaw on Twitter, because there

19:49

was a story about there was

19:51

a white woman who was married

19:53

to somebody who was undocumented, voted

19:56

for Trump, Her husband gets

19:58

deported, and her quote. They are.he

20:01

was only gonna deport

20:03

the criminals. And. I

20:05

just couldn't Unlike you know, I. Play.

20:08

Silly game when silly Brian

20:10

silly presence isn't. Was.

20:14

This was such a fascinating article. during

20:16

like thank you for bringing it and

20:18

because I've read it like three times

20:20

arm I think the first thing that

20:23

comes to my mind. And. Are

20:25

a whole fleet I'm I'm a middle. a

20:27

little bit of a a logic job but

20:29

I'm thinking about all the time to think

20:31

about illiteracy and we talk about i'm. Media.

20:34

Literacy actual Like a

20:36

like a illiteracy and

20:38

mom in schools and

20:40

how. The. Media can become death

20:42

more powerful Cause essentially for this article

20:44

is say it and and I think that

20:47

you test on this is saying that

20:49

Media literally is able to morph how

20:51

people are experiencing a how what they

20:53

think is going on and not stats and.

20:55

I think if we have even more

20:58

people who are not equipped with reading

21:00

and literacy and no way that they're

21:02

the commercial incentive of why they're getting

21:04

what they're getting. Ah, I'm. Sad,

21:07

it's only gonna intensify, which

21:09

makes. Commercial. Storytelling

21:11

And the storytelling that were. Telling.

21:14

People in media just as important as a

21:16

Real Facts with is scary. It's it's it's

21:18

It's scary that you can look at a

21:21

sheet of paper and say this is that

21:23

are and that be enough But now you

21:25

have to know how to create of least

21:27

six analyzed the good news like that's a

21:29

horrifying. Space. To Be and and

21:31

I don't see it getting any better with. What?

21:34

We've been talking about well as far as

21:36

the go to literacy and media literacy arm.

21:39

And the me said. I

21:43

thought this was a mean and

21:45

literally again thank you to Re

21:47

because it doesn't feel this way

21:49

right? It feels like inflation is

21:52

out of. Control. It feels like crime is

21:54

out of control and. To live in the one

21:56

city where Promise actually up there. I'm so glad

21:58

every. Place asked me to see. crime

22:00

is low. And

22:03

it is really, I mean, literally,

22:05

I just had the same thought as you

22:08

did, which was, what is

22:10

the media's incentive to report this good

22:12

news? There is none because bad news

22:14

sells newspapers, or clicks

22:16

or whatever. And this

22:19

is part of the problem. This

22:21

is the reason why the Trump

22:23

center of gravity is so strong.

22:26

And on this podcast, we

22:29

continually talk about how

22:31

the current administration does not

22:34

tell its own stories, does

22:36

not pump the things that it has

22:38

done, doesn't take credit for

22:40

the hard one policy issues.

22:43

And this is the, like, this is

22:46

the prime example. Like, if you just

22:48

went out with this, if they just

22:50

took this, and, you know, beat this

22:52

thing all over the place, you

22:55

could easily have a shift in people's thinking

22:57

and perception. Except

22:59

people have to feel something different,

23:01

right? And, and I do think

23:04

that like, you know, prices are

23:06

up, they've gone back down, but

23:08

they still feel more expensive than

23:10

they felt. What

23:12

was interesting a little bit was how

23:15

wages are up, it was interesting to

23:17

learn that wages are up, that unemployment

23:19

is down, like people actually have more

23:22

money. It was also interesting to note

23:24

that this set of political policy

23:28

decisions that we

23:30

made in the United States

23:32

actually put us in better

23:34

position than Europe, which is

23:36

experiencing tremendous inflation and, and

23:38

issues that like we won,

23:40

we won the political, we won the policy

23:42

bet on what it was going to take

23:44

to come back from the pandemic. And

23:48

people don't know that. And so who

23:51

is like, I wonder, who is the

23:53

right messenger for this, right? Like, because

23:55

Biden is not the right messenger, you

23:57

need some external validators who will say,

23:59

wait, The minutes that friends like are

24:01

you chicken out what is happening if

24:04

you. Were the king of the

24:06

world and could create whatever kind

24:08

of a media campaigns you sought

24:10

would be effective. How would we

24:13

get? This message says people. With

24:19

a specific genre. Yes,

24:21

To every black, to every. A King or Queen

24:23

of the World. I think specifically

24:25

for it. For my point of view,

24:28

it's not even just about the message,

24:30

sir. it's how the message is being

24:32

told. Oh, And In In

24:34

In In hold on to your wigs.

24:36

I think the impact of the bad

24:38

news still needs to happen. So the

24:40

impact of the bad news to be

24:42

to happen in the relief needs to

24:44

be there to So meaning that headline.

24:46

that feeling that all. Crimes.

24:49

And them big into that me to

24:51

be the relief of and and President

24:53

Biden actually solve this I think that

24:55

you can. Outsmart human psychology

24:58

and how we won engage with new

25:00

than what is our tanks. And but

25:02

we can be smart enough to actually

25:04

big him into those headlines, into those articles

25:06

in sad news story and into the

25:08

how we're giving these narratives outs, the

25:10

actual relief and the hero of that

25:12

relief. Thousand adults there's mm mm making

25:14

sense I think sometimes it's like oh by

25:16

the disclosed this good this good this

25:18

goods know it's this was horrible. This

25:20

a form of these are desirable and

25:22

and here's the relief or end This

25:24

is was a solve cause. I

25:27

don't. I don't think that we're gonna have. Over. Not

25:30

be attracted to bad move. It

25:33

catastrophes. You probably all heard the

25:35

like retail everybody stealing from Target

25:37

and they got a close. Cbs

25:39

is because of all that retail

25:41

that's so recently came out that

25:43

those stories are not real. Over.

25:46

inflated. Didn't.

25:48

Happy and they were close in the

25:50

stores for other reasons. A disused retail

25:53

daft of like the as their backgrounds.

25:55

and why do I bring it up?

25:57

New York State released a forty. million

26:00

dollar plan to deal

26:02

with retail theft as a result of the media. $40

26:06

million. So

26:10

25 million

26:12

of it goes to funding state police. 10

26:15

million goes to funding district attorneys and

26:18

5 million to local law enforcement for

26:21

an issue that was made up in the

26:23

media. So you're like,

26:26

of all the things. So if inflation

26:28

is a big deal, we should be

26:30

giving people more money to buy groceries.

26:32

That is a real thing. You know,

26:34

like $40 million to deal with retail

26:36

theft. And it was not an

26:38

issue. It was made up. It was a

26:40

lie. That's wild. So do

26:42

we think that those

26:44

people, I'm going to

26:46

say Eric Adam is an umbrella term. Well,

26:48

do we think that Eric Adams

26:52

believes those stories or do we think that

26:54

Eric Adams just needed an excuse to give

26:56

more money to the police and he used

26:58

this as an excuse because he already knew

27:00

that the public is convinced

27:02

of this. Is

27:06

this a city issue or a state issue? Durey,

27:08

is that the state level? Yeah,

27:11

Eric Adams supported it with HOCL because the shoplifting

27:13

happens in New York City, but it was a

27:15

state allocation. Got

27:17

it. Which means that there are a

27:19

bunch of people, a bunch of state legislators

27:21

all across the state who are hearing

27:24

this media and who've internalized this and

27:26

voted yes to $40 million for more

27:28

law enforcement. Got it.

27:30

But it is how like the cycle

27:33

of like political

27:35

operations works. It's like

27:38

something isn't a success until the

27:40

media has covered it. And

27:42

then what the media is covering, everyone

27:46

tries to quickly come up with policy solutions

27:49

too, so that they can get credit

27:52

for addressing something the media has sensationalized.

27:54

And so, for example, like when you

27:56

work for a political person

27:59

or on a campaign. every day

28:01

you get what

28:03

the news was the day before and

28:05

what the news is that morning. And

28:07

so principally how you're orienting yourself for

28:09

that day and what you're focused on is

28:11

based on the news cycle. What's

28:13

also funny is just like having worked on

28:15

campaigns when even the

28:17

polling people will say, well, black

28:20

people think this. And I'm

28:22

like, how much

28:24

did you spend on a poll to find

28:26

out that black people watch BET? You

28:29

know what I'm saying? So I think it is... Y'all, what did

28:31

it look like every day? What was... I'm curious.

28:33

I didn't know. We've never talked about

28:35

this. What was the daily download of the news? Like,

28:37

how did it... Did it come in

28:39

the email and y'all sat around and had a meeting

28:42

about it? Yeah, no. It comes through... It

28:44

comes on... So it's... They're

28:46

called clips. So I'm sure other people in

28:48

other industries get clips. But your day

28:50

starts with... I mean, I

28:52

still have Google Alerts for Hillary Clinton on my Google

28:54

News. So it's like it starts with

28:56

clips. So all the news from

28:58

the previous days that was like, you

29:03

know, national news or news in really big

29:06

cities, that would be a...

29:08

It would be a focus in terms of, okay,

29:10

what... First

29:13

of all, flagging this, like what in these things are true

29:15

or not true, and then how can we go back to

29:17

those reporters to course correct? But the

29:19

other thing is the Comms team, when a

29:21

Comms team gets together, that's what they look

29:23

at. They look at what was

29:26

in the news cycle, where there

29:28

needs to be pushback, what surrogates need to go out this

29:30

day and say, okay, yesterday Donald Trump said this, now

29:33

we need to send out all our surrogates to say X, Y, and

29:35

Z. So every day it's like

29:38

a daily... You know, kind of

29:40

a daily

29:42

reaction on what's been going

29:44

on in the news. Like, you know, and political... And

29:48

campaigns have huge rapid response

29:50

teams. And the rapid

29:52

response team's job is

29:55

to just respond to things that are true and not true in

29:57

the media. When you're

29:59

watching a debate... there's a rapid response

30:01

team that is in that moment tweeting

30:03

back against whatever that your opponent is

30:05

saying during that debate. So

30:09

all that to say, like so much of

30:11

how the infrastructure is set up is to

30:13

be responsive to the news cycle or

30:16

to get ahead of the news cycle. Last

30:19

thing I'll say is that what I do think

30:21

is, to

30:23

your question, Miles, like what is the what

30:25

here? I think that it is simpler to

30:28

me is that people really do

30:30

not challenge what the police say. Like

30:32

if the police say it is true, it is

30:35

like an uphill battle. People talk about data informed

30:37

and da da da, but the moment the police

30:39

say like you might

30:41

get killed or something like that, all logic

30:44

goes out the window. And we, you know, I

30:46

think about what we have to do in our

30:48

work to justify things. I got to have 15

30:50

studies, three experts, you know,

30:52

video footage, you know, documentary

30:54

about it. The police literally walk in and they're

30:56

like, people are shoplifting and everybody's like, pass

30:59

the law. What? It can't be that. Or

31:01

like in D.C., in Philadelphia and Atlanta, they're

31:03

like, we're going to ban ski

31:05

masks. The law actually says we're

31:07

banning hoodies. Nobody

31:11

nobody read it because the police just said it's

31:13

a ski mask ban. You're like, that

31:15

is wild that the police can just like go

31:17

around being like, I think that's a ski mask

31:19

fine. That's nuts. But I

31:21

don't even think I think there's a step before that

31:23

where it's like black and brown folks

31:26

are dehumanized already. So by the

31:28

time police are speaking about it, there's

31:30

already a disregard for all of those human beings. So

31:33

I think the media also plays a role just

31:35

in terms of like narrative

31:38

around what our communities are. And when you

31:40

look at one of the things

31:42

that I was I've been obsessed with American fiction

31:44

and listen to a podcast

31:46

with Cora Jefferson, who's the

31:48

director and writer, well, adapted

31:50

the the adapted

31:53

the script for American fiction. And

31:56

he was a journalist. And one of the reasons

31:58

he wanted to move from journalism to entertainment. was

32:00

because he thought that there

32:02

would be more imagination put to use

32:04

around how, you know,

32:07

how stories are told around black people. But

32:09

it was the same.

32:12

It was the same once he got out of journalism

32:14

and when he got into entertainment, it was just, it

32:17

was always bang bang shoot them up. It was

32:19

always we're in complete despair. There's no joy. There's

32:21

no, so I think

32:23

part of it is that the

32:26

media on all sides is doing such

32:28

a good job of,

32:31

you know, dehumanizing black and brown

32:33

people and women and trans folks,

32:35

et cetera, et cetera. I think in

32:37

addition to that, we can't underestimate

32:39

how basic public

32:42

safety is as a need. And

32:44

so part of the reason why,

32:46

I mean, public safety is like

32:48

on the low end of Haslow's hierarchy,

32:51

right? People need to feel safe. This

32:53

is why for a large part of

32:55

the black community defunding the police or

32:58

reducing investments in police was not an

33:00

option. And so I think you get

33:02

a different response when you say public

33:05

safety and people feeling like they can

33:07

move around in the world without being

33:09

robbed or shot or whatever. And I

33:12

think that's also the reason why it's

33:14

very easy for people to believe whatever

33:16

the police say. I know we have

33:18

to move on, but the other thing

33:21

that I do want to add to that is the,

33:24

I think the good work that you're doing,

33:26

Darae, is I think a lot of people

33:28

don't see police as a entity

33:30

with a political bend.

33:32

You know, I think it's been the, since the

33:35

work you've been doing is shown, no, there's political

33:37

incentives. And I think that a lot of people

33:39

still have, that I'm,

33:41

that I'm coining as we speak, like the

33:43

firefighter syndrome with police people, where it's like,

33:45

oh, these are just the heroes of the

33:47

ground, you know, and they,

33:50

they wouldn't lie to us and they're

33:52

just protecting us and stuff. And I

33:54

think that that's a really hard narrative

33:56

to break through into transform. So my

33:58

news today, I've. found in

34:02

architectural digest because I

34:05

love interiors and designs.

34:08

I'm just obsessed. And

34:10

I particularly love those things when they

34:12

intersect with my world of blackness. And

34:15

so we've covered different

34:17

stories on black architecture before, black

34:22

place making. And this always takes me

34:24

to one

34:27

of my favorite books, which is Black

34:29

Interiors, where Elizabeth Alexander talks a lot

34:31

about black spaces and

34:33

black interiority. But

34:36

this story is about the Watts, let

34:40

me get it right now, let me get it right.

34:46

Watts happening, the

34:49

Watts happening center. And

34:51

so what I didn't know is, you know, you

34:54

hear a lot about the Watts towers

34:58

in Watts and Los Angeles. But

35:01

in 1965, two months after the Watts

35:03

uprising, a group of citizens converted an

35:05

abandoned furniture store in an art center

35:08

and named it the

35:10

Watts happening coffee house. And so in 1967, a

35:12

collective of artists, musicians and writers formed

35:18

within this space.

35:21

And it

35:23

survived there for years and years. And

35:27

so how this relates to

35:29

this architectural digest piece is

35:32

that, is

35:36

that Brent Leggs, who is senior

35:38

vice president of the National Trust

35:40

for Historic Preservation, wants to see

35:42

what's happened, the 1970 Watts

35:44

happening cultural center, be

35:48

a hub for community members and artists,

35:50

etc. Again, so in

35:53

the fall of 2022, the center became

35:55

one of eight grant recipients from

35:57

the new conserving black modernism program. which

36:00

is a part of the National Trust

36:02

for Historical Preservation. And it also,

36:04

the other thing, because I, of

36:06

course, went down a rabbit hole when it comes to

36:08

Brent Lake's. But the other thing that he helped to

36:11

put together was the African-American Cultural

36:13

Heritage Action Fund. And

36:16

what I learned about that fund is they

36:18

also put a ton of money into preserving

36:20

black churches across the country. But

36:24

anyhow, this part of the work is

36:26

really focused on the modernism movement. And

36:29

it comes with a $3.1 million

36:32

gift from the Getty Foundation. And

36:34

Getty, I guess, is a partner in this

36:36

program. But I just

36:40

found this to be so fascinating.

36:43

And also just in context of the conversation

36:45

we were just having, because I think, especially

36:49

for me growing up in Washington DC,

36:51

where there were so many black places

36:54

and spaces to

36:57

be saved, to be heard, to explore,

36:59

et cetera, I just find a

37:01

lack of those places today, and even more of

37:03

a lack of, or not a lack of, but

37:05

just not as many black-owned businesses or black-owned

37:08

restaurants as they used to be when

37:10

I was growing up. And so I found

37:12

this one to be so interesting. And so

37:15

the idea is to bring the cultural center

37:17

back, the coffee shop back. And the coffee

37:19

shop is so cool, because it still has

37:21

a ton of the black memorabilia that

37:24

it had when it opened in the 1960s. So

37:28

I'm excited to see fundraising

37:31

continue for this center, and also

37:35

to be able to visit and to figure

37:37

out how we can be more helpful, because

37:39

it just seems like it can be such

37:41

a beautiful and impactful place for black

37:44

folks to be able to convene, learn, grow,

37:46

and explore. I

37:48

absolutely loved this article. The

37:53

specific thing that really touched me was

37:55

the connection to the swimming pools and

37:57

what was happening with desegregation buildings

38:00

of this, of these things. And

38:02

I think that, so maybe

38:04

like a couple of weeks

38:07

ago, I went

38:09

to go look at the first basically mass

38:13

timber mansion made

38:16

in New York City. And

38:18

it made me, it was in the middle

38:20

of Brooklyn. And

38:23

it was like such a kind of odd

38:25

thing to witness and it was cool. And

38:27

I've been like, I just love architecture. So

38:29

it was cool to see something like that

38:32

in person. And it

38:34

did make me think in that moment,

38:37

cause you know, white family occupies it

38:39

right now and it's kind of in

38:41

mainstream architectural commercial

38:45

worlds of importance. And it made

38:47

me think about how important it

38:49

is to preserve things that were

38:51

made by black people and specifically

38:53

things that are still being occupied

38:55

in black communities. And I

38:57

just, I don't know, like reading this, it

39:00

just warmed me because I think it's so, just

39:03

every single thing when it comes to

39:05

architecture, where they decided to put the

39:07

light, what they decided to do as

39:09

far as design. But yeah, I think

39:11

that having and preserving what black people,

39:13

black architects, what black housing, black

39:15

homes looked like is so important because it

39:18

tells you so much about what we thought

39:20

was important, what we, where

39:22

the lights going, how we, what

39:25

the trends were, what spaces we

39:27

knew we were gonna occupy more of and

39:29

less of. And that just tells you so

39:32

much about how black life was. And there's

39:34

just not a whole bunch of the preserving

39:36

of that. And now that architecture is,

39:39

you know, gratefully integrated,

39:41

but there's not necessarily a whole bunch

39:44

of artifacts from the past that kind

39:46

of specifically hone in on black life

39:48

and the black home. And I just

39:50

love that people are seeing how important

39:53

it is to preserve this. Another thing that

39:55

I wanted to mention is Hood

39:58

Midcentury, which is the Instagram. that I follow.

40:01

And of course, because Diara

40:03

knows everybody, she knows the

40:05

people who run that as

40:07

well. But it's such a

40:09

cool Instagram page and it

40:11

shows how mid-century is existing

40:13

in predominantly black neighborhoods

40:15

and how black people have

40:17

to participate

40:19

in mid-century decor. And I

40:22

think that's a really important, cool Instagram page

40:24

to follow if this article interests you. Thank

40:27

you so much, Diara, for bringing this to

40:30

the podcast. This is just my sweet spot, child.

40:32

I love this. I'll

40:35

say, I didn't know, I don't have much to add

40:37

to this. This was all new to me, so I'm

40:39

in super learner mode. But I

40:41

didn't know that Morgan State University, the

40:43

buildings at Morgan, and my wonderful hometown

40:45

of Baltimore were designed by black architects.

40:48

I also didn't know that other

40:50

architects refused to design

40:53

buildings at HBCUs at some point in time. But

40:56

it was cool to see that building. I know that

40:58

building at Morgan. We all do because Baltimore is a

41:00

small place. And I'm like, whoa,

41:02

look at that. So I'm excited. I can't

41:04

wait for there to be like, or for

41:06

me to find a very easy database or

41:09

of all the buildings like this, it's

41:11

cool to celebrate. I think about the

41:13

resurgence of people doing tours of black

41:15

art and thinking about these black buildings,

41:17

especially because architects, they're like no black

41:19

architects. It's like such a small number

41:21

even today. So the idea that, as

41:23

they say in the article, that these

41:25

institutional, these intentional buildings were built, not

41:28

sort of like random homes, but

41:30

building buildings, I love that. Even,

41:33

and you know, what's his face

41:35

who did, David Ajay, who

41:38

did the museum and the National

41:40

Smithsonian, he also did a

41:42

high school in the Bronx. And I love going

41:44

to that school. Like it's so cool that he

41:46

did it because you're like, you got

41:49

a black architect to make a high school. And

41:51

this isn't like a, it's

41:53

not like a world famous high school. It's not, it's

41:55

sort of a relatively new, it's actually K-8, it's just

41:57

high school is in it right now, but. gorgeous

42:00

building and I'm like, who is so few black

42:02

architects? He

42:05

almost did a high school in DC when

42:08

I was leading. Alas,

42:10

we weren't able to make it happen. But

42:13

I love that he is intentional

42:15

about not just doing big fancy

42:17

things, but doing things that hit

42:19

regular people. Thanks, Yara, this was

42:21

super refreshing. It was

42:23

nice to learn some of these things. I

42:25

looked at that building at Morgan DeRay and

42:27

I was like, my high school, which

42:30

was built in like, I don't know, probably the late

42:32

60s, early 70s, has

42:36

a facade that looks exactly like that.

42:38

And so I was trying to do

42:40

some research, but could not figure out

42:43

who the architect was. But as I looked

42:45

at some of the

42:48

pictures in the article, some

42:51

of them looked strangely familiar. And so

42:53

my guess is there are many more

42:56

buildings that we pass every

42:58

day that were designed by black

43:00

people that we just don't know

43:02

about. So one

43:04

of the things that I think is an interesting

43:07

byproduct of an attack on our history

43:09

and our culture is it

43:11

heightens our commitment to preserving

43:14

our history and our culture. And so

43:16

I wanna shout

43:18

out Brent Leggs, who for

43:21

whom also leadership and representation matter. When

43:23

you have black people leading in

43:25

architectural spaces and black people preserve

43:27

black people's architecture. And

43:30

so one, I think at some point

43:32

in the article, Brent

43:35

Leggs, who is the

43:37

person who is leading this work at the

43:40

trust, talking about

43:42

being the first African-American to graduate

43:44

from his architecture program. And

43:47

a couple of people have alluded to how

43:49

few architects there are. But when we get

43:51

into leadership in spaces, we look

43:53

out for our history and

43:55

our culture. And so I just thought this was a

43:58

huge. to

44:03

not only black architecture, but black leadership and

44:06

representation and preservation of history and

44:08

culture and all the things. So

44:10

thanks, De'Ara. And speaking of preserving

44:13

black history and culture, I got

44:15

some good news today, friends. You

44:18

might've already heard, but

44:20

I am sharing with you

44:22

today that this week,

44:24

Spelman College announced a $100 million historic

44:27

gift, which

44:30

is the largest single donation ever

44:32

to a historically black college or

44:35

university. Woo, woo, woo. This

44:38

is exciting. This is transformative.

44:41

And I

44:43

just wanted to make sure that everybody

44:45

knew about it. The $100 million was

44:47

donated by Rhonda Stryker, who is on

44:50

the board of trustees at Spelman and

44:52

her husband, William Johnston. $75

44:55

million of the gift will go

44:57

towards endowed scholarships, which will help

44:59

Spelman to attract the best and

45:01

brightest students,

45:03

and it will remove financial barriers. They

45:06

are moving to being a

45:09

need-blind institution, which means

45:11

no matter what your financial situation, they will

45:13

make sure that the resources are available

45:15

for you to go. And

45:18

then $25 million will go towards

45:20

an academic focus on public policy

45:22

and democracy, which

45:25

of course, especially at this particular

45:27

moment, we need more, I will

45:29

say, black women leading in the

45:32

public policy and democracy space. It

45:35

will also go to improve student housing, and

45:38

it will provide Spelman with flexible

45:40

funding for critical needs. I

45:43

want to shout out Mrs. Rhonda Stryker, who

45:48

is the director of Stryker

45:50

Corporation. It's a medical

45:52

equipment company that was founded by her

45:54

grandfather. Her net

45:57

worth is $7.4 billion. The

46:00

Air and Sea has used

46:02

her philanthropy in the education.

46:04

Space in some pretty significant ways.

46:07

Gave one hundred million dollars to

46:09

create a homer strike Good after

46:11

Grandpa Medical School at Western Michigan

46:14

University see gave twenty million to

46:16

Harvard Medical School to support equitable

46:18

health care and. And twenty teams gave

46:21

thirty million dollars to spell men with at

46:23

the time. With. The largest gift from

46:25

living donors in Spellman's history and

46:27

little known fact. She also. Started

46:29

her career as a special

46:31

Ed teacher in Kalamazoo, Michigan

46:33

Public. Schools. Shout Outs You are.

46:37

Looks. Sell Men, as

46:39

many people know, is the number

46:41

one historically black housing university in

46:43

the country for the second year

46:46

in a row according to Us

46:48

News and World Report's best College

46:50

Rankings on and spell men and

46:52

then at colleges produce over half

46:54

of the nation's African American women

46:56

who go on to earn doctorates

46:59

in all science feals which is

47:01

more than is produced by. The

47:03

Ivy League seven sister schools combined.

47:05

There's been a big boom in

47:07

interest in. A. Species Over the past

47:09

few years, applications are up thirty percent

47:12

and room is soaring A H B

47:14

C use while general college enrollment. Is

47:16

declining nationally. On and it is

47:18

because of two things. One is

47:21

the cause of the tremendous. Track

47:23

record of success at H B C use

47:25

forty percent of all black engineers graduated from

47:27

Each B C use fifty percent of all

47:29

black. Lawyers, seventy percent of all

47:32

black doctors, and eighty percent of

47:34

all black churches graduate from a

47:36

species. Of. But it's also

47:38

because am. I think. In.

47:41

This particular moment in

47:43

history people are recognizing

47:46

especially talented I'm families

47:48

of. Talented young people were

47:50

looking at colleges and universities than

47:52

they understand that a species are.

47:55

Young people are getting a different

47:57

experience than they are at a

47:59

predominately. Wow institution. They get attention

48:01

to their identity development, their culture,

48:03

their history, their well being. They

48:05

find community in ways that they

48:08

aren't have not and so am

48:10

I Didn't go to an H

48:12

B C you but I'm. Here

48:14

for it all. My mom as A B

48:16

C you alarms many people in my circle

48:18

of friends, family or A B C O

48:20

L lamps and I'm excited that is B

48:23

C use are getting. Their.

48:25

Do that. They are being recognized

48:27

for the contributions that they. Make

48:29

to the United States

48:32

am I appreciate that

48:34

families are flocking to.

48:37

Universities that were built for Us and

48:40

by. Us and I'm excited that people

48:42

see them as a huge investment opportunity.

48:44

investments that are going to be made

48:46

at us armed with the women as

48:49

still men are going. To return

48:51

on Us National League ten or

48:53

twenty fold and selves. Thanks Rhonda!

48:55

Annual has been ah thanks you

48:58

too Books President Helene Jr. who

49:00

is a friend arm and is

49:02

doing amazing work as the President

49:04

of Spell Mans. Thank you to

49:07

the Spell men, women, Who

49:09

show up everywhere They

49:12

are unapologetically as leaders

49:14

as as sinkers. As

49:16

contributors and this is where my heart.

49:18

So I wanted to bring it's is

49:20

a podcast so that we had something

49:23

to celebrate. I

49:28

am a south love breeding that It's such

49:30

a good news and of course I wouldn't

49:32

be me if I them as it'll be

49:34

the limits who waits? We simply have in

49:36

a lot more. We have a. We

49:39

have on so many multi millionaires we

49:41

don't get that me where billionaires but

49:43

we have a lot of black multi

49:45

millionaires and more than we've ever had

49:47

before. This actually said be happening regularly

49:49

if not the one hundred million dollar

49:51

Donny same I know you got One

49:54

hundred people can give a million. Stay

49:57

at my say I make it a make your like

49:59

that so. I think that the

50:01

more arm in and just hearing

50:03

her story and how arm import

50:06

a. In housing and as

50:08

you literally put some money where our

50:10

mouth is I think that those are

50:13

The Harvard donation really struck home to

50:15

me for we talked so much about

50:17

black women's an arm and in and

50:19

when when they go to hospitals In

50:21

In in mortality rates, a black woman

50:24

without being pregnant and stuff and I

50:26

love that she's actually putting her money

50:28

where ah I'm we are. Politics are

50:30

aimed at seeing say a lot of

50:32

well see black people said be following

50:35

her. Sue In In In you know.

50:37

Even. If it takes you know making ninety nine

50:40

more frames a simple hit him aim and given

50:42

it to these amaze me. See you adding. Yeah.

50:45

This is one marks think you are

50:47

the Korea. Well

50:51

seeing the daughter of a. More.

50:54

House grad and my both my brothers

50:56

went to more health and my uncle

50:58

and yet. Somehow. My mom.

51:03

Convinced me to go to Mcallister

51:05

College and same town as success.

51:08

Now that respect, Mcallister of Snow.

51:11

Me at me and my colleagues had

51:13

to develop our black studies program there,

51:15

but you know it's okay. no love

51:17

lost, but it is one of my

51:19

big. Regrets Not. Going

51:22

to Spelman. I made up for

51:24

it as the allied with Mais pc

51:27

you experience at Texas Southern University. In

51:29

he said i'm buy it when ice

51:31

you I'm so excited by this gift

51:33

and and. And miles your point. There's so

51:35

much work that needs to be done across a

51:37

species he has He was one of those that

51:40

like rarely on the list of places to receive

51:42

these be guess it is usually like. Morehouse.

51:45

Fellow Man, I'm powered. Ah,

51:49

So. You know, super super excited

51:51

for this. But yes, but hopefully. It builds

51:53

momentum for more fund raising. I'm fund raising

51:55

right now for Sam. You I didn't go

51:57

to Sam. You act like I did. It

52:00

may my friends who

52:02

are. Twenty five years.

52:05

From the entry from Ninety Nine. From the entry

52:07

of Sam Sam does it from the time you

52:10

came in at a time you came out because

52:12

some people take longer than others. Ah, By

52:15

it but big fundraising campaign their that

52:17

I'm I'm excited to get Get Roman

52:19

for for twenty twenty four So thank

52:21

you for Rain as try. I love

52:24

to see it for so many reasons.

52:26

Miles I am with you that's there

52:28

are many many more people who could

52:30

be donating especially ones that look like

52:32

us and confirm the schools. And

52:35

A until a do. I

52:37

want to sound out a couple of other

52:39

folks who have given quite a bit on.

52:42

Last a week before

52:44

the lily. And down at david

52:46

hundred million. Dollars to the United

52:49

Negro College Fund, which represents a

52:51

number of Historically Black colleges and

52:53

universities. Thirty Seven Million And Thirty

52:55

Seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

52:57

I'm. They. Are trying to

52:59

raise a three hundred and they're trying

53:01

to raise three hundred and seventy million

53:03

dollars for a shared and down and

53:05

for all a species And so killing

53:07

to the United Negro College Fund is

53:09

also way to support. Five hundred and

53:12

Sixty million was donated by Mackenzie. To

53:15

Twenty two Historically Black Colleges demanding

53:17

or college fun and The Thurgood

53:20

Marshall Fund Netflix founder Reed Hastings

53:22

and his wife Patty Quillon split

53:24

one hundred and twenty million among

53:26

the United Negro College Fund Spelman.

53:29

And more homes and their money

53:31

of City Mayor an entrepreneur Michael

53:33

Bloomberg pledged a hundred million dollars

53:35

for student aid at the for

53:37

historically black medical schools. And

53:40

so there are people who

53:42

recognize that an investment in

53:44

historically black colleges and universities

53:46

is a good investments and

53:48

miles together. We are going

53:50

to challenge more Weeks Black.

53:52

Folks to understand if if you know

53:54

the nothing. Else rich black folks are rich

53:57

white people rights so boundaries rich white people

53:59

and give you. money to HBCUs.

54:01

Okay, okay. The

54:05

only thing I'll say is that they got

54:07

three quick things. One is that shout out

54:09

to the donors and where

54:12

if I'm raising it can't be zero. So if

54:14

any billionaires are listening, please call me. Let me

54:16

know. We're doing good work and making an impact.

54:19

Shout out to, you know, we love a Spelman

54:21

and the black medical schools and

54:23

all the things. Please donate. The

54:27

second thing is that the

54:29

disparity in extreme wealth is greater

54:31

than it has probably ever been since,

54:34

you know, there's a class of people

54:36

who had literally no money

54:39

because they were property. And

54:41

it is still criminal that

54:44

those people don't really pay taxes. And

54:48

while the donors are

54:50

good, it is really

54:52

hard when you're like, people

54:54

are making more money than I will probably ever

54:56

even know how to write on a piece of

54:58

paper. And

55:01

it is untaxed. That

55:03

is wild. That's right. Yeah, we can't

55:05

just, we can't just hope billionaires

55:08

become nice. And the third thing is

55:10

that when I think about the

55:14

black rich people, the

55:16

richest black people, not sort of just the

55:18

black financially secure people, because I feel like

55:20

when people say rich, sometimes they really mean

55:22

financially secure. I think when you talk about

55:24

white people and we say rich,

55:26

we mean you can buy in highland and it

55:28

is an afterthought. You

55:32

know, there

55:34

is, I want to pull

55:36

all the black rich people together and remind them

55:39

that the structure don't change. It don't

55:41

matter. It matters less.

55:44

And like, you know, I just have met some,

55:46

all of us have met some incredibly powerful

55:49

black people who are

55:51

moving mountains, who know the right

55:53

people and y'all know half the battle is getting

55:55

in the room. When you're in the

55:57

room, you can do a lot. Getting in the room is hard. And

56:00

I see some people who have intentionally

56:02

not made choices to change structures and

56:05

ways that just boggle my mind. I

56:07

think about all the black people

56:09

who won't do anything with education here in America, but

56:11

are built in schools in Africa. My

56:14

heart gets it sort of, because everybody

56:17

deserves education, but I just don't really

56:20

get it. There's a whole set of people

56:22

who make some choices, which

56:26

is why I love people like LeBron. Say what

56:28

you will about LeBron in that school. It

56:32

is a commitment to community. It is a wrap

56:34

around model. It's a community school. It

56:37

intentionally targets the kids who were left behind and

56:39

who are not like, you might

56:42

not love LeBron's work around race and whatever,

56:44

but that school is actually like, if you

56:47

are rich and want to do something at

56:49

the school level, I'm like, this to me

56:51

is like at least an attempt

56:53

to do it right. And

56:55

I respect that. I'll just leave it there. But

56:58

I will also say, because I think part of this

57:00

is just from my interaction of going to

57:02

very private schools and then the liberal

57:04

arts college and the folks of

57:06

color, particularly black folks that don't

57:09

have an HBCU experience or don't understand

57:12

the HBCU experience and

57:14

oftentimes think it is

57:16

actually better to have gone to

57:18

elite white schools. Like

57:21

there is some dissonance between black

57:24

folks actually understanding what

57:29

the HBCU experience and

57:31

construct is. Now

57:33

I'm not going to say most of those people spend their summers in

57:35

Martha's Vineyard, but. And

57:37

so, you know what I'm

57:40

saying? So it's there

57:42

you go. So I think from going

57:45

to like, I went to issues you

57:47

in Texas, right? And then I met

57:49

kids that went to Bethune, Tuskegee, like

57:52

those schools and folks,

57:55

you know, kind of, you know, staying

57:57

in the South or going so as far as Atlanta.

58:00

And so it's like, that is different

58:02

from, you know,

58:04

sort of the Black Wall Street mentality. I will

58:06

say Robert Smith did what he did, and that was the year

58:09

my baby brother graduated, and

58:11

he forgave all those loans. And those, my

58:13

brother's friends are able to do whatever they

58:15

can teach. They can do whatever they want to do.

58:17

So that is incredible. That was also

58:21

interestingly turned, right? Because he had

58:23

the feds on his back, and he was

58:25

about to go down, and why not? I

58:27

didn't know that, T. Girl,

58:30

listen, the Robert Smith thing is

58:32

like one of the biggest financial... Wait,

58:34

Chava, I wish y'all had seen VR's face.

58:36

I wish y'all had seen VR's leaning. Whoa,

58:38

ooh, I didn't know that, T. Okay, guys,

58:41

sorry. Go ahead, what were

58:43

you saying? The Robert Smith

58:45

Financial Tax Scandal is like,

58:47

I think, if I remember reading correctly,

58:49

it is like the biggest

58:51

tax evasion case in the history

58:54

of tax evasion. And

58:58

yeah, we'll have to talk about that on another thing. I'll

59:00

send you some articles, girl. It's a lot. And

59:02

right before it all went down, he was like, here's the

59:04

money, more I'll slip, absolve everybody's

59:07

loans, yes. And so I'm

59:09

not saying that you are related, I'm just saying it's

59:11

a coincidence. So

59:15

Ray, you have me thinking with what

59:17

you just commented, as you always do. But

59:20

over the weekend, I went to the Guggenheim

59:22

with somebody who works

59:24

at the Mellon Foundation, and that

59:27

was actually the basis of the conversation.

59:30

But it was around art, about how, what is

59:32

the psychology that you have to have as a

59:34

black person to get into certain types of art

59:36

spaces? Because it's, you go to Yale,

59:38

and then you go here, and this is how

59:41

you get into the galleries, how you get to

59:43

the museum. So what do you have to put

59:45

down psychologically in order to even get into these

59:47

spaces? And I think the same thing about any

59:49

industry, specifically industries like this, like who do you

59:51

have to pretend not to be, what do you

59:54

have to ignore, what do you have to kind

59:56

of put down to get inside of the room?

59:58

I think LeBron, to your point, is is a really

1:00:00

interesting case of somebody who didn't necessarily have

1:00:02

to do the bleaching

1:00:05

of the mind in order to survive

1:00:07

in those spaces. So when they do

1:00:09

have the access, when they do have

1:00:11

the money, they have a pro-black

1:00:13

way of thinking about it. They

1:00:15

have a more expansive

1:00:17

way of thinking about it. Whereas a lot

1:00:19

of other people, I

1:00:22

don't wanna say nobody's name, but a lot

1:00:24

of other people had to put down and

1:00:26

pick up so much respectability in order to

1:00:28

get into those spaces by

1:00:30

the time they have any power to do

1:00:32

anything. They're kind of ran useless. So

1:00:35

music, music writing is

1:00:38

just the foundation of why I

1:00:40

even am in media in any

1:00:42

capacity. I

1:00:44

love it, I grew up on it. And I just

1:00:47

had to close my eyes and think to myself, if

1:00:49

I was just writing about this little indie band, maybe

1:00:52

they have 10,000 followers, maybe 5,000, but

1:00:54

they're making really cool music, and I work at

1:00:56

Pitchfork, and then all of a sudden I see

1:00:58

Bob and some sunglasses come in, Bob

1:01:02

Wigg in a winter come in, and

1:01:04

she got sunglasses on, and she's telling

1:01:07

us that Pitchfork is now going to

1:01:09

be a part of GQ.

1:01:11

I would be horrified, and that's

1:01:13

exactly what happened for a lot of people

1:01:16

this past week. It was announced

1:01:19

that now Pitchfork will be

1:01:21

a part of GQ. Here it is,

1:01:23

a couple of reasons. Pitchfork

1:01:25

is specifically one of the last,

1:01:28

last, last, last publications that care

1:01:30

about indie music. If you have

1:01:32

not noticed, music has changed. They

1:01:35

are not being subtle about what

1:01:37

some music is for. There are

1:01:39

chicken wings and product

1:01:42

placements in some music videos, and

1:01:45

they're not being subtle about, yes, we're

1:01:47

selling vitamin waters, we're selling chicken, and

1:01:49

we're selling any other

1:01:51

product, and that's what we're interested in music that

1:01:54

is going to get us to sell this product. That is the

1:01:56

industry that you're in. And Pitchfork,

1:01:59

with sensor- people who were musicians

1:02:02

first, people who were experimenting with

1:02:04

music first, people who were interesting,

1:02:07

elevating and expanding

1:02:10

our ears, which is what music is supposed to be,

1:02:12

it's supposed to be a relay race of sorts of

1:02:14

to like, excellent and artistic

1:02:16

expansion, which a

1:02:18

lot of times commercialism can blunt

1:02:20

and destroy in silence. So

1:02:23

it's scary to think that Pitchfork is going

1:02:25

to be part of GQ. And

1:02:27

because now the motivation behind what gets

1:02:29

covered, and what music is getting written

1:02:32

about is now going to be changing.

1:02:34

We can't be silly about that. So

1:02:36

it's going to be like if Harry

1:02:38

Styles decides to do something interesting, it

1:02:40

will be covered. But if this band

1:02:42

who is 15k followers is

1:02:44

deciding to do something interesting, it

1:02:46

may not be able to get

1:02:48

that spot in Pitchfork, which was

1:02:50

again, one of the last places

1:02:52

that really

1:02:55

was centering that indie

1:02:57

musician. I don't want

1:02:59

to just hyper focus on Pitchfork, even though I

1:03:01

do, because you know, that

1:03:03

that's just a big deal to me. But also,

1:03:06

when I look at OK Player and what

1:03:08

happened to them early, late last year, and

1:03:10

how that is being

1:03:12

reshaped, that scares me as well.

1:03:15

OK Player is shaping out to

1:03:17

be another essence. So another black

1:03:19

platform that is really centering the

1:03:22

mainstream black experience,

1:03:24

which is okay. But OK Player was

1:03:26

the only place that if you needed

1:03:28

to know what was happening musically with

1:03:31

artists like Guapale, Amel LaRue,

1:03:33

Erika Padu, Jill Scott, The Roots, this was

1:03:35

the place that you that you will go

1:03:37

to. And now that OK

1:03:40

Player has shifted, it's like, where do you go?

1:03:42

And this is just a bigger, this is

1:03:45

just a just another peg

1:03:49

on like, kind of media being

1:03:51

destroyed, publication by

1:03:53

publication. I'm not going to pretend

1:03:55

to know a lot about it, but Sports Illustrated got

1:04:00

got some bad news last week

1:04:02

as well. And it's just

1:04:04

scary, you know, because now,

1:04:07

even if it appears

1:04:09

that media is not

1:04:13

monolithic, it's hard to ignore that,

1:04:15

no, these publications are becoming more

1:04:17

and more monolithic. It's really going

1:04:20

to become whoever has the attention

1:04:22

of the pop mainstream TikTok audience, that is

1:04:24

the music that is going to be centered

1:04:27

and pushed. And all the other people

1:04:29

who are doing music for other reasons,

1:04:32

all the, like, do y'all

1:04:34

remember, like, watching stuff in, you know, I'm

1:04:36

thinking about the era of, like, Fiona Apple,

1:04:39

and even going back to

1:04:41

the era of Aretha Franklin, how that was

1:04:43

just so not about certain types of commercial

1:04:47

incentives, and how that music just pierced

1:04:49

through and became big because it became

1:04:51

big, or even how some people know

1:04:53

about Bjork. And it's interesting that so

1:04:55

many people know about Bjork, but we

1:04:57

wouldn't be able to have a Bjork

1:05:00

in 2024, because she's not willing to

1:05:02

sell vitamin water in her commercials, and her

1:05:04

music is not formulaic, and it might not

1:05:06

do well on TikTok. That just really scares

1:05:08

me. And I think because it's

1:05:11

just based in music, it feels extra personal

1:05:13

as somebody who makes music, as somebody who

1:05:15

studies music, as somebody who writes about music.

1:05:17

But I think it's dangerous

1:05:19

for everybody, because now we're

1:05:22

experiencing media in a vacuum,

1:05:24

and it's very, very clear

1:05:26

what's being centered, what's

1:05:28

being pushed, and what's being hidden, and

1:05:31

what's being disregarded. And that shapes our

1:05:33

imaginations, that shapes our

1:05:35

conversations, that shapes what

1:05:38

we end up experiencing with other

1:05:40

people, and the kind

1:05:42

of art that we get. And if we want the

1:05:44

art to reflect the times, we just

1:05:48

cannot silence the people who are willing to reflect

1:05:50

the times, and heighten the

1:05:52

people who are willing to reflect product

1:05:55

and commercial mass appeal. What

1:06:01

y'all think? How y'all feel?

1:06:04

You know, and could you have you done this thought experiment of

1:06:06

if Nina Simone were to come out in 2023, 2024, that she

1:06:11

wouldn't be able to be successful? That so many people

1:06:13

that we love and honor wouldn't be

1:06:15

able to survive in today's marketplace? I'll

1:06:21

tell you, I looked up and I thought it

1:06:23

was a joke that Sports Illustrated laid off the

1:06:25

entire staff. So it is,

1:06:28

you know, pitchforks Sports Illustrated. And what

1:06:30

I think about, so I obviously have

1:06:32

not followed sports my whole life, but

1:06:34

I know Sports Illustrated because randomly the

1:06:38

writer who broke the LeBron

1:06:40

cover story followed me on Twitter

1:06:42

and I followed him. You know, he passed away recently. And

1:06:45

I think about people like LeBron who

1:06:48

like that story was a defining story

1:06:50

in his career. That was a huge

1:06:52

deal. It's a cover story.

1:06:54

He's a high school student, but that

1:06:56

is just one of, you know, Serena

1:06:59

on the cover. Like all, there are

1:07:01

so many people who

1:07:03

Sports Illustrated was just a seminal

1:07:05

moment in shaping the public understanding

1:07:08

of their incredible

1:07:10

abilities. And not

1:07:12

that they were laying off people, but

1:07:14

they laid off the entire staff. Pitchfork

1:07:18

being, pitchfork doing layoffs

1:07:20

wasn't surprising. Pitchfork

1:07:22

being absorbed in a men's magazine was

1:07:24

like, what? You know, so I am,

1:07:27

we are in the dark days, especially because

1:07:29

what's left is social media

1:07:32

and the incentive structure of social media is a

1:07:34

lot of things. It is not truth. It is,

1:07:36

there are a whole lot of things are incentivized.

1:07:39

Truth is not one of them. I

1:07:41

think what is also incentivized as well

1:07:44

when it particularly comes to music is

1:07:47

sensationalism. And I think there's, you know,

1:07:49

we've always had very sexual flamboyant artists

1:07:51

and, you know, I was just listening

1:07:53

to the Macarena the other day and

1:07:55

they're having a little nostalgic moment. So

1:07:58

I don't want to catastrophize any. But

1:08:00

I do think that if it's all about

1:08:02

who can get the most clicks and get

1:08:05

the most views, then we're

1:08:07

going to end up in a place

1:08:09

where there's way more sexy reds than

1:08:12

insert another type of artist

1:08:15

in another type of perspective. I mean,

1:08:19

for me, this ultimately is all about money,

1:08:21

right? This

1:08:24

is the magazine industry is

1:08:26

shifting radically, and people just

1:08:28

are not buying magazines the

1:08:30

way they used to buy

1:08:32

magazines. Some magazines have been

1:08:34

successful in shifting to a digital platform.

1:08:37

Others have not. Sports Illustrated has been

1:08:39

struggling. But underneath

1:08:42

it all is the sort of

1:08:44

bottom line piece. And I don't

1:08:47

know much about Pitchfork, but I

1:08:49

can imagine that, you know, costs

1:08:52

are cut. They're going to

1:08:54

GQ, and there's a whole

1:08:56

financial incentive around that. Later

1:08:59

on, for the cultural impact, I

1:09:01

think that the financial thing is

1:09:03

probably what is driving that. Sports

1:09:05

Illustrated, they were acquired by

1:09:08

a firm. How

1:09:10

about this? They were acquired by

1:09:12

the dude who made five hour

1:09:15

energy drinks, like in

1:09:17

a $50 million deal, like a

1:09:19

$45 million deal a couple of

1:09:21

years ago. And his name

1:09:23

is Manosh Bhargava, the founder of

1:09:25

Five Hour Energy. And

1:09:28

he's been the new leader of the

1:09:30

Arena Group, which has run

1:09:32

Sports Illustrated, apparently not the best

1:09:35

new leader. And

1:09:37

they missed a payment to their

1:09:39

big overseer, and

1:09:41

it has triggered a whole thing with Atlanta.

1:09:44

Everybody off, and maybe they'll start

1:09:46

all over. But it

1:09:48

also, I think there's a lot

1:09:50

of these sort of big back

1:09:52

channel deals happening where hedge funds

1:09:55

and private equity are buying things

1:09:57

like the magazine industry are

1:09:59

buying things. things like the nursing

1:10:01

home industry are buying things

1:10:03

like not just commercial real estate but

1:10:06

residential real estate and setting crazy prices

1:10:08

and crazy. I mean the Sports Illustrated

1:10:10

thing was triggered because they missed a

1:10:13

payment to somebody and so the whole

1:10:15

thing goes up in arms and they've

1:10:17

created these crazy

1:10:19

financial incentives to dismantle

1:10:22

industries that we aren't even

1:10:24

paying attention to. And so when you wake

1:10:26

up and you aren't able to not just

1:10:29

not see the Sports Illustrated swimsuit

1:10:31

issue anymore or not see your

1:10:33

breaking new sports

1:10:35

icon or not able to get your indie music,

1:10:37

when you are not able to put your grandma

1:10:39

in a nursing home or when you're not able

1:10:42

to buy a house because the private equity establishment

1:10:45

has literally purchased the whole thing,

1:10:47

only then are we going to

1:10:49

be able to look back and

1:10:51

connect these dots. But this is

1:10:53

a much more insidious thing than

1:10:56

a couple of magazines going bad

1:10:58

because digital and social media, there is

1:11:01

a huge financial uprising

1:11:04

that's happening in this country around

1:11:06

who owns industries and that

1:11:09

wealth, you think the wealth is concentrated

1:11:11

now, that wealth is getting more and

1:11:13

more concentrated and so yikes.

1:11:16

Thanks for bringing this. This is the Canarian Nicole

1:11:18

Mine as far as I'm concerned. Yeah

1:11:23

and the only thing I'll say is I

1:11:29

am married to a journalist and

1:11:31

a journalist who was a correspondent

1:11:33

for Vice News and so I

1:11:36

think we've been

1:11:39

impacted just in terms of this

1:11:44

individual who I love and respect and

1:11:46

who puts herself in very

1:11:48

difficult circumstances to

1:11:50

tell stories that are important to her. The opportunity

1:11:55

for that actually

1:11:58

isn't, It's

1:12:00

such a sliver of an opportunity that

1:12:02

without Vice News existing,

1:12:04

there are actually so few other

1:12:07

platforms where she can do the work that

1:12:09

she loves to do and tell the stories

1:12:11

that otherwise will go untold. So

1:12:14

I think that's what

1:12:16

I, I mean, Miles, your point,

1:12:18

it's like, how will we know? How

1:12:21

will we know? But

1:12:23

for, you

1:12:25

know, and obviously Vice is

1:12:27

not perfect. We can have a whole podcast on

1:12:29

that, but how, you

1:12:32

know, without some of these really

1:12:34

intentional voices, like how would we,

1:12:36

how would we know? How would we know? The

1:12:39

last thing that I'll say is

1:12:41

watching the Cindy Adams gossip documentary

1:12:43

has been so illuminating for me

1:12:46

because Cindy Adams, she

1:12:49

was in, she worked at New York

1:12:51

Post and she still works at New

1:12:53

York Post. But inside of that documentary,

1:12:55

it talks about how Republicans and conservatives

1:12:57

saw the value of posts, saw the

1:12:59

value of media. And when those things

1:13:01

and when, and when it wasn't making

1:13:03

any profit, they were like, we're not

1:13:05

selling, we're keeping these on because they,

1:13:07

and we're going to figure this thing

1:13:09

out and I'm going to keep it even

1:13:11

if it's costing me money. Cause they knew

1:13:14

that the value of being influential was just

1:13:16

bigger than it being profitable. So

1:13:18

I actually come out of my money per

1:13:20

year to keep this thing going. If that's what

1:13:22

it takes. And I think that I just wish

1:13:24

that more people who were

1:13:27

the left on the left of things, on the

1:13:29

independent of things, on the more radical of things

1:13:31

had the same, had

1:13:33

the same spirit, specifically people with means,

1:13:36

you know, people who are,

1:13:38

are wealthy could think that in

1:13:40

the same way instead of just

1:13:42

letting everything be absorbed by the

1:13:44

commercial monster automatically. Don't

1:13:47

go anywhere. More podcasting people in the comments. If

1:13:54

someone were afraid of the dentist, maybe they

1:13:56

haven't been in a long time, maybe they're

1:13:58

embarrassed because they haven't been in a

1:14:01

while, I feel like this would

1:14:03

be a really safe place for them to go and get

1:14:05

the care that they need. At

1:14:07

Advanced Dentistry, we get it. If

1:14:10

you've been avoiding the dentist because of fear, worry,

1:14:12

or just not wanting to be judged, if

1:14:14

you want to learn how IV sedation can

1:14:16

change your life, visit

1:14:19

nofeardentist.com. Want

1:14:25

the same expert advice you get from

1:14:27

the pros in the store while shopping

1:14:29

online at DiscountTire.com? Meet Treadwell, your personal

1:14:32

online tire guide that matches you with

1:14:34

the perfect tire for your vehicle. Get

1:14:36

your best match in one minute or less

1:14:38

with Treadwell by Discount Tire. Luxury

1:14:42

is meant to be livable. Discover

1:14:44

the new leather collection at Ashley

1:14:46

with premium quality leather sofas, recliners,

1:14:49

and more all built to last.

1:14:51

No matter how many spoves, scuffs,

1:14:53

or pet-related mishaps come its way,

1:14:55

the leather collection at Ashley is

1:14:57

made with the durability you need

1:14:59

for the whole family. Shop

1:15:02

the new leather collection at Ashley and find shares

1:15:04

starting at $499.99 and sofas at

1:15:07

$599.99. Ashley, for the love of home. This

1:15:16

week,

1:15:22

we welcome Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves

1:15:24

on the pod to talk about some of

1:15:27

the initiatives that are making developments through the

1:15:29

Biden administration. I learned a ton.

1:15:31

I had met nobody in the Commerce Department

1:15:33

before. And you will too. Here

1:15:36

we go. Don Graves, thanks so much for joining us today

1:15:38

on Pod Save the People. Great.

1:15:40

It's so good to be with you, brother. Now

1:15:42

we don't have a lot of politicians on anymore, people

1:15:45

who work in the government. So

1:15:47

this is a rare experience. We have

1:15:49

a lot of authors on recently. Can

1:15:52

you talk about how you got to public

1:15:54

service? You've worked in a range of roles.

1:15:56

You currently are in a very cool role,

1:15:58

which we'll talk about. But how

1:16:00

did you, did you know you always wanted to be

1:16:02

in public service? Did you like, did you join a

1:16:04

board one day and then all of a sudden just

1:16:06

like spiraled into public service? How'd this happen? Well,

1:16:10

DeRay, I grew up in

1:16:12

Cleveland, Ohio and East Cleveland and,

1:16:15

and then back and forth between Cleveland and

1:16:17

DC. And I saw

1:16:20

what we all see in our

1:16:22

communities and that's the

1:16:24

cycle of poverty, the lack of

1:16:26

investment. The decades of

1:16:29

disinvestment and persistent, systemic

1:16:33

discrimination. And

1:16:35

it got me to thinking that

1:16:37

there had to be a better solution

1:16:39

because what was working in other

1:16:41

communities wasn't working in our communities.

1:16:45

So, you know,

1:16:47

I got interested in

1:16:49

this work sort of out

1:16:51

of, I fell into it. I

1:16:54

was in law school and

1:16:57

here in DC at Georgetown and I got

1:16:59

a job working at a civil rights organization

1:17:03

for the summer. And we were

1:17:05

focusing on economic empowerment issues

1:17:08

and making sure that people

1:17:10

had the financial literacy

1:17:12

and access to, to

1:17:15

economic opportunities that they were missing. And

1:17:19

that showed, it sort of opened up

1:17:21

my eyes to some of the systemic

1:17:23

issues and the challenges that we face,

1:17:26

like the red lining that

1:17:28

has gone out on in so many

1:17:30

of our communities. And it made me

1:17:32

think, well, there's more that I could

1:17:34

do than just making money. Perhaps

1:17:37

I could actually devote my life

1:17:40

and my career to trying to

1:17:42

find ways to create opportunity

1:17:44

because people have hopes and they have

1:17:47

dreams. But they

1:17:49

aren't always provided the opportunity to turn those hopes

1:17:51

and dreams into lives of dignity. Now,

1:17:55

as the deputy secretary of commerce, I think most

1:17:58

of our listeners would be like, I don't. know

1:18:00

what the Department of Commerce does.

1:18:03

What is the Department of Commerce doing and why does it

1:18:06

matter to people? Well

1:18:08

I am very fortunate to work

1:18:11

in a department. Most people if they do know

1:18:13

anything about it, they think that it's

1:18:15

the Department of Business and we

1:18:18

certainly work with businesses but

1:18:20

we're really what I call

1:18:22

America's hall closet and

1:18:24

the thing about your hall closet is

1:18:26

no matter what you need

1:18:28

you can always find what you need in your hall

1:18:30

closet. So that's

1:18:33

the great part about the Department of

1:18:35

Commerce. We touch almost every

1:18:37

aspect of people's lives and

1:18:40

the economy. We have 13 different

1:18:43

bureaus, everything from

1:18:45

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

1:18:47

which includes the National Weather

1:18:49

Service which handles climate issues and

1:18:52

things like environmental justice to

1:18:54

the Minority Business Development Agency, the sole

1:18:56

agency in the federal government and I

1:18:59

know a lot of folks in our

1:19:01

community don't realize this, it's the sole

1:19:03

agency devoted towards ensuring

1:19:05

the long term health

1:19:07

success of entrepreneurs

1:19:10

who are socially and economically disadvantaged.

1:19:13

So we touch all of

1:19:15

that, international trade, standards,

1:19:18

manufacturing, telecommunications,

1:19:21

you name it and the Department of Commerce

1:19:24

touches it. Also the census is in your

1:19:26

department. That's right. Census

1:19:28

Bureau and the Patent and Trademark Office,

1:19:31

the Bureau of Economic Analysis, we are

1:19:33

a statistical agency, a science

1:19:35

agency as well as a

1:19:38

policy and program department and

1:19:40

it's important the Census Bureau,

1:19:42

the one agency

1:19:45

that's called out in the Constitution, the

1:19:48

census is critically important for us

1:19:50

to determine how resources are going

1:19:52

to be used because every federal

1:19:54

program, if it's based on

1:19:57

what we call formula grants, it means that

1:20:00

can give resources based on the

1:20:02

population. And if you don't

1:20:04

know what your population is, if you can't

1:20:06

count who lives in which community, then

1:20:08

you're not gonna be able to equitably deliver

1:20:11

those resources to the communities. Now,

1:20:15

one of the Biden initiatives, if

1:20:17

I got this correctly and I'm gonna screw it up,

1:20:20

so please fix it for me, is the Chips and

1:20:22

Science Act of 2022, that

1:20:26

it's supposed to help with access around technology

1:20:29

and a range of communities. But can you

1:20:31

help us understand why it matters? Like, is

1:20:33

this a continuation of work that has been

1:20:35

happening for a long time? Is this a

1:20:37

new thing that the Biden administration put out?

1:20:40

Is this gonna target a range of communities?

1:20:42

How do we think about it? So

1:20:45

I think it's important for folks to

1:20:48

take a step back and fully

1:20:50

appreciate what semiconductors

1:20:52

or chips actually are. And

1:20:55

then I'll get to your question. Semiconductors,

1:20:58

microchips are in everything that we

1:21:00

use in modern life. They

1:21:03

are in our telephones, they're in

1:21:05

our computers, our cars, our appliances.

1:21:08

They're certainly in advanced technologies and

1:21:10

some of our military

1:21:13

technology, but really they are

1:21:15

in everything that we use every single

1:21:17

day. And the way to think about

1:21:19

them is that they are the brains

1:21:21

that allow our technologies to operate. So

1:21:25

at one point, we were the

1:21:27

leaders in chip

1:21:29

technology, in the production of

1:21:31

chips. Squy Silicon Valley

1:21:33

is named the way it is because

1:21:36

semiconductors by and large are made

1:21:38

of silicon. And so Silicon

1:21:40

Valley was the place where the chips were developed

1:21:43

and really we

1:21:45

advanced and led the world in its

1:21:47

production. But over the course

1:21:49

of a number of decades, we've

1:21:51

lost all of that manufacturing capacity in

1:21:54

the United States, especially for the most

1:21:56

advanced chips. Now we only account

1:21:58

for about 10%. of

1:22:01

the worldwide production of

1:22:03

semiconductors. Why is

1:22:05

that important? Well, remember

1:22:08

in the pandemic, when supply chains

1:22:10

were shutting down all over the

1:22:12

globe and the big

1:22:14

three automakers, for instance, they

1:22:16

had real challenges getting a range of

1:22:18

different components, but the biggest challenge that

1:22:21

they had was getting the chips that

1:22:23

they needed to control their vehicles.

1:22:26

So we ended up producing 8 million

1:22:28

cars. They came off the assembly lines, but

1:22:31

they sat there at the

1:22:33

manufacturing plants. They couldn't go anywhere because they

1:22:35

didn't have the chips to be

1:22:37

able to drive them anywhere. So you couldn't get

1:22:39

them to the deal with it. That's what happened?

1:22:41

That was, it was a huge driver of

1:22:44

inflation back in 21. It

1:22:47

was basically one third of

1:22:49

the rise of inflation in 2021. So

1:22:53

you see what the supply

1:22:55

chain challenges can do if,

1:22:58

especially as it relates to chips, which is in

1:23:00

everything, when you

1:23:02

have those things break down, then it

1:23:04

means that we don't have what we need to

1:23:06

produce. So now you

1:23:08

fast forward and you see why chips

1:23:11

production is so important. It's not just about

1:23:13

the companies that make the chips. It's

1:23:16

about all the companies that use the

1:23:18

chips and of course all the companies

1:23:20

that provide supplies and the

1:23:23

equipment to the chip companies. It

1:23:26

has a huge ramifications for our

1:23:28

economy, but what the president knew

1:23:30

from day one was that we

1:23:32

had to move more production back

1:23:34

to the United States. And that's

1:23:36

why he working with Congress was

1:23:38

able to pass the Chips and

1:23:40

Science Act. It's giving us more

1:23:43

than $50 billion to invest

1:23:45

in chip making in all

1:23:47

of the facilities around the country

1:23:50

and the ecosystem, all the suppliers

1:23:52

and manufacturers of equipment that

1:23:54

support the chip makers. What

1:23:56

we're doing is beginning

1:23:58

to make those... investments. But

1:24:01

what we're seeing is that it's not just

1:24:03

about our 50 billion dollars, which is a

1:24:05

lot of money, but it's not nearly enough

1:24:07

of what we need. The

1:24:10

private sector is coming in and making

1:24:12

huge investments. So they've already made more

1:24:14

than $200 billion of

1:24:17

investments on top of the investments that we're

1:24:19

making. So what that means

1:24:21

is that we're going to create about

1:24:24

100,000 new construction jobs across the country.

1:24:26

We're going to create 90,000

1:24:29

other directly related jobs in

1:24:31

the ecosystem. That means

1:24:33

that our companies all across the country,

1:24:35

and it's not just about Silicon Valley,

1:24:38

it's about every community in the country can

1:24:40

participate in some way in

1:24:43

the broader CHIP's ecosystem. That means good

1:24:45

jobs, family sustaining jobs, and it means

1:24:47

that we can't be held hostage to

1:24:49

other countries because they're the ones who

1:24:51

are producing the CHIPs. Now, will there

1:24:53

be like baby Silicon Valley that pops

1:24:55

up across the country? Is that how

1:24:57

this is going to work? So you

1:25:00

already see some major hubs

1:25:02

of semiconductor leadership all across

1:25:04

the country. We

1:25:06

know that places like Arizona,

1:25:09

Texas, New York State,

1:25:12

even Ohio near

1:25:14

Columbus, there's major investments

1:25:16

in semiconductor production. We

1:25:19

also know that there are a whole bunch

1:25:22

of different industries that feed

1:25:24

into the semiconductor industry. So

1:25:26

when you invest in these

1:25:29

hubs of activity for

1:25:31

semiconductors, it means that all

1:25:33

the manufacturing plants, so let's take, I'm

1:25:36

from Ohio, so let's take

1:25:38

the Intel investment in Columbus.

1:25:41

That's going to create a

1:25:43

whole ecosystem across Ohio and

1:25:46

in the region where companies

1:25:48

are providing the manufacturing components,

1:25:50

the equipment, the supplies, that

1:25:52

means that there's a whole downstream

1:25:54

impact on communities. But the most

1:25:56

important piece of this, and I know this is something that

1:25:59

you care a lot about. is that

1:26:01

we've been very focused on making sure

1:26:03

that this was done in an equitable

1:26:05

way, that it was done in an

1:26:07

inclusive way, because you and I both

1:26:09

have seen for too long that

1:26:11

as industries develop, they

1:26:14

end up missing communities of

1:26:17

color in particular, but a whole range

1:26:19

of underserved communities. So it

1:26:21

was important for us to make sure that

1:26:23

as we make these transformative investments in communities,

1:26:26

we do it in a way that

1:26:28

is absolutely equitable and inclusive, that

1:26:30

we're bringing in a range of

1:26:32

other companies that we're creating workforce

1:26:34

pathways so that folks in

1:26:37

the black and brown community can

1:26:39

participate in this. It's about,

1:26:41

someone had said recently, back

1:26:44

in the day, it was about moving from the back of

1:26:46

the bus to driving the bus. What I'm

1:26:48

saying is we can't think about just

1:26:50

driving the bus anymore. We have to own the bus

1:26:52

company. Boom. Now,

1:26:56

I see that Baltimore's on the list as

1:26:58

one of the cities, which is dope. How

1:27:00

did the cities choose? Did

1:27:02

they apply? Did you all choose the cities? Did you

1:27:04

recruit the cities? How'd that work? So

1:27:07

what you're talking about is this program

1:27:09

called the Tech Hubs Program. So

1:27:12

our Tech Hubs Program

1:27:14

aligns directly with our

1:27:17

CHIPs Program efforts. The

1:27:19

Tech Hubs are basically meant

1:27:21

to focus on these

1:27:24

transformative investments that can take

1:27:26

a community that has some leadership

1:27:28

in a particular industry and

1:27:30

can make it globally competitive.

1:27:33

So it's not just about

1:27:35

Baltimore being successful on predictive

1:27:38

healthcare technology just

1:27:40

for Baltimore or even in the region. It's about

1:27:42

making sure that Baltimore is

1:27:44

now this leader around the world, bringing

1:27:47

more investment, more

1:27:49

activities. But also, and this is

1:27:51

why Baltimore was so

1:27:54

intriguing, you can deal with the challenges

1:27:56

that a community like that faces, 20 percent

1:27:59

difference. in healthcare

1:28:02

outcomes, in life

1:28:04

spans as a

1:28:06

result of where you live. So

1:28:09

predictive healthcare technologies are critically important

1:28:11

for a community like Baltimore. Now,

1:28:16

Dan, the question that I was waiting to ask

1:28:18

you, because I'm like, I'm curious,

1:28:21

is what does the federal government and

1:28:23

commerce, you have the minority business department,

1:28:25

what does that even mean? Like what, you know, because

1:28:27

when I think about minority business, I'll tell you, I

1:28:30

think about the SBA, for instance, I'm like,

1:28:32

oh, the small business administration probably does small

1:28:34

businesses. Or I think

1:28:36

that the agencies all have like a

1:28:39

minority business percentage or whatever that they,

1:28:41

so, but when I realized that

1:28:43

your, your department has like a whole office, I'm like,

1:28:45

what do they do? What does it, what does that

1:28:47

mean? Well, we

1:28:50

have known that the

1:28:53

challenge that socially and economically

1:28:55

disadvantaged people have had in

1:28:57

participating successfully in the economy,

1:28:59

that's especially true for

1:29:01

people of color and African Americans,

1:29:03

I think, have had the hardest times.

1:29:05

You know, I think about my ancestors,

1:29:09

my four times great grandparents who

1:29:12

started, they were formerly enslaved, they

1:29:14

started horse and buggy

1:29:16

taxi business. They were able to

1:29:18

buy land that is actually the

1:29:20

land that the Department of Commerce now sits on. They

1:29:23

grew that business and they

1:29:26

helped their son not only take

1:29:28

over the business but expand his

1:29:30

business and he ran the

1:29:34

most prestigious and exclusive

1:29:36

hotel, not just in Washington, D.C.,

1:29:38

but in the entire United States.

1:29:41

He was friends with

1:29:43

Charles Sumner, the abolitionist senator

1:29:45

from Massachusetts. They used to

1:29:48

take people up

1:29:50

the rivers from the south, helping them escape

1:29:52

from slavery. He

1:29:54

had a successful business but the

1:29:56

challenge is not just for him, and this

1:29:59

isn't about me, The challenge is that

1:30:02

even when you have

1:30:04

the opportunity to develop

1:30:07

long-term intergenerational wealth, which is

1:30:09

a really hard thing to

1:30:11

do in this country, it's

1:30:14

also really easy for someone

1:30:17

to lose that wealth. And

1:30:19

for too long, the

1:30:22

brothers and sisters who have good ideas, who

1:30:25

want to take their idea and turn it

1:30:27

into something, haven't had anyone

1:30:30

who's in their corner. And

1:30:33

that's really what this is all about.

1:30:35

It's about opening doors and keeping them

1:30:37

open. It's about making sure that

1:30:40

the entrepreneur

1:30:42

who has this great idea that

1:30:45

doesn't know where to go can go to

1:30:47

someone and get their help, that

1:30:49

they can get access to credit and

1:30:51

capital, that they have advisors on things

1:30:53

like how to run their business, how

1:30:55

to manage their business, how to get

1:30:58

their accounting done, get the legal support that

1:31:00

they need. That's what the

1:31:02

Minority Business Development Agency is all about. It's about

1:31:04

meeting people where they are. We

1:31:06

have centers all across the country and

1:31:09

making sure that we're helping them

1:31:11

get to a place where

1:31:13

they can be very successful.

1:31:16

And the important thing to know about MBDA

1:31:18

and why I'm so proud to serve in

1:31:20

this administration, the president

1:31:23

has been a very big

1:31:25

supporter of equity. And

1:31:27

he knew that MBDA, which

1:31:30

was actually created under Nixon, was

1:31:33

not made, it was done by

1:31:36

executive order. It was not

1:31:38

a permanent part of the Department of Commerce.

1:31:40

And so the president pushed, and

1:31:43

as a part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, the

1:31:46

Minority Business Development Agency is now a

1:31:49

permanent part of the federal government,

1:31:51

meaning that no president can come

1:31:53

in and by executive order do

1:31:56

away with the Minority Business Development Agency. That's

1:32:00

cool. I'm interested too because you have

1:32:02

worked in the federal government at the

1:32:04

highest levels sort of

1:32:06

before COVID happened and then

1:32:08

after COVID in you

1:32:10

know Treasury, in the White House,

1:32:13

now Commerce. How would

1:32:15

you describe the change? Like I have to

1:32:17

imagine that you've seen whether it's jobs or

1:32:20

like need around business

1:32:22

help or like I feel like you because

1:32:24

you've been able to see it like across

1:32:26

the country and not just in you know

1:32:28

I've seen it in cities but you've seen

1:32:30

it at a larger scale just like what it

1:32:32

means to make decisions before and

1:32:34

after. How would you describe that? So

1:32:37

there's a couple things in

1:32:40

your question. Let me just

1:32:42

say that the

1:32:44

pandemic, the first part

1:32:47

of this, the pandemic changed our

1:32:49

country, changed our world and I think

1:32:52

there's we're still dealing with recovering

1:32:55

from the impacts of the pandemic.

1:32:57

People still economically

1:33:01

are not feeling what

1:33:04

we're actually seeing in the numbers but

1:33:06

setting that aside, you know this is

1:33:08

my third administration in which I've served

1:33:11

and the most visible change

1:33:13

in the administration is

1:33:15

the people who are in these jobs. What

1:33:18

I think people may

1:33:21

not realize is that the

1:33:23

president has both more power

1:33:25

and less power than people think

1:33:27

he does. People think that

1:33:29

he can with you know signature of his

1:33:31

pen or a snap of his fingers, he

1:33:34

can change wholesale everyone's

1:33:38

living conditions. He can change the economy.

1:33:40

He can't do that. He can take

1:33:42

big actions to pass a major piece

1:33:44

of the legislation but the most important

1:33:46

thing that he can do is

1:33:49

to make sure that the people who are

1:33:51

in jobs like mine have the lived

1:33:53

experience of Americans, that

1:33:56

they reflect who we are as a country.

1:33:59

Our Country is great. The strength is our

1:34:01

diversity. And it's why we've

1:34:04

been able to be successful for so

1:34:06

long. Because new people come in with

1:34:08

new ideas. They can take their ideas

1:34:10

and and turn them into something that

1:34:13

ah that fixes that sounds as it

1:34:15

were facing in ways that no one

1:34:17

else before them had seen because they

1:34:20

have a very different perspective. And

1:34:22

so, the President's perhaps his greatest

1:34:24

strength is knowing that he needed

1:34:27

to put in position people who

1:34:29

reflected the country. Is.

1:34:31

Why he's he selected the

1:34:33

secretary ah and myself for

1:34:36

these. Roles. Because we

1:34:38

reflect America. Is. Why

1:34:40

He has been so focused

1:34:42

on making sure that we

1:34:44

had more African American women

1:34:46

in positions I'm and and judgeships

1:34:49

across the country than any other

1:34:51

president has combined. Because.

1:34:53

People who are in these positions

1:34:55

If they reflect the life experience,

1:34:57

the lived experiences of what we

1:34:59

face in our communities, it means

1:35:01

that they're going to make decisions.

1:35:04

That. Will reflect those add that that

1:35:06

that life experience and may be able

1:35:08

to get it those challenges in ways

1:35:10

that other people who came before hadn't.

1:35:13

So that's the biggest things that I've

1:35:15

seen over the course of these three

1:35:17

different administrations. It's a vastly different make

1:35:19

up of the leadership in the Federal

1:35:21

government. Now

1:35:24

who are the two questions are we Ask everybody

1:35:27

out? One of them is what's a piece of

1:35:29

ice has you gotten over the years is with

1:35:31

you. This

1:35:33

one is an easy one because

1:35:35

it's basically how I live my

1:35:37

day. So backs I during the

1:35:39

Clinton Administration, Ron Brown with the

1:35:42

Secretary of Commerce and back then

1:35:44

I didn't really know what what

1:35:46

Commerce dead either. But

1:35:49

he was friends with the

1:35:51

head of the Civil Rights

1:35:53

organization. That I was working for. And.

1:35:56

We. Got talking about going on

1:35:58

this trip. with Secretary

1:36:01

Brown to France and

1:36:03

then on to Croatia. We were going to join him

1:36:05

on the trip. And then at the

1:36:07

last minute, we had to pull out of the trip. Lo

1:36:11

and behold, a few days later, we get

1:36:13

word that his plane has crashed,

1:36:15

and all the folks on the

1:36:17

plane had perished with him, all

1:36:20

of the great commerce colleagues and

1:36:22

others from across the administration. The

1:36:27

head of my organization, Reverend Charles Stiff,

1:36:30

was about to give a speech. And

1:36:32

he stopped his speech cold when he

1:36:34

got word, and he said, I'm going to deliver a different

1:36:37

speech. And he told the audience, I

1:36:39

was said to say something, but Ron Brown just

1:36:41

died, and I have to tell

1:36:43

this to you. And he gave an emotional

1:36:45

speech. But the thing that stuck with me

1:36:47

was, he said, you have to have a

1:36:49

sense of urgency about that which you're called

1:36:51

to do, because life and times are tenuous.

1:36:54

And what that told me is, we don't have

1:36:56

time to wait. We have to act now. You

1:36:58

have to focus on your North Star and the

1:37:01

things that you believe in, and

1:37:03

do everything that you can to get that

1:37:05

across the finish line. Because if

1:37:07

you think that you'll get back to it in

1:37:09

a decade, you never know

1:37:11

if you're actually going to be around to tackle

1:37:13

it. Boom.

1:37:17

And the second question is, what

1:37:20

do you say to people whose hope is

1:37:22

challenged, who are like, based in the street,

1:37:24

they voted, they called, they testified, they read

1:37:26

the book, they went to the panel, they

1:37:28

saw the movie, and they're sort of like,

1:37:30

it doesn't feel like anything changed. What do

1:37:32

you say to those people? I'd

1:37:35

say there is a vast difference

1:37:38

between what this administration has done

1:37:40

and this president has done than

1:37:42

what we had before

1:37:45

he took office. You

1:37:47

look at the numbers, and I know this doesn't always

1:37:49

feel like it out in the community, but

1:37:52

the unemployment numbers for

1:37:55

black and brown communities are at historic

1:37:57

lows. The black unemployment numbers are

1:37:59

at historic lows. We just saw the number

1:38:01

last week, but for a it is

1:38:03

the lowest it it's ever been at

1:38:06

for an annual basis of the entire

1:38:08

year of Twenty Twenty Three. Black.

1:38:10

Unemployment was I was as

1:38:13

close as it's ever been

1:38:15

to quite unemployment. That.

1:38:18

Is know that it that is stunning.

1:38:20

Ah, in what it's been able to

1:38:22

put it, what it means for the

1:38:24

country. But. We also have

1:38:26

to recognize that people don't always feel

1:38:28

all bad. I and so I would

1:38:30

say that we're working on continuing to

1:38:32

bring down inflation is something that that

1:38:35

we've seen come down for more than

1:38:37

year is still higher than it needs

1:38:39

to be, but we're continue to work

1:38:41

on that. part of it is that

1:38:44

goes back to the supply chain issues

1:38:46

that I was talking about. We also

1:38:48

are making sure that we're tackling a

1:38:50

price gouging by companies. Companies

1:38:53

are making historic revenues.

1:38:56

At least profits are through the roof

1:38:58

and they're paying their C E O's

1:39:00

are exorbitant amounts. But. That.

1:39:03

Means that that someone has to pay for it. And.

1:39:06

It's not as a result of inflation

1:39:08

is that they're charging customers too much.

1:39:10

So the President has a whole effort

1:39:12

focused on bringing down prices by making

1:39:15

sure that companies can't price gouge. But.

1:39:18

We're also making historic investments

1:39:20

things like. We. Talked about

1:39:22

the Chips act or but investments in

1:39:24

high speed internet. It's

1:39:26

it's. just crazy to me in this day

1:39:28

and age that in the United States of

1:39:30

America. During. The pandemic. We had people

1:39:32

who were trying to decide which is their kids

1:39:34

got to go to school Monday. Because.

1:39:36

They only had enough bandwidth. For. One

1:39:38

of their kids who was home schooling

1:39:40

remotely to be able to do it.

1:39:43

Were. Making historic investment so

1:39:45

that every American has access

1:39:48

to affordable to low cost

1:39:50

high speed internet. Every household,

1:39:52

every business, every street across

1:39:55

the country. We're investing in

1:39:57

reorienting our entire economy. that

1:40:00

we can be built for the future, so

1:40:02

we can create jobs that will last, that

1:40:04

are good-paying jobs, high-quality jobs, family-sustaining jobs.

1:40:06

So that's what the president and the

1:40:09

rest of us are so focused on

1:40:11

every day, but it's so important for

1:40:13

me and others to actually show up

1:40:15

in the community, because you can't

1:40:17

just do the work and then not show up. And

1:40:20

so that's part of the reason that I'm

1:40:22

getting out around the country, to talk to

1:40:24

people about their fears, the challenges they're facing,

1:40:26

and make sure that I'm

1:40:28

taking back the issues that

1:40:31

they're encountering and trying to

1:40:33

access some of these

1:40:35

programs and some of the resources that are

1:40:37

going out across the country. It's why the

1:40:39

president is so focused on investing in America.

1:40:41

Well, wrapping up, where do people go to

1:40:43

stay in touch with you? Do they, is

1:40:45

it Instagram, is it Twitter, is it Facebook?

1:40:49

We're all over social, so

1:40:51

you can go to, first

1:40:54

off, you can go to the website. I know no

1:40:56

one goes to the website, but just go

1:40:59

to commerce.gov or you can Google us.

1:41:02

But you can also go to Twitter.

1:41:05

We also will make sure, Doree, that you get

1:41:08

all the information on how folks can

1:41:10

access these resources, because like I said,

1:41:12

we have centers all across the country.

1:41:15

We don't want people to have to

1:41:17

search around and try and figure out

1:41:19

how to navigate the complexity of the

1:41:22

federal bureaucracy. That's crazy. We

1:41:24

want people to be able to go to one-stop

1:41:26

places where they can get all the resources that

1:41:29