0:03

Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production

0:06

of I Heart Radio. Listen,

0:09

you already know this, but it's an election year.

0:12

You might already be tired of fearing about it.

0:14

But here's the thing. Democracy

0:16

doesn't work without you. I'm

0:19

Holly Frying, and I'm sitting down with

0:21

many of my fellow podcasters, from Will

0:23

Ferrell to Stephanie Rule as well as

0:26

other luminaries to find out about

0:28

their relationships with the ballot box and

0:30

ultimately just to find out why they

0:32

vote. I hope you're

0:34

exercising your right to vote, and if

0:36

you're not, I hope that their stories inspired

0:39

you today

0:45

on Why I'm Voting. It feels like a very

0:47

special day for me because I'm joined

0:49

by Aaron Manky, who is, of course a storyteller

0:52

and a writer and producer. He kind

0:54

of came onto the scene with his hit podcast Lore,

0:56

and that has led to many more podcasts

0:58

and his partnership with I Heart Radio,

1:01

which is how I got to know him. He

1:04

now heads up Grim and Mild Entertainment,

1:06

which is part of that initiative creating really

1:08

interesting stories. They have a new show

1:10

called American Shadows, which is launching in

1:12

the imminent future, and he's just

1:14

a friend of mine. So this feels like a lot of fun.

1:17

Hi erin Holly. I feel like I

1:19

haven't seen you in forever. Has it been

1:21

since the dinner at the restaurant or was there a

1:23

different time that one dinner

1:25

at the restaurant? Um? Yes, when you were

1:27

on tour in Atlanta. I think was the last time that

1:30

I saw because that was after Yeah, that

1:32

was after all of our orlandoceananigans.

1:34

What we're doing podcast movement. Yeah, it's

1:36

been too long, it has, and I want to once

1:39

the world is back to normal, I want to go back to that restaurant

1:41

and just eat and drink all night. I feel

1:43

like everyone's dance card will be so full the

1:45

second it's actually safe to like travel

1:48

and visit and do social things at

1:50

a normal level. Like we should just block

1:53

out a whole other year to catch up with everybody.

1:55

You know. I'm an introvert, so I'm

1:57

okay with not seeing people. But I've

1:59

learned to appreciate the humans in my life

2:01

that I do care for, and and so I

2:04

now know, like who do I miss, who do I not miss?

2:06

It's it's been really clarifying. I'm on

2:09

the miss list. You are. You're on the miss

2:11

list. You and Brian sweethearts. I love

2:13

you guys. My goodness, what spoiled

2:15

children we are. But that is neither

2:17

here nor there, because today we're talking about the much more

2:20

important issue, I mean, depending on how

2:22

you look at it, of our

2:24

voting rights. You

2:27

talk about historical things all the time, as

2:30

do I, so this might be an easier question for

2:32

you than it is for some people. Do you remember

2:35

when you first learned, probably as

2:37

a kid in school, about

2:39

really the workings of democracy and how

2:42

it all functioned, and that you had a part to play

2:44

in the process. I do. I mean, I think,

2:47

being of the same generation as you, I remember Schoolhouse

2:49

Rock and the lessons

2:51

driven into my head by that. But yeah, I remember

2:54

when I realized that, Wow, I'm

2:57

part of this group of people who will participate

2:59

in the future of the country, and that's that's

3:01

kind of cool. Did you register right away when you turn No?

3:06

No, I was. I was really disinterested,

3:10

and I think I suffered through

3:12

what people still today. They

3:14

look at the parties that are available, or the candidates

3:16

available, and they say, I don't like anybody. I'm

3:18

not going to be active and involved in it. And

3:20

that's what I did for a number of years. So then what

3:22

finally motivated you to become active

3:24

and involved and get registered when I realized

3:28

that change only happens when people,

3:31

people capital P or lower

3:33

case P, whatever you want to use, get behind

3:36

something and push for it, you know. And we're

3:38

seeing that with protests obviously, and that's a it's

3:40

a right of ours, but also this idea that

3:42

on this regular schedule we get to sit down and fell

3:45

on these little ovals with the black mark and

3:48

tell the nation what we

3:50

think should happen. And I think when you're young, you don't

3:52

really notice that things are bad or heading

3:54

into bad direction, or they're improving or

3:56

whatever. You you just kind of you're going about life. You're too

3:58

busy thinking about who your dating next,

4:00

or what's your job? Like, do you hate it?

4:02

You're gonna go look for something else. My apartment sucks,

4:05

all those things. Like, early adulthood is kind

4:07

of full of a lot of things in your brain.

4:09

But as you find smoother waters,

4:12

you start to pay attention to the world around you more.

4:14

And that's I think that's when I started

4:16

to realize that we needed some change. You

4:18

know. So do you remember the first time that you

4:20

voted? Do you remember what it felt like? Anti climactic?

4:24

You know, like we just talked about

4:26

it, all this power and responsibility. But

4:28

you go into a booth and you you fill

4:30

in what feels like a scantron test from senior

4:33

year, and then you walk away.

4:35

But you have to pair that with like sitting down that night

4:37

and watching election results or reading your local

4:40

paper or whatnot. Yeah, it wasn't the most mind

4:42

bloying experience, but I did realize

4:44

that now I'm part of the process

4:46

and I gotta keep doing this. Yeah, there is I think especially

4:49

that first time when you don't know, you walk out and there's kind

4:51

of a sense of like, okay, now what happens. There's

4:53

so much build up. I'm glad you

4:55

just mentioned your local paper because I want

4:57

to ask you about local election. Do

5:00

make sure you vote in the local elections like the you

5:02

know, sometimes smaller they don't

5:04

always come up every four years. They're popping

5:06

up every two in some places more often

5:08

than that. Yeah. Yeah, I

5:11

just did a mail in vote must have been a mint a month

5:13

ago for our our local elections, and actually

5:15

did research on the candidates and as best

5:17

you can when they are not very well known people,

5:20

because this is my community. When you start

5:22

paying real estate taxes into a town, you

5:25

start to feel a little bit of ownership and you realize, oh

5:27

wait, that measure on the ballot right there is

5:29

going to spend more of my tax money or it's going

5:31

to increase my taxes or decrease it. You get

5:34

interested in that. So, yeah, we we do all

5:36

of the My wife and I all of the

5:38

local elections. And I did it mail in because

5:41

Massachusetts has made it easy for people to mail

5:43

in their votes this year. You mentioned

5:45

you know that sometimes it's a lot of weird stuff

5:47

that comes up on that. And I know you to be a

5:50

hearty researcher. So do you have

5:52

like a process where you hunt down your

5:54

local people or do you like, how do you

5:56

prepare for a local election? You know, I look

5:58

at if they have part he's listed, you

6:01

know, I'll pay attention to what party they're from, if

6:03

you're going to vote party line. I look

6:05

at newcomers or you know, sometimes

6:07

it's a simple. A lot of local elections,

6:09

what you have is some old dude

6:12

is retiring and somebody's taking the place.

6:14

So it's not about who has a better platform

6:16

or whatever. It's more about, you

6:19

know, there are two new people vying for an empty seat,

6:21

and who has the most experience, And so I

6:23

do my best to find out, you know, what's the work experience

6:26

this person had, what's the political

6:28

experience. It's the kind of stuff that we

6:30

should ask all the way up the chain. You know, my

6:33

kids are in grade school and they think

6:35

that the person who runs the entire education

6:37

program in the country should probably be a former teacher,

6:40

and they're very surprised to learn that that's not the case

6:43

I look for. And and that's not a that's

6:45

not a party jab, that's a common sense thing.

6:47

I just like my political views are common

6:49

sense. I think that you should have experience

6:52

in the political sphere you're working in,

6:54

and so, you know, local elections, I looked at this

6:56

person wants to make decisions of the city council.

6:58

What were their previous political appointments or

7:00

whatnot? And I try to make a call that way. Have you ever

7:03

been in that position where it's exactly

7:05

as you described, Like, the person that's held this seemingly

7:08

like small in the grand scheme of things office

7:10

forever has retired and there's only one

7:13

person on the ballot. Yeah, it

7:15

happens a lot. Yeah, And I always feel

7:17

like, I don't know if I

7:19

feel cheated in that situation, but I'm

7:21

always like, should I just automatically vote

7:23

for this person whether or not they're

7:25

necessarily in line with my views?

7:28

Like we got to have somebody in there if I don't vote

7:30

for this is that really? Like

7:32

it's always tricky in those moments. I know,

7:35

it's it's like, what is my action of not

7:37

filling in the little oval do

7:39

for this person's chances of they're

7:41

going to get elected anyway? There's no opposing

7:44

party. It's very tricky. But that brings

7:46

up another thing I wanted to ask you about, because we

7:48

often, you know, I mean, you like

7:50

me are on social media and we're constantly

7:53

getting a barrage of like, here's what the latest

7:55

poll reveals. There are cases,

7:57

not always in an instance where there's only

8:00

in person running, but there are a lot of instances

8:02

where people think like the results of

8:04

this election are a foregone conclusion. How

8:06

do you approach those and do you still feel like it's

8:08

as important to get out and cast

8:10

that ballot just the same. You know, I have no

8:13

degree that qualifies me to do the

8:15

job that I have today. I have a bachelor's in

8:17

psychology. But when I one of the things I remember

8:20

about my time in college and taking my psychology

8:22

classes with statistics, and it's

8:25

this again. This goes back to common sense. I

8:27

think that if you do a a pole

8:30

or a survey and you

8:32

say, wow, se people are

8:34

leaning toward this candidate, don't take

8:36

it at face value because you have to look down at

8:38

the details and oh, you find out that,

8:40

well, this poll actually only asked two people

8:43

in a country of what million

8:46

people. That's dumb, Like, it's not

8:48

even a survey, it's just it's

8:51

it's a post it note on the website. It's it's so I

8:54

don't look at things like that, even big,

8:56

big polling places like eight.

9:00

So so wrong in two thousand and sixteen, because

9:03

you can only do so much in in assuming

9:06

the future based on the data you have, because

9:08

that that that data is skewed. Where did you do your survey?

9:10

Was it in a particular city? Well, that city has a

9:12

demographic makeup and it has a socio economic

9:15

makeup. And I just get really, really

9:18

leery of any of those

9:20

exit polls, and you know, surveys done

9:22

by groups, even if it's in the thousands of people

9:24

or tens of thousands, it's still not enough. It's not

9:26

a big enough sample size. You also mentioned

9:28

earlier that you did a mail in on your recent

9:30

local election. A lot of mail

9:32

in votes are thankfully being precipitated

9:35

by the weird circumstance that we are in right

9:37

now. But normally do you prefer to mail

9:39

in or vote early, or vote day

9:41

of, presuming we were not in a pandemic. If

9:43

we're not in a pandemic, I like to go in day of. I like

9:46

to be part of that buzzing community,

9:48

going in and out of town hall, of that kind of thing. But

9:50

you know, I think about my experience is

9:52

going to polls. It's probably the same for you. I

9:55

think it's an achilles heel in the system. But

9:57

all of the volunteers hands,

10:00

all the volunteers in my polling places have always

10:02

been elderly people. They're retired, they're

10:06

very, very interested in politics, and they want to contribute

10:08

to the system. But you have all of these people who

10:10

are the most susceptible right now to this

10:12

pandemic that's going on, and I don't want

10:14

to create a need for them to be out and about this

10:17

year. I want to I want to mail stuff in, but pandemic

10:19

aside. Yeah, get me in there on on election

10:21

day. That's fun. I like it. I just love seeing all

10:23

the other people in my county community.

10:26

I also will tell you our volunteers have started

10:28

shifting downward in age in the last six years,

10:30

which has been really cool to see. Like it used

10:33

to always be elderly,

10:35

usually really very sweet elderly ladies,

10:37

and now like the last few times have been like, wow,

10:39

you look like you're twenty eight, which is

10:42

a marvelous thing because it means people

10:44

are in that process. Yeah, when

10:46

it is voting day, do you have any

10:49

rituals around it? Do you have good luck clothing?

10:52

Do you like to watch polls all day? Do you

10:54

like to get distance from it? How does that day

10:56

play out for you? I don't

10:58

do anything ritualistic around it, you know. I try

11:00

to go around the same time. I try to pick

11:02

a time that where it's not going to be as busy, if that

11:04

even exists, and fully aware

11:06

that it's a privilege that I can even

11:09

go at like ten am in the in the morning, right Like

11:11

some people they have to work all day, and I work

11:13

for myself and I can just step in and do it. But

11:16

I'm on the East Coast. I get to see

11:19

pretty quickly that evening my local

11:21

stuff, my state stuff, and then we

11:23

sort of stay up late and watch the national

11:25

things, the Congress, Senate,

11:27

in House, what sort of things are shaking out

11:29

for that, and of course the presidential I think that's where

11:31

the ritual comes in, toward the evening

11:33

when the results are going to start coming and we sit down and we just

11:35

watch it. For my final question, you get

11:37

to be an advocate for voting in

11:40

a presumptive situation that is

11:42

fictional in this moment. Pretend that I

11:45

was chatting with you and we are friends like we are, and

11:47

I was like, yeah, I don't vote. What

11:49

would you tell me to

11:52

try to make sure that I understand how important

11:54

it is and that I get out there and use this

11:56

right. And I could take two tacks here how

11:59

I I could be the confrontational jerk

12:01

and say, look, if you don't vote, you have zero

12:03

rights to complain about how things are being run

12:06

in this country, because that's

12:08

how you express your complaints, you vote.

12:11

But the nice Errand would

12:13

say, look, you know, there are

12:15

so many things in your life that you don't

12:17

even realize are impacted by

12:20

the way the government is run and who's making

12:22

choices, whether those are passionate

12:25

like ideological beliefs, or whether

12:28

or not the road around the corner

12:30

is going to get paid this summer. You know, things as simple

12:32

as that are impacted by whether or not

12:34

we get out and we express our opinion and cast

12:36

a vote. And I know that there are cynics. I know that

12:38

there are people that say things like the two party

12:41

system is broken. Yeah, it might be broken,

12:43

but you don't change it by starting the third party. You change

12:45

it by getting into a party that exists and change

12:47

it from within. And some people will say, look,

12:49

the electoral college makes all the choices. We don't.

12:51

But you know, only five times in history

12:53

has the electoral college not gone with a popular

12:55

vote. Once was in two thousand sixteen, the

12:58

other was two thousand with George

13:00

W. Bush, and only three times in

13:02

our entire history before that. So

13:05

yeah, I think that it is important to get out and vote

13:07

because your voice at the

13:09

very least negates somebody else's voice

13:11

who's screaming the opposite things. You

13:14

have to contribute. This is this is one of the

13:16

most important rights we have, and there are

13:18

a lot of nations that don't have this right, so we should

13:20

be exercising it. Aaron, thank you so much. Are

13:23

you welcome one at the very least? Folks, just vote,

13:25

Just vote?

13:30

Hey, are you not registered to vote yet

13:32

but you think it's something you want to do. You

13:34

may still have time. Voter registration

13:36

deadlines vary by state, so to find

13:39

out the scoop for where you are, check out

13:41

a nonpartisan registration voting

13:43

site like headcount dot org or fair

13:45

vote dot org. Why I'm Voting

13:48

is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts

13:50

from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio

13:53

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

13:55

it is you listen to your favorite shows.