Evolve & Advocate Featuring Cheryl Ann Wadlington and Kristen Torres

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Welcome. I'm Erik Fleming, host of A Moment with Erik Fleming, the podcast of our time.

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I want to personally thank you for listening to the podcast.

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make this moment a movement.

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Thanks in advance for supporting the podcast of our time. I hope you enjoy this episode as well.

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The following program is hosted by the NBG Podcast Network.

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Hello, and welcome to another moment with Erik Fleming. I am your host, Erik Fleming.

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And today, I've got two guests who are different stages of their work,

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but they have a lifetime of commitment, which is very similar.

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I have a young lady on who has established this organization to help young women,

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especially young black women,

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achieve and to get out of, to break the generational curses or cycle,

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however you want to say it.

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And she's been doing this work for a couple of decades.

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And if you hadn't heard of it before, you will get a chance to hear about it today.

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It's incredible what she's doing.

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And then the other young lady I have kind of have a bond because of the Mississippi connection.

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But she is a lobbyist in Washington.

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But she is prior to being a lobbyist.

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She has been, you know, on Capitol Hill working with members of Congress and all that.

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And so we want to talk about, you know, kind of like when we had my friend Glenn Rushing on.

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Just kind of talk about what the atmosphere is like lobbying and,

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you know, to kind of tell y'all, y'all, y'all, if you need some help,

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why you need to get a lobbyist.

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Especially to navigate what's going on now.

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So I'm real excited for you all to hear this.

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And as always, we need your help so we can continue this.

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So you can go to patreon.com slash a moment with Erik Fleming and donate or subscribe,

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right? and the subscription is only a dollar,

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Now, I do have tiers if you want to give more, and I got some swag attached to that if you give more.

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But, you know, if you just a dollar a month would go a long,

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long way for us to continue to do what we're doing.

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And when I say us, me, Grace, the good folks, and especially Leonard Young at

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NBG Podcast Network, you know, just support.

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Independent podcasters, especially as we deal with the political subjects that are going on.

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And if you want to do the same thing I'm asking as far as donate,

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but you want to know a little bit more about the podcast, then you go to momenterik.com.

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And that way you can catch up on some episodes. You can learn a little bit about me.

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You can see all the guests that I've had on the show. I literally had somebody

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ask me, she's like, well, who have you had on the show?

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And, you know, I dropped some names, but I also directed her to the website so you could see.

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So everybody that has been on the show as a guest, you can see that.

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You got their bios and all that stuff.

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And then, you know, there's some episodes where it was just me talking,

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especially the early days, right?

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And, you know, but you can have

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access to all of that. Every episode I've ever done is on that website.

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So, you know, if you're a first-time person or you've been listening but you came in like, you know,

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couple years in or whatever the case may be, you can catch up with everything on there.

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So please, please check out the website if you want to leave a review, all that stuff.

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All the stuff I said at the beginning, I'm saying it again, but just,

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you know, whatever support.

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But the most important thing is that you're listening to this podcast,

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and I am greatly appreciative of that, and I am humbled that you're doing that.

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So, now that we've got the housekeeping out of the way, it's time to go ahead

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and kick this program off.

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And as always, we kick it off with a moment of news with Grace G.

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Thanks, Erik. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal regarding the

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legality of President Trump's executive order that restricts birthright citizenship.

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The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal concerning a Texas county's removal

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of 17 books, including those about race and LGBT identity, from public libraries.

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The city of San Diego agreed to pay a $30 million settlement to the family of

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16-year-old Konoa Wilson, who was fatally shot by a police officer while fleeing

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another teenager who had fired a gun at him.

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The Trump administration threatened to withhold federal food assistance from

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21 Democratic-led states that had refused to comply with a data request for

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SNAP recipients' names and immigration statuses.

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A Florida federal judge authorized the Justice Department to release grand jury

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transcripts from the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein.

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Alina Habba, former acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, resigned after a federal

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appeals court ruled her appointment was unlawful.

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Twelve former FBI agents filed a lawsuit against senior FBI and Justice Department

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leaders, claiming they were unlawfully fired after taking a knee during racial

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justice protests spurred by the police killing of George Floyd.

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U.S. vaccine advisors revoked the long-standing 1991 recommendation for universal

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hepatitis B vaccination for all American newborns.

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Democrat Eileen Higgins won the Miami mayoral runoff to become the city's first female mayor.

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Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett officially launched her U.S.

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Senate campaign, shaking up the highly contested race in a state Democrats have

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not won statewide since 1994.

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Former Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes has officially entered the

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state's crowded gubernatorial race to succeed retiring Democrat at Tony Evers.

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And Roderick Page, the first African-American U.S.

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Department of Education secretary, died at the age of 92.

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I am Grace G., and this has been a Moment of News.

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All right. Thank you, Grace, for

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that moment of news. Now it's time for my guest, Cheryl Ann Wadlington.

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Cheryl Ann Wadlington is a global change agent and leading consultant in the

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field of personal growth.

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Recognized by the White House as a 2016 champion of change, Wadlington was honored

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for her leadership and work in developing extracurricular enrichment for marginalized girls.

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The National Fashion and Beauty Journalist founded and became Chief Executive

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Officer in 2004 at a Philadelphia-based Evoluer House.

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Under Wadlington's leadership, the organization has delivered award-winning

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empowerment programs over the past 21 years to more than 10,000 teen girls of color,

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experiencing unique social and emotional challenges and barriers to success.

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The Evoluer House works to equip the most underserved and hardest-to-reach girls

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in Philadelphia with essential tools to become college-bound and career-ready,

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thus breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

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As a testament to its success, 100% of Evoluer program graduates attend four-year

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colleges and other institutes of higher learning.

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Wallington is an accomplished writer, television personality,

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and sought-after motivational speaker who has reached millions of people through

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such outlets as Vogue, Elle,

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Self, Life and Style, Lucky, C-SPAN, NBC's iVillage Live, and NPR,

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with their advice and perspective published.

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Wadlington is co-author and contributing editor of Soul Style.

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Black Women Redefining the Color of Fashion, which drew much-needed attention

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to Black America's female style leaders from Pam Greer to Diana Ross.

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In 2013, she authored the critically acclaimed The Diva Girl's Guide to Style

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and Self-Respect to inspire girls throughout the nation to take a bold leap toward success.

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Wadlington served as a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble on his hair and skin

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lines, and she was a national publicity director for Ambi Products.

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An accredited member of the press corps for New York City's annual Fashion Week,

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she's featured in The Tint, a 2011 documentary chronicling the ready-to-wear

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collections and some of fashion's biggest names.

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Wadlington founded Evoluer Image Consultants. For her clients at Evoluer Image

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Consultants, she assembled an all-star glam squad who have worked with the likes

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of Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, and Mary J.

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Blige. She also taught fashion journalism at Temple University,

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where she orchestrated internship opportunities for her students at some of

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the top fashion houses and publications in the world, including Gucci,

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BCBG Max Azaria, and InStyle Magazine.

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Wadlington is a Philadelphia native and alumnae of the New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.

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With countless proclamations for her contributions to youth development from

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such dignitaries as the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and New

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Jersey State Senate and General Assembly, she has had an impact that transcends borders.

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Bermuda's former Minister of Education, Dame Jennifer Smith,

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applauded Evoluer's House exemplary program for moving girls toward greatness.

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The London-based NGO A Safe World for Women recognized the organization for

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its efforts in nurturing at-risk girls.

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Wadlington has also partnered with government officials in Kenya and the Kambu

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County Justice and Legal Committee to empower girls in the East African nation.

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One year before Wellington was named a White House champion of change,

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President Barack Obama recognized the Evoluer House for 11 years of service to young urban girls.

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In 2020, she was one of 10 women in a nation selected by the world's number

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one beauty brand, L'Oreal Paris, as a woman of worth.

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And in 2022, she was appointed to the Fashion Institute of Technology's inaugural

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Alumni Advisory Council.

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Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and privilege to have as a guest

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on this podcast, Cheryl Ann Wadlington.

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All right. Cheryl Ann Wadlington. How are you doing, sister? You doing good?

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I'm doing great. Thank you for having me on your program, your podcast.

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Well, I am honored to have you and happy holidays to you.

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Same to you. I know you're, well, if you're in the United States, you're cold.

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I think there's only like maybe a couple of places where it's not cold this winter.

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Yeah, it's cold. Yeah.

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So what I want to do is start off the podcast like I normally do,

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is that the first thing I do is offer the guest a quote to respond to.

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So your quote is, you're a has-been and you haven't helped nobody.

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What does that quote mean to you?

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Yeah that was a quote that my brother said who

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passed away so he said that

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after I had my first

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career was to be a dancer on Broadway so you know my goal was to get like four

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Tony Awards before I was 27 so I fell off stage when I was traveling in the

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circus and Ringling Brother's Circus as a showgirl and dancer and tore my knee

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up, and that was the end of my career.

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So my brother, who was a minister, he was wonderful.

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He said, what are you going to do with your life? You're a has-been and you haven't

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even made it yet. So that's where that phrase comes from.

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Yeah, yeah. I thought that was some tough love when I heard that in my research,

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But but you seem to have taken that challenge and run with it.

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And so my next icebreaker is what we call 20 questions.

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So I need you to give me a number between one and 20.

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15. All right. When you think about the challenges our country faces, what gives you hope?

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I'm going to say God, number one, but also the people who came before me. And they had it worse.

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They survived, so why can't I?

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Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's pretty succinct, but that's very accurate.

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I always used to tell people that, you know, whatever I achieved politically,

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I was standing on the shoulders of others.

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And so, yeah, that's that's that's pretty accurate as far as black folks are concerned.

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Outside of your brother's tough love, how did your family kind of influence

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you to be the person you are now?

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Well, I come from a religious family, like pretty much like a preacher's kid,

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fourth generation of ministers, bishops and all of that kind of thing.

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I mean, bishops that go way, way, way back.

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So they were strict. And I come from the kind of family that you just didn't

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do certain things. If you did, you would get a little whipping. So...

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My mother, mainly, she raised six kids alone. My father passed when I was in sixth grade.

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And then I had two brothers that were ministers, and they really did do tough love.

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So they made sure that I grew up to be a lady because I was a tomboy.

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I was an absolute tomboy. I was rough.

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I used to play with the boys all the time and tackle football,

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and I would tackle the guys to the ground. and my mother, you know,

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wanted to save her little daughter.

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So she, you know, wanted to make sure I turned out to be something and somebody.

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So she quickly put me in etiquette schools, finishing schools,

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dance classes, performing arts schools, modeling schools, put me in beauty pageants.

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She did everything to make sure I turned out okay, you know.

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And it's so interesting now that I'm at this age, I always say,

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well, you know, that like little rough side still lives in me,

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but then I know how to show up, you know, when it's time to get on stage or on TV or whatever,

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you know, I, it just is automatic, everything that my mother taught me and all

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of those, that grooming that she did immediately comes to play. Yeah. Yeah.

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And so people who, who may not be familiar with you.

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You are like, or you have been, I think you still are, one of the more iconic

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stylists in the fashion industry.

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I think you've like styled people for like Vogue, like Patrick Kelly was your contemporary.

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How did you make the transition from being in that world to being involved in

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the genesis of the Evoluer house? How do we get to this point?

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Yeah, well, when you live in a household with two ministers and the Bible is

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in the house and the preaching and when you were young and you go to church every day of the week,

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you know, in those revival tent type churches, foot clapping,

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hands stomping, you just know better.

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And it's because I knew when I went to New York and I was around like all the

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famous people and going to the parties.

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And at that time, it was real partying type of situation in New York.

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Like they partied hard.

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So I always knew that there were certain things when it was time to exit.

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You know, like you hear today, a lot of things that's going on.

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I knew that if I got involved in certain things, my mother and the women in

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the church, the women who wear white would come up wherever I was and kick my butt.

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So it's like I had to fear God. That's why I knew better.

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Yeah, yeah. And so when you say party hard, that was like the studio 54 days,

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is that what? Yeah, yeah.

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You know, and see, we had access to all of that. Yeah. You know,

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by going to school at the Fashion Institute in Newark, you get access to everything.

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So we had that privilege.

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Yeah. So how do how do we create the Evoluer house?

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Because that's the that was the thing that attracted me to ask you to come on

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your work that you've been doing with the Evoluer house.

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So kind of explain what the what the.

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The Evoluer House is, how it got started, and what kind of programs or courses

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do you offer at this place?

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Yeah, so it's so interesting because I know what it means when you say all roads lead home.

00:20:13.777 --> 00:20:17.197
You know, I started in the church and got in the world of glamour,

00:20:17.337 --> 00:20:21.477
and then all roads lead home, I wind up getting right back to where my foundation

00:20:21.477 --> 00:20:24.057
was, helping people, giving back.

00:20:24.257 --> 00:20:28.677
So that is who I am, and that is instilled in me, you know, from the family.

00:20:28.857 --> 00:20:32.137
So the other little house got started was right after my brother said like,

00:20:32.497 --> 00:20:34.137
okay, you're a has-been.

00:20:35.117 --> 00:20:38.237
You haven't even made it. What are you going to do? And he said,

00:20:38.397 --> 00:20:41.237
why don't you help somebody? And that just stuck in me.

00:20:41.597 --> 00:20:45.497
And it was just a natural transition kind of to go from the world of glamour

00:20:45.497 --> 00:20:51.437
to helping young girls because I had all of that opportunity and I could have

00:20:51.437 --> 00:20:58.097
easily wound up maybe in prison or somewhere else because I had to go to reform school, you know?

00:20:58.777 --> 00:21:06.057
So, but yet I turned out to achieve all of my dreams and do everything I wanted

00:21:06.057 --> 00:21:08.937
to do and reach the top of my field.

00:21:08.977 --> 00:21:13.637
So I said, if I can do that with the way I was as a young girl,

00:21:13.897 --> 00:21:16.017
I think anybody can do it.

00:21:16.137 --> 00:21:23.977
So I decided to help girls who look like me to strive for excellence.

00:21:24.517 --> 00:21:27.617
And see, and I also knew a lot was missing, you know, in this society,

00:21:27.677 --> 00:21:31.077
because like I told you earlier, my mother and them, they didn't stand for certain things.

00:21:31.217 --> 00:21:35.497
You know, and I know I've seen, because I taught school for a minute,

00:21:35.657 --> 00:21:41.337
and I see that they tolerate a lot from today's generation, and they're afraid to say something.

00:21:41.577 --> 00:21:44.177
Well, I knew I'm not. I'm not afraid.

00:21:44.773 --> 00:21:48.473
So the type of programming that we have at the Evoluer House,

00:21:48.633 --> 00:21:51.973
which means grow and change, is the French term for grow and change,

00:21:52.133 --> 00:21:59.213
I decided to implement program, but set the bar high and have a level of standard of excellence.

00:22:00.053 --> 00:22:04.353
We serve girls from underserved communities ages 13 to 18.

00:22:04.773 --> 00:22:09.593
The programs that we provide and our target audience is girls of color,

00:22:09.733 --> 00:22:11.933
the girls who need help the most.

00:22:12.573 --> 00:22:17.693
We have youth workforce development program. We have a personal development program.

00:22:17.733 --> 00:22:23.833
We have a podcast where girls learn how to monetize their own podcasts or have a podcast business.

00:22:23.873 --> 00:22:29.633
And we have an e-news letter, which is full of job opportunities,

00:22:30.433 --> 00:22:33.433
scholarships, great stories that interest teen girls.

00:22:33.613 --> 00:22:36.913
But that's circulated to over 4,000 girls across the United States.

00:22:37.113 --> 00:22:43.253
We went nationwide after the pandemic. But we're here because of the need.

00:22:43.513 --> 00:22:47.893
We're not just here doing some girl program like a lot of other organizations.

00:22:48.173 --> 00:22:53.673
We provide evidence-based programming, you know, some of the issues.

00:22:53.673 --> 00:22:59.873
People do not know how much black and brown teen girls are suffering in our community.

00:23:00.093 --> 00:23:02.773
You know, for a time, they thought it was just men and boys.

00:23:03.353 --> 00:23:08.993
But some women went to President Obama years ago and told him and said,

00:23:09.093 --> 00:23:11.293
hey, you know, you got the program My Brother's Keeper.

00:23:12.133 --> 00:23:15.333
But what about our girls and how they were suffering? You know,

00:23:15.413 --> 00:23:19.573
the fact that they were being pushed out of school, the school to prison pipeline. line.

00:23:19.913 --> 00:23:23.953
And a lot of people don't know that Villanova University did a study,

00:23:24.013 --> 00:23:29.013
and it said, if you are dark-skinned, you, a girl, you're still three times

00:23:29.013 --> 00:23:32.073
more likely to get suspended from school.

00:23:32.493 --> 00:23:39.793
There's a consensus among teachers. It's kind of unspoken, but it's in another report that what,

00:23:40.272 --> 00:23:45.812
white teachers, and majority of the teachers are white, what they think of Black girls.

00:23:45.972 --> 00:23:50.912
Some of them think that they're over sex and that they don't know how to stay in their place.

00:23:51.052 --> 00:23:54.752
That kind of mentality reminds me of slavery.

00:23:55.112 --> 00:24:00.472
So, you know, that also says when a girl, a Black girl, say,

00:24:00.572 --> 00:24:04.512
for example, may walk into a classroom, she doesn't stand a chance because she's

00:24:04.512 --> 00:24:06.452
judged differently. She looks upon differently.

00:24:06.852 --> 00:24:12.292
So we do know that our girls are traumatized from just basic discrimination

00:24:12.292 --> 00:24:15.072
and the barriers that they face.

00:24:15.792 --> 00:24:21.612
So I said, well, I want to do what I can to see to it that black and brown girls thrive.

00:24:22.452 --> 00:24:26.952
I don't mean just graduate high school. Our goal is to make sure they graduate

00:24:26.952 --> 00:24:29.692
high school on time, go to a four-year college,

00:24:29.872 --> 00:24:34.432
not to say that college is kind of getting unnecessary now, but to go to attend

00:24:34.432 --> 00:24:39.292
a four-year college because I believe it still provides theory for young girls.

00:24:39.412 --> 00:24:42.652
And also it teaches you how to count your money, which is a big problem when

00:24:42.652 --> 00:24:45.432
even if you're young and then all of a sudden you make a million dollars,

00:24:45.592 --> 00:24:48.632
you know, you hear time and time again of people losing their money.

00:24:48.812 --> 00:24:51.472
So financial literacy is very important for us.

00:24:51.812 --> 00:24:57.492
So to attend a four-year college and to help break that cycle of intergenerational

00:24:57.492 --> 00:25:03.212
poverty because Philadelphia was number one of metropolitan cities with high poverty.

00:25:03.532 --> 00:25:10.672
So to me, it doesn't make sense for a child to go hungry and for her not to

00:25:10.672 --> 00:25:16.472
have an opportunity to be her best and to reach her dreams, no matter what zip code she comes from.

00:25:17.332 --> 00:25:24.572
And so what our approach to developing, raising powerful girls is to,

00:25:24.732 --> 00:25:28.092
and before you educate, you have to heal her.

00:25:28.804 --> 00:25:32.604
So that's our whole concept that we use at the Evoluer House.

00:25:32.844 --> 00:25:39.824
So do you think that the discrimination piece, what these young girls face in

00:25:39.824 --> 00:25:42.224
school, is the biggest challenge they face?

00:25:42.644 --> 00:25:49.304
Well, racial trauma, racial trauma. It's not just the kids. It's like our mothers, grandmothers.

00:25:49.564 --> 00:25:53.764
We all suffer from racial trauma, and most of us have not healed.

00:25:53.924 --> 00:25:55.924
We didn't even know that it existed.

00:25:58.224 --> 00:26:01.464
But no no but now we see you

00:26:01.464 --> 00:26:06.664
know and I'm just thankful that I was able to think critically about the approach

00:26:06.664 --> 00:26:13.064
that I think is good to use to reach these girls and our outcomes have been

00:26:13.064 --> 00:26:17.564
great because of course you have this system the system didn't work it did not

00:26:17.564 --> 00:26:20.004
work for girls of color. This is what I'm seeing.

00:26:20.524 --> 00:26:27.784
So we're seeing great outcomes. Our outcomes are 100% graduate and go to college,

00:26:28.064 --> 00:26:31.064
you know, and you might've read them, or some form of higher education,

00:26:31.284 --> 00:26:36.464
51% go on full-ride scholarships, 51% come out of college debt-free.

00:26:37.304 --> 00:26:42.544
So, but even on the more darker side, you know, like I remember at graduation,

00:26:42.784 --> 00:26:48.564
we heard one of the young girls, She said, you know, if there had been programs like the Evoluer House,

00:26:48.964 --> 00:26:52.424
I wouldn't have even thought about killing myself.

00:26:52.704 --> 00:26:54.604
So, you know, the suicide rate

00:26:54.604 --> 00:26:57.864
for teen girls of color, it is through the roof. It's really a crisis.

00:26:58.064 --> 00:27:02.804
And it went up to something like 182% of years ago.

00:27:02.824 --> 00:27:10.044
And it hasn't gotten any better. So you have young girls who are, you know,

00:27:10.704 --> 00:27:18.484
taking themselves out at alarming rates because of whether it's bullying or

00:27:18.484 --> 00:27:20.824
anything, you know, that they just feel hopeless.

00:27:21.184 --> 00:27:27.304
So how does the house help deal with that trauma, help with the.

00:27:28.300 --> 00:27:30.980
Because when you're dealing, when you're talking about suicide and all this

00:27:30.980 --> 00:27:35.700
stuff, you're talking about self-esteem and public pressure.

00:27:35.840 --> 00:27:37.080
And like you said, the racial trauma.

00:27:37.220 --> 00:27:40.800
How does the house help those young girls?

00:27:40.940 --> 00:27:48.680
Is it because you've got them in an environment where everybody has an opportunity to thrive?

00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:51.840
I mean, kind of like what's the secret sauce, in your opinion?

00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:55.440
How that works? Yeah, well, what we do, we just show them that we love them,

00:27:55.500 --> 00:27:59.620
which is what they're missing in school. So our teachers, number one,

00:27:59.720 --> 00:28:03.460
we're very careful about who we hire because of the research.

00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:06.460
You know, teachers don't care. And it doesn't matter, actually,

00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:08.640
from what I'm seeing, if they're black or white.

00:28:08.800 --> 00:28:14.280
If you're working in an educational system where you know you don't have to

00:28:14.280 --> 00:28:19.220
do certain things to teach kids, I mean, they just don't do it.

00:28:19.220 --> 00:28:24.920
So our educators, we have educators and they're at, we've been lucky because

00:28:24.920 --> 00:28:27.260
we've been around 21 years. I want to mention that.

00:28:28.040 --> 00:28:32.940
They're at the master degree level, first of all. We've had some PhDs as teachers,

00:28:33.140 --> 00:28:35.520
but what I found, they didn't work out right.

00:28:35.700 --> 00:28:38.140
Sometimes they're too systematic and the girls didn't like them.

00:28:38.300 --> 00:28:41.080
They didn't like that. And so we listened to our girls.

00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:47.920
So we have a lot of classes that deal with mental health. And one thing we do,

00:28:48.080 --> 00:28:52.420
we make sure we hire teachers who have a certain level of compassion,

00:28:53.209 --> 00:28:59.429
which is missing. Things that happen in communities of color, it are like no other.

00:28:59.889 --> 00:29:04.029
And it's hard for white people to understand that, you know,

00:29:04.229 --> 00:29:07.089
whatever's going on in the household.

00:29:07.369 --> 00:29:11.029
So that's one thing we really, really vet our teachers.

00:29:11.309 --> 00:29:16.249
We also have a lot of classes that deal with mental health. We have an identity

00:29:16.249 --> 00:29:20.169
class because we have a large number of students coming in saying they don't

00:29:20.169 --> 00:29:22.609
know if they're gay or straight, you know, they're questioning.

00:29:22.849 --> 00:29:26.729
So that's something brand new. You know, I know they got all of these rules

00:29:26.729 --> 00:29:30.329
and really they were kind of recent to deal with the LGBT community.

00:29:30.669 --> 00:29:32.489
But I remember one year we had like

00:29:32.489 --> 00:29:36.989
75% of the girls said they were gay or questioning or something like that.

00:29:37.109 --> 00:29:40.329
So that is something you have to know how to deal with.

00:29:41.109 --> 00:29:44.809
Some of the classes we have are identity, who do you think you are,

00:29:44.809 --> 00:29:48.469
the sisterhood, how to get along with your sisters. That's a real big problem.

00:29:48.689 --> 00:29:52.389
You know, really, that's a real big problem among particularly Black women.

00:29:53.369 --> 00:29:57.569
They have a class called intersectionality. We have a class called Title IX.

00:29:57.689 --> 00:29:58.749
They have some heavy classes.

00:29:59.249 --> 00:30:03.169
Title IX are girls' rights in education to know your rights because girls are

00:30:03.169 --> 00:30:06.189
being treated like crap in school. So we've.

00:30:07.568 --> 00:30:12.668
How to protect yourself and how to deal with situations. If you're getting suspended,

00:30:12.888 --> 00:30:15.368
these are your legal rights and this is what you can do.

00:30:15.408 --> 00:30:18.728
So you just can't get kicked out of the school.

00:30:19.468 --> 00:30:23.208
Of course, they have the other classes, financial literacy, resume writing,

00:30:23.388 --> 00:30:26.368
but we let the girls know that this is their house.

00:30:27.148 --> 00:30:31.188
It's the classes are interactive, it's minds on, hands on.

00:30:31.788 --> 00:30:38.128
The girls talk to us. We make them talk to us. So it's a different kind of classroom.

00:30:38.428 --> 00:30:42.288
I was just talking to a big organization today who wanted to come in and work with us.

00:30:42.328 --> 00:30:46.508
And so I asked them, I said, well, how do you, what do your workshops look like?

00:30:46.608 --> 00:30:49.748
You know, and they really couldn't tell me. I mean, they were saying,

00:30:49.768 --> 00:30:53.768
oh, we use the PowerPoint and this is what we, how we teach the girls.

00:30:54.048 --> 00:31:01.528
And so you can't do that online with students. You can't just put in a PowerPoint and lecture to a child.

00:31:01.648 --> 00:31:06.628
We don't allow anybody to come in our classrooms and lecture to the girls for over 10 minutes.

00:31:07.288 --> 00:31:11.788
After that, it has to be an interactive experience.

00:31:12.968 --> 00:31:19.168
Yeah. So my mom established the first teen clinic in the city of Chicago.

00:31:19.168 --> 00:31:20.888
She worked for the Department of Health.

00:31:22.028 --> 00:31:26.208
And, you know, that was groundbreaking. But, you know, because she was a health

00:31:26.208 --> 00:31:30.748
educator, it was more focused on dealing with sexually transmitted diseases

00:31:30.748 --> 00:31:32.148
and pregnancy and all that.

00:31:32.428 --> 00:31:34.528
But she would try to kind of get into...

00:31:35.502 --> 00:31:40.262
What they were thinking and all that stuff, but your class, what you just laid out,

00:31:40.562 --> 00:31:46.402
if, if those young ladies that, you know, were, were exposed to that,

00:31:46.622 --> 00:31:51.802
I think my mom's job would have been a lot easier because, you know,

00:31:52.002 --> 00:31:56.062
cause there's a whole lot of components that lead to certain activities.

00:31:56.582 --> 00:32:02.102
Yeah. And it sounds like that, that, you know, you over this,

00:32:02.302 --> 00:32:07.342
these 21 years and figured out, all right, we need to address this. We need to go after that.

00:32:07.722 --> 00:32:12.082
And you seem to be very, very flexible in doing that. That's pretty awesome.

00:32:13.582 --> 00:32:19.922
You're definitely steps above the public education system as we know it in the

00:32:19.922 --> 00:32:21.622
United States now, in my opinion.

00:32:23.062 --> 00:32:28.442
Yeah. Well, another thing is we ask the girls when we have to update the classes,

00:32:28.462 --> 00:32:29.602
you know, what do you want to learn?

00:32:29.882 --> 00:32:33.222
Now, of course, we can't take everything in that they say. But say,

00:32:33.322 --> 00:32:37.182
for example, with our podcast, we may have girls who are on the spectrum.

00:32:37.502 --> 00:32:43.902
So they decided that they wanted to do a podcast about what it's like to be

00:32:43.902 --> 00:32:47.102
Black, queer, and on the spectrum.

00:32:47.322 --> 00:32:49.622
Now, you don't hear that conversation coming out of girls' mouths.

00:32:50.262 --> 00:32:54.922
So we want their voices to be heard all throughout the world.

00:32:54.922 --> 00:32:59.802
Because when you think about it, the young girl of color, particularly the black

00:32:59.802 --> 00:33:02.302
girl, has historically been invisible.

00:33:03.602 --> 00:33:06.942
Everybody thinks she's okay, but she's not okay.

00:33:07.782 --> 00:33:12.702
So we allow our girls to, you know, we encourage them to use their voice and

00:33:12.702 --> 00:33:16.362
show them that their voice matters and can make a difference.

00:33:17.722 --> 00:33:22.582
How has the current political climate impacted your nonprofit work?

00:33:22.582 --> 00:33:28.102
Has it had an effect on the students? Has it had an effect on you raising money?

00:33:28.342 --> 00:33:32.242
Has it had no effect at all as far as what you're trying to do?

00:33:32.856 --> 00:33:36.236
Yeah, I guess I would say, am I going to let it impact us?

00:33:36.496 --> 00:33:42.796
You know, again, I draw on those indigenous things that we did in the past that

00:33:42.796 --> 00:33:45.776
made us come over and get through it.

00:33:45.956 --> 00:33:48.816
So we're not going to let it.

00:33:49.256 --> 00:33:53.056
I always talked about federal funds for years. I said, you know,

00:33:53.136 --> 00:33:59.336
you got to think twice if you want to take federal funds because people can control your work.

00:33:59.336 --> 00:34:02.836
So we were lucky where we minimized that

00:34:02.836 --> 00:34:05.736
the impact I think the impact for

00:34:05.736 --> 00:34:13.476
us is the ability to take certain books is out of the libraries out of schools

00:34:13.476 --> 00:34:20.176
uh that sort of thing minimizing our black history I think that's traumatizing

00:34:20.176 --> 00:34:23.336
to black Americans across the board whether you're young or old.

00:34:24.896 --> 00:34:30.056
And it's almost like you can't listen to everything. I think all Black people

00:34:30.056 --> 00:34:32.396
need a therapist, you know, these days.

00:34:33.456 --> 00:34:40.116
Self-care is big at Evoluer House for the girls as well as our instructors

00:34:40.116 --> 00:34:43.556
because some of the things that we deal with is very heavy.

00:34:43.756 --> 00:34:45.916
It is absolutely heavy.

00:34:46.296 --> 00:34:50.116
So we have to make sure that we take care of ourselves because,

00:34:50.336 --> 00:34:52.976
you know, like we're hearing, like what you said in the political client,

00:34:53.156 --> 00:34:57.976
you're actually hearing that people don't like you because of your color of

00:34:57.976 --> 00:35:00.656
the skin, like that something's wrong with you.

00:35:00.816 --> 00:35:06.096
So you got to make sure that you, you know, that you're doing things to feel good.

00:35:06.296 --> 00:35:12.096
You're, you have a circle of friends, you have a network that is supportive. It's so important.

00:35:12.456 --> 00:35:17.876
And self-care is something that we're, Not only do we have rules at Evoluer House

00:35:17.876 --> 00:35:23.356
for staff, we also instill that with the girls. You've got to do self-care.

00:35:24.529 --> 00:35:29.889
For Black women, it's a must. Yeah. So since you mentioned government,

00:35:30.129 --> 00:35:35.849
the concept of the Evoluer House manifested from work that you were doing with

00:35:35.849 --> 00:35:39.449
the city governments in Camden, New Jersey, and in Philadelphia.

00:35:40.429 --> 00:35:45.829
What would you like to see other local governments do to help empower underserved

00:35:45.829 --> 00:35:47.409
girls throughout this country?

00:35:49.449 --> 00:35:53.829
Other cities, right? Yes, ma'am. you

00:35:53.829 --> 00:35:56.869
know that's that's really deep because every city has

00:35:56.869 --> 00:35:59.509
their own government that's going to take a lot

00:35:59.509 --> 00:36:04.669
of work and then you know some cities have corrupt governments I'm just being

00:36:04.669 --> 00:36:10.709
honest you know because I've seen it I had to experience you know getting money

00:36:10.709 --> 00:36:14.969
from wherever it came from federal or whatever and next thing you know the money's

00:36:14.969 --> 00:36:17.909
stolen by by a government system,

00:36:18.749 --> 00:36:25.489
And so the program, just children have to suffer because the program has to end because of that.

00:36:25.989 --> 00:36:32.649
So you were saying, what did you say you asked me about how does government impact?

00:36:33.049 --> 00:36:37.169
Well, what would you like to see other cities do?

00:36:37.169 --> 00:36:42.689
But based on that little short answer you gave, it sounds like it'd be better

00:36:42.689 --> 00:36:48.609
that it's a nonprofit organization outside of local government rather than being

00:36:48.609 --> 00:36:49.589
connected with government.

00:36:49.849 --> 00:36:54.829
I think sometimes you got to watch it. Yeah, you do. And I'm being honest.

00:36:55.049 --> 00:36:56.169
And this is my experience.

00:36:56.949 --> 00:37:02.649
I know locally, I was just shocked at the way government would treat children

00:37:02.649 --> 00:37:06.429
of color and what they thought was acceptable.

00:37:07.329 --> 00:37:11.869
So, you know, again, it's this mindset that we don't have to do anything or

00:37:11.869 --> 00:37:16.289
we don't have to do much or, you know, you can throw crumbs to the poor little

00:37:16.289 --> 00:37:19.289
black and brown kids. Yeah.

00:37:20.269 --> 00:37:24.069
Well, as somebody that's been an elected official and has had to fight those

00:37:24.069 --> 00:37:28.789
battles inside of the Capitol or inside of halls of government,

00:37:28.789 --> 00:37:30.749
I definitely understand what you're saying.

00:37:31.409 --> 00:37:38.849
And I am not just trying to say, oh, well, you got to have government to do it.

00:37:39.949 --> 00:37:44.889
But, you know, I just I just wanted to kind of get your your opinion about that,

00:37:44.889 --> 00:37:47.529
because there's a lot of people that feel that way, that it's like,

00:37:47.709 --> 00:37:51.009
you know, I don't trust the government to do this and all that.

00:37:51.009 --> 00:37:55.449
It don't matter if I got some good people in government that I trust and they'll

00:37:55.449 --> 00:37:56.589
fight for us and all that.

00:37:56.749 --> 00:38:02.069
It's just the system is so messed up that we've got to do what we need to do.

00:38:02.149 --> 00:38:05.329
We need to be self-sufficient to deal with our children.

00:38:06.289 --> 00:38:12.969
Yeah. So that's why I do what I do the way I do, because the system has failed us. Yeah.

00:38:13.708 --> 00:38:19.908
Mm-hmm. So COVID kind of forced the Evoluer House to go virtual.

00:38:20.468 --> 00:38:26.748
Was that a blessing in disguise for you? It was. It really was because that's how we went national.

00:38:27.008 --> 00:38:30.268
The minute we put the word out there that registration was open,

00:38:30.608 --> 00:38:33.508
girls came from Atlanta, Texas, Arizona.

00:38:33.728 --> 00:38:37.268
And then we got our first international student from Liberia.

00:38:37.408 --> 00:38:43.228
I don't know how she found us, but social media is the World Wide Web.

00:38:43.708 --> 00:38:46.368
So, yeah, it was actually a blessing.

00:38:46.888 --> 00:38:50.888
Now, the unfortunate thing, we have parents that died. A lot of parents died.

00:38:51.188 --> 00:38:54.888
The kids had to go out and work to support the family. Then they got sick.

00:38:55.368 --> 00:39:00.188
And I think the impact that it had, particularly on the Black community,

00:39:00.548 --> 00:39:02.208
that it's not talked about much.

00:39:02.328 --> 00:39:05.628
It was a terrible impact. and even

00:39:05.628 --> 00:39:08.408
I had caught COVID and I do everything I

00:39:08.408 --> 00:39:11.808
can now not to catch it again because a

00:39:11.808 --> 00:39:14.568
lot of times you can we have a succession plan in

00:39:14.568 --> 00:39:17.828
place but a lot of times when the leader

00:39:17.828 --> 00:39:21.008
you know dies the dream dies

00:39:21.008 --> 00:39:24.748
so you know people are always asking me

00:39:24.748 --> 00:39:28.188
and I think it's out of their pure ignorance when are you going to go back in

00:39:28.188 --> 00:39:33.848
person I want to see you in person in person sounds good but they just got like

00:39:33.848 --> 00:39:38.168
little peaks of COVID popping up and we're just not ready to go back because

00:39:38.168 --> 00:39:42.188
also your employees, if they catch COVID, they can sue you.

00:39:42.308 --> 00:39:45.168
So we're not ready yet.

00:39:45.408 --> 00:39:51.908
And the fact that if we can get our outcomes and do powerful sessions online,

00:39:52.168 --> 00:39:54.308
I mean, our outcomes are amazing.

00:39:55.088 --> 00:40:01.608
Why do we have to really rush to get back in person, which is somebody else's wishes?

00:40:01.988 --> 00:40:07.808
So, you know, a lot of times people aren't really doing great work in person,

00:40:07.808 --> 00:40:16.568
but, you know, we've managed to be able to really serve our girls well and with quality programming.

00:40:17.355 --> 00:40:24.075
Yeah. So the challenge of, like you said, it's like it's it started off in-house.

00:40:24.315 --> 00:40:27.755
You've branched out now through through through the Internet,

00:40:28.075 --> 00:40:32.635
but you're still getting the same outcomes as you were getting when you had

00:40:32.635 --> 00:40:35.475
the girls like in your in your physical presence.

00:40:35.915 --> 00:40:41.035
So I mean, if you're getting the same result, why why mess with it?

00:40:41.155 --> 00:40:44.335
Just just consider it an opportunity to continue to grow.

00:40:44.335 --> 00:40:49.515
So speaking about growing, let's close this out by, since this is the holiday

00:40:49.515 --> 00:40:56.475
season and people like to give during the holiday season, how can people support

00:40:56.475 --> 00:40:58.555
the work that you're doing at the Evoluer House?

00:40:58.895 --> 00:41:05.515
And how can people get in touch with you if they want to get some ideas about

00:41:05.515 --> 00:41:11.335
how to do something similar or just, you know, how you get through the day, whatever?

00:41:11.335 --> 00:41:15.355
How can people reach out to you and do and support the Evoluer House?

00:41:15.715 --> 00:41:22.235
Yes, so they can contact us through our website, which is EvoluerHouse.org.

00:41:22.515 --> 00:41:26.235
And they can follow us on social media to get an idea of some of the things

00:41:26.235 --> 00:41:29.415
that we're doing on social media, on Instagram.

00:41:29.455 --> 00:41:34.515
And it is the Evoluer House on Facebook and Twitter.

00:41:34.795 --> 00:41:36.855
It is Evoluer House.

00:41:37.195 --> 00:41:42.275
So we welcome you to come and connect with us. But I'm easy to get in touch with.

00:41:42.475 --> 00:41:48.555
I just ask that you call with, we like to talk about how can we help our girls.

00:41:49.115 --> 00:41:53.995
So if the conversation isn't about helping our girls or giving us money,

00:41:54.275 --> 00:41:56.315
you know, you might not want to call.

00:41:59.197 --> 00:42:04.197
I also want to say right now we have an online auction going on, but this is on Monday.

00:42:04.377 --> 00:42:08.577
It's going to end this week. But you can always give to, you can donate on our website.

00:42:08.817 --> 00:42:11.937
We're always looking for grants and money.

00:42:12.177 --> 00:42:17.777
You know, it takes a lot of money. It costs more than $1,000 per girl to educate

00:42:17.777 --> 00:42:20.317
our girls. And we get out there and have to raise that money.

00:42:20.797 --> 00:42:23.817
So we could always look for support.

00:42:24.417 --> 00:42:28.137
Well, Cheryl Ann Wadlington, let me just say this to you.

00:42:28.317 --> 00:42:33.897
I think that not only did you accept your brother's challenge,

00:42:33.897 --> 00:42:36.997
but you've gone above and beyond.

00:42:37.397 --> 00:42:41.457
I think it's one of the most incredible success stories that's out there.

00:42:41.557 --> 00:42:45.617
I'm glad that you have been recognized for the work that you're doing.

00:42:46.037 --> 00:42:55.057
But I still think that you and others that are trying to help our children, need to be uplifted.

00:42:55.197 --> 00:42:58.977
So that's why I offered the invitation for you to come on.

00:42:59.117 --> 00:43:02.057
And I am greatly honored that you accept it.

00:43:02.177 --> 00:43:08.617
And I hope you continue to have great success because I have a selfless interest.

00:43:09.057 --> 00:43:15.177
You know, I want Black children, male and female, to survive and thrive and

00:43:15.177 --> 00:43:16.537
live abundantly in this country.

00:43:16.737 --> 00:43:20.977
So I definitely want you to continue to succeed. So thank you again for coming

00:43:20.977 --> 00:43:24.097
on, and thank you again for the work that you're doing.

00:43:24.657 --> 00:43:26.677
Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

00:43:27.437 --> 00:43:29.717
All right, guys, and we're going to catch y'all on the other side.

00:43:50.645 --> 00:43:55.785
So now it is time for my next guest, Kristen Torres.

00:43:57.185 --> 00:44:03.465
Kristen Torres. She is a public policy strategist with more than a decade of

00:44:03.465 --> 00:44:06.885
experience at the intersection of advocacy and legislative strategy.

00:44:07.285 --> 00:44:13.045
She is the founder of Torres Consulting LLC, where she leads federal advocacy

00:44:13.045 --> 00:44:18.885
efforts that elevate nonprofits, local governments, and mission-driven organizations on Capitol Hill.

00:44:18.885 --> 00:44:24.705
Her work includes connecting clients directly with decision makers in Congress and federal agencies.

00:44:25.385 --> 00:44:30.485
Previously, Kristen served as a senior legislative assistant in the U.S.

00:44:30.525 --> 00:44:34.345
House of Representatives, advising on immigration, labor protections,

00:44:34.985 --> 00:44:37.725
voting rights, early childhood and child welfare.

00:44:37.725 --> 00:44:41.825
She has advanced legislation, secured community project funding,

00:44:41.865 --> 00:44:47.325
and led initiatives to expand health care equity, mental health and public safety,

00:44:47.525 --> 00:44:48.905
and worker protections.

00:44:49.205 --> 00:44:54.905
She also served as senior policy director at First Focus Campaign for Children,

00:44:55.205 --> 00:45:01.005
where she managed the national coalition and led successful campaigns to expand

00:45:01.005 --> 00:45:04.425
Medicaid access for youth formally in foster care.

00:45:04.425 --> 00:45:10.245
An HRSA grant recipient and policy fellow in Washington, D.C.,

00:45:10.245 --> 00:45:16.865
Kristen holds a BSW from Mississippi College and an MSW from the University of Alabama.

00:45:17.545 --> 00:45:23.365
As a single co-parent of two teenagers, she brings a lived commitment to making

00:45:23.365 --> 00:45:28.825
public policy accessible and ensuring that communities most impacted by federal

00:45:28.825 --> 00:45:31.645
decisions have a voice in shaping them.

00:45:31.645 --> 00:45:36.325
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and privilege to have as a guest

00:45:36.325 --> 00:45:39.425
on this podcast, Kristen Torres.

00:45:52.086 --> 00:45:56.386
Torres. How are you doing? I'm well, I'm well. I'm excited to be here.

00:45:56.606 --> 00:45:58.826
Well, I'm honored to have you on.

00:45:59.266 --> 00:46:06.726
I noticed something about you and I said, yeah, I need to have her on.

00:46:06.906 --> 00:46:16.906
I usually try to get people that are doing things and they may not get all the headlines.

00:46:17.686 --> 00:46:22.346
And in your profession, you more than likely don't want to be in the headlines,

00:46:22.346 --> 00:46:25.526
being a lobbyist on Capitol Hill.

00:46:25.786 --> 00:46:31.926
But I wanted you to come on because I had a classmate of mine who was a lobbyist

00:46:31.926 --> 00:46:36.326
for a long time, and he's been on the show, and he's from Mississippi.

00:46:37.046 --> 00:46:41.766
And so I wanted to, because I knew that you had that Mississippi background,

00:46:41.766 --> 00:46:48.186
I wanted to get your perspective on what's going on because he went to like a firm,

00:46:48.866 --> 00:46:56.886
after he was a staffer for a long time, and you kind of have the same path,

00:46:57.146 --> 00:47:01.146
same background, although you were a staffer more recently than him,

00:47:01.166 --> 00:47:05.226
so I definitely wanted to pick your brain a little bit about what's going on.

00:47:05.766 --> 00:47:14.226
Absolutely. So you're familiar with the show, so the first thing I'm going to do is offer you a quote.

00:47:14.546 --> 00:47:20.406
And your quote is, advocacy is not just about influencing policy.

00:47:20.686 --> 00:47:26.026
It's about improving people's lives and opening doors for communities that are

00:47:26.026 --> 00:47:28.146
often left out of the conversation.

00:47:28.446 --> 00:47:29.986
What does that quote mean to you?

00:47:31.048 --> 00:47:36.708
Yeah, I think it's been sort of the platform for my newly started firm that

00:47:36.708 --> 00:47:40.008
I've been working on this past year, but also my advocacy work on the Hill.

00:47:40.288 --> 00:47:44.868
A lot of trying to make sure that's not only the big pharmaceutical companies,

00:47:45.148 --> 00:47:49.408
the large corporations that are getting a say in policy, although they do.

00:47:49.408 --> 00:47:53.388
I mean, it's clear they get a lot of folks on the Hill.

00:47:53.888 --> 00:47:58.108
But where some of my work, specifically, I sort of cut my teeth in policy in

00:47:58.108 --> 00:47:59.228
the child welfare space.

00:47:59.368 --> 00:48:03.008
And so a lot of organizations that work in the foster care industry,

00:48:03.328 --> 00:48:06.308
keeping families together, preventing child abuse and neglect.

00:48:06.588 --> 00:48:11.648
Those are very small firms, very small organizations with limited capacity to

00:48:11.648 --> 00:48:13.908
sort of get their stories to Capitol Hill.

00:48:13.908 --> 00:48:19.508
And so as a staffer, I would be on one hand, I handled those sorts of organizations,

00:48:20.028 --> 00:48:23.948
economic policies, etc. But I also had a defense portfolio.

00:48:24.648 --> 00:48:27.988
I know on the House side, you tend to have a lot of portfolios at once.

00:48:28.268 --> 00:48:33.708
But it was just very, very, very apparent that when the defense lobbyists would

00:48:33.708 --> 00:48:38.048
come in, they didn't have to give me a lot of stories. They didn't have to try to win me over.

00:48:38.168 --> 00:48:41.948
All they would do is say, we wrote this bill for you, put it in front of your

00:48:41.948 --> 00:48:43.368
boss, see if she says yes or no.

00:48:43.368 --> 00:48:48.728
Versus the nonprofit, the small organizations, they have to do so much work

00:48:48.728 --> 00:48:54.608
to try to get, you know, members of Congress to even understand why their issues are so important.

00:48:54.788 --> 00:48:58.148
And so I think that's been a big part of my work. I am a social worker by trade,

00:48:58.288 --> 00:49:00.408
which I know you have a lot of social workers on the podcast.

00:49:00.888 --> 00:49:04.708
And so this has sort of been sort of an extension of that work that I do.

00:49:05.408 --> 00:49:08.348
Social workers rule the world, right? We do.

00:49:09.688 --> 00:49:15.008
All right. So now the next icebreaker is 20 questions. So I need you to give

00:49:15.008 --> 00:49:16.688
me a number between one and 20.

00:49:17.446 --> 00:49:20.866
I'm going to go right down the middle, 10. All right.

00:49:21.566 --> 00:49:29.626
What one fact do you wish people who voted differently than you in the last election knew?

00:49:30.786 --> 00:49:35.746
Do I wish they knew? Sorry, could you repeat that? What one fact do you wish

00:49:35.746 --> 00:49:41.106
people who voted differently than you in the last election knew,

00:49:41.106 --> 00:49:44.366
I guess, about you? That's interesting.

00:49:46.206 --> 00:49:49.606
You know, I think there's been a little bit, I am, you know,

00:49:49.746 --> 00:49:54.386
coming from a very red state and working more on the progressive policy side.

00:49:54.586 --> 00:49:59.006
There's always this just sort of misconception or this idea that,

00:49:59.126 --> 00:50:05.706
you know, I've been indoctrinated or infiltrated by, you know, some foreign alien.

00:50:05.706 --> 00:50:11.026
But I think it's because of my growing up where I did and coming out of,

00:50:11.146 --> 00:50:17.406
you know, very rural areas of Mississippi with policies that are just not great

00:50:17.406 --> 00:50:19.566
for the people that live there and for the state in itself.

00:50:19.566 --> 00:50:24.066
I think that is sort of pushed some of my current political ideology.

00:50:24.486 --> 00:50:28.366
Anyway, all that to say, I think I wish people knew that I do understand and

00:50:28.366 --> 00:50:31.266
I understand sometimes the arguments that come from both sides.

00:50:31.446 --> 00:50:34.806
And I still choose where I am today. Yeah.

00:50:35.126 --> 00:50:40.486
Yeah. Well, that's good. So how did a girl from central Mississippi become a

00:50:40.486 --> 00:50:42.586
lobbyist on Capitol Hill?

00:50:43.615 --> 00:50:47.215
It's a great question, one in which I will selfishly plug.

00:50:47.415 --> 00:50:51.795
I'm hopefully writing a—I have started a draft of a book to try to answer that

00:50:51.795 --> 00:50:57.655
question. I think it's not rooted in anything just like, bam, this one huge event.

00:50:57.915 --> 00:51:01.575
I think my life is sort of scattered of a lot of different occurrences along

00:51:01.575 --> 00:51:07.475
my journey that sort of chipped away at some of my— I came from a very religious,

00:51:07.815 --> 00:51:15.455
fundamental Christianity community, which obviously impacted or influenced my political beliefs.

00:51:16.055 --> 00:51:19.295
And so throughout my life, I've sort of been trying to untangle those two and

00:51:19.295 --> 00:51:20.235
see what that looks like.

00:51:20.235 --> 00:51:25.535
But I will just say it has been a series of small personal instances throughout

00:51:25.535 --> 00:51:29.075
my journey, meeting with folks who did not believe or grow up the same way that

00:51:29.075 --> 00:51:33.815
I did, hearing and listening to stories of others whose journey was just very different.

00:51:33.815 --> 00:51:38.295
Even as a child growing up in Mississippi, I grew up, as I'm sure you know,

00:51:38.455 --> 00:51:41.915
it's still, regardless if government-sanctioned or not, it's still very segregated,

00:51:42.455 --> 00:51:44.315
churches, schools, communities.

00:51:44.315 --> 00:51:48.955
And so my journey growing up in Mississippi was very different from some of

00:51:48.955 --> 00:51:53.475
my Black classmates and other colleagues that I've met throughout my, you know, growing up.

00:51:53.875 --> 00:51:57.315
And so I think a lot of it's just been a lot of story, a lot of listening to

00:51:57.315 --> 00:52:02.615
other stories, a lot of empathy, a lot of, hey, you know, maybe this makes sense

00:52:02.615 --> 00:52:06.215
to you, but let me show you another reason why this doesn't make sense. Yeah.

00:52:07.300 --> 00:52:11.400
Yeah. It's a long path. Well, I understand. So where in Mississippi did you

00:52:11.400 --> 00:52:15.200
grow up? So I went to high school in Lawrence County, so in Monticello, Mississippi.

00:52:15.800 --> 00:52:22.200
But my parents, we lived in a small community called New Hebron near Prentice. And yeah.

00:52:23.620 --> 00:52:28.100
And then my grandparents lived in Leak County, so Carthage, Mississippi. Okay. Yeah.

00:52:29.220 --> 00:52:32.960
That's Central Mississippi. There's no doubt about that. And you ended up going

00:52:32.960 --> 00:52:34.080
to Mississippi College.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:37.580
Well, so yeah, I guess I didn't really fully answer your question.

00:52:37.880 --> 00:52:40.340
So, I originally, I grew up as a preacher's kid.

00:52:40.440 --> 00:52:44.000
My dad's a pastor, very charismatic and very admired pastor.

00:52:44.120 --> 00:52:46.320
He still is in Raymond, Mississippi now.

00:52:46.940 --> 00:52:49.860
And that was something that I always kind of looked up to. And I thought,

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:53.460
you know, I want to do something similar, modeled after that.

00:52:53.600 --> 00:52:56.740
For women, there are not a lot of options for that. And so, I originally went

00:52:56.740 --> 00:53:01.560
to the theological school, theology school, wow, that's tongue twister,

00:53:02.080 --> 00:53:07.140
to study Christian counseling. And it was, you know, sort of my version of what my dad was doing.

00:53:07.420 --> 00:53:10.700
That was around a time where I started being introduced to different cultures

00:53:10.700 --> 00:53:14.820
and different, you know, political stances and just life, right?

00:53:14.900 --> 00:53:17.480
I was 19 years old. There was a lot of transitioning happening.

00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:20.260
And from there, I was introduced to the field of social work.

00:53:21.659 --> 00:53:25.939
Counseling, helping with a little bit of a twist, right? And so from there,

00:53:26.019 --> 00:53:30.199
I decided after I went back to school for my master's, the University of Alabama

00:53:30.199 --> 00:53:33.099
has a program where you can go to D.C. for a fellowship.

00:53:34.059 --> 00:53:38.699
And that was around 2015, which, as you know, there was a lot happening in the country.

00:53:39.239 --> 00:53:43.379
And I just made the decision there that I wanted to start speaking out on some

00:53:43.379 --> 00:53:45.579
of these broader issues. Yeah. Okay.

00:53:46.219 --> 00:53:49.599
Yeah. So my deskmate who ended up being Speaker of the House,

00:53:49.759 --> 00:53:52.699
Philip Gunn. That's his alma mater.

00:53:52.979 --> 00:53:56.319
So, and then I represented part of Clinton.

00:53:56.359 --> 00:54:01.719
So my district didn't go all the way to the campus, but I was like right there

00:54:01.719 --> 00:54:06.059
because the campus is like downtown for those of y'all who are not from Mississippi.

00:54:06.579 --> 00:54:08.999
Downtown to the highway is what they say.

00:54:10.859 --> 00:54:15.039
So what is the McDonald's? That's right.

00:54:15.299 --> 00:54:21.699
That's right. What is the most glaring difference you see now as compared to

00:54:21.699 --> 00:54:23.579
when you worked as a staffer?

00:54:24.759 --> 00:54:29.879
That's interesting. I've only been off the hill for a year. I celebrated my

00:54:29.879 --> 00:54:31.179
one-year anniversary this summer.

00:54:32.039 --> 00:54:39.359
And I think on a personal note, as a staffer, I'll just say people are constantly coming to you,

00:54:39.679 --> 00:54:43.619
giving you information, giving you things, and you sort of sort through it,

00:54:43.619 --> 00:54:48.779
But you never are like seeking out information and just on a very logistical

00:54:48.779 --> 00:54:50.739
level now being off the hill.

00:54:50.819 --> 00:54:54.939
I am the one now looking and saying, hey, can you get me information on X, Y and Z?

00:54:55.139 --> 00:54:59.179
Or, you know, how can I find out what really is happening based off of this

00:54:59.179 --> 00:55:00.459
news article that I just sent?

00:55:00.619 --> 00:55:03.479
So that's been one just on the logistical side.

00:55:03.639 --> 00:55:09.719
I think the other thing is because I am no longer sort of tied to a specific

00:55:09.719 --> 00:55:14.579
member of Congress or district, I have a little more ability to work.

00:55:16.384 --> 00:55:20.744
I will say bipartisanly, I do a lot of bipartisan work, but it does give me

00:55:20.744 --> 00:55:24.444
just a little more breadth on who I'm able to reach out to and talk to versus

00:55:24.444 --> 00:55:28.044
I was sort of working with a certain group of members when I was a staffer.

00:55:29.524 --> 00:55:35.204
I guess the other question I want to ask is how did they, how did somebody from

00:55:35.204 --> 00:55:38.344
Mississippi end up working for a representative from California?

00:55:39.624 --> 00:55:43.104
Yeah, a lot of people ask, and I'm sure, you know, it's the same,

00:55:43.364 --> 00:55:49.024
maybe, I don't know, the same on the state level, but when hiring assistants,

00:55:49.044 --> 00:55:54.104
they're looking for both policy expertise in the areas in which the member has

00:55:54.104 --> 00:55:56.024
to focus on and wants to focus on,

00:55:56.144 --> 00:56:00.544
as well as familiarity with the district and or state that they are from.

00:56:00.704 --> 00:56:03.084
So for me, the particular office

00:56:03.084 --> 00:56:06.624
had a very specific policy ask that they were looking for in their...

00:56:07.778 --> 00:56:11.518
Child welfare, child care, human services, as well as their civil rights and immigration.

00:56:11.818 --> 00:56:14.638
So it's hard. Usually folks don't do the intersection of those two.

00:56:14.738 --> 00:56:16.318
And I happen to have that experience.

00:56:16.778 --> 00:56:19.798
My family, my dad, my grandmother is Native Hawaiian.

00:56:20.358 --> 00:56:24.978
His family lived both in Hawaii and in Southern California. So I do have a lot

00:56:24.978 --> 00:56:26.678
of families still out in Southern California.

00:56:27.878 --> 00:56:33.658
Yeah, because usually the Congress people try to get people,

00:56:33.678 --> 00:56:38.238
you know, definitely for there's in their, in their districts,

00:56:38.438 --> 00:56:42.278
they pick people from within the state, but in Washington,

00:56:42.958 --> 00:56:47.138
a lot of people pick people from their state because they, they don't trust anybody.

00:56:49.538 --> 00:56:54.958
They want to have, they want to have a connection to home.

00:56:55.498 --> 00:57:02.398
And so that's why they'll, they'll bring people up. So it gives people from respective States.

00:57:02.618 --> 00:57:05.858
It doesn't matter if it's Mississippi Georgia Idaho Wyoming

00:57:05.858 --> 00:57:11.298
it gives people from those those places an opportunity to to start a career

00:57:11.298 --> 00:57:15.978
in dc if they want to if they if that's actually another point that I I should

00:57:15.978 --> 00:57:22.658
have not I I I do have you know my political views are very progressive and democratic and so,

00:57:23.478 --> 00:57:28.058
they're not you know from Mississippi we got the one member of congress that

00:57:28.058 --> 00:57:29.278
I have the option to work for.

00:57:29.478 --> 00:57:32.938
And at the time I did get to meet him and speak with him. And he was like,

00:57:33.038 --> 00:57:35.118
I've got a student from every school currently.

00:57:36.178 --> 00:57:39.318
So yeah, we do have to kind of get creative in who we reach out to.

00:57:39.718 --> 00:57:42.458
Yeah. Well, at least he got to meet you because you, you, you,

00:57:42.498 --> 00:57:46.818
you were, you were a student in his district. So that, that, that's important.

00:57:46.958 --> 00:57:51.158
But like you said, when you only have one option, you kind of,

00:57:51.158 --> 00:57:53.638
you kind of limited on what they could do.

00:57:54.563 --> 00:58:00.983
How much of a challenge has the current political climate been to your work as a lobbyist?

00:58:01.043 --> 00:58:06.603
And I understand it's only been a year, but, you know, how has that been?

00:58:07.383 --> 00:58:13.423
Because you said you have a bipartisan clientele. So how is that working out?

00:58:14.043 --> 00:58:17.143
Yeah, I think it goes to your point of that trust.

00:58:17.523 --> 00:58:24.183
There's a lot of mistrust of people across the aisle. And that's gotten much

00:58:24.183 --> 00:58:28.283
more inflamed over the last few years since this last election, I would even say.

00:58:28.603 --> 00:58:33.203
And so because I have worked for a member, a Democratic member,

00:58:33.623 --> 00:58:37.983
sometimes that immediately shuts a lot of doors for me in a current administration

00:58:37.983 --> 00:58:42.363
that is on the opposite side. And so I think that's been something that's been

00:58:42.363 --> 00:58:43.323
really hard to deal with.

00:58:43.443 --> 00:58:47.503
I am very, you know, being from the South is something that,

00:58:47.703 --> 00:58:50.923
you know, we talk SEC, right?

00:58:51.143 --> 00:58:55.923
We talk all things football and farming, and there's a lot of camaraderie amongst

00:58:55.923 --> 00:59:00.303
the members. but I've seen that less and less over the past year or two.

00:59:00.783 --> 00:59:03.803
A lot of things that used to sort of bring us together where we could agree

00:59:03.803 --> 00:59:09.723
on, I think folks are a lot less willing to sort of be in the same room with other folks.

00:59:09.863 --> 00:59:12.263
I mean, there's just so much distrust. Are you recording me?

00:59:12.363 --> 00:59:15.183
Are you going to, you know, put this in the papers?

00:59:16.043 --> 00:59:19.703
So that's been challenging, especially when part of my job is to introduce clients

00:59:19.703 --> 00:59:21.923
to administrative agencies.

00:59:22.463 --> 00:59:25.863
So that's been something that I have really really struggled

00:59:25.863 --> 00:59:29.723
with in this first year when I initially left in July I'll

00:59:29.723 --> 00:59:32.983
be honest I I kind of thought we were going to be having a Harris administration

00:59:32.983 --> 00:59:38.163
and so I had a lot of friends in the Biden administration and on a business level

00:59:38.163 --> 00:59:42.063
it sounded like a good idea but it's definitely been something I've been working

00:59:42.063 --> 00:59:46.803
on this past year yeah yeah I know in politics you got to kind of hedge your

00:59:46.803 --> 00:59:48.823
bets a little bit never forget when um,

00:59:49.747 --> 00:59:53.267
The last time I ran for the U.S. Senate, that was in 2008.

00:59:54.847 --> 01:00:00.707
And, you know, in Mississippi, it's a hard nut to crack to be a Democrat running statewide.

01:00:01.407 --> 01:00:06.627
But it was so funny, like around starting in August of that year,

01:00:06.907 --> 01:00:09.207
people started sending me resume.

01:00:09.807 --> 01:00:14.607
And I thought that was, you know, I was like, I think I could win this thing.

01:00:14.767 --> 01:00:16.507
I mean, people were said to be resumes.

01:00:16.707 --> 01:00:19.667
They were like, look, because, of course, Obama was running that same year.

01:00:19.747 --> 01:00:24.567
And so people were like, well, you know, he's a black guy. Obama's a black guy.

01:00:24.847 --> 01:00:27.467
It might happen, especially in Mississippi. Right.

01:00:28.027 --> 01:00:33.347
So, yeah. And so I definitely know about hedging bets. And I was just flattered

01:00:33.347 --> 01:00:35.207
that that people were doing that.

01:00:35.867 --> 01:00:42.407
And I do, by the way, that state run race, you know, in such a state like Mississippi is a feat in itself.

01:00:42.407 --> 01:00:45.307
Well yeah yeah but it

01:00:45.307 --> 01:00:48.027
you know 2006 fell kind of

01:00:48.027 --> 01:00:50.867
in that but it was a different vibe then too because it

01:00:50.867 --> 01:00:54.007
was right after Katrina and and so

01:00:54.007 --> 01:00:58.567
a lot of people said that you know I should have saved all my eggs for that

01:00:58.567 --> 01:01:02.947
one big shot but if I didn't run an 06 I wouldn't have been a better candidate

01:01:02.947 --> 01:01:09.887
in 08 right and and you know to have the opportunity to do that twice and and

01:01:09.887 --> 01:01:11.327
you know a A lot of people say, well, it was Mississippi.

01:01:11.347 --> 01:01:14.447
You probably was unopposed. I said, no, I literally had like,

01:01:15.259 --> 01:01:18.239
in the span of those two primaries, like five or six opponents.

01:01:19.979 --> 01:01:24.979
So I had to actually run in a primary contested and then get in there.

01:01:25.139 --> 01:01:31.359
But yeah, it's just a different vibe, but, you know, it's doable.

01:01:32.999 --> 01:01:40.339
I guess people could say it's courageous now, but I never looked at it as being courageous.

01:01:40.339 --> 01:01:48.999
I think that, you know, good people should run no matter how imperfect you are as far as like life.

01:01:49.439 --> 01:01:53.679
If your heart's in the right place, then then you should.

01:01:53.899 --> 01:01:58.079
If you want to run for public office, you should run. I always Jesse Jackson

01:01:58.079 --> 01:02:00.599
said, I'm not a perfect servant. I'm a public servant. Right.

01:02:01.039 --> 01:02:06.799
So I just yeah, I never looked at it as being courageous, but I appreciate your kind words on that.

01:02:06.799 --> 01:02:12.899
So how has your background in social work helped you being,

01:02:13.899 --> 01:02:18.139
you kind of talked about the specifics dealing with child welfare,

01:02:18.379 --> 01:02:25.499
but is there a skill set in social work that helps you become a better lobbyist?

01:02:26.299 --> 01:02:31.519
Absolutely. And I speak to, I still work with students from the University of

01:02:31.519 --> 01:02:35.259
Alabama and other social work schools across the country who are looking to

01:02:35.259 --> 01:02:38.259
get more of their students into the public policy world.

01:02:38.419 --> 01:02:42.239
And that is because, yes, we absolutely, there's a skill set. One.

01:02:43.149 --> 01:02:45.569
Originally, in your clinical teachings, you're taught empathy,

01:02:45.569 --> 01:02:50.449
you're taught the ability to listen, to engage your clients where they are.

01:02:50.629 --> 01:02:53.009
And that was a huge skill for me on the Hill.

01:02:53.249 --> 01:02:58.229
My member of Congress was a psychologist, so she also had a very similar approach

01:02:58.229 --> 01:03:01.009
to listening to constituents and dealing with constituents.

01:03:01.309 --> 01:03:05.709
And I felt I was very lucky to have someone to sort of mirror that after.

01:03:06.169 --> 01:03:09.569
And I felt a lot of the folks that came into our room appreciate it.

01:03:09.649 --> 01:03:13.449
Whether it was something we agreed on or not on the policy, I do think there's

01:03:13.449 --> 01:03:19.369
always that level of listening and understanding that I was taught during my undergrad degree.

01:03:19.369 --> 01:03:23.949
The other thing is, you know, realizing unintended consequences.

01:03:23.949 --> 01:03:28.329
So I think that's something that as a social worker, you're taught on both the

01:03:28.329 --> 01:03:34.569
macro and micro levels, that taking something on its face doesn't mean that's

01:03:34.569 --> 01:03:37.449
how it's implemented or how it actually turns out in real life.

01:03:37.449 --> 01:03:40.889
You know giving a family I don't

01:03:40.889 --> 01:03:43.749
want to get into specifics I guess but I think you know

01:03:43.749 --> 01:03:46.949
what may seem like a good idea for a

01:03:46.949 --> 01:03:49.869
moment and helping to empower a family may actually not

01:03:49.869 --> 01:03:54.409
be something that empowers them in the end and so in policy development having

01:03:54.409 --> 01:03:59.209
to look at that a lot and it sort of distinguished me from my colleagues who

01:03:59.209 --> 01:04:02.909
had a law degree and other degrees because they are taught very much to look

01:04:02.909 --> 01:04:06.969
directly at the letter of the law and I think my skill set came in and saying,

01:04:07.129 --> 01:04:10.789
I see that, but I want to kind of like talk to you about what might be,

01:04:10.909 --> 01:04:14.509
you know, some hidden biases here or some things that may actually show up that

01:04:14.509 --> 01:04:16.989
disproportionately impact certain communities.

01:04:17.189 --> 01:04:21.229
And I feel like I absolutely attribute that to my social work background.

01:04:21.729 --> 01:04:30.329
Yeah. And so, you develop a skill set where you can build trust too,

01:04:30.469 --> 01:04:35.809
because in order to be able to help a client, you have to have the trust of that client.

01:04:36.629 --> 01:04:41.309
And that kind of goes back to something that you said in answering the last question.

01:04:42.330 --> 01:04:45.430
Which you distracted me because you flattered me. What I wanted to bring up

01:04:45.430 --> 01:04:51.550
was that, you know, when I was in the legislature, I remember the lobbyists

01:04:51.550 --> 01:04:56.770
would come and say, hey, look, you know, I want to have a dinner with the committee.

01:04:56.990 --> 01:05:01.090
They go to the committee chair, and it didn't matter, Democrat,

01:05:01.290 --> 01:05:03.770
Republican, dog, cat, we all showed up, right?

01:05:04.490 --> 01:05:08.290
And that kind of helped me as a legislator get to know my colleagues because

01:05:08.290 --> 01:05:09.590
it was an informal setting.

01:05:09.590 --> 01:05:15.790
But, you know, I've heard reports at the state level and to some degree at the

01:05:15.790 --> 01:05:21.230
federal level that now the lobbyists just pick a side.

01:05:21.730 --> 01:05:26.810
Right. That it's like, since the Republicans are in charge, then we'll just

01:05:26.810 --> 01:05:31.390
entertain the Republicans and not worry about the Democrats because,

01:05:31.770 --> 01:05:36.610
you know, we figure they're probably not going to either vote our way or they don't influence.

01:05:37.050 --> 01:05:41.730
They don't have the influence to get something through. So why waste our time?

01:05:42.010 --> 01:05:46.490
And I just I just thought that was insane. I said, you know,

01:05:46.610 --> 01:05:54.010
if I was when I was a lobbyist, I was trying to get every member to vote for what I was pushing.

01:05:54.430 --> 01:05:58.750
You know what I'm saying? I wanted to be able to go to my boss and say, look, 122 to nothing.

01:05:59.010 --> 01:06:03.310
You know, that's yeah, that's the goal to me. But now it was just like,

01:06:03.370 --> 01:06:05.670
well, you know, we get all the Republicans we're in.

01:06:05.870 --> 01:06:10.430
I mean, how is how is it like working in that vibe?

01:06:11.623 --> 01:06:15.483
Just as you think it might be. It is discouraging.

01:06:15.483 --> 01:06:19.103
I have several mentors that have been, you know, worked in Congress decades

01:06:19.103 --> 01:06:23.383
ago and even, you know, five, 10 years ago who have talked to me,

01:06:23.403 --> 01:06:26.863
you know, this is how it used to be, very much similar to what you just described.

01:06:27.843 --> 01:06:31.023
And Congress is very different these days. You know, a lot of folks will,

01:06:31.143 --> 01:06:34.443
they call it broken, but I think one of the things is, you know,

01:06:34.563 --> 01:06:37.503
it has become such a partisan divide and because we are so,

01:06:37.763 --> 01:06:41.883
it's 50, you know, we're what, two votes off in the House? You know,

01:06:41.903 --> 01:06:43.123
it's a very slim majority.

01:06:43.463 --> 01:06:48.563
And so trying to think of strategy to push something forward,

01:06:48.923 --> 01:06:53.843
you do have to sort of focus on, okay, let me tailor my messaging towards one

01:06:53.843 --> 01:06:59.063
party and let me talk about my client's needs in a way that they will understand

01:06:59.063 --> 01:07:01.663
and that they might be sympathetic.

01:07:02.003 --> 01:07:05.183
And then you sort of pivot and turn to another party and say,

01:07:05.343 --> 01:07:08.443
okay, I want to talk about the same issue, but I want to put it in words that

01:07:08.443 --> 01:07:10.783
maybe you maybe appreciate a little more.

01:07:11.103 --> 01:07:15.263
So there's not really, there are not really options where you have everyone in the same room.

01:07:15.423 --> 01:07:19.983
But I do know there's, you know, an increasingly number of folks that are looking

01:07:19.983 --> 01:07:23.923
to, you know, stay at the net bipartisan margin. Yeah.

01:07:24.383 --> 01:07:32.843
Yeah. I have a classmate from high school and she stayed in Chicago and and.

01:07:34.048 --> 01:07:39.108
She had a niche because, you know, Chicago is a heavily Democratic city,

01:07:39.328 --> 01:07:42.708
but people run as Republicans from time to time.

01:07:42.988 --> 01:07:49.988
And so she basically would, she had built a business where it's like,

01:07:50.308 --> 01:07:52.968
all right, you Republican candidates, you want to win in Chicago?

01:07:53.648 --> 01:07:59.568
Let me do your messaging for you, right? So you can relate to these people that

01:07:59.568 --> 01:08:01.748
you're trying to get to break a tradition.

01:08:01.748 --> 01:08:08.108
So I think it's a very important skill set that you have to be able to go up

01:08:08.108 --> 01:08:12.228
to somebody from, I don't know, I'm going to pick a Wyoming,

01:08:12.628 --> 01:08:16.668
the representative from Wyoming who's a Republican and ask her, hey, look,

01:08:16.848 --> 01:08:23.208
I need to look at this and turn right around and go grab somebody from New York

01:08:23.208 --> 01:08:29.628
State and address the same issue, but put it where they can understand.

01:08:29.628 --> 01:08:32.748
Man, that's a very special skill set you have to have.

01:08:33.528 --> 01:08:38.128
Yeah, and I think it's only our current, you know, our current situation has only inflamed that.

01:08:38.348 --> 01:08:42.288
I think there used to be, you know, there were ways that you would talk about

01:08:42.288 --> 01:08:47.328
things that, you know, you would try to think, oh, gosh, you know,

01:08:47.468 --> 01:08:50.108
sort of tailor, you know, how you talked about a certain topic.

01:08:50.228 --> 01:08:53.908
But now there are words on both sides that you can't use. You can't use certain

01:08:53.908 --> 01:08:57.348
words or they immediately block you out because, you know, the media,

01:08:57.528 --> 01:09:00.508
social media has sort of said this means this.

01:09:00.748 --> 01:09:05.268
And so, yeah, it's a very fine line. It takes a lot of just sort of just listening.

01:09:06.468 --> 01:09:10.268
Why do you think there's a negative connotation associated to lobbying?

01:09:11.328 --> 01:09:17.768
Lobbying. I think partly what I mentioned up front is that historically access

01:09:17.768 --> 01:09:20.348
to lobbying has been big money.

01:09:20.348 --> 01:09:27.948
Large corporations, large, you know, big pharma, et cetera. And I think that,

01:09:28.575 --> 01:09:32.455
And I won't say it's just a theory. You know, I would say even in practice,

01:09:32.715 --> 01:09:37.635
they, you know, those are generally the ones that get their voices heard by

01:09:37.635 --> 01:09:40.915
a member of Congress over a large portion of their constituents.

01:09:41.955 --> 01:09:47.575
And so I think that rightfully so has sort of followed through with the term.

01:09:47.875 --> 01:09:53.495
I do think there is an effort to sort of expand who has access to lending their

01:09:53.495 --> 01:09:57.455
voice to members of Congress and to the agencies and to the administration.

01:09:59.175 --> 01:10:02.855
It's a David and Goliath fight for sure. Yeah, yeah.

01:10:04.615 --> 01:10:08.155
Lobbyists used to get mad at me when I was in the legislature because I would

01:10:08.155 --> 01:10:10.335
introduce like 150 bills a year.

01:10:10.855 --> 01:10:13.295
And they'd say, there's no way you could pay attention to all that.

01:10:13.355 --> 01:10:17.315
And I said, if I came up with the bill, I'd probably have a good sense of what I was pushing.

01:10:19.135 --> 01:10:23.115
They said, why do you do that? And I said, well, obviously you don't want to

01:10:23.115 --> 01:10:28.135
work because if I didn't introduce this bill, we wouldn't have a conversation,

01:10:28.355 --> 01:10:30.515
right? And they just kind of like nod their head at it.

01:10:30.935 --> 01:10:36.355
I mean, it's a vital part of the process.

01:10:36.855 --> 01:10:43.935
Which leads me to my next question. Why should people in organizations hire a lobbyist? Hmm.

01:10:44.959 --> 01:10:48.739
I think the same reason that big corporations do. I think there is just such

01:10:48.739 --> 01:10:53.499
a large misunderstanding of the process, and maybe purposely so.

01:10:53.639 --> 01:10:56.599
It's just so wonky in the weeds.

01:10:56.779 --> 01:11:02.079
There are a lot of processes and things that, unless you do it on a daily basis,

01:11:02.299 --> 01:11:03.719
it just doesn't make sense.

01:11:04.059 --> 01:11:07.379
And so having someone to navigate that for you is really important.

01:11:08.399 --> 01:11:12.999
It's not just enough to tell your stories, unfortunately, to come before Congress.

01:11:13.179 --> 01:11:17.779
It is part of the process. And as I talk to social work students and other students

01:11:17.779 --> 01:11:22.439
across the country, I'm always, always, you know, making sure that they are

01:11:22.439 --> 01:11:23.939
out there telling their story.

01:11:24.139 --> 01:11:27.899
But sometimes when you're coming, for instance, when I was a staffer and I would

01:11:27.899 --> 01:11:32.079
have organizations come to me with their stories, I would feel a lot of empathy.

01:11:32.079 --> 01:11:36.719
I would want to do something, but I didn't know what to do because they didn't

01:11:36.719 --> 01:11:40.899
have the training to give me a result or give a result that they would like to see.

01:11:41.199 --> 01:11:44.319
Or, you know, they just came to me to fix the problem.

01:11:44.659 --> 01:11:50.719
And unfortunately, I did not have my wasn't didn't have the ability to fix their problem.

01:11:51.579 --> 01:11:55.019
And so sometimes a lot, you know, if you have a lobbyist, the lobbyist is able

01:11:55.019 --> 01:11:58.379
to look at what are the things Congress is focused on?

01:11:58.539 --> 01:12:02.359
What are the committees looking at? What are their jurisdictions? What do they care about?

01:12:03.339 --> 01:12:07.079
Are members, is there an appetite to move such? And, you know,

01:12:07.099 --> 01:12:10.079
I think a lot of this helps to navigate a lot of that.

01:12:11.099 --> 01:12:16.619
In addition to some of the logistics, like, hey, this is how you set up a meeting,

01:12:16.799 --> 01:12:17.939
you know, with your member of Congress.

01:12:18.199 --> 01:12:21.799
This is how you go in. And this is, you know, if you want to get to the member,

01:12:21.979 --> 01:12:26.699
you got to bring a constituent. If you want to, you know, educate this 21-year-old

01:12:26.699 --> 01:12:29.319
staffer, you know, don't throw a report at them.

01:12:29.419 --> 01:12:31.759
Let's give them a bullet page, you know, a one-pager.

01:12:31.919 --> 01:12:36.539
So a lot of things like that I think is really important and really important in moving something.

01:12:37.179 --> 01:12:40.839
And so if they think that's the goal of your organization is to move legislation,

01:12:40.839 --> 01:12:43.599
I really think it's important to have someone to help you navigate it.

01:12:44.752 --> 01:12:47.992
So I'm going to say this, and it may come across as negative,

01:12:48.012 --> 01:12:52.152
and that's fine. I'm used to getting blasted every now and then.

01:12:52.312 --> 01:13:00.332
But I think a lot of people that have causes, you know, have egos attached to the causes, right?

01:13:00.692 --> 01:13:04.612
So it's like it may be something that you're really passionate about in your

01:13:04.612 --> 01:13:09.412
home state or, you know, wherever you're based, you know, if you're nationally based or whatever.

01:13:09.412 --> 01:13:16.552
You can persuade the people in your organization. You can preach to the choir.

01:13:16.852 --> 01:13:22.932
But when you go up to the United States Congress or even your state legislature,

01:13:23.672 --> 01:13:27.952
right, these people are not easily persuaded.

01:13:28.332 --> 01:13:32.052
They got elected because they could persuade people.

01:13:32.412 --> 01:13:39.932
Really? And so, you know, the way that you can rouse a crowd or get people to

01:13:39.932 --> 01:13:42.752
show up to a meeting and all that might not...

01:13:43.798 --> 01:13:48.098
Speak the language of the people that you're trying to get to vote for something

01:13:48.098 --> 01:13:50.258
that will have a positive impact for you.

01:13:50.678 --> 01:13:56.358
Absolutely. So you need to have somebody that's familiar with the old phrase

01:13:56.358 --> 01:13:58.018
is know where the bathrooms are. Right.

01:13:58.238 --> 01:14:03.658
To be able to speak the language, go in, do what needs to be done, blah, blah.

01:14:03.658 --> 01:14:07.418
And even if you even if your role is just to say, OK,

01:14:07.878 --> 01:14:11.858
you need to your assignment is to talk to this representative,

01:14:11.998 --> 01:14:13.438
this representative, that representative,

01:14:13.598 --> 01:14:18.818
all that, that that's invaluable compared to just showing up.

01:14:18.898 --> 01:14:21.078
You know, it's not like Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

01:14:21.338 --> 01:14:24.578
It's like you just show up and it's like, I have a great idea and I'm going

01:14:24.578 --> 01:14:26.178
to convince Congress to vote for it.

01:14:27.338 --> 01:14:31.558
It's not Pollyannaish like that. But, yeah. Yeah.

01:14:31.738 --> 01:14:34.938
And in a world of, you know, new technology as well, you know,

01:14:35.178 --> 01:14:39.238
as in the 10 years ago, staffers didn't have laptops.

01:14:39.598 --> 01:14:44.138
Only post-COVID have they now, each staffer has a laptop so they can now like

01:14:44.138 --> 01:14:45.398
work from home and things.

01:14:46.598 --> 01:14:50.558
Auto calls, you know, different organizations and grassroots have these,

01:14:50.638 --> 01:14:55.598
you know, automatic calls or sign on, send this letter to your member of Congress.

01:14:55.598 --> 01:14:59.598
And so our daily intake of things has increased as a staffer.

01:14:59.698 --> 01:15:03.838
And so if you're competing against, you know, other very important,

01:15:03.858 --> 01:15:07.898
you know, priorities, things that might be making national headlines,

01:15:08.198 --> 01:15:12.618
you need that little extra edge to kind of make sure that you are getting into the right spots.

01:15:13.238 --> 01:15:17.838
Yeah. What was the most complex issue that you had to navigate on Capitol Hill,

01:15:17.998 --> 01:15:21.018
either as a staffer or currently as a lobbyist?

01:15:21.950 --> 01:15:26.110
As a staffer, so I worked under Congresswoman Judy Chu during the time of the

01:15:26.110 --> 01:15:28.830
mass shooting in Monterey Park in California.

01:15:30.130 --> 01:15:34.790
And that there was a lot to understand and unwrap.

01:15:35.110 --> 01:15:38.650
I mean, most of the people these days have at least been in a jurisdiction or

01:15:38.650 --> 01:15:41.350
a community that has been impacted by mass gun violence.

01:15:41.350 --> 01:15:47.950
This particular community, a large immigration, large immigrant community,

01:15:48.250 --> 01:15:54.790
a lot of different things impacting the way that they reacted to the mass shooting.

01:15:54.990 --> 01:15:59.970
So, for instance, there was a business in some other jurisdictions where...

01:16:00.524 --> 01:16:04.124
It helped to raise awareness. They helped to bring, you know,

01:16:04.704 --> 01:16:10.624
memorials to the site to make sure to memorialize those that had lost their lives.

01:16:10.764 --> 01:16:16.404
But in this particular community, the site became a negative thing.

01:16:16.544 --> 01:16:19.104
They didn't want memories of that negative thing that had happened.

01:16:19.104 --> 01:16:22.884
It had negative thoughts and negative things connected to it.

01:16:22.884 --> 01:16:26.364
The businesses sort of lost, you know, there were some closures,

01:16:26.384 --> 01:16:30.204
they lost a lot of business, and it really impacted the community broadly.

01:16:30.764 --> 01:16:36.044
Additionally, there were things like getting assistance to the victims and victims' families.

01:16:36.484 --> 01:16:40.424
These particular families who were U.S.

01:16:40.504 --> 01:16:44.044
Citizens, but because of their immigrant background and immigrant-connected

01:16:44.044 --> 01:16:48.504
families, did not want to accept assistance from the state of California,

01:16:48.504 --> 01:16:52.184
any sort of federal assistance that came, because they did not trust.

01:16:52.764 --> 01:16:56.324
You know, if you're giving me this, what do I have to do in return?

01:16:56.544 --> 01:17:00.704
Or what does that open up? You know, are you going to look at my visa and does

01:17:00.704 --> 01:17:03.304
that open me up to suspicion for such things?

01:17:03.884 --> 01:17:07.444
Then there was the added mental health issue that was on top.

01:17:07.764 --> 01:17:12.424
We have a lot of new policies around the country about mental health and gun violence.

01:17:12.544 --> 01:17:17.284
And unfortunately, what we learned in this process was they're largely in English,

01:17:17.284 --> 01:17:21.024
which understandably a large portion of our population does speak English.

01:17:21.304 --> 01:17:25.064
But for those in communities which are called limited English proficiency,

01:17:25.504 --> 01:17:28.404
a lot of these materials and things are just not available.

01:17:28.724 --> 01:17:32.324
So understanding some of the things they might have been able to do,

01:17:32.604 --> 01:17:36.384
reporting the issues surrounding the shooter, etc.

01:17:36.724 --> 01:17:42.564
There were a lot of things that we felt in the aftermath could be improved.

01:17:42.564 --> 01:17:47.584
And so that was, it was an interesting take on being in a very specific community

01:17:47.584 --> 01:17:49.084
to have very specific needs.

01:17:49.364 --> 01:17:54.924
And so that, I think that was one of the biggest pieces of my work during Capitol Hill.

01:17:55.444 --> 01:17:59.124
Currently, most recently, I represent the county of Los Angeles.

01:17:59.124 --> 01:18:01.524
So I work on their health and human services portfolio.

01:18:03.630 --> 01:18:07.630
The issue of SNAP benefits has been a huge, both on the national level,

01:18:07.730 --> 01:18:08.790
but also at a county level.

01:18:08.950 --> 01:18:12.210
We are one of the largest, the largest county in the country.

01:18:12.410 --> 01:18:16.590
And so the impact to the number of people and families and residents that that's

01:18:16.590 --> 01:18:19.110
had has been extremely difficult to try to mitigate.

01:18:19.910 --> 01:18:26.350
Yeah. And, you know, that's a fact that's lost on a lot of people that Los Angeles

01:18:26.350 --> 01:18:31.610
County is the largest county. because what about New York?

01:18:31.730 --> 01:18:33.930
That's in New York, the boroughs are counties.

01:18:34.330 --> 01:18:38.890
So it's like the New York City is represented in five different counties.

01:18:40.070 --> 01:18:43.210
Yeah. When you break it down in county government and folks are like,

01:18:43.390 --> 01:18:47.210
oh, okay, I didn't realize that. Yeah, there's a reason why they do stuff.

01:18:47.750 --> 01:18:51.970
Yeah, so I can imagine that that's a heck of an undertaking,

01:18:52.250 --> 01:18:54.650
especially with the Olympics coming up and all that stuff.

01:18:55.350 --> 01:19:01.630
That's a good lick to have that contract I'd like to be with Los Angeles County.

01:19:02.030 --> 01:19:08.190
Last question. What advice would you give someone who wants to become a lobbyist?

01:19:10.184 --> 01:19:11.324
All right. That's a good one.

01:19:13.444 --> 01:19:17.784
So, you know, choose your portfolio and areas in which you're passionate about.

01:19:17.984 --> 01:19:23.344
I think it does take a lot of passion to get through some of the hoops that

01:19:23.344 --> 01:19:24.164
you have to jump through.

01:19:24.664 --> 01:19:28.444
But I think if you're passionate about getting your client in front of whoever

01:19:28.444 --> 01:19:31.364
they need in front of, you know, I think that helps a lot.

01:19:33.364 --> 01:19:37.004
I would say hone in facial expressions. I

01:19:37.004 --> 01:19:42.824
have had I have struggled over the last year to have a poker face and even as

01:19:42.824 --> 01:19:45.884
this dapper in some of my when I would be on meetings some of the committee

01:19:45.884 --> 01:19:48.684
meetings there's a camera and you know if I'm sitting right behind the member

01:19:48.684 --> 01:19:53.184
I would have to sort of hide my face sometimes when I'm hearing other people

01:19:53.184 --> 01:19:56.964
speak so I'm working on that one but I highly it's a great skill to hone in,

01:19:57.524 --> 01:20:02.584
and but I think you know and then being on top of your the news and what's going

01:20:02.584 --> 01:20:06.404
on and what's happening, because I think that only helps if you don't know exactly,

01:20:06.684 --> 01:20:09.884
you know, if you aren't on top of current events, you can't really help your

01:20:09.884 --> 01:20:11.504
client in the best way possible.

01:20:11.744 --> 01:20:14.944
And so, you know, finding out, hey, this is moving, there's something happening

01:20:14.944 --> 01:20:18.484
here, maybe we can get you attached to that. So, yeah.

01:20:19.044 --> 01:20:26.844
Yeah, I think it's important. And one of the things I like about about how you

01:20:26.844 --> 01:20:30.984
do your thing is your website.

01:20:31.524 --> 01:20:37.504
So I want people to, I want you to tell people how to, how to reach out to you on that.

01:20:38.164 --> 01:20:46.204
But the one thing that I like is your blog, because you, you explain things very, very well.

01:20:46.364 --> 01:20:48.704
I read the blog and I was like.

01:20:49.713 --> 01:20:53.373
Yeah, she could have had a career like on CNN or Wall Street Journal or something

01:20:53.373 --> 01:20:59.113
like that. Because you can't really tell what side of the issue you're on.

01:20:59.653 --> 01:21:06.213
You just basically give the facts. And in this day and age, that is so important.

01:21:06.633 --> 01:21:13.453
And you don't write often, but when you do write, it's very, very detailed.

01:21:13.753 --> 01:21:19.533
Thank you. And very on point. Right. So for for other people to enjoy that website

01:21:19.533 --> 01:21:23.393
and that blog like I did, how can people reach out to you?

01:21:23.593 --> 01:21:29.013
How can people if they want to hire you or they want you to kind of explain

01:21:29.013 --> 01:21:32.093
how the process works, go ahead and make it.

01:21:32.973 --> 01:21:35.093
Totally. I mean, I'll put my Venmo in the chat.

01:21:38.299 --> 01:21:45.079
So my firm is called Torres Consulting, and my website is torresdcconsulting.com.

01:21:45.299 --> 01:21:47.719
And yes, there's a contact button there.

01:21:47.979 --> 01:21:52.819
Feel free to reach out to me via email. I'm always trying to just pull out cards

01:21:52.819 --> 01:21:57.279
and anybody that's interested, both in learning about a career and lobbying

01:21:57.279 --> 01:22:01.719
and policy and or if they're interested in looking for a lobbyist for their agency.

01:22:02.339 --> 01:22:07.179
Well, Kristen Torres, I greatly appreciate that you've stuck your toe in the

01:22:07.179 --> 01:22:08.879
water and you're out there doing that,

01:22:09.479 --> 01:22:13.659
that you're taking your expertise and trying to help people,

01:22:13.659 --> 01:22:17.959
you know, navigate their way through this political process.

01:22:18.159 --> 01:22:22.079
Like we've stated in the interview, it's needed.

01:22:22.659 --> 01:22:29.539
And you may not think it, but if you want to be successful, you've got to have some help.

01:22:29.719 --> 01:22:34.819
So I appreciate that you've taken the time to do that. And I appreciate you coming on the podcast.

01:22:35.159 --> 01:22:38.959
I appreciate so much the opportunity. It's been great to catch up with someone

01:22:38.959 --> 01:22:44.679
and have some Mississippi background, as well as state legislature experience. So thank you.

01:22:44.879 --> 01:22:48.519
Yeah, yeah. Amen on the Mississippi part. So happy holidays to you.

01:22:49.059 --> 01:22:51.279
And again, thanks for doing this.

01:22:51.939 --> 01:22:54.939
Thanks so much. All right, guys, and we're going to catch y'all on the other side.

01:23:09.041 --> 01:23:16.961
So I want to thank Cheryl Ann Wadlington and Kristen Torres for coming on the program.

01:23:18.361 --> 01:23:23.301
Ms. Wadlington, as you can tell, has been around the block a little bit.

01:23:25.021 --> 01:23:34.481
And she is really, really passionate about helping these young women achieve

01:23:34.481 --> 01:23:39.381
an 100% success rate. right?

01:23:40.161 --> 01:23:44.381
You know, getting young women into college to go through a program,

01:23:44.381 --> 01:23:49.521
and she's had at least 10,000 girls go through this program.

01:23:50.001 --> 01:23:52.521
That's incredible, right?

01:23:53.381 --> 01:23:56.261
That's what we need.

01:23:56.541 --> 01:24:04.121
We need people that have the ability, the resources, the fortitude to help.

01:24:04.821 --> 01:24:09.861
And although government resources are welcome,

01:24:11.202 --> 01:24:15.102
You know, as Wallington has proven that self-sufficiency could be the key.

01:24:16.682 --> 01:24:22.522
And, you know, that's one thing I've always wanted to make clear as somebody

01:24:22.522 --> 01:24:27.362
that's been an elected official, somebody that's been in the process,

01:24:27.702 --> 01:24:29.442
and somebody that's been lobbying,

01:24:30.042 --> 01:24:31.922
right? Been an activist.

01:24:32.522 --> 01:24:39.202
You know, sometimes we got to handle our own business, especially those of us

01:24:39.202 --> 01:24:45.382
in the black community. you know, and then let others come in once they see

01:24:45.382 --> 01:24:46.442
the work that we're doing.

01:24:46.622 --> 01:24:50.642
And hopefully they're coming in to help and not try to stop us, right?

01:24:51.362 --> 01:24:58.942
So, Ms. Wadlington, I have the utmost respect for you and the work that you're doing.

01:24:59.342 --> 01:25:02.642
And I'm really, really sincere about that. I just,

01:25:02.922 --> 01:25:08.362
you know, I was telling her about Piney Woods Country Life School and,

01:25:08.362 --> 01:25:11.482
you know, just my brief time there,

01:25:11.702 --> 01:25:16.742
just to say that I was a part of that, you know, when I actually saw young men

01:25:16.742 --> 01:25:21.462
and women graduate and get accepted to college or, you know,

01:25:21.622 --> 01:25:26.462
enlist in the military to see them win 4-H events.

01:25:27.442 --> 01:25:31.862
You know, even a basketball state championship, right?

01:25:32.622 --> 01:25:37.922
I mean, it was just a magical moment to just be a part of that history.

01:25:38.442 --> 01:25:42.282
You know, to meet Cathy Hughes and knowing that her grandfather was the reason

01:25:42.282 --> 01:25:47.322
why that started. It's just incredible, right?

01:25:48.462 --> 01:25:57.922
And, you know, but those are the stories. Those are the things that are happening that some people—,

01:25:58.671 --> 01:26:04.611
either don't want you to hear about it or don't believe that it exists because

01:26:04.611 --> 01:26:09.951
they have this preconceived notion about how black folks in America are,

01:26:10.271 --> 01:26:13.811
how African Americans really operate, right?

01:26:14.311 --> 01:26:16.331
And this is nothing new.

01:26:16.911 --> 01:26:21.031
We have had to do this in our whole existence here.

01:26:21.611 --> 01:26:26.391
And when the federal government or the state governments can help out, it's been a blessing.

01:26:26.951 --> 01:26:32.411
But self-sufficiency and being creative in our self-sufficiency has always been

01:26:32.411 --> 01:26:38.911
our go-to because a lot of times we felt that nobody was on our side but us,

01:26:39.771 --> 01:26:41.931
right? And there's a lot of us that still feel that way.

01:26:43.931 --> 01:26:50.171
So my goal with this podcast is not only to talk about politics as,

01:26:50.271 --> 01:26:57.551
you know, who's winning elections and positions on policies and shenanigans

01:26:57.551 --> 01:27:03.051
and all that stuff, but also to talk about an uplift to people who are doing the work.

01:27:04.011 --> 01:27:08.631
And to let folks know that in the black community, there's a balance between

01:27:08.631 --> 01:27:12.031
government and taking care of ourselves.

01:27:12.791 --> 01:27:14.851
We're not looking for handouts.

01:27:15.631 --> 01:27:20.331
Let me repeat that. We're not looking for handouts. Either you're going to help

01:27:20.331 --> 01:27:24.011
us or you just get out of our way and let us do what we got to do.

01:27:25.071 --> 01:27:29.351
That's the mindset of black folks in America. That's where we are.

01:27:31.043 --> 01:27:35.063
And then I want to thank again, Kristen Torres for coming on.

01:27:35.683 --> 01:27:40.263
Ms. Kristen is, you know, we got a Mississippi connection.

01:27:41.863 --> 01:27:50.243
And again, regardless of your race, Mississippi is a state where either you're

01:27:50.243 --> 01:27:55.403
going to help us or you need to get out of our way so we can do what we got to do, you know.

01:27:56.563 --> 01:28:05.283
And especially, you know, in these post-slavery times.

01:28:05.723 --> 01:28:09.723
Because Mississippi, when they were, when it was the antebellum of Mississippi,

01:28:10.043 --> 01:28:12.183
was one of the richest states in America.

01:28:13.063 --> 01:28:18.083
Then after the Civil War, after slavery ended, Mississippi descended into being

01:28:18.083 --> 01:28:19.123
one of the poorest states.

01:28:19.603 --> 01:28:23.623
But the people have managed to keep things going.

01:28:25.923 --> 01:28:32.383
And the people that leave Mississippi or, you know, make it to the spotlight,

01:28:32.883 --> 01:28:36.183
you see what kind of resourceful people they are.

01:28:36.803 --> 01:28:40.603
You see what kind of hardworking people they are. You see what kind of committed

01:28:40.603 --> 01:28:44.103
people they are, whether it's through their faith or through their job or through

01:28:44.103 --> 01:28:45.383
their politics, whatever.

01:28:46.163 --> 01:28:48.083
Mississippi is a very unique place.

01:28:49.163 --> 01:28:56.843
And the only thing I regret about Mississippi is that people that don't get

01:28:56.843 --> 01:29:00.843
the big picture get some of the big prizes down here.

01:29:01.683 --> 01:29:07.363
And those who do get the big picture of Mississippi tend to leave because when

01:29:07.363 --> 01:29:11.363
they make decisions about where we're going to work and how am I going to take

01:29:11.363 --> 01:29:13.163
care of myself or my family,

01:29:14.434 --> 01:29:20.734
a struggle to do it in Mississippi because the powers that be don't get the big picture.

01:29:23.594 --> 01:29:27.414
And I'm not trying to be disparaging to those people.

01:29:27.974 --> 01:29:32.434
What I tried to do when I was elected, what my successor tried to do,

01:29:32.614 --> 01:29:37.974
my predecessor tried to do, just in our little old District 72, too,

01:29:38.694 --> 01:29:44.234
was to try to enlighten people and say, hey, look, you got an opportunity here.

01:29:44.754 --> 01:29:49.974
We can, you can make this a blank canvas and turn Mississippi into the most

01:29:49.974 --> 01:29:57.074
unique state in the nation and the most prosperous, but you got to let us paint on the canvas, too.

01:29:57.554 --> 01:30:01.794
You got to let us put our input, our stamp on it, right?

01:30:02.674 --> 01:30:09.654
So, you know, I just, that was always kind of my frustration.

01:30:09.974 --> 01:30:14.674
And that's why I pursued public office there. That's why I was,

01:30:14.994 --> 01:30:17.834
you know, I stayed and was a lobbyist there.

01:30:18.074 --> 01:30:21.854
And, you know, because Mississippi is a good spot for people.

01:30:22.634 --> 01:30:26.874
Of course, I have a vested interest because of family, right?

01:30:26.874 --> 01:30:33.254
Part of my origin story is Mississippi, right? That's when my dad was born.

01:30:33.794 --> 01:30:39.214
And so, you know, I care about Mississippi. I have family there.

01:30:39.694 --> 01:30:44.834
You know, I care about Mississippi. I got family here in Georgia.

01:30:46.034 --> 01:30:51.354
And I care, right? So I want to see Georgia do well, right?

01:30:51.614 --> 01:30:58.494
I was born in Illinois. I want to see Illinois do well, especially Chicago, right?

01:30:59.806 --> 01:31:05.706
But I have a vested interest in the country because I'm a citizen and I care.

01:31:06.666 --> 01:31:11.346
So, you know, I, I, I do what I do because I care.

01:31:11.626 --> 01:31:16.406
And this sister, Kristen Torres does what she does because she cares.

01:31:16.546 --> 01:31:23.986
And so if you need a lobbyist, especially, you know, you're trying to work something

01:31:23.986 --> 01:31:27.326
up at the Capitol Hill, you need to reach out to her. Right.

01:31:27.986 --> 01:31:34.126
And, you know, She's, you know, just, you know, there's a way to get in touch

01:31:34.126 --> 01:31:35.906
with her, just like you can get with Ms.

01:31:36.006 --> 01:31:38.866
Wadlington if you want to donate to her cause, too.

01:31:40.006 --> 01:31:47.206
Just, you know, there are people that care, and they're not all just black people.

01:31:47.886 --> 01:31:50.046
There are good people here in this country.

01:31:50.766 --> 01:31:56.546
Despite the image that's being projected on your television screen or throughout

01:31:56.546 --> 01:32:00.126
the world, the majority of people in this country care.

01:32:00.546 --> 01:32:06.746
And they believe in doing things well. And they believe in people living abundantly.

01:32:07.466 --> 01:32:10.446
They don't really want to see other people suffer.

01:32:10.826 --> 01:32:14.826
But they do have a selfish interest to make sure that they're not suffering

01:32:14.826 --> 01:32:18.726
too. And we have to respect that. And we have to balance that.

01:32:19.526 --> 01:32:24.326
And when people, because we encourage folks for self-care, right?

01:32:24.626 --> 01:32:26.266
I've had numbers of guests that

01:32:26.266 --> 01:32:29.806
advocate that. You've got to take care of yourself to take care of others.

01:32:30.486 --> 01:32:40.586
So we get that. But we also have to never lose our empathy, which I think is

01:32:40.586 --> 01:32:43.386
where we're at politically now.

01:32:43.386 --> 01:32:49.566
I think there are people who think it is fashionable to not have empathy.

01:32:49.786 --> 01:32:56.386
I think there are people now who think that is fashionable to be callous.

01:32:58.379 --> 01:33:04.679
And so every election, especially from this point forward, we have to remind

01:33:04.679 --> 01:33:07.859
them that empathy is okay.

01:33:08.399 --> 01:33:12.739
Giving a damn about your fellow citizen is really the objective.

01:33:14.379 --> 01:33:19.119
The preamble of the Constitution says that we're supposed to promote the general welfare.

01:33:20.199 --> 01:33:23.979
You can't promote the general welfare if you don't give a damn about your fellow

01:33:23.979 --> 01:33:25.879
citizen. You can't do that.

01:33:26.499 --> 01:33:32.019
You know, we want everybody to have the individual liberty to believe and practice

01:33:32.019 --> 01:33:34.799
their faith and love who they want to love and all that stuff.

01:33:35.379 --> 01:33:41.999
But you have to be reminded that we're in a society together and we do have

01:33:41.999 --> 01:33:43.119
to look out for one another.

01:33:43.339 --> 01:33:48.779
We do have to be our brother's and sister's keeper. We do have to do that.

01:33:49.779 --> 01:33:54.799
Because that's the only way that we can continue to move forward.

01:33:55.479 --> 01:34:01.479
You know, a lot of people, I shouldn't say a lot, a number of people don't get

01:34:01.479 --> 01:34:08.479
that, you know, or they get too selfish, right?

01:34:08.919 --> 01:34:12.699
You know, because there's a moment where we have to take care of ourselves,

01:34:12.759 --> 01:34:16.639
but sometimes we just, we have tunnel vision.

01:34:18.044 --> 01:34:24.524
And what may be great for you may be terrible for your neighborhood. Case in point.

01:34:25.424 --> 01:34:29.704
So I don't know if you've heard this story before about the deer,

01:34:29.724 --> 01:34:35.424
but there was a young lady who had a deer show up in her yard.

01:34:37.484 --> 01:34:42.044
And I think it was somewhat injured or whatever. So she kind of nursed that

01:34:42.044 --> 01:34:43.824
deer and then the deer didn't want to leave.

01:34:44.524 --> 01:34:50.464
Deer felt safe. So she reached out to the city leaders and they kind of told

01:34:50.464 --> 01:34:54.304
her, well, hey, you know, state law doesn't allow you to have a deer as a pet.

01:34:54.884 --> 01:35:01.084
So she got with her local legislators and asked them to introduce a bill.

01:35:02.484 --> 01:35:08.564
And the bill had traction and she got media attention.

01:35:09.284 --> 01:35:14.904
And so now we are literally voting on a bill to allow her or anybody else in

01:35:14.904 --> 01:35:18.984
the state of Mississippi to have wildlife as pets.

01:35:20.104 --> 01:35:24.784
And you could tell that the tide was kind of like, well, if we vote on it here,

01:35:24.904 --> 01:35:27.804
then the other side is going to pass, you know, kill it or whatever.

01:35:28.284 --> 01:35:29.984
And I wasn't chancing that.

01:35:30.644 --> 01:35:35.884
And so I, along with a couple other folks, got up there and railed on the idea.

01:35:35.884 --> 01:35:41.924
And I reminded people that while it is good that she has this good heart and

01:35:41.924 --> 01:35:46.984
she wants to take care of this animal, her neighbors could contract Lyme disease.

01:35:47.644 --> 01:35:52.364
It could be an epidemic. And it's not the fault of the deer.

01:35:52.364 --> 01:35:55.784
It's just the way nature works, you know.

01:35:57.384 --> 01:36:00.584
And, you know, the neighbor gets bit by a tick.

01:36:01.967 --> 01:36:05.027
The neighbor gets bit by a tick, and all of a sudden we've got an epidemic.

01:36:05.947 --> 01:36:11.087
And so even though her heart was in the right place, and it seems like a good

01:36:11.087 --> 01:36:17.607
thing, it would not be beneficial to the welfare of her neighborhood for her to have that deer.

01:36:19.367 --> 01:36:24.647
And fortunately, you know, the bill died, and it never came back up.

01:36:25.767 --> 01:36:32.507
And it wasn't that it was out of anger that I opposed it, but it was out of

01:36:32.507 --> 01:36:37.147
a general concern that sometimes we can see things and think,

01:36:38.007 --> 01:36:45.167
oh, this is great for me, but how is that hurting other folks?

01:36:46.047 --> 01:36:49.387
You say, Erik, where are you going with this deer story and blah,

01:36:49.407 --> 01:36:52.627
blah, and this, the other? So let's talk about tariffs.

01:36:53.507 --> 01:36:57.987
So the President of the United States believes that tariffs are the way to go.

01:36:58.587 --> 01:37:03.827
There's an old school of thought going all the way back to the Gilded Age of

01:37:03.827 --> 01:37:09.487
America, like the turn of the century, like the 19th to the 20th century, right?

01:37:10.907 --> 01:37:13.727
You know, they felt that in order

01:37:13.727 --> 01:37:19.627
for America to succeed in production and industry, economics, whatever.

01:37:21.107 --> 01:37:27.467
You know, and minimize competition, you got to tariff the hell out of imported goods.

01:37:28.887 --> 01:37:36.327
Well, it's a strategic tool. You know, if you see that the steel market,

01:37:36.487 --> 01:37:40.787
for example, is the American steel market is being undercut, right?

01:37:41.207 --> 01:37:48.607
So you put a tariff on the country that's undercutting American steel to raise that price up.

01:37:48.687 --> 01:37:52.047
So our steel would be competitive here.

01:37:53.343 --> 01:37:59.883
We've got to make a choice. Well, if I'm going to pay $20 for steel here and

01:37:59.883 --> 01:38:04.483
1950 with the tariff with steel from, say, Japan,

01:38:04.983 --> 01:38:08.703
I might as well go with the American. It's 50 cents, right?

01:38:09.123 --> 01:38:13.763
If you didn't have the tariff, the steel from Japan might be $10 or $9.

01:38:14.303 --> 01:38:15.783
But you put the tariff on it.

01:38:17.863 --> 01:38:22.623
Okay, able to go over that, right? And then especially if you are trying to

01:38:22.623 --> 01:38:29.243
build an industry up and you're trying to buy some time for that industry to

01:38:29.243 --> 01:38:30.723
get into the marketplace,

01:38:30.723 --> 01:38:35.883
you might want to put a tariff on the country that producing the product that

01:38:35.883 --> 01:38:38.883
this industry is developing, right?

01:38:40.983 --> 01:38:43.943
And for argument's sake.

01:38:46.204 --> 01:38:51.484
You might think, well, a blanket tariff policy on every nation in the world,

01:38:51.644 --> 01:38:55.684
including nations that don't even trade with us, nations that don't even have

01:38:55.684 --> 01:38:57.124
people. They just have penguins.

01:38:57.484 --> 01:38:59.444
You want to put a tariff on everybody.

01:39:00.064 --> 01:39:05.364
You're thinking and you're trying to sell it as if, oh, we're going to generate

01:39:05.364 --> 01:39:10.284
all this money, going to be able to knock down some of the national debt.

01:39:10.444 --> 01:39:15.304
We're going to be able to fund some things that we need to fund in the government.

01:39:16.444 --> 01:39:21.044
And we're trying to convince people to buy American stuff, right?

01:39:21.544 --> 01:39:30.604
All that sounds great, but what you're really doing by doing it this way is hurting everybody.

01:39:31.164 --> 01:39:36.124
You're not only hurting the Americans who are consumers, who are trying to buy

01:39:36.124 --> 01:39:39.384
something for Christmas, or trying to buy something for graduation,

01:39:39.604 --> 01:39:42.344
or trying to buy something for somebody's birthday, They're just trying to buy

01:39:42.344 --> 01:39:48.484
something because I got this new job and I need this suit or I need this dress. I need these shoes.

01:39:49.124 --> 01:39:55.004
You're hurting these people because now they have to adjust their budget to

01:39:55.004 --> 01:39:57.544
say, well, can I get what I want?

01:39:58.144 --> 01:40:00.384
I just got to get what I can.

01:40:01.124 --> 01:40:07.444
Along with dealing with the groceries and the utility bills.

01:40:08.144 --> 01:40:11.104
Right? And I'll get to utilities in a second.

01:40:12.964 --> 01:40:18.364
But you're putting a burden on folk, and then you're putting a burden on some

01:40:18.364 --> 01:40:21.584
of the people you call yourself trying to help, like farmers.

01:40:22.424 --> 01:40:29.524
Because you've put this tariff on soybeans, folks are going to other countries to buy the soybeans.

01:40:30.584 --> 01:40:34.624
They're bypassing us, and we're one of the largest, if not the largest,

01:40:34.624 --> 01:40:36.124
soybean producer in the world.

01:40:37.931 --> 01:40:41.911
Are bypassing us because of tariffs, right?

01:40:42.371 --> 01:40:46.831
And so now you're going around saying, well, hey, I'm going to take some of

01:40:46.831 --> 01:40:50.031
that tariff money and bail some of y'all farmers out.

01:40:51.051 --> 01:40:55.651
Somebody put it very succinctly and said, that's like an arsonist setting a fire.

01:40:55.951 --> 01:41:00.591
And then he goes, gets on the fire truck and come put the fire out.

01:41:01.291 --> 01:41:05.871
If you never set the fire in the first place, there's no need for you to get the fire truck.

01:41:06.511 --> 01:41:12.111
If you didn't do the tariffs, there wouldn't be need for a bailout, right?

01:41:12.591 --> 01:41:16.511
And so for all these people that's paying the tariffs, including the farmer,

01:41:16.991 --> 01:41:20.911
for whatever equipment they got to get, so they're being bailed out with their

01:41:20.911 --> 01:41:25.451
own money, which, you know, that's what government does. That's why we pay taxes.

01:41:26.211 --> 01:41:30.311
But just think about that. If we didn't have the tariffs in the first place,

01:41:30.671 --> 01:41:32.271
they wouldn't need to be bailed out.

01:41:34.538 --> 01:41:37.158
So we're talking about this AI stuff, right?

01:41:37.258 --> 01:41:44.498
And, you know, everybody's tried to chat GBT or Google Gemini or whatever AI

01:41:44.498 --> 01:41:52.098
thing you use to help you write sentences or papers or come up with ideas about things,

01:41:52.178 --> 01:41:56.078
you know, to help your social media presence be better.

01:41:56.558 --> 01:42:00.158
Come up with some cool pictures, whatever you want to do, right?

01:42:00.158 --> 01:42:04.318
But then, you know, artificial intelligence is used in an industrial sense.

01:42:04.958 --> 01:42:07.258
It's also used in law enforcement.

01:42:08.298 --> 01:42:16.118
AI is prevalent everywhere now, right? And so, you know, the technology, yeah, we're advancing.

01:42:16.518 --> 01:42:19.938
That's a good thing, right? It may be good for some people.

01:42:20.518 --> 01:42:25.378
But remember those utility bills I was talking about? To generate the power,

01:42:25.738 --> 01:42:30.318
to generate the computers, to do the AI stuff,

01:42:30.978 --> 01:42:35.318
water and electricity are needed,

01:42:35.318 --> 01:42:43.458
especially as we have these hydro plants powering these electric turbines so

01:42:43.458 --> 01:42:46.518
we can get the juice to run all this AI stuff.

01:42:48.018 --> 01:42:53.218
And it's like, you know, everybody's like, oh, well, we got to build our capacity and all that stuff.

01:42:53.358 --> 01:43:02.018
So that means more water resources needed, more electricity being used, rates are going to go up.

01:43:03.579 --> 01:43:07.859
Going to go up for water usage, weight rates are going to go up for electric usage.

01:43:09.639 --> 01:43:12.939
Because not only do you have to make sure that those are powered,

01:43:13.079 --> 01:43:16.799
but you've got to distribute the electricity to the grid.

01:43:17.579 --> 01:43:22.439
So everybody has their juice. So when it's cold, they don't have natural gas.

01:43:22.439 --> 01:43:23.659
They use electric heating.

01:43:23.819 --> 01:43:26.939
They can stay warm. In the summertime, all those air conditioners,

01:43:27.559 --> 01:43:29.899
98% of the air conditioners are electric.

01:43:30.539 --> 01:43:33.779
And there's some parts of the United States where if you don't have air conditioning,

01:43:34.119 --> 01:43:35.599
people would not be living there.

01:43:35.979 --> 01:43:39.139
That's why the air conditioner is considered one of the greatest inventions

01:43:39.139 --> 01:43:40.859
in the history of mankind.

01:43:41.839 --> 01:43:46.879
Right? But it takes electricity. Your electric bill goes up.

01:43:46.999 --> 01:43:50.819
If you don't have budget billing, your electric bill goes up in the summer and

01:43:50.819 --> 01:43:53.779
goes down in the winter for most people.

01:43:54.499 --> 01:43:58.379
Right? Now, AI, like we said, great thing.

01:43:59.419 --> 01:44:06.099
But if you do too much of it, you get down a rabbit hole and have tunnel vision.

01:44:06.759 --> 01:44:13.039
There's an environmental and economic impact that's hitting everybody else.

01:44:13.839 --> 01:44:18.039
That's why you can't be too selfish. You have to have a balance.

01:44:18.299 --> 01:44:21.419
You have to care what other people think.

01:44:22.159 --> 01:44:28.059
But when we have a political climate where it's like, I want y'all to be loyal to me.

01:44:28.379 --> 01:44:31.979
I don't give a damn about you. I could care less about you.

01:44:32.459 --> 01:44:37.799
And that example is being displayed from the White House.

01:44:38.399 --> 01:44:43.099
That doesn't set a positive role model for the rest of us.

01:44:43.879 --> 01:44:50.859
There's literally a generation of human beings that all they've known is this

01:44:50.859 --> 01:44:57.019
one man being the president of the United States with somebody that served four years in between.

01:44:59.871 --> 01:45:06.511
Right? I have lived through and seen a Reagan generation, a Clinton generation,

01:45:07.591 --> 01:45:08.711
and an Obama generation.

01:45:09.331 --> 01:45:16.051
My parents lived through a Roosevelt generation and a Kennedy generation, right?

01:45:16.651 --> 01:45:19.851
So now there's people that's going through a Trump generation.

01:45:20.171 --> 01:45:26.291
And so if the leader of the free world, the most powerful man,

01:45:26.451 --> 01:45:32.371
quote-unquote, on the planet, shows no care, shows no empathy,

01:45:33.111 --> 01:45:39.691
shows no loyalty to just the very country that he represents on the world stage.

01:45:41.326 --> 01:45:47.606
To have an impact on people, children growing up in this world,

01:45:47.606 --> 01:45:53.966
people that are becoming young adults, becoming politically active.

01:45:55.366 --> 01:46:03.706
And so when we lift that kind of behavior up or tolerate it even, it's not good.

01:46:04.186 --> 01:46:12.206
But we have to be a nation in order to fulfill our destiny, fulfill our creed,

01:46:12.346 --> 01:46:18.706
fulfill our objective to be the city on the hill.

01:46:19.366 --> 01:46:21.306
We have to care about each other.

01:46:22.166 --> 01:46:26.866
You ain't got to like me. I ain't got to like you. But if you're struggling

01:46:26.866 --> 01:46:29.686
and I can help, I'm going to do that.

01:46:30.086 --> 01:46:32.226
And I hope you would do that for me.

01:46:33.026 --> 01:46:39.126
And that's the country I want to live in. That's the country I believe that I do exist in.

01:46:39.766 --> 01:46:44.686
It's just that we have these moments where we get caught up in our pain and

01:46:44.686 --> 01:46:50.126
our anger and we forget our empathy and we allow people that don't give a damn

01:46:50.126 --> 01:46:54.346
about us to make decisions about our well-being.

01:46:55.246 --> 01:47:03.206
So I'm just asking you all, So, please, please focus in on the good.

01:47:03.646 --> 01:47:09.206
Take care of yourself, but make sure that once you are solid.

01:47:10.800 --> 01:47:15.140
Do your part to make sure other folks are solid too. Because that's what the

01:47:15.140 --> 01:47:17.760
real meaning of being an American is.

01:47:18.340 --> 01:47:23.020
Not some tough guy that can order somebody to fly a drone and blow up a boat.

01:47:23.660 --> 01:47:30.480
Not some guy that thinks it's all right to lie to an elected official or cuss

01:47:30.480 --> 01:47:34.760
out a reporter or to own somebody, right?

01:47:35.320 --> 01:47:39.820
I thought we got the memo that owning people is not cool in the United States.

01:47:39.820 --> 01:47:44.920
They literally fought a war about owning people, right?

01:47:45.560 --> 01:47:54.960
Let's get out of that mindset. We can compete for things, but we can't be destructive in our competition.

01:47:55.440 --> 01:48:00.900
We can challenge authority, but we don't want to substitute authority for anarchy

01:48:00.900 --> 01:48:06.200
or collective authority for a monarch.

01:48:07.946 --> 01:48:13.026
Focus. We need to care. We need to be empathetic.

01:48:13.786 --> 01:48:19.986
It's not weak to give a damn about your fellow human being. It's actually the opposite.

01:48:20.926 --> 01:48:28.006
Weakness is being selfish. Because if you're willing to give your life,

01:48:28.166 --> 01:48:34.506
if you're willing to sacrifice a part of yourself, if you're willing to share your knowledge.

01:48:35.026 --> 01:48:42.306
That is strength. That is confidence that I can contribute to something positively.

01:48:43.286 --> 01:48:50.826
Weakness is keeping all the knowledge, all the money to yourself because you

01:48:50.826 --> 01:48:57.506
don't think that you can share with anybody or else that makes you less than. That's weakness.

01:48:58.366 --> 01:49:04.166
So anyway, a politics has to be about helping our politics has to be about empathy

01:49:04.166 --> 01:49:10.086
our politics has to be about giving a damn and I'm hoping from this point forward.

01:49:11.126 --> 01:49:19.346
That's what we'll strive every day to do alright thank y'all for listening until next time music.