Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie an Samantha and welcome to Steph.
Speaker 1: I've never told your production of I Heart Radio. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I have just start with a question again, don't
Speaker 1: I I mean you don't have to. I mean I
Speaker 1: feel like it's tradition now, um, so let me ask.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I have to hide where I'm like really struggling.
Speaker 1: You know what, I have a good I have a
Speaker 1: good one. Yesterday. What was your birthday? Today? Is even
Speaker 1: though yes it's not that time frame as you're listening
Speaker 1: whenever you listen, but yesterday was Andy's birthday? So Annie,
Speaker 1: can you tell me what was the best thing you
Speaker 1: did on your birthday during quarantine? Because we're still quarantine. Oh,
Speaker 1: I actually turned out to be a lovely birthday. And
Speaker 1: I think, um, I would say that the relief of
Speaker 1: not having to plan a party, as much as I
Speaker 1: love a party, was wonderful. And also I have an
Speaker 1: insecurity that people just sort of forget about me and quarantine,
Speaker 1: and they didn't. They really showed up. I didn't ask,
Speaker 1: but people brought me beer, they brought me food, like
Speaker 1: socially distanced, but it was really steeve. It was I'm
Speaker 1: lucky to have a really good group of friends you included, Samantha. Yeah,
Speaker 1: our celebration is coming a little later. Yeah. See, now
Speaker 1: your question is so specific to me. Can't really answer
Speaker 1: what was you did yesterday? This is why I did
Speaker 1: this because I'm like, I don't I don't really want
Speaker 1: to ask answer a question. The bust thing I did
Speaker 1: yesterday I found a new game on my phone which
Speaker 1: has all these different puzzles, and I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is how I'm going to combat eld age dementia
Speaker 1: because I'm struggling with the words. So that's the bust
Speaker 1: thing I did yesterday. So yeah, anyway, I'm glad to
Speaker 1: know that you had a good birthday and today because
Speaker 1: I love when my friends come on. We have back
Speaker 1: Melody Bray, who was with us earlier this season. I
Speaker 1: guess every day, what is this the year earlier this year?
Speaker 1: The timeframe, Oh my god, uh to talk to us
Speaker 1: about the discrimination in housing and women and how it's
Speaker 1: affecting us today and in the pandemic. And she is back. Welcome.
Speaker 1: So I have this plot um of making sure that
Speaker 1: Melody is always going to be kind of our extra
Speaker 1: special friend who comes around every month or so every
Speaker 1: few months or so to give us, give us a
Speaker 1: friend that Melody. We you and I've known each other
Speaker 1: for a long time, so of course it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a little creepy because that's what I do. Come on,
Speaker 1: you know me now, But yes, um, we are bringing
Speaker 1: Melody back because we wanted to talk to you about
Speaker 1: what it looks like to be an activist during this
Speaker 1: political season without necessarily running within any elections, and what
Speaker 1: it looks like and why it's important to do it
Speaker 1: on a very local front um. And also because I
Speaker 1: love you have nothing has slowed you down. This has
Speaker 1: been a ridiculous time where everybody just kind of quit everything,
Speaker 1: including me. I'm like, yeah, I'm done, I'm done being
Speaker 1: all the things. But you have pushed forward and continue
Speaker 1: to drive and push and be a voice during our
Speaker 1: electoral season in Georgia, and you have created a new project,
Speaker 1: a nonprofit. Can you talk to us about that a
Speaker 1: little bit? Yeah? Well, for first I just have to
Speaker 1: stop you. You referred to me as an activist, which
Speaker 1: I have I to my knowledge, have not been called
Speaker 1: an activist before, and just strikes me as like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's it seems like such a like big
Speaker 1: and weighty word like I just being myself as like
Speaker 1: a person who sees gaps and fills them if possible,
Speaker 1: or like gets a friend to fill them if I
Speaker 1: can't do it. So, um, thank you for speaking so
Speaker 1: highly of me. It just sounds weird coming out of
Speaker 1: your mouth. For current projects is uh called the Georgia
Speaker 1: Project And um, we are just a group of women
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta who we've kind of been motivated by.
Speaker 1: I'd say the hands down the best thing to come
Speaker 1: out of Donald Trump's presidency in my view, is an
Speaker 1: increased awareness and motivation and you know, people are actually
Speaker 1: paying attention to what's going on around them more. Um So,
Speaker 1: a couple of friends, um, Abbie Green, Katie White, they
Speaker 1: decided they wanted to go hand out pizza and water
Speaker 1: during the mid terms in light of the press cut
Speaker 1: bridge that was coming out about then Secretary of State
Speaker 1: Brian Kemp running against Stacy Abrams for governor UM and
Speaker 1: then this past June with the primaries going on, and
Speaker 1: everybody with eyes had the ability to see that we
Speaker 1: had this convergence of events that we're going to turn
Speaker 1: into some sort of debacle. On the day of the
Speaker 1: primary um, Abby and Katie, along with another gown named
Speaker 1: Adelaide Taylor, decided they were going to do their line
Speaker 1: warming efforts again. And then meantime, I on another side,
Speaker 1: was planning on doing my own little line warming effort,
Speaker 1: and we kind of all like virtually met up. Like
Speaker 1: some folks were like, hey, you you're doing this over here,
Speaker 1: and another groups doing this over here. Why don't you
Speaker 1: guys combine your superpowers and um, see what you can
Speaker 1: do to provide food, water, COVID supplies two folks who
Speaker 1: were standing in line, And in a matter of a
Speaker 1: few days, we were able to raise eleven thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to support our efforts to buy all those provisions for
Speaker 1: folks in line. We hit sixty precincts around the metro
Speaker 1: Atlanta area to support voters, and most importantly, I felt
Speaker 1: like we brought like joy and encouragement to people standing
Speaker 1: in line. It was hot. It was so hot that day.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't hot, it was a deluge of rain.
Speaker 1: It was one or the other, there's no in between.
Speaker 1: We did that, and knowing that November three was coming up,
Speaker 1: we decided we were going to pivot from election day
Speaker 1: to a focus on election month, and so Georgia Project
Speaker 1: feels like every person who votes early is a person
Speaker 1: who is not in line on November three, And we
Speaker 1: are raising money to be able to provide early voter
Speaker 1: incentives to folks and then support those who are actually
Speaker 1: comeing out on November three and providing resources to underrepresented
Speaker 1: communities on absentee ballot packets. UM. Instructions on how to
Speaker 1: do that where you're early voting locations are, um, what
Speaker 1: some of these roles are on the ballot, how do
Speaker 1: they affect your daily life? That kind of thing, um.
Speaker 1: And we're doing it all through kind of food centric things,
Speaker 1: So putting those packets in food bank boxes um to
Speaker 1: go to underrepresented communities, or we'll be at the Marta,
Speaker 1: which is our public transit system here, the Marta Farmers
Speaker 1: markets targeting those communities being able to get absentee ballot
Speaker 1: requests packets into their hands and then follow up the
Speaker 1: next week when we're there again when they have a
Speaker 1: question about the ballot, come back to us, talk to us,
Speaker 1: you know, just being that kind of resource. I love
Speaker 1: that so much, um, And just kind of go back
Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about what happened in Georgia
Speaker 1: because you have done a nice job on making it
Speaker 1: a positive spin when all I saw was a disaster.
Speaker 1: So in my pessimistic spin. So much like UM a
Speaker 1: lot of other states, Georgia had a lot of confusion,
Speaker 1: UM wasn't the UM, and a lot of problems in
Speaker 1: the whole voting, the fact that they had closed down
Speaker 1: locations and didn't give people enough time to uh really
Speaker 1: prepare or nowhere to go one two. They also had
Speaker 1: the long ass lines that took forever because either the
Speaker 1: machines were faulty or the place was not did not
Speaker 1: have enough machines. All these big, huge problems which like
Speaker 1: ended up being an eight hour weight if not longer
Speaker 1: for a lot of people. That the thought was they
Speaker 1: were going to start to leave, which by the way,
Speaker 1: that didn't happen. People were pissed and they wanted to vote,
Speaker 1: and they were more determined, And I loved that UM
Speaker 1: and it was it was a huge delay within in
Speaker 1: a lot. Actually it opened up a big conversation about
Speaker 1: the controversy of what is happening in these areas? Why
Speaker 1: are these places being closed, why are they being neglected,
Speaker 1: and why are people not being made aware of the
Speaker 1: changes that are happening until the day of when it's
Speaker 1: almost too late or more frustrating and making people turn away,
Speaker 1: and you and these group of ladies came together to
Speaker 1: make it a more positive experience, which was phenomenal, and
Speaker 1: I love, love, loved hearing of that and then coming
Speaker 1: in behind that and making it a preventative measure within November,
Speaker 1: because we don't really have any solutions. There's no conversations
Speaker 1: of real solutions right now outside of the fact that
Speaker 1: yet the State Farm Arena, which opened up a lot
Speaker 1: of space and a lot of opportunity, and we were
Speaker 1: very grateful to have that. I know around the country
Speaker 1: other arenas are starting to do the same UM trying
Speaker 1: to give more opportunities for people to vote. But it
Speaker 1: did open up this conversation of what is happening and
Speaker 1: why are these specific areas being targeted, because it seemed
Speaker 1: like when you started looking at UM people's complaints and
Speaker 1: where do the complaints were coming from, it was were
Speaker 1: populated urban areas which had a lot of complicated questions
Speaker 1: coming out of it. And I didn't want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about a little bit about what you saw
Speaker 1: because you're also a lawyer who if I said, like
Speaker 1: I have referred to your services before you have and
Speaker 1: you've been very, very helpful. And you've also worked within
Speaker 1: county government as well as have high UM, and you
Speaker 1: have seen a lot of the small local stuff and
Speaker 1: how it can be effective as well as how it
Speaker 1: could be harmful if people don't understand what's happening within
Speaker 1: those types of elections. So I want to talk about
Speaker 1: all these things, including the fact, as we were talking
Speaker 1: about a little bit part of the conversation about this
Speaker 1: complicated process in order to vote in person, is it
Speaker 1: a part of the bigger conversation of voter suppression. I
Speaker 1: know you're working on anti suppression activism, and can you
Speaker 1: kind of talk about what is happening what you see
Speaker 1: as a problem. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean I think the
Speaker 1: fact that the Georgia Project exists, I will be glad
Speaker 1: when we shut down, when we no longer exist, that
Speaker 1: you've got just four regular people who um see this
Speaker 1: massive systemic issue and are having to like, at this point,
Speaker 1: we're having a stamp drive where we collect stamps to
Speaker 1: give to folks to mail things in. And there was
Speaker 1: a moment when we were planning it, and we all
Speaker 1: just started laughing at how ridiculous it is that we're
Speaker 1: asking our parents and grandparents to cough up their stamps
Speaker 1: in order to give it to other people to vote.
Speaker 1: Like it. It just it kind of it just blows
Speaker 1: my mind. Um, it blows my mind. So, getting to
Speaker 1: what you're saying of of whether voter suppression is an
Speaker 1: issue or not, it is a partisan This is a
Speaker 1: partisan topic, and you largely fall on one part of
Speaker 1: the line or the other depending on what party are
Speaker 1: in in general, which I think is unfortunate because the
Speaker 1: facts say something different. It's it's clear. So if you're
Speaker 1: going to talk about voter suppression, you have to talk
Speaker 1: about the more relatively recent Supreme Court ruling in Shelby
Speaker 1: versus Holder that struck down Section five of the Voting
Speaker 1: Rights Act. And that section was put in the Act
Speaker 1: originally in order to force or mandate states anytime they
Speaker 1: were going to make some sort of process change to elections,
Speaker 1: they had to get some sort of federal approval of oversight.
Speaker 1: And the ruling of the court essentially was that we've
Speaker 1: made such strides since uh this Act was enacted in
Speaker 1: nine that we don't really need that oversight anymore, ignoring
Speaker 1: the logic that perhaps the fact that this act exists
Speaker 1: is the reason we've made such great strides. And so
Speaker 1: when evaluating weather so ppression exists, you have to really
Speaker 1: focus on kind of the years leading up to Shelby
Speaker 1: versus Holder, which was and compare from let's say ish
Speaker 1: to present versus pre levels. And so for instance, in Georgia,
Speaker 1: two fourteen polling places were closed in Georgia since and
Speaker 1: of those places were in black counties or predominantly black counties.
Speaker 1: Kemp In our current governor, but at the time with
Speaker 1: Secretary of State, he uh had fifty four thousand voter
Speaker 1: registrations that he put into quote pending status, which essentially
Speaker 1: is like a voter purgatory where you you can neither
Speaker 1: you're not denied that you can't vote, but you can't
Speaker 1: also actually affirmatively vote. Eighty percent of those were people
Speaker 1: of color. And as a side note, Stay Abrams lost
Speaker 1: by five thousand votes, and fifty four thousand of those
Speaker 1: were pening. Like you have fifty four thousand pending registrations
Speaker 1: um provisional ballots that were cast of those were cast.
Speaker 1: Of those where people of color and half of provisional
Speaker 1: ballots were thrown out. So it's a crazy thing to
Speaker 1: me to say that when looking at numbers like that,
Speaker 1: that seventy of closures in my state we're closed in
Speaker 1: predominantly black counties, and say that there's not some level
Speaker 1: that's is well above flipping a coin and having some
Speaker 1: sort of chance. Right, we're talking about math, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not you can't skew and I wasn't ready for
Speaker 1: a math lesson. Listen, I suck at math. But if
Speaker 1: even I can do a math equation, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the most like basic of math problems that you could
Speaker 1: I'm up. It's one of those common sense huh, this
Speaker 1: does not match what is wrong here? Right? And so
Speaker 1: even if you were to say, let's say, for arguments,
Speaker 1: say it's not some nefarious, smoke filled room situation where
Speaker 1: people are coming up with this plan, because arguably the
Speaker 1: idea that any governmental entity is able to come up
Speaker 1: with a comprehensive, incompetent plan about anything is a bit
Speaker 1: of a stretch of imagination. Right at the very least,
Speaker 1: you are seeing an issue and refusing to actually take
Speaker 1: steps to help the issue, which to me is just
Speaker 1: as bad, right, right. And I think that's a big
Speaker 1: conversation of Okay, so we see something's wrong, only a
Speaker 1: small people amount of people are really willing to talk
Speaker 1: about why this is wrong? How do we make this
Speaker 1: a change? And I know there's been a back and forth,
Speaker 1: especially UM after John Lewis represented John Lewis passed away. UM,
Speaker 1: one of the big conversations is if you really want
Speaker 1: to honor him, you would talk about the voting rights
Speaker 1: and how to fix it and vote on it, which
Speaker 1: has been in a stalemate from what I understand a
Speaker 1: long long time because of the majority leader who has
Speaker 1: decided to table it as a whole other conversation in itself.
Speaker 1: And obviously this is such a broad subject, uh, that
Speaker 1: goes beyond just when we're talking about feminism in itself,
Speaker 1: just how it breaks down all the system. But I
Speaker 1: did want to talk about how who it is expecting, UM,
Speaker 1: and when we talk about targeting and who is being suppressed,
Speaker 1: one of the loudest voices as well as most fearful
Speaker 1: like people are afraid of it seems like it's black women, UM,
Speaker 1: and specifically women of color, but black women specifically because
Speaker 1: you see things as we've talked about with Kepp and
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. There's a lot of things that's happening.
Speaker 1: But whether it's going after a specific mayor who happens
Speaker 1: to be a black woman when it comes to mask
Speaker 1: mandates instead of everybody else who has the mask mandates UM,
Speaker 1: as well as going after Stacy Abrams and her her
Speaker 1: fight and her trying to find equal rights and fairness
Speaker 1: in voting. That's a whole other conversation. But in itself,
Speaker 1: we have a history and we actually had guests on
Speaker 1: previous host Bridget came on talking about the fact that
Speaker 1: within Twitter, black women were actually targeted to discourage in
Speaker 1: voting at by whether it's they had fake accounts of
Speaker 1: a black woman going after other black women, all these
Speaker 1: things and and and it being said, the reason it
Speaker 1: was allowed to happen is because people don't want to
Speaker 1: believe that, or people refuse to believe that it's happening,
Speaker 1: and because black women are so silenced that it is
Speaker 1: accepted it is accepted. UM. So I didn't want to
Speaker 1: talk about if you if you've known or seen or
Speaker 1: have you had this conversation of why does it seem
Speaker 1: that black women are a feared and trying to be silenced. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the first thing that came to my and
Speaker 1: when you were talking about it, and feared is the right,
Speaker 1: right term, Like there's a history of power and ability
Speaker 1: to get things done behind black women particularly. It's almost
Speaker 1: like we've been refined by fire um throughout centuries, and
Speaker 1: those of us who are still here are a certain brand,
Speaker 1: right um that survived to this date. And so the
Speaker 1: first thing that I thought of was the Doug Jones
Speaker 1: election in Alabama that has been largely attributed that you
Speaker 1: have Doug Jones being elected to a traditionally Republican seat,
Speaker 1: largely attributed to black women mobilizing, getting in their cars,
Speaker 1: bringing people to polls, um telling their friends, motivating people,
Speaker 1: was able to change something that everybody thought was just
Speaker 1: never going to happen. So, if I am in a
Speaker 1: seat of majority, and that that's any seat of majority,
Speaker 1: We're not just talking about Republicans here, any position of power,
Speaker 1: and I'm holding that seat or that position with my
Speaker 1: bare knuckles, it's of course in my best interest to
Speaker 1: figure out how to remove power from the hands of
Speaker 1: those who are inherently, in their guts powerful people. If
Speaker 1: they would just do something when they decide to do something.
Speaker 1: And so I agree with you a that there are
Speaker 1: you know, that Brian Kemp issue of him coming down
Speaker 1: on Keisha Land's bottoms on mass mandates when there were
Speaker 1: I believe five at that point five other mayors who
Speaker 1: had done the same. Um. And of course Atlanta is
Speaker 1: the largest city and more predominant city in Georgia, so
Speaker 1: perhaps there was some level of virtue signaling of making her,
Speaker 1: you know, an example for the rest of them. But
Speaker 1: I just can't. Are we always supposed to believe in coincidences? Right?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of how it's been swept under
Speaker 1: the rugby, like no, no, no no, no, no, it's not
Speaker 1: a big deal. It's not because it's not what you think, um,
Speaker 1: which is hilarious in itself. And it's really interesting because
Speaker 1: when we're talking about going after a powerful women and
Speaker 1: then women being especially black women, going out and telling
Speaker 1: people you need to vote, we need to go out,
Speaker 1: we need to do things, and actually doing things such
Speaker 1: as driving people to the polls. UM. There's one case
Speaker 1: that I didn't want to talk about, Crystal Mason, who
Speaker 1: was a woman who voted as she was on parole
Speaker 1: or community service parole, and she wasn't planning to vote
Speaker 1: until her mom encouraged her to do so, so she did.
Speaker 1: That ended up costing her her freedom because she was
Speaker 1: not allowed to vote. They charged her with voter fraud.
Speaker 1: And then, as I'm looking through all of the cases,
Speaker 1: even if it was uh, there was another case with
Speaker 1: Rosa Maria Ortega who was in Texas, who also a
Speaker 1: green card, and she thought she was able to vote
Speaker 1: and did and then did it again, not realizing that
Speaker 1: she could do it twice. Was her like, I didn't
Speaker 1: what I didn't understand? I could she was voting for
Speaker 1: the Republican as in fact, the judge that charged her
Speaker 1: and actually convicted her of voter fraud was when she
Speaker 1: voted for which made me laugh at something that it's
Speaker 1: not funny, I'm sorry, which made me have this conversation
Speaker 1: like what the hell? And now she's being threatened to
Speaker 1: being deported because she violated that even though she did
Speaker 1: make it on a green card. So this whole conversation
Speaker 1: of either side, it seems like women are either targeted
Speaker 1: or at least somehow caught every damn time. This kind
Speaker 1: of that question of how is it that women are
Speaker 1: so easily convicted of these charges in order to be
Speaker 1: made an example of. And have you seen that or
Speaker 1: is that just me finding cases somehow? Yeah? I mean
Speaker 1: I would say that if you're looking for cases that
Speaker 1: are like that, you're going to find them. But I
Speaker 1: do think that they are there for males as well.
Speaker 1: Any minority group m is going to be taxed in
Speaker 1: some way in this area, right in my right simply
Speaker 1: because it goes back to what I was saying previously
Speaker 1: of a power dining issue. Um, you know, as long
Speaker 1: as the minorities voice is suppressed, and that minority women
Speaker 1: definitely fall into that, but there's so many other categories
Speaker 1: as well, So you know, I think that women, unfortunately
Speaker 1: are just under this larger umbrella of wanting to allow
Speaker 1: majority voices to take over spaces. We have some more
Speaker 1: of our conversation with Melody, but first we have a
Speaker 1: quick break for word from responsor. Yeah, we're back, thank you, sponsor.
Speaker 1: Let's get back into it. And I didn't want to
Speaker 1: kind of come back into because it's a back and
Speaker 1: forth about is it is voting a right or is
Speaker 1: it that same level of Hey, no taxation without representation
Speaker 1: so when you have that back and forth, when we
Speaker 1: look at those who have had charges, whether it is
Speaker 1: a felony charge and are no longer allowed to vote,
Speaker 1: and we saw in Florida, we're seeing in Florida the
Speaker 1: back and forth and back and forth about who has
Speaker 1: the right. Do you what do you see as is
Speaker 1: this an issue that is about violating someone's rights or
Speaker 1: do you think it's something bigger than that. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is called the voting rights, a right right we
Speaker 1: can we can start there that. You know, people with
Speaker 1: bigger brains and more degrees than myself have come to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that there is a right there. With Florida
Speaker 1: in particular, I just found that entire scenario to be
Speaker 1: it was almost like a double suppression right. So you've
Speaker 1: got for those who aren't familiar with what happened, there
Speaker 1: was an old law in Florida's like a hundred fifty
Speaker 1: years old that prohibited any individuals who had been convicted
Speaker 1: of a felony but it fully served their sentence, including
Speaker 1: probation and parole, prohibited from voting. It was put on
Speaker 1: the ballot for a vote, and Floridians overwhelmingly said, we
Speaker 1: want to get rid of this law. Governor to Santis
Speaker 1: then decides in response to that that he wants to
Speaker 1: create a rule that you have to live. That's fine, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's cool, but you have to have paid all of
Speaker 1: your court fines and fees in order to vote. And
Speaker 1: recently that was struck down by a federal judge as
Speaker 1: essentially an old school poll tax. HM. So you've got
Speaker 1: not just the fact that voters, people who have already
Speaker 1: served time and already quote unquote repaid their debt to
Speaker 1: society are not able to vote, but you also had
Speaker 1: a vote that was put on the ballot that an
Speaker 1: individual executive decided to overturn because he didn't like it.
Speaker 1: So it's like, it's like some sort of inception suppression
Speaker 1: that they're creating in Florida. I'm from Florida. We're creative much,
Speaker 1: we come up with ways. So yeah, that and in
Speaker 1: Florida's you know, they're not They're not the only ones
Speaker 1: who have various rules on what the rights of folks
Speaker 1: who have felony convictions are able to do. But the
Speaker 1: idea that simply because you committed whatever level of crime
Speaker 1: it was, if we have already determined that X amount
Speaker 1: of years is the amount of time that we we
Speaker 1: decide is worth you spending in jail or prison for this,
Speaker 1: I don't understand why this residual thing has to carry
Speaker 1: afterwards other than there's a lot of black people in jail, right,
Speaker 1: And that was the other other conversation is when you
Speaker 1: look statistically at who is being charged on felony level crimes,
Speaker 1: whether it's they took a plea deal or is it
Speaker 1: non violent, the numbers are that it is going to
Speaker 1: be a person of color, that the higher percentage of
Speaker 1: those who are convicted on those levels, not necessarily because
Speaker 1: there doing more crimes, but because who is being convicted, right,
Speaker 1: And that's and that's that conversation is this is a
Speaker 1: larger scale of what is happening and why it is
Speaker 1: coming to a conversation and coming to a head, even
Speaker 1: why Kamala Harris is her nomination is being questioned in
Speaker 1: general by the black population. And it makes sense, It
Speaker 1: makes sense in conversations of who is being who is
Speaker 1: being convicted, who is being arrested, who is being actually
Speaker 1: seen as criminals versus you know, what is just being
Speaker 1: done because it looks good, right, I guess it's a
Speaker 1: better way to say it, the worst way to say that, maybe,
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's kind of that large scale conversation of
Speaker 1: who is coming after that, And we've seen many times
Speaker 1: because drug charges can be felony charges and that that's
Speaker 1: the end, and it's it's according to who has the
Speaker 1: better representation, who has a better reputation. Even so, it's
Speaker 1: kind of the all, right, who is being affected and
Speaker 1: why do people seem to not care as much as
Speaker 1: some others and why? That is an actual conversation that
Speaker 1: needs to be had on an everyday level and not
Speaker 1: just when it comes to voting. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like the prominence of that Florida issue just brought
Speaker 1: to light the idea of all the downstream effects of
Speaker 1: a felony can action, many of which are not tied
Speaker 1: at all to the crime itself. So whether it's voting
Speaker 1: or education and that that kind of access that you have,
Speaker 1: our ability to get a job, all of those types
Speaker 1: of things. Making sure that convicted felons are able to
Speaker 1: get jobs afterwards, that's the hard stuff, right, reinstating their
Speaker 1: voting right, like, that's that's low hanging free, that's easy
Speaker 1: peasy stuff. But that's a signature in the story, the
Speaker 1: signature an update of your where you live. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: and again this is I know, Annie, we know we
Speaker 1: talk about the fact that we bring up things that's
Speaker 1: go like, it's a whole lot of those podcasts, a
Speaker 1: whole other episode, and and that definitely is one of
Speaker 1: those bigger episodes, especially when it comes to women who
Speaker 1: are imprisoned and who are being affective because we also
Speaker 1: can talk about the women who are being being imprisoned
Speaker 1: for self defense I guess, but domestic violence and who
Speaker 1: are called hard hardened criminals. And that's a whole other day.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna go into it just today today, UM,
Speaker 1: but I did with all of those things that we
Speaker 1: were talking about. Obviously, you and your ladies have found
Speaker 1: one way of fighting against voter suppression and through the
Speaker 1: Georgia Project. What are some other ways that you would
Speaker 1: advise everyone around the country in the US, UM to
Speaker 1: continue to fight. What would be some of your recommendations
Speaker 1: or resources. I don't know, I'm a professional. UM yeah,
Speaker 1: I would recommend first and foremost, do you know who
Speaker 1: your election officials aren't Like your your state oversees the election, UM,
Speaker 1: but your county administers the elections and stuff like when
Speaker 1: you don't get your ballot when you're standing on a
Speaker 1: long line. That's the county official at the best of
Speaker 1: the state, so the state's not off the hook. But
Speaker 1: do you know your election commissioner is do you remember
Speaker 1: voting for them at some point? Perhaps you know? Um,
Speaker 1: do they have public meetings? What have they been doing
Speaker 1: between now and November three? Are they having those meetings?
Speaker 1: Can are their public comments? Just listen in you know.
Speaker 1: I feel like that on a on a very small
Speaker 1: scale level, is a pretty easy one to hit. UM.
Speaker 1: Check your voter registration status. There's plenty of purging a
Speaker 1: voter rules, and you want to make sure that whether
Speaker 1: it's just showing up on an early voting day or
Speaker 1: the day of or submitting your absentee ballot, you want
Speaker 1: to be sure that you're on those rules. So check
Speaker 1: your status today. Coming up with a voting plan today,
Speaker 1: Are you doing it by absentee ballot? If you are,
Speaker 1: have you requested it? If you have, is it coming,
Speaker 1: has it arrived? When it gets your vote, then don't
Speaker 1: wait until you know. I think in Georgia, November three,
Speaker 1: of course is general election. Absentee ballot request deadline is
Speaker 1: November two, Like, no need to wait till November two,
Speaker 1: Let's just do it today. Let's do it today, right, Um.
Speaker 1: And then there's if you're not in a battleground state, UM,
Speaker 1: votes Save of America is doing. You can adopt a
Speaker 1: battleground state. You can text bank, um if you order
Speaker 1: phone bank if you're good on the phone. But if
Speaker 1: you feel a little awkward about that, you can text
Speaker 1: bank to battleground states to get out the vote. To
Speaker 1: encourage people to do exactly what I'm saying right now.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of stuff that you can do literally
Speaker 1: sitting on your couch from your own um, in the
Speaker 1: midst of quarantine, to be able to encourage people to
Speaker 1: just use their voice. Um. John Lewis again he was
Speaker 1: in just such a hero to me, and he had
Speaker 1: said that voting is one of our most precious gifts
Speaker 1: and the idea that folks who came before me, who
Speaker 1: look just like me, they laid down, they were willing
Speaker 1: to lay down their lives. They risked so much for
Speaker 1: this one thing. The least that I can do is
Speaker 1: go take advantage of that thing. So vote. I miss
Speaker 1: him now, I kind of want to go back because
Speaker 1: you did talk about um absentee voting, and I just
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to have a quick conversation because I
Speaker 1: know our representatives have been letting us know that the
Speaker 1: Center for Voting Information has been sending out absentee ballots
Speaker 1: to people and it actually is a real thing. So
Speaker 1: for those who are getting those, I got, But can
Speaker 1: you kind of talk to people about again why it
Speaker 1: is important that if you need to, and also check
Speaker 1: and see if your state isn't allowing it, because it
Speaker 1: is a conversation about absentee voting. Yeah, so in the
Speaker 1: midst of this pandemic, a lot of people just don't
Speaker 1: have the ability to go into a voting booth um
Speaker 1: or even before this pandemic, some people can't stand in
Speaker 1: line outside for long periods of time in order to
Speaker 1: go into a voting vote. So absentee voting, make sure
Speaker 1: that UM, you read the instructions that are provided with
Speaker 1: them and follow them to a t UH to make
Speaker 1: sure that your vote is counted. Most Secretaries of State
Speaker 1: have a website where you can then log on and
Speaker 1: track your absentee ballot so you can put it in
Speaker 1: the United States Postal Service box and just mail it normally.
Speaker 1: What I would say is a better step is to
Speaker 1: locate where absentee ballot boxes have been placed in your city,
Speaker 1: and those boxes are secure boxes, at least in Georgia,
Speaker 1: they're required to have seven video monitoring. They have to
Speaker 1: be in well let areas, so there's no like tampering
Speaker 1: with the box. Putting it in that box means it
Speaker 1: goes directly to your elections office, as opposed to going
Speaker 1: through the post office to the elections office. When it's received,
Speaker 1: you're able to go on the website and see it's
Speaker 1: been received, it's been actually counted toward you. Just tracking it,
Speaker 1: I think is is very important. Um. And if it
Speaker 1: comes to November two and you've tracked it and it
Speaker 1: hasn't been logged, take your butt down to the polling
Speaker 1: place pat Like Michelle said, pack yourself a brown bag
Speaker 1: lunch and hop into line. If you're in Georgia, Georgia
Speaker 1: fifty project, we'll see you in line with some food. Um.
Speaker 1: But go go down there and actually vote in person
Speaker 1: to make sure that just because you miss the absentee ballot,
Speaker 1: you're not missing out on the opportunity to speak up
Speaker 1: on your own behalf. Um, and speaking of the ballot,
Speaker 1: can you, because you've already kind of jumped into about
Speaker 1: a local elections and why that is really important and
Speaker 1: local issues, can you talk on that a little bit
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, So, as I said previously, election your
Speaker 1: elections are administered locally. Um. All those cute little old
Speaker 1: lady poll workers, they run through the election board, they
Speaker 1: get their training through the election board. Um. The machines
Speaker 1: that are being utilized at polling locations, Uh, they are
Speaker 1: provided by the state. But who's setting those things up?
Speaker 1: Who's actually making sure Like in our case, some of
Speaker 1: those lines were really long because there weren't wasn't paper
Speaker 1: for the election machines. All of that is administered on
Speaker 1: the local level. And so the more that we pay
Speaker 1: attention to what is going on at the local level,
Speaker 1: the more that we're able to see perhaps the people
Speaker 1: that were putting in positions that oversee these things, maybe
Speaker 1: they're not the right people. And just because it's lowered
Speaker 1: down on the ballot, we think it's a less important job.
Speaker 1: And I feel like what you're talking about what effects
Speaker 1: our day to day lives. Oftentimes it's those really you know,
Speaker 1: down ballot races that are going to affect your day
Speaker 1: to day life, Like how long is this line that
Speaker 1: I'm waiting in? We do have a little bit more
Speaker 1: for your listeners, but wait, we have one more quick
Speaker 1: break for word from our sponsor and we're back. Thank
Speaker 1: you sponsor. We had just our official runoff in Georgia
Speaker 1: and it included Sirisova as it included the Superior Court
Speaker 1: in Fulton County, Atlanta, Georgia, which is a big hub.
Speaker 1: And as we know, there's a big conversation about defunding
Speaker 1: police and what that looks like and or not defunding
Speaker 1: and or rehabilitating whatever it may be. But it comes
Speaker 1: to the fact that we need to look at our
Speaker 1: leaderships and we have voice when it comes to making
Speaker 1: sure we have the right leadership for whatever that is,
Speaker 1: whether it's also the council, all of that, and it's
Speaker 1: a big bunch of stuff, like they are the ones
Speaker 1: that use our money. And I would say, like, we
Speaker 1: can definitely blame the government for a lot of things,
Speaker 1: but you can't blame them for our own lack of
Speaker 1: education on what those rules are, how important they are,
Speaker 1: and how to vote in light of that thing. So
Speaker 1: you know, be sure to pull up your ballots before
Speaker 1: you get there, um on November three, or whenever you
Speaker 1: early vote, have your ballots open when you're doing your
Speaker 1: absentee filling out your absentee ballot, and start researching. Go
Speaker 1: go on Google, Google echo his names. See see what
Speaker 1: comes up. You know, it's not hard to find, uh,
Speaker 1: scandals and shenanigans and all the back room stuff like
Speaker 1: it's it's on there, it's on. We have the benefit
Speaker 1: of the internet, use it right. Hopefully we'll have correct information.
Speaker 1: That's the other part, so reading out the false verses truth.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's important that we do take the time
Speaker 1: to study it and look at it, UM. And I
Speaker 1: love also, as I was getting ready to have this
Speaker 1: interview in this conversation, because it is such a big
Speaker 1: topic right now, it's so important, UM, that I found
Speaker 1: an organization called the Higher Heights Leadership Fund who specifically
Speaker 1: work with black women in black leadership and trying to
Speaker 1: bring as many strong black women into a leadership position,
Speaker 1: whether it's political or elected officials. And I love that.
Speaker 1: And they kind of created a movement called hashtag black
Speaker 1: women Vote, And it is the bigger conversation of this
Speaker 1: is a powerful group of women who can change the
Speaker 1: results of an election and have been ignored or have
Speaker 1: been suppressed and trying to come together in one way
Speaker 1: or another. It is not necessarily trying to sway you think,
Speaker 1: it's just trying to get people out to vote. And
Speaker 1: how important that is for our our nation. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And when you just think about the things that are important.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that, you know, black women
Speaker 1: are a monolith and we all think the same way.
Speaker 1: But I can say, at least myself, my mother, you
Speaker 1: know black women in my life, that we have these conversations.
Speaker 1: The topics that consistently come up are ones like safety, schooling,
Speaker 1: access to education, access to food, good healthy food near
Speaker 1: your homes, and those things are important for everybody, right,
Speaker 1: But it comes up consistently when I'm talking to my people.
Speaker 1: And so if you know, something like hashtag black women vote,
Speaker 1: If black women are able to use their voice in
Speaker 1: those ways, we all benefit because we all should be
Speaker 1: caring about education and safety and healthy food near near
Speaker 1: our homes, like those are the things that lead to
Speaker 1: a thriving a thriving city, a thriving citizen, right right.
Speaker 1: And and in issues like that, specifically, you know, I
Speaker 1: keep coming back because this is so, this is what
Speaker 1: I did. I did state in county government for the
Speaker 1: longest time, and the fact of the matter is our
Speaker 1: state is one of the highest for Black women dying
Speaker 1: from childbirth, infant mortality. Thank you in for mortality here
Speaker 1: and all all of those things. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: a bigger conversation of what we need to look at
Speaker 1: why it is important that we see this as a
Speaker 1: representation of what is needed, in the change that is needed,
Speaker 1: in the representation that is needed, because for so long
Speaker 1: we ignored it, too long, and in some areas are
Speaker 1: still ignoring it and still not willing to talk about
Speaker 1: the fact that this is an underlying social issue, This
Speaker 1: is an underlying poitical issue that needs to be talked about,
Speaker 1: that needs to be uncovered, that needs to be dissected
Speaker 1: to see why it's happening in the first place. So
Speaker 1: one of the things I would say, which this might
Speaker 1: be this might be a controversial position, but I think
Speaker 1: that one of the reasons why it's difficult for us
Speaker 1: to get below the surface is because there's naturally going
Speaker 1: to be a defensiveness that comes up when having that
Speaker 1: discussion because essentially, like going back to what we're saying
Speaker 1: about voter suppression, if I come to you with those
Speaker 1: stats and I say, this is a race based issue
Speaker 1: and if you don't see that, um, that means you
Speaker 1: are a racist. We no longer are having a conversation
Speaker 1: about voter suppression. Now we're having a conversation about whether
Speaker 1: I'm a racist. Um. And same thing, like you're just
Speaker 1: talking about like if we're not going to talk about
Speaker 1: what maternal mortality and its relation to race, and that's
Speaker 1: a health care issue, and if you don't want to
Speaker 1: address that, you are now anti woman. Um, We're now
Speaker 1: talking about that as opposed to what can we do
Speaker 1: to solve this health care issue? And so I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a need to pivot the conversation away from
Speaker 1: trying to assign some level of internal motivation to the
Speaker 1: person and more like can we just talk about the facts,
Speaker 1: Like can we just talk about this is an issue?
Speaker 1: Can we just agree that this is something we should
Speaker 1: be tackling. And I don't have to make that the
Speaker 1: a judgment on you as a human being. And I
Speaker 1: know that you know, I'm sure there are folks that
Speaker 1: are like, well, that's just some mealy mouth garbage way
Speaker 1: of going about doing this, because you're not calling a
Speaker 1: spade a spade for me in particular. You could call
Speaker 1: it whatever you want. The point is I want less
Speaker 1: black women dying in childbirth and if we can achieve that,
Speaker 1: then whatever right right. And the thing that's one of
Speaker 1: the big conversations my Coworkercordey, and I had who she
Speaker 1: is a black woman who worked in the same field
Speaker 1: as I, and we had to have this whole conversation
Speaker 1: of what does it look like when we reframe a
Speaker 1: conversation and that's what she kept saying, rebranded so that
Speaker 1: it seems nicer. But the fact of the matter is
Speaker 1: when it comes to people being defensive, sometimes that is
Speaker 1: what has to happen. Unfortunately, when all you really want
Speaker 1: to do is shake and be like, stop being a dick.
Speaker 1: That's what I want to say, but you know that
Speaker 1: doesn't work. Um, and it is it's kind of that
Speaker 1: fine line of who compromises to what conversation and but
Speaker 1: what is the outcome of that conversation? And it just
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's interesting to me that the people
Speaker 1: who are the ones who are most likely to compromise
Speaker 1: are those who are the most affected because they just
Speaker 1: want to change. I get that. I definitely get the
Speaker 1: counter argument. It's like, well, why am I always the
Speaker 1: one who has to contort myself into all these ways
Speaker 1: in order to maneuver through these spaces? Listen, That's just
Speaker 1: how it is, right, Like, if we want to get
Speaker 1: things done, if we want to actually move the needle,
Speaker 1: then sometimes you're going to have to do extra work.
Speaker 1: My mom told me that from the very beginning, just
Speaker 1: like you're gonna have to work harder for longer than
Speaker 1: other people, just getting used to it and keep doing it,
Speaker 1: and hopefully by myself and people like me doing that,
Speaker 1: the people coming up behind me work a little less
Speaker 1: hard the next time around. I love that exactly, and
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate that that's where we have to be. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I absolutely hear that, but it's frustrating. Yeah, I'm just
Speaker 1: saying it. Uh, Andy, I've taken over the conversation again,
Speaker 1: So do you so why let me there? Why do
Speaker 1: you keep letting me do this? You know what I
Speaker 1: really need to work on, And this is true. I
Speaker 1: cannot interrupt people. I can't do it. So I'm just
Speaker 1: like just do it. It's like online to do list,
Speaker 1: I promise Jamaican like Jamaican culture. If you don't, if
Speaker 1: you don't learn the art of interruption, you will never
Speaker 1: speak in a family the entire time, your entire life,
Speaker 1: never get a word in rambles at the corner and
Speaker 1: never said a thing, and I will ramble. I will
Speaker 1: keep going on my little tirade. You know this, so
Speaker 1: you have I like your tirades though, UM, I guess
Speaker 1: going off of that. Um, First of all, I had
Speaker 1: many many friends who sent me very happy text messages
Speaker 1: on voting day with the pizza, so it was a
Speaker 1: big hit. Um. If you for someone listening who maybe
Speaker 1: wants to get involved, as we've been saying, in politics,
Speaker 1: but not necessarily by running and you we've talked about
Speaker 1: text banking and phone banking, and um, I love food
Speaker 1: is the way to people's hearts, of course. UM I
Speaker 1: guess what do you have any advice for people who
Speaker 1: are may be intimidated about how to do something like
Speaker 1: what you did, like logistics, or it could be the
Speaker 1: most basic of things. Yeah, what I'd say is that
Speaker 1: there's something like Georgia Project in most cities, like we're
Speaker 1: not We're not special. Were we just happen to be
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta doing it. UM find that, find that group,
Speaker 1: and we are always looking for people to help us.
Speaker 1: Speaking on behalf of all of those groups. So we
Speaker 1: have folks who their videographers and they they raise their
Speaker 1: hand and said, like we can do promo videos for
Speaker 1: you and sizzle reels. Like they're not they're used to
Speaker 1: not being seen or have to be out, but they've
Speaker 1: been able to use their particular fular gift and skill
Speaker 1: to help us. So think about what is that thing
Speaker 1: that you like doing, Like, what's that thing that gets
Speaker 1: you geeked? And proactively approach that organization with like, hey,
Speaker 1: here's something I'm good at. Can I help you with
Speaker 1: that thing? And for the most part, the smaller groups
Speaker 1: are going to take you up on that. If you're
Speaker 1: going to some large like I'm going to go to
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party of my state, you might get a
Speaker 1: responsive email saying thanks for emailing us UM. But for
Speaker 1: these smaller grassroots organizations, if one of the things that
Speaker 1: it's difficult for all of us to do is just
Speaker 1: fielding all of these emails when it's just a general
Speaker 1: like hey, I'd like to help. If you come in
Speaker 1: with i'd like to help, and I do this. Do
Speaker 1: you have a need for this? They will say, uh, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we yes, yes, give us that so that that would
Speaker 1: be my encouragement. Awesome, Yeah, I think that's that's great.
Speaker 1: I think people are really fired up about it, which
Speaker 1: makes sense. So I know our listeners are got some
Speaker 1: pretty awesome listeners. Uh, and I'm excited to see what
Speaker 1: they'll do. I know they're very skilled listeners too. I'm
Speaker 1: sure use those skills for good and not evil folks. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's a really good advice. Um. So is there anything
Speaker 1: else that you want to talk to us about or
Speaker 1: anything we missed a melody? I think that Um. I
Speaker 1: mean it's a very like we kind of went all
Speaker 1: over the place there a little bit, but you know
Speaker 1: that's how I do, how you do do? Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: I hope that you know, I can come back on
Speaker 1: after November three, perhaps in some time in December, and
Speaker 1: we have like a lofty conversation about how all these
Speaker 1: all these efforts actually turned out to benefit voters. Voter
Speaker 1: turnout absolutely definitely, will um. And you had mentioned a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier about having your own podcast. Can you
Speaker 1: kind of tell us about that. Yeah, I am starting
Speaker 1: a rolling out of podcast. We come out next month.
Speaker 1: It's called Civic s I V I K. And it's
Speaker 1: focusing on local Atlanta politics. Again going back to how
Speaker 1: important that is. Um. What I found during this last
Speaker 1: primary was that folks just didn't know what they didn't know.
Speaker 1: But once I let them know I had issued a
Speaker 1: voter guide. UM. Once I let folks know, like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what a what a d A does, This
Speaker 1: is what a sheriff does. By the way, this is
Speaker 1: what our d A did, this is what our shaiff
Speaker 1: has done. That all of a sudden that people empowered
Speaker 1: with that knowledge were more motivated to go out and vote.
Speaker 1: So I started this podcast wanting to talk myself and
Speaker 1: my friend Coleman would just talking normally about politics, not
Speaker 1: talking heads and you know, big words. And we're all
Speaker 1: consultants for various parties, just regular people talking about political shenanigans. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's been fun. It's been fun. I'm excited about it.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't love Yeah, it depends on the shenanigan. I
Speaker 1: think that's great. I'll never forget the first time I
Speaker 1: voted and it was something was on the ballot. That
Speaker 1: was like, I mean, so many paragraph song and I
Speaker 1: must have stood there and read it like five times
Speaker 1: and I still didn't know. Like the legal ease was
Speaker 1: just so intense. I was like, I'm not even sure
Speaker 1: that's good? Right, Yes, yes, yes, those voter questions yes,
Speaker 1: oh man um and yeah to inform people of that
Speaker 1: beforehand too. Yeah, it's some of these are written in
Speaker 1: such a way that there's no way for a regular
Speaker 1: person to discern what the property answer is supposed to be.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous. So yeah, civical cover stuff like that. Awesome,
Speaker 1: look out for that. Yeah, thanks for the shout out.
Speaker 1: So where can people find you? Melody all upon the interwebs?
Speaker 1: Oh that sounds so broad. Are you talking to me personally? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you personally whatever you want to working in the quarters
Speaker 1: of the interwebs. I would encourage folks, if you want
Speaker 1: to support what we're doing here in Georgia, go to
Speaker 1: Georgia dot org um. You can donate there. Um, you
Speaker 1: can send us stamps for our stamp campaign, or you
Speaker 1: can donate monetarily one of the you know, sponsor a
Speaker 1: restaurant um that is helping us in our early voter push.
Speaker 1: And that supports local business while also supporting voters. Um
Speaker 1: So Georgia dot org. Sweet, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being with us, Melody. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's
Speaker 1: always a fun time. And I'm gonna have our as
Speaker 1: a constant correspondence for US constant correspondent. She's a correspondent
Speaker 1: for our our network. I don't know. I have no
Speaker 1: idea what any of the things I saidment, I have
Speaker 1: no idea what the things correspondent from London wherever. So
Speaker 1: that brings us to the end of this interview. I
Speaker 1: one day I'm going to eat Melody in person. One day.
Speaker 1: I feel like I think we've had this conversation before.
Speaker 1: You guys missed each other the last time. But one day,
Speaker 1: when we're out of pandemic, it will happen. We will
Speaker 1: all come together. Because my I think she's just such
Speaker 1: a great uh. It's just full of information that is fantastic.
Speaker 1: And as as a person who's been in law, who's
Speaker 1: been around the back when it comes to buy laws
Speaker 1: and conversations and voting and understanding that language, there than me,
Speaker 1: uh who I have to follow people like her and
Speaker 1: other people who are specialized in this type of conversations
Speaker 1: that I think she's just a wealth knowledge that I
Speaker 1: love that we have on tap because she is fantastic.
Speaker 1: Thank you Melody, Yes, and um all great advice everything
Speaker 1: she said. Like I said, I got my absentee ballot
Speaker 1: yesterday and it came with a cool graph that showed
Speaker 1: my voting record, like and he said I was above average,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, how I'm easily a piece. Now.
Speaker 1: It just means I vote more than average in my
Speaker 1: count game. It means it's nothing special at all. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I would love to hear what everybody else is doing
Speaker 1: out there. I know we talk a lot about our
Speaker 1: local stuff because if I find it fascinating just to
Speaker 1: see what's happening. And George's kind of slowly turning into
Speaker 1: a swing state, hopefully more and more. And um, I
Speaker 1: know the senator race in Georgia has gotten pretty heated
Speaker 1: it and pretty close, so it's kind of interesting to
Speaker 1: see it. I want to hear what's going on around
Speaker 1: the country as well, So please let us know what's
Speaker 1: happening with you all. Yes, yes, and you can send
Speaker 1: that information to our email, which is stefinitely a mom
Speaker 1: stuff at I heart me you dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast or
Speaker 1: on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks It's
Speaker 1: always to our super producer Andrew Howard, Thanks Hamburger Guy.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you for listening Stuff I've Never Told You.
Speaker 1: Protection of iHeart Radio for more podcast from iHeart Radio,
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